Comtastic

I was wondering why internet providers advertise “High Speed Internet” the last week. Being around campus, the stuff a Comcast or a DSL provider gives you is more slow speed internet. Then Murphy hits, my internet goes out. This was last Friday. No problem. Its been out before, so no big deal. I put in my usual call to confirm it was out. Sure enough, the Comcast tech told me node work was being done in the area and my connection should be up any time. I thanked her and went on my day, working around the dead connection.

Saturday rolled around, yet no connection. So I call once more. This time, I get the friendly automated voice telling me to never fear, they know connection is down in my area and no need to contact anyone. Goodbye. Goodbye to my last gaming session, of the year, as well. I also hit the number option for them to leave me a message when the service gets back up. Course I forgot Comcast has my Vonage internet phone number.

Sunday. Same story. This is bad as I needed instructions to someplace, and needed the use of Google maps. I also was in the need of looking up contact info that was on my email. So, I broke out my old laptop. My only surviving system that had a modem. After booting up the system, I was off to the races, turtle style. No big surprise, Google maps doesn’t even work through a modem anymore. Luckily, 15 minutes into Yahoo maps, I was able to get what I needed. Oddly enough, my email seemed to go at decent speeds. I sure that was more of a perception thing.

Monday. Same automated story.

Tuesday. No internet still, but at least the message was gone. So, I get to talk to someone again, instead of it hanging up. The tech this time, tells me everyone in my area is online, so it was probably my modem. Given, I’m in the psdo-country there's not a whole lotta people in my “area”. They suggest I pick up a Comcast modem from their offices. So, I drive the 8 miles to pick a loaner up. Hour later, I get home, but still nothing. This time they suggest sending someone over. Closest available time, Thursday.

Wednesday. No Internet. No surprise.

Thursday. The techs stop by around the planned time. Unfortunately, they called to give me a heads up, but again its my Vonage line. This time I remember the Vonage, so I checked my messages. 1^st message: Comcast calling Saturday, to tell me my connection is back up. 2nd message: The techs saying they were on their way. 2 guys arrive and get right to work. They mention the problem probably was related to the upgrades they were doing for Digital Audio, and that the phone techs basically wasted my time with swapping the modem. They had us going in 15 minutes, almost. I still needed to call in and swap MAC address from the Comcast loaner, back to the modem I owned. After more waiting on hold, to make the transfer, we were finally on-line.

Thursday night. Time for the refund call. The sales rep, Richard, seemed helpful. He mention it wasn’t a problem, all he needed to do was look up when I originally called in. After more holding, he tells me that I originally called in on the 19^th. That’s Tuesday! I tell him the whole story, including the message on my Vonage from Saturday. Not good enough sir, my records show the 19^th. I ask to speak to a supervisor, but he tells me they were all in a meeting and he’d be happy to call back in 24 hours. Tuesday did make sense that I left a record as the Friday person told me to sit tight and all would be good.

The story so far… Internet, but no week refund, plus $3.50 for the loaner box. Grrr!