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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 9.6 years ago
(review was emailed from domain millersinteriors.com)
 98307
 Business customer
 Contract price not specified. (12 month contract)
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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I am currently shopping for a new ISP because, thankfully, our one year
contract with GTEI is finally coming to a merciful end. I can't wait to
leave them behind. Following is just a small portion of a letter sent
to GTE NW last May. I unfortunately have to add that my problems have
continued. I have been trying for the last five months to get a simple
redirect for our URL. No luck.
My experience with GTE (the phone company) has ranged from okay to
excellent. My experience with GTEInternetworking has been by far the
worse experience I have ever had with any company.
We use the Bronze business package.
Thank you for a great site.
On March 8th I contacted GTE Northwest's business service office to
request an ADSL line. I have included with this letter a partial log
documenting the very long, very frustrating ordeal that then ensued. It
took over three months for me to actually obtain service to access the
Internet via DSL and another two weeks beyond that to get email accounts
set up. While we now have partial DSL service there are still issues
that are unresolved (for instance, as of today, I still can not get any
yhelp' from the GTEI Help Desk because they can not find our account
info).
I made the decision to sign up with your vendor, GTE Internetworking, on
the assumption that the two companies would have a close working
relationship that would make the process easier and faster. That and
the fact that my current ISP did not yet offer the service.
Unfortunately there appears to be a huge breakdown in communication,
wide spread misinformation, lack of cooperation and virtually no follow
through at GTEIs end.
3/8 Called GTE Business Account office. Spoke to Jill Erlandson and
requested ADSL service. She verified that service was available to our
prefix and called me back after she qualified the line. She said she
would have Ken Berg, engineer, call me the following day to answer my
questions that she could not regarding specific hardware requirements.
3/10 Called Jill back because I had not heard from either her or Ken.
She never did call me back.
3/11 Rec'd a message from Dawn Beaseley saying she has been assigned to
our account and she has asked Ken again to contact me.
3/12 Played phone tag with Ken who said he just now the request from
Dawn to call me.
3/12 Left another message for Dawn.
3/15 Finally made contact with Ken Berg. We discussed our company's
needs and current and future computer configuration. He thought
everything should work just fine and said he would discuss with Dawn.
3/17 Another call to Dawn because I had not heard from her. She said
that she needed to check into if the service is available in our area
and qualify the line. I told her that had already been done, over a
week ago, so could we please just proceed with placing the order. She
also said that she would check in to tech support for our Macs. A
message from her later in the day indicated that there was no problem
supporting our Mac computers and that she would call me tomorrow after
she discussed the requirements for the router/hub with the engineer.
3/18 Did not hear from Dawn, left another message for her.
3/19 Still no call from Dawn, left another message
3/23 Finally rec'd a call from Dawn in which she told me that contrary
to what she had previously said they do not support Macs, there is no
Help Desk support and no trouble shooting of our network. She did find
out that they can support Netscape as a browser. I told her I
understood, to please proceed. She said she would get a copy of the
service plans to me right away and that I should talk to Joel Flemming
if I had any questions.
3/23 Rec'd a call from Joe Buongiorno who indicated that he will have an
equipment quote for me this week, and that once I have approved it then
it takes 1-2 weeks to order the equipment.
3/23 I called Joel Flemming to discuss service plans. He and I decided
on which level of service was appropriate for our needs. He said he was
sending Dawn the different prices for the levels discussed.
3/24 Called Joe B. again to ask if he had spoken yet to the LAN
consultant I had hired to run a new Ethernet network regarding what he
was doing and what GTE needed. He said he had not been available when
the consultant called him. Asked my consultant to try calling again
since Joe seemed to be unwilling to make the call back himself.
3/29 Finally rec'd the pricing for the different service levels from
Dawn.
4/5 Rec'd a call from Joe B. saying he still did not have the
information he needed and that he still needed to talk to Dawn about the
additional IP addresses but that we needed as far as zones, routing,
etc., and that he had finally talked to my LAN consultant but still felt
uncomfortable with what we were doing in-house.
4/7 Rec'd a fax with the quote for equipment and software prepared by
Joe B. After a couple of phone calls to Dawn and Joe to try to get an
understanding of what all of the items listed were and why we needed
them, prepared a memo to my company owners explaining the $2,912.74 cost
so that I could obtain their approval right away so that we could
proceed but since my LAN consultant was in the office I reviewed it with
him first. He was confused about what GTE was doing and why they were
requiring the things listed in the quote. I called Dawn and requested a
three-way call with her, Joe and my LAN consultant. The result of that
call was we did not need any of the equipment or software that Joe had
proposed and which I had waited for two weeks to get from him.
