ROKU, HBO GO

On the bottom of the Cotact Us page of Comcast's website, there is an option to read a letter from Tom Karinshak, Senior Vice President of Customer Experience at Comcast. At the conclusion of his letter, there is an option to send Tom Feedback. 

I went through these steps and submitted the following: "Why does Comcast not support the HBO GO channel on the Roku? Comcast's on demand feature is not the same as it does not offer all previous HBO shows." 

Within an hour, I received this reponse:

Thank you for contacting the Office of Tom Karinshak. My name is ShaRonda. I am genuinely sorry for the inconvenience you experienced regarding not being able watch HBO GO on your Roku or Samsung TV. I can definitely provide you more information HBO to go and Comcast.

Comcast is continually evaluating new platforms to support for the Online TV Partners like HBOGO, but at this time have no committed dates to support HBOGO on Roku or Samsung TV’s. Although we do not have a launch date available for the compatibility of our services with the Roku. Our engineers and programmers are working diligently to make our service more compatible with all multimedia devices available today like the Roku and Smart Phone/TVs. We will continue to work with our partners to deliver even more choices to our customers in more places. For a list of supported devices, please go to: http://www.hbogo.com/#help/. You can also check your monthly statement and online at www.comcast.com for any updates.

HBO Contact Information 
1100 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10036-6737

Phone: 212-512-1000

If you have any other questions or concerns feel free to respond back to this e-mail and I would be happy to assist you. I want to thank you again for contacting us here at Comcast. We are grateful to have you as a Comcast customer, and your satisfaction is our primary goal. You are a valued Comcast customer, and it is important to us that we retain our successful relationship. We appreciate your business and thank you for choosing Comcast as your provider.

Sincerely,

ShaRonda J 

Office of Tom Karinshak 

Oh what a bunch of corporate nonsense:

Our engineers and programmers are working diligently to make our service more compatible with all multimedia devices available today like the Roku and Smart Phone/TVs. 

 All they have to do is FLIP A SWITCH.

Truly, they must have some worthless "engineers and programmers" if they haven't been able to accomplish in TWO POINT FIVE YEARS what other cable operators did in minutes.

You know...it's one thing when a corporation is just plain greedy....it's a fact of life...sad and sickening at times when morality and ethics are pushed aside to make another penny, but it's just life.

But when they LIE ABOUT IT...make up some nonsense about "working diligently"...that's just too much to take.

Likely the best thing one can do is to voice your opinion via that support page. I had a similar but somewhat less optimistic response from Comcast...

Thank you for contacting the Office of Tom Karinshak. My name is Brenda. I am sincerely sorry for the frustration you have experienced with regards to Comcast not supporting HBO GO on Roku. I assure you I will do everything I can to address your concerns.

Comcast is continually evaluating new platforms to support Online TV Partners like HBOGO, but at this time we have no committed dates to support HBOGO on Roku, however, I have forwarded your request to our management and development team. Your reference number is [#######]. This is for tracking purposes only. While we cannot honor every request, we do take your interests into consideration in planning future changes here at Comcast. Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your insightful feedback.

We truly appreciate your business here at Comcast and thank you for allowing us to work toward a resolution for you.

Hey - just sent 'Tom' an email on my X1 issues (along with my roku request) - if we all send him Roku requests, maybe they'll get the idea... or remove the 'send tom an email' link... any bets on which happens first?

Jim - I've tried that - I can't get a good signal from transmitters -- and with digital it's pretty much all or nothing.  I'd love to dump Comcast if I could replace them with something that delivers the same level of programming.

Save yourself $200/mo, pain from the literally stinky devices that never work and always need to have a signal resent, cables running all over your home....and install an HD antenna.  Dont be afraid...it works beautifully.  The picture is actually better and I am willing to bet that for most of you, 90% of the programming you watch is on free public TV.  Sure, you'll miss ESPN, and MNF, and HBO realtime - but within a year, federal regulators will change all of that.  You can buy the episodes from Amazon or itunes; shows on AMC and FX post their episodes in realtime.  These guys offer a dying service, they overcharge us for it, they dont support devices such as Roku, and provide horrible customer service.  Make a stand and hang it up.  For $200/month you can do a lot to entertain yourself.  

Here is the letter from Tom...

http://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Customers/TomKCustCare.html?SCRedirect=true

What I just sent to Tom...

-----------------

Tom,

There is a (2+ year-old) thread on the Comcast forums that starts here:

http://forums.comcast.com/t5/XfinityTV-Website/ROKU-HBO-GO/td-p/1100271/highlight/false

There have also been many many phone calls to "customer service" about this issue.

What's the issue?

Basically, folks who pay you for HBO, want to be able to watch what they are paying for, on the device of their choice. In this case, a Roku.

Many other TV cable providers allow their subscribers to watch HBO Go on their Rokus. So this is NOT a technical problem. It is NOT a problem that requires Comcast engineers to work for months to figure out.

It simply requires, figuratively speaking, Comcast to FLIP A SWITCH.

You don't have to "diligently work on it". So PLEASE do not send me a response that includes a phrase that sounds like that (like you have sent to other customers about this same subject).

