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Remember, they're xfinity now.
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Where was you power cord plugged in?
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Ask to speak to a supervisor, threaten to change to a different cable company. Call many times angrily that's what I had to do constantly when I had Comcast "It's COMCASTIC! ;D".
I'm guessing your DVR fried your monitor through 110volts straight into your HDMI cable or it shorted through the power cord, which either way is probably comcast's fault. I'm sure you can get more than 10$ off of your next bill.
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Quality 5/5 featured blog.
Also, I hate Comcast too.
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Still waiting for fios to come to my NYC block...
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Yeah...that sounds about right. I had Comcast when I lived in Cali and goddamn they are a fucking awful company. This is part of the reason that I refuse to pay for cable anymore.
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Hyrule18773 Posts
On June 24 2012 00:36 Dacendoran wrote: Ask to speak to a supervisor, threaten to change to a different cable company. Call many times angrily that's what I had to do constantly when I had Comcast "It's COMCASTIC! ;D".
I'm guessing your DVR fried your monitor through 110volts straight into your HDMI cable or it shorted through the power cord, which either way is probably comcast's fault. I'm sure you can get more than 10$ off of your next bill. Unfortunately Comcast has a monopoly around here.
On June 24 2012 00:17 ecstatica wrote: Where was you power cord plugged in? surge protector
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Comcast like 80% of telecom companies are pretty much a large glutinous joke.
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Hong Kong9136 Posts
god help me if I ever move to a place where Comcast has a monopoly
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Hyrule18773 Posts
On June 24 2012 01:12 itsjustatank wrote: god help me if I ever move to a place where Comcast has a monopoly Avoid Philly, Comcast's home town. You can get Verizon FiOS in something like 2% of the city, Verizon DSL in another 10%. Comcast has contracts with almost all of the apartment complexes for exclusivity for internet. Options for TV are typically Comcast or Dish/DirecTV. The burbs are less shitty, but the only high speed internet around here is Comcast.
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I have a feeling that since multiple equipment is dying and shorting out that its not comcast's fault here. When ecstatica asked where you plugged in your power cord, I think he was looking more for what kind of grounds do you have in the house?
If you're getting dirty power, not grounded properly, etc, stuff can and will break/fry/surge.
Not here to defend comcast, I just hate to see everyone blame comcast for EVERYTHING that happens.
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Roffles
Pitcairn19291 Posts
Comcast net so terror.
Sorry ETT if you read this.
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On June 24 2012 01:27 Viperskwa wrote: I have a feeling that since multiple equipment is dying and shorting out that its not comcast's fault here. When ecstatica asked where you plugged in your power cord, I think he was looking more for what kind of grounds do you have in the house?
If you're getting dirty power, not grounded properly, etc, stuff can and will break/fry/surge.
Not here to defend comcast, I just hate to see everyone blame comcast for EVERYTHING that happens.
Shush Brian L. Roberts.
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lol I use have to Comcast back when I lived with my parents. They still have Comcast. I have Time Warner for internet now (which isn't any better).
LG Dacom is the worst fucking internet I've ever had though. I'm in the Air Force and when I was stationed in Korea they had a monopoly on our Air Base. It felt worse than 56k at certain time periods of the day and on the weekends. Which is hilarious because off base the internet is SUPER FAST of course...
anyways I'm rambling about other ISPs. Comcast still sucks though.
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I heard google and verizon are the best isps? Is that true?
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Hyrule18773 Posts
On June 24 2012 01:27 Viperskwa wrote: I have a feeling that since multiple equipment is dying and shorting out that its not comcast's fault here. When ecstatica asked where you plugged in your power cord, I think he was looking more for what kind of grounds do you have in the house?
If you're getting dirty power, not grounded properly, etc, stuff can and will break/fry/surge.
Not here to defend comcast, I just hate to see everyone blame comcast for EVERYTHING that happens. The two things are plugged into separate surge protectors on separate circuits. I was using the monitor for my computer about a minute before it died and it was entirely fine, as is everything else plugged into the same protector (2 other monitors, switch, PC, and a clock). The only thing the two have in common is the DVR.
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Who doesn't hate Comcast?
I had a nice twitter chat with @ComcastBill when they accidentally shut off my internet for a week straight.
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On June 24 2012 01:24 tofucake wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 01:12 itsjustatank wrote: god help me if I ever move to a place where Comcast has a monopoly Avoid Philly, Comcast's home town. You can get Verizon FiOS in something like 2% of the city, Verizon DSL in another 10%. Comcast has contracts with almost all of the apartment complexes for exclusivity for internet. Options for TV are typically Comcast or Dish/DirecTV. The burbs are less shitty, but the only high speed internet around here is Comcast.
This is the best advice in this thread.
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Does your coax coming into the DVR run through a surge protector? Just wondering. Something juiced the hell out of that DVR. And while yes, I would blame Comcast, I'm willing to bet they are going to tell you it's your homeowner's insurance policy that has to cover it.
Also, Comcast. Mediacom. Cox. All the same. Worse are DishTV and DirecTV. TimeWarner I haven't personally had problems with, but I've read places that they were shit too. Haven't heard anything bad about Verizon FiOS... yet.
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Hyrule18773 Posts
I had FiOS in my apartment a few years ago and it was amazing in every way
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The problem with FiOS is that it isn't popular with Verizon's shareholders for whatever reason. As a result, they've suspended further FiOS deployment indefinitely. Basically, if you don't get FiOS now, you won't get it except in a few rare cases where they are still fulfilling existing contracts.
Sucks because I'm stuck in a Comcast-monopoly area too.
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Nothing bad about FiOS because the amount of users is not high and the service is relatively new. Verizon recently expanded their service to my block, switching from the abymsal congested Optimum soon!
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Make sure you call to confirm your appointment with the tech. When I had a problem with my internet, they jerked me around and told me that they "tried to call to tell me but got my sister's voicemail", so they auto-cancelled my appointment. I didn't get a call, sister didn't get a call...just a bunch of lazy fuckoffs trying to get out of their job.
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How did comcast get so big in the first place? Everyone hates their guts and yet their the only option in the area (like mine...).
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On June 24 2012 04:51 EZjijy wrote: How did comcast get so big in the first place? Everyone hates their guts and yet their the only option in the area (like mine...).
When you have coax that is 10-15 years old you can't always blame your cable company. Make your town council and apartment owners pay for replacement cable and enjoy.
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On June 24 2012 00:36 Dacendoran wrote: Ask to speak to a supervisor, threaten to change to a different cable company. Call many times angrily that's what I had to do constantly when I had Comcast "It's COMCASTIC! ;D".
I'm guessing your DVR fried your monitor through 110volts straight into your HDMI cable or it shorted through the power cord, which either way is probably comcast's fault. I'm sure you can get more than 10$ off of your next bill. I can't even imagine the immensity of the fuck that would have to happen to reroute electricity to go through your HDMI cable. That's like your car battery blowing up your tires. It's the kind of shit that would enact a total product recall. Shit like that would be too damaging for Comcast, and would probably burn a few houses and kill a few people along the way.
On June 24 2012 04:58 ecstatica wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 04:51 EZjijy wrote: How did comcast get so big in the first place? Everyone hates their guts and yet their the only option in the area (like mine...). When you have coax that is 10-15 years old you can't always blame your cable company. Make your town council and apartment owners pay for replacement cable and enjoy.
Something major damaged them in my area not too long ago. We got new ones from Comcast, and it actually works really great here. They're a shit company. But the service works... when it's on.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
On June 24 2012 01:43 Roffles wrote: Comcast net so terror.
Sorry ETT if you read this.
And holy shit at the amount of raw hatred and absolute misinformation/misunderstanding of how the stuff works in this thread.
I'm constantly amazed at how ingnorance (which is what 90% of this thread is) turns into raw hatred just because it's easy to hate on a big company.
Anyways. Tofu, dude. Reach out to me brah, I'm a Comcast supervisor on the repair side of things. There is nothing we can't fix, the most challenging thing is overcoming the negative attitude people easily want to jump into (don't get me wrong, I understand the frustration/helpless feeling... just remember there are actual humans on the other side completely ready and willing to help, the vast, vast majority of which sincerely want to do so).
Anyhow... shoot me a PM. Where do you live btw?
Oh, and just a general comment - I'm definitely a huge Comcast fanboi but I can be completey honest/objective too. If anyone wants to discuss issues they have or just general things with the company or their services let me know, I'm very open about it.
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I'll hold him down, you hit him.
