
Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because... - bgentry
http://bgentry.posterous.com/dear-comcast-im-leaving-you-because?
======
jayferd
In the East Bay, I highly recommend LAN Minds (LMI.net). One of their support
guys actually advised me to select a cheaper package because the old wiring in
our house wouldn't support the faster speeds of the more expensive plan. Super
professional.

EDIT: Just checked, and it looks like they provide service in SF too.

------
jason_slack
I am on hold with their sales department right now. Comcast irritates me to no
end!

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!

------
joelhaus
The two co-founders of sonic.net are both on Google+[1] and come across as the
type of ISP that most of us can only dream about. They also frequently discuss
the economics of networks[2]... it's pretty rare/valuable to get such a candid
view from someone actually in charge of running an ISP business.

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.

\------------

[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>

------
Dove
Are we to the point yet where internet should be considered a public utility?
It certainly seems to be more of a necessity than a luxury these days.

~~~
larrik
Calling it a public utility isn't going to make it all roses and unicorns
either.

------
jsz0
As someone who works in the cable industry I can say you're making the right
choice. Nothing is going to change until more people do this. This industry is
suicidal. Some costs that are passed along to the consumers (programming) are
unavoidable and fair but the degree to which customers are gouged on equipment
fees, service calls, and terrible policies is just mind boggling.

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.

~~~
coderdude
This is a perfect description of my experience with Verizon. There is
literally a charge each month for them to process my billing.

------
namidark
I'm stuck with Comcast (although thankfully the business division is much much
better)... my choices are 60-125mbps/10mbps or 5/768(from dsl providers
locally)

------
aaronf
Add to the list: you have to call every 6 months to get a new "promotion" or
you pay way too much.

------
lv0
Boston area comcast my only choice. I called them today because I need to
activate new service and I was told the 250GB cap is mandated by the
government and not comcast. When I asked for details I couldn't get any
further.

------
mtgentry
The other day when I cancelled my cable but kept my internet, the first thing
the service rep asked was 'Oh! So you do a lot of streaming then?'. I shrugged
off the question but thought it was revealing. Cord cutters are growing in
number and they know it.

p.s. article up-voted on it's own merits and not because the submitter is my
cousin. (What up cuz')

~~~
TheCapn
Keep in mind the guy asking if you do a lot of streaming doesn't give two
hoots about you cancelling or not. He was probably just trying to drum up a
conversation.

The lowly Customer Service Reps for ISPs aren't malicious unless they're
trying to jump the corporate ladder.

------
smhinsey
I've been fortunate enough to be a FiOS customer for awhile, so I haven't had
the pleasure of dealing with Comcast lately, but until I moved into this
building I'd used them all over the east coast. They had a particularly
galling bug in their customer service system where you would be routed to a
regional call center based on your phone's area code. This meant that every
single time I called to talk about anything, I would first have to wait on
hold at the call center I knew to be wrong before they would finally answer me
and transfer me to the correct call center, where I got to wait on hold again.
Several times I was given "direct" lines but they had the same problem.

~~~
adestefan
Verizon had the same issue with FiOS for a long time. I would routinely get
routed to the NY customer service even though I would tell them repeatedly I
was in MD since I didn't have a phone number. I haven't called them in a
couple years so I don't know if that's still the case.

~~~
smhinsey
Hah, they must use the same vendor. Strangely enough I haven't had that
problem myself the few times I've called, but one of the nice things about
FiOS is that you don't need to call them for many common tasks.

------
tocomment
Are there any good 4g options in Maryland?

~~~
adestefan
I keep getting ads for Clear in the mail. No idea how good it is though.

~~~
gte910h
Clear in Atlanta is okay.

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.

------
mikecrowl
Comcast cut me off last year, after 7 years of service. I got a lil "greedy"
and broke the 250g cap (300g+) - never even knew there was a bandwidth meter
at their site.

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.

~~~
mikecrowl
Oh, right, we were talking about options.

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.

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
I'm not too happy with the situation in Seattle myself. Currently I've got
$60/mo 1.5/384 DSL service from MegaPath (formerly Speakeasy). Business line
to my home, very reliable. It's just not fast enough for some of the things I
want to do.

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.

