Charter vs. Comcast vs. Broadstripe

About 5 years ago, Spouse, Minions and I all lived up north in a crappy little College town. The town was also the location of an Indian Reservation. The entire town was either geared towards the tourists that come to town to gamble, or the college kids who don’t give a squat about the town.

Where did that leave us for family? Pretty much no where. While we lived up there, we got to experience the JOY and THRILL of having Charter for both cable and internet. It was shitty. They were the only way to get cable at the time, and they pretty much bent you over and gave you the shaft. Expensive, horrible service, and if you were a day late, they shut your ass down.

Four years ago, we moved to a much bigger, more centrally located town when Spouse got a new job. We got Comcast cable and internet. Now, I know a lot of people bag on them, but we had a great experience with them. Our internet and cable were always up and running, and crystal clear. If it went down, they were available on the phone, and giving us an update as soon as it happened.

My ONLY complaint with Comcast, is that if we went and paid the bill in person, we had a ‘counter payment’ fee added on. But, overall, we loved the service. And got really used to all the free on-demand they had. Up in shitty college/Indian town, the only on-demand they had at all, were advertisements for shows on premium channels.

Three years ago, we took the plunge, and bought a house. It was in a small, family oriented town. The only choice for cable and internet was a small company called Broadstripe.

Now, just so we’re clear, I’m not getting fucking paid to post this shit.

Broadstripe. Where do I start? How about the day it was installed, and the guy had no idea what he was doing? He was under our house for two hours trying to figure out how exactly to hook up both internet and cable. Apparently the people before us used land lines, not a cable modem.

He finally got it, though- then left, and both the internet and cable immediately left with him. It took several days to get him back to fix it. Turned out, he accidentally pulled a wire or something.

Over the next year or two, we had constant problems. If it was windy, internet was down. If it was a day ending in Y, internet was crappy, slow, and occasionally down. We called tech support I don’t know how many times. We finally stopped calling them, because the tech support group is only 2 people, and neither of them know how to provide any support past, “Did you unplug it for 5 minutes?” and “It’s probably your router.”

We replaced the modem and the router. Still happening. Finally they came out, and realized that their wires running to the house were shitty. It took them almost 2 years to realize that.

We now have faster and slightly more reliable internet. But not by much. And still, calling them is fucking useless. Why? Because it’s still those same two guys working tech support with no clear knowledge of how to support technology.

Take right now, for example. Or rather, take XXXX amount of hours ago, for example. I’m typing this post up in a word document, because our internet has been down all day. Just a mocking, blinking light on the modem. After doing ALL of their suggested tech support moves, I decided to call them. I got a busy signal. What. The. Hell.

Most businesses are in the 21^st century now, and know that to be successful, you should have several lines available, right? So why is it busy? I kept trying back. I kept getting a busy signal.

In my head, I pictured the receptionist with the phone off the hook, curled in a ball under her desk biting her nails till her fingers bleed, just to STOP THE COMPLAINT CALLS! DEAR LORD, MAKE THEM STOP!

Spouse had another opinion, and said they likely lost their entire network, and as a cable company, probably did away with land lines, and use VoIP. What. The. Hell. In what brilliant mind, would a company that has downed internet on a weekly average, think that’s a brilliant move?

Whose brainchild idea was that?

So, it’s been about 3 hours since I woke up to find the interweb fairies stole my interwebs, and I can’t even call and bitch. Oh, but you better believe if this shit isn’t back by 5, I’ll be in the office pissed.

And this time, I actually mean it. My online business is something I take very seriously, and without the capability of checking in on it, it goes south quickly. I was able to let people know I’d be AFK today due to a CRAPTACULAR interwebs system, but still- I’m hosting an online event for the weekend that started yesterday- and no way to monitor it.

I’m gonna be pissed if I don’t have internet back somewhat soon.

Oh, snap. Phone just rang through- they’re currently advising me on taking a survey to improve business. Oh, I have some fucking suggestions, you ass wipes.

Huh. After their automated spiel, it rang once, then dead silence. You best believe next time I get through, I’ll be filling out that survey.

 Now, obviously if you're reading this now, you know my interwebs eventually came back up. I think it was 4 hours from when I got up, but no clue what time it actually died at this morning. 

All y'all out there that bitch about Comcast? I'll trade you.