Re: Comcast vs. Verizon for repair methodologies

[Daniel Seagraves <dseagrav () humancapitaldev com>]

Comcast annoys me. I never have any problems with the people you get when you call in, or the tech support people, but 
their contractors STINK. 

At home the Comcast line boxes serving the apartments aren't even closed. They just sit open and fill up with rain 
until things crap out. The contractor eventually turns up when the packet loss hits 90% or so. We were out of service 
for weeks at a time. Even after I reported it Comcast corporate can't seem to get the contractor to give enough of a 
shit to close things up properly. It hasn't crapped out in awhile but we've had a drought. I'm sure it'll start acting 
up again once fall gets here.

At the office we have a similar issue. They've been bombarding us with ads non-stop, even now, we get a new Comcast ad 
about twice a week. In mid-June we ordered a line as a backup for our other line and to replace the phone service 
because the budget is tight. They told us we'd have service by the end of the month. We arranged for the telco to drop 
Long Distance service on the lines at that time to keep the numbers live in case there was a delay in porting out. 
(Telco said they'd drop the service but then went ahead billed us for it anyway, but that's another story). Anyway, 
Comcast contractor shows up to do their pre-wire inspection and tells me they don't have service anywhere near here and 
it will take them a month to pull a wire here before they can start. So we wait more. Week before last the boss calls 
Comcast to ask where our line is. Turns out they've lost our LOA and need us to re-send it. We do. They schedule 
another tech and give us an install date a week later (end of last week). We wait for the tech, but he never shows. So 
we call Comcast to ask where the tech is. He closed the ticket without showing up, saying it would take them another 3 
months to get service here.

We haven't decided if we're going to wait more or just cancel the contract and eat whatever penalty is involved. I get 
the feeling they want us to cancel so they don't have to build out. I really can't see this ending well for us.

On Aug 21, 2012, at 10:00 AM, "Robert E. Seastrom" <rs () seastrom com> wrote:

> You're lucky.  Verizon did a great job installing mine (ONT on the
> backboard I put in the basement for them, handoff on ethernet rather
> than MOCA, etc) but somehow never managed to get around to dispatching
> anyone to actually install the permanent fiber drop (despite multiple
> calls).
>
> Fast-forward four months.  I'd narrowly avoided messing up the
> temporary fiber with the lawnmower (going so far as to put orange
> paint on the lawn myself), but no such luck when they harvested the
> corn next door.
>
> Yes, my fiber got cut by a combine.  You can't make this stuff up.
>
> Second time around, they did in fact manage to get the fiber buried,
> where I wanted it even.  Had to meet with the construction survey guy,
> who was more than happy to put the white paint where I wanted it.
>
> -r
>
> Thomas Nadeau <tnadeau () lucidvision com> writes:
>
> >      My VZ FioS install was similarly fantastic. Those guys have figured out that spending a little more time, 
> > effort and cable (cat6 in the case of VZ) goes a long, long way in keeping customers happy.
> >
> >      --Tom
> >
> >
> > On Aug 20, 2012:7:43 PM, at 7:43 PM, Randy Bush <randy () psg com> wrote:
> >
> > > on bainbridge, i replaced centurystink dsl (756k/256k for $65/mo) with
> > > comcast (20m/4m for $50/mo).  the installer was a knarly old dog, and
> > > damned competent.  he cleaned up old cable on the pole and where it went
> > > underground to the house.  he cleaned up the box and replaced in-house
> > > junctions.  then he accidentally left 8m of coax to get from the in-wall
> > > cable outlet to my 'puter area, and rode off in his white van into the
> > > sunset.
> > >
> > > now if i could get that kind of professionalism from twt in hawaii ...
> > >
> > > randy