Finding clue at comcast.net

Fri Oct 10 03:28:06 UTC 2003

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.