a journey through the flawed world of Comcast HSI
Article Contents (jump to topic):
Both a clerk at my local Comcast office and a Comcast field tech recently summarized
Comcast's current situation: "Comcast is [in] chaos". Welcome
to the trials and tribulations of my recent installation experience with
USA's Comcast high-speed Internet (HSI). No pulled punches, and
no-holds-barred.
Some brief background: yes, I'm into geeky
things, and yes, I've been a broadband subscriber before it was ever
marketed as 'broadband'. In the '90s, I went through ASDL (consumer
DSL), SDSL (business DSL), and cable broadband when TCI and AT&T
were the leading providers. In those days, no one ever heard of Comcast.
Currently,
I use Verizon DSL. I was originally promised (promised is used loosely
here) a 768 Kbps speed for downstream. I was fairly impressed with this
in 2004, and I actually received speeds around 700 Kbps. I was happy
and all was well. Now, Verizon supposedly upped my speed to 1.5 Mbps
since 2006, but my actual speed has dropped, and continues to drop.
So naturally I decided to try broadband cable, and determine if the marketing hype was at least half-way true. To
my dismay, I've spent days with Comcast's online chat and phone support
to resolve several problems. It has been a seemingly endless battle
that continues to wage war on my sanity. My journal of this experience
is organized in sequential order, with each date in a color to express
my level of frustration (upon entering that event). Green for calm and relaxed, yellow-green for a little miffed, orange for annoyed, red for absolute frustration, and blood red for furious.
Research...
10/16/06 Mon:
I originally set out to do some research online. I knew that my cable
bills came in with the name Adelphia, so naturally I researched Adelphia high-speed Internet (HSI). I knew that Adelphia was bought by Comcast, but I found Adelphia's site and all of there information appeared to be accurate.
10/17/06 Tue:
After calling Adelphia's toll-free number (according to the number on
their web site), I quickly learned that I need to talk with Comcast,
not Adelphia. Apparently, the Adelphia offices have not completely
merged with Comcast yet, after more than a year since the buy out (PC World: Time Warner, Comcast to Buy Adelphia). So I was told to call 1-800-COMCAST. No transfers available.
10/17/06 Tue:
While talking with a Comcast rep, I was quickly informed that my
current cable television account does not exist. That's interesting --
they want me to believe that the monthly bill I've been paying for
years was just a figment of my imagination. I explained that I live in
a 'townhouse association',
and we've struck a deal with Adelphia years ago. I attempted to
enlighten the rep of our account's existence under my association's
name, but they were adamant that it should be listed by my individual
address in their database.
This rep recommended I visit my local
Comcast office to find out why my account isn't listed in their
database. She rattled off "local" offices that were 2 or more hour
away. I knew where my local Adelphia office was located, before they
were bought by Comcast. So I quietly dismissed her suggestions with the
hope that my old Adelphia office would now be Comcast.
The rep
continued, unabated, and laid out the cost of HSI. $99 for install, and
$52 a month. I was appalled. I told the rep I would like the
do-it-yourself install kit, and that I've seen advertisements for
discounts on the first 3 months. I also informed her that $52 a month
seemed rather high compared to prices I've heard about in passing
conversation. She insisted that there's no way around the $99 fee, even
if I install it myself, because I was listed as a new customer in their
database, without any cable connection at all. Needless to say, I
quickly ended our conversation when she offered to connect me to
someone who could find my cable-TV account.
10/17/06 Tue:
I was transferred to a rep in Colorado, of all places. Although
appearing fairly confident and friendly, he was even less helpful,
claiming that my zip-code wasn't a valid area for Comcast broadband.
Interesting, considering that two of my neighbors in our townhouse
association have Comcast HSI. As with the last rep, he was also
puzzled at the lack of information in Comcast's database regarding my
account. Wonderful. Simply wonderful. Fortunately, he was going to
transfer me to closer Comcast call center in Pennsylvania, and
hopefully they would have me on file.
10/17/06 Tue:
Austin, Texas. Apaprently the Colorado rep was either in a cheeky mood,
dyslexic, or geographically incompetent, as Austin is not a city in
Pennsylvania. If I were to guess, he found the first call center on his
alphabetical list and transferred me there. Yet, there is a
silver-lining to the dark cloud of my Comcast-Bizzaro-world experience. The rep I spoke to in Austin was both friendly and... wait for it... helpful!
