As a different point, my place was already pre-wired. I bought a cable modem from Best Buy, and plugged it in. It synced immediately. Then I went online and ordered service. They charged me $10 to send a self-install kit, but it wasn't needed I was actually online within minutes.

So sometimes their systems work...

I was very sad about switching from my other carrier (Sonic.net), but they ultimately couldn't deliver very much bandwidth. And Comcast was actually cheaper.