I had Comcast from '99-03, and recall hating them though I can't actually remember why. I think there were frequent outages of several days at a stretch, and very unknowledgable customer service / tech support. I also recall, after a few years, feeling extremely disgruntled that I was still paying $10/month for "modem rental" -- eventually paying over $500 for obsolete technology I didn't even get to keep.
But Verizon [1] is at least as bad, possibly worse. Mark, you will be lucky if you get service on the 18th. It took six weeks for me to get service, in an apartment whose previous tenants had service (eg, they already knew the lines worked). And pray that you never need tech support.
Comcast is worse. At least in my neck o' the woods, Verizon is selling naked DSL - DSL w/o a phone-line required. It still requires the hardware for a phone line though. But it's still cheaper than Comcast.
Most importantly, though, Comcast is evil. I'd be willing to pay a little bit extra to not have Comcast (but not enough extra to activate my landline and then get DSL).
Well, among other things, when I called in to complain and asked for a manager, the manager-type person got mad at me and hung up on me.
It was a lot of things, really (one of which is that they charge me nearly twice as much for internet as my parents' cable providers in California charge them). Plus the fact that they have a monopoly, so I can't easily take my business elsewhere. It was bad enough that I very seriously considered filing a complaint with BBB last summer, though.
Yeah, unfortunately, I still have to pay $13/month in order to have a working doorbell. And I'm still paying the old Verizon DSL rate, which is something like $40/month, so I need to figure out if there's a way to get them to switch me to the new rate without actually disconnecting me and resubscribing.
You can buy a wireless doorbell at Home Depot for well under $40. There's a button you stick by the door or wherever, which sends a radio signal to a six-inch-square receiver that plugs into a power outlet in your apartment. Someone pushes the button, it chimes. No wires, no phone lines. At least, that's my understanding of it--I've seen them at Home Depot, and my landlord bought them for two of the apartments in my building. I'm not sure if there's a battery powering the button or what, but I'm pretty sure its electronics and power supply are entirely self-contained.
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Date: 2006-04-09 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-04-09 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-09 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-10 03:35 pm (UTC)But Verizon [1] is at least as bad, possibly worse. Mark, you will be lucky if you get service on the 18th. It took six weeks for me to get service, in an apartment whose previous tenants had service (eg, they already knew the lines worked). And pray that you never need tech support.
[1] F*ck*rs.
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Date: 2006-04-10 04:36 pm (UTC)Besides, we need a phone. We don't really need cable if there's any antenna reception.
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Date: 2006-04-09 09:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-10 03:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-10 11:47 pm (UTC)It was a lot of things, really (one of which is that they charge me nearly twice as much for internet as my parents' cable providers in California charge them). Plus the fact that they have a monopoly, so I can't easily take my business elsewhere. It was bad enough that I very seriously considered filing a complaint with BBB last summer, though.
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Date: 2006-04-10 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-04-10 03:40 pm (UTC)