phazah
join:2004-05-02
Findlay, OH |
phazah
Member
2014-Aug-14 8:54 am
time for a changeTime to bring cable, satellite and ISP under public utilities. |
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ptb42
Member
2014-Aug-14 9:20 am
said by phazah:Time to bring cable, satellite and ISP under public utilities. That's the fastest way to make them even more unresponsive. See any DMV office, or call the IRS for an object example. |
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7 recommendations |
Having dealt with both the IRS and my local MVA within the last year this is complete BS.
IRS picked up a call fairly quickly (within 5 minutes) and I got to speak with someone right then. And this was during tax season. I didn't have to go through 10 minutes of voice prompt menus only to be-placed on queue for 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hrs (hi Verizon!).
MVA: Pull up for emissions, 15 minutes later on my way. DMV in another state (family report) is actually very friendly and efficient now.
Gas company: A few years back, reported a leak and within 30 minutes people were at the location I reported it. Not 30 minutes of telephone hold time. 30 minutes between when I called and actual people, with equipment, the RIGHT equipment pulled up and dealt with the problem.
Try getting service that efficient out of any of these large names. Won't happen unless your name starts with Warren and ends with an "all you can eat" restaurant. |
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1 recommendation |
bop75
Member
2014-Aug-14 10:07 am
So a gas leak is just the same a cable problem? Thank god the Verizon problem didn't cause death and destruction while you waited. |
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2 recommendations |
That's what you got out of what I wrote as my response? They're a regulated utility - according to ptbarnett incapable of doing anything correctly and have no motivation to. Yet, they do. It's a miracle.
Since a gas leak is obviously different than a cable outage. Please, let us all know how long waiting on hold, how many phone calls until you get someone to come out, how many visits, how many lost days of work and how long between visits are acceptable metrics for a cable problem.
And when you don't like their service you can just change to a provider that offers better service right? |
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to nothing00
said by nothing00:Having dealt with both the IRS and my local MVA within the last year this is complete BS.
IRS picked up a call fairly quickly (within 5 minutes) and I got to speak with someone right then. And this was during tax season. I didn't have to go through 10 minutes of voice prompt menus only to be-placed on queue for 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hrs (hi Verizon!).
MVA: Pull up for emissions, 15 minutes later on my way. DMV in another state (family report) is actually very friendly and efficient now.
Gas company: A few years back, reported a leak and within 30 minutes people were at the location I reported it. Not 30 minutes of telephone hold time. 30 minutes between when I called and actual people, with equipment, the RIGHT equipment pulled up and dealt with the problem.
Try getting service that efficient out of any of these large names. Won't happen unless your name starts with Warren and ends with an "all you can eat" restaurant. 4th of July one year. POCO came within 30 minutes to fix a melting mains insulator. Bam! Blob |
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to nothing00
I went to my local DMV because I lost my driver's license. I actually came 30 minutes before they opened thinking that by being first in line, I'd get through quick. Well I couldn't have been more wrong.
I was second in line, but that wasn't the reason it took so long. When they first opened the doors, some lady who easily resembles Selma from the Simpsons opens the door and instead of greeting the line she says "we're not open." Nice.
They claimed to have a "system outage" so they couldn't service customers. So they make us wait, and wait, and wait. While we're sitting there waiting, they're basically just gawking with one another and not doing anything (presumably getting paid while they're at it.) They also claim that it can last maybe 10 minutes or it could last all day, but meanwhile they'll just sit around and do nothing.
They then claim it was a state-wide outage, so I pull up my smartphone and hit the DMV website and notice that they were the only DMV in the state who had a zero minute zero length queue. The other DMVs were clearly processing customers.
Rather than be even more late for work, I just left. I actually checked their website later in the afternoon and they STILL had a zero length queue. So basically everybody who got there that morning after me was still waiting around for service, and same thing for anybody who came after. |
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1 recommendation |
delusion_ftl to phazah
Anon
2014-Aug-14 10:40 am
to phazah
I will say this again. You don't want the government to be the ISP, you want them to deploy and maintain the roads. Have the government (at the state, county, or even city level) run fiber to all, then have private, for profit ISP's compete for services. |
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 IowaCowboyLost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA ·Comcast XFINITY
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to ptb42
When I went for my CDL learner's permit, I got much better service at the Registry of Motor Vehicles (despite the two hour wait) than usually do at the local Comcast office. The Comcast office will refuse do it their way such as issuing a 12 year old cable box that's an energy hog even though they have a brand new one with the same capabilities and more functionality sitting within sight a few inches away.