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Hyrule18773 Posts
On June 24 2012 05:05 EvilTeletubby wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 01:43 Roffles wrote: Comcast net so terror.
Sorry ETT if you read this. And holy shit at the amount of raw hatred and absolute misinformation/misunderstanding of how the stuff works in this thread. I'm constantly amazed at how ingnorance (which is what 90% of this thread is) turns into raw hatred just because it's easy to hate on a big company. Anyways. Tofu, dude. Reach out to me brah, I'm a Comcast supervisor on the repair side of things. There is nothing we can't fix, the most challenging thing is overcoming the negative attitude people easily want to jump into (don't get me wrong, I understand the frustration/helpless feeling... just remember there are actual humans on the other side completely ready and willing to help, the vast, vast majority of which sincerely want to do so). Anyhow... shoot me a PM. Where do you live btw? Oh, and just a general comment - I'm definitely a huge Comcast fanboi but I can be completey honest/objective too. If anyone wants to discuss issues they have or just general things with the company or their services let me know, I'm very open about it. I know people are people, but I fully expect to get jerked around because of red tape.
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Our internet random dies for a few hours about once per week. ): We have comcast. Whenever we call comcast customer support, they tell us to buy a new modem. So we've bought about 3 modems, before we realized that their customer service is full of shit and was just lying.
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On June 24 2012 05:11 fatfail wrote: Our internet random dies for a few hours about once per week. ): We have comcast. Whenever we call comcast customer support, they tell us to buy a new modem. So we've bought about 3 modems, before we realized that their customer service is full of shit and was just lying. CS isn't lying, but they, like most CS, just read off notes made for them. They'll respond the same way every time because they're not knowledgeable, they just know how to read.
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Tofu, you praise how great verizon is. Well in short, they have the same problems. Actually when we signed up for a bundle, the free thing we got was a hd 26'' tv. Well we never got it.
The speed is great ^_^ But the connection will drop some days. Can't tell you over the past few years how many times i've had to have repair people come out and check things.
One thing that helps when talking to people over the phone, is to ask for their name and write it down. For some reason, when you tell people this they take you a bit more seriously (and you can always follow it up if you wanna file a complaint)
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On June 24 2012 05:11 fatfail wrote: Our internet random dies for a few hours about once per week. ): We have comcast. Whenever we call comcast customer support, they tell us to buy a new modem. So we've bought about 3 modems, before we realized that their customer service is full of shit and was just lying. They don't send replacements for 'faulty/defective' equipment?
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
On June 24 2012 00:36 Dacendoran wrote: Ask to speak to a supervisor, threaten to change to a different cable company. Call many times angrily that's what I had to do constantly when I had Comcast "It's COMCASTIC! ;D".
I'm guessing your DVR fried your monitor through 110volts straight into your HDMI cable or it shorted through the power cord, which either way is probably comcast's fault. I'm sure you can get more than 10$ off of your next bill.
1) This makes a FUCK TON of extra work for us, delays you getting your issue resolved when the front line reps are perfectly capable of helping you in most cases (or if not, they will reach out to us).
2) Like a post later says in this thread, the chance of it being the cable or anything is non-existant, and it shorting through the power cord would possibly be something with his house, or yes it very well could be faulty equipment from the cable box - that being the case we actually do have a damage claim process setup for stuff like this.
On June 24 2012 00:41 Praetorial wrote: Quality 5/5 featured blog.
Also, I hate Comcast too.
Quality and helpful post bud. I expected better of you.
On June 24 2012 00:53 TheAmazombie wrote: Yeah...that sounds about right. I had Comcast when I lived in Cali and goddamn they are a fucking awful company. This is part of the reason that I refuse to pay for cable anymore.
Also helpful with no insight, just random hate.
On June 24 2012 00:58 peidongyang wrote: Comcast like 80% of telecom companies are pretty much a large glutinous joke.
More random hate...
On June 24 2012 01:12 itsjustatank wrote: god help me if I ever move to a place where Comcast has a monopoly
And more...
On June 24 2012 01:27 Viperskwa wrote: I have a feeling that since multiple equipment is dying and shorting out that its not comcast's fault here. When ecstatica asked where you plugged in your power cord, I think he was looking more for what kind of grounds do you have in the house?
If you're getting dirty power, not grounded properly, etc, stuff can and will break/fry/surge.
Not here to defend comcast, I just hate to see everyone blame comcast for EVERYTHING that happens.
Thank you, someone being objective.
On June 24 2012 03:35 felisconcolori wrote: Does your coax coming into the DVR run through a surge protector? Just wondering. Something juiced the hell out of that DVR. And while yes, I would blame Comcast, I'm willing to bet they are going to tell you it's your homeowner's insurance policy that has to cover it.
Also, Comcast. Mediacom. Cox. All the same. Worse are DishTV and DirecTV. TimeWarner I haven't personally had problems with, but I've read places that they were shit too. Haven't heard anything bad about Verizon FiOS... yet.
Lol... why do you start by saying "something juiced the hell out of that DVR... yes, I would blame Comcast". What type of attitude is that? -_-
On June 24 2012 04:06 dcemuser wrote: The problem with FiOS is that it isn't popular with Verizon's shareholders for whatever reason. As a result, they've suspended further FiOS deployment indefinitely. Basically, if you don't get FiOS now, you won't get it except in a few rare cases where they are still fulfilling existing contracts.
Sucks because I'm stuck in a Comcast-monopoly area too.
FiOS expanded far too aggressively (it's very, very expensive to bring to an area), and the issue is they thought they would be picking up much more of the footprint from us, DirecTV, dish, etc. than they actually did. FiOS over-estimated what their initial impact would be, and had to essentially cut all future expansion indefinitely, and lay-off a ton of employees (I know people that work there or contract for Verizon).
Add to that, the ONLY way Verizon can enter into the market as a new competitor is to severely underprice/undercut their product. On top of that, their product isn't anything different or special. I know people here want to talk that up, but seriously, the products are the same... same channels, plenty of HD for both, VOD (we're way ahead there), similar internet speeds (we're actually ahead of them on download, they beat us on upload). "Fiber to the curb" is a little rofl, because it still gets turned to RF in the home, so you're going to run into the same bottleneck as Fiber-coax. When products are almost identical, what's the only other way to compete? Price... they have to have crazy offers (giving away TVs [which most people didn't get - seriously, read up on it], gift cards, etc.) to compensate, and even then, they're going to mostly get the "grass is greener on the other side" customers or the "deal hoppers" who switch from one to another as their promotions run out. Verizon was essentially counting on being greeted as liberators and was surprised when it didn't happen, and we all know how THAT turns out (yes, the reference was intentional).
On top of all that, Verizon has the same challenges/issues we have. You know many people I get saying "FiOS was horrible, their customer service was terrible, it never worked, etc. I'm coming back to Comcast!" - Probably as many people as I hear are happy to leave us an have a better experience with them.
In all honesty, I feel bad for the position they're in (well, not TOO bad ). FiOS is not going to be profitable for YEARS. The company is losing money like crazy on it. It's a long term strategy they developed to pay off 10-20+ years from now, not right now. Verizon wireless is the only thing keeping the company afloat.
The next few years will be interesting to see how Verizon handles it. They can only bleed money for so long.
On June 24 2012 04:27 faiza wrote: Make sure you call to confirm your appointment with the tech. When I had a problem with my internet, they jerked me around and told me that they "tried to call to tell me but got my sister's voicemail", so they auto-cancelled my appointment. I didn't get a call, sister didn't get a call...just a bunch of lazy fuckoffs trying to get out of their job.
Just make sure the TN on your account is the one you want contacted. I deal with angry people all the time because they had an old cell number or something on the account, and the tech marked it as no-one home and moves onto the next job (I'm not a fan of the practice, but I understand why... and all utility companies do it).
If a tech truly is just trying to blow you off (I'm not oblivious and know it happens), then we need to know about it to hold them accountable. I can't go into all the details but I've gotten several techs fired for similar things. We don't need people like that in the field, it just makes extra work for all of us.
On June 24 2012 04:51 EZjijy wrote: How did comcast get so big in the first place? Everyone hates their guts and yet their the only option in the area (like mine...).
The vocal minority hates our guts, sure. You can hate us for whatever superficial reason you want, but we have the best product out there.
On June 24 2012 04:58 ecstatica wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 04:51 EZjijy wrote: How did comcast get so big in the first place? Everyone hates their guts and yet their the only option in the area (like mine...). When you have coax that is 10-15 years old you can't always blame your cable company. Make your town council and apartment owners pay for replacement cable and enjoy.
