No cable and no internet makes Geoff go something, something…
Forgive the only slightly related to beer rant.
You know what makes it hard to write about beer? When your sad excuse for a cable/internet company can’t provide consistent service. Our cable/internet has been out for a week now, and they have told us that they won’t be able to make a service call until the 18th of August. I ran into at least one other guy in our building who was having issues as well…so it isn’t just us.
I’ll be doing what I can to get some relevant posts up (using my phone, or writing at home then posting at work), but content may be a little thin around here until I get things figured out. I’ll also be calling Broadstripe customer service daily to complain.
For those of you that don’t know the wonders of “Broadfinger”, consider yourselves lucky. This pathetic company that doesn’t even offer (even if I wanted to pay extra) sports junky channels such as MLB Network, NFL Network, Big Ten Network (all of which you can get on Comcast) or WGN might have finally pushed me over the edge into doing whatever it takes to get a dish provider up and running. Our building has an exclusive contract with Broadstripe, so Comcast is not an option. I previously tried to have DirectTV installed, but we are on the ground floor of a four story building and have to put the dish on the roof – which means we are beyond the 40 feet needed to power an HD dish, according to the DirectTV installation guy. I’m going to try and find out more detail about how we might be able to get around that problem, or try Dish Network.
If anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears. If I’m able to get an HD dish, then I’ll gladly switch to Qwest for internet. In the meantime, we’ll be watching as many discs of The Wire as we can cycle through Netflix and starting that first season of Entourage that we’ve been meaning to get around to…maybe I’ll finally finish reading the Count of Monte Cristo (almost 1,000 pages…some of which has gotten a bit slow) as well. Once I recoup from this past weekend (Phish at the Gorge), you may see me out and about a little more often than usual this week…
And, I do indeed realize that I could have used this time to post about beer…but instead chose to rant. Sometimes it’s more fun to vent.
And, for those of you that don’t have a TV and think that those of us that do have one and use it are evil….keep it to yourself.
TVs are so far from evil. The content, while not exactly evil, is mostly crap. HD sports are miraculous.
I suggest you move. Comcast is actually good.
the great broadstripe experiment is pretty much doomed.
I feel your pain. My building’s long contract with Broadstripe just ran out this year. I now live in the wonderful world of DirectTV. Hopefully your contract will run out soon!
I’ll bet your building’s exclusive contract is not valid. For years Comcast made buildings and associations sign a similar exclusivity agreement, but they don’t anymore since the courts overturned them all saying it was illegal. Just show this to your association:
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-277763A1.pdf
Hey man, this is a great opportunity to take your laptop and head to one of the many local bars/pubs/brewpubs that offer wifi! Big Time comes to mind. I think even the Blue Moon has some sign claiming that they offer wi-fi, but that may just be some sort of bizarre joke.
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Search?feature=209697&search=bars
http://www.yelp.com/topic/seattle-wi-fi-and-beer
Let us know if you find a place w/ particularly amazing beer and particularly reliable wi-fi.
(I suppose this could be a non-starter if you don’t have a laptop… I have an old one I’ll sell ya cheap or let you borrow in service of beer!)
agreed, Comcast has been really good. When we’ve had problems — rare — in our building on Lake Union, service has been very prompt. And my internet access is up to 23 Mbits…even over an N wireless router!
Comcast’s HD offerings are tremendous — the 1080i transmission is of very high quality. My only beef is that they don’t carry WGN in Seattle.
If you think Comcast sucks, wait until you’ve seen “Brown-stripe”
I live for the day when I can call those fools and tell them to come rip out the cable, Internet, etc. and stick it all up their collective bums.
Columbia City Wifi, Beer & Golf for Charity, and Fried Freaking Goat Cheese // Aug 11, 2009 at 5:38 pm
[…] Washington Beer Blog ← Broadstripe Cable Sucks – The “I Can’t Write About Beer” Rant […]
Hey, this is Brian with Qwest. Let me know if you have any questions on the services we provide.
