zbischof's comments

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...

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>

I couldn't hit the low note :)

http://goo.gl/doodle/eXKz

Yeah I was surprised by the results. After the earthquake, you see that the number of peers stays pretty constant for about 6 hours after the quake. I'm guessing that people had better things to do than turn BitTorrent on or off. However, the network is still there. The day after the earthquake I was able to email my former host family in southern Hokkaido.

I was expecting to see something more similar to what we saw in Egypt and Libya when their Internet got shut off:

http://aqualab.cs.northwestern.edu/blog/egypt-libya-peers.ht...