4/8 Called Dawn to find out where we were in the process and when we
could get equipment installed/service started.
4/8 Jennifer Calkins, Dawn's assistant, called with Eddie Chatman on the
line from Dallas. He agreed to send the contract via overnight to get
things rolling.
4/12 Rec'd GTE Internetworking service agreement for Business DSL
Internet service. Returned it to Eddie Chatman the next day via
overnight FedEx. I tracked the delivery - Eddie rec'd it at 9:26 on
4/14.
4/13 Called Jennifer to inquire about schedule for installation and
service.
4/14 Called Jennifer again to ask when it would happen. She said she
was waiting for Eddie to give her the information that she needed. I
requested that, considering how long this has already taken, and how
patient I have been, that she schedule installation of the modem and
start of service THIS week. I also requested that she make a yspecial'
effort to make it happen. She said she would get back to me.
4/15 Rec'd a call from Jennifer indicating that she still does not have
the DCs and circuit numbers that she needs from Eddie and that the very
soonest that the tech can install would be next Wed., 4/21. She said
the modem has to be drop shipped and that it takes 5 days.
4/19 Called Jennifer on Monday to confirm with her that the installation
was going to take place this Wednesday. She said she still did not have
the information that she needed so she would look into it and call me
back this afternoon. She did not.
4/20 Rec'd a call from Jennifer indicating that she just now got the
info that she needed from Dallas and that now the very soonest that the
install could take place is next Tues., 4/27.
4/20 Since this has already gone on too long and I still don't know for
sure when it is going to be taken care of, contacted a friend at GTE and
asked for help.
4/21 Per a friend at GTE NW's request Chris from GTE, Everett called me
and said he would look into the situation and get back to me. Chris
called later that day to let me know he was checking on the arrival of
the modem and trying to move install date up to tomorrow or the next
day.
4/22 Called Chris to let him know modem has arrived. Chris said he
contacted the local manager to see if it was possible to install this
afternoon. Called later to let me know it would have to be tomorrow.
He had also called GTEI to request that they get their end ready.
Fri., 4/23 9 AM Chris called to let me know he is still trying to get
through to someone at GTEI who can walk us through the configuration
process.
10:00 GTE Service Tech arrives to install the DSL modem.
11:00 Call Chris to let him know the equipment is ready, ask when
can I get the info on connecting? He will contact GTEI again and try to
get configuration info.
1:00 Call from Chris to ask me for our computer models and systems
version because, since he has not been able to get anyone at GTEI to
respond, he is going to try to find some information on his own and try
to walk me through it himself.
1:30 Call from Chris to tell me that GTEI has told him that it takes
24 hours for IP binding. He is trying to set up a time on Monday for
someone from GTEI to call me to walk through the configuration since he
did not have enough experience on Macs.
3 PM Call from Chris - Liz Lukaschek from GTEI is to call me first
thing Monday AM.
Mon., 4/26 10:00 AM Call from Chris to let me know he is going to be in
a meeting until noon and will call me after.
12:45 Call from Chris to see if Liz has contacted me. Told him she
had not. He said he would call her again.
1:00 Rec'd a call from Liz saying she would fax info. I
specifically asked her to include a phone number where I could reach her
in case I had any problems.
1:15 Rec'd fax from Liz with configuration info. There was no
number to reach her on the fax.
2:00 After following the instructions faxed to me, and crashing my
computer three times, starting looking for a number to call for help.
Called three different numbers, no one could help. Finally located
Victor at 1-877-222-2375 who said he had actually faxed the info for Liz
because she was at home but he was not able to help me with the
configuration. He asked me to call Tony Morris, Internetworking Product
Specialist, at 1-888-483-4111. Tony had already gone home for the
evening but he did call me back. He said that he had actually written
the documentation for configuring DSL on a Mac G3 so thought he would be
able to help me get it working. He thought there might be problems in
the Seattle area network, or that modem might need a different cable
(crossover vs straight?). When we were not able to get a connection, I
told him I would have to contact my LAN consultant in the morning to
inquire about a different cable for testing the connection.
5:10 Nancy from GTE, Everett called per a request from Maria from
Customer Service in CA (I guess that's one of the numbers I called in my
search for help). She said that everything looks good from there but
that she can not see any traffic on our line.
Tues., 4/27 9:45 Liz from GTEI called to tell me she is emailing me a
ywelcome letter' with info on how to contact her and others for help and
has emailed the DSL support group asking them to contact me with help on
getting IP addresses from the server.
10:30 Call from Chris to check on the progress.
