Really? I am new to the US but I have been really happy with my Comcast. Self install was easy and quick, billing has always worked out fine, and while not super affordable, 50mbit is the fastest internet I've ever had at home. IPv6 too!
One of their techs once came out because I had bad speeds, and replaced some connectors to fix it. Later, the problem returned. I went outside on a vague suspicion and found two cable boxes left open, cables naked to the elements, discarded cable and other miscellaneous parts strewn through the grass.
In another instance, my modem wasn't syncing with their equipment, as clearly indicated by the lights on the front of the device. They wanted me to reboot my computer as a first troubleshooting step. I convinced the guy that this was not necessary, then halfway through our conversation he somehow reverted to the script and asked to reboot my computer again!
Four hour window? You wish. They'll give you "noon to 4PM" and show up at 5, without even so much as a quick call to let you know they're running late.
I have FiOS now. I've had techs out twice, once to install the service and once to upgrade it. Both showed up exactly when scheduled and were great. I've had problems with the service once so far. When I called it in, the random first-line tech I got connected to understood exactly what I meant when I told her that the router wasn't getting a DHCP lease on their end, and walked me through what was required to reset the offending equipment, with no nonsense about my computers or what browser or OS I was running or anything of the sort.
I hope your experience is different than mine, though! It could happen.
Wait until you need something fixed. I'm in a residential neighborhood and have their Business service (faster response, higher speeds, more expensive). I'm often the first one to report a problem. What kills me is that 99% of the time it's not anywhere near my modem, but they insist on sending someone to my location before they'll even do a traceroute and see where the real problem is.
I usually just keep calling until someone knows what traceroute is. Then, I plead with them to run it before making me do all the things I already did ("Please power cycle the modem" ... and wait several minutes).
And, I haven't even gotten to when they started charging me $10/mo for the router, when they told me it was included in the service. Their reason? It's not required equipment. But it is. I have a static IP and I have to use their modem. However, I didn't find this out until I bought two different modems at the suggestion of different CSRs. Thankfully I bought them from Amazon and didn't have to pay a restocking fee or postage.
So, yeah, when it works and you're in the first year, it's all good. Otherwise, they suck ass.
When I was considering switching from very slow DSL to Comcast in 2010, I looked at the Comcast business class contract for my home office. OMG that is a bad contract. You can get free or reduced installation charges for longer contract terms, but if you stop using the service during the term (e.g., you move), you still owe Comcast for 75% of the charges you would have paid for the entire term. Here is that clause:
"Termination Charges: Charges that may be imposed by
Comcast if, prior to the end of the applicable Service Term (a)Comcast terminates Services for cause or (b) Customer
terminates Services without cause. Termination Charges with
respect to each terminated Service Order shall equal, in addition to all amounts payable by Customer in accordance with Section 5.3, seventy-five percent (75%) of the remaining monthly fees that would have been payable by Customer under the Service Order if the Services described in the Service Order had been provided until the end of the Service Term. In the event the Agreement is terminated as herein described during the initial Service Term, Termination Charges shall also include one hundred percent (100%) of any amount paid by Comcast in connection with Custom Installation, as that term is defined in Section 2.6, for the Services provided by Comcast under the Service Order."
This and some other weird clauses totally freaked me out for business class. I backed off and ended up getting normal consumer class, and then relayed anything needing a static IP off a $15/yr VPS. That has worked out really well and I am a happy Comcast customer, which is a pleasant surprise for me. (Fingers crossed!)
Are you still on an introductory rate? Wait until you see the 'real' prices and after that and you will start to being the path to hating your cable provider.
There's a trick to this. When signing up on the promo rate, make sure to discuss any terms of extending the promo/getting it reissued. One of two things will happen.
A. they will say "that'll be easy, just ask before it runs out and we can fix it"
or
B. They will say "we can't do that"; in which case you ask if you can cancel and restart your service to re-get the special deals and they'll get confused, potentially ask a manager, and then say "I guess so." (they'll first make a huff about if your card appears in the system making you ineligable for the new deals, but you can fix this by either making enough of a huff, or using your spouses/your own alternate card, for example, I have a visa and a master card.)
In either case, when your deal is about to run out, call them up again, ask for the extension. There's a chance they may _just give it to you_ if the attendant is feeling very friendly, but usually you have to ask to get sent to customer retention (the magic words in all of this) and then tell retention EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAID INITIALLY WHEN YOU BOUGHT THE SERVICE THAT EXTENDING IT WAS POSSIBLE. I don't know whether it's verifiable, I just know that this pattern works, and I'd rather not be lying to them, so I always make sure to ask on the front end. Every time I've done this, in this manner (over the last.... 6-12 renewals?) I've gotten the initial price again, slight deviations from this script result only in a partial time extension/no extension at all.
Long story short version; you know comcast is terrible when you have enough experimental data to draw out some crude state diagrams of how to get around their terrible support.
(I also have decades of stories of getting charged for them to repair nonworking internet that was their own fault, lying about services I asked for, charging me for services I didn't sign up for, and taking up what is at this point probably man-weeks of my life just trying to resolve billing and service issues.)
Man. This did not set out to be such a rant, guess there was really some latent Comcast hatred in there...
In my area where there is no competition they refuse to do this anymore. I used to do this each year with my cable/internet bundle but whatever I did I could not get them to budge. I ended up canceling my cable, which usually leads to a phone call from some customer rep offering a discount, but it did nothing. I think they are to the point that they don't care in markets where there is no competition.
