My chat with my cable company last night

[amirm]

Last night I noticed that programs were vanishing from our DVR just an hour or two after being recorded! Quick investigation led to my wife putting in a recording policy for two of her shows to not delete unless she deleted them. A few episodes ran back to back and the unit wiped out everything else to make room, including shows it had just recorded!
Being totally frustrated I went to chat with someone on Comcast web site. I could not find anything there that covered upgrading the DVR. They either wanted to sell me a new service or fix something broken. Neither applied here. I guess they don't want to encourage anyone to try to get an upgrade of a box they are paying monthly fees for.

As a way of background, I had packed the box twice and driven it to the local outlet they have to get it upgraded. Both times I had to wait almost half hour in line to talk to someone. Imagine holding on to a heavy set-top box for that long with screws and sharp edges poking into your hand the whole time. Only to get to the front of the line and get a rude agent saying, "no, we don't upgrade those boxes. You are lucky to have that one as there are people with even a generation older!" Fast forward to last night and try to imagine forcing your wife to delete her favorite shows per above to allow space to record yours. I was frustrated to no end, knowing how much technology has advanced in so many years as far as storage is concerned and huge monthly fees we have paid them for many years. I did the quick math and I think the total bill has been something like $$30,000 over that period for Internet and Cable!

After waiting 3-5 minutes for the chat session to start as they had no agents ready even though this was non-peak (9 or 10 pm). This is what went on....

• Problem: We have a very old DVR that is always out of space. We like a newer unit with more storage. If you can't upgrade it, I like to terminate our service as we can no longer put up with it.
• Jeddha > Hello Amir, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Jeddha. Please give me one moment to review your information.
• Amir > My Issue: We have a very old DVR that is always out of space. We like a newer unit with more storage. If you can't upgrade it, I like to terminate our service as we can no longer put up with it.
• Jeddha > It is great to have you on this chat. I am looking forward to assisting you, Amir.
• Jeddha > How are you today?
• Amir > I could be better if we had a DVR that could store decent amount of content
• Jeddha > To make sure that I understand your issue correctly, you would like to upgrade your DVR box that has more capacity than the current DVR box in your home, am I correct?
• Amir > That's correct. I am assuming the newer boxes have more capacity.
• Jeddha > Thank you for confirming.
• Jeddha > You have reached the right person, and I’ll ensure that we will provide solution to your concern today.
• Jeddha > First, let me pull up the account so I can check the model of your current DVR box here in our system.
• Jeddha > Please give me 2-3 minutes for me to pull up the account? Will that be alright?
• Amir > Sure. Please go ahead.
• Jeddha > While I pull up the account, I want to introduce to you comcast.com, Comcast.com has an extensive series of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that cover all of our products. Customers do not have to sign in to access the FAQs. Quick steps to do it. Open a web browser window and go to http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/HelpNFC.aspx?id=Comcast-Help-and-Support-Cable-TV On the home page, the navigation menus are on the left side of the window and click on Customers then Help and Support.
• Jeddha > Thank you for patiently waiting.
• Jeddha > I've already pulled up the account.
• Jeddha > For security purposes, may I please have the last 4 digits of your SSN.
• Amir > XXX
• Jeddha > Thank you.
• Jeddha > As I checked the model of your DVR box which is DCT6412, it has a capacity of 120GB, and regarding your concern, I would recommend these DVR models:
• Jeddha > DCX3400 - 250GB or DCX3400M - 500GB
• Jeddha > To make sure you can get the right DVR box, I recommend that you pick up the box at the nearest local office in your area.
• Jeddha > I can gladly get the contact details of the nearest local office in your area, Amir.
• Jeddha > Will this help?
• Amir > I have gone to the local office twice. Both times, after waiting half hour in line, I was told they would not upgrade it and sent me away. I won't go through that again.
• Jeddha > Oh, I am sorry to know that this has happened to you.
• Jeddha > However, I can process a shipment to replace your current DVR box in your home, but it will take 3 - 5 business days to arrive.
• Jeddha > And by the way, I cannot assure you that the DVR box that will be shipped in your home is the right model, but I can make a note in the account the specific model of the box that you want.
• Jeddha > Will this do instead?
• Amir > I will make it easy: please put a note in there that if I get anything smaller than the DCX3400M, I will disconnect the service. Your competition (Dish) is advertising DVRs with far higher capacity and you are saying I should put up with ancient technology like a 250 gigabyte DVR? Even the 500 is obsolete technology. We are one of your highest paying customers and you can't arrange for us to get higher capacity boxes???? I know you are just a messenger but please pass on to your management that this is a sure way to lose your long time customers to your competition.
• Jeddha > I am sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you, Amir.
• Jeddha > Don't worry because I will put a comprehensive note in the account for your shipment.
• Jeddha > Do we proceed?
• Amir > Yes please.
• Jeddha > Thank you for confirming.
• Jeddha > Please give me 2 - 3 minutes to process the shipment in the account here in our system.
• Jeddha > Will this be fine?
• Amir > Sure.
• Jeddha > To help you relax a little while waiting, I would like to share with you this feature that we have. Music lovers and enthusiasts can now enjoy original shows, interviews, music videos organized by genre, 16 video and forty six audio channels,create customized playlists and music channels. To access all these simply log-on to http://www.comcast.net/music.
• Jeddha > Thank you for patiently waiting.
• Jeddha > I successfully processed a shipment to replace the old DVR box with a higher capacity DVR box in your home, Amir.
• Jeddha > This is the order confirmation order number XXX.
• Jeddha > I also include a return label box for you to return the old DVR box.
• Amir > That's great. Appreciate you organizing this.
• Jeddha > Anythig for our valued customer like you!
• Jeddha > Have we resolved the problem to your satisfaction?
• Amir > Yes. Thank you.
• Jeddha > That's great! since we have resolved your issue, would you mind taking the short survey after this chat? That would really mean a lot to me.
• Amir > Sure.
• Jeddha > Thank you so much!
• Jeddha > Amir, I want to make sure that we have resolve and covered your concerns for today, would there be anything else that I can help you with?
• Amir > No, that is it.

