Cantankerous Comcast v. Customer

I’ve been out of pocket lately with personal stuff and starting a new job. Really…I’ve had good intentions and actually have some drafts of future posts…just haven’t quite undertaken the initiative to publish them. Then of course today I’m out scanning for some information on SuSE Linux to troubleshoot a particularly frustrating issue and stumbled across another interesting Comcast incident.

If you’ve read my blog before you may have noticed I’m not a huge fan of Comcast. Comcast, in my opinion, has become a large, bloated, cantankerous, clueless corporation that truly could care less about its customers. Case in point? See here, here, and here. Then I came across this posting by another blogger. It is an interesting account of yet again, Comcast not understanding its customers and the usual mumbojumbo they will tell a customer instead of actually supporting the customer, all the while happily taking your money.

Comcast Gives Cold-Shoulder To Non-Profit School Running Linux

Yes Yes. I’m sure there are many great people who work at Comcast. My position on why I have a distaste for Comcast comes from personal experiences as well as discussions with family, friends and colleagues about their woes with the company. The point of contention I have with Comcast when reading the post, was how quick they were to tell the customer “they don’t support that operating system”. Last time I checked Comcast was an ISP network provider. That means they are responsible for troubleshooting the network connectivity from their central office, to the demarc, to the router and ultimately down to your PC. They do not have to “support” any operating system…literally the operating system is a moot point. They choose to continue to offer high prices, shadowy operations and poor customer service. As with many large corporate mega-comglomerates…they are quick to take your money, and S L O W to offer any valued service in return. I do hope the school switches to another ISP. It is unfortunate that often the only way the consumer can voice their frustration and irritation is to just move to another carrier. It is also unfortunate that the greed of locking one into a “contract” with early termination fees is the only way to truly get a “lower” rate.  In the end run most likely the school will end up costing itself precious dollars to obtain better service.

Switching to sarcasm mode…perhaps Comcast could join up with Sprint? I’ve had horrible experiences with Sprint’s support as well (both personal use and professional involvement). Comint, or Sprincast, or perhaps ComSpri. Oh wait…found this buried down in the comments on that blog page. Although it is an old SEC filing, it is interesting to see that Microsoft owned a good chunk of stock in Comcast. I wonder how much they own now? Perhaps that’s why Comcast is so quick to say they do not support Linux? Switching sarcasm mode off.

Either way, sharing the information of previous and current users problems and experiences is the only way to enact real change at the corporate level. Lend a tip to your fellow Internet user. Friends don’t let friends use Comcast.

~Kryptikos

Romans 13:10 “Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”