Sometimes people like this are the canary in the coal mine that helps you find a genuine problem. More often (especially with gamers) they are just a pain in the butt. If you’ve diligently tried to solve his problem with no success (and other customers aren’t reporting similar problems), tell him that, and nudge him toward finding another provider. You can’t please all of the people all of the time. Maybe refund his last month if he switches, but don’t fall into the trap of keeping him as a customer but constantly giving him refunds.
My perspective is a little different in that I’m not in fiber. I did have one “professional gamer” switch to Starlink. Lots of people are getting TMHI or VZHI. Do you have a cable Internet option in your area? A big reason for the success or 5G Home Internet (as well as Starlink) is that while they are best effort services, they are month-to-month. Their view is we don’t have to solve everyone’s problems because you can just return the box and switch to a different provider. People seem to love that arrangement. Do you have this customer tied into a term contract or something? If you do, let him out of the contract. One thing I worry about with BEAD is that it will create broadband monopolies in rural areas. I’m used to people now having 5 or 6 different broadband options, even in the boonies. And they certainly are not shy about exercising those options. But if circumstances make you the only game in town, then you maybe have an obligation to try harder to fix everyone’s problems. It’s like my early days as a WISP, if we couldn’t get someone service, they were stuck on dialup. It’s not like that anymore. Cable, fiber, multiple WISPs, 5G FWA, satellite, LEO. People switch just on a whim, “I was at the cellphone store and they had this new thing so I decided to try it”. The gamer I had who switched to Starlink probably felt it was expensive and therefore the best, besides it was Elon. In any case, it’s not like he has come crawling back, so apparently you can be a professional gamer and stream on Twitch using Starlink. They also have business/priority plans at a higher cost. Gamers in general tend to be problems. They speak a different language and they’re never happy. At least the problem of gamers pissing off other gamers who retaliate using a “booter” site seems to have abated. From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Zach Underwood Sent: Friday, June 13, 2025 8:25 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] What to do with professional Gamer My understanding is that they are shutting down Amazon IVS and moving all of twitch up under the main amazon ASN. On Fri, Jun 13, 2025 at 9:04 AM Mike Hammett <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Are you really buying Sparkle transit? https://radar.qrator.net/as/16803/connectivity/neighbors/providers It is important for ISPs to do what they can to mitigate issues their customers have, regardless if the problem happens on your network or not. That said, the cost of mitigating the issue may exceed the value provided from doing so. Is the problem with the stream to Twitch, or is the problem with other aspects of his experience? Interestingly, Twitch (Amazon IVS) isn't on any IXes in Florida. I thought they'd be on FL-IX. https://www.peeringdb.com/net/1956 Does anyone else on your network have Twitch issues? Can you replicate his Twitch issue? What "issue" is he having? -- Mike Hammett ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark - Myakka Technologies via AF" <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Cc: "Mark - Myakka Technologies" <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2025 6:46:10 PM Subject: [AFMUG] What to do with professional Gamer We have a professional gamer/streamer as a customer. I get calls from him on a regular basis that he is having network issues. It has gotten to the point where I just don't call him back. I don't have the time or desire to try to track down why his twich feed randomly has an issue. Usually it is during the day being this is his "Job", so the load on the network is very light. I have no doubt that he is having issues and I have explained that our system is a small part of the Internet and there could be issues that I have no control over or can diagnose. Not to mention general issues that he may have with his equipment. We are up to 4000 customers on our fiber network, so I'm sure there are others streaming and gaming on a regular basis that I never hear from. It just seems to be this one guy busting my balls every few weeks. Anyone have any better way of handling this. It is getting to the point I may go all out "Steve" on him. -- Thanks, Mark mailto:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Myakka Communications www.Myakka.com <http://www.Myakka.com> Serving Manatee and Sarasota Counties with High-Speed Internet for over 20 years -- AF mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- Zach Underwood (RHCE,RHCSA,RHCT,UACA) My website <http://zachunderwood.me> advance-networking.com <http://advance-networking.com>
-- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