Thank you sir. That is often a big reason for issues, and the funny thing is we actually don't have any say in some of that stuff (like wiring inside an apartment for example). Like I said, people are real quick to hate on us for things we don't control.
On June 24 2012 04:58 Chargelot wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 00:36 Dacendoran wrote: Ask to speak to a supervisor, threaten to change to a different cable company. Call many times angrily that's what I had to do constantly when I had Comcast "It's COMCASTIC! ;D".
I'm guessing your DVR fried your monitor through 110volts straight into your HDMI cable or it shorted through the power cord, which either way is probably comcast's fault. I'm sure you can get more than 10$ off of your next bill. I can't even imagine the immensity of the fuck that would have to happen to reroute electricity to go through your HDMI cable. That's like your car battery blowing up your tires. It's the kind of shit that would enact a total product recall. Shit like that would be too damaging for Comcast, and would probably burn a few houses and kill a few people along the way. Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 04:58 ecstatica wrote:On June 24 2012 04:51 EZjijy wrote: How did comcast get so big in the first place? Everyone hates their guts and yet their the only option in the area (like mine...). When you have coax that is 10-15 years old you can't always blame your cable company. Make your town council and apartment owners pay for replacement cable and enjoy. Something major damaged them in my area not too long ago. We got new ones from Comcast, and it actually works really great here. They're a shit company. But the service works... when it's on.
Don't care of the "shit company" comment but the rest is helpful, thanks.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
On June 24 2012 05:09 tofucake wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 05:05 EvilTeletubby wrote:On June 24 2012 01:43 Roffles wrote: Comcast net so terror.
Sorry ETT if you read this. And holy shit at the amount of raw hatred and absolute misinformation/misunderstanding of how the stuff works in this thread. I'm constantly amazed at how ingnorance (which is what 90% of this thread is) turns into raw hatred just because it's easy to hate on a big company. Anyways. Tofu, dude. Reach out to me brah, I'm a Comcast supervisor on the repair side of things. There is nothing we can't fix, the most challenging thing is overcoming the negative attitude people easily want to jump into (don't get me wrong, I understand the frustration/helpless feeling... just remember there are actual humans on the other side completely ready and willing to help, the vast, vast majority of which sincerely want to do so). Anyhow... shoot me a PM. Where do you live btw? Oh, and just a general comment - I'm definitely a huge Comcast fanboi but I can be completey honest/objective too. If anyone wants to discuss issues they have or just general things with the company or their services let me know, I'm very open about it. I know people are people, but I fully expect to get jerked around because of red tape.
And that's just a poor attitude to have when working with any company, be it us, your cell phone, electric company, anything.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
On June 24 2012 05:11 fatfail wrote: Our internet random dies for a few hours about once per week. ): We have comcast. Whenever we call comcast customer support, they tell us to buy a new modem. So we've bought about 3 modems, before we realized that their customer service is full of shit and was just lying.
And they've NEVER suggested sending a tech out?!? Be completely honest with me please, because I would be very concerned if they didn't. It's not like, they suggested a tech and you guys didn't want to see if there was something else you could do?
Only say that because modems are actually pretty simple, they either work or they don't. No up-and-down stuff. That is 99.99% of the time going to be a signal/RF issue getting to the modem, and requires a technician to fix.
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Hyrule18773 Posts
Sucky attitude but true. Called support this morning, all I wanted to do was get a response. I had to go through confirmation of my account 3 times, describe my problem twice, reject a bunch of "special offers" and stuff, while having to pay very close attention to the woman because she had a thick accent, was in a loud call center, and was apparently sitting right next to a fan on extra high.
All support generally sucks. I don't blame any person in the machine, I blame the machine itself. Companies have to follow certain procedures so they don't get sued for some random bullshit (yay america) and they also have to try to sell you more stuff you don't want because they need more money. It's not the operator's fault I can barely understand her (except for the fan part) or that she has to ask me if I want to buy a 47 SHOWTIME channel package at a special rate.
But I fucking hate it.
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I hate comcast so much I'm at the verge of tears at the moment. I just want to shove a screwdriver up every comcast customer service representative's ass. I want another isp so desperately, yet only comcast is available in my region. I can't afford satellite broadband either. I usually get about 1-10 mb/s, and the internet doesn't even work half the time. I'm so angry right now I just punched my table and hurt my hand. Fuck comcast. Fuck you. I hope you go bankrupt and die.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
Hah. I can't argue that...
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On June 24 2012 05:38 EvilTeletubby wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 05:11 fatfail wrote: Our internet random dies for a few hours about once per week. ): We have comcast. Whenever we call comcast customer support, they tell us to buy a new modem. So we've bought about 3 modems, before we realized that their customer service is full of shit and was just lying. And they've NEVER suggested sending a tech out?!? Be completely honest with me please, because I would be very concerned if they didn't. It's not like, they suggested a tech and you guys didn't want to see if there was something else you could do? Only say that because modems are actually pretty simple, they either work or they don't. No up-and-down stuff. That is 99.99% of the time going to be a signal/RF issue getting to the modem, and requires a technician to fix.
They never have. They make us power cycle, and when it doesn't work, they tell us to buy a new modem. When we tell them we have have bought a million modems, they put us on hold. We are generally on hold so long we hang up.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
On June 24 2012 05:49 fatfail wrote: I hate comcast so much I'm at the verge of tears at the moment. I just want to shove a screwdriver up every comcast customer service representative's ass. I want another isp so desperately, yet only comcast is available in my region. I can't afford satellite broadband either. I usually get about 1-10 mb/s, and the internet doesn't even work half the time. I'm so angry right now I just punched my table and hurt my hand. Fuck comcast. Fuck you. I hope you go bankrupt and die.
Well, uh, thanks?
Anyways, despite the craptacular attitude, I am willing to help if you want it.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
On June 24 2012 05:51 fatfail wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 05:38 EvilTeletubby wrote:On June 24 2012 05:11 fatfail wrote: Our internet random dies for a few hours about once per week. ): We have comcast. Whenever we call comcast customer support, they tell us to buy a new modem. So we've bought about 3 modems, before we realized that their customer service is full of shit and was just lying. And they've NEVER suggested sending a tech out?!? Be completely honest with me please, because I would be very concerned if they didn't. It's not like, they suggested a tech and you guys didn't want to see if there was something else you could do? Only say that because modems are actually pretty simple, they either work or they don't. No up-and-down stuff. That is 99.99% of the time going to be a signal/RF issue getting to the modem, and requires a technician to fix. They never have. They make us power cycle, and when it doesn't work, they tell us to buy a new modem. When we tell them we have have bought a million modems, they put us on hold. We are generally on hold so long we hang up.
Yeah that doesn't make sense at all. You need a service call. It should take any rep about 30 seconds to set one up. What area do you live in?
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On June 24 2012 05:53 EvilTeletubby wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 05:51 fatfail wrote:On June 24 2012 05:38 EvilTeletubby wrote:On June 24 2012 05:11 fatfail wrote: Our internet random dies for a few hours about once per week. ): We have comcast. Whenever we call comcast customer support, they tell us to buy a new modem. So we've bought about 3 modems, before we realized that their customer service is full of shit and was just lying. And they've NEVER suggested sending a tech out?!? Be completely honest with me please, because I would be very concerned if they didn't. It's not like, they suggested a tech and you guys didn't want to see if there was something else you could do? Only say that because modems are actually pretty simple, they either work or they don't. No up-and-down stuff. That is 99.99% of the time going to be a signal/RF issue getting to the modem, and requires a technician to fix. They never have. They make us power cycle, and when it doesn't work, they tell us to buy a new modem. When we tell them we have have bought a million modems, they put us on hold. We are generally on hold so long we hang up. Yeah that doesn't make sense at all. You need a service call. It should take any rep about 30 seconds to set one up. What area do you live in? Bay Area, California.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
I'm on the east coast, so I can't put something in for you directly myself. As much as you hate the idea, I would advise simply calling back and request a service call. Again, it's quick and easy for the reps to enter, it baffles me as to why no one had offered it previously. Tech comes out, fixes the signal issue, and you (ideally) should never need to call in again about it.
Swapping the modem out isn't going to do anything in your case (as you already found out).
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ugh. When I deal with their customer service, they all seem so knowledgeable that its hard to not like them. But after like an hour of trying to figure out why my modem constantly resets, all they could tell me was that from where they were, I'm not even online. And they offered to send out a tech, but told me they can only do it on Mondays. which is not helpful.
