Comcast XFINITY → [Rant] [LONG]Another Tale of Multiple Truck Rolls

Split from this topic --> »[Rant] [LONG]A Tale of Three Truck Rolls

Just three truck rolls? Thats all? Sorry to say, but I've got ya beat. My service has been unstable since mid-October. This weekend will be the 6th (yes, SIXTH) truck roll. They cannot seem to figure out what/where/why our upstream is crap w/ constant ranging timeouts and with severe packet loss. What we *do* know is that the upstream SNR is ~18.7dB (which is absolutely horrible apparently). Or in Comcast's technical terms the modem signal is "RED" (lol)

And yes, we've tried pretty much everything. New drop. New modem. Etc. Its been unsuccessfully worked by ComcastSteve and even the Corporate Executive Support ("we can help") folks have gotten no traction. This weekend a "pole technician" will be sent out supposedly. I'm guessing they mean a maintenance tech versus a regular tech. Funny that even a couple of the in-house techs believe there are issues (I have reams of logs and the tickets even detail the signal levels advanced support saw) but sadly no one can care less in terms of actually following up with a resolution. My neighbors also have the same issues but feh, you think that would perhaps give incentive to actually fix it? Bill credits certainly aren't enough incentive...

My next stop will be contacting the local municipal franchise authority and an informal complaint with the NJ BPU's office of consumer relations. Not much left to lose I'm afraid. I've heard about customer's Comcast nightmares and thought to myself they were all hyperbole. Unfortunately I'm now believing those stories might not only have been true but possibly understated. And these guys wonder why frail old women arrive at their walk-in offices with hammers? *sigh*

[edit: minor spelling/grammar]

Well, at least they're trying ?

*shrug* Only due to my persistence and tenacity! Hate to be a royal pain-in-the-backside to anyone, but otherwise there wouldnt have been any followup on this issue. "Trying" would imply Comcast is making an active effort. I'm unconvinced that's the case.

Trust me, I know exactly how you feel.

They're not stories, they are reality. I have just come to accept that whenever I have some sort of issue with Comcast, that cannot be fixed straight away, it will involve lots and lots of calls and possibly take months to fix. Heck, it took 6 months to have a billing issue resolved.

One day I was at their call center, early in the morning, so I saw who (what) was walking in. After seeing the employees, it all made sense. Basically, they are hiring people that not even the dollar tree would hire. Straight out of the ghetto, so they clearly couldn't care less, let alone have the slightest clue (skills) about how to fix anything.

This is what you get when you have monopolies.

nothing they do at the house will fix your issue, sounds like there is ingress on the plant, which can come and go, and isnt easily fixed in a day, as the line tech will have to track it throughout miles of plant.

Thanks Telco , nice to know I am a ghetto dweller and useless. I have been with the company for 15 years and take pride in my work. But that doesn't matter because I suck just like every other person YOU speak of. Why don't you randomly ask the thousands of customers I have helped and never heard from again after being there .. Oh thats right , this is flame board, nobody ever comes here to state anything positive.
To the op , it dose sound like an ingress issue from somewhere other than your house. It will get tracked down it just takes time. I had one person in a town taking down over 200 others .... because he had a live cable jack (not connected to any tv or box) touching a metal lamp. That took a couple weeks to track down. House by house person by person.

Are you an actual "Callcenter rep"? By the way you responded about how bad this board is and there are NEVER any positive things said, then you are falling right in to the category that Telco is talking about.

But, I also do agree about the ingress, but from what has been posted, it doesn't evn sound like Comcast is even going down the path of possible ingress. So when the Comcast folks don't even start in the right direction, just how long should the customer have to wait?

Phugg -- I hope you didn't take any of my comments as such! I know there are good folks along with the not-so-good in *any* organization. And truthfully, that can even vary greatly from office-to-office or region-to-region. I do genuinely appreciate those that actually do help. I've run into good folks from Comcast but unfortunately they're just not the ones in a position to actually do something with the present issues at hand. True there tends to be a negative bias on most online forums when it comes to discussions about any company's product or services. The most disgruntled folks tend to be the loudest and most frequent posters! I'll give credit where and when its due. Read my other posts and reviews over the course of my ~12 year history on DSLR for proof.

