RCN vs Comcast

[mrwrench.livejournal.com]

Hi all. Long-time listener, first-time caller.

I am moving to Davis Sq next month and am in the process of setting up my utilities.

Wondering if anyone has any insight into RCN vs Comcast for phone/cable/internet.

I saw some scattered posts on this topic in the archive, but none too recently.

Any help would be appreciated.

Comments

RCN customer service script

[davelew.livejournal.com]

I had this exchange with RCN customer service last fall:

Me: Hi. A truck just drove by, hit the RCN cable, and ripped it out of the side of my house. Can you send someone to re-install it?
RCN: I'd be happy to help you with that sir. Can you describe the specific problems you're having?
Me: Ummm... My phone doesn't get a dial tone, my TV doesn't get any channels, and my cable modem doesn't have any connectivity.
RCN: OK, sir, can you reboot the cable modem for me?
Me: Yes, but that's not going to help, because the cable was ripped out of the side of my house.
RCN: OK, I'm going to try to ping your cable modem, please wait a moment sir.
Me: I don't think that's going to work. The cable was ripped out of the side of my house.
RCN: OK, can you cycle power on your cable box?
Me: No, because I have a Tivo, but anyway that wouldn't work because the cable was ripped out of the side of my house.

And on and on it went... I was impressed at their Indian call center's ability to stick to the script despite my best efforts to actually diagnose the problem.

Anyway, (this is where I attempt to make this post relevant) I don't think that either RCN or Comcast has much customer service.

Re: RCN customer service script

[teko.livejournal.com]

The words "Indian call center" just stopped me from my planned switch to RCN. Thanks for the heads-up.

Re: RCN customer service script

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Comcast has an Indian call center as well -- not that means much of anything except that they're on the same playing field with that one.

Re: RCN customer service script

[teko.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've got reams of horror stories from dealing with Comcast's people. My naive hope was that a "local" company like RCN might have some competent local techs rather than farming it out to generic call centers in Bombay who say things like "You're on a Mac? You cannot use the internet with a Mac," or "Your internet is down because your networking cable is backwards so the signal is going backwards."

Re: RCN customer service script

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

You forgot, "well the Internet is a series of tubes." No wait, that was an American who said that.