My Tivo HD + Comcast Chicago+ Cable Card expeience

1543 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by WakkoME, Apr 17, 2008

gyeah99

Discussion Starter · Aug 3, 2007

Well got the TivoHD last week and hooked up using Comcast analog just to try it out. Worked Great ! Was kind of annoying having the HD channels listed as 5-1, 2-1 etc... but they looked great.

I knew I wanted the cable cards so I read up on them here on the forum and began my journey.

1. Called Comcast 800 # to ask about picking up one M-card from my local office. "What is that" she said. Oh boy. Finally spoke to another team member, came back to the phone and said that i could pick up the cards at the Schaumburg office Yippee !

2. Drove 30 minutes to the schaumburg office. "We don't give those out here". Sh*t!! "but the lady on the phone said...." They didn't care.

3. Read a post here on the forum that mentioned the North Ave. office was handing out the m-cards. I drove down 45 minutes to the office sat. morning and there was a HUGE line. While standing in line I called one of the agents over and to verify that they did infact hand out cable cards, he said "no problem, we give them out here".

4. After waiting in line for 40 minutes I got to the window and the the agent grabbed the card from the back. BUT the stupid computer wouldn't let him assign it to my account, because I lived int he suburbs and this office was in chicago proper and he refused to hand it to me!!! Crap !!

5. Called comcast to schedule an appt.

6. Monday 2 guys showd up with 15 freaking cable cards. The said "These freaking things never work". After 30 minutes of back and forth on the phone everything was working..or so I thought. Before they left we testing some channels..but unfortunately (stupid me) we only tested channels 9 and 191...later found out that all channels above 20 didn't come in except for the last few HD channels 187 - 193?

7. Called comcast, they "sent a signal" to my box. Didn't help. they then "Sent a stronger signal" I don't know if that is BS or what, I guess it sounded better then having the lady say "sh*t I ain't got no clue why it no workie, let me keep trying the same thing over and over"...well the "stronger" or 2nd attempt worked !

Hurray...everything is working great with m-card in slot 1. Finally.

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gschoen

· #2 · Aug 3, 2007

I live in Chicago (Lakeview) and stopped by the Naperville center (Ogden Ave. - MUCH shorter lines) and they did NOT have any cards (as the phone rep said.) However reading here the North Ave. center WAS giving them out, stopped there later (HUGE line) had my pick of 4 different types of cards, as she didn't know what the difference was, I chose the M-card.

Had to call Comcast to pair card (of course). The reps who answered the calls had no clue, thankfully they just had someone call me (!wow they really called back!) who knew exactly what they were doing. When the pairing didn't work the first time, had to do a restart of the system and run guided setup again. Took about 6 hours total. Saved $17 install fee.

I guess if you're in the burbs you're stuck. In the city you can pick up your own card, but won't be able to pair it unless you get the proper rep. My experience - it's not getting paired unless SOMEONE at Comcast does it, thou they don't have to come to your house. Likely having the installer there would NOT have made things faster, just lots of awkward time together waiting.

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gyeah99

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 3, 2007

Glad it worked out for you, you actually saved $27 (at least that is what my work order says).

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Hogues92

· #4 · Aug 3, 2007

I had a somewhat different experience. When I got my S3, I called and asked if I could go and get two CC's from the local office. I was told that onlt a tech could install the CC's. Fine. I scheduled my appointment and made sure they knew it was for 2 CC's for a Tivo. The day arrived and they were late, but at least they showed up with no cable cards. We sat around for a half an hour while the guy called all of his co-workers in the area to see if they had any. They did not. Rescheduled for later that week. Guess what, the guy showed up without any CC's! They told me that a guy could come out that they would send out someone that weekend. At about 5pm that Saturday, another guy showed up with one M-Card. When I told him that I needed two, he told me that there was a shortage due to the deployment of the new Moto boxes. He installed the card in about 20 min and told me that the channels would come in shortly and left (it was 5:30 pm at that time). They didn't. I called customer support and they sent several hits to the card but nothing worked so we scheduled a fourth truck roll. I asked them to bring a second CC as well. The guy showed up without any more CC's but did get the M-card working with a different kind of hit that the cust service reps originally sent. At that point, I gave up on a second CC for the summer.

So as it stands now, I have a S3 with one tuner working. It hasn't really bothered me since it's summer and not that much is on. I'm hoping that M-card support comes along soon because I may have to kill someone if I have to get another CC from comcast!

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sollecks

· #5 · Dec 28, 2007

How is it this monopoly is allowed to exist?

I bought my wife Tivo for Christmas. I called today to arrange to get a cable card installed. The operator told me I can now install on my own, which I thought was great. She started to put the order through and I was disconnected. I called again and a different operator explained yes, I can install on my own and told me to go to the facility on Wise Road in Schaumburg, il.

I drive there. I wait in line. I'm told immediately that they never allow customers to do that and I was misinformed. The customer rep was rude and refused to help me any further. It made no difference that I was told specifically to go to that facility or that I had a confirmation number for my order. I wish I could pass along her name. I left, obviously very frustrated.

I call 888 Comcast again. The operator this time explains that the Schaumburg facility doesn't have the cards in stock and I would need to go to Carpentersville. I drove all the way there (not close), and I am immediately told they do not allow customers to install on their own. This rep was actually pleasant to talk to and arranged for a tech visit the next day. She did the best she could do given the circumstances. I left, still very frustrated.

I spend way too much money with Comcast every month for TV and Internet. Frankly it is more than some of my car payments have been in the past, and to be treated this way is just unacceptable. If Comcast wasn't a cable monopoly, I would be get rid of the service immediately. I will continue to call Wideopenwest and beg them to move into my area.

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bedelman

· #6 · Dec 28, 2007

sollecks said:
...The operator this time explains that the Schaumburg facility doesn't have the cards in stock and I would need to go to Carpentersville. I drove all the way there (not close), and I am immediately told they do not allow customers to install on their own. This rep was actually pleasant to talk to and arranged for a tech visit the next day. She did the best she could do given the circumstances. ...

Carpentersville is my local office and they are nice -- but they don't hand out CableCards. I've had three CableCard installs over the past year or so -- and they have gotten better at it from the first time where they almost screwed me out of the nice rate plan into which I'm grandfathered.

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WakkoME

· #7 · Apr 17, 2008

gyeah99 said:
7. Called comcast, they "sent a signal" to my box. Didn't help. they then "Sent a stronger signal" I don't know if that is BS or what, I guess it sounded better then having the lady say "sh*t I ain't got no clue why it no workie, let me keep trying the same thing over and over"...well the "stronger" or 2nd attempt worked!

FYI, I just had a similar problem to gyeah99, today. More than 6 months later and its the same story. Tivo was taking a while to get channel information, so the technician confirmed with his phone support that "hits" were backed up and we wouldn't see anything activated for a while (he did wait 30 or 40 minutes with me), but he'd call back to check in. I was able to get local broadcast channels up to channel 20, and then the HD local channels in the 180s and 190s. The technician called back (yes, he really did) and he suggested I call comcast to check on those "hits". Called comcast and after telling him which channels I could and couldn't get, I suggested the process gyeah posted about, and he said that is what he was about to do. Sent me a signal, it cut off the last couple minutes of a recording I was doing (be warned) but it worked after the 15 minutes he said to leave the tivo off for. Yay! By the way, the tech that was out to install the cards says he doesn't know why, but you can pick up modems and set top boxes from the service centers, but cable cards have to be installed by a tech, so it seems nothing has changed around the Schaumburg area I'm in.

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