I can’t get away from Comcast

I am past due for an update but actually this post was caused by another service problem.

I was not able to watch the debate last night. A friend, who normally works overnight was off and invited me over to watch the early morning replay.

I did not get there until 1245 am. We were looking around the channels when her cable went off. We waited a few minutes and she tried to call but gave up after being on hold for five minutes.

She goes to work at 9 pm and usually eats ‘lunch’ at 1 or 2 am so we decided to eat.

While we were cooking, she tried to call comcastic but after another five minute hold she hung up. Since there was such a long holds she assumed others were reporting the problem.

At 3 am she sort of got cable back – good audio – terrible video.

At 4 am she tried to call again – after a seven minute hold, the CSR told her this was the first report of trouble. WTF?

At 6 am she called again – same thing – first report of trouble. Sounds comcastic.

I came home about 630 – she called at 735 saying it had just been fixed.

Wow, it only took them 6+ hours to fix it.

While I was gone I recorded ABC news in High Def from rabbit ears and a digital tuner using TiVo – a friend just told me it was crystal clear.

I can ‘see’ that Comcast is still providing the same excellent service (said with extreme dripping laughable sarcasm).

Is Comcast Stupid?

Today, Sunday, I received a call on an emergency cell phone about my account.

They know I do not have a regular phone and I only use the emergency cell for their numerous service calls. Today I spent over $3.00 talking about service that someone in their company disconnected but failed to tell anyone else.

This nice lady said she could not ‘see’ my account, only a balance due. Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing – this is classic. I didn’t even ask the balance but if they are calling for a $10 and change past due amount that is not due until Oct 3, 2008, according to their bill – they must be hurting for money.

Today I was told I was not really disconnected, I had a soft disconnect because unlike other services, like phone or electric, I can not be disconnected from cable unless the balance was paid. The nice lady indicated I would still be charged my monthly total, $105+ until my account was paid in full – even if I disputed the charges.

Monthly charges of $105+ which is about $30 too high according to the balance a customer service rep told me on September 11 but is not even accurate because they disconnected me. If I am disconnected by a company, how can they continue to charge me for services?

How can this be? Pay for something I am not getting? I did not sign a contract agreeing to anything. And besides they disconnected me – I did not disconnect them.

I no longer have any service because they disconnected me but they are going to charge me essentially 100% interest or finance charge for non-payment?

Anyone else ever have a similar situation?

I know this should go into a rants and rave place but I could not ‘see’ it.

Fellow Comcast Ex-Customer

I stumbled across this surfing local blogs. I wonder how many of us there are.

See P. Blevins Dear Comcast post at http://palmerblevins.net/blog/2008/09/23/dear-comcast/

Notice he also switched to Xanadoo.

Thanks Mr. Belvins for permission to post the link.

No Comcast One week update – Sept 23, 2008

One week ago today Comcast said goodbye to me – not my choice but I am not complaining.

I was afraid that the loss of the 50+ cable channels would greatly affect my life. As it turns out, I have not missed them at all.

DirecTV stopped by today but I was not impressed with the guy so I decided against installation plus I have made a few interesting discoveries.

We don’t get CBS locally but it does not matter – I can watch most of the shows online at CBS.com using my Xanadoo modem. Since they are on the computer screen I can even use the magnifier to ‘see’ some detail. Thank you Comcast.

I also found that only having about six channels to choose from was much less time consuming then the stupid guide on the Comcastic DVR – it also put me back in touch with the local news people.

Cable TV had me so brainwashed – I did some math in my head. I used to watch The Shield on FX. Can’t watch it now but if I wait a while the season will come out on DVD – I think I got my son a couple of seasons on DVD at $25 apiece – I’ve been paying $75+ a month for so long. What a dummy I was.

Otherwise I can not think of one thing I am missing. Not one damn thing.

Update: 6 PM
I ‘remembered’ to check the email account that I used with Comcast – it is a Gmail account only for Comcast.

Last week I got a message from someone at the ‘Comcast Executive Offices’ asking me to call them. I emailed back that I only wanted to use email since I do not have a phone (and when I did call using others phone I would be on hold for most likely an hour. Besides, every time I talk to a rep OR chat online with one they are clueless. I wanted a ‘record’ of our conversations.

The executive replied asking what my current service problem was.

I was a bit testy and asked why they did not check their records before contacting a customer.

That was early yesterday morning with no reply so I figure I’ve heard the last.

Someone did try to call me twice last Tuesday, the day I sent out my Open Email To Comcast but they called my emergency cell number, that I never leave on and I did not get the messages until Sunday.

They did not give a call back number, just a name. There have been no other attempts to contact me except for Executive Office Email last week.

So as one person said before Comcast even took over from Insight, all they want is your money – they care nothing about you or the service they provide. They will get no more from me.

Do Yourself A Favor

After sending my Comcastic DVR back to their fairy tale land, I was worried about not being able to replay, freeze frame or time shift live TV - would I ever be able to survive without it?

I watched, 'GASP' Live TV - and I lived to tell about it. But I still hate commercials.

As it turns out I have an old TiVo sitting in the entertainment center. Its input is hooked to a digital receiver which is hooked to an old antenna. I set it up when the tournado (U have to live here and watch local news to get that joke) knocked out normal cable.

It works great. But best of all - it's free.

I can pick the channel I want - record it or watch it live with all the features of a DVR and I discovered I can record with it as long as I know what time/channel I want.

1st Favor to yourself - check out the online TV guides - you are not limited to 6 or 8 lines with a few hours or channels displayed.

Your screen can show 20 channels and six hours at a time. You can even lock out the channels you do not want to see but MY pet feature is being able to 'see' five days of programming for one channel.

Five days in six hour or more increments. I love it. It will even send me email reminding me of when shows are on. Not quite as easy as pressing the record button but it sure is a lot faster when you can see more info. I'll bet you people who can see might be surprised - if your Internet will work.

2nd Favor to yourself.

Go out to a big box store and test drive a TiVo. Its so much FASTER and smoother then the Comcastic DVR. When you hit FF to skip past commercials then resume play, it backs up a little when you hit play and I find I do not have to hit rewind very often to get back to the programming.

I had forgotten that feature.

My Tivo no longer gets guide info. A few years ago this company kept calling me trying to sell me crap.

I discontinued my landline. I inadvertently prevented the TiVo from calling home. I discovered this years later - yesterday as I a matter of fact.

Oh well, for what I need, the TiVo and digital tuner works fine with online guides.

And the last favor for yourself? See what channels you get get for free with an antenna. In my case I get several and I can tune in the HiDef signal on most.

I find that having fewer choices makes life much simpler.

Try this - disconnect your DVR for a week. Find other things to do - like listen to Ronnie on the Cubs Network - I had forgotten how much I liked him.

Later I even loaded up a book on CD and listened to a Stephen King Story - it has been a long time.

I found it much more entertaining then the movie.

I think many people got lured into a DVR lifestyle because of the live TV manipulation but when the second tuners were added, we all started watching too much crap - we had the ability - we had to use it.

And I discovered just how bad some of the crap was. I'm glad it's gone.

Do yourself a favor or favors.

Open email to Comcast September 16, 2008

On this date I talked to a CSR at around 4:50 AM and asked that my bill dated Aug 03 showing many service changes AND charges be reviewed by herself and a supervisor and to please call me with the results of the review - it is self explanatory that someone did not know what they were doing.

I have already wasted many cell phone minutes to fix a problem "created" by your CSRs - most times on hold never talking to a CSR so I decided to make it easy for you and not have to pay for me to be on hold while you looked for/at the records and make snap decisions.

It is now 11:29 AM, 6+ hours later and my phone has not made a sound except when your service tech called to replace my DVR my fourth since Apr of this year.

I sent three email messages yesterday about my three problems – I got back confirmations that my message had been received and someone would get back to me within 24 hours. The original messages were sent about 6 am yesterday – no responses so far today. It is now 11:30 AM.

In my mailbox right before your tech arrived, I found a Disconnection Notice with Total Due by 10/06/08 of 10.96.

Is this your normal way of telling a customer they are no longer wanted? Almost as bad as email or instant message. Fine, you have solved many of my problems.

Your technician just left with my broken DVR - I did NOT let him install the replacement – but I did give him a full accounting of what was wrong with that DVR and its programming.

Since you say my balance due is only 10.96 at least I did not get screwed for the $200+ I did not want or get.

