Comcast figures it out

Saturday, September 20, 2008 by Dave Winer.

Sometimes it doesn't pay to be leading edge.  

First, I like Comcast's Internet service. It was fast, and stayed up pretty well. I also like AT&T's DSL service, which I use now. It's nowhere near as fast as Comcast, and it's also reasonably reliable. But Comcast hated me and shut me down, and AT&T doesn't seem to care one way or the other, which is pretty much how I like my vendors. I pay the bills, they provide the service, that's about it. 

Comcast on the other hand, felt I was using too much of their service. Instead of limiting the amount I could use, or telling me what the limit was (and allowing me to monitor it) they just said "Too much and if you do it again, goodbye Dave." And they told me this by shutting off my service to get me to call them. I almost fired them as a vendor for doing that, but as I said, I liked the service.  

Predictably, I crossed the line again, they shut me off. They wanted to keep me as a TV customer but I fired them, replaced them with DirecTV and every night before I go to bed I say a prayer asking God to punish them in new and innovative ways, so deep is my hatred of all-things-Comcast.  

Then I read a bunch of articles saying they've come around to my way of thinking. Amazing! 

WSJ: Comcast starts acting like a company that cares just a bit about their customers. 

Like I said, sometimes it's better not to be so leading edge. :-(