The principle here, Tom, is that your customers are paying you, IN FULL, for HBO. It is ethically and morally wrong of you, to simply choose to not allow them to watch, again, THE PROGRAMMING THEY ARE PAYING FOR, on the device of their choosing.

Again...DOZENS of other cable TV providers DO allow their customers to watch HBO Go on their Roku's. This is NOT a technical issue.

What you are doing to your customers, Tom, is the same as, say, McDonald's, telling their customers that they can eat the hamburger they just paid for, ONLY IN the restaurant. They can't take it to their car or to their home. They can only eat it IN the restaurant.

That's ridiculous of course...but it's the same as what Comcast is saying to their HBO subscribers.

Tom, I, and MANY other of your customers...the ones you claim to want to provide the best service for...simply want you to allow them to watch THE PROGRAMMING THEY PAY YOU FOR, in the way they want to watch it.

Yes yes...we can watch on PC's, tablets, phones...yes, that's great...but why exclude the Roku? Your competitors do NOT make that exclusion.

Please Tom...live up to your claims of customer service, and allow your customers to watch HBO Go on their Rokus.

---

@jmdidday wrote:

Save yourself $200/mo, pain from the literally stinky devices that never work and always need to have a signal resent, cables running all over your home....and install an HD antenna.  Dont be afraid...it works beautifully.  The picture is actually better and I am willing to bet that for most of you, 90% of the programming you watch is on free public TV.  Sure, you'll miss ESPN, and MNF, and HBO realtime - but within a year, federal regulators will change all of that.  You can buy the episodes from Amazon or itunes; shows on AMC and FX post their episodes in realtime.  These guys offer a dying service, they overcharge us for it, they dont support devices such as Roku, and provide horrible customer service.  Make a stand and hang it up.  For $200/month you can do a lot to entertain yourself.  

---

I wish I had your optimism. Federal regulators are the ones who allowed Comcast and every other operator to kill Clear QAM which allowed anyone with an HD tuner to get all the broadcast networks in HD at no additional cost. The FCC may not be as bad as the FTC, but they are still in the pockets of the companies they are regulating.

---

@wsalopek wrote:

What I just sent to Tom...

 

-----------------

 

Tom,

 

There is a (2+ year-old) thread on the Comcast forums that starts here:

 

http://forums.comcast.com/t5/XfinityTV-Website/ROKU-HBO-GO/td-p/1100271/highlight/false

 

There have also been many many phone calls to "customer service" about this issue.

 

What's the issue?

 

Basically, folks who pay you for HBO, want to be able to watch what they are paying for, on the device of their choice. In this case, a Roku.

 

Many other TV cable providers allow their subscribers to watch HBO Go on their Rokus. So this is NOT a technical problem. It is NOT a problem that requires Comcast engineers to work for months to figure out.

 

It simply requires, figuratively speaking, Comcast to FLIP A SWITCH.

 

You don't have to "diligently work on it". So PLEASE do not send me a response that includes a phrase that sounds like that (like you have sent to other customers about this same subject).

 

The principle here, Tom, is that your customers are paying you, IN FULL, for HBO. It is ethically and morally wrong of you, to simply choose to not allow them to watch, again, THE PROGRAMMING THEY ARE PAYING FOR, on the device of their choosing.

 

Again...DOZENS of other cable TV providers DO allow their customers to watch HBO Go on their Roku's. This is NOT a technical issue.

 

What you are doing to your customers, Tom, is the same as, say, McDonald's, telling their customers that they can eat the hamburger they just paid for, ONLY IN the restaurant. They can't take it to their car or to their home. They can only eat it IN the restaurant.

 

That's ridiculous of course...but it's the same as what Comcast is saying to their HBO subscribers.

 

Tom, I, and MANY other of your customers...the ones you claim to want to provide the best service for...simply want you to allow them to watch THE PROGRAMMING THEY PAY YOU FOR, in the way they want to watch it.

 

Yes yes...we can watch on PC's, tablets, phones...yes, that's great...but why exclude the Roku? Your competitors do NOT make that exclusion.

 

Please Tom...live up to your claims of customer service, and allow your customers to watch HBO Go on their Rokus.

 

 

---

Nice letter.  If each of the over 1,600 posts on here were actually emails to Tom, that may have an impact, but I agree with whoever said they'd probably just remove the "Send Tom Feedback" link.  Still, it's worth a try. 

Use this link:  http://www.comcast.com/customers/feedback/default.cspx

If it was just a matter of Comcast trying to force you to rent a box to watch the same content On Demand, then that would mean On Demand has the same content as HBO Go.  But it doesn't.  And you can watch On Demand with a Tivo.

Whatever the case, it *is* frustrating that Comcast is, for whatever odd reason, excluding Roku owners from accessing that content owned by HBO.  I just don't get it.

At first I thought maybe it was because Comcast was concerned about the security of the authentication system on Roku, but then other cable providers have no problem with it, and it's probably the same thing on Xbox or online... yeah, I just don't get it.  Makes no sense.  Nothing I can think of explains the situation.