This lady is my hero.

Labels: comcast, happy, horrible business

posted by Frankie @ 7:38 PM   0 Comments

For those of you who thought I was joking about Comcast broadband running at dial-up speeds, these speeds are what I have been dealing with _all_night_!!!

9.0 KB/sec... isn't that nice? Comcast offers dial-up speeds for only $50 per month!

Labels: comcast, horrible business, mad

posted by Frankie @ 3:51 AM   2 Comments

frys.com customer service just called about the complaint I filed with the Better Business Bureau. They apologized, refunded my shipping amount, and told me they are trying to roll out "ship to store" capabilities which let you get the internet price but pick up at the store.

Not too bad. I guess I'll take Frys out of first place for who I hate the most and bump Comcast up to the top.

Labels: comcast, frys, horrible business

posted by Frankie @ 9:03 AM   0 Comments

Here is some interesting viewing for those who don't believe there is any risk by having huge corporations control your internet, and your tv.

Comcast Censors the news

This is why it is so important to be in favor of net-neutrality. If you are unfamiliar with net-neutrality, it basically means that people providing internet service cannot give favor to some sites over others. For example, if Comcast decided to get in bed with MSN, you might see MSN sites and services at fast speed, and competitors at a degraded speed.

Watch this video for a good explanation of what net-neutrality means.

This has huge implications now that the internet has become the worlds largest free speech medium. If we don't stop corporations from imposing non-neutral service, our only hope will lie with the government... and we don't want them running the internet either!

Support net-neutrality.

Labels: comcast, government, net neutrality

posted by Frankie @ 9:23 AM   0 Comments

I don't know who I hate more... Comcast, or Fry's.

Ever since my earthlink cable internet got converted over to Comcast, my internet service has went down the crapper. Web pages used to be fast. Downloads were really fast. Ping times were great. And I hardly ever had outages.

But, now things are Comcastic. Comcastic apparently means slow webpages, constant dropouts, high prices, and a monopoly ensuring I have no other choice for cable or cable internet.

Ever since the change, I now receive internet that loads webpages exactly the way they loaded when I used dial-up internet in the 90's. It is absolutely abysmal. I sure hope I can get some fiber internet and cable soon. I hate all the monopolies in this country!

I enjoyed reading about this guy's comcastic experience.

But, they are in second place. First place is handed to the company who not only doesn't deliver the products you buy (like comcast), but also engages in deceptive practices and ultimately has incompetent support.

Fry's is a huge electronics retailer that loves to lure people in the stores with extremely cheap, low quality electronics, and then inundates them with overbearing salespeople and confusing, slow rebate offers.

This is bad enough. I shopped around for an hour in there once finding a cart full of things I needed and then went to buy the laptop I had found on their website. I got ready to checkout and they quoted a price for the laptop significantly higher than what I saw on the website. I pointed out this was wrong and showed the sales rep the printout from their website. He then quickly informed me that they didn't honor the prices on their website.

That's right. They don't honor the prices on their own website. He started to explain that they could sell things more cheaply online than in the store. I quickly told them that I was sure they could because they wouldn't have to pay people like him to walk around in tuxedo shirts and harass people.

But it gets worse. I decided to actually buy something off of their website. I was looking for a new TV, and found a good deal (read "bait") on their website. I ordered it. Two days later I received this email (read "switch"):

Thank you for your order. We apologize but the item(s) you ordered are currently out of stock and we are unable to provide a definite ship date at this time. However, we continually receive new merchandise in our warehouse and we hope to fulfill your order within the next thirty days or sooner if possible.

Nice. This wasn't stated when I ordered the TV. But now it was on backorder. I grumbled, but left it alone.

A week passes and still the Fry's order status page reports "Back Ordered". I call customer service. The rep tells me that they don't know when it will ship, but she can have the manager check and send me an ETA. Great. Do that.

Another week passes. Still nothing! I call again. "Your rep promised me an email and I didn't receive anything. What's going on?"

The second rep says "I don't know why you didn't receive it. I will request it again."

ANOTHER WEEK PASSES! Three weeks. Still nothing. No emails. No status change. No hope.

I called again this morning to give them an earful. I told the girl on the phone that I thought their business was deceptive and that they appeared to be incompetent. I explained how every other sales company I've worked with has always worked hard to communicate with me and follow through with their promises. I told her to mark every check box and fill in every box she could to explain how upset I was and how horrible my experience has been.

I also decided to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I'm sure that won't do much, but maybe if enough people do. If you have issues with Fry's, please file a complaint with the BBB!

Labels: comcast, frys, horrible business, mad

posted by Frankie @ 5:41 PM   0 Comments