Comcast Abuses More City Residents
By Greg L | 11 November 2007 | Manassas City | 57 Comments
At left: Comcast transforms a front yard into an electrical equipment enclosure farm, and Manassas City helps make sure it’s as ugly and inconvenient as possible.
Comcast is apparently upgrading some of their cable infrastructure in Manassas, and some city residents aren’t all too happy about what’s happening in their front yards. The existing equipment was housed in a box with an attached electric meter to record power usage. The new equipment, which requires a larger, four foot high enclosure, also requires that the electric meter be placed on a five-foot pole adjacent to the enclosure, but only if the equipment is installed in the City of Manassas. If it’s not within city limits, it is apparently acceptable for the meter to be fixed onto the enclosure, as was the case with the existing equipment.
A Manassas City resident who is not a Comcast customer recently returned from vacation recently to discover that Comcast had decided to place this five foot pole in their front yard, without notice. They tried to contact Comcast to find out why this had happened, to no avail, which isn’t too surprising given Comcast’s legendary customer service. They decided to engage in a protest, writing “Beautify Manassas! Boycott Comcast!” on their van, and adorn this pole with holiday decorations for Halloween. Still no response. When Comcast contractors came to complete the installation of this equipment in their yard, the resident finally was able to get some answers.
Finally, I had enough. I decided to talk to the laborers in my yard. All of them were very nice and very understanding. They chuckled at our van as each week a new comment was written on the van windows. Then! I got a name! I got a reason!
One of the head field workers with Comcast was in my yard when I stopped him to ask what more could they possibly do to us. He tells me that Comcast did NOT want to place these items in our yard. All they wanted to do was replace a meter on the existing box. It is the city of Manassas Inspector George Jalius who is requiring these monstrosities. Jalius won’t return thier calls. In fact, Comcast had to lie to him and state that a system was ready for inspection before they got to actually get him to respond and show his face!
The residents tried to contact George Jalius, and when they couldn’t get him to return their call, they tried to contact his supervisor, and still got no response. Meanwhile, a salesman from Comcast shows up while a Verizon contractor has joined the mix and is marking buried cables for even more work to be done on this property, and asks whether they’d like to get Comcast Cable service. Not too smart, but I think the salesman will recover.
Finally, they managed to start getting Manassas City and Comcast to start returning phone calls. Manassas City has told them they need to talk to Comcast. Comcast says the problem is with Manassas City. It’s the typical finger pointing game, and while this is going on, the yard starts looking like an electrical enclosure farm, complete with multi-colored landscape paint all over the ground in ever more intricate unwelcome abstract artistic renderings. Four construction vehicles visit this property every day to dig, run cable, install electrical equipment, and drop off materials, all of which needs to be secured from their home-schooled children who are very curious about the conversion of their front yard into a cabinet farm.
The next Manassas City Council Meeting is November 19th. If this isn’t resolved by then, citizen’s time might be a rather extensive component of the agenda. Although Comcast’s notorious “customer service” is a real problem here, apparently the real issue is the non-responsiveness of Manassas City’s code enforcement employees.
UPDATE: The homeowner contacted me at about 11:00 AM and is reporting that Comcast came and removed all of their new equipment this morning. My, that was quick. I guess Comcast is finally starting to realize that when they continue to abuse area residents and their own customers, they’re slitting their own throats.
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
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I sure hope the City decides to allow another company to offer cable service. Otherwise I am going back to directv. Comcast is a day and dollar short in trying to appear to be a real cable company. I have a friend who lives in South Riding and they have verizon cable, I was floored at how much better verizon is.
