Posts Tagged ‘comcast’

Comcast – why is TiVo announcing YOUR changes to me?

January 30th, 2010
No Gravatar

screen-shot-2010-01-30-at-74108-amHere’s my problem. I have a hate-hate relationship with comcast, it’s no secret. They constantly screw up my biling, they won’t let me cancel my phone service without RAISING my rates, I can’t get my own Cable modem and returning their modem which I pay $5 a month lease for without canceling my phone service and as I said doing that my rates would go up.

Please I just moved recently and transferred my service…. Scratch that, I didn’t transfer… I tried to transfer. But because comcast is so freaking incompetent in doing anything these days it seems they failed to transfer my existing home phone number which they were supposed to since I live in the same freaking area code.

But here’s my latest gripe. See apparently comcast is turning of analog signals and making everything digital. I’m guessing it’s because they have limited bandwidth now and the reason? It’s because they just upped the internet service everyone has to 12mb minimum download speed and you can go up to 50mb download speed! NO ONE needs internet that fast and because they did this they can now justify removing analog channels and making customers have to pay for little converter boxes to continue their service. Yep just one more way for comcast to screw the customers.

And what really irritates me as if the above didn’t is that’ comcast didn’t even MENTION this to their customers. I would have thought I would get a letter or something but nope. I didn’t see anything, or they could call me on my comcast phone number. Or put a message up on the screen. Nothing, so how did I find out? Well TiVo sent an email out letting their customers on comcast know what comcast is up to and how it WILL impact us.

So I ask again, Comcast, why is TiVo announcing your changes to me that will impact my service? It’s not only going to break my tivo unless I get a converter box,  but it’s going to render my other TV’s without a converter box useless unless I just want channels 1-20….  This is a comcast decision to do this, I would think they should inform their customers AND give FREE boxes to their customers. I mean I had 5 jacks activated when I moved into my new place, and I get 2 converter boxes free, so I have to pay for the rest for a service I ALREADY PAY FOR. You know, you keep raising existing fees and putting new fees on your customers enough and satellite is going to look far better. In fact as soon as TiVo announces their relationship with Directv and makes the new boxes available you can bet I’m jumping ship.

If you too have comcast even without a TiVo you might want to read the letter I got from TiVo. I put a picture of it as part of this post, just click on the image of it to see it full size.

  • Share/Bookmark

Review on the Magic Jack

January 3rd, 2010
No Gravatar

magic-jack

If you want to order a Magic Jack please click on this link – HERE to help support my website!

I have Comcast service at home, it’s the triple play bundle with the internet, phone and cable tv and to be honest most of the services work very well. It did take some time getting Comcast to configure my Tivo HD cable cards before they worked, a few comcast service trucks had to roll, new cable ran to my house, but eventually they got it to work. My internet is really fast (8mbps service) and my home phone well that’s another story. See my modem that comcast provides needs to be rebooted about once a week because the phone service just stops working and that becomes a bit of a pain.

So I started looking for other options. A long time ago I heard about Magic Jack through tech blogs and even my father-in-law mentioned it to me at one point if I recall and at first I thought this company won’t last a year. I had experience with VOIP providers after all, I was a customer of SunRocket who tanked and I had to fight to get my prepaid money back since I paid for a year in advance each year, after year 2 they tanked and I was due about 10 months worth of premiums. So I thought Magic Jack would be in the same boat, that being the titanic. Boy was I wrong.

Now that Magic Jack is still around and that is is a matured technology with thousands of new customers signing up every day I thought I’d give it a try. I wasn’t about to order online, I’ve heard far to many horror stories where people were double and triple billed and never received the product. I knew my local walmart had it so I made a trip and bought one locally, I knew doing that I could return it easily if it didn’t work and didn’t have to worry about double and triple billing.

