Comcast Must Die
| Wed Mar. 5, 2008 11:52 AM PST
Comcast, the cable TV giant, has given its customers lots of reasons to hate the company. They've refused to embrace a la carte programming, charged people $2 to stop sending them junk mail, wrecked people's credit reports, falsely advertised its Internet speed and generally abused the people who pay for its services. Comcast's customer service problems are so acute that Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield started a blog called Comcast Must Die to compile all the gripes about the company from consumers (see the promo video above). But Comcast doesn't really need any help generating bad press.
Last week, the company admitted that it paid people to take up all the seats at an FCC hearing examining complaints that Comcast was blocking file-sharing on its cable modem service. The reason? Comcast wanted to keep its critics out in the cold. The company apparently didn't tell the seat-warmers to stay awake through the proceedings so as not to attract attention of reporters, who immediately suspected Comcast was up to no good.
It's amazing that a company this bad could stay in business as long as it has. It's either a testament to the power of monopolies or sad proof that Americans will endure any amount of corporate abuse to get their Law and Order fix every week. Garfield is hoping his new blog will help change corporate behavior, but I think there's a better way to go than bitching online: just cancel. Pull the plug. Comcast will only die if people stop using it. Really, you can do it. The writers' strike notwithstanding, network TV has never been better, and in these bad economic times, it has the added advantage of being free.
Continues Below
Continued From Above
Comments
Submitted by capt (not verified) on Wed Mar. 5, 2008 12:24 PM PST.
Comcast sucks!
We quit them a decade back and will never do business with them again.
Now if their other customers become ex-customers they will not be in business.
I'll say this I had an argument with Comcast over their rate plan just last week and in turn I gut them out, by dropping the basic cable TV and lowering my service. It only took 4 different people and two managers to finally convince me they could not provide the service I needed at a reasonable price. So now I get my news online via MIRO getmiro.com...Open Source no profit...only downside I need that technology that comcast is limiting, but that's the next step.
Comcast is indeed the only game in town, I boycotted 'em for over a decade...
Then every single damn site, INCLUDING MotherJones, become graphics-intensive, and if I wanted to read something, I have to put up with the megabyte or so of graphic gibberish that comes with my 10k of useful information.
Because local phone service can't support DSL speed, my SOLE fatpipe option is Comcast.
I'm no fan of corporations either, but the best solution is and has been to pit them against one another - like the insurance companies against the automakers.
The 'Net Neutrality thing is just that kind of battle, IMO
Nietzche,
The real Nietzche was not an anti-Semite, and now you just play one on Mother Jones. You must be the 'farce' part of the second coming.
As to real matters, Minneapolis just got wireless broadband, and I pay $20 a month for it. Comcast cannot compete with their overpriced and underserviced 'basket' service.
Submitted by capt - Hussein (not verified) on Thu Mar. 6, 2008 7:05 PM PST.
We just made the switch from DirectTV back to Dishnet.
We wanted to upgrade to HDTV and DirectTV offers new customers the HDTV receiver and dish for $99 but insisted on trying to charge us $199.
We were previously with Dishnet for almost 10 years and was always happy.
I cannot recommend DirectTV to anybody - but they are STILL better than Comcast
I gave up on Comcast long ago after repeated problems with their billing.
Unfortunately, living in my area and in an apartment, that means no television at all. Indoor antennas don't work and we aren't allowed to have dish service, so at this point Comcast is the only access even to network tv.
We're waiting for FIOS and hoping Verizon will do better.
No one will ever touch Verizon for utter inadequacy, incompetence, criminal neglect of its customers, and arrogant contempt for business ethics. When you all dump Comcast, just make sure you don't get burned by another bunch of money-grubbing thugs!
Fortunately, libraries (in most areas) are still free. A lot of "news"papers have succumbed to the same illnesses as television, but if you're lucky enough to live where there's an NPR station, you've got options. Support public media.
Comcast will not remove a downed cable lying in the roadway. This roadway is in back of the 1500 block of Light Street in Baltimore, Maryland. I have placed numerous calls to them and have been given a run-around each time. They ask for detailed directions and a detailed description of the problem when all they have to do is get out there and remove the cable. Why do I have to act as a roadmap service for them. They have customers on the block so they know where the location is. This direction asking is just a smokescreen to stall the customer and make the customer think that action will be taken when it of course will not be.
This cable is hanging from an electrical line and is a traffic hazard and an ugly eyesore and nuisance. It whips around in the wind. It scrapes over the garbage truck and other vehicles.
The corrupt City of Baltimore, who are in business with Comcast, of course would take no action, even though they claim their code enforcement includes removing hanging wires. My complaint to them was ignored.
comcast
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Aug. 11, 2009 1:14 PM PDT.
should file a complaint with local government--they have to comply with cable franchise regs somewhere local, in order to have the local cable monopoly.
a facebook group to try to fix things
Submitted by Joe Wagner (not verified) on Wed Nov. 18, 2009 7:21 PM PST.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=171927907889&ref=nf
Check it out. If you're still dissatisfied comcast customers, join. Let's do this!
