I recently cancelled my Comcast subscription and switched to U-verse for reasons I will explain below. I’ll be basing my feedback on my experience with Comcast for the past 5 years and my first few months with U-verse.
The Creeping Bill
I signed up for Comcast in September 2007. My monthly bill was $150. In March of the following year, it crept up to $159. By August, it was at $193. I threatened to cancel, spoke to a retention specialist, and was brought down to $159 in October 2008. It stayed that way for another year, but in October of 2009 I noticed it was up to $173. I threatened to cancel again, and they brought it down to $165. After another year, it was up to $230. I threatened to cancel again, and they bring me down to $182. Ten months later, it was back to $199.
| October 2007 | $150 |
| March 2008 | $159 |
| August 2008 | $193 |
| October 2008 | $159 (New Baseline) |
| October 2009 | $173 |
| November 2009 | $165 (New Baseline) |
| March 2011 | $230 |
| April 2011 | $182 (New Baseline) |
| January 2012 | $199 |
Notice a pattern? Each time I threatened to cancel they would lower the new rate but didn’t quite bring me back down to the original rate. It was always just a little bit more where I am happy it’s not $40 more, but I seem to keep quiet with the smaller $10-$15 increases.
The last retention specialist I spoke with was interesting. (I won’t complain about their customer service, that is one of the things I’ll say is a plus for Comcast – almost every one I spoke with gave great service.) I told him their fees were too high and needed him to work something out in order for me to stay. He mentioned an al a carte option where I can pick and choose specific services and channels. By the time we were done picking my options based on what I currently had, the quote was at $210. I had to remind him my reasoning for wanting to cancel was because of the high bill, and this new model had me paying more. He pauses for 10 seconds and goes, “What if we just put you back to what you were paying?” I agreed. My bill went to $188, and then the following month was back up to $199. I was back to where I started. I realized I wouldn’t save much on the money front if I stuck around. But I also had another nagging problem…
Speed at Night
For the past 8-10 months, my internet speed at night was unbearably slow. Pages would take a long time to load. YouTube videos would hang. My Roku box would have to reconnect and play video at a lower quality at a slower connection.
When I played online games, there were times when there was so much lag that I would be disconnected or the game would hang, and I would find out my character was dead.
Perhaps one of these first two factors on their own might have been bearable, but the combination of the two was absolute deal breaker.
The User Interface
The Comcast Guide looks like it was last updated in 1995. To make matters worse, they modified it a few years ago and the quality went down. The user interface looks like it was designed for the original Nintendo console. The Guide used to let you sort by date, genre, etc. They removed that or I’ve not figured out how to do it in the redesign. The old Comcast Guide used to show more channels at one time, the new one shows less. In the old guide if you were at the bottom of the list on the screen when you pressed the down button the remote, it didn’t select the advertisement at the bottom. On the new guide you have to ‘double-down’ because the focus now selects the advertisement as you scroll through. Comcast On Demand is slow to load and navigate. Once you press the On Demand button, the screen turns black with the old ‘Nintendo’ font saying “Please Wait..” When it does come up, it gets rid of what you’re watching while it displays their own programming. Finally, before they changed their guide, they had true Picture in Picture, where you could watch 2 separate channels at one time. They got rid of that with their update.
In comparison, the U-verse Guide is very modern. The fonts are appealing. Both the U-verse Guide and On Demand overlay your current channel, so you don’t lose what you’re currently watching. It has a nice look. On Demand is fast to load and browse. Not only do they have picture in picture, they let you create multi-views that let you watch 4 channels at once. (One complaint: You can’t ‘sort’ the channels in the multi-views so you can’t change the order in which they appear.)
DVR
With Comcast, you could only record two shows at once. When both shows are recording, one of them has to be the channel you are viewing. There were a few times where my wife would head up to bed, and I couldn’t change the channel because she was recording Dance Moms and Real Housewives and I was forced to watch one of them. With U-verse, it’s possible to record up to 4 shows at one time.
Customer Service
Overall, Comcast had very good customer service. There are a few minor things I will point out. When I called to cancel and the specialist asked me why, I mentioned the rising prices and internet speed at night. I was hoping he would acknowledge the slowness at night, and mention how they were doing something about it. Instead, he said I’ve been a great customer, and was sorry to see me go. Later on in the conversation he asked if I noticed any slowness in internet if I was watching HD channels at the same time. So far I have not. Why are they so quick to try and point out the flaws in U-verse without admitting their own? We ended the conversation with him giving me the address to the Comcast store where I could drop off my equipment. He mentioned how nice it would be since they are now modeled similar to Apple stores.
I get to the Comcast store to drop off my equipment. It’s 20 minutes before closing time, and the store has no customers. In one hand I’m carrying a bag with 2 cable modems, 2 analog adaptors, and 3 remotes. In the other, an HD digital box. I’m greeted by an employee and he asks me my name. At this point, you think he would offer to take the digital box off my hands. I give him my name, and he puts it in the computer and tells me to someone will be with me shortly. I wait 2 minutes for my name to be transmitted to the help desk, and the two very friendly people behind the counter begin to help me. They’ve done so much right with the layout store and the concept of taking your name down, but they forgot the small stuff. When you see someone carrying a large number of items, offer to help them. When they’re the only customer in the store, don’t make them wait for their name to get processed in the computer. Go ahead and take care of them.
My Advice
The Comcast business model encourages disloyalty. They told me how great a customer I was, and said if I come back I would be offered the introductory rates. What incentive is there to remain loyal? Give customers a competitive rate and they’ll be more likely to stick it out. (They probably make a profit off a ton of customers who put up with the rate hikes and maybe I’m in the minority. I would hope more people catch onto this.)
Fix the speed. It got to a point where it was too unbearable to do anything at night. Update the user interface. Modernize the Guide and On Demand. Bring back Picture-in-Picture.
A less important point, but I’d recommend increasing business hours from 7:00pm to 9:00pm EST. The current time makes it difficult for people on the east coast.
I can’t imagine that the lack of features for Comcast has to do with bandwidth. Cable is supposed to be capable of very high speeds. Why do they have fewer features? Why does it appear so dated in comparison?
I’d say more, but I’m going to go record 4 shows at once while I play a game online.
invest in yourself 