I don’t know why anyone in their right mind would subscribe to cable. I have had Directv since it was available because of the problems I had with the predesessor to Comcast (Cablevision.) I had nothing but poor reception for over a year and the techs kept telling me that the problem was with a line that had to be replaced on Rt. 28 in Manassas Park. I live in the Sudley area and found this hard to believe. Every tech call produced the same answer …..”we are waiting on a permit to replace the line in MP. Finally a service call produced a tech that said the story about the line replacement was pure BS! They did not know the reason for my poor reception nor could they find the problem. Needless to say, they were dropped the same day and I have never regretted going to Directv. It is also a hell of a lot cheaper than cable and have never have had a problem in over 10 years with them.
I live up the street from this house and it really does look bad. I’m concerned for my own property now too. They spray painted CAT V on the street in front of my house which has a phone and cable box in it. Guess I’ll be asking some questions tomorrow.
I hope my neighbors get some relief.
Over in South Riding, Verizon contracted the cable laying out to various companies, not all of the legal persuassion.
The contractors tried to tear up my brother’s driveway. He was not a verizon customer. Then they dropped all the dig debris (rocks, broken concrete, etc) down the sewer culvert via the manhole cover by his house. The end result is that my brother ended up with 5 inches of raw sewage in his basement. He nearly killed himself rescuing his possessions. Restoration cost him thousands of dollars. Last I heard, he was still in litigation with Verizon. Their response and ownership of what happened was non-existent.
I am not willing to sing their praises after this episode. I am not saying that comcast is a bit better. So far they haven’t dug up my driveway…yet.
Dolph,
That is not good to hear. Though over the summer we had a comcast contractor put in new wires or lines or whatever. They did not do that bad of a job. Though, one day while walking the dog, I heard one worker say we are F***ed now. They worked for a couple of more days after that. The only problem, and not really their fault was the lack of rain most of the area they were working on is still pretty bear.
They won’t be digging our yards up. The cable is hanging from poles here in West Gate.-haha
CitizenofManassas said on 11 Nov 2007 at 11:54 pm:
The only problem, and not really their fault was the lack of rain most of the area they were working on is still pretty bear.
If you are satisfied with the status quo of having your lawn dug up and not being returned to the state it was in prior to the work being done, then I guess it is not a problem. “Not really their fault because of the lack of rain.” Not acceptable! There are water trucks available. Grass seed and/or sod is cheap. Of course, if you don’t complain to them, they surely are not going to volunteer to fix their mess. I had the gas company come out and remove a gas line to an outside gas light. They dug up the line and filled the hole back up and left. They took the easy way out but it didn’t work. A call to Washington Gas got the situation cleared up fast. A crew came out and re-seeded the area they dug up. That should have been part of the original job.
You really have to watch those reseeding and resodding jobs. Novec left a huge piece of machinery sitting in my front yard over a holiday 3 day weekend a couple of years ago. Big catepillar front end loader type thing. They couldn’t understand why I was upset.
They trashed the yard and resodded with wire grass. I didnt know about the wire grass until it was too late. I have lost track of how many utility companies have created havoc in my yard. Every time one of them touches it I have to escalate it to the CEO or some other high level person. It never fails. I don’t know which of them is worse. Probably the water company is the most decent. They instantly tell you to hire your own contractor.
My Comcast cable internet is out a lot and is very slow. They are absolutely horrible here.
999 and Dolph,
I would be upset if it happened in my yard. However, they dug up common area within the community. They did put seed and hay down.
I would grab my trusty Louisville Slugger and head out to that mess and take each box out one by one. If it’s on my property and I didn’t agree to it or use it then it would be removed. What’s the problem here? Take a bat to it. You are 100% within your rights to do that if you didn’t agree to have these things installed on your property. Call the city and tell them that they have 72 hours to remove it or else it will be removed by you. Well within your rights to do.
I am deeply grateful that Manassas Park is allowing Verizon to come in and compete with Comcast.
Comcast dug up my backyard, rendering it unusuable for a good part of a summer, and did nothing to have their subcontractor fill it until my son fell in it and managed to hurt his ankle. When I got the triple play, it took them two months and five appointments to port my number over and give me full service. I got a credit on my bill for my trouble, but it doesn’t come close to what we have endured. The woman who got me my credit was the most helpful employee I have encountered, but on a whole the customer service is horrible.
