That's why I switched to Qwest. I've had exactly two outages. With the first one, I had a tech show up in < 24 hrs. who not only got me up and running, but re-wired the CO where the fiber comes into my neighborhood, thus increasing my speed from 3 megabits to the full on advertised 5 megabits. The second time I called, somebody informed me that they didn't know of an outage in my area, but they'd check it out. I got a call back about two hours later from a tech on my street asking me to let him know if it was working. (It was.)
As for geek-passcards, I've found extended warranties are usually the equivalent. (And not available for Comcast, of course.)
For Comcast, you want to call the TV people instead of the internet people if both your TV and internet are down. The TV people are local, the internet people are national. Also, if you call late (after 9 or 10 PM) you get routed to the main customer service office in St. Louis which is almost entirely staffed by folks they escalate you to. (I had a Comcast sales rep in my b-school class.)
I feel your pain
That's why I switched to Qwest. I've had exactly two outages. With the first one, I had a tech show up in < 24 hrs. who not only got me up and running, but re-wired the CO where the fiber comes into my neighborhood, thus increasing my speed from 3 megabits to the full on advertised 5 megabits. The second time I called, somebody informed me that they didn't know of an outage in my area, but they'd check it out. I got a call back about two hours later from a tech on my street asking me to let him know if it was working. (It was.)
As for geek-passcards, I've found extended warranties are usually the equivalent. (And not available for Comcast, of course.)
For Comcast, you want to call the TV people instead of the internet people if both your TV and internet are down. The TV people are local, the internet people are national. Also, if you call late (after 9 or 10 PM) you get routed to the main customer service office in St. Louis which is almost entirely staffed by folks they escalate you to. (I had a Comcast sales rep in my b-school class.)