Comcast: throw nails in the road, open up a tire shop.

[robphelan]

You are incorrect, sir. By that reasoning, clipping the cord is "DRM."

Disconnecting the cable (analog channels and all) is NOT "DRM." There's no way to argue that it is.

They aren't restricting the way you use content when they cut you off. They simply aren't giving you any content.

Jesus Hume Christ! you know what the dude implied by "DRM". I actually thought it was a clever, if not 100% accurate, comment. why in the world would you make a stink about it?

 

[gorcorps]

you signed up for comcast service
comcast installs it
charges you $50 installation fee

what's the problem? Did comcast advertise free install? I'm pretty sure $50 is the normal installation fee for new customers.

only thing i can think of is if they didn't tell you about the installation fee when you signed up.

I'm with your for part of this... but the charge for 2nd call in the same day is bullshit because if the tech did it right the first time there'd be no 2nd call. That is ridiculous. Can you imagine if you were at a restaurant, and the waiter brought you the wrong food? Then when you told him the food was wrong he figured out what he did... when the bill comes you see an extra $5 for "plate swapping surcharge". I'd be outraged regardless of the amount. They charged extra for something that wasn't fixed the first time.

 

[Ichinisan]

Jesus Hume Christ! you know what the dude implied by "DRM". I actually thought it was a clever, if not 100% accurate, comment. why in the world would you make a stink about it?

:thumbsdown:

I wouldn't pay it. Tell them they can eat the charge, or shove their internet up their ass. You did your part. DRM on their end isn't your responsibility.

404: Cleverness not found.

Let's just confuse still-voting-grandma/grandpa about what "DRM" is!

They already have no idea what "net neutrality" is.

 

[paulney]

you signed up for comcast service
comcast installs it
charges you $50 installation fee

what's the problem? Did comcast advertise free install? I'm pretty sure $50 is the normal installation fee for new customers.

only thing i can think of is if they didn't tell you about the installation fee when you signed up.

I was not informed of any installation fees (usually it's $25 for new accounts) with the promotion I signed up for. You usually listen to automated prompts and confirm that you understand. The contract - yes, that was there. The installation fee - no.

 

[Ruptga]

I've never had Comcast, but I have had Cox. When we left for Africa we told them to stop the service. A month later they took money out and we told them to stop it again. To make a long story short, a few months later FIL is holding two phones upside down next to each other so I can yell at some CSR who absolutely has to hear it straight from me. By then we were only saving ourselves one month of payments, but we finally got them to stop. We are now with ATT.

 

[child of wonder]

I was not informed of any installation fees (usually it's $25 for new accounts) with the promotion I signed up for. You usually listen to automated prompts and confirm that you understand. The contract - yes, that was there. The installation fee - no.

They tried to hit me with an installation fee, too. I signed up for the service online and asked the rep about charges and fees. He/she/it confirmed there were no extra fees.

Get my first bill and SURPRISE! there's an installation fee and I'm being charged for renting a modem when I have my own.

Thankfully the customer service rep I talked to took care of the charges with little hassle.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /images/picdump/190/08.jpg on this server.

Drag and drop.

 

[HeXen]

:thumbsdown:

Let's just confuse still-voting-grandma/grandpa about what "DRM" is!.

grandma/grandpa very unlikely comes here for factual information:whiste:
the only thing not found is your sense of humour:awe:

 

[Ichinisan]

grandma/grandpa very unlikely comes here for factual information:whiste:

Assuming lxskllr talks about "DRM" this way in real life, he probably confuses some people about what DRM actually is.

Do you follow?

the only thing not found is your sense of humour:awe:

???

You did your part. DRM on their end isn't your responsibility.

^^^Humor? In that? It wasn't even meant to be funny.

 

[lxskllr]

You know why humans are better than computers? They use fuzzy logic, and can interpolate, and extrapolate to derive meaning from input. Computers are only bit crunchers that can't think at all. If the ones and zeros don't come in the expected order, they get confused, or worse... ;^)

 

[amdhunter]

lol, I had a somewhat similar experience. Guy came to my house to drop a modem off, and did just that, except when he dropped off the modem, he put a code saying he did a whole rerun and swap of modem.

He never figured that I was a cable guy myself and knew the codes. He took it off. Sure enough, when the bill came - I had been charged for $100. Called Cablevision, bitched and got the charge off.

Also - called his company, gave his technician code and bitched to his Foreman, wrote a letter to the head of his Company, and head of Cablevision operations here in The Bronx (via letter for Cablevision.)

I received a letter of apology, and I am pretty sure the tech was either fired or suspended. Falsifying documents in Cablevision usually leads to dismissal on first offense.

Technicians lie about their work to pad their paychecks at the customers expense. I know, I did it all the time.

 

[Nebor]

Sounds like more of an installation fee.

 

[coloumb]

Sadly - yes...even if you sign up for the service yourself - you'll be charged $50 installation fee.

