I knew I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with Comcast for cable and internet access, but unfortunately, in my area there really aren’t any other options. When I signed up for the account, they were running a special of $66 a month for Digital Cable and High Speed Internet, so I signed up and waited for the installer to arrive.
The first thing that went wrong was the time – I called up and had to change my appointment. I was give a choice of 11-2 or 2-5 on the given day I had selected. I chose 11-2. Then, I had to change a detail on the account. In doing so, I apparently invalidated the appointment, and when the Customer Service rep went to rebook it, I could now only have 2-5. Not a big deal, really – This was the 2nd day we were actually in the new place, and I had already planned to take the day off for furniture delivery. I waited – and waited and waited. Around 4:50pm, a rep from Comcast called up to ask how my appointment had gone, and was a little shocked when I mentioned that the tech still hadn’t shown up. The rep told me that he would be there shortly, and at around 530pm, the tech did finally show up.
The install went fine – except for the fact that they didn’t have the straight digital cable box that I requested, and instead only had digital cable boxes with the Comcast DVR built in. The tech informed me that we would be recieving the DVR service free for 6 months, and that we could feel free to turn in the box after that. This might have been attractive to me, except for the fact that I already have, and love, TiVo, with 3 years of pre-paid service attached to it.
We contemplated putting the Tivo on the spare TV, and putting it in the bedroom, and using the Comcast DVR on the main TV, but a few days of playing with the Comcast DVR revealed how vastly inferior to real TiVo it is – its slow, and choppy, and infinitely frustrating for anyone who is used to the real thing. As soon as we had a free weekend, we unplugged the Comcast DVR and took it to the office to trade it in for a regular digital cable box.
When I logged into Comcast this morning to check the status of the bill, I happened to look at the itemized new charges from the exchange of boxes, and noticed that they charged me a $1.99 for “change of service”. Seriously??? Not only did they inconvenience me by not bringing me the correct piece of equipment that I ordered the first time around, causing me to have to inconvenience myself and return it, they then have the nerve to CHARGE me for cancelling a service I never ordered in the first place?? As soon as I get the paper bill, they will be getting a call, and they will most definitely be removing that charge.
Its things like this that just annoy the hell out of me.
