Comcast Episode One: The Signal Menace

Yep, it’s another Comcast post. The saga continues. I had a tech out Wednesday to diagnose my Max Headroom Syndrome and random HD DVR reboots. Of course, he had to call for some help back at the office because the box reported my cable service had been disconnected. Funny…I recall having paid my bill in full well before the due date and by that point I had not yet received the next bill. Turns out something freaked out but it was a quick fix.

Next was the actual signal problems. As of the time I am writing this, it is roughly the same as when the tech was here. The FDC is at -16 and the RDC is at 57. For those that don’t know, the RDC is high. This is the signal the box sends back to the office. According to the tech that was here this would be the source of my Max Headroom syndrome. He told me all sorts of odd things will happen when the RDC is out of whack. This tells me we don’t have it fixed yet because here it is Saturday and I still have a screwed up signal. And yes, Max Headroom TV is alive and well on my Samsung 50″ plasma.

But it wasn’t like this earlier today. I turned on the television and tried to turn on the cable box. It was unresponsive. After several minutes of playing with buttons I finally got it to respond somewhat. Guess what, it said my service was disconnected again. So I called in and was instructed to reboot the box which would be followed by a signal being sent to it….yet again. It worked but that’s twice in three days. This box is worse than my last one.

I know it seems that I’m constantly ragging on Comcast. And they do deserve it. Nobody should have this many problems for this many months. However I am obliged to say that customer service has been absolutely great. I know that they have shown up pretty high on lists of worst customer service ever but that has not been my experience. Frank and Melissa and Sid and the ladies that answer the phones locally have been kind and attentive to all of my calls. If Comcast could get their engineers to be as reliable as these people then their service would be tops. Unfortunately, their cable service around here sucks and is vastly overpriced for the intermittant and flaky reception.

This week is Comcast’s last chance. I’ve been patient but I will not continue to pay for this junk I’m receiving. They don’t offer an HD DVR that works. It’s all the same schizo model with the same shoddy firmware. They still charge too much for cable service when there are free options available on the internet. Customer service is not a reason to pay for crap. So thanks Frank and Melissa and Sid, you’ve been great and I can’t say thanks enough for the time and effort you’ve devoted to one single customer but your company just isn’t making things right. You did right by me but the techs and engineers have dropped the ball enough that I’m down to giving them this last chance.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.