I receive my cable TV service through Buckeye Cablesystem in Toledo, Ohio. During the NHL playoffs they have been covering the Versus high def signal with The Golf Channel or so I thought. Come to find out they receive their Versus feeds through Comcast and Comcast is the one responsible. Does anyone have any idea why we are being forced to watch a stupid golf game during the NHL semi-finals. These people are idiots, and unfortunately just try to get a hold of Comcast. You can forget it. They want your money but don't want to hear from you. One thing though, I think all cable providers use the same people to train their service departments because based on what I've read about Comcasts' service department; it can also be said of Buckeye Cablesystem's service department. These people are idiots. No matter how many times or people you contact there you always get a different- wrong answer.

I have had Comcast cable and high speed Internet for a long time. I've never been completely happy with them, but since they are the only choice, I've tried to cope. This latest problem started in June 2006. Occasionally my Internet connection would go out and eventually come back on. There was no pattern as to when it went out, or for how long. When it would go out, the "On Demand" service for cable TV also went out. I think most intelligent people could assume the problem was either somewhere outside of my home, or at the point where the cable enters the house. Well a very nice technician came over, replaced all the connections on the inside, changed some of the cables, and checked the box outside. Since everything was working, we thought that would end the problem. Well a week later the problem was back. So I call Comcast and had to repeat the entire problem again to cust. serv. They sent out another tech. who proceeds to do the exact same thing the 1st tech did. I told him the other tech. already did that. Finally he agrees with me and orders a line tech to check the outside line.

A few days later I get an automated call saying the problem was fixed. It worked ok till about the week of Sept. 25 Had I known that Comcast treats there customers so poorly I would've kept a record of all our conversations. Since I didn't, some of the following dates, times, and conversations are approximate. Around the 25th of Sept. the Internet and cable started acting up again. It was doing the same thing as in June. I called and set up an appointment. A day before the tech was supposed to come out, I got a voicemail from Comcast stating they had fixed the problem. I didn't know this means they canceled the appointment. I called again and set up another appointment between 3 and 5pm. Comcast called me at 1:00pm and left a message saying the tech. was at my door and no one was answering. 1:00pm??? I never would've set up the appt. at 1:00 since I know there was no way I or anyone else could be there. I had set it up for the hours of 3-5. So, after another 20 minute phone call, I set up another appt. for Fri. Oct 6. This is when we had some bad storms and the cable lines were out for everyone. I got another automated call from Comcast stating that the problem was fixed, and if I was still having problems, call them. I called, and was told that I had to set up another appt. I asked to talk to a supervisor. Instead of a supervisor the cust. serv. rep came back and told me that she would personally credit my acct, and that since they were still showing an outage in my area, she could not set up an appt, but stated that she will call me later in the day. I explained to her that my problem occurred well before the storms knocked out everyone's service. This was supposed to be on Oct 5. I never heard back from her so I called Comcast that night for the 10th(?) time. Again another 20 minutes of waiting. Again I had to repeat the whole story, and the cust rep put me on hold while she tried to reschedule yet another appt. I got tired of waiting so I hung up. This morning, Oct 6, I once again called Comcast and I told the cust rep that I wanted to talk to a supervisor and that if he came back on line, I would cancel my acct. Well, he did let me talk to someone named John. I also learned they had scheduled another appt. with out asking me on Oct. 9th at 1:00pm. As I told them and stated here, there is no way I could be home at that time. Once again I had to explain the problems I was having. He didn't seem at all sorry for the hassles. He then said he would set up another appt. I TOLD HIM TO CANCEL ALL MY SERVICES. his REPLY, "OK, LET ME TRANSFER YOU" No effort at all to keep me as a customer. I hung up.

My home phone uses the Internet to make and receive calls. When the high speed Internet service goes out, so does my phone. This creates several problems. Most importantly, if there is any kind of emergency at my home I CANNOT CALL 911!!!! Also, when my phone is out, if my mom needs me for anything, she may not be able to get ahold of me. She is 74 years old, and in poor health. Yes I do have a cell phone, but it's not always close by. I need that home phone working.

On 10-11 I received a call from Marta Gardner, an executive with Comcast, regarding my BBB complaint. She was very nice and is trying to get this problem resolved. We set up an appt. for 10-12 after 2:45pm. Later on I got another automated call saying my appt. was scheduled on 10-13 between 10am and ? I called and left Gardner a message. This morning, 10-12 at 8:00am I got another automated call from Comcast stating "recently technicians found and corrected a problem in your area..." Well we all know what this means, yep, my appt. has been canceled and It'll bee another week or so, AGAIN!!!! It is now 9:30 and I have not heard from Ms. Gardner yet.

10/14. Talked to Marta yesterday. Supposedly someone was out and checked the lines outside. Everything was working fine till this morning when the same old problem started up again. Now it's Sat. night and it's getting worse. Now along with the Internet and "On Demand", every channel seems to break up, and the sound just makes a squealing noise. It comes and goes. I understand that sometimes these problems happen. What I am really upset is that it's been since Sept. 27th and nothing has changed. I think that Comcast owes me for all the BS they've put me through. I will get credit for all the time I've had this problem, but that doesn't compensate me for all the time I've wasted on the phone, not to mention all the minutes I've used up on my cell phone.

