trials and tribulations of Comcast

It's been months since our Comcast Internet service worked. It had worked flawlessly for years but last April the modem started going offline periodically. Finally gave up on it over the summer after at least 6 hours on the phone with their technical support, one in person visit from a tech, and switching out all our hardware. Regrouped in October because the alternate DSL service was so pitiful. One tech came in and found that the insulation housing for the cable going from street to house was stripped over a meter long section. We both agreed this must be it. Of course, 15 minutes after the tech left the modem went offline again. Two weeks later I scheduled another tech who immediately went to the pole across the street, replaced some hardware and voila, after at least half a year we have reliable service again. Moral: persistence pays. Amazement: Comcast technical support on the phone is always certain that it's you who is doing something wrong. They never think it could be a physical hardware issue. Have to add that everyone at Comcast was always nice about it and I picked up various credits along the way.