Comcast bashing seems to be popular. There may be good reasons. Take for instance two recent examples.
The Bait and Switch
A Seattle resident was looking for a good deal on Internet. He went to the Comcast web site and found a tremendous deal: Internet and limited TV for $19/month for a year. This included a download speed of 105Mbs and 10+ TV channels. What a deal. So this Seattle resident signed up at that rate. Then, mysteriously, when he logged into his newly created account, his rate was showing $59/month ($49 + $10 for more speed). Talks and chats with Comcast customer non-service to have the advertised rate honored got him no where. They all claimed there was no such plan in the Comcast system. Maybe this Seattle resident was trying to pull a fast one on Comcast? The representatives might have thought so. But the Seattle resident was smart and took screen captures. And, he called me. I was able to bring the exact same offer up on my own computer at the same time he was going through the signup process. The deal was real. See the attached screen shot taken the evening of August 28, 2015. It would appear this Seattle resident’s only recourse is a) the Seattle Office of Cable Communication, b) the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, and c) a private legal action under the Washington State consumer protection laws for false advertising.
Comcast media relations was provided the screen shots and invited to provide comments about how an advertised price of $19/month ends up being $59/month. As of this writing no comments have been received.
The Major Upgrade
A few days later, on Labor day morning of 2015, about 6 am Seatle time, my Comcast Interent went down. I called support and was told it was down for a “major upgrade”. I wrote to Comcast media relations and asked why there would be a major upgrade on a major holiday. Jenni Moyer, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, Network & Operations, reported that “I was able to confirm with our Seattle area tech ops team that there was in fact some unscheduled repair work in your neighborhood to fix an issue that was impacting service on Labor Day.” This is more consistent with my own research. I took a short walk to follow the cable and found two Comcast trucks one block away working on a device. The problem, they said, was an amplifier that went bad. Take a look; you can see a small open box between the two workers.
