Comcast horror show

our old cable company was Adelphia, and as you know Adelphia went under and was bought out by Comcast

last Friday we got a notice that the rates were going up - again

we had just the basic cable, but they did have a deal for $2 more you could get the "Digital Starter package" with Movies On Demand and the digital cable/converter box

considering the switch to all digital is coming down the road, and we would probably need the converter box, and most likely when digital becomes the "thang" converter box rental cost would increase - so we decided to go with this new package

We take a run to the cable office, sign up for the new package, get the box/cables etc, come home and set it up

thhhhhhhhhhhhtttt - didn't work no picture etc, I check the cables and all the connections and they are all plugged in correctly

so we call customer service - they send some signal - ok so now we have the channels, but the rest of the features we were suppose to get aren't working

another call - this time we are told it would take up to 24 hours for the signal to connect

we wait - 24 hours later on Saturday - still nothing, another phone call, and some signal is sent and we're ok, things are working

Sunday - nothing again except the channels - no features no On Demand - another phone call, stuff working again

Monday - it's out again, this time we drive to cable office to turn in the box and cancel the extended digital package - they convince us to let them send out a technician - amazingly he arrives within an hour - changes the cables/splitters coming from pole and those coming into house. reconnects everything and it's all working

Tuesday it's fine - but Wednesday, Thursday and last night - it's all crap again. 2 to 3 phone calls to the help desk each day, my partner has our account number memorized by now and we put the telephone number on speed dial

in total we have made close to 20 phone calls to the helpdesk and local cable office in a week

today is their last chance - the help desk person we talked to last night suggested getting a new cable box - so we will bring the box we have back to the cable office and demand a new one

meanwhile - we will be checking out Direct TV as I have some questions about it

if you have or have had Direct TV - what problems have you had with it?

- We live in NE PA and are concerned about snow/ice build up on the receiver, so it would have to be mounted where we can reach it easily in the winter

- I read on their FAQs about it being connected somehow to the land-line phone, also use of the phone while watching TV could cause interference with reception - we are not about to install a 2nd phone line for the TV

besides not having anything that I care to watch other than Countdown and the occasional Science Channel show. The tv would have been recycled long ago if it were just me here.

:hi:

with the same old boxes from 5 years ago, and have had very few problems, mostly weather related (snow in dish)

Once a year or so you need to reset the box by sliding a card out and back in again and powering up and down. Its easy and only takes a minute or two.

I'm not exactly happy about who owns DirectTV (Murdoch), but in a rural area like Sedona, there's not a lot of choices.....oh and its pricey, I'm paying like $70 a month for a 200 channel lineup including 8 HBO channels.

The only real problem is when it is raining hard you lose the signal. Of course the old cable company here lost the signal every time it rained too-they were too cheap to put waterproof connectors on the poles. The phone connection is only if you want to get a pay per view. The dog chewed the phone line to the box about 5 years ago and I never reconnected it-works just fine. But when the phone line was still connected we never had any problem with reception. I think you have to connect it when you first set it up but you don't really need it after that. Don't know about snow buildup-not a problem here in Austin-but it's gone through several sleet storms without a glitch.

when the guy came to install ours, years ago, we had a couple boys, preteen and teen with many friends who had no problems with spending our money, if you know what I mean. anyways I told the technician that if he was going to hook the telephone line up then he was finished cause I done changed my mind, he said oh if its because of the phone line I have to hook it up because of my contract but nothing says you can't as soon as I hook it up come right behind me and unhook it, I said great just lay the wire across the floor and don't worry about routing it and he said all right. thats how it was done here.

and I had Primestar before that. The only problem I've ever had is during a heavy rainstorm....you might loose the signal then. As for the phone line, don't worry about it, the only reason it's there is so you can order movies with the remote. I took my phone line out of the box when one of my kids claimed that the cats had "accidentally" ordered a PPV movie. The only down side with satellite is that you have to have an area with a clear shot to the south to receive their signal........if you want it bad enough, you might have to sacrifice some foliage, or maybe a tree. There is also Dish TV...my sister and daughter both have it and love it. I'd check out both.

Woman Fined for Hammer Fit at Local Comcast Office
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/19/AR2007101901277.html

demanded new box and remote

brought it home, hooked it up, waited the 20-30 minutes - actually closer to an hour

turned it on and thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhttttt

that's it - tomorrow we are going to visit my partner's brother and his family - so on Monday we are checking out DirectTV and Dish network and as soon as we can get one or the other installed - Comcast is being canceled