What follows is an attempt at a written representation of a uniquely bizarre contemporary circumstance – one hour and a half of interacting with Comcast customer support.
For the past seven months, our wireless internet service has been poor. Occasionally, no one in the house can get online, usually it’s just been one of us disconnected at a time. We’ve survived, but, as students, internet access is an essential resource in our home, and we’re paying seventy dollars a month for this.
17 days ago, I call customer service. After two hours of troubleshooting and running speed tests, interrupted once by a dropped call, the representative suggests that I return our rented Comcast modem/router combination and buy a third party dual band set up. Sounds reasonable, saves us the monthly rental fee. I hunt around Amazon and find a pre-owned Motorola device that looks good, I order it.
Boston is in the midst of a Fimbulwinter.
The delivery is delayed a few times.
Some days after placing this order, our modem stops receiving any internet connection at all. I call Comcast and they can not fix it remotely. The representative thinks it is broken and wants to send a technician over in the next few days. I decide we will just wait for the new modem to arrive and won’t have to bother waiting around for a tech during the blizzard.
It arrives today.
I plug everything in, setup the wireless network, and call Comcast to activate the modem. I expected a quick process.
The first representative I speak with takes his time, but eventually I get to give him the MAC address for the new modem. He puts me on hold. He returns to tell me that someone else has this MAC address registered to their account, someone in Savannah, Georgia, the previous owner of this device. So it seems someone in Savannah, Georgia returned this modem to Amazon, then surely registered another modem with their account, but Comcast failed to erase the old MAC address from their file. I can not use this MAC address while it is on their file. He is going to try to get it deactivated from their account so that I can use it and will transfer me to someone who will help us to do that.
I am disconnected as he transfers me.
The second representative I speak with tells me that he can not deactivate the MAC address and that I need to go to the Comcast service center to reassign it. I don’t believe him, I was just told that it could be handled over the phone.
I call again and get the same representative from my first call. After struggling to remind him that we had just spoken five minutes ago, he attempts to once again transfer me so that we can reassign the MAC ID, and, laughing, reassures me that I will not be disconnected. The representative puts me on hold – a distorted piece of classical music begins to play, so badly disfigured by the low bit rate of a phone line that all that is audible is an unidentifiable cacophony of piano keys. The phone line disconnects.
The third representative I speak with listens to my tale of frustration with empathy. She wants to help me. The phone line disconnects.
The fourth representative I speak with has no empathy. He tells me that it is impossible to reassign a MAC address over the phone, for customers’ security, that I have to go to the service center. I plead my case. Transportation in Boston this winter is Hell – the T is not running above ground. Buses are on limited schedules and packed like so many cans of sardines. Roads are backed up and flooded in heavy slush. Cycling is not safe. Each 20 degree day brings a new snowfall. I can take a photo of the modem in my hands and send it to him. I can prove my ownership of this device.
The representative begins to berate me. I move the phone away from my ear.
No, the ability to remove the MAC address from a customer’s account was removed from the representatives’ systems two years ago.
He tells me that with some pride, a disturbed individual.
All hope is lost. I am going to march to the service center, not tonight though, they close at 5.
I call RCN and ask if they provide service in my neighborhood. They do not.
Inanity like this only exists when corporate monopolies are allowed to reign. There is no human service, only rigid liability-protective terms and conditions that jerk you around from bill to bill.
Some competition, such as Google Fiber or municipal internet, is badly needed in Boston and wherever an internet provider dominates a market.
Bolog 