Any alternative to Comcast cable internet? (2014, renting, credit)

[cittic10]

Originally Posted by neil0311

Again...everyone is entitled to their opinion, but when I read some of them, I wonder if there are two Comcasts.

There's a good reason for that.
People read the reviews prior to ordering service, and their minds are already made up that it's going to suck and that comcast are a bunch of turds so they don't have much patience from the get-go. But the fact is, your experience with their service is going to vary by location. You may get good local techs, you may not. You may get quickly escalated to 2nd tier support, or they may have you unplug your router and restart your computer over and over for an hour. You may be in a neighborhood with a lot of people downloading massive amounts of porn and therefore suffer from slower speeds or you may be in an area where nobody even uses it.

Your mileage may vary.

I for one, find them a pleasure to deal with compared to bellsouth. Yeah I still call them bellsouth because the last time I dealt with that company, bellsouth-o was their name-o.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by cittic10

There's a good reason for that.
People read the reviews prior to ordering service, and their minds are already made up that it's going to suck and that comcast are a bunch of turds so they don't have much patience from the get-go. But the fact is, your experience with their service is going to vary by location. You may get good local techs, you may not. You may get quickly escalated to 2nd tier support, or they may have you unplug your router and restart your computer over and over for an hour. You may be in a neighborhood with a lot of people downloading massive amounts of porn and therefore suffer from slower speeds or you may be in an area where nobody even uses it.

Your mileage may vary.

I for one, find them a pleasure to deal with compared to bellsouth. Yeah I still call them bellsouth because the last time I dealt with that company, bellsouth-o was their name-o.

What you say is true to a small degree, but I have had service with them in two states in different parts of the country, and the experience was roughly the same in both.

The head end is shared for a wide area (I believe the Atlanta area is split into 2 or 3 districts by Comcast) and the other infrastructure is also shared, so there is not a drastic technical difference in service between Marietta and other parts of the metro.

Coincidentally we just did an informal poll on what Internet service was being used by local Atlanta area employees at my company to allow some new folks the benefit of that knowledge and feedback. Their experience with Comcast is roughly equal to mine, and no one provided the kind of overwhelmingly negative feedback seen here. The worst issue is usually call center customer service and technical support, and that is definitely not Comcast's strong suit.

As an anecdote, when we first moved to Atlanta in 2007, I didn't know where we would buy a home, but I knew that BellSouth had service throughout the region, so I arranged for POTS and DSL service for a few months. The couple of times I called their DSL support, I got some eastern European person who was English challenged, so my experience there was not superb either.

[SW30303]

I haven't tried Clear. I think it all depends on where you are located; I have heard Clear is hit or miss overall. Rule of thumb, if you really want the highest speed, go with Comcast if it's available.

AT&T and Comcast are about the same in my book, not that great in terms of customer service, and while I have had problems with them both, the connections are usually reliable over all. I have heard the same about Charter, "hit or miss."

[cittic10]

Originally Posted by neil0311

What you say is true to a small degree,

Oh come on! Just a small degree?

Originally Posted by neil0311

Coincidentally we just did an informal poll on what Internet service was being used by local Atlanta area employees at my company to allow some new folks the benefit of that knowledge and feedback. Their experience with Comcast is roughly equal to mine, and no one provided the kind of overwhelmingly negative feedback seen here. The worst issue is usually call center customer service and technical support, and that is definitely not Comcast's strong suit.

Who's strong suit is it? I'm assuming the smaller ISPs that resell DSL probably have better support but they're not available in a lot of places. In fact, they're not available in a lot of places that DSL is available because who-know-who won't let them resell it in certain locations.

Anyway it sounds like we're agreeing with one another. Like I said, I haven't found a better alternative to comcast and perfectly happy with it aside from the expensive price. The OP asked for an alternative and as we all know, there is no competition amongst cable providers. They each have their exclusive territory so charter or time warner or what have you, is not an option. That leaves DSL, which is slower and may not be availalble and the wireless carriers including clear, which isn't that reliable and certainly not as fast and if you stream music all day like I do you're probably going hit hit some reasonable usage limit with those.

[BELMO45]

Originally Posted by neil0311

Again...everyone is entitled to their opinion, but when I read some of them, I wonder if there are two Comcasts.

For your average user they are fine, for the more technical user they stink. I think alot of people have also moved around and lived in different locations, when you've experienced life with Time Warner or COX, Comcast looks like the red headed stepchild. They have severe micro blocking vs. other carriers which for those who do not know is why when you watch movies and a scene where quick side to side movement occurs on screen it appears the picture is choppy. They refuse to offer HD on any of their sports packages such as MLB extra innings or NBA league pass. Their signal seems to go out alot too from my experience. I've had them as my provider in 3 different cities and found I often have internet/cable outages which I did not experience with COX or Time Warner. The customer service I have found is actually not too bad, but the prices and the product are just no comparison to other big carriers.

[AcidSnake]

Just thought I'd post an update: Clear has failed the test. Clear, or Clearwire has been throttling my already slow internet connection on several occasions. And recently I was sent a card from Dennings v. Clearwire Corporation because apparently a couple of people filed a class action lawsuit and settled out of court with Clear.

So I guess I can now collect some sort of cash reward for enduring even slower internet speeds.

Stuff like this is why I have no confidence in the less-regulation Wild West American brand of capitalism. Too few players, no real competition, politcians unwilling to hold big business's feet to the fire, and the only people usually hurt by this situation are guys like me, the little people.

What a bunch of suck Clear turned out to be.

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Snake - Let us know how your Clear experience goes. I am curious.

[westau]

Originally Posted by AcidSnake

Just thought I'd post an update: Clear has failed the test. Clear, or Clearwire has been throttling my already slow internet connection on several occasions. And recently I was sent a card from Dennings v. Clearwire Corporation because apparently a couple of people filed a class action lawsuit and settled out of court with Clear.

So I guess I can now collect some sort of cash reward for enduring even slower internet speeds.

Stuff like this is why I have no confidence in the less-regulation Wild West American brand of capitalism. Too few players, no real competition, politcians unwilling to hold big business's feet to the fire, and the only people usually hurt by this situation are guys like me, the little people.

What a bunch of suck Clear turned out to be.

How is less regulation the problem when companies like Comcast are given monopolies?

[PKCorey]

Acid, how bad did it get with Clear?

Do you plan on sticking with them or you going back to ATT now?

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by westau

How is less regulation the problem when companies like Comcast are given monopolies?

Additional regulation, if properly implemented, would make such monopolies more difficult to obtain and sustain. A monopoly condition is the natural state when cable companies are allowed to install and maintain their own infrastructure in a given area.

[cqholt]

Clear is unlimited 4G internet for $35/month. Search the website for coverage.