It is a fact that the Consumerist has rated Comcast as the worst company in America taking the crown from previous winner (for multiple years in a row) Bank of America but keep in mind that Verizon and BOA were tied for second place.
It's very difficult to understand what the story is with ComcastJoe, the truth is he asks questions and then has a terrible track record of following up. You are way better off trying to contact ComcastMatt or ComcastDaniel both of whom I've found to be diligent in responding and helpful. It's also my understanding from talking to the other official Comcast people that ComcastJoe is the senior most person in their department and that he has a lot on his plate.
In regards to "Comcast refuses to acknowledge any problem with the streaming", this is not 100% true. It is true that there appear to be multiple glitches in the streaming service, the Comcast people have acknowledged that there are problems with the advertising system and that they are working on fixes to the system to address those problems. They have acknowledged that they have released several updates to address advertisement related issues but they need continued feedback so that they know what problems still exist and if any new problems are being introduced by the new software. If you have anything to contribute go to this thread and post details http://forums.comcast.com/t5/XfinityTV-Website/Ad-Issue-during-Video-Playback-on-http-xfinitytv-comcast-net/td-p/2064840. They also have at various times stated that some 900|xxx errors have been caused by problems on their servers and that they were working to restore service and ComcastMatt was diligent in posting updates to those outages.
You say "THe show enters a black screen after the comercials. If you restart it, yo sit through another 120 seconds of comercials (Comcast gets paid for every commercial you sit through, even though we pay for the service.)" but you provide no details so that anyone can help you. What browser are you using? What version of Windows? What shows are you watching? Things to try: If you're using Internet Explorer then try FireFox or Chrome. Make sure you're using the latest version of the Flash player.
- Norm