Even with it installed, the number of times it goes out or something is wrong with my service is unacceptable. In a year with DirecTV, I lost my picture once due to weather. With the phone company, I never lost my phone service (a risk I knew I was taking with going with Comcast’s technology.) My services goes out for one reason or another at least once a month, if not more.
I don’t know if Verizon will be any better or worse, but at this point, I am willing to take the chance.
Not getting too far off the subject. PWCSA was here yesterday because of another water main break. I lost track of how many times the water lines have been repaired in Westgate. Too many to count.
I did not know that verizon has made plans to come to the park. Does that mean we will be able to get FIOS and verizon tv? I hate being shackled to comcast. I dread those days when my internet is offline and they are unwilling or unable to fix it. We are totally at the mercy of comcast in the park. Comcast has definitely slipped in their performance and support in the past 2 years. Noticeable decline. Maybe they will do a revamp of their support model once they have to start competing…
I’ve emailed this person but if someone knows her address, could you please forward it to me via email so I can go check it out?
These pictures do not show the hideousness in all its glory. This is so bad. One more reason to avoid cable at all costs. They do NOT care about the people. My mother is so fed up with cable that she spends at least one day a week on the phone with me griping ever since her service morphed into Comcast. I keep telling her to go with DSS because it’s awesome, even if it means prejudice from the cable-owned legislatives.
Boycott Comcast. Boycott Cable.
And apparently look for land with next to no easements when you purchase a home. This is insane. My husband is in the comm industry and designs stuff exactly like this. How cables for phone/cable/internet route through buildings as well as down the street. He’s never seen anything so insane as this. He most certainly has never planned for anything as unsightly as this. He said he’d be embarrassed to even work with the designer that came up with this idea. I told him he should take pictures to his next conference to show “What Not To Do”.
Park’d - there was a public hearing on the subject that was advertised on the city’s website as well as the local paper, as required. There was a follow up article in the Manassas Journal-Messenger regarding the hearing, which I spoke at during the public comment time. I am really surprised that you didn’t hearing, knowing you follow city stuff as closely as you do.
They are running the lines in my neighborhood as I type. I can’t remember the dates of rollout, but I know you can check the FIOS site or call City Hall for an update. I might do that myself, as I will likely make the switch as soon as they go live in my neighborhood. I don’t expect it to be problem free, but I am ready to leave Comcast. And the technology is far superior - the have a DVR that lets you record on one TV but play it on another in the house and other improvements to the product. I was very impressed with the presentation that they gave - I knew nothing about what they were offering when I went to the meeting. I just so desperately wanted Comcast to have competition.
Andy H,
I just talked to Maureen, and she’s going to email you.
ladozma,
Everyone should be aware of the easements on their property.
This is one of the reasons for title insurance. Good luck finding property without them. We all like having utitilies in our homes, don’t we?
park’d on 12 Nov 2007 at 7:58 am:
You may have a problem with taking a bat to the equipment. The equipment is probably on an easement that belongs to the utility. If you are the original owner of the home, you probably signed the request for the easement or a previous owner did. I remember when they put cable in in Sudley. I had to sign a paper giving the cable company right to the easement so they could lay the cable. The cable company paid me $1.00 for the easement.
Well, I am the owner of the monstrocity. As I write this, two very large Comcast trucks have pulled up and are doing even more work. When I asked them what they are doing, they said they didn’t know. “You don’t know what you are doing?” I asked. Perhaps they have been given a instruction to no longer talk to us. I certainly hope they aren’t working and REALLY not knowing what they are doing!
Judging by the tone of the thread I assumed that they installed this crap on the property itself and not on an easement. I wouldn’t recommend anybody take a bat to stuff on the common area of course
If it were on my personal lawn though they would get 3 days and then the bat would come out.
