* Comcast costs more, for less, than it does in neighboring towns where they compete. The brashness and sheer monetary disconnect between what they charge when they compete and what they charge when they don't casts a certain light on the rest of their shenanigans. (approximately 50%)
* I can't get a residential cable internet package without paying more than if I got cable internet and television service.
* They moved essentially all the popular cable channels out of the 'basic' television package during the DTV switch, under the auspices of people needing their digital set-top box anyway. Except that's a lie and they know it. It was just a convenient excuse for them to push popular channels into a higher-priced package. Channels that, conspicuously, are still basic in neighboring towns where they compete.
* CableCARD nonsense. I never got a working card from them. The cards they're legally required to provide upon request. So a newer TIVO wasn't an option. And every conversation regarding the CableCARD involved a sales pitch to just get their (ad-bearing, convoluted monstrosity of a) DVR.
* Their backwards router policies from yesteryear: when they would lie to, threaten and refuse service to their customers, because they didn't feel like providing the service they were advertising (an internet connection), but rather the service they felt like providing (an internet connection to a single Windows PC.)
* The bandwidth caps and (more troubling) their inconsistent enforcement.
* Their traffic 'shaping'. AKA screwing up my ISO downloads because they're on an anal quest to outmaneuver people they refuse to simply cut off or charge more. They just up and decided that they could 'shape' my traffic to not only prevent it from harming their network, but that they could 'shape' my traffic to prevent someone else from harming their network. (If I'm not in their 'extreme downloaders' demographic, why is my traffic getting molested?)
* They decided to change their shaping policy without telling anyone. And to add insult to injury, they then denied doing what they were quite clearly doing for months.
* And what were they doing? Effectively impersonating my devices. If they want to delay or throttle a stream, that's fine. But inserting data into the stream as if that data came from my devices? That is not OK. That is a violation of the trust principles the damn network is built on.
* The DNS ads. I mean, really? Intercepting and perverting standard protocols to show ads? Incredible weak-sauce. It essentially removes "DNS lookup" as a service their subscription price pays for.
Those are good reasons, although I must admit that I've hit none of them. I'm probably not as demanding a user, but compared to people I know that have DSL, Comcast seems like a godsend.
On CableCard, I had a great experience with them. I got two CableCards from them and they gave them to me for free. They worked fine, although I no longer use them.
A few reasons I'm not their biggest fan:
* I have no choice in my area.
* Comcast costs more, for less, than it does in neighboring towns where they compete. The brashness and sheer monetary disconnect between what they charge when they compete and what they charge when they don't casts a certain light on the rest of their shenanigans. (approximately 50%)
* I can't get a residential cable internet package without paying more than if I got cable internet and television service.
* They moved essentially all the popular cable channels out of the 'basic' television package during the DTV switch, under the auspices of people needing their digital set-top box anyway. Except that's a lie and they know it. It was just a convenient excuse for them to push popular channels into a higher-priced package. Channels that, conspicuously, are still basic in neighboring towns where they compete.
* CableCARD nonsense. I never got a working card from them. The cards they're legally required to provide upon request. So a newer TIVO wasn't an option. And every conversation regarding the CableCARD involved a sales pitch to just get their (ad-bearing, convoluted monstrosity of a) DVR.
* Their backwards router policies from yesteryear: when they would lie to, threaten and refuse service to their customers, because they didn't feel like providing the service they were advertising (an internet connection), but rather the service they felt like providing (an internet connection to a single Windows PC.)
* The bandwidth caps and (more troubling) their inconsistent enforcement.
* Their traffic 'shaping'. AKA screwing up my ISO downloads because they're on an anal quest to outmaneuver people they refuse to simply cut off or charge more. They just up and decided that they could 'shape' my traffic to not only prevent it from harming their network, but that they could 'shape' my traffic to prevent someone else from harming their network. (If I'm not in their 'extreme downloaders' demographic, why is my traffic getting molested?)
* They decided to change their shaping policy without telling anyone. And to add insult to injury, they then denied doing what they were quite clearly doing for months.
* And what were they doing? Effectively impersonating my devices. If they want to delay or throttle a stream, that's fine. But inserting data into the stream as if that data came from my devices? That is not OK. That is a violation of the trust principles the damn network is built on.
* The DNS ads. I mean, really? Intercepting and perverting standard protocols to show ads? Incredible weak-sauce. It essentially removes "DNS lookup" as a service their subscription price pays for.
And that list is by no means exhaustive.