I got a call yesterday from Terry Jacobson, the City of Richmond contact for Comcast Broadband network services, who had been referred to me by Sue Hartman, City of Richmond IT Director, after reading my E-FORUM piece on COMCAST.

Terry promised restoration of my service before nightfall, and he delivered. Terry said that COMCAST had intended to inform customers of the service outage in advance, but for some reason it had not happened. Thank you Terry, and thank you Sue.

Meanwhile, I received a large number of responses with a range of opinions about COMCAST service.

• Thanks for your comments and info, that I have also found to be true. And to add another issue…I get these persistent recorded phone calls from Comcast to return their calls. After 45 minutes, several holds, a supervisor finally said the calls were due to some ad campaign that went wrong…Another part of the monopoly gone awry.

• I agree with the criticism of COMCAST.  It is a horrible company.  I only had the cable TV service.  I just switched to Dish Net, and so far I am very pleased....  better service, better product, and less expensive.

• I've had Comcast high-speed Internet for a little over one year now with virtually no problems until the last two weeks. What I learned was that Comcast is currently upgrading the physical cables in Richmond (getting ready for HDTV).  This is being done area by area and may interrupt service for as long as two weeks.  It was quite annoying.

• We've had Comcast for quite awhile. I believe they are upgrading, as we've also had some recent downtimes.

• My opinion, Comcast is easily ten times better than our days with Earthlink; customer service answers in a few minutes, and you'll very seldom need to call them. And fyi - be sure to get Comcast to credit you on your bill for the time it is not working!  Ours is down now about half the time.  And I get them to reverse the charges. 

• Thanks for the info on comcast. They cut a phone line in San Pablo a few months ago and put about 5000 phones out of service for 2 weeks (including city hall). Their attitude-oh well.

• Comcast is rebuilding the network in our area.  When they are done it will be seamless, many times faster than DSL, with instant on, no need to pay for another phone line.  When I called customer service at 800 945 2288 they happily credited me for each day it was down even if down for only one hour each day. You will see upon investigation that Cable outnumbers DSL subscribers more than two to one.  There must be a reason.  I am surprised you did not investigate further before using the Forum to condemn.  I use Cable internet about twelve hours per day, and except for five partial days of rebuild it has been a great investment.  I submit you call customer service as above, ask about a rebuild, and get their explanation.

• Shucks...no e-forums from home??? 

• A lady in our complex (Brickyard Landing) has a bulletin up on our board today that indicates she complained this morning to Comcast and they told her to keep track of her "down time" and advise them for a rebate...certainly you of all people should be able to get the info of such a "rebate" on the e-forum for those interested in a like situation. Otherwise there is always Earthlink.net!

• We switched to Dish Satellite TV from Comcast.  On Thursday, our Remote Control failed.  They sent a new one on Friday via UPS 2nd day.  We, therefore, had no TV over the weekend.  I asked for next day air and they said it would cost ME $25. My monthly bill is $60.  So where do I go for better service? 

• I think your troubles are due to your location on Scenic.  I am guessing that Comcast has few customers on Scenic and, as with all service companies, Comcast will have trouble negotiating that street.  Given the work they are doing on poles and the need for cherry-pickers, Comcast will likely have to close the street as they work. We have Comcast for TV and Broadband and, yes, there are occasional glitches, like these days when they are rewiring PR, but overall, it's a good service.  They did our street last week and we experienced only a few interruptions.  In addition, Comcast contractors are putting in fiber-optic cable along Cutting and we can look forward to whatever blessings that will provide sooner rather than later.  What all of these service companies are trying to do is get ready to spring HDTV on us; at higher rates, of course. I hope they get you online soon.  I know how aggravating the absence of that service can be. Oh, and I don’t EVER expect to ask the City about this situation, at least not in the short term.  I can’t imagine any situation worse than trying to get this City government to solve my computer/TV problems.

• Call 'em up!  I do, each time they interrupt the service.  I raise hell .  And demand a credit.  This month I've got about a week's worth..   It's not the money, it is the principle of what I bought, City of Richmond be damned...  I suppose you know that they are switching us over to fiber optics with mre "branches" than we have on coax cable. Their trucks are all over the Point, most of the without "Comcast" painted on the side (and strangely, with Alabama license plates.) Another annoying characteristic is when your TV-Comcast goes down, you have to call them.  When the Internet-Comcast goers down, you have to call the other side of the house. In the meantime, I lose a lot of internet time on which I make at least a part of my retirement income.

• I have had very good luck with Comcast. And I say that as a chronic complainer. Of course, the City could have municipal Wi-Fi service...but that's a pipe dream.

• I don't think that it is fair or accurate to judge the overall performance of any company based on one example, even though it is your personal experience. You owe it to the (your) public to examine to facts before you make blanket negative statements of any kind. And if after checking the facts, one must cite the facts and the source before passing judgment. The method that you are using to convey your frustration is not …