comcrap NOT to buy ishy time warner

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Only to be replaced by other leaches. I do find it funny the hate people have for these companies and that people think things will really change if some other company gets in the game.

This. I had Uverse back in 2008 and switched back in 2012. It was great in 2008 when they had fewer subs and brand new equipment. When I dumped them again in 2013, nothing had changed -- I had the same DVRs and gateways they were using in 2008.

I fully expect the same thing to happen with critic darlings like Fios and Google. The more you grow the more problems you have. I'm pretty curious about Google because we don't know how their equipment will age and how their service will handle hundreds of thousands of customers versus the thousands or tens of thousands they have now. They haven't published any sub numbers for KC, so we don't know how they are doing.

But I don't trust Google any more or less than any other ISP.

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

KC will be reunited, which will absolutely be an overall win for consumers. But nobody knows who will operate this system for maybe 12-18 months.

We know it won't be Charter though.

[RainMaker]

Our internet seems fine until you go to another country and realize how shit it really is.

[stevew]

Ok so I apparently found out we can get 50/5 for the same I pay now or 30/5 for $10 cheaper. Is 50 way better than 30? I think I get like 18/1 right now.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by stevew

Ok so I apparently found out we can get 50/5 for the same I pay now or 30/5 for $10 cheaper. Is 50 way better than 30? I think I get like 18/1 right now.

So are they giving to a discounted rate for a certain # of months?

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by stevew

Ok so I apparently found out we can get 50/5 for the same I pay now or 30/5 for $10 cheaper. Is 50 way better than 30? I think I get like 18/1 right now.

Highly unlikely to notice a difference unless you are running your own torrent hosting site or streaming HD video to 5 devices at once.

But to Dan's point, is that just an introductory rate or is it a permanent price? Might want to check. It could also be a tier change casualty...meaning they are changing the tiers they offer and 30 falls outside the new tier plan so they are effectively "giving" you a 50 tier.

The data rate is rarely the issue unless you are doing high bandwidth things like streaming a lot of HD video, playing online games, or doing multiples of those. The real measurement of note is your latency. Ping will tell you this but make sure you are pinging an appropriate test server as your ping test to your ISP should (read: better) be super low anyway, as in <20ms. Packet (or network) jitter will tell you how crapped out your data is as well (again, relative to the test server).

[stevew]

It's a 12mo rate.

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by stevew

It's a 12mo rate.

I'd save the $10 and go 30/5 unless you know you need more data rate or have too much money to care.

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

This. I had Uverse back in 2008 and switched back in 2012. It was great in 2008 when they had fewer subs and brand new equipment. When I dumped them again in 2013, nothing had changed -- I had the same DVRs and gateways they were using in 2008.

I fully expect the same thing to happen with critic darlings like Fios and Google. The more you grow the more problems you have. I'm pretty curious about Google because we don't know how their equipment will age and how their service will handle hundreds of thousands of customers versus the thousands or tens of thousands they have now. They haven't published any sub numbers for KC, so we don't know how they are doing.

But I don't trust Google any more or less than any other ISP.

Is Fios a critical darling? It's certainly better than the comcrap I used to have and I don't get double billed anymore. I also don't come anywhere near the promised speeds and the on demand is no better.

[RainMaker]

So much for all those "we've changed" commercials.

Comcast Serves Up What May Be the Worst Customer Service Call in History

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

So much for all those "we've changed" commercials.

Comcast Serves Up What May Be the Worst Customer Service Call in History

I had an almost identical call with AOL 10+ years ago when I tried to cancel my dialup account which had already been about 2 years of a $19.99/month service that I just forgot to cancel. Wish I'd had the foresight to record the dam thing as it was almost verbatim what this guy went thru.

Still pisses me off to think about it.

[Desnudo]

I like how they are contacting the employee to apologize, not "has been immediately terminated." He'll probably get coaching to make sure they aren't recording next time.

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

I like how they are contacting the employee to apologize, not "has been immediately terminated." He'll probably get coaching to make sure they aren't recording next time.

Yeah that behavior isn't just an "exuberant employee". Its the special combination of direct training to evade/confuse, a commitment to berate your employees into doing that, and a predisposition to being an asshat on the part of the employee.

But rest assured....the guy isn't fired because things would get worse when he goes public telling everybody what "his boss" told him to do.

[jeff061]

I'm sure the retention guys are paid a bonus for every customer referred to them that doesn't cancel. Like an overzealous sales rep looking for a commission, he was doing what he is paid to do, just stepped over the line.

[panerd]

Admittedly haven't read/listened to the article but unless I am looking to possibly by retained (i.e. Directv offering me free Sunday Ticket) I would just tell the retention guy "Hey listen I don't want the service anymore, I am recording this, please end my service. I am going to hang up in a few seconds and if my service isn't ended I have this on tape." Why record for that long without another agenda at play? He hates Comcast that much? More to the story here IMO.

