friend orders cable, right. cable co says in four days they can be there to install. OK, cable guy shows up and three hours later it's still not installed. cable guy says he'll be back tomorrow to finish and leaves. guess what, tomorrow no cable guy. call cable co, where are you?, he asked. what is the problem sir? the problem, he retorts, is that you didn't finish the job. Oh, we will send someone right out, in about three days. since when is "right out" in three days my friend replies. sorry sir but we are real busy right now. three days later, no cable guy, no service, no nothing. i go right over and install the damn thing in 15 minutes. stupid cable co couldn't get it done in four hours. and to top it all off, friend gets billed for installation & week of service he never had. yeah, cable is great. HA!
DSL Telco nightmare
- Thread starter AAAintheBeltway
- Start date
a computer jockey i know told me a joke about phone company techs:
A phone company technical rep signs up for the army reserves and is doing his first live fire target practice. After getting into position, the rep aims, fires, and misses his target completely.
Spotter: "No hit, adjust your aim!"
Shoots again and misses.
Spotter: "No hit, adjust your aim!"
So the phone rep reaches out, palms the end of the rifle barrel, pulls the trigger, and blows a whole clean through his hand.
"All coming out here okay, problem must be on your end!"
A phone company technical rep signs up for the army reserves and is doing his first live fire target practice. After getting into position, the rep aims, fires, and misses his target completely.
Spotter: "No hit, adjust your aim!"
Shoots again and misses.
Spotter: "No hit, adjust your aim!"
So the phone rep reaches out, palms the end of the rifle barrel, pulls the trigger, and blows a whole clean through his hand.
"All coming out here okay, problem must be on your end!"
My connection to DSL through Verizon worked great for over a year, but when I cancelled a couple of phone lines, they accidently cancelled the one with DSL, and refused to restart the line without going through a one month process! Even though it was their fault, the DSL division is separate from Verizon and they don't get along so I was screwed. I now live where I can't get DSL, Cable, or even Wireless so I'm on dial-up until I can move next to the fiber going in around town. Apparently for $70 a month with fiber you can get incredible bandwidth (peak at 8mbs). Fiber is a fringe benefit of our Hydroelectric dams in the Northwest. Costs $50,000-$100,000 to install a node to serve 50 customers or so, which they justify by being able to read our electrical meters over the fiber. I think charging California exorbitant rates helped too 
OK, I have finished my move and finally got the DSL installed after two plus weeks of phone company nonsense. I was going to just let it go, but today was just too perfect not to post a followup to this htread. First, they neglected to cancel my old DSL account, so I was getting billed even though it was not connected. Ok, no problem they will issue a credit. I installed the hardware in a few minutes , but there are ambiguities in the setup program. Am I a new user or not? Call phone company, three reps later, no one seems to know. I forge ahead with the installation, get connected , go to ET, start catching up on Hitman's saga and the PC locks up. System resources are very low. Call to tech support. Nice rep, no idea. Also he has no idea why the installation CD froze the home page slelction at the verizon web site. He agrees it is very slow to load and a poor homepage.
More fiddling. I discover that merely being connected to the DSL service drains resources at an alarming rate. Call tech support again. Very nice girl has no clue. Suggests it is my computer. What a surprise. I say it worked fine until I installed dsl. Hmmm. Maybe you have a virus. After long consultation they decide I should do a complete defrag and disk scan. I say, you really have no idea , do you? She says, no not really, but it definitely is not our fault. Ok, I counter, then why does it only lose resources when I am connected to dsl and not when I am offline. Very good question, she allows and we really have no idea but have a nice day. I tell her I will send it back tomorrow and get by just with the cable, which is smoking along at twice the speed of the pathetic dsl anyway. She seems to think that would not be a bad idea. oh yeah, would I like to take the customer service poll? Probably not a good idea I say. She giggles.
More fiddling. I discover that merely being connected to the DSL service drains resources at an alarming rate. Call tech support again. Very nice girl has no clue. Suggests it is my computer. What a surprise. I say it worked fine until I installed dsl. Hmmm. Maybe you have a virus. After long consultation they decide I should do a complete defrag and disk scan. I say, you really have no idea , do you? She says, no not really, but it definitely is not our fault. Ok, I counter, then why does it only lose resources when I am connected to dsl and not when I am offline. Very good question, she allows and we really have no idea but have a nice day. I tell her I will send it back tomorrow and get by just with the cable, which is smoking along at twice the speed of the pathetic dsl anyway. She seems to think that would not be a bad idea. oh yeah, would I like to take the customer service poll? Probably not a good idea I say. She giggles.
