Comcast HDTV fun in Western PA (venting)
 

On my last Comcast cable bill, it said "HDTV is available now in your
area. Call to order." I'd been considering DirectTV, but instead I
figured it would be easier to go with Comcast since I already had them.
Then the fun began...

The first time I called, after the typical "if you are X, press Y" phone
navigation fun, I'm connected with a person. Having it handy, I gave my
customer number, said I'm calling about HDTV, and then I'm transfered to
another person. That person asks for my cust. number; I gave it and tell
them I want HDTV. They pull up my account, say "you need digital cable
first", and transfer me. I again repeat my cust. number and desire for
HDTV, and after a second of pausing for breath, I start to explain that
I've already been transfered twice. Too late. Apparently as soon as
"HDTV" came out of my mouth, they stopped listening and reached for the
"transfer" button. At that point I was rather angry, and so when the 4th
person AGAIN asked for my cust. number, I told him I've had enough of
being transfered and hung up.

After cooling down for a while, later that day I called back and instead
asked for a manager on duty. After explaining my plight, she told me I
required at least the $10.00/month digital package to receive HDTV, but
she was not 100% certain which HDTV channels would be carried. She said
she could put my order in, transfer me to someone who did know about the
channels, and I could tell them to cancel the order if the channels were
not o.k. with me. So I let her do that, scheduling the installation for
the following Friday, and had her transfer me to a person to ask about the
available channels. While that person repeatedly kept saying "I'm not
certain why she transfered you to me", I was able to coax out the HDTV
channel offering information from him, which while it could be better, I
found acceptable.

Finally the happy day arrives (August 22), and at about 9:00 AM in the
morning the technician shows up. Work order in his hand, I ask him if he
has the HDTV box. He says "you ordered HDTV?" I tell him I had, and then
we both take a closer look at the work-order. While the "w.o.
description" said "digital upgrade", it did have "install hdtv" as one of
the line times. Apparently, the technician informs me, the work order was
put in the wrong pile. The local installation office currently has a
different set of technicians for their hdtv installations; he did not have
a hdtv box in his truck, nor had yet been trained in their installation.
Since I don't care one bit about "digital cable", I did not have him
install anything. He went out to his truck to call his local office. He
came back to let me know they didn't answer, but he left a message for
them to try and get the right person out to me. He suggested that I wait
until 12:30 PM, which was the window they'd given me for that day.

At about 11:30 AM, not having much faith in a correction to this issue
without further action on my part, I call the Pittsburgh 800 number for
Comcast which was on the copy of the work order the technician had left
with me. The operator I eventually speak with tells me he's put a notice
into the local dispatcher to call me to confirm if a person will, or will
not, make it to my house that day. As the original installation window
rolls and I receive no phone call, I decide to again call in near 1:00 PM.
A different operator sees the note in the system for the call to me, and
puts another one in for me. Since they, of course, will not give me the
number to the local dispatcher, I'm at a loss of what else I can do. I'm
working from home that day, and I become rather busy shortly after that
call.

Eventually work slows down a bit, and looking at my clock I see it's 4:30
PM, and I've heard nothing from Comcast. I call again. With this
operator, I let her know that I'm perfectly capable of hooking the hdtv
box into my tv, so even if the tech can only just drop off a box, I'd be
happy with that. Letting me know that the hdtv installers work until 6:00
PM, she tells me she'll try and get the local dispatcher to call her back,
and then she'll call me back. She asks that I give her 30-45 minutes to
call me back. I give her an hour; no call.

So I again call back at 5:30 PM. This operator, looking up my issue in
the system, let's me know that the issue has been "escalated", but sees no
calls back from the dispatcher. He keeps me on hold for a bit while he
makes more attempts to contact the local dispatcher for my area and calls
the "helpdesk" to see how this should be handled. He is still unable to
contact my local dispatcher, while the "helpdesk" authorizes a $20.00
credit to my account since we'll have to reschedule the installation.
Wow, twenty whole dollars! I'm rather underwhelmed. I'll try not to
spend it all in one place...

Looking in the system, the operator tells me that the soonest hdtv
installation date available is 9/3, a Wednesday and therefore unacceptable
to me. The operator keeps me on the system while e-mailing the lead
installer (different then the dispatcher, I suppose) explaining why they
should give me my desired installation date of next Friday (8/29). The
operator gets an "out of office" response to that e-mail. He instead
sends it to the installer mentioned in the out-of-office response. At
this time it's a little after 6:00 PM so obviously it's unlikely that we'd
hear anything back that day, so I thank the operator for his efforts, and
he assures me he'll call me back once he gets an answer. Which he does
the next day, confirming the 8/29 installation day.

We'll see...

John,

Enjoyed reading your well-described adventure! Thanks for the chuckle.
Here in Augusta, Georgia/South Carolina Comcast is even sadder on launching
their HDTV. Rather than recite much the same of what you reported, NO ONE
IN COMCAST here KNOWS about HDTV although the Augusta paper had a half page
article on HDTV being announced by Comcast this morning. Responsive
customer communications is obviously NOT Comcast's forte!

