Comcast sees customer loss in 2008

[Highway61]

Source: Reuters

Well... Well... Well...

From the article

Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O), the largest U.S. cable television operator, said on Wednesday it expects to lose video customers in 2008 as competitive and economic pressure mounts, and its shares fell more than 10 percent.

"We believe the vast majority of the reductions are due to competition," said Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Research. "Comcast simply did not expect the level of competitive marketing spend that has occurred this year."

Angelakis said Comcast's scale across the United States has meant that it has been hurt by the downturn in the housing market and a tougher macro-economic environment.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071205/bs_nm/comcast_dc;_ylt=Av3TIC76uGHityg_XPp20Fxv24cA

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.......Personally, It isn't the competition sir, I feel that your customer service absolutely sucks...in fact, it is a nightmare to get "intouch" with any one person if ya have a problem. Your company was listed as one of the worst for customer service...now the worm has turned. Wonderful country, America.

[graywarrior]

1. Yeah, their customer service does suck.

[ixion]

9. yep, absolutely

it's not competition. It's crappy service.

[Juan_de_la_Dem]

10. Totally agree - the worst

[graywarrior]

17. When you get into an argument with them because you know more than they do

that's bad.

[radfringe]

29. we dumped them in October

got a letter regarding a rate increase, no additional services/channels - just upping the rates

we noticed that for $2 more a month we could get the on-demand movies, so we figured what the hell. Went to the local office got the box, hooked it up, followed the directions and nothing.

in the following two weeks we made 1-3 calls PER DAY to the helpless desk, had a cable guy out to run new cables - and the freaking thing still didn't work - we were able to receive ON-DEMAND twice during that time - the rest of the time it was "off-line". We even had one person on the helpless desk tell up the signal came through the air. :eyes:

we tried getting a new box and controls - still didn't work. on the last call we were told they would send out a special senior technician on Monday. Monday came and went - no special senior technician appeared, we called the helpless desk and the local office and were told "geee, we don't have a special senior technician"

we went and ordered DISHtv the next day, by thursday the dish was on the roof and we had EVERYTHING working. We canceled comcast the next day.

My parents have comcast for TV, internet and phone service - nothing but problems. Phone goes dead in the middle of a conversation, or they can make outgoing calls, but get no incoming calls, cable cuts in and out, internet connection screws up frequently. They call comcast so often they have the helpless desk number on speed dial. They are looking into dish/direct option in their area.


Comcast's company motto should be "the higher the prices the lower the services"

[teenagebambam]

2. Plus....

I can get twice as many channels PLUS Premium channels with DirectTV for literally HALF of what I'm paying Comcast.

[Debau2005]

18. Me too!

I started looking at alternatives because Comcast was going to take 8 days to come out for service. I live ACROSS the street from one of the service centers.

I had Direct TV up and running before Comcast could have come out. I am pleased with satellite and won't look back. I am a horse owner, and I now get RFD-TV! Love it!

Comcast was stunned when I told them my reason for leaving. They didn't understand why I didn't want to wait 8 days for their service.

[NickB79]

3. Thank God, it's about damn time

I'm a Comcast customer by necessity more than choice. Their service is a fucking rip-off. $100/mo for BASIC cable and high-speed Internet service.

Maybe if they start losing customers to competitors, they'll realize that they can't keep gouging us like this and offer more competitive rates.

[sarcasmo]

4. They don't think the foreclosures and terrible economy have any thing to do with their loss?

[LeftyMom]

5. They're supposed to have to compete in more areas here next year.

They will lose customers in droves the instant anybody can switch.

I swear I've called SureWest once a month for a year to see if they're coming to my neighborhood yet. Cheaper, better service, faster internets. I can't wait to tell comcast to kiss my ass.

[Cobalt Violet]

6. They charge too damn much.

I've been cable free for a few years now and have saved thousands.

[Teaser]

7. Good, their service sucks

Sucks whale cock.

[Akoto]

8. I really can't complain about my Comcast service.

We have a television and cable internet service bundle, which we signed for after Comcast took over Adelphia. It's affordable and has always worked well. On the one occasion I had trouble with the internet, they came out very promptly and gave me a dedicated line straight from the service pole to my PC.

[demnan]

11. And their service is too expensive

n/t

[Amerigo Vespucci]

12. They lost me in 2007...

...I moved in August and gave up cable TV, primarily to shed myself of a $100 monthly bill. They also charge more than DirecTV and offer fewer channels for that higher price.

