rob (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ademus05) wrote,@ 2008-07-08 00:09:00 |
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Our internet is back! Resume transmission!
Yesterday marked the end of a half-month drama between me and Comcast, my internet provider. As I calculate it, I've stayed home for technicians 5 hours and spent about 9 hours on hold with Comcast, trying to explain the situation. I'll record my tale of woe here, in hopes it might help future generations.
* 2008-06-22 - Internet service goes out during the night at our home. I think nothing of it and go to sleep, assured it will reconnect in the morning.
* 2008-06-23 - Come morning, internet service still isn't repaired. I call Comcast and spend an hour on hold. They agree to send someone out to look at our connection. The problem fixes itself during the day
* 2008-06-24 - A technician looks at our cable line, fiddles with a wire, says there was some water in the cable screw connection. Leaves. Problem redevelops that night.
* 2008-06-25 - I call and ask for another technician. Again, another hour on hold. Problems persist all this time.
* 2008-06-27 - Second technician comes out, says that the voltage on the pole is too low and he can't fix the problem. He needs to call up a line technician. Enraged, I write a script to detail exactly when I do and don't have internet service (attached below)
* 2008-07-01 - I get a message from the line technician saying he came out yesterday and everything looked fine. I should turn my modem back on (it was on the entire time). Another hour on the phone with Comcast. They agree to send another technician, refund me starting at the 24th, and give me a credit of $20. My technician is nice, we talk about his undergrad program. He's taking internet classes at night for a major in Homeland Security.
* 2008-07-03 - Elite technician (number 3) calls at 8 in the morning, asks if my problem fixed itself, then sighs and says he'll be right there. He shows up 90 minutes later. After futzing and making 2-3 calls to his supervisor, he says that the voltage signal is too high, and he'll have to call the line crew for a 1 day rush job. I ask him to get a modem out of his truck just to double check that it's not my modem, and he says the voltages are too high and his supervisor won't let him. Later that evening, I call comcast again to see if the line crew came by, and they say "what line crew?" Turns out he never submitted an order and closed my account as being fixed. Janine the technician hearing my tale of woe and commiserates. We chat while she fills out the forms on her end. It turns out her grandfather was from New Orleans, though he died when she was just a child. She also knows programming, and uses C++. At the end of the call, she thanks me for being nice and not yelling, explaining that I have every right to be irate. She give me her personal extension, vows to get a manager to talk to me, and emails all the support managers in the company putting the heat on her supervisor. I get a manager and he apologizes profusely, says he can get another elite technician out by Sunday.
* 2008-07-06 8AM - Another elite technician comes out (number 4), says that technician 3 was lying outright. He gets a modem out of his truck, verifies that my modem is faulty, and says I should buy a hew one. I buy a new one.
* 2008-07-06 12PM - I plug in the modem and get a connection! Unfortunately, Comcast's servers are blocking my modem because they don't recognize it's serial number. I call up Comcast and ask Robert to push me through Wallgarden, their firewall program. While chatting with Robert, I discover he and Janine are good friends (they go to cookouts together). He has a daughter who just got a new cat that sleeps all a-kilter. 30 minutes in, Robert interrupts our conversation about Disneyworld fireworks to dig into why the Comcast servers aren't pushing me through. Turns out they are doing server maintenence and they have no idea when they will be finished. Robert breaks protocol and says he'll call me back when it's fixed.
* 2006-07-06 2PM - Robert calls back, says his shift is ending and it's not fixed yet. He tells me to call back at 6PM
* 2008-07-06 6PM - Richard the technician takes my call, walks me through the whole disconnection process despite my attempts to explain the full situation. Richard tries to convince me that red lights on my modem should be green, when they can't turn green. I eventually start reading off all the DNS server information and my ping information and he stops treating me like an idiot. He digs further, and finds out that since I tried to register my new modem while the server was down, something got fouled up on my account. He agrees to call me back when the help desk emails him back.
* 2008-07-06 10PM: I call Comcast, explain the situation. The tech on the phone is amazed at my knowledge of their internal systems. He pushes me through Wallgarden with no problems. The internet works perfectly.
What an ordeal. For anyone in the Baltimore area, if your Comcast cable breaks, be sure to contact Janine at extension 7124, because she's a good person. I hope none of you ever have to go through this.
