The Wall Street Journal and Ars Technica are reporting that the RIAA has announced a fairly dramatic change in its strategy to fight piracy.
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Most Verizon FIOS Installations Violate National Electric Standards
By 8.30.08
A two-year investigation has concluded that most Verizon FIOS installations fail to meet national safety standards, and could cause fires or electrocutions. FIOS is famous for house fires, but New York’s Public Service Commission first started its investigation back in 2006 after several inspectors discovered improperly grounded installations.
Get Comcast Just For Wii? Flee? Fee.
By 8.1.08
If you think you can sign up with Comcast just to get a Wii and then cancel or downgrade service, think again. Downgrade service or cancel in the first year, $250 in fees, second year, $125. Other restrictions apply. The insider says the new Wii promotion is a bunch of crap and they and other Comcast CSRs won’t be offering it to customers unless customers beg for it because of all the caveats. Frankly, they’re in the right for protecting their asses on this one. However, it’s not too hard to imagine scenarios where Comcast gets the account details wrong and customers wrongly get assessed fees… The internal document, inside…
Confirmed: Comcast Gives Free Wii To New Triple-Play Subscribers
By 7.28.08
Just like we told you via exclusive insider leak last Tuesday, Comcast is indeed giving away a Wii to new triple–play subscribers. It says so right in their press release. You will have to sign a new 2-year contract with Comcast for “Triple Play” services. And you will have to sign up with Comcast. There is that.
AT&T Will Roll Out Tiered Internet Access In October
By 7.22.08
“When AT&T provides broadband service by speed, it will do so in discrete, non-overlapping tiers,” Quinn said in written testimony. “We will strive to provide service within the speed tier purchased by the customer and, if we find that we are not providing service within the ordered speed tier, AT&T will take action either to bring the customer’s service within the ordered tier or give the customer an option to move to a different tier.”
Reach Time Warner Cable Executive Customer Service
By 6.6.08
203-351-2221 connects you directly to Time Warner Cable’s executive customer care division. Jeff Simmermon, Time Warner’s Digital Communications Director, sent this number to us himself. What a good example for other companies to emulate!
Want To Spy On Comcast Subscribers? Comcast Has The Job For You!
By 6.4.08
If you’d like to help Comcast eavesdrop on its own subscribers, you’re in luck: Comcast has posted a job listing for an “intercept engineer” on a headhunter site, according to Wired. Want ad for position of The Man, inside.
By 5.20.08
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Comcast has defended its BitTorrent blocking by saying it only does it when network congestion is high, but a new study finds that they’re doing it basically all the time. [The Inquirer]
ISPs Are Maniacal Stalkers Who Read Your Email And Watch You Surf The Web
By 4.6.08
Internet service providers are actively tracking 100,000 users, reading every email they send and every website they visit, according to the Washington Post. The report coincides with a damning Associated Press investigation of ISP contracts which finds that they reserve broad rights to read essentially anything you view on the internet without any intervening supervision or regulation.
Comcast: No Thanks FCC, Blogosphere Polices Us Just Fine
By 2.14.08
In the brief Comcast filed arguing that they doesn’t need the FCC telling it how not to throttle its customers’ internets, Comcast came up with a pretty special explanation:
The self-policing marketplace and blogosphere, combined with vigilant scrutiny from policymakers, provides an ample check on the reasonableness of such [network management] judgments.
So after dissing on the relevance of blogs, Comcast turns around and says that it takes blogs seriously enough that they’re a sufficient proxy for FCC regulation. The lawyer that came up with that one deserve a very big M&M cookie.
ISP's Sneaky Fees
By 2.6.08
“ISPs create tangled Web of sneaky fees: Companies use hidden charges to generate revenue in competitive industry” is an excerpt Bob Sullivan has published from his new book Gotcha Capitalism. For example, in 2006, the government dropped the federal Universal Service Fund (FUSF) fee on DSL, which meant providers could now charge less, right? Verizon turned around and quickly replaced the FUSF with a new “Supplier Surcharge” fee. Sneaky sneaky.
Tired Of Your Entrenched Service Provider? Consider A Local Alternative
By 2.3.08
Few consumers realize they can ditch their monopolistic service providers in favor of local, independent telecoms that often offer similar services at competitive rates. These smaller outfits depend on service, not size, as reader Sharpstick recently discovered:
In the Charleston SC area we are fortunate to have local a internet / phone / cable provider called Knology that has made customer service an art form.
Comcast Solves Problems For ComcastMustDie Readers
By 12.10.07
Want to get your Comcast issue resolved? Post it and your account number over ComcastMustDie.com. The guy who started the blog, journalist Bob Garfield, was interviewed on NPR’s On The Media yesterday and he said that everyone who has done so has gotten a followup call from Comcast to look into their problem. If you look at the people who commented on the post, “Has Comcast Gotten Back to You?” you’ll see a number several people saying the executive office reached out to them (Some people initially say Comcast didn’t respond, but then a few days later write again to say that Comcast had). So, if you’ve got an unresolved Comcast issue, it can’t hurt to give posting it and your account number over at ComcastMustDie a try.
$1800 For FiOS House Fire Family Is Just An Advance, Says Verizon
By 11.9.07
Verizon has a different take on the story about a Philly’s family house being set on fire by a FiOS installer hitting their electrical wire — especially the family lawyer’s assertion that Verizon is only offering the family $1,800. Eric Rabe, Verizon Senior Vice President of Media Relations told The Consumerist: [More]
Email Addresses For Comcast Executives
By 11.8.07
If you have a problem with Comcast, and you’ve called customer service, and you’ve escalated to a supervisor, and maybe even hung up and tried a different person, and you’re still getting nowhere, here are some executive email addresses you could use to launch an Executive Email Carpet Bomb against Comcast…
Comcast Mole Starts Blog
By 11.7.07
The Comcast insider who leaked the BitTorrent memo promises to tell all of Comcast’s dark secrets at Shortnamenowitsgettinglong.com.
