Jan
19
They say moving is one of the most stressful things a person can do in life. I think that’s partially because it involves working with utility companies. Some highlights this time around:
(1) The water company charges a $20 administration fee for switching the name on the account from the old owners to us, and tacks on a $60 deposit. They hold on to that $60 deposit until sometime after we close our account with them someday.
(2) The gas company has a $31 initiation charge.
(3) The electric company has a $15 connection fee.
It’s interesting to see how they all find creative terms for those 2 minutes they spend slapping your name on an account. Then there are the utilities where we actually have a choice of providers:
(4) We’ve been using Vonage for our phone service for a while now. They were a joy to have during the move. We were able to continue using our old phone number by simply hooking up our Vonage router to my brother’s network once we arrived. We kept that same number until we knew for sure where we would be purchasing a house. At that point I had a 10 minute phone call with them wherein they activated a new number for us with the local area code, and pointed our old number at it so both would work for a time while we transition to the new. By the time I hung up from that call, the new number was already active and routing to us.
(5) While we technically had a choice of who to use for Internet connectivity, the DSL route scared me because our house is 20,000 feet from the CO (and 15,000 feet is supposed to be the limit for DSL). I’m surprised Verizon even offered the service at that distance. So, we once again joined the ranks of Comcast customers. I must admit I enjoyed the 2 year hiatus, and wish I could have returned to Speakeasy. (Speakeasy has some of the best customer service I’ve ever experienced, not just with technology providers, but of any company.)
Ordering service from Comcast turned out to be a chore, probably involving a total of 3 hours on the phone with who knows how many different people and departments. I ordered the service through comcastoffers.com, as they got us a free cable modem, $125 cash back, and 6 months of service at $19.99. I just kept telling myself all the money we are saving was worth the headache of ordering. Today I got our first monthly invoice, and there are two incorrect charges. I wish I could say I’m surprised.
As for the service, Comcast says they provide up to 6 Mbps down. Even so, I was pleased to run some tests in excess of 5 Mbps this weekend (using a speed test). Have no fear, however: after two days of service, we had our first outage on Monday night lasting about 2 hours. Comcastic! Hopefully it’s not too much longer until Verizon provides FiOS in our area. Rumors are swirling about that it might be sometime in 2007.
Comments
2 Responses to “the (f)utility in moving”
Leave a Reply
Just over a month ago I moved into an apartment and the only cable provider I had access to was indeed Comcast. Here’s a short list of comcastic moments in your old hometown of Kentwood, MI - lest you thought that you were alone.
1) Although I ordered the service through their website, typing my own name, address, phone, etc, the name on the account reads “Brain” and not “Brian” - which means that although they collect the data online, they don’t use it. SOMEONE has to retype it.
2) Additionally two number in my address were transposed so the technician who had to come over and install the service couldn’t find the place.
3) Not that the correct address would have helped this guy. After nearly 3 hours in my apartment trying to get the internet working, I asked if I could speak with his technical support person with whom he had been speaking. I gave them the MAC for my modem and they had it working in about 2 minutes.
4) I’ve tried, unsuccessfully, to change the name on the account from Brain to Brian over the last week. However, in an effort to save a tree here and there, I went for the paperless billing. This month they instituted a new “add account” feature. I can’t view my bill without “adding an account” - but adding the account through the web form produces the error, “that services is unavailable at this time” (don’t get me started on UNavailable vs not available). (Ir)Regardless, I tried to contact support for the website (comcast.com) but couldn’t view the support form, email address, chat, or phone number without “adding the account”. I went over to comcast.net to try it there and spent 30 minutes in a billing help chat with someone who couldn’t even mail or email a copy of my bill to me so I could view and pay it.
5) Neither could the “billing help” chat person change the name on my account. The only way to do that is online through comcast.com, which I cant access because I can’t “add account”.
I wonder what would happen if I don’t pay the bill until the web service is not “unavailable” any more?
I ran into the same thing with the Adding The Account thing. I talked to about 6 different people before getting to talk to a tech lady for the Grand Rapids area. She said she’d never heard of such a thing, and that my account must have been deleted, and I should just make a new one.
She was wrong.