That's COMCASTIC!

/where's a granny with a hammer when you need one?

I'm surprised Consumerist is still writing posts about Comcast. Yes, we know they suck. No, I don't know why anyone does business with them.

That's no less than I'd expect from them.

SF_iris: I'm surprised Consumerist is still writing posts about Comcast. Yes, we know they suck. No, I don't know why anyone does business with them.

In St Charles, IL (western Chicago suburbs), it's either Comcast or ATT. You get to pick the barrel you get bent over though.

Comcast might actually surpass AT&T as absolute worst in customer service!

I thank God for being a role model to greedy people.

TooMuchToDo:
In St Charles, IL (western Chicago suburbs), it's either Comcast or ATT. You get to pick the barrel you get bent over though.

Aren't you glad that cable is part of our free market economy and that we don't suffer from the tyranny of monopolies? Thanks, FCC!

Not at all surprised. He really should take them to small claims court for damages.


\Counting the days til FIOS is availible so I can say C'ya! to Craplevision.
\\They redefine the meaning of highway robbery.

I was with Comcast for 4 years and this is about normal for them.

SF_iris: I'm surprised Consumerist is still writing posts about Comcast. Yes, we know they suck. No, I don't know why anyone does business with them.

So far I've been very lucky in my Comcast service. At least, the Internet part of it. The reception we get through cable, not so much, but I don't watch all that much TV, so I just deal with it. Best let sleeping dogs lie.

just to play devil's advocate, is it at least possible that the consumer placed a dvd player or something on top of the comcast box which caused the fire? because if he did, the fire is his fault and he owes the 88 dollars...

Verizon Fios FTW

One of my dearest friends works for Comcast in the DC area. His job has changed recently so I don't know his exact title, but I do know that he had to deal with the hammer-wielding granny. That lady was actually batshiat insane and had no great reason to be hammering up a Comcast office (contrary to all the great press she got, her problem had apparently been fixed already). Anyway, my friend had to contact the local media to try to get Comcast's side of the story out...but they wouldn't air it. Too much hate for the Ol' Comcast machine.

Typical Comcast crap. Yes, their "Customer Service" is the worst I've ever had to deal with, too. I guess I should be grateful they never burned my house down.

SueDisco: One of my dearest friends works for Comcast in the DC area. His job has changed recently so I don't know his exact title, but I do know that he had to deal with the hammer-wielding granny. That lady was actually batshiat insane and had no great reason to be hammering up a Comcast office (contrary to all the great press she got, her problem had apparently been fixed already). Anyway, my friend had to contact the local media to try to get Comcast's side of the story out...but they wouldn't air it. Too much hate for the Ol' Comcast machine.

I don't doubt your story but if Comcast has bought themselves ten tons of hate through their deplorable behavior, and then receives eleven tons instead, I'm not going to feel sorry for them.

Yup same company that was trying to charge people who lost everything in Ike for the boxes that weren't returned. They wouldn't back down until the papers started to call them about it. They hope to bully until they are called on it.

By the way, my above post should not in any event be read as an endorsement for Crapcast. I hated them when I had them and have heard an enormous number of horror stories.

If the cable box caused the fire, then Comcast owes either the homeowner (or the insurance company) the replacement cost of the house and what it contained. And in any event, the consumer should get a refund on any money spent on that damn box. I am quite sure that providing consumers with electronic equipment that causes fires when used as directed violates a bunch of laws and regulations which could result in fines over and above what I have already mentioned.

I don't like lawyers just like any other sane and reasonable person. But there are reasons for them. This is one of them. It is time that someone unlease a rabid lawyers on Comcast's corporate ass.

Two bad their is know mention of Comcast anywear in that article.

I didn't realize Comcast was responsible for everything their boxes do. Does Comcast make them? Probably not.

I'd guess that this guy had papers on them, or a candle sitting on it or something.

And really, why should they let this guy off for the $88 bucks? If your spouse is driving a rental car, and it gets crushed by a cement truck, killing your spouse, should you not pay for the car? Your insurance should cover it, just like it should cover this box. You signed a contract saying you'd pay $88 bucks if damage occured, and it did, while it was loaned to you.

Library: "You still have 2 books checked out"
Patron: "Oh yeah, my house got flooded, eat it library"
Library: "...."
Patron: "Hey, it's not my fault a flood happened, but I'm not going to be responsible and live up to the contract that I signed when I got the library card"

Staypuft - I totally agree with you. Just sorry that my friend had to suffer for the misdeeds of his company in general.