11:00 Call from Tony Morris. He walked me through checking the modem
with a cable straight to a Mac, by-passing the Hub. Everything checked
out okay with modem and cables. He will check on who I need to contact
to set up email accounts, domain name transfer, etc. and call me back.
He walked me through the configuration with my LAN consultant providing
some additional assistance. We were finally able to connect. Three
months and 3 days after my first call to place the order I am finally
able to connect to the internet using DSL, but I still can not get email
so must continue to use my current ISP for that service.
Wed., 4/28 7:45 AM Message from Tony Morris, per Eddie Chatman there
is a two week turnaround for email access.
8:15 Left message for Eddie.
10:00 Call from Eddie. He said there is nothing he can do to make
it happened faster, that the process does not even start until after the
DSL service is up and running and then it is at least two weeks after
that. Per his request, I emailed Eddie and provided him with a list of
user names and again requested that since he has had our signed
agreement for two weeks and this has already taken such a long time that
he do whatever he could to speed up the process.
1:00 Left a message for Tony Morris because, after successfully
setting up the first 5 computers with IP addresses, I can not get the
server to assign a 6th IP address. We bought the Advantage Package
which gives us 5 addresses plus another 5 at no additional charge. I
need a minimum of 6 at this time.
Thurs., 4/29 9:45 AM Message from Tony - we only have 5 available,
they do not offer the 5 additional package any longer. He does not know
who sold that package to me but it has not been available since Feb.
when it was decided that they could no longer offer it. Left message
for Chris asking for his help, again.
11:00 Call from Chris, he will look into and see what can be done.
1:40 Call from Chris. He has talked to Dawn, the Account Manager
who sold me the package. She still had the same program packages that
she presented to me. He also talked to Dallas and was told that it was
an equipment provisioning problem not just that they don't offer that
package any more. He left a message for the Dallas manager and will get
back to me.
3:00 Call from Chris, he has talked to Dallas and Massachusetts and
is working on getting us the additional IP addresses we need.
Fri., 4/30 11:45 Call from Eddie Chatman, he heard from Tony Morris
that we were sold something that they do not offer, wanted to know who
sold it to me and how they presented it. Per his request I faxed him
the page of service levels that I received from Dawn. He said he would
email me the packages that they do offer. Rec'd an email in an app that
I could not translate. Left a message for him asking him to fax it.
1:30 Rec'd a fax of Mac configuration instructions (which I already
had, did not request and did not need) from Eddie but no service package
information which is what I really needed.
Tues, 5/4 8:30 Called Eddie to inquire, again, about getting the
pricing for service packages. He said he forgot to send that to me,
would do it today. I never rec'd anything from him.
Wed., 5/5 8:30 Called Chris to see if he has been able to find a way to
get us what we were sold and still need. He said he is still waiting on
a call back, he will try to reach them again and will get back to me.
3:30 Call from Liz regarding transfer of Domain name. From this
point on I was no longer able to access email going to my current ISP
using my domain name. It was all going to GTEI because they had
transferred the Domain name, but I could not yet access my email on
their server.
4:15 Call from Chris - the additional IP addresses should be
available by Monday, 5/10.
Mon., 5/10 8:00 All of our DSL connections have suddenly stopped
working. Left message at Dallas Help Desk.
9:10 Called GTE 1-800-483-2000. All lines test okay.
9:15 Call from 1-888-391-1234 - they will run some tests.
9:30 Call from Jackie at 800-555-6635 #2747. She says the DSL was
built on the wrong line - that they installed it on our 425-743-3213
line (our main telephone #) even though I requested that it be installed
on the 425-742-2594 line. She said that she would request that it be
changed and stated that she did not even know how it was working at all
before since the number it was on hunts to 6 different lines and they
could all be busy. I reminded her that we were dealing with data vs
voice and that it should not be a problem (why am I having to explain
this to her?) but I would prefer to have it on the number I originally
requested for ease of trouble shooting.
11:00 Dale GTE Special Service Tech arrives to check out modem,,
hub, line, etc. Everything checks okay.
2:15 Jay at DSL Enhanced Product Support calls, he says he sees good
integrity, good connection, he's seeing data, frame clouds, he can see
us getting out but we appear to be hitting a wall at the other end,
that they (the ISP, GTEI) is not responding.
2:30 Left message for Tony Morris. Called ADSL Tech Support
877-222-2375, Mike said he would start a Ticket to do a line check.
4:30 Jennifer Calkins called to request info regarding two
additional email addresses. I told her that Eddie Chatman already had
all of that that information and that he has had it since 4/28!
