(sorry that I don’t have any graphics in this post)
Last week Comcast proactively called me to let me know that they were “Enhancing” the cable boxes, and to let me know that my scheduled recording may be lost, and to write them down just incase. They asked that I check my cable box on Friday to see if the recordings were in fact lost, and to re-input them so that I did not miss anything.
Saturday I woke up and checked my cable box, and was very excited that I did not have to re-input my scheduled shows, and was very thankful that Comcast had reached out to me, proactively.
Now in the past, I have blogged about how I had thought that Comcast had come a long way in their customer service . And I do think that is the case, but this situation really got to me, and here is why……
Fast forward to Sunday afternoon, who, for most sports fans, is Football Sunday. Living just north of Boston, we always get the Patriots games, and on last Sunday, the game was a late game, since it was in San Diego. For the 1 o’clock game, Fox and CBS had their respective games, so I sat down and threw the Fox game on, and then clicked on my “picture in picture” (PIP) button to put the Fox game on – Nothing happened. I figured that it was a glitch, so I did not bother calling Comcast – yet.
Later on that evening, I forget what I was watching, I decided to try PIP again, and of course, it did not work. I now decided to call Comcast.
To my surprise, the “Enhancements” (websters – enhance: to raise to a higher degree; intensify; magnify) included the removal of the PIP functionality on my DVR. I of course was very snide in my reply and had asked what else was “taken away” from me with these enhancements, and was told from the support rep that nothing else was taken away. I also left the call with “Add a note on to my account that I will be going to DirectTV within the next month.
I was surprised that a business decided to proactively communicate me concerning the great enhancements that were coming, but had forgotten (purposely) of the things that were taken away from me. Not to mention now my guide is full of advertisements where every 5th down the channel lineup forces me to be put on an ad banner. REALLY? Are you serious? Yea, nice enhancements that make you more $$$$$.
Now do I consider these enhancements as such, maybe some of them, but when you also take things away, and remove functionality, then they are not enhancements, they are changes or modifications, or plug in whatever you wish.
Also, as a sidenote, I made a tweet on Tuesday about my situation and definitely threw #Comcast and #DirecTV on the tweet. To my surprise, a local rep emailed me, describing the changes to me and said that they were unable to support the PIP functionality feature in the new guide. I honestly do not know what the guide and PIP functionality have to do with one another, but would like to thank @ComcastMarc_NE for communicating with me, as it was much appreciated. Since then I also found out that your DVR box has to be on while you are taping, which was not the case in the past, so now I also have to waste electricity when I am taping a recording late at night (don’t go there please).
Now I have not contacted Direct TV directly, but I have reviewed their pricing and terms online, and they do look like a viable option.
Am I just being to critical here?
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October 28, 2010 at 9:17 am
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October 28, 2010 at 9:23 am
Dana
Ah yes, don’t you love “undocumented features” (aka – bugs) and “enhancements” by way of removing functionaity.
I agree. I’ve also experienced the upgrade and got the same call alerting me that they were doing this. I got the new menus, but also found my scheduled recordings to be messed up (ie – shows that were scheduled to record at a specific time started recording every instance of that show regardless of time). I am also finding that some shows that I DVR’ed have some glitches (ie – didn’t record a whole middle part of one show; DVR’ed a show last night and went to go watch it and it wasn’t in scheduled recordings). Also, I also hate that the Box has to be on when you are DVR’ing a show. I also wonder when I will be able to record more than 2 shows and not have to watch either of them while recording.
I think they took away features so that people upgrade yet again to xfinity package.
Either way, not impressed with the upgrade or the service, but did appreciate the initial upgrade call.
October 28, 2010 at 9:56 am
mikepascucci
Dana,
Thanks for the comment. I did call the support team last night and they offered to save me $17 per month as well as threw in Cinemax, Showtime, and NFL Red Zone for free. It was amazing what a simple call accomplished. That will keep me around for a little while longer, until I am able to review the costs and see what is better. After my initial review, it looks like I will stay with Comcast for Internet and my phones, but move to DirectTV for TV, as I like their service offerings much better, as well as PIP.
Mike
November 1, 2010 at 11:35 am
Rick
As one who’s switching from Time Warner to AT&T Uverse (installation scheduled for tomorrow) – I think you’re on the right path. They should’ve been upfront about all of it, not just the plus side of the ledger. Most folks probably wouldn’t notice that PIP was gone – but you did, and if it’s a feature you “need”, then it’s beholding to them to keep it or let you know. “Customer service” is too big a deal to let it slip away like that.
November 3, 2010 at 4:04 pm
mikepascucci
Rick,
Thanks for your post. I am still weighing my options as I am not too sure that Direct TV will work in my area with all of the tree’s around my house. To be fair though, I did call Comcast and they gave me Showtime and Cinemax for free and discounted my bill by $17 per month, so that may keep me around for a little while.
Mike