2-Star Stocks Poised to Plunge: Comcast

• Report this Comment On January 02, 2009, at 1:14 PM, smithd1948 wrote:

  I hope this article is right. I hope Comcast goes bankrupt.Thier monopolistic practices and greed are beyond comprehensible. How th4ey exlpect customers to remain loyal to them is amazing. I live nest door to a Comcast substation but cna no longer pay my bill htere or pick up or take back a new box. Has to be done by maill, how convenient for thier customers. In Michigan they tried to move all local access channels to the premium digital channels and have eliminated local studios. They have also eliminated the TV guide channel so if you do not have a newpaper or internet at hadn you are out of luck to see what is on. I will be leaving Comcast as soon as there is another option availble no matter whqat the cost. Maybe I will give up the tv and this internet even before then. Darrell Smith Port Huron Mi

• Report this Comment On January 03, 2009, at 1:34 AM, clyman6232 wrote:

  I have a computer business and tell my customers what the best internet to get is. The bottom of the list is Comcast. They do well in sparsly populated areas but in cities they do poorly. The problem is that they do not have enough routers for the number of customers they have and therefore speeds are greatly effected in more populated areas. I would recommend DSL over Comcast. In my area, we have a far better choice. In Tacoma, WA, the city light wired high speed internet at a very low price to attract businesses that use Internet. There are only a few ISP's who are allowed to use Click!, the name chosen for their service. The television isn't much better but for internet we pay mostly for the ISP and not much for the actual connection. That is why we can get 3mb service for $30.00 per month including taxes and about $40.88 per month for 8mb service, if you pay by the year. On a month to month service it is about $1.75 per month more. Comcast charges for both the connection and the ISP and the price comes in around $56.00 per month for 6mb service which in this heavily populated area actually comes in at around 3mb download speed. One advantage to DSL is that the upload speed is about 2/3 the speed of download as opposed to cable which is more like 1/10 the download speed. Something that is important when working with the office computers from a remote location.

  Comcast is the worst cable internet company I have had the displeasure of trying to work with. I am glad I have the option of recommending a reliable and inexpensive alternative to my customers. I have to thank Comcast for making me look good when I talk my customers into getting a different provider when they have had Comcast. I currently have very few customers using Comcast and those who do, do so because of the package deal of phone, TV and Internet, all in one. When I can convice them that they really are not saving money with the package, I can then get them reliable service.

  You have to take into consideration that Comcast advertises its speeds up to whatever the speed is but does not guarantee a certain speed. If they would just install more routers in metropolitan areas, they could improve their their image. They think that overselling their equipment is a better business model than making sure all their customers get good speed.

• Report this Comment On January 03, 2009, at 8:22 AM, FLinvestor38 wrote:

  I must disagree with clymann6232. Where I live in Florida, Comcast has been a beacon of light against Verizon Fios' incredibly poor customer service practices and dishonest sales tactics (basically say what you need to say to get the signature). In Tampa, Verizon's own employee union picketed their own company stating that Verizon was making no attempt to improve customer service and would not give them the ability to help us...the consumer...when they felt that we were in the right or treated unfairly. Their spokeswoman's response "If our customers don't like our prices, product or customer service, they can and will go to the other providers." With the problems I had, I clearly saw that the money going towards buring those orange fiber lines came directly out of customer service.

  I had switched from Comcast to Fios and now I am back with Comcast. The 6 Mbps/1 Mbps with power boost Internet usually runs at 9+ Mbps down and 1.8+ Mbps up. I recently ran 14 speed tests on 5 programs and averaged 15 Mbps Down. I have also read about the 50 Mbps down that Comcast has launched in certain markets and will be expanding nationwide. Not sure of the cost, but it shows their competitive desire.

  For my business, having someone to contact that can help you when an issue arising is vital. Having to be on the phone for 3 hours making phone calls and then a 28 hour response time from Verizon didn't work for me. I definitely felt like I was the only one concerned with my issue. Comcast guarantees within 4 hours they will be at my business and I have my salesman cell phone number that I have used with great results. They are local and they want to solve the problem.

  Though I don't believe Verizon's products are poor by any means, if no one is there for you to contact or no one is truly interested in solving your problem, it all become a mute issue. I assume this is why I have read that they were indicited in 10+ states.

  Thank you to Comcast for your effort, in my area at least, and I hope others in different markets have the same experience that I did.

• Report this Comment On January 05, 2009, at 10:25 AM, MIinvest123 wrote:

  I had the pleasure of using Verizon FIOS in Fort Worth. When I moved back to Michigan, it was not available so I had to default to Comcast.

  Within the first 4 months, they had to replace my box because it was faulty. Then they keep nickel and dime'n you on top of their overpriced rates.

  This is not the first time i had problems with them neither. When I lived in Grand Rapids, MI in a new developement, I contacted them for service, as they were the only cable company in the area. They informed me that service would not be available till late spring. Late spring came and went and they told me service would not be available till mid summer. I got talking to a neighbor that lives down the street only to find out that cable has been available since last November. Needless to say I switched to Direct TV.

  Now I am hoping Verizon will put in fiber optics in SW Michigan

• Report this Comment On January 09, 2009, at 11:26 AM, buyamerican wrote:

  Ford is a leader and Alan Mullaley is CEO of the year in my opinion. Look what he has done: corrected production capacity to match market demand and financed the Ford turn around without any bailout funds. Now look at the 2009 F150 and 2009 Fusion Hybrid. These vehicles are inovative and safe and outperform their Toyota counterparts. I also like their plans to equip all vehicles with Synch 2.0! Good job Mr. Mullaley, you've shown the world how to run an auto company. UAW, the gravy train is over, suck up and continue to show the world that we can produce quality products because the alternative is unemployment.

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