Chicagoist: Battling the Cable Company

Dig

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:09:20 -0600

That's a siamese mix or I'll eat my hat.

LauraH

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:30:49 -0600

Not surprised. We switched from Comcast to DirectTV years ago because of similar problems. We had tried no less than four times to switch to automatic billpay but Comcast could never get it done. When our bill was last for only the second time in 12 years, we called them the next day and were on the phone with them when they turned off our cable. We were told it would another week to two weeks before they could turn if back on again. ... When they had turned it off when we were on the phone with them. It boggles. They would call to ask if we wanted to switch back and didn't understand no, their service sucked. In the end, I'm glad that Comcast screwed up. We've had DirectTV ever since (because it took them one day to show up after we first ordered our box to install the dish) and we've been nothing but happy with them.

krmmnn

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:28:56 -0600

But what company really cares if you pay two days late?? They probably wouldn't even have assigned him a late fee...

El Cid

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:19:33 -0600

I'm hardly a Comcast apologist, but couldn't he have just switched to AT&T if he wasn't happy with Comcast's service, or maybe just budgeted knowing that bill was due at the end of the month? Neither his cashflow nor the amount of his bill would be different. Was it worth calling for months over? It sounds like Mr. Sternberg has a lot of time on his hands.

biscuitcleaver

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:06:48 -0600

There is no need for cable TV anymore. If you just get cable internet, you can watch any tv show you'd like through bit-torrent and sites like hulu and fancast. One time comcast 'enrolled' me automatically into a test program where they were bill me AFTER my usage (generally it's before). So, this left me where I had no cable bill for a month, and then the next month I was double billed. Then the program ended a few months later, and I was doubled billed again to get me back on track of the regular paying standard. I'm also pretty sure there were no two months that had the same billing statement. I couldn't figure out how a fixed price plan could change so often.