[1monster]

13. Twice now, they have "lost" payments to them I made over the phone and have had them

threaten to shut off my cable.

That ticks me off.

And they took MSNBC off the regular line up and told us that we had to either sign up for HDTV service (extra $$$) or wait for two years to get MSNBC back.

That reallay ticked me off, cause now the only place I can see Keith Olbermann is on YouTube.

[qanda]

14. They are about the worst cable company until you tell them you're leaving

Then they start offering you the world. Luckily I told them I was cancelling the same day the Verizon FIOS guy showed up and I couldn't be happier to get rid of Comcast.

[hogwyld]

16. How do you like the fios service?

I hate paying 50 bucks a month for internet access.

[qanda]

27. I absolutely love it

It is the best! I got my mom and my niece to try it also and they both love it too.

[guruoo]

25. Most won't deal an inch until you threaten to pull the plug...

when I threatened to drop Charter, they miraculously discovered this "new offer"
that cut my cable bill nearly in half.
Same thing happened several years ago with Comcast, but I couldn't take them up on it
since I was moving out of their coverage area.

[Trillo]

15. Why don't commercial advertisers pay to deliver TV?

That's how it used to work. Now, "consumers" pay 10-50 per month and all they get are stations full of commercial advertising, LOTS of advertising, much more than even 5 years ago. They'll pay more for so-called "premium" content devoid of commercials.

Why should TV viewers pay anything to receive TV that has any commercial advertising content?

Maybe that's what is also happening, poorer people are wondering why they pay so much each month just to watch a couple of shows they like, profusely peppered with commercial garbage.

[KansDem]

19. Good question...

Back in the 1960s we were introduced to "Pay TV" and "Free TV." "Pay TV," I believe, was the start of cable, which I understood at the time to be commercial-free. But the "Free TV" advocates ran anti-"Pay TV" ads and asked rhetorically, "Why pay for something that's already free?" We understood "Free TV" to have commercials--that's how it was "free."

But a few decades later, we have "Pay TV" with the same commercial content as "Free TV." :crazy:

I really don't like paying to watch TV ads... :grr:

[AX10]

20. Charter Communications is much better than Comcast.

They are too big and bloated to give a damn about customer service.

[guruoo]

26. See this....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3090773&mesg_id=3091358

[superconnected]

21. Odd since I've been talking about dumping them all day

[Deja Q]

22. Agreed; crap service is a main contributor. And politicians tell people to vote with their wallets.

And competition? Everyone knows cable companies are neat little micro-monopolies that cleverly co-exist so they can all reap from their customers who, when hearing "Oh, that service is available because I saw the advertisement!", get upset because they are told by some nasal-voiced pipsqueak "Sorry, we don't have service in your area."

[bluerum]

23. Cable free. And loving it. Hey - any mega-corpo that carries Faux and SINN

etc. etc. will NEVER see any money from me.

[gorbal]

30. Me too

Cable television, in general, just isn't any good. You can find much higher quality entertainment on the internet or via netflix anyway.

I mean, the Thom Hartman program itself is worth more in entertainment and intellectual value than anything you can get on cable; and it's free.

[hunter]

24. Crap content, crap service, and high rates.

I usually pay to have garbage and sewage taken away from my house, not pumped into it.

[pinniped]

28. I hope Comcrap loses all of their customers and goes under.

All your customers are belong to us.

This news will probably force these asswipes to raise our rates again.

[boricua79]

31. could also be

that we're VERY angry you're limiting our bandwidth on high speed internet based on our viewing habits. We don't like that all.

[Marrah_G]

32. I told them to fuck off last month

I had a limit of 20 dollars of "on demand" on my account so my bill would never be higher then a specific amount. I am a single working mom.

I was hit with an almost 800.00 bill in sept because apparently porn movies aren't included (at 15 bucks each)in that cap and one of my kids spend August flipping through the entire porn line-up. I had no fucking clue there even was porn on comcast.

While they acknowledge the cap I had in place they told me "It doesn't cover those types of movies, but because we are nice we will knock 130 dollars off the bill" It doesnt fucking matter that they never told me that when I signed up and I was setting up the cap.

After a couple months arguing I told them to fuck off and switched the phone, tv and internet to Verizon.

Comcast can kiss my ass.

[bluerum]

34. Good. For. You.

[snooper2]

33. It's because you are a shitty ass company...

All around...

FYI any Comcast exec.s reading this....I switched because of your shitty product and now Verizon is getting my money.