Out of interest just how bad are Comcast?
Just wondering as they’ve made a bid to purchase Sky in the UK from what little I’ve read up on it.
In general Comcast products are good-to-great. If one steps back and turns off their biases, where Comcast services are available, one can generally get the fastest broadband from them and pretty good TV service too. They also offer a pretty solid alternative to landline voice and are now offering an interesting option for cellular service too.
Why Comcast can be cast as practically the devil has to do with abusing their relationships with their customers. Often Comcast has a practical monopoly in their service area... so they exploit that they are the only game in town. For example, pricing where Comcast is the ONLY option tends to be much higher than the next town over where Comcast has some competition.
And Comcast has a lucrative habit of accidentally sneaking fees into bills. For example, I've owned my own cable modem for many years now but every once in a while the modem rental fee will "oops!" be snuck into the Comcast bill. In short: you have to aggressively watch your bill
every month and be ready to pounce when they try such shenanigans. If they "oops" sneak it in and you don't notice, it won't ever "oops" sneak right out again on it's own. All Comcast "oops" is revenue positive for Comcast.
Comcast is in the business of appearing to punish longer-term customers by offering best prices to brand new customers. Hang around for a while and promotional discounts expire, jacking up the bill for the exact same service. However, quit them for even 30 days and, using the exact same cable with the exact same hardware, Comcast is ready to give you the lower rates again. While special enticements for new customers is not exactly a unique practice, such practices always conflict with a customer loyalty perception. Comcast doesn't have to send out a crew or spend customer service time setting up an existing customer again- does it really make sense to (seemingly) "punish" loyalty with higher prices? And those who just roll over and accept it will then be reminded of it over and over via endless commercial volume pitching cheaper rates for the exact service one has... like being bitten by mosquitos over and over but not (seemingly) able to do anything about it... while brand new customers are handed mosquito spray (that will work for a short period of time only for them).
When there is a dispute over fees, it's often a full-on battle (even WAR) to get it corrected. They appear to use the car salesman escalation approach where you may go over the issue with one level for a while and then they need to escalate you to the next level to address it. All tends to start over again at that next level. Ultimately, they may need to pass you to the next level to address the problem. Etc. In short: be prepared to spend upwards of a few hours to resolve what is seemingly a simple problem if resolution involves Comcast making less money from you by correcting their own mistake. All along the hand-offs, they'll be pitching additional services too.
And so on. Basically, Comcast has enjoyed a long, successful history of exploiting customers that generally can't easily switch to some other source. As such, they're somewhat programmed to be that way. The game is not about delivering more for less but maximizing how much they can extract out of every customer by any means possible. Customers must then spend time & energy trying to work that kind of game to their maximum advantage. Why? Because they can't easily just drop Comcast and switch to someone else.
This 5G news means that for the first time in many years to even a decade+ for some, Comcast broadband will have real competition rolling out in what is previously monopoly-like zones. Comcast (Xfinity) cable will be that much more pressured by the ability to switch to streaming video service options over 5G too. Comcast Voice will face VOIP voice service challenges over this wireless pipe too. Etc. As such, Comcast is likely to suddenly find a way to significantly ramp up wired broadband speeds to match or beat 5G speeds for comparable pricing. Those who begrudgingly use Comcast now- like me- can look forward to how legit competition here will likely force Comcast to make some meaningful improvements for customers WITHOUT the price-jacking shenanigans. Else, for the first time for many, people can flex a near-atrophied consumer muscle in this area and actually switch to something else for home broadband/cable/voice, fully jettisoning Comcast double or triple play plans as "punishment" for years of accumulated aggravation & frustration with Comcast practices.
Verizon, AT&T, etc are often cast a comparable "devil" too. So this is basically a bunch of customer-exploiting companies finding themselves having to compete with each other. Personally, I wouldn't envision switching from one devil (Comcast) to another (say Verizon in this case) as a true win in terms of who one is dealing with for these kinds of services... so I see this as more of a lessor of 2+ evils play, instead of punishing an evil player by switching to (NOT) a saint. Conceptually, for a while anyway, the consumer has a legit chance at tangibly benefiting here.
As always, competition is good. Bring on 5G broadband and a competitive benefit for all. From that perspective, hopefully EVERY cell provider- even the smaller players like Cricket and Tracphone- roll out 5G broadband at home services.