I wonder why the CSR did not tell me I was going to be disconnected or why the tech had a DVR for me IF I was going to be disconnected.

I know – the reason is simple - your left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing – been that way since day one.

I have been a cable customer in this city since 1981 except for four years. No matter what the company was called. For the most part I had absolutely no problems and any problems I did have were fixed within 24 hours if not sooner.

For years I subscribed to the all you have package - $190 a month with Internet.

Comcast takes over and I lose three email addresses that I have had since 2003 - why? Because your old customers were more important then the new ones is the only reason I can see.

I got all new Gmail accounts – at least I do not think they will screw me over in the future – I can even create websites for those accounts – all for FREE.

I also lost all my grandchildren's websites because your CSR told me they would be transferred automatically once my new email addresses were established. She promised to call me back if that was incorrect. She never called.

But I did get email dated in May 08 that I would lose them on May 30. I didn’t read that email until September 2008 but I got to say you did warn me.

Since I lost the three most important addresses I quit using those email accounts. I checked them 2 or 3 weeks ago when a relative told me she tried to access my youngest grandson’s on his birthday – I almost always update the sites on their birthday – this year I was having vision problems so I missed it.

Checking the accounts after almost six months of non-use I found nothing really helpful or important but the activity has picked up since September 1 – I have 4 or 5 spam messages in each of my six accounts and no easy way to ‘unsubscribe’ from the junk mail - a service message advertising McAfee Security Programs – yeah, right.

I promised myself that if my problems were not fixed by 5 PM today, you would become my ex-TV provider. I can’t even break that promise to myself – at least you kept one of a thousand promises you made to me.

And to add insult to injury – you might have been throttling my Internet Traffic – and come Oct 1 my unlimited account that I have had since 2003 is now capped – amount does not matter – I signed up for unlimited use and to my knowledge I have signed no new agreements
with Comcast.

But the thing that finally helped me decide divorce would be best from your service – you took the only worthwhile channel available on regular cable, National Geographic and moved it to beyond many peoples reach.

Good business decision. I think that is the WORST one you have made so far.

Well, in closing and before I waste anymore of my limited time, I think your customer service system is absolutely the worse of any company I have ever dealt with.

And on that note good bye and good luck – if you don’t fix things quickly you’ll need all the luck in the world.

At least you could have thanked me for the thousands of dollars I spent in 23 or 24 years on the cable industry. I just realized the truth - it was not enough.

Comcast Solved ALL My Problems

Comcast fixed all my problems.  Today I found a Disconnection Notice with Total Due by Oct 6, 2008.  Looks like instead of arguing with me or giving me equipment that worked they just shut me off.

Instead of letting the tech replace my DVR I just had him take it back to the office.

So my problems are all solved.  Should have done this in February when all my problems started.

I just wrote an open email to Comcast - I had to break it into four parts to email it to them.

I'll post it next.

Get To Go Home

They let me go home this morning - I got the good news yesterday early morning so I called Comcastic to re-schedule my service call to replace my DVR. Reports were that it was not working right.

I also complained about my Aug 03 bill for July service - I guess the tech got tired of listening to me explain and we were disconnected. I had already wasted too many of my cell phone minutes trying to fix their screw-up. I called back three times and never got another CSR - at 5 am in the morning. WTF?

So I sent them Email - 3 separate messages about 3 separate issues. Two responses saying they could not discuss my bill through email, either call (they won't answer the phone) or live chat - yeah, right - the last time I did that they sent signals to my modem and DVR and they never worked again.

So this morning I called to verify my appointment and explained my problem again because the CSR yesterday had noted I discussed my bill (no particulars) but the call was disconnected. Why did she not try to call me back?

Anyway, I briefly explained my problem, asked the CSR to compare the last three bills with a supervisor and please call me back with a resolution. The problem could be easily seen.

That was at 4:50 am this morning - another 17 minute cell phone call. It is now about 7:30 - I figure they went home - so here we go again.

But this time I am not screwing around. If all my problems are not fixed by 5 PM, I am gone. Six months of crappy CSR and screwed up billings - no more.

My DVR is sort of working.

A friend visited my home -  I had a medical problem and had to stay elsewhere for a couple of days.  He saw my DVR seemed to be working.  He said it was acting funny but he told it to record the truck race and the Illini football game.

Nice of him I thought until he went to check  them.  Truck race was blank and the Illini game was not - I'm not sure what it was but Illini it was not.

It missed the series recording Sunday Morning so it is still screwed.

I am ready to give up.  Luckily DirecTv got both the game and Sunday Morning.

Sorry for the crazy postings

I have been putting posts online but have not published them.  I am not sure what I was missing  - I very seldom look at the blog.  Today I hit the wrong button and I noticed I had many posts missing.  

They were there, just not published.  Oh, well.  At least it is fixed now.

I just figured it out - on one page I tell it to publish immediately.  But it is only those posts I email to the blog that get posted immediately.  When I leave the editor it just 'saves' the draft.

Sept 11 Update – Sep 3 bill

A few days ago my third DVR delivered since Mar or Apr quit working. I had to spend almost an hour on the phone with tech support who insisted we check all the wiring.

I moved the unit because I thought four DVRs in 4 months meant something was wrong – like possibly it was overheating.

After an hour of the bull crap that it had to be something I did wrong and trying to sell me the $1.99 monthly wiring maintenance program, I asked him to turn off all packages except basic Internet.

He told me I would have to pay $60 a month for just Internet service and the only way to get a discount was to also take Digital Starter or whatever it was called.

I used to have a movie package – Encore - In one month I never watched one movie – the selection was so bad, why have something I am not going to watch?

Plus I was getting a bunch of channels in the digital level (above 100) that I NEVER watch – my son could not figure it out.

Plus I was tried of the DVRs failing – I could barely see them anyway so screw it – all I wanted was Internet Service. He re-arranged my bill and told me he had given me a discount and my Internet would only cost $30 a month. What ?? I was only paying $20 now. And I would have the digital started package – what? That's what I have now.

I was confused and did not feel good so I figured I would sort it out later.

The tech finally decided the unit needed to be replaced and we scheduled an appointment for the next day.

A little later that morning I finally got a bill from Comcast – I didn’t get one in August but I paid my normal amount.

Something was really wrong – it looked like my cable charges had doubled.

I spent an hour trying to get a copy of my August bill from the Comcast site – but it was useless - timeouts or my account info was incorrect.

I did not get email last month nor this month that my statement was ready online so I was thinking that my online account had gotten screwed when my email addresses were changed from insight to Comcast.

Finally I hooked up my Xanadoo modem and accessed Comcast. I had a copy of my statement in less then three minutes.

I tried Comcast modem and again could not get logged in to raise hell about the bill they had screwed up.

When I examined the bill for Aug 3, it appears that Comcast had billed me for three different packages during the month of July but only reversed one package.

I can not see well but a neighbor who cannot hear well tells me I was also charged $10 for bundled packages (I use to get a $10 credit) and he also thinks I was billed for Internet Service three times but one of them might be a credit.

I wish I could see it so I can get the problem fixed. Why should my book keeper have to fight with the damn company again.

All I know is I am not feeling well, very nauseated and sweating like hell – I think my body is trying to tell me something.

I’ve had a heart attack before – this feels much different. Hell of a time to get sick – I got too much to do. Oh well.

Update For Fri Aug 22, 2008

Why can I not get online at Comcast.com?

All I want to do is get a copy of my Aug bill since either Comcast or the mail service is failing to deliver it.

I doubt it is the mail service since I get all my other mail without problems.

When I call Comcast, it tells me I owe a ridiculous amount of money – I am hoping they have just missed posting a payment but the addition does not work out.

So I am guessing they have screwed up my bill somehow – I’ve heard the horror stories.

But I do not understand why they do not want their customers to access the Billing portion of their website – unless they are so inept at running a site this is normal.

I’m wondering if maybe my son or someone has hooked the Comcast modem back up to my computer instead of Xanadoo.

It is very hard for me to check it – my eyes are still fairly screwed up. I think we go grocery shopping this weekend so my daughter can check for me.

Is there anyone else having this much trouble? Or has everyone already left?

Oh one great piece of news – we finally have the Big Ten Network. Not sure if I have the right package to get it but at least I do not have to go to a direct TV site to watch the games. HooRah!

Where’s My Websites?

Back in February, early March when my Internet started acting up, shortly after Comcast took over, I was chatting with a customer service rep who told me that some of my emails might have to change because Comcast users already had the accounts.

