Comcast OnDemand Sucks Balls

I've had Comcast cable for a few years now, and haven't really had any problems with it. The DVRis about the best thing that has ever happened to TV. So, when they added OnDemand a couple of years ago, it seemed like a pretty good thing. They didn't change our rates at the time, so everything OnDemand was extra, and it seemed great. As I (tried) to use it more and more, though, I discovered it was a big pain in the ass. Shows would stop in the middle, or wouldn't play at all, or the menus would take more than a minute or so between selections, or you'd fast forward and wouldn't be able to get it to play again. Anyway, shortly after, I got the DVR, and therefore didn't have a lot of use for the OnDemand anymore, since I just recorded everything I ever wanted to see anyway.

So, with all the advertising of OnDemand I see on TV, I would assume they had all the problems worked out by now. But then my parents got the latest Comcast cable box when they got their new HDTV, and they got HBO and tried to use it to catch up on all the HBO series' they had missed. They had all the same problems I had, only worse. And since they had bought the service with OnDemand as part of what they were buying, and didn't have a DVR, and actually called Comcast to try and figure out the problem, it was much worse for them than for me. All this is enough to piss you off already. But then today, I noticed something else which to me was much worse.

It's bad that they obviously don't have the equipment to handle the demand for OnDemand. So, anyway, like I said I just record everything and watch it on the DVR. But, I've noticed lately that they always have the message up that "The program you've just seen will be available tomorrow on HBO OnDemand," at the end of shows, which is another reason I thought they had things worked out, since when I (tried to) use it, you'd be lucky if the episode was on 2 weeks later. So today, I was watching last night's episode of Lucky Louie with my stepson. After that was over, he wanted to watch Entourage, which I had already watched and deleted. So, we go to OnDemand, and look for it, and it's not there. So, I figure it's just a mistake or whatever, then he decides to watch Deadwood, which again, I had watched and deleted. OnDemand didn't have that either. So, they go to the trouble of putting this message at the end of all their shows, but it's a big fucking lie. I can kind of understand the service problems, since it's probably hard to guage that demand, but if you can't do that, don't advertise it like it's the greatest thing in history (particularly when I rarely see ads for the DVR which is pretty fucking awesome), when it doesn't really work. Also, stop adding all this new content that must greatly increase the demand for the service, until you can handle the demand. But then to tell people something will be available, and then just not have it available is inexcusable. How hard is it for someone to put those episodes up there?

This would be a great service if they can make it work, but apparently they can't (at least yet), so they need to stop advertising it so heavily until they can, since it's just going to piss people off. Advertise the DVR instead, since it's awesome.