Comcast Scam?

So I get this phone cAll from comcast the other day at my granpaprents house and they say "We need to come out and switch your current cable box with a new one as part of an upgrade" Nothing is said about switching service or anything like that just that they have been upgrading services and they are trying to swap out all the old boxes for new ones.

Well my grandparents definately don't need digital cable as they can barely use the cable box they have now. Digital wioth all the on screen stuff is just not an option. Well I though something sounded odd when they said installation was free I'm thinking install what unhoock the old box and screw then new one?? Well the phone operate just says we can either drop the old box of or they can come out on Fri. So I said come out on friday I'll be here.

So today I get a call from the installation guy and he says we are on our way to install your digital cable I said whoooaaa wait one minute back this bus up. Digital cable WTF I didn't order that. So I'm explaining what the operator said and the install guy says yeah you signed up for digital cable and I'm supposed to come and switch it over for you.

Well if this had been the grandparents they'd have neded up with digital cable. Heck it was me and I almost ended up with digital cable for them. SOUNDS LIKE A BIG SCAM TO ME

[shawshank62]

screw comcast, they are a bunch of freakin pandsys. I dropped cable from them in september and i couldnt be happier. They add some latino channel and throw your rate up 5 bucks...WTF???? Whats on Comcrap anyway? COMMERCIALS!!!!! Cable isnt all that great anymore....and yeah i do believe that comcast tried to scam your grandparents, just glad you caught it. The last thing comcast needs is more money.

[NeoStarO1]

this is distressing to learn. Was your grandparents in an area where the merger took place?

yeah...but that happend a few months ago they just called out of the blue this has nothing to do with the merger. But god now I have to check and make sure they didn't start charging them for digital or anything. What a freakin joke

I hated comcast before they switched to AT&T and i'm hating even more after the switch back.

[Siliconjunkie]

You should call your local PUC (Public Utility Comission, if you have them) and report it. It is misleading and fraud.

[DoctorReno]

I ditto Silicons statment. This is exactly like long distance telephone slamming.
Report them!!!

So here's round two.. and I haven't got the chance to get the puc's phone number yet. I need to find it today or tomorrow

We get a phone call a few days later, comcast again.
"we need to setup your appointment for installation. Apparently you canceled the last one." So I proceed to tell them that there was never an appointment made it was a misunderstanding and we don't want digital cable. The lady is confused on the idea as apparently that wasn't straight forward enough for her to grasp the concept, and she proceeds to ask me questions regarding the appointment. I explain it completely from the beginning and tell her again "we don't want digital cable". So I hang-up expecting that to be the end of it.

WRONG. they called back yesterday and talked to my grand father. They ask him to set an appointment, he tells them yet again that he doesn't want digital cable and just hangs up on them.

Now as I said the first time nothing was mentioned about digital cable. Just that there was a supposed upgrade in service and they need to change our cable converter box. But in the other calls they finally admitted to the fact that its not an upgrade in regular service they want to upgrade us to a new service. I think in the end they will have to upgrade no matter what as I believe comcast is making the attempt at going to a digital only service in our area. But until that happens we don't plan to change.

[Jeordiewhite]

They called up offering me digital cable, i took it as they were going to come out and give me digital cable for 6 dollars a month extra.

Ever since then i noticed a lower image quality in the picture i get, i thought digital cable was supposed to be better? I kept noticing it as it as it was annoying to see this reduced image.
When they hooked it up i had all the channels they promised and more, a couple weeks later, they all go away and it goes back to about the same as basic cable, and here it's just wrong the way they have cable set up.
I've noticed the cable goes out daily, i will sit down and watch tv and poof it goes.

Here we get less channels than some one i know who lives a mile away. It's the same cable service/package even.
In that mile there was always cable broadband over there, which was barely put in here. I've noticed a few channels they get with their basic cable service that isn't even included at all where i am. Cartoon network, and comedy central are two that come to my mind.

I called them up about losing all my channels, it was the tech support i talked to, i didn't care i was fed up so i told them i wanted to cancel, she said well we can fix it, but i can't cancel your account.

So she fixed it, till then i get all my channels back till they come out and take the service out of my house.
So now i'm happy

I had to laugh when they were hooking up my cable. They could not figure out where my cable wire was.
Some large truck came by and hooked on it and cut it. It was going straight from the poll, to my house.
I guess instead of fixing this, they sent out someone who just cut the thing.
They installed this overly sized box on the side out my house. I wasn't too impressed with this.

[JimJRJ]

I ordered comcast when I moved into my condo and they set up an appointment and the guy is supposed to come between 5pm-8pm to set it up. 6, no installer, 7, no installer, 8, no installer, I figure the guy is running late obviously, well 9, no one comes so I call up.

They tell me the guy came out but no one was home and I said I was and ask them what address they went to, well it was the wrong one, the person who took the order put the wrong number. So I ask them to send the guy back out and they tell me they can't they have all went home. So I tell them to send one the next morning, but they can't they say, have to wait another week. I asked to speak with a supervisor, but of course one isn't around, this is when I blew my top, I'm surprised I wasn't hung up on. The next day I went down to the comcast building, spoke with a manger and said I wasn't leaving until they sent someone out immediately to hook it up. They sent someone out, thank goodness.

Then about a month later my cable goes out, this was after a bad storm so I figured a line went down. I called and they told me the storm took out a line and it would be up the next day. Well the next day its still not up, I call again, now they say they are replacing some lines and boxes or something like that and that it would be 24 hours. Yep you guess it, still out after 24 hours, I call again, they say they still haven't fixed the problem, 2h hours later I call again, they say the will send someone out. Guess what? It went off because the nimrod cable guy who came out 3 days earlier to disconnect someone elses cable disconnected mine in error! He fixes it in five minutes. I didn't know whether to cry or laugh.

[Mntsnow]

Jordie,

Comcast is in the process currently of INSTALLING Fiber in the midvale area. So they will be able to support Cable Broadband in Midvale. This is the reason cable has been so flaky in midvale the last month. If you call they will issue you credits for the outage time. Since my wife and kids are home during the day since it's summer and my wife is a teacher when it does go out my wife just takes note of it and she or I call on a weekly basis and get credit....I have the full on premium package and my last bill was for less than a basic package due to the daytime outages (I dont care since I'm at work ) Anyways....It will get better as soon as they are done with the network infastructure upgrades