PBW Down? - Back up!

[Slynky]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
Took me about a week to get it IIRC, and I set it up myself. Was no problem. Until two weeks ago that is...

Funny...

My wife, who is working her "work-at-home" day, just called and said the cable was out. I walked her through powering the router and modem down, powering them up and had her tell me about the lights on the modem. It appeared the problem wasn't on our end. So, I told her she needed to call the cable company. She called me back in 15 minutes to say 2 things: (1) There was a tech on the way to the house and (2) it had suddenly started working again...so should she call and cancel or let the guy come and check it out.

Just pointing out how the cable companies have gone out of their way to get rid of the terrible service image they had years ago...while the phone companies, the "lessor gods", still have a "we'll get around to it" perspective.

[Slynky]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
Took me about a week to get it IIRC, and I set it up myself. Was no problem. Until two weeks ago that is...

By the time I cashed in our dialup and called for a cable install, they were running a "We'll have it installed with 24 hours or you'll get an additional month at no charge." campaign going. Mine took longer because I had them run a cable line to the computer room (where we didn't have an existing cable).

[geoschmo]

The biggest advantage I could see service wise is that the cable company would be the only one working on it since it's their equipment at both ends and their cable in the middle. That has been the problem I know for me is getting the DSL company and the phone company to work together and solve the problem instead of tossing the ticket back and forth.

I looked at getting DSL from my local phone service provider, but they had too many limitations. Their service was designed for Users, not servers. They had a business account option but it was way too pricey.

Geoschmo

[Katchoo]

I apoligize if we have any on-site install technicians here on the Forum, but I don't have much respect for that field.

Having worked the Tech Support side for 3 Cable Internet Providers (Rogers in Canada, and Roadrunner & Charter in the US) I've seen more abuse and horror stories than miracles and courtesy.

- Service interruptions Lasting weeks and months were regular enough that no one in our Call Centers were surprised, especially our Supervisors who wanted nothing to do with the customers or their "problems".

- I've had incompetant on-site Technicians call our Call Center for support becuase they didn't know what to do with the modem once they arrived at the Customer's house!

- If the technicians did install the modem but encountered a problem, they'd leave and tell the customer they'd be back out tomorrow, but of course they never did and the field notes they left for us to read had no explanation or diagnosis of the problem.

- Oh, and this bit of info is for any of you being serviced by Charter in California (like Fyron): Some of the install technicians like to bring their friends to work with them, along with booze (to make the work go by faster I guess). This isn't a one time occurance. I heard this from customers at least once a week, and from different parts of California. And if you don't get these idiots, you may get the install techs who bang on your door in a very threatening manner and intentionally (and rudely) intimidate the customer and their children. I only worked on the Charter contract for 6 months, but that company is Criminal in almost every area. I won't even bother describing their Sales policies (or lack of them) or support structures. It's mind-boggingly horrible.

Competent on-site Technicians are few and far inbetween. That's one of the reasons why I suggested you record the names and/or ID numbers of each person you have contact with. Use this info to get these techs in trouble. They've shown a lack of understanding of the issue and an unwillingness to follow through. Chances are the Supervisors are bigger idiots than the on-site people too.

These kind of shinnaigans are part of the reason I left my Tech Support job. When no one running these companies cares about the problems being brought to their attention on an hourly basis, then it's time to take my services elsewhere.

Moving onto a less aggrivating topic...

Right now I'm getting my DSL service from Bell Sympatico, and service-wise it's been fine. I've had maybe 2-4 outages in the 4 years I've been with them, and none of the outages Lasted longer than a couple of hours. Unfortunatley they keep raising the bill while not providing any improvments to the service. I'll be switching over to Rogers Cable soon for their Business Lite Service, which will allow me to setup a Server. Not to mention that i'll be paying less that what i'm paying now for Residential Service with Sympatico, and i'll get more webspace, more e-mail address, and more speed. And, for icing on the cake, my mother works for Rogers, so i'll be getting a discount on a Service that was already cheaper than my current one. Bell Canada can take their price hiking practice and cram it up their Nortel modems

[Fyron]

German Telekom effectively still had a monopoly in these times, it looks like there are certain aspects in which pure capitalism isn't preferable.

Monopolies are actually anti-capitalistic because they eliminate competition, and that is what capitalism is based upon.

[Gozra]

I was thinking maybe you could cancle the DSL service and the next day have them reinstall it. Then since you are a new customer it might make them trouble shoot the DSL link.

As for the bad tech theory where do you think companies cut cost? an experienced tech makes about 40k a year while a new tech with little experience will work for 19K a year. It's all about cutting cost and raising productivity. And quality.
I have a friend that was one of the Database techs where we used to work and he clearly demonstrated that for x amount of Money you could have only 2 out of the three things a manufacture wanted. Quality, low manufacturing cost, reliablity. If you wanted all three then one of those things suffered. And corporations would allways take low cost before anything else. And that brings us to the current state of tech support. Companies can't afford quality techs but they can't afford not to give lip service to quality. And the Good techs are so over worked that they get disgusted and find some other line of work. It's the bean counters that are making things hard on the rest of us. (and lawyers and most politicians are lawyers)

[ August 16, 2003, 15:04: Message edited by: Gozra ]

[Slynky]

And, Gozra, one of the reasons you find yourself talking to tech support in India these days.

