 Review by darcilicious 
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 2308 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Forest Grove,Washington,OR
 $20 per month
 "No Contract; modem shipped same day as order"
 "Registering the modem, etc. is a pain."
 "We'll keep for six months, after that, we'll see!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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We're using Comcast while we have our Verizon DSL hardware (at the Central Office) upgraded.
April 29, 2005: Initial order
Ordered through comcastofferes.com this morning:
*4000/384 package
*full rebate on motorola modem
*$50 cash rebate after 30 days of service
*self install kit to be shipped separately
*$19.95/mo for six months
*no contract, no cancellation fee
*all equipment expected to arrive within 8-10 days of order
Ordered online, smooth process; saved off both rebate forms separately. Was notified later this evening that modem had shipped (UPS ground) and should be delivered on May 5 (six days).
Will update when all equipment has arrived and self install is completed.
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May 5, 2005 Part A
Modem is due to arrive (via UPS) today; assuming it doesn't include the self-install kit, I thought I would speed up the process a bit by making the trip to the nearest Comcast service center to pick one up. I even called in advance to make sure the kits were there for pick-up.
I get there, and talk to the Customer Service Rep behind the desk. She asks for my name, phone number and picture ID. Meanwhile one of her colleagues drops off a box and manual on her desk. So close! But no. Since I'm not in their system (yet?) because I've ordered through comcastoffers.com, she will not give me the kit. I explain to her I called in advance, I wasn't told about any such restrictions, and I drove 30+ minutes and she wasn't going to GIVE me the FREE install kit. She said that she could sign me up directly but I wouldn't get as a good a deal. I pointed out again that it was a FREE install kit, why couldn't they just give it to me? She said the equipment included had a rental fee (what the heck?) and I responded that I didn't need a modem, just the kit. She wouldn't budge. She offered again to sign me up. I said I understood she could do that but why wasn't I told about these restrictions when I called? All she would say is, "I don't know what else to tell you."
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May 5, 2005 Part B
Well, the joke was on both me and the Customer Service twit. On me because the modem from comcastoffers.com shipped with an self-install kit (I thought it was shipping separately which is the only reason why I bothered with the "local" Comcast Center; that and the modem was due to arrive *today* and I'm just so impatient sometimes). On her because here's the sum total of what's in the self-install kit:
1) Installation CD (pretty much needed to complete the online registration process)
2) Long coax cable
3) Short coax cable
4) Splitter
5) Ethernet cable
6) USB cable
7) Small doohickeys
Rental equipment my arse!
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May 5, 2005 Part C
Less than a week from the order, we're up and running!
First thing I did after unpacking everything was call Comcast (1-866-288-2180) to activate my account. I was able to give him the modem brand/model number, the modem MAC address and the modem customer serial # from the lable on the modem box. Also gave him my street address. I was on the phone for less than 10 minutes while all the little activation tasks were taken care of. In return, he gave me a 16 digit customer number (probably the same one that's on our cable bill).
Our house is wired for ethernet and cable TV outlets in four rooms. For logistical reasons, I connected the modem to the cable outlet in the master bedroom and connected it the modem to the ethernet jack; back at our "comm center" (router, WAP, etc), I connected the router to an ethernet jack. That should have worked but no, the router was showing a "dead" connection on the WAN port 
So then it was time to try the laptop connected directly to the modem. No go.
Finally, I resorted to using the install CD which was more involved than I want to get into for this review. Let's just say that I moved the modem and all the needed cables to our "comm center", used the cable splitter (which may also be a filter?) on the cable outlet (that also goes to a TV nearby), and connected the modem directly to my desktop (which has a working CDROM drive unlike the laptop 
Did the CD install, created the primary email account, blah blah blah. The modem was then reset for me and I was good to go!
First speed test: »/speedtests/42···15328364
Not too shabby!
I then reconnected the router/wap devices and we're back to original setup, but on the Comcast network.
Extremely painless (especially if I could have followed the instructions to the letter the FIRST time
June 29 -- All paperwork for $130 worth of rebates sent in today.
1 July -- received a promo/rebate postcard from Comcast for the free Philips FunCam Digital Camera. On the postcard was the username, password and URL where I was to sign in and "claim" the camera. Unfortunately, my username and password were not accepted. I emailed the support address for assistance and after sending in some requested info (date of order/activiation, name, address, etc) I was told my claim was being processed. Looks like on top of everything else, we'll be getting FunCam/DigitalCamera  Nice!!
Dec 7, 2007
Overall, I have been a very satisfied Comcast customer. We have had the 6mb plan from the start and until about 2 months ago, it was rock solid. There was an outage (overnight even) a few months ago and when I called it in, the CSR mentioned that there was a new commercial customer in the area that was having an impact in the surrounding neighborhood (ORLY?) I mentioned that I had noticed too that my speeds would no longer stay at 6mb for downloads but drop down to 4mb on average and jump around from that point. She said that a tech was nearby tweaking and hopefully that would fix my speed problem as well. It didn't and I didn't bother with CS again because I knew FiOS was going to be available *any day now*. And I was right!
Well, yesterday I found out that Verizon FiOS is now ready and have an install date for 12/26 (Merry Christmas to me!) -- We're going with the 15Mbps/15Mbs plan (take THAT, Comcast). We're also (believe it or not) even longer time customers of Verizon -- I had ISDN with them when they were still GTE and have been a very happy DSL customer for many many years.
And once FiOS TV becomes available (any day now), I'm dropping all my Comcast services -- cable TV in particular has been a real bear -- 10% price increase every year for the past several years (we have extended basic) and recently three channels were dropped from our lineup. I won't miss the less that top speed and the shrinking number of channels versus the rising costs. (FiOS TV will be about $43/mo for 200 channels -- that seems like a no-brainer to me!)
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