He played the game poorly. When his move came, he played the poor choice of "I cannot return your equipment because it was destroyed in a fire." move. That move has always been countered with the "The reason you didn't return the equipment is of no concern to us. You still owe us for it even if you have paid for it over time completely with all the equipment charges you have paid." move.

The move he should have played was "My house was burned down and the official report of the fire investigation was that the cable box was the cause of the blaze, please provide me with the contact information needed to file a claim with your insurance carrier or where I can send a bill for the damages." move. See what they counter with then.

SF_iris: I'm surprised Consumerist is still writing posts about Comcast. Yes, we know they suck. No, I don't know why anyone does business with them.

In my neck of the woods (literally), it's either comcast or nothing. Verizon is slowly working their way towards my house though and soon as I can switch over, I'll drop comcrap like a bag of dirt.

On a related note, I don't know if anyone else on the east coast has noticed but comcast service seems to be worst this past month that is the norm. And for comcast, that's pretty bad. I've had high latency for the past month and they've been disconnecting me a lot over the past two weeks. And not just me either since I watched as all of my neighbors lost their connections at the same time I did (wardriving ftw).

SueDisco: One of my dearest friends works for Comcast in the DC area. His job has changed recently so I don't know his exact title, but I do know that he had to deal with the hammer-wielding granny. That lady was actually batshiat insane and had no great reason to be hammering up a Comcast office (contrary to all the great press she got, her problem had apparently been fixed already). Anyway, my friend had to contact the local media to try to get Comcast's side of the story out...but they wouldn't air it. Too much hate for the Ol' Comcast machine.

I am sure this true. It was fixed after 37 phone calls, three visits by Comcast which required taking a total of 14 days off work, and the replacement of a $20 item for which she was billed $1,321.37.

It would be enough to make anyone insane.

If I were this guy I would have hired a lawyer to send a letter saying...

"OK. I'll see your $88 'damaged equipment' bill, and raise you MY bill for $ (fill in the blank) for fire damage caused by YOUR equipment."

ubermensch: Library: "You still have 2 books checked out"
Patron: "Oh yeah, my house got flooded, eat it library"
Library: "...."
Patron: "Hey, it's not my fault a flood happened, but I'm not going to be responsible and live up to the contract that I signed when I got the library card"

Did the books cause the flood somehow? That changes things a bit.

I envy Japan.

That is all.

ubermensch: Library: "You still have 2 books checked out"
Patron: "Oh yeah, my house got flooded, eat it library"
Library: "...."
Patron: "Hey, it's not my fault a flood happened, but I'm not going to be responsible and live up to the contract that I signed when I got the library card"

Or-

Patron: Your books spontaneously combusted and burned down my house.

s/Sony/Comcast/

Those friggin SA cable boxes spit out more heat than my series 2 tivo did.

They spit out more heat than my xbox 360.

How the hell do they do that without hard drives?

Weaver, you're from PA, right? I work in Clarion County, and we have Comcast Business cable for our ISP. We're a switchover from the Adelphia debacle, and I never thought that service could get worse than they were, but Comcast has been Shiatastic! for us the past few months.

So, have you tried restarting your router?
Apparently, that's the Magic Solution to everything, according to Comcast.

SF_iris: TooMuchToDo:
In St Charles, IL (western Chicago suburbs), it's either Comcast or ATT. You get to pick the barrel you get bent over though.

Aren't you glad that cable is part of our free market economy and that we don't suffer from the tyranny of monopolies? Thanks, FCC!

I don't think you know what free market means.

ubermensch: I didn't realize Comcast was responsible for everything their boxes do. Does Comcast make them? Probably not.

I'd guess that this guy had papers on them, or a candle sitting on it or something.

And really, why should they let this guy off for the $88 bucks? If your spouse is driving a rental car, and it gets crushed by a cement truck, killing your spouse, should you not pay for the car? Your insurance should cover it, just like it should cover this box. You signed a contract saying you'd pay $88 bucks if damage occured, and it did, while it was loaned to you.

Library: "You still have 2 books checked out"
Patron: "Oh yeah, my house got flooded, eat it library"
Library: "...."
Patron: "Hey, it's not my fault a flood happened, but I'm not going to be responsible and live up to the contract that I signed when I got the library card"
Meh, 2/5. Please troll again.

You're ignoring the part about the rented device destroying itself. A better example would be if your spouse rented a car and the car randomly exploded, killing your spouse. I'd sue the fark out of the rental place, the manufacturer and anyone else that'd fit on the line.

Ugly Baby Judges You: Weaver, you're from PA, right? I work in Clarion County, and we have Comcast Business cable for our ISP. We're a switchover from the Adelphia debacle, and I never thought that service could get worse than they were, but Comcast has been Shiatastic! for us the past few months.