I will report back on what I get. In our vacation house we have a DVR I built myself for over the year and it has 4 Terabytes of storage. I feel like a prisoner with this tiny box we have now. If this were a computer company, they would be renting me a DOS PC and asking me to be happy to have it! Lack of competition is such a bad thing in this area. The only time I have seen them perform was when Verizon came to put in fiber optic cable. Then Verizon pulled the plug out and we are back to this. 250 Gigabytes...

 

[DaveyF]

Amir, I love this thread. Your experience is so typical of the 'BS' that companies think will placate a paying customer. I had a very similar experience with Time Warner regarding my cable card and DVR. Time Warner enjoys a similar monopoly in my area. ( They don't think so as I could go to satellite if I so desire). However, in my case after much frustration with this cable company, I finally got a passable DVR. Although I have noticed that Time Warner is playing with the bandwidth and various programs seem to disappear with no notice. My cable card was disconnected without my approval and the charge for the cable card was inadvertently left on my bill ( Luckily I soon caught that.). I know this is a rant, BUT I think the cable companies, the gas and electric companies and the water companies along with several oversized banks and cell phone companies need to be severely reigned in before it is too late. Just IMHO.

 

[zztop7]

So Bad - no TV for 8 years

Good Luck

I live in Bellevue, WA, and my wife & I have horrible experiences with Comcast.

Fact: It was so bad that after moving from Redmond to Bellevue we got rid of the televisions for 8 years.

Best to you,
zz.

 

[audioguy]

I have had virtually identical conversations with other technology companies. The company that seems to have the very best tech reps is Apple. The worst: three or 4 way tie.

I would have long switched to DirecTV given your experience. While they (DirecTV) certainly have their own issues, the last time I had an issue with them, they sent out a guy to fix the problem and it has worked flawlessly since (we use their Genie offering).

I do use Comcast for Internet as they are by far the fastest but they would be my last choice for TV (maybe tied with AT&T).

 

[treitz3]

....I will report back on what I get....

Something tells me this is gonna be a funny thread. Not so much for you but funny for those reading it. Comcast has one of the worst reputations out there. Best of luck for a quick and painless resolution, Amir. I mean that.

Tom

 

[DonH50]

Our DVR does not play well with any of the three AVRs I have hooked it to using HDMI; I get audio drop outs. As do many other folk, I have discovered. After getting two replacement DVRs (three total now) and two different models I gave up. I waited in line nearly two hours once; never again. The techs have always been courteous, and they usually arrive within a day or two to swap the box, but the problem appears systemic. One tech spent about two hours trying different settings throug hthe service menu before giving up. I read some threads about getting inside the box and doing a fix (involving changing some SMT Rs and Cs) but we are renting the box so I did not want to do it.

We are paying a fortune for Internet and TV, but every time I have run comparisons of the real (not promotional) cost it has been comparable and usually cheaper to stay with Comcast. Blah.

 

[Andre Marc]

Last night I noticed that programs were vanishing from our DVR just an hour or two after being recorded! Quick investigation led to my wife putting in a recording policy for two of her shows to not delete unless she deleted them. A few episodes ran back to back and the unit wiped out everything else to make room, including shows it had just recorded!
Being totally frustrated I went to chat with someone on Comcast web site. I could not find anything there that covered upgrading the DVR. They either wanted to sell me a new service or fix something broken. Neither applied here. I guess they don't want to encourage anyone to try to get an upgrade of a box they are paying monthly fees for.

As a way of background, I had packed the box twice and driven it to the local outlet they have to get it upgraded. Both times I had to wait almost half hour in line to talk to someone. Imagine holding on to a heavy set-top box for that long with screws and sharp edges poking into your hand the whole time. Only to get to the front of the line and get a rude agent saying, "no, we don't upgrade those boxes. You are lucky to have that one as there are people with even a generation older!" Fast forward to last night and try to imagine forcing your wife to delete her favorite shows per above to allow space to record yours. I was frustrated to no end, knowing how much technology has advanced in so many years as far as storage is concerned and huge monthly fees we have paid them for many years. I did the quick math and I think the total bill has been something like $$30,000 over that period for Internet and Cable!