4:50 Chris called with information on additional IP addressees. I
tell him about our current problem and that GTEI seems to think it's not
a problem on their end and appear to be too busy pointing fingers at
equipment, etc., at this end to look at the possibility of them messing
things up when they assigned new IP addresses this morning, so I ask if
he can help, again. I also had already had a lot of discussion with
GTEI regarding the new block of IP addresses they have assigned to us
regarding static vs dynamic. He will check into and get back to me.
Tues., 5/11 8:00 Chris calls to see if the tech that was sent out
yesterday was able to connect. Since I'm unsure what he found in his
testing and what it means, Chris says he will call and talk to Dale
directly.
10:15 Call from Liz - email should be available today. She is
checking into release of old IP addresses/set up of new.
11:00 Jeff, Tampa, FL, he thinks since they switched the number that
the DSL was on that they might have to physically come out to our
location and change something in the lines. That does not really make
sense to me. I ask him to call Chris directly because this is becoming
another long drawn out problem and we've been completely down now for
two days.
12:20 Jeff calls back, he does not see any traffic from ISP so he is
routing a ticket to the second level. Again asked him to contact Chris.
2:40 Dale, Special Service Tech, stops by while in the area just to
see if we are up and running yet and if there is anything he can do.
3:00 Call from Chris, he is trying to get our circuit remapped to
point towards one of GTE's PCs to take them (GTEI) out of the loop.
4:50 Chris, Virgil and Shawn on the line, walk me through
configuring to connect directly to them. It works, I can get out to
their location. So I guess this proves that it's GTEI's problem.
5:32 Chris has not been able to verify that the circuit has been
rebuilt so there is nothing more we can do tonight, he will call me in
the morning.
Wed, 5/12 8:15 Call from Chris, he has to go to a 11:00 meeting will
contact me afterwards. He has asked a special service tech support
person to call me.
11:10 Carlo calls per Chris' request. But unfortunately, he asks
all the same questions we have already covered with others, yes the
modem is connected, yes the modem lights are on, yes all of the
equipment checks okay, etc. We walk through the configuration again.
He said he is deleting my old range of addresses. Still nothing works.
I suggested that, since I was able to connect to GTE yesterday by
manually assigning an address and that since GTEI has done something to
our IP addresses this week, is it possible to try connecting manually?
He said we could try, so I ask him for the subnet mask info etc. and it
worked. (why am I, the customer suggesting solutions to the tech
support person?) I let Chris know what happened, he asks if anyone has
got us set up for email yet. Tell him no, he says he will contact them
again.
12:15 Liz calls with email info and temp passwords for access.
12:05 Finally have access to our corporate email which has been
going to GTEI's server ever since they transferred our domain name from
our old ISP (days before I had actually had access to it).
12:30 Call Liz to ask how to change passwords for security purposes.
1:30 Info Liz emails does not work. Leave message for her.
2:40 Call Help Desk again, Bob gets Liz on the phone because he does
not know how to help me change passwords. Liz trains him how to do it
while talking me through it (she says the documentation she sent me was
unclear).
4:10 Having trouble with changing the password on one of our
computers, call help desk again. Bryce can not find our account info so
he can not help me, transfers me to the billing dept. At 4:45 when
Stacy still can not find our account info, I tell her I am tired of
waiting for them to figure out our account exists and I'll call back
when I have lots of time.
Mon., 5/17 7:45 AM Message from Jennifer Calkins, yjust checking to
see if everything is going okay.' Return her call and leave her a
message that I have not been able to get help on the Help Desk because
they can not find our account information and that I would appreciate
her telling them that our account does exist and how to find it.
Wed., 5/19 Still paying for service with our original ISP due to
continued problems getting email from GTEI. Draft letter to send to
GTE.
1:45 Message from Jennifer asking what number I called where they
could not find our account.
4:15 Leave message for Jennifer with Help Desk's telephone #.
Thurs. 5/20 9:20 Finish ltr. to GTE. Call ADSL National Support center
1-888-701-9773 - After being bounced around a few times and on hold
forever at 9:55 - I give up, again, Richard still can't find our account
so can't help me. Left another message for Jennifer.
10:45 Call from Jennifer with GTEI on the line, they suggest we try
1-800-927-300 and in the process of transferring us there we are
disconnected.
11:30 Jennifer back on the line with the Help Desk at
1-800-927-3000. They still can not find our account information. They
suggest that we contact 800-GTE-HOST. Jennifer says call her back if
they can't help.
11:35 I call 800-GTE-HOST and am on hold until 11:45. Peter then
tells me that they can not find any info on our account. Give up for
the day, I have other things I need to deal with today. Leave another
message for Jennifer that the problem continues and mail this novel with
the ending still a mystery.
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