But yeah, ingress can be a real pain from what I've heard. Basically the entire plant becomes a huge noise funnel, no? And knowing a little about RF, there's a LOT of radio/broadcasted garbage in the 20-44Mhz frequency range around here so a tight plant is essential. I dont envy anyone having to troubleshoot issues like this especially when they can also be somewhat intermittent.

My gripe isn't merely that things have been effectively broken for several weeks but rather not being kept informed as to what, if anything, is being done to address it. Just a simple phone call saying "we see it, acknowledge the trouble, and are working the matter, here's what you can expect next" would do wonders.

TY Dmk , it wasnt pointed at you. I am well aware of comm breakdowns in all forms of business lately. I just took what was said by someone else on the personal side , so I ranted back. I know in our market we take ownership of an issue and see it through to the end. If that means I call and check up on my days off so be it. If I can squeeze in the time I will. But the techs look like they have done what they can , and now its over thier heads and in the maint. dept's.

I had a similar problem (frequent disconnects due to poor upstream levels), but I never bothered with a truck roll because of research done here and what I found (the problem is not in my house as determined by checking levels at the demarc). Instead, I put in a $29.00 bi-directional amp from Radio Shack. That solved all of my problems. However, I always intended that to be a temporary fix. Because I am on my franchise authority's advisory board, I was able, after several months, to meet with the local Comcast government representative. I gave him all of my information, level readouts, and some other information I was able to gather from Watchtower (one of Comcast's monitoring systems) through my contact in the National Operations Center near Denver. The contact was able to determine that there is an issue at my node. Lots of yellow and red at other residneces, higher than expected jitter, as well as some ingress, and some other less than optimal technical stuff I didn't understand. The government rep had a crew out at the node the next day (that was a few days ago). I haven't heard anything back yet- I suspect (hope) they are still investigating. When I hear from him, I'll post back. I don't know if any of this will get the problem fixed, but at least I was able to avoid the truck rolls.

To answer everyone's next question, no, I don't know how the average person can get something like this fixed.

The answer is in the first post. If all the neighbors have the problem, the fault is in a common point.
Many years ago, my internet speeds went down at sundown (obvious cooling problem). It only took a clever tech. five minutes to check upstream user error logs versus downstream.
Ladder trunk disassembled suspect gear. I was told unit was simply not plugged in properly. No speed variations since then.

So us mere mortals are basically SOL? *chuckles*

And oh, that tech appointment for today? They missed it and called 2 hours after the window to say they'll be here. We had other obligations (hence why it was scheduled for the time it was) and now I'm not even sure if they did anything whatsoever. Amazing... At least I got a $20 credit for that missed appointment with minimal fuss.

I'm figuring it is an outside plant issue somewhere just like you and others have suggested. Its been mostly quiet (no ranging errors at least in the modem logs) for the past 12 hours. I've not been online much today so cannot say if its really any better.

Another day, another truck dispatch scheduled. Things were decent and perhaps approaching almost stable for the past ~3 days and then tonight it all goes kaput once again! The CC phone tech said they saw my upstream signal-to-noise varying greatly and was again, RED. So truck roll #7 now slated for Sunday!

You'd think by this point it would have been much much cheaper for Comcast to simply identify the problem and actually fix it. We're talking 8+ weeks of repeat calls now...

Fortunately as of last Friday I got a DSL line installed as backup (albeit a slow one) but its rapidly becoming the primary link with these continued outages.

Modem errors repeatedly thrown are:

Wed Dec 12 20:45:24 2012 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=00:1c:7b:xx:...
Wed Dec 12 20:44:05 2012 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Wed Dec 12 20:34:23 2012 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=00:1c:7b:xx:...
Wed Dec 12 20:34:22 2012 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ..

