I don’t know if it is people panicking and realizing their situations or mortality but we had a doozy today.
We scheduled Comcast to come look at the signal levels for a job and the tech was probably the biggest tool in the shed. The Luxul router we installed was having some sort of throttling and only putting out 180mbps.
Before we knew it was the router we started to swap the modem from the Gateway to a Arris SB8200. In the middle of the install and call with CXI the tech just disconnects the modem and runs his signal test, proceeds to tell the customer our tech is garbage, and starts trash talking.
After we got our modem in he continues to slip her a business card, continue to bad mouth us, and then leaves.
Because the client went to a Speedtest website with the Comcast guy she got it in her head that we could never compete with this guy.
After we went to get a new router (UniFi DreamCast router), hook it up, show here we are getting 680mbps, she looses it and has us undo everything and started freaking out.
I’m pretty sure her prescription ran out or something but screw those people and $&@€ that tech.

During my training at Comcast as a tech. We got a call for no internet or whatever it was, I forget ATM. It was a customer owned modem, separate router.

The modem was fine but the router wasn’t. But since it was the customer’s... he of course talked trash about it. He attempted to tell them that “ours” will be far better and such. And if anything goes wrong with it, we’ll replace it for free and such.

When he was done talking, I then told them that their modem is fine. It’s just the router has seen its days and just purchase a new router, and probably get a 5GHz too.

Yeah, he didn’t like that very much. But I stood my ground when we were alone. The reason? Because I have the same exact modem and it’s been serving me well for 8 plus years.

When I move into my own house. I’ll be using that same modem, just a different router. It’s either 16 or 24 channel, so when I had Comcast internet. I was seeing speeds over 270mbps, even though I paid for only 250.

Now that I see what I “really” need, I’ll just pay for 30mbps or whatever they have to offer.

No need to have over 200mbps just because I have 10 to 15 devices. I hate how they ask that... “how many devices do you have? 15? Oh well you’ll need our 250 speed.” “20 device, you’ll need our 500 speed.”

KOT

Call Dispatch and ask for a manager, so you can let him know how much you enjoyed the experience.

A direct TV technician and I had a little encounter over very poor workmanship with a surly attitude. The final straw was lack of a drip loop and seal as the cable came through the outside wall. Water would easily run down the wire and into the house. The customer was not present and, as the installer was leaving, he handed me his phone in order for me to sign off on the installation. I was talking to an offshore call center and they asked me to give a satisfaction rating. I gave an appropriate bad rating. She felt that my rating was unsatisfactory and asked me to reconsider several times. She did not want me to give an unsatisfactory rating. We argued about this for a while, then I was transferred to an on shore rep who listened to my complaint and sent another technician the next day (Saturday) who took a few pictures and fixed things.

I went through the CXI people and left a review. Not sure it will amount to much.

After some soul searching I could picture myself doing the same thing when I was younger and a cable tech. But seriously $&@€ that guy.

I'm surprised at your CXI experience.  Did you book the visit through CXI?  Everytime I book the service call directly with CXI, I get a top line tech and their work order almost always says the client is a VIP.

CXI always works for me.

That used to be the case for me, but now it seems any tech I get is new or has one foot back in the unemployment line since they don’t seem to want to work.

My last experience a few weeks ago was pretty darn sketchy. Of course this client was a high strung client and I closed the job on me being able to handle Comcast for them. This dude shows up, like an extra on a rap video and an Eminem wannabe. Even I was uncomfortable, the dude cut my line back to the wall before I could even yell WTF are you doing. I ended up following him around because I didn’t trust him, it actually took me calling into CXI to activate things for him because he didn’t know how or simply didn’t want to. Finally the dude starting eyeing the jewelry box on the clients dresser and the watches that were in the watch box on the nightstand, I finally said , dude, I have it from here, don’t close the job, hang out in your truck until I say you can close it out. Managed to get everything else done with CXI, told them the situation.

That was by far one of my worst experiences with any “tech”

I have to go this morning to a business because it seems a Comcast tech didn't want to do his job.
Customer lost internet at their business yesterday morning. The 4 phones lines that come thru a different Comcast modem, were fine.
Tech came out and said it was their network. He said he swapped the modem/router and could connect to YouTube, so everything was fine with the Comcast service.

I showed up right after he left.
1) He lied and did NOT swap the modem/router. I checked the serial number against my records and it was the same modem/router that has been in there for years.
2) On the internet, you could access YouTube, Yahoo, Google Maps, Wiki, and that was about it. Everything else I tied failed to connect (tried over a dozen other websites before stopping). Direct connection to the modem from outside the network fails as well; security cameras, VPN, etc.
3) All this, while directly connected to the Comcast modem/router and nothing else attached. Also went thru the modem/router settings to make sure everything was correct.

Pretty sure it is the modem/router, unless the Comcast authorization center has something screwed up in the system - I have seen that before cause weird connectivity issues.
The same tech is coming out. Getting this guy to do his job maybe a challenge. Putting on my mean face now. Got to go.

That almost sounds like some kind of strange DNS thing going on or something, to be able to get to some sites but not others, unless the router was blocking them.

I see more Comcast DNS issues than Verizon DNS issues.

When possible I'll insert a Google DNS server as a secondary.

If this is a constant issue at the location, a private DNS service might be the answer. This can also be handy if small children need to be protected because many of the private DNS services block offensive sites.

Different Comcast tech came out. Customer has an old Netgear Comcast modem/router. Apparently to reset one of those, you have to hold the tiny reset pin for over 2 minutes (did not know this). I wondered why it didn't seem to reset when I held it for about a minute.
Anyway, that got it working again. So some kind of memory corruption. I did tell the customer if it happens again, it is probably the sign of a deeper issue with that modem/router and they should insist it be replaced.

As he left, he held out his hand and I shook it. I guess old habits are hard to break, especially when we are not thinking. I did immediately go to the bathroom and wash my hands. Got to think: How many people this guy sees a day and if he is shaking all of their hands....
As of this week, we have confirmed cases all over the area. So many, many people are infected here now.

We are on the outskirts of NYC, who has over 30,000 positive cases. Over 600 in our state with the bulk in our county. I'm staying home for the time being.

And I am trying to stay on the east side of the Connecticut River... “trying” is the key word.

Today after leaving a job site in Rocky Hill and on our way to Colchester. We took the I-91 to Rt 2 around 3pm. Wow, I could not believe how the highway was nearly empty. Except for maybe 10 to 15 cars as far as we could see. Normally it’s bumper to bumper traveling 60mph.

KOT