A look at business, law and life from a technophile.
Fix – Broken Internet Connnection After telling Comcast You Have a Router
UPDATE 6/3/2010: I was really mad when I wrote this post. However, since everyone has bad days – and since a comcast level one tech has looked into the records – I’m going to remove the CSR’s name. Comcast didn’t ask me to remove the name, but I decided that I wasn’t after a personal shaming. We all mess up.
I’ve organized this post into the fix and the rant. As the fix is more important, I list it first.
FIX:
Problem: Comcast was adjusting my speed because I requested an upgrade to 6-12 Megabit speeds. I admitted having a router. The chat representative ([REDACTED] – You’ve been warned of the name), requested that I power cycle my equipment including my computer and gave me a link to get back to chat with her. I power cycle all my equipment and I can’t get back on the internet. Guess that link she gave me isn’t going to be useful.
Fix: Pick another computer on the network and log into the router. Tell the router to use the MAC address of that computer.
Why: She banned my MAC address of my router. I could plug in with another computer directly into the modem, but my router MAC address (which was spoofing another computer’s address) had been banned. She didn’t want me back on the internet. You would think that a comcast representative would just have the decency to say that they don’t support the router and that they would wait for me to plug in directly or not help. But a ban without telling me? That’s just mean, shady and angers me. When there’s a viable alternative, consider me gone – comcast.
RANT: I hate comcast. Everytime I deal with them, I feel like they are sneaking around. This time, I’m angry. Unfortunately, they are less incompetent than our DSL line provider worse (Qwest). So which is worse?
- Being lied to or told half-truths, but being able to circumvent their stupidity because I have enough technical knowledge to figure out what they’ve done? (Comcast)
- Being unable to access the internet because they’ve screwed something up on their part of my line, but they’re honest with me? (Qwest)
I guess I’ll take option 1 and hate it. I believe in honesty, but it doesn’t get the job done to admit the job is not done. On the other hand, I hate giving business to someone who doesn’t do business in a straightforward fashion. I can’t wait for Utopia (the new fiber provider) to reach me. Then goodbye comcast.
–Ben
Sources: Assinine Comcast Chatroom Help
[…] Broken Internet Connnection After telling Comcast You Have a Router I just wrote a post about my terrible experience with a comcast chat representative. Comcast responded quickly with something that looked like a generic script […]
Hello there! Sorry for the experience. I work for Comcast and I’d like to look into your experience so that it can be addressed. If you don’t mind, will you please contact me with your information?
Thanks,
Mark Casem
Comcast Corp.
National Customer Operations
We_can_help@cable.comcast.com
Mark,
I don’t know whether to be flattered or impressed with your computing skills. I appreciate you caring. However, your comment above is vague and doesn’t address anything in my post above.
If I were to guess, I would think that you use an automated script to leave comments and invite me to contact you.
Still, I appreciate you providing me an alternate medium of resolution.
I let my readers know what comes of your response.
–Ben