Comcast, We Have a Problem
By EconMatters
The bigger news in the cable industry is that the U.S. Justice Department's threat to block the purchase/merger of Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) did result in Comcast withdrawing its stock-swap proposal to acquire TWC in April, 2015. However, TWC soon afterwards entered into an agreement to be acquired by Charter Communications in May.
The Charter’s deals totaling $67.1 billion for TWC and Bright House Networks is still under review by Federal Regulators. If approved, that merger would create the country’s second-largest cable operator, with about 24 million customers in 41 states, after Comcast.
I personally think it is insane that anyone would even entertain the idea that a merger of any cable companies would be a good thing to consumers. On the surface, the cable industry is not entirely "consolidated". Nonetheless, the fact is that almost all cable companies operate as de facto monopolies in the United States since frequently only one cable company offers cable service in a given community. Things have gotten worse as cable also has become one of the very few choices for residential Internet services.
For example, in Houston, the fourth most populous city in the nation, Comcast has a virtual monopoly over residential cable services. Leveraging its cable TV monopoly, Comcast is also the more popular choice for Internet service within the city (cable modem is supposed to have better speed than phone lines). With this kind of dominance, would any business strive to "innovate" or "improve the quality of customer service?
Comcast already had several widely reported customer service related scandals in 2014 and 2015 (there's a whole section on Wikipedia). Since EconMatters is based in Houston, I will share some of my personal experience.
Before Comcast, Houston market was served by TWC. Then TWC and Comcast did a swap in 2006 so Comcast is now serving Houston cable TV. Although both have horrible customer service, Comcast is even worse due to the increasing complexity of service tiers and "billable" items requiring much higher skilled employees.
To sum it up, it seems a common cable industry practice to have a very cumbersome and "labor intensive" billing system coupled with poorly trained employees. EconMatters are made up of market analysts, so believe it when we say cable bills are hard to understand and reconcile. I almost think this is intentional so to kills two birds with one stone:
- Customers are less likely to call and dispute if they cannot make sense of a bill.
- Poorly trained employees not only serve as good "gatekeepers" to frustrate customers but also less likely to grant 'disadvantageous" (to Comcast) adjustments regardless of the merit.
Due to various factors (moving, homeowner association change, etc.) at one time or another within the past 12 months, I had to go through a few rounds with Comcast either to correct billing errors or to properly reflect prices agreed upon over the phone. "Onerous" does not even begin to describe the process.
First, Comcast makes you jump through hoops to get to a live person, and Comcast outsources part of the Customer Call Center to places like Jamaica (there's a serious frustrating communication issue here). This live customer service person serves as a gatekeeper that can only handle routine issues from a script. So discussing non-routine issues over the phone is very time-consuming, repetitive and frustrating exercise.
And get this, Comcast does not give email confirmation of what was agreed upon over the phone. I encountered a situation where I was triple assured everything was fully documented in my account (Comcast rep even gave me a "confirmation number") and nothing to worry about since everything was noted. However, I later found out the so-called "documentation" or note consists of one sentence "Customer called to discussed pay service package", so with nothing to go back on, I ended up repeating the same process again.
It takes about two months for any billing adjustments to appear on your account, so by the time you realize the expected adjustment fails to appear (like I said, most of Comcast employees I've encountered are poorly trained), two months would have gone by. Because Comcast does not give email confirmation or document properly what's agreed on over the phone, you need to repeat the same process of explaining and diligently monitoring your account. At this stage, most of the customers would have given up.
EconMatters does not like to give up anything without a fight. In my experience, it took up to six months and very long (up to 1.5 hours) five phone calls escalated to the manager level to resolve one of the more complicated billing issues. And because of several issues taking place one after the other, it has become almost a full-time job to call, reconcile and monitor monthly bills to ensure everything goes as expected.
In addition to billing, Comcast has serious technical issues as well. I have made at least 5 trips to Comcast service centers swapping out cable boxes due to mal-function. Then, I got charged almost $250 for the technician visit that did not solve any problem. That ended up taking me 2 long phone calls and 3 months to get the credit back from Comcast.
