Personal notes

You may be sick of reading about Comcast on this blog, and I guess I don’t blame you.  But the point I am trying to make is that when a company, such as Comcast, constantly has a poor reputation for customer relations, it is not the result of marketplace competition.  It is, in fact, because of self-inflicted wounds.

In Comcast’s case, it is a defensive and inwardly-focused culture that inhibits building positive relationships and transparent conversations with customers. To borrow an often-used phrase, it is an analog corporate culture in a digital world.  Comcast exclusively creates its own external problems that injury the company’s reputation, starting with its Web sites and lack of an interactive blog.

Customers hate Comcast because it consumes hours and hours simply to get the company to fix simple issues. Additionally, it’s so darn hard to find anyone at Comcast with the authority or competence to fix anything.  Simple as that.  

I would like nothing better than to see Comcast change, and here’s why - the company’s Internet and cable TV service is pretty good, other than the fact that Comcast has banned the outstanding HDNet network channels (more about that in a later posting).  

The formula for improving Comcast’s reputation is neither difficult nor time-consuming nor expensive to achieve.  The company could see quantifiable improvements within a few months that would result in favorable buzz and glowing reviews among customers, the media and stake-holders.

While I know the formula, I will not give it away here because such consulting is what I do for a living.  Yet, the essential elements include openness, transparency and becoming more ethical.  Comcast might begin by studying the terrific examples of Apple and Zappos.

When a Washington Times reporter this morning referred to blue collar voters as “Lou Dobbs democrats,” I laughed out loud about how gullible we’ve become as a society … even the media.

The nightly rants on cable television by Lou Dobbs over the plight of so-called blue collar Americans are an act, a dramatic show, done for the sole purpose of revitalizing his CNN ratings, which were on a steep slide against MSNBC, and to enrich himself and his employer. If you really believe anything he says, then let me ask you this — why isn’t Dobbs outside the studio, shirt-sleeves rolled up and doing something tangible, other than talking? He has no record of community service or activism, just talk. The only time he leaves the studio is for a speaking engagement where he collects a fat fee.

What Dobbs is doing today isn’t really much different from what Rush Limbaugh has done to appeal to right-wingers for decades - extremist ranting to create publicity … saying outrageous things they want to hear but are afraid to say themselves. The purpose is to make money from inciting anger.

Limbaugh, too, is an act honed while a talk show host in Kansas City, and he has since made millions from hateful and often inaccurate and harmful extremist opinions.

It’s all just hot air.

The thing about NBC News correspondent Tim Russert that made him so respected and popular, I believe, was that he knew what he was talking about. He nurtured valuable contacts, studied issues and delivered insider perspective and clarity of often-complex issues. 

In an industry largely dominated by pretty faces, glamour and talking heads, Russert distinguished himself with depth of intelligence.  He defined credibility.

Russert was a journalist’s journalist.  Clearly, he is missed.

By coincidence, The New York Times has carried a story today, “Charging by the Byte to Curb Internet Traffic.  In an age when everything is going online in a big way - from streaming motion pictures from Apple TV and Netflix to downloading music from iTunes to shopping online in addition to our normal email - the tiny group of big cable conglomerates that control Internet access in America are exploring new ways to restrict and charge more for our Internet access.

Makes me wonder whether their experiments with imposing controls on Internet usage are connected to why my wife has been blocked by Comcast from sending email over her work account when she signs on occasionally from home.  In this case, Comcast is blindly messing with potential life and death human rights and religious freedom issues by blocking email.  I wonder how many other officials in the Washington area are trying today to figure out why they cannot fully check their work email from home.

Feels more than a little Orwellian.

Comcast has responded by email to the blockage of my wife’s outgoing email service:

It sounds like your account was triggered by our national network management team. Comcast manages our network to ensure the best possible broadband experience to all our customers as our network bandwidth is not an unlimited resource. We use network management practices that are consistent with other internet service providers and they continue to evolve as the use of the network changes almost every day. If we did not manage our network, our subscribers would be subject to negative experiences such as spam, viruses, and network congestion. The residential service that you are subscribing to is intended for personal and non-commercial residential use. You can find our Acceptable Use Policy on our Comcast.net homepage for more information.