Central Pa, yeah. Near Harrisburg.

So, have you tried restarting your router?
Apparently, that's the Magic Solution to everything, according to Comcast.

I've seen packet losses of up to 14%. That's not a constant, but geez dude!

tonesskin: Two bad their is know mention of Comcast anywear in that article.

Maybe you missed the title

Comcast Bills Man For Self-Immolating Cable Box Of Doom

Been a while since I was out your way...I spent a few semesters at Messiah College in Grantham. I kinda liked that part of the state.

/end threadjack

Am I missing something? TFA doesn't seem to say that anything else but the cable box was damaged by the fire.

realistically speaking, if the guy wanted to sue, why not sue Scientific-Atlanta (absorbed by Cisco a year or so back), the box manufacturer.

/cable field tech, getting a kick out of these whiny replies

Ugly Baby Judges You: Been a while since I was out your way...I spent a few semesters at Messiah College in Grantham. I kinda liked that part of the state.

/end threadjack

it hasn't changed all that much. it's still 1856 here.

ubermensch:

Library: "You still have 2 books checked out"
Patron: "Oh yeah, my house got flooded, eat it library"
Library: "...."
Patron: "Hey, it's not my fault a flood happened, but I'm not going to be responsible and live up to the contract that I signed when I got the library card"

Your analogy is incorrect. Supposedly, the cable box caused the fire, thereby destroying itself and some of the man's property. If the fire really was due to a faulty cable box, Comcast should be thanking their lucky stars the fire didn't kill someone.

1wq2: tonesskin: Two bad their is know mention of Comcast anywear in that article.

Maybe you missed the title

Comcast Bills Man For Self-Immolating Cable Box Of Doom

Wahahahahaha! Nice job. Your a idiot.

That's because Comcast sucks a box of cox.

You want to see real puke-inducing marketing...Open an account on Twitter and post something about a problem you have with Comcast. Within 12 hours you'll get a Twitter message back from "Tim" or "Bill" or whoever at Comcast, showing everyone reading your Twitter feed just how concerned and attentive Comcast is to its customers' needs.

Of course the offer of assistance is as helpful as those contact numbers that go to pre-recorded information trees with no human agents to speak to.

tonesskin: Two bad their is know mention of Comcast anywear in that article.


Yew hour sew silly!

My local Comcast, here in Houston, billed me for months and months for having my own modem. That is: they billed me once for a non-existant modem, then billed me for my own modem. The reasoning was is that I was assigned 2 MAC addresses, and regardless of who/what modem, that's what they bill off of. Still, they were hard pressed to explain the monthly rental fee of a modem which didn't exist.

All total it took 6 months to clear up.

Now I'm lucky and pay about $80 a month for *just* internet. I have no additional services. Just internet.

I love Comcast so much...it hurts.

I hadn't heard about the hammer wielding granny until this thread. I actually got my Grandmother a hammer for Christmas, so now I'm worried about why she asked for one.

Before I was just sort of worried about why my grandmother asked for a hammer for Christmas.

Ashtrey: I hadn't heard about the hammer wielding granny until this thread. I actually got my Grandmother a hammer for Christmas, so now I'm worried about why she asked for one.

Before I was just sort of worried about why my grandmother asked for a hammer for Christmas.

Oh Jesus, I just walked into a grandmother-related "The Hammer is my penis" joke didn't I?

I really wished the consumerist required a bit more data to back up their stories than just the side of one party. If the fire was caused by the box, it would be easy to include the fire report from the investigators.

It took 16 days and FOUR visits from Comcast technicians for someone to find the reason my "Highspeed Internet" service was dying every 2-3 hours. The cables running to my house were old, worn and needed to be replaced.

After the first week I called them every time my connection went down (about three times a day for up to an hour at a time).

Shouldn't they figure that crap out on the first visit (which I had to wait three days for)?

low level csr's can't resolve situations like this cuz they don't have the authority and or knowledge and you have to go all the way to the top and it may take months. years ago when i was a csr at a satellite dish company there was a senile old fart who would call in several times a day and change his programming. there was a charge to do this so his account was filled with notes from high level suppervisors. the first note explained the situation and said only let his daughter change programming. the next would say i'm a higher level super and the account is his so he can do whatever he wants-just remind him he is being charged to change programming.back and forth this goes and he had over $500 in charges [this was almost 15 years ago] in about 3 months. there were almost 200 posts from the supervisers on his account and it was finally closed. i changed his programming the time i got his call. untill the daughter gets power of attorney over him and gets the account closed i think give him whatever he wants.