WideOpenWest vs. Comcast

primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
edited June 2004 in Science & Tech
Well I'm in my new house and the previous owner paid the Comcast bill up through the end of May.. I ordered WoW "ultra" (4mb down/512k up) because it was $6 cheaper a month than Comcast (which is only 3mb down/512k up) and they got here yesterday to install it. Well when the dude left, it didn't seem very fast to me (I'm used to 3mb comcast since that's what I've had for the last year) so I ran some tests and sure enough, I was only getting btwn 256K - 400K at the top end..... So I called WoW..

The fun begins. They insist that it's my router, then my modem, since I supplied my own modem (they seem to take offense to that). I tell them that the router has been eliminated from the picture and that if I plug everything in to the comcast cable, I am getting 3mb so it's not my equipment.. They go on and on and finally agree to send a tech out.

The dude gets here today, and he plugs his meter into my inside cable.. Sho' nuff, he says "wow, it shouldn't even be working with this kind of crap signal"... Ding.. I win.

So as he is going out to his truck to get his gear to climb the pole, the comcast truck rolls up and the comcast dude puts spikes on his boots and just monkey-style climbs up the pole - no supports, no belt, nothing :rarr: ... brings out the screwdriver and pulls the comcast line... wewt! Talk about perfect timing.

The comcast guy nods to the WoW guy, and then takes me aside as the WoW guy is going up the pole.... He says "if they can't get you straightened out, give me a call"... ;D

Well, turns out I had a bad filter on my line (the one that blocks out the TV, since I have internet only) and he replaced it. Voila... Now I have 4.5mb down, 512K up.. wewt!

So in all, I'm pleased with WoW for getting it straight one day later, although I wasn't thrilled with the phone support - they were sure trying to pin the problem on me.... :mean:

Comments

  • madmatmadmat
    edited June 2004
    Well, since you're paying less than Comcast with WoW it seems that the slogan of "you get what you pay for" applies.
    You just get crappier service is all.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    Cool story and wow .. sounds familiar ;D

    NTL "accidently" over contended my connection by a factor of 30 ;D so my upload was dog dog slow.. and they insisted it was my router, then made me check my PC for viruses.. and so on.. despite my insistance I knew where the problem was ;)

    Phone Support don't like customers who know what they are talkin about mate ;)
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    When I had Ameritech for an ISP, the service would get sluggish or go down entirely past a certain point west in the United States. That is to say, it would be very slow, or I could access only servers between the Mississippi and the Atlantic (Weird, I know..). I would call their service desk and report these outages by IP and resolved name (Usually location of the server if I could get a WHOIS on it) and they often asked if I was a regional manager.

    So apparently I was better at finding and pinpointing outages nation-wide on their network than they were. Go me. :rolleyes:

    //EDIT:

    Love WideOpenWest cable, good lord it's fast. :rarr:
  • oCoMiKoCoMiK Oswego, IL
    edited June 2004
    It's just the nature of the industry. I could tell stories that would fill a good size book about dealing with SBC/Ameritech just over my DSL line alone. I'd probably need another book just to talk about me dealing with them from a business perspective.

    Glad to see you got it repaired rather quickly and didn't have to suffer the game of "it's the other company's" problem.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    Well I discovered early on the magic phrase... if you are dealing with comcast support you just say "You know what, never mind. I'm gonna cancel Comcast and go with WideOpenWest".... And vice versa. When I told the phone tech "Just forget it.. I'm going with Comcast" that's when she said "a technician can be out there tomorrow. Does that work for you?"

    Competition is a wonderful thing.
  • -tk-tk Detroit, MI USA Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    great story...WOW even
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian

    I used to say "wewt". Jesus.

    LincUPSLynxRyder
  • KarmaKarma Likes yoga Icrontian

    This post is over a decade old. Shit I wasn't even in High School yet :pimp:

  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian

    Not only that, but you said it TWICE in one post. That's messed up, dude.

    primesuspect
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian

    Wewt!

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian

    I was excited about 4500/512 internet.

  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian

    It was the early aughts, we did that sort of thing back then, OK?

  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian

    "naughties" is the accepted term, I believe.

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian

    We also used to use a lot of smileys, apparently. :tex:

  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian

    grin lmao wink wink grin wink lmao wink grin grin grin

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