Why
is it that educated, Caucasian, female reps seem to be much more
willing to help than males and other human classifications? Is it due
to their maternal instincts? I'm not going to even go into any
suggestion of racial differences at this point, due to our society's
sensitivity on the subject. But, the 'educated' factor is huge. If I'm
talking to a rep who sounds as if they're reading from cue cards
(because they can't remember the company's greeting), I typically
hang-up before they even ask for any personally-identifying information.
My experience with these individuals in the past has always been far
less than desirable.
10/17/06 Tue:
Any ways, she mentioned that my local
office should be the old Adelphia office, in which I am familiar. She
was able to actually find my account as it is listed in my townhouse
association's account. She was also able to rattle off the current
pricing, that seemed to be in tune with what I've heard in the past.
The only odd thing was an activation fee of $29, even if I opted for
the do-it-yourself (DIY) install kit. Oh well, $29 is better than $99
any day.
Install...
10/17/06 Tue:
After work, I stopped by my local cable-company office (thank goodness
they didn't move after the switch to Comcast). I was greeted with an
office that had no chairs, no benches, and was only designed to hold
may be 3 people (or 3 couples) waiting in line. And what a painfully
slow wait it was; listening to people drone on about their cable-TV or
HSI problems for 30 minutes while I stand in line isn't reassuring.
After my phone experience, this local office experience was setting off
alarms in my mind. Still, I was tired of the continual slow-down with Verizon DSL, not to mention that Comcast has the only other broadband game in town.
10/17/06 Tue:
Finally, I was able to talk to someone face-to-face. I described the
problems I encountered when trying to set-up HSI over the phone. This
clerk wasn't surprised -- she was all too familiar with the troubles
after the switch to Comcast. She actually told me, "Comcast
is in chaos right now". I couldn't think of a better phrase to describe
my experience with Comcast so far. Fortunately, my local Comcast office
was wise to keep this individual on staff, as she took care of me in
record time. She set me up with a cable modem, a DIY install kit, and
wrote down my account number, explaining that I'll need it later. I
left the office in a much better mood.
10/18/06 Wed:
The instructions in the DIY kit were fairly straight-forward. I easily
added a splitter between the coaxial cable coming into my residence and
my first cable-TV amplifier box. I then attached the supplied coaxial
cable to the other end of the splitter, and ran that along my wall, in
a cable channel. I attached it to the cable modem, unplugged my PC's
CAT-5 network cable from a switch, and hooked that directly into the
cable modem. I installed the Motorolla drivers (even though I wouldn't
be using its USB connection), and downloaded and installed the Comcast
setup software.
Everything was a breeze until the install asked
for my account number. I entered the one supplied by my local office.
Invalid account. I entered it a couple more times in case I missed a
number. Still invalid. Time to call Comcast again.
10/18/06 Wed:
While on the phone with another Comcast rep, I was asked to verify my address, the modem's alpha-numeric "MAC"
ID, and my account number. The rep tried to connect to my modem on his
side, and mentioned everything looks fine. Again I was told my account
was non-existent in their database. Oh, just lovely. For some brief
moment while driving home from my local Comcast office, I made the
assumption that everything would be just dapper now. Silly me.
10/18/06 Wed:
After
the rep ran some tests, and after I had to verbally repeat my hardware
"MAC" ID and account number several times, the rep finally told me
there was a problem with my account that my local office would have to
fix. He informed me that he would escalate the issue, and that my local
office should have my account fixed within a day's time.
10/19/06 Thu:
Tonight
I finally completed the Comcast HSI install and was able to connect to
the Internet through Comcast's servers. Now for some speed measurement
time and a comparison to my Verizon DSL connection.
My
now crawling Verizon DSL was peaking around 280Kbps (that's only 5x
faster than dial-up). Even worse its lag times measure around 300-500ms
when doing a trace route to various servers within the US.
My
new Comcast HSI (sold in 4/6 and 8 Mbps bandwidths) is much more true
to its advertised
speed. In short, I was impressed with the relatively stable speed of
3.08 Mbp. The line is marketed as either a 4 or 6 Mbps
connection (I forget which). Comcast sells an even more expensive 8Mbps
hook-up, but I am not concerned with a 2Mbps difference when I'm
already getting low lags in the range of 50-100ms trace routes to US
servers. Lag is often more important for browsing and online games than
bandwidth. Bandwidth only helps for file transfers (downloads and
uploads), and at 3 Mbps, my downloads fly!
