The Nightmare that is Comcast

The Nightmare That is the Cable Company...

Thursday, July 10, 2008, 4:35pm -

An afternoon at home with the children. My husband out of the house for a few hours. I have run laundry, dishes are running, the floor is swept and washed. Table wiped clean, and counter tops sparkling. (Still a ton of clutter everywhere, which is in the process of being taken care of, but I digress) I sit down with my laptop to attempt to reach a friend. I manage to catch her, ever so briefly on IM. I hear thunder a bit off in the distance, not so far that I'm guessing it's thunder. I know it's thunder. The little Forcast Fox in the bottom of my browser tells me that a thunderstorm is on it's way. We get a couple lines out about our current weather, and then she says "brb".
Ok, cool. I've got some e-mails to go through, so I start reading. Suddenly the lightening becomes almost constant, and the thunder is pretty close to a constant rumble, that occasionally crescendos into a roar.

I reach over and unplug my husbands laptop, and then mine. A moment later, the power flickers in unison with a lightening strike. Interesting. Never seen that before. I wish I'd been looking out the window. Lights are all still on. TV came back on (deadliest catch :D ) computers are of course fine, they were on battery. The AC stayed off though. I'll give that a few minutes before worrying. (Turns out the temp had reached the set temp, the power shut the AC off, but since the temp was what I set it at, it just didn't come back on)

The 'surfboard', the cable modem. Is still flashing at me. hmmmm.... come on, come back up. pppplllllllllleeeeeeeeaaaaaassssssssseeeeeeeee.


Nope. Alllllright fine, so I go unplug it, the router, and shut down my computer. (If I call the cable company this is what they're going to tell me to do anyway.) So I do this, then give it some time, swap out laundry, figure out what to feed the monsters, I mean children. Ok, they're eating, and I've got an egg salad sandwich in hand (ok, on a plate) and I go plug the modem back in. I get all the lights preemptively, (is that a word?) then they begin to flash one by one. Plug the router back in, and head for the computer. The 'power' light is flashing...solid.........'sent' light is flashing........solid.... 'receiving' light is flashing................................flashing ......................................flashing ..................................... flashing.


Shit.


I decide to give it time. The last time the cable tv went out, it was out until midnight. Literally, at midnight on the dot, it came back on. I'd flipped the tv on, hit Ch 62 (hey, Robot Chicken was coming on) and it was still all fuzzy at 11:59. And 12:00 surprise, there it is!!! Too bad it was a repeat that I'd seen like 6 times!!

Anyway, so I give it until midnight, I've got a couple projects 'on the hook' anyway. So I'm crocheting, and watching Con-Air and that damned light flashing. Taunting me. "You want to get on-line, you want to finish that e-mail and check your Reader...mwahahahahahaha"

Bastard.

On Friday I place my first call around 10 am to the company (no, not "The Company" I love Heroes too, but I do mean Comcast Cable). I type in my number, hit 2 for service trouble, 2 again for high speed Internet..and wait. Get a person, give her my number, name and address. (Why do they ask for your number the first time?) Tell her the background. Power flickered yesterday afternoon, cable Internet was the only thing that didn't come back up. No, the tv is fine. I've already reset everything twice. "ok, I'll send out a service tech" HOLD. Puts me on hold before I can even draw breath to speak. So I wait. Five minutes later she comes back to tell me Wednesday the 16th. Um, look, I don't even want someone to come out, I really want to know if there is a problem in my area, or if she can see anything on her end that may be wrong. Ok, yes it looks like there might be a problem. If it's not back in 1-3 hours call back.

Fine. Instead of doing that, I had another issue crop up..my grandmother was in the hospital, she'd called an ambulance, and my mom was just telling me a couple hours later. So I didn't call Comcast back on Friday evening. I did get the word around 9 that G-ma had made it home.

Saturday morning, around 10 again, I yet again call the company. "yes there is a problem in your area, it should be up around noon. Okie dokie, that's what I needed to know! 2 pm. Still nothing. (I've been resetting a couple times during the day, not bothering to shut down my computer unless I see all solid lights) I continue to wait. 4 pm, I can't wait anymore, it's been nearly 48 hours, I'm in serious withdrawal here. (ok, I'm coping just fine, but it's the principal that I'm paying for this!!!) Get a hold of another person, she tells me that my account has been/is being credited for the down time. It does appear that there is a problem in my area, and it should be back up in about an hour. Fantastic! Thank you. 6:30. Reset. Nothing. Damn it. Call them back, get another woman, who tells me that there does NOT seem to be a problem here! Huh?! My account is being credited, right? Yes. Ok, good. Reset w/ her on the phone because she shows that the Internet is up. Still shows her the same thing. She asks if I want a tech. No, I'd like to swap out the modems first. We've had one 'get fried' before, so, if that's the problem, the tech isn't going to be able to fix it, they don't carry around extra modems! So, it's now Sunday, at 11 AM, and we still have nothing. Same solid and flashing lights as before. Tomorrow as soon as I'm coherent, I'm taking the stupid thing up to the office and getting a replacement. (but I'm not digging out the plug, if I can help it. we've got a ton of things over there, and it's all very neatly done.)

What a freaking nightmare.

On the upside, I have finished the socks for my grandmother. I can only hope they fit. I'm still weaving ends in, but once I chose the correct hook for my tension, the yarn and the project...which I tried about 4 different swatches with 4 different hooks. This yarn does NOT pull out easily. So, ripping back usually got me very little, and I used nearly 2 skeins, when I should have been able to get away with 1.5 skeins. ANYWAY, they look as though I've got Cookie Monster feet (the color is a bit lighter) but oh my god. They are SO soft!!! They are SO comfortable! I can't wait to make more. I've already decided to make my MIL a pair for Christmas. Perhaps my SIL's as well. Maybe my mom, but I'm not sure she'd like them. The pattern is quick, and easy. I can crank out a sock in a day. (Juggling everything else as well, but not always to the best of my ability lol. I get kinda focused on the sock.)

I've still got my jacket 'on the hook', and the crocheting bag (for projects and what not) is awaiting more yarn. I've run out of the blue (but may have found another skein in my closet. And the brown is pretty much gone. And I've finished a babydoll soaker for a friends child. I've got 3 more of those to do, but until I can check my damned e-mail I don't know what sizes they need to be.

And that's been the last 4 days of my life in a 'nutshell' I hope you weren't bored to tears. Maybe I'll have something a bit more exciting in the coming days, though I doubt it.