It's ok to admit it. You hate your ISP.
We've all been there. Your monthly bill keeps creeping up and you don't have the energy to call and fight with customer service. You get an email saying that Comcast is adding data caps to your monthly plan for your own good. The modem you're renting from your ISP breaks and they refuse to fix it. You're in the middle of an important project and Comcast's internet service goes down for the entire region.
You don't deserve to be treated this way. You're a customer, and whether you like it or not, a high-paying one. Any other industry in the world wouldn't be able to run a business with this level of customer satisfaction, except at the end of the day, there is no other option in town.
Your ISP is a bad actor because it gets away with it. The only way to stop this behavior is to create a public, responsive alternative we can all take our business to. After that, Comcast is welcome to try to win you back.
Until then, they'll keep on doing what they do best: being the worst.
Comcast Violated Washington's Consumer Protection Act
Attorney General Bob Ferguson brought a $100 million lawsuit against the cable giant in 2016 after Comcast was caught illegally inflating their customer's bills.
The lawsuit found Comcast was selling customers a "near worthless protection plan”, charging customers for repairs to Comcast's own equipment, and unnecessarily extracting deposits from customers without reason.
In 2017, the Attorney General amended his lawsuit, expanding it to include new evidence of wrongdoing by the cable provider.
"The extent of their deception is shocking," said Ferguson. "I will hold them accountable for their treatment of Washington consumers.”
We All Need to be able to rely on our Internet Service
A reliable internet connection is a prerequisite to run a business, study for school, or complete your daily errands.
Unfortunately, our current providers are far from reliable. Speeds fluctuate without reason, outages come with no estimates on fixes, and Comcast's repair people will leave you waiting around your house for days on end.
We can't afford to live in a city where entire neighborhoods lose internet access for hours, or days at a time without recourse.
It's time for a public internet utility, one that invests in resiliency and speed instead of Comcast's shareholders.
Further Reading:
For the better part of two decades the newswires have been filled with horror stories about the dumpster fire that passes for Comcast customer service. From expletive-laced insults to simply refusing to let users cancel service, Comcast has long provided a master class to any company looking for a lesson on how not to behave when dealing with paying customers (read more).
I'm typing this right now thanks to the tech-wizardry of The Stranger's IT staff, which has our offices connected to the Internet on a backup DSL connection. The rest of you sucka Comcast customers, reportedly across Capitol Hill and other parts of Seattle, are screwed. Comcast says it's working to repair a fiber-optic cable in Madison Park and doesn't know when its service will back up and running (read more).