Yesterday, my internet was laggy, slow, and otherwise useless. A speed test confirms that I'm getting .3mbit down, and .2mbit up. I'm paying for 5 down 800k up. I call the phone co, and they say the circuit I'm on is congested, and they'll move me. I get off the phone and internet is down. This is expected, as they're physically moving my line, so I wander off to play with the puppy.
I get back, and everything is *STILL* down, so I call in to see what's up.
Me: My service is still down after I requested a move to a new circuit about 4 hours ago.
Tech: I show it was 1 hour ago.
Me: No. I called at 18:00. It's now 22:00. that would be 4 hours.
Tech: *mumbles something about time zones. I let it go.*
Me: So. My service is still out. What's going on?
Tech: What OS is your computer?
Me: OS X. Snow Leopard.
Tech: Do you have a router setup?
Me: Yes. This has nothing to do with the change you guys made 4 hours ago.
Tech: The router is your problem. It's causing a problem with authentication.
Me: No. No it's not. The only thing that's changed is what you guys did 4 hours ago.
Tech: You need to bypass your router.
Me: *visibly frustrated now* No. I don't. YOU GUYS made a change. NOTHING on my end has changed. Are you even listening to me?
Tech: Yes. Are you?
Me: AGH! Give me your supervisor. NOW.
*tech puts me on hold without another word*
The supervisor saw the problem almost immediately, and "couldn't" get it fixed that night, but setup a trouble ticket for first thing in the morning. I gave up and went to bed. Next day, everything's up and working, so I resume work where I left off the day before when everything died, until a phone co guy wanders by, and everything goes offline again. I go up and ask what's going on, and he was told that my service was out. I told him everything's fine, explained what happened the night before, and that everything was fine now. He apologized, told me he wasn't told that, and left after making sure my service was back.
I'm REALLY angry now, so I call them up, and demand a credit for downtime. While demanding one day's credit is generally lame and stupid, I've had enough of their shenanigans.
Billing: I show our network was fine last night, and that the tech fixed the problem by having you bypass your router.
Me: O_O
Me: NO! Don't you EVEN! I requested a circuit change. That tech refused to listen to me, and I had a supervisor take a look. He setup a trouble ticket for today.
Billing: I can credit you this once. Please hold. *call terminates from his end.*
Me: ...You asshat. *dials back*
Me: I was just hung up on. *details issues to this point*
Billing: I can't believe all that's happened. That's totally unacceptable.
Me: I completely agree. And honestly, I'm ready to cancel service now. Forget the credit.
After speaking with their saves department, they offered me 4 times faster speed, at $4 a month less than what I'm paying now. My sucky part was that I really didn't have any intention of canceling going into the call. I used their saves department to get better speed. Sucky, yes, but as I've told them previously, the minute someone else shows up in the area, I'm gone like a $50 bill on the floor of DFW airport. To my credit, this isn't new. I was charged $60 for their free modem when I signed up. To this day, I've had nothing but the absolute best in useless techs, downtime, and sub par service.
When I call in with a problem, I have to teach the tech how to troubleshoot, how to read a traceroute, and how to tell the difference between speed and latency. Yesterday was the first time I've said "give me a supervisor" and had it not end with either endless hold, transferred back into the queue, or outright being hung up on. I will cancel, just not today.
I get back, and everything is *STILL* down, so I call in to see what's up.
Me: My service is still down after I requested a move to a new circuit about 4 hours ago.
Tech: I show it was 1 hour ago.
Me: No. I called at 18:00. It's now 22:00. that would be 4 hours.
Tech: *mumbles something about time zones. I let it go.*
Me: So. My service is still out. What's going on?
Tech: What OS is your computer?
Me: OS X. Snow Leopard.
Tech: Do you have a router setup?
Me: Yes. This has nothing to do with the change you guys made 4 hours ago.
Tech: The router is your problem. It's causing a problem with authentication.
Me: No. No it's not. The only thing that's changed is what you guys did 4 hours ago.
Tech: You need to bypass your router.
Me: *visibly frustrated now* No. I don't. YOU GUYS made a change. NOTHING on my end has changed. Are you even listening to me?
Tech: Yes. Are you?
Me: AGH! Give me your supervisor. NOW.
*tech puts me on hold without another word*
The supervisor saw the problem almost immediately, and "couldn't" get it fixed that night, but setup a trouble ticket for first thing in the morning. I gave up and went to bed. Next day, everything's up and working, so I resume work where I left off the day before when everything died, until a phone co guy wanders by, and everything goes offline again. I go up and ask what's going on, and he was told that my service was out. I told him everything's fine, explained what happened the night before, and that everything was fine now. He apologized, told me he wasn't told that, and left after making sure my service was back.
I'm REALLY angry now, so I call them up, and demand a credit for downtime. While demanding one day's credit is generally lame and stupid, I've had enough of their shenanigans.
Billing: I show our network was fine last night, and that the tech fixed the problem by having you bypass your router.
Me: O_O
Me: NO! Don't you EVEN! I requested a circuit change. That tech refused to listen to me, and I had a supervisor take a look. He setup a trouble ticket for today.
Billing: I can credit you this once. Please hold. *call terminates from his end.*
Me: ...You asshat. *dials back*
Me: I was just hung up on. *details issues to this point*
Billing: I can't believe all that's happened. That's totally unacceptable.
Me: I completely agree. And honestly, I'm ready to cancel service now. Forget the credit.
After speaking with their saves department, they offered me 4 times faster speed, at $4 a month less than what I'm paying now. My sucky part was that I really didn't have any intention of canceling going into the call. I used their saves department to get better speed. Sucky, yes, but as I've told them previously, the minute someone else shows up in the area, I'm gone like a $50 bill on the floor of DFW airport. To my credit, this isn't new. I was charged $60 for their free modem when I signed up. To this day, I've had nothing but the absolute best in useless techs, downtime, and sub par service.
When I call in with a problem, I have to teach the tech how to troubleshoot, how to read a traceroute, and how to tell the difference between speed and latency. Yesterday was the first time I've said "give me a supervisor" and had it not end with either endless hold, transferred back into the queue, or outright being hung up on. I will cancel, just not today.
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