SBC Hopes To Not Sell DSL To People Who Can't Receive It
from the well,-that-would-be-a-step-in-the-right-direction dept
At home, I have SBC DSL, but the experience of getting it last year shows just how screwed up the company can be at times. Before moving in, I called and got the line set up. There was no problem when ordering the line. The day it was supposed to start working came and went without any indication that anything had been done. When I called SBC they told me that I couldn’t get DSL at that location — which (you would think) was the kind of important information they probably should have imparted to me on the day I ordered the DSL line. Or, at the very least, perhaps they should have told me on the day they canceled my order, rather than waiting until I called to find out where my missing DSL was. The support rep I spoke to told me to hold on while he checked another computer. It, too, said no DSL where my house is. He then passed me on to a supervisor who called up the location on her computer only to discover (amazing!) that DSL was absolutely, 100% definitely available at my house. Apparently, for all their ability to offer a network to residents, they don’t network their own computers. It took them another week, but it was finally set up. There were some other problems, but eventually it was working fine. A few months ago it suddenly died over a weekend. I called SBC and was told the reason it died was because SBC doesn’t offer DSL at my location. Yes, they actually told me that they didn’t offer the DSL that had been working for many months, and therefore, nothing could be done about it. After explaining to them how ridiculous that was, they said they’d look into it, and the DSL magically came back a day later. With that experience in my head (and, no, unfortunately there aren’t any other providers who serve this area — though, apparently it’s still an open question as to whether or not SBC does as well), forgive me if I’m a little skeptical when SBC says that with their new network they’ll be much better about not “selling” it in places where it isn’t really available.
Comments on “SBC Hopes To Not Sell DSL To People Who Can't Receive It”
No Subject Given
i’ve had similar experiences and several problematic (and expensive) encounters with SBC and they are by the most out of touch with reality corporate entity i’ve ever had to deal with.
Typical SBC
Cox can raise their internet and phone service through the roof and I’ll pay it, just to avoid using SBC. I was pleased to have finally dumped them a few years back, and I’ll never return.
Your story is actually typical. Our church had exactly the same thing happen. Took weeks of the church pushing SBC to get them to get, and keep, it working correctly.
I’ve spoken with many people about their installation hell with SBC, and no one (nobody, nowhere) has ever offered a clean story no problems whatsoever. It’s always, ‘yeah, they finally it working,’ or ‘yep, it’s up now.’ Always a qualifier.
The shameful part is that it’s now considered the norm, and nobody remembers what it’s like to just have things work.
We don't need no stinking SBC
I had a client when I was consulting who had SBC for their DSL which wasn’t working. When I called SBC they claimed they didn’t provide DSL for this company. SO I asked why I had the last three months bills (including one from that month which had arrived less than a week prior) and the canceled checks from previous bills from SBC for the DSL line that had been working the day before. I got switched to so many departments (oh that’s a home DSL you need to go here…oh that’s a business dsl, you need to go here, oh that’s a partial T1 you need…)
They finally found the account listed under some other company although the bills were directed to the right place.
Then there was the time they were supposed to set up a T1 for voice for me and cut over from the copper. They din’t show up to install the T1 and cut over the copper 12 hours early so my company had no phones. This was after I had verified 6 hours before that everything was set up correctly and planned out.
SBC – sorry babe, can’t
I hear that
When alltel said that they had bumped up their speeds to 3mb from 1.5, I knew somone who had worked there, he looked it up and said i could get it. He processes the order, the next day, it was cancled due to it not being avaliable in my area! So when i was talkin go the second rep, they said yes it is, tey will process again. Next day, it got cancled AGAIN. WTF? I called AGAIN and they said, it was cancled due to it not being avaliable in my area..GRR. So, this time, they had the request sent to the person in my district and it came. YAY….i cancled it 1 month later…So what did we learn? ALLTEL SUCKS
I hear ya brother . . .
but my experience has been just exactly the opposite. A few years back I was anxiously awaited either DSL or CABLE modem service in my area for 18 months.
