RCN Chicago's Idea Of Service

Excuse the local PSA for a moment, Cathode readers - though I suppose RCN internet users of other markets may want to pay attention anyway...


For awhile now, The Girl and I have had some troubles getting high quality video running on the old Roku. For the longest time I figured this was just a technical issue with the old wifi, and so I strung 300 feet of ethernet to plug it all in directly from the source so that we (and in particular she) could appreciate some quality entertainment.

I pay for 10mb service from RCN here in Chicago, which is far and above the connection speed Amazon recommends. This is a service that RCN widely advertises here in Chicagoland.

Problem? They can't actually deliver on that service. When we tried to rent an HD movie from Amazon, we simply couldn't watch it in anything less than a couple of dots after some time ... in other words, we rented an HD movie only to watch in blocks.

Why?

Heres why:

Now, while this is off my iPhone and off WiFi - it's not like I was taking this reading from the street or anything. Sure, I would expect some degradation from WiFi and whatnot - but ... this reading is showing a 0.66 download speed and the lesson here is simple:

RCN was selling a 10mb service. From WiFi I was getting less than 1. When I looked at the wired connection? I was getting about 2-3. Sometimes less. The speed is utterly unreliably and usually under 5.

RCN admits this is a problem on their end - but their technical support says that the "capacity upgrade" has no estimated time of delivery. Which is interesting, since I had an estimated time of delivery expected from me when I signed up for the service, although it has been over two weeks now and RCN has shown absolutely nothing from their part for the same. The best I can get, in fact, is "no estimated time of delivery".

So RCN in Chicago advertises a service to which they can apparently not technically deliver - and just tonight I got an email from The Girl that not only was nothing new being done about it, but that our service was actually completely down for the entire night.

Utility companies need to be made accountable, because they will for sure not it for themselves. I would encourage anyone to check their Internet connection compared to what they pay with a simple run of Speedtest.net - but especially if you have RCN in the Chicagoland area. If I'm getting this level of service, there's a good chance you are too - I'm pretty certain few people in the Wrigleyville area are getting what they actually pay for...

And for the record - RCN customer service has been abysmal. I've been hung up by the automated service twice and left on hold for nearly a half hour at least once. I've never gotten a straight answer as to the problem or when RCN will solve it - leaving me to wonder if they're even capable of fixing the issue at all.

Anyway: here's the PSA ... we live in a world where we may pay for exacting Internet service which we only use at certain times, but that fact does not change the fact that we have a contract with a company to deliver that service. I don't care if you pay for speeds to deliver pictures of cute kids or to achieve a better frag count online ... you pay for it, but sadly only you will police it. Nobody on this planet will check to see if you're actually getting the net service you pay for ... there is no regulatory body for it in existence. It's just a contract between you and a business.

Which is why the Better Business Bureau is probably my next step. RCN's response at this point is completely atrocious - and I worry not just for the fight I've got with them, but the fight many of their customers may not even realize they are entitled to have.

Excellent El Train Sticker Vandalism

While the stick people moshing, falling off train, was pretty funny, it was actually the addition of Pac-Man eating pellets from train to train that caught my eye...

City Life: Hoboes On Chicago Avenue

Chicago has it's fair share of hoboes. I pass by them on my way to work every day. Some people call them bums (or worse), but I'm not sure this does their chosen profession any real service. A bum is just someone you don't like ... a hobo is practically a lifestyle.

Two excellent examples last night. One was the one eyed (medical patch), clearly intoxicated, hobo who wandered into traffic quite voluntarily and wavered his way in front of a car. A normal hobo might have shown fear here ... but this guy simply held out his hand (and all of this was especially impressive since I think the oncoming danger was to his blind side) and waited for the car to stop. Then he wagged his finger in disapproval and stumbled the remaining three feet to the curb.

If that wasn't impressive enough, one hobo out of a group of many leaned to me while passing and asked for twenty dollars. Twenty bucks. Not the usual twenty cents that hoboes seem to be always missing for that bus fare they need to get to that job interview they think they have ... but twenty whole bucks.

Very enterprising.

Overheard On The El

"Well, since tomorrow is Friday."

"Wait? Tomorrow is Friday?"

"Um, yeah. Friday."

"Really? Friday?"

"Yup."

"Oh. Oh my. Oh no. Are you sure?"

*shows PDA presumably with a calendar on the screen*

"Oh. Oh man. Oh, I screwed up. Tomorrow is Friday."

"Yeah."

"Oh. I screwed up big. Big time." *pause* "I gotta stop drinking."

Overheard In Chicago

The Girl and I have a long standing debate about which is a better form of public transit - the El (that's elevated train for you non-Chicago folk) or the the bus lines.

My problem, as of late at least, with the bus lines isn't so much that they are slow and crowded but simply non-existent. The line we are supposed to take downtown is the 148 Express. You can stand on Irving Park and watch no less than ten nearly vacant 135's go by before getting a 148 packed so tight that it possibly violates several health code regulations.

Today we were commiserating with another distressed traveler. She remarked how annoying it was to see people running after 135's when, as The Girl chimed in, the bus right behind it is another 135. I noted that if you really wanted to catch a 135 you just need to step into traffic as chances were the vehicle that would hit would in fact be a 135. The woman then noted in an exasperated tone that she would complain formally but she felt she'd been blacklisted by the CTA.

At that point one of our resident hobos appeared, seemingly from nowhere, to state that he had once been blacklisted - even though, as he frantically and angrily pointed out - he was white. Nothing like an insane racist homeless person to cap off a discussion on the faults of the Chicago Transit Authority.

The Girl noted that they must have been color blind. Perhaps not oddly enough, this seem to agree with him and he left.