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Comcast Disconnected My Verizon, What Should I Do?

consumerist.com — Here's an odd situation: Man says that Comcast (his old cable company) disconnected his new Verizon cable. He's not sure what exactly he should do about it and would like your advice.

Who dugg this? Made popular Aug 20, 2008

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106 Comments

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  • inactive, on 08/19/2008, -0/+75Have Verizon sue for interference with a subscriber, then sue Comcast for loss of service. Comcast is already on the ropes with the FCC.
  • merlin484, on 08/19/2008, -2/+71This is America - sue them
  • inactive, on 08/19/2008, -1/+38don't call comcast .... their employees will apparently cuss at old men ... i read that other article!!
  • centran, on 08/19/2008, -0/+26Nah just take comcast to small claims court. If you take them to small claims court then you will probably win. I highly doubt comcast would send their lawyers out as it would be less money just to pay out the small claim.
  • LavaWarrior, on 08/20/2008, -13/+38***** THE RIAA!!
  • aznpwnzor, on 08/20/2008, -2/+24DO A BARREL ROLL!
  • ClarkLab, on 08/20/2008, -1/+21It seems like every single day there is a story about lame cable/cell companies. Why can't they just get their act together, it couldn't possibly be that hard to quit sucking.
  • BigLLamasHouse, on 08/20/2008, -2/+21find a clocktower and bring a gun to the top of it...
  • justinglen, on 08/20/2008, -2/+15go outside.
  • sockpuppets, on 08/20/2008, -1/+13Jesus sticks?
  • solidus636, on 08/20/2008, -2/+12Shut the ***** up with that stupid meme. It's not funny anymore.
  • Shirleycakes, on 08/20/2008, -0/+10Nor was it ever.
  • Klowner, on 08/20/2008, -0/+9Or go down to their offices with a hammer and start breaking windows!
  • Dylson, on 08/20/2008, -1/+10I wish I could beat every comcast worker with a realy big branch full of really spiky thorns.
  • DivisibleByZero, on 08/20/2008, -0/+9Don't deal with anything on the Comcast side. They have lawyers and you don't. Tell Verizon that you're very unhappy with the way they handled the situation (as well you should be), and threaten to move to Dish until you get enough free ***** to make you stop complaining. At the minimum you shouldn't have to pay Verizon for the service during the times that you weren't getting it. You could fight that part in court if you had to.

    Let Verizon's lawyers fight Comcast's lawyers if they want. Either way, you got what you wanted out of Verizon. If your motive is purely to punish Comcast, I'd say posting on Digg accomplished that... but everybody here hated them already.
  • Typhoon2009, on 08/20/2008, -2/+9Nuke comcast! I should join the Air Force just so I can go down in history as the man who defeated Comcast.
  • spurtle, on 08/20/2008, -0/+7"UPDATE: Comcast says they're sending someone out to Stephen's house to investigate."

    TRANSLATION: Comcast will be disconnecting his Verizon service again.
  • inactive, on 08/20/2008, -0/+7This is exactly why I feel absolutely no guilt about stealing my cable.
  • tacochampion, on 08/20/2008, -0/+6This reminds me of when Qwest was having a really good special in my area and I was thinking about switching from comcast. I tried to call their 800 number from my 'comcast digital voice' line, and it just kept telling me the number was disconnected. Every other number I tried worked just fine, and the qwest number worked just fine on my cellphone. Tech support called me a liar, and then refused to admit that it was just that one number. I sat on my cellphone and tried various other 800 numbers on the comcast line with a tech on my cellphone, every single number worked except QWEST.

    Oh, and the day after the promotion ended, the number worked just fine.

    Comcast can eat my feces.
  • cheez124, on 08/20/2008, -0/+6i hate comcast, we have had the worst problems with them.
  • CrazyDave303, on 08/20/2008, -0/+6Most places you can not bring lawyers to small claims court. And trust me, it's worth every penny to them to not pay, because if you do it others will, and then others. Sooner or later they will have a major issue for all the dirty ***** they pull. Funny enough stuff if you or I did we'd go to jail.
  • ISurfTooMuch, on 08/20/2008, -0/+6Any satellite installation that causes the signal to disappear in anything less than a torrential downpour was a poorly-done installation. If the dish is aimed correctly, and unless you have an extremely long cable run (something like 150 feet with no amp to boost the signal), you shouldn't lose signal in 99% of weather. The only time I've seen it happen is if there is a very heavy thunderstorm between your dish and the satellite. Yes, it happens occasionally, but these things last maybe five minutes. After that, the signal pops right back in.

