Man Forced to Sell His New House Because Comcast Lied to Him

[themodernagenb]

TLDR? A man bought a home with the assurance from Comcast that they will provide him internet service. Long story short, they lied - more like they over promised without looking into his situation.

 

One can argue that the owner should have done more homework, but IMO he should be able to trust what Comcast is telling him.

 

Source: http://gawker.com/man-forced-to-sell-his-new-house-because-comcast-lied-t-1694018196/+stephentotilo

[flibberdipper]

Sometimes it makes me sad that they are my cable/phone/ISP. But their internet is sooooo good.

[MattLantis]

So why didn't he just get a different ISP?

[Darkman]

Frontier did this to me...

Except I've lived here forever so...

[Snickerzz]

So why didn't he just get a different ISP?

Comcast was probably the only one that said they could deliver. The only other options he has is satellite... no.. jus

[hmminteresting]

Sometimes it makes me sad that they are my cable/phone/ISP. But their internet is sooooo good.

there is no way you're a satisfied comcast customer...

[SurvivorNVL]

http://consumerist.com/2015/03/25/new-homeowner-has-to-sell-house-because-of-comcasts-incompetence-lack-of-competition/

That right there is a -huge- article on the same story.  And @MattLantis  he couldn't get a different ISP.  Where he was located there was both muni-fiber, centurylink, and Comcast.  Both centurylink and comcast appeared for weeks, but showed that they couldn't run lines to his house, and were even charging him money for their service, when he couldn't get any.  As for the muni-fiber, it's illegal to run muni fiber to homes there, but--not to resellers like apartments.  But, Comcast and Centurylink both say his house is covered, but in actuality, he's in a deadzone.  Really sucks for the guy, but--either way, Comcast and Centurylink win this fight, because he'll sell, move, and end up paying either of them.

[TheSLSAMG]

So why didn't he just get a different ISP?

Read the article.

 

No ISP in the area could service him. Comcast said they could. However, he moves in, and a dozen or so Comcast reps/techs arrive upon the conclusion that it won't be done. Satellite isn't a choice because of latency issues, the other local ISP have that area blacklisted and the internet-over-air guys can't because someone built a bulding in the path of their connection.

[MrImnotMLG]

This is just stupid. They just wanted to strip him of every penny he has had. Fuck Comcast.

[SurvivorNVL]

Sometimes it makes me sad that they are my cable/phone/ISP. But their internet is sooooo good.

I had Comcast back when I lived further down South, and ohman.. it was -bad-.  Pay for 50/5, and get 10/1, complain about it, and they canceled the internet -and- phone, had to call them back up and correct the 'mistake', and fiddle with them having technicians coming out for a year until the internet operated at an average of 35/2 but that was only before 4pm.  After that it was just 10/1 again, and it never changed until I moved.  Must be -extremely- region based on if Comcast is good or not.  I know Washington State Comcast is god awful, Florida is god awful.  Central Florida is nice, though.  Got 150mbps down and 10 up, and it goes even higher with a VPN on, oddly enough.  Only had.. three months of dodgy connections, but that was because a squirrel made his home on a line.  Furry bastard.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Comcast was probably the only one that said they could deliver. The only other options he has is satellite... no.. jus

 

Well in this situation you don't sell you fing house.... you take it and get satelite.

[Misanthrope]

I'm sorry but I can't sympathize here: Stay in the motherfucking city if your work depends on a good internet connection. Leave the "move to bumblefuck fucking nowhere" houses to people that don't need internet infrastructure. 

[SurvivorNVL]

Well in this situation you don't sell you fing house.... you take it and get satelite.

The problem with this is the person who moved there -needs- high speed internet for their job, and Satellite in Washington is -abominable-. 

[Misanthrope]

Read the article.

 

No ISP in the area could service him. Comcast said they could. However, he moves in, and a dozen or so Comcast reps/techs arrive upon the conclusion that it won't be done. Satellite isn't a choice because of latency issues, the other local ISP have that area blacklisted and the internet-over-air guys can't because someone built a bulding in the path of their connection.

 

Actually it sounds like he has satellite right now (Exceed, Hughes, Dish or someone else) but the data caps (50gb at the absolute most if you're extremely lucky, usually 20gb hard cap) make it a basically emergency and email only service.

