the comcast internet installer is unacceptable
Dear Comcast,
I hate you.
No, wait. I didn’t mean that. Let me try again.
I hate you.
Crap. Alright, let me try a different angle here. Like my third grade history teacher used to say, “Be specific, support your answer with details from the book,” which was inevitably The Diary of Frederick Douglass. But I digress.
I’d like to talk to you about the Comcast Internet Installer, the thing you made me “self-install” after the cable guy left. What gives? Why do I need to download and install this special piece of software to activate my internet connection? What is it doing, exactly? Why doesn’t it provide any details of its actions? What the hell does “Verifying Network…” mean? And most importantly, why doesn’t it work?
It didn’t work when I was connecting to my wireless router, and it didn’t work when I was directly plugged in to the modem. It just sat there, a plain white window saying, “Verifying Network…” which–and I realize that I repeat myself–means nothing to me. It might as well say, “Weighing Justice” or “Appraising Kiwis.” Ultimately I had to call the company and have the man on the other end of the phone flip the magic switch for me. Doesn’t this take the “self” out of self-install?
Speaking of which, why couldn’t we have done that in the first place? There’s already someone in charge of flipping the magic switch for my TV, so why not do the internet connection while we’re at it? They come out of the same God damned wire.
I feel it’s only fair to mention that the installer itself–I’m talking about its very nature as software here, not any of its purported functions–is a complete piece of crap. I had to whip out my Snow Leopard disc to install Rosetta, because the Comcast Internet Installer hasn’t yet been updated to run on Intel Macs. Yes, Intel Macs, which have been on the market for nearly four full years. I’m sorry, but as a company, you’re how big, again? How many hundreds of millions of dollars does your little monopoly over the Northeast United States garner you monthly? Are you telling me you couldn’t hire a single software engineer in four years to update the damn thing? I suppose I should count my blessings. On Windows the installer forces an anti-virus program on you and re-brands your browser. Classy.
I had to do the exact same thing two years ago. In that time, you have not improved this experience one iota. Totally unacceptable.
Sincerely,
$109 per month
I’m sure the extra software is there so they can keep better tabs on what you’re doing online, whether that be for marketing or “security” reasons.
I can have one of my colleagues look into this. Please send me the phone number associated with the account so that we can assist further.
I am sorry for the trouble.
Mark Casem
Comcast Corp.
National Customer Operations
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com
I had to deal with the same thing, last year. I didn’t have a Linux partition handy (which is what I’d used before, to prevent them from installing anything) and their Mac software is just as awful as you say — though back then, they actually required that you install IE for the Mac. Nightmare getting THAT off my system.
It’s hard to find much good to say about a cable company, though I’m aware that the only time you really notice them is when it’s time to pay the bill or when the service is unavailable. Still, they do get props for finally fixing a two-year intermittent disconnection issue by replacing the wall socket.