Comcastic = Craptastic

Setting up and transferring utilities at a new house or apartment can be quite a pain in the arse. I just recently moved (1.5 weeks ago) to a new apartment and have been setting up all the quintessential services that I’ve come to rely on. First of all there are the basics; electricity and gas. Next come the extra services; internet! I have to say that wherever I live, the internet is probably the most important service. Hell, I’d go without gas before I went without the internet! Anyway, this brings me to the meat and potatoes of this post; Comcast!

Comcast is THE single most annoying cable provider on the face of the planet. However, if you’re fortunate enough to not live in Muncie, Indiana than you might have a different opinion about comcast. My qualms with Comcast stem from their strangle-hold monopolization of the city/town of Muncie. Since they are sole cable provider in the area, they are able to charge ridiculously high fees for their services. The price for JUST cable internet is $60 a month in Muncie. I find this to be quite steep considering that just 45 miles south of us (in Indianapolis) a friend of mine is paying comcast $20/mo for a years worth of Digital Cable + cable internet! WTF!? I have another friend that’s just recently moved up to Crown Point, Indiana and they are only paying $40/mo for their services as well. I guess that since Comcast is the only provider in Muncie they have the overwhelming power to do as they please. I mean, it’s not like we’re going take our business to someone else in the area.

My beef doesn’t stop with pricing. Oh no… that would be too easy! One would think that since everything is so overpriced that they would at least provide better services, right? WRONG! They are completely and utterly incompetent!

If you’ve never had the unwanted priviledge of scheduling a cable installation then you’re missing out . First of all, you have to pick three days of the week. The installation should only take one hour (if you already have cable lines installed) on one of the three days but you are required to schedule three nonetheless. Secondly, after you’ve picked your three days you must set a time window for each of those days. The typical installation time-frame window is about 5 hours. We scheduled our installation to be between 9AM and 2PM for all three days. This is supposed to be convenient but it never is; especially when work and classes are there to get in the way. Being a contractor for Comcast must be a pretty sweet gig considering you can blow off two appointments and not even get in the slightest bit of trouble.

Our cable was scheduled to be installed last Sunday between 9AM and 2PM. My roommate and I had moved our computers and television to the new apartment the night before so that it would be ready for the hook up. Since we moved above a restaurant the only day that is convenient for us to move our stuff is on Sunday because the business is closed and we can park right out front. The majority of the time that we could have spent moving our belongings was spent waiting on the contractor to show up and install our cable. The contractor called us at 1:30 to let us know that he was running late but that he’d be there (how convenient). He eventually showed up sometime around 3:30 and then spent just over 2 hours installing our internet and digital cable box. The whole process was an unsmooth inconvenience.

That brings us up to current. My roommate and I now have the internet & digital cable flowing into our apartment. We were able to move the rest of our stuff in even though it was far later than we had planned. Life is good again. I just hope that I don’t have to deal with comcast again for a long while.