Friday, October 24, 2008

Why Comcast really sucks

Update in comments following this post..-- I wrote a tale of problems I've had with Comcast, see July post. Well, apparently they really haven't learned much beyond pissing off customers. This week (Tuesday) they loaded new software into the system, meaning everyone's TV cable boxes. Well, it's all flash and dash, and a little better, but they obviously didn't fully test drive it.

If you subscribe to both analog, digital and HD channels, you will discover switching between HD and other channels loses the color in the other channels, and this can't be undone except by unplugging the cable box for 20-30 seconds which erases the memory, both the software and the schedule. This resets everything.

If you stay on digital channels. you're fine. And if you stay on HD channels, you're fine. But switch from HD to digital channels, and you're screwed, the color goes away, not entirely. You get a black and white and purple screen. On every digital channel. Yup. go back to square one and reset things.

And three days latter they haven't seen to caught on to tell anyone let alone appear to fix the problem. And e-mails? Well, I haven't received my answer yet which they promised yesterday.

So, Comcast, tell me why I should remain a customer when I'm paying good, hard-earned money, for what now? Black and white, and purple TV shows? Wow, the 1950's all over again. What a concept. Suffice it to say I'm not holding my breath, but I know it will eventually be fixed. But when ? That's the $64,000 question we're all paying for Comcast's answer.

Well, Comcast, it's in your court, or software now. And you still haven't fixed the Dolby 5.1 sound output problem that's been there since January 2006. But you did solve the bandwidth problem which was there for over a year.

3 comments:

ComcastCares1 said...

I apologize.

I will reach out to my contacts to get this resolved for you. Please send us the phone number on the account so that we can assist further.

Thank you in advance and I appreciate the opportunity to assist.

Mark Casem
Comcast Corp.
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com

WSR Photography said...

Thanks, a response has been sent with the requested information. Please let me know if you need more information to resolve this problem.

I'm not sure why this wasn't found in the testing for the new software, when the problem began, because it's same hardware used by many customers.

By the way, the Dolby 5.1 problem is a simple software fix, but over 2 1/2 years later, nothing has been done. Is that asking too much now? After all why advertise Dolby 5.1 sound people can't fully use with new video/audio equipment?

WSR Photography said...

Update to story. After communicating with Comcast representatives, we discovered the problem was the HDMI signal from the cable box to the TV. The software upgrade created a problem simply reseting things didn't work, but unplugging and plugging the HDMI cables did fix it after a few tries.

So, lesson learned. Now if they can fix the SPDIF problem which hasn't worked since the January 2006 software upgrade. Apparently Comcast doesn't think that many people use the HDMI video and SPDIF audio parts of the system.

I'll keep this entry updated if things change. And yes, it pays to get their attention by standing on the Internet soapbox and yelling at the world. When something sucks, it's ok to say so, but then remember to say when it's fixed.