The summer of my broadband discontent
Kristin Lutz, WG'07
Issue date: 10/9/06 Section: Perspectives
If you type "I love Comcast" into Google, you'll get about 1,290 hits; conversely, googling the phrase, "I hate Comcast" yields 10,400 results. I discovered this mildly amusing fact when, in an attempt to find company for my Comcast-induced misery, I tried both phrases. Apparently there are whole communities of people out there that share my frustration, and I suspect there are other Wharton MBAs among them. Can you relate?
It all started when I called Comcast in August to re-connect my service after I had been gone all summer. I remembered that last year, the technician came to hook up my cable and Internet within no more than three days after I called. So imagine my surprise when they told me it would be two whole weeks later. Left without much power of substitution, I set an appointment. In the meantime, I was sans television, although I was most inconvenienced by the lack of Internet.
I live in a Center City high-rise, so you'd think I could just temporarily mooch off of someone else. But no. Despite being able to detect ten networks, they were all password-protected! Of course they are, I reasoned, because they're probably all students-my own network has a password because I don't want anyone else stealing my bandwidth when I'm trying to download music!
Anyway, I bided my time, checking e-mail in coffee shops until the blessed day when the Comcast men arrived to return me to my previous state of information overload.
Ever since I learned the mysticism of the bundle in MGEC, I've been on the look-out for what is essentially a rip-off. Comcast does not disappoint, offering their VoIP telephone service along with broadband Internet and digital cable for just a little more than the price of the last two. Since this was still below my reservation price (living in NYC this summer completely warped my sense of prices), I signed up. When the technicians arrived, they brought a new modem, which would provide both Internet and my phone.
It all started when I called Comcast in August to re-connect my service after I had been gone all summer. I remembered that last year, the technician came to hook up my cable and Internet within no more than three days after I called. So imagine my surprise when they told me it would be two whole weeks later. Left without much power of substitution, I set an appointment. In the meantime, I was sans television, although I was most inconvenienced by the lack of Internet.
I live in a Center City high-rise, so you'd think I could just temporarily mooch off of someone else. But no. Despite being able to detect ten networks, they were all password-protected! Of course they are, I reasoned, because they're probably all students-my own network has a password because I don't want anyone else stealing my bandwidth when I'm trying to download music!
Anyway, I bided my time, checking e-mail in coffee shops until the blessed day when the Comcast men arrived to return me to my previous state of information overload.
Ever since I learned the mysticism of the bundle in MGEC, I've been on the look-out for what is essentially a rip-off. Comcast does not disappoint, offering their VoIP telephone service along with broadband Internet and digital cable for just a little more than the price of the last two. Since this was still below my reservation price (living in NYC this summer completely warped my sense of prices), I signed up. When the technicians arrived, they brought a new modem, which would provide both Internet and my phone.
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