They passed all these energy bills such as requirements on low flush toilets (1992), bans on incandescent light bulbs (2007), and requiring ceiling fans to use small base bulbs (2005). Why can't we have energy legislation requiring cable companies to retire obsolete equipment once newer equipment becomes available. And if you ask for a better piece of equipment, they get snotty.
That's why DirecTV has my TV business. Latest equipment, and better service. |
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| IowaCowboy |
to nothing00
Whenever I smell gas I call the fire department at 911. Don't even bother with an 800 number with the gas company. They will respond to a gas leak as it is a life threatening situation.
I've called the fire department before when I smelled gas and they sent two trucks (a ladder and an engine) and sure enough it was a gas leak. |
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AVonGauss
Premium Member
join:2007-11-01
Boynton Beach, FL
2 recommendations |
to nothing00
said by nothing00:MVA: Pull up for emissions, 15 minutes later on my way. DMV in another state (family report) is actually very friendly and efficient now. While I agree with the IRS being easy to deal with, DMV I think falls under YMMV - even by office. |
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2 recommendations |
to bop75
Actually, with VOIP, yes, they are both serious. Someone could be incapacitated and no cell working. The Cable-provided VOIP service, if out, means no phone to call for help. |
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 ArrayListDevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ |
to bop75
access to information is just as important as your electricity and heat. Our national economy needs information. |
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to Rakeesh
maybe instead of not dealing with the problem, you should have contacted the state office and complained to someone who can fix it? your post does nothing but show you didn't care. |
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to nothing00
Dude, it's not the end of the world, the internet won't be off forever. Do something else. Ohhh I know. If the net off for a day your whole financial plan will go down the drain. |
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Nanaki (banned)aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH |
to cableties
I had twc digital phone during the 3 day country wide black out well nearly country wide. We had phone service while many of our neighbors (almost half) who were not on dit phone did not have it. TWC cable tv and net were also up and running if you had a generator. TWC actually brought out generators to their main boxes on various street corners to make sure phone etc all stayed up and running. Now here is the thing of all the people who those generators were capable of sending tv net phone to only a very few would have had any chance to make use of it all. Ive heard all the horor stories about twc etc but i never did have any of that. Cable box went dead had one the next morning modem died had one the same day with in hours. A tech was out on a install in the area and they had him check for a spare modem he had one from a previous customer. 2 days later another tech brought by a new modem and took the loaner.
Maybe it was partly do to the fact we had been with twc for over 20 years. |
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to cableties
Then have a backup plan. What your plan if you can't get the car fixed the second it stop working? Post how unfair it is? |
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WrzWrz
join:2002-08-23
Fort Thomas, KY |
to bop75
Not the end of the world? Tell that to someone whose only access to 911 is through VoIP that cable companies love to advertise as just as reliable as landlines. I know seniors who replaced their landlines with VoIP. Access to 911 is vital. Like it or not, it IS now a true emergency when the cable is out, and its high time that cable companies TREAT it like an emergency, even if they gotta roll trucks at 3AM on a Sunday on December 25th.
Sorry that its JUST FINE with you to be denied service for something you pay for, perhaps us people who demand service for PAYING for something are now in the minority, so be it. I am entitled to what I pay for PERIOD |
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bop75
Member
2014-Aug-14 2:41 pm
said by WrzWrz:Not the end of the world? Tell that to someone whose only access to 911 is through VoIP that cable companies love to advertise as just as reliable as landlines. I know seniors who replaced their landlines with VoIP. Access to 911 is vital. Like it or not, it IS now a true emergency when the cable is out, and its high time that cable companies TREAT it like an emergency, even if they gotta roll trucks at 3AM on a Sunday on December 25th.
Sorry that its JUST FINE with you to be denied service for something you pay for, perhaps us people who demand service for PAYING for something are now in the minority, so be it. I am entitled to what I pay for PERIOD Hey crap breaks. We had a ice storm here that knock down everything for 14 days. No nothing. No amount of crying was going to change that. No phone, no cable, no electricity. NOTHING. If your dumb enough to count on Voip to save your life have at it, the herd needs thinning. Your entitled to what you pay for when it isn't down. Otherwise man up and stop crying. |
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Nanaki (banned)aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH |
Nanaki (banned)
Member
2014-Aug-14 2:54 pm
The real problem with most cable sat etc carriers is their downtime is out side what it should be. If your cable or sat goes down every time it rains or the wind blows then they are doing something very wrong and need to take care of it.
