Comcast Email and Webmail problems still an issue

There is no email outage that I have seen. If you are experiencing this, visit me on Twitter or call 1-800-COMCAST.

Thanks,
Frank Eliason
Comcast
@ComcastCares on Twitter
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com

I and many others I know are having serious problems – lost mail, password problems.

Good luck getting help at 1800Comcast. You might as well dial 1 800 GO2-HELL.

I signed up with Comcast in April ’08 and it seemed to be fast and seemless.
Now it seems slugish and is PAINFULLY frustrating.
When I send email I never know if it is going to arrive or not.
I’ve started saving copys of sent mail so I can open it on the computer where I work and save what I want to my work computer.

Sending to another Comcast customer seems to work fine…
ISN’T THAT FUNNY.

After no problems ever with Comcast e-mail servers, some email from some people to my Comcast addresses bounced on parts of nine days in July 2008 and again on Aug. 1 2008. The bounced messages don’t contain an blocking code; they merely say “delivery failure” and “Failed to connect to SMTP host COMCAST.NET because SMTP Protocol Returned a Transient Error.”

Tier 1 support at Comcast has been useless, and I can’t get through to Tier 2. The problem has been happening most frequently on Fridays and weekends; I think some e-mail addressed to my Comcast addresses is going to a Comcast e-mail server that is somehow corrupted or overloaded. It takes about 12 hours for the delivery failure message to come back.

All of my e-mail accounts are set up correctly. The problem isn’t on my computers or my settings. I know about the problem because I can see by looking in my computer at work that some e-mail arrives there and is sent on to my Comcast addresses (I have an agent set up to forward my mail to me) but comes back to my work inbox with the delivery failure error. People have also told me that messages sent to me are not being delivered.

Comcast–if you’re out there, you’re about to lose a longtime, loyal customer unless you fix this problem.

I have 2 computers at home, 1 pc and 1 laptop both with the same email address ……….
I DO NOT receive all emails on both computers.
Why??
Also Comcast Web Mail shows I have NO emails……… either in my inbox, or anywhere else, and no addresses………..
Why??

On Thursday 8.7 one of my users began getting emails sent back after the mailerdameon held for redelivery (4-5 hour) to any of her “user”@comcast.net customers. We have been experiencing this now for three days. Any comcast.net email address is eventually failing to be delivered.

We are sending from in the 60614 area code…. Lincoln Park, Chicago, We are using a comcast business internet cable service to send through. We have no other external email users with the same failures… only comcast.net users. I do see that the comcast “network health” section on the comcast.net website shows that comcast.net is reporting an outage alert, however I can’t extrapolate if that would affect email delivery.

I’ll be opening a trouble ticket with to my account rep, but since we send through a business account that won’t be possible to do so until Monday morning.

BTW – If you’re a comcast tech reading this you may want to inspect your DNS servers to see if you suffered the same fate that ATT’s DNS servers did for an evening last week…. something that may be effecting DNS reverse lookup.

Just a thought

I have Comcast SmartZone. The name does not describe what it is. Once you are put into this email you are stuck. They have no idea what they are doing and provide conflicting information. Apparently they work on the servers between noon and midnight. They tell me everything is fine and lead me to believe it is me or something strange with my particular email as my sons email is fine. I have had delayes in receiving email between 2 and 24 hours. Nothing is consistant in their servers. I am very disappointed in Comcast email. One of their own people said we shoul dnever use an ISPs email but use a free email….hmmmmmmm. I am so relieved to know others are having issues. Thank you

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

On behalf of Comcast, I would like to apologize for the inconveniences we may have caused. Please send your account information at We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com so that we can take a closer look into this.

Best Regards,

Mark C.
Comcast Corp.
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com

Mark C at Comcast, please read this entire post and tell Frank Eliason at Comcast about it. I posted a few days ago about my problem receiving mail at Comcast from some senders, particularly my employer. It turns out that my employer has recently been unable to e-mail its customers, sales people, and others who have Comcast addresses. This was a giant problem. My employer worked with Comcast techs on this problem all day Friday and they figured out that the problem was that the information on the American Registry for Internet Numbers was incorrect for my employer’s domain (name server information old and network information old).
It seems that Comcast uses ARIN to validate mail servers and apparently a configuration that Comcast implemented Aug. 1 will not allow e-mail to pass through Comcast.net until ARIN information is corrected. I don’t know if this is what is causing the e-mail problems for the other people posting here. I believe it explains why I am receiving e-mail at Comcast from most senders but not from some senders. I can’t explain the problem in any depth, but high-level Comcast tech support knows about it. Mark C at Comcast, it would be great if you could check with high-level Comcast tech support and report here if the problem is related to Comcast’s new configuration for validating mail servers and what Comcast is doing about the problem. More broadly, it would be very helpful if Comcast would send an e-mail to its customers and let them know about the problem and what it is doing about the problem so people don’t have to waste their time calling Tier 1 support like I did. Of course, this suggestion presumes that the problem for other users is indeed the new configuration with ARIN to validate mail servers, but that makes sense to me.

Mark,
I have already been through the Comcast support system and they have not been helpful. My point to this forum was so see what others are going through and see what has worked. All I have gotten from Comcast so far is the lecture about how important customers are but my issues are not resolved.
Chris

Just a bit of follow up tech information for those interested.

One of the previous issues I’ve had with sending email, as it relates to reverse DNS lookup, is that the actual IP address of my SMTP service is not the IP address of the URL/Domain name spelt out in the email address. I receive email through a third party spam service which is being directed toward by changing the MX records at my domain name registrar. The access records at my mail serever had to be altered to accept from only my spam filter. Then, in order to use a proxy system (through a different ISP than Comcast) on my end which would send email from a third IP address, I had to transfer at least one domain name registration to my ISP, so they would return a correct/verified reverse DNS.

Comcast has yet to require such a registration transfer, but email does show in the header information that the IP that I use from Comcast “Could be spoofed”, though I have not had any issues with that notation.

I’ll follow up more specifically Monday morning (in the morrow).

Thanks!

The problems experienced are a result of domains not being registered properly and therefore causing domain look up to be unavailable. This is an indication of spam. Correcting the domain registration can help avoid the problem from occurring.

Helpful information can be found on the following URL:
http://postmaster.comcast.net

Thanks,

Mark C.
Comcast Corp.
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com

“The problems experienced are a result of domains not being registered properly and therefore causing domain look up to be unavailable. This is an indication of spam. Correcting the domain registration can help avoid the problem from occurring.”

It’s one indication of spam, but certainly not mutually exclusive. As I said above, the IP which Comast has issued me to use still reports “May be forged” (not “may be spoofed” as I quoted earlier) which tells me that the IP verification process is less than complete.

I assume, then, that Comcast is working on the issues thier customers are experiencing receiving emails because domains are incorrectly registered with ARIN, as suggested above?

Marc C, I’ll initiate specific contact through “We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com”.

I have been a Comcast subscriber for many, many, MANY years…and I’ve never had as much trouble with my email service as I had in the last 3-4 weeks. At first they were blocking port 25 and telling me that it was a MS Office problem, because I use Exchange as my email application – so they had me change my port number. Comcast often directed me to only use their WEB BASE email application, saying they didnt support Outlook. At least when I had this problem, I could tell my e-mails were not being delivered, as they would never leave my OUT box. But this latest problem is even more disturbing, ALL emails leave my OUT box, but now I’m finding there is no rhym or reason in which ones are actually being delivered. Emails that were always delivered 3-4 months ago are now suddenly not being delivered – there is no pattern – sometimes they reach their receipt, and some times they dont. Receipients are both corporate and private email addresses – originally thought it was something to do with SPAM filter updates on the corporate side, but even that shows inconsistencies – as the delivery into corporate email boxes can vary to the exact same receipient – sometimes they get it, sometimes they don’t. There is definitely something different going on with the management and application process of Comcast E-Mail Service – I wonder if Verizon services are any better…

My Comcast-email delivery problems are very similar to Patty D. above. Some reach the recipients and some don’t to the exact same recipient. Additionally emails sent to me are sometimes deliverd and some not delivered. Emails from International ISPs e.g. UK, France, are most often rejected by Comcast email service.

Comcast email service is definitely not reliable. Note my new gmail address…

I have been having increasing problems with Comcast for 2 years. Overseas customers are not recieving e-mails. Now the problem has spread to the US.
My e-mails are considered SPAM becasue they come out of comcast.net

As a result, we have reosrted to Verizon and believe it or not AOL to assure thast our e-mails are not rejected.

This week I am definitely not recieivng email. Messages sent to my address, and to my son’s gamil account, arrive at his, but are lost in the ether when addressed to me.

I do not need Comcast to protect me from Spam at the expense of losing legiitmate correspondence.

