Just had an interesting conversation with a woman named “Reman” from Continental Airlines.  To make a long story short, she told me that it is Continental Airlines policy not to offer any compensation for bad customer service if the problem you encountered was merely rudeness.

I was trying to get a complimentary seat upgrade, to the “more leg room” type of seat, based on a bad customer service experience that involved several phone calls without resolution, lies, and bad service, the pinnacle of which was being hung up on after 75 minutes on hold.

With most reasonable companies not named Comcast, that type of experience would get you some paltry token compensation.  Hell, with Comcast you can usually get something like free HBO for a few months.

Continental Airlines?  Rudeness is just to be expected, I guess.

I had to ask to clarify, because I was so taken aback by the plain way she stated the policy to me.  This is a direct quote, not a paraphrase: “It is our policy not to offer compensation if the problem you encountered was rudeness.”

Yesterday was a GREAT day.  I ditched my Comcast, worst company on Earth, TV service in favor of DirecTV.  Given my hatred for Comcast, the worst company on Earth, DirecTV could have given me a shoebox hooked up to an old rabbit ear antenna and I would have been happy, but I’m going to do my best to objectively review their service.

So, let’s start at the beginning, with setting up the service.

The Phone Call

I have adopted a new tactic recently, which some may think is not politically correct, but if I call a call center, then hear a voice on the other end of the phone that my gut tells me will not be competent, I hang up and call back.  When I don’t employ this tactic, I usually regret it, as you’ll see when I write up my latest Comcast experience.  I only had to hang up and call back once before I found a voice I could trust at the other end of the DTV line.  That’s a pretty average experience when it comes to large call centers.  The second person I called was quite competent, a fluent speaker of American English, and mostly knowledgeable about the DTV products and services.

I am an AAA member, so I called a special AAA line.  The cool thing about this was that I got the regular DTV promo price (same as on the website), plus an additional $10 off per month.  Too often these “membership” type deals end up being a worse deal than you can get online, so I was pleasantly surprised.

All in all the call took about 20 minutes, and the person I was talking to answered all of my questions competently.  She got a bit confused when I wandered into overly technical territory, but I got the info I needed.

I was also pleased that she recommended the same package that I was thinking I needed- the middle tier service, and didn’t try to jam me into a higher package than I need because her commission would be bigger.  Comcast, you slimy bastards, I’m looking in your direction.

The Install

I called on Monday afternoon.  The service was fully installed by Tuesday afternoon.  I could have opted for Tuesday morning, but I had some other stuff going on.  Time from call to install was less than 24 hours.  It’s impossible to complain about that.

I was a little annoyed by the 4 hour window (let’s get that down to 2 hours, guys) but their automated system did call me about 10 minutes into the window to let me know that the guy was on the way and would be there in 45 minutes.  That was cool.

The installer was on-time, courteous, competent and professional.  He didn’t try to sell me anything, didn’t wreck anything, and when he left everything worked.

Installation was mostly free- I guess I paid like $20 for a handling fee or something.  Obnoxious, but not unexpected.

The Equipment

Here’s one of many places where DTV totally kick’s Comcast’s ass.  We got the “Whole House DVR” which allows us to watch recorded TV in any room.  It’s frickin’ sweet.  There’s no other way to describe it.  The DVR has a huge hard drive, and if we run out of space, we can attach an external hard drive to add more space.  THAT. IS. SO. COOL.

Price

I’m paying less than I was for Comcast for a similar service.  DTV still employs the obnoxious intro pricing, which is on a first 12 months/second 12 months scheme, and requires some sort of rebate.  That’s annoying, and I wish everyone would just adopt the strategy of Cox, our cable company in Phoenix, which just had simple pricing and no promos.

The follow-up call

I have a DVR downstairs, and a HD non-DVR upstairs. We can view the recorded TV upstairs, but we can’t pause live TV and the options for setting up recordings are kind of limited.  So I called back today to ask how much it would be to get a second DVR instead.  They told me free!  The girl who I talked to entered it as a correction to my initial order, so next week I’m getting a second DVR for no cost, and the same cost per month.

Bottom Line

Objectively, my experience with DirecTV so far has been an A, not quite an A+.  If you grade on the Comcast curve, it’s about an A++++++++++++++++++++++++++, but I don’t think it’s right to allow Comcast to tank the scale by sucking so much.  If your competition is the worst company on Earth, it would be easy to set your sights at the “just above worst” level, but it’s obvious DirecTV is better than that.

