topic Re: COMCAST OUTAGES? JUNE 2019 in Electronics

COMCAST OUTAGES? JUNE 2019

aroc3435 — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 17:51:44 GMT

Washington DC area here. Yesterday afternoon Comcast went off a little after 3, finally restored at 4:45, went out again at 5:25, back on at 5:50, out again 5:55 to 6:10, out again. Out briefly at 12:38 a.m. then back on. Then out again, hopefully the final time 7:50 to 8:26 a.m.

I am curious if other Comcast customers around the country had this happen recently or yesterday.

No real explanation on the web found. Outage screen kept indicating to tighten connections and restart but it clearly wasn't caused by that.

Very annoying since it is also my Wi-Fi connection for my laptop.

Thank you for any light on this you might be able to shed.

Re: COMCAST OUTAGES? JUNE 2019

kare29 — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 18:05:47 GMT

Hi,

I am north of Boston and have Comcast for my cable, internet and phone and did not experience any down time yesterday or today.--Karen

Re: COMCAST OUTAGES? JUNE 2019

Suzeecat — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 18:06:58 GMT

I've been having similar issues with my Comcast internet and cable services for more than a month now, but I haven't heard anything about it being a widespread problem. I assumed it was unique to me. Over the course of over a month I have replaced all my equipment, gone through 4 dvr boxes, replaced cables and connections, and even got a new tv (probably needed a new one anyway but still). The most recent step was new cable from my house to the cable box outside, but an outside contractor has to come back to bury it. In the meantime my condo's lawn service will no doubt mow it to shreds since it's just sitting on top of the grass . . .

Re: COMCAST OUTAGES? JUNE 2019

Boehm Collector — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 18:17:18 GMT

Hi @aroc3435 ...... I cannot answer your question about any outages. But I had Comcast for years because we could not get any other Internet/Cable provider in our town. I had nothing but problems with Comcast ... especially in my office. As soon as Verizon FIOS became available I switched and have not had any problems whatsoever during the year and a half I have been with FIOS.

Re: COMCAST OUTAGES? JUNE 2019

Foxxee — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 18:29:59 GMT

Yes. About a few hours early this morning in Pennsylvania.

Have had some internet and TV outages for a few minutes at a time during the past 2 weeks.

Re: COMCAST OUTAGES? JUNE 2019

Jasmine19 — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 20:38:07 GMT

I suspect that Comcast has been throttling service in Philadelphia for a while. My internet has been really slow at times. The end of net neutrality is going to affect us all eventually.

Re: COMCAST OUTAGES? JUNE 2019

VaBelle35 — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 23:47:49 GMT

I am in the Northern Virginia suburbs but I wasn't home or awake during the outtages you listed.

Hot Bench recorded between 3-4 pm yesterday with no problems and this was during one of the outtage times you listded.

Re: COMCAST OUTAGES? JUNE 2019

aroc3435 — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 06:19:40 GMT

@VaBelle35 @Jasmine19 @Foxxee @Boehm Collector @Suzeecat @kare29

Thank you all for your helpful replies. Recurred briefly again Wednesday at around 4:30 p.m. but didn't last very long. This time the scrren said there was a problem with channel 265 which is a PBS station and it flipped me over to the NBC local news channel and said to wait a few minutes before trying 265 again, so I waited and got the PBS channel back in about five minutes.

Re: COMCAST OUTAGES? JUNE 2019

apple1964 — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 11:09:14 GMT

The only problem I found was with the wifi connection a few days ago. I was able to reset the modem myself but, I had to do this a couple of times finally I changed my password and so far i am golden. If this happens again I will get Comcast to come in and swap out the modem.

Re: COMCAST OUTAGES? JUNE 2019

dooBdoo — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 23:02:41 GMT

@aroc3435, I've been a Comcast/Xfinity customer for years. In the past month, starting the first week in May, there have been outages that were uncharacteristic of the usual problems. At times there were hours of no cable tv service and no internet service. Other times the duration was shorter, but it's been more frequent than ever before. Last night I had no access to On Demand, for hours (I finally gave up, so I don't know exactly how long), and that's unusual.

Starting in May, I've been looking at the downdetector.com and istheservicedown.com websites, and #comcastoutage on the internet, and this isn't localized nor has it been associated with bad weather or the other typical causes. The outage maps and customer reports show problems across the entire country. I'd love to know what's going on.

Re: COMCAST OUTAGES? JUNE 2019

aroc3435 — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 23:08:43 GMT

@dooBdoo Thanks for this information which I really appreciate. I would love to know the reason for what I outlined earlier. I wish Comcast would put up a better explanation on the screen or send a follow up e-mail or or voice mail to affected customers.

I did not bother to phone them--yet. And I am no "techie" so I always think it might be something I have done wrong. I had dusted the top of the chest where all the gizmos for the cable sit the day before the intermittent outages started so at first thought I had loosened the hookup somehow.

I had Comcast when I lived in Connecticut so I've been a "captive" customer since 1982. I did not have a computer at home when I lived there, so only had TV. In those early days you paid your bill once every three months!

The last place in CT where I lived for eleven years I had repeated outages. I would phone them, they would walk me through the self "fixes' but it happened several times a month and they would give me a $5.00 credit.

Finally, around seven years of putting up with this nonsense, I was tired of being the patient, long suffering customer. I requested that a tech come to my apartment ASAP. This was on a Saturday.

To my amazement one of their service men came on Sunday. He checked everything inside the apartment and shook his head. He told me to hang in there he would be back.

He went out to his truck and climbed a ladder examining at length the connecting wire/cable across the street. He came back and told me he had discovered the problem. He said it was a miracle I, along with other customers on my street, had any signal reception at all. He said it was obvious from looking that for at least twenty years Comcast's people had been "patching" or "splicing" the wire. He told me to be patient. He proceeded that day to put up a whole new wire from across the width of the street from the main junction or whatever it would be called to the "feeds" to my side of the street.

Never had that difficulty again unless a storm knocked out the electricity or cable. I just don't understand how they think it is okay to run their business like that with such lengthy "deferred maintenance" and expect to have satisfied customers. But they had no real competition.

And, of course their prices and confusing package offers, tiers, and bundles are so complex and the sales people don't even understand a lot of it. At one point in CT I asked for a package that would include CSPAN 3 and was told it didn't exist anywhere. I informed him that it did indeed exist nationwide and had been in existence for a long time--I had seen it at my daughter's residence while visiting DC. Long pause on his end . . . oh, here it is--yeah we can "give" you that. Unfortunate choice of words since we are paying for that!

In any event, thank you for your info and for indulging my venting.

Re: COMCAST OUTAGES? JUNE 2019

dooBdoo — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 23:27:17 GMT

You're welcome, @aroc3435. Good heavens, I'd say that's "deferred maintenance" to the extreme! All those years with Comcast have to be some kind of loyalty record... you deserve a special discount for that. But, of course, we know discounts are reserved for new customers. (sigh) The packages really are inane. This time around I have their VoIP for the first time, because the package with it was far less expensive than the package price without it. I've also found that the offers can vary depending upon the representative. I usually ask for their "retention" department but in some cases the first-line agent is required to take the basic information before passing the call along. I can say that I've noticed an improvement in their customer support -- maybe in the past 6 months or so? -- because the reps seem to be more responsive, better informed. I sense a number of changes with the company, but I have no idea what they are or if they're good for the customers. I do hope you see fewer disruptions. If not... vent away! We'll listen and we'll also understand. Take care.