Ive gotten over the disconnecting problem. I just dont care anymore. It kind of sucks when I want to play LoL though.
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they must deal with the shittiest people though. Both the guy and girl I was talking to kind of realized they were just not helpful at all, clearly through no fault of their own. I didn't hold it against them at all and was just grateful they didn't mind wasting an hour with me, and they were so super nice about it.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
On June 24 2012 06:15 Gene wrote: ugh. When I deal with their customer service, they all seem so knowledgeable that its hard to not like them. But after like an hour of trying to figure out why my modem constantly resets, all they could tell me was that from where they were, I'm not even online. And they offered to send out a tech, but told me they can only do it on Mondays. which is not helpful.
Ive gotten over the disconnecting problem. I just dont care anymore. It kind of sucks when I want to play LoL though.
I'd try calling back again. It could be at that particular time we only had Mondays available? We run appointments 7 days a week in most areas (some areas are closed on Sundays).
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On June 24 2012 06:27 EvilTeletubby wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 06:15 Gene wrote: ugh. When I deal with their customer service, they all seem so knowledgeable that its hard to not like them. But after like an hour of trying to figure out why my modem constantly resets, all they could tell me was that from where they were, I'm not even online. And they offered to send out a tech, but told me they can only do it on Mondays. which is not helpful.
Ive gotten over the disconnecting problem. I just dont care anymore. It kind of sucks when I want to play LoL though. I'd try calling back again. It could be at that particular time we only had Mondays available? We run appointments 7 days a week in most areas (some areas are closed on Sundays).
thats what i figured. I'll just wait till I get time off so I can be available whenever. Im not too pumped to go through the whole exercise again anyway.
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I also HATE comcast, I owe them like 400$ and now im borrowing internet from downstairs, sometimes I cant stream cuz of the lag T_T
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On June 24 2012 07:19 GGzerG wrote: I also HATE comcast, I owe them like 400$ and now im borrowing internet from downstairs, sometimes I cant stream cuz of the lag T_T
While I have only heard bad about comcast you hate them because you owe them money and don't want to pay it? xD
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LOL at the thread title. Truer words have ne'er been spoken. T_T regional monopolies...
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Living in NYC, I have Time Warner Cable, and I had no huge problem with it. Used the same modem for five years now, and I get 10up/1down almost all the time. When the internet DOES go out, I call them and they inform me most of the time that there is an outage in the area and that it should be back up in 24 hours. Turns out to be true. If there is no outage, then they place a tech stop right away and the guy comes and fixes it in a jiffy.
All in all, I had no huge problem with them over the past 5 years and the only reason I want fios is for faster speed and no outage once or twice a year to worry about.
Comparing this experience to what you guys went through, I consider myself very lucky.
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I also live in a Comcast Area (Portland, where you basically have to have Comcast to watch Trail Blazer games...). That being said I love my comcast and I never have any problems. If I do I can generally call and get someone on the phone who can help me.
The other part of it for me though is that my brother actually works for them as well, so I totally get EvilTeletubbys side (sooo much unwarrented hate towards comcast, its a huge company and of course some individual people suck). That and if I ever cannot get the answers I need from customer service I can just call my brother and he can answer me sans-bullshit. Its Comcastic!!! For me...
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I live in New York.
Cablevision or FiOS is pretty common in almost every part. Comcast isn't even an option.
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I have had a really bad experience with Comcast before. There was a pretty bad snowstorm that took out the cable TV/internet. After 2 nights and 3 days they still did not get the cable running. I called to check on the progress and was completely transparent with my unhappiness. I mentioned how their service was expensive and that losing internet for such an extended period has its own costs associated with it, but the asshole on the other end had the audacity to start yelling back at me. I ended up calling him a jerk, and he tried to defend his actions by saying that I did not recite the last 4 digits of my SSN correctly so he thought I was trying to access information I wasn't supposed to. Makes no sense. No prorating the month, No discount. No genuine apology. Fuck Comcast, I switched to Verizon who aren't saints either, but I would be willing to eat any cost to never deal with Comcast again.
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My uncle has comcast, and it works fantastic...though he lives in Maryland so ETT takes good care of him, cause he knows he's my uncle!
ETT Tofu is angry 23.5/7 so I should hope you expected this kind of blog just based on the title alone...including the tone of the rest of the posts in here, haha. I'm not taking any high ground though, I hate Cox customer service because they screwed me a few times too many (plus a lot of random outages..), woohoo superficial hatred.
went Verizon FIOS though, 40d/20u was too much to pass. I don't even think I have comcast in my neighborhood.
PS COME TO DINNER TONIGHT!! Flamewheel gonna be there
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Hyrule18773 Posts
ETT is helping me out in PMs and is being a model citizen/tech support guy. Now if only getting help with Comcast was always this easy...and for me it will be. From now on I'm just gonna bug ETT when something happens.
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Hm, I must be pretty lucky to have never experienced any of these horror stories. My family's been using comcast internet for like the past 8 years, since it's all that's offered in my area and we haven't had any major repair issues that required calling customer support or technicians. There's the occassional random network outage (a few times a year), but my brother calls in and gets some amount monthly bill reimbursed.
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Hyrule18773 Posts
Yeah my family's been with comcast for a solid 15 years at least. Kind of annoying we always have to do modem reset/check plugs/blah blah blah every time I just want it fixed and I do all that crap before I call.
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Roffles
Pitcairn19291 Posts
What baffles me about Comcast is how it works really well in certain areas, but is complete shit in other areas.
I've rarely experienced anything bad while at home (Atlanta), but when I go up to Chicago area for college, Comcast there is complete shit. I end up terroring almost every other game I play with friends because ping there is god awful, and the net there seems to cut off at least 2-3 times a night. It's just a frustrating experience which I've had to put up with for a good couple years, and similarly to tofu's experience, everytime I call Comcast, their support is unfortunately not the best since I feel like I hear the same response from them every single time.
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T.O.P.
Hong Kong4685 Posts
Comcast is the best here in San Francisco. Fast internet / Low price. The only thing bad is the 250 GB cap. But we exceed the cap every month and even got to 500GB once and never got a warning.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
On June 24 2012 10:46 T.O.P. wrote: Comcast is the best here in San Francisco. Fast internet / Low price. The only thing bad is the 250 GB cap. But we exceed the cap every month and even got to 500GB once and never got a warning.
Hah, I wrote a whole big arse post about that one time when the limits initially came out, I'll have to see if I can dig it up.
Long story short, we don't give a fuck how much you use until it starts interfering with other people's experience. So, if you're on a light node and there aren't a ton of power users on it, chances are you can use as much as you like and we'll never say a word.
On June 24 2012 10:00 Roffles wrote: What baffles me about Comcast is how it works really well in certain areas, but is complete shit in other areas.
I've rarely experienced anything bad while at home (Atlanta), but when I go up to Chicago area for college, Comcast there is complete shit. I end up terroring almost every other game I play with friends because ping there is god awful, and the net there seems to cut off at least 2-3 times a night. It's just a frustrating experience which I've had to put up with for a good couple years, and similarly to tofu's experience, everytime I call Comcast, their support is unfortunately not the best since I feel like I hear the same response from them every single time.
I don't know much about the Chicago area, but generally speaking, it depends on the plant infrastructure, which is not always the same area to area. You can dig into it I'm sure, but often times when we're acquiring an area/territory from another provider, they leave it in pretty hellish conditions to be honest, and we spend a few years (along with lots of $$$) fixing it up the right way.
Some very rural areas (obviously this doesn't count for Chicago) also lack the upgrades because of the cost-per-customer associated with upgrading miles of cables for a handful of customers. In my region (Maryland/Delaware/Virginia) for example, you see this in the extreme rural areas down in the blue ridge mountains.
One big initiative in our area at least (might be our whole division or even company wide, I can't recall at the moment) is to improve network health. Ie, so these little signal problems and outages are mitigated and the services are more reliable. Again I can't speak for the Chicago area, but if something is a systemic problem and not just localized, believe me we know about it and are working on it, especially for a major metropolitan city.
On June 24 2012 09:47 tofucake wrote: Yeah my family's been with comcast for a solid 15 years at least. Kind of annoying we always have to do modem reset/check plugs/blah blah blah every time I just want it fixed and I do all that crap before I call.
Hah, I've heard that one plenty of times before and even defended it on here.
We'll ask you to do it every single time because,
1) Most people DON'T do it prior to calling and...
2) Of the ones that do, often times they do it wrong.