Thanks,
B
I have posted here time and time again, slow internet, no internet at all. I had broadstripe service for 8 years. Sucks is an understatement. But the worst came a few months back, it was November 2009. I called in and said, hey my internet is slow, and I did a diagnostic TRACEROUTE and found out my internet packets were going all the WAY to Washington, DC through Michigan and then chicago and then DC before pinging a server in SEATTLE. I live in SEATTLE. So I was like man this is VERY VERY WEIRD. So I got out some of MY IT TOOLS, and did some forensic testing, it seems that BROADSTRIPE setup a new route for my static modem taking me through michigan, chicago and dc on any request to any server anywhere in the world. As an IT expert I knew this was not just a SLOW internet connection, they purposely re-routed my connection this way. So I started asking myself WHY? Why would they do this, I pinged a few security IT experts I know in the industry and they said. BROADSTRIPE is re-routing you because of a request from the Government to put a Line monitor on your internet access. I Said WHAT THE F@#$@#…!!!! Are you serious, so I called Broadstripe, asked them why am I being routed this way. Spoke to a guy named Tony in Michigan Support. He said, I have idea, contacted his tier 1 support NOC Engineer, and they said we re-routed your area this way because of an upgrade in our network gear. I said ok, fix it. He said, no problem – I will get it handled. This was november of 2009, I called in weekly, slow internet still routing this way, answer was always were working on it! I got into April 2010 and I was at the end of my frustration with this. So I contacted a few buddies of mine in DoD – Dept. of Defense. They said, hey you are probably being monitored, call support and tell them – WHY ARE YOU MONITORING MY INTERNET AND REPORTING TO ECHELON AND CARNIVORE. So I did this, they never called me back again – period. So I called up and said, either fix it right now or cancel my account. Instead of fixing they said – WE CAN SEND SOMEONE TO YOUR HOME TO SEE WHATS WRONG. YEAH LIKE I AM LETTING ANY OF THEIR SUB-STANDARD CABLE GUYS INTO MY HOUSE. AND HONESTLY, HOW IS MY HOME THE PROBLEM SUDDENLY!! So I cancelled it, so right away I knew my buddies were right, that I was in fact having my internet illegally monitored by Broadstripe and that they were doing this to a lot of customers. So I cancelled and never looked back, I contacted a new provider and asked them, even they said, yup sounds like you were monitored. They told me to report it to the BBB and ConsumerAffairs, which I have done. SO beware Broadstripe users, you too may be under their ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE, get Wireshark and check your internet edge and see what your traceroute for a call to a server resolves, does it go out of area when you try to attempt to ping a local server in your area. Does it go through Michigan, Chicago, Washington, DC before going back to the site your are pinging or tracerouting. YOU MAY BE UNDER SURVEILLANCE AS WELL!! Get TOR and VIDALIA – google them and stop allowing BROADSTRIPE TO INVADE YOUR PRIVACY or the GOVERNMENT! BUYER BEWARE!!! DON’T PAY YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY TO BE SPIED ON BY A COMPANY THAT CAN’T EVEN KEEP IT’S EMPLOYEES ON STAFF MORE THEN 2 Months. Wake up, there are alternatives, and if your community has one of those BROADSTRIPE LOCKED-IN ILLEGAL Contract deals like my community does, Complain to BBB, anything is better then broadstripe, hell a DIAL UP Connection is better. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON A SHOTTY SERVICE WITH SHOTTY MANAGEMENT!!!
I have not been with any cable providers in a very long time, and I am happy for that! I was a loyal customer of Comcast up until they showed up at my door asking for equipment back, when I never cancelled my service! This went on for about 2 weeks and during those weeks, I have never been treated worse. Needless to say I switched companies, and went with DISH. I was so pleased, I decided to see about getting a job there. 5 years later here I am, happy as can be! I am not saying go out and become an employee, but as service goes. You wont regret it!
i worked for the company for 18 months and can officially say they dont care about the customer. They trained us to basically skrew you over. That is why i left. Any one who is with them knows that it goes out all the time and you get CHARGED for everything. The best way to lower your bill is to tell them you are discounting services and they will offer you a cheaper package. DONT DO THE BS FOREVER
Broadstripe is the only internet cable provider in my area, to my knowledge. I’m EXTREMELY UNHAPPY with their service! Only time they ever provide a decent connection is between the hours of 3am-10am my local time. From 10am-3am you can expect anywhere from 300ms-2000ms latency and download transfer rates as slow as DIAL UP INTERNET! (5.6-6kbps no joke) It all comes down to line quality and the folks at Broadstripe DO NOT PROVIDE a good network.
Just look at this ping test I just did:
http://www.pingtest.net/result/48807481.png
The test results above are not an anomaly! They are what you can consistently expect from Broadstripe Broadband.
I’m going to switch to a dsl provider, because no joke I had less issues with my dialup back in 1996!
DO NOT EVEN ENTERTAIN THE THOUGHT OF SIGNING UP WITH THESE THIEVING SERVICE BANDITS!
They treat their employees like crap too. Look how old their trucks are. Hopefully Wave, who takes over soon I hear, will treat everyone better. I am switching to Local Tel myself. If you live here in Chelan or Manson area good luck with the BS Broadstripe. x
I quit working for Broadstripe because of unsafe and uncalled for working conditions. They dont take care of theyre customers nor theyre employees. For three years I had people stop at MY home asking to please get something happening to fix the problems. They are my friends and neighbors. I went with dishnet, 220 channels for 44.00 and my dish is 135′ from my house and works and looks better than BS ever did. As for theyre internet, It’s always had problems. Old wore out equipment and they dont care. For those that have phone service with BS. Good luck calling 911 in the event of an emergency. Change your services, you’ll be happy you did so.