I plan further reviews as I use the system more, including figuring out how their OnDemand feature works.  And of course, the dreaded first bill, where we see who lied to me.  Do you see what you did there Comcast?  You set my expectations so low that I assume everyone is lying to me.  Fingers crossed this first bill turns out right to restore a bit of the faith Comcast has sucked out of me over the past 20 or so years.

A Funny Post Script

When I made mention of my hatred for Comcast, the DTV installer told me a few funny stories.  He said he’s noticed a lot of people get quite a bit of joy out of returning their Comcast equipment.  This includes one guy who left in the middle of the install because he just couldn’t wait.  He returned his Comcast stuff in the DirecTV box.

I’ll be returning my equipment tonight, and you can be damn sure it will be in that shiny new DirecTV box when I walk in there.  I’m almost giddy thinking about it.

It’s been a whilessince I’ve had a good Comcast bashing post.  Here we go again.

Over the past few days my XFINITY(!!!!) digital voice service has been routinely dropping calls.  It starts with the person on the other end of the phone unable to hear me, then a few seconds later the call is dropped totally.  Eventually I was sitting next to the modem when this happened, and saw that it was rebooting after the calls were dropped.

Last night, after it happened several more times, I called Comcast’s customer support line.  The guy on the other end of the phone did some useless troubleshooting which was unrelated to my issue, then told (rudely, of course) me “there’s only so much he can do over the phone” and that he’d have to send a tech out.  He started the scheduling process.

(As a quick aside, I love instructing support techs on how to do their jobs.  He asks me “when was the last time this happened?”  I replied “doesn’t your system log that type of activity?”  “No. I can see your modem uptime though.”  “Why don’t you look at that then?” “Oh, it looks like the modem rebooted itself about 9 minutes ago.”  “That would be your answer.”)

Then, predictably, the phone went dead, and the modem rebooted itself.

After waiting about 20 minutes, thinking the tech would be smart enough to call me back since he had my info pulled up, I called back.  I explained what happened, and we got to go through a different set of phone troubleshooting that was unrelated to my issue.  To her credit, though, the second woman (at my prompting, naturally) did take herself out of the call queue so that she could call me back in the inevitable situation that the phone disconnected.  The phone held though, and she scheduled me an appointment for today (yesterday’s tomorrow) between 3 and 5 PM.

So of course today, I get an automated phone call reminding me of my appointment tomorrow between 3 and 5.  (I guess she got the time right, but not the date, so half credit, I suppose.)  That message said if there was any issue with my appointment time, I was to call back a different Comcast call center.  I did.

I told the guy who answered the phone my appointment was for today, not tomorrow.  He proceeded to ask me a bunch of questions, in yet another unsuccessful attempt to troubleshoot by phone.  Eventually he got around to telling me that he didn’t have access to change the appointment, so I needed to call 1-800-COMCAST again and ask to speak to the local dispatch office.

So I called 1-800-COMCAST again, and ended up in IVR hell, as I tried to explain to the automated voice lady that I needed to speak to the local dispatch office.  “I didn’t get that.  Please repeat your request again.”

Eventually I got to a live person, who confirmed my Friday appointment (grrrr…) and then told me that they didn’t have the authority to contact dispatch, so they’d have to call me back after speaking to their supervisor.

About 15 minutes another guy called me back and said the tech will be at my home between now and 5 PM today.  But give him until 5:15 before you call back to complain.

He has 3 hours and 7 minutes to show up.  We’ll see.

All that remains is for the Golden Poo to be delivered to Comcast HQ in the City of Brotherly Love. We fully expect them to set it in a place of honor in the lobby, where all guests can see it.

So, I had a rather interesting surprise when I went to set up my TV this weekend.  I have a Sony combo Surround Sound/DVD player device, which apparently is known in the business as an HTIB, or *Home Theater in a Box.  I output the audio from the cable box to this device so I get the good sound when watching cable.

I wanted to hook the Comcast Universal Remote up so that I could control the sound with one remote.  Should be easy, because when I was in MN I had Comcast and it worked just fine.

Yeah, not so much.

Turns out Sony HTIB devices don’t work with a Comcast Remote anymore. Some time ago Comcast changed their remotes so now they take a 5 digit code instead of a 4 digit code. In that process, support for my device was axed.  Not sure if it was by Comcast (the worst company on Earth) or by Sony.  Doesn’t matter. Either way it doesn’t work.

