Oh Comcast, How Low Can You Go?

[aelf]

Ah, romanticism. Where everything a few hundred years ago was better. If only we would just forget about this whole democracy thing and just bow to a new aristocracy, things could be as good.

Wait, that's an actual opinion here

1. What's your point?

2. How is it relevant in any way to the topic at hand?

If you've noticed, he's a master of making obscure and barely relevant posts couched in mysterious language.

 

[Commodore]

The Internet is infrastructure, and in the interest of the free market, all infrastructure should be nationalized.

Especially since the internet is becoming such a huge part of our society that one could make the argument that internet access can almost be considered a necessity in a modern society. I have always been of the opinion that anything that could be seriously considered to be a necessity should either be nationalized or, at the very least, not run as a for-profit industry.

 

[Gori the Grey]

To disconnect cable, she asked;
She got hassled and charged and harassed.
And then they confer this,
Their signature service:
Her husband found his name Comc-a**ed.

 

[Tahuti]

Early railways were hardly models of economic efficiency.

Well, the Prussian National Railways were nationalised as early the late 19th century and were infamous for being used as milkcows for the state treasury. But I doubt you meant that.

 

[uppi]

This is probably one of the few cases where a strong case for nationalization of the industry can be made.

Nationalization might be counterproductive. Worst case, you get one (state-owned) company with bad service instead of two private companies with bad service.

The better solution is regulation: Force all companies to provide access to their local infrastructure to all potential competitors at a price set by a regulatory agency. That way they have to compete on service and price instead of relying on being the only option available.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

You should ask your Canadian friends what they think of their top 2 cable companies.

In this part of the country the two major ones are Shaw and Telus. I've dealt with Shaw, and you'd have to basically give me free cable for life, plus extremely discounted internet to deal with them again. They're a bunch of idiots in every sense of the word.

I get my phone, cable, and internet with Telus. I keep trying to cancel my cable since I can find practically everything I want to watch on YouTube, Netflix, Vimeo, or DailyMotion, but the way they've got everything bundled, it's cheaper to keep the cable.

 

[Zelig]

Because half of America would suddenly have no Internet?

Well a large chunk of Americans no longer have broadband, since the definition got modernized to a minimum of 25 mbps down and 3 mbps up today.

You should ask your Canadian friends what they think of their top 2 cable companies.

I dunno how meaningful "top two" is, because of the regional nature of cable coverage. Shaw/Rogers are probably the top two, but Shaw is only western Canada competing with Telus and Rogers is only central Canada competing with Bell and Videotron. Eastlink/Bell Aliant compete in the east. Teksavvy is available anywhere within the footprint Bell/Telus/Rogers/Shaw and piggybacks on their infrastructure.

And really, most of them are pretty good when it comes to infrastructure and service, price is the only real problem.

In this part of the country the two major ones are Shaw and Telus. I've dealt with Shaw, and you'd have to basically give me free cable for life, plus extremely discounted internet to deal with them again. They're a bunch of idiots in every sense of the word.

I get my phone, cable, and internet with Telus. I keep trying to cancel my cable since I can find practically everything I want to watch on YouTube, Netflix, Vimeo, or DailyMotion, but the way they've got everything bundled, it's cheaper to keep the cable.

There's really very little difference between Shaw and Telus in terms of customer service - their metrics are very similar, and you get comparable horror stories on both sides. Not to mention about half the employees of either company have worked for the competitor at some point, since they're the only games in town.

Problem with Telus is their awful availability. I live in an older, affluent inner-city neighborhood in Calgary (1960's) and when I moved in I called Telus to check about prices and was informed it would cost me $1500 to have a line extended to my house.

 

[JollyRoger]

Comcast has gotten so bad that the Ferguson PD is offering it a job.

 

[danjuno]

I hear the NYPD has also sent an offer.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

There's really very little difference between Shaw and Telus in terms of customer service - their metrics are very similar, and you get comparable horror stories on both sides. Not to mention about half the employees of either company have worked for the competitor at some point, since they're the only games in town.

Problem with Telus is their awful availability. I live in an older, affluent inner-city neighborhood in Calgary (1960's) and when I moved in I called Telus to check about prices and was informed it would cost me $1500 to have a line extended to my house.