E-mails - which take about 24 hours to turn around, always result in the
same "Comcast is committed to delivering the latest ...." and in effect say
nothing. Good luck! For the last month or so we're seeing (on the regular
digital box) channel 173 ESPN, 176 HBOHD, 178 SHOHD, 180, 181, and 182 ABC,
NBC and CBS HDTV channels - of course no pic and occasional sound comes
through. Prior to today HDTV was not even in the vocabulary of Comcast
reps. This morning's runaround resulted in a "call back around noon and
we'll know something." The call around noon resulted in a long hold then an
offer to '...become a beta test customer." Took name and phone # and
promised someone would call soon. No call today - I'll be (breathlessly)
holding my breath tomorrow! Good luck on your appointment!

Tom (escapee from Pittsburgh)

"John C. Ring, Jr." wrote in message
...
On my last Comcast cable bill, it said "HDTV is available now in your
area. Call to order." I'd been considering DirectTV, but instead I
figured it would be easier to go with Comcast since I already had them.
Then the fun began...

The first time I called, after the typical "if you are X, press Y" phone
navigation fun, I'm connected with a person. Having it handy, I gave my
customer number, said I'm calling about HDTV, and then I'm transfered to
another person. That person asks for my cust. number; I gave it and tell
them I want HDTV. They pull up my account, say "you need digital cable
first", and transfer me. I again repeat my cust. number and desire for
HDTV, and after a second of pausing for breath, I start to explain that
I've already been transfered twice. Too late. Apparently as soon as
"HDTV" came out of my mouth, they stopped listening and reached for the
"transfer" button. At that point I was rather angry, and so when the 4th
person AGAIN asked for my cust. number, I told him I've had enough of
being transfered and hung up.

After cooling down for a while, later that day I called back and instead
asked for a manager on duty. After explaining my plight, she told me I
required at least the $10.00/month digital package to receive HDTV, but
she was not 100% certain which HDTV channels would be carried. She said
she could put my order in, transfer me to someone who did know about the
channels, and I could tell them to cancel the order if the channels were
not o.k. with me. So I let her do that, scheduling the installation for
the following Friday, and had her transfer me to a person to ask about the
available channels. While that person repeatedly kept saying "I'm not
certain why she transfered you to me", I was able to coax out the HDTV
channel offering information from him, which while it could be better, I
found acceptable.

Finally the happy day arrives (August 22), and at about 9:00 AM in the
morning the technician shows up. Work order in his hand, I ask him if he
has the HDTV box. He says "you ordered HDTV?" I tell him I had, and then
we both take a closer look at the work-order. While the "w.o.
description" said "digital upgrade", it did have "install hdtv" as one of
the line times. Apparently, the technician informs me, the work order was
put in the wrong pile. The local installation office currently has a
different set of technicians for their hdtv installations; he did not have
a hdtv box in his truck, nor had yet been trained in their installation.
Since I don't care one bit about "digital cable", I did not have him
install anything. He went out to his truck to call his local office. He
came back to let me know they didn't answer, but he left a message for
them to try and get the right person out to me. He suggested that I wait
until 12:30 PM, which was the window they'd given me for that day.

At about 11:30 AM, not having much faith in a correction to this issue
without further action on my part, I call the Pittsburgh 800 number for
Comcast which was on the copy of the work order the technician had left
with me. The operator I eventually speak with tells me he's put a notice
into the local dispatcher to call me to confirm if a person will, or will
not, make it to my house that day. As the original installation window
rolls and I receive no phone call, I decide to again call in near 1:00 PM.
A different operator sees the note in the system for the call to me, and
puts another one in for me. Since they, of course, will not give me the
number to the local dispatcher, I'm at a loss of what else I can do. I'm
working from home that day, and I become rather busy shortly after that
call.

Eventually work slows down a bit, and looking at my clock I see it's 4:30
PM, and I've heard nothing from Comcast. I call again. With this
operator, I let her know that I'm perfectly capable of hooking the hdtv
box into my tv, so even if the tech can only just drop off a box, I'd be
happy with that. Letting me know that the hdtv installers work until 6:00
PM, she tells me she'll try and get the local dispatcher to call her back,
and then she'll call me back. She asks that I give her 30-45 minutes to
call me back. I give her an hour; no call.

So I again call back at 5:30 PM. This operator, looking up my issue in
the system, let's me know that the issue has been "escalated", but sees no
calls back from the dispatcher. He keeps me on hold for a bit while he
makes more attempts to contact the local dispatcher for my area and calls
the "helpdesk" to see how this should be handled. He is still unable to
contact my local dispatcher, while the "helpdesk" authorizes a $20.00
credit to my account since we'll have to reschedule the installation.
Wow, twenty whole dollars! I'm rather underwhelmed. I'll try not to
spend it all in one place...

Looking in the system, the operator tells me that the soonest hdtv
installation date available is 9/3, a Wednesday and therefore unacceptable
to me. The operator keeps me on the system while e-mailing the lead
installer (different then the dispatcher, I suppose) explaining why they
should give me my desired installation date of next Friday (8/29). The
operator gets an "out of office" response to that e-mail. He instead
sends it to the installer mentioned in the out-of-office response. At
this time it's a little after 6:00 PM so obviously it's unlikely that we'd
hear anything back that day, so I thank the operator for his efforts, and
he assures me he'll call me back once he gets an answer. Which he does
the next day, confirming the 8/29 installation day.