I will need to speak to our network management team on Monday to determine the reason for the trigger and to better understand what happened to your account. I certainly understand the frustration that you and your wife have experienced particularly given the sensitive nature of her work. Comcast does offer commercial broadband service which allows for business related activity without the interference that you may be subject to with our residential service. This may be a better option for you based on the volume and sensitive nature of your wife’s work. If you are interested in looking into our commercial broadband service, I can certainly have someone work with you to understand the choices available to you. If you prefer to look at other providers, I certainly understand but hate to lose your business.

First, I read Comcast’s Acceptable Use Policy, and there is nothing that even remotely addresses the issue of someone checking their work email from home.

Second, I think that Comcast is on a slippery slope by suggesting that someone who checks work email from home should get a commercial account.

Third, I think that Comcast’s lack of transparency about a make-believe policy to interfere with someone’s email capability - especially someone deals with international life and death issues - with no warning or written policy is inexcusable and possibly illegal.

Lastly, we pay Comcast a considerable amount of money each month to be a high-speed pipeline to the Internet and worldwide email access.  We do not share files or stream video or play games, practices that would consume considerable broadband volume.  We do not pay Comcast to be an email censor.  

I have no issue with Comcast monitoring its online resources but when a person simply checks their work email from home, and when downloading a few dozen emails triggers an automated block by Comcast on that work email … well, that is a form of censorship.  In this case, censorship of religious freedom and human rights issues.  And, I believe that is morally and ethically wrong, especially when the censorship is imposed by a company that has a monopolistic stranglehold on a community.

Remember what I wrote in my first blog on this subject — that Comcast always creates its own problems.

I normally don’t write about negative experiences on my blog … but this is an exception.

Comcast, for anyone who may not know, is one of the small handful of big companies that dominate and monopolize the availability of Internet service in the United States.  Comcast, more than others, has the worst reputation (earned by the company’s actions), and many Comcast customers have their own horror stories.  Let me share what I consider to be the most egregious Comcast practice ever:

Who doesn’t check work email from home? Heck, we all do.  Suppose that you’ve checked your work email from home - mornings before work, evenings, weekends - for years, and suddenly, you can no longer send email even though your work in a sensitive field.

My wife has been unable to send email from her work account when she has been at home over the past week.  It happened all of a sudden - last week her email was working, this week it is not.  The reason is because Comcast has a sort of “Big Brother” watchdog program that monitors email volume, on the look-out for spammers.  

The fact that my wife - an international religious freedom and human rights advocate - receives hundreds of emails, many dealing with life and death situations around the world, has triggered Comcast to slap something called a “TP25 boot file” on her email, preventing her from sending email over Comcast from anywhere in the United States. She doesn’t sign-on often from home - perhaps only once or twice a week - but it was enough.  Comcast’s “TP25 boot file,” I am told by a Comcast technician, blocked her work’s email out, not just from home but from using Comcast-provided Internet everywhere.

In other words, when my wife was checking email from home regarding international human rights issues when lives were hanging in the balance, Comcast’s server didn’t like the fact that she was receiving many emails when she would sign-on from home during a weekend or off-hours, and the company shut down her ability to send any emails, without warning and without regard for what damage or dangers such action might cause.

There is an enormous issue of confidentiality and principle at stake here.  Everyone has the right to privacy of email, whether their personal email or work email.  Such arbitrary action by a monopolistic broadband provider is outrageous in principle.  It is the concept of Big Brother at the worst.

We would gladly switch to another broadband Internet service provider … if there were one.  Comcast, it seems, has a monopolistic lock on this part of north Arlington, Virginia.

I welcome your comments and suggestions on this issue.

It must be an unfortunate sign of our times.  My neighborhood Apple store in the Clarendon shopping area of Arlington, Virginia, was robbed yesterday morning about 4 a.m. by persons who appeared to be organized and bold.  They wore masks, apparently knowing that the store has multiple security cameras (which caught everything, I am told). They had a dog with them (I have no idea why).

The bandits broke the glass door and stripped the store of most Macbooks, Macbook Pros, iMacs, iPods and iPhones on display.  It apparently happened quickly.

A friend tells me that each computer contained thousands of dollars in valuable software.  But here’s something else - Apple has the serial numbers of each machine and has the ability to wipe the hard drives when the computers go online.

Let’s hope such robberies are not the start of a trend.