Category Archives: Technology

Coulda knocked me over with a feather

Technology,

Took my equipment up to the Comcast office in Rockville today. Was dreading it after the time we’d had with the service (although the people were always nice enough – except for that nasty contractor). I stood in line for about 20 minutes and was seen by a cordial gentleman. At Comcast in Rockville they have plate glass covered cubicles and you have to slide the equipment through a 4×12″ opening. I wonder if they feel threatened.

The man behind the counter coolly, but cordially asked me to slide him the pieces of equipment one at a time and I did so, not so coolly, but cordially. He asked for my telephone number, then asked if I wanted to port the number elsewhere. I told him I had already done so. Then he looked at his screen, and quietly said, can I ask you a question? I said he could. He asked when we began having the problems. I said early August. He asked if anyone had switched the modem, I said yes, someone did at the end, but the issues still happened. He kept on shaking his head as he entered the equipement into the computer. I then got out my checkbook, opened it and waited for him to tell me how much the final bill would be. (I expected something around $75, but also expected a fight because we were leaving early (even though we never signed the contract). When we were done he said it was not going to cost anything. I must have looked shocked because he said, put your checkbook away. And apologized for the poor service.

Wow. All I can say is Wow!

Then again, this is Comcast. Perhaps the folks out in the Billing land won’t get the memo.

Comcast Blues

Technology

The mere fact I’m writing about Comcast indicates a problem. I don’t think I ever mentioned RCN when we had it for an Internet Service Provider – because it actually worked most of the time. Comcast, on the other hand, goes out regularly – including the phone service. The latest issue was with a dead phone. A call to Comcast resulted in a pair of technicians visiting us the next day and announcing that we had “too many splits” to the modem. That we needed to phone Comcast for a “change of service” and get an “independent line” to the modem.

I immediately phoned Comcast. It took 5 calls and 45 minutes to find someone who

  1. Understood the problem
  2. Was not “cut off” when being transferred to
  3. Was not “cut off” when looking at my records
  4. Agreed to not charge me $30 for the recommended solution

However, he couldn’t help me yesterday because there was a 2 hour block on the account. He gave me his extension and said to call back.

When I called back this afternoon I was again sent on a circuitous route – this time pushing buttons in response to the automated questions which kept on leading back to the main one. I eventually spoke to the same person who informed me that the reason some people charge is because they get commission points. It all makes sense and reminds me of the conflicting information given to me when my mom was being set up for Comcast.

So Thursday they will come and maybe solve the problem of dropped dial tones, telephone calls and spotty Internet service.

Comcast again

Technology, ,

Question of the day- Is Comcast screwing with us?

A few weeks ago we switched to Comcast for telephone, cable TV and internet. So far I have to report that I’m not delighted. We’ve had at least three outages of the internet and two of the telephone. The technician who came out last week told me it was because we had “too much signal” coming into the house – it caused what I invisioned as a potential broadband heart attack. We had high-speed hypertension. Cable clogged coronary. The way to fix it was to have a “line guy” come out and reduce the incoming signal.

After that the phones and internet went out again. I called and the phone technician said the only thing he could see was too strong a signal coming into the house. While we were on the phone it fixed itself.

Earlier this afternoon I noticed that most of the lights on my modem were out. For a while I could still connect to the internet, but then even that was messed up. I called Comcast and talked to a friendly person on the phone. Again, while I was on the phone the problems cleared up.

So, while the issues may be very temporary, they are still issues. I make my living by being connected to the internet. A slight hiccup and I lose data. We never had this issue with RCN.

Maybe we should have tried Verizon Fios.

Too late now, we have a 2-year contract with Comcast. (And that’s subject for another post)