At 10:40 PM -0400 10/9/03, Brandon Ross wrote:
On Thu, 9 Oct 2003, Matt wrote:
I wouldn't recommend that actually. The local folks do not have any control over the IP infrastructure, they only handle the HFC plant.
Do you think that may have anything to do with the complaints cited here?
Nope, most of the complaints here seem to be about technical support.
As far as networking problems, I think most folks on NANOG would agree that to run a stable network, the network needs to be designed and operated by a single organization.
As a customer quite frustrated with support, I have to support Brandon about a centralized authority for routing and other common services such as mail. I can appreciate the issue of customer support for a residential service starting with level 1's whose only level of clue over Joe Sixpack is a flipchart. What frustrates me is the inability to escalate, and the lack of communication between customer support and the real operations folk. Nobody's perfect. When I was a Verio customer, I sometimes was able to get things escalated, but there was a time or two where I wound up appealing to Randy Bush. If I do call upon a colleague like that, I like to think that I've thought through the issue and have either a diagnosis or a solution -- perhaps a better procedure for Level 2 and up. It's a tough world (and I'm not singling out Comcast). If I were paying for an OC-192, you'd better believe I'd get clueful support. With what I pay for residential broadband, there's only so much support budget, and I recognize many of the incoming calls ARE from lack of end user clue. But, it still strikes me that proper escalation of a user with a technical explanation is in the long-term interest of the service provider. Semi :-), I sometimes wonder if Level 1 should automatically escalate a customer that says certain magic words. Hey, if we are going to talk about magic, I want a spell that lets me turn anyone who doesn't know what a traceroute is into a frog. Let them ribbit rather than ping.