We're ragging on comcast pretty hard, but as someone with lots of experience with many telecoms and ISPs... they're not alone. They may be the worst, but not by much.
AT&T, Time Warner, Verizon, Comcast... they're all an awful mess to deal with and the problems are almost exclusive related to their business models and the lack of competition in the field.
They treat their techs like crap - often making them contractors so they can easily dump them without ramifications when business is slow and make quick hires to fill needs when business picks up. This creates a system of extremes where you have a few good, qualified techs that have been there a while and only stick around because they have enough seniority to weather the cyclical layoffs, but otherwise they are staffed by inexperienced/low quality workers because after 6 months on the job most say screw this and go find a better gig. At least the good ones do.
The number of migrations I've done where it takes 3-6 months to get a new line/service to a business simply because the ISP drops the ball in terms of communication and following through on their end is absurd. They can get away with it because they *all* do it.
It's a complete mess. If you were to start a company that was oriented around speedy and high quality customer service with reliable and fast connections to the internet you'd quickly dominate the market.
But try starting an ISP and let me know how it goes
