VoIP hopeful Comcast and their customer 'service' problem

Fellow VoIP blogger Ted Wallingford has posted a tale of woe about the company I often refer to as "Comcash."

Seems as though Ted's problems started almost a year after he installed Packet8 VoIP on his Comcast broadband connection.

Packet 8's VoIP started dropping packets like mad. He called Comcast, but the first-level tech said that since the VoIP service was not theirs, they could not offer any advice.

He follows the by-the-book advice, reboots, and ewww, gross, packet loss rate reaches 40%. That for a technology where mid-single digit packet loss really reeks.

Another first-level techtells Tedhe will have a supervisor call.

Oh, there's so much more. Ted tells his own story better than I can. Before I send you to his post, let me tell you three things:

1. When theX-chromosomal unitand I merged Comcast email accountsnot all that long ago,not only did it take at least a dozen service calls to resolve the issue, but each subsequent service call found the rep having "no record" of the previous one.

Why? My guess is something I know for a fact- Comcash outsources substantial components of their customer (cough) "service."

2. Comcash VoIP will be too pricey for many.

3. Comcash, if you're even thinking ofoutsourcing first-call VoIP tech support,well, don't go there. Maybe the money you save on payroll will boost your stock price and make those investment fund managers love you, but it won't endear you to your VoIP customers who need the type of intra-Comcast-service-suitetechnical knowledge,perspective and real-time monitoring capability that is very difficult for an outsourcer to provide.

Ted would seem to agree. In fact, the title of his post is: Is Comcast Ready for Prime Time VoIP?

Ya think?

What do you make of Ted's story, and mine? Exception to the rule, or typical Comcast? Post a TalkBack.