Since I'm in a ranting mood today, here's one regarding one of my favorite whipping boys: Comcast.
Comcast is the largest cable provider, second-largest Internet provider, and fast-growing telephone provider in the United States.
Note I use the word "provider" in its modern sense of "electronic gatekeeper, irritant, and extortionist," not in the bygone, service-oriented sense.
I have some beefs with Comcast, such as its new 250GB cap on monthly data usage, the way it keeps moving my favorite TV channels to higher-tier (more expensive) packages, and its "load shaping" tactics.
But, that's not my rant today.
This week, my Comcast service went down, knocking out my cable and Internet. This happens about every other month, with outages lasting anywhere from 5 minutes to several days.
Living in an urban area, literally steps away from the capital of one of the largest, most industrialized countries in the world, where we've had cable television for several decades, this has always struck me as a little suspect, but again, that's a matter for a different rant.
Anyway, I called Comcast's service line. During the 35-minute hold to talk to a service rep, I got to listen to two things: A Muzak loop montage of Mozart, Bryan Ferry, and Wham! and ads for Comcast's "Triple Play" service, where they can provide my cable, Internet, AND phone.
Good idea! That way, when Comcast's service goes down, I won't be able to call and complain. Think of the time I'll save and the cost-cutting they'll be able to do when they reduce their customer-service center even more!
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2 comments:
I've felt the same way about hosting companies that only provide e-mail support. If the data center is down, that's not going to help me much, is it? (My hosting company provides good 24/7 telephone support in the U.S. - but they've just been bought, so we'll see if that continues.)
If you feel really inspired, you could contact the Comcast CEO or send an e-mail to a bunch of Comcast executives with your concerns.
Exactly right! One of the reasons I picked 4smartphone as my host company was its call-in option.
Ironically, the last time I had a question, I emailed them, and I never heard back. Turns out their spam filter (on my account) screened out their customer service email.
kal
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