OT (semi!): Comcast, you suck

Submitted by johnthesavage on

So here I am, transplanted Wolverine in silicon valley, getting ready to watch the first BTN game of the year tomorrow. Of course, out here, you don't get that for free -- it's part of the sports entertainment package, which I'm happy to pay for.

Tonight I checked it out and I am indeed getting BTN on two separate channels. One is down with the SD channels, the other up with the HD sports channels -- but neither is in HD!

I called Comcast to say, "what gives?" A helpful woman asked her engineering boss about it, and was told there just aren't enough people out here interested in this channel for them to carry it in HD. It strains their bandwidth too much, so unless it becomes more popular they will only be carrying SD. 

...

I helpfully pointed out they would have more bandwidth if they didn't send two identical copies of the channel in SD. But of course, they are not wanting for bandwidth. In fact even their "HD" service, for which they have the nerve in 2017 to charge an "HD technology fee" for, is usually in 720P, which is a standard more than ten years old! I guess I won't hold my breath waiting for Comcast to deliver 4K, or even a consistent 1080p!, since in 2017 they claim they don't have the bandwidth to carry HD BTN to customers paying extra for the priveledge, in CA. Must not be enough of us B1G alums to add up to anything, eh?!

Okay, rant over. Maybe I'll stream it (and yeah, that will count against my data cap!). But hey, Comcast is the f-ing worst.

MGoBoard

CaptChuck

September 16th, 2017 at 9:41 AM ^

I am not trying to apologize for Comcast support, it's rough, I think it is slowly getting better with the apps they have. My comment was more so that you can't compare what's happening in support with the programming decision makers. Plus let's face it BTN programming in the Bay Area is way down on the list of concerns for Comcast. Just like PAC 12 programming would be in Chicago. But, if not having the game in HD is an issue, buy a Roku and use the BTN app with your Comcast login.

Joined: 04/15/2015

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johnthesavage

September 16th, 2017 at 3:39 AM ^

There are short-term metrics, and there are long-term metrics. It's easy to see that, short-term, the metric doesn't move because of their decision to offer me only SD -- I'm still here. But long-term, well, I made this post. I will continue to hate them and talk about it. They are one of the least popular companies in all of America. I find this self-defeating obsession on short-term metrics humorous.

Flatly, you're wrong. It would take them like four hours of an engineer's time to fix this problem. I've cost them more money than that with this thread.

Joined: 03/30/2013

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SeattleWolverine

September 16th, 2017 at 10:17 AM ^

If you had true competition than yeah, businesses make decisions and customers can choose to go elsewhere or not and live with it. For monopolies your post is not applicable. 

 

Also, all sorts of businesses, even ones run by smart people in competitive markets, still make poor decisions. Some businesses fail for those reasons, some don't. Whether or not that applies to this complaint, eh, debateable but you can't just say that what a business is doing is inherently the ideal strategy for maximizing profit or not technological possible. That's a pie in the sky outlook that doesn't match the complexities of management decision making. Smart people do dumb things in all walks of life. See also the $2 trillion bank just a little N in the bay that was making up fake accounts for customers. Or see the 1995 Purdue game where DL Will Carr got a carry...and fumbled. Lloyd Carr knows 1000x more about football than I do. But that was stupid.  

Joined: 11/07/2012

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MichAero

September 16th, 2017 at 3:06 AM ^

For reminder to add BTN before the game in the morning. Been meaning to do it for a few weeks now but didn't have a huge reason to without a game on it.

Spectrum/Time Warner down here in SoCal. Quality/interface-wise I am not a huge fan but the customer service has been a lot better IMO than comcast both in CO and MI.

Joined: 09/08/2014

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SpinachAssassin

September 16th, 2017 at 4:03 AM ^

Not that AT&T where I was provided a utopian level of service either.

That said, a buddy of mine swears up and down on Comcast if you use work connections to get business-level service applied to a consumer account. I can't verify that, yet for those that are stuck with Comcast, perhaps there is a way to improve the quality. 

