BS: I dumped Comcast

Subject: BS: I dumped Comcast
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Mar 09 - 11:26 PM

Now with Verizon I even get Democracy Now along with over a hundred channels unavailable on Comcast.

I fully endorse the superior quality of Verizon ( the competator TV and ISP monopoly in our area )
However I have no experience with direct (dish) TV performance.

The fiber optic "cable" really is a fraction the thickness of a human hair.
Amazing.

I have to admit the TV and internet are both now between 99 to 100% better than cable.

No more mega pixeling or scrambled pictures.

There are far more HD widsecreen features which are true to their original presentation.
I would guess there are 3 to 4 times as many HD channels.



They even throw in a wireless router. My wife is so pleased I can't get a word in edge wise between the blackberry and the laptop :<(

The downside is it costs a lot more than $10 a month but I'll probably throw the movie package overboard during the summer.

The one thing that Comcast is better at is their commercials.

Verizon needs a new ad firm.

Subject: RE: BS: I dumped Comcast
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Mar 09 - 11:42 PM

We don't have fibre optic in our area, so we can't choose. I had ultra-slow DSL for way too long, so this winter I hooked up with Charter, but only for Internet. No matter what you tell them you want, the sales person always answers that you should have their "bundle." So I signed up online so the saleswoman wouldn't argue with me.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I dumped Comcast
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Mar 09 - 11:49 PM

Congratulations, Donuel! My Rog brought home a tiny bit of the fibre optic when the cable company was installing it in WY. I couldn't believe how minuscule it was and my mind boggled trying to understand how in the world communications would travel via it. Amazing!

Subject: RE: BS: I dumped Comcast
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Mar 09 - 11:54 PM

I'm a Comcast stockholder, but I can't say I'm very happy with Comcast as an Internet Service Provider (ISP). I want an ISP that gives me a good, uninterrupted Internet signal with no extra crap - I get that from AT&T DSL at home. We have Comcast Internet service at the women's center where I do volunteer work. The cable Internet is a bit faster, but Comcast is always fooling around with e-mail and figuring out ways to give us more advertising with our e-mail; and it gives a lot of celebrity garbage on its Website (that you have to go through to access e-mail).

I wish companies could just give me the service I pay for, without adding all sorts of extra doodads that don't work half the time and keep trying to sell me something.

And if they DO have to do all the extra stuff, then they ought to be making money and paying me higher dividends. Comcast paid me $27.18 in dividends last year. Oh, boy.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: I dumped Comcast
From: Claymore
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 01:19 AM

Joe, I had a completely different experience.

Because the apartment complex where I live does not allow dishes, and a neighbbor was having the devil's own time getting her digital phone and internet squared away, I literally just started with Comcast, and their phone assist service was in one word, outstanding.

Back in 2000 when I thought I was leaving the Federal service I bought a fairly expensive Dell from the Federal service price line. (To those who don't know, if you are in the Federal service you can buy a government spec'd computer for the Federal price).

Then because I indeed got another Federal job and did not what to mess with a computer at home, I lent it to CarolC who used it through phone modems for several years. When she married Jack the Sailor I got it back, and left it in a box for several more years.

I retired in Oct of last year and after settling out the Social Security, savings (which my genius son-in-law told me to take out of the market in Sept. and put into CD's) and VA disability, I decided to get back on-line.

My main problem was that CarolC had left a number of programs on my computer which were no longer valid, and my computers operating system, MS 2000ME, does not support some of the faster stuff. (To be clear, this was my ignorance, and Carol was always welcome to the computer. She got far more use from it than I ever will).

In three epically long phone conversations with the Comcast phone help staff I was never treated with anything less than respect, and they literally spent hours clearing up and deleting old programs, and assisting me in getting on-line and my email system up and running. (And at no time was I speaking to India).

I can't help but think that once this market shakes its self out, those systems with the best customer service will rise again. As it is, the only folks who can buy new goods and services are the old geezers like me whose parents were depression era children, and always knew the Government wasn't going to get to you for three days of anything, and you are on your own.

By the way I do think Obama is trying, but he is at least six months away from making landfall. And no-one will ever get easy credit again...

Subject: RE: BS: I dumped Comcast
From: Barry Finn
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 02:58 AM

I had Verizon for my server, phone, & TV. My tv got sold off to Direct TV which sucks, my phone got sold off to Fairpoint who sucks & now my provider (fiber optics) has been sold off to Fairpoint who again sucks. I have nothing left from my original Verizon package which I was pretty happy with & now Verizon no longer is available in my area, which sucks too.

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: I dumped Comcast
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 01:01 PM

Joe, why do you fool with Comcast's web site or email at all? You can set up any home page you want in your browser. I have never set up a Charter email account or looked at their web home page. I use a Google home page I cobbled together myself and Gmail and Yahoo. Even when I had mostly Earthlink stuff I still had other email and didn't have to suffer the foolishness of the ISP.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I dumped Comcast
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 01:30 PM

Since Donuel lives only about a mile from me, I am fascinated. I got Comcast when it was about the only choice, and Verizon had a pitiful record of customer complaints.
Now Verizon spends $$$ sending me almost weekly 'invitations'. I DO know that cable is much simpler to set up, and I can run branches to other rooms myself. It would be a major problem to change all the accounts and connections to a phone-line (even fiber-optic) based system....but I sure will monitor the situation.

Subject: RE: BS: I dumped Comcast
From: M.Ted
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 10:30 PM

I kept getting those Verizon invitations a finally went over to the Verizon store and signed up. A week later, I got a note that said that, notwithstanding what they'd said, FIOS was not yet available, but they'd provide me with Direct TV til it was.

The direct TV installers didn't show up for another week, and told me that, because of the trees behind us, they couldn't get the line-of-sight they needed, so we couldn't get that, either. It took three more months to get the monthly charges taken off our bill, and a bit longer to get our deposit and installation fees back.

And we kept getting the invitations.

Subject: RE: BS: I dumped Comcast
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 11:49 AM

If you have the cable wires in your house already, Verizon just changes the filter spliters and everything is wired up without having to unplug anything except the wires to the new box.

We should not have to get seperate TV from internet. Corporations just make double this way. We could all watch TV via the internet if we collectively screamed loud enough.

The broadband promises from Comcast were never honored. They got all the tax breaks but never honored their contract to give everyone broadband.


___________


The fiber optic sends all the data in little seperate "numbered" packets. The program you choose then just dials in on the packets that contain your program. Moving at the speed of light the number of seperate packets in one inch is in the billions.

Subject: RE: BS: I dumped Comcast
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 12:39 PM

...so I see from M.Ted's comments that Verizon is still an untrustworthy company. (Not that Comcast will win many awards, but "the Devil you know", huh?)

I too, have trees that might make it hard to use Direct TV, but their ads all say "oh, it's just propaganda that you can't get our signal..." etc...

Verizon might be just fine for many folks who have just the right location & configuration, but I don't want to test it and have to start over if it fails.
I also don't see how they can possibly use cable wires for a connection delivered over phone wires.....and I KNOW I don't have fiber-optic from the street to the house.)