------
vipergtsrz
How do I find a local ISP that gives good service? I am on comcast, and I hate
them, but don't know where else to go. I live in the Chicagoland suburbs. Any
suggestions?

~~~
MrMatters
Start Googling around for ISPs in your area. Look for ISPs' sites and forums
discussing ISPs in your area.

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.

------
cgag
My understanding is that no one actually wants to be with Comcast, I was under
the impression that people were generally with them because they have a
monopoly on fast internet in a lot of places.

~~~
kgo
In my area, you're on Comcast if you're pissed off at Verizon, and you're on
Verizon if you're pissed off at Comcast.

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.

------
dboyd
I'm also in San Francisco, and looking to move away from Comcast. Mostly due
to cost, than anything (yeah, the idea that Internet costs me more than TV +
Internet pisses me off in an irrational way).

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!

~~~
bgentry
Indeed I have the 2-line bonded DSL. The speed you get will depend quite
heavily on your distance from the CO (you can check that here:
<https://signup.sonic.net/fusion/index/prequalAddress> ). I'm in Pac Heights,
and my address is an estimated 5,307 ft. from the CO.

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.

~~~
jason_slack
I checked and here at my location in Cupertino I am about 2800 feet from CO!

Does anyone have experience with their "Business T" service for $308/month?

I wonder what the install charge would be for that?

------
greyfade
I would love to switch ISPs, if only to get away from Comcast's ridiculous
caps. But in my area, although there's a bundle of fiber running not 250 feet
from my apartment, it's well over $1k for setup and the monthly fee, and the
only DSL provider in the area (CenturyLink) only offers service a _tenth_ as
fast as Comcast's Xfinity service.

Rocks and hard places.

~~~
sukuriant
If that wire is Frontier, they may be able to provide the apartment complex
with FiOS for free to the apartment complex, under the hope that they'll get
customers. That's what a representative told me when I asked what it would
take to get FiOS at my place, considering my parts of Redmond is well wired
with FiOS. YMMV

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
Are there any decent maps of where Frontier is offering FiOS in Redmond?
Supposedly there is service a few blocks from my apartment downtown, but I
can't get a straight answer out of anyone.

~~~
sukuriant
Not that I know of, I'm sorry. When I spoke to the people at Frontier, and I
alerted them that I had FiOS 1 mile away, I was informed that Redmond was
pretty much all FiOS, except apartment complexes that hadn't
permitted/accepted Frontier FiOS.

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).

------
zbischof
I'm also considering leaving. Here are a few of my reasons for wanting to
leave.

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>

~~~
j_s
Whenever I can, I use Skype to call customer support 800 numbers for free and
do other things on the PC while waiting...

[http://blogs.skype.com/en/2005/07/free_calls_to_tollfree_pho...](http://blogs.skype.com/en/2005/07/free_calls_to_tollfree_phone_n.html)

~~~
zbischof
Thanks, I'll keep this in mind. I've spent more time dealing with Comcast
customer service than all my other monthly billed services combined. I've got
more stories, this is just the highlight reel.

Now if I could just get them to stop playing crappy, low quality music while
I'm waiting...

~~~
j_s
I agree on that being a problem (was tempted to say "I hear you on that
one..."); Windows Vista+ with separate audio levels per-process comes in
handy; it's not too hard to notice the transition from annoyance to "hello,
hello, hello?" even when turned way down with Spotify on top!

------
binarysoul
He's leaving because he has the option to use a different comparable provider.

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.

~~~
sukuriant
I'm another instance of a person that actively chose to go to DSL over
Comcast, even though I took a substantial speed cut (at my old place, I had
35/35 FiOS, and I switched to 7mb/800kb DSL). The price between the two
services was the same ($50), but it was that significant for me to not use
Comcast.

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.

~~~
equalarrow
Yah, I'm in the same boat. In late Dec, as soon as I saw Comcast supported
SOPA, I setup a Sonic.net account here in SF. I love Sonic's tech support (one
of the only few companies I'll get on the phone with for support), and their
values - no caps, no support of fucking-with-the-internet bills. However, AT&T
fucks up the whole equation with their shitty copper (in some places). Not
Sonic's fault at all, of course.

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.

