After a month of me calling repeatedly to see why my “high speed” internet connection has been working at less than dial up speeds, I finally thought that today I would get resolution. I talked with the Comcast person on Thursday, and here’s what she said (keep in mind, this would be the 5th time I have heard the exact same thing):
It appears that there is a massive amount of packet loss when I ping your modem. There must be something wrong with the modem, because we don’t have any outages or problems in your area. I will be glad to send a technician out.
YAY! ANOTHER technician is coming! But, despite my negative sarcastic attitude, I was actually hoping that this one would actually come in and look at the problem. See, the last guy said he called me 3 times and even came by the house and knocked on the door, but I never answered either. Weird thing is, I was HOME when he “called”, and he never knocked on my door. I found out he was calling the wrong number (which I had corrected 3 times prior to that date, but then, we are dealing with lower level primates here, so I guess that was to be expected). So, you can see why I was less than excited about someone else coming out… I was essentially just hoping he would actually show.
Cut to today. I woke up early, and they called to let me know they guy would be here around 11:30 (they got the number right this time!). Sure enough, around 11:30, I greet the Comcast guy, and he comes in. I direct him to the office, and stand there as he gets to work. Instantly, he types in an address in IE (yuck), and proclaims, “there doesn’t seem to be a problem; everything is working just fine”. WOW! Really???! That must be why I have called so many times and have had so many people come out! Because there is NOTHING WRONG!! Thanks for coming by!! Good day sir!
Um, no.
So, I immediately tell him what they have told me on the phone, packet loss, yadda yadda, and so he reluctantly starts to tinker. Remember that his words were, “everything’s fine”, initially, because that will become important again later. While he tinkers, I actually feel a little more optimistic, so I leave the room. He tinkers some more. Then, I go in to see what is going on, and he assures me things are fine. He has run the numbers, etc, and everything is hunky dory. Um, no. I didn’t get you out here to tell me things are fine when I know they aren’t, douche. So I say, maybe something is wrong with the modem, considering that they say the modem is having such packet loss and whatnot. He then deflects that to the router, which I expected, and says that the router must be the issue. I assure him that it isn’t because even when you hook the computer directly to the modem, the same shit happens. Finally, after a bit of pushing, I get him to actually TRY a new modem! SHOCK! AWE! So he goes and gets it, and comes in to tinker some more.
The whole time he is doing this, he is walkie-talkieing with his boss on his NEX-TEL. Okay, now the new modem is hooked up (I watched him tinker this time), and guess what…. NO INTERNET AT ALL!!! It must be the router! So he hooks it up to my PC, and low and behold, he gets a “bad” IP address, and that means that the PC’s ethernet port must be fucked! Holy shit! Try the other one! Yep! That one gets a “good” IP address!!! It’s your PC dude!!! Um, no.
Then, being the complexly intelligent sage with a memory of steel, I remind him that when he arrived, THINGS WERE FINE (see, I told you it was important to remember that). He stumbles for a second, only to continually repeat that “bad” IP address routine. Um, no. That doesn’t work for me buddy, and so I say, “well, if it worked fine, per your words, when you arrived, how is the ethernet port on my computer all of a sudden the problem? Maybe that was something you did?” Well, perhaps that hit a button with him, because he started to argue with me at this point. I went from pissed to livid in like 2.5676 seconds, and laid into him. But I came to my senses quickly, because I was quickly shown he had NO IDEA what he was talking about. He kept bouncing back and forth from the router, to the ethernet connection, to the new modem (kind of like my connection, I suppose); but then hit me with the kicker… “sir, you are the one that asked for the new modem.”
Um, what? I did not! I told you it COULD be a problem with the modem, and that you SHOULD probably look at that before you just up and leave!!! He insisted that it was my fault, because apparently the new modem didn’t like my ethernet port. WTFever dude. I was so livid, that I told him it was pointless to argue with him, because he obviously had no idea what he was talking about, and that he was talking to me like I was stupid, so I told him to hook up the old modem and go. He then had to call and get permission to do that (what?!), and finally did that and left.
Now, not 20 minutes after he has gone, the internet doesn’t work through the router (at least, not when I hooked it back up after he left), AND, it is hooked directly into my PC (remember the one with the bad IP address, which kept it from doing internet), which I AM USING FOR INTERNET. Consequently enough, the “bad” IP address had something to do with starting with a 169, and right now, the IP address my PC is showing starts with 24. Again, not a clue what he was talking about.
