Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

bgentry.posterous.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 74 posts

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#61

Post by equalarrow »

sukuriant wrote: post #14
binarysoul wrote: post #2

He's leaving because he has the option to use a different comparable provider. Some of us are not so lucky. I have only two options available in my apartment. 3mbit/s cable service which disconnects frequently and is wholly unreliable, or ATT DSL 6mbit/1mbit which while its reliable costs $40/month. 4G wireless solutions do not penetrate my building enough to be useable. What we really need are more comparable option…

I'm another instance of a person that actively chose to go to DSL over Comcast, even though I took a substantial speed cut (at my old place, I had 35/35 FiOS, and I switched to 7mb/800kb DSL). The price between the two services was the same ($50), but it was that significant for me to not use Comcast. And now, I'm pushing my new apartment complex to switch over to FiOS, since I'm literally 1.1 miles away from my old…

Yah, I'm in the same boat. In late Dec, as soon as I saw Comcast supported SOPA, I setup a Sonic.net account here in SF. I love Sonic's tech support (one of the only few companies I'll get on the phone with for support), and their values - no caps, no support of fucking-with-the-internet bills. However, AT&T fucks up the whole equation with their shitty copper (in some places). Not Sonic's fault at all, of course.

Some parts of SF are starting to get fiber with Sonic. Can't wait to be able to qualify for this. It'll be just like my brother's connection when he lived in Japan circa '01.. Voting with my dollars I guess.

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#62

Post by sukuriant »

LogicHoleFlaw wrote: post #47
sukuriant wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that wire is Frontier, they may be able to provide the apartment complex with FiOS for free to the apartment complex, under the hope that they'll get customers. That's what a representative told me when I asked what it would take to get FiOS at my place, considering my parts of Redmond is well wired with FiOS. YMMV

Are there any decent maps of where Frontier is offering FiOS in Redmond? Supposedly there is service a few blocks from my apartment downtown, but I can't get a straight answer out of anyone.

Not that I know of, I'm sorry. When I spoke to the people at Frontier, and I alerted them that I had FiOS 1 mile away, I was informed that Redmond was pretty much all FiOS, except apartment complexes that hadn't permitted/accepted Frontier FiOS.

If I were you, I would ask Frontier if they could install FiOS at your address; and then, if they say 'no', go to your main office and ask that they ask for FiOS from Frontier, informing them that Frontier said installation was free to the apartment complex (which is what I heard from them, but if you want validation, you can ask Frontier yourself).

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#63

Post by coderdude »

jsz0 wrote: post #60

As someone who works in the cable industry I can say you're making the right choice. Nothing is going to change until more people do this. This industry is suicidal. Some costs that are passed along to the consumers (programming) are unavoidable and fair but the degree to which customers are gouged on equipment fees, service calls, and terrible policies is just mind boggling. It's like going to a restaurant and being…

This is a perfect description of my experience with Verizon. There is literally a charge each month for them to process my billing.

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#64

Post by zacharycohn »

ErikRogneby wrote: post #48
binarysoul wrote: post #2

He's leaving because he has the option to use a different comparable provider. Some of us are not so lucky. I have only two options available in my apartment. 3mbit/s cable service which disconnects frequently and is wholly unreliable, or ATT DSL 6mbit/1mbit which while its reliable costs $40/month. 4G wireless solutions do not penetrate my building enough to be useable. What we really need are more comparable option…

Same here. Seattle has a city negotiated franchise agreement (a.k.a. monopoly) with Comcast. https://www.seattle.gov/cable/franchises.htm I've heard that Verizon's Fios service is excellent... What is amazing to me is that Quest doesn't take advantage of their existing right of way to build out last mile fiber. Lazy dinosaur. That right of way is a huge untapped asset.

That's actually not true.

I believe the Mayor's office has said they'd love to have more ISPs in Seattle, but the company's don't want to come in and lay down the cable.

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#65

Post by lv0 »

Boston area comcast my only choice. I called them today because I need to activate new service and I was told the 250GB cap is mandated by the government and not comcast. When I asked for details I couldn't get any further.

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#68

Post by DaveMebs »

Adaptive wrote: post #54
ErikRogneby wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. Seattle has a city negotiated franchise agreement (a.k.a. monopoly) with Comcast. https://www.seattle.gov/cable/franchises.htm I've heard that Verizon's Fios service is excellent... What is amazing to me is that Quest doesn't take advantage of their existing right of way to build out last mile fiber. Lazy dinosaur. That right of way is a huge untapped asset.

This really blew me away when we moved here. I'm assuming it was a carrot to get infrastructure build out but I have a hard time imagining that there wouldn't have been competition to do that even without the concession. I'd love to drop Comcast for an alternative.

Have you checked out Clearwire? http://www.clearwire.com/

They've got great coverage throughout Seattle and I have been very happy with their home internet plan. $50/month for unlimited data with 6mbps down and 1mbps up.

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#69

Post by mikecrowl »

gte910h wrote: post #41
mikecrowl wrote: post #31

Comcast cut me off last year, after 7 years of service. I got a lil "greedy" and broke the 250g cap (300g+) - never even knew there was a bandwidth meter at their site. By the time they warned me, it was already halfway through the next month. I slowed my usage down, but still broke 260g at the end of the month (I work from home, use it for everything). They shut me off, banned me from service for 1 year, and absolut…

That doesn't sound like their policy. They usually ban you from the residential serivce They probably offered you commercial level service during that year (which is more expensive, however has a much higher service level and bandwidth cap) http://business.comcast.com/smb/services/Internet/plans If they didn't offer it, I'm pretty sure they'll sell it to you if you want it.

They did not offer me commercial service. When they shut me off, I asked about it specifically, and they said I couldn't have Internet service in my name, period. It's quite possible I had a crappy rep on the phone, but it seemed like a dead end.

Re: Dear Comcast, I'm leaving you because...

#70

Post by jamesbkel »

mikecrowl wrote: post #31

Comcast cut me off last year, after 7 years of service. I got a lil "greedy" and broke the 250g cap (300g+) - never even knew there was a bandwidth meter at their site. By the time they warned me, it was already halfway through the next month. I slowed my usage down, but still broke 260g at the end of the month (I work from home, use it for everything). They shut me off, banned me from service for 1 year, and absolut…

YMMV, but after I was contacted about breaking the 250g limit a second time (was not disconnected since it was >1yr between overages) I played dumb* and told them that I had recently bought "a server off craigslist" and that maybe it was related to old software leftover on that. Ever since, if I have an overage I receive an email suggesting I download their security tools because I may have a bot operating on one of my machines.

I have no idea if this is simply coincidence or if they in fact have a flag for "less knowledgable users"/"malware affected users". Could just be luck on my part, but I would say give that technique a try if you find yourself in that situation.

*This part was entertaining. After countless times trying to provide customer service reps with complete details and explain things only to be met with confusion on their end, it was fun to use my knowledge to intentionally sound like I had no idea how computers/internet worked.

Post reply on HN