Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...
bgentry.posterous.com
bgentry.posterous.com
Some of us are not so lucky. I have only two options available in my apartment. 3mbit/s cable service which disconnects frequently and is wholly unreliable, or ATT DSL 6mbit/1mbit which while its reliable costs $40/month. 4G wireless solutions do not penetrate my building enough to be useable.
What we really need are more comparable options for internet access.
And now, I'm pushing my new apartment complex to switch over to FiOS, since I'm literally 1.1 miles away from my old house, as the Google Maps suggests.
Long story short: I chose 1/5th my old connection speeds to avoid Comcast.
Some parts of SF are starting to get fiber with Sonic. Can't wait to be able to qualify for this. It'll be just like my brother's connection when he lived in Japan circa '01.. Voting with my dollars I guess.
The question isn't whether comcast sucks, its whether it sucks worse than the competition. Here in Chicago, its clearly the better choice. That 3mpbs upload is pretty sweet for RDP and file transfer. Heck I even run a little webserver off my desktop and my dynamic IP hasn't changed in 2 years.
While I have no problem with the comcast bitching (they can be terrible at times) I just never see the equivalent for AT&T and other monopoly telcos. Why don't AT&T and Verizon get the same treatment? It took me 2 months of phone calls to get business DSL at our satellite office (new building) with Verizon and they even managed to fuck that up on site. I'm finding it hard to believe Comcast is any worse than these guys. In fact, I'd go as far as saying Comcast Business is pretty impressive. American based tech support during normal hours, great speeds, and no caps.
I suspect most of the complaints are from home users who are just joining the rage-fest and have zero experience with actually switching to the competition and will pretend to enjoy substandard speed and service just to "stick it to Comcast." Err okay, but that's not a rational or positive attitude.
Also, some of the comments in this thread are hilarious. Sick of the 250gb cap so you'll switch to wireless 4G? Heh, enjoy non-published dynamic throttling to 128kbps when Clear decides you've had too much internet. I'd rather have 250gb at 16mbps than "unlimited" at 128kbps.
I have to say when I had comcast, I didn't have any billing issues.
I've heard that Verizon's Fios service is excellent...
What is amazing to me is that Quest doesn't take advantage of their existing right of way to build out last mile fiber. Lazy dinosaur. That right of way is a huge untapped asset.
They've got great coverage throughout Seattle and I have been very happy with their home internet plan. $50/month for unlimited data with 6mbps down and 1mbps up.
I believe the Mayor's office has said they'd love to have more ISPs in Seattle, but the company's don't want to come in and lay down the cable.
My main reason for writing this was to encourage others, especially in the bay area, to make sure they've really looked at all their options. Some might find a nice surprise like I did.
Thanks!
I chose DSL because it is better all around but complaining about a $40/month bill for those speeds seems silly to me because that is already $20/month less than my 1mbit connection.
It's like going to a restaurant and being charged extra to use a spoon and fork. When you find out there's a dirty sock in your soup you get the privilege of paying the waiter to remove it for you. If you like you can get a free refill of your water to wash down the lint but only if you've decided to lease the Ultra Premium Platinum Gold Silver Boost Extreme glass (only $7.99 per meal) otherwise you may buy a new glass of water for $9.99 but that deal is only available to new customers. If you've eaten here before you can pay $19.99 for your glass of water. You may however only drink half the glass otherwise we will have to impose a penalty fee. Don't worry about the prices because we're going to get your bill wrong either way and in any event it will be purposefully made to be complex so you can't understand why your bill is so high. Thanks, come again.
By the time they warned me, it was already halfway through the next month. I slowed my usage down, but still broke 260g at the end of the month (I work from home, use it for everything).
They shut me off, banned me from service for 1 year, and absolutely no one at customer service or their "security department" would even talk to me. Zero tolerance, no options.
They probably offered you commercial level service during that year (which is more expensive, however has a much higher service level and bandwidth cap)
http://business.comcast.com/smb/services/Internet/plans
If they didn't offer it, I'm pretty sure they'll sell it to you if you want it.