Comcast has lost us at 1 location ($250+/month) and are about to lose us at a second.

This reminds me of AOL when their service dropped to zilch in the 80′s.

Here’s the problem in a nutshell…. for all those that can translate this tech paper.

https://www.kb.cert.org/CERT_WEB/services/vul-notes.nsf/id/800113

Here’s a solution for all those that can find where thier DNS server IP addresses are programed. These are the server IP’s with *issues for the technicians from comcast who are reading this (yet haven’t followed up further)

If you find that your DNS servers are:

68.87.72.130 …. or …. 68.87.77.130

Change them to either:

68.87.72.132
68.87.77.133

…even 68.87.72.133 or 68.87.72.131 seem to report the correct randomness.

If the Comcast techs would like to suggest a different fix for this… or apply the fix to those DNS servers which they have issued for me to record, I’ll be happy to oblige / change back.

I’ll let you know if this allows a corrected reverse DNS, but clearly, certain DNS cache’s have been poisened.

Thanks!

I should have said…. “Here might be a solution…”

More info: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/04/isps-error-page.html

The regional director of public relations assured me last Tues that smartzone e-mail would be back on the air. He missed that by 24 hours and since Thur at best I have been able to get to my e-mail. It seems that the service is down more than up. Then ther was the Tech rep Dan that insisted the problem was with my router for wireless hook up to my Daughter’s PC . I don’t have much respect for any one telling me that, since the network was back up within an hour of our conversation, but only for avery short time and I will not talk with another rep until they insure the problem is thier’s.

I become an Comcast suscriber since june 2008 but i never been able to send any e-mail withatachment from my home.

Well it seems my router has fixed it self as I am bble to recieve and send e-mails again. Hey Dan, did u wave a magic wand or something else because I did not do anything to make this happen . Now I hope smartZone will stay fixed for awhile.

I, also, have received word from the Comcast techs that they have repaired the DNS issue I was having. Maybe they did it accross the board and everyone will be happy!!!

Not being able to send attachments can be something else… most likely not related to Comcast services.

The DNS issue is one that is, unfortunately, not able to be (ever) 100% worry free as per inherited design. Just let them know if there is an issue again. Based on what they did to fix it this time methinks they’ll be able to “key in” faster the next time.

I’ll wait for comfirmation of repair from the staff here, and will report back.

Thank you all.

Longtime comcast customer seriously considering knology. comcast has had horrible problems with my email this summer, losing me completely for over a week and saying my email address was not mine, but belonged to someone else (I’ve had this address for over 5 years).

now I can send but not receive email from my primary account. can send and receive from my secondary (which I hardly ever use). no help from comcast “help.” Always wanting to say it is my computer when it is not. I have the same problem with my email account on my Imac, my Ipod Touch, My rarely used laptop and another email s/w program I downloaded to test. I also had someone install my email address, etc, on their computer at their home and the results were the same; they could send but not receive. And what does comcast want to do, change my settings. am once again waiting to hear from tier 2 before I can go to tier 3 and then 4 and then

and then Knology

We have Comcast and my wife does consulting work from home. She realized she had a problem when she could not send a client an e-mail with an attachment that contained a hyperlink that had a Comcast.net email address. When she removed the hyperlink but left the address – it turned into a hyperlink when she sent it, resulting in the same problem. When she completely removed the email address, the email with attachment went through. Go Figure!! I’m going to notify Comcast of this.

Mine don’t always go out either and I get this message that no one wants to talk about:

Task ‘mail.comcast.net (1) – Sending’ reported error (0×80042109) : ‘Outlook is unable to connect to your outgoing (SMTP) e-mail server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).’

I’ve been unable to reach anyone at Comcast to discuss this.

I began receiving two copies of each email several weeks ago and can’t get it stopped. Anyone?

I have recently had the same problem with comcast email. For years I have had no problem using comcast.net email through Outlook Express. The only issue I have had previously (which is REALLY annoying) is that my emails from comcast.net to my child’s school teachers (all of them–they all use the same school address @_____.org) would go to their SPAM box. Many never noticed them and deleted them. While this is annoying enough, now it appears they (the school) are no longer receiving the emails at all. Not even in their SPAM folders. I cannot figure out what is going on. I can send test emails to my other email accounts and don’t have any problems, so I know it is not a problem with the setup of the account. Apparently I will no longer be able to rely on comcast.net for my emailing needs.

Wow….this is so discouraging. Not only does comcast block delivery receipts (has been doing that for sometime) but Comcast is blocking my mail from the state in which I do business. The confirmation email from the state for my report on taxes- does not even get to the Comcast web mailbox – let alone Outlook. I changed the outgoing server from 25 to 587 in outlook – per the online chat help. The dianostic test email then failed. However, the online chat help would not believe that I actually followed their directions. So, they wanted to look at my settings remotely – okay – only problem was they locked up my entire computer and I had to power down. . Then I called the Tech support line, and the rep could not answer my questions – and did not want to escalate until I requested. Then the rep did not also know the process of when someone would contact me. Gosh, gmail works.

I know exactly what is going on. IT DOES NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH POSTS OR IS SETTINGS. Comcast has issued a new policy that bounces all emails originating from a Comcast IP that does not come from a Comcast mail server. Thus, if any of you folks are sending and/or receiving emails from a website that you own… then guess what – you can no longer send emails to a Comcast client! It’s an anti-spam tactic because of the increased botnet activity but is turning into a real nightmare. You can send emails with your Comcast email address as well as your gmail or hotmail addresses… just not any additional websites addresses. It’s their BL004 error, and it’s against the law.

My problem is receiving emails from outside the US (anyone remember when Verizon did this a few years ago?) Well here we are again. Comcast customer care dept are the worst I have ever encountered and just tell me it isn’t happening so what can they do about it…..

Anyone found a way of contacting Rick Germano SVP of Customer Operations who says on website “your satisfaction is my number one priority”?

I did contact Rick and he does care, but he is not able to do much except massage your ego. He is not too savy on operations, but can look up your comments on his desk top. Maby he could hold a meeting with all of the Comcast tech. reps., and tell them how to treat customers.

I was contacted via phone and via email by a dedicated Comcast Official who stayed with me until we got it solved. It took about 90 minutes but now everything is up an running smoothly again. I am appreciative for that help with problems that took him by surprise as well. There was no virus nor trojan nor worm.

What Comcast is doing and how this may affect you:

Note: this applies is if you are NOT on a blacklist, usually from the result of spam complaint. This is just if you use Comcast as your ISP and use other email addresses, such as ones set up for a website that you either own or are part of.

If you send/receive any emails using email accounts other than your *@concast.net address there is a very,very good chance that your email will not be delivered to a comcast client.

Free email hosting accounts such as gmail and hotmail are generally excluded UNLESS you send messages using these email addresses through a non webmail base such as Outlook or Outlook Express. If this happens your emails will be filtered.

My emails were being blocked from being sent to any comcast email accounts as well as any email (coming or going) was being deleted if it had a link in it which was on any blacklist. This is probably a good thing for the average user but these blacklists sometimes included places like ebay, youtube and even paypal. But I track down and report spam sites, so I found my complaints not being delivered to government agencies as they contained spam related links.

Here is the actual response from Comcast when I first inquired as to why none of my emails were being delivered:

**********

Your request for IP block removal has been denied for the following reason:

- You have been blocked from emailing the Comcast network because we have determined that you are sending email from a dynamic/residential IP within the Comcast domain. Comcast does not allow subscribers to send email from a mail server other than smtp.comcast.net. All mail should be sent through Comcast’s mail server.
**********

Comcast refused to remove these blocks as they claimed they were global settings, and the only way I could regain full access to sending and receiving emails was if I upgraded to a business account. The comcast rep informed me the ticket was closed until I told them I was filing complaint with the FTC… and they reopened it.

I just returned from a technology vacation only to be dumped into a living hell with Comcast. I first noticed that I wasn’t getting emails from a friend with an sbcglobal.net account, them it was a vendor with a private domain, (one I had received emails from for the last 4-5 years) flawlessly.
When I contacted Comcast they attributed it to my spam filter. I asked them what the criteria was for spam, who knows, my business might be porn for all they know, (it’s not) but they couldn’t give me the parameters in tier 1 support. They supposedly expedited my incidences but did nothing.
I’m still not receiving emails, it’s not so much not knowing about the ones who actually pick up the phone it’s the ones who might assume that I don’t want to do business and are going somewhere else.
Glad to see this webpage, now I can go back with some ammo, the customer service reps/ techs have their heads in the sand or must just be getting tired of fielding these calls.

Well I thought the problem was fixed, however today something has raised an ugly problem. I cannot download any e-mail, or fwd any email. My wife works with the church and is expected to be able to down load certain material. Today none of that has been able to be accomplished. Maybe I should e-mail Rick again.