I thought it sucked at the time – I thought the people who had the account the longest should get to keep them but no, Insight customers got screwed.

I also asked about my websites – she told me they would move with the email addresses and changed appropriately. She even game me the new address www.comcast.net/~myusername

I was not very happy about the email switches so I got all new accounts with Gmail and ignored my Insight Accounts.

Three of the websites were for my grandchildren. They were all started on the day they were born and included bi-yearly or yearly updates in their birthdays.

Their parents all got a kick out of getting email from their kids email accounts for Xmas and B-Days etc.

Two or three days ago a relative tried to bring up my granddaughters website to show new office mates. She told me it was 404.

I tried and sure enough none of the sites worked. I figured I just needed to know the new Comcast address so I went looking. If I was the owner, go visit site builder. WTF?

Since I had not checked any of my Comcast mail accounts since March or April I loaded them into Comcast, the ones that had stayed the same anyway.

To my surprise, as of May 30, my Insight Websites were gone. Tough luck, sorry.

Luckily I have copies but it still pisses me off. I guess it’s time to just buy their own domains or a family domain.

Thanks Comcast, is there anything else you can do to screw up my simple life?

Update For Fri Aug 15, 2008

The last month had been eventful for me – not so much with Comcast.

My shingles has returned and I am blind for the most part in my left eye and it was my good one. The cataracts in the right eye just lets me see dark and light – some days I can see a little color. For the most part it hurts like hell – glare is so bad.

I am blind – someone has to go grocery shopping for me and watching TV is a hit and miss affair.

My son has setup my Favorites so I know I can hit Guide once, Favorite Button once then enter and I am at the lowest favorite channel.

Hitting Guide, Favorite again and up a certain number of times will get me certain places.

I can also just hit the favorite button to walk up one station at a time. I am getting pretty good at it.

Once in a while I get lost, I was evidently watching the Mil channel – didn’t even know I got that one. My son is not sure I should be getting it.

So TV could be could or bad. I have several series recordings set and can usually identify them by opening music. I have no idea if everything is being recorded.

Biggest problem is when the Internet is not working. I use the magnifier and narrator tools and many shortcut keys to maneuver around the Web. I have done it for so long and have used AutoKey for a long time so as long as I can understand what the narrator is saying I’m fine.

But it seemed the Internet was slow or not working. I had my daughter change the connection to my Xanadoo modem.

Much better – I think it has only been down once in two weeks. And I have not noticed that much difference in speed between 256K wireless service and Comcast 10 Meg.

That is sad. Today I can see enough to write this but it is tedious to listen to the narrator read it back. I hope I am editing it OK.

Update for Sat July 12, 2008

On July 7, 2008 I called my personal Customer Service Rep, left another message, and still no response. So I called the 800 number. I did not track how long it took, didn’t want to throw my phone, but I do know I watched at least two sitcoms using my TiVo.

Got an appointment setup in less then 3 minutes. No questions, no comments except a tech will be there between 8 and 10 on July 8.

Amazing – fastest response ever. The guy even showed up at 805 but then it went down hill. He changed out my DVR but then spent over an hour with someone on the phone trying to get my box to initialize.

He was bitching about the customer service he was getting. I did not feel so bad, all people were treated the same, even technicians trying to do their job.

He called but could not find anyone close with a different box so he waited and waited and waited on customer service. Finally he talked to someone.

After some time and after I noticed that half my HD channels would not work and trying to get the CSR on the other end of his company phone to fix it, he asked if he could go back to the office and attempt to fix it there.

He would leave the call open and call me either that evening or tomorrow morning. Fine, whatever it takes.

He called that evening and it appeared he had all the problems fixed. He said he would check in the morning.

That night I am not sure what happened but something was not right and I no longer had the movie channels – not authorized and 3 or 4 of the HighDef channels I previously had were also not authorized.

He stopped back by the next morning telling me the codes on my account were all wrong and they ‘think’ they have them fixed. Finally on Friday the 11th he installed another box and all my problems seemed solved – the girl had finally gotten the codes right.

By this time, four days later, I was ready to give up. As soon as he left I turned the thing off and left.

My son dropped by and went through setting up my Favorites – I can not see very well – not even sure why I have TV – I can almost watch HighDef.

He reads the guide Comcast sent us in May dated April 30th, and just clicks on the channels I should be getting making them my favorites. All good but my movie channels are gone again.

I called and they told me they had to change all the codes on my account and since I had old codes, any changes knocked the old codes out.

Bullshit, I had just moved from Class Service to Digital Starter with no problems. The HD channels I wanted were suppose to be part of the Digital Starter package.

Finally she told me to get one particular HD channel and get my movies back it would cost me $16 more a month. Nope I wanted my $5 package back. Sorry, no longer available – I just had it four days ago.

Then she told but for a dollar more a month and move up one package I could get my movies back AND many more HD channels. I asked about one HD channel and she said it should be included. Fine.

She called it an upgrade to Preferred from Classic. Why the hell had she wasted so much of my time if they had a package with everything I wanted for only a dollar more a month.

I had my movies back and two more HD channels that I really wanted. Everyone happy except I had wasted several months paying one price when for a dollar more I could get a much better package.

Why had no one pointed this out whenever they were trying to sell me phone service or more premium movie channels.

I called my Personal Customer Service Rep to bitch – left a message but he never returned my call.

My patience is almost gone. I do not know if I will make it the six months.

Update For Thu July 3, 2008

Last evening (Jul 2) my DVR refused to record anything. About 8 pm the front panel went dark. I unplugged and left it unplugged – I did not feel like screwing with it.

This morning I plugged it back in not very happy I had missed my early morning shows. At 5:30 pm the guide for the evening’s MAJOR networks had not re-loaded.

I turned it off because sometimes it will load faster and tried to access ZipTv listings on the Internet. Comcast took four tries to load it.

I turned the DVR back on to tell it to record one show. I had to give it the time and station because the guide was showing to be announced.

I went to bed.

UPDATE

Jul 4th, at 8 am - I checked and the damn thing had not recorded the show from the night before or my morning shows.

This will be the second DCH6416 to be replaced since April. Let’s see – I’m paying $10 per month for the privilege of wasting my time on this worthless equipment.

I already know the answer but I want a refund. Quit laughing.

Update for June 21, 2008

So I did not get a bill for June and after several attempts to call Customer Service, twice I got hung up on.

I could not access the Comcast.com site to check on my account – it keeps timing out or just locking up.

I was getting very frustrated and finally gave up. Since they cannot seem to send me a bill, maintain their website and can’t answer the freaking phones properly, if they cut me off I will complain to the local franchising authority, call a buddy at the radio station and get the topic of ‘How Bad Has Comcast screwed you today’ on one of the shows and maybe write another letter to the editor.

If you don’t scream nothing happens. I’ve called my Personal Customer Service Rep keep leaving messages but still no response.

Last night my High Speed, Always On Internet wasn’t. I switched over to Xanadoo and it worked perfectly – I was even able to get my statement from June 3 printed.

And shortly after my Internet Modem came back to life.

It looks like the bill is right – 52.99 for digital starter pack – 10.00 dual tuner DVR – 5.00 for Movie pack – no charge for HD Tier standard.

Still getting my Internet for $20.00.

Now if only the damn stuff would work – I keep asking myself why I pay $80+ for something that does not work.

If I buy something at the sore and I am not happy or it does not work, I get a refund or exchange it.

I think the Cable and Cell Phone cables should be held to the same standards.

Hell, I have a Direct TV account out in the country – if the service is down or I can’t rent a movie they give me credits – and apologize.

Comcast just sticks it in farther while trying to sell you more crap you don’t have time to watch.

Sorry, off the soapbox – I wonder how Comcast expects to keep me as a customer with service like this. But I did promise them a six-month trial.

Update for Friday May 23, 2008

I have called my personal customer service rep several times and left messages. No return calls so that promise lasted about two weeks if that long.

Comcast decided for me what three of my old email addresses were going to be. They just added 1s or 3s or 7s to the end of the previous address.

Why didn’t the person that had the email address the longest get to keep the address and the other Comcast customer have to add numbers to the end?

Really fair Comcast.

I ended up calling Comcast regular customer service because I was missing some HiDef channels.

After almost an hour wait the nice lady told me I needed the Digital Starter Package which was only a dollar or two more then the package I now had. But since I had both Internet and a movie pack (Encore) she could give me a break on the DVR and in the end I would get all the missing HD channels and save a dollar on my bill.

