I very much listen to customers being the canaries. That said, I also
categorize some people into the "wolf" channel when they repeatedly
chirp with no actionable data. More often than not telling them to
power cycle is good enough to resolve problems, or make them quiet down,
of course.
But customers are frequently the first notice of something going
weird. Customers are also not, in most cases, paying enough or public
enough to worry about losing. Do you want a local social media star
going on a rant against your service? Probably not.
You are also right that there are a lot of options and making it
clear that letting someone go to another service is doing you both a
solid is going to go a long way to keeping things civil.
I really loved this business more back when we were not the
critical path to contact with the world. I really believe that
Internet has become such that dual service providers should probably be
the next step in how it all works. Maybe that should be the next
service model? It's just become that way.
Robert
On 6/13/25 7:02 AM, Ken Hohhof wrote:
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]> 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]>
To: [email protected]
Cc: "Mark - Myakka Technologies" <[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]
Myakka Communications
www.Myakka.com <http://www.Myakka.com>
Serving Manatee and Sarasota Counties with High-Speed Internet for
over 20 years
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--
AF mailing list
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--
Zach Underwood (RHCE,RHCSA,RHCT,UACA)
My website <http://zachunderwood.me>
advance-networking.com <http://advance-networking.com>
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