[SurvivorNVL]

I'm sorry but I can't sympathize here: Stay in the motherfucking city if your work depends on a good internet connection. Leave the "move to bumblefuck fucking nowhere" houses to people that don't need internet infrastructure. 

The whole point of all this is that Comcast told him before-hand that they -can- and -have- serviced that house before, but when he moved in they couldn't run lines to his house, he was too far from the node, same for Centurylink, and then both proceeded to try and charge him.  That's the big point.  Because Comcast in Washington normally offers 100mbps speed, but this is a situation of poor knowledge on Comcast's part, and then poor handling of it, by sending dozens upon dozens of technicians out that way to solve a problem that was unsolvable without running lines.  It's one of those; "Muni-fiber could've saved me, but.. state restrictions and all that."

[TheSLSAMG]

Actually it sounds like he has satellite right now (Exceed, Hughes, Dish or someone else) but the data caps (50gb at the absolute most if you're extremely lucky, usually 20gb hard cap) make it a basically emergency and email only service.

The article leads me to believe that he's using one of those cellular hotspots, but I'm not too sure.

All of this leaves him no option but to do his work from mobile hotspot whose bandwidth limits aren't enough to last him a whole month, and go to Starbucks whenever he needs to transfer a large file.

[Yog]

Expensive learning experience. 1. Never buy a home on a verbal promise. If you can't get a written agreement don't make the purcahse. 2. Make sure the most important aspects of the home your buying is currently present, or negotiate for the seller to install them prior to purchase.

 

Comcast sucks, yeah, but this was avoidable...and now the guy knows how to avoid it in the future...too bad someone didn't tell him prior to the purchase.

[Misanthrope]

The article leads me to believe that he's using one of those cellular hotspots, but I'm not too sure.

 

Oh ok. But well those are actually fairly similar to satellite internet in the way they're billed: you get X amount of gigabytes of transfer, X additional in the middle of the night and we slow you the fuck down or charge you the fuck up if you run out.

[Misanthrope]

The whole point of all this is that Comcast told him before-hand that they -can- and -have- serviced that house before, but when he moved in they couldn't run lines to his house, he was too far from the node, same for Centurylink, and then both proceeded to try and charge him.  That's the big point.  Because Comcast in Washington normally offers 100mbps speed, but this is a situation of poor knowledge on Comcast's part, and then poor handling of it, by sending dozens upon dozens of technicians out that way to solve a problem that was unsolvable without running lines.  It's one of those; "Muni-fiber could've saved me, but.. state restrictions and all that."

 

Yep, and he fucking deserves the woes for trusting Comcast with nothing on writing or preinstalled. If Comcast admittedly told him "we don't give that in writing" that should turn on a huge "Danger! Danger Will Robinson!" alarm inside of your head, specially if you're buying a fucking house based on it. 

 

Look I know everyone in the US is down on cities now and wants to live in the country and all that, but you really can't have your fucking cake and eat it too: it is 100x cheaper (or even more) to run infrastructure in a city. Stay in the goddamn city if you absolutely need high speed internet. Yes there's more pollution, crime, whatever that's the price you pay. I can sympathize with people screwed over geographical limitations due to mere policy but this is more of an issue of wanting to move away from the city to a rural area.

[MattLantis]

Yeah, man. Why don't we just fly the entire planet to another solar system after we've fucked up Earth? I mean, everything's so easy, right?

Ouch, that was some biting sarcasm for a fairly legitimate question

[Snickerzz]

Well in this situation you don't sell you fing house.... you take it and get satelite.

what if your jobs dependent on reliable fast internet? And I would sell my house before going satellite.. 

[bcredeur97]

No one is forcing him to sell his house. Thats his choice because he didnt get internet service.

 

Comcast lying to him is still a problem, but the title is misleading.

[TooManyErrors]

Sometimes it makes me sad that they are my cable/phone/ISP. But their internet is sooooo good.

Alright, how much is Comcast paying you? 100K, 200K?

[Yoinkerman]

Looking at his house it's not even rural. And it's certainly not the boonies.

[Yoinkerman]

Double post