First, how long had I been getting screwed? The DVR had been $10 since they took over but I had been paying 14 or 15 a month.

Oh well, I’ll eat it – I’m sure I have misunderstood something someplace.

So now I have access to a few more HD channels but there is nothing to watch – they all suck. The ones that look interesting I don’t get. I’ll have to check into that.

I know, I’ll call my Personal Customer Service Rep. Let’s see, five calls – left five messages – 0 responses.

Great way to treat a customer since 1980 – I can not remember the company name in 1980 but the service was pretty damn good.

Update for Friday May 2, 2008

It has been a week and after three calls to my personal customer service rep, no returned calls.

So it looks like I am on my own again. I can’t use my Internet connection about half the time I would like. When it works it seems to be just fine. When it fails, it just sucks.

Xanadoo almost always works. Occasionally the modem seems to lose signal and it has to search for home. Usually it had found home and is working fine before the Xanadoo technicians can answer the phone.

For twenty bucks a month, I can not complain.

I have noticed many HighDef channels appearing on the Guide. I can tune a few but many say Not Authorized. I’ll let my son add them to my Favorites.

Has anyone else experienced extreme pauses between pressing a button on the remote and getting the DCH6416 to respond?

Or giving it several commands and the darn thing locking up requiring resetting the box by unplugging the power cable from the back?

Or not recording what you asked? Last night I randomly picked a show and set an alarm for it’s start. I watched the unit start recording the show but 10 seconds later it stopped. The show was not in Recorded Programs nor in the Scheduled Recordings.

I hit the record button and the show recorded fine.

I called my Personal Customer Service Rep. After waiting an hour with no response I called the 800 line – after an hour of waiting I gave up.

I do not have hours to waste on this useless service. Either it works or not.

Update For Friday April 25, 2008

Things were going fairly well until Wed morning - none of the local sites (newspapers, radio stations, gas prices) would load. I could get to the east coast but that was it. I waited about a half hour then plugged in Xanadoo to finish my morning surf.

About an hour later I started pinging a few places to see if things had improved BUT the ping times were so high and I noticed the routes had changed dramatically - then I remembered I was using Xanadoo. I switched to Comcast and still could not get to the local newspaper. Xanadoo had just loaded it but Comcast told me it did not respond. Whatever.

I ran errands and took a nap. The following 24 hours were up and down. Yesterday morning same thing but I noticed with ping plotter I was not losing packets and some of the routing had changed drastically - to the point I thought I was back on Xanadoo and even got up to switch the cable.

Even though everything looked great in pingplotter - I could not load gmail, Google Reader, or Yahoo and then it got weird - like the DNS servers went offline.

I changed to Xanadoo and everything was happy. I spent quite a bit of time doing some reasearch and did not notice any difference until I tried to look up some images and I remembered I was on a 256K line.

So things have been good except minor outages.

I've called my personal customer service rep at the local office but he has not returned my call. No panic yet - but darn I hope things are not going backwards.

Has anyone ever had DVR recording 'pushed' to them? Several times my DVR has recorded things that I did not set up. They all seem to be 'new' shows that I have never seen scheduled before.

I have one of the new DCH6416 - larger HD for Hi-Def - a little better but the lag time between pushing remote button and action on he screen seems extremely long sometimes. And the front panel is a white LCD so I can not tell if it has 'seen' the button push and is waiting or if it has missed it.

So still not totally stable but much better then a few weeks ago.

We found it

Remember the letter and check sent to the local Comcast office on March 17, 2008 by my father? It was returned today with a post it note that said it was found on her desk and because of the date of the check and the fact the account has a credit balance she felt it best to return everything to him as was.

The check was dated March 17, 2008. The letter accompanying the check requested an address change - the only request made and it was done on or about that date. And then the letter sat for almost 30 days until it was returned my mail yesterday and received by him today.

At least we now know where the payment went - why I was disconnected for a week will probably never be explained.

Comcast Broadband or whatever it is being called is still a hit and miss on speed and latency but tonight I have been surprised - it appears packet loss is almost zero and ping times are under 20 ms to everywhere. It has been a long time since I have seen this stability or speed but I figure in an hour it will be a different story -if not I'll be back to post.

Update 2008-04-14

I've spent the last 3 or4 days testing the Comcast High Speed Internet after I was re-connected last Tuesday April 8. The techs made two visits that day. The first came out because customer service said my modem was showing the wrong configuration. He got here and figured out it would be real hard to show anything because it was unplugged. He hooked it back up and it was working great. Checked all my Comcast/InsightBB mail. Everything looked great.

Then the account was disconnected by corporate - I am not sure why - they were suppose to be fixing it. Two other techs came out late evening and spent an hour trying to get me back online. They replaced the modem and after several calls they finally got me back online.

The next day I discovered I could not get to two of the email accounts I had transferred to Comcast from Insight - I have 3 others I have not transferred because I can not keep those account names - already in use by other Comcast customers - and I am still able to access them through InsightBB.

I no longer call Comcast customer service- I have a Chicago number that gets to me to my own Comcast representative at the local office. He has been absolutely great and is completely aware of all my past problems.

I called about my email accounts and he gave me to a tech that upgraded me to the next level. She told me since I had disconnected my account I lost all my email addresses and wanted a new address.

Now you can imagine my surprise - first I had not disconnected my account - they had - second, I have had one of those account names since Insightbb was first introduced - I was one of the original users I guess because four of my accounts were initials like ABC(at)insightbb.com or XYZ(at)insightbb.com. I picked them at my grandchildren were born. And third, the primary account still worked fine - it just did not show any of my secondary accounts.

Anyway I told her that was unacceptable and I would contact my corporate service person. Amazingly after not being able to find them for 10 minutes she found them but the system would not let her turn them back on or whatever she called it. She created a ticket number and said she would send it to some one that could help. Fine.

About five minutes later, one of the accounts starting working again (I use Thunderbird and POP with Comcast/Insight and Imap with Google). But the other still had not come back.

I only had a few minutes to screw with it this morning so I called Customer Service and they said the ticket number was invalid. Here we go again. I didn't really want to bother my local contact but then again, that is what he is here for.

So minor glitch with email and secondary accounts.

I am still having big issues with dropped packets (go to my dslReports - upper left corner of this blog). The latency is under 30ms constantly so the lag is bad since I guess the lost packets are received much faster. But when I have 1000 Sacks in one file download - I figure I still have a problem.

Speeds are all over the place but that could just be the Internet. Tracerts staying within Comcast's local and Chicago networks are still showing packet lost but not as bad. Tracerts outside are well - beyond their control but the only routers losing packets or not responding are inside the Comcast network.

I tried to access a Yahoo account right before I started this posting at 6:33pm - A reload was requested twice and now at 6:55pm the screen still shows loading. But weirdly I am also seeing Transferring data from www.blogger.com.... at the bottom of this screen but all I am doing is typing this post.

Hope I can post this message - guess I better copy it to NotePad before I try. If there are no other comments then it posted normally. If there are further comments after this statement they are not going to be nice.

Check out the packets retransmitted and ACKS and SACKS numbers - and this was one of the better tests - sigh.

WEB100 Enabled Statistics:
Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
checking for firewalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
running 10s outbound test (client-to-server [C2S]) . . . . . 950.0kb/s
running 10s inbound test (server-to-client [S2C]) . . . . . . 6.11Mb/s

------ Client System Details ------
OS data: Name = Windows XP, Architecture = x86, Version = 5.1
Java data: Vendor = Sun Microsystems Inc., Version = 1.6.0_03

------ Web100 Detailed Analysis ------
10 Mbps Ethernet link found.
Link set to Full Duplex mode
No network congestion discovered.
Good network cable(s) found
Normal duplex operation found.

Web100 reports the Round trip time = 30.78 msec; the Packet size = 1380 Bytes; and
There were 125 packets retransmitted, 528 duplicate acks received, and 555 SACK blocks received
The connection stalled 12 times due to packet loss
The connection was idle 2.78 seconds (27.79%) of the time
C2S throughput test: Packet queuing detected: 0.40%
S2C throughput test: Packet queuing detected: 12.06%
This connection is receiver limited 10.79% of the time.
This connection is sender limited 1.66% of the time.
This connection is network limited 87.55% of the time.