I have no idea if this is simply coincidence or if they in fact have a flag for "less knowledgable users"/"malware affected users". Could just be luck on my part, but I would say give that technique a try if you find yourself in that situation.
*This part was entertaining. After countless times trying to provide customer service reps with complete details and explain things only to be met with confusion on their end, it was fun to use my knowledge to intentionally sound like I had no idea how computers/internet worked.
I had two options here in Seattle. Clearwire? 4g, with a modem positioned at my window, hoping it got better reception than my phone? Nah.
Or Qwest (now Century Link) DSL. The DSL has been fine. Not quite as fast, or stable (recent storms and flooding forced a lot of reconnects) but is just fine.
I can't get FiOS from Frontier at my apartment, even though there is service about two blocks down the street. And I have no desire to do business with Comcast.
Clear is out of the question since I want to start doing video broadcasting.
Not sure what to do here. Move to a new apartment? I might end up doing that for unrelated reasons, and just make FiOS a requirement for the new place.
It's not great but it's slowly getting a little better over time.
I'm on Comcast because I was a Verizon early adopter, with DSL in the 90s. It got to the point where even their cheapest packages were at least an order of magnitude faster than my speed. Sure I could have called and gotten a new package, but it's like they were just keeping me at the original speeds out of spite, like they actually had to do work to keep me so slow. Just like the stories of that little old lady who's still paying a monthly rental fee for the phone in her house.
I'm sure Comcast will do something to piss me off in the next few years and I'll go back to Verizon.
In some places --the ones that had the foresight to not grant a cable monopoly and thus the ones where Comcast has to compete straight-up with other cable vendors-- Comcast is apparently alright.
They still have the top-level corporate nonsense going on: the dns hijacking, the traffic shaping, the usage meters, etc. But most people don't notice that stuff and they tell me they're reasonably happy with the service. They're certainly paying less than I've ever been quoted in Comcast-monopoly-towns.
I guess the cap is a bit annoying. But I've never come close to it. I suppose if there were an alternative as fast and as reliable I might consider switching simply do to Comcast's policies. But I've never felt their evil directly.
I'm not sure if that's the real number, but it if were, it wouldn't surprise me.
Living in NYC, I can't tell you how jealous I am. Time Warner Cable is the only viable (although still unreliable) option for most people here, and youtube.com/my_speed reports the local TWC average as 6.5mbps down (up is less than 1mbps).
Somewhat related note; methinks the next internet protest should be to keep the soon-to-be-released cable TV spectrum unlicensed and prevent the telco lobbyists from furthering their monopoly power by privatizing this public good.
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[1] Co-founders:
Scott Doty - https://plus.google.com/u/0/116236096836985934797/posts
Dane Jasper - https://plus.google.com/u/0/109338113746295186594/posts
[2] Triangulation Interview - http://twit.tv/tri5
p.s. article up-voted on it's own merits and not because the submitter is my cousin. (What up cuz')
The lowly Customer Service Reps for ISPs aren't malicious unless they're trying to jump the corporate ladder.
I have been a Comcast customer for 5 years and had no viable options to go elsewhere.
I now have an 501c3 and they were going to give me a great price, but because I am exempt on a state level and still waiting approval on a federal level they want me to pay full price and retroactively as a 'billing adjustment' give me the difference back.
We would be talking a $1153 credit on my account which means Comcast still gets the money vs our 501c3 having that money in its pocket!
EDIT: Just checked, and it looks like they provide service in SF too.
First and foremost, is the generally horrible customer service. While I have occasionally managed to talk to an intelligent customer service representative, these chances are rare.
When I first signed up for the service a few years ago, I got a call from Comcast saying that my service would be cut off since for the past three months my bandwidth usage had been well over 250 GB (my roommates and I each streamed a lot of TV and used remote desktop software very often). I asked if there was any way I could pay for a plan with unlimited bandwidth, they said "No.". I asked if I could possibly monitor my bandwidth usage and pay for overage. Again, the answer was "No.". Great, that's very helpful. Eventually, I found out online that I could pay $20 or so more a month for a business plan with unlimited bandwidth. Great, I'll pay more and they'll leave me alone.
