COMCAST - ick. A model CRM in puppetry.

Pay more and get less. Its Comcastic!

I cannot find HDNet in my Comcast Channel Lineup.

HUH? HDnet's Sports, World Report, Katie, Dan Rather and Pinfield and damn it all... i want my HDnet. Where did it go? Apparently I was late to this party, our local cable system was just acquired from Adelphia by Comcast, and it took time for the effect of that to impact my area. HDnet was no longer in my channel lineup... So i Looked around for info and found the biggest slap to sensibility...
is comcast itself.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR CUSTOMER FEEL LIKE A PUPPET
no kidding - this is really out there and its at http://www.comcastic.com/




By "Out There" i mean whacko - I looked around, found a logged-in panel indicating nobody-home-here ... Zero users. Its actually kind of odd, spooky and off-topic wierd, showcasing flash interaction and totally without video, however you can make the puppet jump around and record a message.

Marketing Paradigms define the expected demographic audience.
I cannot believe that some moron would think that a flash puppet and spooky music is even appropriate for a COMCASTIC sales message. Right, dont just treat your customer like a mindless puppet, may as well prove your comittment to insult by providing a puppet buddy to play with instead of having a nice robust offering for your HD SUBSCRIBERS (read: Me ) THAT PAY A PREMIUM to see 1080 tv in HD. They must think we are all mindless children. This is so bizzarre on such a fundamental level that i have to wonder what drugs the marketing people are on.... Possibly the reason this impossibly stupid paradigm for Customer Relations is still there, is that they are now all in rehab and not working at thier desks.

READS:
http://nationalwriterssyndicate.com/content/view/192/2/
http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/story/263760.html

I checked around. There has been a petition to bring HDnet back to Comcast lineups. http://www.petitiononline.com/comcast1/petition.html

Normally i do not Rant like this, I have to be pushed. I guess COMCAST behavior this year is what it takes. QUALITY of Service is another irksome Comcast issue.

COMCAST macroblock errors.

Above is a flash video i made of my Comcast Connection. Click play and move the slider. Happens too often, is probably C/O load or thier own crappy satellite downlink. I will bet you thought cable meant clean link down a wire? NO. your Central Office that is likely less than 10 miles away probaly got its feed from a satellite, fed it to you down your TV co-ax into a modem. DISH / DIRECT TV network should tell you that, your cable TV probably comes from a satellite, but i guess they dont have the stomach for a good solid infomercial.

The Comcast HD Lineup here is not great. I will not go into a line-by-line bashing but if Discovery and ESPN and MOJOHD are the only clean HD they have, then they do not care about HD. I do not want to pay for all that wannabe-but-not HD programming REAL HD only please. Comcast, losing HDnet was the final Straw.

-- just got an email from Mark Cuban ( thanks )
- -HDNet is talking to Comcast and hopefully will sort things out, since i want HDNet Movies and HDNet's World Report and The Dan Rather stuff back where it was in the channels i paid for and expected to get.

- FIOS TV has HDnet and i have signed up, I am told my rollout is in a few weeks, and i will have to wait.

Partial Listing of HD on FIOS includes:

TNT HD - ESPN HD - ESPN 2 HD - NFL Network HD - HD Net - HD Net Movies
Universal HD - Discovery HD - Wealth TV HD - National Geographic Channel HD
MHD - Food Network HD - HGTV HD - Lifetime Movie Network HD