Before I begin my rant, I would like to say, for the record, that my ISP has given me NO problem until recently.
We subscribe to the local cable service’s Broadband Internet service. When we were looking for a broadband ISP, we asked around, and decided that this was the best service for us. We signed up five years ago, with a special deal that gave us the modem, installation, and one month of service for $99, with only a $45 (with taxes, fees, etc.) commitment after that.
We have full-time, always-on Internet access for very definite reasons. I teach online classes, plus we have kids in school that need to do research, plus both Mr. Kiminy and I like to read the SDMB.
Our service went out on Saturday. While this is not the first time it has happened, this was the first time the outage lasted for more than a couple of hours, and the first time the outage has occurred with no Discernable Reason (eg. storms, wind, etc.). So I called the tech support. They told me that they didn’t see the cause for my problems, and assured me that everything would be fine in a few hours.
The next morning, sure enough, things were fine. I was able to post some grades to my online courses, communicate with students, check into SDMB, etc.
That afternoon, Big Storm comes through, and Internet disappears. I wait a couple of hours, then call again. They again can’t find the problem, but they schedule a service appointment, and assure me that they will work on the problem in the meantime.
IT HAS NOW BEEN FOUR DAYS WITH NO INTERNET ACCESS. I am an addict. Our 14yo daughter is an addict. I have work to do that I don’t have time to do in the four hours I am on campus. Daughter has homework to do. Mr. Kiminy is getting edgy without SDMB. (Son could care less. We have satellite TV, so TV hasn’t been affected at all.)
They did come by yesterday, when no one was home, and left a note that they found a problem with the outside cable, and that they were going to replace the cable today. Daughter and I come home to no Internet access. I called again, to find out what was going on, and they could only confirm that we have a service call scheduled for tomorrow.
In the meantime, Son found an AOL disk, and we have installed AOL on the only computer in the house with a modem. It is SLOW as HECK, and I really don’t LIKE AOL. But we can at least get our SDMB fixes. 