Comcast, I Sold My Soul OR, NIGHTMARE On Pringle Avenue!
Written: Sep 26 '00 (Updated Oct 20 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: FAST connection speed
Cons: 3 hour customer support waits, lack of communication between Comcast's employees
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| djgeiger's Full Review: Comcast@Home |
Did you ever want something so badly that you feel like you have sold your soul. Even after being stepped on and abused, you'd still be unwilling to give it up. In the last three years I have lived in Northern Minnesota, Southern Minnesota, Oklahoma and now California. I have been on the internet for several years. I started with a 2400 modem and upgraded to a 14,400 modem, and I thought that was a break neck speed! Then I had a 33,600 modem but was never able to connect at that rate because of the cup and string method of tele-communication in Northern Minnesota. Low and behold we moved to Oklahoma and bought a 56K modem, ecstatically installed it, booted up and found we could only connect at 28,800. This has been highly discouraging to say the least. When we made the decision to move to California we had dreams of DSL, or Cable, only to arrive and find out that Galt, California is still in the dark ages. We could only connect between 44,000 and at the most 52,000. We contacted Comcast in early spring and were told they'd soon be beta testing and would contact us. We waited and waited, no contact from them at all. One evening we were watching a movie on TV. A advertisement from Comcast informs us that Comcast is having a "showing" of their new cable modem at the Arden Center shopping mall. Why were we never contacted?
On the Saturday of the showing we headed for Arden Fair Mall. They had several work centers each manned by an outside service other than Comcast that was hired to run the showing. We had checked Comcast's web site before arriving to make sure the service was in fact available in Galt. At each work station was a laptop computer to show how wonderful the cable system worked. Unfortunately, none were hooked up to cable, something had gone wrong. We asked our questions. They were offering a "show" special with the installation being $49. and a monthly charge of $39.95 which included the rental fee of the DOXport COM 21 cable modem. We signed up. Then the representative dialed a number for us to arrange installation. The person who answered informed us that the cable system was not yet available in Galt. Steam poured from my ears! I informed the representative I wanted to talk to someone from Comcast that knew all the details I wanted to know. Shortly a very nice gentleman from Comcast, Jim Rainwater walked up and greeted us. He informed us that Galt's information wasn't in the main data base as of yet. He assure us the minute it was he would contact us personally, probably by the end of the next week. 2 weeks go by and we don't hear from any one. We called the phone number for the cable modem service line and find we can't call it from our area. We search high and low for a local number. We finally find one with a Sacramento area code and called it. The voice mail system is the most irritating thing I have run across, EVER! I've had rocks in my shoes on long hikes that irritate me less than this voice mail system! Finally we talk to a real live human being and find they are located in Niagara Falls, New York and he knows even less. We finally track down Jim Rainwater and he gives us a direct connection to his office. He tells us approximately one more week's wait. I can handle that, at least we have some idea of what is going on. A week goes by and Jim Rainwater calls us and said they will be able to install us in two weeks. We were scheduled for installation on September 19th.
The 19th finally arrives, we are literally buzzing with excitement. The installation was scheduled between 10 AM and 2 PM. Right around 1:32 PM the installer calls and informs us he'll be a little late. At least he called! He ends up only 2 minutes late. It's a hundred plus degrees outside. I offer him a soda, he gratefully accepts. We show him what we want done We want to put the cable modem in George's computer and then network mine. He checks George's computer to see if it meets the standards. It does, so he hooks up the modem and changes the preferences for the Comcast Cable. He needs to run a cable line through our office wall, since the cable only goes to the living room. He drills a hole from the inside of the wall. He walks outside and I hear a OOPS! OOPS isn't a good thing! So we head outside and there is a jagged rip in our siding and it has also been pushed out from the wall. This isn't a real big deal, but it did give us bargaining leverage at a later time.
Everything is finally hooked up. George' internet connection is FAST. Request a URL and it comes up instantaneously! The speeds are a 100 times faster than a 28.8 phone modem. We were informed that the actual speeds will vary. On the primary computer we haven't noticed any great slow downs yet, but I really don't think there is many people in Galt sharing the system yet. Factors that influence the performance and rate of speed include "network traffic, the computers performance and configuration, accessing non-cached or cached data. location and configuration of the accessed server, performance characteristics of each component of the data network and the number of users using the system at the time".
The network is already set up on our computer systems. We were informed that in no way will Comcast help with networking. I can completely understand their position on this issue. If everyone needed help with networking it would be a night mare. We started reading the information that was given to us. We found that we needed to purchase a second IP address from Comcast to network the cable modem on to my computer. Trying to find anything on their website was a night mare. The Comcast software hadn't been installed, so we didn't have the convenience of the @HOME icon on the top of the computer screen. We finally find where to purchase the addition IP address. At this point we found we were unable to log in. We figured we'd wait a day to two and try it again. We tried several different phone numbers to purchase a IP address with no luck. The wait time on these phone calls were anything from 10 minutes to an hour. Finally we get connected to someone from customer support that tells us that our Diner's Club Card number hadn't been correct and that is why we couldn't log in. Diner's Club? We don't have a Diner's Club Card! We had given them a Visa Credit Card. This person was able to give us an additional IP address. Now we would have the second computer up and running. Keep in mind, for days now George has been surfing at break neck speeds and I'm still playing race the snail on my dial-up connection!