After signing me up for business, they gave me a modem that supported up to four static IPs. Since I did not need a static IP (dynDns was enough to SSH to my machine), the device instead acted as a NAT and would not allow me to configure port forwarding. I asked if it was possible to somehow enable this. According to them, I had to purchase a static IP to enable these options. So I bought my own modem.
Now, generally the customer service on Comcast business has been much better. But this only because the local rep and technician gave me their direct contact info. My understanding is that they don't actually work for Comcast directly, but are contracted by them. These are the only people that have ever been reasonable. However, when I moved last year, I apparently had to pay a $100 installation fee (which I hadn't had to do before). Fine, it just sucks that they changed this. The guy was there for all of 10 minutes. The technician was very polite, however.
The final straw was this last month, when suddenly I was being charged a $7 equipment rental fee. I had heard about this online but thought it wouldn't apply to me, since I don't even have a piece of equipment from them. I contacted my local rep and he said that I could only talk to them about service issues (which I have in the past, and they are great) and that I had to contact Comcast customer service. So I call, told to expect a wait of over an hour. I hang up since I can only call during business hours and I'm at work. I sign up on their website to have them call me. I get a call immediately, only to be on hold for 20 minutes. What is the point of this service if I still have to wait?
Finally, I get through to someone. I explain my issue in a calm manner. He starts telling me that I cannot use my own equipment (some bullshit about a warranty and fixing issues) and that the $7 fee is unavoidable. I explain over and over that my contract said I had my own equipment and that everyone has told me this was possible. I am getting rather upset with this guy (I've never been so mad at a customer service rep), to the point where I'm very short tempered and demand to talk to someone else. Before transferring me, he says that anyone else will tell me the same thing. It's Comcast's policy, and has been. Then the last thing he asks me is, "Who provides your phone service?" I know he's working off a script, but he has done nothing but tell me I'm wrong and at this point I'm livid. I respond, "That's not relevant to the matter." He says he's "just trying to save me some money." I tell him he can save me money by getting the $7 fee for a piece of equipment I don't have off my account.
When the person I'm transferred to answers, I'm in a very bad mood. However, this guy is rather polite, and I apologize if I was rude when he answered. I explain the situation, and he checks that I am indeed not using their modem. He then gives me a $7 credit to my account (since I was already billed) and removes the recurring fee. Finally, someone reasonable. He tells me there is no policy saying I have to use their equipment. Why would this other guy have lied to me? It seems asinine to charge me a $7 equipment rental fee and not allow me to use my own.
It's very out of character for me to get as upset as I was with a service rep. I've never had such an angry quip with someone in customer service. This kind of consistently bad behavior that wastes hours of my time can only make many of their customers want to switch to another ISP. I don't understand how a company can treat their customers like shit. Perhaps its the lack of competition, I guess. Anyway, just wanted to vent about my bad experiences.
</rant>
http://blogs.skype.com/en/2005/07/free_calls_to_tollfree_pho...
Now if I could just get them to stop playing crappy, low quality music while I'm waiting...
When I first worked there, training was 3 weeks. For a lot of new hires, 3 weeks is just not enough time to learn how to use a computer, how the internet works, and what the Comcast service offerings are in each area. Sure, they could pass the wussy multiple-choice "progress evaluations", but that's a far cry from having a workable knowledge of computers, internet infrastructure, etc.. A lot of them barely knew how to look something up in the knowledge base (internal website), and when they did find something, it was likely to be horribly out of date.
When I first graduated to "the floor" from training (and for a long time after), I kept all my class notes in a tabulated binder and referred to it often. This was entirely optional, and a lot of less capable classmates came with nothing but their password sheets. I bet Comcast spent an awful lot on technician visits because of CAEs who didn't know how to release/renew an IP address and subs who refused to pay $50 when the person on the phone had assured them it was not their computer's fault, thus the visit was free.