And because people don't like to admit when they're wrong, we train our reps to go through the motions every single time. Yeah, lots of times it's unnecessary but for all the times where it does work, and saves the time and hassle from needing a technician to come out to your home, it's completely worth it.
Much like phone prompts, it's a necessary evil.
On June 24 2012 08:28 BearStorm wrote: I have had a really bad experience with Comcast before. There was a pretty bad snowstorm that took out the cable TV/internet. After 2 nights and 3 days they still did not get the cable running. I called to check on the progress and was completely transparent with my unhappiness. I mentioned how their service was expensive and that losing internet for such an extended period has its own costs associated with it, but the asshole on the other end had the audacity to start yelling back at me. I ended up calling him a jerk, and he tried to defend his actions by saying that I did not recite the last 4 digits of my SSN correctly so he thought I was trying to access information I wasn't supposed to. Makes no sense. No prorating the month, No discount. No genuine apology. Fuck Comcast, I switched to Verizon who aren't saints either, but I would be willing to eat any cost to never deal with Comcast again.
If the call really happened as you described, that is a pretty poor example of the rep losing his cool and something that is completely unacceptable and would get dealt with. I'm sure even by your own admission you weren't the easiest person in the world to deal with at that point, and considering you were probably his 40th person of the day with the same story, it might have hit his breaking point. Also, we would always adjust the bill for time without service... again this sounds like a bad apple as opposed to the rule; I can assure you it is not.
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I've had no issues whatsoever with Comcast for about 5 years now 0_o
I have Comcast for TV, internet, and phone. DirectTV and Verizon are both options here, I just don't see any reason to switch. I don't care about shitty customer service as long as their stuff works without a problem.
They have a monopoly for a reason, you know. They're not horrendous if they're that dominant, otherwise they'd be out of business.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
On June 24 2012 11:30 Antylamon wrote: They have a monopoly for a reason, you know. They're not horrendous if they're that dominant, otherwise they'd be out of business.
Yeah, pretty much this. ^_^
I think we're just easy to bash on. Then again, all telecoms pretty much are, it's not just a Comcast thing. You can find just as much hate about Time Warner, Cox, Verizon, DirecTV, etc. etc. We're all universally wearing targets on our backs.
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So here in TX, I was dealing with an issue where our internet would shit out around 7PM or so every night without fail. Got a Comcast tech to come out, he dicks around with the modem, says "everything's working fine etc." Next day, same shit keeps happening. Get another tech out and he goes "Everything he told you was wrong, your modem isn't capable of handling the speed you guys are getting." We got upgraded to a higher speed free of charge because of service interruptions in the area a few months back. So that issue is solved, and aside from the first tech not knowing what the shit I can't complain.
Now though, we get spurts of anywhere from 5-10 minutes where web pages just refuse to load, internet seems fine, I can be killing demons in D3 with no issue, while watching a stream on my other PC, just web pages don't load. I'm thinking this one is on my router though.
TLDR; Generally pretty happy with Comcast, had a few issues, but they've been pretty quick to sort the shit out. We had Time Warner before Comcast bought them out here, and it's gotten better since then.
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Growing up, my parents had comcast for a while, constantly dealing with a very weak signal that frequently died out. People would come out, and one of the service people finally acknowledged that it was underpowered for the area that had grown bigger, but said they weren't fixing it. Normal comcast horror stories, I guess. They switched to WOW, which has been great for them ever since. I then had Comcast in an apartment near school for a year- it actually was great internet there, very solid and consistent connection, very nice set up person. I now have TWC at my new current place, also a great connection/good technician for set up. I agree with what some people have said- it very heavily depends on the area. This is obviously far inferior than it being a consistent good quality, but unfortunately most other ISPs really aren't that much better in the US. I'm not a comcast fan at all, but I am surprised at the disproportionate amount of hate they get.
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I hate comcast so much, its so bad, the internet is intermittently going out and this is the first week that it is fully operational in months, I hope to god it continues. When comcast internet goes out I'm just like, + Show Spoiler +
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I would kill to get something like Comcast where I live. In this little shithole I can only get satellite internet or some sort of 4-G cellphone service. Hate it.
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I find it quite funny how this blog turned into ETT giving tech support and advice to everyone posting about Comcast
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Comcast has been pretty decent for me in the Seattle/Redmond area. I've had some weird issues like the DVR box completely breaking for some reason, but they got a tech out and just ended up giving us a new DVR, which works fine.
Also, I used to be pretty happy with my internet, because it was around 25 down/8 up which is not bad, but now it's closer to 12 down/2 up which isn't that great, but it's definitely usable.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
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I have Comcast, it's decent, not great, but it works most of the time, and not getting people with a thick accent and even thicker skull (Hello Verison) mean that of my two choices Comcast is the only real option. I'd like better Internet, but they're not that bad, least in my area.
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T.O.P.
Hong Kong4685 Posts
On June 24 2012 16:03 EvilTeletubby wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 14:34 docvoc wrote:I hate comcast so much, its so bad, the internet is intermittently going out and this is the first week that it is fully operational in months, I hope to god it continues. When comcast internet goes out I'm just like, + Show Spoiler + Pro-tip: It's not going to fix itself and get better on it's own.This mentality people have of just complaining about service issues but not reporting them drives me nuts. Call us up and get a tech out there - intermittent internet means you have an RF problem, which is a physical connectivity problem. It'll only get better if we have someone come out, so call us. We can't fix what we don't know is broken. Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 14:48 Dodgin wrote:I find it quite funny how this blog turned into ETT giving tech support and advice to everyone posting about Comcast Comcast tells me they will charge me if they send a tech out if the problem isn't on comcast's end. That includes if the problem is a faulty modem.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
Sounds like the details are a little muddled.
If the problem is with the Comcast service leading up to your house, OR the Comcast equipment (I'm assuming you rent a modem), then there is no charge. If the problem is with the wiring in your house, or your personal equipment (like say your NIC is dead or something) then there would be a charge since it isn't a Comcast problem.
We absolutely will not charge to swap out our equipment if that is the problem.
Although tbh 99% of the time it has nothing to do with the modem.
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On June 24 2012 05:33 EvilTeletubby wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 03:35 felisconcolori wrote: Does your coax coming into the DVR run through a surge protector? Just wondering. Something juiced the hell out of that DVR. And while yes, I would blame Comcast, I'm willing to bet they are going to tell you it's your homeowner's insurance policy that has to cover it.
Also, Comcast. Mediacom. Cox. All the same. Worse are DishTV and DirecTV. TimeWarner I haven't personally had problems with, but I've read places that they were shit too. Haven't heard anything bad about Verizon FiOS... yet.
Lol... why do you start by saying "something juiced the hell out of that DVR... yes, I would blame Comcast". What type of attitude is that? -_-
Common, actually. Of course I would blame Comcast. The Comcast equipment is the only common thread in the chain of failures. Whether or not it's actually Comcast's fault, they own the equipment that has fried Tofu's equipment. Could it be Tofu's fault in some way, or the way the house is wired? Absolutely. But all of the equipment failures and the striking down of said equipment starts and continues through the Comcast supplied DVR. It could be a lightning strike near/through the coax causing massive problems (dunno, was a common problem for modem failures on computers back in the day), poor electrical components in the (probably) Atlanta Scientific DVR box causing a short, or even the ever popular capacitor failure leading to buildup and rapid shorting through the HDMI cable.
As a consumer, all we see is "Comcast box killed my TV". Then when we call in, the frontline customer support has to follow the normal script (I've done customer technical support) and try new ways to fix the problem based on the probability of a fix because customers vary incredibly in technical savvy. Lots of customers can get annoyed by the length of the process, and they're already upset about the problem to start with. If a technician is scheduled, the wait and the sometimes iffy nature of the (usually) contracted technician increases customer frustration. And there is a lack of incentive to improve the process, as the companies more often than not have a monopoly meaning you can get cable, or you can get something else.
TL;dr - Yes I'd blame Comcast if, out of no where, my DVR box started nuking my TV/other equipment. Would I be right? Maybe, maybe not. Depends on what is the actual cause of the problem, which I'll probably never find out. Replace DVR box, double check coax, whatever fixes the problem first is where the investigation stops. So maybe it's the DVR. Maybe it's the coax to the house. Maybe it's the coax in the house. At that initial moment, all I would know is "DVR kills my stuff!" and that DVR came from Comcast...
