Review by mojowales 
UPDATED: 157 days ago
member for 177 days, 43 visits, last login: 113 days ago
 Jefferson City,Cole,MO
 $71 per month (12 month contract)
 about 12 days
 "Service has been good as of late. Good wireless router."
 "F-secure security. Account reps."
 "Better now, but read my review."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Signed up in January of 07 for 3.0 internet DSL and required phone line bundle. Took about 12 days from order to success. Received the equipment in days, fast. We were told to install on such and such date at such and such time. Was a no go. Called tech and was led through process, but had to wait on our line being verified for DSL. Phone worked on install date. DSL took a couple more days to work. Had the usual growing pains with the service at first. All-in-all the installation went well.
The 2-wire router is excellent. It has a great signal range, and has never faltered. The only issue with the wireless is that you must turn of the connection on the P.C. (Toshiba satellite) before leaving the local network. Failure to do this will usually result in having to restart and sync the router and wireless upon return. I also now run AVG and spybot search&destroy which may have something to do with this issue. Is really no big deal to me. Had a handful of service interuptions over the first five months.
Tech is hit or miss. The bad: the list readers who know less than me about the system, ie. clear your cache and history ect. The good: gems who just tell you that the system is being expanded in my area and will take X hours to be back on-line, or get to the root of the problem asap and don't turn on the "bastard operator from hell" mode (old school reference from my college days) and have actually helped with questions about other non-embarq business while on the line. Mostly the tech help is the latter, that is, great.
Now for the nasty. F-areyoufingkiddingme-Secure. Embarq and earthlink parted ways soon after I signed up and their security was changed to F-secure. I went along with the emailed prompts one night to switch over the email and account info and closed by letting the new install run. It loaded F-secure and that was the last that my operating system functioned. I received the blue screen of death. Fried the boot sector and DOS pre-operating system. To the computer store went the laptop. Took three visits and most of a month to get the notebook back up. Hard drive had to be taken out multiple times. Called Embarq and after initially denying that this was possible, my tech said that this had been reported to him by others as well, gave me credit for $100. At this time I dropped to 1.5 to trim down my cost as I am A). a residential user who doesn't need that much bandwidth, and B). not sure at this point that I was going to be able to gain access at all with the notebook and might be stuck using an old desktop to surf which just takes the fun all out of it. I ask again about stand alone DSL and am told not possible. Oh well. The laptop craps out two weeks later. Needs a new hard drive from being taken apart so much. The power port alone got re-soldered (spelling) so much that is became unstable = intermittent charging. The keyboard was unreliable. So new hard drive goes in for $337. Total down time is now well over a month. More like two. But now, AHEM, I am back On-line. Amen.
Since this has happened they seem to have gotten their stuff together as far as the service goes. Not down once since early November 07. Still, I was just waiting for the contract to expire so as to terminate. But as I started to look at satellite internet I read too many bad reviews. Cable misses me by 150', more or less. So I'm in limbo.
Then I discover this site and read the Embarq tech help thread and p.m. Lamont. He has given me hope that I might yet be served by Embarq. He gave me a number and a name in their "save" department. I have yet to catch anyone in the office, but have had two calls returned. I described what I wanted, namely stand alone DSL and some credit on the $337. I did not receive a call back as per our agreement so I called back at the beginning of the next week. Here is a condensation of that call. Accounts: That is not possible. Transfer to tech. Tech: You already have that and this is your new service number. I checked the home phone and he was right. DSL is now stand alone. I sigh with joy. He cannot, however, tell me about my new terms of service other than my bill is now $34.95 per month so I'm transferred to accounts again. Accounts: That is not possible, rude at first. I say, calmly, can I talk to a supervisor? She replies sure and puts me on hold. Wait for a bit and same lady comes on with a new and improved "friendly" attitude. I tell her that I do in fact now have the stand alone DSL and would like to be able to access my account on-line, something I haven't been able to do for a week at this point, and have my account information mailed to my home. She fumbles around for a bit so I finally give her the number that Lamont the Embarq tech here gave me. She sounds relieved and proceeds to transfer me. Unfortunately this transfer is to dial tone as she has hung up on me. This call alone lasted for 3/4 hour. I then left yet another message on the Lamont contact voice mail for them to call me.
In closing, the service is now dependable in my location. There are some issues with privacy (look it up in the Embarq forum here under DNS). The tech support is mostly great. If you call and get an obvious rube then just ask to be transfered to another. I'd say the ratio of good to bad is 4:1. The account reps are the achilles heal. They just don't know/get the job done. The F-secure security problem might be fixed by now, but I don't use it. I would look that up before trusting it at all. I am really torn here, I feel that I am at a point now where I have what I want at a fair price, but it has been SUCH a hassle. If you can find a way to just deal with the tech people you will be much better off. You MUST know what they can offer you before you talk to a rep as they will read off whatever sheet of paper is in front of them.
I have probably missed many points so if you have a specific question please ask and I will answer.
Good luck with whatever you choose and a toast to having choices,
MoJoWales
Update 05/03/08
I changed the values on the ratings to more accurately reflect my observations.
Followup comments:  
G35A
@embarqhsd.net | How did you get them to drop the phone line? Called Embarq and they insist still that you need the phone line with internet service. I have the same service and would like to drop the phone also. I guess I will have to try and try until I get someone who understands. | |
|  | mojowales
join:2008-04-17
Jefferson City, MO
 ·Embarq
| Re: How did you get them to drop the phone line? I would recommend reading the Embarq tech tread here at dslreports and contacting one of the people there. Lamont sure helped me get squared away. You can read about the stand alone dsl "dry loop" and have it in front of you when you talk to a customer service rep. When you call Embarq I would quickly ask for tech then tell them what you want and show that you know that it can be done, the techies will help you in my experience. Then when you inevitably get back to CA rep you can request what you know can be done. They will transfer you around or something to save face and then you are going to get stand alone. Mine was facilitated by the save department, even though I can't seem to get them to call me back now, via Lamont here. I wish you well as I am happy with the price and service now, I just hope that the CA people/marketing scheme get better because jumping through hoops and such is just not any way to conduct business. | |
| embarq_llewi
VIP
join:2007-12-13
Orlando, FL
| "Service has been good as of late. Good wireless router." Hello mojowales,
This is a message from Lamont with Embarq Customer Support. I want to first apologize for any frustration you may have endured and that you were not able to make contact with the representative I spoke to. I am glad to hear that we did get the account setup the way I explained it to you. Please let me know if you are having any recurring or new concerns that we need to address. Please also include your phone number in your reply so I can reference your account. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to help you.
Lamont L.
Embarq Customer Support
SMNP.Lamont.l@embarq.com
For additional support please visit »www.myembarq.com/index.php or call 1-877-646-3282
Voice | Data | Internet | Wireless | Entertainment
--
Lamont L.
Embarq Customer Support
SMNP.Lamont.l@embarq.com
For additional support please visit www.embarq.com/support or call 1-800-339-1811
Voice | Data | Internet | Wireless | Entertainment
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