Web100 reports TCP negotiated the optional Performance Settings to:
RFC 2018 Selective Acknowledgment: ON
RFC 896 Nagle Algorithm: ON
RFC 3168 Explicit Congestion Notification: OFF
RFC 1323 Time Stamping: OFF
RFC 1323 Window Scaling: ON

Server 'miranda.ctd.anl.gov' is probably behind a firewall. [Connection to the ephemeral port failed]
Client is probably behind a firewall. [Connection to the ephemeral port failed]
Information: Network Middlebox is modifying MSS variable
Server IP addresses are preserved End-to-End
Client IP addresses are preserved End-to-End

So far I am not sure - still having the same issues but not as often. I think the routing has improved. I was also told the C4s were wide open to see if the local system could handle the power boost - that's why I see 32000+ speeds once in a while.

But I am still losing lots of packets.

This router (listed below) can not be in hartford CT because if it is I am going to Chicago, then SouthBend IN then Hartford CT then back to CHI where I jump on Level 3. I figure they are all in chicago and changing reverse DNS records is not high on the list.

This router consistently loses 40+ percent of the packets so it is overloaded or broken or simply needs some TLC. The first number (43) is percentage of packets lost, then familiar IP address and DNS name.




I've left default DNS servers in place but I have noticed that 60 to 70 percent of the time I am talking to the server supposedly located in Michigan and listed second. I found that bad.

I'll be switching to a faster set of DNS servers, at least they use to be, later - wanted to try everything factory for a bit.

Things are still not stable - check out this line quality test:

http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/nil/2372847


And I've lost access to my comcast.net mail accounts again - login failed.

Still lots of hesitation to google and blogspot - I did not see that on Xanadoo but Xanadoo gets there in less then 8 hops (if memory serves) with no packet loss and Comcast takes 12 hops with 2 or 3 of the hops losing packets.

And for some reason ftp transfers stall about 1K in.

So jury still out but at least I have not gotten so frustrated I switch to Xanadoo.

Latest update

Two techs came but could not get my modem to work or register with my account number. They installed a new modem with same result.

After several calls they finally got it working with the new modem. I think they had to treat me like a new customer to get it working.

Something had happened at corporate office I’m just not sure what.

Spoke too soon – something is not right – Thunderbird can not login to any of my Comcast.net accounts – invalid login.

My insight accounts still work OK. Something is weird. I can check insight accounts but when I send mail it never appears – should not say never - I waited for 10 minutes to check again.

Now I can access Comcast.net accounts. Oh well, I’ll test it in the morning.

Here is the last speed test to my favorite site. I have been getting very consistent readings for the last hour. I hope it lasts.



WEB100 Enabled Statistics:
Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
checking for firewalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
running 10s outbound test (client-to-server [C2S]) . . . . . 1.10Mb/s
running 10s inbound test (server-to-client [S2C]) . . . . . . 945.46kb/s

------ Client System Details ------
OS data: Name = Windows XP, Architecture = x86, Version = 5.1
Java data: Vendor = Sun Microsystems Inc., Version = 1.6.0_03

------ Web100 Detailed Analysis ------
10 Mbps Ethernet link found.
Link set to Full Duplex mode
No network congestion discovered.
Good network cable(s) found
Normal duplex operation found.

Web100 reports the Round trip time = 54.24 msec; the Packet size = 1380 Bytes; and
There were 5 packets retransmitted, 0 duplicate acks received, and 0 SACK blocks received
The connection stalled 1 times due to packet loss
The connection was idle 0.26 seconds (2.36%) of the time
C2S throughput test: Packet queuing detected: 0.28%
S2C throughput test: Packet queuing detected: 41.16%
This connection is receiver limited 95.62% of the time.
This connection is network limited 2.91% of the time.

Web100 reports TCP negotiated the optional Performance Settings to:
RFC 2018 Selective Acknowledgment: ON
RFC 896 Nagle Algorithm: ON
RFC 3168 Explicit Congestion Notification: OFF
RFC 1323 Time Stamping: OFF
RFC 1323 Window Scaling: ON

Server 'miranda.ctd.anl.gov' is probably behind a firewall. [Connection to the ephemeral port failed]
Client is probably behind a firewall. [Connection to the ephemeral port failed]
Information: Network Middlebox is modifying MSS variable
Server IP addresses are preserved End-to-End
Client IP addresses are preserved End-to-End

Latest Update

During the posting of my last message I got a call from a local Comcast person who asked how it was going. I told him not well and explained my disconnected Internet Service.

He asked to call me back, he wanted to make sure he could get a tech back here tonight.

Less then 10 minutes later he called back and informed me a tech was on the way. He also told me his boss had just handed him my email from this afternoon sent at about 1:50 pm.

Quick response. He also gave great news of the credits to my account – more then generous.

And I also have his direct number if I have any further problems.

And tomorrow he will call again to setup installation of a new DVR with a larger HD that might solve my HD recording problems.

Tech is not here yet so we’ll see.

And while I typed the last sentence in my doubting typeface, the tech called, I switched modems back to Comcast and I am still disconnected. He is on his way.

We’ll see.

I can not believe it

I switched back to Xanadoo and read the response from Customer service – I blew a gasket – simply put, they told me to go to the local office, gave me 3 or 4 addresses of where they were (most were 30 or 40 minutes away) and told me to bring 2 pieces of valid ID to reconcile my account.

What the f##k is wrong with my account? It is paid in full and better have a f##king credit on it – a big one. I was not very nice when I responded to their stupid response.

They did tell me my email went to two places, both 3 or 4 groupings of letters like CVD and SDFG (I typed random letters) with no indication of what or whom the letters represented.

I still can not believe it. This is so over the top. I just looked up Dish and DirectTV numbers and checked to see how much a higher speed Xanadoo connection would cost me.

Suggestions on Sat TV?

Amazing Results But is it fixed?

I chatted online with Comcast at about 11:45 am and another truck was scheduled to roll at 8 am tomorrow. The quickest response I ever got – but it gets better.

I crafted the Open Email to Comcast and sent it about 1:51 pm. Shortly after 2 pm I answered the door to a Comcast tech. At 2:02 pm I got a response from corporate (I cc the message to corporate) that he would escalate my problem.

I guess he did.

The tech checked my signals and he reconnected my modem and I switched the cat-5 from the Xanadoo modem to the Comcast RCA modem.

My computer immediately reported the change and I verified the DNS servers were correct.

First test I ran was ping plotter to Google. Ping times were under 20 but packet lost was still 25% at router in Chicago.

Packet loss to gmail was only 15% at a different router.

Speed test to speakeasy Chicago was 26946/1623. Awfully fast. Tech said he wished he could get that speed at home. He also warned they would not last.

Currently it is 17666/1256

DSLreports:
Download: 4728 (Kbps) Upload: 701 (Kbps)

Just now at about 3:42 pm I lost all service – TV and Internet – looks like everything was reset.

My IP address is the same – DNS servers have changed and I can not get any site to load. Weird.

Just reloaded Firefox and I’m getting a welcome to Comcast page wanting me to download some software. Not today. I’ve been shutoff.

Why do they screw with it when everything was working half way decent? I’ll give it whatever time it takes to finish this and then I’ll go back to Xanadoo modem and give up again.

Just checked Thunderbird and it can’t open any mail servers to see if I got a customer service response or explanation and I’m getting a Comcast Welcome screen. They’ve shut off my Internet Access.

Guess I’ll just go back to Xanadoo. What a bunch of crap.

To be absolutely certain I unhooked the Comcast modem (from everything and let it act like a paperweight while I made a sandwich – lost another lunch hour thanks to Comcast) and plugged it back in.

Still going to Comcast Welcome Page. Back to Xanadoo I go. I think the last nail in the coffin was just driven.

Open Email to Comcast Customer Service

Private Information Has been deleted.

Dear #####, I am ######### that traded emails with you concerning a posting I made on dslReports.
No one, including the Illinois Leadership Team, has contacted me about my problems and the online chat from this morning resulted in me writing the following Open Email to Comcast support just now:

Thanks for your help.
=====================

This is an Open Email to Comcast Customer Service in Chicago, Illinois written April 8, 2008 early afternoon:

Dear Comcast Customer Service,


One week ago I sent an email requesting the status of my account and problems. As of today I have not received a response or any calls. One week before that I was assured that the Illinois Leadership Team would contact me - I assumed they would do so quickly.

My problem was to be escalated to a higher level almost a month ago - it was painfully obvious that my problem has not been escalated when I chatted with a Customer Service Representative online this morning. His solution was to roll another truck - my modem has the wrong configuration.

