Comcast Xfinity vs DishNet

I have a chance to save quite a bit of money if we change our TV and phone service to the Xfinity Triple Play that bundles Internet/Cable TV/Phone service. We've been a customer of DishNet for almost 13 years, and with the exception of the occasional signal loss due to rain & snow, we've been pretty happy.

I want to see what other's experiences have been with Comcast cable TV & phone service, specifically in regard to the following:
HD channel choices?
Movie channel choices?
On-Demand availability?
PPV options?
Cable outages?
Customer service?
DVR options?
Signal/picture quality on HD TV's?
Telephone call quality?
Any other comments on Comcast cable TV or phone service?

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Originally Posted by TennVol

HD channel choices? Not as many
Movie channel choices? About the same
On-Demand availability? Pretty good actually
PPV options? Never used it
Cable outages? Not many at all
Customer service? Sucks, really sucks. Good luck getting someone who speaks english
DVR options? LOW capacity compared to Dish/DirecTV- like 1/5 the space
Signal/picture quality on HD TV's? Good
Telephone call quality? When it works, it's good. I had an ongoing problem with mine for like 6 months. Other party couldn't hear for ~5 seconds every minute. Over a dozen service calls until I cancelled the service. It's still going on with the new tenants at that house.
Any other comments on Comcast cable TV or phone service? A tech took their modem (cable/phone) from my house and never reported it returned. It took me 2 years to get them to take it off my bill every month. $200 in rental fees over that time for something I didn't have. Techs were rude. One made my other half go up and down the stairs several times to plug in/unplug the box with a broken foot. One showed up at my house for the phone issue and gave me a sob story about his wife's medical conditions. Spent 2 hours on the phone w/ tech support trying to get my modem activated when I moved. Regional supervisor for techs in the Longmont area won't answer my calls anymore. Promotional periods on their prices suck. SOUNDS like a great deal, then you get the non-promo bill

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I would avoid them at all costs.

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Originally Posted by 00tec

I would avoid them at all costs.

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That's the kind of feedback I'm looking for.

Keep it coming!

I have triple play. I suppose it depends on what they're offering to you. When I signed up it was a steal. 3 years and two rate increases later and isn't all that great (130$/mo). I'm still with them though if that means anything.

HD channel choices? There isn't anything I watch that I can't get in HD. But I only watch about a dozen channels.
Movie channel choices? As far as I know there isn't anything they don't have... They still have AMC. [Beer]
On-Demand availability? I don't know what to compare it to. New movies are there the day they release. And around 60 free movies at any given time.
PPV options? I only get UFC and Boxing and they always have them.
Cable outages? When I was in my apartment, I was having a 3 hour outage pretty much every month. I called and complained each time and they always gave me a free PPV rental (6$ value). Since I moved into a house, I haven't had a single problem.
Customer service? See above - and those that I talked to were right here in the USA. I could have just been lucky.
DVR options? I've heard that it isn't the best... as in other providers have a higher storage capacity. Tenn mentioned that again as well, but I've stored 4 seasons of shows in HD on mine. Good enough for my needs.
Signal/picture quality on HD TV's?Looks good to me.
Telephone call quality?Crystal clear since I moved into a house. In the apartment it was poor most of the time.
Any other comments on Comcast cable TV or phone service? If the intro deal they're offering is good, do it for a year. You won't be under any obligation to stay as far as I know. Then jump ship when they raise your rate for a better deal.

last week my wife was on the internet at 10 am, I tried to get on the internet at 1 pm and I couldn't get on. called tech support they were sure it was a problem the tech had to come to the house for. I thought it was the modem so I went and bought a new momdem, long story short that modem wouldn't work either. they offered me a "support package" for only 3.99 a month and that covered the tech visit charges but I have to agree to keep the support for 3 months. the tech came out and said there was too much resistance on the line, funny how this could occur in only 3 hours. the tech replace the connectors on the coaxial cable in the house and at the outside connection. My new DOCSIS3 modem still wouldn't work. I said to try the old modem, the tech called in the old modem mac address and wouldn't you guess, the old modem worked just fine. I talked to the IT folks at work and they said the situation was bogas. My IT friend thinks comcast did something because the explanation of what happend didn't make sense. so I have my old modem and 3 month of tech support. why would they do this? maybe because I went with the lowest band with (form 12 to 3) and reduced my monthly payment about 40.00

FWIW

Comcast is like a plate of pancakes.....awesome at first but by the end you're fucking sick of 'em.