All packets are lost for 5-45 seconds concurrently with above errors being generated.

These guys are a complete disaster of a company around here. I have a call into our municipal franchise authority and am ready to raise whatever 'heck' is needed. They're rapidly becoming a "project" and thats not usually worth the effort it takes to attain such a distinctive status. (LOL) My neighbors are amused; they seem to otherwise be okay with CDV calls dropping or getting choppy or their internet timing out -- as long as their TVs are fine. *sigh*

[edit: spelling]

Much to my surprise something or someone somewhere lit a little fire under Comcast today. Appt was scheduled for Sunday but they moved it up to this Friday afternoon. A plant maint tech was even here at the same time working at the tap from his bucket.

Maybe it was our municipal franchise authority contacting the Comcast government rep? Heck, I got four calls today between a CC tech supervisor, CC executive support person I've been working with, CC advanced tech support, and finally a premise tech who was dispatched (the guy who basically told me he's the "go-to guy" when there's difficult problems no one else resolves). Apparently my issue and personal persistence is fairly well-known at the local Comcast office among the techs. Not sure that's necessarily a good thing, but I have been respectful and polite at all times. Hopefully they realize my only goal is to get this working/stable and receive periodic followup while they actively work an acknowledged issue...

Findings today were: Our drop and inside wiring are fine. Zero ingress from those elements. (tech said it was a perfect flat-line) No surprise since its been tested numerous times already and several components replaced at least once. There is however a known ingress issue impacting parts of the node. Apparently some folks are more severely affected than others and its intermittently severe to the point of it being an outage. That's good news in some ways -- it lends credibility to what we're experiencing in addition to the CC ticket documentation showing lousy upstream SNR.

Now here's the interesting part and I'd be curious to hear some insight from knowledgeable folk frequenting this forum. The maintenance tech seemed fairly convinced its due to power company related RF near one of the active line amps down the road about 1/4 mile. He mentioned using an AM radio that in some spots the interference drowned out even regular station signals. He offered a suggestion that even though CC has notified and requested a dispatch from JCP&L, the power company has not yet done anything. There was a mention of a suspected power company grounding fault which CC absolutely cannot touch. I'm not an electrician or EE so have no existing personal knowledge to verify what that might actually mean. It sounds credible, but so would "you need to replace the ball bearings in your muffler!" to someone who has no clue about automotive mechanics.

Anyway, a quick drive around the area with the car's radio on didn't reveal anything unusual that my untrained ear can detect noise-wise. Static is static. And of course that means nothing.. However, I'd have no idea how to even go about articulating such a "problem" with JCP&L much less where its at or with what equipment. CC is continuing to work the trouble but this suggestion was offered as a way to get possibly faster attention from JCP&L. Meanwhile my device is now actively being monitored so CC can do further correlation.

It is true that an power company equipment issue such as a grounding problem can knock out an entire node? Is cable plant shielding that minimal & ineffective? If this is killing cable's upstream frequency range (~22Mhz to ~42Mhz), wouldn't emergency communications (fire dispatch and ops here for example use 33.74Mhz) as well as other over-the-air applications suffer?

This has now become quite a curious situation technically-speaking. As an aside I'm a bit more satisfied and a little more convinced they're not being dismissive simply hoping the problem goes away on its own. I understand complex problems rarely have simple fixes. But man, it sure took a bit of effort and energy to get this far! More to follow as the story continues.

[edit: typo]

If it's happening more at night (I know this is going to sound crazy) it could be LED street lights.

Actually, it's not the lights...but the lights could be the SOURCE of the ingress. This actual issue could be that an amplifier (or line extender) that is mounted to the same utility pole as a new LED streetlight COULD HAVE A LOOSE CASE. When the guys open the shielded case that hold the equipment to service it, they often close the case back up without tightening it closed tight enough (the bolts that hold the case shut). Then the case if effectively UNSHIELDED and is amplifying ingress (interference) into the system.