This is where Comcast is penny wise, pound foolish. Yes, I can see how some brainy act at Comcast think they have a virtual monopoly and outsourcing customer service to Jamaica, saving employees training costs could be beneficial to the bottom line. What Comcast fails to see is that providing bad service in a service business means the days of the current business model are numbered. Brick and mortar companies such as Fidelity, Discover Card (NYSE: DFS), CitiCorp (NYSE: C), and TriEagle Energy are able to move with the latest consumer trend without sacrificing customer service. These companies understand customers should be the most important part of their business and a wide spread negative consumer response will be like a tsunami crushing the entire industry.
One thing for certain is that the core cable part of Comcast business is facing increasing downward pressure. It is no accident that 2015 is The year Wall Street Discovered Cord-Cutting. There's a growing number of Americans either migrate to cheaper packages with fewer channel, watch shows via online services like Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), or drop cable altogether. This new cord-cutting consumer trend is killing the business model of an entire industry from cable providers to program producers. Disney (NYSE: DIS) sparked a panic sale of media stocks in August after revealing its ESPN sports network had lost subscribers and cutting its cable-TV outlook.
For 2015, Comcast stock seems to have held up better than some other media stocks. However, this is mostly due to Comcast's entertainment properties like Universal Pictures that had a banner year with three films -- Minions, Furious 7, and Jurassic World -- exceeding $1 billion in global box office. In addition, the company experienced record attendance at its theme parks. That being said, movie and theme park business is quite cyclical, and it's unrealistic to expect Universal and theme parks to come through for Comcast year after year as they did in 2015.
Comcast only acquired Universal NBC in 2006, and most likely retain the legacy operation model and talents. It is likely, or even already happening, that Comcast brings its failing cable operation model into the entertainment part of the business. Bad management believing in bad business model will take down any company regardless how lucrative it is going.
I think the only part of Comcast business that may have some customer-retention power is in the Internet Service. But companies like Google already saw that void and started its Google Fiber business. With consumers moving towards cord-cutting, and the line expansion like Google Fiber and other players, it is only a matter of time the entire cable industry could become obsolete real quick.
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kill comcast..die you bloated monopoly monster of banal content & abusive service. just fucking die.
All of you are way too easy on Comcast.
Maybe that is because words cannot describe how horrible they really are. I moved 50 miles and kept Comcast services. They changed my phone numbers. They did not tell me they did so. I figured it out when I did not get any business calls for three days. I called "customer service". I couldn't understand their heavily accented English, so each call took about 10 times longer that it should have. Many of the reps hung up on me when I kept asking them to repeat what they were trying to say. So I called back. Each rep had to start from the beginning, starting with a five minute (at best) process wherein I am asked to give a lot of information proving my identity. Each fucking time with each fucking call. At first they told me that my phone numbers had not been changed. Eventually, they confirmed the change, could not explain why, and told me they would change the numbers back to the original ones, but it would take 48 hours. Three days later, no change back. Called again. Told same thing. Three days later, no changes implemented. Threatened to cancel all Comcast services and go with AT&T. Gasp! Am promised that changes will actually be made this time within 48 hours. Of course, three days passed, and nothing was changed.
While waiting, I noticed that my old numbers had no forwarding message on them. Anybody who called them got a "this number has been disconnected" or the "this number is no longer in service" messages. Three hours on the phone produced a promise that a forwarding message would be installed on my old lines. Am told that this would be done as a favor to me. It is not customary to do so. The default policy is to just cancel the old numbers and route calls to the "disconnected/not in service" message.
In order to remain in business, I start calling the people who should have been calling me, just to see if they had tried to reach me. I am well beloved by my customers, many of whom expressed great relief and joy to learn that I was, indeed, still alive and (not yet, at least) ensconced in a mental hospital someplace.
I delve further into the black hole. I discover that my new numbers are "unlisted". Anybody searching for me by name cannot find me. "Why?", I ask a nice young lady in the Phillipines. She tells me, and I finally understand her after asking her to please repeat what she was trying to tell me in heavily accented English about seven times, that Comcast assumes that the only reason people move is to try and hide from the world, so Comcast assumes they want unlisted phone numbers. Yes, that is Comcast's policy, which is motivated, I suspect, in main part because an unlisted number carries with it a $4.95/month upcharge per line.
So, I ask to be listed. OK, sir, the changes will occur within 48 hours.