If
it were up to me, this is where my journal should end. However, Comcast
wouldn't hear of it, and my HSI is riddled with even more, less-obvious
problems.
Download Problem...
10/19/06 Thu:
After testing the connection some, I hit a brick wall rather abruptly. I use the latest Firefox browser and DonwloadThemAll
extension for downloading all files of a specific type, found within
links of a web page. For example, DownloadThemAll would allow me to
simplify downloading all of the MP3 links on a given web page. This is
great for sites that host Creative Commons files, which are free to download, free to distribute, and free to use in your own creative works.
Even
though I was able to boost my download speed to a sweet 600+ KB/sec
(roughly 4.7 Mbps), my PC lost connection to the cable modem in a
matter of seconds. I reluctantly used the cruddy "Comcast Doctor"
software (*shudder*) to troubleshoot the connection. As I expected, it
couldn't restore the connection, let alone tell me what was wrong. On a
reboot of WinXP, my connection was restored. Odd.
I tried this exact same procedure on my Linux box (Fedora Core 5
distro), only to experience the same issue. Of course the crud-ware
that Comcast installs isn't available for Linux, so there's one
possible problem eliminated.
I thought this might be related to
something DownloadThemAll was doing, so I tried a different download
manager to no avail. Next, I tried regular downloads within Firefox,
but set the maximum simultaneous downloads to 4. The connection from my
PC to the cable modem died again, but this time after minutes instead
of seconds. Very strange.
Finally I tried downloading one MP3 at
a time, and everything was fine until I downloaded two at the same
time. That's really odd!
10/20/06 Fri:
Time to contact Comcast support again. For this incident, I'm going to
use their online chat. Yuck: it uses tons of javascript to open a
proprietary "chat client" in my browser. At least it runs ok in Firefox
after I allowed comcast.net to run scripts (NoScript is a beautiful extension).
The
wait isn't too long, and the support rep seems friendly... at least as
far as I can tell from his text messages. I tested his response to make
sure I was chatting with a real person, and not a bot. He passed my test. My modem's connection and my coaxial signal strength (attenuation)
is tested next. He asked genuine questions about the downloads I'm
attempting, then agreed to monitor my modem while I recreated the
failure. He willingly attached his notes to my account for the next
rep. On a side note, they actually refer to the online chat support reps
as "analysts".
I recreate the failure, reboot, get back to the
chat client, and continue with the second "analyst". This individual is
also friendly, willing to help, and more importantly, not a bot. :-) He
suggests uninstalling the Comcast Doctor software. I've already
eliminated this as a factor, but I comply with his request. He ran
through the same gambit as the first support rep. At least I know their
training is fairly solid, if not just a routine. I knew I wouldn't be
talking to this rep for long because he wanted me to test it. Sure
enough, my cable modem drops connection to my PC.
10/20/06 Fri:
Back
online with the third "analyst" in support chat. This one is nothing
like the previous reps. He is either trying to play games with me,
wants to brush-off doing any work, or is a complete moron. After I
relay the 'executive summary' of my problem so far, including the fact
that a previous analyst attached notes to my account, he gives me a
brush-off line: "you are probably a Classic customer". As if I'm
supposed to know what that means? I refrain from all of the possible
jokes I can make out of this line.
He asks for my permission to be transferred to a representative that can
look up my account. I found that odd, considering the last two reps had
no problems looking up my account in their database. I ask for
clarification on what a "Classic customer" is. He doesn't offer much
except that he can't view account information for "Classic customers".
I agree, even though I make it a point to tell him no other analyst
needed to do this.
So, some other name pops up in my chat client asking how they can help.
I paste that copied paragraph I have so I don't have to retype
everything each time. This analyst asks me if it is related to a
connection problem. "Huh?" I ask. Then he states something along the
lines of not being able to help me through support chat for connection
related problems. I inform him of my notes in the previous paragraph,
that this isn't a "connection" problem per say. I'm beginning to wonder
if that last rep just handed me off to a bot, because the next thing I
know, I'm disconnected from chat with an otherwise silly message
stating the usual 'thank you for contacting us' line.
So I save the log of this conversation and copy it to rafb.net/paste (an online pastebin).
