Cast onto the shore watching the stream go by

On Sunday evening I settled in to watch the Kennedy Center Honors. I like this annual event to honor American artists, though there are many years I don’t think about it in time. Yeah, the show is normally a day or two after Christmas and we understand the delay this year. I was ready to watch, pleased to see Dick Van Dyke was one of the honorees. Didn’t happen. I’m sure the show was broadcast. But I didn’t watch. I logged into my internet provider – Comcast – and went to their streaming page, which I’ve used many times before. And had a problem. I used to watch TV. Twenty years ago I would turn on the telly and watch a full Sunday evening lineup. But I stopped all weekly series about the time Star Trek Voyager ended. I watch the major networks maybe a half dozen times a year for special programs (such as the Kennedy Center Honors). I used to watch on my TV, which is a 13 inch model I bought back in 1982. Yup, cathode ray technology. But it was taking longer to warm up, like a half hour, and even when it did there were problems. I didn’t see the need for a new TV since I watched it so little. So I switched to streaming. I have good size flat panel monitors on my computer (yes, two) so good image quality. I’ve been a customer of Comcast for 20 years now. Every time I hear about what policies they support, such as an end to net neutrality, and what sort of candidates they support, such as insurrectionists, I think it is time to end this long relationship. Alas, in my area there is only one other that I would consider and its customer satisfaction is just slightly below Comcast. Streaming worked so well that Comcast added a note when I logged in saying hey, we see you haven’t used your TV decoder box for a year, perhaps you want to turn it in. A couple months later I did at one of their stores. Sunday evening I clicked on the channel broadcasting the KCH and got the message saying it was unavailable, I needed a package upgrade. Huh? I called. The annoying answer bot said I could wait online (time not stated) or someone could call me back at 8:45. I took the callback. That call was from Romeo in technical support. He spent the next 45 minutes quite befuddled. He had me try things and he tried things. Nothing worked. At times he said the station I wanted was indeed in my package. At other times he said I needed to upgrade – and he got my prompt reply that the station was in my package. Finally he filed a help request for higher powers. On Monday I got a message on my answering machine (yep, I’m old school there too) from Comcast – press one if the problem is resolved, press two if it persists. Um, sure. I called and talked to Patricia. She actually figured the problem out. The channel package I have – the bare minimum, yet still many more channels than I use – is no longer offered, though I’m grandfathered in. Streaming is linked to having the TV box (even though it had not been plugged in for a year). Turning the box in messed up the terms of my package – not that I knew that was part of the terms. In addition, rental of the box was still on my bill, even though I turned it in. I guess I hadn’t read the fine print of bill increases. When I got it, Comcast was handing them out for free. Patricia’s phone cut out about then. I called back and talked to Todd. He reviewed the situation and said when I returned the box the people there made two errors. First, they didn’t remove the box rental from my bill. Second, they didn’t say anything about returning the box would make streaming not work. I could get another box or I could talk about a different package. He then suggested I do it in person rather than over the phone. Patricia called back. She was helpful. She reviewed what I’m paying for (nice of her since she’s not in sales or billing and discussed non Comcast options). If I got rid of the TV portion of the bill the price would only go down by $10 – I get a discount for having both internet and TV. I might do well finding a streaming service outside Comcast. As for my modem (though not the TV decoder) I can get one at a store for about five months rental. One reason to rent is when upgrades come along (and Comcast notices I don’t have the latest), they’ll give me a new one. But I could buy a new one at a store every year and still save. After I hung up I searched for TV streaming services. Some are $65 or more a month. One – Locast – has a great price of $5 a month and streams local stations. The nice no-frills service I would like. I saw the warning – Locast is being sued by the major networks so it may not last. This afternoon I went to the storefront where I had turned in the box. I was soon talking to the manager. I said my two complaints. When the box was returned they did not take its rental off my bill. That one didn’t go anywhere. When I asked for a credit for the time I didn’t have the box I was told if I didn’t have the receipt there was nothing they could do. The part of my account they could see didn’t have a date of return. Perhaps I could talk to billing. The second complaint was that I wasn’t warned that turning in the box would mess up my plan. Well, how are we here at the store to know such a thing? As for the notice that you hadn’t used the box in a year and could turn it in, how were they to know the details of your plan? I should have called to check. I replied that there was no way for me to know I needed to call. So, they said, it’s nobody’s fault. Definitely customer disservice. The manager said any new package I got would be at least $20 more than I’m paying now. So I accepted a new box. I wonder how much I’ll actually have to connect it up (and to what) to get streaming back. It could be a few months before I actually want to stream a TV show. So, yeah, even more than before I’m thinking it is time to leave Comcast. However, there is a big problem that I’ve been pondering, and avoiding, for a few years now. When I joined Comcast 20 years ago I got an email address through them which, of course, includes “comcast.” That wasn’t a big deal 20 years ago. Over the last 20 year (and much more so in the last 10) I have acquired a lot of online accounts – various retailers, concert groups, utilities, genealogy sites, finance companies, movie streaming services, government services, political sites, travel sites, places where I volunteer, and on and on. I record the site and password on the backs of business cards (that my dad never used). A large number of them use the email as a login ID. All of the rest record the email so they can respond to me. Many times when I change personal data they will send an email to confirm it was me. So I have to keep both the new and old emails active for a while. I counted my stack of cards. I have about 60 active accounts and another ten that I should probably let go. Faced with the prospect of updating sixty websites, no surprise I’m reluctant to make a change.