Submitted via an email form to Comcast this morning:
This morning I ran the Comcast install CD wizard on my macintosh. It’s running OS 10.3. When the wizard was finished, the internet connectivity was working great, but for some reason, it changed my shell prompt. Previously, it was displaying Hosaka:> - which is the name of my computer. Now it displays c-24-19-225-21:> - which is the letter C followed by the dynamic IP address that was just assigned to my computer.
I use my shell prompt all day long for internet work, so while this is a cosmetic change, it is important to me. I could not find how to change it back, so I called 800-Comcast for tech support.
When I called at about 11am on Monday, November 1st, I was connected to John, who gave his service ID as 62410.
John was EXTREMELY unhelpful. After describing the problem to him, his first reaction was “That is clearly not an IP address”. After I explained that nothing else had changed on the computer, and that the wizard had clearly made this change, he told me that there was no way the wizard did this, since all it does is configure the IP (not true, by the way, the mac wizard does several other things, including creating a new location profile). When I persisted, John informed me that they don’t support OS 10.3, and that I should contact Apple tech support instead.
When I asked John to transfer me to a manger or someone else, he refused, and informed me that the managers were only there for payroll, and deferred all tech discussion to the “training and experience” of the guys on the floor, like him.
When I asked him to transfer me to someone where I could lodge a complaint, he told me I could find the information on the website. I asked him if he could just transfer me, since I had already called the number on the website, and he got sarcastic and asked “Are you talking over a website right now?”
I’m disappointed both in complete unwillingness of the phone support guy to try to find a solution, and in the fact that the wizard made this kind of change without giving me a way to set it back.
Edit: About twelve hours later now, and I’ve just added my wi-fi router to the mix, which assigned a new IP address to my computer, which seems to have fixed the problem, meaning it was a temporary thing. Thank goodness, since I was not looking forward to calling “tech support” again. Long story short: everything seems to be working now, no thanks to Comcast.
I'm a 30-year-old 
Yeah, they can be a little stupid sometimes. I think the trick is to hang up on them, and call back a few minutes later, where you can be cycled to someone a little more helpful. Sig did that when the modem seemed to stop working, and the idjit on the line couldn’t accept “the light isn’t on — it’s not a problem with my computer!” The next person Sig got on the phone was much more intelligent.
November 1st, 2004 at 8:12 pm
Comcast’s tech support is completely inept. It’s gotten no better since I moved from California to Washington either.
They will always claim the problem is on your end no matter what the problem is.
I once called as my service completely died (as in no lights on the modem or anything). They swore up and down it was my system causing the problem. While going through the motions of completely unnecessary tasks (like making sure the modem was plugged into a power socket and connected to the cable jack in the wall and connected to my computer) they learned that a major fiber optic cable was cut by accident somewhere in my area causing the outage. Man, the tech seemed embarrassed, offered me a 1-day credit on my account and left it at that. So, yeah, that was probably my BEST experience with Comcast Support.
Oh, and never mention you’re using a Mac until you definitely have to. They instantly start treating you like you don’t even know how to turn a computer on, must less “use the internet”.
November 3rd, 2004 at 3:02 am
That’s right–lie like a rug. I’ve worked on enough Win32 machines over the years that I can simulate the appropriate responses in my head while doing the equivalents in Linux, or whatever I’m sitting in front of while they run pointless troubleshooting.
Lately, my problems have revolved around my Linksys router, which stops passing traffic through whenever it loses power. You get to power cycle it a number of times before it finally remembers its purpose and works flawlessly until the next outtage.
November 3rd, 2004 at 9:15 pm
Not much better?
Comcast is downright expensive. Cable internet is very inconsistent, not to mention there are too many bottle necks out there for the higher speed to make a big difference for everything. Comcast will throttle or block your bittorrent downloads, and they’ll hand your personal information over to companies that want to sue you for downloading mp3s.
COMCAST IS EVIL!
June 1st, 2008 at 11:10 pm