I then shoot off an e-mail to Comcast support with my complaint and a
link to this log. I doubt they'll ever contact me, but if at least one
person reads the e-mail, it was worth it.
10/21/06 Sat:
I do a bit of online research for causes of my specific problem with
Comcast. I am lucky to find some obscure posts on a couple of different
forums, where users have experienced very similar problems. One user
was able to solve the problem after a tech arrived at their home to
boost the coaxial cable's signal strength. Another user claimed the
problem was solved after they got an updated cable modem firmware from
their ISP. Interesting.
I do a little more research and discover that Motorolla (my cable modem
manufacturer) doesn't release any firmware updates directly to
customers. This is supposed to be handled by my ISP (ie: Comcast), and
automatically updated without any intervention from the user. That
actually makes sense. I was given a Motorolla SB5120 cable modem (the
current model for Comcast HSI subscribers), so it should have a recent
firmware, and it should have been automatically updated by Comcast when
I first connected.
10/21/06 Sat:
With new information, I contact Comcast support again,
but this time, I called them directly. I talked with a very friendly
rep who seems interested in trying to solve my problem. She ran through
the normal gambit of cable modem tests, only to find nothing wrong. I
mentioned the results of my research and she suggested I try to switch
my cable modem for another at my local office before scheduling a tech
to test the line.
Fine. I really doubt that will help, but I will give it a shot. I thank
her and switch my PC back to the DSL so I can download multiple files
at one time without losing connection. I run my DSL through a router,
so connecting to it is as easy as saying "DHCP". Once I resolve this issue with Comcast, I will put that connection on its own router.
10/22/06 Sun:
My
local office isn't open on Sunday, for obvious reasons, so I will swap
out the modem on Monday. I ran even more tests to see if I can narrow
down what is happening to the modem. Unfortunately, without any user
tools to get an actual log from a cable modem, I can't determine much
except that it stops communicating with my PC. I'm tempted to put the
modem on my router, but I want to keep it connecting directly to my PC
until this problem is resolved.
If Comcast can't solve this, I'm dumping the whole thing back at my
local office. The download speed is excellent, but if I can't make use
of it while downloading multiple files, it becomes almost worthless to
me -- my DSL connection downloads multiple files at once without any
problems.
Modem Swap Problem...
10/23/06 Mon:
It's been a week since I started on this 'journey', and it's far from complete. I have a bad feeling that solving my problem will eventually involve getting a tech to troubleshoot the coaxial line running into my house.
Still, I have to swap out my otherwise perfectly fine modem, for
another modem. When I reached my local office, again I waited in a long
line that ran out the doors. The clerk I talked to seemed to handle my
cable modem swap as if it was an every-day affair. I wonder how many
Comcast customers swapped out their modems (which were probably
perfectly fine) at the advice of some support rep?
I brought the second cable modem home and hooked it up, only to notice
it treated me as if I had an invalid account associated with it (ie: no
Internet connection). I check my network settings, ipconfig, etc., and
everything is fine. So, I assume Comcast might want me to run the setup
again from their software. Well, that fails before it even allows me to
input an account number or a Comcast user name and password.
Again, I call Comcast tech support. Again, the rep runs through tests
on my modem after I give him the new "MAC" ID of this modem. After what
was probably 20 minutes of waiting while he checked things, he informs
me that this new modem still has a configuration for its previous user.
Now I'm fuming, but I don't let it show, and I don't take it out on the
rep. Apparently my local office failed to wipe the previous user's
settings before handing off the modem to me.
This rep put in a request for the local office to correct this (it is annoying that the rep's office
can't do this). He asks me for a convenient time by which the local
office can contact me via phone. That's odd -- they shouldn't have to
contact me at all. They just need to fix this! I tell him ASAP: that I
can be reached via phone anytime today or anytime tomorrow in the
afternoon. He was nice, despite the situation, so I returned the favor.
Now I'm fuming. My local office hasn't contacted me yet and my cable
modem is in a non-functional as I type. My Comcast HSI problem grows
worse, moving from semi-functional to non-functional because someone at
my local office "forgot" to wipe a cable modem before re-issuing it.
This 'journey' is now wasting a week of my time, at a couple hours a
day, and still continues without and end in site. I will post more to
this horrific adventure as my troubleshooting progresses. Be warned: if
you want broadband, don't consider Comcast unless you want to
experience the pain I've endured.