I wonder how he was able to determine this since A)I was not using Comcast Internet Service to chat - I was forced to get a backup Internet Service Provider and B) My modem is currently acting as a paper weight holding down the only communication I have received from your company addressed to me personally - your new rate schedule and channel lineup which I must say was the most confusing piece of literature I have read recently and I used to be a college professor and a UNIX computer consultant so I should be able to understand just about anything that comes across my desk even though my sight is going and I am getting old.

Since it is obvious my problems are not under consideration and I am about to waste another half day as a prisoner in my home waiting for a tech that will probably not be able to solve my problems, like the three before him, I have a few requests.

Oh, by the way I have copies of the 20+ emails I have traded with Comcast Customer Service. I have copies of the dozen if not two dozen online chats I have had with customer service and I have video of the cell phone screens of the 5+ hours I have 'waited' on the phone for the next available service rep. I can provide these if it might help solve my problem. You can also visit adventinlife.blogspot.com which is my blog showing screen dumps of my problems and dialogs of my situations.

Here are my requests:

1) Please escalate my problems to someone that can solve it the first time. I'd also like a ticket number that anyone in your company can reference so that I can stop repeating myself.

2) I would like credit for the one week service interruption I was forced to accept because your local office could not process my payment properly. I know the payment was received because the letter accompanying my payment requested an address change. It was the only request for an address change and the change occurred the day they would have received payment assuming that the US mail service worked properly which is a fair assumption since other bills sent on the same day were posted properly. I do not know what happened to that payment but one week later a second payment was made in person to make sure I had a receipt and could continue my service, I use that term lightly laughing.

The address change request made in the payment (addressed to the local office) and the letter to acknowledge receipt went un-answered even though a self-addressed envelope was provided with the payment.

I would also like credit for the $4.95 Administration Charge I can only assume was either a late charge or charge for changing my address. I didn't receive any additional services to warrant the charge and if it costs for me to make changes to my account, well someone at corporate should review the customer retention rates or customer satisfaction levels - they can not be very high.

3) I want credit for the HIGH SPEED Internet Service I have not received since February 21, 2008 when you took over the service and my problems started.

4) If you wish me to continue using your Internet Service I would like to be enrolled in the $19.95 six-month special you are currently advertising. I was told that was only for new customers - I am a new customer, since January of 2008. I do not want to be charged for this change. Effectively I will be putting you on probation for 6 months.

5) Could I please get a DVR with a larger hard drive and one that records those programs I request in High Def dependably. If you are going to advertise a dual tuner DVR capable of recording High Def programming I would like one of those NOT the current DVR that shows my High Def scrambled from either a) a bad signal b) not enough memory or c) inability to download the many times incorrect TV schedule AND decode the signal AND respond to the remote control.

Hopefully the new one it has enough capacity to hold at least one NASCAR race without deleting a previously recorded unwatched show and then giving up because the hard disk is still too full but only has 3 or 4 low def one-hour shows in the directory.

If not, oh well, my Tivo can still do the job. It just irritates me that I had to buy a device to supplement the device (for which I am paying a monthly rental fee) to receive a high definition signal for my very expensive high def TV of the present which from the description of your services I should be enjoying immensely. I think that enjoyment might actually be a thing of the future, if ever, with your current equipment.

IF YOU ARE SKIMMING HERE IS A IMPORTANT PARAGRAPH:

If you can not provide these, I think, reasonable requests please let me know. I will contact the local franchising authority and lodge my complaints with them and I will promptly cancel all of your services and contact my lawyer.


This has gone past acceptable to laughable and incredulous.

Here is my pertinent information that should allow someone, with enough authority to solve my problems, to contact me. And don't forget, you also have this email address that my NEW Internet Service Provider has not yet failed to monitor and provide to my computer.

Contact and Account Information
========================
############
############
Springfield, IL #####

Comcast Acct #: ############5488

Telephone Number the account is under: 217.###.#### (Don't call 217.###.#### - I do not know whose number it is - it was never mine and I have no idea how it ended up on my account).

The number I can be reached at: 217.###.#### - <>: Do NOT make this the phone associated with my account - it is NOT my phone - I am borrowing it in case I lose Internet Service again. Email is usually my only form of communication beside direct person-to-person contact.

Thank you for your help.

Sent from IP address ##.###.###.## Xanadoo 256K wireless modem

Not Alone

I’ve been reading the local newspaper of a small town about 30 miles away about all of the problems their town folks have had with the Comcast switch over.

Today, a popular local radio station had a discussion about Comcast and the phones calls and stories rolled in – they spent an hour on the issue. There were good and bad stories but mainly bad.

So on one hand I am glad to not be alone but on the other hand I have confirmed my worst fears – their customer service is non-existent.

Today marks two weeks since someone was suppose to contact me. It has been one week since I sent my last email message requesting the status of my account.

As of this moment I have heard absolutely nothing. No phone calls – no emails (except automated response that they did get my email from last week) – no resolution.

I did get a letter telling me how much my services would cost in the future but it was so confusing I ignored it for now – service is not working properly anyway – why would I add services.

When something does not work I either A) return it B) throw it away C) raise hell. D) (kids might be reading)

Today it is time for option C. And if I get no results – option D which I will not list since there may be children reading this.

One more request and then I will ignore them. Won’t do much good but at least I will not be supporting a lost cause.

March 31, 2008 Update

I've not tried Comcast Modem for a few days and have not heard ANYTHING from Comcast - either the Corporate person nor the Illinos leadership team.

Last message was March 25, 2008 telling me the Ilinois team would reach out to me about my experience.

I realized that corporate did not say they would fix it, just that they would reach out.

So I sent an email asking about the status of my problem. Guess the response.

Here's a few speed tests.









And my favorite test - screen one:
=========================================
TCP/Web100 Network Diagnostic Tool v5.5.1
click START to begin
Connected to: miranda.ctd.anl.gov -- Using IPv4 address
Another client is currently being served, your test will begin within 90 seconds
Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
checking for firewalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
running 10s outbound test (client-to-server [C2S]) . . . . . 517.0kb/s
running 10s inbound test (server-to-client [S2C]) . . . . . . 333.06kb/s
The slowest link in the end-to-end path is a 10 Mbps Ethernet subnet
Information: Other network traffic is congesting the link
[S2C]: Packet queuing detected

click START to re-test
=========================================



And the statistics screen:
=========================================
WEB100 Enabled Statistics:
Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
checking for firewalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
running 10s outbound test (client-to-server [C2S]) . . . . . 517.0kb/s
running 10s inbound test (server-to-client [S2C]) . . . . . . 333.06kb/s

------ Client System Details ------
OS data: Name = Windows XP, Architecture = x86, Version = 5.1
Java data: Vendor = Sun Microsystems Inc., Version = 1.6.0_03

------ Web100 Detailed Analysis ------
10 Mbps Ethernet link found.
Link set to Full Duplex mode
Information: throughput is limited by other network traffic.
Good network cable(s) found
Normal duplex operation found.

Web100 reports the Round trip time = 42.61 msec; the Packet size = 1380 Bytes; and
There were 5 packets retransmitted, 14 duplicate acks received, and 0 SACK blocks received
The connection stalled 1 times due to packet loss
The connection was idle 0.25 seconds (2.27%) of the time
C2S throughput test: Packet queuing detected: 0.92%
S2C throughput test: Packet queuing detected: 50.14%
This connection is sender limited 1.58% of the time.
This connection is network limited 98.42% of the time.

Web100 reports TCP negotiated the optional Performance Settings to:
RFC 2018 Selective Acknowledgment: ON
RFC 896 Nagle Algorithm: ON
RFC 3168 Explicit Congestion Notification: OFF
RFC 1323 Time Stamping: OFF
RFC 1323 Window Scaling: ON

Server 'miranda.ctd.anl.gov' is probably behind a firewall. [Connection to the ephemeral port failed]
Client is probably behind a firewall. [Connection to the ephemeral port failed]
Information: Network Middlebox is modifying MSS variable
Server IP addresses are preserved End-to-End
Client IP addresses are preserved End-to-End
=========================================


Latency looks good - I'm getting pings in the 20-40 for the most part but still losing packets - especially where local servers attached to Chicago servers.

I started writing this at 5:43 pm. I tried to get to my Yahoo mail account. The screen showed loading and still does. I hit reload twice and clicked the bookmark a second time.

Draft autosave had failed two or three times since I started this post.

