Kastang Ramblings of a Geek

Uphill Battle with Comcast for a CableCARD

Last Thursday (July 28th) I received my Ceton Infinitv 4. The Infinitv 4 is a CableLabs certified device that has the ability to record and/or stream up to 4 signals simultaneously via Windows Media Center. The Infinitv requires a CableCARD to function properly. In theory; obtaining and activating a CableCARD should take a half hour at most.

On Friday (July 29th), I went to my local Comcast facility to pickup a CableCARD. When asked for a CableCARD, the representative said that Self Install CableCARD kits (SIK) did not arrive, but they would be available August 1st. (August 1st is the date the FCC mandated that cable companies have to provide CableCARD SIK to customers.) I find it particularity interesting that every other cable company has adopted SIK kits months ago, yet Comcast chose to wait until the mandated deadline to provide kits to customers. Though disappointed, I would have waited until Monday. Before I left though, the representative told me to head to another Comcast center that would have the SIK kits available today. Great news! .. Or not.

I went home and found the address for the Comcast Center - After a 20 minute drive I arrived to find the address listed on Comcast's website is not for a service center, but rather an administrative building. After traveling another 15 minutes I found the actual service center (the address of which I am STILL not able to locate on Comcast website). After waiting in line for 15 minutes I asked the employee for a SIK CableCARD. The employee (rudely) told me they would not give one out until Monday - even after I explained what my local Comcast branch told me. Evidently there is zero communication between any offices for official policies.

I went home (another half hour drive) and contacted @ComcastBill on Twitter. I have always had good luck with Comcast Twitter support - they generally offer solutions quickly without having to deal with normal phone support. I was told by @ComcastBill that SIK kits would not be available until August 1st due to "provisioning". I have an issue with this "provisioning" statement. CableCARDs have existed years. This is by no means a new technology. Also, there is doubtful to be ANY significant flux is CableCARD demand due to an obscure FCC guideline that a handful of people know about.  So far, I have wasted about 2 hours worth of driving and gas because a Comcast employee told me another branch would have SIK available on Friday.

By this time, I realized that it was going to be impossible to receive a CableCARD until August 1st. That's fine though; SIK Kits will be available Monday. Since Comcast has taken their time with this implementation, I expected a nice kit and an automated activation number to call. Oh how wrong I was...

Obtaining the CableCARD Aug. 1st:
On Monday, I went down to my local Comcast Sales location and requested an M-Card SIK. The "SIK" provided by Comcast consisted of 1 CableCARD and 4 pages of (ink jet) printed instructions contained within a plastic bag. The card I was given was obviously used. It showed signs of marking and scratches on it. At this point, I didn't care if it the card was new or used as long as it worked. The instruction manual consisted of a cover page, 2 pages for TiVO specific instructions, and 1 page for "other devices". I find it amazing that I couldn't get my hands on a CableCARD until the 1st because of a 4 page instruction manual (of which, 1 was needed). In reality, the entire instruction manual could have been condensed into 1 4"x6" note card that said "Call this number:"  The entire process took 10 minutes to obtain the card.

The "instruction manual" I was given was dated 7/12/2011 - The manual was completed nearly three weeks before the August 1st deadline -- Why couldn't Comcast give SIK kits out early again...?

When I got home, I continued with the Infinitv installation instructions. When I inserted the CableCARD into the Infinitv I was prompted with an error that told me I had inserted a S-Card. After confirming the card I was given was an S-Card, I had to make another trip to Comcast within 45 minutes of my previous visit. I told the representative at Comcast that I requested an M-Card but received an S-Card. She then tells me they only have S-Cards SIK available. Lets recap for a second - after I was told I was receiving an M-Card, the representative knowingly gave my an S-Card.

I asked the representative to call nearby locations if they have M-Cards in stock. She called one other location and told me they only received S-Cards for Self Install Kits as well. I find it strange that Comcast is only shipping S-Cards for SIK when M-Cards are exponentially more popular and required for almost every new device being produced today. I believe that only offering S-Cards as SIK is Comcasts way of complying with FCC rules, but at the same time screwing their customers by requiring a tech to come out to the house to install an M-Card (with an associated truck roll fee of course).

At this point, I contacted @ComcastBill again on Twitter. I probably should have done this from the start; As I mentioned earlier, Comcast's Twitter Team is the best thing to happen to Comcast in a long time. After contacting @ComcastBill, I assumed that a response would take some time so I called regular Comcast support myself. I asked if the representative could tell me which locations within a 20 mile radius of my location had M-Cards in stock. I was told by the representative that Comcast has no way of tracking which locations have stock of what items. REALLY?! How does a company the size of Comcast not have a method of monitoring inventory at their locations? I asked if the representative could call another location near me to ask if they had stock - I was told by the representative that it was impossible to call. Impossible? If it was impossible then how was my local Comcast Store able to call another store?

