Moved from Comcast to Frontier 4 weeks ago.....

[Fastbird]

That was a mistake. Holy crap I didn't think it could get any worse. It got FAR worse. So bad in fact, that yesterday morning, I called up Comcast, restarted an internet only account with them, and told frontier to come pick up their crap. I then literally went outside and completely removed and uninstalled their FIOS drop they put in.


Starting the account was painful. Took 3 service reps to confirm that I had FIOS available. All was copacetic for three weeks until my first bill arrived......for $395!!!! I was supposed to be signed up for 50/50 internet and their "Extreme HD" tv package. I got 75/75 and Extreme HD, with NO promo. Oh, and a security suite at $10 a month I explicitly declined, undisclosed installation and activation charges totaling $130 to boot.


Over the course of the next few days, things slowly started to get sorted. First was an internet chat that was supposed to fix things, relatively easy. Even was going to get a NEST Thermostat out of them for a song as part of the concession (and HBO for half price for a year and ALL the other premiums comped for 3 months). Two days later, our internet was suddenly not working though cable was fine. Got home and find out that someone on their side had put in a cancellation order for our internet?!?!? Took literally 3 hours to clear that up, the last hour of which was on their top tier "we screwed up bad" customer care division (like C3 was at Citibank when I worked there). She told me everything was fixed, bill was correct, all concessions made, etc. Then the next day, I'm trying to watch TV. See a movie on Cinemax, but Cinemax isn't working. Back to chat I go, quite unhappy. Holding Frontier to the fire on this. Girl on chat told me "we can't comp Cinemax, can only bundle with HBO for $3 a month." We went round and round, and her solution was to add Cinemax for $12 a month, then have me chat in to have a price correction done every bill for the 3 month comp period. Told her go ahead but I'm cancelling. That was Friday night.


Yesterday morning, called Comcast, started their Blast internet up for $40 a month, did a hotline activation since I owned my own modem. No extra charges or anything. Almost went with cable tv package, but it kept creeping and creeping up in price and after the sales rep slipped and gave me bad into, I put a stop to it as said no, internet only. Had to spend a little while with the activation folks on the line while I swapped some cable connections outside to get the proper feed going again, and all was well.


So now, I've cut the cable company cord. $40 a month for internet. Already have a prime account that works out to $8.33 a month. Netflix and Hulu for $8 each a month. And just this morning, discovered Sling TV for $20 a month that I conceded to pay for on request of my wife mainly for Food Network and AMC (Walking Dead). So right now at $84 a month and any of it is easily deleted without major losses. Just need to grab an OTA HD antenna and we'll be set.


UNFORTUNATELY, I got forced into NEEDING my HTPC to work. I have it in a fractal design NODE 304 mini-itx case. Unfortunately in our great room, the setup doesn't allow for it to go somewhere without looking out of place (pardon the mess, we closed 4 weeks ago and are still unpacking):





Not to mention it doesn't have a wireless card. I couldn't get an AC wireless card locally, and REALLY didn't want to drill holes and drag Cat6 cable from the office at the front of the house over to the complete opposite end. ALL my media files are .mkv format, so Chromecast and FireTV were out. Ended up grabbing a ROKU 4 box, and I was completely blown away by it. WELL worth the $130.


I don't ever forsee going back to a cable company again. I know the naysayers will ping me for the $20 a month slingtv for the few channels it offers, but I don't see it as being the same.

[Dan]

I'll never change off of Comcast. I never have a problem with them like others. Customer service is great too. 100mb download is great too

Hey bb

[Fastbird]

I bolted from Comcast because they royally screwed up my move from our rental to the new house 4 weeks ago. Took four hours and multiple calls, and I was never told I was getting a new account number, new package that was "close" to my old one though it cost more (lost HBO, pay $10 more a month), and that because I moved it terminated my 2 year contract price. SO I told them to piss off.

Should have just cut cable a long time ago and gone OTA and web based. Glad I finally did. Less money, not really losing much at all now in terms of programming given Sling tv either.

[popo8]

Man... what a pita. I only ever thought of leaving comcast once... because of a billing issue that took 4 months to correct. But it was finally corrected. I pay a bit more but I have the home phone... internet... home security system... rental on several boxes... dvr... and modem. I have no intentions to change after 14 years with them...

LTXtech.com IS my drug...
OWNER/ADMIN

[mattgw86]

I feel lucky I really like my cable company. I suffered through AT&T and directv for years, now I have reliable tv and 60mbps internet for about $100/month.

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

[harner]

Being a Comcast residential customer in the past, I can relate with thinking how obnoxious their pricing packages are. If I paid $200/mo for cable plus Internet, I'd have to seriously reconsider my time spent in front of a TV. Which i did already haha.

Even Comcast Business is a joke as far as support goes. There is a higher tier of Comcast, specifically with the Metro-E teams (enterprise fiber/internet), that are really superb to work with and will restore faith in humanity. Frontier, in my experience, was from a business-end only and they were great to deal with, however all the problems I had with them was because they used Verizon copper and circuits to do everything and acted as the middle man. It was cheaper to go with Frontier than Verizon directly and we got better support, but everytime I'd get an update saying "Verizon is looking into it," I'd shudder.

I have occupied and owned my home for 6 or 7 years now. They had dial up for years prior and the cable company was only 2 poles down the street. First thing I did was had them run the coax to the house and I got cable and Internet with it. Cut the cable cord after a year and just had Netflix and AppleTV along with Internet. Then, cancelled my residential internet and got a commercial account. Horrible speeds (6/2), but I had a static IP and hosted some things out of the house. Had cable briefly over the years but always cut it. Recently, I went back to cable because of a deal they had going on and a residential connection again (60/3).

What keeps driving me back to cable TV is I work from home and like the general noise. Youtube and streaming stuff just isn't quite the same. I really dislike anything that is not on the Discovery network (Velocity, History, etc), yet have a ton of other channels that are never watched. What we need is a good cable-replacement Internet-based cable service that allows you to pick and choose your channels and also has local shows.

Cable company: Blue Ridge Cable
Internet company: PenTeleData resold/relabeled by BRC (commercial was direct through PTD)

When I get sick of cable, I may go the dish route. I'll always have cable internet, though. Verizon has internet in this area but apparently they are "full" - meaning their switches are full. Who the hell does that? What kind of Mickey Mouse manager is running that operation?

Ugh... you did the right thing @Fastbird. Love the FD case by the way.

[shownomercy]

Fuck em all, they all suck IMO. They know they have a captive market and refuse to budge from their pricing.

Cutting the cord and just getting internet has been awesome so far.

[SS RRR]

For the seven years we had Comcast we only had maybe three to five outages in total. Always had a solid up/down/ping rate too, however they were bloody expensive since they were the only game in town.

Fuck em all, they all suck IMO. They know they have a captive market and refuse to budge from their pricing.

Cutting the cord and just getting internet has been awesome so far.

That's not cutting the cord, per se. Just modifying it a lil' bit.

[Chris]

Sounds very similar to how comcast was with me when I lived in Memphis, that past post thing on faccebook always pops up and I was bitching about comcast. Only one I have actually liked was Charter but I only had internet with them so there was much to screw up.

Now I use a Sprint Mobile Hotspot that downloads at 50-60mpbs off peak hours and I can take it with me anywhere I go for $40 bucks a month. Have Amazon Prime and a Roku so I dont need anything else. Wont work once the gf moves in or have a family but I am fine using this for a few years. Dont have to worry about crappy hotel internet or being off the grid when I go on vacation. Found it at Unlimitedville.com in case anyone is interested