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Comcast Must Die

Comcast, the cable TV giant, has given its customers lots of reasons to hate the company. They've refused to embrace a la carte programming, charged people $2 to stop sending them junk mail, wrecked people's credit reports, falsely advertised its Internet speed and generally abused the people who pay for its services. Comcast's customer service problems are so acute that Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield started a blog called Comcast Must Die to compile all the gripes about the company from consumers (see the promo video above). But Comcast doesn't really need any help generating bad press.

Last week, the company admitted that it paid people to take up all the seats at an FCC hearing examining complaints that Comcast was blocking file-sharing on its cable modem service. The reason? Comcast wanted to keep its critics out in the cold. The company apparently didn't tell the seat-warmers to stay awake through the proceedings so as not to attract attention of reporters, who immediately suspected Comcast was up to no good.

It's amazing that a company this bad could stay in business as long as it has. It's either a testament to the power of monopolies or sad proof that Americans will endure any amount of corporate abuse to get their Law and Order fix every week. Garfield is hoping his new blog will help change corporate behavior, but I think there's a better way to go than bitching online: just cancel. Pull the plug. Comcast will only die if people stop using it. Really, you can do it. The writers' strike notwithstanding, network TV has never been better, and in these bad economic times, it has the added advantage of being free.

Comments

Comcast sucks!

We quit them a decade back and will never do business with them again.

Now if their other customers become ex-customers they will not be in business.

Posted by: capt on 03/05/08 at 12:24 PM Respond

I'll say this I had an argument with Comcast over their rate plan just last week and in turn I gut them out, by dropping the basic cable TV and lowering my service. It only took 4 different people and two managers to finally convince me they could not provide the service I needed at a reasonable price. So now I get my news online via MIRO getmiro.com...Open Source no profit...only downside I need that technology that comcast is limiting, but that's the next step.

Posted by: Stephen on 03/05/08 at 5:37 PM Respond

Why hasn't Comcast gone out of business yet? Because they're the only game in town (so to speak). "Competition", my ass.

Posted by: Bleeding-Heart Liberal on 03/05/08 at 7:07 PM Respond

Funny how the jewish owned "motherjones" has allowed complaints against jewish owned "comcast"...does motherjones own stock in time warner??

Posted by: F. Nietzsche on 03/05/08 at 8:45 PM Respond

Comcast sucks

Posted by: Frank on 03/06/08 at 6:38 AM Respond

Comcast is indeed the only game in town, I boycotted 'em for over a decade...

Then every single damn site, INCLUDING MotherJones, become graphics-intensive, and if I wanted to read something, I have to put up with the megabyte or so of graphic gibberish that comes with my 10k of useful information.

Because local phone service can't support DSL speed, my SOLE fatpipe option is Comcast.

I'm no fan of corporations either, but the best solution is and has been to pit them against one another - like the insurance companies against the automakers.

The 'Net Neutrality thing is just that kind of battle, IMO

Posted by: mike on 03/06/08 at 10:37 AM Respond

Nietzche,

The real Nietzche was not an anti-Semite, and now you just play one on Mother Jones. You must be the 'farce' part of the second coming.

As to real matters, Minneapolis just got wireless broadband, and I pay $20 a month for it. Comcast cannot compete with their overpriced and underserviced 'basket' service.

Posted by: ElyDog on 03/06/08 at 12:32 PM Respond

We have had poor customer service from this company for years. We switched to the dish and are very happy.

Posted by: Dwayne West on 03/06/08 at 5:55 PM Respond

We just made the switch from DirectTV back to Dishnet.

We wanted to upgrade to HDTV and DirectTV offers new customers the HDTV receiver and dish for $99 but insisted on trying to charge us $199.

We were previously with Dishnet for almost 10 years and was always happy.

I cannot recommend DirectTV to anybody - but they are STILL better than Comcast

Posted by: capt - Hussein on 03/06/08 at 7:05 PM Respond

I gave up on Comcast long ago after repeated problems with their billing.

Unfortunately, living in my area and in an apartment, that means no television at all. Indoor antennas don't work and we aren't allowed to have dish service, so at this point Comcast is the only access even to network tv.

We're waiting for FIOS and hoping Verizon will do better.

Posted by: Tamara on 03/07/08 at 1:10 PM Respond

Why stop at Comcast. Cox and Charter are just as bad. It's time to take the people's airways back and tell Congress we are sick to death of this robbery.

Posted by: Doug on 03/07/08 at 1:31 PM Respond

No one will ever touch Verizon for utter inadequacy, incompetence, criminal neglect of its customers, and arrogant contempt for business ethics. When you all dump Comcast, just make sure you don't get burned by another bunch of money-grubbing thugs!

Posted by: Garth on 03/07/08 at 1:49 PM Respond

Fortunately, libraries (in most areas) are still free. A lot of "news"papers have succumbed to the same illnesses as television, but if you're lucky enough to live where there's an NPR station, you've got options. Support public media.

Posted by: Will on 03/09/08 at 5:21 PM Respond

I had Insight and they got bought by Comcast. So far I haven't been able to tell a difference.

Posted by: tanning lotion on 03/17/08 at 12:28 AM Respond