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.