Joined: 05/23/2013

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gruden

September 16th, 2017 at 4:19 PM ^

I've been both a Comcast residential and business customer.  They do treat business customers much better, but you pay a lot more.  Residential  customers are treated like shit. 

It's like First Class airline flight vs. coach class both in price and service.

Joined: 04/29/2016

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SeattleWolverine

September 16th, 2017 at 10:20 AM ^

Ive had comcast business service at a business at least. I don't know that I would say it was good. But at least you get responsiveness and someone will be sent out to fix your problem. Rather than having to do with someone in a call center who is just reading from a script and does not have the level of knowledge necessary to tell you to do anything beyond rebooting the router. 

Joined: 11/07/2012

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ppToilet

September 16th, 2017 at 4:05 AM ^

So, the reply to you about bandwidth doesn't make sense to me. For your own home, you have the same bandwidth irrespective of the content you are watching (i.e. you aren't watching every channel simultaneously, so offering another HD channel doesn't affect you). If they are talking about network bandwidth, then it's only a problem if lots of people want the channel (which is not an issue by their own assertion). My guess is that Comcast has a separate cost per household that they have to pay BTN if they broadcast in HD. Unless a certain percentage of the customer base complains, it is likely cheaper for them to broadcast in SD only. Your options are limited, unless you can convince a significant number of your neighbors to ask for BTN in HD. Maybe start an online petition (is that too 2010?), tweetstorm, or Facebook campaign? Or follow one of the other options mentioned above... One of my favorite quotes is that frustration is the difference between expectation and reality. If you can't change the reality, you have to lower your expectations. I know, though, that it's hard to get them any lower with Comcast.

Joined: 04/18/2011

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VikingDiet

September 16th, 2017 at 6:06 AM ^

I switched to DirecTV after my cablecard service was getting too expensive for me supplying all my own equipment and I have been very happy. picture quality is fantastic and if you bundle att internet there's no service cap.

Joined: 09/02/2014

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umich1

September 16th, 2017 at 6:16 AM ^

These kinds of frustrations are what led me to successfully sue at&t and cut the cord for good. They have unreliable service, unethical billing practices, and when you try to get it fixed, they just piss you off more.

Don't believe for a second any other cable/satellite TV company is better. They all treat the customer like slime.

Their end is coming and it can't come soon enough.

Joined: 09/14/2009

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umich1

September 16th, 2017 at 11:07 AM ^

1 month after starting, they tried to tack on a surcharge. I called and said I'd be happy to fax them a copy of the result of my lawsuit against AT&T if they don't think I'm serious about my rate staying fixed. They haven't given me any problems since.

They are definitely better than the rest, but not entirely without fault IMO.

Joined: 09/14/2009

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StephenRKass

September 16th, 2017 at 6:22 AM ^

I've never had cable. If it cost $200 / mo, that's $64,000 I've saved. Even if $100 / mo, that's more than $30k.

With internet, a good digital antenna, and several good bars around, there are enough good options out there.

Joined: 07/15/2008

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StephenRKass

September 16th, 2017 at 11:09 AM ^

Since I get HD reception for ABC and Fox, most Michigan games are viewable at home. I won't go to the bar for any other team. So yeah, the reality is that I might watch 2 - 3 football games a year at the bar, and 3 - 4 basketball games. For a couple of beers, and sometimes a meal, that's not bad in terms of financial outlay.

Joined: 07/15/2008

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LSAClassOf2000

September 16th, 2017 at 7:46 AM ^

We live in a community that had - until very recently - a franchise agreement with Comcast, which basically meant that as a homeowner in Romulus, it was Comcast or Comcast, even though AT&T and WOW exist on the poles in this area for commercial services. 

I have my gripes with Comcast, especially since we live in an area that seems to be prone to service outages now and again (poor placement of the nodes in relation to our distribution circuit - I mapped it out when I was bored once), but from my neighbors, it seems like AT&T and WOW have similar problems at least aroung here.