    The cable companies have repeated the lie that you lose service in the rain so many times that some people believe it.
  • DeathfireD, on 08/20/2008, -0/+6It sounds like a bit of a misunderstanding on both ISP's parts and the guy's. It sounds like this guy canceled his Comcast account via phone. Then immediately got Verizon to come set up their stuff, presumably because the Olympics where starting and he didn't want to miss anything. Then Comcast sent a tech to come disconnect their old stuff without knowing the guy had just gotten Verizon set up as an ISP. So Comcast's tech cuts the wires thinking their Comcast's lines and leaves. Guy notices he can no longer do anything and calls Comcast. They even tell him that they disconnected the lines "I am told that I shouldn't have received a bill for the month of September since my Comcast service was physically disconnected the evening of Aug 8." and the 8th happens to be the day he noticed he could no longer do anything cable related.
  • sockpuppets, on 08/20/2008, -2/+7You'd get better reception with a coathanger.
  • inactive, on 08/20/2008, -0/+5Sue Comcast for tortious interference with a contractual relationship.
  • cdawzrd, on 08/20/2008, -1/+6Not to belittle the man's unfortunate situation, but this made me think of that short clip of the UPS and FedEx men facing off :-)
  • chrisduser, on 08/20/2008, -0/+5NO, ***** YOU!
  • digiguy, on 08/20/2008, -0/+4put shoe on head
  • ballardr, on 08/20/2008, -0/+4Here we don't have a choice. Only Charter cable or Satellite. And Charter Really sucks.

    And Satellite doesn't work in the rain. Or when a squirrel eats the cable from the satellite.
  • otbeverly, on 08/20/2008, -0/+4Old lady with a hammer FTW.

    I don't know what ever happened to her, but she should have a holiday named after her where everybody goes to their local Comcast office and vandalizes a few keyboards with a hammer.

    Long before this happened, a co-worker and I were talking casually. Somehow the issue of Comcast came up. He said -- and this is by all means a reasonable person -- "If something ever happened and there was a state of anarchy, Comcast would be one of the first places to burn." Considering the ill will this company has brought upon itself from the public (and I don't condone violence against anyone), whenever Comcast receives its just deserts -- whatever they may be -- will be a good day for all mankind.
  • JohnILM, on 08/20/2008, -2/+6How do you know it was a Comcast tech that unplugged the connection? Unless you have some good proof, I'd just give up on it and be happy you've gotten your TV working again.

    I know it sucks, but it's just an inconvenient truth about the little man against big corporations.
  • Slungsolow, on 08/20/2008, -0/+4This story is about me. Comcast apologized and did say that they may be responsible for my cable service being physically disconnected. They are (at least according to consumerist) investigating what happened. Verizon has credited me for the outage on their end and also apologized for their horrible customer service.

    The reason this happened is I followed Verizon's advice and did not have my cable disconnected beforehand. I doubt it would have made a difference either way since it's Comcast's policy to physically sever the connection to close out the account and this can take weeks to occur. Was my Verizon service cut on purpose is the bigger question, and no one but the technician who disconnected me can answer that honestly.
  • Koushiro, on 08/20/2008, -1/+4"This was not really that acceptable considering all of the Olympics I missed"

    What the hell? DIAF.
  • bmfrosty, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3Every time you speak with a representative from a telecom/cable/satellite company, ask for their name (first and last), userid, and direct callback number before they hang up, but not at the start of the call. If you ask at the start of the call, you'll put them on edge, and they may just hang up on you. Don't expect to get more than 1 of the 3 most of the time, but the further up the chain you go, the more info you're going to get. Keep notes, and if you do get a direct callback number, don't be afraid to use it.

    Don't be afraid to display your anger, but never direct it at the rep that you're speaking with. This will be counter productive. Also once you've let them know that you're unhappy with the service and angry about it, back down. Let them have a little victory because they calmed down the angry customer. Appeal to their egos.
  • pyronik, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3very logical, but your not on a haters band wage so WTF?
  • CrazyDave303, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3If I mess about with people's cable I'd go to jail... If they mess about with people cable you have to spend hours of you day/life fighting it.
  • schnikies79, on 08/20/2008, -1/+4Our satellite (DirecTV) has went once 3 or 4 times in the 10 years we have had it, and just for a few minutes. It wouldn't matter anyway since we have no cable tv service.

