Month: August 2010

Given what happened with Comcast, I will not mention the company I once had as my cell provider but I assure it’s was a well known company. In fact it one that advertise on TV …A LOT!!!

This goes back more than a few years ago and I had to get a cellphone for my new job, so I got one with a good contract. I paid my bills on time and NEVER went over my minutes…not even once. No the real problem came about 2 years later when I wanted to change companies where I could get an even better deal. I was advised by a good friend to call them up on the last day of my contract and tell them, “I am not renewing my contract”. My friend told me that cell companies almost always extend contracts without notice, and I did not want that to happen. I thought things were perfectly fine…until 2 weeks later I got this letter from my old cell provider that I owed them an early cancellation fee of $250, so I called them and asked what was going on. They actually admitted it was a mistake and just ignore the letter. Guess what 4 weeks later I got the same letter, but this time with a late fee attached, like last time they said the exact same thing. This went on folks for 6 months, but this last letter had a deference it was a letter from their lawyer it seems if I did not pay this late fee + the now $200 in late charges they were going to sue me.

Believe me when I got tired of getting the run around from this cell company’s customer service. So I instead called my state’s commerce commission, and I told them of my problem. It turned out this unnamed cell company was committing nothing less than fraud and if this matter wasn’t settled when I called them. That they could face a $500 a day fine until this matter was settled. So I called them, believe me faced with such a fine they caved in fast!! Not was the late fee waved, and by the way I let them know what that person at the commission told me, send a letter pay an even larger fine possibly as high as $1,000. But get a load of this they still wanted me to pay the late fee. No joke they wanted me to pay it. Until I said, “Why should I pay a fee on something I did not owe on in the first place”. It too was waved, that was when I added if I got one more letter not only would I sue them for thousands but I let the media know of their attempted fraud. I have never received a letter from them again. Ironically that even includes ads.

There is this rather nasty computer virus going around hidden as an email saying that a celebrity had died in a plane crash. It has been reported even just opening that email will release a rather nasty virus which will send all your personal info to it’s creator. Then literally kill your computer. It even corrupts bio files in such a way they can’t be reflashed. So be warned!!!

Please keep in mind this is what happened to me in my neighborhood, and may or may not happen in yours. I had Comcast every since they came to my city then beginning this one April when I kept on getting these outages. It lasted days at a time, total of 8 days that month alone and by the time we got to October I had been without service for 18 solid days. Yes, 18 days straight, not including the 6 previous days we had the month before. My cable had been out for 24 days by then. You might be asking yourself if I was having this much trouble why didn’t Comcast do anything about it. It was through a one of Comcast’s own people that I had found out why my cable had been
out so much…It all had been a planned outage. I also quickly learned Comcast does not give credit on your bill for any planned outages. But when I got my bill and it was for over $100 (like it usually was). That was when I decided to give Comcast customer service one more try. They not only refused to give me any credit on my bill for the weeks I was without service, but they threaten to cut me off if I did not pay my bill. What can I say I was mad, why should I pay for service I wasn’t getting period. So I switched to RCN and in the 3 years I had their service my cable only has been out for 2 3/4 hours total in all that time.

Let me clue you in on why Comcast hypes their On Demand service so much. First of all on all the years I had their service they did not add a single channel, except for local channels that’s all. It seems they refer carrying the On Demand versions of the channels they don’t carry normally. Also they have their own On Demand channels they carry for the most part movies and TV series that are at least 20 years old and in my opinion should be left forgotten.

Here is a real strange twist to this folks. I got contacted by someone claiming to be a Comcast rep. claiming of all things they would give me compensation. Not one wanting to take any chances I decided to ask for a phone number. It took many tries…try around 10 for I was actually able to speak to the party who gave me that number. They asked for some info, which I gave since none of it puts my privacy in any danger, they say they have to investigate my case. So 2 hours later they call me back. I should of known this…all they gave me was lip service. They said they were sorry but since I am no longer a customer I was out of luck. All this turned out to be was a way to get me back to Comcast which I will NEVER do again.

The local transit agency in Chicago had a very unique Lollapalooza souvenir. See for yourself.