Comcast Versus Qwest

Honestly, they both suck! The best thing to do is switch back and forth and play them off of each other to get the best deals. We have Comcast now, it is expensive and the service cuts in and out - including the phone, which is a little scary. I'd hate to be experiencing a frequent outage when an emergency arises!

My dad used to work for Qwest. He just retired (with his 10 year) and immediately switched everything to Comcast. I have had both Comcast and Qwest, and personally I have had better customer service with Comcast. The internet speed is much faster too. I didn't have cable with either one though, so I can't give you any opinions on that part. Overall, with phone lines and internet, I have found Comcast to be much cheaper for us.

M.

Hi S.,

I don't have any experience with internet with comcast or qwest however a little over a year ago we tried to bundle some services with qwest and the whole thing was a complete NIGHTMARE!!! Qwest couldn't get anything right during the switch and were not helpful or apologetic about it!! It took more than six months to get the situation resolved! We were even sent to collections AFTER we had paid our final bill with qwest. We were considering contacting a lawyer to help us resolve the situation it was so ridiculous. We had to keep our Direct TV since there was a 2 year contract on it but will be switching as soon as we can. I agree with another post, satalite service is a joke if there is any kind of hint of weather. Anyway, my advice to you would be to avoid Qwest at all costs!!! It's not worth the hassel or headache!!

We had Direct TV through Qwest, and it is a dish. All they did was transfer our existing (at that time) Direct TV subscription from Direct TV to Qwest for the discount. So if you are trying to get away from having a satellite dish, that wouldn't work for you. Don't think they have traditional "cable" service at all. I have heard horrible things about Comcast, but I have no experience with them myself. The Qwest customer service, however, is deplorable. I still have to deal with them since they are our phone service and internet provider and there have been times I have called for service and they have made appointments and then no one showed up. Even after they had called to confirm the appointment!! I don't have any issues with the internet service through them. I think the connection has been down maybe twice in the three years I have gotten service through them and it was fixed in a reasonable amount of time. I can't say the same for the direct tv service, though. THAT was down all the darn time and there was never any straight answer as to why or when it would be working again. Still have satellite, we just switched to Dish. Good luck finding what you are looking for.

My two cents - go with Comcast. I had been a loyal Qwest customer for many years. Finally, I got so fed up with them I switched over to Comcast and am very happy. So far no problems. I will never go back to Qwest. Lots of downtime and very poor customer service. The final straw for me was when I called, asked to talk with a manager, was told that the wait time to talk with a manager was 24 - 48 hours, and that he or she would call me. Never received a call back.

The sad thing is that no one at Qwest seems to understand that the processes they have set up in their "spirit of service" do not help their customers. It was a ridiculous situation that could have been solved very easily, and they wouldn't fix it for me. They apparently preferred that I cancel my service with them.

Hi, S., I've been using comcast high speed internet and cable tv, as well as land line phone service for several years. I've had maybe one downtime in all those years, and they sent someone out to fix the cable in our neighborhood pretty quickly. Sometimes my router acts up (it's not a comcast router, but my own), and the service technicians walk me thru resetting it on the phone. They are very patient and knowledgeable.

I'm interested in your findings about wireless, as I've been thinking of getting the AT&T wireless set up for when I travel with my computer. Will you put those findings on your website? Please add me to your mailling list so I know when your site is up.

Thanks!
E.###-###-####
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I have comcast and love it. Never once have I had a problem with the services they provide. As far as pricing the only time the price rises is when the T.V. networks raise their prices and this has happened once in the three years I have had comcast.Comcast has deals all the time and I am sure you can get a good price.The speed of my internet is awesome. I do believe that with qwest the only cable option is having a dish.

I have Qwest for phone and internet and I have had no problems. I can't say much about their customer service because I have rarely had to call. I never have had any time where my internet is down and the speed is very fast.
As far as cable, we have been trying to keep costs down so we don't use them for cable. We did try Comcast and didn't really care for them. We had a few minor problems and were treated badly by customer service.

Comcast. I've never had an issue with them. Qwest was down all the time, and they were never any help.

I recently moved to an area that doesn't get Comcast service so had to go with Qwest. After two years with Comcast, the switch has been painful. Qwest = seemingly constant down-times for internet service and horrendous customer service. Comcast, although difficult for a couple of reasons you outlined, always offered consistent service. I'd go Comcast if you can.