Once a month I called Cox cable asking for an update. After a while they offered to put me on a “list” so I would be automatically notified when the service was available. It seems my area of town was the last to be “updated” to allow modem access.
After 4 months and never hearing a peep I called again and was astounded to hear “YES – service is available in your area and had been for the last year!”. I called back AGAIN later just to be sure, “YES” I was assured. So I ran over, signed up, picked up my kit and left a deposit – maybe $50, I can’t remember.
I ran home hooked it up and tried it out. Nothing, nada, it was dead. I called the help line and was told by some punk kid (who sounded like he had just changed jobs from a burger joint “You want fries with that modem?”) that I would have to wait up to 4 HOURS to get an IP address via DHCP. Now being a LAN admin I knew that was bullshi$t. I hung up on him and left it for the night.
The next day – still no signal. I called the help line again. After complaining about the previous idiot I got a VERY nice lady. We looked at everything, turned off the modem, took out the splitter – everything I had already done multiple times. Nothing, no signal. She told be that a service tech would be out the next day at 10 am. He was there at 10 (what a shock). He looked at the line with his signal meter – no signal, checked the connection at the outside of the house – no signal, went to the box in the easement – no signal. He radioed for his super and they roared up in a truck and spread some blue prints And the truck hood.
Seems I did NOT have cable service, they did ACROSS THE STREET but not on my side. I tore out all the crap and took it back. Of course it took like 90 days to get my money back.
Almost 9 months later someone who lives near me mentioned they had just got a modem. I called, checked and ran my previous story past them. “YES, the ENTIRE city was ready for service”. I again got a kit and hooked it up. This time I got a signal.
The 1mb service rarely surpassed 300k – which was still way better than dial up. I then started to loose the signal as they jockied their DNS servers around, it took a HARD reset of my router to get it back. The service was out maybe 10 days a year and varied in quality. Sometimes pushing 1mb most times not.
Last year they offered the 4mb service for a free update. After having to move everything from cox-internet.com to cox.net I found the service was better but rarely pushed past 1 mb. Upload always seemed good at the capped 256 but download was poor. The DNS was always bad and loaded with latency. If you had the IP in your cache it wasn’t too bad but hit a new IP (and what sire doesn’t have new content with new URL’s from one refresh to another) and it slowed way down till the resolution hit.
The price went from $29.99 to $35.99 to $39.99 till the last announcement of $49.99. I had to buy the stupid basic rate cable too which made the price more than $57. I have been using satellite TV for the last 8 years.
I decided to go with DSL, which wasn’t available till after cable was.
I get a SOLID 1.6mb and it has not gone down one yet – 3 months and counting. The DNS is snappy and my router log isn’t choked up with attempted intrusion detections either.
Say what you want but the old saw YMMV is always true.
No Subject Given
More then half the people who get DSL directly from their provider hate them. Not only do they install their own browser and software that’s not needed on the pc; they also change your home page! Just go with a third-party ISP that uses SBC lines. For instance I use DSLextreme; which uses Verizon’s lines in my area (and if I moved I could stay with them and use SBC, Verizon, Bell South or Qwest lines). The support is better and the price is the same or less then as going with Verizon directly; who btw doesn’t even state anywhere on there site exactly how fast there service is. I get 3000/768k 5 static ips for only 55 bucks. 🙂
Re: No Subject Given
I got into similar woes with SBC. First they said DSL is available, then they said it is not, then went on to say it is available. I did not have a home phone line i ordered one after checking i can get DSL. The stoopid agent tried to upsell me phone services, i said no, only to realise that they had sold me local phone svc. so that i could get DSL, but i could not really get DSL. My VERY NEXT DOOR neighbour can though. Then i had to go with Earthlink, that experience really great compared to SBC. Oh and BTW they use SBC line i pay 21.95 for 384-1.5/384. Only problem is that they do NAT in the ADSL modem, it kinda sucks. I cannot use the sipdiscount.com service with that. I loved my Comcast Cable modem svc. used it for over 5 years, was paying $45 for 1.5 there tho.
