Comments on: A/V upgrade update: Delivery and CableCARDS

By: billsimmon

billsimmon — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:06:22 +0000

That’s good to hear, and as I said, I will certainly publish my experiences with Comcast — good or bad — here. Though this says something really odd about Comcast’s customer relations. I’ve mentioned this before on this blog, but it’s really strange that Comcast gives preferential treatment to customers who say bad things about them in social media. The only reason I know about these national customer relations avenues is because I’ve bitched about Comcast on this blog and on Twitter. The “let me make this right for you” attitude is admirable, but you don’t encounter that on the phone in your average Comcast CSR call — you only encounter it after you publicly express your disgust for the company. The effect is actually to *encourage* public complaints as it’s the only way to get some satisfaction from the company. Someone very high up in the Comcast customer relations chain of command needs to be fired.

By: Chief Oddball

Chief Oddball — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:27:46 +0000

Bill – Yeah, if you have an S.A. cable box, then you’re in an S.A. area. That said, if Comcast actually has M-cards in your area, that puts them at least one very important step ahead of my local guys.

Incidentally, Detreon speaks truth when he says his team can help you. Since the advent of Comcast’s national customer operations group, I’ve had numerous problems solved that the local phone reps couldn’t or wouldn’t help me with. If you have any trouble, drop them an email and it’ll probably be sorted out very quickly.

By: Detreon Roberts

Detreon Roberts — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:28:19 +0000

Hello,

Congrats on your new purchases. There’s no reason why you should have trouble with installing cable cards and we would like to ensure that you are cared for. Please get an email to my team and I and we will make that happen.

Best,

Detreon Roberts
Comcast National Customer Operations
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com

By: billsimmon

billsimmon — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:51:48 +0000

C.O., the HD set top box I have now is a Scientific Atlana. Does that mean I’m in a SA area? The one report I’ve heard from someone local is that they have an M-card, so I’m hopeful on that count.

Yeah, 150 hours of HD content sounds like a lot, but somehow I’m pretty sure I’ll still be fighting for room on the drive in no time.

By: Chief Oddball

Chief Oddball — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:42:48 +0000

I see you stumbled across my little horror story. If it’s any consolation, the efficacy of Comcast’s CableCARD handling appears to be entirely dependent on the local office and the equipment they use. If you’re in one of Comcast’s Motorola markets — which you probably are, as they account for about 90% of Comcast’s footprint — you will probably have no issues.

If you’re getting a multi-stream CableCARD (a.k.a. an M-card), you’ll probably fare better. There aren’t any M-cards in my area yet so I was stuck with a pair of single-stream cards, which apparently is a nightmare for the local Comcast billing system.

Best of luck on the install and I hope you have a good experience. And enjoy the TiVo HD XL! (I put a 1 TB drive in my TiVo HD, and it’s almost hilarious how much stuff you can store on it.)

By: Jace

Jace — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:18:05 +0000

I had a pleasant experience with Comcast and my TiVoHD. I was there and brought him to the screens, but he knew what to do from there. Works well. Good luck.