10/24/06 Tue:
I haven't received a single call from my local Comcast office. I would certainly know when I receive calls because the number I gave is my mobile phone, with call tracking and voicemail. I will have to call Comcast myself tomorrow and get this resolved.
10/25/06 Wed:
My new modem is still not authorizing a connection, and I still haven't received a call from my local office.
10/26/06 Thu:
This excruciating adventure with Comcast is evolving into a silly affair. I contacted Comcast via phone again, and talked briefly with a woman by the name of "Shareeka" (spelling unknown). It was obvious to me that she was a new employee -- an utterly vacillating individual. While she was doing something unknown to me, she had put me on hold for at least 10 minutes (I lost track of the time). She did this without warning or asking if she could put me on hold. In other words, I was speaking to the rep, then I heard a pause, and finally I was listening to hold music for a long time.
I disconnected my call, then contacted Comcast support again. This time, I talked with "Jennifer". She sounded genuinely interested in correcting my modem's account information or related problem. She came to a conclusion after checking on my account (she never put me on hold, and explained each new step she took): the best solution was to replace my modem... again.
Ok. I'm going to continue to let Comcast be in the driver's seat of my otherwise painfully long trek to get broadband cable up and running. Who am I to argue with a service provider who can't get it right until may be the third cable modem? It seems awfully peculiar.
At any rater, Jennifer suggested I drive to my local office for a third modem. I explained that the office is not close, or rather on the edge of my town, and that it exists on a road undergoing construction (Benner Pike in State College). This construction blocks off one lane of the two lane road, forcing traffic into a grinding halt and wait for 15 minutes, while construction workers flag one direction of cars through at a time. So, I suggested that Comcast send a driver to pick up and drop off the modem.
Because of Comcast's error in handing me a modem with someone else's account information, I shouldn't have to waste my time and money to pick up another modem. Fortunately, she was able to set up a service call for a Comcast tech to bring a new modem and make sure I'm up and running before he or she leaves. That sounds much better. She scheduled my appointment for Monday the 30th of October, between 1 and 3 pm. I'll have to take off from work early that day. At least I will have a tech who can be there to witness my disconnect problem when downloading, if it's not yet solved by a new modem.
I'm willing to take a guess that I'll still have the download problem, but I'll have to wait until Monday to find out. I'll update this article at that point.
Field Tech Visit...
10/30/06 Mon:
I was probably the luckiest Comcast customer to receive a field tech today. Certainly luck was with me because the tech arriving on schedule was perfect my problem. Not only was he a seasoned professional in broadband Internet connections, he was also a relic of the pre-Comcast days when Adelphia was still in the driver's seat for cable TV and cable HSI. Once he learned of my frustration with this bloated cable company, he relaxed enough to share his opinion of Comcast. As I might have already imagined, Comcast is treating its own field techs with the same mass-confusion it dishes out to its customers.
This tech was detained at my place for roughly 3 hours. He wasn't delayed due to troubleshooting, and he wasn't tied-up with researching my problem. He was stuck on hold with Comcast for at least 2 hours, and on the phone talking with a Comcast rep for 30 minutes. He barely spent a half hour doing actual troubleshooting of my Comcast HSI setup. I watched a couple recorded TV programs on my MythTV box while we waited for Comcast reps to "check on" things.
Apparently, the previous tech support rep I spoke with lied to me. Not a subtle, little white lie, or a misunderstanding, but an actual bold-faced lie. The rep explained my problem as someone else's "customer information" being stuck on my modem. The truth...
The field tech and I discovered that my connection problem was simply a lack of registration for my modem on my Comcast account. When the local Comcast office swapped modems with me, they either failed to link the new modem into my account, or put the work order in place for Comcast, and Comcast never completed it. Either way, it has nothing to do with someone else's account information, and even so, the tech explained that this is impossible. No account information is stored on the cable modem -- only my modem's MAC ID address is linked to my account in Comcast's database.
So, after a couple of hours, I actually have connection to the Internet. But this is only one problem resolved, and not a solution to my original problem with downloading. If you remember the download problem from my 10/19/06 entry, my modem and PC were losing connection when using a good portion of my Comcast HSI bandwidth for downloading files. The tech witnessed this problem as I recreated it with the DonwloadThemAll extension for Firefox. I explained that this also happened with regular 'point and click' downloads inside a browser, but it just takes longer to reproduce. He played around with DownloadThemAll's options to no avail (of which I already did). Yet, he did find a quicker work-around to the lost connection (instead of a restart): disable and enable the system's network driver.
