Geezzz.....customer service

[Freebird]

OK...it all started sometime on Friday afternoon. I got home from seeing some customers to find that my Internet was down. My son said that it had been down since around noon. Now I've had this DSL for a couple of years and it has been very stable, I don't think it has EVER been down and if so, for just a few minutes.

 

So, I called Frontier to report the problem. Was almost through all the voice menus and crap when suddenly, it started working again. So I hung up and figured it was a glitch that they had already found. About 20 minutes later, it was off again. I waited for about an hour and called again.

 

This time I finally got through to a tech and he did some checking on my line and etc. He then said that when he entered by account number, he got a pop-up telling him that Frontier was doing service upgrades to the system in my area and that is why it was down. I said OK...well...it would have been nice to receive some advanced notice but anyway, what is the ETA on having it up again. He said..."well...according to my screen...it should be back up by mid April".

 

Now at this point, I was fairly sure that this guy had swam too long in the shallow end of the gene pool so I specifically asked him..."are you telling me that I'm not going to have any Internet service until April and that nobody would feel that it was necessary to let me know this". He said..."yes sir, that is correct". At that point, I nicely asked to speak to his supervisor.

 

A few more minutes of waiting and his supervisor was on the line. She was a very nice lady and asked me what the problem was. I told her what had been said so far and she laughed and said..."I don't blame you for asking to speak to somebody else". She said that yes, there were service upgrades taking place and over the next couple of months there may be brief periods of slowness or very short down times but I would NOT be without Internet for any significant amounts of time.

 

She did more tests and determined that there was indeed a problem with my line somewhere. She submitted a ticket and promised me that somebody would be out yesterday.

 

Now according to my son, the service came back on later Friday evening and it was working fine when I got up on Saturday morning. Around 8:30 a.m. though, a Frontier service tech showed up. I told him that it was working fine right now but he said he would check it anyway. He told me that my service would be off for a few minutes while he checked the lines. He did some tests and told me that there was a problem somewhere with my line and he was going to put a toner on my line and go down the road to find the problem. He showed back up around 2:00 yesterday and said that he had determined that the line was bad down the road and was submitting a ticket to get the cable crew out here. I asked how long that would take and he had no idea but hopefully within a few days. WHAT? I said you know, my service was working fine when you showed up but hasn't worked since then and is still down. So...he said that he would see what he could do, maybe find another pair of wires to use. About an hour later he showed up again and said that all was working fine now. Maybe, but I still had no service. Just a blinking light on the modem showing it trying to connect. He said that didn't make sense because I had full signal at the box on my house. He checked inside the house at the jack where my modem was plugged in and it showed full signal also.

 

He said he was going to make some calls and try to find out what it could be and he left again. He never showed up again and I never heard back from anybody but about an hour after he left, it started working again.

 

So......I have no idea what was wrong. I don't know if there really was a bad cable. I don't know why it was working even when it was showing full signal. I don't know much of anything except that some of these people don't seem to know much about the jobs they are supposed to be doing.

[bongobobny]

Hmmmmmm, shades of a similar problem I had a few years ago with Verizon land line. Ended up giving Verizom their walking papers for both the land line AND my cell phones. Unfortunately you can't do that with cable service around here...

[saga5]

Don,

Even tho I haven't visited this great site for ages, I couldn't let your post go without at least one response, so I want to say I'm sorry you had to go through all the frustration and hope all is working again.

 

Wishing you good health and better weather.

 

Thanks again for heading up this super forum.

 

Jerry (saga5)

[BuddyRich]

Remember Lily Tomlin ?

 

http://www.webpan.com/thelaughin/images/show/lily_tomlin/laugh-in_tomlin.jpg

[MiCarl]

It can be tough. They seem to be geared to resolving connection problems with the client configuration rather than their equipment and lines.

 

I had a problem with AT&T where about 20% of the web sites I accessed were often extremely slow. It was faster to get to them through a proxy in Argentina.

 

After some work on my own I identified an AT&T router in Texas that was frequently dropping 80% of its packets. Any site that was on that path was unreliable.

 

Wanna guess how many months of arguing with Indians about phone filters before that got fixed?

[Freebird]

Yea, I know what you mean. The phone filters was the first thing they wanted to talk about...they were sort of at a loss after I explained to them that I have no hard wired phones and a dedicated line from the box to my DSL modem with NO other outlets connected to it.

[Monty]

One word.........cable.