So I'll go back to Xanadoo at 256k - it is plenty fast for me.

If my DVR would quit acting up I'd be even happier - it failed to record the race yesterday and last night I got the dreaded 100% full message when a recording was due to start. It's been 3 years I've been getting that message and two different DVRs. I figure that is probably how long it'll take to get my high speed account fixed.

So things have not changed.

Posting to dslReports

Anybody in Springfield, IL. having connection problems with comcast - I suggest looking at Xanadoo - I got the 256/128kbps service as a backup as Comcast and I were having a disagreement.

I've been a cable Internet customer since 2003 - 10 meg (well we all know what a laugh that is) since last summer.

Since Feb 21, 2008 I am not sure what I have but it says Comcast High Speed Internet - 3 service calls, 20-25 emails, Email exchanged with supposed Comcast executive, 20 - 30 chats and I have no idea how many calls (more then 20) or how many minutes wasted on hold.

Xanadoo at 256/128 is sometimes faster then Comcast 10.0 especially on text sites and so far it has not FAILED to load a web site. Heavy graphics slows it down but at least I am getting what I paid for.

See »adventinlife.blogspot.com/ for my story.

On Tues, March 25 I was told the Illinois Leadership Team would be contacting me to quickly resolve my problem. This info came from a Comcast corporate executive (supposedly).

On March 14, 2008, two weeks ago a comcast tech spent about an hour with me and took a printout to show his boss hopefully getting my problem escalated to the next level.

Have not heard a word from either and my RCA cable modem is working perfectly as a paperweight. I switch to it every so often to check and make sure but so far I've been wasting my time.

Either A) Comcast does not know HOW to fix the problem or B) They are too BIG to care.

If you do lots of downloading, Xanadoo is NOT for you. Not sure about gamers - they can tell you.

But if you simply surf the web and update a few websites/blogsites and answer a few emails everyday check into it. I hear they will soon cap your downloads monthly but everyone will be doing that so who cares.

Xanadoo does offer higher speeds - I just have not found a need personally to need them.

More fuel for the fire

This morning I had mail directing me to a special place at comcast.net to transfer my mail accounts. Out of 6 accounts only 2 will have the same name. I must have been one of the first insightbb customers to sign up as I used the initials of my grandkids to get accounts for them. I also setup web pages for them on the day they were born. And on their parents birthdays I sent greetings to them from their kids accounts - always a big hit.

Well, 4 of my accounts will have new names and so far I can not find out what will happen to the webpages I have out there. I'll probably lose them.

And good old customer service - when I first started transferring the mail accounts I could not find a FAQ or setup instructions for any mail program, such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird etc. So I called Customer Service and asked if Comcast mail service was POP3 or Web based or both. She told me she knew for sure they were only web based.

I was not going to bother changing any of the email accounts. As I was trying to back out and get logged off I saw something about setting up Outlook Express and knew customer service was worthless again. I do not know why I bother to call.

So I'm losing my grandkids email addresses (and evidently their webpages) and just now when trying to send a test message it failed - not sure why - probably need to change something in Thunderbird. Guessing Comcast.net does not use normal ports so here we go again.

I remember being told via letter or commercial that this would be an easy conversion. Please, please, when does the easy part come in??

Oh yeah, you'd figure a big company like Comcast would at least make sure you were accessing your account and mail setup using their network, you know, have to be on Comcast network (which means you must have an account someplace to gain access) to change any account or mail information.

Well guess what, I used my Xanadoo modem to access their mail change program and to access my account etc. Don't like that - anyone having access to the servers that have my private information? Nope, not good.

Final Judgement

I've been fighting my Comcast problem since Feb 21st, actually longer if you count the time I've been waiting for a bill. Tonight it appeared many of the latency issues had been fixed but the speeds are all over the place. Of course as I've discovered if you have good latency and no packet lost your connection runs very smoothly.

Just ran some speed tests - all over the place and I just pinged this sight after waiting almost 2 minutes for the blog to display. Here are the results for a few mintues ago and just now:





Almost exactly the same as two hours ago but two hours ago I could upload to the blog with no problems. A few moments ago I was waiting several seconds and sometimes minutes for uploads or downloads.

So its Wednesday - On Friday I'll decide if Comcast is going to stay in my house. Since I have not been able to use my connection or TV for a week - actually my Internet connection has been worthless since Feb 21st - and the absolutely worthless customer service experience I've had I figure a nice big refund for worthless service is due.

But we'll let them decide how badly they want me to be a customer. So far the month of March 2008 has not been a good experience.

Modem level checks

Modem levels screen today....



And on March 15 after last tech visit.

AdventsInLife PingPlot

Wunderground PingPlot

PingPlotter PingPlot

Yahoo PingPlot

MySpace.com PingPlot

Google PingPlot

Gmail.com PingPlot

Download.com PingPlot

Comcast PingPlot

BlogSpot PingPlot

DNS Servers

I emailed a Comcast corporate employee (at least I think he is) with entries from this blog late Tuesday afternoon, March 25, 2008. He advised that he would get the Illinois Team on the problem. As of 19:24 hours on March 26, 2008 I have not been contacted.

But I decided to check Comcast one last time. The next few messages will show the ping plots - to compare old with new click on the site name under the Labels section on the right hand side of the screen and all posts about that web site will come up.

I can not believe the difference in latency - even though the speed seems slower.

These are images from PingPlotter 2 - that shows routing, Latency, and Packet Loss. This is much like tracert just with pictures and each router is quizzed to get a better overall picture. The first hop is ignored.

Click on an image to see it full size.

An unusual solution (Part 2)

So now I have a phone. I decided to call Comcast and find out what had happened. Tues evening, March 18, 2008 I tried to call the local number for cable TV - it has been the same number for years - I think since 1981 when cable was first introduced to this area - at least that was the year I first had it hooked up.

At 1025 pm I had been on hold for 42 minutes - call never answered. At 1048 pm I had been on hold for 21 minutes - call never answered. At 1121 pm I had been on hold for 28 minutes - call never answered. At 1143 pm I had been on hold for 20 minutes. I know this because I made a video of my new phone's screen which shows number called and how long I had been on that call. All total I wasted 111 minutes waiting for someone to take my call and listening to that poor lady repeat herself (I counted to 25 times before I stopped once) that all representatives are still busy - but you know I don't think she ever says thank you - I might be wrong but I don't hear that phrase on the tape.

I was willing to charge on a credit card whatever amount needed to get my Internet back up.

Suggestion for Comcast -when you disconnect someone's Internet Service I realize you simply change the 'network' the user can access. Since I was using non-Comcast DNS servers, I could still 'get' to Comcast's main web page but could not access the customer service side to pay my bill.

I suggest you make the customer login page the 'default' page for disconnects so that
people can make payments on their bills online even when disconnected. It's a wired world now and if you are not going to answer your phones then this might work better. Plus if someone simply forgets to pay their bill or like me, they don't get a bill telling them the amount due, they can get things back to normal without doing anything but sitting at their computer.

Might save hundreds of hours of customer service representatives time.
So, I had been disconnected for over 24 hours and I could not get anyone on the phone. The next step was to visit the local office and raise hell.

But I also decided that I needed a backup for the Internet. DSL was out – no land line – line of site wireless providers were out – my neighborhood has hundreds of 100+ year old trees. I look out any direction from my second story and I can see nothing but trees – I love it.

But I remembered a new outfit was in town that offered wireless high speed Internet using old or existing cell phone networks.

I tried calling Comcast and went to the billing section of the menu since I now knew what phone number my account was under and it told me service had been disconnected and gave me two options to pay my bill, by check or credit card.

But I never got to a ‘real’ person. I tried again ignoring all questions about my phone number and got a live person that I told the payment mailed two days would take 10 business days to post – when I pointed out we had been told to send it to the local office she told me 5 business days.

Ok, weird because another check mailed at the same time as the Comcast payment to local business had cleared that morning (Wed – one day turn around).

I visited my favorite computer recycling center and got a Xanadoo high speed wireless modem. $100 plus tax and out the door we went. Total time – 10-15 minutes and had to wait a few minutes for the guy ahead of us.

My dad suggested we try it on his computer first since it did not matter what computer you hooked to or where in the city you set it up.

Less then 30 minutes later (and it could have been much faster if I read the manual) we were online at 256(down)/128(up) - their slowest speed.

I brought the modem home and plugged it into my system and at first had problems but remembered that I had hard coded the DNS servers in place and I was trying to use Comcast DNS servers to access the Xanadoo network. Once I changed that I was back online.

