Starve.Org White Noise Usenet Archive: "Re: Anybody ever heard of this problem? Weather related."

Yes, this is what you must do. When I signed up for Optimum Online here in
NY, the cable modem worked except when the ground was wet. Every time
it rained and snowed the modem died until the ground dried out a bit.
tech came and said I needed a new underground line but told me it may not
be until spring when the ground thaws. I wasnt happy with that so every
time it went out I called and logged a complaint. This could be a couple
of time a day because sometime I would get the signal and then lose it.
After being told by the cust svc droids that I have to be patient and
wait till spring(though I was getting svc credits) I wrote to the general
manager of cablevision for my area and told him I was not happy. Basically,
I said that if I was new customer who never had cable, would you tell me
that i would have to wait until spring to have you push a wire underground?
That and offering to push the complaint up to the PSC, who regulates cable
companies here in NY got my new line installed in less than a week.

When in doubt, take out a stick and whack the company with it. That doesnt
work, take out the next biggest stick and so on. Its amazing what you can
get done if you offer to have your complaint resolved by a governmental
authority.

In <98ja4s$lva$1@news.chorus.net> "SMC" <enblmr@aol.com> writes:

>"Michael Parks" <mdparks@hsanet.net> wrote in message
>news:qf3qatchfqkpc4m6erovt748qv8eobh6ps@4ax.com...
>> I have RF issues with my modem whenever the outside temperature is in
>> the 50's. If it's in the 60's or above, it's fine. If it's in the 40's
>> or below, it's fine. I know this sounds implausible, but it's been
>> going on since September, and the only constant is the weather being
>> in the 50's. My modem loses connection every single time. As soon as
>> the temperate either rises above 60, or falls below 40, it'll come
>> back on.
><snip>
>Yes, I experienced the same problem with my cable modem. Within the last 3
>months, if the temperature went above about 20 (I live in cold Wisconsin!)
>or the humidity went up, I lost my connection - sometimes for days at a
>time. Charter (our local @home NOC) sent out a tech who informed me there
>was "nothing they could do". Well, I didn't accept that, so everytime the
>cable went out, I made sure to call them and log the problem, so that there
>was an audit trail documenting the lack of resolution. I was told numerous
>times that "the problem will be fixed on (some date)". Well it never was
>fixed, so I finally sent a complaint to the Better Business Bureau of
>Wisconsin detailing the problem and asking for arbitration and resolution. I
>also found that my city's government holds monthly Broadband regulatory
>commission board meetings, and that the public was welcome. I attended
>February's meeting and presented my problem to the board (in front of 2
>representatives from Charter). Well to make a long story short, instead of
>having to deal with the script techs ("Have you re-synchronized your
>modem?") at the Charter "technical support" phone number, Charter's director
>of Engineering personally contacted me and, much to my shock, actually took
>ownership of my problem and saw to it that it was fixed.
>I have had flawless, uninterrupted service for the last 2 weeks - with
>temperatures in the 30s and 40s!!
>Moral of the story: be persistent about having someone who is competent take
>ownership of your problem until it is resolved. Also, make sure that you get
>a credit on your account for downtime.
>Good luck and HTH!
>Scott