Comcast "Customer Service"

You always hear the horror stories. We'd had Comcast for a few years now, and while there were the occasional outages, they would usually resolve pretty quickly. We do stream a TON of stuff at our house, I've appreciated that they've put up with us.

Then came the day when nothing worked. I checked Comcast's site and did NOT see any outage reported. It was just us. I tried re-setting the modem and router as I have had to do many times in the past, but it still didn't help.  After calling in, it was determined that our modem had died and needed to be replaced.

I had a couple options. I could take the box in to a local Comcast center, exchange it and install it myself, or a technician could do it. This would incur a $35 service fee, and the earliest appointment was the next day. I was intimidated enough at the thought of driving across town and installing it myself, that I opted for the latter.

The kids took the outage better than expected. They pulled out some DVDs to watch instead of streaming. They played some board games rather than video games requiring an online connection. We had several cell phones, so we were still reachable, and I could still check email and such. It was inconvenient ... but it was just for a day.

Or so I thought.

The next day, I sat around from 3:00-5:00 ... the hours I had been told a technician would be by. No one showed up. I called, and they said the appointment was for the NEXT day between 3:00-5:00. I was absolutely positive I had been told Thursday. Friday did not work, as Gray and I were going to a matinee performance of Les Miserables. 

I called in, but it was too late for them to send anyone out that day (Thursday). They said they would get someone there first thing in the morning. Now when I had called back to inquire, I discovered there was an automated system to check on your appointment. I called back  Friday morning to verify someone was coming ... only to hear "your appointment is scheduled for March 7, from 3:00-5:00". WHAT??? That was a week out! What was going on with their appointment scheduling? There was some malfunction in what I was being told and what was being entered! I called back and again and after a frustrating conversation was told someone would come out that morning. I called back to verify ... only to have the time scheduled be in the afternoon (when we would be gone). 

I gave up. I overcame my apprehension, ripped the defective modem from the computer, and drove to the Comcast center. There ... it was like the DMV. I took a number and waited. I finally exchanged the equipment. I did successfully install it all and got us back up and running. It only took three days and me doing everything myself to get things done.

Old Setup ... New Setup

So just a heads up ... IF you make an appointment with Comcast. DOUBLE CHECK your appointment time. There was something screwy going on! Hopefully you'll have better luck than I did.

*** and an update ... I received my bill from Comcast. When I went into the service center, I returned to cable boxes. Two cable boxes that had originally been installed at no charge. Cable boxes that then Comcast started charging us for, $1.98 every month (so $3.98 for both). Cable boxes that provided the most basic channels, but not all that we paid for (we'd have to pay more, get boxes like the main box to get all the channels). These boxes had not been in use for over a year, so I returned them when I made the exchange.  I got my March bill ... and they are STILL on there. Of course I kept the receipt, and I have proof of their return, but after calling and writing I'm still waiting on a response from Comcast!

Bye Bye Blockbuster

Well ... it's over. The traditional "video" store where you walk in, browse the aisles and rent a title to take home. I can remember during my teen years, when we had to rent a VCR too, as we didn't own one yet. Even though we do love our streaming services (Netflix, Amazon Prime, PlayOn) we DID still have a Blockbuster Online account. We paid a set monthly fee and could have three rentals out at a time. We could keep them as long as we wanted, no due dates, which came in handy for us. We also got two free rentals in store each month (DVD or video games). We could exchange through the mail or in store, and yes, there was still a store fairly close (although we had been sad when two closer stores had closed a couple years ago).   I kept debating cancelling, but it was so convenient and gave us a way to watch new releases not yet available on our streaming services, and the kids enjoyed playing video games they wanted to try, but not buy.

I guess we will now need to convert to Redbox ... and hope we can get used to due dates and returning things on time. I think we had "Lincoln" sitting on our nightstand for months ... I had to return it unwatched.

Bye Bye Blockbuster ...

The Birds

A couple months ago, I noticed an article in Time Magazine. It was just a small piece, but it had an amazing photo of a huge flock of starlings. I was caught not only by the picture, but by the caption ... calling it a "murmuration" of starlings. It was such an interesting word, I had to look it up, and sure enough, there were many other documented, and SPECTACULAR photos (see some here and here and just Google it for more). 

Although we don't have quite as impressive mumurations here in West Jordan, we DO have a lot of starlings and at some times it is overpowering to see them all take off, or gather on the trees or rooftops. I snapped the picture above when we came home to find 200+ birds sitting on the roof of our house one day.

They do come to nest at our house - I've blogged about it a couple of times (one here) and I do still see the starlings going in and out of the brick wall behind our house during every season (not just spring). 

So ... if YOU hadn't heard the word "murmuration" (and apparently my spell check hasn't), I thought I'd just point it out. It's amazing ... and it's fun to say *Ü*.  I guess simple "flock" just wasn't good enough. Do other birds have their own words too? I know it's a "murder" of crows ... which does bring me to this little funny to close my post.

It made me laugh!