    It takes one hell of a rain to knock out the satellite. As for squirrels, there is only about a foot of exposed wire, and I've never seen a squirrel messing with it, even though our house is in the woods.
  • DeathfireD, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3I don't like to join the sheep of haters. In all honesty, there's no need to hate when it may not even be their fault. I agree that Comcast sucks but in this situation it's hard to say it was 100% their fault for this guy's problems. It just seems like one big misunderstanding. Hopefully this guy gets some kind of compensation though.
  • RickoSicko, on 08/20/2008, -1/+4Guys, this happened to me too, but it was actually VERIZON that disconnected me from my current DSL connection (DSLextreme). After 3 days of no service, I contacted DSL Extreme, and they usually could tell what was wrong just by looking up my phone number. No luck. So they issued a call tag to hit me back with a solution by the next day, only for some jackass to tell me that I deliberately called and "discontinued/cancelled" my DSL service. I hung up, and dialed back the next day (4 days pass), and this very helpful chick found out why my modem wasn't working because Verizon's NEW FIBER OPTICS DSL (FioS) that my brother had installed in his room.

    To make a long story short, I have no connection now. I was told that It's not allowed to run in the same "household" that has Fios running AAAAND that there wasn't any thing that can bar Verizon from doing so to MY TELEPHONE LINE. My brother even told those customer service ***** if it will interfere with my connection and they said "no".

    As common courtesy to help me out due to this unsuspecting event, DSL Extreme waived the termination fee and charged me for one months worth. I have yet to call up Verizon and bring up my issue. I'll repost to this very message and let you guys know what resolves from this matter. This sucks. I'm using my bros Fios on my laptop for the meantime. *****-N-A.
  • DoTheFandango, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Comcast.
  • inactive, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3I wonder how he figured out who was able to gain access to the box and disconnect him from Verizon cable tv service.
  • Dohko_Xar, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3Why is using FioS a loss? FioS is damn fast.
  • Ajajadude, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3Yeah, dammed Verizon having their service cut by Comcast, what was Verizon thinking...?
  • Ajajadude, on 08/20/2008, -0/+3Thunderstorms in Tampa, Florida knock out DirectTV quite quickly.
  • psion01, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2Because when your company gets big enough, it is impossible not to hire jerks. Official policy might be not to act like a jerk, but when you have enough jerks working for you, you can't avoid behaving like a jerk once in a while. And I doubt Comcast execs care about acting like jerks in the first place. Couple that with human nature to complain louder and more often than praise, and you get social sites like Digg and Slashdot and Reddit plastered with stories about Comcast jerking people around and no mention of good things. Eventually, when it becomes a big PR issue and stories about your company acting like a jerk are starting to effect the bottom line, you might make an effort to institute a no-jerks policy and salvage your reputation. Time will tell whether this will happen with Comcast.

    Alright, I'm done jerking off.
  • PhilLesh69, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2They do it because there are very tight regulations on copper wire phone service.

    By clipping your copper, they ensure that you can never go back to copper wire.

    That was why I asked if they had to clip it.

  • PhilLesh69, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2Oh *****, I didn't mean CAT-5. I meant RG-6.

    CAT-5 is 8 wire copper twisted pair used in ethernet networks.

    It's been over 12 years since I had to pull cable for networking and telecom.

    My bad. My mistake gives anyone who disagrees with me a free pass to digg me down so they can feel better.
  • RickoSicko, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2Yeah, I know FIOS is pretty fast. As to the message I wrote in reply to Portfoliosos message, I'm just upset at how much time I've wasted trying to find out what the ***** happened to my connection. Now all I can hope is for a better deal, or I'll just own up and go halves on my brothers connection.

  • soupdawg30, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2Legally they can't touch the other companies wires. So as outlandish as it sounds they can't send anyone out to fix it. Verizon has to fix it.
  • maxgoedjen, on 08/20/2008, -0/+2Seriously, you have a chance to leech some FiOS and you're bitching because you can't use DSLextreme?
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