Eventually someone decided they could make up for general incompetence by introducing software that enforced a specific trouble-shooting procedure. They hoped that questions like "Is the customer's TV working? yes/no" would save time for the CAEs who always insisted it was antivirus causing the problem, whether or not the sub reported a poll down across the street; and questions like "Is the customer's computer turned on (yes/no)" would help the CAEs who insisted it was always a Comcast outage requiring a special technician escalation, regardless of the sub having reported no lights on the computer in addition to no lights on the modem. It's a great idea in theory, except in practice the software was buggy ("I'm sorry, can I put you on hold for 2 minutes? My trouble shooting software just crashed..."), sometimes lead in circles ("Can I get you to check... wait, no. We already did that. What the..."), and when it finally went full-scale and started accumulating hundreds of thousands of tickets, it became slower than slow ("Sorry, I'm just waiting for the next step to come up."). Since the policy for a while was that every call absolutely required a TTS ticket number (only retrieved upon "completing" a line of questioning), we actually had times when we'd say "I'm sorry I can't help you right now, we're having a tool outage," and there were many times I'd just click the shortest path to a ticket number because the system's bias was that the both the customer and the CAE were idiots; it was never the fault of, say, ancient terrible infrastructure that was falling apart.
The process of escalating a call in that center, by the way, was to put the customer on hold, stand up and wave your hand in the air. You'd then hope that someone would notice you before you lost all feeling in your arm. If someone did happen to see you (before "ops" called your phone to chide you on your excessive hold time), they'd ask what the situation was and would then usually refuse to take the call. "I'm going to say the same thing as you told them, deal with it." So the CAE has two options, drop the call and get fired or repeat that to the customer. Eventually we'd try to avoid having call time impacted by waiting for a "manager" to refuse to help anyways. For one particularly bad shift I worked out a deal with the guy sitting next to me: I just passed him my headset. He didn't even have to lie and say he was a manager, just the change of voice turned the trick.
When I left they had shortened training to 2 weeks. The last guy I partnered with for his last day of training (live calls) could not tell the modem from the router (I got the impression he wasn't sure what a router was, actually).
The whole thing was terrible for customers and for people who actually wanted to help customers.
I must admit, it's tough, their Internet service is quite good.
I assume you got the 'two lines' package? I wouldn't mind comparing what you are paying to my other options. What's your upload speed, and did you go with 'Annex M' or 'Annex A'?
Monkeybrains is still an option for me, but I'm hesitant about going wireless. The information you provided is great, thanks for the post!
I did a speed test last night at 24mbit/s down and 2mbit/s up. The quoted max speed for this service is 40mbit/s down and 2.5mbit/s up. The cost is $69.95/mo plus some govt. fees for the phone lines. They also offer a single-line service that should be half as fast for $39.95/mo.
Does anyone have experience with their "Business T" service for $308/month?
I wonder what the install charge would be for that?
Rocks and hard places.
If I were you, I would ask Frontier if they could install FiOS at your address; and then, if they say 'no', go to your main office and ask that they ask for FiOS from Frontier, informing them that Frontier said installation was free to the apartment complex (which is what I heard from them, but if you want validation, you can ask Frontier yourself).
But I don't want to keep giving Comcast money.
From there, you'll have to check on each of their sites to see if they service your address or not. Hopefully you'll find some that do. I've tried dozens in my general area, and none of them did.
Awhile ago I got so desperate I nearly resorted to T1, but it's hard to justify for my purposes... and generally my internet connection through Comcast is pretty reliable, but for about a month or two back then they couldn't/wouldn't figure out whatever was causing it to be nearly unusable.
If you live in a hilly area, a house at the top of a hill can have great service, and the one at the bottom of the hill can have crappy service.
There is a lot of jitter on clear, so while streaming video works well (after it get's going), you'll ocassioncally get a blip during high traffic times.
VOIP, Video Games (Such as SC2), Skype, and video conferencing is noticeably worse than cable or dsl, even though offering higher bit-rates than dsl. High latency (80 MS from the modem to google is the best I've seen. It varies between 80 and 325 all the time in short bursts*. Don't even try to play many types of game on this or talk over online gaming services.
I use it as the back up internet (I have comcast's 24Mbps service as the primary) and it works for that, but I wouldn't use it as a primary internet for a home or business.
I use something the size of a wifi router (that actually IS a wifi router) that I lease from them. I hook this into a dual wan cisco router to do failover.