The only person I’ve spoken to at Comcast who understands what’s going on is in the Abuse Dept (856 317 7272). As the customer care dept is so useless, they are getting a large amount of the complaints and seem to be valiantly trying to deal with them.

I cannot send email using outlook express from my comcast email accounts to other accounts, gmail, yahoo, etc… There is no bounce back – I send them and they never arrive at the destination.
After upgrading to a static ip address, I thought this would clear up but I still have the problem.
I downloaded eudora and tried using it and it worked. I perfer to use outlook express and do not know what to do next.

Having the same problem as everyone else and am about to go nuts….Spent hours on phone with comcast…they insisted by changing the outgoing SMTP to a smtp.comcast.net and the port to 53 my own company’s emails would be sent. If I do a test in account setting it indicates the email was sent, however, like others the email is never received….I am at my wits end with this situation and hope someone can devised a solution. I am all ears if anyone knows of a better way to manage mulitple email accounts..

I’m having email problems that I noticed yesterday. I was at work and was trying to send an email from my work email to my home email. It bounced back as “undeliverable”, saying that address does not exist. After that, I tried to log on to my email account through the comcast.net site, but I could NOT log in. I got the message “wrong username or password”. I tried many times after that, typing real slow making sure there are no typos, but it was as if my account was deleted.

The weird thing is I tried logging into my secondary account, and it worked fine. I sent an email from my work email to my secondary email, and it worked just fine. So only my main account is down.

I called comcast and the guy said that some server was down, but the people that work on it went home at 5:00pm. He gave me a ticket number and said my problem is noted, and should be fixed within 24-48 hours.

I’m trying to be understanding, but this is my MAIN email account that I use for EVERYTHING. I feel crippled right now. I’m afraid I might be missing important emails.

OK. Just an update. Now my secondary email is doing the same thing.

So if you’re keeping score, I now have zero comcast accounts. Their 48 hour deadline will be up tomorrow.

Since my last posting I have only one problem, and that is when I fwd a document it is not all being recieved by the other end. Now if I send the same document thru my “g” mail accnt all of it gets to the other side. So I guess comcast will try to figure out how to stop that..

I have not been able to solve a WEBMAIL problem of re-sending of an incoming email containing jpg type photos to another party ….
the receiving parties report that the photos do not open .. and only a large square with a miniature icon in the upper left corner appears.
I suspect there is a setup problem in WEBMAIL that I have been unable to locate.
Any clue?

Well, the promise from Comcast was very short lived. I tried filing some spam complaints and discovered that I could not forward any email, even as an attachment. I tried sending attachments to both spamcop and the FTC and none were ever delivered with no indication at all about them being blocked.

I also tried filing a complaint with a hosting company in Brazil, who was unknowingly hosting a spam and virus site and ALL of the emails I sent to them bounced with 554 errors.

I own and operate a server full of websites and I cannot transmit anything from any non-Comcast address that has any links in it. Great job in helping the spammers Comcast!

I also run a forum. I have been contacted by people saying they have tried emailing me but the emails were returned. I also have problems contacting other members who use comcast email addresses. This is BS.

If ANY of your traffic is being used on Comcast bandwidth, then you are being monitored and filtered.

If anyone here uses Comcast and operates their own website, which means they have their own server space elsewhere that is being used to send and receive their emails, your emails are being filtered.

I’ve been fighting with comcast for a month on this issue and I’m tired with dealing with inept people. Looks like I’m going to DSL. Comcast just lost a $65 a month customer.

I have had problems for 2/3 days. It seems that I am having the problem and wasn’t sure if it was related with AVG. We have email being bounced bacl to our main account with AVG stamp.

An email was sent to me on 9/11 and did not arrive. The sender has two email addresses due to this happening before. To check if it might be the sender’s problem, two emails were sent today from both addresses and they did arrive. This has happened in the past; that is why the sender has 2 addresses. There is no indication that there is any problem. I just don’t receive anything at times.

Yesterday, 9/14 I had difficulty getting into my email. It kept going back to the HomePage after I clicked on Email. Go Figure !!!!

This morning I spent about 45 mins. with Dan at beta support, I could not log into my SmartZone email. All was fine last night but not this morning. When we finished he said he had not done anything to correct the problem, however it was fixed. Now when I try to log in I am sent to ….comcast mail. This trial period must end and Comcast must see by now it will never work as stated and we were all better off before we voluntered into this mess.

I have not received email since 9/17/08 on my comcast account. When I called comcast, they sent a test email which I received. I can even email myself and receive that just fine. I cannot receive from any other server. Comcast gives me the run-around…saying everything on their end is fine. Anyone with suggestions? I’m ready to dump Comcast altogether!

Oh, yeah! you guys are doing one hell of a job for your unbelievable cost! eat shit and die; you just lost one $154.00 a month customer,forever!

I use a mac and macmail for my email. I have not been able to receive email for over a week now. A lock shows on the inbox. All of my preferences are set correctly. When running maildoctor, it shows that I am not connected to my POP account. I am able to SEND email, but I need to log onto Comcast’s website to receive email. I get run around every day when I call Comcast.
Two days ago, someone told me that they are experiencing a lot of email problems and that I should try every few days.

VERY annoying to say the least.

Heres an update thats long overdue. My problem had been fixed, but a week after I first reported it. I got sidetracked and forgot to post about it here.

In my last post, I said their 48 hour deadline till my problem was resolved was almost up. Well, of course when it was up, my problem was NOT resolved, so I called back. When I finally got through to a tech, they said their computer showed my problem was resolved. I told her it was NOT. So then the whole thing started all over again. I got a new ticket #, and had to wait 24-48 hours. I called back the next day, still nothing. Let me also add that while talking to these techs, it’s obvious they don’t give a damn. Like someone posted earlier, you might as well dial the number 1-800-GO2-HELL. I had to talk to 5 tech support people, before finding out the real problem, and getting it fixed. Of those 5 techs, only the last one I talked seemed like he had half a brain and nailed my problem. I will refer to that last tech as “the Smart Tech”.

The cause of my problem, and probably many other people posting here, was Comcast switching over to that new “SmartZone Mail” or whatever they call it. For me, during the switch my emails somehow got hung up. For me it was like my emails were deleted, but they were actually frozen. The Smart Tech compared it to a persons computer being locked up. To fix it, you have to reboot your computer. To fix my email problem, he had to reset my modem on his end, and he had to reset my account passwords. It worked. He even commented “I don’t know why no one else figured this out”. The Smart Tech also knocked a few bucks off my bill for my trouble.

People of Comcast, if you are reading this, most of your tech support sucks. I’d say 1 out of 5, maybe even 1 out of 10 of your techs actually know what they are doing. Most of them sound like they are reading index cards while trying to fix your problem. How much do you guys pay someone to just tell people to “Unplug your modem and wait 10 seconds. Plug it back in and wait 2 minutes.

Anyway people, IMO Comcast will continue this uncaring path until some other high speed internet company steps up to the plate and gives them some competition. It reminds me of the time when I only had 1 phone company to choose from. They didn’t give a damn about their customers till other companies started providing phone service in my area and I switched.

I wish the rest of you the best of luck.

I cannot agree more with the bad tech support at Comcast. The last person I dealt with was well beyond the definition of rude. When I repeatedly asked why Comcast was blocking my emails from non-comcast accounts (my websites) he would scold me saying things like “are you telling me you are doing business on a residential Comcast internet account? We can cancel you for that!” So I mentioned that I Comcast was blocking my emails to the Feds regarding my work in closing spam accounts, he just laughed and made some smart alec remark along the lines of “Oooooh, yea, because email advertising kills soooo many more trees than newspapers.” It was bizarre how this guy was, it was almost like a talk show joke!

So I switched to DSL and now everything is fine. Surprisingly, even though my speed tests are in the 3Mb range (Comcast was over 7) all of my websurfing is much faster, there are no more email problems, and I am saving about $40-50 a month,

Ha – talking about unplugging the cable modem…. I had one Comcast tech tell me that I needed to unplug my modem and leave it out for 8 hours! Why, so when I call back with the same problem it won’t be on your shift?

I was a Comcast customer for many years. Poor customer service and filtering my personal transmissions were enough to end this relationship. I’m happy with my DSL and satellite TV.

I hope Comcast reads this as well. When I called and cancelled my service the person was very friendly and apologetic… something the tech support department needs to pick up a few tips from!

This is the bulk of my last two nights, trying to resolve the issue of not being able to send e-mails through my Comcast connection, while searching for a job in this very scary time:

– Total hours on the phone with Comcast = 4.5

– Total number of hang-ups/disconnects by Comcast = 5 (once after 20 minutes on hold, once after 25 minutes with one good customer service rep)

– Total number of Comcast reps spoken with = 9

– Total number of Comcast reps who seemed to care = 2 (2 of 9…yay!)

