Recently, our local cable company — where we get our high speed Internet access — merged with another company to become a new third company. Not so uncommon, in this day and age.
As a result, a bunch of the "systems" — including what passes for "Customer Service" — also changed.
And definitely not for the better.
Lately, we have been experiencing relatively frequent outages to our Internet... by which I mean it has probably gone out for an hour or two, on 4-5 occasions this month alone. Not very impressive.
However, we do live in a heavily wooded area, and we've been having a fair number of very windy days.
So, last night the Internet went out, again.
I tried the usual "reboot the modem" fix, to no avail. I know — from experience — that this is a sign that the feed to the entire neighborhood is out, with perhaps 90% certainty.
So this is where the problems begin: I pick up the phone and call the service provider, and their automated answering system easily enough gets me to the "Tech Support" area for Internet customers... but once I get there, I have only two possible options:
- Listen to the instructions to reboot the modem, or
- Schedule a technician for a service call.
Neither of these are the answer I am looking for: I need to speak to a HUMAN, to report a likely network outage in my area. Or, at the very least, be able to check whether there's a network outage in our area.
Of course, I have already tried to reset the modem without success, so this leaves me with only the option to schedule a service call to our house to deal with a broader network issue.
Moreover, what makes this even more irritating is that if a service tech comes out and there is no problem with our lines and equipment, there will be a $79.95 charge for the visit!
Even more annoying is the fact that there is no longer anyone to talk to about the fact that we just have "general connectivity issues" in our entire area... and what are they DOING about it???"
Customer DIS-service, if you ask me.
Sadly, we don't really have many options. We could get Satellite service, which is much slower and costs more. Would could get service through the phone service provider... which is also much slower... or we could get it through our cell service provider which is reliable, but prohibitively expensive for a plan with unlimited streaming and data usage.
Meanwhile, I just want a phone menu with the actual OPTIONS I need!
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your weekend!
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Sequence: 060 — Timestamp: 2022.05.28 - 14:03 PDT
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That 80 buck service fee is ridiculous. We have it here too, but if it's their fault you don't pay. Still, you have to wait days. Sometimes I find it funny we stress about these things when real connection has nothing to do with the internet and is probably out in those beautiful woods. Still .. grrr.
ISP's suck. It's just a fact of life. I'd recommend trying to move or join up something like nycmesh if its in your area: https://www.nycmesh.net/.
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