Two days after we reported about a delay in Comcast’s plan to switch on additional HD channels for Arlington customers, the company has managed to get the promised channels up and running.
As of this morning, channels including CNBC HD, Comedy Central HD, BET HD and ESPNews HD were up and running. Also available was truTV HD, which is carrying a number of NCAA March Madness basketball games.
In a mailing that went out last month, Comcast told Arlington County customers that they would be getting “The World of More” — the company’s phrase for a slew of additional high-definition channels — on March 15.
Alas, that date has come and gone and the channels are nowhere to be seen. In fact, the only noticeable change in the past two weeks is that customers can no longer receive basic cable channels without a digital converter.
Comcast recently mailed informational material to customers regarding the changes, and earlier notified the county’s Cable Television Policy and Administration office of its plans.
Starting on or about March 3, Comcast will stop transmitting most basic cable channels in analog. Instead, anybody who currently watches cable TV without using a set-top box or a CableCARD device (like TiVo) will need to get a digital adapter to see the channels. Comcast is offering up to two digital adapters free of charge, with each additional adapter priced at $1.99 per month.
In a poll we conducted yesterday, nearly three quarters of respondents rated their overall experience with Comcast “poor” or “very, very bad.” The comments section generally reflected the same sentiment.
In the article that accompanied the poll, we also mentioned Verizon’s FiOS service, saying that it helps protect consumers by giving them a viable alternative to cable.
It’s not so much that the Comcast customer service agents themselves are that bad, it’s just that the customer service system in which they operate seems to be designed with the sole purpose of minimizing cost at the expense of producing meaningful solutions to customers’ problems and complaints.
Comcast has a partial monopoly in Arlington. Sure, Verizon FiOS and satellite TV are available to single family homes and certain apartment buildings and condos. But for many apartment and condo-dwellers, Comcast is the only game in town. The only option for those folks in the event of an unresolved grievance is to either grin and bear it, cancel service and forgo cable and/or internet altogether, or complain to the county’s cable administration office and hope for the best.
Jim Moran On Demand is now available to thousands local Comcast, Cox and Via Media cable customers. It will feature information and news programming, including in-depth, fireside chat-style policy discussions.
A preview of the channel’s slickly-produced videos is now up on YouTube.
