The pricing isn't bad here compared to other cable companies -- promo pricing anyway, IIRC I had digital "silver" + 4/384 HSI (now 6/384) for $60 a month. -- for 6 months, after that I think it hit ~$83-89 or so.
The problem was that when they came to set it up, well as said many times in the past -- my house wiring was all used by satellite wiring, and they refused to install a new jack for the cable stuff. Of course, there was also the box that I was really displeased with.. let's put it this way..
I pay $37 a month for the most basic DHA package Dish has, but for 4 TVs -- no DVR or anything fancy mind you, but it does the job, all 4 TVs have digital setups. To get the same channel listings I'd have to pay $10 a month more. [give or take, the channels were pretty much the same as the T120 or T180 -- what's that? $20 a month more?..
So $57 a month for all 4 TVs, and more music channels than comcast could ever dream of carrying. [Admittedly, comcast's music service is STILL more interesting, but I'll talk about that later]. Thing is, that includes 4 TVs powered by 2 nice "small" 322 boxes.
Comcast's offering was $75 (not including tax, would have gotten into the $80 range) -- along with internet for all 4 TVs. Of course, each TV would need the infamous 2224-ish box they give you. About the only thing I found good with it was that you could change the color menu, and the music channels had LOTS of details about the current song (artist's history, etc).. that was pretty neat.
OTOH no favorites lists, no custom surf lists, the channel surf bar was a piece of garbage that was REALLY slow to respond (flipping channels too fast caused it to go blank -- and too fast was not allowing the picture to load for each and every channel change you did). The TV guide function took like 2 seconds to page-up on, and oh yeah, there WAS a "favorites" list, which you could "surf" through by mashing "FAV" on your remote --
That was fun too. The remote comcast gave us on the box I tried out was the size of an aircraft carrier, not to mention used. Call me a whiner if you wish, but that's just too much lol. After a complaint and a trip to the office (where they told me that the box was the newest they had and the remote was fine but they switched it anyway), that was somewhat taken care of.
So back to terms, I was really disappointed with the box and they still hadn't run the necessary house wiring so I called to cancel. An appointment was set to pick up the equipment (one that never happened anyway), and a few days later a tele-marketer calls me offering cable internet without digital cable (I'd still have to pay for extended cable, but that meant no setup fees (why after all that trouble?) -- and they'd run the new line, no problem)...
Uh huh, when pigs fly. The appointment for install was set on the 14th, perfect timing since my DSL was due to be out of contract on the 15th!
Guess what happened on the 14th. Yep, a 1-5 appointment window, I waited all day, didn't bother to call since I had called on the 12th to make ABSOLUTELY sure they'd be there, and 5pm came..
6pm went, I called comcast..
"I can't find anything like that in our system, nope, nothing for your account whatsoever."
WHAT?!
After speaking to their supervisor, that changes to "Oh there it is, but it was canceled"..
WHAT?!
Speaking of which, they say the order to pick up the digital box was canceled too! (it still hasn't been picked up to this day).
So finally they set an appointment for the 29th. At this point, I took measures into my own hands (I really didn't have a choice), unhooked 1 of my satellite lines and used it to carry the cable stuff (the internet in this house is more important to our day to day stuff than phone I kid you not, ironically our phone service is VoIP anyway so THAT relied on it too!). And hooked up the good ole' cable modem again.
So the 15th was there, I was free of DSL, and comcast gained a customer they really didn't deserve haha. Call me an idiot, but I didn't want to pay $80/month for DSL or re-commit to a new contract for the moment.
One day, a guy comes to the door and tells me he's there to run that line I had been asking about, it wasn't the 29th so I was very surprised and explained to him what happened, what he needed to do, and how the stuff was currently set, no problem of course. [When the installer people came, they were usually cool, just not doing much].
So I finally had a shiny new RG6 run to my cable modem that didn't block the satellite TV stuff (which I still planned on keeping since IMHO the digital cable wasn't worth it).
After straightening some billing problems (getting the start of service date set as the 15th, which it was for me officially -- well minus the one day when the first guy jacked one of my satellite lines for the cable stuff and I tested out the digital boxes and then put back my satellite wire where it belonged), I find a $29 charge for "additional outlet install fee"..
Fine, whatever. It's over with. The damn stuff works and I have a line, I'll eat the $30. Of course, it burns my nerves more they didn't
tell me that, when I asked a dozen times if they'd charge for it and they said
no, but fine.
I'll be moving at the end of the year anyway, and our other house (which we've had for a while now), is in a cox area (unfortunately, I've not heard good things at all about Cox @ Las Vegas "since they run it differently down there").
But we'll be renting this house anyway, and when I do give the renter advice (or a clubdish referral) -- I'm sure they'll sign up with comcast
anyway, but I wouldn't recommend them to anyone out here heheh.
If I had another shot at this (with a year here) -- I'd just sign up with dish and SBC,,, Little more for a 3/512 and the T180, but worth it