He then suggested I download a new driver for my motherboard's Network port. At this point he wanted to drop the problem in my lap and run, with the old cliche of stating, "I don't have that much time", and glancing at his wrist-watch. I coerced him to stay by downloading the driver and installing it in less than a couple of minutes. At this point, it might be helpful to mention that I never experienced this problem with the same PC attached either directly to my DSL modem , or through a router and hub. This problem is unique to the Comcast HSI cable modem (Motorolla Surfboard SB5120.
Before we rebooted to test, he also grabbed a registry edit online that is supposed to help and/or fix cable modem connections and applied it to my registry. He did this without asking me, and without knowing what he was doing. I wish he didn't do this, because it negates anything learned through a troubleshooting process. If you attempt multiple fixes at one time, and then test, you'll never know which item fixed your problem. Needless to say, I no longer experienced the download problem at next boot-up of the O/S.
Conclusion...
Comcast is certainly in a state of chaos, even months and years after their purchase of Adelphia. Their national organization is in more gridlock and mass-confusion than AT&T ever was when it bought TCI. I have a sinking feeling that it will be like this for many months or years to come.
I will never know if the network driver update (mine is a Marvell Yukon 1Gb on a Gigabyte motherboard) or the registry tweak found on speedguide.net (from Article 157 and Article 158) solved the download problem. One thing I do know, however, is that Comcast should have this download problem documented and spread about for their tech support reps. I wonder how many individuals are suffering from this problem? Or, as I imagine is quite possible, they already have this troubleshooting information available to their reps, yet the support reps don't use it and don't reference it.
There could easily be thousands of Comcast customers who never download much at one time, so they only intermittently experience it, relating the problem to Comcast's lack of reliability. They'd lose their Internet without much of a warning, then the next time they boot-up their PC, it's back. With this problem, anyone using Comcast could lose connection, and be mislead into believing their Internet connection is down for as long as they use their PC in between power cycles or restarts.
My entire experience with Comcast has cost me countless hours of my own time, and left me more frustrated than I've ever been with an ISP. When I think of Comcast, I get that bitter taste in the back of my mouth when something just isn't right. From my time spent getting their HSI to work at my home, I don't have much hope for the company, and I certainly lost any innocence I once held when it comes to their miserable customer service and IT back-end.
For future Comcast HSI users...
- Make sure you either already have cable TV or are purchasing this as a bundle package. Setting up Comcast HSI without an existing cable connection to your residence is a longer, and often more costly experience.
- If you're part of a home-owner's (townhouse, condo, etc.) association who struck a deal with Adelphia or Comcast, be sure to mention that to any Comcast rep that needs to check on your account. As with my case, our townhouse association struck a deal with Adelphia many years ago for a reduced rate if all townhouse units were required to purchase cable service. Unfortunately, Comcast's purchase of Adelphia left our individual accounts unlinked from our shared townhouse association's account (ie: they couldn't track me as an individual in their database -- my account was non-existent).
- Never call Comcast tech support unless it's your last resort. You'll most likely end up even more confused, with more problems than before you called.
- Work with your local office exclusively, if possible. They have a better grasp of your account. Comcast call centers may not even have your account on file!
- When opting for the HSI "self-install" kit, make sure the local office has your specific modem linked to your account. If it isn't, and if some Comcast entity outside of your local office has to link your modem and account in their database, have the local rep call them to do it immediately. Chances are, the non-local Comcast entity will never get around to linking it until you call back to complain. Don't let them waste your time: make sure your account is linked to your modem before you walk out the door. If your local office states that it's impossible, just give them this article's URL and explain the current chaotic state of Comcast. As a viable alternative, the $99 install option (where you schedule a field tech to install it) is a much better option in the long run if you consider your own time valuable. The field tech will install everything and make sure your modem and account are linked, and you're connecting to the Internet before he or she leaves.
- If you're already working with Comcast's national tech support, and there is an issue they're having problems resolving, have them schedule a field tech visit. The techs are local and they have both the tools and skills to fix problems beyond the national Comcast entity's ability.
|