[Subby]

Originally Posted by panerd

Admittedly haven't read/listened to the article but unless I am looking to possibly by retained (i.e. Directv offering me free Sunday Ticket) I would just tell the retention guy "Hey listen I don't want the service anymore, I am recording this, please end my service. I am going to hang up in a few seconds and if my service isn't ended I have this on tape." Why record for that long without another agenda at play? He hates Comcast that much? More to the story here IMO.

You should probably listen or read stuff before commenting on it. As a guideline.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by Subby

You should probably listen or read stuff before commenting on it. As a guideline.

True, very true. Guess I just have learned how to deal with customer service as I have gotten older and never seem to have the problems with Directv, Charter, AT&T... that other people do (and I used to). In and out in less than 5 minutes most of the time.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by SteveMax58

I had an almost identical call with AOL 10+ years ago when I tried to cancel my dialup account which had already been about 2 years of a $19.99/month service that I just forgot to cancel. Wish I'd had the foresight to record the dam thing as it was almost verbatim what this guy went thru.

Still pisses me off to think about it.

I wonder if it would work to simply tell AOL that I'm authorizing my bank to stop payment on these charges? And then have your bank stop payment on anything that comes from AOL or Comcast. Would that work?

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by panerd

True, very true. Guess I just have learned how to deal with customer service as I have gotten older and never seem to have the problems with Directv, Charter, AT&T... that other people do (and I used to). In and out in less than 5 minutes most of the time.

Or just listen to the recording..

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

I wonder if it would work to simply tell AOL that I'm authorizing my bank to stop payment on these charges? And then have your bank stop payment on anything that comes from AOL or Comcast. Would that work?

The guy I spoke with was the same way as this rep. He ignored every statement I made along those lines & pretended like I said "I'm happy paying you, please tell me more about your services". It was absolutely insane.

I ended up changing banks for unrelated reasons anyway. I had just happened to be going thru the things I was paying for monthly right before that call.

Funny I had been given a bunch of emails over the subsequent 6-12 months about "your account is delinquent" and the like. Never went on my credit (because they never had my SSN) & the email account still works for that matter (last time I checked it was a few months ago for s&g).

Had a similarly insane chat with a GE corporate rep (after weeks of useless reps trying to get them to replace my brand new dryer that was broken & could not be fixed by their authorized repair company). I would say "After 3 attempts to repair the dryer, and having it non-functional for 13 of the 15 days I've owned it, I'd just like a different model please"...her response was "sir we cannot do that but has this call fulfilled your every need?". Insane is such an understatement but they just don't have better words (luckily Home Depot made it right for me). Needless to say, I've never bought GE again even though I'm quite certain the comptetitor brands would be the same if I had a similar problem...its just that they haven't proven that to me (is how I rationalize it).

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

I like how they are contacting the employee to apologize, not "has been immediately terminated." He'll probably get coaching to make sure they aren't recording next time.

Yeah, he really doesn't do too much that's not in the training, he just comes on too strong and belabors the point. I call this the "Incredulous Guy" because there are a lot of retention reps I've seen that do this same act. "I can't believe you don't want this incredible speed at this price!"

Funny thing is when I dropped Uverse a while back, they did the exact opposite. I called in, said I had an offer from DirecTV for such-and-such a price and this was their one and only chance to meet or beat it. The rep said there was nothing she could do. I asked to be transferred and she said that was still the best offer. After my DirecTV install I called to cancel and they offered me the exact same deal I had with Direct. I told the rep it was too late, but pointed out I had called a couple of weeks earlier and had I gotten that offer then, I would have stayed. She couldn't believe the rep didn't offer me a better deal or transfer me. She was pissed at the rep.

[Desnudo]

Well kcchief19, I wouldn't be acting in your best interests if I didn't strenuously try and prevent you from making a grievous life changing mistake. Really it's all about you and your stupidity which is why I'm not going to cancel.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

Funny thing is when I dropped Uverse a while back, they did the exact opposite. I called in, said I had an offer from DirecTV for such-and-such a price and this was their one and only chance to meet or beat it. The rep said there was nothing she could do. I asked to be transferred and she said that was still the best offer. After my DirecTV install I called to cancel and they offered me the exact same deal I had with Direct. I told the rep it was too late, but pointed out I had called a couple of weeks earlier and had I gotten that offer then, I would have stayed. She couldn't believe the rep didn't offer me a better deal or transfer me. She was pissed at the rep.

I had that happen when I left DirecTV (was going to be a THIRD time I was going to have to pay for HD equipment), and when we left Sprint for Verizon (Sprint wanted to charge me to replace old phone, Verizon would give me new one for free). In each case we called, asked what could be done, they said "nothing", we switched, called to cancel, and they offered us what we wanted when we called the first time. Too late.

