Tag Archives: utilities

Qwest vs. Comcast

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I sat down the other day to call Qwest and Comcast to find out what my options are for internet access. I was expecting to find that DSL would be a little cheaper, but that cable would be able to be installed more quickly. My primary concern at the moment is cost, but installation speed is a close second. I was surprised to find no real advantage to either one.

I called Comcast, and the girl on the phone was extremely helpful (which has been true of most of the people I’ve spoken with at Comcast). She answered all my questions and gave me any bit of information I might need, as well as letting me know about some options I didn’t know were available which saved me some money.

She knew I was about to call Qwest to compare pricing and she said “I’m pretty sure you’ll find it’s a little cheaper for DSL, but I really think you’ll be happier with us…” and then she sweetened the deal by giving me the installation kit for free and knocking $10/month off my bill for the first three months. I asked about this, and it turns out Comcast gives their operators some leeway to give some free stuff to customers to motivate them to stick with their services if they’re thinking about leaving.

It boiled down to about $45 per month with Comcast. That’s $10 cheaper than normal because I’m going to have normal cable services as well. The installation fee was only about $10, the modem/install kit was free, and she knocked $10 per month off my bill, so for the first three months I’ll only be paying about $35, and back to $45 after that. Also, they could get someone out to install the cable on the day we move in, so that’s nice.

Then I called Qwest (actually, I called the company that would be my ISP, DSL Northwest, who I’ve used before, and are pretty good). Maybe I just got a guy who doesn’t normally run the phones, but it was like pulling teeth to get any information out of this guy. He told me that it’s $51 per month for stand-alone DSL services (nice that I don’t have to get a phone line anymore), with a $20 installation fee. He was unclear on whether or not Qwest would also charge me an installation fee. Finally, he said that they could have DSL installed in 5 days, which is a dramatic change from the 2-3 weeks Qwest took last time I got hooked up (which was, admittedly, four years ago). He seemed to be in a hurry to get me off the phone, so I did, but I felt like it was a toss-up.

Both Comcast and Qwest are within $5 of each other, and both could get my services hooked up by our move-in date. Neither one had an outrageous installation fee, and neither one required a phone line. In the end, I chose Comcast simply because I’ve generally had good service with them (the phone calls are a good example, but we also had Comcast internet in Washington), and I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with Qwest. I know it’s a silly thing to base this choice on, but with no clear advantage to one over the other, why not base it on the fact that Comcast actively wants me as a customer, and was making offers to get me, while Qwest didn’t even want to answer my questions?

Stupid Comcast

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So last night I was supposed to do all sorts of things on the internet like look at porn fix Pat’s blog, but I was unable to do anything, because stupid Comcast had some sort of stupid “global connectivity problem” that they were “aware of” and “trying to fix”.

Actually, I haven’t had any serious problems with Comcast so far, and in comparison to Qwest, they’re shining examples of efficiency – but that didn’t make it any less frustrating to be unable to check my email all night.

Comcast: Not Much Better Than Qwest

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Submitted via an email form to Comcast this morning:

This morning I ran the Comcast install CD wizard on my macintosh. It’s running OS 10.3. When the wizard was finished, the internet connectivity was working great, but for some reason, it changed my shell prompt. Previously, it was displaying Hosaka:> – which is the name of my computer. Now it displays c-24-19-225-21:> – which is the letter C followed by the dynamic IP address that was just assigned to my computer.

I use my shell prompt all day long for internet work, so while this is a cosmetic change, it is important to me. I could not find how to change it back, so I called 800-Comcast for tech support.

When I called at about 11am on Monday, November 1st, I was connected to John, who gave his service ID as 62410.

John was EXTREMELY unhelpful. After describing the problem to him, his first reaction was “That is clearly not an IP address”. After I explained that nothing else had changed on the computer, and that the wizard had clearly made this change, he told me that there was no way the wizard did this, since all it does is configure the IP (not true, by the way, the mac wizard does several other things, including creating a new location profile). When I persisted, John informed me that they don’t support OS 10.3, and that I should contact Apple tech support instead.