Upset Citizen,
How long have you had to look at this mess? I wouldn’t like this one bit either. Has anyone from the local Comcast office contacted you? I hope this gets taken care of soon. Good luck.
MP Mom: I missed all of that! I also don’t read the urinal massager out of pure spite so would never have caught it there. I went to the FIOS page and all it says is that it’s not available. I would like more info on this if you have any links? I’ve been cursing Verizon out for almost a decade now because they still send us to the Centreville CO for all of our communications, making DSL impossible for anyone in the park. I am SO switching to Verizon TV and Internet if/when they truly are deciding to offer it here.
FIOS is pretty awesome from what I hear, it’s been installed in one half of my neighborhood, I’m assuming it’s coming to mine soon.
I canned comcast this summer due to them chopping my internet off for no reason (apparently I used “too much” bandwidth which was funny since it’s supposed to be “unlimited”) anyhow, I canned the entire service once my DSL was online. Directv was out the next day putting in my new dish and running new cable to my rooms. DSL isnt near as fast as cable, but it’s much cheaper and it’s been reliable so far. I love DirecTV though, tons of channels. That’s my only “complaint” so far, too many channels to surf through.
I’m jumping on the FIOS bandwagon as soon as it comes to me, I hear FIOS TV is pretty great too.
These monstrosities run along the front side of her yard. They aren’t even supposed to be there, but they keep adding more. Comcast is ripping up all of Manassas. All you have to do is take a walk and look at all the spay painted yards. In August they dug up my back yard. The workers mentioned the cable they were laying was just replacing an existing cable that no one even used, but they were ordered to lay a new one anyway. Last week they were in my yard again and dug eleven giant holes all along the front on my lawn. The holes were so deep the workers were waist deep inside of them. I am now surrounded by unneeded cable. The worst part is they knocked out the phone and internet in the neighborhood. I was without a phone and the internet for four days. I am a young widow with six children ages eleven and under. It was very concerning to be completely cut off from the world for that long. I don’t have a cell phone (no lectures please) and had to drive around to let friends know we were okay. Poor Verizon had to come out and clean up Comcast’s mess.
My girlfriend has FIOS and it is awesome. My cable for the most part is pretty reliable, but I went through a series of 1 week outages a few years back and the support during that time was abysmal. In the past few months I have had 3 or 4 nights where my Internet was offline for 8-12 hours each time and the support was even worse than before. “We will have someone call you in 72 hours to discuss this case”….72 hours!! Then another 72 hours to get someone out there and look, then another 72 hours to send it off to maintenance since it’s not a tech issue. You get the idea.
These guys really have slipped in the past 5 years. Comcast was a fantastic company 5 years ago that had great support and service but like every other company these days they try to do more with less and we pay the price. Only competition solves that trend. I can’t be without my Internet for weeks on end because I manage networks from home. I would have to sell my house if my Internet became too unreliable, and good luck trying to do that in this rat town….
Suggest folks may want to read today’s WaPo article (A7)
headlined “FCC Moves to Place Restrictions on Cable TV”
with the opening paragraph observing “the cable
television is largely unregulated”.
Local government meetings can be a “bully pulpit” for
elected officials and citizens, but the real power on this
issue rest with the federal government and the FCC.
It would be worthwhile to share your experiences with
Wolfe, Warner and Webb.
Big Dog said on 12 Nov 2007 at 12:04 pm:
Suggest folks may want to read today’s WaPo article (A7)
headlined “FCC Moves to Place Restrictions on Cable TV”
with the opening paragraph observing “the cable
television is largely unregulated”.
Local government meetings can be a “bully pulpit” for
elected officials and citizens, but the real power on this
issue rest with the federal government and the FCC.
——————————————————————
Again, it’s the fed’s job. I don’t think so! Doesn’t the City of Manassas decide what cable companies can operate in the city?
