The phone company DSL saga continues Email vs Customer support Phone line
How does 622Kbps down and 22Kbps up get sold as broadband ? This happens when the service is provided to me by a monopoly phone company protected by the laws and regulations put forth by our government.
What does my bill say ? it says I need to pay $200 per month for the same bundle I pay $100 per month for at home, and at home I am suppose to get 3mbps down and 512kbits up, and my commercial DSL disguised as broadband is 1.5mps down and 512kps up. Is broadband different for businesses vs residential ? The fact is I use my home office more than I use my connection in the store. The fleecing of the public – but hey its just 100 per month.
I wish the story ended there – but the fact is I have been chasing this ridiculously slow DSL since they installed in back in November. They seem to get it working for a while, then for no apparent reason it denigrates back to the levels its at today. The last time I was able to get the problem resolved by emailing customer support. Magically in 2 days the service started performing closer to the promised speeds. 1.2mps down and 312kbps upload. Those speeds are still woefully slow compared to my LAN but hey – that’s the nature of the US broadband offering. The best I can hope for is DSL. A native LAN connection to the network is unattainable today for sure.
Back to the support issues. I started out last week emailing support – and this is the response I received
This was the email I received from customer service on July 23, 2007
Dear Henry, We are sorry to hear of your problems with your Internet service. There are several things that can cause a problem such as this. First we need to make sure the setup is correct. Make sure you have a filter on all phones, fax machines, security systems, satellites and credit card machines. Make sure all these devices are on the Phone side of the filter and not the DSL side of the filter. If you are not using the round phone cord we sent you, make sure you use a phone cord that is 10 feet or less in length. Make sure none of the phone cords are going through a surge protector or a phone splitter. If the modem is in a filter, plug the modem directly into a phone jack by itself without a filter. After this we need you to run a speed test. Go to http://centurytel.myway.com and click Support at the bottom. Then click CenturyTel High-Speed Internet Speed Test. You can also follow this link to get to the speedtest: http://support.centurytel.net/index.cfm?action=centurytel.support.dsl_speed Put your user id and password in. Click Log In. Click on your state. It should run a test and give your upload and download speed. If these numbers are less than 80% of what you should be getting call us at 1-800-809-1410 as we likely need to put in a repair ticket. If the speeds are within range then it is likely something on the computer slowing you down. Most often this is spyware. If you have a program to remove spyware, do so and make sure it is up to date. If you do not have a program to remove spyware you can go to http://www.download.com/ and under Most Popular you will see Adaware SE. This is a free program you can use to remove spyware. Let us know if you have any other questions. If this does not help you or if you need to contact us for any reason you may contact us by phone at 1-800-809-1410, e-mail us here at support@centurytel.net or visit our online tech chat at http://chat.centurytel.net and we will be happy to assist you. Thank you for your time, CenturyTel Support Team support@centurytel.net Support chat at http://chat.centurytel.net Support number 1-800-809-1410 ----------- Original Message -----------
Area: High-Speed Internet
Topic: Help Desk
Comments:
I have reported this issue many times before. MY DSL is very SLOW. The upload speed is 22Kb/s download is only 792Kb/s - My bill is 103.76 for the business assist package - 1.5M/512K speed. I am getting nothing close. I have reported this problem many times in the past. Your help getting it resolved would very much be appreciated.
This was the email I received from customer service on July 22, 2007
Call us This is something we will have to look at in a little more detail and would be quite difficult to troubleshoot over email. If you can give us a call at 1-800-809-1410, we will try to get you back up and working the way you should be as quickly as possible. (We are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year). Thank you for your time, CenturyTel Support Team support@centurytel.net Support chat at http://chat.centurytel.net Support number 1-800-809-1410 Support number 1-800-809-1410 ----------- Original Message -----------
Area: High-Speed Internet
Topic: Help Desk
Comments:
Upload speed is only 21kbps. My download speed is 880kbps and I have latency of 109ms. This issue has occurred before.
You can tell clearly I was getting nowhere via email – so I picked up the phone and called the number on the web site listed under contact us – for business services. The lady was very nice, but she wanted to know why I was calling her, since that department handles residential services, would it be ok if I transfer you to business, and give you the number to call if you are disconnected. Sure give me the number to call – even though I am calling the number directly off your web site. Finally I get through to a DSL specialist for business customers. Guess what – she says I have a problem that requires a visit from a technician.
Do I mind holding while she created a trouble ticket and dispatches the technician. Of course I don’t mind waiting, I have nothing else to do except sit on hold to fix a problem that has been going on for almost 8 months, when I sent and email describing the problem. Why cant they create the trouble ticket based on my email ? How about testing the connection from their end ? Don’t they have access into the CPE ? They provide it ? OMG the state of broadband in the US is in very bad shape. Has anyone else had these kinds of issues ? Am I the only one ?
Is the Cable company – the other monopoly any better ?
Henry
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