Review by jezor
(review was emailed from domain panix.com)
lodged 11.9 years ago
 Glen Oaks,Queens,NY
 $50 per month
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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Here is my ongoing BA DSL Diary as posted online over the last two weeks:
2/29/00--Guess Who Blew The Install Date
I had such hopes for this one, after both the adapter and the intro letter
arrived on and with matching order numbers. In the end, though, BA's nature
won out: BA failed to install my ADSL service on the appointed date and
time. Of course, they never notified me--I had to figure it out after the
adapter light failed to work when I installed it in my PC last night at 11
p.m., and spent 45 minutes on hold after midnight trying to get someone at
BA to confirm that they never did the install--no one picked up, and I
finally left a disgusted message. I got a voicemail call (after threatening
PSC action, which I may still pursue) this a.m. with the message that there
was a problem on the order, that the order had to be reissued, and that my
new install date is 3/2. I'm on hold again (12 minutes and counting) trying
to get confirmation of this.
More when (if) it happens. {J}
3/3/00--Crushed beneath a BA truck in the Info Highway Fast Lane
The story of the rescheduled installation (and oh yeah, BA never adequately
explained why it postponed installation the first time without telling me):
BA Logistics voice mail message and BA Technician at my house talking to my
wife yesterday: "Your DSL line is installed and working."
Me: "Uh huh."
BA Technical support: "The Central Office must not have activated your
account. I'm escalating this to Broadband. They'll investigate and get
back to you."
Me: "Uh huh. Does Broadband have a telephone number so I can call them to
find out what's going on?"
BA Technical support: "No. But they'll contact you."
Me: "Uh huh."
I'm still waiting for any kind of feedback. Sad to say, my lowest
expectations have been met. {Jonathan, joining the list of victims, and
considering joining the list of plaintiffs}
p.s. One piece of important info. I got: If you're using the internal PCI
DSL "modem," don't put it in the slot next to your video card. This can
cause problems.
3/8/00--BA DSL Diary (written with poison pen): Now I'm out for blood
Calling Bell Atlantic a service provider is like calling the thing on the
back of a boat a propeller. In both cases, you're talking about a screw.
My travails continued this week, and just keep getting worse. When last I
left this diary, I was waiting for Broadband to get back to me on why my
service didn't work. Saturday night I spoke with Rick in technical support,
who told me that Broadband had 48 hours from my report (Friday a.m.) to
respond, and that I should call BA Technical support on Monday am (5-8 am
best time) to find out the status. Monday a.m. I called Jeff in Tier 1, who
reported no response from Broadband, and transferred me to Reggie in Tier 2.
Reggie agreed with me that the culprit may well be the internal Efficient
Speedstream PCI DSL adapter BA sold me, and agreed to overnight me a Westell
external adapter and 3Com NIC for Tuesday a.m. Oh, and Reggie only works
midnight to 8, and rarely answers his line, so he'd have to call me back if
I tried to reach him. Mmmhmm...call me back sometime between midnight and 8
a.m. That's useful. Fine. I agreed to wait for the adapter/NIC.
Meanwhile, I called AceDSL (»www.acecape.com), which has gotten good
reviews as a DSL ISP and does not require using the WinPOET kludge which
BA.NET forces on its customers. Arkady at AceDSL tells me that they would
be happy to take over from BA as my ISP after service is turned on, that the
process takes seven days or so at best, and that I should go ahead and sign
up, so I did.
Comes Tuesday a.m., and no hardware delivery. I called technical support,
and was transferred to Lori Moore at DSL Customer Care (hah!). Ms. Moore
said she'd have to check with Equipment on the other side of the building,
and she'd call me back. Oh, and she gave me her direct extension. I
wait...and wait....and get no call back, so I dialed Customer Care. Guess
what? There's no option to *enter* an extension. I wait for the first
available person, and it's the same Lori Moore I'd spoken with earlier.
(Either I got lucky, or she is the only customer care rep in the whole
company.) I wait while she actually runs to the other side of the building
and gets me an Equipment representative named Cindy. Cindy tells me that
Tier 2 never actually placed an order, so nothing was shipped. She then
places the order for the Westell and the 3Com card (yeah, I know I'd pay
less for the card elsewhere, but I wanted accountability from BA on every
part of the equipment), to be delivered Thursday by 10:30 a.m. to my home.
She gives me her direct dial number, and the name and number of her
supervisor, and promises me she'll give me a tracking number today
(Wednesday) morning. And oh yes, I also filed a formal written complaint
with the New York Public Service Commission over this debacle on Tuesday.
Miracle of miracles, Cindy actually called me this morning...to tell me she
had *CANCELLED MY ORDER!* Why? Because BA got the order from AceDSL and
decided I wasn't their customer anymore and they didn't have to fix my
problems!!!! Keep in mind that the "order" they cancelled was reported to
have been completed by BA last Thursday--they just haven't fixed the
problems yet. Having been pushed beyond even my toleration, I asked to
speak with her supervisor, and made it very clear to him that (a) I was
cancelling my order with AceDSL; (b) I only placed it because BA gave me
zero confidence they could provide me adequate ISP service; (c) it was
placed on the assumption that BA WOULD ACTUALLY GET THE DSL TO WORK FIRST,
and (d) I wasn't taking "no" for an answer. At this point, I am scheduled
to speak with him at 1 p.m. If he has not committed to ship me that
equipment by then, my next call will be to a class action litigator I know.
My tally to date includes conversations with at least 14 BA employees whose
names (and in most cases numbers) I have, at least at least 25 hours spent
either on the phone or trying to configure a non-existent DSL connection
following my first scheduled install date on 2/28, uncounted loss of
productivity from all the sleep I've missed on hold with BA late at night or
early in the morning, plus countless more hours in the past 8 months dealing
with BA's failure to help Covad give me DSL service last fall and BA's
failure to reinstate its own ISDN service on my line after a three-week gap
caused by the Covad effort.
I have, though, picked up a few useful tidbits of wisdom along the way:
DON'T REQUEST THE EFFICIENT SPEEDSTREAM PCI ADAPTER.
If you do get the Speedstream, don't put it into a slot next to your video
card, or next to the ISA slots in your box (if you have 'em).
If you do get the Speedstream, and installation doesn't work, get the
ENClean utility from
to clear out the drivers completely before trying installation again. BA
recommends this utility when pressed; it just doesn't provide it.
First tier installation technical support is in Texas, and the best time to
call 800-567-6789 (punch the options for installation assistance on DSL) is
5-8 am weekdays. Forget about latenight.
Second tier technical support is in Virginia.
Customer Care and Equipment share a building somewhere in
upstate New York.
Broadband has no phone number, nor does your central office, and neither
will ever get back to you.
Abandon hope all ye who enter here. {Jonathan}
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