As for reling on voip for 911 sorry but no the heard don't need thining. Voip should be as reliable if not more so than land line.The is more redundancy possible in voip than pots.If a 100 routs go down for voip there should be a 100 more it can go through. With pots a few breaks in the line and your toast it is down for the count. The further away the break is from you though and both systems will have more and more possible routs to take.
The only reason for voip to be commonly down is the cable dsl etc companies not doing their job. |
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bop75
Member
2014-Aug-14 3:02 pm
said by Nanaki:The only reason for voip to be commonly down is the cable dsl etc companies not doing their job. And other that cry, what are you going to do about it? |
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 CosmicDebriStill looking for intelligent life
join:2001-09-01
Lake City, FL |
to Rakeesh
Regarding the DMV, the best time to go is about 30 minutes before they close. As long as your in the building, they have to serve you before they can go home, and since they REALLY want to go home, you will be amazed how fast they can move.
This has served me well in L.A. CA and Florida. I can't believe I just gave away my best 'don't wait too long' trick....... |
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to bop75
I didn't realize it was still 1998. You do realize that people now work from home and use their internet connections as their primary method of deriving income? Further, there are those who are reliant on VoIP services which would be unavailable if there was no internet?
Today, I'm working at home. To do so, I remote into a Virtual Machine at the office. Guess what that uses? The Internet. If my internet access were to go down right now, I could not work. But it's not like that's important or anything... |
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Nanaki (banned)aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH |
to bop75
Um yeh not gona mention what i am or have done about it. Lets just say that direct tv was none to happy. I have never had much trouble on twc with cable tv net or digital phone just the opposite actually. During the mass black out some years ago twc techs acting on the orders of TWC not only made sure that all their equipment was up and running they also provided extra back up batteries for the modems pre charged free of charge to all subscribers in my area and allot of other areas near by.
We had phone service when no one else did on pots lines.
TWCs voip was a hell of allot more reliable than our old school copper land line by far. Hell i lost internet connection a couple times do to dns problems and still had my digital phone working.
Again though my family and my self had been customers for 30 years + we were the first in our area to have cable tv net and digital phone and once we had it we kept it. some times downgrading other times upgrading. That just was variable on what we tended to do the most of. at the time. For 4 or 5 years we had dead basic cable because we went out of state to visit relatives a few times a year for a couple weeks at a time. And went to the movies to various parks etc. Other times when my mom developed copd we had every package you could get dang near as we were home way more often. What i got from twc was a extended offer with out expiration date for when we chose to upgrade. Other times it was a give us a call in 6 months or less and you will get this price.
Something most people forget about cable cos they are like banks and loan providers every thing can be negotiated. |
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| Nanaki |
to CosmicDebri
LOL said by CosmicDebri:and since they REALLY want to go home, you will be amazed how fast they can move. |
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to WrzWrz
Slightly irrelevant to the topic at hand, but this is exactly why I hold onto my POTS as tightly as possible (even if the cost of it is like paying a protection racket's share to Verizon every month). If the power goes out for an extended time, all I have to do is plug in an old land-line phone and it still works. |
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| PapaMidnight |
to AVonGauss
At least the DMV/MVA (depending on your state) will address every customer that is in the office before closing time. If the DMV closes at Noon on a Saturday, and you're there at 11AM, you will still be seen on that day. You don't get told to come back on Monday when they're open again. |
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Nanaki (banned)aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH |
to PapaMidnight
IK would love to see public utility regulations put on to cable dsl etc. While the number of carriers in a given market may not change it would or at least could have the same effect on the carriers. They would get tax breaks etc for providing good service and fines etc for providing bad service. When treated as a pub util the gov can threaten them with things like allowing a competing carrier to gain a foot hold in their market. TWc wold poo them self if cox and any other got in to their market. I like twc always have. But still they would dump on them self if another cable co was to come knocking and making promises to the various regulatory agencies for pub utils. |
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| Nanaki |
to PapaMidnight
Yep they are fed gov regulated. They can set prices etc state to state count to county but they are regulated by the feds. |
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to PapaMidnight
said by PapaMidnight:I didn't realize it was still 1998. You do realize that people now work from home and use their internet connections as their primary method of deriving income? Further, there are those who are reliant on VoIP services which would be unavailable if there was no internet?
Today, I'm working at home. To do so, I remote into a Virtual Machine at the office. Guess what that uses? The Internet. If my internet access were to go down right now, I could not work. But it's not like that's important or anything... So. If the weather knocks down the internet for you then what? Yell and scream that I can't work, my job is going to be gone. That's the chance you take. So why are you crying about it to me? I swear, if half the people on this site lost their connection for a few days they'd be jumping out of windows. Here's a clue, that day will come. |
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