I then delve into the bizarre multiverse of trying to get the unlisted phone number charges removed from my bill. While perusing my bill for those charges, I notice the total size of the bill is over twice as large as it should be. Comcast was happy to add charges for all of my services at my new home, but they somehow failed to process my cancelation of services at my old home, and I was being double billed for cable TV, two phone lines, and internet, with a bunch of new installation charges being the icing on the cake. At least I had done a "self-installation", so my intallation charges were reduced to $100 or so for somebody to do two minutes of data entry at their end regarding my new location.
After about 29 hours on the phone, I lost my composure and began screaming death threats into the handset aimed at clueless young people on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. I had abandoned all hope of ever getting credits for any of the overcharges when a young American woman awakened me with a phone call at about 11:45 p.m. one night, and calmly discussed my issues with me and assured me that she had the authority to give me any and all deserved credits immediately. She was at her computer entering them into the Comcast billing system as we spoke. She also explained to me that although I had not moved outside of the same county, I had crossed some invisible line and ventured into a new 911 zone, and that Comcast by law could not allow customers to port phone numbers from one 911 zone to another, and I was stuck with new phone numbers and could not have my old ones back. Apparently this memo had never been sent to anybody in the Phillipines.
Maybe it was just as well. The old numbers had been assigned to me arbitrarily by Comcast at a time when high demand for numbers had used up all numbers alloted by AT&T to Comcast for that particular area code. As a backup plan, Comcast had another area code for people who resided somewhere outside of our solar system (947), so I had to take a couple of 947 numbers, which led to a lot of wasted time on the phone explaining to people where I was geographically located. I tell them I used to have an office on Pluto.
I start getting automated phone calls on one of my new lines informing me that unless I immediately paid my $600 Comcast bill, all of my services would be disconnected. I am relieved that my phone is actually ringing again, and that it is an automated message taped by a native English speaker, and that I don't have to ask anyone to repeat themselves six or seven times before I could understand I was being threatened with cancellation for non-payment.
So I spend another three hours on the phone trying to get somebody in Manila to reassure me that I don't have to pay that much because I am due credits for the double billing and the unlisted phone number charges. My phone conference is interrupted by a Comcast salesperson ringing my doorbell to sell me, as a new arrival in the neighborhood, the Comcast triple play bundle. She quotes me prices significantly lower than what I am paying as a loyal Comcast customer, but was sad to learn that I already had the bundle, which made me ineligible for the deals she was peddling. She suggests that I cancel everything, then have her sell me the bundle, so that I could get the cheaper price and she could get a commission. The blood drains from my face as I contemplate what could actually happen if that process was triggered, starting with the likelihood of my being triple-billed, so I decline the opportunity and return to my overseas phone call. The rep in Manila had hung up. So I call again, and start giving my ID information to the nice young man who was mumbling the questions to me in bastard Tagalog/English. I already knew all of the ID questions by heart, so not understanding him was no longer an issue. He eventually tells me not to worry. I don't believe him, but he was right. My services are not shut off. I think they had logged my threats to go with AT&T and were only bluffing.
A month later a totally incomprehensible bill arrived containing a long, long list of totally incompreshensible credits. I think they added up to about $35 less than I should have received, but I was a beaten man by then, and I gave up, which, of course, is the end goal of Comcast customer service. I have framed the list of credits, which now hangs on my wall along with my doctorate diploma and other paper evidence of my greatest accomplishments in life.
"We don't care. We dont' have to. We're Comcast."
Comcast has always had the monopoly for cable service wherever I have lived.
I will get my revenge someday, served cold. Simply cutting the cord or going with another service provider doesn't go far enough, so I am biding my time. Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.
So, while waiting for that day to arrive, I turn on my TV to pass the time. I am greeted by a Comcast commercial telling me that moving is a snap with Comcast.
Die! BITCH Die! COMCAST keeps spamming me with TV popups asking me to "try out their X1 service for free" I click NO;
They are now offering $500 per head that you bring them-God I cant wait for Century Link to finish wiring my area
just go internet only... and stop bitching.
You miss the point they have many, including me, by the balls for local internet access. When dial up was a "thing" I had a huge selection of carriers. Once the speeds didn't cut it any more, I had one "choice".