After waiting 3-5 minutes for the chat session to start as they had no agents ready even though this was non-peak (9 or 10 pm). This is what went on....

• Problem: We have a very old DVR that is always out of space. We like a newer unit with more storage. If you can't upgrade it, I like to terminate our service as we can no longer put up with it.
• Jeddha > Hello Amir, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Jeddha. Please give me one moment to review your information.
• Amir > My Issue: We have a very old DVR that is always out of space. We like a newer unit with more storage. If you can't upgrade it, I like to terminate our service as we can no longer put up with it.
• Jeddha > It is great to have you on this chat. I am looking forward to assisting you, Amir.
• Jeddha > How are you today?
• Amir > I could be better if we had a DVR that could store decent amount of content
• Jeddha > To make sure that I understand your issue correctly, you would like to upgrade your DVR box that has more capacity than the current DVR box in your home, am I correct?
• Amir > That's correct. I am assuming the newer boxes have more capacity.
• Jeddha > Thank you for confirming.
• Jeddha > You have reached the right person, and I’ll ensure that we will provide solution to your concern today.
• Jeddha > First, let me pull up the account so I can check the model of your current DVR box here in our system.
• Jeddha > Please give me 2-3 minutes for me to pull up the account? Will that be alright?
• Amir > Sure. Please go ahead.
• Jeddha > While I pull up the account, I want to introduce to you comcast.com, Comcast.com has an extensive series of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that cover all of our products. Customers do not have to sign in to access the FAQs. Quick steps to do it. Open a web browser window and go to http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/HelpNFC.aspx?id=Comcast-Help-and-Support-Cable-TV On the home page, the navigation menus are on the left side of the window and click on Customers then Help and Support.
• Jeddha > Thank you for patiently waiting.
• Jeddha > I've already pulled up the account.
• Jeddha > For security purposes, may I please have the last 4 digits of your SSN.
• Amir > XXX
• Jeddha > Thank you.
• Jeddha > As I checked the model of your DVR box which is DCT6412, it has a capacity of 120GB, and regarding your concern, I would recommend these DVR models:
• Jeddha > DCX3400 - 250GB or DCX3400M - 500GB
• Jeddha > To make sure you can get the right DVR box, I recommend that you pick up the box at the nearest local office in your area.
• Jeddha > I can gladly get the contact details of the nearest local office in your area, Amir.
• Jeddha > Will this help?
• Amir > I have gone to the local office twice. Both times, after waiting half hour in line, I was told they would not upgrade it and sent me away. I won't go through that again.
• Jeddha > Oh, I am sorry to know that this has happened to you.
• Jeddha > However, I can process a shipment to replace your current DVR box in your home, but it will take 3 - 5 business days to arrive.
• Jeddha > And by the way, I cannot assure you that the DVR box that will be shipped in your home is the right model, but I can make a note in the account the specific model of the box that you want.
• Jeddha > Will this do instead?
• Amir > I will make it easy: please put a note in there that if I get anything smaller than the DCX3400M, I will disconnect the service. Your competition (Dish) is advertising DVRs with far higher capacity and you are saying I should put up with ancient technology like a 250 gigabyte DVR? Even the 500 is obsolete technology. We are one of your highest paying customers and you can't arrange for us to get higher capacity boxes???? I know you are just a messenger but please pass on to your management that this is a sure way to lose your long time customers to your competition.
• Jeddha > I am sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you, Amir.
• Jeddha > Don't worry because I will put a comprehensive note in the account for your shipment.
• Jeddha > Do we proceed?
• Amir > Yes please.
• Jeddha > Thank you for confirming.
• Jeddha > Please give me 2 - 3 minutes to process the shipment in the account here in our system.
• Jeddha > Will this be fine?
• Amir > Sure.
• Jeddha > To help you relax a little while waiting, I would like to share with you this feature that we have. Music lovers and enthusiasts can now enjoy original shows, interviews, music videos organized by genre, 16 video and forty six audio channels,create customized playlists and music channels. To access all these simply log-on to http://www.comcast.net/music.
• Jeddha > Thank you for patiently waiting.
• Jeddha > I successfully processed a shipment to replace the old DVR box with a higher capacity DVR box in your home, Amir.
• Jeddha > This is the order confirmation order number XXX.
• Jeddha > I also include a return label box for you to return the old DVR box.
• Amir > That's great. Appreciate you organizing this.
• Jeddha > Anythig for our valued customer like you!
• Jeddha > Have we resolved the problem to your satisfaction?
• Amir > Yes. Thank you.
• Jeddha > That's great! since we have resolved your issue, would you mind taking the short survey after this chat? That would really mean a lot to me.
• Amir > Sure.
• Jeddha > Thank you so much!
• Jeddha > Amir, I want to make sure that we have resolve and covered your concerns for today, would there be anything else that I can help you with?
• Amir > No, that is it.