Joined: 01/07/2011

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ThatFatMan42

September 16th, 2017 at 9:28 AM ^

I'm not familiar with WOW but I know here in Indy AT&T is still basically just DSL. I had it in AA in college and it was crap. Here it is too slow to stream anything and not even fast enough to meet my work-at-home requirements by half. I suspect this is largely because DSL is late 90's tech and no one wants to put money into it. That situation is not unique to any particular region.

Joined: 11/15/2015

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UM Fan from Sydney

September 16th, 2017 at 7:50 AM ^

Just get Dish or DIRECTV (or as countless people incorrectly call it, "Direct TV"). Dish Network is fantastic.

Joined: 09/17/2015

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BayWolves

September 16th, 2017 at 8:00 AM ^

A lot of you are surprisingly still paying for television when you can get tiger stream and pay for nothing except the cost of the box. I get thousands of channels and movies from around the world and only pay for my fios high speed internet. Haven't paid a monthly bill in over two years and counting.



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Craptain Crunch

September 16th, 2017 at 8:07 AM ^

that's what you get when you let pols and crony capitalism create monopolies like we see in the cable business. There is no competition. 

 

If it hasn't already been mentioned, you can try fuboTV for free (7 day trial). I'm not sure what resolution they are using online but worth a try. 

Joined: 05/20/2016

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MGoStrength

September 16th, 2017 at 8:20 AM ^

Literally the only thing I watch on television is college football coverage (games, shows, etc.), and the vast majority of that content is UM games.  I would hapily pay for a service that gave me nothing more than every UM football game.  The problem is in order to get every UM football game, even if you watched absolutely nothing else, would still cost you over $100/month.  This is such a frustrating process.  

 

It's getting better, cheaper, and providing more consumer options each year.  Yet, there remains significant obstacles, loopholes, and there is no single provider in my area that carries everything I need (ESPN lineups, BTN, and live local TV) without paying for cable TV and a sports package together.  One day there will be true ala carte TV where I can choose those few providers with no others at a price that represents only what I want with no add ons.  We are not there yet.

Joined: 07/29/2010

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mgobleu

September 16th, 2017 at 8:40 AM ^

My only contact with them is at work. The internet sucks. "30mbps" or some bullcrap... I've never seen it that high. You can literally watch when kids in the area get home from school and start gobbling up all the bandwidth because i go from about 10mbps down to about 3. This of course says nothing about their servers. When my company set up the email account I have to use, they figured they had comcast, they must have to use comcast's email service. Dumbasses. Sending emails between my accounts it regularly takes 3-5 minutes for a single email to squeak through comcast's bottleneck of a server. I'm not going through the trouble of changing my email address with all my contacts at tho point though.

Joined: 07/02/2008

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NCalBlue86

September 16th, 2017 at 10:29 AM ^

home service definitely is lacking. I use comcast for internet only, 250 mbps package, and Directv for TV. Combo works great. I will say that comcast business is a totally different story. Comcast business, in my experience and I have them in 5 of my offices...is like flying First Class. Comcast residential is like being stuck in a middle seat in coach between 2 samoans. 

 

Joined: 12/26/2016

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tpilews

September 16th, 2017 at 1:10 PM ^

I've looked into cutting the cord, but the savings wasn't there. I only pay $90/month for unlimited internet and TV, which includes BTN. The only downside is the internet speeds, but we're a bit outside the city, so options are a bit limited. I could go with Comcast for higher speeds, but for about $65 more per month.

Joined: 10/17/2008

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Esterhaus

September 16th, 2017 at 4:19 PM ^

Sony deigned to update my TV OS and apps during today's opening kickoff despite I had scheduled updating for the middle of the night. The last update must have purged my settings. So I missed the first drive while watching a bunch of onscreen placeholders and wondering whether my channels would return without additional time consuming steps. It worked out but am peeved at the Japanese.

Joined: 03/16/2015

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