So not only did the second reset they did for me today NOT work, but now it's completely frozen like it was this morning. I talked to a nice woman on the customer service line (3rd call of the night) who was absolutely no help at all.
I've scheduled an appointment for this weekend, to have a tech come and take a look. My third box. This is effing absurd.
I'm not holding my breath for the escalation department people I got in touch with on Twitter to help me out either. just a waste of my time.
REALLY pissed off. The box is currently unplugged, 'cause why waste electricity on an expensive, oversized paper weight?
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Comcast HD DVR hell
this morning I woke up and the Comcast HD DVR box was down... again. Both the cable and DVR functions were locked up. At this point it wont take commands from the remote, nor directly on the box with the built in buttons. Basically you're stuck watching whatever channel it was that was on when you went to bed. Lovely. So I unplugged it, waited a minute and plugged it back in. Then I sent an angry email to the email address that the customer service folks had sent me yesterday, and a tweet to another CSR that had tweeted me in the morning.
During the day someone did try to call me, but I couldn't get it because I was working. So I tried to call her back and left a message. Then I left her another message when I tried to watch a show on the DVR with my son. When I went into the DVR menu it told me that the DVR wasn't available. Um. Okay?
Since I couldn't get that woman on the phone I went to my regular standby 1-800-xfinity or whatever. The guy was apologetic (really with few exceptions the Comcast CSRs I've had on the phone have been very nice even if a bit useless). He sent a signal, reset the box and told me to wait at lest 15 minutes before trying to access the menus.
20 minutes later the same thing was happening so I had to call.. AGAIN. This person was even MORE apologetic and did a more hardcore reset, apparently. This one I have to wait half an hour before I can access the menus. (apparently if you try to access the menus early it effs stuff up further, which seems problematic to me) That's what I'm waiting on right.
I'm not optimistic, and I'm pretty cranky.
During the day someone did try to call me, but I couldn't get it because I was working. So I tried to call her back and left a message. Then I left her another message when I tried to watch a show on the DVR with my son. When I went into the DVR menu it told me that the DVR wasn't available. Um. Okay?
Since I couldn't get that woman on the phone I went to my regular standby 1-800-xfinity or whatever. The guy was apologetic (really with few exceptions the Comcast CSRs I've had on the phone have been very nice even if a bit useless). He sent a signal, reset the box and told me to wait at lest 15 minutes before trying to access the menus.
20 minutes later the same thing was happening so I had to call.. AGAIN. This person was even MORE apologetic and did a more hardcore reset, apparently. This one I have to wait half an hour before I can access the menus. (apparently if you try to access the menus early it effs stuff up further, which seems problematic to me) That's what I'm waiting on right.
I'm not optimistic, and I'm pretty cranky.
Monday, May 2, 2011
HD DVR continues to be a piece of junk
I got home from work to find that the Comcast HD DVR box was only sort of working. There's a button down on the "Picture in picture" part that allows you to swap between the two tuners. I'll put two shows on and watch something I'm interested in while the commercials are on Sprout network for the kid. Well, that wasn't working.
I called up customer service (again, the automated menus DO seem a bit better somehow?) and the guy said that:
1) you have to unplug the thing for a full minute or so to get a full "hard restart." Juts unplugging it for the count of ten is a "soft restart." I'm not sure I'm buying his load of crap, but okay.
2) I can take it in to the service center for a replacement or have a service technician come out to take a look at it. WHICH I JUST DID with my other Comcast standard definition box. WTF?!?!?! You have got to be kidding me.
I opted to go for unplugging it and leaving it alone for five minutes while I walked around doing stuff about the house.
So I took to the twitter and complained to the @comcastcares account, telling them that I was jumping ship as soon as my contract with Comcast is up. I men, really, screw this.
We'll see what fruit that bears. But really, I JUST WANT A DVR that WORKS! That's all. I don't want to worry about it effing up. Crashing. Freezing. Getting stuck in a loop. I just want it to work. Please? Pretty please?
We were thinking about trying U-Verse since they seem to be getting decent enough ratings. I never thought I'd miss my TiVo so much. That thing WORKED.
(I appear to be using CAPS a lot in this post. Just so frustrated. The HD DVR was supposed to fix everything.)
I called up customer service (again, the automated menus DO seem a bit better somehow?) and the guy said that:
1) you have to unplug the thing for a full minute or so to get a full "hard restart." Juts unplugging it for the count of ten is a "soft restart." I'm not sure I'm buying his load of crap, but okay.
2) I can take it in to the service center for a replacement or have a service technician come out to take a look at it. WHICH I JUST DID with my other Comcast standard definition box. WTF?!?!?! You have got to be kidding me.
I opted to go for unplugging it and leaving it alone for five minutes while I walked around doing stuff about the house.
So I took to the twitter and complained to the @comcastcares account, telling them that I was jumping ship as soon as my contract with Comcast is up. I men, really, screw this.
We'll see what fruit that bears. But really, I JUST WANT A DVR that WORKS! That's all. I don't want to worry about it effing up. Crashing. Freezing. Getting stuck in a loop. I just want it to work. Please? Pretty please?
We were thinking about trying U-Verse since they seem to be getting decent enough ratings. I never thought I'd miss my TiVo so much. That thing WORKED.
(I appear to be using CAPS a lot in this post. Just so frustrated. The HD DVR was supposed to fix everything.)
HD DVR is junk too!
I woke up this morning and the Comcast HD DVR was unresponsive. It was on some movie channel or another. I wanted to turn on the TV so I could get ready while the kid watched some exciting children's shows on PBS. Anyway, it wouldn't do anything. It wouldn't change channels. It wouldn't give me a menu. Nothing.
