We all complain about cable companies...

[-jk]

Broadband companies are notorious liars when it comes to speed and coverage. I'm lucky to have a couple competing providers, giving us really good service.

Consumer Reports is spearheading an effort to collect massive data on broadband speeds and costs all over the country. To add your data, click here. It takes just a few minutes.

Maybe some useful lobbying can come from it. We can hope, anyway!

-jk

[budwom]

Broadband companies are notorious liars when it comes to speed and coverage. I'm lucky to have a couple competing providers, giving us really good service.

Consumer Reports is spearheading an effort to collect massive data on broadband speeds and costs all over the country. To add your data, click here. It takes just a few minutes.

Maybe some useful lobbying can come from it. We can hope, anyway!

-jk

personal experience: I have Comcast for broadband (DirecTV for television) and the speeds are very good. What is absolutely abysmal is customer service...I was double charged for several months in a row before I got the state consumer fraud division to get involved on my behalf...just getting a live "customer service" rep on the phone can be nearly impossible.

[-jk]

personal experience: I have Comcast for broadband (DirecTV for television) and the speeds are very good. What is absolutely abysmal is customer service...I was double charged for several months in a row before I got the state consumer fraud division to get involved on my behalf...just getting a live "customer service" rep on the phone can be nearly impossible.

I switched from Comcast to Verizon last season. Both have worked well for me.

I never much needed customer support, though.

-jk

[Acymetric]

AT&T in Raleigh was abysmal for internet service. Every time they came to do an install for one of the surrounding houses, they ended up disconnecting mine. And for whatever reason they couldn't just reconnect it (I saw inside that box...total disaster in there so that part isn't surprising I guess), so I had to wait for them to come run a new line over the road, and then wait 2-3 weeks for them to come re-bury the new line. Inevitably, the line running over the road would break from being driven over while I was waiting. Happened 4 times in less than a year.

[CameronDuke]

At our old home, we had Verizon Fios for internet/cable and loved it. Great speed, reliable connection, and not too many issues. In fact, the only issue I ever had, I encountered a Verizon field support technician working on our neighbors cable box behind their house next door. The timing was perfect because we had an unrelated issue going on with our cable/internet. The man was dispatched to help our neighbor and ended up working on our issue after finishing our neighbor’s. That was an example of extremely good customer service.

We moved about 6 years ago to our current house and have Comcast now. It isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. We were concerned with the speed and technicians came out and installed a new wireless router and it has worked well so far. We did cut the cord on Comcast cable and only use them for internet. We have been pleased with an a la carte selection of YouTube TV, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. I can’t fault Comcast for their speed and reliability, I have had issues with their customer service, though. I had them several years ago before switching to Verizon. I went to one of their offices to return my cable television box and remote. Instead of simply letting me drop it off, I had to wait in a line of people for about an hour just to walk up to the desk and hand them my remote and cable box. They indicated this was company policy and protocol.

[Acymetric]

I guess I'll add, on a positive note, that I've always had good customer service experiences with Time Warner/Charter/Spectrum in Cary, Raleigh, and Durham. The speeds are never as advertised (and I'm definitely going to do that survey), but the customer service has always been on point for me and the speed issue is certainly not unique to them (AT&T speeds weren't even close and it was supposed to be fiber). I always find it interesting, because I feel like I talk to a lot of people around here who had the opposite experience.

[Phredd3]

I guess I'll add, on a positive note, that I've always had good customer service experiences with Time Warner/Charter/Spectrum in Cary, Raleigh, and Durham. The speeds are never as advertised (and I'm definitely going to do that survey), but the customer service has always been on point for me and the speed issue is certainly not unique to them (AT&T speeds weren't even close and it was supposed to be fiber). I always find it interesting, because I feel like I talk to a lot of people around here who had the opposite experience.

That would be me. We had Time Warner/Spectrum for years, and while the cable TV seemed to work pretty well, the internet service was very sketchy. The techs would come out and tell us they would try to boost the signal, but it always came out that the most they could boost it was to the very bottom of the range where Spectrum rules said it was "acceptable" and couldn't be worked on further. It would work somewhat better (maybe 5-20 mbps, tops), then in a couple of months would fall back off again. We never had a reliable land line phone and we are in a cell service "hole" (we get one bar cell service over the air), so when the cell service over VOIP wouldn't work either, that was kind of a problem. AT&T came through a few years ago and laid fiber optic line, and when the pandemic forced us to be holding 4-6 simultaneous Zoom sessions, we gave Spectrum one last shot. They still couldn't give us anything above what they had been, even after completely re-laying the line into our house, so we went with the competitor.

