When Zachary Cohn and his wife bought a house in the Northgate neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, they didn’t expect any trouble getting home Internet service. It was only after closing on the house in July 2019 that they learned the bad news. “All six neighbors I share a property line with are wired for Comcast, but our house never was,” Cohn told Ars.

Comcast had wired up the neighborhood with cable decades earlier and provides high-speed broadband to the abutting properties. But the cable TV and Internet service provider never extended a line to the house purchased by Cohn and his wife, Lauryl Zenobi.

Cohn spent many months trying to get answers from Comcast on how he and Zenobi could get Internet service. Eventually, he contacted his City Councillor’s office, which was able to get a real response from Comcast.