I will report back on what I get. In our vacation house we have a DVR I built myself for over the year and it has 4 Terabytes of storage. I feel like a prisoner with this tiny box we have now. If this were a computer company, they would be renting me a DOS PC and asking me to be happy to have it! Lack of competition is such a bad thing in this area. The only time I have seen them perform was when Verizon came to put in fiber optic cable. Then Verizon pulled the plug out and we are back to this. 250 Gigabytes...

FYI...to make a long story short, I have two Texas Instruments 500 GB hard drives which hold more video than I would ever
allow to accumulate and they both boxes work flawlessly and are super quiet. My first DVRs were something like 80 GB and were SUPER loud.

 

[mep]

I have Comcast too and I can attest to the fact that they suck. One time my wife called them over an issue we were having and the Comcast rep asked my wife if she thought that Comcast gave a damn about us as customers. Obviously they don't. I used to have them as my internet provider but our signal was so marginal that it would drop out continuously. I finally had to pull the plug on them and go back to a much slower DSL connection that was much more reliable.

 

[amirm]

Since you guys enjoyed that, here is another Comcast chat I had a few weeks ago. The set up is this: we get a letter from Comcast saying they have doubled our speed for no additional cost. I do a quick test and it is shockingly fast: we are talking 70 to 80 mbit/sec! Upload was something like 10X faster. All excited that Comcast had done something good for a change.... I happen to be research new electronics for my boat and relying heavily on Youtube videos. But something odd was going on: nothing would play reliably there. Every video would pause and sit there for a long time and would struggle to finish. Even setting it to the slowest speed at less than half mbit/sec would not help! I put up with it thinking the kids were using the Internet too much. Eventually got tired of it and shut off everything but my PC. The same problem remained! Per below, I ran another test. I used my phone. When using Comcast over WiFi, it had the same problem. When using Verizon cellular connection it would play incredibly well. So the land line was tons slower than wireless cellular connection!

As with this instance, this was a late night chat. I think it started around 10:30pm and ran to 11:30pm.

