Something to say about Comcast? West Seattle meeting tomorrow night

Something to say about Comcast? We just found out the city has scheduled a community meeting in West Seattle TOMORROW NIGHT (Wednesday 4/23) about the city’s cable-franchise renewal process. (Thanks to Deb and Karen of the Block Watch Captains’ Network – which by the way has an unrelated meeting tonight – for the tip.) The cable-franchise meeting is at 6 pm Wednesday, High Point Community Center (6420 34th SW), with a chance for you to tell the city what you think about Comcast, as it gets ready for a potential 10-year franchise renewal. If you can’t make it to the meeting, and haven’t filled out the city survey, it’s still open – go here; other ways to have your say are here.

14 Replies to "Something to say about Comcast? West Seattle meeting tomorrow night"

  • boo man April 22, 2014 (1:42 pm)

    I got something too say – TOO EXPENSIVE AND TOO SLOW !!!! Comcast is a Monopoly !!

  • Jay Wallace April 22, 2014 (1:53 pm)

    Have a read at the links listed above about what the comments can be about. The franchise agreement with the city only covers cable tv service. there is no mention of pricing or broadband in it. Worth noting in your story.

  • WSB April 22, 2014 (2:00 pm)

    Yes, the city says “TECHNICALLY, it’s not part of the franchise,” but nonetheless they even went to the trouble of studying it: http://www.seattle.gov/cable/documents/SeattleStateoftheArtReportRevised100913.pdf
    .
    so they haven’t exactly slammed a wall down between discussion topics. – TR
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    (Added) Also – just opened the survey and this is near the top: “In preparation for renegotiating the franchise agreement, The City of Seattle gathers information regarding your preferences and needs for television and Internet services provided by Comcast.”

  • ScubaFrog April 22, 2014 (2:41 pm)

    Comcast is just awful. So many cable tv/cable internet outages. High prices, slow speeds, awful resolution even with the best TV’s. Comcast’s been the ‘#1 Worst Company in America’ for a few years now according to many different consumer protection entities.

  • panda April 22, 2014 (3:07 pm)

    Comcast is evil. I continue to pay out hundreds of dollars a month for awful service. The internet is down often or crawls along. My cable box now shows lines scrolling up my screen (not because of my HD TV) and the options with On-Demand are a joke.

    If anyone has a suggestion for good home internet I’d like to hear it. I’m thinking of just getting rid of cable.

  • PBJ April 22, 2014 (5:39 pm)

    My company just relocated to White Center, a building that was built in 1958 and there is no cable to the building. Comcast took our move order and then the day before delivery called to say “ops we have no service there, and we have to put in a construction order to get you service”. I just got an email yesterday that they MIGHT be done with the install on 7/17/14. Ummm, I ordered the service on March 10th…. Mind you there are buildings all around us with service. Really… We have DSL and surprisingly its not too bad.

  • Wally April 22, 2014 (5:41 pm)

    You know it is a Monopoly when you go to Pierce county and a similar cable package through Comcast is 30% less per month.
    Competition is good- do not renew contract or have dual vendors competing for our business.

  • JanS April 22, 2014 (5:53 pm)

    PBJ..I have DSL thru Century Link. I’ve had it for years. It never goes down. People complain that it’s too slow. It’s fast enough for me, AND it’s reliable.

  • JanS April 22, 2014 (5:55 pm)

    I also have DirecTV. It, too, never goes down. I like reliable service. :)

  • Skittles for Marshawn April 22, 2014 (6:52 pm)

    While the City of course cannot control prices, they should end their subsidies to Comcast (through allowing access to the RO)W. I would like the City to give a very clear statement on what taxpayers as a whole — not just those willing to fork over $100 for mindless programming — are getting in exchange for the subsidies.

    I understand that basic access to local stations and internet are important services in 2014. And given that the cables are in place, I’m not really sure what negotiating power the City has anyway.

    But I just price-checked the cost of internet on Comcast. They were advertising a deal for $30 a month for 6 months, which I thought was shockingly reasonable. Well, that same deal is $50 a month for my zip code (WS), which is the same price as my Clear hotspot, which has no contract. (And has great customer service, I digress.)

    So given that I can get internet for the same price without Comcast, and that I can now get HD local tv through my antenna (and I have Roku + Netflix + Amazon Prime), I don’t see why the City should continue to subsidize the monopoly that is Comcast (soon to be Comcast + Time Warner). The City should focus on instituting city-wide internet service like many other cities have.

    Given the opposition some people had towards subsidizing Metro, I can’t believe anyone thinks any taxpayer resources should go into teevee.

  • tom April 22, 2014 (8:39 pm)

    come on google fiber!!!!

  • wakeflood April 23, 2014 (11:04 am)

    I hope many of you can attend the meeting and if not, please, please go online to the city and post your comments. Nothing’s going to change without overwhelming public opinion. And you KNOW that Comcast is already promising things will be better to the City staff.

  • Amy Stapleton April 23, 2014 (1:53 pm)

    We should have choices. Comcast is a monoply that we are stuck with. They are not regulated by the FCC. That means they do not have to give good service!
    My school age children go to internet school and because of Comcast’s lack of service we were without cable for months. I had to get Centurylink because they were willing to install a new cable line where Comcast still hasn’t installed a cable line and won’t until 5/26. They blame permits and subcontractors but they are the one’s with policies that are not to a customer’s best interests.

  • zark April 24, 2014 (11:08 am)

    The franchise will be renewed, it’s all but guaranteed. To stop the renewal city negotiators would have prove in a court of law that Comcast failed to meet requirements of the franchise agreement from 2006 – highly, highly unlikely bordering on impossible.

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