5 years ago Comcast was by far the best of the big 3 in service, support, and being on the cutting edge. Now they are dead last behind Cox and then Adelphia as the worst provider of cable and by a large number. It’s time some people in charge over there started dealing with this turn of events before they start to lose their entire customer base. There are many, MANY thousands of us in the area that have been waiting not-so-patiently for Verizon to get on the stick and start updating their infrastructure to support DSL and FIOS. Comcast will see a mass exodus if FIOS is indeed going to be offered in this area.
Park’d -
Here is the article from the MJM. It doesn’t reveal the date of roll out, but if memory serves, it is to be phased in over the next year. I am going to attempt to get an answer tomorrow.
http://www.manassasjm.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=MJM%2FMGArticle%2FWPN_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173353156453&path=!news
Others might be interested in this article, which quotes Jonathan Way, from the summer about Verizon’s plans to come to the area.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/26/AR2007062602606.html
Got to love Google.
well let me add my two cents for the Point of Woods single family area — in September we got short notice from Stephens Cable Construction co.- a subcontractor of Comcast, that they would be installing underground cable. “We regret any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience during this construction period. We will make every effort to restore your property to its original condition. It will be necessary to frequently water your grass after the cable has been buried.”
BTW — i thought this was a publilc utility easement. Comcast is now a public utility??
Anyway, that was October 2. We had just restored our lawn from the drought damage, i.e., aerated, reseeded, watered, time, effort, etc. — the whole nine yards — and it was looking great!!
Enter Comcast/Stephens.
With a few days we had an ugly, ugly deep, crevace along the front yard, in some areas well into our private property. They used a root cutter to tear the roots out of a long established sugar maple. the whole mess sat there for a week. Trailers were dumped up and down the street, one had not licenses tag. The “workers” moped around, and appeared to be using the vacant house next door to not only store their utility cable spool smack dab in the middle of the front yard, but it appeared the side of the house was being used as a public urinal.
Our phone lines were down for a week.
Only the “supervisor” appeared to speak English — the rest looked like your typical day laborers.
When they finally finished, they through ALL the debris right back in the crevace. After we had asked the main supervisor, Shane, and the local guy, to NOT use the builder seed/straw, they did it anyway. We got it removed and spent more time using matching grass seed, starter fertilizer, etc. etc., hoping and praying to restore the lawn before the weather turned. A few days later, the City declared a drought emergency and now we couldn’t water either.
Wait. It gets better.
Three weeks later, the collection of trailers and equipment are still sprawled over the street — the workers disappearing for days at a time and just leaving the mess. The phone lines get cut again. On a Friday. the Comcast subcontractor was prepared to up and leave for the weekend until we called Verizon, who had to come out the second time that day.
And today, two months later, front lawn coming allong beautifully in spite of all, I walked out front to see a white paper tape measure running the length of the sidewalk — up one end of the street and down the other.
Guess who’s two doors up digging up the neighbor’s front lawn?? AGAIN!!
And proceeded to start shoveling at the corner of my yard AGAIN!! Only one of the three guys shoveling barely speaks English. So we got yet another call into Shane.
Shane who promised up after the last mess that would be it — shouldn’t have to come back again.
Uh huh.
My question is exactly HOW LONG and HOW MUCH are we taxpayers supposed to put up with??
This comes under the heading CRUEL and UNUSUAL punishment. For the property taxes we pay, I am sick and tired of Not Ready for Prime Time players — from the Comcast rocket scientists to the contaminated and foul smelling city water.
When is that meeting of the City Council?? This has GOT to END!!
Manassas needs to be receptive to new companies and
technology such as Verizon’s Fios, but currently has
limited control over Comcast. I think the answer
to better service is competition. An unregulated
monopoly is always going to be a problem.
In the 1980’s, the early days of cable, local governments
had far greater control, but their powers were later
diminished by Washington industry groups. (Cable
companies found it more efficient to lobby a few federal
governing boards than hundreds of local ones.
Refer to the 1984 Cable Act which largely deregulated
the nascent cable systems.) The Golden Rule in DC:
Those who have the gold make the rules.