 

I'll never trust the phone company for my internet.

[BoomerCPO]

Don....Check the bushes outside your home for.....pygmies. The little runts are addicted to cable wire insulation.

Boomer....who sez aim carefully so ya don't shoot yer eye out.

[Freebird]

Yea, well if there are any pygmies here, I KNOW who to blame. I don't think you LEFT maintenance day last year with all that you BROUGHT.

 

In regards to cable, it is not available at my house. The DSL is about the only choice. It's been really good though and I'm sure they will find the problem if they didn't already.

 

My only other choice is a wireless system that I did have for a few years before DSL became available. It worked fine as long as the weather was good but would be down for a day or two at a time during heavy snow and/or ice accumulation.

[Eck]

Hey folks, it appears Freebird is trying to communicate with us.... saying something about some service or bad service he got and some disconnect or internet problems... or something, but I cant see what he wrote since his internet is not working........

Can anyone else see what Freebird posted here or is it just me...?

[Freebird]

It's just YOU Eck...I'm hiding my posts from you.

[BoomerCPO]

Hey folks, it appears Freebird is trying to communicate with us.... saying something about some service or bad service he got and some disconnect or internet problems... or something, but I cant see what he wrote since his internet is not working........

 

Can anyone else see what Freebird posted here or is it just me...?

 

What do you expect from a guy who opens up his home and his heart to a bunch of crazies on motorcycles, maintains a pond complete with monsters, and runs one of the best Venture Sites on the Internet?

Boomer....who's keeping mum about the number of pygmies unleashed in Ohio last year.

[Guest Swifty]

and "HE" claims he reads all the posts!..yeah right. Me thinks he is just coming up with some excuses for the future.

 

On the topic of this thread...sort of...I drive down my street yesterday and notice a pickup truck with drywall company sign and phone number on it parked at the corner of my drive, with driver sitting inside, and a pile of garbage including coffee cups lying on the road exactly outside the bottom of his door, like he'd been parked there for a few hours and was cleaning out his cab. I stop at the end of my driveway, walk up to the pile of garbage, with my face 2 feet from his closed window, I pick up a coffee cup and notice that some of the garbage on the road is his pink vehicle insurance papers all shredded up, but the company name and address still clearly visible on some of the pieces and it matches what is on the side of the truck...absolute proof! To describe what happened next isn't appropriate given the protocol of this site but it included 3 phone calls to the police, a visit from the city's by-law enforcement officer, an arrest that didn't include me, and...I'm just guessing on this one...that this business won't be getting many drywall contracts in my neck of the woods....jeezzzzz

[SilvrT]

is it possible that your DSL modem is faulty???

 

I had trouble with mine and they (the ISP) replaced the modem... all was well after that.

[cecdoo]

is it possible that your DSL modem is faulty???

 

I had trouble with mine and they (the ISP) replaced the modem... all was well after that.

 

:sign yeah that::sign yeah that: Constantly had to unplug and plug in to reset. New one fixed the problem:080402gudl_prv: Craig

[Kirby]

:sign yeah that::sign yeah that: Constantly had to unplug and plug in to reset. New one fixed the problem:080402gudl_prv: Craig

 

 

 

Yea, Mine took a spell like that!!! New modem, no more problemo!!!

[Snarley Bill]

all i can say is we need pics. you asked for it.

[Redneck]

Look on the bright side these are our future leaders.

[Freebird]

I asked him if it could be the modem. He said that it could be but it is rare. You would THINK that he would have tried a different one but he never offered to.

 

Bill...I will take pictures later.

[1joeranger]

When I first arrived in Chattanooga the only game in town was Comcast. Their customer service was pitiful and their prices outrageous. Fortunately EPB, the local electrical power company, had just installed fiber optics throughout the area and their service became available within a month or two. Free installation, different packages to meet everyone price point, excellent internet speeds, from 30mbs up to 1000mbs, and fantastic service! Don't know how Comcast is handling that here and don't really care just glad I had a choice!!

[Marcarl]

Ty going wireless again. We used to have dialup, but then a friendly customer of ours started a wireless company in our area, that's 4 years ago, and he has upgraded the equipment 3 times. We never have a problem anymore. At first we did, here and there for short periods of time, but lately, never!!!!! Newer better wireless equipment is now available, so those problems might be history.

And if your using a D-link router, replace it.

[Guest]

I know every so often my modem needs to be updated. Your ISP should be able to send a signal to the modem for the update.