Also, I'm not singling out Comcast for general hate. I can think of at least two other providers that draw more hate, and cable companies in general are often hated (with or without good reason). Relax man. I understand. My current job is with one of the most hated, reviled, and ridiculed agencies. We deserve some of it, most of it is absolutely ignorant, and y'know what? Not a damn thing we say or do can stop it. Just have to shrug, and move on doing the best you can and hope someday people start to notice.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
Interesting, and good response thank you. Where do you currently work? I have to ask after a comment like that.
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On June 24 2012 18:14 EvilTeletubby wrote: Sounds like the details are a little muddled.
If the problem is with the Comcast service leading up to your house, OR the Comcast equipment (I'm assuming you rent a modem), then there is no charge. If the problem is with the wiring in your house, or your personal equipment (like say your NIC is dead or something) then there would be a charge since it isn't a Comcast problem.
We absolutely will not charge to swap out our equipment if that is the problem.
Although tbh 99% of the time it has nothing to do with the modem.
Depending on if Comcast is following trends with other companies, but I recently found out that my cable modem is not owned by my cable company. It seems they stopped renting out the modems (which I was used to) and instead just sold you the modem (although it was noted as an installation fee on my bill - not something technical people get involved in). So if Comcast in that area is saying that a modem replacement may fix it, it may not be replacing Comcast equipment. It may be his equipment.
And yeah, I have never seen any company charge to swap out their equipment, although sometimes a company may be reluctant to swap out something if the problem is minor or can be corrected another way. (Reasonable, depending on the actual problem.)
Also, you're a very strange "Evil" Teletubby, given how much good you actually do.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
Comcast hasn't done any such thing (forcibly pushing ownership of the equipment on customers). The easiest way for T.O.P. to be sure if he isn't would be to check his bill and look for the modem rental charge. I'm sure it was just miscommunication.
And, ty. The "EvilTeletubby" name is unfortunately a joke name I made when I was 15 or so (I'm 28 now) back in the Diablo 1 and SC days that just sort've stuck. I think it's absolutely ridiculous but there is little I can do about it now.
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On June 24 2012 05:58 fatfail wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 05:53 EvilTeletubby wrote:On June 24 2012 05:51 fatfail wrote:On June 24 2012 05:38 EvilTeletubby wrote:On June 24 2012 05:11 fatfail wrote: Our internet random dies for a few hours about once per week. ): We have comcast. Whenever we call comcast customer support, they tell us to buy a new modem. So we've bought about 3 modems, before we realized that their customer service is full of shit and was just lying. And they've NEVER suggested sending a tech out?!? Be completely honest with me please, because I would be very concerned if they didn't. It's not like, they suggested a tech and you guys didn't want to see if there was something else you could do? Only say that because modems are actually pretty simple, they either work or they don't. No up-and-down stuff. That is 99.99% of the time going to be a signal/RF issue getting to the modem, and requires a technician to fix. They never have. They make us power cycle, and when it doesn't work, they tell us to buy a new modem. When we tell them we have have bought a million modems, they put us on hold. We are generally on hold so long we hang up. Yeah that doesn't make sense at all. You need a service call. It should take any rep about 30 seconds to set one up. What area do you live in? Bay Area, California.
Comcast in the bay area is god awful.
Between like 3 pm and 12 am I get 700 ping; essentially my internet spikes every 2 seconds from being a reasonable (albeit still much slower than normal) speed to 0. Then during nonpeak hours (i.e. after midnight and before 3 pm) it's fine.
Need better bandwidth!
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I also have comcast, kind of forced into it. They're the only ones in my area with decent speed, as soon as I have the option of another I will certainly ditch them.
I just had an issue too that I ignored for an week or so not wanting to have to call and deal with them, but I finally did. I feel your pain.
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Hyrule18773 Posts
Well I didn't rewire my house Wednesday night (TV died Thursday) so that's not it. And I live 15 miles from Comcast Mecca so I doubt it's a bad regional infrastructure issue.
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On June 24 2012 01:24 tofucake wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2012 01:12 itsjustatank wrote: god help me if I ever move to a place where Comcast has a monopoly Avoid Philly, Comcast's home town. You can get Verizon FiOS in something like 2% of the city, Verizon DSL in another 10%. Comcast has contracts with almost all of the apartment complexes for exclusivity for internet. Options for TV are typically Comcast or Dish/DirecTV. The burbs are less shitty, but the only high speed internet around here is Comcast.
I grew up outside of Philly, my parents had Comcast but it fucking blew, so many issues and after I started using the net more I was involved in half of the perennial "WTF" customer support calls, which just ended in paperwork and bullshit. When I moved in right outside of the city I figured I was done in to suffer some more but luckily I'm able to get FiOS. But you go down the street a block and the complexes are all supplied by Comcast. It's ridiculous, I don't know a single person who's had a legitimately pleasant experience with Comcast but I'll read through the thread to see if someone hear has been lucky lol.
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Story about Comcast: We had a deal where we SHOULD get 1mb/s internet for X amount per month, set rate, can continue as long as we want. Right? Well, I go on speedtest.net and guess what my DL speed is? 300kb/s. >_> Okay, well, I thought maybe it was just something like clogging or too many people or something. My dad swore it was 1mb/s anyway. Finally, I get him to run speedtest.net, comes out a 300kb/s, and we're both like >_> ripoffs. Call Comcast, and the next day, 1mb/s. WTF! That means they COULD AND SHOULD have given us 1mb/s internet, but they were INTENTIONALLY ripping us off! If it were unintentional, that'd be okay. I can understand too many people on at one time, but to be INTENTIONALLY screwing over your customer on a deal is just upsetting and unethical to me. :/
That said, our Comcast internet has been fine ever since, and we do get at least 1mb/s now. It lags like hell when my parents stream Asian shows and shit, but hey, that's understandable. And most of the Starcraft streams run seamlessly, so I'm content.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
On June 25 2012 00:21 ghrur wrote: Story about Comcast: We had a deal where we SHOULD get 1mb/s internet for X amount per month, set rate, can continue as long as we want. Right? Well, I go on speedtest.net and guess what my DL speed is? 300kb/s. >_> Okay, well, I thought maybe it was just something like clogging or too many people or something. My dad swore it was 1mb/s anyway. Finally, I get him to run speedtest.net, comes out a 300kb/s, and we're both like >_> ripoffs. Call Comcast, and the next day, 1mb/s. WTF! That means they COULD AND SHOULD have given us 1mb/s internet, but they were INTENTIONALLY ripping us off! If it were unintentional, that'd be okay. I can understand too many people on at one time, but to be INTENTIONALLY screwing over your customer on a deal is just upsetting and unethical to me. :/
That said, our Comcast internet has been fine ever since, and we do get at least 1mb/s now. It lags like hell when my parents stream Asian shows and shit, but hey, that's understandable. And most of the Starcraft streams run seamlessly, so I'm content.
Le sigh.
We don't even have bootfiles that go that low. They probably had you power cycle the modem/router or tighten the coax connections and that fixed everything. But thanks for assuming you were "INTENTIONALLY" being ripped off and screwed.
I do like the logic though... because tech support fixed your problem, and quickly too, it was something intentional that we knew about. -_-
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i've never really had issues with comcast over the years. the only exception is when i moved, it took them 1.5 weeks to send a guy out to connect comcast to my house :/
at both of my houses i always have had stable ping and fairly high speeds, the service has maybe only been down 2 or 3 times in around 6 or 7 years
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My experiences with Comcast have been... Interesting to say the least.
1. The tech who set us up when we got it 10 years ago "sold" my mom the modem for $40. 2. Net did not work right away. Tech came out and after half an hour or so told us our computer had a virus and we had to re-install the OS (he had to call for help as well even). I thought it was BS but after the hour long reinstall it worked >.> 3. Mom finds out that we are getting charged for the modem she "bought". She calls up and finds out the tech had gotten fired the next day and gets refunded her $40. 4. Net was somewhat slow so I decided to streamline all the splitters for the coax coming into the house. Unfortunately I lost track of the original one (old house has like 10 wires in a bundle) and needed another tech to come fix it, he also did a better job than me streamlining it and boosted the signal. 5. 2 or so years ago when they went digital, we find out the original tech had set us up with better service than we were paying for (basic instead of local channels only).
Overall the internet speeds have been pretty good. Our speed had crashed pretty bad 2 years ago or so, but I think this was just network congestion. It got upgraded and now its pretty darn fast (25 Mbit). My biggest complaint is that it costs a ton so I may have to see if I can get a discount sometime, Century link (slow but cheap) moved into our area recently so rates may have come down.
