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There aren't a ton of major differences between Verizon and Comcast as companies, but this one is sometimes (as indicated here) key: Verizon still employs its
by fixermark 12y ago
There aren't a ton of major differences between Verizon and Comcast as companies, but this one is sometimes (as indicated here) key:
Verizon still employs its own unionized workforce of service technicians for cable connections; Comcast outsources that to multiple competing front-line service contractors.
This isn't a system that can't ever work, but Comcast has not yet solved the problem of keeping communications channels clear and coordinated among different competing contractors who have no incentive to cross-communicate with each other (not only are they not rewarded for it, but the incentive system of free markets is actively structured so that if one contractor looks bad, others indirectly benefit). It leads to all sorts of little micro-aggressions; when I had Comcast hooked up at a previous residence, the contractor had to climb the ladder to the pole twice because the junction plugs that should easily wire my house to the main trunk were not only detached, but removed (likely by a previous contractor, because hey, free plugs). He had to go down and get new plugs and splice them in.
In contrast, everyone is on the "same team" at Verizon, structurally and legally. You leave the junction plugs there because the next guy who comes along and needs to connect the service again is your coworker.
It's a shame that none of that matters to this individual because of the way the service local monopolies are structured in the U.S. Living near a major metropolitan area, I'm lucky enough to have my choice of the two vendors around here.
- true_religion 12y agoLiving in the D.C. area, I can only speak for experience but Verizon seems to operate two groups of techs. One as you said are in-house and unionized, these guys seem to mostly handle the apartment complexes and large installments. The other group handles regular houses, or off-one jobs when the market is exploding. I've spoken to techs on both sides, and they both confirmed with mild disdain the existence of the other group. Just an anecdote.
- fixermark 12y agoTragically, the anecdote I've heard from our local techs is that Verizon corporate would love to switch to Comcast's model, and are applying attrition pressure to make it happen; their mobile business arm isn't unionized, and they're looking forward to switching out their retained employees with contract staff for all of the hookup work. ... which is a shame, because it's actually something I consider to be a distinguishing factor in their service options.
- pyvpx 12y agoVerizon Wireless outsources literally everything but customer service. Everything.
- PhantomGremlin 12y ago> I'm lucky enough to have my choice of the two vendors Enjoy it while you can. It probably won't last. I don't think Verizon wants to be in the cable business anymore. I'm not sure why. But it's been many years since they stopped bringing FiOS to new areas. I had excellent FiOS service from Verizon. Then they sold entire states, including mine, to Frontier. Comcast is 100x the company that Frontier is. Comcast is A+ compared to Frontier F-.