[Hidden-tech] Comcast outrageous

[Rob Laporte]

Hi All,

When I moved my business two years ago, Comcast¹s defective modem cost me
about $900 of a tech firm¹s time trying to fix what I thought was caused by
our semi-complicated network. I also lost over $1000 in time I could have
been doing billable work. The tech guy I hired was very good, and he proved
Comcast¹s fault. Comcast agreed to pay $280 of my costs, though I did not
argue hard for more, which I probably could have gotten. Last super bowl, I
tried the basic digital TV, and was stunned at how poor was the non-HD
(basic plan) picture. Much worse than old fashion, non-hd TV by antenna;
like a small video blown up, showing pixilation and blur. I used the 30 day
full money back. I smell monopoly or oligopoly.

To be fair, one would have to know whether Comcast has more tech problems
than any other consumer tech company. Maybe Comcast is better.

A friend visited from the Philippines recently, and he said even in his
large home city of Cebu the internet crawls. No way one can stream movies.
So it seems telecom is another of many areas where the US is average among
countries, no longer close to the best.

When at the Comcast office last, they tried to sell me a home security
system. If it works as advertised, I must say it looks like a very good
system for $40/month. Immediate text alert if doors are opened at times they
should not be; webcams; remote home management.
www.comcast.com/home-security/ .

Best Regards,

Rob Laporte
President and CEO
DISC, Inc. - "Making Web Sites Make Money"
413-584-6500
Rob at 2disc.com 
www.2disc.com 





From: DAVID SPOUND <dspound at mac.com>
Date: Sat, 07 Dec 2013 20:08:12 +0000 (GMT)
To: "Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net"
<Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>
Subject: [Hidden-tech] Comcast outrageous

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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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