[Hidden-tech] Comcast outrageous

[Tom Novelli]

David, I would take the modem in to the nearest Comcast office and ask to
swap it for a plain old modem with no wifi.  Also, I've heard people say
renting the modem from Comcast is a pretty good deal, as they tend to burn
out or become obsolete within a year or so.  That has certainly been my
experience.

Yeah, it bugs me that they're the only game in town now, and I hate dealing
with coax wiring & connectors (had to replace some of mine)... but as long
as they keep those local offices open I won't complain too loudly about the
price!

Tom



On Sat, Dec 7, 2013 at 3:08 PM, DAVID SPOUND <dspound at mac.com> wrote:

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>
> Hello --
>
> I just spent nearly 3 hours on the phone with Comcast. As some of you may
> know, Comcast is requiring customers who have older modems to upgrade. The
> modem upgrade is "free".
>
> But the new modem did not work properly out of the box, hence the tech
> support. It took hours because the first two tech support reps with whom I
> spoke did not speak English well. Very frustrating.
>
> One of the "features" of the new modem seems to be that it will not work
> with my Apple Extreme wifi base station. The modem has its own built in
> wifi, but I need to keep using my Apple router because I have a wide range
> of Apple devices that depend on it. Even my printer is connected to the
> Apple router. Without that, I cannot print.
>
> Comcast is insisting that I pay $79.95 for their "Signature Support"
> through which they tell me my Apple router can be enabled on their network.
> After finally speaking with a more friendly and helpful tech support rep, I
> have learned that there is a feature on my new modem that needs to be
> disabled (bridge mode) so that the Apple router can work. This cannot be
> done by the regular tech support team. They don't have access to this
> feature. Only the Signature Support people have this capability. I need to
> pay $80 for this.
>
> This seems outrageous. My old Comcast modem works fine and the Apple
> router works fine with it. It seems that Comcast wants to prevent any
> devices on their network except those that they have specifically
> approved/configured. I'm OK with that, but not with paying $80 to make
> something work that has worked fine for years (when I use the old modem).
> And I am also annoyed because Comcast is requiring me to replace a modem
> that is working fine.
>
> I seem to have no choice because the old modem is supposedly going to be
> disabled by Comcast.
>
> Has anyone in our Hidden Tech community experienced this issue? If so, how
> did you handle it?
>
> Any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> David
>
>
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