We'll see...

Jeff,

Guess the real question is why should it even cost more - won't HDTV be THE
U.S.A. standard by 2005?
What we need is good old fashioned competition with cable service.
Regards, Tom

"El Castor" wrote in message
...
"John C. Ring, Jr." wrote:

On my last Comcast cable bill, it said "HDTV is available now in your
area. Call to order." I'd been considering DirectTV, but instead I
figured it would be easier to go with Comcast since I already had them.
Then the fun began...

I'm out in California and actually have it, but I think I also have
reason to be a teensy bit annoyed. They've been advertising HDTV for
$5 a month. Seems too good to be true -- and in my case it is. I have
a front projector that the wife and I use exclusively for watching
DVDs -- but, it will also accept 1080i. We've also got a Sony TV with
a Comcast digital box which we use for regular TV viewing. I called
customer service twice and carefully explained my setup -- then asked
the fateful question, "Will it REALLY only cost $5 a month??" The
answer, of course, was an unequivocal, "YES!". So I got it -- then the
cable bill came -- with a $5 HDTV charge and an inexplicable charge
for $7 -- which was discounted to $2 for one year. I called customer
service. They explained that HDTV IS $5 a month, but now that I have a
second box, they have to charge me an extra $7 a month for the first
box. I guess I wouldn't mind -- if I had been able to get
customer-no-service to admit that they understood that, at least in my
case, HDTV was really costing $12. Never was able to get the concept
across to them. Now I have to ask myself, are Jay Leno and the PBS
loop worth $144 a year?

Oh well. )-8

Jeff

John,

FYI, today Comcast called to advise that "HDTV was now available." I asked
was this the Beta test or ? and rep. said "no, they are now offering
service - for only $20 installation and $5 per month more I CAN HAVE HDTV."
So after arguing the $20 to install and $5 per month agreed to an install -
also on the 29th. Let me know how yours goes - I'll do the same. For your
entertainment, the rep asked me which hookup cable I wanted - composite,
S-video or Component. I tried to explain to him that only component would
work with HDTV but he argued that any worked - depended on what jacks were
on TV!

Hope they don't charge some guy $20 install and $5 a month for HDTV then
hook him up with Composite!

Regards, Tom

"John C. Ring, Jr." wrote in message
...
On my last Comcast cable bill, it said "HDTV is available now in your
area. Call to order." I'd been considering DirectTV, but instead I
figured it would be easier to go with Comcast since I already had them.
Then the fun began...

The first time I called, after the typical "if you are X, press Y" phone
navigation fun, I'm connected with a person. Having it handy, I gave my
customer number, said I'm calling about HDTV, and then I'm transfered to
another person. That person asks for my cust. number; I gave it and tell
them I want HDTV. They pull up my account, say "you need digital cable
first", and transfer me. I again repeat my cust. number and desire for
HDTV, and after a second of pausing for breath, I start to explain that
I've already been transfered twice. Too late. Apparently as soon as
"HDTV" came out of my mouth, they stopped listening and reached for the
"transfer" button. At that point I was rather angry, and so when the 4th
person AGAIN asked for my cust. number, I told him I've had enough of
being transfered and hung up.

After cooling down for a while, later that day I called back and instead
asked for a manager on duty. After explaining my plight, she told me I
required at least the $10.00/month digital package to receive HDTV, but
she was not 100% certain which HDTV channels would be carried. She said
she could put my order in, transfer me to someone who did know about the
channels, and I could tell them to cancel the order if the channels were
not o.k. with me. So I let her do that, scheduling the installation for
the following Friday, and had her transfer me to a person to ask about the
available channels. While that person repeatedly kept saying "I'm not
certain why she transfered you to me", I was able to coax out the HDTV
channel offering information from him, which while it could be better, I
found acceptable.

Finally the happy day arrives (August 22), and at about 9:00 AM in the
morning the technician shows up. Work order in his hand, I ask him if he
has the HDTV box. He says "you ordered HDTV?" I tell him I had, and then
we both take a closer look at the work-order. While the "w.o.
description" said "digital upgrade", it did have "install hdtv" as one of
the line times. Apparently, the technician informs me, the work order was
put in the wrong pile. The local installation office currently has a
different set of technicians for their hdtv installations; he did not have
a hdtv box in his truck, nor had yet been trained in their installation.
Since I don't care one bit about "digital cable", I did not have him
install anything. He went out to his truck to call his local office. He
came back to let me know they didn't answer, but he left a message for
them to try and get the right person out to me. He suggested that I wait
until 12:30 PM, which was the window they'd given me for that day.

At about 11:30 AM, not having much faith in a correction to this issue
without further action on my part, I call the Pittsburgh 800 number for
Comcast which was on the copy of the work order the technician had left
with me. The operator I eventually speak with tells me he's put a notice
into the local dispatcher to call me to confirm if a person will, or will
not, make it to my house that day. As the original installation window
rolls and I receive no phone call, I decide to again call in near 1:00 PM.
A different operator sees the note in the system for the call to me, and
puts another one in for me. Since they, of course, will not give me the
number to the local dispatcher, I'm at a loss of what else I can do. I'm
working from home that day, and I become rather busy shortly after that
call.