We went with comcast last year, when Qwest didn't have highspeed internet available in our area after 3 years of asking them when it would come (they kept saying we're working on it give us 6 months and ask again). Even when we moved we kept Comcast. We called them when our introductory rate was about to end and ask for a lower rate again, and so it hasn't really gone up much in 1.5 years. And we priced out Qwest when we move, and for t.v., phone, and highspeed internet it was about the same. (Comcast includes nationwide calling, call waiting, and caller ID with their digital phone servie. Qwest offered it for extra, and that evened things out).

The only problem is that when the cable goes down (happened more in the old area, very rarely now) or the power is out (no modem) the phones don't work either. Rare occurrance, but if thats very important to you, consider it.

Since I have home phone service with Qwest, I opted last year to go with them for DSL service, $25 a month. No increases and it is on my monthly phone bill. I love the service.
Prior I had Sprint wireless broadband and it had acted up several times. Had this big huge attena off my house thanks to my ex, now we stopped this service.

We have had Dish for a long time now, we just have the basic channels and local channels and I pay $62 a month. I haven't had any major increases in 8 years.
So for both of my services I pay $110 a month or close to that.

I have done the research as well, Comcast isn't even a consideration, even with their promotions they will go back up and be WAY more combined then I am paying now.
Dish is the same as Direct TV give or take and since I already have the service and the DVR (got free by the way) then I see no point in changing.

I have never had an issue with Qwest and had great customer service. The more services you use through them the savings can be better, but even if I went to Direct TV there was only a $4 difference so I just stuck with DSL/Phone with Qwest and Dish for my satellite provider.

I use DSL and a wireless router. I have read about stuff like this too and the emission of frequency from a wireless router is EXTREMELY low. You would have to rid yourself of your microwave, cordless/wireless phones and even a baby monitor in your home to truly rid yourself of these emissions in your home. Do you use a cellphone, that would too have to go.

WLAN in mass quantities like in large companies, even in some school systems have been brought to the table as a cause for concern, ongoing and larger scale exposures. New technology is scary as we sometimes don't get the full picture of what the downsides are or dangers until years of study. I agree with that completely and I do research on this stuff as well. Right now there is no scientific data to back up claims that WIFIs used in homes are any more dangerous then that baby monitor or microwave.

They found minimal cellphone use daily isn't harmful in adults, ongoing exposure not so good and children shouldn't be on cellphones ongoing either due to their developing brain.

Let me know if you find any other reports about this stuff, I am interested as well.

We've had both, and I really prefer comast. The internet is a lot faster, and I really really hate satelite TV. When it snows, no reception, when it rains, no reception, when its windy, no reception. I got really tired of climbing out onto the roof all the time to clean it off. And comcast does raise their rates after the first year, but if you call them and complain/threten to cancel, they will lower you back down.

I have Qwest with Direct TV. Qwest has poor customer service, but Direct TV?? WOW. I have been overcharged numerous times, they say I owe for a reciever I sent back because it didn't work, they didn't show up for an appointment, and it took 4 guys that did show up to figure out a problem. Oh and if you have to call them to talk to someone about a problem, plan plenty of time 'cause I'm sure you have all the time in the world to sit around and wait. This averaged for me about 2 1/2 hours for every single call. And I was disconnected often. One time was 4 hours, and many were 1-2. I hate them. We had problems a lot with the dvr at first, but they finally replaced it and haven't had much trouble since. Just make sure you keep the tracking number if you send it back. Now, I am afraid to change to Comcast because of the dvr they say I owe for and will probably charge me for when I cancel. They also told me I could get two channels recorded at once on my dvr but then it would only do one because of some wiring in my house (new) and I had to pay $170 to get them out here to do something about it. So, it works now, but I would never choose to start up service with them. The TV service has been down about 5 times when there was really bad weather. That hasn't been too bad. Qwest internet is mostly fine and pretty fast.

Comcast, on the other hand, I thought had great customer service. They were polite and helpful. The modem did go out sometimes though, which was annoying, but overall I liked it. The internet was fast, and I had no problems at all with the cable. I also like that, at least 2-3 years ago when I had it, they didn't outsource their internet customer service to the Phillipines like Qwest does. (I like when people stay in the country to keep jobs here, and I can also understand them better.)