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I'd be leary of some of the installation guys and technicians that come out - there's a fair number of freelance guys that pick up jobs on contract. Some are phenomenal. Some are less so. But I think that's a problem even across the wider spectrum... some are great, some are less so. Interesting tech support related stories...
I once was a telephone tech support representative for a company that contracted with a number of big names (Palm, Dell, Gateway, etc) - there were competing motivations, which is endemic in the telephone support industry. They were paid by volume of calls handled, so as you would imagine there was pressure to keep calls short. This was not an "official" directive, but management was pretty strong in suggesting that if we couldn't solve it in 15 minutes, we should tell them to go download drivers, or install windows, or something, and get them off the phone to call back later. (Hardware issues were not usually that time consuming - restart this, reseat that, that's a fried component, schedule onsite tech, etc.) And I guarantee, the upper management would never cop to this strategy - although there were other call centers that were much more... vigorous in their efforts. (It got to be that we would see the last call in a ticket history, where it was, and then groan because they were notorious for barely trying and then dumping the call.) Things may have improved; this was over 10 years ago.
In my current position, dealing with IT Support (provided of course by a contractor) can be hit and miss. Some are barely competent, and on at least two occasions I had to walk someone through something basic. Like a printer driver installation. In fact, the call went over the tech's allotted time, so he just stayed on remote desktop and dropped the call. After a minute, he said "you can try to figure it out if you want to, have another call". I fixed it (via the magic of his escalated privileges), and said "it's working now". Then I taught the tech how to do it. -_- Apparently printer installation is not something they get a lot of training in.
Then there's our on-site tech contractor. Great guy, generally helpful as long as there's a ticket attached, and actually knows quite a bit. Good guy overall. Shame he has to get called in, then drive 2 hours to fix something. (It's apparently "faster, better, cheaper" than having a dedicated guy locally.)
The people I've talked to with my cable company (Cox) have run the gamut between these various positions. The phone support is okay, although the automated "slap upside yo' cable modem's head" option takes care of most problems. The few times I've had to have a tech out, it's been relatively painless. Except for the one time I had to tell the guy how to hard reset my DVR. But, like I said, there's a variety of people, and not everyone is great at everything. (Example - I can wire a network and program Cisco routers/switches, set up satellite internet, and troubleshoot RF interference from an HF radio, but I can't strip Cat5 and install an RJ45 jack or put a plug on the end of coax.)
Back to the more immediate topic - you might just want to call and say you want to cancel. I've heard that's a great way to get a discount.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
@felisconcolori, tell me about it. I can imagine this is true of every industry in the history of the world, but yes, we have reps and techs with varying degrees of personal motivations and knowledge/experience. I've dealt with my fair share of bad apples and things that would make your jaw drop, but overall MOST people (and I think this is true everywhere so it's why I hate to generalize, for any company) are legitimately trying their best and mean well.
I also hate to admit that your last line is absolutely correct. Although it can depend on his current package, and what services he wants to keep and everything. But hey, it never hurts to ask... we might have a promo or some other way to alter his package that works better and saves him some $$$.
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I've tried AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast (in that order) and I'm shocked to see so much for Comcast when AT&T U-Verse (from my experience) is atrocious. From the quality of their internet (ping rather high ~357ms) to their customer support, it was pushed to a point where I relied on myself and the interwebz to solve my issues (using my phone). Luckily I was able to get FiOS in my area and we switched to that. And WOW. I absolutely loved it. I never had consistent hickups (powercycle about once every 2 weeks or so). I had a bad ass ping (5ms). And the speed was just gorgeous for me (15/5). However I moved and was stuck between AT&T and Comcast. I went with Comcast after my horrific experience with AT&T. I had moments where I would receive a very high ping during nights and consistent hickups. However, Comcast's support was actually pretty good in my experience but coming from Verizon FiOS it was really hard to top off the quality I received from FiOS; I can't talk about Verizon's support since I never had to call them. Now the ping wasn't as good as Verizon's (20ms) but download speed was better. The upload speed however was a bit lower than FiOS and I was more about the upload speed than the download speed and I still am since I like streaming and uploading stufff. Plus if I have over 15mbps for downloading, I'm satisfied.
Now this can all be due to the place I reside in (TX).
P.S Typed this up using my phone's data just so I'm not forced to sign a 1year contract with AT&T. I rather wait over a month (now 2 weeks left) when I move to a place that has FiOS available.
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On June 25 2012 02:18 EvilTeletubby wrote:Show nested quote +On June 25 2012 00:21 ghrur wrote: Story about Comcast: We had a deal where we SHOULD get 1mb/s internet for X amount per month, set rate, can continue as long as we want. Right? Well, I go on speedtest.net and guess what my DL speed is? 300kb/s. >_> Okay, well, I thought maybe it was just something like clogging or too many people or something. My dad swore it was 1mb/s anyway. Finally, I get him to run speedtest.net, comes out a 300kb/s, and we're both like >_> ripoffs. Call Comcast, and the next day, 1mb/s. WTF! That means they COULD AND SHOULD have given us 1mb/s internet, but they were INTENTIONALLY ripping us off! If it were unintentional, that'd be okay. I can understand too many people on at one time, but to be INTENTIONALLY screwing over your customer on a deal is just upsetting and unethical to me. :/
That said, our Comcast internet has been fine ever since, and we do get at least 1mb/s now. It lags like hell when my parents stream Asian shows and shit, but hey, that's understandable. And most of the Starcraft streams run seamlessly, so I'm content. Le sigh.We don't even have bootfiles that go that low. They probably had you power cycle the modem/router or tighten the coax connections and that fixed everything. But thanks for assuming you were "INTENTIONALLY" being ripped off and screwed. I do like the logic though... because tech support fixed your problem, and quickly too, it was something intentional that we knew about. -_-
Le sigh.
Pretty sure that wasn't the case considering they didn't really have us do anything. And given that my dad's a computer science major, with a master's degree, who works on network development, and has built his own computer before, and understands how the internet works, he would have known if it were something on our end that caused the problem. And I'm quite sure we don't do either of those as we usually power cycle the modem/router when the internet just randomly decides to stop working and our computers can't connect to it at all.
But thanks for assuming I don't know shit and belittling me.
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Truth be told, ETT, while you're probably an exemplary CSR/Sup, the customer service in the telecom industry is just absolute junk. I've worked at 4 major telecom companies (twice in call-center based CS, twice in on-site sales) and I have never seen such a culture of mediocrity as I have in this business. Only geeks like you and me really understand the product (I mean, this power cycle/buy new modem case that was mentioned earlier doesn't even surprise me), CSRs are some of the most incompetent, un-knowledgeable workforce I've had the opportunity (or misfortune? lol) to work with. Most of my colleagues in call centers were lazy students just trying to get through the day or newly arrived immigrants who couldn't communicate well with customers. The joys of 3rd parties doing the CS or 3rd parties handling SOME of the work but not all, lol. Having to fight with your own staff to get work done properly when I was in sales made me want to plant bombs in some call centers haha! But honestly, I think the whole industry is a friggin mess. I've had the sales director for an 8 million customers market be flabbergasted when I showed him what I had done with my phone (kernel/rom swap on a droid, something easy for any nerd/half-nerd). The execs don't know or care for the products or the tech behind it, and it shows in their business decisions (for example, no company has gotten rid of LG phones around here... Don't know how much you know about cellphones if you deal mostly with cable, but LG has got to be the worst p0s manufacturer of cellphones ever, yet they're some of the most promoted, most sold phones).
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Hyrule18773 Posts
So...the tech came out. He asked what was wrong and I plugged in the DVR and he was like "Woah...that's........not good." Gee thanks I hadn't figured that out.
Overall though he was pretty good. Ruled out a power surge, checked the outlets/extension cords in my room, checked signal (good news: signal is strong), and said he'd file the damage claims tomorrow morning. Almost definitely won't get direct reimbursement; it's more likely they'll credit my account with whatever amount blah blah whatever better than nothing. Also I got a new DVR.
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Comcast is awesome compared to the clogged up, overused crap that is Optimum Online.
I suffered through that hell for 3 years... worst customer service I've ever seen, consistently lie about their "free offers" and have awful tech support. 90% of the time I ended up fixing my own problems... and let's not even get to how inconsistent the internet service is.
Blind hate gets you nowhere fellas.
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I have comcast in Venice, FLA and it works alright...speeds about 10/15 DL and 3-5 UL which is not terrible.
Never really noticed any hiccups, i did get a few DC's every once and awhile but you can't help it.
