Banned

I made a technical inquiry yesterday. My Google Chrome browser would not interact properly with my Comcast email account. Comcast is my broadband provider. It has been for many years. I have since fixed the problem without any help from Comcast. 

When I tried to access an official support forum at Comcast, I found I was banned. Yes, banned from support forums by a mega-media-corporation to which I pay thousands every year for broadband service. I pay my bills on time every month. I seldom need customer service. I never hack into services. I am not literally profane on message boards. This is a matter of some restraint and pride on my part. And I am banned by Comcast. "Hmm," I thought.

I abandoned the Web forum and called the 800 number. A wonderful young tech, whom I will name "Sally", investigated. Yes, she found I was banned in response to one complaint about a posting I had made. When she tried to investigate further, she was banned! This was a matter of some consternation for Sally, who candidly said, "This must be pretty bad if I'm a tech for Comcast and got banned!" I was amused. I thanked her and moved on.

I told Sally that the last time I used the forums was several years back. I recalled it vividly. Comcast, in league with Microsoft, conspired to deny Roku Player (streaming video) users access to HBO GO, an application which allows subscribers to HBO, like me, to access HBO programs at will through their streaming video player. This is preferable to "on demand" because it provides a wider range of programming which can be viewed at any time and saved to a reference list which does not expire in 24 hours. 

Microsoft and Comcast, both monopolistic giants, have been dancing for years. Talks of mergers. Sale of MSNBC. Microsoft sells XBox. The XBox also streams videos and is much more expensive that Roku Players. XBox got HOBO GO. Roku was shut out by Comcast, even though Comcast subscribers with HBO also have Roku Players. Obviously, it was the hope of Microsoft that Comcast's move would shove customers its way. I wasn't shoved.

At the time of my last unbanned visit to the Comcast forums, I participated in a thread that ended up including scores (perhaps ultimately hundreds) of Comcast users, all irate over this corporate maneuvering. I made several thoughtful comments in that thread. My comments succeeded in getting me a phone call, unsolicited, from a Comcast Vice-President, whose agenda was to get me to let up. It was intended, I assume, as jovial corporate bullying. I was expected to be impressed. I wasn't.  He seemed disappointed when I pressed my arguments with him personally. Perhaps he then had me banned. We will most likely never know, unless I develop a personal contact within the NSA.

To you youngsters who worship the altar of "free market capitalism" and corporate power, I offer this anecdote. Yes, Biff and Buffy, corporations are not your friends. Corporations are conscience-free sharks, trolling for one thing...profit. If you stand between profit and the shark, you are lucky if you are simply banned from a support forum Web site.