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JohnCullison's profile

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Sunday, April 27th, 2014 7:00 PM

How do I get out of my contract?

Due to various issues I've had, I've been doing testing at random times thoughout the day for the last few days.  With no recognition of the irony, the business.comcast.com website also includes right on the front page a Speed Challenge!  Racers, start your engines!

 

So I've been using even the one business.comcast.com offers.

 

My most recent test an hour ago (I did it a second time to be sure) gave me 7/7 instead of 50/10.

 

Only once in this set of tests over the last week did I get the expected 50/10 (actually 52/12).

 

Most of the time, I see 10/10.

 

I went with Comcast because it holds a monopoly on high speed service in my specific location.

 

If all I'm going to see is Basic Package speeds, I might as well be back on DSL.

 

Coupled with the "planned" outtages (planned with a recorded phone call six hours before the fact) which have an annoying habit of going on for hours, I really wonder what the premium I'm paying for is gaining me.  It's frustrating when a monopoly contract is wielded against me to require me to continue to pay for service well after any competitive market situation would have sent me elsewhere to better service (or at least more reliable and honestly priced).

 

I started having intermittent outtages a couple weeks ago and called Comcast Business Class Technical Support (patent pending) to report the issue.

 

I was repeatedly told that the cable modem did not report any problems, therefore I would be charged to have a technician come out.

 

When a technician did finally come out, he discovered an unacceptable level loss (-13 dB) caused by various factors, most of which he addressed.

 

I had to leave to run an emergency errand and when I came back, he was gone, and the network was still not operational.  Fortunately, it only required that the cable modem be reset once more (why hadn't he done that?) and everything started behaving.

 

Then came the next night time maintenance cycle, and I was without connectivity for about 13 hours.  I'm sure the poor technician who answered my call at 3:30 AM as my autistic teenager was berating me for not fixing the computer (because I can fix everything, don'tcha know) meant well, but telling me that others have called to complain about "an outtage" (I had received a call the previous evening warning me of brief outtages overnight) in my area and that until the outtage is addressed there's nothing she could do didn't really appease me.  A brief outtage is "we're going to move your wires to another socket so you will lose connectivity for a minute or two", not "we're going to unplug everyone all at once, dance around the Maypole, sacrifice a few goats, replace all the equipment, and then get around to plugging everyone back in at our drunken leisure".

 

Perhaps I misunderstood "Business Class".

 

I need 24/7, not (just) 9-5.

 

I need to have reliable service -- which, to be fair, it usually is, but "usually is" isn't "really reliable".  Even serial @@@@  are "usually" not @@@@@..

 

I need to have the issues I raise with technical support taken seriously.  I don't care what the cable modem told you.  If I were calling you every week asking you to "fix my network" and you had determined the last six times you sent someone out that I'd been playing jumprope with my network cables and kept ripping the plugs from the walls, you might have cause to consider that I'm the problem -- but until you have such evidence, directing your technical support personnel to treat me thus (regardles of how politely you train them to do it) is seriously poor form.

 

I run my business out of my residence.  I noticed the speed test challenge exception stating that the challenge was not valid for home based businesses.  If you cannot provide genuine business class down the line to my residence, then quit pretending you can.

 

And, thus, I really want out of this contract and to switch to another provider.  I am grossly overpaying for the service I'm receiving (especially the service I'm not receiving).

 

How do I do that?

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3 Messages

11 years ago

OK, I've found a problem in my own network for my speed issues, so we can basically scratch that off the list.

 

I'm still grumpy about the "planned outtages", etc.. Smiley Wink

 

With respect to my network issues, can you tell me if I can have two cable modems running here on one account?  I have four cable outlets scattered around and could really use a modem in another location as well.

 

In the alternative, would those other outlets be live?  Could I move the existing modem myself?