Comcast Users - Your input is needed.

Van

I just relocated states and I don't have the luxury of small-time internet service providers.  I'm in a region where Comcast and Time Warner Cable are butting heads, while Verizon slips in where it can with limited FiOS installations.  I'm fairly certain I have no access to FiOS based on my location (verifying after work), and so I'm in the worst pickle in recent memory.  Do I go with the #4 most frustrating company in America or the #2 most frustrating company in America?  Comcast technically has better internet speeds (I'm not interested in TV packages, just internet), but their service is obviously atrocious.  TWC is actually rated worse than Comcast, and they they have slower speeds (allegedly).  I guess what I'm getting at is, Comcast Users - what was/is your experience like with their service?  Is it as bad as the media says they are?  I basically have to pick the lesser of two evils if FiOS turns out to not be available.  Get at me, chaaa?

Kayeil

I've had Comcast for years, and I seldom ever have problems with my internet connection. It's very rare for it to be a problem at all, and most often if there's a blip in the connection it's pretty easy to sort out on your own if you know what you're doing. When there's a REAL problem, though... it's often a pain in the ass to get through to a customer service agent, they might send you around to different departments at time, they'll have you try a bunch of different things that you'll probably have already tried, and THEN after a long string of processes if they don't work they might set you up for an appointment in a window of time that isn't very definite, plus you have to pay for them to come out even if the problem isn't your fault, and even then it's not a guaranteed fix. I remember this one time I had a problem with my Comcast service, and we had someone come out and I kept telling this guy we've had problems with our service since someone else showed up one day and climbed the power pole and started messing with stuff in this box up there. He was here for a few hours, didn't believe me. Thought he knew what he was doing, and kept leaving and coming back, then he FINALLY climbed the damn power pole and realized I was right all along and fix it in a matter of minutes. That was probably my worst problem with Comcast, and I've had other experiences that were pleasant and the people who work at my local Comcast location are really nice. It's kind of hit or miss with the telephone people, though. The internet itself is usually pretty great here. I've had other companies in the past like Verizon, and hated it even more.

Sarapis

I have comcast at home, and have had no unreasonable problems with it. Nice speeds too. Just ran a test (3:44 pm), and got 57 megs down, 12 megs up.

Aerek

Comcast, and cable service in general, really depends on the exact location. I've had it at one address and had 0 issues, but the same service at a different address across town has been a nightmare. You just never know what their logistical situation is at a given location; where the old or damaged lines are laid, which neighborhoods have too many users sharing too little bandwidth, or even if just the lines in your home are improperly installed until you actually have the service.

Wish I could offer better advice, the only advice you can really trust is from someone who had that service at that address, because even your neighbors to the left and right might have completely different experiences with the same cable service.

For my part, I've never really had much trouble with the actual customer service side of Comcast. It can suck sometimes, but so can every other major corporation. For the most part, they've tried to fix my issue or replace my equipment when I gripe, even if it takes them a few tries to get it done. It's the hardware and logistics that can be the real headache.

Melodie

Kayeil said:

I've had Comcast for years, and I seldom ever have problems with my internet connection. It's very rare for it to be a problem at all, and most often if there's a blip in the connection it's pretty easy to sort out on your own if you know what you're doing. When there's a REAL problem, though... it's often a pain in the ass to get through to a customer service agent, they might send you around to different departments at time, they'll have you try a bunch of different things that you'll probably have already tried, and THEN after a long string of processes if they don't work they might set you up for an appointment in a window of time that isn't very definite, plus you have to pay for them to come out even if the problem isn't your fault, and even then it's not a guaranteed fix. I remember this one time I had a problem with my Comcast service, and we had someone come out and I kept telling this guy we've had problems with our service since someone else showed up one day and climbed the power pole and started messing with stuff in this box up there. He was here for a few hours, didn't believe me. Thought he knew what he was doing, and kept leaving and coming back, then he FINALLY climbed the damn power pole and realized I was right all along and fix it in a matter of minutes. That was probably my worst problem with Comcast, and I've had other experiences that were pleasant and the people who work at my local Comcast location are really nice. It's kind of hit or miss with the telephone people, though. The internet itself is usually pretty great here. I've had other companies in the past like Verizon, and hated it even more.

This. We had the service here at this house (Florida) for a long while, and while the internet itself was great, the customer service was terrible. We actually had a problem for 6~ months where it would be very in and out because of a similar power pole problem (one of the lines were mussed up juuuust enough), and it just took AGES to get to even get it fixed, when it wasn't a huge problem to begin with. 