Eventually work slows down a bit, and looking at my clock I see it's 4:30
PM, and I've heard nothing from Comcast. I call again. With this
operator, I let her know that I'm perfectly capable of hooking the hdtv
box into my tv, so even if the tech can only just drop off a box, I'd be
happy with that. Letting me know that the hdtv installers work until 6:00
PM, she tells me she'll try and get the local dispatcher to call her back,
and then she'll call me back. She asks that I give her 30-45 minutes to
call me back. I give her an hour; no call.

So I again call back at 5:30 PM. This operator, looking up my issue in
the system, let's me know that the issue has been "escalated", but sees no
calls back from the dispatcher. He keeps me on hold for a bit while he
makes more attempts to contact the local dispatcher for my area and calls
the "helpdesk" to see how this should be handled. He is still unable to
contact my local dispatcher, while the "helpdesk" authorizes a $20.00
credit to my account since we'll have to reschedule the installation.
Wow, twenty whole dollars! I'm rather underwhelmed. I'll try not to
spend it all in one place...

Looking in the system, the operator tells me that the soonest hdtv
installation date available is 9/3, a Wednesday and therefore unacceptable
to me. The operator keeps me on the system while e-mailing the lead
installer (different then the dispatcher, I suppose) explaining why they
should give me my desired installation date of next Friday (8/29). The
operator gets an "out of office" response to that e-mail. He instead
sends it to the installer mentioned in the out-of-office response. At
this time it's a little after 6:00 PM so obviously it's unlikely that we'd
hear anything back that day, so I thank the operator for his efforts, and
he assures me he'll call me back once he gets an answer. Which he does
the next day, confirming the 8/29 installation day.

We'll see...

You should move a couple of miles north to Cranberry Twp. We have Armstrong
Cable, who has been offering HDTV since the beginning of the year.

Armstrong has a small subset of installers who are trained to install HDTV.
When my installer arrived in March, not only did he bring the cable box, but
also several high-quality HDTV component cables - easily equivalent or
better to Monster.

The downside is that Armstrong too requires you to get digital cable in
order to get HDTV. You are not allowed to get a basic HDTV service by
itself.

Now if I could just get Armstrong to start carrying ESPN-HD....

Bob


"John C. Ring, Jr." wrote in message
...
On my last Comcast cable bill, it said "HDTV is available now in your
area. Call to order." I'd been considering DirectTV, but instead I
figured it would be easier to go with Comcast since I already had them.
Then the fun began...

The first time I called, after the typical "if you are X, press Y" phone
navigation fun, I'm connected with a person. Having it handy, I gave my
customer number, said I'm calling about HDTV, and then I'm transfered to
another person. That person asks for my cust. number; I gave it and tell
them I want HDTV. They pull up my account, say "you need digital cable
first", and transfer me. I again repeat my cust. number and desire for
HDTV, and after a second of pausing for breath, I start to explain that
I've already been transfered twice. Too late. Apparently as soon as
"HDTV" came out of my mouth, they stopped listening and reached for the
"transfer" button. At that point I was rather angry, and so when the 4th
person AGAIN asked for my cust. number, I told him I've had enough of
being transfered and hung up.

After cooling down for a while, later that day I called back and instead
asked for a manager on duty. After explaining my plight, she told me I
required at least the $10.00/month digital package to receive HDTV, but
she was not 100% certain which HDTV channels would be carried. She said
she could put my order in, transfer me to someone who did know about the
channels, and I could tell them to cancel the order if the channels were
not o.k. with me. So I let her do that, scheduling the installation for
the following Friday, and had her transfer me to a person to ask about the
available channels. While that person repeatedly kept saying "I'm not
certain why she transfered you to me", I was able to coax out the HDTV
channel offering information from him, which while it could be better, I
found acceptable.

Finally the happy day arrives (August 22), and at about 9:00 AM in the
morning the technician shows up. Work order in his hand, I ask him if he
has the HDTV box. He says "you ordered HDTV?" I tell him I had, and then
we both take a closer look at the work-order. While the "w.o.
description" said "digital upgrade", it did have "install hdtv" as one of
the line times. Apparently, the technician informs me, the work order was
put in the wrong pile. The local installation office currently has a
different set of technicians for their hdtv installations; he did not have
a hdtv box in his truck, nor had yet been trained in their installation.
Since I don't care one bit about "digital cable", I did not have him
install anything. He went out to his truck to call his local office. He
came back to let me know they didn't answer, but he left a message for
them to try and get the right person out to me. He suggested that I wait
until 12:30 PM, which was the window they'd given me for that day.

At about 11:30 AM, not having much faith in a correction to this issue
without further action on my part, I call the Pittsburgh 800 number for
Comcast which was on the copy of the work order the technician had left
with me. The operator I eventually speak with tells me he's put a notice
into the local dispatcher to call me to confirm if a person will, or will
not, make it to my house that day. As the original installation window
rolls and I receive no phone call, I decide to again call in near 1:00 PM.
A different operator sees the note in the system for the call to me, and
puts another one in for me. Since they, of course, will not give me the
number to the local dispatcher, I'm at a loss of what else I can do. I'm
working from home that day, and I become rather busy shortly after that
call.

