It's Comcastic

Over the past month, we have been experiencing sporadic problems with our Internet connection from home. Since the beginning of December, we have probably once or twice a week we have been unable to connect to the Internet early in the morning, usually between 6:00 and 8:00. I called Comcast's customer support number to get help with this a few time, although the last couple of times, I did not call because I figured the issue would resolve itself shortly. Except for this morning, it has.

This morning I called and the phone system said it would try to reset my modem remotely. It then disconnected my phone call, and I still did not have Internet service, so I called back. This time I got to speak with a customer service technician. He ran me through all the things I had already tried, although he added a new thing to try to my repertoire -- unplugging the modem, removing its battery, and shutting down the computer. When that still did not work, he told me that since I have had reoccurring issues with the Internet service over the past month, there could be something wrong with my modem. He then gave me the option of making an appointment for a technician to come out to the house or to go to a Comcast service center and have them diagnose the issue with the modem, possibly replacing it.

Not wanting to wait for an appointment, I said that I would prefer to go to the service center to get immediate service. He gave me an address for a couple of locations in my area. The first one was in Brooklyn Park and the second was in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis location would have been closer to my home, but through his accent I could not understand what he said for the street name, and when I asked him to spell the street name, he continued on to another location that was almost as far away as the first.

So off I set for Comcast's office in Brooklyn Park, over thirty miles away. It took about forty-five minutes to get there. Thankfully the traffic was not too bad. When I got there and explained my issue to the person at the desk, she told me that since we get our phone service through Comcast, as well as the Internet service, they could not do anything there, but I would have to have a technician come to the house. Gee, if the guy on the phone would have told me that, I could have saved over sixty miles of driving and an hour and a half of my time. So, I made an appointment for someone to come out tomorrow morning. She then added that her computer was showing that there was a service outage in my area. Ok, I realize the technician I was speaking to was located halfway around the world, but you would think that before spending all that time trying to fix my Internet connection, he would have checked for something as simple as a service outage!

Anyway, I drove home and hooked the modem back up, and violà, my Internet connection was once again working! I did not bother cancelling my service appointment for tomorrow between 8:00 AM and 1:00 PM. I figure that whoever shows up can look at the modem and decide if there is an issue with it. Besides, after they wasted an hour and a half of my time today, I do not really care if I waste a little of their time!