I had problems with their service back in 2008. Long story short, my internet connection dropped frequently (20+ times per DAY), and not only were the techs unable to find the problem, but wanted to charge me for the visits since they assumed that it had to be a problem with my computer, even though it was the lights on the cable modem showing a loss of signal. After that debacle, I swore off Comcast and said I'd never use them again.
I doubled down on this boycott as net neutrality debates heated up.
But these days, my choices for Internet service are Frontier FIOS or Comcast. I'm on Frontier, paying $40/month for 30 mbps, but only get 20-25 mbps. They supposedly offer up to 500 mbps, but won't tell me what the off-promo pricing is. Comcast at least includes it in their fine print.
Having only 30 mbps is starting to be a drag. I'm a gamer, and having to wait an hour or more to download a game that my friends are inviting me to check out is lame. I'm starting to consider Comcast, even though I hate them so bad.
I boycotted Amazon for the better part of a decade over the one-click patent. Result: they lost some amount of money they didn't notice, I lost out on all the convenience and options. They changed nothing I was boycotting about.
I boycotted Blizzard over the bnetd response for 5-10 years. Result: They lost out on me buying Warcraft 3. I lost out on playing WC3, on the related social activities, on being part of DOTA being born, etc. They changed nothing I was boycotting about.
I revisited the boycott on blizzard after the Hong Kong mess, but this time I said I'd time box it if nothing seemed to be changing.
Is this cynicism? My unwillingness top accept some minor inconveniences to be part of a group trying to prevent human abuse? Should I care that my efforts are unsuccessful if they are nonetheless the right thing to do?
Maybe I shouldn't care about sacrificing but failing, but I do. And not just because I don't want the inconvenience, but because I want the problems to be fixed. Stopping the spread of soul-crushing (and in the case of warehouses at least, body-crushing) labor is GOOD, and way more important than promoting technological equality. I want success at this!
If I'm making life harder and doing nothing to actually stop that, I want to shift my sacrifices to a more successful area.
I just have no idea how. Right now my options are: Suffer a little without helping those that suffer a lot, or don't suffer while still not helping those that suffer a lot.