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Comment by sumeno | Hacker News Reader

If only there were some way to notify your users that wasn't so scummy... like via email or regular mail

Regular mail, yes. Email, though, is largely just a waste of time.

Way too much non-spam disappears down overeager spam filters, which most people only check if they are specifically expecting some particular mail and it does not show up as expected--and even then many won't check their filters.

An ISP could white list their own mail in their spam filters but that would only help with the customers who use their ISP provided email. A lot of people use third party email providers instead and never use their ISP email.

I find the reverse is true. My USPS mailbox receives daily credit card application forms, electoral flyers, catalogues, etc. I also get frequent mail from Comcast but they are _all_ bullshit ads, trying to hoodwink me into cable TV. I don't open them anymore, they just go in the bin.

I will at least _glance_ at my email.

They could sign their messages? Also needs users to have easy to use mua that handles signing and shows "this is genuinely from your ISP unless they/you've been hacked".

For critical service info I'd want SMS personally, from a verified number with a link on the company main domain to verify the info.

In the spirit of efficacy, browser injection may have a better response rate than email. Taking this to its next logical step, surely showing up in-person at your door is even more effective.

Is that the idea here?

Or does this efficacy come at some cost (namely, the sentiment behind this thread)?

With all the junk mail I get from my cable company about "upgrading" my service to include some crap I don't want, I would think they could find a way to slip in a "hey, your modem's busted" notice.

But you probably wouldn't read it, because lots of people don't read their email (at least partially because of the junk).

Yes, but if you don’t get the speed Comcast promises you, and you paid attention to that, then you’d call them up, and find out that way.

More work, but way less scummy.

regional monopolies have never cared about scummy behavior.

And I'm more likely to read a pop-up?

So they print Important Plan Information on the envelope.

Time-Sensitive, Open Immediately

You know it's actually an important piece of mail when the envelope isn't imploring you to open it.

The most serious snail mail correspondence is utterly and completely plain.

On the from line - Office of Legal Counsel...that’s getting opened.

Maybe in the bill? Or online bill notification?

I don't know what's worse: the straw man attempt at arguing efficacy while focusing on the weaker of two suggested options, or the (presumably) unscalable slippery slope of dispatching personnel to a customer's front door.

In either case, the argument does not address the fact that customers recognize unsolicited packet injection as unacceptable ISP behavior. Without support metrics, we can argue all day about the efficacy of one method of delivery over another, but the fact remains that no sensible user would perceive e-mail and/or post of official notice from their ISP as overtly intrusive. With as much internal advertising as Comcast distributes amongst its existing customers, it blows my mind that official notice generated from boilerplate and delivered via snail mail would fail to achieve the intended goal.

To be sure, your pre-edited comment: > Surely showing up in-person at their door must be an even more effective "reminder" than the browser injection! Is that next?

Time Warner did show up at my door when they updated their speeds. I thought it was strange,and asked him to have Time Warner call and schedule a time, but it worked. He was going door to door.

It was noted in the thread that other attempts are made first.

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