Needless to say, I will be doing 3 things:
1) I will call Comcast one last time to let them know that their techs are rude, argumentative, and downright insulting. I will also use this call as an opportunity to tell them they can shove their “high” speed internet up their respective ass.
2) I will be calling Bellsouth DSL, and see how much it costs, and how quickly, they can have DSL in my house. I had DSL in the past, and I had no problems with the DSL itself, it was just the company I had it through that caused me problems. Since I won’t be with them, hopefully this will be a good solution.
3) (and this is probably the best one) I will be filing a claim with the Better Business Bureau against Comcast. I feel like there are too many people that experience the same problems that I have had with their internet for this to go unsaid. I am tired of a “solution” to a problem be “well, it’s your router, computer, ethernet, yadda yadda yadda”. NO. It isn’t, douche, fix it! Needless to say, I filed one on them before for shitty customer service, and they weren’t too happy. I doubt they will be this time either. If you have these same issues, I BEG you to please do the same. The more strikes against them, the better. Don’t steal my money and give me nothing but empty promises… or you will get filed against.
Whew. I know that this is a long entry, but I had to get it out. I have internet (albeit slow, dial up like internet), and am hoping that it lasts until I can get Bellsouth out here. Hope everyone else is having a great Saturday, and to detox from this horrid experience, I am going to see Children of Men with a friend. I have had enough “internet woes” for one day.
I hate those assholes. If we had a land line, I’d totally get DSL.
Glad you got that off your chest! Now you’ve got me all worked up. Brings back all those horrid customer disservice nightmares I’ve had over the years.
I have not had problems with my cable internet, but I’m already on my third DVR box in 3 years. I don’t know if it’s Comcast to blame or just the bad technology, but I also thought seriously about alternatives. Unfortunately, for me in Atlanta, without a landline service, there really is no alternative.
Hope of the rest of your weekend is better.
BellSouth/AT&T is offering some great deals if you sign up for their DSL service. I think you get cash back AND a free modem. You can also bundle and save even more money.
How do you file a complaint w/ the Better Business Bureau? ‘Cause I need to do one for Comcast too!
Well I was holding out hope your experience would turn out better. But I’m not surprised. I was ready to tell them to shove it to, bu I lucked out with the techs they sent out and - *crosses fingers* - mine has been repaired and the speeds are good.
I looked at the offerings from BellSouth/AT&T…I was ready to switch if they found no problem with my Comcast HSI. I wish I had looked at it months ago…I keep a back up dial-up account since Comcast has been so unreliable. I could have gotten the lowest level DSL for what I am paying for the dial-up account.
Good luck with it all!
That’s why I’ve always used Bellsouth DSL…that and the fact that the people we wouldn’t hire to bag groceries at Publix are the ones who get jobs working as service technicians for Comcast…
Weird. I’ve had Comcast high speed for a couple of years now with no problems. I wonder if I’m destined for problems somewhere down the road…
I’ve also had comcast w/ no probs (yet). AT&T/BS has also been very good to me, DSL-wise, and I think the merger made them agree to not require a local line (if true, I don’t know when that starts).
TO COMPLAIN try your county gov’t. Years ago when I lived in Gwinnett I had problems with Cablevision and complained to the department in county gov’t that regulates them. That really got them jumping. But you have to be very calm and professional, and act very victimized. Ask them to help you (I can tell by your photo you have the southern charm to pull this off very easily :-). Just call around to find the correct dept in whatever county you live in.
…and report back to us how things go!!!!
Good Luck
As of now, we have ordered Bellsouth DSL, it will arrive middle of the week. And I plan to follow this complaint up to as many people as possible!!!
And Amber, go here to file a complaint! Viva La Revolution!
I’m glad I’m not the only who hate hate HATES Comcast. Their customer service is probably the worst I have ever encountered with any company. Anything that’s wrong with your internet is always your fault, not theirs.
To take a small measure of revenge, my friends and I have been using the word “Comcastic” to apply to anything that’s loathsome. For example:
A: Dude, it turns out I have to go to the hospital to get a joint enema/root canal.
B: Yikes! That is Comcastic.
I think it puts a nice spin on their terrible ad campaign and their equally terrible customer service. Good luck with BellSouth!