This happened in Seattle when the city changed the streetlights over, and took months for CONcast to figure out what was going on.

Also, cellular towers often make changes that create intermittent ingress that gets into the closed-circuit CATV network if it is not tight. So if you live close to a cell tower...might be that.

Lastly, I have heard that Docsis 3 modems are far more delicate and sensitive to ingress than Docsis 2. I found that although the speeds are slightly slower (depending on existing service level), I was able to provide MORE RELIABLE service to customers by putting a DOCSIS 2 modem on the account and downgrading the service.

I know that sounds like a stretch...I`m just telling you what works from my experiences. Good luck.

Phugg, you said earlier that you would call the customers EVEN ON YOUR DAYS OFF. I commend you for your extra effort, but don't you think the company should provide you with the time and resources to deal with your customers WHEN YOU ARE ON THE CLOCK...and have someone reliable on the other shift to follow-up with anything while you are gone for your much-deserved days off?

I`ve been in your shoes. I`ve done it too, even come in on my days off for hours to clean my vehicle out for the next week...but you are breaking labor laws by working on your days off, and you SHOULD NOT be conducting yourself as a company representative when you are not working. CONcast is also breaking the law by turning a blind eye to the techs that are working off the clock.

I cannot tell you very many details, but I can tell you that there is a multimillion-dollar class action lawsuit filed against CONcast on behalf of all Washington State workers over wage theft because of this stuff.

GET PAID FOR YOUR TIME.

STOP BREAKING LABOR LAWS.

STOP ALLOWING CONCAST TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR GOOD NATURE.

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As far as the problem at hand, though, with the ingress. The line techs should be able to pinpoint the ingress in a matter of days to a certain node (or certain neighborhood). If repairs cannot be done right immediately, the maintenance person would then be required to pad that node (install an upstream attenuator) to effectively sort of "quarantine" the problem so the ingress doesn't get amplified/leaked out into other areas. It should take no longer than a couple days to figure out which node the ingress is coming from. If it is taking longer, then they already know what the problem is and they aren't telling you because it is a significant repair (cracked distribution cable, perhaps, that would require taking a lot of customers offline for a potentially long time to repair. They are not giving you the full story.
The maintenance technician's job performance is based partially on a "TIME TO REPAIR" metric so they have probably "closed" the job tickets already, but haven't actually fixed it (just one of the many ways they skew their metrics to get those quarterly bonuses.)

If this issue is still not resolved, Email me and I will get you your area's Maintenance Supervisor. I am no longer with CONcast but I have good connections and can put you in touch with someone directly...at least offer you some ACCOUNTABILITY!

Good Luck.

Seattle , I am WELL aware of what you speak of , been there done that a few times now. Our crews have great communication between them, just one a professional note I would want to know when it is resolved. Its not a common occurence.

Phugg, I totally get where you are coming from. I have done the same things for YEARS until I smartened up. Following-up with the customers is great and all, but regardless of how high a level of customer service one wishes to provide, they have to do it on company time and LEGALLY.

You can't be working off the clock. I know it feels like it is your right to work off the clock if you want to, and I know you do it to show the customer that you really do care and want to help them. You can still show them you want to help by following proper company channels and only conducting yourself as a CONcast employee only during work hours. If you cannot do that then the CONcast system is BROKEN and they need to figure out a way in your shop to address customer concerns in a more efficient and professional manner.

I feel kinda bad scolding you, but please take no offense as I am only trying to help you understand the BIG picture. You are setting a standard for other techs to have to do the same thing. If your measured metrics are awesome because you work for free then good for you...lets see how far that gets your career. I`VE BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, AND I NO LONGER WORK FOR THEM. I HAVE TREATED MY CUSTOMERS LIKE GOLD BUT IN THE END THE COMPANY DOES NOT CARE. THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT "POWER" AND "CONTROL" (SURPRISINGLY, NOT "MONEY"...THAT COMES WITH POWER AND CONTROL SO THEY REALLY DON'T WORRY ABOUT MONEY TOO MUCH AT OUR LEVEL.)