I have had Comcast for many years now and I am trying to determine which satellite company to switch to or whether I should just cancel TV completely. I have had some minor service issues with them, and from what everyone I know who has satellite tells me I am without service as much of not more than they are. My bills go up fairly consistently. I call now and again and ask why and they mention a multitude of fee's that weren't there before or say programming pricing went up. For about the last 5 years I was able to talk my way into a discount. Recently they have stopped offering that option to me no matter how much I pester them. When they switched to "xfinity" my bill went up. I called and asked why and they said because you now have xfinity. When I said I didn't want xfinity, they told me Comcast changed something or other and now only offers xfinity so I didn't have a choice. I have scaled back to basic television service with a DVR and HD channels and two actual boxes (only one a DVR/HD) and then other little boxes that aren't supposed to be a charge in other rooms that have TV’s meaning no PPV which I don't use anyway but they also don't get all of the channels in my basic package. They have sent "hits" as they call them to my service to allow the boxes to receive the other stations but it has not worked and they won't come out and fix them so I screwed. I also have the basic cable internet that they have. Less than a year ago I was paying 80 something dollars a month for all of this. Got my bill this month and it was $144.62 for the most basic things they offer minus phones. My mother in law made the switch to the triple play and was happy as could be until her initial offer went away and her price skyrocketed to damn near $300 a month up from around $160.

As far as the DVR it sucks in terms of capacity. If you want to record in HD you cannot get all that much on it. You can record without HD but then why are you paying for HD? I find when I do record in HD I get a lot of messed up signals in the recording where the picture will freeze or go out. Another family member of mine just switched to DirecTV and he says if you have HD with them you only get HD stations, Comcast you still have the option of watching them in regular def (why I don't know) and therefore everything records in HD and you have 5 times the space.

I think they trump all with on-demand, my wife loves it and it's a great way to find something for the kiddos to watch, I wasn't aware anyone else even offered that.

My mother in law watches a lot of PPV movies and seems to be happy, I tend to go the Netflix or red box route

Long story short avoid them like the plague! If I could get a comparable internet service from one of the other providers I would switch in a heartbeat, I think I am just going to do without. Sorry for the rant
[Beer]

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Originally Posted by BUC303

Comcast is like a plate of pancakes.....awesome at first but by the end you're fucking sick of 'em.

Long story short avoid them like the plague! If I could get a comparable internet service from one of the other providers I would switch in a heartbeat, I think I am just going to do without. Sorry for the rant
[Beer]

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Good feedback. Thanks!

I might be the only person who hasnt had a problem with Comcast in the 8+ years I've had them. I have the triple play with upgraded internet speed.

I have NEVER lost TV service. Some HD channels are a better picture than others. Every channel I like to watch is in HD including the Outdoor Channel with all the shooting shows on Wednesday.

Every 2 years when they try to up my rate I call (always speak to a 100% english speaking person), tell them I want to downgrade to the lowest services and then they offer to keep me at my current rate for another two years if I don't downgrade.

Lost internet service once when they were doing some sort of underground work across the street. I called to report the outage and they took one day off my bill.

Never lost phone service. Never had a call that wasn't clear for both parties.

When I upgraded my internet speed they forgot to mention I needed a different modem to make sure I got the full benifits of the speed increase. I found that out on my own, called them to ask for the better modem and they refunded me the two months that I paid for the increased speed no questions asked. Sucks they didn't mention it, sweet they refunded me the price.

The On Demand movies are better than satelite because you don't have to download them before you watch them. You just click and you're watching in a second.

That said, there seems to be lots of people who have had problems. I'm just not one of them.

HD channel choices? Pretty much everything I watch is in HD, even the kid's cartoons
Movie channel choices? Pretty much all of them
On-Demand availability? Lots of stuff available on demand, both free and PPV
PPV options? More PPV than direct tv. I haven't been a dish customer for years, but was a recent direct tv customer and switched back to comcast.
Cable outages? Dog chewed thru my cable a few years back....got a new run and put it in PVC up against the house where the dog chewed it
Customer service? OK, recent install to switch my phone to comcast was easy to setup and the tech was on time
DVR options? I have an HD DVR, as someone said it only records like 60 hours or something like that of HD
Signal/picture quality on HD TV's? Great, better than Direct TV
Telephone call quality? Fine, haven't noticed a difference
Any other comments on Comcast cable TV or phone service? As I said, I switched to Direct TV to save some $$ (or so I thought) and wound up switching back to Comcast. Comcast's internet is way faster than the competition, I get 25 MB/sec download and 6-8MB/sec upload speeds...

Edited to add-I've been with Comcast for nine or ten years now, with a recent switch to Direct TV and then back to Comcast after a year with direct tv....

I know that people love to hate the cable company more than they love to hate the phone company, but I've had good experiences with them

I've never had Comcast service. I've been with Dish for close to (or maybe longer than) 20 years.

I was a Dish installer for about 6 months. The bulk of my day was spent installing sat TV for Comcast customers. I never met a SINGLE Comcast customer who was satisfied with their service.

Whatever that's worth...