# Comcast free CableCard, free truck roll



## EinsteinTaylor (Nov 16, 2010)

So I thought I would share my experience with Comcast in the hopes that it might help someone else. I just ordered a Tivo Premiere off of Amazon for $198(didn't want to do the $19.99 + contract thing) and after much reading in this forum was expecting a fight with Comcast on the CableCard. 

I managed to get the fee for the truck roll waved, as well as the $8/mth fee waved and 6 months free HBO for my time. Knowing from my research here that almost no service centers issue "self install" CableCards so I called tech support and was given 3 options, a truck roll for the standard service call charge, have them ship one directly to me for a shipping and handling fee of $9.99 or go to my service center. The girl on the phone wasn't able to tell for sure that the one she was going to ship me would be the multi-stream card and strongly suggested I go to the service center.

Already knowing that I would be turned away at the service center, I went anyways and waited in line for about an hour(a million people that couldn't figure out their DTA's). Suprise, suprise, the guy at the counter said CableCards require a truck roll, they don't issue them there but because I had been given incorrect information that he would wave the cost of the truck roll. He then told me the "Tivo HD Cablecard" would cost $8 / mth. I setup the service call and left with my free HBO for having to wait in the long line. As soon as I got home I emailed customer support about the $8 charge and the first time they replied they told me that that card cost $8. I replied to that message and told them that I wanted a breakdown of why it has any cost at all. I told them that first CableCard is required to be provided for free and that if they couldn't tell me why I was being charged I would get Tivo involved and complain with the FCC.

The next day I received an email saying: " I understand that this is your first
card yet and should be free of charge. I will be more than glad to
process a credit for this for correction". I was then told that in order to get the fee waived for good I would have to call the billing dept. One more phone call and the fee is now supposedly permanently waived.

I will be paying close attention to my next bill to see but I have a pretty good documentation trail with them to fight if there are any issues. 

I recognize that this is a time consuming way to go about this, but I was determined to win this fight on principle.


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## mlippert (Apr 3, 2010)

My sister just got 2 TiVo premieres and she has comcast so this was interesting to me.

The 1st thing I thought when I was reading your msg was $8/mth for a cablecard?!!

I found this page which lists the charges of various cable companies, and then this Comcast page which specifies the charges for cablecards.

The Comcast page said:
There is no charge for the first CableCARD that you use as it is already included in the primary outlet fee. If you have a multi-card device on the same outlet (i.e. TiVo Series 3 or two Digital Cable Tuners connected to the same personal computer), you will be charged an additional regulated fee of up to $2.50 for the second CableCARD.

If additional CableCARDs are needed for other devices that are installed on additional outlets, you will not be charged for the first CableCARD installed on this outlet as the cost is included in the additional outlet fee. In addition to the cost of the digital cable service, you will be charged a regulated fee of up to $2.50 for the second CableCARD on the additional outlet.


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## EinsteinTaylor (Nov 16, 2010)

Those comcast pages are exactly what led to me asking the question initially. I believed that the CableCard should be free...however...I figured they were doing some sort of nickel and diming approach saying the first tuner is free and they are charging for the second tuner. Knowing that the $2.50 for additional cards/tuners/whatever you want to call it is an FCC regulated amount I asked for an actual justification of the charge. Of course rather than explain it, they just waved the charge. What I did find interesting was when I was talking to the billing girl on the phone she said she was removing the $8 / month "digital upgrade" charge, so I'm guessing that they call it that to avoid as many questions as possible.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

I am in the middle of the exact same scenario- either a tech, mail, stop by the office. The tech fee was waived as well since the office did not have them. But- the phone order also did not work, they charged the $10, but never sent the card since a "tech is required". I'm planning to get the card installed and working prior to fighting the excess fees you mention (again- it was "corrected" once but the correction did not stick).

Unfortunately- the tech spent over 1.5 hr today NOT installing the card. I'm still going to fight just one fight at a time.


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## jared1010 (Sep 15, 2007)

I just got my premiere and called comcast about a cable card install and they told me customers are now allowed to install their own cards. So I picked up 2 M-cards just in case and installed it and called and activated over the phone. This is in Portland Oregon


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## sharkitus (Nov 17, 2010)

EinsteinTaylor said:


> So I thought I would share my experience with Comcast in the hopes that it might help someone else. I just ordered a Tivo Premiere off of Amazon for $198(didn't want to do the $19.99 + contract thing) and after much reading in this forum was expecting a fight with Comcast on the CableCard.
> 
> I managed to get the fee for the truck roll waved, as well as the $8/mth fee waved and 6 months free HBO for my time. Knowing from my research here that almost no service centers issue "self install" CableCards so I called tech support and was given 3 options, a truck roll for the standard service call charge, have them ship one directly to me for a shipping and handling fee of $9.99 or go to my service center. The girl on the phone wasn't able to tell for sure that the one she was going to ship me would be the multi-stream card and strongly suggested I go to the service center.
> 
> ...