I unplugged it, counted to ten, and plugged it back in. That was fun. It slowly crawled to life after some clicking sounds. It appeared to be, okay ish. I was able to watch channels and entertain the kid. Everything said "to be announced" but that's what you get when you do that sort of thing. At least it worked.
Made it to work without too much trouble.
I unplugged it, counted to ten, and plugged it back in. That was fun. It slowly crawled to life after some clicking sounds. It appeared to be, okay ish. I was able to watch channels and entertain the kid. Everything said "to be announced" but that's what you get when you do that sort of thing. At least it worked.
Made it to work without too much trouble.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Clunky HD DVR
The thing is just... not that great. It's clunky, it jitters.
Oh, if you're changing channels, after you hit the numbers, you can't hit enter. That's great. Maybe I'm too impatient, but I'd like to be able to hit "enter" and have it get on with the channel changing process for me. Please?
The woman at the customer service center claimed that the remote was the same, but now I'm regretting that I didn't insist upon getting a new remote. Of course, she would have probably produced a remote that had be dragged behind her care for five miles, so I'm not certain it would have done me any good. It just doesn't seem to work quite right. It's strange. Very strange.
Getting that sinking feeling about this DVR. Sad face.
Sometimes I'll hit a number and the light will come on, on the remote, but the DVR doesn't seem to acknowledge that it got the command. Sometimes I have to hit the number three times for it to receive. The menus just.. act all kinds of weird. I dunno. Isn't this thing supposed to be cutting edge technology or something? Maybe? Anyone? Help me?
Oh, if you're changing channels, after you hit the numbers, you can't hit enter. That's great. Maybe I'm too impatient, but I'd like to be able to hit "enter" and have it get on with the channel changing process for me. Please?
The woman at the customer service center claimed that the remote was the same, but now I'm regretting that I didn't insist upon getting a new remote. Of course, she would have probably produced a remote that had be dragged behind her care for five miles, so I'm not certain it would have done me any good. It just doesn't seem to work quite right. It's strange. Very strange.
Getting that sinking feeling about this DVR. Sad face.
Sometimes I'll hit a number and the light will come on, on the remote, but the DVR doesn't seem to acknowledge that it got the command. Sometimes I have to hit the number three times for it to receive. The menus just.. act all kinds of weird. I dunno. Isn't this thing supposed to be cutting edge technology or something? Maybe? Anyone? Help me?
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Programming the DVR
Did I mention that the Comcast DVR takes about an hour for me to program? You have to search for the show, their search function not being stellar. Then if it's there you have to set up the options and wait for the box to add it to the list. Then do it again, for however many shows you have on your list. Since it's off season for a lot of the shows you have to save the search and hope you remember to try again before it comes on.
Anyway. Wasting more time. Maybe I should stop watching TV?
Anyway. Wasting more time. Maybe I should stop watching TV?
Picked up the Comcast HD DVR box
Today I went and picked up the new box. I tried to go to the customer service center I had been to before and there was a large sign saying that they'd moved. Okay then. Fair enough. That happens.
I went to the new address, which was a series of counters you stand at, with a bunch of cushy seats in the back. A woman takes your name when you enter and tells you to have a seat and they'll call your name. In front of the seats there were four large screen televisions, three of which were showing the same Comcast ads, which did little or no good since the sound was off and there were no subtitles.
The semi-nice woman called my name, took my old standard def. Comcast DVR, and handed me a Comcast HD DVR. I was a bit shocked to find that she gave me a clearly VERY used DVR with a number of nicks and bumps on it. It was certainly not new.
As I picked it up and went to walk out I noticed a rattling sound inside of it. This did NOT bode well. I took it back to her and asked if I should be concerned. She looked annoyed and said it's fine. Gee thanks!
So I took it home, set it up, and called the phone number to get it activated.
The automated menu for activation does not have an option for DVRs. So I went ahead and talked to a person. She was fine. I suppose. She activated it, but the DVR was a bit slow to respond and acted clunky in general upon starting up. It wouldn't change channels for me, but I could get it to work eventually with the arrow button.
The woman on the phone said it was just loading everything and should be fine after it's done loading everything. She said it was new, which is where I cut her off and told her that there is nothing new about this DVR. She admitted that most of the boxes are refurbished. (I think this one was refurbished with the ugly stick.)
Anyway.. I'm letting it sit a while to see how it does.
I went to the new address, which was a series of counters you stand at, with a bunch of cushy seats in the back. A woman takes your name when you enter and tells you to have a seat and they'll call your name. In front of the seats there were four large screen televisions, three of which were showing the same Comcast ads, which did little or no good since the sound was off and there were no subtitles.
The semi-nice woman called my name, took my old standard def. Comcast DVR, and handed me a Comcast HD DVR. I was a bit shocked to find that she gave me a clearly VERY used DVR with a number of nicks and bumps on it. It was certainly not new.
As I picked it up and went to walk out I noticed a rattling sound inside of it. This did NOT bode well. I took it back to her and asked if I should be concerned. She looked annoyed and said it's fine. Gee thanks!
So I took it home, set it up, and called the phone number to get it activated.
The automated menu for activation does not have an option for DVRs. So I went ahead and talked to a person. She was fine. I suppose. She activated it, but the DVR was a bit slow to respond and acted clunky in general upon starting up. It wouldn't change channels for me, but I could get it to work eventually with the arrow button.
The woman on the phone said it was just loading everything and should be fine after it's done loading everything. She said it was new, which is where I cut her off and told her that there is nothing new about this DVR. She admitted that most of the boxes are refurbished. (I think this one was refurbished with the ugly stick.)
Anyway.. I'm letting it sit a while to see how it does.
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