Local government still has a role to play, but a far smaller
one, under current regulations, than most of us would
like.
“The new equipment, which requires a larger, four foot high enclosure, also requires that the electric meter be placed on a five-foot pole adjacent to the enclosure, but only if the equipment is installed in the City of Manassas. If it’s not within city limits, it is apparently acceptable for the meter to be fixed onto the enclosure, as was the case with the existing equipment.”
I’d like to point out that it is the electric company that dictates where the meter is to be placed.
In Manassas City, that’s…Manassas City.
I have no love for Comcast but place the blame where it belongs..
[Ed note: No, electrical safety requirements are regulated at the state level. Virginia follows the National Electric Code, and my 2002 edition doesn’t contain any such requirement as far as I can tell.]
“BTW — i thought this was a publilc utility easement. Comcast is now a public utility??”
They use public rights of way. In that sense, the answer is yes.
“For the property taxes we pay, I am sick and tired of Not Ready for Prime Time players — from the Comcast rocket scientists to the contaminated and foul smelling city water.”
How about the traffic signals in Manassas that are continually messed up and giving green arrows to non-existent traffic?
We get to deal with these clowns in MP too, since they maintain our traffic signals as well. They can NEVER fix a problem right the first time–it always involves at least one more call back to tell them that there’s STILL a problem.
Attention Manassas City Traffic Controls Personnel: How hard is it to ensure that the little LED on the detector card is only glowing when there’s actually a VEHICLE present?
And since i’m on my rant, may i say that it is truly ironic that today, Veteran’s Day, my husband, a military vet, is working and gets to come home to see more Comcast escapades in his front yard, and will very likely be having to spend MORE personal time and $$$, fixing the mess….
And it is also ironic that my husband, the military vet who is must work today, must also spend yet MORE time on the phone playing phone tag with our elected reps on the Manassas City Council because the city will not provide email communication capability between our elected reps and the citizens….speaks volumes doesn’t it.
Especially when every little jurisdiction between here and there can muster the same.
See: Manassas Park http://www.cityofmanassaspark.us/Public_Documents/ManassasParkVA_CouncilCorner/index
Culpepper http://www.culpeper.to/officials/council/index.htm
Warrenton http://www.warrentonva.gov/viewpage.cfm?pgname=2.09c
Dumfries http://www.dumfriesvirginia.org/town_council.html
[Ed note: No, electrical safety requirements are regulated at the state level. Virginia follows the National Electric Code, and my 2002 edition doesn’t contain any such requirement as far as I can tell.]
It’s not a safety requirement. It is a utility requirement.
For example, see this from the tariff that Dominion Virginia has filed with the State Corporation Comission, https://www.dom.com/customer/pdf/va/entire_filing.pdf
In particular note the wording in section 2b that states, “The location for such metering
shall be subject to approval by the Company.”
V.LOCATION OF COMPANY’S EQUIPMENT
A.The Company shall have the right to install, in locations suitable to the
Company, any poles, lines, transformers, or any other equipment on the property occupied by
the Customer and on or within such buildings as may be occupied by the Customer, which, in
the Company’s judgment, are necessary and appropriate to provide Electric Service to the
Customer.
B.The Customer shall provide suitable space for the installation of the necessary
metering apparatus; such space shall be:
1.Substantially free from vibration.
2a.An outside location for all residential services unless otherwise approved
by the Company. A side location is preferable for detached single family
residential structures.
2b.An outside location, where practicable, for commercial, industrial, or
large residential apartment premises. The location for such metering
shall be subject to approval by the Company.
If Comcast used immigrant labor, then the job would be done by now.
You could also look at the Dominion Virginia Power “blue book” which is is described:
“The delivery of safe, reliable electric service requires a well-designed and consistent distribution system. To achieve this, Dominion has set requirements for electrical contractors, engineers, architects, developers, builders, homeowners or others planning for electrical service.
