Where I live, Comcast cable is the company everyone loves to hate.  Just mention the word "Comcast," and people grimace; everyone has a horror story.  I've heard that complaints have reached the ears of state legislators, who have issued directives to Comcast (such as stating that they should answer their phone within five minutes), but I don't know whether these stories are true.  In any event, since the company has a totally unregulated monopoly in the area, the legislature's clout is limited, possibly nonexistent.

My experience with Comcast may differ in the details from others' experiences, but it is apparently typical.  When cable first arrived many years ago (perhaps in the early 1970s), everyone was delighted with the broader coverage and improved reception that cable offered.  Antiquated rooftop antennas disappeared.  As time passed, however, service deteriorated, and rates increased.  Outages, which occurred frequently, could not be reported because people in the Comcast office did not answer the phone.  After several weeks of fuzzy reception (or none at all), we stayed on the line for nearly an hour until we reached a representative, who told us (based on no evidence whatever) that the problem was with our TV set (our set was brand-new).  We cancelled our account and went back to using our antenna.  The only good outcome of this phase of our experience was that it cured me of watching TV.  Our set was fine, but the antenna had seen better days.

I would have remained cured except that the satellite dish arrived.  I blew a large bonus at work – at that time the system cost about $1,000 – and purchased the dish.  At that time too, Comcast and other cable companies were lobbying the FCC to prevent satellite from providing local channels, and we had to fight to get them (the law has since been changed).  Thus, for nearly ten years, we were cable-free and happily enjoying digital TV reception via satellite.  When my friends complained about Comcast, I recommended the dish.

Eventually, as the years rolled by, I became involved in computers and the Internet.  After cutting my Internet teeth with a dial-up service, I began to crave broadband and was again thrust into the avaricious arms of the Comcast monopoly.  In our location, Comcast is the only broadband game in town.  That's when I discovered that Comcast uses a form of legal blackmail to enhance its monopoly:  Since I did not have (or want) cableTV, I had to pay more for high-speed Internet (roughly $180 a year) than I would if we were a "preferred" Comcast TV customer who didn't mind fuzzy TV and bad service.  Nevertheless, with much trepidation and despite the tales of woe told by friends who had Comcast Internet, I went ahead with it.  Despite the sales hype from the TV cable guys (and the higher cost for my Internet connection), I kept the dish.

At this juncture, I must admit that the broadband service has been better than I expected, especially given Comcast's TV track record.  There have been only a few outages (though people who have competitive services claim that they have none at all) and a few occasions when Comcast blamed problems on my end rather than on theirs, as it turned out to be.  When I have problems, I deal with the national office, not with local yokels whose incompetence is hard to underestimate.  The technicians at the 800 number are usually courteous and helpful.  However, I am dealing (of necessity) with Comcast, and my confidence is still low enough that I maintain a dial-up Internet connection as a backup.  Yes, I've had to use it.

To return to the TV story, last summer we experienced an unforeseen glitch with the satellite service.  To make a long and very painful story short, we decided to upgrade our system and ran afoul of an army of clueless local technicians from DirecTV.  They cut my Internet cable wire and installed a TiVo system that refused to operate properly.  Three technicians and countless phone calls later, we gave up.  Despite the nighmare past, we returned to Comcast cable TV.  Perhaps, I reasoned, given reasonably acceptable Internet service, Comcast had gotten its cable TV act together.

I count that among one of the worst decisions I ever made.  When the cable was first installed, we were unable to acquire the menus; when that was fixed, we were still not getting any of the so-called "digital" channels.  The local office insisted that we had the TV tuned in improperly, even though, had this been the case, we would have been receiving nothing.  These problems were resolved only after numerous phone calls and a personal letter-writing campaign that got the attention of someone in the executive offices.  Still, our supposed "high-definition" TV (we had an HD cable box and an HDTV-ready set) was not any better than what we were getting with the dish on standard channels.  As for the standard channels, I like to say that the picture resembled something transmitted by a hack with a beat-up transmitter somewhere in Communist China.  Sure, I had high-speed Internet at the "discount" provided to cable TV customers, but I was still paying more than the dish service cost for TV – and getting third-rate reception.

Complaints fell on deaf ears.  The person at the executive office who had dealt with our initial setup problems ignored my e-mail messages.  No doubt, by now she had categorized me as a chronic complainer, though, in point of fact, I had plenty to complain about.  If she had seen the reception we were getting – or, more realistically, if she had investigated what was going on at the local office – she might have thought I had a legitimate beef.  But this was not to be.  After a few months of enduring shoddy service and bad reception, we purchased a new satellite dish and, somewhat sheepishly, renewed our DirecTV account.

There is, of course, no guarantee that our dish experience will be trouble-free – though, except for the extremely bad upgrade experience, we had many trouble-free years with our previous satellite system.  Nevertheless, we feel liberated.  The relief at not having to deal with Comcast except for the Internet service is almost tangible.   When not dealing with a company gives one a good feeling, the company ought to be worried.