Annoyed with Comcast

[alarmguy]

Its true, with people cutting the cord as we did over a decade ago now, streaming services are creeping up.
Good news is that its easy to circumvent, unlike when people stayed tied to cable or sat.
You don't need to stay tied to any streaming service and there is soooooo much free content and movies anyone can make a decision to pay or not.
They can also learn to actually install an antenna in their attic or roof for all the local major networks with better digital picture than when they had pay TV!
All very simple stuff for people who want to spend their time doing it, many (not people in this forum) people have become used to paying for things they don't need that they think they need.
Our TV consists of Netflix, Hulu = $20 a month. 6 Roku streaming devices for the 6 TV's in our home.
Tons of additional free content, literally 100's ??? Not possible for me to keep track of all the free "stations" movies, shows ect.
100 Mbps service is all that is needed and most likely could get away with 50 Mbps, Sadly we have to pay for 200 Mbps now as that is Spectrums lowest price tier and its not needed, no choice.

All local major networks through attic antenna to 5 TVs in our home in better then pay TV picture quality.

 

[14Accent]

I was a Comcast customer for almost a decade before finally ditching them altogether. I started by ditching cable, and the final nail in the coffin was their ridiculous data caps. 1.2 terabytes of data during a pandemic with 2 roommates plus a child distance learning had us bumping the cap by the 10th of each month.

As much as I hated the initial thought, switching to Century Link was the best decision I ever made. The "node" is less than 2 blocks from my house, I got free installation and a free WiFi 6 router (owned, not leased) and true gigabit speed CONSISTENTLY. I'm talking 930 down, 950 up. All that for $65 a month flat. I couldn't be happier.

 

[paulo57509]

We have a friend that's a CS field manager for Comcast. His first customer contact is when he shows up at your door. I once asked him if he ever gets cussed at.

"Oh yeah, most all the time. But it doesn't bother me. I'm there to help them. If my company didn't have issues, I'd be out of a job."

My take is that cable company business is unsustainable because of the widespread issues. There's not enough problem solvers to go around.

 

[alarmguy]

Someday in the not to distant future you will have your choice of internet providers with and without a cable or fiber to your home.
Verizon and T-Mobile is rolling out 5g home internet across the USA at breakneck speed. Still waiting for them to upgrade the towers near me, even though Verizon just mailed us a post card saying it was available, its still not, yet.

Spectrum must be aware. After cancelling them last year and taking them back after one month they gave us 200 mbps at $49 deal for one year, this month it was supposed to go back up to $75, we just got a letter, they are raising it "only" $15 to $64.99 instead, then next year back to full price.
I hate Spectrum but right now, no choice until TMobile or Verizon contacts me, then goodbye Spectrum. I expect sometime this year.

 

[jayjr1105]

You are never obligated to use a Comcast modem. Business or Consumer customers even with land line service. I work in a Comcast heavy area and I've always been able to switch over businesses and residential accounts to self purchased equipment no problem. I've helped clients dozens of times. Churches, small businesses, relatives, etc. Just have to choose something from their approved list of equipment. https://www.xfinity.com/support/devices/#auth

I'm with some others. I've had Comcast internet only plan for about 11 years at my current residence and it's gone down maybe 2-3 times in those years. Rock solid and price is fair. I do call in every 2 years to negotiate a better rate. Usually works out in my favor.

 

[PandaBear]

They probably have some shenanigans with their modems like throttling thoughput under high neighborhood usage or maybe just spying on you better.

Depending on where you are, I think they stopped throttling below advertised speed now because they got sued at least in our area. So far they just force you to go to a DOCSIS 3.0 4x8 or above modem (capable of 300mbps downstream) and cap your upstream at 6mbps to avoid getting sued. You do get advertised speed but with 1.2TB data cap, what are you going that fast for?

 

[brianl703]

Depending on where you are, I think they stopped throttling below advertised speed now because they got sued at least in our area.

Where I live, there is a single node serving something like 500 homes. Which is way higher than the normal amount. But it's a rural area. I've never noticed any slowdown. And going back a couple of years, the outages I've had were due to traffic accidents and line dig-ups.

Since the node is about 5 feet off the side of a 2-lane rural road with no shoulders, I'm just waiting for someone to crash into it. It's not an uncommon occurrence for drivers to run off the road and take out utility boxes. When that happens, it'll be at least a 12-hour outage.