Comcast certainly deserves the recent recognition of being one of the most hated companies in the country.

Today my modem/router now called a Cisco Gateway stopped working; it is only six or so months old. I waited over twenty minutes to speak to a technician who was unable to check anything like signal strength for the upper and lower band (their equipment continuously searches for the strongest signal but Comcast could not identify how strong a signal I was receiving); he knew not what to do except to recommend that I get a new gateway.

After waiting twenty more minutes on hold my next kindly representative (the tech could not do this) told me they would replace the gateway for free - except that there would be a $9.95 charge for shipping or a $40-60 charge for them to bring it out and perform a "new" installation. Or I could take a half hour ride each way and drive to their warehouse to pick up a replacement. So two of the three options require me to do all the work.

The fact that I pay monthly for serviceable equipment seemed to make no difference.

Comcast - there must be a special place in the afterlife for those who guide and run the company and train the employees.