Despite the isp you see listed for me, we have xfinitytv. Have been lectured here before about that disparity, but after yesterday's does of tv tech non-suppor, we might start looking more earnestly at tv alternatives.
As of monday noon, suddenly lost 2/3 of our channels to going between extreme macro-blocking pixelation and black screens saying "code 225". The channels effected and the code were the same on every STB. It was a random scattering of channels throughout the frequency range.
It was still a problem on tuesday morning, so calls to tech support were made.
Irritation number one- The automated line kept forcing sending refreshes to our equipment, which didn't work and really had no chances of curing this particular problem, and refused to allow the call to proceed to a human operator, not even by saying "need a human operator".
After four refreshes, I was connected to an operator, apparently the system kept a count of it's failures. The operator insisted on sending another refresh, which also failed to cure anything, then he insisted on me telling him the serial numbers of the STBs. After that, he claimed it must be our inside wiring and that we must sign up for their monthly protection plan (which is being sued about in some states as a fraud) -and- pay $40/hour for a truck roll. When I asked him whether we would still need to pay the $40/hr if it was discovered the problem was outside the building on their side of the demarc point, he said that we would still need to pay it no matter what the cause of the problem was.
I told him I didn't have the authority to agree to those terms, and said the answer was "no" for now, and I would have to call back later.
After that, we sent a private contractor to check the lines (inside and out). The problem was outside the building, melting ice that had formed on an insufficiently weatherized junction box on their side of the demarc point. Problem fixed for less than $40, far less than $40/hr.
This incident showed that xfinitytv is unwilling to cover the costs of their own technioal failures. And perhaps someday in the future they may probably lose us as a customer.
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