• Problem: Youtube access is extremely slow and unreliable. Access to other sits is very good however and speed tests on your site and others show > 30 to 50 mbit/sec. But I can't even play a video at 0.2 mbit/sec on Youtube. Same problem for days.
• Amir > My Issue: Youtube access is extremely slow and unreliable. Access to other sits is very good however and speed tests on your site and others show > 30 to 50 mbit/sec. But I can't even play a video at 0.2 mbit/sec on Youtube. Same problem for days.
• Nikkie > Hello Amir, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Nikkie. Please give me one moment to review your information.
• Nikkie > I apologize for the problems you are experiencing with your High Speed Internet service today. I'd be happy to assist you.
• Nikkie > To clarify, you are experience slow connection, correct?
• Amir > Just on youtube. General access is excellent otherwise.
• Nikkie > I see.
• Nikkie > Let me check the account further.
• Nikkie > Thank you for providing some of your account information prior to initiating this chat.
• Nikkie > I am going to perform a diagnostic check of your services & equipment. This "Health Check" verifies the current status of your equipment and your services. It should only take a minute or two for the results.
• Nikkie > Would that be okay?
• Amir > Sure.
• Nikkie > Thank you!
• Nikkie > Thank you for patiently waiting.
• Nikkie > I don't see anything on your account that would be causing this issue and there are no known service maintenance in your area.
• Amir > No problem...
• Nikkie > There are things you can do to improve your browser connection.
• Nikkie > Clear cache, cookies, and history on your browser. If it does not work, you can use another browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer).
• Amir > I have tried three things already. Performance is slow on Chrome. I tried IE. It uses a completely different player (HTML5). It also was just as bad. I then tried my phone. Exact same problem with the same video when using Xfinity connection. I then switched to 4G cellular connection to the Internet on the phone and then the video played smoothly and reliably. So all indications point to some problem in your network and or your service throttling/slowing down youtube specifically.
• Amir > FYI I am an engineer with significant experience in this area .
• Nikkie > I understand.
• Nikkie > If you experience no issues when accessing other websites, then the issue may be with the Youtube server. Your connection is excellent as per check and there are no problems found.
• Amir > It can't be the youtube server since when I use Verizon on my phone as the Internet provider, I get excellent performance.
• Amir > I realize you can't solve this problem but can you escalate it up for investigation in your network group???
• Nikkie > Okay. Let me send signals to refresh your access. What we can do is to send a technician to check your connection.
• Amir > That won't help though as my connection to your servers is superb. As I mentioned, the connection speed to Comcast servers is 1000 times faster than the speed I get with youtube. So there is nothing wrong with the link between my house and your systems. The problem occurs after that withing your network and connection to the Internet/Google Youtube servers.
• Nikkie > Amir, just to set expectations, our scope is limited to making sure that you have internet connection when connected directly to the Modem. If you experience issues connecting to a website, we can troubleshoot further by sending signals. If you still experience slow connection after troubleshooting, the next solution is to send a technician to check your connection and equipment on your end. We do not have Tier 2 for internet issues.
• Amir > So how would you ever know if customer issues are related to equipment malfunction in your network? If a technician found the same problem here, would that give ammunition for someone to solve the problem?
• Amir > Or do they just run the speed test and say all is OK?
• Nikkie > We send a technician so they can check the network, wiring, and the equipment and provide solution depending on the issue.
• Nikkie > No.
• Amir > Alright then let's schedule them to come and look.
• Nikkie > Before we proceed with the trouble call, let us troubleshoot the account further and see if there is any improvement with your Youtube access. Is that okay?
• Amir > Of course. That would be even better .
• Nikkie > Thank you.
• Nikkie > I will be sending signals to refresh your connection. Connection will be lost but just continue to stay online. May I have 2 to 4 minutes while I work on your Account. Would that be okay?
• Amir > Sure. Please proceed.
• Nikkie > By the way, are you using a router?
• Amir > Yes.
• Nikkie > Are you accessing internet via wired or wireless connection?
• Amir > Wired.
• Nikkie > I see. Thank you for clarifying that. Please continue to hold. I will get back to you as soon as I am done.
• Amir > Will do...
• Amir > I am here even though the chat session says "Amir has left the room...."
• Nikkie > Just continue to stay online. I am still working on your account.
• Amir > Sounds good...
• Nikkie > Thank you.
• Nikkie > Thank you for patiently waiting.
• Nikkie > I have sent signals to refresh your connection. I have run health check and results show weak upstream signals.
• Nikkie > Can you try to remove the router and connect the computer directly to the Modem so we can check the connection again?
• Amir > Sure. It will take me a few minutes. Not sure if the Chat program will maintain connection though....
• Nikkie > Alright.
• Nikkie > I will stay here.
• Amir > Are you there?
• Nikkie > Yes
• Amir > I am connected direct now.
• Nikkie > Thank you. Let me send signals and run another health check. May I have another 2 to 4 minutes while I work on your Account. Would that be okay?
• Amir > Sure.
• Nikkie > Thank you.
• Nikkie > Thank you for patiently waiting.
• Amir > No problem.
• Nikkie > I have sent signals and refreshed your connection. I have also run another health check.
• Nikkie > Kindly open a new browser and access Youtube again. Check if you still experience load issues.
• Amir > OK...
• Amir > Still broken....
• Amir > Cannot stream reliably for more than a few seconds.
• Nikkie > How about other websites? 3
• Amir > Let me test.
• Nikkie > Okay.
• Amir > Access seems fine. Did a speedtest.net and it gets 55 mbit/sec download.
• Nikkie > That's good to know.
• Nikkie > Amir, since you are experiencing issues with just a single websites, the issue may be with the Youtube site itself. What browser are you using?
• Amir > Just to give you a data point, I selected a video on youtube that is 0.7 mbit/sec and it will not play reliably.
• Nikkie > I see.
• Amir > I have used both Chrome and Internet Explorer
• Amir > And have tested on my phone with youtube app. All have the same issue.
• Nikkie > I see. Im sorry to hear that.
• Amir > If you want, I can reconnect the router and test it on another PC....
• Nikkie > You can try some troubleshooting steps to make streaming faster on Youtube.
• Nikkie > You can check this link: http://www.ehow.com/how_2108140_make-youtube-videos-load-faster.html
• Nikkie > You can also clear the Flash cache.
• Amir > Took a quick look at that link. I have tried pausing and letting it buffer and even that won't work! The rest of their tips to download files and such may not be legal and at any rate, not the right solution.
• Amir > Neither IE or my phone use a flash player so I don't think that is related. But I can check on another computer as I suggested. Are we done testing direct so that I can put the router in the network and test with the other PC?
• Nikkie > There is a tool but I am not quite sure what it is.
• Amir > Let me hook up the router and test on another machine.
• Nikkie > Sure.
• Nikkie > You can also try to Delete Flash Player Cache.
• Amir > OK... this is strange. Tested on another PC and worked well. Tested back on my machine and it also works well!
• Nikkie > The computer is the problem. You can delete the flash player cache on that computer. Clearing cache on the browser will not effectively make videos in Youtube stream faster.
• Nikkie > You can check this link to clear Cache on Flash Payer: http://www.ehow.com/how_8307817_delete-flash-player-cache.html
• Amir > I don't think so. The test I just ran was on my son's machine. He said earlier tonight he was having the same problem as I. Also, when I use internet explorer, it uses a non-Flash player.
• Amir > Anyway I suspect we can't resolve a problem that is not there anymore. Is there a way to preserve this record and continue if the problem comes back without me having to explain it all again?
• Nikkie > I understand. I will be leaving notes on your account regarding this chat interaction.
• Nikkie > This will serve as reference.
• Nikkie > I'm glad you can stream videos on your other computer.
• Nikkie > Is there anything else aside from this?
• Amir > Thanks for being patient with me and so polite . I am glad I can watch my videos again.
• Amir > And no, that was it.
• Nikkie > You are welcome!
• Nikkie > Thank you as well for your cooperation.
• Nikkie > If you need assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us through Live Chat (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Comcast also offers great FAQ and Help forums located at http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/ to help you solve many issues on your own.
• Nikkie > Thank you for choosing Comcast for your entertainment needs! Our goal is to provide you with a consistently superior customer experience – that’s our guarantee. Learn more about the Comcast Customer Guarantee at http://www.comcast.com/corporate/Customers/CustomerGuarantee.html?fss=customer guarantee
• Nikkie > Good bye for now. Take care!
• Amir > My pleasure. Bye
• Nikkie > Have a good night and enjoy!