Now I get multi-hundred mbps nearly 100% reliably.

Oh, and after we confirmed the new setup was working, Spectrum told us the cable portion of our bill would go up if we dropped the internet piece, so we dumped the cable setup, too. Now they call us at least once a week trying to get us back. Perhaps hiring technicians instead of sales people would have worked better...

[budwom]

I switched from Comcast to Verizon last season. Both have worked well for me.

I never much needed customer support, though.

-jk

I never thought I needed customer service either, but what do you do when you've been double billed for three months in a row? (rhetorical question, of course)

[Kdogg]

That would be me. We had Time Warner/Spectrum for years, and while the cable TV seemed to work pretty well, the internet service was very sketchy. The techs would come out and tell us they would try to boost the signal, but it always came out that the most they could boost it was to the very bottom of the range where Spectrum rules said it was "acceptable" and couldn't be worked on further. It would work somewhat better (maybe 5-20 mbps, tops), then in a couple of months would fall back off again. We never had a reliable land line phone and we are in a cell service "hole" (we get one bar cell service over the air), so when the cell service over VOIP wouldn't work either, that was kind of a problem. AT&T came through a few years ago and laid fiber optic line, and when the pandemic forced us to be holding 4-6 simultaneous Zoom sessions, we gave Spectrum one last shot. They still couldn't give us anything above what they had been, even after completely re-laying the line into our house, so we went with the competitor.

Now I get multi-hundred mbps nearly 100% reliably.

Oh, and after we confirmed the new setup was working, Spectrum told us the cable portion of our bill would go up if we dropped the internet piece, so we dumped the cable setup, too. Now they call us at least once a week trying to get us back. Perhaps hiring technicians instead of sales people would have worked better...

I’ve mentioned it in another thread but I hunted down Dick Parsons home phone in the early 2000s. We had been having problems with Time Warner for years and they were the only option. Called on a Saturday morning. Surprisingly, he answered and was very kind and attentive. Sunday morning we had crews redoing the entire street. When the CEO calls it gets the cogs moving! The only outages the entire street has had are the wide area ones ever since.

I’ll fill out that survey. We actually get the advertised speeds even during the evening.

[Acymetric]

I’ve mentioned it in another thread but I hunted down Dick Parsons home phone in the early 2000s. We had been having problems with Time Warner for years and they were the only option. Called on a Saturday morning. Surprisingly, he answered and was very kind and attentive. Sunday morning we had crews redoing the entire street. When the CEO calls it gets the cogs moving! The only outages the entire street has had are the wide area ones ever since.

I’ll fill out that survey. We actually get the advertised speeds even during the evening.

I do recall you sharing that story some time back. I want to see the mini-doc on you tracking down that number. I'm going to assume it was something like Taken or Man on Fire.

[budwom]

I’ve mentioned it in another thread but I hunted down Dick Parsons home phone in the early 2000s. We had been having problems with Time Warner for years and they were the only option. Called on a Saturday morning. Surprisingly, he answered and was very kind and attentive. Sunday morning we had crews redoing the entire street. When the CEO calls it gets the cogs moving! The only outages the entire street has had are the wide area ones ever since.

I’ll fill out that survey. We actually get the advertised speeds even during the evening.

Reminiscent of what my mother did many years ago. She and my father had paid for a new house to be built by a huge building company...they'd watch it being built, and noticed some serious deviations from their contract. Guys on site said too bad, so my mother found the name and phone number of the company president (U.S. Homes) got him on the line, and he quickly realized that his compliance was the easy route...problem solved...must be something about the English (my mom)

[Kdogg]

I do recall you sharing that story some time back. I want to see the mini-doc on you tracking down that number. I'm going to assume it was something like Taken or Man on Fire.

Nothing so dramatic. The phone number was attached to property records in the wife’s name. I think it was a house in Connecticut. Even pre social media she left a pretty big trail.