DaveCoup
04-08-2003, 04:22 PM
As you may have seen in one of my previous posts, I'm a bit disturbed my Comcast's decision to not pay and carry ESPN HD. I was able to get Comcast President Steve Burke's email address and sent him the email below, to which he gave the following informationless reply. I will admit that I was impressed that he took the time to answer me first thing in the morning, even if he said nothing.
Please forgive me for forgetting to remove his email address from this. Afterall, I would HATE to see a few hundred people email him regarding this subject. That would be a REAL SHAME! No, really, you shouldn't. I'm not kidding.
-----Original Message-----
From: Burke, Steve [mailto:Steve_Burke@cable.comcast.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 8:35 AM
To: 'DaveCoup'
Subject: RE: Customer Service
Dear Mr. Coupland,
Thanks for the thoughtful email. We do in fact want to carry ESPN HD but they want to charge us extra for it, on top of fees that we already think are too high. We are big believers in HD and think it will become nearly ubiquitous, like color television is today. Consequently, we don't want to pay programmers more for HD feeds and then pass these fees on to our customers. I have no doubt that eventually we will have HD programming from all of the major programmers and thinki you are 100% right that the company that offers the most HD programming will win in the future.
You are obviously a knowledgable and good customer of ours and I apologize for the lack of diplomacy.
Sincerely,
Steve Burke
-----Original Message-----
From: DaveCoup [mailto:davecoup@davecoup.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 2:58 AM
To: Steve_Burke@cable.comcast.com
Subject: Customer Service
Mr. Burke,
I recently read an article (quoted below) that said you wouldn't pay for ESPN HD to be available on Comcast. When I
called your customer service office to inquire further, I was told by someone with very little diplomacy that I wasn't
"even being charged" for the new HD offerings you currently had. I found this comment to be quite inappropriate since
by bill seems to have mysteriously increased more than 10% in the past 30 days or so. Not being charged?!? My most
recent bill says I pay Comcast $148.93 a month for their services. That's HARDLY "not being charged."
After all this, I was left wondering if my 1787 dollars a year to Comcast makes my opinion worth anything.
If it does, I feel compelled to tell you that the company with the best HDTV offering will get my money in the future.
If my opinion isn't worth anything, then my money and I are sorry we bothered you.
Sincerely,
Dave Coupland
Having made a multimillion-dollar investment in the new technology, though, the risk for ESPN is that its new venture will move in slow motion too.
That's because the company wants cable and satellite operators to pay an additional fee for the right to carry the high-definition signals, but no such deals have been announced. In fact, the largest cable operator, Comcast Communications Inc., won't carry the channel if it has to pay extra for it, Comcast Cable President Steve Burke said last week."
Please forgive me for forgetting to remove his email address from this. Afterall, I would HATE to see a few hundred people email him regarding this subject. That would be a REAL SHAME! No, really, you shouldn't. I'm not kidding.
-----Original Message-----
From: Burke, Steve [mailto:Steve_Burke@cable.comcast.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 8:35 AM
To: 'DaveCoup'
Subject: RE: Customer Service
Dear Mr. Coupland,
Thanks for the thoughtful email. We do in fact want to carry ESPN HD but they want to charge us extra for it, on top of fees that we already think are too high. We are big believers in HD and think it will become nearly ubiquitous, like color television is today. Consequently, we don't want to pay programmers more for HD feeds and then pass these fees on to our customers. I have no doubt that eventually we will have HD programming from all of the major programmers and thinki you are 100% right that the company that offers the most HD programming will win in the future.
You are obviously a knowledgable and good customer of ours and I apologize for the lack of diplomacy.
Sincerely,
Steve Burke
-----Original Message-----
From: DaveCoup [mailto:davecoup@davecoup.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 2:58 AM
To: Steve_Burke@cable.comcast.com
Subject: Customer Service
Mr. Burke,
I recently read an article (quoted below) that said you wouldn't pay for ESPN HD to be available on Comcast. When I
called your customer service office to inquire further, I was told by someone with very little diplomacy that I wasn't
"even being charged" for the new HD offerings you currently had. I found this comment to be quite inappropriate since
by bill seems to have mysteriously increased more than 10% in the past 30 days or so. Not being charged?!? My most
recent bill says I pay Comcast $148.93 a month for their services. That's HARDLY "not being charged."
After all this, I was left wondering if my 1787 dollars a year to Comcast makes my opinion worth anything.
If it does, I feel compelled to tell you that the company with the best HDTV offering will get my money in the future.
If my opinion isn't worth anything, then my money and I are sorry we bothered you.
Sincerely,
Dave Coupland
Having made a multimillion-dollar investment in the new technology, though, the risk for ESPN is that its new venture will move in slow motion too.
That's because the company wants cable and satellite operators to pay an additional fee for the right to carry the high-definition signals, but no such deals have been announced. In fact, the largest cable operator, Comcast Communications Inc., won't carry the channel if it has to pay extra for it, Comcast Cable President Steve Burke said last week."