While on the phone, I missed a call from Comcast Corporate. After I completed my phone call with the original representative, I called Terrance from Comcast Corporate back. I am assuming that @ComcastBill had him call. Just like the Twitter support, Terrance from Corporate was extremely helpful. I explained my problem, he said he would make some phone calls and see how I could get a card in my possession today (Monday). About 45 minutes later I received a call back from Terrance informing me no locations in my area have any stock of M-Cards, but he arranged for a truck from the local warehouse to run a card over to a Comcast location that was about a half hour from my location. He said it would either arrive today or tomorrow morning.

I took the risk of going that evening, when I arrived to the Comcast location, there was an brand new M-Card waiting for me. Terrance was extremely helpful in this regard. I thought after receiving my M-Card, all my issues were over. Unfortunately, they were just beginning.

Activating the Original CableCARD:

After returning home (6:30 PM), I was finally able to complete the Infinitv install. I reached the point where I had to call Comcast to activate my CableCARD. I assumed this process would be entirely automated - you know, since Comcast spent so much time "provisioning" the new cards; one would think that an automated solution would be developed. I was wrong. The activation process should taken all of five minutes to accomplish. The activation process is fairly trivial on Comcast's end - I read a series of 4 numbers over the phone, they submit the information and send an activation signal to my card. The lack of experience from regular Comcast support is blatantly obvious when I attempted to activate a CableCARD over the phone. The process took a hour and five minutes to complete. At one point, I was put on hold for 25 minutes because the representative had to research how to activate a CableCARD. Eventually the representative said she would call back shortly after the card was activated. After 15 minutes she called back and said the card was "activated". I was told that it would take between 45 - 60 additional minutes to fully complete the activation process. At this point, it was after 8:30PM. I decided to let the card sit for the night.

 

The next morning I woke up to test the card. I originally thought it was a success. I could receive local channels, and most other channels under 100. When I attempted to view channels above 100, I received an error "Subscription Required" that essentially told me I didn't have permission to view these channels. I double checked my diagnosis software provided by Centon to verify I had everything configured properly. Everything passed except one of the CableCARD tests. The diagnosis message read "CableCARD is not entitled to decrypt because the information about it is entered incorrectly at the cable company. An INIT signal from the cable company might help." I researched the diagnosis message online to find that this issue was definitely Comcast related. When I called Comcast again, I informed the representative of the diagnosis message. Again, she told me this was the first CableCARD she had worked with. She attempted to hit the card as the diagnosis message suggested, but it was unsuccessful. After 33 minutes on the phone, I was informed that she couldn't do anything else over the phone. As the representative didn't have experience with CableCARDs, I decided to not schedule a truck to roll at this point. Terrance from Comcast Corporate told me he would call me today (Tuesday) to verify I received my card.

As promised, Terrance called me early afternoon on Tuesday. I informed him of my problem I was having. He verified that the rate codes on the account "looked right at a glance". ("Rate Codes" are codes that determine what channels my CableCARD has access to). He made a suggestion to directly connect my card to the incoming cable line rather then going through a splitter. Later that afternoon, I attempted his suggestion. After directly connecting to the Infinitv, I verified that the Signal Strength was in the required range, which it was. This still did not fix my issue, I was still only able to receive local channels, and most channels under 100.

I attempted to call Terrance back, but he was out of the office at the time. After researching online, I found that one of the last attempts to get this card working is to ask Comcast to un-pair and re-pair the card on their end. The representative I spoke with on regular support seemed to know what she was doing more then anyone else I have spoke with on regular support during this process. I asked her to un/re pair the card, which she did. After a 20 minute call, the card still wasn't functioning correctly. She said she has heard stories where its taken techs 6+ CableCARDs to successfully pair with a device.

At this point, I have no other option then to schedule a truck to roll out on Friday. This is obviously an issue with the CableCARD and/or Comcast activation process. It's not a battle I can win myself. What I can't understand is why are their so many issues with defective CableCARDs? Comcast has to have some way of testing or verifying their cards before giving them to customers. A process that should have taken 5 minutes has now accumulated over 2.5 hours of phone calls and over 3 hours worth of driving to different Comcast locations without a working device! Worst part of having a truck roll out is no one is able to confirm weather I will be charged for the service call or not.

Part 2 will consist of how this ordeal ended on Friday (hopefully).

UPDATE 8/6/2011:

A Comcast Technician came to my house on Friday. He was very polite and knowledgeable about CableCARDs. As soon as he looked at the diagnostic message on the Ceton Device, he confirmed my suspicion and said the Comcast employee who paired the card did so incorrectly. (Note: This means two separate employees paired this card incorrectly - the first Monday night, and the next Tuesday afternoon over the phone). The technician sent a message to dispatch to pair the card correctly - within 5 minutes my card was working properly.

After taking a weeks worth of phone calls and driving, I finally have a working Ceton Infinitv 4.