Review by Corydon 
UPDATED: 161 days ago
member for 322 days, 300 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Denver,Denver,CO
 $45 per month
 about 17 days
 "Extremely solid, reliable connection, nice and fast"
 "Install tech missed first appointment, problems with CDV took 3 visits to fix."
 "On-site tech troubleshooting needs help...how much money do they waste on bad truck rolls?"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I ordered the Comcast triple play in February 2006. Immediately we got off on the wrong foot when my original installation tech was a no-call no-show. After getting back on the phone, I set up a new appointment for the next weekend.
The second appointment went flawlessly. The tech was very professional and polite and set everything up just as I wanted it.
Since install, I haven't had any problems at all with any of my services going down. Everything's been rock solid, and HSI continually operates at the advertised speed. Digital Voice has never been out as far as I'm aware, and I've only had minor problems with one or two of the features.
TV's fine...delivers what it's supposed to and I've only noticed some minor pixellation once or twice during windstorms.
The monthly cost listed is $42.95 for the high speed internet service and $3.00 for the modem for both HSI and CDV. This is the monthly rate in Denver after the promotions come off, and doesn't include taxes, CDV or cable TV.
Followup comments:  Corydon
Cultivant son jardin
Premium
join:2008-02-18
Denver, CO
clubs:
 ·Comcast
| Update 5/30/08 I had a problem where my modem appeared to have dropped out provisioning. CDV was unaffected (very nice) but on the HSI side, I couldn't bring up any pages. I performed a few traceroutes to different sites and noticed that they all routed to the same IP.
I called Comcast and explained the situation. The first guy I spoke with was very professional and listened to what I was saying. No scripts about checking the cables or resetting the modem or anything! He saw that the modem had dropped off my account and placed me on hold to get it fixed.
Then he came back and said that their tool to fix it was down and apologized. He asked me to call back in the morning.
I called back the next day and got a different guy. He seemed to stick closer to the script, but eventually figured it out and had me up and running fairly quickly with minimum fuss.
So my tech support experience is mostly pretty good. I'll point out that both times I called in, after I got through the phone tree, I spent no more than maybe ten seconds on hold waiting for a rep, and my second call was at about 7 PM, so that was good.
I'm not bumping up my rating however, as there are a couple of things that they could have done differently that really would have wowed me.
1) He could have hung on to my account and just reprovisioned the modem once his tool was back up. Ideally, he would have called me or had someone else do it once things were back to normal just to check and make sure everything was fixed. If he'd done that, I'd have had no trouble at all giving Comcast a "5" in this area. Instead, he put the onus on me to call back in and just left it to me to call back in.
So perhaps customer service policies need a little review in this area. Maybe give the reps an hour or two each day to call back their customers and check back with them to make sure everything was fixed instead of keeping everyone taking calls for their entire shift?
2) I wish the second guy had had the same level of knowledge as the first, although he did get it after a little bit. Perhaps he was new. At any rate, he was able to get things fixed.
--
My opinions are my own. No-one else would want them! | |
| Corydon
Cultivant son jardin
Premium
join:2008-02-18
Denver, CO
clubs:
·Comcast
| Update 6/20/2008 Well I just had my first service related problem. My voice would cut out every so often when speaking to other people on my CDV line. I tried using different phones and waited for the issue to go away but it was still there.
So I called Comcast. The rep on the line was friendly but kind of at a loss because he didn't see any trouble with the signal levels. And naturally, the line didn't cut out while I was speaking to him. He tried resetting the modem (their cure-all for everything) but also immediately set up an appointment for me as well and just told me to call in and cancel if the reset fixed things, which was a nice touch. I gave him my cell phone number for the tech and we were set.
The day of the appointment, the tech did arrive within the two-hour appointment window (although just barely). No-one actually called my cell phone to confirm the appointment (more on that later).
