There was one call where I needed help (I think it was w/regards to their newsgroup server) and I got a totally helpful, knowledgable person who told me straightaway that they’d changed the nntp server address and knew exactly which settings to use to access them. It was really weird, to the point that I couldn’t help commenting on my astonishment at getting someone who actually knew what a newsgroup server is and didn’t seem to be reading from a stupid script, etc. It didn’t last — next time I had reason to call I got one from the usual gang of idiots.
In a lot of places, they aren’t really competing against each other. I’ve yet to live somewhere that had both DSL and Cable internet available. It’s always one or the other, and you pay whatever it is they charge.
Where I currently live, cable was not available, so I ended up with SBC DSL. I’ve been here about three months and have no complaints at all about my service. Yeah, I know, I’m lucky as hell. They had it installed 4 days ahead of schedule, and the connect speeds have been phenomenal for DSL. Living close enough to the CO to be able to toss a tennis ball and hit it helps.
Previously, I have had cable service and am delighted to say that I had excellent service, with no outages, and no problems.
In some (most?) of those shops, they’ll tell employees that following the script is required and that the penalty for repeatedly failing to do so is termination. Even if the script is wrong. And the customer meets success. If the script is wrong, you’re supposed to tell them. :rolleyes:
When I moved into this house, my friend (who was moving out of the city) already had Telus’ ADSL service, which was being shared by other people in the house. No problem, right? I had all the other services and utilities transferred into my name using the miracle technique called “a call to customer service,” all handled more than two weeks before the changeover.
Not so with the ADSL. The day after he moved out – no internet. A frustrated call to tech support informed me that they simply couldn’t switch over the service, it had to be disconnected and reconnected. Okay, it’s a bit Kafkaesque, but I can deal with that.
Not so easy to deal with: The FORTY-FIVE DAYS it took them to reconnect. A month and a half. Two months, if you count the two week heads-up before it was disconnected.
(They did at least waive the connection fee when I screamed bloody murder about being charged for makework that accomplished nothing apart from leaving me without service for over a month.)
Where I worked the system wouldn’t let you roll a truck to someone’s house unless you clicked through a list of multiple-choice questions like “can they ping the router”, or “is the cable light lit on the modem”. I hated that thing, 'cause sometimes you’d end up in a ‘ask the user to call back later’ node or something, when you knew they needed a damned technician.
My town’s utility board provides DSL. I have fantastic speed and reliable connectivity. This beats the ever-loving crap out of almost every big-box DSL or cable outfit I’ve ever had.
I counted 20+ companies offering broadband Internet access locally (based on ads in the local free computer news monthly), including Bell and Rogers (cable). Are there some regulatory restrictions on Internet service availability in the US? I seem to see a lot of posts which mention that there is only one ISP choice for the poster’s location.
I really need to figure out if there are any other reasonable alternatives for us. Verizon has screwed us mightily this year and I would LOVE to take my business elsewhere.
We’re out in farmland and cable doesn’t supply this area. I didn’t think of seeking out smaller businesses but there’s nothing in this town remotely tech-y. I’ll keep looking.
In parts of Pennsylvania (maybe most of it), you can get DSL from verizon or cable internet. Where I live the cable is too unreliable to use but in Erie cable is pretty stable so people do have a choice.
Oh, and I used to have Earthlink with Verizon providing the actual DSL, but after too many problems with Earthlink screwing up their PPPOE, I switched to just verizon for my ISP.
Service was ready on the day they said, and went from 50 bucks a month to 24.95 a month and my connection is also 2.5 time faster.
Satellite for internet, and you’re right about it being, at best, a fall back position when no other broadband service is available and dial-up just won’t do the job. That’s our situation here - very rural - no fiber optics in the near future. We have two accounts, one satellite, the other wireless. Although neither compares with cable or even DSL, both download in the 250 to 400 Kbaud range, but only upload at 150-175K or about 5 times dial-up.
