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Comment by ilyanep | Hacker News Reader

Really I'm mostly bitter because right now I'm paying $57/mo for 12 Mbps U-Verse in Mountain View. I could pay $70/mo to switch to either 50 Mbps Sonic (currently considering) or 100 Mbps Xfinity (really don't want to deal with Comcast customer service). Aside from Sonic, these all come with a data cap.

I was really looking forward to giving Google $70/mo for 1 Gbps or whatever they were offering, and not having a data cap. It's not that I expect to hit the cap, but the fact that I don't want to think about it.

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I'm in Mountain View too. I agree it's pretty frustrating that this is supposedly the tech center of the universe, and our home internet is lousy. Five minutes from Google HQ and no Google Fiber for the forseeable future now.

FWIW, I recently switched from Sonic to Comcast and I'm relatively happy now. But that had something to do with Sonic being unable to provide a good connection in my old apartment building.

Switch to Sonic. They are amazing.

I have had Comcast for 7 years, dealt with their customer service <5 times.

Their customer service has been appalling every time I've dealt with them.

I moved recently and was forced to sign up with them as the only competitor option was 7mbps. After provisioning my service online successfully, I received a call from them stating that I would not be able to receive the the service I had requested at the price they quoted. I could either cut the speed in half, or increase my bill by $70/month. I was furious, since there is absolutely no reason the website should have given me incorrect information...I put in my service address, after all. I refused to drop my speed or pay more. There was a brief pause, then they told me this was fine and activated my service. I provided my own modem, and am still charged the monthly modem rental fee despite attempting to notify them several times.

Worst fucking company I have ever dealt with. I would happily pay more money to anybody else just to take business away from them.

I wonder how much this stems from improper mapping systems. They are always changing and potentially the price quoted was due to an incorrect map position given?

This is a big reason why I don't trust quotes until I get some sort of confirmed pricing from the seller.

Shouldn't have to, of course, but we kind of demand instant gratification and I feel this has led to poor service in many.

I've often thought well Century Link handles cost predicting well but maybe that is more due to the quality of the service and the fact they are over-charging for a lower quality service so it's easier to guarantee those prices. That doesn't reflect in the price comparison but it does show when you have the service and your comparing to your neighbor whom has the other.

I must be alone in that I've never had a bad customer service experience with Comcast. They've always been able to resolve problems, and service outages in my area are extremely rare. My only beef is with the price I'm paying (around $130 for 50MBps + basic TV), but their Internet service so far has been stellar. They were also one of the first major US ISPs to take IPV6 seriously and roll out native support.

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