I am one of the lucky ones to have fiber with Gemini Networks.
I normally get over 2 mb a sec down and 512 KB up . I also have dsl , get about 1 Mb down 100 KB up.
The fiber connections are very new. I dont know of anyone getting 8 MB speeds just yet but the lines can handle it when it is available.
I had cable from @ home then AT & T . It would always lose the connection later in the day when the kids got home from school and the network started to get crowded. Right around 3:30 - 4 PM , what timming !!
I normally get over 2 mb a sec down and 512 KB up . I also have dsl , get about 1 Mb down 100 KB up.
The fiber connections are very new. I dont know of anyone getting 8 MB speeds just yet but the lines can handle it when it is available.
I had cable from @ home then AT & T . It would always lose the connection later in the day when the kids got home from school and the network started to get crowded. Right around 3:30 - 4 PM , what timming !!
After dealing with them on a daily basis for years, I could not agree more.
This problem will never go away as long as they have a monopoly on the facilities. This is partially why many CLECs have gone out of business. How can they possibly make money (the CLEC) if they have to spend a 100 man hours per order to get it installed? They can't!
The only way that this problem will be solved is to break the LEC's up into two entirely seperate operating entities. The first would be a facilities provider. They would lease their facilities to ALL other service providers. They would not be allowed to sell directly to the consumer. The second company that they would be broken into would be a service provider. They would sell you your services. This would force them to do business on an equal basis with the other service providers (CLECs).
This will never happen because the LEC's are too entrenched. They will raise your rates (still provide you with crappy service) to pay big money to lobbiests who will put big money in politician's pockets to keep this from happening.
Mike
I know many pople have DSL and like it. I certainly did before the move, but I have to say the cable service I have, thorugh RCN, just wipes the floor with them, even if it functioned properly. Verizon is supposed to be one of the better operators, I'd hat to have to deal with the dregs.
Anyone have any idea what could be causing my resource drain? The only difference is I update to latest versions of IE and Outlook Express, plus I now have dynaimc IP versus static previously.
Anyone have any idea what could be causing my resource drain? The only difference is I update to latest versions of IE and Outlook Express, plus I now have dynaimc IP versus static previously.
I thought a postscript to this thread might be helpful for anyone considering verizon dsl service.
I found out that what was draining resources from the pc was the connection program verizon installs. A fellow elitetrader was kind enough to pm me and offer to help me. I talked to him on the phone and he diagnosed in 1 1/2 minutes what had apparently stumped verizon tech support for hours. I say apparently because I believe they knew full well what was causing the problem but must be under instructions not to admit their software can render your pc inoperable.
I cancelled the service. They said there would be no charge as I was within the initial 30 days and they would send a return mailing authorization for the equipment. Two weeks pass, no return authorization. Verizon bill arrives with charge for service. I call to complain. 30 minutes later the customer rep is still trying to unravel the mystery. Apparently no return authorization was issued, even though the service was cancelled. He finally says it is taken care of but seems worried that I could get billed for late return of equipment. I ask what about monthly service charge. Oh, you have to call residential billing. I call the number on phone bill, another 10 minutes of messages and holding, rep comes on, I explain issue. Oh, you have to call another number but they close at 5:00.
My advice: DO NOT USE VERIZON DSL. Unless of course you enjoy wasting hours on the phone.
I found out that what was draining resources from the pc was the connection program verizon installs. A fellow elitetrader was kind enough to pm me and offer to help me. I talked to him on the phone and he diagnosed in 1 1/2 minutes what had apparently stumped verizon tech support for hours. I say apparently because I believe they knew full well what was causing the problem but must be under instructions not to admit their software can render your pc inoperable.
I cancelled the service. They said there would be no charge as I was within the initial 30 days and they would send a return mailing authorization for the equipment. Two weeks pass, no return authorization. Verizon bill arrives with charge for service. I call to complain. 30 minutes later the customer rep is still trying to unravel the mystery. Apparently no return authorization was issued, even though the service was cancelled. He finally says it is taken care of but seems worried that I could get billed for late return of equipment. I ask what about monthly service charge. Oh, you have to call residential billing. I call the number on phone bill, another 10 minutes of messages and holding, rep comes on, I explain issue. Oh, you have to call another number but they close at 5:00.
My advice: DO NOT USE VERIZON DSL. Unless of course you enjoy wasting hours on the phone.