I worked for Wave Broadband a few years back and there was some serious talk about Seattle switching from (Then) Millenium Cable to Wave. I personally saw a bunch of Seattle council members do the tour of our call center. But for some reason, the deal never fell through and Millenium suddenly became Broadstripe.
Now I dont have any horror stories about Broadstripe, but if Wave Broadband is chosen to take over, they may not be any better than Broadstripe. They have some obscene fee's for cable cards, hd boxes, etc. Their call center is in Kirkland, work there a few weeks if you want to know more.
Oh and every attempt by the city of Seattle to wire up for fiber, was always met with lawsuits by Qwest and Millenium/Broadstripe to prevent the city from offering speeds they refuse to provide.
They have some good records, but they have a truly spectacular amount of godawful ones, and they do a lousy job of distinguishing the two. The staff is alternately rude, pushy, and crazy; I've been in there when TWO GUYS came up on either side of me and sweatily asked me over and over what I was looking for, wouldn't I like this instead, they can get it for me. "Just looking" isn't good enough in there.
I've also sat there with a stack of discs while the idiot clerk looked each and every one up in the price guide and quoted me the "Mint" price for everything -- records that hadn't been Mint for twenty years. Other times, I've gotten ridiculous steals. The thing is, if the records don't have prices on them, you don't know what's going to happen.
Jive Time in Fremont, Silver Platters in Queen Anne, and (my favorite) Neptune in the U District are the best vinyl stores in Seattle. Easy Street's not bad, either.
Maybe the Berkeley Amoeba is the "sentimental favorite"...uh, to someone... of their three location, they're all exceptional records store, BUT... the Hollywood Amoeba is the overall best record store in America.
@4 - Oh, no prices on records is bad bad bad. Can't stand stores like like.
I'm a longtime Millenium/Broadstripe customer. There have definitely be a few hickups over the years, but for the most part we get fantastic net speeds (7-15 Mb/s) and reliable cable for an affordable price.
The worst part is that when have outages it can take awhile to get straightened out, especially nights and weekends...
A friend of mine loves to tell two Millennium (now Broadstripe) cable stories:
1. They cut his cable off multiple times randomly. Each time he called, he was told that his cable had been disconnected for non-payment. When he asked how much he owed, they responded that he had a zero balance. Yet his cable had been cut off for non-payment...
2. A few years later he was looking at a condo building on First Hill and asked the salesperson if the building had Millennium or Comcast. Of course, the response was 'Millennium' followed by 'Why do people keep asking that?'.
Seriously, Millennium sucks. It only came into business because the predecessor to Comcast refused to lay cable in certain redlined parts of the city. Now, the CD has the shittiest cable in the city and Broadstripe has used relaxation of the cable franchise laws to strike deals for individual apartment and condo buildings in other parts of the city like Capitol Hill and Belltown.
Now I dont have any horror stories about Broadstripe, but if Wave Broadband is chosen to take over, they may not be any better than Broadstripe. They have some obscene fee's for cable cards, hd boxes, etc. Their call center is in Kirkland, work there a few weeks if you want to know more.
Oh and every attempt by the city of Seattle to wire up for fiber, was always met with lawsuits by Qwest and Millenium/Broadstripe to prevent the city from offering speeds they refuse to provide.
They have some good records, but they have a truly spectacular amount of godawful ones, and they do a lousy job of distinguishing the two. The staff is alternately rude, pushy, and crazy; I've been in there when TWO GUYS came up on either side of me and sweatily asked me over and over what I was looking for, wouldn't I like this instead, they can get it for me. "Just looking" isn't good enough in there.
I've also sat there with a stack of discs while the idiot clerk looked each and every one up in the price guide and quoted me the "Mint" price for everything -- records that hadn't been Mint for twenty years. Other times, I've gotten ridiculous steals. The thing is, if the records don't have prices on them, you don't know what's going to happen.
Jive Time in Fremont, Silver Platters in Queen Anne, and (my favorite) Neptune in the U District are the best vinyl stores in Seattle. Easy Street's not bad, either.
They're pretty smart
Shit on the ground
See in the dark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJwr2JLjc…
@4 - Oh, no prices on records is bad bad bad. Can't stand stores like like.
The worst part is that when have outages it can take awhile to get straightened out, especially nights and weekends...
1. They cut his cable off multiple times randomly. Each time he called, he was told that his cable had been disconnected for non-payment. When he asked how much he owed, they responded that he had a zero balance. Yet his cable had been cut off for non-payment...
2. A few years later he was looking at a condo building on First Hill and asked the salesperson if the building had Millennium or Comcast. Of course, the response was 'Millennium' followed by 'Why do people keep asking that?'.
Seriously, Millennium sucks. It only came into business because the predecessor to Comcast refused to lay cable in certain redlined parts of the city. Now, the CD has the shittiest cable in the city and Broadstripe has used relaxation of the cable franchise laws to strike deals for individual apartment and condo buildings in other parts of the city like Capitol Hill and Belltown.