Couple purchased dwelling in Seattle, then discovered Comcast Web would price $27,000

When Zachary Cohn and his spouse purchased a home within the Northgate neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, they did not count on any hassle getting dwelling Web service. It was solely after closing on the home in July 2019 that they discovered the dangerous information. “All six neighbors I share a property line with are wired for Comcast, however our home by no means was,” Cohn informed Ars.

Comcast’s predecessor firm had wired up the neighborhood with cable a long time earlier and the ISP gives high-speed broadband to the abutting properties. However the cable TV and Web service supplier by no means prolonged a line to the home bought by Cohn and his spouse, Lauryl Zenobi.

Cohn spent many months attempting to get solutions from Comcast on how he and Zenobi may get Web service. Finally, he contacted his Metropolis Councillor’s workplace, which was capable of get an actual response from Comcast.

Comcast finally mentioned it will require putting in 181 ft of underground cable to attach the home and that the couple must pay Comcast over $27,000 to make that occur. Cohn and Zenobi didn’t pay the $27,000, they usually’ve been counting on a 4G hotspot ever since.

“I used to be simply flabbergasted”

“I used to be simply flabbergasted {that a} home like this, in an space like this, may probably have by no means been wired for Web,” Cohn mentioned in a telephone interview. As a result of the home is “in the course of Seattle, it did not even daybreak on me that that was attainable,” he mentioned, including that the shortage of Web service can be “extra comprehensible if I used to be two miles from my nearest neighbor.”

The Seattle Kraken hockey crew’s $80 million follow facility is in the identical Northgate neighborhood, a couple of half-mile from the home. There is a main bus station within the space, a lightweight rail station that lately opened close by, and an elementary college inside a couple of 90-second stroll, Cohn mentioned, noting that the property is “nicely inside the Seattle metropolis limits.”

The home, in-built 1964, can also be about 10 miles from each T-Cellular Park, the place the Seattle Mariners play, and Lumen Area, the Seattle Seahawks stadium named after CenturyLink’s Lumen model. T-Cellular would not supply its new dwelling Web service on the home. CenturyLink affords Web service at Cohn’s deal with—however solely its historical DSL with obtain speeds of as much as 3Mbps and add speeds as much as 500kbps. Cable and fiber simply aren’t accessible on the home.

Not our first Comcast horror story

We have written about different individuals who purchased homes with out realizing there was no dwelling Web service, however these tales typically came about in small cities or rural areas. In some circumstances, Comcast’s web site and customer support staff falsely informed dwelling patrons that service was accessible attributable to errors within the firm’s availability database.

Comcast availability information wasn’t an issue on this case, as Cohn mentioned he did not suppose to verify that there was a Comcast connection earlier than closing on the Seattle home. “Actually, I did not even suppose to look. What home in the course of Seattle would not be wired for cheap Web?” Cohn mentioned.

Cohn contacted Ars after studying one in every of our earlier Comcast horror tales, hoping to get the phrase out to others that an Web connection is not any assure even in densely populated cities—and even when all of your neighbors have service.

Authorities broadband packages typically deal with “connecting neighborhoods particularly underserved communities, which I feel is nice,” Cohn mentioned. However he desires folks to know “there are massive swaths of individuals, each in massive geographic areas and in small particular person circumstances, that simply by no means received linked to high-speed Web, and the way tough it’s to undergo life with out that form of connection.”

Whereas Cohn’s scenario is uncommon as a result of all the encircling homes have broadband, he is removed from the one city dweller with out trendy service. It is notably an issue in lower-income areas the place ISPs have chosen to not improve previous phone strains.

Comcast junction field throughout the road

With the properties abutting Cohn’s, there are overhead energy strains that Comcast used to increase cable to the homes. However “our energy is underground and so… there are not any poles to journey off,” Cohn mentioned.

The block is formed like a triangle, Cohn mentioned, including, “We’re the one home on our aspect of the triangle, and the opposite two sides every have three homes.” On the aspect of the home that does not face its neighbors, there may be an arterial highway. The closest Comcast junction field is throughout that highway, “in order that they must dig below the arterial to attach our home to that junction field.”

Cohn informed us the sellers disclosed in paperwork earlier than the sale that Web wasn’t linked on the dwelling, however he did not notice it would not be attainable to get service in any respect. After the failed makes an attempt to get service, “we had our agent attain out to the sellers to determine what truly is occurring right here,” Cohn mentioned.

They discovered that the earlier householders struck a cope with a neighbor who ran a cable “from his Comcast hookup, throughout his property, throughout our property, after which into this home,” Cohn mentioned. The earlier homeowners had been renting out the home, and “they form of made this last-minute cope with the neighbor to appease the renters,” Cohn mentioned.

However “after we talked to [the neighbor], he made it very clear that he was fairly sad with that association previously,” Cohn mentioned. “I principally satisfied our neighbor to proceed that association till we may provide you with some various.”