New record for Qwest dsl

[PrinceofWands]

For a little over a year we've had ongoing intermittent connectivity issues with our dsl. Had the entire house rewired, a new box put in outside, a new drop from the pole, a dedicated drop for the modem, 7 modems, 3 sets of filters on the phone outlets, a few sets of new cables, isolated the modem on separate power and a UPS, 30+ technician visits, 2 line engineer visits, and around 150 tech support calls. They've finally agreed in February that it's not a problem at the house. Only upside has been we haven't paid for the service, so we get internet about half the month for free.

About a week ago it got bad (yes, compared even to the usual bad). I called in and was told that they were replacing/upgrading equipment on the 22nd, and until that was done they would be unable to assist with these types of problems. Out of curiosity (and to have a record for after the 22nd when I inevitably have to call again) I started logging the modem drops.

171 hours, 3 minutes logged.
631 disconnects/interrupts

Way to go Qwest & your 99% network reliability.

/rant

 

[pandemonium]

Threaten that you'll call Guinness. >.<

That sucks. :/

Absolutely no pattern at all or peak of poor service?

 

[PrinceofWands]

Threaten that you'll call Guinness. >.<

That sucks. :/

Absolutely no pattern at all or peak of poor service?

No, or it's only for a week or two, then it changes to something else. Sometimes all day, sometimes 4am-10am, sometimes 8pm-midnight, sometimes randomly throughout the day, etc.

 

[James Bond]

Are there no cable providers in Longview?

 

[PrinceofWands]

Only Comcast, which is a double ban (they dropped us, and we boycotted them).

 

[VirtualLarry]

(they dropped us, and we boycotted them).

torrents are bad, mmkay.

 

[PrinceofWands]

torrents are bad, mmkay.

Actually they dropped us for continuing connection issues. We called in because they hadn't given a refund as they'd promised due to frequent outages, and when they said they couldn't we told them we refused to pay for a service that didn't work. They sent us to a 'retention specialist' to see if there was some way to fix the situation, I explained all the problems we'd had, and they told us 'you're not our demographic anyway' and canceled the account. That's a direct quote btw.

This town has very old telecom infrastructure that hasn't been maintained or upgraded. Between weather, squirrels, and so on it leads to a lot of problems. The cable company has been sold and resold something like 6 or 8 times just in my lifetime (38 years). None of them are willing to fix anything or accept responsibility.

 

[pandemonium]

'you're not our demographic anyway'

What demographic is that supposed to be...bendoversheeple? Lol.

That's Comcastic for ya! The only reason they're in business still is because they cut corners like no other and are on the cheap like woah. Chinese manufacturers could learn a thing or two from Comcast - for real.

 

[PrinceofWands]

What demographic is that supposed to be...bendoversheeple? Lol.

That's Comcastic for ya! The only reason they're in business still is because they cut corners like no other and are on the cheap like woah. Chinese manufacturers could learn a thing or two from Comcast - for real.

My honest bet is that it's because we never buy into anything popular. We never use pay per view, never upgrade anything, don't us hd, never buy extras, etc. We get the absolute least we can get by on and are ALWAYS rude to any form of marketing or advertising.

 

[Concillian]

What demographic is that supposed to be...bendoversheeple? Lol.

I think it's the demographic who doesn't realize that 6 disconnects a day isn't normal. In other words morons who exclusively use the internet for facebook and email, and who will upgrade to 12Mbps for the ultimate online gaming (Farmville) experience.

 

[PrinceofWands]

UPDATE: It appears the Qwest saga is wrapping up. Their recent acquisition by Century-Tel (now CenturyLink) is changing company policies. They now state that they offer no guarantees of service, nor do they offer refunds for failures in their networks, even if it results in near total non-usability (such as mine). Their policy is officially - pay full price regardless of service, or go with another provider. Period.

They've escalated my case to a senior something-or-other who is arranging a meeting between me and their local business office. I'll be recording the session to file a report with the city, county, attorney general, better business bureau, and all other relevant parties, so we'll see how they like that.

I have a feeling it's going to have to go to a lawsuit however, unless they cave on all associated costs for changing to Qwest in the first place (based upon their contract guarantees), as well as all the work we did to help them troubleshoot their network issues (changing out house wiring, getting a UPS, etc).

It's also probable that I will be offline for an EXTENDED period of time. If we can't reach a compromise we won't have many alternatives (the ONLY other provider in the county we can try is Cascade Networks, and they may or may not be available here).