Back Online

After another haitus, I'm back online.  No thanks to AT&T. Now that I've canceled my DSL and am safe with Comcast, I can tell the story.

First, it took them two and a half weeks to install my phone line when it should have taken two days (all it took was the press of a button).  Strike one.  Then it took them another week (three and a half weeks total) to get my DSL activated.  (Again, could have been done with the press of a button.)  Strike two.  Once it was up, it never worked well.  Sure, I paid for the el-cheapo $10 a month plan, but even so I never got the bandwidth they promised.  I ran multiple tests and it was always short.  Strike three.  Also, since it took them so long to activate my phone line, I had to rely more heavily on my cell phone and ended up with overage charged.  AT&T admitted this was their fault . . . but refused to pay for it.  Strike four.  Finally, last week, they brought the service down for six hours, from midnight until 6 am.  With no notice.  And it took tech support half an hour to figure out that they had done this intentionally, for "testing."  Strike five - after one week of actual service.  I called and canceled the next day.  At least they didn't make me pay the contract termination fee.  Out of gratitude, I probably won't sue for the overage charges.

I've heard horror stories about Comcast too but so far I've been very pleased.  They gave me a two hour window for installation (AT&T made me wait all day for a guy who never showed up), they called a couple days ago to remind me of the appointment, and called again this morning to let me know the guy was on his way.  At every step I got to talk to a real human being who asked me if I had any questions or if there was anything else they could do for me.  Even though they had to send a guy out (not electronic like AT&T), the guy came on time and had my internet working in less than an hour.

Oh yeah - and the internet itself is way better.  12 Mbps download, twice as fast as AT&T's best service for less (first year average price).  And unlike AT&T, Comcast actually delivers; my speedtest showed almost 14 Mbps download, well above the promised 12 Mbps, and a whopping 3 Mbps upload.  That's going to be great when I upload another photo gallery in a minute.

Finally, I've tweaked my website a bit more.  The navigation bar on the right makes more sense now, and I've turned on comments.  The only thing I haven't turned on is email subscriptions because I don't think anyone actually used them.  If you miss that feature, let me know!

J<