What a Nightmare

[GoldenRivet]

So... about Tuesday of last week we had a little "hicup" with our DSL service with AT&T.

Fine... no big deal, if i restart the computer and reset the modem and router this thing usually fixes itself.

not this time

so i call tech support - which im convinces is located somewhere in the vicinity of the greater Islamabad area, after 2:57 on the phone with the tech support assistant we got nowhere.

They then transferred me to a "level two technician" who i enjoyed the company of for another 20 minutes.

In short they could do nothing for me.

The level two tech said they would dispatch a technician to my home, and if i had not heard from AT&T within 24 hours to contact them with a confirmation number.

24 hours passed.

I called with my little confirmation number.

Again - in order to dispatch a technician from the AT&T dispatch center 3 miles from my house... i have to call Pakistan - it MUST make sense to someone.

I was told that they could send someone out the next day, and if i had not heard from them within 24 hours to call with a confirmation number.

okay.... fine.

24 hours pass again.

and once more i call the number and give them my confirmation code.

they inform me that a technician appears to be dispatched and should be arriving at my home within 30 minutes. however - he has other jobs and may run late so make sure im able to be at my home until 5:00pm

I waited - and waited - and nobody came to help me.

... the evening and the morning were the fourth day

now Friday... i called again with my confirmation number, and i was informed that a dispatch order had been given to a technician but it was for the weekend... not the week, and that it could be any time saturday or sunday.

my next phone call was to the fine folks at the AT&T accounts center where i promptly disconnected my DSL subscription due to poor customer service.

I now have cable internet through suddenlink.

so far everyone i have dealt with has gone out of their way to make sure i have what i want in their service.

Life in the modern world is hell without internet.

especially when you are trying to get your small business off the ground AND do an online class at a local college

[FIREWALL]

Glad everything worked out in the end.

I've had HiSpeed internet with Comcast since 2004 and nary a problem.

[GoldenRivet]

if a barn mouse farts in Texas i lose connection with AT&T.

It got to the point where i was going through the tech support at least every 60 days.

[kurtz]

I always find that if you call the cancellation line for any phone/internet service company you always get fast service and someone who speaks english

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by kurtz

I always find that if you call the cancellation line for any phone/internet service company you always get fast service and someone who speaks english

Agreed....plus the fact there is so much competition you sometimes get a 'sweetener' thrown in for the inconveniance.

Pleased your sorted...you made the right decision in the end

[SteamWake]

I had poor results with DSL too.

Typically their first response is "Must be something wrong with your home wiring, for 40.00 bucks we will come out, crawl over your house and check the wiring. It will be anouther 150.00 to correct the problem".

This after the system was working fine (more or less) for several months. A little more pushing and probing proved that there was an 'area' outage and had nothing to do with the wiring in my home. But hey there still willing to come out and check it for 40 bucks.

I now am subscribed with Comcast (damn them) and they have some issues too. But at least there 'up' most of the time. Also there is no comparison in the bandwith regardless of what the DSL folks try to tell you.

[Schroeder]

Reminds me of how I struggled for six month to get DSL.
After ordering it from the company nothing happened for two month.
I always got great answers at the service line and the promise that someone will take care of it and never ever anything happened. They were only quick in charging me shipping fees for the router which I never received.
After calling the company for about ten times throughout the next 4 MONTH without ANY results I send them a 2 pages e-mail as a complaint and cancellation . The answer was (I actually didn't even expect one and was prepared to send it over again in paper as certified mail) that they were really sorry to hear of my cancellation and whether I would like to tell them why I had decided to switch to a different company. Since the e-mail came as a reply to my own, my entire two pages complaint which explained everything in detail was attached to it....
I actually started to feel slightly pi**ed.:hmm:

After changing to a different company I had DSL within two weeks. (although those guys forgot to send me a splitter...)

[Skybird]

I feel with you. customer service with german internet providers isn't great either. the main problemn here is total incompetence, and shifting responsibility from one to the other, endlessly. I have had four companies in a row, and were at war with all of them sooner or later. and when you cancel within time, you get ignored for another coupolke of weeks or motnhs until the time windows are closed and they then log you for another year of membership. Twice I had to engage lawyers to get rid of these companies of which I have no doubt they delayed and acted intentionally, which qualifies their efforts as criminal energy.

The telecommunication business is a pain in the a##. ironically, after having tried four new private telephone-companies, I settled down with Deutsche Telekom again - and the only problem there was got solved within two hours. But for that I pay twice as much as with the cheaper competitors. Well, at some point, "cheaper" turns into "too cheap".

Having to call in pakistan to get a technician from a centre down my road is new to me, though.

[kurtz]

Actually it's more than likely Mumbai. Also (I assume) German is less widely taught in India than English. In England most phone enquiry Bureau are farmed out to India.

I suppose I could bang on about us sending aid to a nuclear power which takes our jobs and buys up our industry but I can't really summon up the enthusiasm, perhaps someone on the forum will do it for me...

[StdDev]

I'll have you know that I've never had a problem with ATT service..
It is always reliable and can be counted on to pe r f%#= +|
₣√5.*er (-\₣√5.*ek (-\ ......

NO CARRIER


:p

[Tchocky]

Nothing makes you a better customer than being on the other end of the line.

[goldorak]

Originally Posted by Skybird

I feel with you. customer service with german internet providers isn't great either. the main problemn here is total incompetence, and shifting responsibility from one to the other, endlessly. I have had four companies in a row, and were at war with all of them sooner or later. and when you cancel within time, you get ignored for another coupolke of weeks or motnhs until the time windows are closed and they then log you for another year of membership. Twice I had to engage lawyers to get rid of these companies of which I have no doubt they delayed and acted intentionally, which qualifies their efforts as criminal energy.

The telecommunication business is a pain in the a##. ironically, after having tried four new private telephone-companies, I settled down with Deutsche Telekom again - and the only problem there was got solved within two hours. But for that I pay twice as much as with the cheaper competitors. Well, at some point, "cheaper" turns into "too cheap".

Having to call in pakistan to get a technician from a centre down my road is new to me, though.

I feel for you, the situation is more or less the same in italy.
Luckily now I have a naked adsl with an isp that has invested in next generation dslams (and they have their own network) and so quality is very very high.
But before, I was with small isps that were reselling Telecom Italia's bandwidth and problems were one day yes, one day no.