I just eliminated the internet service from Comcast. I went over to Best Buy, purchased a Clear.com modem and installed it. It took me all of 15 minutes to get everything synced up. The only thing I had to do to get my network going was to have the router reset the MAC address for the new modem.

It's a little slower than Comcast, but there are no bandwidth limits, so that is great for me.

Re: the dealer. Have your credit card go after him as well.

This fellow used to be a friend of mine.

Interesting thread...

I have been out of pocket lately. Haven't been on the Cafe, here, or Genii for more than a moment in the past several months...

At any rate, concerning cable and their ridiculously lousy service:

I experienced more than 5 months of intermittent service after having moved house in September of 2009. I would be cruising around the Internet and suddenly the page would fail to load. Glance at the modem and the lights are off... Give it a few minutes and it would reconnect. Started out as a nuisance and then turned into a 2 weeklong complete failure of Internet connectivity. The interesting thing here is that our TV service never even blinked.

Following an insane number of tech support calls and the purchase of 2 new modems, nothing changed. I finally said the right thing (come get your boxes and I will call the satellite company) I was put in contact with a supervisor. After 'pulling up my account' he agreed that my service record appeared to be much less than excellent and assured me that a 'senior technician' would be at my house the following day. He said that this guy wouldn't leave until the problem was resolved. Took 1/2 of the next day off work to wait for this guru of all things cable... No one showed up. (This is after having received an automated 'courtesy call' an hour before the appointment advising that the tech would arrive within the next 30 minutes.) Another call to cable to complain about still having no service and the missed appointment resulted in a credit of one month's charge. The supervisor even called the local office and was told that the tech arrived and 'the customer had declined service.' (No one ever came to my door that evening.)

Another appointment was made with the assurance that the manager of the local office would accompany the tech. Again, no one showed up... I called back and advised that they could find all of their equipment (boxes, modem, remotes, etc.) on the curb in front of my house along with the other garbage. 2 hours later a very nice and highly knowledgeable technician arrives and discovers in less than 10 minutes that the cable from the street into our home was faulty and that we hadn't been receiving the signal I was paying for since the original install months earlier. He replaced the connection with the street and we haven't had a problem since. I did get 3 months free cable following the formal complaint that I filed but it still wasn't worth it.

Concerning Boston -

I bought a couple of items there back in the early '90s. Following an order that arrived with several items 'back ordered' my next call went something like this:

"Hi. I would like to order Item A, Item B, and two of Item C."

"Cool, we'll get that right out."

"Great, so everything is in stock?"

"As far as I know, yes." 

"As far as you know? Ummm... what does that mean? Do you have this in stock or not? My last order had several items put on back order."

"This is a magic shop, not a computer store. I can't just pull up our entire inventory and tell you whether something is here."

"Really? Interesting. Not sure I appreciate your tone."

"Well, if you want to complete your order, I will pack up what we have and back order the rest. It's no mystery. You'll get your stuff either way."

"You're right...  I will get my 'stuff' but it won't be from you."

Haven't dealt with them since. I simply refuse to pay for something and beg for it too.

Not sure why good customer service is such a rarity. Makes me wonder how some people stay in business. Just imagine how much more successful guys like this could be with a bit more effort in the service department.

DCJames… I am glad to see that you have checked in and hope that things improve for you.

As to customer service, there are generations now that don’t know what good customer service is… they have never experienced it so therefore they don’t know what to expect… it is really a shame.

I know in my industry it all started in the 90’s when the big box stores took over… they raided all the small boutique stores of their better salesmen and latter started to cut commissions and then did away with commissions all together. From there the internet took over and it all became about lower prices… to offer the deals all the knowledgeable salesmen (those that made a good living) were let go to hire the hourly skippies that you now find in most stores. 

Thanks for letting me rant.

DCJames take care and don’t be  a stranger,

Bruce

Hey Bruce -

Thanks for the well wishes.