[molson]

It's kind of funny that the customer who recorded that Comcast call works for AOL.

[RainMaker]

AOL still remains the king of this. I remember they would put you on hold for like an hour before giving you the hard sell. The first time I tried cancelling the guy just wouldn't do it for me. So I had to call back and get someone else on who would. It was a bizarre company.

Comcast can do this because they are a monopoly.

[flere-imsaho]

This was surprisingly similar to my call to cancel Time Warner. So good to know their customer service departments won't have to do a lot of re-training, post-merger.

Originally Posted by panerd

In and out in less than 5 minutes most of the time.

Do you have a magic button on your phone that keeps people from putting you on hold?

[Desnudo]

Saw a comment on Reddit to tell them you're leaving the country which leaves no room for argument and means they take the least hit retention tracking wise.

[stevew]

I wonder if you could use the "I'm going to commit suicide soon, but I want to get my affairs in order first" argument with these people.

[molson]

Originally Posted by stevew

I wonder if you could use the "I'm going to commit suicide soon, but I want to get my affairs in order first" argument with these people.

That'd be risky, I'd advise instead saying that it was your wife and five children who primarily used the service, but that they were all brutally murdered.

[molson]

I also wonder if a letter would work. I'm not sure if it's a part of the TOC that you can only cancel by phone. But if not, I bet they'd honor a signed letter requesting cancellation, because you'd have a copy of that document. You wouldn't think that would be faster than a call, but if you had a template and stamp ready to go, it could save some time.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

The other area that is likely to be examined by antitrust regulators, and likely to be the bigger potential issue, is whether the deal will give Comcast too much power in negotiations with cable networks. Will, as a result of this deal, Comcast be able to force cable networks to take less in order to be aired on Comcast's networks?

Originally Posted by kcchief19

This is where I think they will have the tougher time convincing the DOJ this is kosher. The new Comcast will have about 30% market share of the pay TV market. They will be big enough to dictate to programmers more than ever. That would be a good thing, if Comcast passed programming savings on to the the customer -- which we know they will never do. Conversely, Comcast will be able to dictate the price for its own cable networks to 30 million subscribers, and then use that potentially inflated price to get higher carriage fees from other cable operators.

There are a few reports out there that Comcast is walking away from this deal because both the FCC and DOJ have indicated that they would sue to block it.

It will be interesting to see what really concerned the DOJ and FCC here.

From a purely personal perspective, I'm glad it doesn't look like the merger is happening. Part of the plan was to essentially divest all of Michigan to Charter. As a Comcast subscriber in Michigan, I wasn't looking forward to switching to Charter.

[cartman]

Comcast is saying the deal is dead. Time Warner is telling them to unplug the deal, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in and see if that fixes it.

[Kodos]

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

There are a few reports out there that Comcast is walking away from this deal because both the FCC and DOJ have indicated that they would sue to block it.

It will be interesting to see what really concerned the DOJ and FCC here.

From a purely personal perspective, I'm glad it doesn't look like the merger is happening. Part of the plan was to essentially divest all of Michigan to Charter. As a Comcast subscriber in Michigan, I wasn't looking forward to switching to Charter.

From what I heard Wisconsin would have been sold to Charter as well. I'm currently with TWC.

[Peregrine]

I'm pretty glad this isn't happening - normally I don't care about these mergers but this seems to be in an area where there are already only a few options, depending on where in the country you live, and I wouldn't like to see them get even fewer.

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by cartman

Comcast is saying the deal is dead. Time Warner is telling them to unplug the deal, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in and see if that fixes it.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by cartman

Comcast is saying the deal is dead. Time Warner is telling them to unplug the deal, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in and see if that fixes it.

Like.

[SirFozzie]

Don't worry about Time Warner, they're over the Comcast breakup, going for a quick rebound hookup with Charter. At some point, the phrase Merger Promiscuous needs to become a thing :

http://www.wsj.com/articles/charter-...bid-1429899503

[SackAttack]

no no no no nonononono

[cartman]

I have to say, the Charter/TWC merger has been pretty smooth from my vantage point. I have been a Time Warner Business Class customer since I moved to my current house in 2004. Since that time, I'd been on a 10x1 connection, which is pretty pathetic. I recently got bumped up to a 70x6 connection for $20/month less. Still not great, but light years better than what I had. I don't think any of the fiber players are going to come out as far as I am anytime soon.

[CrimsonFox]

Time Warner is now Spectrum whatever that means.

And we have fiber and it sucks.

That's probably because they are making it suck tho.

[stevew]

I like how they picked the perfect portmanteau of the Bond Villains Spectre and the gynecological tool the Speculum and made their new company name