– Number of solutions arrived at by Comcast = 0

(I discovered the second night that they labeled my help ticket resolved without even checking with me!! — Needless to say, it was not.)

Their set-up is an unbelieveable clusterfu**. Even the few CS reps who care are crippled by the system.

My delusional prayer is that one day, there are more than two providers of this service in my area (the other one also completely blows, unfortunately…where is Verizon?!?) and these people will be forced to actually provide SERVICE.

I swore I’d never again go to SBC but their DSL is looking better and better.

I’m almost afraid to call comcast beta help, I noticed a slow down on Sunday and today I a 400 error message when I try to log into my e-mail. Should I just wait and maybe it will fix itself.

After 8 calls (to my cell phone number) from their retention center, I had thought they had finally understood that I have no intention of going back to Comcast.

But they continue to have the last laugh. I got a bill today for service through October. I instantly called them and at first they said I never called for disconnect, but after quoting the name and exact time that I called they admitted it was in their computers “but my service is still active”. Now Comcast says the service won’t be disconnected until 10/10 and I may be charged for the time.

Even after I cancelled they still are a pain! They are also arguing that they need to pick up my cable modem, despite the fact that I purchased it at Best Buy and it’s not a rental.

As their retention call center calls almost daily, I just can’t wait for today’s call!

I have not been able to get into mu email now for 4 days. I log in and then sit on Smart Zone screen forever– This is really a bad name for it– I have never seen such poor customer service. I called and they have a message that says they are having problems. (that is an understatment) Ineed mu emails– what does one have to do????

We’ve been having e-mail issues for a good month now. I also had issues 5 months ago like some have described where your e-mail leaves but never gets to it’s destination. Comcast was NO HELP. Blamed the e-mail program, the computer, everything but them, and they JUST took over in our area when the trouble started. Now wer’e having this issue where everything runs fine for a day then your computers start asking for the server passcode, and can’t send of receive e-mail. When I called the first time on this problem I was told it was a problem on my end, and that it was “Microsoft’s Outlook server” that was down!!! Even though we know Microsoft doesn’t have a server, and I was having the e-mail trouble on two computer, one using Outlook express and one using Microsoft Office. You are much better off with the live chat than dialing the 800 number. The 800 number operators are clueless. At least with the chat if you push them they’ll tell you what the deal is. Oh, GET THIS!!! I asked the tech “at what point does Comcast give us some kind of credit for all the down time”. His response, …you won’t believe it….”Comcast cable considers e-mail to be a value added service that is not paid for but free with the internet service, thus they don’t give any credit if it’s not functioning.” How’s that for Customre Service!

SmartZone user experience, Oct 2008:

After over a year of beta testing, Comcast is rolling out SmartZone to existing customers. If my experience is typical (and the Comcast forums on the subject suggest I am definitely not alone), SmartZone should be called DumbZone. Skip all the marketing hype. This software is designed to add all sorts of bells and whistles to “improve” the user email experience. Bull puckey. Basic functionality has been lost, notably the ability to access secondary email accounts via a single login to a primary account. Oh, they say they are “working on it” but there is no estimated time this previous capability will be available. Other people have trouble with basic email operations, such as reply. The “Help” link works for some folks, not for others. As if all this weren’t enough, the DumbZone servers are different ones than the ones used for the previous webmail. And the new servers are available and working only about half the time.

Comcast should be ashamed, embarrassed, and mortified for putting this piece of over-rated junk into use, without testing it with everyday users instead of techies, who apparently were demanding all the bells and whistles. It is absolutely awful. Unfortunately, they are ramming this down customers’ throats, instead of giving us a choice.

I could not agree more with the last few comments, I as many have had more than a share of problems with this new and better (HA HA) SYESTEM AND HAVE STATED BEFORE THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE SCRAPED it long ago. Now we all have it and God bless us, because comcast will never…

If comcast knows what is causing these issues, and how to resolve them, I think it makes sense to let their Technical Support know the answer. Some of the technical support for comcast know more than most and have no idea what to tell customers.

I too am frustrated by SmartZone, another oxymoron like military intelligence. The DeadZone is more correct. My neighbor gave me a good way to correct it. It’s called Embarq and 3.0 Mbps is good enough for me at $29.95/month

It has been six days since I’ve been able to get email – one of you technicians was able to get my email and kind enough to read me what I could not get or see. All this has been happening since you started the SmartZone crap. This is so frustrating and I am not going to tolerate it much longer. YOU ARE AWARE THERE ARE OTHER INTERNET PROVIDERS OUT THERE, DON’T YOU??
Your technician told me this SmartZone could not be removed. I have news for him and you – I can remove IT AND COMCAST.

i just read your comment at the bottom of this page – check this box if you want a reply to this email. Big joke!!! How can we read your reply when we can’t even get any email.

I know it’s time for me to upgrade my Windows 98-BUT!!
Stupid Zone say my java thingy is rejected and i need Vista to access my other email addresses.It was working fine before with my dinosaur system.
I think it’s bye bye time for comcast.net

the problem for me and others is first comcast makes changes and does not tell you . my outlook express stopped working so i tried web mail and that took me to smartzone . I tried to talk to comcast online but ohhh thats being updated so i call them and the first person i talked to had no clue so i called back and another guy told me that yes they are going to smartzone –I understand thats fine for webmail but i like my outlook express to he found that i need to change my incoming mail to sz-pop.mail.comcast.net . ok great but what is the outgoing smtp setting –comcast doesn’t have a clue I have tried different setting but still not workin. wats up with all this so i have been using the web mail because i can’t send out from my outlook any clue anyone anyone

We are all pissin’ in the wind. Comcast is the biggest joke of an outfit. They’ve just sent out an e-mail that they’re going to start “managing” the usage at peak times. In other words if you’re uploading or downloading anything that takes more than 15 minutes “you may experience interuptions. This will only affect 1% of customers.” This is such Bull-%#$% but so expected. If you don’t have enough band width work on it. The solution isn’t to to “rolling brown outs” which is what you’re doing. They say they did testing in 5 towns in Colorado and haven’t had ONE “managment” related complaint. I’ll bet all the above doesn’t account for ONE e-mail related complaint either. Why? Because everyone’s problem is either with their Outlook Express, or other e-mail program, or it’s your anti-virus program which isn’t compatable…..” I was told two weeks ago that BOTH my Outlook Express computer and my computer with Windows office 2007 were asking for for network passwords all of a sudden because ” THERE MUST BE A PROBLEM WITH MICROSOFT’S SERVERS!” I kid you not! I was connected to Microsoft, who of course told me that they don’t have any servers, and if I’m having the problem on two different computers with 2 different mail programs it has to be Comcast’s problem. When I called Comcast back one of the techs must have read the sticky note on the bulletin board that there was “trouble in my area”. It only took me an hour and a half to find that out. Oh by the way, I get this message to enter my network passcode about every other day. So they’re having “trouble” every other day. And get this, I asked if at any point they’d give a credit for all the downtime on the e-mail….The answer….”Comcast considers e-mail and “add-on service” and is thrown in with the internet service. Nice.

“I understand thats fine for webmail but i like my outlook express to he found that i need to change my incoming mail to sz-pop.mail.comcast.net . ok great but what is the outgoing smtp setting –comcast doesn’t have a clue I have tried different setting but still not workin.”

So you are able to get email but not send it? Since this is an “always on direct to the internet connection” you may be able to install a simple, free SMTP server program to bypass the Comcast “issues”. Just a thought. BTW, use the “OpenDNS” server IP’s instead of Comcasts DNS when you config that service.

I know not everyone is a computer geek, but it is quite simple to buy a website and have a third party host your webmail. It’ll be independent of your internet connection, available worldwide from a browser and comes with it’s own POP3 mailbox and SMTP service, as well as a seperate support staff. I know this may be a few bucks a year, but always worth seperating your emails from your internet provider, and especially in this case where they clearly aren’t treating this like a service you are paying for. No doubt – considerably less frustrating,

I stumbled onto this forum through a search on “duplicate” emails from Comcast. Tonight my wife opened her Comcast email (on Outlook) and it said “receiving 1016 new messages”. Somehow, Comcast’s server reset the status of all messages ever sent to her over the past 2 years to “new” and re-sent them to her again. I went into Settings and unchecked the box for “save copies of items on the server” but it’s too late now. Not sure how this happened but I am certain it is due to the SmartZone project. Also, since mid-summer I get sporadic error messages where the server rejects my login or password, which will then work a few minutes later.

Your’re right, DSL is sounding better all the time.