[Suicide Junkie]

These kind of shinnaigans are part of the reason I left my Tech Support job. When no one running these companies cares about the problems being brought to their attention on an hourly basis, then it's time to take my services elsewhere.

I won't name names, but one company we do support for kept horrible records, and ended up with a list of customers, a list of modems currently in use, and no connecting data between quite a few of the entries.
Guess which list was longer

For the customers who were paying their bills, but the company didn't know which modem they were using, guess what happened...

Rather than calling the customer, and admitting they screwed up, or even just calling and asking to "double check" info while pretending nothing was wrong...
They just blocked all the modems!

The theory being that the customers will lose their service, call tech support and we will then take down the info the main office needs to fill out their records!

----

End Users can be very amusing as well:

User: "Hi, I can't seem to get on the internet"
(data looked up)
Tech: "Ok, our system dosen't see your modem... could you please reset it for me? Just unplug it, wait 5 seconds and plug it back in"
User: "Uhm, I don't think that's safe"
Tech: "... what do you mean?"
User: "Well, my basement's flooded and the modem is under water"
Tech:

(Yes, Its all True, I was in the next cubicle over, trying not to laugh too loud )

[ August 16, 2003, 16:50: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[Grandpa Kim]

And I thought the construction industry's service policy was bad!

Several years ago I came to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what the industry is, the service is bad. Once they have your money, they ignore you like an embarrassing relative. Only the squeakiest wheels get the grease and then only to shut you up.

Geo has the right idea, squeaking at them every day, while exploring viable alternatives.

On rare occasion this obsession with minimal service can have an upside. Many years ago we cancelled our cable TV. After a week it was still in service so we called Shaw. They said not to worry, they were busy and would get around to the disconnect eventually. For the next year, we received free cable.

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:

quote:

---

These kind of shinnaigans are part of the reason I left my Tech Support job. When no one running these companies cares about the problems being brought to their attention on an hourly basis, then it's time to take my services elsewhere.

I won't name names, but one company we do support for kept horrible records, and ended up with a list of customers, a list of modems currently in use, and no connecting data between quite a few of the entries.
Guess which list was longer

For the customers who were paying their bills, but the company didn't know which modem they were using, guess what happened...

Rather than calling the customer, and admitting they screwed up, or even just calling and asking to "double check" info while pretending nothing was wrong...
They just blocked all the modems!

The theory being that the customers will lose their service, call tech support and we will then take down the info the main office needs to fill out their records!

----

End Users can be very amusing as well:

User: "Hi, I can't seem to get on the internet"
(data looked up)
Tech: "Ok, our system dosen't see your modem... could you please reset it for me? Just unplug it, wait 5 seconds and plug it back in"
User: "Uhm, I don't think that's safe"
Tech: "... what do you mean?"
User: "Well, my basement's flooded and the modem is under water"
Tech:

(Yes, Its all True, I was in the next cubicle over, trying not to laugh too loud )

---

Let me guess, AT&T?

Check this **** out, I saw an add this morning for ComCast Cable, formerly AT&T Broadband. They advertise that you can get lightening fast broadband at incredible speeds of 25X faster than 56k dial up. Last year it was a 50X. In 1998 when I signed up for it, it was 500X. Talk about the degrading of quality. I don't know who to feel sorrier for, the stupid customers who are dumb enought to buy the 25X faster service when local dial up is just as fast, or those who contintue to pay the $50.00 a month for fraction of what they once had.

When I gave up Comcast Cable Internet, my speeds were no faster than the dial up I am using now. Granted the uploads were a bit faster, but not by much. I used to be able to upload a 50 meg file to a web server or whatever in about 10 minutes, in the end, it would take an hour.

I have come to the conculsion that good things do not Last. Cellular service in the early 90's here was exceptional. Cellular One had the service and no matter where I was, I always had good signal. Then came AT&T, and they sub leased half of the tower away and there went the quality of the service. From this point we were inundated with other services ALL using the same sublet towers. Service now is incredibly bad here.

It is like this, you find something that is just awsome, say a nice wilderness area. Over time other people find it to. Eventually so many poeple come to this once pristeen place that a business buys the property and makes it into a pay sight.

This is happening all over with all technology. MS and Qwest had a deal with DSL, and I tried it a year ago. After a month of no service I called Qwest and was directed to MS who directed me back to Qwest who directed me back to MS. This went on and on and on and on for over a month without any one doing anything. Finally a bill came. I refused to pay it, and it went to collections. A second bill came, same thing as I had no service. Finally I filed a complaint with the AGO and presto, MS and Qwest were calling me with all the help I needed. The bills were creditted, and we had service. The service sucked horribly as we would have poor connectivity during the day, and good connectivity at night. It was not worth the $60 extra dollars we were paying for it. So I cancelled it. The one thing that really PMO was that I could not even play a game on line with it. They had some kind of firewall or block that prevented it. No hosting a game, no playing a game. It genuinely sucked ***.

Service in the Broadband industry is lacking. They hype there product to get new customers because there old customers are cancelling service. They must feed the machine so they keep making up lies and selling service that they know they cannot support.

Geo I do wish you the best of luck, and am hopeful that your problem will be resolved.