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Broadband ISP Betrayal Forces Homeowner To Sell New House
New submitter knightsirius writes: A Washington homeowner is having to sell his new house after being refused internet service from Comcast and CenturyLink despite receiving confirmation from both that the location was able to receive broadband service. The whole process took months and involved false assurances and bureaucratic convolutions. The national broadband map database frequently cited by Comcast as proof of sufficient competition lists 10 options at his location, including a gigabit municipal fiber network, but he cannot subscribe to it due to Washington state direct sale restrictions.
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...
Actually I think that a corporate death penalty would go a long way toward making things better. Corporations are already willing to close-up shop in a given area and dump thousands of people into unemployment to save 20% by moving operations to foreign countries. Revoking a corporate charter would now affect shareholders too, so that those who own the company would know that if they allow their compny to go too far then they risk losing essentially everything.
I think that the fine in this scenario should be the cost to implement the service.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I'm having the same situation. AT&T swears up and down that they can give me U-verse service . . . until the tech gets there and finds out that the nearest box is miles away. They then tell me that they can probably get me DSL. But when I talk to the call center folks, they say they can't process a DSL order while the system says U-Verse is available. Don't worry, they say, as soon as the maps are updated, we can order your DSL. Almost a year later, the maps aren't updated. It's almost like they vigorously don't want my business.
I've had many incidents of this same situation with various telcos and cable companies over the years.
Specific to Comcast, they told me I could not get service at my house but yet came out 2 weeks later to disconnect service from the previous owner of the house.
Verizon with DSL, getting letters in the mail and calls to home to get DSL. I signed up and at least 5 times in two years. Every time they would send someone to my house and find out I could not actually get it. Another strange one with Verizon. I had a second line in my house that was active. It took me a few weeks to finally realize it though, That phone would never ring when the others did. When I called to inquire they knew nothing about it and refused to cancel it because it was not in my name. About 6 months later I got a bill to my house addressed to a different name. It was a bill for 8 months of service or it was going to be shut off. I did nothing and about 2 months later it was finally dead.
This one worked out to my advantage. Remember back in the 90's when long distance calls were expensive? They averaged 10-20 cents a minute? I used to get offers in the mail between ATT, MCI to possibly others to switch all the time. Many were giving checks that if you signed and deposited them, you agreed to switch long distance providers. I did that all the time but.. The old area I lived in on a military base was not capable of using other providers for some reason, my only choice was AT&T. I'd deposit the checks, get a welcome letter and still have AT&T. Even AT&T was sending me letters to switch back with a credit even though I technically never left them.