When I asked John to transfer me to a manger or someone else, he refused, and informed me that the managers were only there for payroll, and deferred all tech discussion to the “training and experience” of the guys on the floor, like him.

When I asked him to transfer me to someone where I could lodge a complaint, he told me I could find the information on the website. I asked him if he could just transfer me, since I had already called the number on the website, and he got sarcastic and asked “Are you talking over a website right now?”

I’m disappointed both in complete unwillingness of the phone support guy to try to find a solution, and in the fact that the wizard made this kind of change without giving me a way to set it back.

Edit: About twelve hours later now, and I’ve just added my wi-fi router to the mix, which assigned a new IP address to my computer, which seems to have fixed the problem, meaning it was a temporary thing. Thank goodness, since I was not looking forward to calling “tech support” again. Long story short: everything seems to be working now, no thanks to Comcast.

Don't worry about us. We're solid.

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I haven’t felt much like blogging lately, but lots has been happening.

Annie’s last week of work ended on Friday. Now she can focus on packing for the next week, and continue looking for a job in Washington.

My work situation continues to be strange, but I don’t feel like getting into that. Email me if you want details.

We went to go see Shawn Of The Dead with Eric, Jill, Jeff and Sean, and it was awesome. I also saw Resident Evil 2 a week or two ago, so it’s like Zombie Movie Month or something.

Yesterday Annie and I drove up to our new apartment and signed the paperwork and wrote a check for first-month’s rent. The lease agreement was about five pages long, and a little worrying, but I didn’t see any obvious dangers in it, aside from the danger of signing a six-month lease when I’m about to lose my job. Our apartment is in surprisingly good condition. Probably because the apartment manager lived there before us.

Qwest continues to suck rocks. I did a bit of math and found out that as bad as they suck, it would save us $50 a month to go with a landline and DSL instead of a cell phone and cable internet, so I was giving Qwest a chance. They were supposed to be able to tell me on Thursday, when the landline got connected, whether I could get DSL. On Friday, I found out that I cannot get DSL. For some reason, they CAN get it in the manager’s office, but not our apartment.

The good news is that after I complained to a manager, she agreed that I shouldn’t have to pay for the landline connection, since I was only getting it for DSL, so I shouldn’t be charged at all for anything in Washington.

Our cable internet is getting installed on Sunday, but the only timeslot available is from 2-6pm, and we’re not arriving until at least 5pm. Luckily, Mrs. Stockman graciously agreed to hang out at our apartment during that time so someone would be there when the cable guy arrives. We left her some folding chairs, a CD player and our tiny little TV to test the signal with.

Packing is proceeding at a good pace. We’ve already completely packed the dining room and my office, and Annie’s office is half-done. Over the coming week, we’ll be doing one room a night, and should get everything done in time to start loading the truck on Sunday morning.

Today, Mrs. Stockman is cooking brunch for the family and is then taking us to buy a new mattress set. My mother-in-law rules.

Anyways, I should quit typing now, because Oskar will be here soon, and I want to be ready to steal a few minutes with my studly nephew before the rest of the family arrives and wants to see him. Which reminds me I still need to post my photos of the boy… I’ll do that when I get home.

Fucking Qwest – Vol. 2

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You really have to hand it to Qwest. They’re finding all new ways to take customer service to unheard of depths. I’ve had some horrible service before, I’ve had people hang up on me, I’ve had people be rude to me, I’ve had people lie to me, and I’ve dealt with general incompetence. But what happened today is a whole new low.

Qwest cannot tell me for sure whether DSL service is available without installing phone service, which will cost me a $31 setup fee. I have no use for a landline, except for DSL. So if DSL is unavailable, I’m going to cancel the landline. If this happens, they will not refund me the installation fee. But they also cannot tell me for sure if DSL is available.

In summary, they expect me to pay them $31 just to find out if DSL service is available. Continue reading →