I had to change the way I do things – like I can’t ask for 5 web pages at a time but I can do two. If I’m watching NASA TV then some sites take a moment to load.
It NEVER misses getting my Yahoo mail accounts (5 of them) but it does take a full minute to get them all.

My ping times are higher then what I am use to but I am fine with them now. The greatest improvement. No latency problems – no dropped packets – no 200 re-transmits in a file download and I get 256/128 kbps speeds constantly.

More later. So I’m back to life. At least part of the way. I called Comcast everyday to see if the check has been applied

Friday or Saturday morning, the 21st or 22nd I call again because I realize there is a Busch NASCAR race on that I will likely miss because I have no TV. Still no payment recorded.

I miss the race which really pissed me off but I watch the highlights on NASCAR.com at 256K – had to buffer a few times but it reminded me of the old days of dialup.

Yesterday I called again to check on my account. I got a real nice lady (girl I should say) that tried to get me connected to the local office. For whatever reason, if you have a past due balance the automated system directs you to a national call center instead of the local office.

She tried several times to get me connected to the local office and I noticed that the red light on my DVR had gone out. I checked and I had service back. I told her they must have received it because my TV was back but Internet was still down.

She told me she had done that and to give my modem a few minutes and it should come back online. She apologized for all the trouble.

I waited for a while but my modem never came back online. I unplugged it and it flashed lights and looked like it was coming back but then went back to one light. Then I remembered something a tech had told me many months ago.

I disconnected the modem completely; from the power, the cable and cat-5 cable. Five minutes later I reconnected and magic – my 10 meg connection was back. I unplugged the cat-5 from the Xanadoo modem and plugged it into the cable modem.

Firewall indicated a new network and I was back online. But the same ole, same ole. Ping times looked great but latency sucked. First DNS server was 9 hops away and a router supposedly in New Hampshire (but I don’t trust the names I see) was losing 75% of my packets.

Tried to look at a Google site and it timed out. Download test stalled twice due to packet lose. Speed reported as less then 4 meg once or twice. I spent a few hours online catching up with things but mainly testing the connection.

After it failed to update any of my Yahoo accounts I pulled the cat-5 out and put it back into the Xanadoo modem.

Xanadoo loaded text sites faster then Comcast. Comcast kicked Xanadoo’s butt loading 4 websites at the same time – once. Twice Comcast timed out one of the sites and once it gave me 404 error and another I got a DNS error.

Xanadoo never gave me an error and once the modem dropped out – lost signal for a moment - but it still loaded the web pages – just took a while.

I went to a Flickr page – Comcast loaded the first screen faster but it never finished loading the page. I waited for 30 seconds longer then the time Xanadoo had finished. Xanadoo took longer to show the first screen, I watched the photos ‘paint’ but it did completely load the page.

I decided to tweak the RWIN for each Internet modem - Xanadoo was set at 64240 and Comcast at 256960. I tried some tests again.

In the end I left the Xanadoo modem connected to the desktop. On blog sites it let me type a lengthy post and auto saved it every time and not once did it tell me the site was unavailable and dump my latest changes.

I discovered with Comcast I must use an offline editor to create my posts and then cut and paste and add the graphics later.

All in all Xanadoo works smoother then Comcast and I’ve been back on it since last night.

One thing that irks me. Buy this thing last week, sign up for a year to get a rebate on the modem and last Friday they announce monthly caps on downloads. I think 256k is 2 Gig. Hell this morning alone the NIC shows about 43 meg down and 4 meg up
At 2 gig I’ll need more by the 20th of the month. Might be a problem.

So anyway, got off topic a bit. My dad is very perturbed that a letter he sent Comcast with the payment had not been returned and the check has not cleared the bank. He decides we need to make a trip.

So we visit the local office. The girl checks and no payments posted. My father explains what he had included with the check and she goes into the business offices (I guess) and comes back saying she has checked everywhere the letter might be and can not find it.

We pay the bill again (it went up and I are not sure why). She processes the check as we stand there and returns the canceled check.

I ask for a copy of my bills. She hands me one dated March 1st - a past due notice. I ask for February – she can not give me that one because Insight sent it out – I have to contact Insight to get that bill.

Now I have talked to at least 30 different people at Comcast either by phone or chat or email since February 9. I have repeatedly asked for a copy of my February bill. They tell me they will send it.

One guy told me I can get it online but I can’t get any statements online – I have to wait for my next bill cycle or something like that.

Why is this one person the only person out of 30 that knows that February bills were put out by Insight and not Comcast but I still pay Comcast?

And so far I can’t find the payment I made on February 9th by phone listed anywhere but it should be on my March bill that I still have not seen.

She did tell me a ticket was started on my account I think on the 14th but it was resolved ? I wonder how and what the resolution was.

Now I know Comcast knows were I live – they have been here three times in the past two weeks and I received a letter telling me Insight was now Comcast. I also have received no less then 4 and more like 10 requests to give my TV, Internet and Phone business to Comcast for $90 a month although they are addressed to occupant. The card I’m staring at now makes me hungry – I don’t go to three different fast food joints to get my food – not my food.

Whoever wrote that must not have grandkids. They love McDonald’s fires, the oldest wants Wendy’s chicken, the middle wants McD cheeseburgers, the third likes all the veggies on a junior whopper. Luckily we are near a large business complex and all three plus more are in a one block area.

Anyway, I can’t get the $90 package deal because I am an existing customer – but it does not matter now – I already have a phone and a new smooth Internet provider.

Only thing I’m missing is TV – a friend has a set of rabbit ears he’s dropping by tonight. I have a High Def TV that costs me an extra $15 a month to see six or 8 high def channels on cable but I do like the DVR that came with it – but sitting right next to it is a Tivo w/DVD player. I think the Tivo will do High Def – just does not take a card or something. I forget why I could not use it.
I also discovered last week that after two years of bitching, I could have saved tons of money by subscribing to Internet only.

I was told to keep my current High Speed Internet package I had to have Basic and Digital TV service. That is correct. I still get my Internet for $35 a month – a $10 discount. But I could have been paying $45 a month for High Speed Internet ONLY and screw the TV which I very seldom watched anyway. I would have saved $55 a month or $1430 over the last two+ years when my sight started going.

Oh well, live and learn.

So I am now trying to figure out what to do with Comcast. I don’t really need them and it does not appear one hand knows what the other is doing and spending about 20 hours if not more waiting on the phone or for techs to show up and change this and that for no good reason I could see and the last one nodding his head and taking printouts to show my problems to his bosses.

And since February 21, spending many hours in front of a computer that could not access the Internet reliably for much longer then 10 minutes at a time well except for the 8 days they had me disconnected and a few hours last night.

And 10 days later nothing has changed. Nothing. I am not even sure my bill has been paid.

Well I do have TV back but I can’t see it. For some reason the High Def channels are scrambling really bad. That happened before because my signal was too low but they put a new ‘hot’ tap on to fix that but I think it might be gone now.

To be honest – I am/was a UNIX system admin and a consultant to several companies that used TCP/IP to connect several computers around the state together. I was their sole computer person for all needs for over 15 years – I wrote over 6,000 programs and scripts and programmed many a router and gateway in my time. Never had to mess with DNS – I knew where my computers were at.

Lost the jobs due to health problems but I always expected to go back to work – I even went back to college and took Cisco classes to get my network certification (which I never did).

I also was a full time college instructor for 8 or 9 years in the late 80s - early 90s teaching computers and programming and languages from BASIC to C to Pascal to Lisp.

I know my way around a network and computers.

So I think I have reached the end of this adventure. It sure did not lead to where I expected.

One other note – I did have a first time experience. My Xanadoo modem was dropping out quite a bit one day and the tech that answered the phone (no waiting at all – just a four-option front phone menu and he needed my last name) asked me to change the modem’s location.

Honest to Betsy, he asked me to put it outside my window since I have so many trees and very thick walls in this old place and it was a very nice day.
He told me he saw an immediate improvement. He could actually see my modem signal/quality levels and latency and ping times to the tower. And he also told me exactly where the towers were and how far I was away from them. I tried a different window with a 50’ cat-5 cable and got an even better signal.

I have never ever put a modem out a window before. I asked and he even called me back and said that it would probably do fine outside as long as it did not get wet.
I think I’ll build a little box for it with a roof and figure out a way to keep the squirrels and birds out.