Still we couldn't get my computer to work. We had entered all the information as we were given it. Frustration is at a maximum level. George and I have been married for almost 3 years and never have had a cross work between us, nothing even close to a fight, ever! During these days of trying to get this cable modem functioning on both of our machines we could since the stress raising and a few heated glances. When I woke up the next morning, George had the phone glued to his ear. He had been on hold for 2 hours. He didn't look like a happy camper! He was on my computer, so I sat in his chair. Another half hour passes. My kitten had come into the office with me and jumped on the desk, missing the hang-up button on the phone by an inch. Would that had made George's day! Another half hour passes, making the wait a total of three hours for upper level support. We find that two of the settings we had been given were wrong. Shortly my computer is up and running on cable modem via a network between our computers. This way we only have to pay one charge of $39.95 a month.
At this point in time my computer won't restart on it's own. Somewhere during this process a file or two had to have been corrupted. How, I'll never know. Also, my connection was very sporadic. We spent the day trouble shooting. I thought, what the heck, let's make sure nothing physical is wrong. We buy brand new network connection cables. While we were at Staples we found out that Microsoft ME was on sale for $49.95 and it came with 5 different software's, free. I kind of figured I could cure my boot up problem by installing Microsoft ME. It worked! One more call to customer support. After about a half hour's wait we find that the name for my computer was off by one digit. I don't know if we wrote it down wrong or if they gave it to us wrong, but that did cure the problem of intermittent connection.
I still have found that my networked computer is not connecting as fast as George's computer. I have also found that some web pages deny me access. Is it possible that my IP address is invisible because of the networking? I don't know as of yet. We are currently pondering the idea of adding a second cable modem connection to my computer. We would have to pay for a second installation plus the additional monthly fee of $39.95. For the additional IP address we are paying an additional $7.00 a month.
Everyone from Comcast and customer support has been both helpful and friendly, ONCE we can get a hold of a person. The wait for customer support is very excessive. A three hour wait is outrageous. We have found that one hand doesn't know what the other is doing at Comcast. One support person will say one thing, another person something else. They need a better support system. They need more customer support people, especially at upper level support. The support people need much better training. The website is very confusing. They have incorporated Excite with Comcast. Many times you follow a link and find your self on the Excite page with no prior warning that the Excite web page is part of their system. What do you do, create an account with Excite to make this all work? Who knows! No exclamations to how to get the assistance you need.
After you are given your initial email account you can add other email address from their website. So each family member can have an address of their own. We have our own domain, with our own email addresses and therefore won't be needing this service. Adding the domain email to Outlook Express is a simple addition to the SMTP for outgoing mail. Nothing else needed to be changed. Your Comcast @Home account also comes with a personal web page. You can have 10 MB for every email address. There is a bandwidth limit of 300-MB-per-month limited for your total web space. I again have my own domain so we won't be using this service either. Another very nice service is the remote access feature. You can access your @Home email from any computer or any access. You just have to sign up for a NetMail account in the email management section of member services. I strongly suggest that you install the @Home software. It will make the first few days with you new cable modem much easier to survive!
The @Home soft ware is based on the Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01. The email is Microsoft Outlook Express. The newsgroups also use Microsoft Outlook Express. Downloading the newsgroups the first time was a joy. Within a few seconds they were downloaded. The multimedia tools are QuickTime, RealPlayer, Shockwave and Flash, Metacreations MetaStream, Veon HyperVideo and Stuffit Expander (this one is for Mac OS only). The cable modem and the @Home software supports both Mac and PC. The @Home Tools is a great feature. It only works on Windows, presently. The @Home Tool has a very handy Network Diagnostic Tool.
I know for a fact that in our area Comcast @Home (only in the West) will be soon taken over by AT&T. They are trading off some properties between the East Coast and West Coast. With any major change it makes me a bit apprehensive. Will the services be better or worst? Will it be more expensive? We can only cross our fingers and hope for the best. I highly suspect some of the problems we have run across with support help is the unwillingness of Comcast to venture capital in this area with AT&T taking it over soon.
Credit for when credit is due. If it hadn't been for the helpfulness and kindness of Jim Rainwater we might never had gotten our cable modem working on our network. When we found we couldn't call a 888 number from Galt (PacBell) he found us a 800 number. He has received several phone calls from us. Every time he has promptly called us back. Even when I KNOW we had become an annoyance. If we did, he never let on. Comcast, you have ONE good person in your company. Make him boss!
If this new service had a competitor I would have certainly had given up Comcast after the 3 hour wait for customer support. Though monopolies are illegal they certainly exist when it comes to cable in some cities. I have never felt so used and abused as I have trying to work with Comcast. I would, in any other situation stand by my principles that customer service must come first. Have I sold my soul? I think I have. I want, I NEED a fast internet connection and at this time. Comcast is what is available. So as trodden on as I feel, I will enjoy my fast cable modem connection, at least until the next problem arises.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
djgeiger
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Member: Diana Geiger
Location: Huron, South Dakota USA
Reviews written: 156
Trusted by: 346 members
About Me:
I am a writer and the Exotic Pets Editor for BellaOnline.com.
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