Over 60 people showed up at City Hall on Tuesday evening for a chance to tell Comcast what they think of the city’s only cable provider. Comcast representatives Debra Piscola (Director of Government Affairs) and John Niebur (District Director) listened as over 30 residents — including six city council members — expressed frustration over service and pricing issues.
The most common complaints were:
- No local customer service — When you need to call Comcast, there is no local number available; you have to call an 800 number and talk to a call center in some other city. There were also complaints over how long it takes these call centers to answer the phone.
- Channel movement — C-SPAN2, EWTN, and other analog channels were reassigned to digital channels, and some channels such as National Geographic were reassigned to most expensive cable packages.
- Pricing — When Comcast first took over Insight, they said they weren’t going to raise prices, then immediately raised prices. Then they reassigned channels, some to more expensive tiers, causing many residents to feel they were paying more for less service. One person reported that he was quoted one price, but when he threatened to switch to a satellite service, he received a lower price, prompting him to ask what the real price is. Another resident similarly asked for “transparency in pricing.”
One person requested the ability to choose which cable channels he wanted and pay only for those (also known as “a la carte” pricing). Another complained that he was given a 12-hour service window, meaning he had to wait around his house from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the cable company to do a simple installation; the cable technician showed up at 7:50 p.m.
The Comcast representatives answered some questions, but mostly just thanked the audience for expressing their concerns and promised to address those concerns in their franchise agreement negotiations with the city.
City council members in attendance were Clyde Gulley (1st District), Bob Manning (3rd District), Bill Spears (4th District), Pat Nichting (5th District), Ryan Spain (at-large), George Jacob (at-large), and Eric Turner (at-large). Gulley left early, but the rest of the council members in attendance said that they get numerous complaints from constituents regarding the cable company. Spain said the number of complaints he gets rivals the number of people calling about more expensive and controversial issues like the CSO project and the recent downtown hotel plans.
Turner said that he wouldn’t support a new franchise agreement if service issues aren’t addressed and improved. Unfortunately, that’s somewhat of an empty threat, since state law allows cable companies to get franchise agreements directly through the state, bypassing local municipalities completely. City Attorney Randy Ray says the public hearing Tuesday night is one advantage of having a local franchise agreement — if Comcast were to get a state franchise, local residents likely would have to trek to Springfield for any public hearings regarding cable service.
Original plans were to bring a new franchise agreement to the council for approval at the next scheduled meeting. However, due to the “level of dissatisfaction,” Ray said it may take a little longer to negotiate an agreement that the council will support. The last 20-year franchise agreement expired in April 2006, but has been temporarily extended multiple times during negotiations for a new agreement.
So essentially, all was in vain, thoughts explained but yet nothing was or will be gained. What I take from this read, is that a number of cable consumers complained on several issues, some council members concurred with complainants, one council member fomented impotently… comcast listened but had nothing to offer…. so the result in nothing, nada, zip, zilch…. comcast customers are essentially told, “pffff”, and, “deal with it”.
Therefore, no redress or possible amends to or for the consumer by the other two parties…nothing at all comes from the meeting and no hope or any possiblity that anything will…
…and the meeting goes down as a complete waste of everyones time. Great!
Maybe those council members who did not attend could have given a public heads thru the local media about how much of a BS meeting this was. That would have been nice.
It’s dispicable to have a public meeting where 2/3 of those who attend actually know that the meeting will result in nothing and have no affect and will be a waste of time.
Wreck, Glad you said it. That was my take on it as well. Kind of falls under the headline of “Why bother…?”
.01% of their customer base complained. Hmmm.
Oh, and remember that state franchise thing was AT&T’s doing.
It’s only TV. We’d all be better off without it anyway.
kcdad,
Its not just tv. Its our link to communication and education and a way for shut ins to travel from their recliners. Also, many of us have the phone and internet service as we can’t get AT&T dsl service in our area. There is a lot more here than just TV. What COMCAST is doing to its customers is positively rude and in come cases inhuman. Personally if I could get away from them I would in a heartbeat.
Somebody needs to get out more….
I have no land line phone. My wife and I both have cell phones. We have radios… they haven’t started charging for that yet.
And if I have to watch something… like Scrubbs, I can always buy the season on dvd.
Kcdad: You obviously have internet service, but not with Comcast, right?
Vonster: You are right and I agree. Hey folks! I love Comcast and their services which I have all three.
Sharon, if kcdad has no phone service, then he must have Comcast. Ironic that the people that bitch about Comcast here, there, in the paper’s forums, usually have Comcast internet to do it with.
The paper said only 27 showed up. Is this Million Man Math?
I have internet and tv with comcast… $ 45 / month and $15 month… $60 total. I know I am being ripped off for the internet… but it works great, I have WiFi and never have any trouble.
kcdad…It might work fine now, but wait until it doesn’t. Once it does you will have some serious problems trying to get answers from the people at Comcast.
And like you said, you know you are being ripped off for the internet. You’ve just proven the case for all the people who complained about being ripped off. It is happening to everyone, even the people who don’t know it’s happening to them.
kcdad: Cable has public value besides just entertainment. Cable allows me to watch city council meetings, school board meetings, county board meetings, as well as Congress. Many of these things are only available on local cable — not satellite, and not over-the-air stations.
Vonster: At one point, Manning said 27 people spoke; I wasn’t keeping track. But there were definitely over 60 people there. Tanya Koonce and I both counted and came up with about the same number.
27 or 60?? Who’s counting huh. Much like the museum. Don’t argue with CJ, if he said 60, then there were 60 dammit. Although after talking to a council person, I was told 27 was a bit high, but hey, it’s just a number.
chrisw: So what if the cable stops working? I am sure Comcast will fix it. I could use the same logic on my Chrysler. If it stops working will Uftring fix it? It’s like that with anything. Like satellite TV. When mine stopped working, DISH wanted to fix it, for $70 minimum just to get a tech out to look at it.
Also, I have 2 dishes for sale, cheap. One for DirecTV and one for DISH. I also have 3 cable boxes, one from DirecTV and 2 from DISH. $5 takes them all.
I listen to the The Horseshoe on KCBU. Why do you want to have to look at them, too?
Emtronics… why would you rather believe one of the lying liars than C.J. or Tanya?
Here comes the hyperbole…..