So Forrest and I had signed up for AT&T's five-static-IPs package DSL. They turned on the phone line the 20th, and were scheduled to turn on the actual DSL service on the 22nd. After the deadline time of 8 PM that we were told, we still had no internet. We were able to ping our DSL box and the gateway it connects to at the central office, but their equipment wasn't letting our traffic out into the tubes of the internets.
Forrest called up tech support before they left at 9, hoping whatever the problem was could be straightened out over the phone that night. After eventually convincing them that he knew what he was talking about and that the problem really was on their end, they passed him through Tier 1 and Tier 2 tech support. The support number he was given, in case he was disconnected or wanted to call the next day to check on his ticket's status, is surprisingly high up the tech support hierarchy: the menu options ask whether you're a local ISP, a remote LAN administrator, or various other fairly serious positions. Let's just say that "CSC student running personal apartment network" wasn't one of the options.
After being on the phone with AT&T for over two and a half hours, he had gotten a ticket number and a service request in the system. The scheduled fix isn't until the 27th. At least we were assured that we would be credited the pro-rated difference between when service was supposed to start on the 22nd and whenever it actually does start.
The next day, Forrest and Jerry walked over to the neighboring apartment
complex, Mustang Village. They are a huge college student complex, so when it's
the week before classes begin, many many people are moving in to Mustang.
Charter realizes this is an excellent opportunity to sign up new customers by
being the most convenient option for lazy students. :) They offer same-day
Internet installation of their cable option, with day-to-day service payment
options and no extra termination fees. Sold!
So we're currently using Charter's cable internet service until AT&T can fix their problems. (Incidently, I think we won some geek-points with the two Charter technicians when they walked into the apartment and saw all the CAT-5, coax, and other assorted cables that we own.)
2 comments:
I finally got more than sick of my local carrier's DSL, and signed up for my local cable's triple package: VOIP phone / Internet / cable. Add a DTV, and it's $108/mo, which is a pretty good price here on the island.
Hello. I find your blog very interesting. As far as I know Charter Cable specializes in telecommunications services. I saw the customers’ feedbacks about the company on this great site www.pissedconsumer.com. I think that a company should provide quality products if the prices are quite high. It is not an issue with Charter Cable.
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