I just signed up with comcast Friday the 17th. I am getting http: 400 error and have had no email service. I can’t even log into web mail. After 11 calls and 2 requests to go to a supervisor my problem was given a repair ticket and I waited almost 48 hours for the tech to call me. They are well aware of the problem and have to do something on the backend which usually is resolved in a few hours but could take 3 days. Tthey have credited me $45.00 because I am still paying for my previous internet company for service since I can’t switch. The level 1 tech support has no idea what is going on and have tried everything to get me to go away..I just keep callling. Always ask for a supervisor that has been the most helpful.
Good luck!!

I guess I’m lucky — I have no problems with e-mail other than the fact that DumbZone doesn’t work the way they say it’s supposed to. It looks like it would not be a bad system if it worked the way the tutorial says it should. You’re supposed to get auto fill on your e-mails, something I’ve been wishing for since we left AOL. But it diesn’t work that way. Auto-fill doesn’t work. The address book page gives you your entire list of contacts with no way to refine your search alphabetically. When you are composing an e-mail, clicking on the “to” button gives you an unalphabetized list of all your contacts , so that you have to go through the whole list to find the ones you want. I have about 50, I can imagine that most people have a lot more. I agree with whoever said that this is for the techies. I just want to send and receive a few e-mails a week. I have half a dozen people I e-mail regularly, and to do that easily, Comcast apparently would like me to delete all my other contacts and just leave those six. Ugh!

Smartzone has been an absolute nightmare. In order to change providers, I need to change my email address on letterhead and business cards…..and the trickle impact goes on and on. I have also spent countless hours in chat and on the phone, only to be held captive on hold, disconnected after being told to wait for 20 minutes, put on hold when asked to speak to a manager, blablabla.

My address book is a mess.
Messages do not appear in the message area, but the subject does appear.
Mailboxes cannot be linked up.
Drafts not available.

These are the obvious problems. Who know about the receving end of the emal!!!! Comcast should be so ashamed of itself. I dread cancelling all of my services, but don’t know what else to do. Any suggestion on good provicers who bundle services for phone, cable, and email? I am in Park Ridge, IL

I too have the screwed up address book problems with Smartzone. When attempting to compose an email and clicking on the To: icon, I get a randomized list of addresses to use. Many names are missing and again, it’s not alphabetical. Call to tech support finally (after 30 minutes) got them to document my complaint. They said the more people complained, the sooner it wood be fixed. So people, start complaining to them. Who tests this crap? Would seem to me that composing an email using your address book would be a simple first test. Unbelievable.

Is anyone out there having problems getting into their email?
Ever since Smart Zone appeared, I haven’t been able to get to my emails.
One time I got in and I clicked on the new emails and I got a microsoft
error report. I get those annoying reports every time I try to get my emails.
Comcast said it is not a problem on their end, and told me to call
Microsoft, who told me that they do not provide support for Windows 98 Plus
users. Anyone know what I can do to resolve this problem.
Extremely annoying, and I think it is pretty weird that it all started when the
Smart Zone thing was done. Also, interesting is that I can get into my
Yahoo email account with no problems, whatsoever!!

I cannot consistently get into my email. I receive the subject area, but often there is no message I can access. Address book is also a mess………………..and nothing has changes since the problem began last THURSDAY

After hours and hours on the phone with tech support about SMARTZONE EMAIL, I finally talked to a tech manager who admitted that they HAVE NOT BEEN TRAINED IN SMARTZONE. She advised me to get help from the online Comcast chat under the smartzone problem heading. Some not all of my email issues, most of which have been discussed already here, have been resolved. Like others, I have been in email hell for weeks. (I would love a name of a VP who made the decision to switch over to smartzone but everyone I have talked to is mum)
I rec’d help by contacting through chat-one problem at a time. I spent 4 hrs one day. This was after the many many hrs with tech support. So far they were the only ones to straighten out some problems. Even then, one set of instructions rec’d had a command left out that caused it not to work. Next chat person included the left out command so it did work.
Instructions to Link up Mailbox addresses:
Must first link the addresses through the primary address before using the linking process with the secondary addresses.
Log into primary email
Preferences/Email Manager/Add external Account
Enter unique name to identify the email
Enter the secondary acct email address
Select POP3
Change the Email Server to : mail.comcast.net
Enter that secondary acct email’s password
Click Save and wait for confirmation that it was a success. If failed, keep trying making sure that everything entered is accurate.
Email address should now appear in left side of screen to access.
After all email addresses have been linked and appear on left screen you can now go into the secondary account and link email addresses in the same way.
Welcome to Smartzone Hell.
Rose from Mt. Prospect

I recently found this on http://www.wired.com about a hijacking Comcast DNS info… heres the link, maybe it will help.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/comcast-servers.html

It’s a little old, but may help those who had a problem around that time… dont know, just trying to help.

I had to get on someone else’s computer to see my emails. I noticed that
my address book only went from A-M. Gee, what happened to the rest
of the alphabet? This is total nonsense. Comcast needs to go back to
the old email we all had, coz it worked just fine!

Yep-can only “see” my messages about half the time. Need to run to my iphone now to actually read all my email. Also,
*my sent mail is in a draft folder
*my addresses are not alphabetical and some were missing as well
And it goes on and on………….and they seem clueless on how to handle the complaints.

Anyone know if we can revert to the old Comcast webmail?

SmartZone is not an upgrade and lacks the most basic functionality (sort by name) for example. Email in my inbox seems to come and go (via browser refresh). It’s usable as I don’t know if I am seeing all my mail at any particular time. Does anyone test this before they shove it down our throats?

This is the final straw – I checking into getting Verizon FIOs if they won’t or can’t restore the old (crappy too but no where near as crappy as this) webmail.

No email for 11.5 days. And Comcast technical support is NO help. I’ve spoken with them every “24 to 48 hours”, and each time they offer to schedule a technician to come out and take a look at my line/settings/dog laying on his side/all other things that are going on that “smartzone” has not yet corrupted.

This is freaking ridiculous. At MY job… if we have a software glitch, NONE of us are getting paid. The problem is quickly resolved, overcome or whatever to keep the income streaming in…

How is this different??? Well… I called Comcast, and it seems that email is only a perk to the overpriced (and slower and slower) broadband fee of like… $50 per month or more, right? AND NOONE I TALKED TO WAS WILLING TO ISSUE A CREDIT FOR THE LACK OF EMAIL SERVICE.

You must all temper this with my frustrations over Hurricane Ike… which most of the country has forgotten about… but the Houston area is still dealing with A LOT. It took me weeks and weeks to get my power back… and now that I’m super trying to get my life back together… I’m also challenged with fighting cancer in a loved one.

And all of the oncological reports sent to my personal email on comcast… were lost. For a while I believed they were working on the problem, but 12 days later… I don’t. I’m beyond being annoyed by the inconvenience. It angers me much more to know they simply do not care.

Why should all of this be so hard. ATT rules on cell… guess I’ll be adding additonal services!!!

not that it matters….but a couple days after i posted here (oct 18) i logged on to comcast,”stupid zone” was gone and the old format showed up for a little while.I checked my “secondary” e-mail addresses.Then the next time i logged on, STUPID ZONE was back.Anybody else notice it?
Thanks

I COPIED MY LIVE CHAT FOR REVIEW. THE FINAL SUMMARY OF THE TECH IS
BASICALLY WHAT WAS STATED ABOUT 9 DAYS AGO TO ME! CAN’T WE GET SOME CONSUMER COMPLAINT GROUP OR LOCAL TV STATION ON THIS PROBLEM?
Live Chat
Status: Analyst Dani Mae is here and your issue status is: working

Problem: my messages are not consistently showing up End Session user sue_ has entered room

sue(Sat Oct 25 14:27:38 CDT 2008)>my messages are not consistently showing up

analyst Dani Mae has entered room

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:27:47 CDT 2008)>Hello sue_, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Dani Mae. Please give me one moment to review your information.

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:28:08 CDT 2008)>Hi Sue.

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:28:11 CDT 2008)>How may I help you today?

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:28:24 CDT 2008)>None of my smartzone problems have been resolved

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:28:55 CDT 2008)>First and foremost, I cannot read my email half of the time. there is a subject but not information in the text area

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:29:20 CDT 2008)>All my problems should be noted in my file

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:29:45 CDT 2008)>sine

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:29:47 CDT 2008)>Since when did you experience this concern?

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:30:03 CDT 2008)>Since the transition to smartzone about 9 days ago.

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:30:45 CDT 2008)>If you cannot help me, please refer me to someone that can. I don’t want to go through it all again. I have already spent about 8 hours with comcast trying to explain.

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:33:49 CDT 2008)>Seems like you have disappeared on me.

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:34:20 CDT 2008)>I am still here Sue, I am checking on your concern.

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:35:10 CDT 2008)>Please click on this link and click on Run http://www.comcastsupport.com/sdccommon/download/Comcast%20Assisted%20Support%20Controls%20Setup.exe

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:36:43 CDT 2008)>done……now what?