I'd suggest you post your issue on the comcast forums and ask why a fee was charged. People have had those fees removed/credited from their billing - so you might get lucky. You'll have to sign into comcast to post...

Comcast Help and Support Forums > Xfinity Central > Billing >

 

[TheStu]

I signed up for ATT Uverse where I am due to bad CS with Comcast in the past (I actually get 2! whole choices out here). I paid for the in-home self-install, patiently waited the 3 days until my actiavtion date/time and hooked up my stuff.

Nothing.

I plugged it into the jack in the bedroom, still nothing. I switched phone lines, still no go. I hard reset the modem, and a couple of other things, still just that damn red light. So I call support, and after they run their checks conclude that a tech will need to be sent out. I ask them right there point blank if there would be a charge and I got a simple 'No' in return.

So, the tech comes out, unscrews the wall jack and it falls to the ground. My apartment had been renovated before I had moved in and I guess when they repainted the walls, they never reattached the phone lines. So, he screws in the wires, makes sure that it connects, and has me setup my att.net account. I signed nothing, and he went on his way.

Next bill there is a $110 charge on there that is simply labelled 'charge'. I call in and am informed that it was a $75 'Tech Completion Fee' and a $35 'Service fee'. They remove the $35 since it was charged in error as the $75 fee covered it. I ask them why I was charged, spend 2 hours on the phone with them, jumping from person to person and finally just tell them that I will pay the $29.99 for my internet service, even though for 3 days the first month it had gone out (I was out of town, it went out just before i left and was still out when i got home) due to an error on their part. But I would not pay the $75. They never put the charge in dispute, so the next month, my internet gets turned off due to lack of payment. I call them up again, wait on hold for 45 minutes out of an hour (when I wasn't on hold I was giving my ID info to a person and requesting a transfer) only to find out that their billing dept for my state had closed. So I call in the next morning, talk to a very nice lady and she reverses the charge after 15 minutes.

Having worked in CS in a call center, I can tell you that almost all of them are empowered to credit a customer up to a certain amount, apparently with ATT Uverse that is at least $75.

 

[pcgeek11]

Time Warner Cable has never billed me for service calls... I have had several over the last 15 years.

 

[alkemyst]

We had Comcast installed and it worked fine for a couple months. Then we started getting channels randomly dropping out on us. They sent out a tech, he tightened the wire into the wall socket, and everything worked again. Cost us $50 for someone to tighten a wire which we could have done ourselves if they had mentioned that as a potential solution.

You do realize almost anything a tech comes out to do ANYONE could have done should all the troubleshooting been handled for them?

$50 is not a lot of money for a service call IMHO. When I used to do house calls, it was $50 prior to even starting work with a minimum of one hour due.

 

[BoomerD]

Drag and drop.

Tried that before I posted that...

 

[Phokus]

Every cable company does this. When you activate service they charge you an installation fee, covers the tech coming out, uncapping the box or whatever, and testing the line. Even when I just transferred service from one place to another they charged me $20 to do the same thing.

Whats even more awesome is sometimes the work order also contains a contract. That happened with directTV for me. I signed the work order that they installed the satellite, BOOM, 2 year contract for the equipment.

Errr, i have Optimum Online/Cablevision and they didn't charge me an installation fee (nor any other service fees when they've had to come out to fix something). I'm not even under a contract either (i can get out whenever i want).

Also, what's the over/under on the next number of posts before Spidey comes in and starts defending Comcast raping their customers?

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Sounds like more of an installation fee.

If they don't fix/install it the first time they have no right to charge you for that second visit, even if they charge an installation fee for the first one. They deliver a service/product that did not work from the start. Which means that, at least in the Netherlands, you have a customer warrantee on it. If they charge for dropping by and not fixing they should have announced this clearly beforehand by for example asking whether you agree to pay for the visit.

 

[BoomerD]

Damn...we signed up for the Comcast "Alchemy" package, which is phone, internet, and cable TV. The tech was here for over 2 hours...not a penny charged in installation.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Tried that before I posted that...

Did it work?

It worked for me when I dragged and dropped.

 

[hclarkjr]

this is funny, when i ordered comcast internet i too had my own modem. he come out and ran the wire from the pole to the house and then hooked everything up and provisioned the modem for me. charged my $50 to do it, little over 2 years later and still running great for me

 

[HeXen]

why so serious?

 

[CZroe]

Jesus Hume Christ! you know what the dude implied by "DRM". I actually thought it was a clever, if not 100% accurate, comment. why in the world would you make a stink about it?

Because he works for a cable company (NuLink) and knows the difference between DRM and a filter. The frequesncy filters existed for blocking premium channels from basic customers and extended basic channels from basic customers long before digital anything went over those wires. Get a clue. As it is, the filter prevents you from using a hacked cable modem to get free service. It's not DRM. It's a disconnect. The frequencies required for upstream and downstream bandwidth don't exist on the cable that goes into your home and they shouldn't if you don't have some kind of equipment that uses it.