[SNJpage1]

Nine months ago my contract ended with Comcast. The plan I had was still available but with a $50 increase. I was told because the name was different, my cable cards would be de activated and could not be turned back on. I now have a TIVO Edge and a mini that are only good for streaming. So beware when it comes time to sign a new contract. Stay with the one you have if possible.

 

[KevTech]

I was told because the name was different, my cable cards would be de activated and could not be turned back on.

You are fine as long as you do not change anything on the TV side.
I just changed Internet only and left TV side alone.
I now have one of the new plans with unlimited data.
This information about CableCARDS and changing plan was also posted on the official Comcast forum.
You can change anything on your plan except TV without affecting your CableCARD.
If you change TV then you lose card.

 

[Tennberg]

You are fine as long as you do not change anything on the TV side.
I just changed Internet only and left TV side alone.
I now have one of the new plans with unlimited data.
This information about CableCARDS and changing plan was also posted on the official Comcast forum.
You can change anything on your plan except TV without affecting your CableCARD.
If you change TV then you lose card.

With the assistance of their Reddit team, I recently changed my plan, including the TV side, and was able to keep my card. For TV, I moved from Super+ More to Ultimate and added a couple a la carte channels. The card remained paired the whole time, even when they sent a refresh signal for the new package.

 

[KevTech]

With the assistance of their Reddit team, I recently changed my plan, including the TV side, and was able to keep my card. For TV, I moved from Super+ More to Ultimate and added a couple a la carte channels. The card remained paired the whole time, even when they sent a refresh signal for the new package.

You are most likely in the East market which is behind in updating their systems.
Once the system is updated it will be impossible even for associates to keep a CableCARD on an account if the TV package is changed from a grandfathered package.
There is no override for this either.

 

[jpwolfe31]

I just got off of a call with Xfinity in Northern CA and was all set to reduce my mbps from 1000 to 500 and move my tv plan from unlimited to popular and save about $50 per month. When I asked about the cable cards, they said they would call Tivo technical support and Tivo said that when these changes were processed, Tivo would also see them and Tivo would disable (or perhaps not make the changes needed to continue?) both of our cable cards. Xfinity also said Tivo sent them a letter last year stating that Tivo had discontinued Tivo’s support of cable cards. I was surprised and wondered if this was accurate. Needless to say, we did not make any changes.

 

[kdmorse]

I just got off of a call with Xfinity in Northern CA and was all set to reduce my mbps from 1000 to 500 and move my tv plan from unlimited to popular and save about $50 per month. When I asked about the cable cards, they said they would call Tivo technical support and Tivo said that when these changes were processed, Tivo would also see them and Tivo would disable (or perhaps not make the changes needed to continue?) both of our cable cards. Xfinity also said Tivo sent them a letter last year stating that Tivo had discontinued Tivo’s support of cable cards. I was surprised and wondered if this was accurate. Needless to say, we did not make any changes.

Basically nothing the rep told you is in any way accurate.

Had you continued with that rep, you would have most certainly lost your cable cards with no way to get them back.

 

[cwoody222]

I just got off of a call with Xfinity in Northern CA and was all set to reduce my mbps from 1000 to 500 and move my tv plan from unlimited to popular and save about $50 per month. When I asked about the cable cards, they said they would call Tivo technical support and Tivo said that when these changes were processed, Tivo would also see them and Tivo would disable (or perhaps not make the changes needed to continue?) both of our cable cards. Xfinity also said Tivo sent them a letter last year stating that Tivo had discontinued Tivo’s support of cable cards. I was surprised and wondered if this was accurate. Needless to say, we did not make any changes.

Wow that is the most inaccurate thing they could have possibly told you. I honestly wonder if they were just making stuff up.

TiVo does not have any ability to shut of the CableCards in your TiVo, which are owned by and controlled by Comcast.

TiVo also sent no such letter. TiVo has no right to cease cablecard support, as they are supported by the cable companies. Even if they did, doing so would render all TiVo’s cablecard TiVos inoperable, which would be completely against their business interests and would be against their terms of service with all their TiVo subscribers.

I literally would file a complaint to be that agent reprimanded.

 

[dougdingle]

I just got off of a call with Xfinity in Northern CA and was all set to reduce my mbps from 1000 to 500 and move my tv plan from unlimited to popular and save about $50 per month. When I asked about the cable cards, they said they would call Tivo technical support and Tivo said that when these changes were processed, Tivo would also see them and Tivo would disable (or perhaps not make the changes needed to continue?) both of our cable cards. Xfinity also said Tivo sent them a letter last year stating that Tivo had discontinued Tivo’s support of cable cards. I was surprised and wondered if this was accurate. Needless to say, we did not make any changes.

