My new "high speed" internet service is absolutely horrible!!!

[AndrewR]

Ok, we recently moved (one week ago, actually) to a new place just down the road from our old apartment. It's a much nicer apartment and complex, and the neighbors are so much more quiet.

Anyway, at the old place I had cable modem service through MediaOne Roadrunner (now AT&T Broadband) and was hitting 4 Mbps download speeds with regularity (so much for that 1.5 Mbps cap). One of my main considerations in moving was the presence of high speed internet at the new place.

When I called about the internet service, I was told that it was a shared T1 with guaranteed 256 kbps bandwidth. I was told by two people that this was the case. I was also told by the installer that it was 256.

Upon installation and use, however, the connection was performing far below that. A good connection during normal usage hours (ie., not when people are working) is around 100 kbps. During peak times which is apparently anywhere between 5pm and midnight, the connection is running BELOW 70 kbps and bottoms out around 20 kbps -- yes, slower than a 33.6 modem.

I am livid, to put it mildly. I called them and asked them about the guaranteed level of service and was told that there is no guarantee, that they will use "best efforts" on the connection. I'm sorry, but "best efforts" yielding 20 kbps is absolute sh|t and is anything but "best".

So, I've been lied to, and they've committed fraud. Their literature states that the "high speed connection" [sic] is up to 50 times faster than a standard dial-up. Unfortunately for them, a standard 56K connection x50 = 2.8 Mbps which is far in excess of 1.5 Mbps.

Am I offbase in being just amazingly upset over this? I was also told on the phone that ping times for online games are not even considered as part of the service -- basically, they don't care about them because that's not the typical user. Well, eat me, buddy. I will in no way pay $45/month for slower than 56K service, and I will also not abide by outright fraud.

I want to break something, I'm so mad about this.

 

[purplehayes]

Ouch! This is bad news to me because I'm gettin cable service installed tomorrow and they don't guarantee a minimum speed either. I'd raise some heck with management at AT&T. They may not be able to increase your speed but, them may let you out of your contract.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck.

PH

 

[Chef0083]

Can you go back to the cable modem? I'm with you on what you have,, you may as well go back to dialup... You do have a right to be upset ,, sorry man.

 

[Imannewbie]

Hoho
I'm lucky then
My 1.5M DSL never drop down to below 100Kbps

My Highest speed always at about 160Kbps, even faster then What my ISP told me
No matter what time

 

[AndrewR]

purplehayes: It's not AT&T Broadband, it's actually through a subsidiary of the Southern Company (power company). AT&T probably has decent service. The MediaOne service they purchased here in Atlanta was damn good in comparison -- 4Mbps is nothing to be ashamed of!

I can almost certainly go back to dial-up and not pay anything on this connection, but that does not put me back where I was before I relied on their statements of "high speed internet service."

I sent them a complaint letter (I'll post it somewhere if I get webspace) but have not heard back from them. They are probably asking their legal department to respond. Since I work in Litigation, it should be fun. I am tempted to ask them to pay for IDSL through Covad (pay the difference at least -- about $55 over what I pay now) since I really despair at the thought of going back to dial-up.

Here's a question for DSL savvy people: Who do I need to call at the phone company (BellSouth) in order to find where the local trunk is, the central office? I need to locate that to find out if DSL will ever be available at this location, whether or not it's less than 18,000ft from the CO. I called BellSouth, but I spoke with a series of idiots who kept transferring me to their cohorts in stupidity.

 

[Eug]

? I hope I'm understanding you correctly....

The few condo complexes I've checked out with a shared T1 have been something like a 1.5 Mbps shared line, and even that I consider to slow to share. Most literature I've seen considers "standard" to be 28.8, so 1.5 Mbps sounds about right. So the cheapest T1 (what they usually get) is absolutely terrible if it's a big complex because you're usually fighting with your neighbours in the evening.

I think my workplace is on a T3, and I can sometimes get faster download speeds at home during the day on 1 Mbit DSL. (There are a bazillion computers on the network.)

Whenever I see the words "high-speed internet access" in an ad, that's a warning for me. It means you're paying extra for potentially crap service. The speeds are not even close to good aDSL, at least for downloads. Usually, you're better off paying less rent and putting the money towards DSL.

Now, I think there is a true "high-speed" complex going up down the street from where my new townhouse will be and they may actually be getting multiple higher-speed T1's, but these guys will be paying through the nose for condo fees. (However, these people are willing to pay for it and can afford it - one complex even has it's own private bus service downtown.)

Definitely ask for your money back, but I don't think your experience is surprising..

 

[AndrewR]

They finally called me back about a letter I sent to them, and I proceeded to have a rather heated argument with the moronic synophant from my provider. I asked him pointblank how he considered a 20Kbps connection to be "high speed". When he tried to duck the question, I asked him again, "It's a simple question: how do you consider that "high speed?" "Well, uh, it's a shared connection, and the average speed..." BS.

They've offered to disconnect me and credit my money back. Not good enough. He admitted to me that they had basically committed, if not outright fraud (wasn't stupid enough to say that), at the very least negligent misrepresentation, and damn it, I want something for that since I'm really pissed off.

Eug: Sounds like you've dealt with this before because you hit the nail smack dab on the head. If it's not uncommon, then it needs to be changed. If I have to take legal action to get these miserable miscreants to change, then so be it. This is flat out wrong, and I cannot believe that my neighbors are stomaching paying $45/month when they could have the same service essentially for $20/month. I am going to contact them to see if I can get everyone to complain. Wouldn't it be funny if everyone in the complex dropped their service, and they were stuck with several thousands of dollars a month in fees for the T1 lines?

Sure, I can go back to dial-up, but then I'll need a second phone line. Who's paying for that? Not me. My other option is IDSL which starts at $89/month -- I'm not paying that difference in price either. I'll update the story as it develops.

 

[reitz]

That sucks. If you're interested in DSL, any ISP (including the phone service) that provides DSL service should be able to give you the information you need. If they can't, call the next one on the list.

 

[AndrewR]

What's funny is that my wife used to work in telecom (and hated it) and was working at Nortel in their department which setup ISDN for telecommuters since they had a big push for that at the company a few years back. Anyway, she would have to give the EXACT same BS about shared bandwidth, best efforts, and averaged speeds to the people she dealt with and even told me that's what they would say when I talked to them (before I finally did). I don't whether that pisses me off or amuses me -- a little of both.

I don't think our phone network in the area is capable of high quality DSL right now. We are down a small street in a brand new complex in a not very residential area. I finally found out from BellSouth that they are planning on upgrading the network, but there's no schedule for that yet. That's progress since last time I couldn't even have confirmation that residential DSL would eventually be available.