Comcast

UPDATE: You should check out http://www.killcomcastads.com For the latest information, and to sign a petition against this policy.

Just when I thought I had finally put behind me my painful history with Comcast and their annoying business practices (over scheduling their installers, over estimating their network speeds in marketing, and slyly changing cable rates without notice), they did it again.

A few months ago a friend from another Comcast market alerted me to the fact that his on-screen guide was displaying banner ads along the bottom of the screen (displayed to the right). A few weeks later, apparently after many angry customers in his market complained, the ads were removed. I figured I was safe from a similar treatment, but then I turned my TV on today.

Apparently my market is not the only one. I called tonight to complain, and was read a terse statement about the purpose of the ads, and the schedule by which they will be introduced to the Washington DC market as well as the surrounding Maryland and Virginia counties. The statement also mentioned there is no way they can be removed on a per-unit basis.

I understand that Comcast may feel the need to raise additional money from their customers, but this isn’t the way to do it. First, they can’t be making that much money from the ads displayed right now, which advertise Comcast features and upcoming shows. Further, advertising works best when people don’t notice it, because then they don’t actively resist it. These banner ads are anything but subtle, because, as shown in the picture, each time you want to scroll through a page in the guide the “cursor” stops on the ad.

It will be interesting to see how long the ads last, and even more interesting to see if people will finally speak out about Comcast’s shaky business practices.

As I wrote last week, it seems that for now I’m stuck with Comcast. Last week I also scheduled an installation for my new apartment, which was supposed to have happened yesterday (one week after making the appointment). I sucked it up and arranged to be home during the assigned 1-4 PM window, looking forward to having my own internet connection back and some quality TV to watch.

I received a call at 2:12 PM from the Comcast dispatcher saying that the technician had come to my apartment and that nobody answered when he knocked. They ended the call with something like “Better luck next time.” Who says that to a customer?

Of course I was mad, steaming to be exact. I immediately called the Comcast sales folks only to hear that the Comcast technicians are very overbooked with installations in DC, and they may no longer actually visit the apartment. Instead the dispatcher calls just before the tech is to arrive, and if you don’t answer the phone in the first few rings they assume you are not at home and reassign the tech to the next job. So in fact the technician never even came to my apartment, they were looking for any excuse they could find to reschedule me, and I was once again written off by Comcast as an insignificant customer… a peon whose money doesn’t really matter to them because there is nowhere else to go for cable service in my neighborhood. And for the record, the only call I got from the dispatcher was when they let me know that I “missed the appointment”.

At first they promised to have the tech come back out same day, perhaps later in the evening. They were unable to reach the tech on the “radio” because he was in a “bad area”, so they weren’t able to give me a specific time. I assume by radio they meant Nextel’s iDen service, and by “bad area” they were describing the huge dead spots in Nextel’s coverage throughout the entire region. I was told to wait for a call, and after an hour had passed I called them back instead. In my mind Comcast is like a bad girlfriend/boyfriend, and you should never wait by the phone for a call that may never come!

After a few further calls, I learned more about the scheduling process (they assign each job a series of “points”, and apparently my job has the max number meaning that I get bumped pretty low on the priority list and far back in the scheduling pool). I also learned that they never had any intention of coming back yesterday, that they were trying to “manage the situation amicably”. Sounds like a blow off to me!

After cutting through the rest of the crap, I learned the best they can do is to reschedule my appointment for the next available slot, which is next Thursday. I’ve decided that instead of waiting another week, I’ll call Comcast’s corporate headquarters again and talk with “Bob”. He didn’t provide much assistance on the last round with Comcast, but hopefully he can stir things up a bit.

EDIT: I called the Comcast Corporate offices at 215-665-1700 (asked for Customer Problem Resolution), and after I discussed the situation I was assured that Comcast could have someone come out today or tomorrow, and now I’m waiting for someone “high up” to contact me to make it official. I hate to sound cynical, but I’m not holding my breath.