Comcastic, My Eye!

I have my Internet Broadband service with Comcast. I remember when Comcast finally offered it in my area in December 2003 how quickly I couldn't wait to jump on the bandwagon. Dial-up was played out years ago and after getting usd to high speeds at the job, it was a drag coming home to dial-up.

I was so happy once I signed up with Comcast. Pages loaded way faster than with dial-up and downloads tooks merely seconds or a few minutes as opposed to many minutes and hours in the past.

For the most part, I never had any real issues with my Broadband service. That all changed this month. Two Saturdays ago, I was unable to get online period for over 6 hours. Then it somehow magically reconnected afterweards. The same thing happened Sunday. It was a bit of an annoyance but I figured the powers that be at Comcast were working on whatever issue is going on. But then my online connectivity problems persisted for a few days more after that. Things then were back to normal for a week or so. Until yesterday. I was unable to get online for the entire day. Well at least the hours that I wasn't working.

I called customer service (got someone offshore I'm sure) and the best he could do for me was schedule a service call. My service date is August 5th. Well I could've had July 31st but ummm, I sorta have to work...*LOL*. How annoying! I wonder if Paris Hilton called with connectivity issues if she'd have to wait that long for a service call. That's assuming she even knows what the Internet is. *LOL*.

And from what I've read in different message boards, the technicans at Comcastic don't know anything. It seems the norm customer service experience is to go several rounds with people constantly having to call until it gets escalated. I've heard rumors from the issue being their so-called "Power Boost" having bugs. Something about DOCSIS version 2.0 not working properly and going to a modem that still uses DOCSIS 1.0. I don't know if that's related to their FIRMWARE, which from what I understand they automatically upgrade for you without warning. But a lot of people seem to be having issues with Comcast, though at least the majority of them are able to connect. They just have issues with page loading, uploading, and downloading speeds, which I admit to occasionally having issues with myself if I'm actually able to get online.

Aside from DSL, I'm wondering if there's another game in town when it comes to Internet connection. I'm almost contemplating paying for a back-up dial-up service just in case I have future issues. It's annoying.

The kicker was that the Comcastic idiot I spoke to said that if they came and concluded that the issue was something involving my computer (which I seriously doubt), that they would have to charge $49.95 for the visit. Wow!

So how's everyone doing? :-)