Comcast: We Sped Up Your Internet... Oh, No, Actually, We Didn't
from the it's-comcastic dept
Ah, Comcast. Apparently the company sent an email to a user telling him that they had boosted the speeds on his broadband connection (which Comcast is trying to rebrand "Xfinity"), only to email him again a couple days later to admit they didn't really mean that. I guess it's nice that they were willing to 'fess up about making the mistake, but it still seems a bit mean to pull the rug out from under customers that way:Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Well, thats hardly surprising...
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Re: Well, thats hardly surprising...
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Re: Well, thats hardly surprising...
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Re: Well, thats hardly surprising...
As far as speed goes, I get between 20-25Mb down and between 3-4Mb up from them consistently (with the option to upgrade to a 30Mb or 50Mb line). How long ago did you have service from them?
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lol
That actually would have earned my respect on account of the lols.
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Comcast new name but same bad service
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Re: Comcast new name but same bad service
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Re: Comcast new name but same bad service
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Please CHeck
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Re: Please CHeck
I absolutely dread calling Comcast for anything. Put off calling them for 3 days when my wireless network decided to up and rename itself for no reason, rendering my laptop internet free. I had an inkling of what I could do but couldn't make it gel and I swear it was the pure apprehension of calling them for advice or a solution that muddled my brain to the point that when I did call them, and their solution was to unplug/plug the router (which I freaking did already), and this did nothing, and they referred me to Netgear since this was an insurmountable issue they'd NEVER experienced...
I guess that apprehension kept me from simply googling the problem until after that call, and the fix - renaming and redetecting my network - took all of 10 minutes (including a screwup on my part here and there).
Other than FIOS, I have no alternative in these parts, and I'm not sure about them either. I'd have to have a daylong installation, change all my addresses, yadda yadda...I just feel defeated so I read instead.
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Re: Re: Please CHeck
I was able to google from the perfectly functional comp hardwired for the net.
Also: I got the impression that since I've got an older modem/router combo unit, they'd rather me rent newer equipment than help me out with a simple software problem.
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Re: Re: Re: Please CHeck
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The device was probably supplied by ComcASSt, and if that is the case it IS technically their problem. However that does not necessarily make them the best choice for support. I do PC technical support and I can't even begin to count how many times an ISP (not just Comcast) has referred a customer to us saying it MUST be a problem with the computer and it was either a network issue on their end or something that basic troubleshooting could resolve (Like rebooting both the Computer & Modem) in under five minutes.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Please CHeck
My point, perhaps made badly, was that my complete buggedness caused by the mere idea of calling them for help on this issue (a feeling based on prior experiences, btw) may have fogged my brain to the point that something as simple as Googling wouldn't penetrate my apprehension, lol.
Also, I had an issue several years ago (wireless adapter drivers up and uninstalled themselves - yes, a Comcast provided adapter!) that the CSR solved easily and, with no prompting, then guided me through the exact same process for renaming a home network that I couldn't remember or find in any Comcast documentation anywhere for this current problem.
But this current problem was beyond the CSR, who told me they were 'phasing out' my type of unit, which is still quite functional. It was a simple fix I'd gotten from them years ago but eludes them now. Sigh.
Google FTW.
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Re: Re: Please CHeck
Also, you're one of the lucky few to be able to get FIOS, but you instead choose to complain about Comcast? Why?
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RE: The person with the flaky Netgear
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Re: Please CHeck
You're right, read the message though.
And they did terrible job in filtering their address list. Back to Grade 8 Intro to Marketing for Comcast.
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Re: Please CHeck
I don't have Economy and I don't know what Blast! is.
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Original working title
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Aye
Comcast still sucks...
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Re: Aye
Why do I know this? Well, after finally noticing that my average speed was much slower than 20Mbps, I spent 3 months doing hourly speed tests tracking my actual average speed. It turned out my average speed was in the range of 7.5-8Mbps. A major portion of the problem was the modem Comcast had installed. The standard Arris modem was just not capable of adequately handling 20Mbps speed. After complaining about this to tech support last week I finally got a tech (who actually knew her job, or cared about it), that installed an upgraded version of the Arris modem which resulted in noticeably faster download speeds.
Unfortunately, whether or not you can get this upgraded modem depends VERY much on just how good your Comcast tech repairman really is. I can tell you that ping speeds, at sites I regularly test at, have gone over the last week from an average of 150-200ms to 20-40ms, which is quite a significant improvement. I'm still testing to see what that improvement translates to in terms of Mbps speed.
So, as a note to Comcast subscribers, if you're paying for the higher level speed packages (16-20Mbps) and having speed problems, make sure Comcast installs a modem capable of actually handling those speeds.
I should mention that I'm rather lucky in that almost all the other people on my node are extremely light Internet users. The node consists of a series of close together senior housing apartment complexes whose tenants pretty much only watch TV. So, problems of maximum node Internet use are virtually non-existent, which pretty much means any problems with speed are solely due to Comcast hardware problems.
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Comcast blatant lies
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Comcast not bad around here
I am certainly not peeved enough about it to switch to Qwest and Direct-TV.
We are finally being switched (forced) to go digital on the basic channels, which is going to screw with my MythTV setup. Aargh.
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Re: Comcast not bad around here
Qwest is the only utility I've ever used (and that covers 50 years), whose service was so bad, whose executives so blatantly lied, and thoroughly made me so angry that for a while I actually entertained the notion of applying a baseball bat to a random senior executive or member of the board of directors. While it was a very entertaining thought, common sense did finally prevail. Even PG&E, though God knows they tried hard, wasn't as bad as Qwest.
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It's not even close
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Reality
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t recall the last time I saw any speed as slow as 16Mbps. I live in an apartment that does not have fiber optics to the curb. Just the same cable that's been hanging for the past 10 years. No, I don't live in the boonies.
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