Has Comcast improved their service & customer service?

[Dako-ta]

Greetings,

I vaguely remember a couple of years ago there were a couple of threads here discussing high-speed internet connections and cable hook-ups, & there were several criticisms of Comcast.

At that time, the only option I had for a high-speed net connection was via cable but since I didn't have basic cable hooked up at all, the price to add a net connection that way was unjustifiable on my ultra-tight budget. Shortly after that, Verizon (my local phone service provider) finally added DSL to my area, but I judged the price was still too high to justify changing from dial-up.

[BTW, I got curious what the current % of US households with 'net access are still getting by with dial-up access; according to http://agentzoo.com/2010/02/17/over-57-per...ternet-service/ it's 17%, which is higher than I would have guessed]

Now, AT&T is making changes in how they handle dial-up, so I'm considering making some other changes in my phone/internet services. Verizon is currently offering a special on DSL for $19.99/month (speed up to 1 Mbps), & that price is locked in for 2 years.

However, just today, a Comcast rep knocked on my door & offered me a special promotional deal on local phone service (with unlimited long distance & several special features) & high-speed internet (6 Mbps, I believe) for $39.99/month (supposedly, not a limited-time offer, and with free installation if I respond by this weekend). I asked about the connection, and this is newish digital technology, and is a direct connection to my computer, not going through the cable TV circuits, with the possible speed slow-down if a lot of users are on line.

I have to admit, $40/month for local phone service plus a high-speed 'net connection is tempting. That is less than I'm paying now for fewer/poorer services. At least... if the Comcast offer is on the up & up & if they've improved their customer service some in the past couple of years.

So, anyone here have any current experience with Comcast, especially in regards to local phone service & their new high-speed internet access? Or, for that matter, with Verizon DSL service?

Should I finally jump off the cliff and leave behind the annoyingly slow but cheap & well-known world of dial-up, for the world of fast but always-on (& hence slightly more vulnerable to malware, etc.) broadband? :o

Regards,

Dako-ta

[--Pete]

Hi,

So, anyone here have any current experience with Comcast, especially in regards to local phone service & their new high-speed internet access?

I've had Comcast TV cable and ISP here and in the two previous places I've lived for about ten or fifteen years. I don't use their phone service and they haven't (AFAIK) brought their fiber optic internet service in this area yet. Except for poor signal strength for a period (they sent out a tech and fixed it pretty quickly) I've had little problem with them. Also, I don't know what their corporate structure is. If it is a franchise operation, then service could vary a lot from place to place, but I don't think that is the case.

At least here in the Seattle and Tacoma area, I can recommend their service.

--Pete

[Phyloxerra]

I've been using Comcast for about 7 years now in NJ, and a few small problems aside, they have been good if not great to deal with.

[Concillian]

It highly depends on your area.

I occasionally go to meets where car guys talk about car stuff... and everything else. Point is, locals from various areas.

I have pretty bad luck with Comcast. I had more outages, server disconnects, latency issues and such in the last year with Comcast than I had in 5 years with my DSL line (Speakeasy). But I talke to other guys in different parts of the Bay Area and they don't mention any such issues (and they game plenty too).

I think it's the same with most service providers... hit and miss depending on your area.

[Dako-ta]

Thanks for the replies.

Considering the number of reports online that liken Comcast to the Prince of Darkness, it's good to hear from long-term users without significant complaints.

Concillian, I've formed the same impression from what I've read, ones experience is probably going to be highly dependent on the local &/or regional office. Unfortunately, I haven't been able so far to get first-hand reports from any local users in my area. Thus, I've decided to skip this particular offer, partly because I need to make a decision by today & I simply don't have enough information yet.

I may decide to go with the Verizon DSL offer - even if it's their slowest rate it should still be significantly faster than what I'm used to & it sounds like it would be a much easier hook-up job than getting hooked up to the Comcast lines. At least I have a while longer to think about that offer before it expires.

Thanks again.

Regards,

Dako-ta

[--Pete]

Hi,

Considering the number of reports online that liken Comcast to the Prince of Darkness, it's good to hear from long-term users without significant complaints.

Yep. That's why I take online reports and reviews with a grain of salt. It is much more likely that someone will post a negative experience. Sorta the same as reading the newspaper gives one the impression that every house in the world is getting invaded every night.

Good call on taking your time -- any offer with time pressure is suspicious.

--Pete

[LavCat]

I've been using Comcast for about 7 years now in NJ, and a few small problems aside, they have been good if not great to deal with.

Comcast has only been in this part of NJ for a couple of years, since they bought out the ISP I had previously been using. I find the service generaly satifactory, but then I originally played WoW on dialup. Comcast offers a confusing plethora of plans, and the $56/mo plan I have is no longer available to new subscribers.

Up time is usually good. What seems like every couple months they will go down for a few hours in the middle of the night -- prime WoW time. I assume this is for maintenence. Usually the connection is solid, but some nights recently I have been disconnecting every 15 or 30 minutes. Hard for me to say whether this is the ISP's fault however. In any event last night there were no disconnects (until I fell asleep).

At work we have Verizon. My gut observation is that Comcast gives better up time than Verizon, at least in this location.

My fear is that Comcast will move to a metered service. My router's statistics show I use an average of 5.5 GBytes/day. That's just light web surfing, email, and WoW.

[LennyLen]

My router's statistics show I use an average of 5.5 GBytes/day. That's just light web surfing, email, and WoW.

I go through about 1G/b a day, which is heavy web surfing, email, and torrenting. What does WoW need about 5Gb of traffic a day for?

[LavCat]

I go through about 1G/b a day, which is heavy web surfing, email, and torrenting. What does WoW need about 5Gb of traffic a day for?

For all I know the router's statistics may not be valid. Or I may be a bot sending thousands of messages to the Lurker Lounge.

[--Pete]

Hi,

For all I know the router's statistics may not be valid. Or I may be a bot sending thousands of messages to the Lurker Lounge.

Do you have a WiFi router? And, if you do, are you using all the security available on it? You might be supplying internet access for your whole neighborhood.

--Pete

[LavCat]

Hi,
Do you have a WiFi router? And, if you do, are you using all the security available on it? You might be supplying internet access for your whole neighborhood.

--Pete

Strictly wired here. But yes, last time I checked, there were several unprotected wireless connections in range.

[Archon_Wing]

Comcast has excellent customer service, at least the phone support. The support technicians are great and extremely helpful-- they really go out of their way to help you. The only hole I see is that their site is quite the atrocity.