Technology @lemmy.ml will_a113 @lemmy.ml 2d ago

ISPs say their “excellent customer service” is why users don’t switch providers

arstechnica.com ISPs say their “excellent customer service” is why users don’t switch providers

ISPs tell FCC that mistreated users would switch to one of their many other options.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

32 comments

"North Korea says their 'excellent leadership' is why no one leaves the country"
A Verizon rep told me the other day that their cellular home internet is just as good as my symmetric gigabit fiber service. Fuck these companies.
- I just saw a Verizon sign today that said the same. I internally scoffed because how can cellular internet be more stable or consistent?
  
  They use a radical new networking technique called "Lying, but with graphs"
- in a certain stupidly narrow definition of “just as good” that’s not necessarily wrong wrong
  
  5G has a theoretical max of 10gb/s, so ignoring all other factors where it’s significantly, and also ignoring reality in the face of theoretical maximum
  
  5G is stupid cool!
  
  just some people can be stupid stupid
I'm fortunate to live in an area with two wired broadband providers. And wouldn't you know it, they don't have to enforce data caps here for some reason. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that a customer can leave whenever they want.
monopoly its the real answer
- Monopoly is absolutely the answer. You're not going to have anything else to entertain yourself with once the "unlimited" internet gets throttled to 25kbps after using too much of it.
Didn't Comcast change their consumer name to Xfinity because they were so universally hated? CenturyLink comes in at the top of a lot of the "most hated" lists as well. They own what used to be Level 3 who, shockingly, were also pretty much hated by everyone who had to use them.
- Mediacom is even more hated than Comcast and rebranded to Xtreme.
  
  Weird how all these companies are universally hated but insist people don't switch because they're awesome.
Is that the same customer service who doesn’t know what IPv6 is and says I need a business account for a static IPv4 address (which has nothing to do with IPv6)?

Meanwhile a random guy on Reddit six years ago figured out their network doesn’t provision IPv6 unless you get a specific modem that ignores the lack of provisioning and provisions it anyway.

Okay
- It's unreal how bad the state of home Internet IPv6 is in the US. Meanwhile, Malaysia, Vietnam, and China are all pushing formally for full, 100% IPv6 adoption by decade's end.
  
  It's whay I called the "Old Railroad Theory"
  
  The US has build their subway systems 100 years ago, but now doesn't want to take down and rebuild a new one.
  
  Meanwhile, a country developing the subway recently would have the newest and lastest systems and technology, since why use old technology if you're starting from scratch.
  
  The US have no platform safety barriers because they're used to it.
  
  Meanwhile, China only recently has subway so they looked at the US and thought "Hmm, looks like people can fall on the tracks" so they built a platform safety door system.
  
  Like imagine telling schools to get rid of all their windows XP machines. Old habits die hard.
  
  TLDR: Its easy to use new technology when you are building new, vs having to dismandle the old system and then build it again.
  
  I’ve actually never not had IPv6 going back to like, 2007.
  
  The problem is the clunky trash modem and/or router they give you can’t keep up. Never use ISP-issued hardware.
  
  Which ISPs aren’t on IPv6? I develop websites used by people in the Philippines which is great for me because typically their home internet has no IPv6 while their phones are IPv6 only. I won’t host on anything that isn’t dual-stack, and is one of many reasons I don’t host on AWS (I know, they support IPv6 now but it’s too little, too late).
I threw up, just a little bit.
"Free market"
Kind of true, maybe? I have a small local provider. I pay for 1000/1000. I get consistently 950/1100. I have not needed customer support since the day I turned on the modem.

So, if by customer service they mean they serve customers so well that I don't need to think about it, then yes! 7 years and counting with them.
- I have a small local provider.
  
  I suspect you would have a different experience if you had a larger regional provider.
  
  Yes, my sarcasm was tongue in cheek that they obviously have to say that because the large providers are horrible, and that I never have had to even call customer service
- Yeah, I feel like if a customer has an informed opinion about your costumer service, your service obviously forces customers to call customer service too often.
- Same here. Sonic fiber and I've had 0 issues. Pay less now than I did for much much slower cable internet before and I think we've had 1 maintenance and 1 outage in the last 4 years. Just checked speed test on my modem and it 941 down 942 up.
If “excellent customer service” means you have to go through three layers of call center to finally cancel your service, then yes.
I’ve had Verizon Fios for about twelve years. They’ve actually lowered my bill three times and increased my speed once without me asking. That’s why I haven’t switched and will always seek them out in the future.

32 comments