Comcast vs our Internet. Round 22

Most of what I write has a clear positive message. I do not enjoy complaining just as I know others do not enjoy hearing complaints, so I tend to do as little of it as possible. As a word of warning, I am looking for the lesson in this story, what I can learn from it. So, I apologize in advance, if there is nothing positive for you to take away from it. Also it is a bit long and I just didn’t feel like splitting it up. So, here it is.

 

A few months ago, back in January, I wrote about what a wonderful internet provider Comcast is (http://lnk.to/oFc0m) . Since January, we have paid them over $1500 and our internet still does not work properly.

 

When we call in and talk to the tier 1 representatives, most of them have no idea what we are talking about. What they are trained to deal with is people who have no internet signal at all. We get asked to do things like make sure the cable modem has power and that all of our cables are connected properly. When we inform them that the problem isn’t whether or not we can connect to the internet, that the problem has something to do with lost packets, high ping times and signal degradation they start drooling and jiberring like their brains have been totally blown and are now oozing slowly out their earholes.

 

Each time, they want to walk us through this inane and completely useless set of steps that is designed to discover why you have no signal at all. Then once we finally get it through their heads that we do in fact have a signal, just that it is a crappy one, then they move on to asking whether or not we have a wired or a wireless network set up. When we tell them that our network is wireless, but that for testing purposes we have set up one computer that is hard wired and that it is getting the same results they latch on to the wireless portion of the conversation and then claim that they can’t help us troubleshoot because our network is wireless which they do not support. We could just lie to them and say its wired. But, then we would be lying.

The rest of this is really just more of the same. So if you are totally like TLDR, believe me I get it. It’s fine. But if you want to read the rest of the Comcast saga, click here to read on

Who has the right to complain?

At one time or another pretty much everyone does it. Some part of life turns out differently than you’d like it to and you b&#ch up a storm. You disagree with some store policy or other that ends up costing you money because you weren’t aware of how things worked. Everyone does it from time to time and that’s fine.

 

The kind of thing that drives us really nuts though is the person who is constantly complaining, the guy or gal you just want to slap and tell to shut the heck up. Well, technically, according to what I believe, you can. Alright so maybe the violence part might not be a good idea, but…

 

Anyways. If a person isn’t part of the solution they are part of the problem. Since complaining, by definition, is not a positive action that is likely to engender any useful form of change, it and the people that do it are just contributing to whatever it is that they are unhappy about.

 

Most of the people that do complain have no right to. But who has the right? Click here to read on and see.

Go Ju

There are often many different ways of solving any problem that comes up. But when communicating how we want things to be different and what we expect of other people it all boils down to two general patterns. Hard or soft.

 

When we tell a person why we are upset at them and what we intend to do if things continue along the same course we are often seen as being stiff, rigid and aggressive. If, instead, we mention what happened to upset us and ask the other person in a calm even tone what they can do to assist in alleviating the problem, we tend to be seen as more open reasonable and friendly.

 

The first method automatically puts the other person on the defensive. They are being told what they did wrong and how you plan to punish them if the same action continues to occur. Their natural inclination is to mirror your attitude. You are being rigid, so they will also. They will subconsciously resist everything you say. Excuse after excuse will come up and probably will serve to do nothing but frustrate and anger you. It is possible that you will be able to browbeat them into agreeing with how you want to see things handled, but it will be grudgingly if at all. And the sad part is you will blame them for being difficult when you were the reason they became hard to work with in the first place.There are ways in which the hard method can serve you. This is not one of them.

What’s different about the soft method? Click here to find out

Are you the solution?

My step dad always used to say, you are either part of the problem or you are part of the solution. When I was kid, for some reason I always took that to mean that if you are not actively working to solve a problem then you had no right to complain about whatever it was.  As an adult I see a huge disconnect there and have no idea where I was coming from. I don’t recall clearly why he said it all the time. It’s possible that he only said it when I was complaining about something.  What he was actually saying is there are two possibilities when it comes to problems, you are either actively solving them, or you are creating them.

 

I have changed a lot mentally since I was a kid. I know that I used to be a victim of the things my stepdad said and did.  I remember specific thoughts that I used to have about hatred and patricide. But it has been so long since I thought that way that I do not remember my overall mindset.  I can see though how I created a lot of the problems that were in my life then and how I avoid them now. As a kid, it wasn’t my job to be the one actively solving problems, that’s what parents are for isn’t it? Yes and no. It is their job to teach us while we are growing up how to solve problems so that when we become adults we can handle whatever the world throws our way. So many parents nowadays do not really teach their kids any good habits at all, much less how to solve problems.

 

But think about it. In how many areas of your life are you constantly whining and complaining about something instead of taking positive action to change the things that you do not like? In your job? Your family?Your friendships? Your community?

Click here for more on being the solution here