Saying that, It is a cable service and my house there is in a massive golfing community where the average age is about 60, probably not alot of traffic going to my switch to slow me down, whereas for someone who lives in an area with 10-20 people on their street DL'ing movies, games, music, gaming etc. I can see it being different.
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The telecommunications industry in the US is just awful in general. For customer service, they all basically have a bunch of uninformed, unempowered, lazy idiots screening calls. The challenge is always trying to figure out the fastest way of convincing them to transfer your call to the level above them. That's where the actual customer service people are. It's not totally their fault because there are a lot of computer illiterate people calling tech support and they are trying to screen those people from the ones with actual problems. However, it just makes it a chore to get through them.
I'm currently with AT&T and managed to get a phone number for a more direct line that passes the automated bullshit. It's in an office in St. Louis, I believe, so it has limited hours. It still beats the overseas ones by a mile, though. I also utilize dslreports.com where they have some actual technicians posting. True story, I went to one of their retail stores for help once and the people there are generally knowledgeable and helpful. Unfortunately, even they have problems navigating their own company's red tape. The manager was telling me how much of an idiot the guy he was talking to was.
I played with a large WoW guild once and had people from all sorts of ISPs. The experience is pretty much the same. If you can find a way to grease the wheel somehow, you are going to be way happier with your service. Getting past that first layer is always the toughest.
If there's somebody like ETT here who works for AT&T that I can bug when I have a problem with my net, it would be awesome.
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Hey I got a Comcast techie working on running some cables through our place right at this moment. He seems like a decent guy, and he fills me in on whatever he's doing and asks where I want the cables to run through. It'll a nice upgrade from DSL @_@.
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For the people that complain about comcast, I feel like they have never had to deal with other companies and are just basing their opinions on how they feel versus actual comparison.
I live in the Philly area myself, my parents have had comcast seemingly forever, and I've used it everywhere else I've lived with very little problems. My gf lives in an area with optimum, and it's atrocious. Internet is slower, on demand options for the TV are very sparce.
From what I've heard, Verizon is pretty good with their FiOS deals, but I've some truly nightmarish stories about houses needing to be rewired and all sorts of other issues, but generally once the install was done it was pretty clean.
ATT Uverse seems alright from the few friends I have with this service in other parts of the country, but from those who used to live in my area, they'd still prefer comcast.
Then there's other providers like Time Warner, Cox, Granite, etc. which I've only really had experiences with thanks to working in IT for an insurance company and supporting our work from home employees, but it doesn't seem any different then many of the other providers.
As someone just mentioned above, most people generally have the same experience regardless of provider, and seems like one of those things where if you ask people how they feel about X service, you're gonna get each person's horror story with that provider. However, if you can get a small win for yourself you generally view the company in a better light. When I was living in college, I was somehow able to negotiate a new deal every 6 months with comcast, each time getting more channels and paying the same price each time.
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It could be just a electrical overflow that did that. Or a power surge. Comcast has been good to us here, the only issue I have with them is if you need them to come out to fix something they don't
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Hyrule18773 Posts
It wasn't an "overflow" or power surge.
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On June 25 2012 13:01 .kv wrote: I've tried AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast (in that order) and I'm shocked to see so much for Comcast when AT&T U-Verse (from my experience) is atrocious. From the quality of their internet (ping rather high ~357ms) to their customer support, it was pushed to a point where I relied on myself and the interwebz to solve my issues (using my phone). Luckily I was able to get FiOS in my area and we switched to that. And WOW. I absolutely loved it. I never had consistent hickups (powercycle about once every 2 weeks or so). I had a bad ass ping (5ms). And the speed was just gorgeous for me (15/5). However I moved and was stuck between AT&T and Comcast. I went with Comcast after my horrific experience with AT&T. I had moments where I would receive a very high ping during nights and consistent hickups. However, Comcast's support was actually pretty good in my experience but coming from Verizon FiOS it was really hard to top off the quality I received from FiOS; I can't talk about Verizon's support since I never had to call them. Now the ping wasn't as good as Verizon's (20ms) but download speed was better. The upload speed however was a bit lower than FiOS and I was more about the upload speed than the download speed and I still am since I like streaming and uploading stufff. Plus if I have over 15mbps for downloading, I'm satisfied.
Now this can all be due to the place I reside in (TX).
P.S Typed this up using my phone's data just so I'm not forced to sign a 1year contract with AT&T. I rather wait over a month (now 2 weeks left) when I move to a place that has FiOS available.
I live in Texas too, San Antonio area. Time Warner isn't that bad...
I pay "Extreme" (up to 30/5 upload Mbps) for the first 12 months $59.99
and then they will rape you after your 1 year discount is finished.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
On June 25 2012 15:54 ghrur wrote:Show nested quote +On June 25 2012 02:18 EvilTeletubby wrote:On June 25 2012 00:21 ghrur wrote: Story about Comcast: We had a deal where we SHOULD get 1mb/s internet for X amount per month, set rate, can continue as long as we want. Right? Well, I go on speedtest.net and guess what my DL speed is? 300kb/s. >_> Okay, well, I thought maybe it was just something like clogging or too many people or something. My dad swore it was 1mb/s anyway. Finally, I get him to run speedtest.net, comes out a 300kb/s, and we're both like >_> ripoffs. Call Comcast, and the next day, 1mb/s. WTF! That means they COULD AND SHOULD have given us 1mb/s internet, but they were INTENTIONALLY ripping us off! If it were unintentional, that'd be okay. I can understand too many people on at one time, but to be INTENTIONALLY screwing over your customer on a deal is just upsetting and unethical to me. :/
That said, our Comcast internet has been fine ever since, and we do get at least 1mb/s now. It lags like hell when my parents stream Asian shows and shit, but hey, that's understandable. And most of the Starcraft streams run seamlessly, so I'm content. Le sigh.We don't even have bootfiles that go that low. They probably had you power cycle the modem/router or tighten the coax connections and that fixed everything. But thanks for assuming you were "INTENTIONALLY" being ripped off and screwed. I do like the logic though... because tech support fixed your problem, and quickly too, it was something intentional that we knew about. -_- Le sigh.Pretty sure that wasn't the case considering they didn't really have us do anything. And given that my dad's a computer science major, with a master's degree, who works on network development, and has built his own computer before, and understands how the internet works, he would have known if it were something on our end that caused the problem. And I'm quite sure we don't do either of those as we usually power cycle the modem/router when the internet just randomly decides to stop working and our computers can't connect to it at all. But thanks for assuming I don't know shit and belittling me.
Yes - I was belittling you and I apologize. It was my knee-jerk response to your comment born out of complete ignorance (that we are intentionally and knowingly reducing your bandwidth), along with your ridiculous/comical reaction to the false claim.
My delivery was bad but my point still stands. And the line about your Dad's credentials mean absolutely jack, I'm sorry. If you work on the other side of it, you would be absolutely amazed at how many "network engineers" who call us who have the standby button enabled, the ethernet cable plugged into the wrong port, or who didn't even powercycle correctly. I'm not saying that's what your father did, just that in my experience, HIS experience counts for very little.
Tofu - Glad the tech came out and swapped out the equipment for you. I was in a meeting with my director today and meant to ask him who to contact when our meeting was over, but forgot all about it by the time I was walking out of the conference room. I'll try to follow-up on it tomorrow to ensure the tech put it in for you.
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Fair enough. We were both being a bit arrogant, pretentious, and I was being very presumptive. Sorry about that. I didn't mean to come off like I hated Comcast by any means, nor that I know exactly what happened. It was an assumption on my part in all sense of the word. That said, I do like my internet atm, and I don't think of the company as evil by any means.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
All good, I know I get defensive sometimes. It's hard not to be when you're on the receiving end all the time.
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Hyrule18773 Posts
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what is up with comcast? my internet says its fine with ping and dl/ up rate but when i stream or play games its like im watching a slideshow... are they testing the internet servers or something? like verizon did the night before, and why illusion was dropping frames like crazy. Also i would assume destiny uses comcast or something because his stream is dropping mad amount of frames right now, comcast sucks and so does not having fiber optics! :-(
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On June 27 2012 12:03 FlyingToilet wrote: what is up with comcast? my internet says its fine with ping and dl/ up rate but when i stream or play games its like im watching a slideshow... are they testing the internet servers or something? like verizon did the night before, and why illusion was dropping frames like crazy. Also i would assume destiny uses comcast or something because his stream is dropping mad amount of frames right now, comcast sucks and so does not having fiber optics! :-( Lmfao my cat chewed and broke my ethernet and i was getting half my bit rate through wifi thinking it was comcasts fault...
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