As an 18 year Time Warner subscriber, what can I expect from Comcast? Spare no details.

[Samantha]

63. You ask for it

I despised Comcast when I moved here and had to choose it as my provider since there were no others in PG County. Chronically, if I called to report a malfunction, some new hire would ask me to do this, or ask me to do that, and I often would be on the phone for an hour. One day, I just got sick of it and said, "Look, I don't work for Comcast. I am a customer, and I want customer service." She had to put me on hold and talk to a supervisor. They checked my account and saw I was paying a maintenance fee so they sent an installer out.

Those boxes were heavy. I despised picking them up because I am a short female and they sat on top of the set, over my head.

Politicians in this county gave Comcast a 15-year monopoly to bring cable here, so they had no competition which is why they didn't care how they treated customers. They knew they wouldn't leave because there was no way to go.

They don't have enough people working for them, so they take on contractors. The contractors are very interested in doing good work, but certain information Comcast doesn't share with them, like certain manuals, because they are afraid they will leak the info. So in some repair calls I had, the contractors' hands were tired because my problem was not within their range and they could not access the full-range of information due to their status.

At one point, I had one problem diagnosed 4 different ways, with various inhouse calls, none of which solved the problem. I can't tell you how many hours I waited. Some times when I would call, they would tell me the repairman was on the way but he never showed. Eventually, they just replaced all of the cable in the house. I couldn't wait to switch to Verizon.

When I terminated my service, I had to go to one of their sites to return the equipment. I drove 20 miles to an obscure building poorly marked, but after inquiring found out Comcast was indeed located there. I pulled the 3 boxes out of my trunk and staggered to the door. I asked someone which way was Comcast and it was at the other end. There were no carts, handtrucks or anything. I had to walk the distance with the boxes. By the time I arrived at the window, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I set the boxes on the floor. The woman behind the window said you have to set them up here. What a nightmare.

So I do think Verizon has superior support and of course it helps that the wiring is underground, but I do not like Verizon because of the sleazy moves it makes to run its competitors (such as Netflix) into the ground, its poor treatment of its employees, yada, yada, yada. It is a very poor idea to give money to a big corporation that is one that thinks it should run the country along with a few other large corporations to the detriment of the little guy. So I need to find another avenue again.

Sam