When they started charging just to be able to talk to their representatives or getting service, we said "fuck that" and dropped them, and went to AT&T. I was very skeptical about it at first, having long been a fan of the fact cable was "faster", but I'm happy to report that in the 8 months we've had the service, there has only ever been one very short-term problem that was fixed very quickly. No long outages, and no absolutely terrible customer service. The speeds were just as good as we had on cable (granted, this is a more populated area, though not at all a "big" city), as well. If you have it in your area, I would actually suggest trying these guys first. If not, then Comcast is likely, unfortunately, the lesser evil, having had both them and TWC at different periods/places.

Good luck!

Kerria

have twc was great, recently it was bought out by comcast... it's a nightmare and customer services are horrid compared to twc. I hear it's very much a locale thing. My neighborhood is an old one with 80+ year old houses, so apparently getting good lines here is just laughable at best.

Trilliana

I have TWC, there's no comcast where I am, even though - as @Kerria said - Comcast bought out TWC. Regular Verizon is out here too, but they seem to be few and far between in my complex. The only problems I've had were because of stupid people trying to steal cable in my building, but since TWC is completely digital, stealing cable won't work.

Van

@melodie Yeah I was hoping for ATT.  I relocated from Florida where U-Verse was very popular, and agreeable.  My parents have it.  But alas, they do not service this area.  @Kerria I was under the impression they hadn't bought them out just yet, but I guess they have.  It would be prudent to go with the better technical service in that case.  I'm going to call Verizon and definitively find out about FiOS, and then succumb ComicalCast.  I also will be living among very old neighborhoods, upwards of 100 years old.  

Jonathin

As long as I knew exactly what services I wanted, didn't let them talk me into agreeing to more for a 'special sale price', didn't ever have to call customer service or have service techs come out for anything, comcast was actually pretty nice.

Kerria

@Van‌they're going area by area, the greater Dayton area was combined and they'll go by different states/areas to avoid some of those pesky laws and such.

Sena

I had Comcast for years (in Florida) with very few problems. But then my mom worked for Comcast customer service, so I had a few advantages there.

Riley

I have comcast, i rarely have issues. My connection speeds are above what I pay. My only other option is DSL, which i had for years, screw DSL.

Khairt

The only issues I've ever had with comcast were the security check I had to go through to prove I wasn't the delinquent that didn't pay them at my address before I moved there and one time they charged me 9 $ extra so I screamed at people like a savage subhuman until I got that month free. 

Customer service is a tedium all around and many people could use some classes in the skill, but I don't think comcast is particularly bad. My comcast lady sends me christmas cookies still.

Strata

Don't sign any contracts if you don't have to. Don't buy into any package deals. If it's cable, have someone knowledgeable either work with you to check out your install or tell you what to look for yourself.

The state of internet service in the US is continuing to degrade because the providers are greedy and have been lying about upgrading infrastructure for decades. The employees that come out to your house to do an installation or maintenance-calls have been trained to perpetuate that lie by always telling the customer their signal levels are great when they're actually not. Customer service is usually terrible but if you're persistent, you can get them to do what they were trained to do (you call them complaining about slow internet and they read offers of package deals from a script to make you think you're getting something for nothing - until next month's bill arrives).

So the best thing you can hope for is to be lucky and end up in an area where the RF is clean and strong. Then there's capacity issues in your town (CMTS over-capacity or half-ass installed causing packet loss and other issues) followed by internet infrastructure/peering/router issues that affect entire regions (usually capacity problems - choking routers causing packet loss or high latencies)

To get around many of these issues and give the customer the illusion that they got what they paid for, intrusive dns hijacking and other man-in-the-middle attacks (under the auspices of "caching") are used. What this does is keeps commonly frequented parts of the web local and thus much faster. The ISP gets to charge the customer more for premium service, and they also get to charge companies like Facebook to allow their caching servers into ISP datacenters. So basically, you think you're getting faster internet, but they're just turning around and charging the companies running the websites you use on a daily basis for better access to their end users, while the ISP in turn, does absolutely nothing to ACTUALLY make their networks faster. I would not be surprised if most, if not all, of the speedtest.net servers are being hijacked by your local ISP in order literally fudge the numbers people get when they click the test button.

What does all this doom and gloom mean? It means within 5-10 years, school children in desolate parts of 3rd-world Africa will have faster internet connections on their free government subsidized smartphones while we pay up to $300/mo for 1/20th of what they get.

Van

Thank you all for your generous input.  I really appreciate it.

Carmell

Been on comcast for years.  Don't usually have problems with staying connected.  Just get grumpy they charge so much.

Van

Turns out Comcast doesn't actually service my address. Forced to get TWC. Here goes nothing. *Puts on armor and wields phone like a dagger*