Duane, this is only tangentally related, but who do you use for web hosting and how do you like them?
Personally I loved my Comcast cable modem. My boyfriend has had similar issues though with comcast though and so I know how totally frustrating it can be! Good luck with Bellsouth/ATT.
I went through hell with Comcast when we moved out of the area and they claimed that the modem that I had bought and installed at the time they installed their high-speed service (and signed-off on the pre-existing modem) was theirs and that they were going to charge me for a replacement modem ($200 worth) when I terminated the service.
That took 6 months of almost daily phone calls back and forth before they finally realized that hey, none of the ID info on the modem I supposedly had matched the modem that I have.
Not only that, they forgot to turn off our phone service - about a year after we moved we received a bill for a year’s worth of telephone service we never had - that was quite the loud phone call.
Now that I live back in a Comcast area, we only get basic digital cable through them. I went and got high-speed through Verizon, which in our area offers a fiber-optic high-speed connection, which is actually faster than DSL and faster than the cable connection. I’m going to get the TV through DirecTV when I get around to signing up and having an install done.
We had a Comcast nightmare, too. BellSouth has been great. They are always nice and we haven’t had a single problem since getting the new DSL modem. We jumped ship from Earthlink because we couldn’t take them anymore — I’m sorry to my friends who work there, but toward the end there it was truly grisly. At Comcast, you can’t get anything done and they are all so incredibly ignorant it’s not even marginally funny. The guy who hooked up our DVR couldn’t tell HDTV (which we don’t have) from XBox cables (which we do have). It was horrible. If you have a router, then they think you need special network support. MY GOD. IT IS A ROUTER. IT IS NOT FRIKKIN ROCKET SCIENCE.
I nearly lost my mind dealing with them. Good luck. Be careufl w/ them though — they will keep billing you. We’ve been shut of them for months now and JUST got the billing biz sorted out.
Nikki, I echo this sentiment:
That was probably one of the WORST situations I have ever had to deal with. Earlink was truly awful, and never once tried to make it right. I would rather have no internet than have to sign up with them again.
Holy Shit! During my brief (and miserable) time in Key West, I had Comcrap. When I moved here to be with Chris… guess what? You guessed it: America’s Most Fucked-Up Cable Company. We have the bundle package; cable TV, internet and VOIP phone. Most everything works *OK* - but the phone is constantly screwed up. It’s always noisy, and now, my parents won’t even pick up the phone when we call, because their caller ID always displays a different name. And, it’s not ours.
i spent 1 hour on the phone (my cell phone) with comcass and still did not get any problems solved. i am looking for new internet / phone provider . one that has free calls within the us and canada — comcass suck!
Last month my bill more than doubled. It was $120 for tv, internet and phone, but they started billing me $270.
I called and told them to get bent, that the service wasn’t worth the $120 I was paying and it sure as hell wasn’t worth $270. He claimed that was what the service was “worth” and that I had been getting a promotion price for the last 18 months.
After two days of calls to management, the guy said he’d re-issue the bill and put us back to the $120 price.
He lied. They never re-issued the bill and they withdrew the full $270 bucks. When I called to complain, they claim there was no record of that two day ordeal on my account. No notes. No records. Nothing.
To top it off, for the last three weeks the phone and internet service has been off more than it’s been on. The morons, of course, kept blaming it on my configuration or the modem, but it’s their lines that are the problem. (I had a tech out here today that confirmed that for me.)
Thanks to the illegal monopoly that Comcast has setup with the city I live in (the city gets a kickback to keep other cable co’s out) I have zero options and Comcast has zero incentive to do anything to fix their broken system.
My next step is to contact the Better Business Bureau and the states attorney General to see if I have some recourse.
MY BILL WITH BELLSOUTH INCLUDES UNLIMITED LOCAL & LONG DISTANT PHONE CALLS AND DSL ALL FOR $108.00 INCLUDING TAXES IF THEY HAD CABLE OR DIRECT TV I WOULD GIVE UP COMCASS ALL TOGETHER! ADELPHIA WAS A CHARM COMPARED TO COMCASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Carol, you can get Direct TV through Bell South. You should check that out. I know that we are heavily considering it.
Trust me, Bellsouth is no better. They are a bunch of communist b~a~s~t~a~r~d~s with the typical cant speak english *tech support
*The phrase “tech support” is used loosely