I love the Olympics. Every two years, I am glued to the TV every
night watching. Other times of the year, I don't watch broadcast television.
Every Olympics, I must get cable installed with a DVR so I can watch the
Olympics and fast forward of the countless commercials. I called Comcast which
was my first mistake. All I really wanted was NBC, HD and a DVR. Of course, I
did not expect Comcast to offer that, so I asked for local channels in HD with
a DVR. Of course Comcast doesn't offer just local changes with HD and a DVR.
You must get their "Digital Starter Package." with a total of 80
channels 79 of which I did NOT want to the tune of $60 a month for 12 months.
After 12 months, the price is higher. $60 is their rock bottom price to get new
customers and then screw them a year later. I caved and forked over the $60 for
79 channels I don't need just to get the one I do want.
Comcast kindly sent us a DVR with a self-hook
up kit which arrived days later. I went to the web site to start my service.
The site was extremely slow and very broken. I work in IT and have better
knowledge than the average user and I couldn't get setup. The site simply did
not work. I was then forced to call customer service which was no better. They
sent a communication to my DVR and said I'd have cable in 45 minutes. I had
cable in 45 minutes but not the channels for the starter package. I had
channels I shouldn't have and didn't have channels that I should. I called
customer service again who again sent a signal to my box and again told me to
wait 45 minutes. This time it worked.
Next I decide it would be nice to have
cable on our other TV. I simply hooked up cable to the TV with no other
box. I turned on the TV and had no cable. I called customer service for the
third time and was informed that I must have a cable box for an extra cost. So
the $60 became more like $66. To get this box required a trip to the Comcast
store. The person on the phone told me I had a preorder and so would not need
wait in line. I could go immediately to the cashier. This was a lie. I arrived
and I was told to self-check in and to wait. I said, but I had a preorder. I
was told, "I don't know what they told you on the phone, but you must
wait." I waited. After all other customers were handled and I was alone
the same person at the counter who told me to wait asked what I wanted, tried
to look up my name in the self-check in and couldn't find me. Since I was now
the only person there, he did handle my request and I got my box.
I also asked why I had HBO. I was told it
was included for free for two years. Nice, except I don't want HBO being
broadcast in my house. I asked if it could be removed. He said, he'd try and
didn't see why not. To my surprise, it was removed and I was relieved.
Now I was ready to watch the Olympics and
I was happy though I was $66 poorer. Naturally the DVR had glitches. Sometimes
it froze and would not recover. I also learned that it could only record one
channel at a time. This was not too bad since I really only wanted to watch one
channel.
Comcast was nice enough to provide
streaming of all events. If I went to NBCOlympics.com and logged into my XFinity
account, I could stream to my hearts content. I thought this was great. My wife
is from the Philippines and she wanted to see the Filipino skater. Naturally
his routine was not shown on Prime Time. The entire program was available
streaming though. There was a catch. You could not fast forward. You had to sit
through all skaters prior to the one you wanted to see. This wasn't too bad
since our skater was in the first group, however, internet streaming is not
reliable and we crashed a few times. Since we could not fast forward we had to
start from the beginning and rewatch it all. Eventually we were able to see our
Filipino skater's program.
Now I'm more than ready to return our
cable box and cancel our Comcast cable TV. I'll be relieved though I don't
expect it will be easy. I wasn't easy two years ago for the summer
Olympics.
I think Comcast is a greedy company with
poor customer service. Why should anyone need to pay more than $60 when only
one channel was wanted? Why doesn't Comcast offer an a la cart option? Why must
we pay for a cable box for every TV we own? Why does customer service fail to
do a simple hook up? Why does customer service lie to you? I'll be very happy
to be rid of Comcast until the next Olympics when I must do this all again or find
a better option.