Good looking out my experience was very similar, Standing in line at the service center produced the need a truck roll to your house. I will be checking my bill closely!


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## Papageno (Jan 30, 2005)

jared1010 said:


> I just got my premiere and called comcast about a cable card install and they told me customers are now allowed to install their own cards. So I picked up 2 M-cards just in case and installed it and called and activated over the phone. This is in Portland Oregon


What do you mean you "picked them up"? From Comcast or from whom?

I'm considering upgrading to a Premiere from a Series 2 (yup, it's 8 years old) and it sounds like this whole process isn't quite ready for prime time. Where do they get off trying to charge 8 bucks a month for the first card when it's supposed to be part of the service?

BTW, I'm also in (North) Portland.


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## tattube (Oct 24, 2010)

Papageno said:


> What do you mean you "picked them up"? From Comcast or from whom?
> 
> I'm considering upgrading to a Premiere from a Series 2 (yup, it's 8 years old) and it sounds like this whole process isn't quite ready for prime time. Where do they get off trying to charge 8 bucks a month for the first card when it's supposed to be part of the service?
> 
> BTW, I'm also in (North) Portland.


It seems that some comcast franchises allow customer pickup and self install - still need to call comcast to pair the card - and others don't.
I'm in the SF Bay Area and we are also allowed to pickup these cards.

I will be going over my recent bills to see if I am being overcharged. 
Thanks for the tip on the 'digital upgrade' fee.


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

tattube said:


> It seems that some comcast franchises allow customer pickup and self install - still need to call comcast to pair the card - and others don't.


When calling the national comcast line today, I was told pickup was available and had been offered for two weeks. Unfortunately I made the mistake of doing this, wasted an hour, got no cablecard (out of stock), had to deal with rude customer service people, and went home and setup an appointment over the phone anyway. YMMV though. 

From previous truck rolls, the truck techs (who are usually good people) have always complained about incompetence when calling in the pairing. $15 is a small price to pay to have them deal with their own incompetent people rather than you having to do it, and to avoid the 30-minute wait at the service center.


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## brshoemak (Nov 27, 2010)

Papageno said:


> I'm considering upgrading to a Premiere from a Series 2 (yup, it's 8 years old) and it sounds like this whole process isn't quite ready for prime time. Where do they get off trying to charge 8 bucks a month for the first card when it's supposed to be part of the service?


I JUST did this - replaced an aging Series2 with a Premiere with Comcast. I went to service center with 100% knowledge that they would not allow a self-install but I wanted to talk to an actual human who would be held accountable if things went south.

There was one person ahead of me in line. No biggie. I asked about the CableCard self-install kit and was turned down (expected). I scheduled an appointment with a Comcast tech with a 3-hour window. Since I was there I was able to triple check that they knew I needed a M-Card. The best part was that since it was scheduled locally I knew there was less of a chance of them screwing it up.

The tech arrived, installed the CableCard in seconds, called the headend office, paired the CableCard to the Premiere. Worked perfectly. Total time: 15 minutes. The person had never done a CableCard install in a Tivo before - but it was as easy as it gets.

It is ready for prime time as long as you are smart about it and have good techs.


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## ratell (Jan 20, 2006)

I'm in Portland and picked up the cablecard from the service center. They very pointedly asked if it was my first cablecard. When I said yes it was the card was free. They did tell me that in doing the self install if there's a problem it will be $40 for a tech to come out and fix it.


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## Papageno (Jan 30, 2005)

Question: I'm considering dropping my service level with Comcast to Digital Economy (which has like 95&#37; of what I watch on cable anyway--I'm not a big sports fan so I don't give a crap about losing ESPN 1 and 2--as long as I have AMC, Comedy Central and USA Network I'm pretty happy). Anyway, the question is, will getting the CableCard from Comcast allow me to get HD versions of the channels in the Digital Economy tier?

Also, does Comcast try to call one multistream CableCard "more than one card" and thus charge one for a second card?


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

Papageno said:


> Also, does Comcast try to call one multistream CableCard "more than one card" and thus charge one for a second card?


No. At least not in my case (Eugene).

Also, see the other thread your created  for info on Comcast HD. I'd like to know the answer to this as well, particular in whether or not the $8 "HD Technology Fee" will appear on your bill. The rate card does not explain this very well. *

* By 'not very well', I mean the rate card is a confusing mess and doesn't explain it at all.


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## ltxi (Feb 14, 2010)

Comcast is free to charge what they wish for "extra" HD service, but the cablecard charge is regulated to, I believe, max $2.50/card. I have two units with M cards and an HDXL with a pair of S cards and I'm being billed $3/month total for the set (they consider the pair of S cards as one because they had no M cards in stock when I activated the unit). "Broadcast" channel HD is included our base digital package at no charge, but HD access for cable channels is an additional$8/mo, increasing to $10/mo on 1 Jan, if you want it.


