If You Don’t Hear From Me, Send Lawyers, Guns, And Money

After struggling for a few years with Qwest’s DSL service, I’m changing to Comcast this afternoon. I’ll be replacing my local phone service and Direct TV programming at the same time, a move that should give me much faster Internet access while saving me close to $60 per month … if it works.
My DSL has always had its share of problems. I live in one of those neighborhoods that sits too far from a central office to get normal DSL. Qwest installed repeaters nearby to give service to my area, but no other CLECs followed suit. As a result, the only DSL I can get is Qwest’s business class (for networking in the house), and while the down/up pipe isn’t bad — usually 512/256K — it’s cranky. If I run a trace route on any domain, it times out.
Cable hadn’t been an option for a while here either, but I had another problem — the previous owner of the house had inadvertently cut the cable line over ten years ago when adding a retaining wall. When I called Comcast, they told me that they now routinely bring a new line into the house in this area, so it wouldn’t cost me anything extra. I placed the order for Triple Play, and my new speed should be 6M, roughly twelve times faster, as well as allow for movies on demand and free long distance service to the entire US.
We’ll see. Friends of mine have had trouble in the past with Comcast installations, and Glenn Reynolds recently wrote of his issues with Comcast’s service. If you don’t hear from me this evening, keep my post title in mind — or send me lots of Panera gift cards, because I’ll move in there instead.

14 thoughts on “If You Don’t Hear From Me, Send Lawyers, Guns, And Money”

  1. Have had Comcast Triple Play myself for a year or two now, and don’t have much to complain about it, other than it being a bit pricier than expected. Install went smoothly, and customer service has been pretty good.

  2. Do yourself a favor, run a direct cable from the spliter outside your house to your cable modem. Do not add a spliter between the Cable Co Demarc and your cable modem.
    Each split weakens the signal.

  3. I’d recommend that people you give people that may need to contact you in an emergency your cell phone number. Comcast’s phone service (or lack thereof) makes it necessary.

  4. Comcast? You’re DOOMED! Doomed I say!
    I use Comcast for my internet connection only. I consider their TV service to be second rate. I use DirecTV and I’m toying with the idea of Upgrading to new hardware and HD. Once Verizon comes in with FIOS into my neighborhood, bye bye comcast!
    Not that I have anything against comcast. 😉

  5. Cap – check your email. In case of outages I work for a company that might be able to help!
    We have Comcast for our internet at the office and it’s very good.
    Cindy

  6. “Send Lawyers, Guns and Money.” It does my heart good to see a snippet of a Warren Zevon lyric. Coincidentally, I just picked up “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon” by Crystal Zevon over the weekend. Interesting stuff…

  7. My only experience with DSL was with Southwestern Bell in the late 90’s/early 2000’s(?) and it was NOT a happy experience.
    I have had a cable modem since early 2002,first with Comcast and now Time Warner and while there have been a few glitches,I would rate my overall happiness with the service at 99.5%.
    I have flirted with the idea of going back to DSL to save money,but when I look at the up/down speeds of DSL versus cable,there is just no comparism and absolutely no chance I’ll give up my cable modem.
    I pay more,but I have and get more.

  8. I made the same move over a year ago. At that time Comcast had no voip so I went with Vonage. So far no regrets, the vitual phone numbers Vonage offers in Europe are great! Good luck.

  9. I have had pretty good service with ComCast, though if you use a wireless set-up for your PC be advised that when the phone is in use it screws up the wireless connection. Nice thing to know is that they bury the cable run from the pole up to the house.

  10. I have to disagree with Ted. Splitters are -in general- a bad idea.
    Can’t speak for Comcast, as I have Time Warner Roadrunner, but i’m quite happy with that, and their voip phone service. In fact, the install tech added a little dohickey that allows me to use every phone jack in my apartment.
    If Comcasts’ technical quality matches TW, you’ll be very happy, Ed. I have 6Mbps downstream here, and the voip works fine. Good voice quality, free long distance, caller ID, no special phone required. It Just Works. 🙂
    Ned: Verizon, FIOS? Could you elaborate?

  11. Ditto the other favorable Comcast comments.
    I watch a lot of movies, hence I have all the premium channels. If I can’t find something I like on them, I’ll find a movie via On Demand. If you find a movie listed there, and its source is a Premium channel you already subscribe to, it’s free. That’s a service that is not available on satellite, and I think it evens things up quite a bit.

  12. Exactly a year ago we got Comcast “Triple Play” for $99.00/Month. (In reality it is $117.00/month due to taxes and fees). We have been pleased with the deal except for two things: 1) Two or three times this past year the Comcast system was down and then we were out of phone, TV, and Internet! (Fortunately we have Verizon cell phones and can remain in contact with the world). 2) And then this last month our monthly bill just spurted to over $250.00! When I called Comcast I was told that our “Triple Play” deal was just for one year and that the higher monthly bill reflected the normal price of the services plus something about being in the middle of a billing cycle. (That the new regular bill would be $154/month). I asked to be reinstated to the “Triple Play” deal but was told that I had to wait for a 90 day period to be reinstated. I then mentioned that the previous day I had just received a Verizon FIOS offer for a six month Triple Play deal for $99.00 and I would be terminating my Comcast subscription. That prompted the lady (very polite) to transfer me to the “retention” department lady (also exceedingly polite) who quickly reinstated me to the Triple Play with the provision that it would be for a two year term and althought “it is not a contract” it will cost us $150 to terminate the deal (but not if the reason is that we sell the house, move, or there is bad Comcast service). So the lesson I learned is to watch for when the Comcast Triple Play term is about to expire and to call to renew it otherwise the “bump” you to the higher monthly price.

  13. ED:
    If you lose power in the neighborhood, you also lose all Comcast service; TV, Internet and phone.
    We were down here for about five days last year, using up and exceeding cellphone minutes.
    I was glad however, that I hadn’t donated my Y2K generator for Katrina Relief. You’ve got a generator–right?
    I recently went back to Qwest, DSL, DirecTV, because of the big increase after the first year of Comcast. Now Qwest is jacking me up.

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