Digital conversion creates customer service headaches for Comcast

The switch to an all-digital programming lineup is creating some customer service headaches for Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), and resulting in many subscribers in local markets forming long lines to pick up digital terminal adapters and other set-tops needed to access its Xfinity TV programming.

A story in a Florida newspaper Tuesday--and an accompanying photo and video that showed hundreds of subscribers waiting in lines for new adapters--illustrates some of the challenges faced by Comcast and other cable operators that are converting to all-digital lineup in order to increase channel capacity and offer faster broadband speeds. Most of the subscribers who lined up for digital converters say they woke up to discover that they could not access TV programming after Comcast had completed the switch from analog to digital. Comcast officials erected two large tents in the parking lot of a Winn-Dixie grocery store in St. Augustine that they used to distribute set-tops. 

Comcast spokesman Bill Ferry told the St. Augustine Record that the company had sent between six and eight communications to subscribers about the conversion, including phone calls, letters and post cards. But many subscribers didn't respond to the notices before the conversion was completed. About 300,000 Comcast subscribers in Northeast Florida were impacted by the switch.

Comcast, Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and other cable MSOs have upgraded cable systems to a DOCSIS 3.0 platform, and have converted many systems to an all-digital programming lineup, which allow the operators to offer wideband Internet access and more HDTV channels. But the digital conversions are also creating some customer service issues that rivals DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) and Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH) haven't not had to face since their products have been all-digital since their inception.

For more:
- the St. Augustine Record has this story

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