Eventually work slows down a bit, and looking at my clock I see it's 4:30
PM, and I've heard nothing from Comcast. I call again. With this
operator, I let her know that I'm perfectly capable of hooking the hdtv
box into my tv, so even if the tech can only just drop off a box, I'd be
happy with that. Letting me know that the hdtv installers work until 6:00
PM, she tells me she'll try and get the local dispatcher to call her back,
and then she'll call me back. She asks that I give her 30-45 minutes to
call me back. I give her an hour; no call.

So I again call back at 5:30 PM. This operator, looking up my issue in
the system, let's me know that the issue has been "escalated", but sees no
calls back from the dispatcher. He keeps me on hold for a bit while he
makes more attempts to contact the local dispatcher for my area and calls
the "helpdesk" to see how this should be handled. He is still unable to
contact my local dispatcher, while the "helpdesk" authorizes a $20.00
credit to my account since we'll have to reschedule the installation.
Wow, twenty whole dollars! I'm rather underwhelmed. I'll try not to
spend it all in one place...

Looking in the system, the operator tells me that the soonest hdtv
installation date available is 9/3, a Wednesday and therefore unacceptable
to me. The operator keeps me on the system while e-mailing the lead
installer (different then the dispatcher, I suppose) explaining why they
should give me my desired installation date of next Friday (8/29). The
operator gets an "out of office" response to that e-mail. He instead
sends it to the installer mentioned in the out-of-office response. At
this time it's a little after 6:00 PM so obviously it's unlikely that we'd
hear anything back that day, so I thank the operator for his efforts, and
he assures me he'll call me back once he gets an answer. Which he does
the next day, confirming the 8/29 installation day.

We'll see...

On Thu, 28 Aug 2003 08:16:35 -0400, Robert Sillett wrote:

You should move a couple of miles north to Cranberry Twp. We have Armstrong
Cable, who has been offering HDTV since the beginning of the year.

Yeah, one guy I work with lives in Harmony up that way and his cable
company has provided high-speed cable services for quite some time, too.
I think he has Armstrong cable, but perhaps I'm remembering it wrong.

But selling my house and moving just for that seems a bit over the top to
me :)

When my installer arrived in March, not only did he bring the cable box, but
also several high-quality HDTV component cables - easily equivalent or
better to Monster.

Sounds good, but I cannot yet comment on the quality of the actual
installer; it's the ordering process & scheduler/dispatcher which so far
has all the blame. Hopefully I'll have nothing but good to report on the
installation tomarrow :)

Now if I could just get Armstrong to start carrying ESPN-HD....

That IS (or so I was told) one of the channels I'll have. Why don't you
move down this way :) [Just kidding!]

John,

As promised, ComCast came today and installed my box. Serviceman very nice
but admitted his first install. Together we hooked up it and it took off on
active HDTV channels (NBC is silent today.)

Got a new Motorola box and feeding a Sony 36XBR450 with component feed.
Channels look Great but the black bars top/bottom intially are turning me
off. Maybe there's some way to force pan/scan or 4:3.

BTW, tech pushed some secret code on the cable box remote that brought up a
screen showing signal/noise ratio and other goodies. Haven't been able to
figure out how he did it - if you should know or anyone else reading would
like to know how to do this.

Let me know how your installation went (hopefully done by now!)

Tom
North Augusta, SC

"John C. Ring, Jr." wrote in message
...
On my last Comcast cable bill, it said "HDTV is available now in your
area. Call to order." I'd been considering DirectTV, but instead I
figured it would be easier to go with Comcast since I already had them.
Then the fun began...

The first time I called, after the typical "if you are X, press Y" phone
navigation fun, I'm connected with a person. Having it handy, I gave my
customer number, said I'm calling about HDTV, and then I'm transfered to
another person. That person asks for my cust. number; I gave it and tell
them I want HDTV. They pull up my account, say "you need digital cable
first", and transfer me. I again repeat my cust. number and desire for
HDTV, and after a second of pausing for breath, I start to explain that
I've already been transfered twice. Too late. Apparently as soon as
"HDTV" came out of my mouth, they stopped listening and reached for the
"transfer" button. At that point I was rather angry, and so when the 4th
person AGAIN asked for my cust. number, I told him I've had enough of
being transfered and hung up.

After cooling down for a while, later that day I called back and instead
asked for a manager on duty. After explaining my plight, she told me I
required at least the $10.00/month digital package to receive HDTV, but
she was not 100% certain which HDTV channels would be carried. She said
she could put my order in, transfer me to someone who did know about the
channels, and I could tell them to cancel the order if the channels were
not o.k. with me. So I let her do that, scheduling the installation for
the following Friday, and had her transfer me to a person to ask about the
available channels. While that person repeatedly kept saying "I'm not
certain why she transfered you to me", I was able to coax out the HDTV
channel offering information from him, which while it could be better, I
found acceptable.

