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Comcast Screw Up Forces Washington Man to Sell His New Home; Quoted Him $60,000 Installation Fee

Phillip Dampier March 25, 2015 Comcast/Xfinity, Competition, Consumer News, Data Caps, Public Policy & Gov't 4 Comments

MasterMap_Oct2012A Washington state man who just moved into his new home is now being forced to consider selling it to somebody else because Comcast repeatedly misled him about its ability to provide service.

Seth told his extensive story to The Consumerist, which detailed his repeated attempts to get Comcast broadband service after multiple missed or unfinished service appointments. More importantly, Seth is representative of many Americans who have been told broadband is a fiercely competitive industry, yet they cannot sign up for service at a reasonable price from any provider.

For Seth, having reliable broadband service is not just a convenience — it is essential if he wants to stay employed. Before even considering making an offer on his new home in Kitsap County, Seth did his homework verifying Comcast provided service in the neighborhood. Comcast repeatedly assured him it did, and one sales rep confirmed a former resident at the same address had Comcast service. Seth was satisfied, bought the home and called to get Comcast service installed. But when a Comcast crew arrived Jan. 31, they quickly discovered there was no cable line strung to Seth’s property. That isn’t typically a deal-breaker and the techs completed a “drop bury request” that would normally result in the arrival of a Comcast cable burial crew to bring service from a nearby utility pole. Not this time.

Comcast determined the same home that its own sales rep promised used to have Comcast service was now suddenly too far away from Comcast’s infrastructure. If it decided to offer Seth service, the company quoted an installation fee approaching $60,000.

Seth consulted the FCC’s Broadband Map which depicted Kitsap County a veritable paradise of competition, with at least 10 providers fighting for his business. But Seth quickly realized the FCC’s map was misleading and inaccurate.

comcast whoppersFour of his options were wireless carriers that don’t provide a strong signal to his home or charge obscenely high prices for usage capped Internet access. ViaSat was on the list promising up to 25Mbps, but ViaSat satellite customers can testify the actual speeds received are much slower, and do not reliably support the VPN access Seth required.

Neither Comcast or CenturyLink offer broadband service to Seth, despite the fact both told the FCC they did for the purpose of its map. StarTouch uses microwave signals to reach its customers, but not in Seth’s part of Kitsap County. It seems someone put up a large building in between StarTouch’s transmission facilities and Seth’s home, blocking the service for a significant part of the county.

XO Communications does provide reliable T1 service to businesses at speeds from 1.544Mbps – 6Mbps. The biggest downside is its cost — $600 a month. Finally, Seth’s only other alternative is a gigabit fiber network run by the Kitsap Public Utility District. But cable companies like Comcast effectively lobbied to guarantee those types of networks would never be a competitor by pushing for laws that forbid retail service to individual homes or businesses. In Washington, the law only allows the utility district to sell wholesale access to its network to companies like… Comcast.

In the end, Comcast decided it wasn’t interested in serving Seth even if he found the $60,000 to cover the installation fee. CenturyLink shrugged its shoulders over why it isn’t offering DSL in Seth’s neighborhood. Seth is preparing to put his home back on the market. It’s a perfect choice for Luddites everywhere.

The moral of the story?

  • Comcast is not always forthcoming and honest when signing up customers and led Seth through two months of missed appointments and misinformation;
  • The accuracy of the FCC’s broadband availability map is questionable.
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Matt Larsen
9 years ago

For $1500 and the cost of plane tickets to Seattle, I will get this guy service at his house so he doesn’t have to sell it. A WISP will find a way to get the connectivity where all of the other options fail.

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9 years ago
Reply to  Matt Larsen

But aren’t WISP slow and have drastically higher ping? Not sure what can really be done to get service go his house. I moved to Chattanooga TN and have Gigabit internet now but before I had to fight ATT about service to my home cause they refused to run a Line from the street to my house. Only to find out that it was just disconnected from the box at the power pole. What we need in the US is a standard that’s enforced that says every home in America has to have a Line of Fiber run to it… Read more »

Paul Houle
Paul Houle
9 years ago

I’ve rarely seen people happy with a WISP. A WISP promised to serve my area by putting up 13 towers, but then the cost went out of control when they had to increase the tower height to 90 feet. There is one tower now, and probably close to half of the people served are in the TWC footprint. Anyhow, this shows that the crazy-high prices that cable companies quote when they don’t want to serve you are a bluff. They figure most people won’t be able to get that much money in a lump, even though if you are a… Read more »

David
David
9 years ago

Just to add a little perspective to this WISP ( Wireless Internet Service Providers ) thing ……. I live part year in a fairly out of the way part of Mexico and I have Wi-Fi Internet from a local WISP. I was slightly off the line of sight area between towers so they had to install a 20 meter tall tower on the roof of my house and aim the dish at their nearest tower. It cost me $4000 Mexican pesos ( $270 U.S. ) for the equipment and the installation, including the model and programming it. My monthly fee… Read more »

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