TV is dead, but hasn't been told yet. The problem is Internet access. Comcast has you by the balls there.
The ONLY reason live TV still exists is for sports slaves.
I said slaves - I meant stupid fucking cows.
There's free network TV, most local/national news channels, many popular cable channels, all sports packages/events (I can watch/stream nearly any sporting event reliably), movie sites, sites to binge your favorite shows, and massive free libraries.
I recommend that you take one day, do keyword searches on your favorite engine, and track down some sites. It's a worthwhile investment of time, and you'll be rewarded for your effort.
I should mention that having AD Block, C Cleaner, NoScript and the like is recommended.
Here are a couple freebies......
http://cricfree.tv/baseball-live-streaming (for all sports)
http://www.stream2watch.co/live-tv/us
A safe and prosperous NewYear to all
I NEVER tune into the big 4 Networks ABS NBC CBS CW-i watch a smattering of FOX for Simpsons and PBS for....i forget now...
SlingTV. Like cable, but through the internet and only $20/mo for the base package. I made the leap from Comcast and have never looked back.
I have Comcast for my internet. I never had cable.
Two weeks ago I went multiple rounds with their tech support.
I work remotely from home and all of a sudden I could not connect to work.
Everything else is working fine. I can stream Youtube and surf any website. I can even go to my company's website and as long as it is the public pages I hit everything is fine.
Eventually I figured out what they are doing. They are blocking a combination of my router MAC address, company's IP address and a port that the vpn connection uses. They deny that they block anything. I know they are because I can fake my MAC address and everything works ...for a while.. I think they monitor something and don't like all the data transfers that I do. I would spin up at least 9 sftp connections and start copying gigs of data. Last week I limited myself to 4 connections and have not gotten my connection cut.
Last time I called I told the guy - give me a supervisor. I do not want to talk to you. You cannot help me. I have talked to your colleagues for the last 3 days and I am done wasting my time. He tries to ask me questions so he can help. I tell him again - give me a supervisor. More questions from him. Give me the person who handles terminations. I am done with Comcast. More fucking questions. ..to document the issue.... Then my fucking cell phone lost connection ....
My mission this week is to setup internet with Century Link. I know they also have issues but I am done with Comcast. I will pay 4 times as much for a T-mobile 4G hotspot before I give Comcast my business.
Comcast over charged me for two months. I called. After the run around mentioned in the article, I got a human and they gave me $20 "credit". Then, instead of subtracting the "credit" from my next bill, they ADDED $20 to the bill. Next call, worse run around, the AA employee tried to explain to me first they didn't charge me the amount they charged me, then backed off of that and explained the bill was correct with some double talk. I asked to speak to a manager or supervisor over and over and over, which the employee ignored. Finally, the employee asked for me to hold, after another 10 minutes came back to tell me I would get the credit on my next bill. At this point, Comcast owes me $40, and of course the internet bill is "paid in advance" so I am literally lending a giant corporation $40. It looks to me that a class action lawsuit in going to come down over these practices in the near future, and some lawyers are going to get rich.
In 2014 I kept every piece of junk mail Comcast sent me trying to get me to add phone or cable TV. Final total was 144 pieces of junk mail. I wonder how much junk mail the non-customers got?
What we need is an end to these monopolies in local internet services.
I had similar issue w/ Slime Warner. W/ Centruy Link (moved to the sticks) now -more expensive (ISDN), but better QOS. TWX service got really shitty at night when all the 'gamers' were home.
Get an antenae and drop cable. Got so tired of watching Pawn Star reruns. 100 channels and nothing ever worth watching.
Netflix for movies and antenae for local news. Fuck espn/disney and their PC bullshit.
EVERY FUCKING THING ON CABLE IS NOW reruns of reruns of reruns of reruns-and then they do all day block programming of said reruns-ie 2 days of Twilight Zone
MBAs were taught they did not need to know anything about the businesses they managed. It is all about "process".
The people who actually knew how to operate the company or make all the peices work together have retired or died.
The needed talent is simply not available.
I remember comcast from the 1990s... to this day I have a blacklist of companies that I refuse to do business with, and that list consists of comcast and comcast alone.
Anyone who does business with comcast gets what they deserve, stockholm syndrome in spades.