Anyway, after some digging online, I found a workaround.  It requires manually programming function codes into the remote to override the existing function codes.  Don’t worry, it’s easier than it sounds.

I don’t know if this will work for other Sony combo devices, but it worked for my Sony DAV-FR8.

Programming a Comcast Remote for a Sony DAV-FR8

Set your AUX to 21232 (a sony code for TV/VCRs).

Then do the following:

1. While still on AUX, press and hold SETUP again until the remote blinks twice
2. Type 994
3. Press and release SETUP
4. Type 32975
5. Press and release VOL+

The remote should blink twice. That should reprogram the VOL+ to work with your Sony device.

For each of the following function codes, follow the same steps and use the codes listed below:

Vol- = 31951
Power = 32719
Mute = 33743

Thanks to Fixya.com for the info.

Due to our relocation to CO, we’re back in Comcast territory. Comcast, as you know, is the worst company on Earth.

My results getting Comcast hooked up were… expected.  I’ve spent a total of over 2 hours on the phone for various issues.  I had a cable box that didn’t work, an actual cable that didn’t work, and had to call to change my service plan… twice.  Because apparently the first time was not good enough.

The highlight: when the person on the other end of the phone said “I don’t know what to tell you” about some non-working channels.  I hung up and called back.

So, new state, same old crappy Comcast, the worst company on Earth.

Note: You may ask – If you hate Comcast so much, why do you keep signing up with them? It’s simple. They have a monopoly, and I don’t have any real alternatives.

This story is over a week old, but needs to be discussed, especially as this is the #2,356 most Comcast hating website in the World.

Comcast, The Worst Company on Earth, bought NBC Universal from GE the other day.  Actually, they bought 51% of it in a complicated deal, but the bottom line is that Comcast now owns NBC, USA, Bravo, and some other stuff.

Where this all gets interesting is that Comcast is obviously in the content delivery business.  They currently pay NBC a ton of cash to make their networks available to their cable subscribers.  But now, they’ll own those networks.

So, as the owner of, say, USA, Comcast is now in the position to set the price of providing USA to customers.  That’s a bad thing if you’re one of Comcast’s competitors, like DirecTV.

I won’t claim to be an expert in the whole cable TV business, because I’m not, but it’s not hard to imagine how this could go badly, especially in the hands of the Worst Company on Earth.

Normally, a myriad of federal agencies would get involved and scrutinize this deal.  There’s the anti-trust angle, the broadcast angle, etc.  Those federal agencies are part of the executive branch of government, headed by the President.

So, what’s an evil company to do when they need a favor from the President?  Why, scratch his back, of course.

The day after Comcast announced it was buying NBC, their CEO announced his support for the President’s disastrous and unpopular health care program.  The letter can be found here.

Read more here and here.

So there you have it, Comcast, The Worst Company on Earth, is teaming up with the Worst Administration in Recent History, trading support on the health care bill for regulatory approval.

They always said this was the Most Transparent Administration Ever, but I guess I didn’t expect it to be this transparent.

Comcast Corp and General Electric Co have agreed to make NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker the head of their proposed joint venture, but the structure of a new board is still being negotiated, sources familiar with the matter said.

The two sides have been in talks to reach a deal that would give Comcast a 51 percent stake in the NBC Universal venture, which would also house the cable networks now belonging to Comcast. They recently agreed to value NBC Universal at about $30 billion, sources previously told Reuters.

It seems the incompetents over at Comcast: The Worst Company on Earth just can’t stay out of the news.

This time, they interrupted “Good Friday Mass at the Vatican” with a Girls Gone Wild infomercial. If that ain’t Comcastic, I don’t know what is.

They say it’s just a case of bad timing. And we shouldn’t worry about it, since they’ve only received one complaint.

I’d venture that the hundreds of other complainants got so frustrated inside the labyrinthine phone system that they just gave up. Or they realized that since Comcast holds a legal monopoly that they had no real recourse anyway.

Source: Red Orbit

Since I hate Insurance almost as much as I hate Comcast: The Worst Company on Earth or New Mexico, I thought I’d share a positive insurance story.

Yesterday I called Liberty Mutual for an insurance quote for Auto and Homeowner’s Insurance.

I ended up saving over $800 a year for the same coverage as I had with State Farm. It makes me want to track down my State Farm agent and punch him in the face. Then hang him by his ankles until my $800 falls out of his pockets.

Insurance. Sigh.

Update: Just because I saved money doesn’t mean that they would have my name or address correct on the policies, obviously.