10/17. 2:30pm So far today I've lost the Internet connection 3 times that I know of. The cable TV signal is also being affected. I just left a message for Ron Ford, and another one for Marta Gardner. She has not responded to the 2 previous messages I left for her.Ford is the man that came out last Thurs. and supposedly tested the cable system outside. I thought that Comcast was going to take this seriously by having these 2 people get involved. The way it looks now, that was just a cover up. Nothing has changed since Sept. 28

In conclusion, here's the highlights. Comcast is giving me the run around. I've had to call them over 29 times, and have spent over 125 minutes on the phone, 81 of those minutes were charged to my monthly allowance on my cell. Every time I talked to Comcast I had to repeat everything. Then I would get A different solution.

I placed a service call in 4-2005 for poor Internet connectivity, and poor cable signal. Comcast contractor determined that the underground cable was defective and that it needed replaced. After 1.5 years and multiple attempts to get Comcast to fix the problem, I give up. I am an idiot for letting them keep me on the hook. I will be going to DirectTV and Verizon DSL. I am giving up Internet speed for reliability. Comcast should be paying me at this point. It is now 7-2006, and no one has responded after my most recent attempts to get this fixed. Just incredible. Comcast is a monopoly. Don't think otherwise. The Govt. made AT&T break up because they were a monopoly. Comcast needs to get their act together. Just because Oil is expensive doesn't mean that Comcast can keep raising their rates whenever they feel like it. Please make sure you understand the difference between Cable systems and Satellite systems. You will see that Satellite is more reliable than Cable. A few minutes of off air is nothing compared to hours and days of down time due to area power failures. And for you idiots that think IP phones are the way to go………..think again. When the power goes out, does your IP Internet phone still work? It does not. But pick up a regular phone and there will be dial tone when the local power is gone. What does that tell you? These are the reasons why I am going back to Satellite for TV, and over to DSL for Internet. Reliability. I will take Reliability over speed any day.

Company details:
Downingtown, PA. area. Suburban Philadelphia……………..Home of Comcast, the cable jerks.

This problem started months ago when a technician came out to replace a modem and told me that the signal coming into the house was a little low.

I'm not going to say anymore than that...for now.

On 8/6, my high-speed internet service was running at speeds near 1990's AOL dial-up, if i was lucky. I called customer service, and the technician on the line told me that my modem was showing a 20% packet loss. Anyone who knows t-com knows that is impossible to use. She checked her schedule, and told me the earliest that they could get a tech out was 8/13...an entire week later...and on a Sunday no less! She advised that i call the local office on Monday when they opened to see if they could escalate and move my appointment up. I called Monday and was told they had a cancellation and could come out on 8/11, which is a Friday. Better, but still not good. I work from a home office, which means my cable modem is my lifeline. To be out for a week wasn't good, but i took the new appointment anyway.

On 8/9, I called again to see if there were any more cancellations. The recording said my service call was still scheduled for 8/13. This is not good. I spoke to a supervisor who told me that the dispatch system shows me as down for 8/11, but the system the call center tech looked at showed it incorrect, and it was in fact scheduled for the 11th. Okay. Fine. At least I got the supervisor's name.

Today is the 11th. The rescheduled appointment was between 9am and 11am. It is now 2:30PM as I type this. I called at 10am to make sure he was coming, and was told he was. I called back at 11am and was told...can you guess?...that my appointment wasn't until Sunday, 8/13. I flipped at this point. I was told that there was nothing they could do except offer me a $20 credit because the call had been assigned to a technician.

Forget the fact that I was lied to by a supervisor. Forget the fact that that supervisor apparently doesn't exist, since no one knows who I'm talking about when I call now. Forget the fact that it's still been a week with service that makes me think dial-up is great. Before writing this, I have submitted a complaint to the Better Business Bureau, a complaint to the State Public Utilities Commission, and will be writing a letter to my township government urging them NOT to grant Comcast a renewal on their charter, since that expires this year. $20 and a credit for the downtime is unacceptable. How about the cost of the additional cell phone minutes I'm using, since my VoIP isn't working? How about the cost of gas I use driving to the nearest company office to work? $20 doesn't come close, folks. If you tell me you're coming at a certain time, be here. Don't lie about it because now you've got an angry customer with a podcast and a voice that will let people know this entire tale. When the supervisors are so incompetent that they have to lie to keep customers happy, then your company has a BIG problem that you NEED to deal with.

I actually work for a company that is in direct competition with Verizon, but their DSL service is looking better and better every day this event goes on. Oh, I also was sucked into their DVR service. The first box wouldn't record. The second box recorded, but go so hot that it melted the molding on my tv stand. The 3rd box also gets hot, but I've since installed a ventilation fan to keep it from doing more damage.

And if I hear "I'm sorry for your inconvenience, sir" one more time, I'm going to go postal on someone. Be sorry all you want, doesn't change the fact that your customer service is god-awful on a good day.