Call your customers when you are AT WORK. You are not a salary employee. At very least, CHARGE THE COMPANY OVERTIME (even just a few minutes) if you absolutely HAVE to take customer calls on your days off. And let the customer know it is not typical for techs to call on their weekends, so they don't EXPECT it from the next tech they deal with down the road!

Phew, I sound like a grumpy old man. Sorry dude!

I hate sounding like this.

I have a lot of respect for you after 15 years in the business, but PLEASE stop enabling CONcast and allowing them to take advantage of you.

-----------------------------
Oh, and as far as having good communication between departments at your shop...that must be nice!!! I`m jealous!!!

Our shop is using every anti-union tactic in the book (9 out of 11 of the most common ones, actually) to keep the union out. We are in an active election campaign in Seattle, and one of the first things they did was break up the shop (move dispatch out of house, no more all-employee meetings unless it was to shove anti-union propaganda down our throats), no more tech assists unless its an aerial drop, get everyone out of the shop in 15 minutes in the morning so nobody can have time to talk to each other, and they told us we are no longer able to call the call center on behalf of the customer if dispatch can't help (billing inquiries mostly). In addition to all this, the supervisors will no longer email responses to tech`s questions (eliminate paper trails) and they will not provide answers to tech's questions in real-time...they have to run everything past local Management and their Lawyers first. Seattle is a mess, and if you havn't been through a union campaign with CONcast then you havn't seen the real CONcast yet, sadly.

The one threat to CONcast's "POWER" and "CONTROL" is UNIONS!!! Once one tries to exercise their legal right to organize at CONcast, they meet the true monster that CONcast is.

Ok, I`m done. Struck a nerve.

The ongoing saga continues... At least I received a followup call to emails with the last tech that came out about a week ago. They have acknowledged there's a pretty significant problem impacting much of the node. The area's maintenance supervisor is also well aware. Its all upstream noise related. I'm being told its power company caused and that they have been so far unable to get JCP&L to come out and fix whatever is causing the interference.

Does this sound plausible? And if it is technically possible, wouldn't Comcast have a little more "pull" and coordination with the power utility since they share many of the same poles?

Its the power company, They dont have to care and they dont. No comcast has no pull with them. You actually have more pull than them. Call your state puc amd complain and something may get done. Until you complain the electric company will not give a shit.

The other alternative is to file a complaint with the FCC. Immensely satisfying, but won't accomplish much in the short term. They will respond and the power company will get it fixed. Some day.

Well, a call to the power company was entirely fruitless. To be honest however, I really didn't know what to say other than "Our cable internet service isn't working right and Comcast says its a power interference issue somewhere in town, can you guys come out and fix it?". Other than being asked if my power is working (which is fine), they said I need to call Comcast to get cable issues resolved. Duh...

I have no idea what/where or IF there's a power issue affecting Comcast's plant! Not so convinced its a subscriber's responsibility to chase something like this down anyways... Plus how the heck can someone articulate detailed technical specifics to anyone much less the FCC or BPU? So far there's not been a single response here on DSLR saying if such a power noise condition causing cable outages is even possible. And if so, a typical person has both the equipment and knowledge to pinpoint what or where the problem is??

Gotta say this is getting bizarre. Meanwhile service has been especially bad (intermittently up-and-down) for the past 2 days. All I know is that we're not the only folks impacted -- other than talking with neighbors, I get the distinct impression its fairly widespread on this end of town.

line tech here...yes RFI from the power company can and will cause upstream interference. we can track it by using a good AM radio signal and drive out a pole span until the RFI washes out the station. from there we call the poco dispatch and ask for them to send a truck out for an RFI issue at pole #blahblahblah

there is no solid communication between the two companies, unless someone at comcast has a solid contact at the poco. My construction guy has a good working relationship with 1 of the 3 pocos in my area. So when i have an issue with either a cracked insulator, a bad street light, whatever, I have him email the guy he knows and he will let my guy know what the truck finds out there.

but most times its just "hey we have a problem", "ok we will check it out" and thats that.

so you can drive out your area with your AM radio and track it yourself, the wash out will be very apparent so long as you have a good station to start.

