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Comment by fernly | Hacker News Reader

Specifically why? Because I am really tired of DSL and comcast is the only broadband I could get.

Monopolistic tendencies. High prices. OK quality. Terrible customer service. They're repeatedly ranked among the worst companies in the US in customer service and they've actually gotten lower scores than the IRS in the American Consumer Satisfaction Index.

In the ACSI Comcast's Internet service gets a score of 62 - the lowest of any ISP measured.[1] The IRS gets a 75 for individual e-filers and a 64 for self-employed and small business filers (scores are lower for big business and paper filers)[2].

[1]http://www.theacsi.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=art... [2]http://www.theacsi.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=art...

Yeah, I am aware of their customer satisfaction ratings. I've no intention of switching away from DirecTv for enterntainment TV, but I pay $39.95/month for 3Mbs download, just tolerable for one video stream with nothing else going on. Seems like every couple months AT&T sends me a splashy brochure begging me to sign up for U-Verse but when I actually tried, it was, "oh, soooo sorry you are just that tiny bit too far from a central office for us to promise anything better than 3Mbs..." (in their own customer demo center the video on display was clearly posterized and pixellated -- not confidence-building). So I am kind of driven to consider "xfinity" for internet only. (Or moving. Perhaps to Europe.)

I just switched from AT&T U-verse to Comcast 30Mbps because my newly purchased house can't get U-verse. However, almost everything (streaming, gaming, downloads, etc) has been poor since I switched. Usually at the 1Mbps mark. Major internet speed tests show my speed as 30Mbps, but unpopular ones show my speed as 1Mbps. As if Comcast is throttling everything else, and giving very high priority to major speed test servers. I've talked to their customer service multiple times, but no luck.

Oh, and this is after spending at least a total of 5 hours (I had to call them 7 times. Yes, I was counting!) with their customer service over the past few months trying to get them to mark my newly purchased modem from Amazon as my own modem, and stop charging me a modem lease fee.

If there was even a single competitor that could provide me even decent internet service, I'd switch to them today!

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