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:36:57 CDT 2008)>Did you click on Run

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:36:56 CDT 2008)>yes

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:39:21 CDT 2008)>Please click the link again

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:39:51 CDT 2008)>I did it again

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:40:28 CDT 2008)>Thank you.

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:40:47 CDT 2008)>what is next?

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:42:02 CDT 2008)>Your window will come out and be able to install it

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:42:43 CDT 2008)>hmmm………………I don’t understand……….what window? There is nothing going on that I can see

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:43:06 CDT 2008)>How can I link my mailboxes?

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:43:24 CDT 2008)>How can I get the correct time on my messages received?

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:43:52 CDT 2008)>How can I stop my sent messages from going into my draft box? Will this insatllation take care of this?

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:46:02 CDT 2008)>so, are you still there?

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:46:23 CDT 2008)>Yes I am still here.

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:46:24 CDT 2008)>good

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:47:45 CDT 2008)>May I verify your mainconcern Sue?

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:48:12 CDT 2008)>My main concern is that I cannot read my email because it does not consistantly appear in my messages!!!!!!!!!!

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:48:41 CDT 2008)>The subject appears as does the name of the sender. Half the time there is no messages available to read.

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:48:46 CDT 2008)>May I have your comcast username and password please?

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:48:58 CDT 2008)>PROVIDED TO TECH

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:49:08 CDT 2008)>PROVIDED TO TECH

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:49:28 CDT 2008)>Thank you.

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:52:51 CDT 2008)>please note the operative word consistent. Some messages appear in text, many do not.

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:54:06 CDT 2008)>Pleaese wait

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:58:38 CDT 2008)>I see, that you are experiencing this glitch. That is due to the transition stage of the SmartZone system. All of this glitches will be corrected, after the transistion stage completes. The estimated transition time is 2 days from now as all of the High Speed Internet customers are being transitioned that time. Thus, to avoid congestion of the service and at least maintain an acceptable functionality, some features are disabled. I understand this is very frustrating as your e-mail is an important communication medium. We working on this intensively, this I can assure you. That feature may not function as of yet as it is one of the glitches that is being intensely drilled on. Consider this resolve already as you do not need to do anything on your end for the glitches that is happening to SmartZone. It is on our end and we can assure the correction in the said time frame.

Dani Mae(Sat Oct 25 14:58:50 CDT 2008)>Would there be anything else that I can help you with?

sue_(Sat Oct 25 13:59:49 CDT 2008)>Well, I have to wonder if you are reading from a script because I was told 9 days ago that it would be only up to 72 hours for the transition to complete.

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©2007 Comcast

I wonder if all we have been through is the material of a class action lawsuit. I am not much for litigation, but this situation, in particular, has quite far reaching repercussions.

Some noted lost medical records.
I can no longer find some client documentation since I did not have any warning as to when the Smartzone process would occur……….so could not back up anything.
Time lost from our normal work schedules to try to communicate with comcast only to be disconnected, told the problem will be resolved in 48 hours, etc.
Basic poor company mgt, poor customer service, and inept service at that.

I have email Comcast three times about the issues I am having with the new webmail. I need an answer soon but apparently they are swamped with customer webmail problems. My email sometimes doesn’t show up, sorting is non-functional and the webpage seems to be down half the time. This is the only way my wife accesses her account and if they do this to her (she still has the old webmail) she will be without mail. I emailed (again) to see if she can opt out but I have the feeling Comcast is hell bent to shove this retro untest crap down our throats. I am looking for another internet provider as I write this.

Add this to the growing list …
I am unable to send email to any of my …FORMER ADELPHIA …email addressees who now have COMCAST address are rejected and returned to me as undeliverable with the citation of their former Adelphia address … even though my
address book DOES SHOW PROPERLY WITH THEIR >>COMCAST>> address..

Still unable to forward any email containing .jpg type images .. and only show a large square with a minature icon in upper left corner that cannot be opened.

Yes, Winders 98, about a week ago, I happened upon the OLD webmail page and I thought, “YES”, now we’re back in business, only to find out an hour later,
we were back to the so called SmartZone, of which I couldn’t view my emails again. Just keep getting the “error message”, which I “Don’t Send” and then it goes back to my desktop. I tried sending the error message once, just to find out that I couldn’t update my Windows 98 plus. I don’t get all this and there has been
such a long list of complaints by so many customers. Comcast really should go back to the old Webmail, it was just lovely, compared to this so called UPgrade.
More of a DOWNgrade, if you ask me. We should get a discount or some kind of compensation, for all the wasted time with the tech’s, etc. Total waste!

Called Comcast again about not being able to read my emails in 2 weeks, and since I have Window’s 98, I have to now use Outlook Express. The tech walked me through the steps and I am now able to see my emails and send out also.
Hope this helps someone. I am still thinking about just using my Yahoo Acct., where I know I can’t go wrong. At least through OutLook Express you can view your incoming mail and respond. That’s something! Still think they should have made Smart?Zone compatible with all Windows, but it’s all about money, you know?

Comcast email is basically trashed with Smartzone. I can’t even log in!! This reminds me of the disaster of the ipower “upgrade”. Sort of makes me want Adelphia back!

I can’t access my comcast email account either. It’s been down off and on for several days (ever since they switched over to the new and improved email server…smart mail). I was on live chat yesterday with a comcast rep., he couldn’t get in to my account either. Same crap today. I called comcast tech. tonight and they said the email servers are still down. He wasn’t very friendly about it either. Bad customer service in the technical dept.! I’ve used comcast email for 7 years and never had problems like this! Needless to say, I’m not happy!

I’m worried that it’s a security issue. Many people have their personal info filed in email folders. It would of been nice if the person I spoke with on the phone could of given me some reassurance. But I hung up feeling like I was left hanging. I know less after the call than I did prior to it!

Donna, Call Comcast Corporate in Philadelphia tomorrow to complain.

Luann, thanks, maybe I’ll do that, although I’ve already contacted everyone in my address book, to give them my Yahoo email address.
We never should have to do this, when we pay as much as we do for this
High Speed Internet and the so called “perks” at Comcast!

I have been a long time Comcast user and find their general service level rather low. Every month or so they seem to have email issues always explained away due to changes in servers etc. Do they NOT KNOW how to handle equipment and software transfers? Do they really test new software versions before placing them in use?

The only thing they seem to know how to do is raise rates – these never seem to fail!

PS – I only stay due to the wide knowledge of customers of my email ID

You can stay with Comcast and just use “Outlook” Express. Tried it, and it seems to work fairly well. Can view my emails and reply to them. Better than
nothing. Comcast tech’s will help you set it up, if you don’t know how. At least, they can do that much!

Donna – the strange thing is I have been using Outlook to access/send email via Comcast – HOWEVER, about 5 days ago Outlook can not get Comcast to allow it to send email. When I call tech support they acknowledge their email server is having major problems and “the do not have an ETA of when it will be repaired”. If they can’t handle email I would NEVER trust my telephone service with them. Worst yet – I get the feeling their support people could care less about customer issues.

I have been having email issues for several weeks myself and contacted comcast yesterday only to be told there was nothing they can do. I show him headers from PayPal emails being sent 8 hours prior to being received by comcast. He states I receive the email at the time comcast does (Which is true). PayPal states it’s an issue with Comcast, Comcast tells me to check with PayPal. Who the hell is responsible for the 8+ hours in the middle? I’ve about had it with Comcast. Normally I can take slow or even intermittent mail but this is about my business now. I switched from Verizon to Comcast several years ago for speed. I think I’ll switch back for reliability, which is more important to me now.

Lou, Even though I get a message saying emails cannot be sent from Outlook Express, I have found that if I click on send, they do go out. I tested it by sending
an email from there to my Yahoo acct., and it got there. I would say to just send
your response like you usually would and most likely it will get there, whether you are creating an email or just replying to someone elses. Try emailing a friend and see if they get it. Better than nothing. I give up on asking for help from Comcast.

My comcast email account was “hijacked’ last week. Comcast says someone must have guessed my password but I dont’ believe that is true. Someone took my address, used it and then changed it multiple times. They were sending letters out supposedly from the United Kingdom. Comcast says nobody else reported this. Apple told me they had a number of calls this past weekend from Comcast customers that had the same thing happen to them.

