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.

Yep. You read that right. The customers who had their super bowl parties turn into porn parties will be getting a whopping $10 credit on their bills. But only if they call Comcast to request it. And we all know how that goes.

But, the lemonade to come from this lemon is that the porn company that inadvertently provided the Superbowl feed is offering a $10 discount to their premier porn plan. So you don’t have to worry about how to spend that $10 bonus!

This whole thing just proves that Comcast must be using Northwest Airlines’ PR Firm.

Source: Washington Post, Tuscon Citizen

This really doesn’t fit the “Something New I Learned” theme of the blog, but given the collective hate for Comcast, I’ve declared any negative Comcast posts in bounds.

An extended excerpt… savor every word:

Tucsonans watching the Super Bowl got more action than they bargained for when a short clip from an adult movie channel interrupted Comcast’s feed with full male nudity during the final moments of the game.

Officials at Comcast said about 30 seconds from Club Jenna, an adult cable television channel, were shown on the local Super Bowl telecast. The company was still working Sunday night to figure out how it happened.

Comcast had “no idea” at the time it happened how the porn may have gotten into its feed, said Kelle Maslyn, a company spokeswoman.

The Star newsroom was flooded with calls from irate viewers who said that the porn cut into the game with less than three minutes left to play, just after Arizona Cardinals player Larry Fitzgerald scored on a touchdown pass from Kurt Warner to put the team in the lead.

Callers said that the clip showed a woman unzipping a man’s pants, followed by a graphic act between the two.

“I just figured it was another commercial until I looked up,” said Cora King of Marana. “Then he did his little dance with everything hanging out.”

Let me be the first to go for the obvious pun…

The interruption only affected Comcast viewers around Tuscon. Viewers of Cox were not affected.

Source: AZ Daily Star via Hot Air

So, in our last episodes, Comcast: the worst company on Earth lost my service for several days and then offered me $5 for my trouble, told me it would take 2 weeks to upgrade my service, and then later canceled my upgrade appointment without telling me…

Yesterday, they finally came out to upgrade my service. The technician, who actually seemed to have a brain, said that the line to my house was bad (and probably had been for years). He couldn’t complete the upgrade, so I still haven’t had the honor of paying Comcast more money. So he set up a new appointment to run a new line to my house. Ok, fine. I’ll wait longer to pay them more service. But I needed to get some compensation from the fact that for over 2 years I’ve been paying for faulty service; a problem that one of the several technicians (especially the one who set it up for me) should have noticed by now.

So I call… to complain. The little jack hole tells me, “What you are complaining about? Your service works fine and there is a plan in place to run you a new line!” I, of course, asked for his manager, who, of course, was not available. So he asks if I want a call back. Yes. So he writes a note for the manager and reads it back to me. “So even though your service is working fine…”

I snapped. I cut him off. I couldn’t believe it. I yelled. And then he give me, “Is there anything else?”

Long story short, the manager called back 2 hours later and offered me a $40 credit. That’s all I wanted to start with. Well, that, and to have the privilege of having my service upgraded…