What @kdmorse said...every word that CS rep told you was a lie.

Based on the ability of some of those people to just lie to customers about everything, it's astonishing that some of them aren't in prison for some crime or another.

 

[CommunityMember]

I just got off of a call with Xfinity in Northern CA and was all set to reduce my mbps from 1000 to 500 and move my tv plan from unlimited to popular and save about $50 per month.

The one thing that was most likely accurate (some of Comcast's regions are in various phases of their services code changes, so NorCal may be ahead or behind in the various changes) was that if you change your TV plan (from Ultimate to Popular) it will be a new TV plan[0], and while the names are the same as some previous plans, they are reportedly internally different codes, so you would, most likely, lose your CableCARDs, as new plans do not offer CableCARDs as a service delivery option. There may be a way to finess the changes and keep your CableCARD, but it also may not be possible (someone who pops in once in a while to the community to complain about losing their CableCARD explicitly choose to change their TV plan to save money, and accepted the changes that they were provided, and that included the deletion of the CableCARDs). The reality is that with few exceptions the operators want to go to zero (CableCARDs) as soon as possible.

[0] Unless you were one of the (extremely) few who were on Popular, with the various add-on kicker equivalents to Ultimate (which as I recall costs most than the Ultimate plan, but allows one to stay on Popular and remove the add-ons without changing your base plan).

 

[kdmorse]

Moving to 2.0Gbps down, and <hellifIknow> up.

I have in theory just pulled the trigger via Reddit, my ancient TV+Internet bundle had to be cracked. We discovered my current 1.2Gbps service was actually an ancient "Performance" level with multiple layers of Speed Upgrade. It appears they had the ability to just keep adding "Speed Upgrade" on top of "Speed Upgrade" under the covers (over the decades) without breaking a 20 year old bundle, which is how I got to the Gigabit Plus without touching the TV side.

Continued functionality of my 6 Cable Cards was a requirement from the beginning, and has been promised at every step, including the last one. I have screenshots of the chat. I have screenshots of them on my service. I have screenshots of my Cable Card pairing information. It's been stated that if the cable cards are lost, I'll be immediately dropping all TV services, as they're useless to me. (And yes, I'm sure my internet costs will mysteriously rise so that my bill remains remarkably unchanged)

I also know damn well that none of that will matter if this goes south. They're ammo in an argument with retention to prove I had them, and that I'd been screwed. I know there's no un-screwing. Really, finding proof I had cablecards on my account, (other than the fact that they work) - was damn hard. They're no longer billable items, they're not on my bill. They've revamped their support site so many times, they're not mentioned.

While typing this, my screen did go gray for a second, scared the crap out of me, but it came back. I have no idea what sort of timeline I'm looking at here, chat's gone silent.

I think the only thing to do now is start a betting pool? Success? Failure? Or no change and an eternal wait?

 

[CommunityMember]

Moving to 2.0Gbps down, and <hellifIknow> up.

I have in theory just pulled the trigger via Reddit, my ancient TV+Internet bundle had to be cracked. We discovered my current 1.2Gbps service was actually an ancient "Performance" level with multiple layers of Speed Upgrade. It appears they had the ability to just keep adding "Speed Upgrade" on top of "Speed Upgrade" under the covers (over the decades) without breaking a 20 year old bundle, which is how I got to the Gigabit Plus without touching the TV side.

Comcast has been doing the regular speed bump for years as long as your plan was not so old to be considered frozen (there were and still are some very specific frozen plans that don't get the speed bumps). Recently Comcast has changed all their plans entirely, and regular speed bumps may no longer occur (things are too new to know the future). To get the higher upload speeds with the 2000 plan you you need to be using one of Comcast's gateways, or one of the (very) few nextgen certified COAM modems (and both need to pass the iHAT testing).

Continued functionality of my 6 Cable Cards was a requirement from the beginning, and has been promised at every step, including the last one. I have screenshots of the chat. I have screenshots of them on my service. I have screenshots of my Cable Card pairing information. It's been stated that if the cable cards are lost, I'll be immediately dropping all TV services, as they're useless to me. (And yes, I'm sure my internet costs will mysteriously rise so that my bill remains remarkably unchanged)

Two (or more) services gets you a discount (and it is on your bill as such, when you read the all the details, and everyone should read all the details, as it includes upcoming changes (which would have usually also mentioned the speed bumps)).

I think the only thing to do now is start a betting pool? Success? Failure? Or no change and an eternal wait?

Changing only your HSI plan should not touch your TV plan (and touching your TV plan is what can result in changes that drop your CableCARDs).

