Comcast, what can I say about them? Well, for the past three weeks, I can’t say anything good about them. If you are on IRC and in a channel that I am in, then you probably already know about my connection issues for the past 3 weeks. Then today, I woke up, went to go online, and boom, connection issues again.

So I go to the Comcast.net website to see about any issues in the area. When I go to connect, I was greeted with a web page that said I needed to update my browser. My browser is Konqueror, part of the KDE 3.5.7 desktop, and labeled one of the most compliant web browsers there are. So I read the page and it tells me to take a look at the possible options:

Well this infuriated me a bit. So now I decided to call Comcast once again about my connection issue.

The lady on the phone was very nice, which I guess they need to be since everyone calling them tends to be fairly pissed off, and it is hard getting upset with the person on the other end, even though it isn’t their fault. So one good move by Comcast, maybe the only one. She goes to connect to my modem to check for problems. She tells me she sees no problems with the modem and then proceeds to tell me they do have an outage in the area and that due to this she cannot dispatch a technician.

So she goes on to tell me my options and that as it stands, since this was my first call this week, my problem cannot be escalated for support. She said I have to have at least 3 more issues recorded within the week since it is an intermittent connection issue in order for them to a) dispatch a technician, and b) escalate the issue.

OK, 3 more times, 1 down, 2 to go. So as soon as I hang up, I call right back for #2. I get a guy on the phone this time who seems to enjoy chewing his gum more so than talking to me. Well he goes through the same spiel, and tells me the same 3 strikeout rule, and I tell him that this is my 2nd call and I give him the reference number that was given to me. He says he is running a line and modem test and doesn’t see any problems and goes on to say that it is my network in the house possibly. He asks me, “what are the lights on your modem doing?” I simply answered “nothing, my modem is not even powered on, there is not 1 cable going into it.” He goes silent for a second to come up with a lie, since I just busted him. How could my modem be fine from his end, when it isn’t even turned on, and the closest cable to it is about 5 feet away?

Well, in the end, the 2nd call didn’t count because it was for the same issue. So, as I promised Comcast, I would blog about how horrible they are and hopefully try to keep people from choosing them. I have been warned of possible legal issues by their proper people, but do I really care? Sue me! All I have are a couple of text books for school, a few pens, 4 folders, and a notepad.

So, if you are in the United States of America and are looking for a broadband Internet provider, don’t choose Comcast. I told them I would rather have AT&T and big brother spying on my connection then no connection at all. I think I am starting to notice a pattern around here, didn’t someone else just blog recently about how horrible Comcast was?

Update: What are the chances? I did not even get to finish writing this and the dog is going nuts. So I go to see what his issue is, and boom, the Comcast guy is in the backyard! He just told me that there is a “noise” issue somewhere in our node and he is going box-to-box to locate it. He said he will get it fixed, and for once, I kind of felt good, but still, Comcast is bad! Man, this instance, or coincidence kind of kills this whole post now, but we shall see how it goes. At least the guy who is out here sounds like he knows what he is doing.