Okay I am getting Comcast serverices for free because the wife works for them and I am about ready to say I'd rather pay for reliable service.
I am getting
Internet
Digital Cable
High Def Cable
A digital recorder
half price on VOIP for 2 lines a home and a business
Pretty good you would think. Lets take a look at whats going on shall we.
Since getting the service my DVR has craped out 3 times. Now the DVR is the digital/High def box. So when it craps out I lost all recorded movies and access to my television stations. The internet service has craped out twice. This seems it was not a modem issue but a signal issue.
After ordering everything it only took 3 weeks for them to get a tech out to set up my VOIP. That is it only took me 3 weeks to get 911 service. So I called verizon who turned on my service 2 days later to gap the time it took for comcast to get thier only VOIP tech in the county to come out and make a phone call to thier center to hit the box and activate it. I guess letting a customer make this call is way too much of a burden on comcast bare bonse call center.
The voip has been up and worked great for 3 weeks now. But today... You guessed it, it craped out on me. No dial tone. No 911 service. I called the 1800-Comcast. Let me walk you through the teleprompt.
For english press 1
Something somethin es spaniol dous
> I press 1
For comcast television press 1
for comcast highspeed internet press 2
> I wait for Comcast digital voice(thier brand name for VOIP)
For comcast television press 1
For Comcast highspeed internet press 2
> I Press 2 figureing VOIP is closer to internet than tv
I get a phone jocky who knows nothing. They quickly realise I know what I am talking about and transfer me to another phone jocky. This guy tells me I dialed into the wrong center and transfers me to.... Another tele prompter, but doesn't give me the number or a chance to ask for it. As a matter of fact I was saying, Hold on wait wait wait.... To late I was transfered
For comcast existing customers press 1
For new Comcast customers press 2
> I press 1
For Comcast television press 1
For comcast Highspeed internet press 2
For comcast Digital voice comcasts new telephone service press 3
> Holy bat terds this might be a go, I press 3
I get a phone jocky...
Hello sir how can I help you today. I describe how I have no dial tone and the lights are out on my box. I advise I have a 4 year old daughter and no 911 service. They ask if i tryed to dail 911.
Now for the non tech and retards out there.
1.) no dial tone means don't bother calling, you have no tip and ring. In other words the [censored] is broke
2.) you do not just call 911 to make sure you can. That is a good way to get fined and have the police visit you.
I advise the tech he is retarded and tell him how the phone works. Then I explain how 911 laws work. He promptly advises me this is Comcast digital voice. I advise him it is VOIP and I know what the [censored] it is and how it works and about how is ATM back bone works with his edge routers to provide thier VOIP network.
He advises me he can have a truck out in the morning. I advise him my daughter is choking and I can not call 911. He says but you have a cell phone. I tell him I am bloging this whole conversation. I also advise I work for verizon and know they can not put off getting 911 back up. He asks if my daughter is really choking. I tell him no but imagine if she was or does later and I have a record of this conversation. He asks me to hold and apologises.
Not we have the token manager at his cubicle. The manager asks if i tryed making any calls. I take into account they deal with ID10T's all day. I advise the manager I have no dial tone, no I can not make a call that I have no 911 srvice and a child at home, that they must get my 911 back up.
Now at this time the lights on my VOIP modem come back up. I check. I'll be damed I have dial tone. I do not tell my wonderful tech support on the cell phone. I ask if they can at least test the line. They tell me no. lol. Now I know in Verizon we can test a line in 10 seconds flat. I figure the manager is about as technical as our janitor at this point. This explains his tech's knowledge.
I decide to tell them I now have dial tone back and will not be needing thier help today but want a tech out in the morning to check the signal strength at the tap as a possible reason why my box might have droped out. It took them 45 minutes to set up a disspatch. So some time between 08:00 and noon on 11/6/2005 a tech will be here. Lets see if the VOIP is fixed 100% and what he takes out of service to get it fixed. I know if he puts an amp on the line my internet will be [censored] because it will mess up the data stream. I would assume that this would also mess up the data stream for the VOIP box also.
My guess is the bridger needs to be turned up to allow a stronger signal to get to the tap. But what do I know, I am a dumb [censored] customer.