I have comcast and have never had aproblem with raising rates or bad customer service.

Hi S.,
We are strictly with comcast for internet, tv, and phone, for two reasons. My husband works from home on the computer and the comcast internet has always been fast and consistant. Secondly, our price has always been exactly what they said it would be. They have never raised our rates. Qwest continued to raise our phone rates to the point that it was ridiculous to just have a home phone. We were paying almost $70. a month just for the phone. I hate the idea that one company has so much power in the market (as Comcast does) but at this point it is really the only choice for us.

When I lived in C/S I had Comcast. I had no problems. The speed was actually what they said it would be, and I didn't have issues with it being down. On the otherhand, I have Qwest now because it's my only option. I hate it. The service has been terrible. I've had problems at least once a month with service being down and when it's up and running, the speed is much lower than what I'm being charged for. And the servicemen are useless. I'm not out in the middle of nowhere either. I believe it's because they contract out all their work out. Comcast was expensive, but worth it. I'd switch in a second if I could.

I prefer Comcast only from the standpoint of service. Qwest recently outsourced a few thousand of its workforce in the US to offshore. ANY COMPANY THAT DOES THAT MANEUVER THESE DAYS DESERVES NO BUSINESS FOM ME PERIOD. YOU CAN BARELY UNDERSTAND THEM AND THEY REALLY DO NOT CARE ONE BIT ABOUT YOUR PROBLEM.

We've had lots of trouble with Comcast, apparently because the cables in our neighborhood are old. Supposedly they were going to update them just before we canceled our service, but we'd put up with a year of telephone and internet service going out for hours at a time and we didn't want to take any more chances. They refunded some of the money I feel they owed us, but not all. That probably doesn't affect you since you don't live in my neighborhood, but what would affect you is their poor customer service. Their communication between departments is horrible. For a year I called at least once almost every month either because they messed up my bill or my service was down. But when I would call again, there would be no record of my previous calls, no record that this was a recurring problem. They would say they would take care of it and nothing would change. A work order would be put in to fix our service, and I would wait for hours at home for the repairman to come, only to finally call the company and find out that another problem had occurred with a neighbor's service, so they fixed that and assumed it was the cause of my problem too and canceled my work order without notifying me. (By the way, it was not the cause of my problem. I still didn't have consistent service.) It was very stressful having Comcast phone and internet. We rarely had problems with Comcast cable, though. Our main frustration was that the On Demand shows that we had come to enjoy for free eventually became pay per view, so we were getting less for our money.
Quest, on the other hand, has record of phone service being in my name 10 years ago, when I shared the phone with roommates. Before leaving the apartment, I sent payment for the bill and asked the company to cancel the service once they received it. Then I left the state. I should have called Quest to check that they had done what they promised because 7 years later, when I moved back to the state and tried to set up service with them, they told me I had an unpaid balance of over $200 and would not set up service until I paid it. By then I had thrown away my records of service with them, but they believed their computer over me.
Good luck with your decision!

Working with Comcast has been pure hell for us. They finally took us to collections for their mistakes. The sevice, when we had it crashed all the time and we had to replace our computer due to virus and trojans that invaded and destroyed our firewall. The people who came to the house were always really nice but I was overcharged every month and when I sent copies of my contract that proved it nothing was done. One month we were even charged triple! We cancelled, agreed to pay the cancellation fee and they still would not turn off our service and kept charging us. We finally had to close our bank account which is when they sent us to collections. We sent all the paperwork to the collection agency and it was finally taken care of but not without a hassle I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

We had Qwest phone service for 2 years and it was fine. I don't recall any/many issues. For some reason they could not get Qwest DSL to work for us, so we had to go with Comcast Cable internet. Yes, we have had outages, but I'm not sure it's more than should be expected. More a few years ago, less now it seems. A couple years ago we did switch our phone to Comcast (introductory special), and got rid of Dish Network and got Comcast Cable too, so now we have everything bundled with Comcast. The only bummer is that when Comcast goes 'down', everything goes down - phone, TV, Internet. I work from home a few days a week though, and I can tell you that has not happened much in the last year - more power outages than Comcast problems.

Hope that helps. I would say go with the cheapest, as I don't think (although I can't say for sure) that you can go wrong with either. Does Qwest have high speed internet now? The fastest they had when we were looking was DSL, and cable internet is faster for sure. Good Luck.