This is a complete tldr; rant, forgive me, but hey, it is my forum
As I am a web developer (and totally addicted to the Internet), I have long maintained both DSL and cable modem service. Originally, it was because it was actually more expensive to get rid of my cable modem and break my package than to keep it, but then when I moved and changed cable companies, the cable modem was 8 megs vs 6 megs with my DSL. I still kept the DSL, which proved to be a wise move after a hurricane two years ago - my DSL was back immediately and my cable was out for several weeks.
Anyway, this past Saturday after never having a problem with my cable service in more than a year, it went out. I called Comcast and they said there was an outage. So I waited awhile, and after a few hours, checked back as I still had no service. They told me the outage had been cleared - but I still had no service. After several attempts, they could not get my cable modem to connect, so they had to send a technician. The soonest someone could come was Wednesday. I wasn't happy, but I knew I could use my DSL until then.
Well, about 6 months ago, I downgraded my DSL to the lowest speed because it was stupid to pay for a 6 meg DSL line I was not using. I figured if I needed to use it again, I could just get the speed upgraded, which normally takes a day at most. So began more ordeal with AT&T on Saturday.
I called AT&T and explained the situation and asked to be upgraded. I was transferred back and forth about 10 times, often having to reinput my phone number (or to say the digits, since now everything makes you talk to it), only to then be asked for my phone number by the agent. I was told 6 meg service wasn't available, then I was told that it was, then there was something wrong with my account that billing needed to resolve and it could not be taken care of until Monday, but that the order had been put in to upgrade.
I called back on Monday, and nothing had been done with my account. I spoke two four different agents throughout the day. The first one assured me it would be taken care of within an hour, and even gave me her phone number to call to follow up. Her phone # was an AT&T voice menu system which kept asking me to input the mailbox number. All the while, still 768k DSL line.
Anyway, long story short, after going through more than 15 people now, receiving order confirmations calls that it has been upgraded, etc, my line is still 768k, which after an 8 meg cable modem is practically dial up - choppy streaming video, stuff takes forever to rez in
SL, etc.
So this morning Comcast did show up, said there was a problem with the outside line. The technician was outside for about an hour (in fact I thought he left he was gone so long) and when he came back, my cable modem was working again:
So now I am happy again, thanks to Comcast. I think I am going to see if I can keep just my DSL and cancel my AT&T phone service and switch it to Comcast. I can't believe how horrible AT&T's customer service is. Comcast followed through every step of the way - last night when they called to confirm, the technician explained to me that outages can sometimes cause a surge on a cable line when it comes back and it can damage it which is probably what happened to me (and it turns out that is what it was). They were incredibly professional, and I continue to be impressed at the quality of their service. Their 8 meg service uses some burst technology so you often get much faster speeds - notice my line tested above at nearly 19 megs with a 2.5 meg upload speed.