So I got the Magic Jack yesterday on 1/2/2010 and hooked it up when I got home to one of my cordless phones. What I liked about the jack is that you don’t have to register it to test it. They give you 30 minutes of talk time free or 48 hours after intially plugging it in to register it. So I plugged it in, made a few test phone calls and decided it was worth pursuing further. Since when I bought it the Magic Jack included a year of service I registered it for the 911 service and was able to pick out a local phone number here in Nashville and within about 2 minutes I was up and running on my Magic Jack with my phone number!

To register the jack its simple, I did it on a WinXP machine, all you do is plug it into a usb port and wait, it will automatically start the magic jack software, download the updates and then walk you through registering it. Could not be easier! I did find myself almost clicking buttons, don’t do it! The software will prompt you when to push buttons and tell you when to wait! Thing was one of the easiest things I have ever installed, no drivers, or updates manually having to be applied. Very slick install process and nice GUI (Graphical user Interface)

I made more calls to validate it worked and everything was perfect, clear as the comcast service and much cheaper! So I thought, if I can run one phone off of it can I run all my phones off of it? I plugged the jack directly into my wall phone jack much like my previous comcast phone line was connected and tried to use it, static but I could get a dial tone. Unfortunately I couldn’t dial…. So I went outside made sure my local TELCO connection was unplugged which it was, made sure no other connections were made to my phone system and there wasn’t so I went to plan B. I got a telephone splitter and hooked that into my Magic Jack, plugged my alarm system directly into the splitter, and moved my cordless phones into my office where the Magic Jack is and plugged those in to the splitter. Every phone started to work! The only downside I now have both base units for my cell phones in my office, with the remote charging bases around my house. Not a problem, Just more “stuff” in my office plugged in.

I did test the Jack with my Brinks Alarm system and so far it hasn’t worked but I’ve been trying to get Brinks to change the “dial out” phone number that my system publishes so that they know my new number. I can say that the Alarm system WAS dialing out, it just was dialing out and Brinks was receiving a call from a number they didn’t know who the alarm belonged to so the system essentially failed. As soon as Brinks gets my phone info changed I’m going to retest and have confidence it will work.

Over all the Magic Jack really is a great system. I wasn’t sure how it worked but it really seems like a voicemail system when you use it. Yes you have a direct number, but the way you setup your voicemail, etc is remarkably like the voicemail system at my job, which was interesting!

With Magic Jack I paid $39.98 for it at my wal-mart, I got a years service included and each additional year is only $19.95, not bad! It comes with caller id, free local and long distance and voicemail. There may be other features but I don’t need them so I won’t mention them. One thing I do like is if you get a voicemail, it will email a .WAV format file to your email so you can listen to it which is really nice since I use an iPhone and can actually get my home phone voicemails on my cellphone now!

Another thing I like is the portability. We don’t travel much in my house but we do go back and fourth to a few places on occasion and we now have the option to take our home phone with us. Since the Magic Jack only requires an internet connection and a laptop to work you can bring the magic jack, and a laptop anywhere you want, plug into broadband internet and have your home phone number. In todays world with call forwarding, etc that’s really not needed, but it’s nice having the option. Plus if you move no disconnecting and reconnecting phone lines, just move your magic jack and plug it into your internet at your new place. One less utility to remember to move! Just remember to update your 911 info so that should you need to call 911 they have your correct address!!!

The one true downside is that you need to leave a computer running to make and receive calls with the Magic Jack. For me I had a spare laptop so I plugged that in and am using that. Why? Because it allows my Magic Jack to run for at least 30 minutes after a power outage on the laptop battery and then even longer on my external battery backup which powers my cable modem and linksys router. So as long as you take into consideration power outages this really is a great little gizmo that works from what I have seen really well so far!

I’ll update once I get the alarm system tested after Brinks gets my account info updated.

If you want a MagicJack you can get one on Amazon at the following link:

MAGICJACK (from GoFastParts with Free Shipping!)

MAGICJACK (from Infinite-Surplus with Free Shipping!)

*please note, free shipping from the two links above was as of 1/3/2010. This may change at anytime!