Trying to make more time for magic and art. Life is too short for the all work and no play scenario.

BTW - I still pay my reps commissions. 

Best,

Doug

The funny thing about all of this is that there are kids who have learned from DVD's they have bought from the various mega street web sites. They basically get what they have ordered and when they don't they complain on the forums that belong to these sites. When they complain, their posts get deleted.

I know enough about the business now that I don't have to put up with the jackasses that run some of these places. There are a couple of really good magic dealers who grew up as door to door salesmen. They made their living from return business.

That may sound like an oxymoron. But do you remember the Fuller brush man? There is one really big dealer who was the number 1 Fuller brush man in the country, or at least in his area. He has a big house, nice cars, a nice shop and he takes care of his customers.

If he puts something on his web site, I know I can trust him.

There are still a few of those around.

The main thing is that it's a two-way street. Magic dealers have to treat me right or I won't patronize them.

And if one of them calls me names on a forum, you can bet your boots I won't buy anything else directly from him. There is one fellow who thinks his stuff is so exclusive that only a real worker will buy it. I have news for him. When I want something of his, I wait until it comes up on the used market.

Remember, sooner or later, everything shows up on eBay.

I am having this problem with a Magic dealer again. What I ordered and what was sent are from 2 different worlds.

I was sent a $400.00 USD mechanical hold out (not a gravity hold-out, like a "Invisible Hand"). The ad showed a wonderfully made turn of the last 2 centuries type of hand-crafted hold-out with attachments that I could dearly use. What I received had bad weld, a strap with a spurious hole punched in it by mistake, then re-punched properly and the now fraying spurious hole left there and disregarded, attachments that had been substituted for those shown, that don't even fit the nipple end of the hold-outs main deployable shaft, and an end cap that sprung off the main-spring (retracting unit) tube. A total POS!

I was told that my desire for quality of build was too high. I asked why it was not inspected? I was then told that it was and that the dealer had been selling all he could have made. I asked "to whom?" and added that I was not buying it for my display case, but to actually use and work with. Then I was told that nothing he had would meet my critical eye and it would be best if he just returned my money. This has been going on since last month. I still have no working hold-out or refund. He said he is waiting for the return to take place so that he can see exactly what I mean. I am becoming furious and wish I could just stop everything and take the plane to West England and confront this dealer eye to eye. I even offered him another payment of $400.00 to be used as a method of good faith, telling him it could be refunded when he received the POS he sent me. All I asked was for him to inspect another one, make sure it was free of gross faults and send it ASAP while the bad one was in transit.

You can bet I will warn others about this abomination he sent me for a $400.00 hold-out. It looked as if it were made in Karachi, Pakistan, back street metal fabrication shop on a very bad day. It was nothing at all like what was pictured and lauded as the most wonderful hold-out ever made in England. I know this will be re-sent out again to some other unwary customer. The great god PROFIT seems to be the deity this dealer worships only.

Dealers like this man destroy a buyer's confidence. It sure has hurt mine and also destroyed his credibility as far as I am concerned. I wouldn't order a can of cat food from this man ever again.


dsalley13/fuming mad in California

Dsalley 13… sorry to hear of your recent disappointment regarding the hold out. I have found it best to make any purchases with a credit card. In most cases if you dispute the purchase within reason, they will help you get your refund pretty quickly. The trick is to do it in a timely manor.

Good luck,
Bruce

I realize this is an old thread, but I thought I should report about my experience with Clear.com

I tried it out for 2 weeks and learned that it was absolutely impossible to do anything with. Short movies, ca. 10, minutes took almost twice that much time to load. Streaming video was out of the question.

That was the bad news.

The good news is that they took it back with absolutely no argument at all. They sent me a return label, I put everything back in the boxes and I got it all back to them. Interestingly, they had changed the return policy so I had an extra week to get everything back to them, and I thought I would have to at least pay a month's fee.

I didn't have to pay a dime!

Once they get their speed up to snuff, then I may go back to them.