So you are probably wondering what the title is about. I’m not sure, but it has something to do with the fact that when we moved Knoxville where we had Knology cable service to Nashville where we had to get Comcast we went ahead and did the HD package mainly because Comcast threw it in free and really gave me trouble trying to get the non-HD package. So I went ahead and got it along with Comcast’s HD box. Everything went well, the service was up and running and I am very amazed at how well HD looks, I never really thought there could be that much of a difference, but there is! The only issue was that I had comcast HD box and my standard Series 2 Tivo wouldn’t record HD shows. I knew this ahead of time but thought I would give comcasts DVR a chance. After seeing how the HD box behaved and the menus I soon realized how much I missed Tivo. I went ahead and got on Tivo’s site and ordered a refurbished HD Tivo at about $100 savings over regular cost. I then went down the same day to my local comcast office and picked up a multi stream cable card just so that when my tivo arrived I would be ready to pop the card in, and based upon the thousands of messages from upset comcasts customers I would have all sorts of issues getting my cable card to work, why not everyone else did that has an HD box, cable card and comcast.
So, literally 2 days later the Tivo arrived, yes they shipped it VERY fast even though I did the standard ground. I hooked the tivo up like it recommends, did the install without the cable card to test it and let it download program data. Once it was done I stuck the multi stream cable card in and immediatly the tivo saw it as an S-card like it said it would and within a few seconds it switched over to an M-card. Woohoo. The tivo then showed me a lot of ID #’s and told me to call my local cable company to get the card activated, it even showed me the phone number of the local comcast office! How cool is that!
So I called comcast and they didn’t ask me for the host ID or anything and just sent a signal to my cable card and said “that should do it.” It didn’t. I thought to myself “here it goes.” I then scheduled an appointment for a tech to come out and to my surprise they set up an appointment for the very next day! So that night I kept playing with the Tivo and calling comcast and they kept sending signals to the card and it never would work. Finally I gave up, the next day the Comcast Tech arrived and he came in and immediatly told me he wasn’t sure how to get it working but he knew someone that would. So he first startred by checking all signal strengths to ensure everything was good, he then called the “guru” in the nashville office and gave him the host id’s as well as a few other things and within a matter of minutes my cable card was activated, it took about 15 minutes for all channels to be found, but they did start appearing and working, even the HD, HBO and HD HBO!
The tech then told me the signal strength was below what it should be and he would send a DM out to do something to the pole outside but in the meantime he hooked up an amplifier to my line and boost the signal. He then gave me his cellphone number and told me to call him next weekend to let him know if my channels look better without the amp and if it does he would come by to pick it along with my old HD box up and that I shouldn’t call Comcast because if I do a new tech will be dispatched and we’ll have to start over, that he would be more then happy to help me next weekend if I needed it.
I will say that a few years ago I was with Comcast and the service sucked. It took weeks to get a tech on site, it took forever to get through on the phones and it was miserable. I must say that I am impressed. Within 24 hours I had a tech onsite, and my cable card was active and working. I didn’t have anywhere near the horror stories I had read about when I decided to go the HD Tivo with Cable card route with comcast. So, I am very impressed and glad to see that over the past few years they have changed the way they operate. The tech even told me that he in the past worked with some guys who would tell of all the nasty things they said to customers, and over the years Comcast fired them all and hired on new people and retrained everyone. It really is a relief, at this point I am 100% happy with my comcast service and techs.
I hope that this service level is everywhere and NOT just in the Nashville area. Good job comcast!
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Really great work.. I totally love the feeling in your articles. Really authentic looking stuff!