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## ObiWanJenkins (Dec 31, 2004)

To clarify any confusion for Comcast customers, unless your local office has a different policy, the only way you can receive a CableCard is via tech installation. You cannot pick them up at the local office, nor can you receive one via mail order.


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## ger21 (Jan 5, 2008)

Just got one in Detroit. $2/month.
Fwiw, standing in line at their ridiculous "service" center isn't worth the $30 installation.


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## cherry ghost (Sep 13, 2005)

ger21 said:


> Fwiw, standing in line at their ridiculous "service" center isn't worth the $30 installation.


It is when the tech shows up and has no idea what he's doing


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

cherry ghost said:


> It is when the tech shows up and has no idea what he's doing


It's not a difficult process - both of the techs who've installed cards in my premieres had never seen one before, didn't know that the cablecards were installed from the back, nor that it only had one slot, yet they still managed to get it installed and paired within 5 minutes. In my case it was a matter of them inserting the card, making the call, reading two numbers, and then waiting a few minutes to verify the channels came up.

Most of the usual horror stories we read (bad cards, pairings that don't work, etc) would have only been made worse trying to do it oneself, as one would be subjected to the ridiculous 30-minute service center wait to swap out defective cards. Service center has no incentive to not waste your time.

I think in my case the service center was being purposely unhelpful regarding the cards. Not only were they 'unavailable', but there was no way to tell when they would be available and I was told to come back and try again another day. Phone tech had no trouble locating cards and scheduling an appointment for the 'unavailable' card the next morning.

It probably depends on your location. Here in Oregon the techs I've dealt with were all good competent people, but the service center was full of incompetence, long waits, and nasty smart-mouthed attitude.


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## GoGators (Dec 4, 2010)

Hello all. I am new to Tivo. I just had my cable card installed for the first time Wednesday. When the tech showed up, he asked what I wanted the card installed into. When I told him a Tivo, at first, he told me he would not install it.

He went on to show me the digital conversion gear as Comcast is doing the digital migration. He made it sound like my new Tivo would not work once they made this conversion. When I called him out on the ridiculous statement, he agreed to come in and install it.

It took him two attempts with two different cards, but it finally worked. The next day, it began dropping channels. First TNTHD went away, then ESPN (unacceptable!). I called Comcast and the agreed that it was their gear and set up another appointment.

That tech showed up 30 minutes outside of the 3 hour window (they gave me a $20 credit so I made half of the truck roll cost!). This guy knew about Tivos!! He showed me things I did not know it could do, and how to diagnose issues so I might be able to avoid having a tech have to come out. He had it working perfectly in 10 minutes.

Moral of the story is it just matters who you get, the corporate guy telling lies and providing misinformation, or the technical guy who just likes to make things work and is proud of his abilities. We will see if I have additional problems, but 5 hours into it, no issues.


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## tattube (Oct 24, 2010)

smbaker said:


> When calling the national comcast line today, I was told pickup was available and had been offered for two weeks. Unfortunately I made the mistake of doing this, wasted an hour, got no cablecard (out of stock), had to deal with rude customer service people, and went home and setup an appointment over the phone anyway. YMMV though.
> 
> From previous truck rolls, the truck techs (who are usually good people) have always complained about incompetence when calling in the pairing. $15 is a small price to pay to have them deal with their own incompetent people rather than you having to do it, and to avoid the 30-minute wait at the service center.


What happened to you seems to be just another example of the hit or miss level of service provided by comcast.
What amazes me most is the confidence (and sometimes arrogance) with which these CSRs speak, and from my own experience - they have been wrong more often than not.
It took more than 2 weeks to iron out all the issues with my installation, and it's been good now for 3+ months
The lesson I have learned from my recent TPXL installation is to always insist on speaking to a supervisor... they do have a higher success rate - at least with me.
Oh yeah - I did obtain and save the direct phone numbers for 1 office CSR supervisor and 1 truck technician. They both showed characteristics needed for good customer service.....ability to realize they needed more info than they had, and the willingness to find it and apply it to the problem at hand.


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## travisd (Feb 1, 2004)

We I got my Premiere back at the beginning of October, Comcast in this area would not self-install cablecards. First one is free though, and I don't think there was an install. The tech who installed said that in his 3 years working there, it was only the 5th Tivo he's done cablecards for... 

Installation was quick and flawless though. He did use a PDA device to scan the numbers on the card - still called it in though to activate. He mentioned that the M cards have been much less problematic than the old S cards...


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## tivoPaul (Oct 25, 2003)

Very surprising to hear that many Comcast offices aren't allowing self install. It has been allowed in the Seattle area for years -- I've been doing it since the S3 was released. Just did another one last night.

Activation of the card is a < 5 minute process, involving reading two numbers to the rep.


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## landscapeman (Oct 18, 2010)

SWFL requires a truck roll. Went to the local office and asked via phone and office if they would allow me to install it myself. Then I fought for a free truck roll. No go. They told me it was quote "This is Comcast's Smallest Market". Top it off my promo disappeared. Now I have a $212 bill.


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