Did you read every single line of the confirmation email/text you got before you agreed to the changes? Details matter, and every line must be read and fully understood (read them like any lawyer does).

 

[morac]

Comcast has been doing the regular speed bump for years as long as your plan was not so old to be considered frozen (there were and still are some very specific frozen plans that don't get the speed bumps). Recently Comcast has changed all their plans entirely, and regular speed bumps may no longer occur (things are too new to know the future). To get the higher upload speeds with the 2000 plan you you need to be using one of Comcast's gateways, or one of the (very) few nextgen certified COAM modems (and both need to pass the iHAT testing).

Comcast’s recent changes pretty much guarantee I’ll never change my plan as my upload speeds are nearly double that of Comcast’s fastest plan.

 

[kdmorse]

To get the higher upload speeds with the 2000 plan you you need to be using one of Comcast's gateways, or one of the (very) few nextgen certified COAM modems (and both need to pass the iHAT testing).

A list that, I swear, the Arris SB34 used to be on. However it appears to have been removed. Whether this was the cause or not, we were unable to get the SB34 to provide anything other than ~1.4x45*.

The Netgear CM2050V is still on the list. (Although it's not clear for how much longer). So I have somehow landed at ~1.4x300*?

* As reported as a best case scenario using Ookla Speedtest. Actual transfer rates are all over the place, depending on where I'm going, but it's clear I'm past the 45mbps limit. Assuming standard 20% overprovisioning, I suspect my plan is somehow acting as 1200 x 250. Or, something in my environment is blocking some of the downstream channels needed to hit 2G. I'll continue to tilt at it, but I'm mostly happy. Not thrilled with the CM2050V as a device, but it's just a cable modem.

Changing only your HSI plan should not touch your TV plan (and touching your TV plan is what can result in changes that drop your CableCARDs).

Did you read every single line of the confirmation email/text you got before you agreed to the changes? Details matter, and every line must be read and fully understood (read them like any lawyer does).

Agreed. And while the changes made no mention of cablecards at all (add or remove), there were four big checkboxes at the bottom that easily read as "any of these services may require specific hardware at our discretion, and we decide what that means". Or even more basically as "you agree to let us do whatever we want as we change everything". There were lots of umbrella statements that could easily define removal of cablecards. So far, they remain in my account, and functional.

Not shut what to do about the fact that it now shows I have three cable modems....

 

[KevTech]

A list that, I swear, the Arris SB34 used to be on. However it appears to have been removed.

What list is that?

Arris S34 is still on the next gen list.
I have the Arris S34 and the Netgear CM3000.
Arris S34 is back up and CM3000 is my main on the 2 gig tier.

https://www.xfinity.com/support/internet/customerowned

Scroll down the page and click on "See all modems"
Then go down to "Compatible modems for enhanced speeds"

 

[kdmorse]

What list is that?

Arris S34 is still on the next gen list.
I have the Arris S34 and the Netgear CM3000.
Arris S34 is back up and CM3000 is my main on the 2 gig tier.

There's a whole lot of "how you interpret" that web page. But the top section "compatible with my tier", used to include the Arris G36, and the Arris S34. The Arris S34 is no longer there. It has been demoted to "All Modems", where it is there, and as you say, is tagged as NextGen and supports Enhanced Speeds.

Was not able to make it work (at enhanced speeds). It's worth pointing out that I live in a large MUD, (multi unit dwelling), so the line comes into a closet and is then split to hell before it comes anywhere near me. I am not in a ideal signal environment. So I do not have a good answer. It's possible the S34 was blessed when you activated yours, but it's no longer blessed, so I didn't get the enhanced config when I activated mine. It's possible I have a local problem. It's possible it just wasn't provisioned correctly (as I keep seeing people say the S34 won't do enhanced speeds until they manually push you out a config with a special name)

The netgear, (which I'm not a big fan of as a cable modem so this may be temporary while I futz), came right up with enhanced download speeds on the first try. (Well, the third try, but the first two tries aren't relevant to the story). This proving I was on a plan capable of enhanced upload speeds, which is an important step - unproven to that point. Where I go from here, not sure...

I'm not entirely sure what to make of my download speed still being 1.2Gbps. I mean, anything above 1Gbps is absolutely, positively, not worth the effort. But having put in that effort, it's odd to have the same download as before.

So far, cablecards are still working, and still on the account as shown on the My Account page.

 

[KevTech]

But the top section "compatible with my tier", used to include the Arris G36, and the Arris S34.

Don't login or the page will only show modems related to your tier instead of showing all modems.
I just plugged in my S34 and it still gets next gen speed when activated.
But the CM3000 gets better bufferbloat scores and lower overall latency so I am going back to that.