Over the years, these requirements have become known as “the blue book”. Based on many years of experience, the blue book was developed to meet safety and efficiency needs as well as the needs of our customers. Since technology and customer needs change, the information may change without notice. However, we make a good faith effort to notify customers on record at the time a change is made.”
https://www.dom.com/customer/vabus_bluebook.jsp
I realize that this all applies to Dominion Virginia Power and not Manassas City Utilities, but Dominion has this information on it’s website and it it serves as an example of the requirements that electric utilities have for electric service, above and beyond those covered by the NEC. The NEC really only applies past the electric meter, in any case.
Rest assured that Manassas City Utilities has their own requirements even if they are not available for download on their website.
To be fair, not all of those boxes were just put there. Some have been there since the development was built, which means there is an easement. It is unattractive and if the City or Comcast can help this family, they need to do so.
I bet the reason they are soooo frustrated with this whole deal is not nessisarly the pole its self, but the lack of response and concern to their inquiries about it.
Andy, I hope you can help them out.
I see, from the left to right in the top photo:
The meter pedestal (probably required by Manassas City Utilities)
The old Comcast power supply with the meter directly on the side.
The new Comcast power supply, which is taller.
A Manassas Utilities transformer enclosure.
A Verizon pedestal.
I bet Comcast would love to have saved the labor and materials costs of a meter pedestal and the extra buried wire and instead put the meter directly on the power supply enclosure like it was before.
It’s the same reason Manassas City Utilities puts their meter boxes directly on the traffic signal control cabinets. (Look around, notice that this doesn’t happen anywhere else in Northern Virginia).
MP Resident said on 12 Nov 2007 at 2:19 pm:
How hard is it to ensure that the little LED on the detector card is only glowing when there’s actually a VEHICLE present?
First of all, they have to hire someone who is not color blind. Secondly, he/she has to know what they are doing.
Hooray for you good folks trying to light a yet another fire under Comcast!!
Some may recall that I met with Comcast officials on three different occasions last Summer trying to get them to improve their maintenance practices. I took them dozens of photos of inadequate installations and they did correct those specific deficiencies, not anything more. Then City Council held a public review of their less-than-stunning performance. Comcast talked a good story about improvements and service goals, but in my opinion and in your experiences they did not live up to their statements.
Comcast is in the process of “upgrading” their service as you have all seen from the blizzard of advertisements they have on TV. Based on the problems they have created in the “upgrading” it appears that things are “same old, same old.” If you do a lousy job on a simple installation, you can also do a lousy job on an “upgraded” installation. This is an operating philosophy they may well have perfected.
Manassas is in the process of bringing Verizon to the city as a competitor. Let’s hope that competition can accomplish what regulation and critique thusfar have not.
I’m not sure how, but maybe Greg can send this whole package of blog notes to senior Comcast officials. I can provide you a couple of contacts if that would help.
Can you get internet from any satellite TV providers? If yes, is it any good?
I’d love to get rid of Comcast, but I like the “highspeed” net.
I’ve seen some sloppy Verizon installations, too. Like ungrounded network interfaces. I can’t drive more than a half a mile without seeing at least one Verizon pedestal missing it’s cover. Cox isn’t much better, having dealt with them a few times.
Conclusion: Sloppy work is everywhere and it’s not just Comcast. We’ll know we’re in real trouble when the electric company starts leaving their enclosures open…
…wait, that’s already happened. I’ve seen that, too. Called Dominion about it, they denied responsibility, but the enclosures were secured when I checked a week later.
Can you get internet from any satellite TV providers? If yes, is it any good?
I’d love to get rid of Comcast, but I like the “highspeed” net.
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Direct TV does provide Internet access but it is expensive. Manassas City does offer Broadband through the Powerlines. It is not as fast as comcast or FIOS but very reliable and inexpensive. Since the two years I have had it I was only down twice, and that was for only a few hours each time. BPL is only $24.00 a month.
