We're rural enough that no utility pole is within 10 degrees of vertical. Both TWC cable and AT&T wires swing on those poles and whistle in the wind.
I have the cheapest DSL on the cheapest wireline just as a backup (auto-failover on an old Nortel router) to RoadRunner. I complained to AT&T for 8 years (then SBC) about the crackling static on the wire line that caused the DSL router to recycle every 10 minutes and FAXes to look like the printer needed an ink refill. I called and called, scheduled on-site folks, and nothing. Finally, an AT&T truck was working on the neighbor's phone and I asked the guy "Excuse me, sir, but I have had a problem for 8 years...could you just walk over here and put your handset on my wire and listen?" He said "That's awful" and when I asked for his name to thank him for the out-of-duty assistance, he gave it to me. The next day it was fixed. My last TWC fix was accomplished the same way...asking a truck in the neighborhood to "test my line" as a favor. He, however, found a pole-mounted amplifier that had an intermittently oscillating AGC that fixed all our neighborhood problems. I don't know what people do who aren't slightly technical and a bit aggressive. On the other hand, I don't know how the TWC and AT&T people keep this old outdoor plant working, either. . . . J o n a t h a n -----Original Message----- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Josh Luthman Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 5:28 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] Why the telco's will never be true competitors to us When it's a DSL or cable connection I typically say I rebooted the modem and my PC is plugged into it. On 1/10/10, Jayson Baker <jay...@spectrasurf.com> wrote: > So lie to them, and tell them you're standing there and the DSL light > is blinking. Or whatever they want to hear. > That person is probably a $10/hr individual paid to follow a flow > chart, and doesn't know what to do if your answers don't fall in-line with that chart. > I've done this many times. Even just the other day I "chatted" with > Dell tech support and said "I need a new hard drive, it's making > scraping and clunking noises" in less than 5 minutes I had a new hard > drive on the way, and less than 24 hours later it was installed in the > machine. Had I told them what was really going on, I'd of been > working with them for an hour via chat running a chkdsk and all sorts > of other diagnostic tools. In all actuality, the thing was bad... I > was just skipping all the mundane steps they are supposed to follow, in order to determine something I already knew. > > On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 2:41 PM, Marlon K. Schafer > <o...@odessaoffice.com>wrote: > >> I have a tower down. It's fed by a *business* grade DSL link. >> >> Can't get to the main router at that local. >> >> So I log onto the Century Tel (century link nowadays) web site go >> find a phone number for tech support. >> >> IF there is a phone number on their Microsoft Bing cloan of a web >> site, I couldn't find it. So, I decided to try the online chat thingy. >> >> Up pops a page with a spot for a the username, phone number and zip code. >> Naturally, I put the right things in the boxes. Only to get an >> error. So I tried again, and again. Finally I actually READ what >> the smallish print said you can ONLY put in ONE of the fields, not >> all of them. Hate to allow any answer to work rather than make >> people only fill in one field where they usually have to fill in all >> of them. My fault for not reading the fine print, but then again, I >> shouldn't have to.... >> >> Next, I finally get a tech on the screen. Well, kinda, the web site >> doesn't have anything but an error at the top. But the chat part >> eventually came up and a tech was on the line. We quickly >> established that the tech support guy wasn't able to see if there was >> a dsl connection or not. ug >> >> So, he gave me a phone number for tech support. >> >> I called that number only to sit on hold for a while (not toooo bad >> though) >> and then find out that that wasn't the right number for a business >> account. >> >> Called the next number. Sat on hold a bit longer this time, but >> still only a few minutes. We quickly got through all of the who are >> you type stuff. >> Then the gal on the support end asked me to tell her what lights were >> on on the modem. "Um, I'm an hour and a half form there." "Well, >> sir, I'm unable help you unless someone is on at the site." >> >> Sigh. The home owner at this site is a snow bird and won't be home >> for months yet. >> >> The tech support people aren't able to tell if there is a connection >> or not. >> It's not like this is a little, rinky dink company like mine. This >> is a HUGE telco! Ug. >> >> They won't even try to fix a business account that I pay $1200.00 per >> year for. Probably even more than that. Amazing. >> >> Have a great day, I know I will. >> marlon >> >> >> >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> ----------- >> WISPA Wants You! Join today! >> http://signup.wispa.org/ >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> ----------- >> >> WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org >> >> Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless >> >> Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ >> > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > ---------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > ---------- > > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > -- Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." --- Albert Einstein -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! 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