So the problem magically goes away at the end. I suspect they were throttling our connection or there was an issue in their network which they fixed without saying anything. To this date it works fine.

Now, at one level you can't blame her for not knowing what is going on here. What I can't figure out is why there is no second level support. BTW, by accident I have found their high-level network people's phone number. The people there do know their stuff but it takes an act of god to get connected to them.

 

[DaveyF]

Amir, I'm beginning to think that we all have similar problem's with these types of service provider's, LOL.
In my case, I decided to give Vonage a try, so I get their gear and hook it up to my Mac. Nothing works at all and my phone line is dead. So, i call up Vonage customer service on my cell phone and they tell me that I have hooked up their router wrongly. I re-connect their router and sure enough same result. Problem is that by now my land line is dead as my usual carrier...AT&T has been requested to give up my line to Vonage. So, after much trouble shooting by the Vonage tech on the cell, we come to the conclusion that I need to talk to the next higher up tech, but not till the next day. Meanwhile, i have no land line phone!! The next day, the new tech tells me that i must have a bad modem and they will send me a new one.
A week has now gone by and sure enough a new modem arrives. I hook it up and same result...no phone line
So, another lengthy call to the next tech from Vonage who is convinced that I am not hooking up their modem correctly, even though I have followed their instructions to the letter...
This tech tells me that he will get his supervisor, which he does. The supervisor believes that it is possible that I still have a faulty modem, even though they don't show that on their system!
At this point I am a little furious.. No phone line for days and none in sight either. I tell the supervisor to cancel my subscription and he tells me that they will do that BUT I have probably
lost my number with AT&T....
Long story short, I finally get back to AT&T, they somehow manage to get my number back ( this after having been without a land line for nearly two weeks) and all is working again.
Well, after another few weeks, a friend of mine who happens to work for AT&T tells me after hearing of my escapade, that the modem that Vonage uses is TOTALLY incompatible with a Mac system

 

[treitz3]

Did they end up shipping the correct one, Amir?

Tom

 

[amirm]

Hi Tom. They did indeed send me a new box. It is actually a model higher than the one she said. The new box is small, attractive, much faster and has 500 Gigabytes. Still an antique compared to modern DVRs with multi-terrabyte hard disks and even faster performance. But huge step forward.

As you can imagine though as with anything with a cable company, there is no happy ending here . The DVR is mostly empty. Why? Because it is a pain to find each show to program in there without a keyboard and using the onscreen one. So I tried to use online system at xfinity.com. Man, the issues there put the DVR upgrade to shame. Can you imagine a modern web site this day and age not being able to remember your login and keep asking you about it over and over again? And dump you in the system if you don't keep doing that over and over again? Can you imagine getting past that but still not being able to tell the DVR to record something? Yup. All true. Another nearly one hour agonizing chat session to follow:

