[sf-lug] Why I'm not a huge Comcast fan (2015 incident)

[Akkana Peck]

Rick Moen writes:
> Michael Paoli encouraged me to re-tell this story that I posted at the

That is an amazing story. I hope you don't mind my linking to it
from my own (less impressive) Comcast saga:
http://shallowsky.com/comcast-odyssey.html

> If I had been the customer and the contractor ignored my questions, the
> next thing out of my mouth would be 'Stop.  This job may not proceed
> unless we get some things straight.'  And, if the contractor gave me
> significant backtalk or did anything else but stop, I would order
> him/her to leave.  Job cancelled.  Done.

I had an earlier, more minor, run-in with Comcast when I lived in
San Jose. I had signed up for a basic cable package, not the fancier
digital option (which supposedly wasn't even an option in that part
of San Jose at that time anyway). The morning the cable installer
came, he puttered around the living room for a little while and then
asked, "Where's the telephone line I should plug into?"

Me: "Um ... telephone line? Excuse me? Nobody said anything about that."

It turned out that despite what I had been told on the phone, he
was auto-upgrading us to a fancier package, which apparently
required a phone connection in order to phone home periodically
about what was being watched. (Why they needed a phone line for
that rather than doing it over the cable was mysterious and he
couldn't explain.) There was no phone line in that room, so it
would have required drilling through a wall or two to get to one.

It further developed that this plan would likely entail various extra
fees that had not been mentioned over the phone. For five or ten
minutes I peppered him with questions he couldn't or wouldn't answer
about exactly what services I was getting and what the costs would
be. There apparently was no way to find this out before the first bill
came. Finally I gave up, told him to go away and that maybe I didn't
need TV quite as badly as I'd thought.

(Dave, who'd been doing fine without cable before I moved in, didn't
say "I told you so", bless his heart.)

That was maybe ten years ago and I've been fine with DSL internet
and no TV. Comcast obviously thinks that people are so desperate for
TV that they'll unquestioningly accept whatever plan Comcast decides
to foist on them, regardless of whether it's what they ordered.
Sadly, they're probably right in most cases (non-prepaid cellphone
plans work the same way); but I've never regretted saying no.

        ...Akkana