I didnt suggest or expect the poco to respond to you. I said they will respond to your PUC. They are the ones that will get results. My son works for the poco. He is always the one that says its the power company. They dont have to care and they dont. Well thats until the puc comes calling. To the poco comcast is just some company cluttering up the poles. Kind of like the fat lady in the middle of the isle at the grocery store that is always in your way and just a general nuisance.

It doesn't matter how much "pull" Comcast has. If it's an issue with the power company then good luck getting them to come out around the holidays unless there is a massive power outage. I'm sure if Comcast has narrowed down the problem then emails and phone calls up the chain of command are being made to the power company regarding the matter. The only thing I could suggest is to call your local franchise authority and/or the FCC, maybe the FEDS can put a little fire under their butts

Thanks for the info gar187er! Your post was very helpful and at a minimum validates powerco equipment can cause upstream problems. You mentioned AM radio and I tried your suggestion but didn't come up with anything that "washed out" a station within a relatively short 10 minute ride around this end of town. That ofc means nothing -- could be I wasn't near enough the offending street's RFI source.

@rody: In NJ the BPU will generally not even accept a complaint unless you've made a reasonable [read: heroic] effort with the utility first. I learned this from personal experience about 20+ years ago. All my efforts thus far have focused on Comcast not the powerco.

@nrobot80: This issue has been around long before the holidays but only recently (past ~4 weeks) has powerco interference become a prime suspect. I've already called my local franchise authority and am meandering through that process. FCC? Haven't tried yet, but I was advised unless its a matter of life-safety communications the FCC wouldn't address something this localized for months if at all.

As it stands right now Comcast is escalating within their own structure and powerco channels. With the holidays I'm sure everyone is operating on skeleton crews and dispatches limited to only serious outages. Fortunately we [re]installed DSL here a couple weeks ago so when CC internet gets really bad there's backup connectivity albeit m-u-c-h slower. At least that kind of reduces some urgency for the time being...

I sit here typing this latest update in utter disbelief and amazement. Just got off the phone with the person from "We Can Help" Comcast Executive Support I've been in contact over the past ~2 months and was told that even though the problem continues, Comcast believes they've done everything they could and are no longer actively working the trouble.

Was told, and I quote "I need to pursue the power company since its their issue", and that Comcast will not extend any billing credit for the ongoing troubles. This is despite a node-wide impact on many folks on this end of town, with some folks complaining perhaps even louder than I have. She recited FCC rules that stated credits only have to be offered for continuous 6-hour long service outages that are their fault, and this isn't their fault. The conversation became rather tense though I kept cool and remained firm yet always polite. She was more than willing to terminate my service however! (I almost did, but need to move some equipment around first plus still want to call the BPU and share this outrageous experience. Comcast has officially attained 'project' status, lol)

All I can say is... WOW! Such indifference and refusal to take any ownership or even offer credits is beyond absurd... These guys handily have earned the distinctive honor of probably being the absolute worst company I've ever dealt with in my many decades of being a consumer. They say its my responsibility to work with the power company on a node-wide known ingress problem. Uh huh... r-i-g-h-t...

Apparently its too much to ask for a stable, working connection for anyone on the west side of Clinton NJ at least when it comes to Comcast. Perhaps a good business strategy for these folks is to stick to delivering one-way TV and leave internet (& phone) to someone that's actually committed to it and has a sensible service ethic.

The only way to summarize my experience with Comcast at this point in two lines is to quote Eric Cartman of South Park fame: "I hate you guys so very, very, very, very much!" and "Screw you guys, I'm going home!"

sounds like a good story for the front page of dslreports

If you want a contact who may be able to help, or point you to another person, PM me.