analyst Emma has entered room
Emma: Hello Amir, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Emma. Please give me one moment to review your information.
Amir: My Issue: I am having trouble using online tool to program my DVR. It will not tune to any channels or accept DVR recording requests. I activated a new DVR today. When it gives me status, it claims to be 61% full. But the DVR is empty.
Emma: It is great to have you on this chat. I look forward in assisting you, Amir.
Emma: I hope you haven't waited so long to be assisted. How's your day so far?
Amir: Going OK.
Emma: Good to know that Amir.
Emma: I understand that you are having issues on your online DVR manager, I apologize for whatever inconvenience the issue has caused you but I'll be more than happy to resolve it for you.
Amir: Sounds good.
Emma: May I ask, are you getting errors while recording?
Amir: I get different responses. Sometimes it tells me this: "There was a problem with your request to record. To update your Priority Manager, please refresh your browser."
Amir: But refreshing does nothing. I have tried it half a dozen times.
Emma: Oh, I see, thank you for the information Amir.
Amir: I have a second problem. Every time I go to Xfinity.com, it tells me I have to confirm my email address in a pop up. I give it the same email address. It sends me a confirmation email which says I have requested a change in my email address which of course I have not. I confirm. It sends me back go Xfinity, logs me in but prompty logs me out and the cycle repeats forever. Not sure if this is connected to the DVR programming problem or not.
Emma: Oh, my. do not worry, I will do all that I can to help you today.
Emma: I’m now checking on the details of your account and equipment status to make sure everything okay. This will just take 2 or 3 minutes, would that be okay to you?
Amir: Sure. Go ahead.
Emma: Thank you.
Emma: While waiting, for future reference I want to introduce to you comcast.com, Comcast.com has an extensive series of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that cover all of our products. Customers do not have to sign in to access the FAQs. Quick steps to do it. Open a web browser window and go to http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/HelpNFC.aspx?id=Comcast-Help-and-Support-Cable-TV On the home page, the navigation menus are on the left side of the window and click on Customers then Help and Support.
Emma: Thank you for waiting Amir.
Emma: Upon checking your account, I cannot see anything wrong that can cause this problem right now. Your account and equipment are active.
Amir: So how do I use the online system to program the DVR? Since we have lost all of the past programming, it is a lot of work to use the set-top box to set everything up. Clearly your online system has some problems here. Are you able to get someone to look into that?
Emma: What I will do now is to connect you to the department that can further assist you on your online issue.
Amir: Sounds good.
Emma: Before I connect you to them, Would there be anything else I can gladly assist you with today? I'd love to help further.
Amir: No, that is the main issue I like resolved.
Emma: Thank you for chatting with us today Amir, We appreciate your business.
Emma: Please stay connected to the chat for the next available representative.
Emma: You will see a message that says I have “left the room”; however, you will still be connected to the next available agent. Please stay online and connected to the chat for the next agent who will assist you as soon as possible. Thank you for contacting Comcast – we appreciate your continued business.
Amir: Will do....
Emma: Please wait, while the problem is escalated to another analyst
analyst Victor has entered room
Amir: My Issue: I am having trouble using online tool to program my DVR. It will not tune to any channels or accept DVR recording requests. I activated a new DVR today. When it gives me status, it claims to be 61% full. But the DVR is empty.
analyst Emma has left room
Victor: Before we process your order, may I know how your day so far is?
analyst Emma has left room
Victor: How may I assist you?
Amir: I am having problems using the online system on my PC to program my DVR.
Amir: I also have problems staying logged in. It keeps asking me to confirm my email address in an infinite loop.
Victor: Alright, I am sorry about the inconvenience, however; you have reached the Sales department, in order for you to get further help about this matter, I will transfer the chat to the right department.
Victor: Is there anything else I may help you with?
Amir: No, that is the main problem.
Victor: Just a moment while I transfer the chat.
Victor: Please wait, while the problem is escalated to another analyst
analyst Victor has left room
Amir: My Issue: I am having trouble using online tool to program my DVR. It will not tune to any channels or accept DVR recording requests. I activated a new DVR today. When it gives me status, it claims to be 61% full. But the DVR is empty.
analyst Jonathan has entered room
Jonathan: How are you doing tonight?
Amir: A little frustrated having been transferred from one person to another.....
Jonathan: I am sorry to hear that, I will do my best to assist you.
Jonathan: I understand you are having issues to program your DVR online, am I correct?
Amir: Yes.
Jonathan: I can certainly assist you to resolve this issue. I apologize for any inconvenience the missing of this service might have caused you.
Jonathan: Please check if you can program your DVR online.
Amir: OK. Let me see if I can get into it....
Jonathan: Sure, go ahead.
Amir: Well, some improvement... Now I see two DVRs to pick from one. DVR1 appears to be my old DVR. By selecting the second DVR, I see the correct status of it being empty. I programmed a series. It accepted it. But nothing shows up on My DVR. I went into Priorities there which assumed would list what is scheduled but that request is not there.
Amir: Further, I tried to just use the guide to change the channel. That did not work either. Seems that it is defaulting to DVR1. Can DVR1 be deleted?
Jonathan: Yes, it can.
Amir: Do you have to do it or do I?
Jonathan: Please allow me two minutes for this.
Amir: OK....
Jonathan: Can I have the serial number of the cable box to be deleted, please?
Amir: Where would I find it on the bottom? What number does it start with?
Amir: here is a "F/G NO." Is that it?
Jonathan: It is located at the bottom of the cable box and starts with M or G.
Amir: [deleed]
Jonathan: This is the one needs to be deleted, right?
Amir: Correct.
Jonathan: From your account as well, right?
Amir: Yes. I will be returning it now that we have the new one.
Jonathan: Thank you.
Jonathan: Please check now.
Amir: OK....
Amir: No change and I still see a choice of two DVRs in DVR manager...
Jonathan: I have disable it on your account, please allow me a couple of minutes to check if I can remote it from your account.
Amir: Sure...
Jonathan: Thank you for waiting.
Jonathan: I was trying to remove this cable box from your account; however, the system is not letting me to do it, I was able just to disconnect it.
Jonathan: In this case, I recommend you to return your cable box to be deleted from your account.
Amir: I will be sending it back so that is not a problem. Do you want me to try to program the DVR again?
Jonathan: Yes, please.
Amir: No change. Still shows two DVRs and selecting the correct one still does nothing. It accepts the request but nothing shows up in my DVR menus.
Jonathan: Please allow me two minutes.
Jonathan: I have sent a signal to your cable box, this action will synchronize the system and the cable box, please check if this resolves this issue; otherwise, please power cycle your cable box by unplugging your power cord 30 seconds before reconnect it.
Amir: How long does the synchronization take? Or has it already happened?
Jonathan: It should be done already, please try.
Amir: OK, let me test it.
Amir: No change. Let me power cycle the DVR....
Amir: The box power cycled. When I selected My DVR, it complained that it was not authorized. I hit OK and went into it again. Now shows "no listings available" and no other DVR menu options. It appears that it is disabled altogether now!
Jonathan: No, it is just loading.
Amir: Ah yes. It is back again. Let me try to program it remotely again....
Amir: No change. Still won't send any requests to it.
Jonathan: I am sorry about that.
Jonathan: I am still working on this.
Jonathan: Thank you for waiting.
Jonathan: Please give it a try.
Amir: I will but FYI, I went to DVR settings and it say this for DVR2:
Amir: "TV Control is not available for this cable box. Why?"
Jonathan: This message is referring to the DVR 2 the one I disconnected?
Amir: No, DVR 2 is what I have now. The way I can tell is that it says DVR 1 is 60% full and I know the new DVR I have is empty.
Amir: I changed the default to DVR 2 and now it won't let me do anything to it.
Jonathan: So you have 3?
Amir: No, we only have one DVR total.
Amir: We had one before and replaced with a new one.
Jonathan: That one needs to be set as 1st.
Amir: Which one?
Jonathan: You said you only have one DVR, that one needs to be set as primary.
Amir: That's what I just did. But it says it cannot be remotely controlled. Indeed when I try to do that now, it will refuse to accept any commands for it.
Jonathan: I Set your DVR as primary.
Amir: So I made DVR1 the default and it says it is 69% full. how could that be my current DVR? By all signs, it seems to still be wanting to program my old DVR.
Jonathan: You said you have only one DVR, right?
Amir: Yes. But in the system it sill shows me two DVRs.
Jonathan: Yes, due to the other cannot be removed until you return it; but I change your DVR as the primary.
Amir: Well, that is not reflected in the DVR setting. By default, the first DVR is the default. And it says it is 69% full. DVR2 on the other hand says is not available for "TV control."
Amir: If you have Internet access, click on this link and you will see what I see: http://amirviews.smugmug.com/photos/i-J7pFnrZ/0/L/i-J7pFnrZ-L.png
Jonathan: We cannot open link for security.
Amir: then you have to take my word for it that your online system is totally confused about what DVRs I have and their ability to be controlled.
Amir: BTW, If I select scheduled recordings for DVR1, it shows all the scheduled recordings for the old DVR. So for sure DVR1, the default, is the old one.
Jonathan: I have refresh the outlet order in the system, This Refresh had been placed in the queue. Please be advised that you should retry your service in an hour and, if you are still having issues, please call back.
Amir: OK will do.