Finally the happy day arrives (August 22), and at about 9:00 AM in the
morning the technician shows up. Work order in his hand, I ask him if he
has the HDTV box. He says "you ordered HDTV?" I tell him I had, and then
we both take a closer look at the work-order. While the "w.o.
description" said "digital upgrade", it did have "install hdtv" as one of
the line times. Apparently, the technician informs me, the work order was
put in the wrong pile. The local installation office currently has a
different set of technicians for their hdtv installations; he did not have
a hdtv box in his truck, nor had yet been trained in their installation.
Since I don't care one bit about "digital cable", I did not have him
install anything. He went out to his truck to call his local office. He
came back to let me know they didn't answer, but he left a message for
them to try and get the right person out to me. He suggested that I wait
until 12:30 PM, which was the window they'd given me for that day.

At about 11:30 AM, not having much faith in a correction to this issue
without further action on my part, I call the Pittsburgh 800 number for
Comcast which was on the copy of the work order the technician had left
with me. The operator I eventually speak with tells me he's put a notice
into the local dispatcher to call me to confirm if a person will, or will
not, make it to my house that day. As the original installation window
rolls and I receive no phone call, I decide to again call in near 1:00 PM.
A different operator sees the note in the system for the call to me, and
puts another one in for me. Since they, of course, will not give me the
number to the local dispatcher, I'm at a loss of what else I can do. I'm
working from home that day, and I become rather busy shortly after that
call.

Eventually work slows down a bit, and looking at my clock I see it's 4:30
PM, and I've heard nothing from Comcast. I call again. With this
operator, I let her know that I'm perfectly capable of hooking the hdtv
box into my tv, so even if the tech can only just drop off a box, I'd be
happy with that. Letting me know that the hdtv installers work until 6:00
PM, she tells me she'll try and get the local dispatcher to call her back,
and then she'll call me back. She asks that I give her 30-45 minutes to
call me back. I give her an hour; no call.

So I again call back at 5:30 PM. This operator, looking up my issue in
the system, let's me know that the issue has been "escalated", but sees no
calls back from the dispatcher. He keeps me on hold for a bit while he
makes more attempts to contact the local dispatcher for my area and calls
the "helpdesk" to see how this should be handled. He is still unable to
contact my local dispatcher, while the "helpdesk" authorizes a $20.00
credit to my account since we'll have to reschedule the installation.
Wow, twenty whole dollars! I'm rather underwhelmed. I'll try not to
spend it all in one place...

Looking in the system, the operator tells me that the soonest hdtv
installation date available is 9/3, a Wednesday and therefore unacceptable
to me. The operator keeps me on the system while e-mailing the lead
installer (different then the dispatcher, I suppose) explaining why they
should give me my desired installation date of next Friday (8/29). The
operator gets an "out of office" response to that e-mail. He instead
sends it to the installer mentioned in the out-of-office response. At
this time it's a little after 6:00 PM so obviously it's unlikely that we'd
hear anything back that day, so I thank the operator for his efforts, and
he assures me he'll call me back once he gets an answer. Which he does
the next day, confirming the 8/29 installation day.

We'll see...

As promised, ComCast came today and installed my box. Serviceman very
nice but admitted his first install.

I had two guys come; one with the training the other without, getting some
"on the job" training. Hard for me to judge since I'm not an expert in
this, but they seemed to know the basics, but didn't seem expert in it by
any means. But it was installed and running when they left, and that's
about all I really expect :)

Got a new Motorola box

The DCT5100? That's what they provided here.

Maybe there's some way to force pan/scan or 4:3.

I only had a little time to play with it so far today; just finished my
day of working from home. If you have the same box as me, you can hit
"menu" on the box while the DCT5100's powered down, it'll go into a menu
letting you set it for 16:9, 4:3 letterbox, or 4:3 pan & scan; select
1080i, 480p, or 480i; and a "4:3 override" mode. I'm sure some
combination will get you what you want :)

Thanks for info - found the setup stuff. Still trying to get PanScan
working but the day is young!
Appreciate the link!

Tom

"L Alpert" wrote in message
news:[email protected]

"Tom T" wrote in message
...
John,

As promised, ComCast came today and installed my box. Serviceman very
nice
but admitted his first install. Together we hooked up it and it took
off
on
active HDTV channels (NBC is silent today.)

Got a new Motorola box and feeding a Sony 36XBR450 with component feed.
Channels look Great but the black bars top/bottom intially are turning
me
off. Maybe there's some way to force pan/scan or 4:3.

BTW, tech pushed some secret code on the cable box remote that brought
up
a
screen showing signal/noise ratio and other goodies. Haven't been able
to
figure out how he did it - if you should know or anyone else reading
would
like to know how to do this.

Let me know how your installation went (hopefully done by now!)

This should answer your questions. You can even set the SD output to 480p
if you want (not that it maks aw hole lot of difference...).

http://www.cjhengineering.com/5100faq.htm


Tom
North Augusta, SC

"John C. Ring, Jr." wrote in message
...
On my last Comcast cable bill, it said "HDTV is available now in your
area. Call to order." I'd been considering DirectTV, but instead I
figured it would be easier to go with Comcast since I already had
them.
Then the fun began...

