Matthew Botos

People used to joke that Linux was only free if your time spent setting it up was worth nothing. Newer distributions like Ubuntu seem to have defanged such arguments, which are now more applicable to free offers from your cable company.

Comcast offered me free HBO and Starz for six months, and a few weeks later sent me a digital cable box and instructions to call and set it up. Now I had my doubts about this from the start, since I have a Tivo Series 3 that uses two CableCards instead of a cable box. Both have addresses and can recieve premium channels, though, so I figured I had a shot.

After half an hour on hold on the activation line, I explained this to a woman who only knew how to activate that particular model of box. She directed me to Comcast’s main line, where another 15 minutes on hold got me to someone else who soon grasped they didn’t know how to handle it and transferred me to my local office. Ironically, before outsourcing and call center consolidation, I would’ve started there in the first place.

Even for the local office, it quickly escalated to having to send someone out. It’s impressive that they can offer appointments within a day or two, but it still throws a monkey wrench it my schedule for something that it should be possible to do remotely. Also unimpressive was the fact that they weren’t even willing to try fixing my existing CableCards over the phone, one of which is only getting about 1/4 of the channels it should.

Comcast isn’t winning any points here; their free offer will end up wasting at least three hours of my time, and the other options aren’t much better. Their own DVR pales in comparison to Tivo, and their only competitor, satellite TV, doesn’t work with the Tivo Series 3. Good thing for them they have a monopoly.