I don't see why people even have cable or watch TV. Must have been all the LSD I took and the whole conquering of my insecurities.
Blacklist from experience: Comcast, AMEX, Merrill-Lynch (now BoA), Yelp!, Microsoft
Great, more media consolidation. Good for America, right?
How timely. I am about to kill all Comcast except internet for internal distribution. Now I am looking for the alternate means of getting what I want. The more suggestions the better.
Comcast sux.
over the air channels are multiplying, (not all good) but then sub to HULU for $16/month-or this new Sling that just appeared above
Why are you so willing to throw your money away?
The next time I see any person here mention HULU, or NETFLIX, or some other pay service, just send me a fucking check.
tv shows: geektv.me
tv shows/movies: solarmovie.ph
adblock/ghostery/any other protection you care to provide area must.
Standard Disclaimer: Just learn to use a search engine... (usually putting the word "free" somewhere in the search helps)
You'll dump the TV portion of your service, then they'll jack up your internet rate because you're no longer receiving
"The Bundle" price.
I even pay extra for "Blast' internet. Supposedly faster...Not. Unreliable with regular outages. I do independent speed tests that prove they are not delivering the speed and service they charge me for. They claim only their speed tests are a reliable indicator of the service THEY are providing me. They blame it on my modem (which I'm forced to rent from them for an additional 10/month). If you attempt to purchase your own modem (even from a list of supposed Comcast approved modems) they screw with your service. I know several people who spend countless hours of time battling with them over this very issue. I'm paying 90 just for internet. Complete monopoly here with no reliable alternative. Cutting TV is saving me about 50/mo. instead of around 90 in the fairest sense. Oh, and in order to stream XFINITY on computer and devices you must pay for the cable TV portion. Why the fuck would I need streaming when I have TV, except to watch on my fucking phone while I'm mowing my yard, driving my car, or fucking off at work.
The only silver lining is that now my internet serves as TV (yes, there's lots of streaming TV and the like out there if you are diligent and resourceful), Internet and telephone (cause I dumped my cell plan too)
The customer service is exactly what is explained above. Tactic after tactic to frustrate you.
They will not be able to adapt. No reshuffling of bundles or any other adjustment of their business model is going to save them. The average bill in my area is likely 200/mo and middle class America is going broke. Light bill, water and mortgage/rent (oh, and cell..must have cell) need to be paid first.
RIP and FU, you shifty, scamming, lying, piece of shit MF's. I wish you could get body cancer.
when they are done installing, Century Link promise the same service at $75 a month (mid-cable/ mid-Internet) right now Cockcast gets me for $122 (no phone) my sister $200/month-and they spend hundreds of millions on ads telling us how great they are-and wish we would become their entranced 24/7 couch potato slaves entranced by our gadgets. NEVER MISS OUT ON A TeeVee PROGRAM AGAIN! Watch it at your parents funeral!
Tacoma City Light (public) runs their own cable tv service that competes directly with ComCast-CLICK! With comtetition, it seems they have better prices. We have a Mayor in Seattle that took money from Comcast so i doubt that Seattle City Light (also public) will ever get around to it. Tacoma will have Comcast, Century Link and CLICK!
Comcast is fine with 'cord-cutting' as they are going to make better margins and profits in the Internet business. The lack of the merger approval really did hurt though and as had the continued pressure by enough Democrats on Obama to keep FCC commissioners who support 'Net Neutrality.' Clinton may not and a GOP president certainly won't support 'Net Neutrality' which will be very beneficial for Comcast.
Comcast sucks ass. "Xfinity"...what a crock of shit.
Monopolistic crony ass of a cow company.
So glad I got my HD T.V antenna in my window.
Now Internet just needs to be free.
Stimulus for the economy!
If you've got an AM X card put your monthly bill on that. No charges to pay while AM X chews their ass. Works like a charm - they can't screw around with AM X for business reasons.
What is AM X? Do you mean Amex?
American Express card, now crawl back under yer rock.
Comcast can suck a bushel of dicks.
Why is center-stage FANG Netflix not in the diagram?
Moved recently and went from Charter to TWC. TWC is, by far, the worst cable company I've ever had the displeasure to subscribe to. I can't even begin to list the complaints I have and I've only been a customer for two months!
The cable industry needs deregulation.