If i had known abt DSLextreme i cud have gone with them. Alas i am locked into earthlink now, it is not bad except that DSLextreme gives the same thing cheaper and that ADSL modems do NATting.
I wonder if I can somehow cancel my earthlink without paying any penalties. Either that or comcast reduces the price suddenly.
No Subject Given
Lol funny stuff. One thing to always keep in mind when dealing with phone companies, cable providers ect…
If there are no problems with your order, you will have the most amaising experience/service ever.
The second there is a problem, all that goes down the drain and the problem is made 200% bigger because of lack of communication and the fact that the avg CS rep has no real way to handle any problems that might arise. They are simply there to waste your time and to do the best they can from directing you to any real help 😮
ahh...
I no longer have any services by SBC and am proud. My wife and I only carry cellular service with no landline at home, and use Comcast for cable and internet. My brothers family does the same. SBC can actually be dropped altogether, without losing service (in most metro areas anyway) and with an increase in quality of life. Ah…
DSL
I currently go through Qwest as my provider. When I first purchased DSL I ordered the 1.5M “stand alone”. This worked perfectly well and rarely did I lose conection. After several months, qwest called me and asked if I would like an upgrade that would take me for 1.5m to 3 – 7M. Being the sceptic that i am, i ordered it not expecting much but to my surprise I now dowload at aprox 5.56M Cheers to Qwest for this rural service and one last thing, I’m only paying $29.99 a month for it.
No Subject Given
I have zero complaints with Verizon. I’ve had no downtime lasting longer than 2 minutes. They gave me a free wireless router with built in firewall. Set up was a breeze.
The only annoying part was having to install their software in order to config the router… no big deal I just imaged before hand and restored the image after getting the router set up.
Re: fyi
mike, don’t ever call sbc for tech support — find a live net connection elsewhere and post trouble ticket on dslreports. the sbc CS/tech guys who “work” that site are simply amazing, work 24/7, and know their shit. Like instant level 2 or 3 support.
DSL/Cable ISP troubles
Experienced the same from Comcast. Moved into a new apartment and the cable was working for the Televison so connected my computer and cable modem and was able to log into my account. A few days later I tried to log in and received an error cable Internet is not available at the address. Had to call tech support on the Telephone and get a supervisor on to tell them it was working for two days. So the supervisor entered in all my information and serial and make and model number of my cable modem. The account was moved over from Mediaone when AT&T purchased the accounts, then moved again when Comcast bought the AT&T cable services.
sbc is pizza sheep
their service is fine as long as you don’t need to contact them. billing and technical support is just horrible. if you find an ally there, give them all your positive energy because they’re acting noble (and doing their job) considering all the incompetent people they work with.
Re: sbc is pizza sheep
Amen. I had 5 billing errors (unrequested phone services, dial-up internet charges, charged for service visit for problem on their end, etc…) in the first 4 months of phone and DSL service. They put the errors in dispute, but then would take 2-3 months to finally remove them. While in dispute, your bill is considered past due in their system and your calls are automatically sent to collections where they are less than friendly or professional.
I am glad I paid attention to my bill, and relieved that I did not sign up for DISH through them. Could you imagine the incompetence that would have transpired with them reselling TV programming?
I am now proud to say “I AM SBC FREE”
Given your history
Given your history with broadband, you should consider yourself lucky that SBC is still in business 🙂
Ditto Verizon
My father-in-law had this exact same runaround with Verizon here in Baltimore. He’d have service for weeks, then suddenly it wouldn’t work and they’d tell him that it was because there was no service in his area. Unbelievable. He eventually ended up paying more for cable just because he couldn’t take the aggrevation.
Me, I’ve been totally happy with my Verizon DSL — but then, I live about 100 yards from a switching station and I’ve never once had to call for tech support, so I guess I’m not the typical case.
jf