So, I woke up Saturday morning and hopped on the Internet. It had been slow Friday; Saturday morning it had slowed to a snail’s pace. It wasn’t gone completely – I could still get my Gmail – but sites like Facebook and my blog’s admin panel timed out. I called Comcast and pushed the right buttons to get help for my high-speed Internet.
As the automated system suggested, I unplugged my cable modem and plugged it back in to reboot, as well as pushing the reset button on the front. I had Comcast send the modem a reset signal. Still slow. So I called back and navigated the system until I got a human being.
She examined my account. “My first thought is that you have an older modem. If you switch it out with a current one, that may fix it. There are several ways you can get the new modem. Probably the most convenient would be for you to come to our office and exchange it.”
NO, I told her. That might be convenient for Comcast, but wasting my lunch hour standing in line is not convenient for me, especially since there was no guarantee a new modem would fix the problem. I told her to send a tech out.
“Okay, sir, we have appoinments Monday, 8-11, 11-2, 2-5 and 5-7.” I told her I’d take a 5-7, thanked her and hung up.
I left the office at 4 today, knowing that sometimes they’ll show up early. Right as I was about to pull out of the lot, their automated system called, asking me to push 2 to confirm I would be home between 5 and 7 and still wanted them to come out. I pushed 2.
Got home at 4:25, and just for kicks I hit the reload button on the tab where I’d been trying to access Facebook for two days. Facebook loaded, blazing fast. As did my blog. As did every other site I tried to hit. Cool, I thought, I’ll call and cancel and be at the Saucer by 5.
I called Comcast and spent 8 minutes navigating menus and waiting on hold to talk to a human. Finally I got one. He told me to leave the appointment. “That way, if the problem is intermittent, we can rule out your equipment.” So I begrudgingly agreed to leave the appointment and wait on their tech to come out.
It’s now 7:05, they have not arrived, my Internet is running just fine, and I have received no call confirming that they are running late and will be here. They have 5 minutes before I leave.
What probably happened was there was a system-wide outage Friday night/Saturday morning, and they either didn’t notice it, or noticed it and didn’t care, until everyone came to work on Monday. I mentioned the slow Internet service on Twitter and others (although, in other parts of town) said they were experience slowness too.
F Comcast. They have until I get my shoes on and everything loaded into my pockets. After that I am outta here, and when they call trying to get in the building I’ll tell them not to bother.
Back with your regularly scheduled lunchtime post tomorrow.