I've had a few issues with Telus but nothing like Shaw. When I first got internet a little over 10 years ago, Shaw didn't bury the line - they extended it between my house and the thingamajig they hooked it up to across the back alley - running it over top of the road, where all the cars drove over it every day. And one day when the grader did our neighborhood, I lost my internet connection because the grader blade scooped up the line and took off with it down the alley!

Repeated calls to Shaw to come and fix this situation were incredibly frustrating. I was happy to get Telus service instead, since they don't mess around like that.

Another issue with Shaw email... every so often someone on the local Freecycle will decide to mark their Freecycle email as spam, instead of either unsubscribing like a normal person would (or asking one of the staff to delete their membership if they don't understand the concept of "click this link/button to leave this group")... and then suddenly we get a spate of complaints from the members who use Shaw, since that one complaint means Shaw routed all Freecycle emails to everyone's junk/spam folder. There's nothing the moderators can do about it, and it's not even Yahoo's problem.

 

[Zelig]

It's incredibly common for people to mark mailings they've legitimately signed up for as spam, and people shouldn't use ISP-provided emails anyway.

(And furthermore, when I tried to sign up for freecycle, they wouldn't let me stay registered for freecycle if I unregistered from their emails, so marking them as spam was my only option - for that, I hope it gets marked as spam for other people too.)

 

[Valka D'Ur]

It's incredibly common for people to mark mailings they've legitimately signed up for as spam, and people shouldn't use ISP-provided emails anyway.

(And furthermore, when I tried to sign up for freecycle, they wouldn't let me stay registered for freecycle if I unregistered from their emails, so marking them as spam was my only option - for that, I hope it gets marked as spam for other people too.)

Some Freecycle groups have the attitude that if you don't want to receive emails, you're either planning to send adspam to the other members or don't plan to be there for more than one or two transactions.

Our group isn't like that. We'd rather have the members happy with the amount of email they receive (whether it's everything or nothing), but personally I think people shouldn't be able to opt out of the Special Notices, since sometimes those can be important information.

 

[Commodore]

Here's another one. Twice in one week? Wow, Comcast is really dedicated to seeing just how awful they can get before someone does something about it.

Over the last few days, I've been contacted by several Comcast customers who claim the same thing has happened to them. One customer says a Comcast employee changed his name to the phonetic spelling of a profanity that is unprintable in a family newspaper. Another says Comcast changed her name to "whore" and another says her name became "dummy."

I mean, what's next? Is Comcast going to start sending mooks with lead pipes to the houses of those who try to cancel to "convince" them to reconsider?

Link

 

[JollyRoger]

Just wait til these people start testifying before a Grand Jury - Comcast will get indicted in no time.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

In Canada, companies that do this tend to receive a scathing public shaming on Go Public and Marketplace (CBC consumer watch media online and on TV). As a result, most of them practically trip over themselves to make things right with the customers ASAP.

At the very least, these people should have written apologies and their current balances adjusted to zero. Plus no-cost, no-other-strings cancellation of services if they want it.

 

[sophie]

Just wait til these people start testifying before a Grand Jury - Comcast will get indicted in no time.

#ConglomerateLivesMatter

 

[Commodore]

Just wait til these people start testifying before a Grand Jury - Comcast will get indicted in no time.

Not if they accept that Ferguson PD job offer.

 

[gay_Aleks]

On the bright side, we can rest assured that Comcast shot no black men.

 

[IglooDame]

On the bright side, we can rest assured that Comcast shot no black men.

...and probably didn't deflate any footballs.


And I'm likely moving to a new home in a couple months, possibly one with non-Comcast internet options, so I'm really looking forward to the fight to cancel my service, too. Fortunately I'll know to document and (legally) record all interactions so if they play this kind of game I can publicly jam it up their corporate rectum sideways, too.

 

[Commodore]

...and probably didn't deflate any footballs.


And I'm likely moving to a new home in a couple months, possibly one with non-Comcast internet options, so I'm really looking forward to the fight to cancel my service, too. Fortunately I'll know to document and (legally) record all interactions so if they play this kind of game I can publicly jam it up their corporate rectum sideways, too.

Be sure to let us know what expletive word they change your name to after they finally agree to cancel your service.