Comcast - Need Channel Lineup Info

[jyl]

Over the past 3 years, my Comcast Triple-Play bill has sneakily migrated from about $120/mo to nearly $170/mo. I suppose most of that is the first-year teaser rate ending, but still seems a bit high. I am happy with the Comcast service, internet is speedy (15Mbps down) and they fix every problem quickly. But $170 seems high considering we don't watch what I think of as premium channels.

So I went to the comcast.com site and tried to find out exactly what channels are included with each package, to see if I should downgrade. Basically all I really want are the networks, Science Channel, Food Channel, Discovery, and Speed (during F1 season only) in SD. Don't care about movies channels, HD, etc.

And found nothing. I am not a total dope, usually can find the info I want, but I cannot find this information on comcast.com. At what seem like the logical links, I just get a message "We are currently working to provide channel lineup information for your area".

Is this just a local technical problem, or do you guys with Comcast in other areas get the same message? If you can get a channel lineup, can you tell me (PM is fine) what channels come in the "Digital Starter", "Digital Classic", and "Digital Preferred" packages? Thank you.

Or will I have to physically visit the local Comcast retail office to get this infomation? Seems inefficient.

[red-beard]

I recently dropped Comcast, except for highspeed internet. I didn't have the triple play, but with HBO, etc, and paying for the HD boxes per month, my bill was up to $225/month.

HS internet is $42 without the rest. My new bill with Dish is $78 (No HBO). If you don't have HD service, it would drop to about $45-50. And it covers all of the channels you list above. I use Vonage for phone for $25/mth.

Comcast TV listings:

http://www.comcast.net/tv/tv-listings/


and channel lineup for Houston

http://www.comcast.com/Customers/Clu/ChannelLineup.ashx?lid=4ProgrammingChannelLineups&lpos=Nav

[masraum]

I suspect that to get your local listings, you'd have to do the "check availability" thing HERE

[Jim Richards]

John, is Verizon's Fios service available in your neighborhood? I'm going to give them a serious look when they deploy in my part of Wash DC (next year or two). Comcast sucks.

[jyl]

No FiOS here, they are in outlying cities but not central Portland.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

John, is Verizon's Fios service available in your neighborhood? I'm going to give them a serious look when they deploy in my part of Wash DC (next year or two). Comcast sucks.

Verizon used to rock but their customer service sucks big time lately.

My HOA dues include basic from the local cable provider. When the FIOS guy came to do install I told him to hook up the media room and den. Kids and guest rooms would use the basic cable. Was very explicit and we discussed for 15 minutes.

Recently called local cable to come do their thing. Guy shows up and says no can do, the Verizon tech pulled the entire wiring loom inside and buried it under the Verizon box, cable guy is not allowed to touch it.

Call Verizon to come back and undo their f'up. Spent nearly an hour arguing with them, they wanted to charge me $75 for a service call because "all your services are working". They finally agree then back track saying I'm already receiving a discount and they can't do two at the same time. Explain the 1st discount is because of the promotion for a free TV that they ran. They gave everyone they stiffed a deep discount to avoid a class action suit. Then asked her if it was Verizons policy to only honor one of their mistakes at a time? She finally relented and scheduled my "free" appointment.

The tech is now 3 weeks late for that appointment

You think they woulda taken care of it when they came and hooked up my new next door neighbor a couple of days ago?

[jtfreels]

We just started getting Speed HD on basic Comcast in the Memphis area. Found it by accident when I rescanned one of the the tvs.

Jay

[masraum]

Originally Posted by jtfreels

We just started getting Speed HD on basic Comcast in the Memphis area. Found it by accident when I rescanned one of the the tvs.

Jay

I might have to check that out.

[Aerkuld]

My advice?
Call them up and suggest that you were considering a switch to their competitor who's offering (insert whatever deal they're offering here). Ask them if they will match that or give you Comcast's introductory offer price on the triple play package or whatever.

My Father-in-law does this every year when the offer runs out. If they don't play ball he switches anyway.

[jyl]

I'm trying not to switch because have been happy w/ Comcast service (any time we have a problem, they fix it remotely immediately or have a truck at our house w/in a day) and performance (15Mbps down). Also, w/out FiOS is our area, my alternatives to Comcast are limited.

Just trying to get the bill back down to my comfort level - realized that between Comcast (phone, cable, broadband), Earthlink (email accounts), Netflix (movies), and AT&T Wireless (two iPhones) we are paying close to $300/mo for communications/entertainment, net of work reimbursement for part of the wireless bill. $3600/yr is too much.

Thinking about dropping Netflix too. Either that or buy a Mac Mini/2TB external drive and start ripping the DVDs to build a video library. As it stands we don't get enough value from it and one of the download services (Amazon, AppleTV, etc) would work just as well.

Could drop Earthlink too. I've had that email address since 1995-ish, hate to give it up, but could bite the bullet and move to a Gmail account.

[jyl]

Hey, how do my expenses for TV + landline + internet + cellphone compare to the rest of you guys? Call it $3600/yr in total.

Would be interested in knowing if I'm way out there.

Call it a benchmarking exercise.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by jyl

Hey, how do my expenses for TV + landline + internet + cellphone compare to the rest of you guys? Call it $3600/yr in total.

Would be interested in knowing if I'm way out there.

Call it a benchmarking exercise.

For me, it's $0+$75+0 per month, so $900 a year for those 4 things.

Free TV, no cell phone, and a $75 after fees unlimited phone/1MBps internet from ATT. Toss in the Blockbuster account to take care of your Netflix is another $20 per month, puts us at $1140 a year.

[jyl]

Looks like I'm going to be embarassed here . . .

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by jyl

Looks like I'm going to be embarassed here . . .

Or I am. I'll be called a luddite for not having cell phones and cable TV and such.