On the hijacked e-mail issue…it is par for the course for Comcast to blame some improbability on any problem you’re having that isn’t fixed by changing the password. I’ve had so many issues since Comcast bought out our old cable company I can’t even begin to tell you. I couldn’t send e-mail for a month. It took me weeks to even realize they weren’t getting to their destination because they “looked” like they were sent. Then one day I realized that no one is responding so I sent myself one and it didn’t come. It mysteriously started working on it’s own weeks later (and many many hours on the phone with Comcast and then Microsoft.) “Someone guessed your password”. Is that the answer of a 4 year old or what? Comcast also does something that I have to believe is illegal. When you “put in a ticket” because they simpletons you get to speak with on the phone only know how to reset the password for you, they say someone will get back to you in 24-48 hours. They do call, but what are the odds you’ll be home. What they do is go into your account, change the password so they can send an e-mail to your account from your account. If that goes through, they call you and tell you it’s working. No answer why it wasn’t, just that they sent an e-mail and it was received so you’re good. If this is the litmus test why don’t they have the front line tech tell you to send yourself an e-mail while you are on the phone with them? Why, because it wasn’t working then! They know their service goes in and out, so they give you this 48 hour window knowing that it may well “fix itself” in that time and they won’t have to do anything. I came home from work to the message that they sent me an e-mail and everything is fine, but I had to call them to get the new password. When I checked my e-mail it wasn’t working again. When I called back they “put in another ticket”…you guessed it, 48hours later I got a message that they sent me an e-mail and it went through, and to call to reset my password. And you guessed it again, when I got the new password and tried it it still wasn’t working. Now isn’t that just grand?

Now getting this error

You get this error about 1/2 the time. If you contact Comcast they say there is not probelm in the area that “it must be your e-mail program”. Then 15 mintues later it works again. They are such a joke!!!! Nothing but problems for 6 months since they took over. Don’t know if I’ll be able to send this or not. You have to catch it at the right time. Isn’t this great?

What happened, the program removed my error message!! in the above post! Did comcast do that or this site???

Comcast is still having problems, but it will take you six or seven calls to find a representative who will admit to it. My outgoing email now seems to be working after a couple of weeks of spotty service, but any email with an attachment is simply disappearing. Comcast says it is working on the problem. We will see.

I don’t know if this will help others but… I too was receiving the pop-up window asking for my account name and password. Initially I thought that someone might have hacked my account but then discovered that I could still log in through http://www.comcast.net with the same userid and password. I tried resetting my password several times. The password reset worked but I was still unable to access my e-mail using Outlook. After reading on this blog that someone had had success by having Comcast reset their password I gave that a try. Voila! My e-mail account suddenly started working without getting the pop-up.

Don’t bother trying to get Comcast to admit to or fix this problem – they won’t. A tech rep told me this morning that they were compatible with Outlook/Outlook Express but “they did not support them.” Yesterday one of their Techs told me it was a “known problem” affecting approximately 8 million users and their engineers had been working on it for months. I suspect he was not supposed to say that.

I have not experienced any of the other problems described in this blog regarding double sends or missing e-mail.

Best of luck – I know how frustrating this is. Happy Thanksgiving!

Here we go again!!! Last time I posted here was September 28, when they fixed my problem, and now just today it’s all happening again. The thing is, I’m not seeing anyone with a problem like mine, but it happened to me twice in 2 months.

What’s happening to me is my email appears to be gone. If someone sends me an email, it will bounce back to them and say “The e-mail account does not exist at the organization this message was sent to.” I know because I sent myself an email from work. So after seeing that, I tried to log into my webmail and I get the message “Incorrect User Name or Password”. Now the first time I thought my account was deleted, but actually it was stuck in limbo. .All of this is what happened the last time, but they insist this is something different. Last time I called many times and talked to many techs who didn’t know S**T, until finally, I got a tech who fixed my problem in 5 mins. He said he had to reset my modem on his end. He also ended up having to reset my password. He even made the comment “I can’t believe no one figured this out” referring to the other techs.

This time around I was getting aggravated, so I just said “Can you just put me through to the tech that fixed it last time”, in case you don’t know, they keep a history of that stuff. So she put me on hold, and after 5 mins her supervisor was on the phone. He was telling me that theres a glitch, and that all their tools aren’t working. He also says that my account got hung up in the process of migration. If thats the case, then what was the problem last time? I’m having all these problems, and I’m not even on the “SmartZone” crap yet. My god, I hate to see what happens when they finally put me on that.

The email that’s not working is my MAIN email account. It’s the one I use for banking, eBay, PayPal, and so on. Last time I was crippled for over a week because of this.

I think I need to switch all my important stuff over to a different email service. Hows gmail? Is it reliable? Are there any cons about it I should know about? It sucks that I can’t use my comcast account as my main email, but this is the second time this has happened to me in 2 months.

Oh and regarding comcast tech support. I’m going be generous and say that 8 out of every 10 techs they have suck. So if you have a problem thats even mildly complicated, expect to have to call them several times before you actually get a tech that knows what they’re doing. Also, get their name, and next time, try asking for them by name. I didn’t get their name. I just kept asking them to transfer me to the guy that actually fixed it last time, and they never did.

I am having all the same problems that have been posted. What the heck is going on? this is really frustrating! I am wasting so much of my time doing troublshooting that should be being done by Comcast!
Is there a solution?
Is there a way to get the emails that I know I have sitting out there?
I have even gone as far as creating new accounts to replace the other ones…only to have the same problem….soo frustating..is there any answers out there?

Thanks
Rick

Using Yahoo, is the best thing, I’ve done yet, since having major problems
accessing my Comcast Webmail. Using Outlook Express, also, has helped
me to be able to see who has sent emails to my Comcast site. The Comcast
tech helped me set it up, and it is relatively easy to use. You can also send
replies from Outlook. Saves me a lot of frustration, but I am mostly using
Yahoo, and you can’t go wrong there. Hope this helps someone. I gave up
on being able to get into my Comcast Webmail, although I can get into it,
when using my computer at work. Go figure!

I have experienced the problem with email going off to lala land. the apparently arose in conversion process when the conversion did not pay any attention to the Forward Email Flag – Y/N for the account when an email forwarding address existed. When the new accounts database was created, the forwarding flage was apparently set to ‘Y’ if the account in the old system had a foward address.

In my case, the fowarding address is a non existent address (well over two years old)l

I have been calling Comcast almost every day on this problem and have been given one dodge or another. What has not happeed is resoluion. Apparently this problem has been awarded to thousands of subscribers – I did find out that comcast is trying to correct this on a case by case basis – which suggest some really strange approaches to resolving a problem created by an automated process. The problem should be resolved in an automated process – query the old data base to determine the account which will be impacted, use the accounts derived to access message files to find their email and re send the email. This is not rocket science.

29 calls to Comcast have not brought resolultion, but I am filled with admiration can have so much entrenched disfunction and still somehow keep the lights on.

FIOS here I come! I’ve been reading these posts since August. I’m still not receiving emails from many people abroad and now can’t send to anyone with Verizon. Today I booked to switch to FIOS and cannot wait to be rid of Comcast.

Does anyone think they care or are even aware of how hopeless their tech support and system is? I wonder how many people are giving up on them after months of hassle.

I thought I was the only person experiencing these problems. I’ve been through several tiers of tech support at Comcast and today they convinced me the problems were with MS Outlook. So, I called Microsoft and anted up the required fee to have an MS tech in India take control of my computer, work his magic and pronounce all problems solved. However, I don’t believe all are solved sinced I have received several posts on my Blackberry that have not made it to my computer.

On the other other hand, the duplicating of messages and the combining of messages (senders’ addresses getting mixed up with other senders’ messages) seem to have stopped. Yet, tomorrow is another day.

The question I have is this. If you change your email to another host such as Yahoo or AOL, yet continue to use Comcast as the Internet Service Provider, do the problems clear up? There is no doubt that the cable delivered broadband service is faster than any phone line based service including DSL so I don’t want to give that up.

It used to work great. What happened?

Joe, if you consistently are having problems, which many are, and I know, I was,
the best and easiest thing to do would be to just open up a Yahoo acct..
I’ve had no problems whatsoever, and still use Comcast as my Server.
You can still get your Comcast webmail through Outlook, until you notify
everyone of your new Yahoo email address. It works perfect!
I was frustrated by not being able to get into my emails with Comcast webmail,
but it no longer matters that much anymore. Too bad these things happen.
I am sure that Comcast is losing many customers, but I’m not one of them.
Who has time to deal with all that anyway?

Good Luck!

I had the same problem in the summer as well getting my email. It took weeks to get resolved. Their recorded message said that they were having problems both then and now their phone message is saying the same thing. Now in December I am having the same problems again. I have a job working for a company out of state and I receive all work orders and send pay information through email.

BTW, the lying clowns at Comcast always blame it on Outlook Expresss when in fact it’s software problems at Comcast. Don’t believe them.

I would love to leave Comcast but they have a monopoly in my area with high speed internet. I wish I could have FIOS or the base Verizon service in my area but it’s not available. Is there any way to dump Comcast and still get high speed internet?