****UPDATED 1/5/2010*****

I finally got my Brinks home alarm (Broadview security) information changed and successfully tested my home alarm system using the magicjack! Yep, everything works perfect so I’m one step closer to ditching my comcast home phone service and sticking with the MagicJack with our cellphones as backups!

  • Share/Bookmark

Comcast thinks my mother in law is loaded

December 30th, 2009
No Gravatar

screen-shot-2009-12-30-at-15758-pm1Now I’m not sure why comcast thinks this…. But apparently they think my mother-in-law is loaded…… When I was trying to get my comcast internet working I had to do some account verification and well….. the word challenge they had randomly decided to tell me I had a “loaded mother-in-law.”

I’m thinking perhaps comcast needs to remove “mother-in-law” from the dictionary of words that are displayed because there could be some really funny combinations of words that appear….

Oh well, I got a laugh out of this when I saw it!

If you want to see the picture larger click on it for the actual size.

(screenshot has blurs around account number because I had to “erase” my info..)

  • Share/Bookmark

Wow, businesses are responding to my complaints!

July 2nd, 2009
No Gravatar

I just wanted to post the following observation from issues I have had with companies over the last few weeks. And yes they were all valid complaints I laid out the facts and you can judge for yourself. I didn’t pursue a resolution but these companies actually reached out to me and resolved the problems.

1. Knoxville Utility Board – Had a $1,000 water bill, posted about it and was contacted by KUB and they reduced my bill by approx 60%! (still can’t explain where all that water went, but I think I know what happened.)

2. Comcast Cable – I had an issue with my service and was ready to cancel after no help and no service for 4 days. A nice rep from Comcast resonded to a tweet I put out on twitter and apologized and credited my account for the inconvenience and I was back up and running.

3. Orkin – After trying to get assistance with a termite all clear letter and getting no help, the Area manager called me to apologize and send me a refund for the fees I paid to another company because Orkin refused to help initially.

I post this to show that even while the economy is tanking, it is really nice to see that some companies are owning up and doing what they can to keep customers and make thing right. I honestly didn’t expect KUB to do anything for me, they are a utility company and you can’t fight them, especially when you sell your house and have no legal right to the house or meter anymore. But they stepped up.  As for Comcast and Orkin, two more I didn’t expect to step up but they both did and went beyond my expectations. Big thanks to those three companies!

Now 2 companies that aren’t doing so well.

1. Wells fargo. We had a mortgage with Wells Fargo and our escrow account has a large balance in it still. Wells Fargo is saying it will take them up to 3 weeks to refund the funds in my escrow account. To me this is unacceptable since I have only a small window to make my payment and if I’m late they ding me a percentage of my balance plus add on late fees. I think if a mortgage is paid off wells fargo should have a check cut within 5 business days and in the mail. Why does it take 3 weeks? I can log on now and see my account balance is negative and my loan is paid off.

2. Nationwide insurance. I had home owners insurance with my house but now that I sold it I don’t need it anymore so I cancelled it. We had prepaid a years insurance a few months ago so I am owed a years worth of insurance premiums. Nationwide is even worse then Wells Fargo and says it could take up to 30 days to get the refund. Why is it they can auto-withdraw it from my checking account with 24 hours notice, but yet it takes them 30 days to cut a check and send me my own money back?

With all the technology in the world, refunds to customers should be less then 2 weeks, not 3+. And if it’s auto-withdrawn from your account they should be able to put it back into your account in less then 1 week. If not, they should be required by law to pay you interest on the money. After all it’s in their accounts earning interest, why shouldn’t you get the extra few dollars they are earning off of your own money?

In the end, the power of the internet really is great and companies that actively look for consumer problems are pretty cool. As long as the consumer states the facts and can back up what they say it seems like the consumer can easily be made whole by simply getting the attention of the offending company. Should it have to come down to this? That’s open for debate , but it is a great feeling to have companies working to gain, and keep your business.

  • Share/Bookmark

Tivo + Comcast + Cable Cards = A great experience!

February 8th, 2009
No Gravatar

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!

  • Share/Bookmark