I feel that the city should be held reliable on this issue more than Comcast. Comcast is on the hook to provide the service but the city officials by not responding to the citizens and showing a clear lack of guidance in any planning for the city utility. I see that the equipment was removed (for now) but how much equipment will be added when Verizon comes in. There needs to be a plan as to the best way to install and maintain the equipment.
It is time we take back our city! We need to hold Comcast as well as the City of Manassas responsible for their actions or lack of actions that directly affects our property and it value. Mike Moon Director of Public Works talks like he wants to take actions but it is obvious he has no control over anything. All anyone has to do is drive through the city and see the exposed cable laying on the ground and open utility boxes. Where is the City councle on this. Opening up the city to competition only puts two foxes in the hen house. The City of Manassas need to take charge.
“Can you get internet from any satellite TV providers?”
One or two perhaps. There used to be DirectPC (which is now HughesNet I believe). You won’t save much trying that route. Remember, the dish is only a receiver, so you can only receive internet via the dish. You still need a phone line to SEND TO the internet. There are setups where you can send and receive via a dish, but they are really expensive. It’s not a cost effective alternative.
Confused in Clover Hill: “Manassas City does offer Broadband through the Powerlines. It is not as fast as comcast or FIOS but very reliable and inexpensive.”
Cool. I know a young engineer, who used to work where I do, that works for the City of Manassas on the BPL project there. I’ll pass the good words along next time I see him.
Mr. Way - I know I am not a city resident, but I appreciate your efforts in trying to get Comcast to provide better service.
es_la_ley said on 12 Nov 2007 at 7:32 pm:
Confused in Clover Hill: “Manassas City does offer Broadband through the Powerlines. It is not as fast as comcast or FIOS but very reliable and inexpensive.”
Cool. I know a young engineer, who used to work where I do, that works for the City of Manassas on the BPL project there. I’ll pass the good words along next time I see him.
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Here is a link to a FCC report on BPL. There has been a lot of problems with the Manassas provider to clean up the signals. BPL causes a lot of radio interference because the signal radiates from the power lines. I don’t know what Manassas City status is with regards to the interference but I do know when it first started it was a problem.
http://www.eham.net/articles/17980
If you have access to Verizon telephone, you can get DSL from them over the phone. They run specials every so often. Check the newspapers. I am paying about 21.00 per month for the 7mbs service. They even provided the modem and phoneline filters free. Have to subscribe for 1 year.
Here is an internet link to Verizon. Can check to see if broadband is available in your area and the plans and costs.
http://www22.verizon.com/content/ConsumerDSL?promotion_code=volprt/w07&WT.ti=Central/notloggedin_lnkoff_learnmore
Look at that picture - there are something like 5 boxes in the front yard. Easements are one thing, but this is off the charts!
It smells like election time, with all the input by elected officials!
Jon Way said:
“I’m not sure how, but maybe Greg can send this whole package of blog notes to senior Comcast officials. I can provide you a couple of contacts if that would help.”
Jon, do I understand now that you are asking Greg to get this taken care of? I thought the city council would be the more powerful route. Guess I am wrong again.
Go get them Greg.
Well, I don’t plan on using my time and energy to bring Comcast up to speed on what they should already know. They made a sixteen billion dollar profit during the last twelve months, and if they want me to help them get their head out of their butts, they can darned well afford to pay me to do it.
Otherwise, I’m happy to see just how small that profit figure can get. I come not to honor Comcast, but to bury it.
[…] “pile on” night for Comcast. City Councilman Marc Aveni “appalled” at the stories he’s been hearing about how abusive Comcast has been to his constituents, and is determined […]
Mike Austin:
You are, of course, quite correct that City Council should and is actively interfacing with Comcast regarding performance terms in a new franchise as well as critiquing their performance (last Summer and again next Monday).
They will receive a number of citizen complaints on Monday. It wouldn’t hurt for them to receive the material from this blog either.