The first time I called, after the typical "if you are X, press Y"
phone
navigation fun, I'm connected with a person. Having it handy, I gave
my
customer number, said I'm calling about HDTV, and then I'm transfered
to
another person. That person asks for my cust. number; I gave it and
tell
them I want HDTV. They pull up my account, say "you need digital
cable
first", and transfer me. I again repeat my cust. number and desire
for
HDTV, and after a second of pausing for breath, I start to explain
that
I've already been transfered twice. Too late. Apparently as soon as
"HDTV" came out of my mouth, they stopped listening and reached for
the
"transfer" button. At that point I was rather angry, and so when the
4th
person AGAIN asked for my cust. number, I told him I've had enough of
being transfered and hung up.

After cooling down for a while, later that day I called back and
instead
asked for a manager on duty. After explaining my plight, she told me
I
required at least the $10.00/month digital package to receive HDTV,
but
she was not 100% certain which HDTV channels would be carried. She
said
she could put my order in, transfer me to someone who did know about
the
channels, and I could tell them to cancel the order if the channels
were
not o.k. with me. So I let her do that, scheduling the installation
for
the following Friday, and had her transfer me to a person to ask about
the
available channels. While that person repeatedly kept saying "I'm
not
certain why she transfered you to me", I was able to coax out the HDTV
channel offering information from him, which while it could be better,
I
found acceptable.

Finally the happy day arrives (August 22), and at about 9:00 AM in the
morning the technician shows up. Work order in his hand, I ask him if
he
has the HDTV box. He says "you ordered HDTV?" I tell him I had, and
then
we both take a closer look at the work-order. While the "w.o.
description" said "digital upgrade", it did have "install hdtv" as one
of
the line times. Apparently, the technician informs me, the work order
was
put in the wrong pile. The local installation office currently has a
different set of technicians for their hdtv installations; he did not
have
a hdtv box in his truck, nor had yet been trained in their
installation.
Since I don't care one bit about "digital cable", I did not have him
install anything. He went out to his truck to call his local office.
He
came back to let me know they didn't answer, but he left a message for
them to try and get the right person out to me. He suggested that I
wait
until 12:30 PM, which was the window they'd given me for that day.

At about 11:30 AM, not having much faith in a correction to this issue
without further action on my part, I call the Pittsburgh 800 number
for
Comcast which was on the copy of the work order the technician had
left
with me. The operator I eventually speak with tells me he's put a
notice
into the local dispatcher to call me to confirm if a person will, or
will
not, make it to my house that day. As the original installation
window
rolls and I receive no phone call, I decide to again call in near 1:00
PM.
A different operator sees the note in the system for the call to me,
and
puts another one in for me. Since they, of course, will not give me
the
number to the local dispatcher, I'm at a loss of what else I can do.
I'm
working from home that day, and I become rather busy shortly after
that
call.

Eventually work slows down a bit, and looking at my clock I see it's
4:30
PM, and I've heard nothing from Comcast. I call again. With this
operator, I let her know that I'm perfectly capable of hooking the
hdtv
box into my tv, so even if the tech can only just drop off a box, I'd
be
happy with that. Letting me know that the hdtv installers work until
6:00
PM, she tells me she'll try and get the local dispatcher to call her
back,
and then she'll call me back. She asks that I give her 30-45 minutes
to
call me back. I give her an hour; no call.

So I again call back at 5:30 PM. This operator, looking up my issue
in
the system, let's me know that the issue has been "escalated", but
sees
no
calls back from the dispatcher. He keeps me on hold for a bit while
he
makes more attempts to contact the local dispatcher for my area and
calls
the "helpdesk" to see how this should be handled. He is still unable
to
contact my local dispatcher, while the "helpdesk" authorizes a $20.00
credit to my account since we'll have to reschedule the installation.
Wow, twenty whole dollars! I'm rather underwhelmed. I'll try not to
spend it all in one place...

Looking in the system, the operator tells me that the soonest hdtv
installation date available is 9/3, a Wednesday and therefore
unacceptable
to me. The operator keeps me on the system while e-mailing the lead
installer (different then the dispatcher, I suppose) explaining why
they
should give me my desired installation date of next Friday (8/29).
The
operator gets an "out of office" response to that e-mail. He instead
sends it to the installer mentioned in the out-of-office response. At
this time it's a little after 6:00 PM so obviously it's unlikely that
we'd
hear anything back that day, so I thank the operator for his efforts,
and
he assures me he'll call me back once he gets an answer. Which he
does
the next day, confirming the 8/29 installation day.

We'll see...

"Tom T" wrote in message
...
Thanks for info - found the setup stuff. Still trying to get PanScan
working but the day is young!
Appreciate the link!

Tom

No problem. We are all in the same boat, so to speak!

"L Alpert" wrote in message
news:[email protected]

"Tom T" wrote in message
...
John,

As promised, ComCast came today and installed my box. Serviceman very
nice
but admitted his first install. Together we hooked up it and it took
off
on
active HDTV channels (NBC is silent today.)

Got a new Motorola box and feeding a Sony 36XBR450 with component
feed.
Channels look Great but the black bars top/bottom intially are turning
me
off. Maybe there's some way to force pan/scan or 4:3.

BTW, tech pushed some secret code on the cable box remote that brought
up
a
screen showing signal/noise ratio and other goodies. Haven't been
able
to
figure out how he did it - if you should know or anyone else reading
would
like to know how to do this.