The tech seemed to be a friendly guy and he checked the levels and inspected the cable visually from the modem to the outside of the house. He was at a bit of a loss as well because he couldn't find anything wrong, but he did see an old splitter which he replaced. He then asked me to call back if there were any further problems.
So far (about a week after the appointment) there haven't been any more issues, so it looks like the splitter was indeed the source of the problem.
One last point...when I got to work the next day, there were three messages on my voicemail from Comcast all trying to get in touch with me about confirming my appointment. Either the original rep put the wrong number on the work order or Comcast just went with my work number which they had on file by default.
All of that being said, I'm now bumping the installation pre-coordination up a point (to a 3) because the repair tech did show up on time and did fix the problem. I only had to call in once and everything worked as it should.
On the downside, there was the SNAFU with them calling my work instead of my cell. But the good news is that this didn't result in my appointment getting canceled (as I've heard of happening before). The tech still came out even though no-one could reach me at the work number.
If they had gotten the phone number situation worked out, I would have bumped them up to a four instead (not a five because of the original mess with the first installation tech not showing up at all...see above).
--
"Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea." | |
|  | Corydon
Cultivant son jardin
Premium
join:2008-02-18
Denver, CO
clubs:
·Comcast
| Update 7/28/2008 Just an update to the tech saga. I've downgraded the "connection reliability" rating due to needing two more tech visits in addition to the first one discussed above.
For the second two visits, coordination went smoothly, with the tech arriving at the scheduled time and with appointment confirmation calls going to my cell phone as requested.
As it turned out, the splitter was not the source of the issue (recap: on CDV calls, my voice would periodically drop out).
The second tech inspected the drop (the cable running from the tap to my house) and concluded that it was worn and had been attacked by squirrels. He was very professional and made sure he cleaned up thoroughly after running the new drop. After he was done, he tested the signal on the line as thoroughly as he could, both with his own equipment and by calling into the back office for what they were seeing.
Unfortunately, as before, the signal looked just fine but the problem came back.
The third tech took another look at all of the cable coming into the house but couldn't find anything wrong there. He removed a telephone splitter and said that he had seen those causing problems in the past. If that turns out to be the case, it would explain why the signal was so great my I was having trouble with the phones.
The third tech also provided me with his direct cell-phone number and his work schedule, which was a nice extra touch for someone who was having ongoing problems.
I've been away from home for the last two weeks so I haven't had much opportunity to test things out thoroughly, but since coming home I did talk to my parents for about an hour without any problems, so perhaps the problem is now fixed.
So here's the good: All three techs were friendly and professional. They did not seem to be trying to weasel out of fixing a difficult problem but genuinely tried to fix things (replacing a drop is not a simple process, nor, in all likelihood, is it inexpensive for Comcast). In addition, I was not charged a dime for any of the truck rolls.
And the bad: Three truck rolls for what (potentially) could have been fixed on the first attempt by looking for the telephone splitter. The last tech even told me that there had been training and guidance about this problem disseminated out.
Fortunately, I have the flexibility to work from home if I need to, so staying home wasn't an inconvenience (on the contrary, I liked having the excuse). But if I did not have that option, I would have been very angry about having to miss three days of work while Comcast figured out the problem.
This also seemed like a huge waste of resources. Comcast probably blew through a couple months' worth of my payments sending all those techs out. How much money is wasted on similar problems? How much could they have reduced my bill if their troubleshooting was more efficient?
So I've adjusted my ratings a little bit, reflecting my experiences with the multiple truck rolls. Because of the last issue, I'm also dropping the "value-for-money" rating a bit as well.
--
"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too." | |
| | | 
cable tech 1
@comcast.net
| Re: Update 7/28/2008 The problem goes back to the installation tech. He was supposed to check the drop, replace crimp on connectors, and isolate telephone lines in the telephone box before installing your cdv equipment. If the techs doesn't follow those procedures it will lead up to the problems that you had. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of Comcast |
|
(266)
(170)