We should've gone with RCN

Had a choice here, and despite having experience with both Comcast and RCN...we held our noses and went with Comcast.  Generally no issues with them once you've basically started with the initial package of choice...and leave it alone.

BUT, if you want to change A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G about your service...you'll find yourself quickly frustrated and endlessly dealing with some lowly-paid warm body in a seat with the understanding and attention span of an 8-year-old.

We recently bumped up to a 4K TV and found out that Xfinity has a 4K cable box that you can upgrade to for free.  YAY right?  You'd think from reading about it on their website that it's a straightforward swap...but it is not.  This is almost entirely due to really awful communication on their part, and at so many levels that it's truly difficult to believe this company can exist at all in the modern business world.

To start, there is NO WHERE in your online account where you can order a 4K box.  ALL attempts to do so will re-direct you to a chat that can only suggest things like how to set up your cable box, how to troubleshoot the box, etc.  ZERO about a 4K box or how to order one.  If you try to add a cable box in your package you only see the same [Edited: "Language"] basic X1 box you already have...and forget swapping or upgrading, they just want to ADD another box and no other option exists.

Search the web and you'll find you need to speak to an Xfinity agent to order this box.  We did that, and the agent was happy to have a box shipped to us.  But I asked if I could just take my current non-4K box to a local Xfinity store and swap it out with a 4K model.  He said, "Sure you can"!

Drive a few miles to a store in downtown Washington, DC and they guy there says those boxes are stored in local warehouses and he hasn't seen one available at the store for months...but if I want to wait to sit down with an agent who can order one....

But he also said that they often have them at another store in Arlington, VA which is another few miles away.  Went back to the car and tried to call THAT store which is apparently impossible.  You are connected to someone in the Philippines.  OK, she says there's no way to tell who has what in stock and we decide to go ahead and order a box through her.  She says it'll be a few days with shipping.  We greenlighted that and figured it would show up in a few days, maybe 4, or 5, or 6.  Uh, no.

There were NO emails, NO texts, NO calls...nada, for a whole week!!!

I logged in to our online account, ignored their stupidly-narrow help categories and typed "agent" which got me a warm body sitting in a seat in the Philippines.  After asking about the status of our ordered 4K cable box...a cheery yet thoroughly unhelpful exchange proceeded for over 15 minutes that only further demonstrated how unbelievably poor the level of even simple communications are with this company!

This agent looks into this and says I was supposed to approve the order via an email or text that NEVER APPEARED.  And NO, it did not go into a junk folder or anything like that.  I get their billing notifications no problem.  I also get their promotions no problem.  And as an IT tech with over 30 years experience I certainly know to check things like junk folders before I contact someone with an inquiry or complaint.

After clearly having specified at the very beginning of this worthless chat that this was about a 4K box that had been ordered a week ago...this idiot process to ADD and standard X1 box to my account for shipping!  Luckily, I caught the X1 moniker in his chat AND in the text he sent me for my approval (note: an X1 can be almost any non-specific model).  I asked if this was a 4K box, such as the XG1v4 model as I didn't want to get an Xi6 that is for streaming only.  He says he'll check.

Guess what his eventual reply was.  He says there are currently NO 4K cable boxes available AT ALL in stores or for shipping!!!  I said then let's cancel everything (before he starts adding things to my bill that I neither want or need as we only have a single TV).  He says he'll be sure I'm notified when the 4K boxes become available.

I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Here's the main gripe.  The woman agent in the Philippines we spoke with could have very simply said those boxes were not currently available...OR, we could have received a text or email the next day or so indicating they were not currently available.

Nope!  Nothing!  I guess following up with an empty promise might take off a nickel or two from Comcast's profits.  Easier just to ignore the order and let us just sit for a week without ANY idea or indication or what happened to our non-existent order.  Instead, I'm forced to take the time to try and find out what happened, and in the process nearly get a second basic box sent to me...unusable to our home, and with the privilege of adding it to our monthly bill.

COMCAST.  You have computers, databases, and a network that connects them.  Please learn how to use them so as to serve your customers properly with them!  It's not that hard.

As an independent IT tech in the Greater D.C. area...I've come across all kinds of shenanigans helping clients with their ISP providers, including RCN, Verizon and Comcast.  They've dropped the ball in one way or the other.  Clients always ask me, who is the best?  I tell them it's gamble with any of them, and that it really comes down to where you're physically located in the area as far as reliability goes.  Service dropouts are notorious in areas where the infrastructure is old and weak.  And try to fully decide beforehand exactly what you want in your package deal as it will likely become a giant headache if you try to change anything later.

Years ago Comcast tried to get me to push their service on my clients.  I refused, just as I would any ISP in this area.