Yesterday marked the end of a half-month drama between me and Comcast, my internet provider. As I calculate it, I've stayed home for technicians 5 hours and spent about 9 hours on hold with Comcast, trying to explain the situation. I'll record my tale of woe here, in hopes it might help future generations.
* 2008-06-22 - Internet service goes out during the night at our home. I think nothing of it and go to sleep, assured it will reconnect in the morning.
* 2008-06-23 - Come morning, internet service still isn't repaired. I call Comcast and spend an hour on hold. They agree to send someone out to look at our connection. The problem fixes itself during the day
* 2008-06-24 - A technician looks at our cable line, fiddles with a wire, says there was some water in the cable screw connection. Leaves. Problem redevelops that night.
* 2008-06-25 - I call and ask for another technician. Again, another hour on hold. Problems persist all this time.
* 2008-06-27 - Second technician comes out, says that the voltage on the pole is too low and he can't fix the problem. He needs to call up a line technician. Enraged, I write a script to detail exactly when I do and don't have internet service (attached below)
* 2008-07-01 - I get a message from the line technician saying he came out yesterday and everything looked fine. I should turn my modem back on (it was on the entire time). Another hour on the phone with Comcast. They agree to send another technician, refund me starting at the 24th, and give me a credit of $20. My technician is nice, we talk about his undergrad program. He's taking internet classes at night for a major in Homeland Security.
* 2008-07-03 - Elite technician (number 3) calls at 8 in the morning, asks if my problem fixed itself, then sighs and says he'll be right there. He shows up 90 minutes later. After futzing and making 2-3 calls to his supervisor, he says that the voltage signal is too high, and he'll have to call the line crew for a 1 day rush job. I ask him to get a modem out of his truck just to double check that it's not my modem, and he says the voltages are too high and his supervisor won't let him. Later that evening, I call comcast again to see if the line crew came by, and they say "what line crew?" Turns out he never submitted an order and closed my account as being fixed. Janine the technician hearing my tale of woe and commiserates. We chat while she fills out the forms on her end. It turns out her grandfather was from New Orleans, though he died when she was just a child. She also knows programming, and uses C++. At the end of the call, she thanks me for being nice and not yelling, explaining that I have every right to be irate. She give me her personal extension, vows to get a manager to talk to me, and emails all the support managers in the company putting the heat on her supervisor. I get a manager and he apologizes profusely, says he can get another elite technician out by Sunday.
* 2008-07-06 8AM - Another elite technician comes out (number 4), says that technician 3 was lying outright. He gets a modem out of his truck, verifies that my modem is faulty, and says I should buy a hew one. I buy a new one.
* 2008-07-06 12PM - I plug in the modem and get a connection! Unfortunately, Comcast's servers are blocking my modem because they don't recognize it's serial number. I call up Comcast and ask Robert to push me through Wallgarden, their firewall program. While chatting with Robert, I discover he and Janine are good friends (they go to cookouts together). He has a daughter who just got a new cat that sleeps all a-kilter. 30 minutes in, Robert interrupts our conversation about Disneyworld fireworks to dig into why the Comcast servers aren't pushing me through. Turns out they are doing server maintenence and they have no idea when they will be finished. Robert breaks protocol and says he'll call me back when it's fixed.
* 2006-07-06 2PM - Robert calls back, says his shift is ending and it's not fixed yet. He tells me to call back at 6PM
* 2008-07-06 6PM - Richard the technician takes my call, walks me through the whole disconnection process despite my attempts to explain the full situation. Richard tries to convince me that red lights on my modem should be green, when they can't turn green. I eventually start reading off all the DNS server information and my ping information and he stops treating me like an idiot. He digs further, and finds out that since I tried to register my new modem while the server was down, something got fouled up on my account. He agrees to call me back when the help desk emails him back.
* 2008-07-06 10PM: I call Comcast, explain the situation. The tech on the phone is amazed at my knowledge of their internal systems. He pushes me through Wallgarden with no problems. The internet works perfectly.
What an ordeal. For anyone in the Baltimore area, if your Comcast cable breaks, be sure to contact Janine at extension 7124, because she's a good person. I hope none of you ever have to go through this.
