I am SICK of COMCAST.Can Someone Recommend a Decent Alternative?

[romantico]

I've been with COMCAST for about 3 1/2 years now. Loved them when I started out. Took advantage of a bundle deal. We got High speed internet, voice mail,and basic cable all for $99 for the first year. When signing up,the operator told me they offer the deal 24/7 so when my year is up I can take advantage of the deal again. WRONG! When the year came up they WOULD NOT offer the same deal. Still, cable went up only $15. Over the years it has gone up and up. I am now paying $163 a month. Seems like ever since this Xfinity went into motion our bill has gone up each month. SOmetimes only by thirty cents or so but our bill has never been the same for more than a month at a time. One month its $163.25 the next it will be $163.79.In March of this year my bill was $158.77. We have not changed a thing.

I looked online at Dish and Directv for price comparisons. DIsh offers a lot more channels as part of their basic cable(including TCM which I would like but COMCAST will only sell me TCM in a sports package.Does that make sense? A sports lover enjoying old classic movies?) DIsh offered a lot of channels COMCAST does not for a cheaper price.

Bottom line is I've heard good and bad about various cable companies and am looking for anyone's own personal experience with their cable company. I need to get something fast because COMCAST is just killing me. Can anyone recommend a decent alternative to COMCAST?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

1. I don't believe there is one...

...because they're all watching each others' moves, and if Comcast makes a move to bone its customers, all of the others form a lock-step behind them and follow suit.

I had Comcast several years ago and HATED IT. I started out with full-blown expanded cable plus ALL of the movie channels.

As they raised their rates, I'd drop the movie channels, one by one.

And it got to the point where I was paying almost as much for "expanded basic" as I used to pay for "expanded basic and all of the movie channels."

So I kept it until the final episode of "The Sopranos." The next day I gathered up my boxes and remotes and went to their office anc cancelled everything, and haven't had cable since.

[graywarrior]

2. They did that to us. We called to cancel and told them why.

Verizon has been in our area offering a much better deal and we told Comcast we were switching to them. Comcast gave us back our original deal with no contract. $99 per month for all three services.

[romantico]

3. I asked

I asked about that when I called COMCAST and asked about why my bill is never the same month to month. They never gave me an answer. Instead they told me what "could be" the problem. Their operators are no help. I get in the Sunday paper all the time this $99 bundle deal they offer. I was told in order to take advantage I would have to call and cancel COMCAST.I'd have to take all equipment down to my local COMCAST office and schedule for someone to come out and disconnect my service from across the street. Then wait a day or so and then call back and order the $99 bundle package for new subscribers.When they come to hook me back up they will bring the box and emotes and sign me up as a new customer. I would have to pay the $29.99 hook up for only once but I'd pay $99 a month for the next 12 months. I would have to repeat this every year in order to take advantage of that deal.

I was hoping to hear from anyone who has Dish or Directv or any other cable service.Thanks for the replies!

[graywarrior]

4. They're bastards.

Mr Gray asked for a supervisor and told them they were being dishonest because they wouldn't give us a straight answer and that he was contacting the Attorney General and Better Business Bureau. They worked with us after that.

PS-We go through this every time our contract is up or when we move. EVERY time. they never can get their billing or information right.

[fadedrose]

8. Because of your post, I just looked at Verizon's website:

Unless I didn't spend enough time reading the small print, there are some pretty good deals. All 3 - phone, internet, TV, for about $85 a month.

Will check into this further - and thank you.


http://www22.verizon.com/content/verizonglobalhome/ghp_landing.aspx

[romantico]

12. I

I had never even thought of or considered Verizon. I will definitely check into it. Thanks for mentioning it!

[graywarrior]

14. You are welcome

If you switch to Verizon, they are offering to pay your cancel feel with Comcast or give you a $200 check to cover the cost.

[romantico]

18. I

I checked and Verizon is not offered in my area. Otherwise,that sounded like a nice deal.

[graywarrior]

19. Too bad, that's how Comcast gets away with it

[Taverner]

5. Hulu and Youtube nt

[RebelOne]

21. And??? What about Hulu and YouTube?

They are both available on Comcast, Dish and DirectTV.

[GoCubsGo]

6. I liked Dish when I had it.

They had reasonable rates, and I got a bigger bang for the buck than I did with the local cable company. It got cut off because my trees grew too high, and were interfering with reception. I got laid off, and paying to have that situation remedied cost more than I can afford, so I just cut it off. If my situation changed, I'd happily go back to Dish.

[abbeyco]

7. I have DISH having recently switched from DirecTV

Loved my old package on Direct but they "upgraded" me out of my package. I quit them for DISH and am pretty happy - free DVR & HD upgrade and I'm paying less than $50/month until Jan 2013. Good channel selection and I won't ever, ever switch to Comcrap - I worked for them and they are the worst. Good luck! :hi:

[begin_within]

9. Even though I despise AT&T as a company, Uverse is pretty cool.

We don't have Uverse but my niece does and I'm very impressed by it.

[sakabatou]

10. We have Dish and we like it

Only thing I don't like about it is the waiting time for the start-up.

[Seedersandleechers]

11. Totally done with cable

All the cable channels I cared about I can now get online.

[bigwillq]

13. I've never had any issues with Comcast.

Our neighbors always have issues with Uverse when it rains; signal goes out. I hated DISH. My buddy had it (before switching back to Comcast), and I didn't like how their stations were set up.

I'm going to keep Comcast.

Good luck. :hi:

[RebelOne]

17. Me neither. I had DishNetwork, but because of overgrown

trees across the street (not on my property) that blocked my reception, I had to switch to Comcast. I am very happy with it. At least, when it rains, I do not lose reception. I have the bundled package, which cost me $163.00 a month, but I am not complaining.

[CBGLuthier]

15. If you don't care for sports why have cable?

The only thing cable is halfway good at is showing sports.

I have not had cable for over a year. I spend 30 dollars a month for hulu and netflix. I occasionally download some shows like Breaking Bad the day after they air for usually around 2 dollars an episode. otherwise everything good comes to DVD or BD sooner or later.

I have access right now to 15,000 movies and TV shows including over 500 films from the Criterion collection that I can watch with just the push of a button.

Cable is old school and a bad model that needs to go away.

[backwoodsbob]

16. dish here too

I haven't had any complaints with them yet

[Orrex]

20. I have something tangential to add

Their switch to the Xfinity format for email is one of the dumbest things they've done since we signed on with them ~5 years ago. Honestly, the format offered by Hotmail @ Excite even 15 years ago was superior to what Comcast is now offering, and of course there's no way to opt out of it. Nope, the paying customer has no choice but to accept the ponderous, poorly navigable crap that they're paying for.

[femmocrat]

22. We got rid of comcast because they took away my MSNBC.

We got DirecTV. It's been fine, although we don't have the premium channels like HBO. We never had any weather-related problems and they have been very good about coming out for service calls. We did lose two local channels, though. :(

My biggest complaint: there are a LOT of worthless channels! Too many infomercial channels to count. So you are really paying for junk that you won't ever watch.

[romantico]

23. Just

Just called DISH and they do not offer phone in my area but cable and internet are not bad. They did not BS me and told me upfront the price is good for a year and will go up $20 after that. I'm getting 120 MORE channels with Dish then I am getting with basic cable on Comcast. On top of all of that I get a free dvr. Still have to call Directv but Dish sounds good so far. Thanks again for the helpful replies!!!