Anyway, you should still be able to get all your Comcast email through http://www.comcast.net/webmail/

Comcast email has been down. Also they do system splices and upgrades often and treat the customers like it is a problem with their home or house. ALl the while they are stopping service for several hours a day and NEVER ADMIT IT. They don’t give you a credit, but continue to charge EXCESSIVE fees and then stiff you on service. Comcast is AWFUL

I have been having ongoing problems with Comcast e-mail for several weeks. I am able to receive e-mail (hopefully all of it) but cannot send. Each time I try a window pops up and tells me there is insufficient memory. Concast tier 1 support read their script to me & was unable to solve the problem. I was referred on up to tier 2. After 4 days they informed me that they had sent me an e-mail from my account & therefore I had no problem. Needless to say, I still can’t send via Comcast. I am, however, very happy with my new Hotmail account.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? I would love to know the solution.

I’m experiencing the same problems as StreetDeacon. I typed my username and password out about 10 times. It said it was wrong. I had someone else type it, just to see if I was being stupid, and I wasn’t. It’s saying my Username/Password are Incorrect. Although I know they are right.
I plan on calling Comcast tomorrow. Though now I’m weary about how the service will be, seeing as they have a horrible track record of good service technicians.

Shannon (and others experiencing the same invalid password problem) – No one seems to be able to explain why but if you have Comcast reset your password the problem mysteriously goes away. I reset the password myself multiple times but it still kept prompting me for my password when using Outlook. I know my password changes took because I was able to use the new password by logging in through their Web site. I have not had any problem since I had Comcast change the password. This doesn’t explain why but it worked for me and according to this blog it has worked for others too. Don’t feel too bad though – you could have Comcast phone service too. It too drops out on a regular basis but they claim they don’t have any problems.

I’m currently travelling overseas (Thailand) and have only been able to connect to my Comcast mail twice. Each time it took about 45 minutes (I have DSL here in Thailand). Several times I had to cancel out because it was over an hour and I ran out of patience. Is this because of the switch to “smartzone”? I didn’t seem to have problems back in the states but here I basically can’t check in on my mail. From reading some of the comments I guess I should have set up an account on Yahoo (my kids travelling with me have no problem…they have yahoo accts). Unless someone posts something here to tell me what I’ve done wrong it looks like I won’t be checking my mail till I get back stateside.

I do not want to vent out my frustrations, or hear other people vent. I just want you to fix my email problem because I CAN’T.

I was better off with AOL. And everybody knows that aol sux. But at least you had no trouble opening your email. COMCAST, YOU LET ME DOWN!!! Thanks for nothing.

What email issue are you experiencing? Please email our team We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com.

George Lunski
Comcast Corporate Office
Comcast Customer Connect

george_lunski@cable.comcast.com

Dave, so if I called them, I could request that they reset my password, it would work then?

Shannon – Having a Comcast tech reset my password worked for me. Again, I tried this because I read that this worked for some others. I can’t explain why but since they reset my password I have not experience the problem – go figure.

Shannon, Daves right, but the first 2 times this happened to me, it was differnent. My account was in limbo. People who sent me emails, were getting them bounced back saying my account doesn’t exsist. It happend to me again a few days ago and I found out my account was set to created status. Why this happens to me, I have no idea. The other times, it was the password needing to be reset.

Dave. When you reset your password yourself, did you change your password back to your old password when you got back into your account? That’s what I did. Outlook is still looking for your old password, so if you change it to log on to your account, or webmail, your outlook won’t work. You’ll have to either change it back to your old password, or update outlook with your new password.

Does anyone know why this keeps happening? I haven’t even been switched over to that smartzone yet.

P.S. For the past few days, I was unable to post here. Did anyone else have that problem?

I have had similar comcast email / account problems.
About 5 months ago it happened took a few days and upper level support guy who did not use menu options but knew how to fix it. This time after 3 weeks I give up and will switch all contacts to hotmail & gmail.
What happens is that someone somehow gets into my main account and deletes my add’l email addresses and renames my primary one and changes my password, after I have them reset my password and they tell me my new primary login name (within 24 hours of hack) I get in but cannot create (recreate) any of the old email names including primary. Comcast has a policy that puts any deleted name into a 90 day limbo that their normal techs cannot reactivate.
I guess I got luck last Sept. as now even the escaleted services and 3 weeks of trying just gets the policy that I have to 90 days to get my own email back

We have the same problem at our office, with 2 of our 3 secondary accounts–user name/password not correct–and no matter how many times we changed the passwords we can never log in…but everything works fine through Outlook and Outlook Express.

We are bagging Comcast web-based email and just using Outlook from here on out. It is not worth the aggravation and the techs DO NOT have a clue as to what is going on…

I cannot get into my email. Nothing has happened for the last two days. I had this problem awhile back and had to wait for comcast to send me a letter with my new password. Will I have to wait for another letter?

Comcast Hell is right. It looks like they fixed the cut and paste issues. Elements are missing on the different pages such as the needed pencil, and box to remove the advertision on the right hand side. Group emails never arrive and not return notification. Last night I was able to send groups but no more then 5 contacts at a time. Recieved a 60 buck credit and tec support said for the time being to open another account with anothere email server. The is costing me time and much more then 60 bucks.

I know what a “ticket” and a “work a round” means. It means the system was not tested enough, released to soon, resolution support is too small and most of all, poor business practice.

Did I here some one today say class action?

Go figure.

Lois Djurisic. The person you talked to must have been borderline retarded, because they should be able to change your password for you over the phone.

Just ask them to change your password and give the new one to you over the phone. If that doesn’t work, ask to speak to someone from tier 2. The people from tier 1 are just a notch above trained monkeys.

Give me back my comcast screen or I will change internet services. I find it unfair and a lack of consideration to take away our e-mail screen and system. You aren’t all that fast as a high speed anyway. You have two days to give me back my screen, or I will change to roadrunner.

Diane

Dear Joan, I am from the Netherlands and I have the same problem. I have some friends in Clovis CA. Every time I send them an e-mail I have two messages: first of all a Delivery Status Notification, delivery has been delayed. And a few hours later”could not deliver the message in the time limit specified. I send the mail from my account hetnet.nl. If I send the message by Hotmail there are no problems. Have your problems been solved now and if yes, how did yo do that ( soory for my English!!) Best regards,
Jan van Zwetselaar, the Netherlands

I am having problems sending pictures to others. they receive my text but no pictures. I have fowarded emails from other with the pictures to friends, but alas they do not get them, anyone got a fix for this? I never had this problem with netzero diaup.

I am having problems sending pictures to others. they receive my text but no pictures. I have fowarded emails from other with the pictures to friends, but alas they do not get them, anyone got a fix for this? I make sure the attachment is checked. I never had this problem with netzero diaup.

I’ve read all 13 pages of comment and found it very interesting. I work for a small British company doing a lot of business over the net with private individuals in the US, and I’ve never yet been able to send an email to a comcast.net customer using Outlook Express. The only way I can reply is to copy their messages – we get emails through comcast OK – to my home PC and reply using aol.

Go, er, figure – as you chaps say!

comcast mail isnt working at all today. i use comcast all the time and the mail never gets sent nor does it arrive do you know how many emails are lost? i have friends and family who email me daily and yet i never get them so where did all the emails go?

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lmao comcast is just great i guess its time to go back to aol mail at least i dont lose my mail nor does the site shut down or be hacked

Try this:
http://www.comcastsupport.com/Forms/NET/blockedprovider.asp

I have not been able to access web based comcast email for the last three days. it’s very frustrating and when I called the person at comcast didn’t know what to do but suggested having someone come out to my house and it has nothing to do with my home service as I am talking about web based comcast email. it should work anywhere. this is getting frustrating!

I have had a problem when printing email’s and they came out blue-backed with maybe 10% of the message.
My tech guy said it was a comcast issue and to call them.
I expected the worse but the employee told me exactly how to remidy this.
When you open your email instead of file and print there is an icon of a printer at the top in the middle.
Use this and it will work.

my mail wont even go out

I have problems with this E-mail too…

For example, certain sites will NOT give me an account authentication when I sign-up.

My E-mail is valid and works on more than half of websites, I used to think it was a period/dash in the mail, however after making a new one with no period/dash in it the problem still persists…

I have no filters at all, I simply do not receive the mail, some people won’t receive mail from me either (It times out).

It’s the mail service, and I am pretty much unable to register/use certain sites/contact certain people because of it.

Comcast, you are in denial I think. This week I ran a major online event with over 3000 people signing up. EVERY single person who signed up via comcast wrote to me to say they were not receiving my email follow ups, which were sent via GetResponse, which is virtually spam free. I'm sorry, but there is s serious issue with comcast right now (seems to have been happening since the beginning of March 2011). Please check into it. It's actually affecting business, not only personal communications.

Thanks!