Let me know how your installation went (hopefully done by now!)

This should answer your questions. You can even set the SD output to
480p
if you want (not that it maks aw hole lot of difference...).

http://www.cjhengineering.com/5100faq.htm


Tom
North Augusta, SC

"John C. Ring, Jr." wrote in message
...
On my last Comcast cable bill, it said "HDTV is available now in
your
area. Call to order." I'd been considering DirectTV, but instead I
figured it would be easier to go with Comcast since I already had
them.
Then the fun began...

The first time I called, after the typical "if you are X, press Y"
phone
navigation fun, I'm connected with a person. Having it handy, I
gave
my
customer number, said I'm calling about HDTV, and then I'm
transfered
to
another person. That person asks for my cust. number; I gave it and
tell
them I want HDTV. They pull up my account, say "you need digital
cable
first", and transfer me. I again repeat my cust. number and desire
for
HDTV, and after a second of pausing for breath, I start to explain
that
I've already been transfered twice. Too late. Apparently as soon
as
"HDTV" came out of my mouth, they stopped listening and reached for
the
"transfer" button. At that point I was rather angry, and so when
the
4th
person AGAIN asked for my cust. number, I told him I've had enough
of
being transfered and hung up.

After cooling down for a while, later that day I called back and
instead
asked for a manager on duty. After explaining my plight, she told
me
I
required at least the $10.00/month digital package to receive HDTV,
but
she was not 100% certain which HDTV channels would be carried. She
said
she could put my order in, transfer me to someone who did know about
the
channels, and I could tell them to cancel the order if the channels
were
not o.k. with me. So I let her do that, scheduling the installation
for
the following Friday, and had her transfer me to a person to ask
about
the
available channels. While that person repeatedly kept saying "I'm
not
certain why she transfered you to me", I was able to coax out the
HDTV
channel offering information from him, which while it could be
better,
I
found acceptable.

Finally the happy day arrives (August 22), and at about 9:00 AM in
the
morning the technician shows up. Work order in his hand, I ask him
if
he
has the HDTV box. He says "you ordered HDTV?" I tell him I had,
and
then
we both take a closer look at the work-order. While the "w.o.
description" said "digital upgrade", it did have "install hdtv" as
one
of
the line times. Apparently, the technician informs me, the work
order
was
put in the wrong pile. The local installation office currently has
a
different set of technicians for their hdtv installations; he did
not
have
a hdtv box in his truck, nor had yet been trained in their
installation.
Since I don't care one bit about "digital cable", I did not have him
install anything. He went out to his truck to call his local
office.
He
came back to let me know they didn't answer, but he left a message
for
them to try and get the right person out to me. He suggested that I
wait
until 12:30 PM, which was the window they'd given me for that day.

At about 11:30 AM, not having much faith in a correction to this
issue
without further action on my part, I call the Pittsburgh 800 number
for
Comcast which was on the copy of the work order the technician had
left
with me. The operator I eventually speak with tells me he's put a
notice
into the local dispatcher to call me to confirm if a person will, or
will
not, make it to my house that day. As the original installation
window
rolls and I receive no phone call, I decide to again call in near
1:00
PM.
A different operator sees the note in the system for the call to
me,
and
puts another one in for me. Since they, of course, will not give me
the
number to the local dispatcher, I'm at a loss of what else I can do.
I'm
working from home that day, and I become rather busy shortly after
that
call.

Eventually work slows down a bit, and looking at my clock I see it's
4:30
PM, and I've heard nothing from Comcast. I call again. With this
operator, I let her know that I'm perfectly capable of hooking the
hdtv
box into my tv, so even if the tech can only just drop off a box,
I'd
be
happy with that. Letting me know that the hdtv installers work
until
6:00
PM, she tells me she'll try and get the local dispatcher to call her
back,
and then she'll call me back. She asks that I give her 30-45
minutes
to
call me back. I give her an hour; no call.

So I again call back at 5:30 PM. This operator, looking up my issue
in
the system, let's me know that the issue has been "escalated", but
sees
no
calls back from the dispatcher. He keeps me on hold for a bit while
he
makes more attempts to contact the local dispatcher for my area and
calls
the "helpdesk" to see how this should be handled. He is still
unable
to
contact my local dispatcher, while the "helpdesk" authorizes a
$20.00
credit to my account since we'll have to reschedule the
installation.
Wow, twenty whole dollars! I'm rather underwhelmed. I'll try not
to
spend it all in one place...

Looking in the system, the operator tells me that the soonest hdtv
installation date available is 9/3, a Wednesday and therefore
unacceptable
to me. The operator keeps me on the system while e-mailing the lead
installer (different then the dispatcher, I suppose) explaining why
they
should give me my desired installation date of next Friday (8/29).
The
operator gets an "out of office" response to that e-mail. He
instead
sends it to the installer mentioned in the out-of-office response.
At
this time it's a little after 6:00 PM so obviously it's unlikely
that
we'd
hear anything back that day, so I thank the operator for his
efforts,
and
he assures me he'll call me back once he gets an answer. Which he
does
the next day, confirming the 8/29 installation day.

We'll see...