 

[DonH50]

Please hold while we transfer you to the department of customer disservice... Have a nice day!

 

[treitz3]

"I'm sorry, the transfer did not redirect to the correct department. Thank you for choosing Comcast Live Support. Goodbye." *click*

Ugh, it sounds like you had the same type of issues I had yesterday with AT&T and the 4G LTE. Wasted a total of 5-1/2 hours with 6 salespeople, 1 manager, two over the phone technicians and the issues still remain. I had 3 requests/issues I needed dealt with and not one of them was completed. Best wishes for a speedy resolution, Amir. Trust me when I say that I know how frustrating as well as time consuming these issues can be. I feel your pain.

Tom

 

[Ronm1]

While In the past I have had issues with Comcast that needed to be addressed, never was it a well doc'd SNL skit. Issues were always corrected pretty quickly, IMCA. I should add as long as It wasn't an intermittent problem.

 

[amirm]

I had to laugh during the chat session. It was the classic "who is on first" with him constantly not getting the simple concept of me having just one darn new DVR. The bit about transferring me to the wrong chat person was even more amusing.

Would love to see other people's chat sessions. So save the transcript and post it here!

 

[mep]

I wish I had a recording of the time my wife called Comcast with a problem and the Comcast person became exasperated and told my wife "Do you think Comcast cares about you?" I guess not.

 

[Mosin]

If Comcast didn't have franchise monopolies with many cities, I doubt if any sane person would use their services. If there is a single valid example of why all business should be totally deregulated, so that truly free markets could exist, it is Comcast.

If one thinks about it, there are only three types of jobs in this world. We either sell something, troubleshoot something, create something, or a combination of the three. Comcast has the game rigged, so they really don't have to sell anything, they don't troubleshoot worth a damn, and the only things they create are nightmares.

Don't even get me started about them. They suck, and they suck bigtime.

 

[cjf]

Thanks for posting your experiences. While I'm certainly not making light of your issues it is entertaining to see just how ridiculous some of the interactions are with these ISP's and that the story is the same no matter where you live.

There approach to customer service is actually quite brilliant really. It looks very similar to tactics taken from a Sun Tzu novel.

1st: Create a monopoly by wiping out or buying up your competition
2nd: Deploy an army of robots/drones to read from a script of canned "IF/THEN/ELSE" statements
3rd: When all canned responses are exhausted "Accidentally" Hang Up!
4th: Fortify your local offices from pending attack of all the customers you have repeatedly pissed off from phone interactions. (Don't know about your area but the Comcast local offices near me have 5" thick glass and high security turn styles to pass equipment thru )
5th: Sit back and collect your money

 

[Ronm1]

Sounds like the usual friendly Customer service locations PD, IRS, Courthouse.