Review by danoh6 
member for 11.8 years, 3 visits, last login: 11.8 years ago
lodged 11.8 years ago
 New City,Rockland,NY
 $49 per month "absolutely NONE" "Too many to list here" "If you telephone service is provided by Bell Atlantic, Give up"
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
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I have not been able to get sync for 6 1/2 WEEKS!!! I originally wanted the
DSL on My "Home" number, hung well before my birth (and I'm not a
kid....wanna get a 300 baud Fast Connection?) I'm sure, two copper wires
come into the house into a ceramic block, wire gauge could carry 220V easily
and where hung shortly after Columbus.
The line "tested" good (from BA broadband, and two techs sent to my house)
so they sent me the modem etc...etc. Physical mileage from CO is about 2.8
miles, so I know I'm pushing the limit, but also know I am NOT over it.
Modem came, I was busy so I didn't bother right away, didn't matter, turn on
date was a week away , but 2 days after it SHOULD have been connected to DSL
(I was still busy), I get a message on my machine from BA, that it is "Not
Scheduled" to be set up until 4 (four) days after the originally scheduled
date (they sound like this is business as usual, not informing me that they
are late). Hmmmmmm.....sign of things to come? This will be the only "Tech
support" call back I have EVER receive from Hell Atlantic to date.
The date comes......March 21, I'm set and ready, filters installed on All
remote phones (2) and devices (1), DSL modem plugged and ready......No SYNC.
I call tech support, spend hours and hours listening to virtually untrained
people that are rude and arrogant, get placed "on hold" only to be
disconnected time after time. When I call back fuming.....Asis, (who's
command of the English language is greatly threatened by my two year old
neighbor's child) actually recognizes My voice after all these calls, and
does not even ASK for my name or DSL phone number. He knows my voice !!! I
ask nicely to speak to a Supervisor. The response that I get, "There are no
supervisors here...only" and here it takes him a over full minute to say
"trained technical advisors" I am now at a disadvantage, speaking only six
languages besides English (Arabic was not one) I cannot convince him that A)
there is a problem beyond his capacity or that B) perhaps he should transfer
me to someone else.
I know the percentage of Arabic speaking people in the Hell Atlantic service
area FAR outweighs the number of
English,Spanish,French,Italian,Polish,German,Russian,Slavic(Chech etc.), so
I can understand the "business decision" that Hell Atlantic made to hire
Arabic (English as weak second language) people as their first "Tech
Support" contact.
I accidentally find out the "secret", call late (after 11 PM) on Friday
night and you might just talk to English speaking people, that really seem
to care, and will actually investigate the problem. The first and second
line people I talk to are knowledgeable and helpful, and actually try to
work with me. They get My line tested, ACK the MLT test shows 32,000
feet!!!! I tell them that somewhere out there (The song I sing while I hope
an actual "communications provider" can help me) is a pole with almost 3
miles of wire wrapped around it, and that it should be easy to find, as with
the current going through it, it should be a nice magnet, sucking cars and
anything else metallic into it. Wow, These guys where good. The following
evening, two techs show up at my house, one an actually "trained tech" the
other a younger field trainee. They actually have the equipment necessary
(although only the older one knows how to read it, the younger just
parroting "Gee I think we're real far from the CO... duh .... prolly too
far") to do reasonable testing. I begin to think that it's his first trip
this far away from the CO....poor child, thrust from his comfy nest. Thank
heavens, the older experienced tech prevailed, and he actually dragged Jr.
out to try to eliminate some coils and bridges to get me withing range. When
they first came here, he said I should sync and get about 340k, I'd live
with that, as it definitely beats a 56k modem. I told them that I have two
other lines used for computer communications that I had to get the NY Public
Service Commission and the FCC involved in to get "up to voice spec" and
that they had done a great job "cleaning them up" over 6 months ago, and
that they had my permission to swap either, from the "Street Box" (where
they where getting a very clean signal) a little less than 1 mile from my
house, but they wanted to "clean up" the original line and make it work, all
the way. About an hour and 1/2 later they call me from the street box, and
say they have done all they could for today, their shift has ended, but more
needs to be done. They told me that they spoke to their foreman, the line
needed more work to clean up, and if someone was available Sunday, they
would work on it, if not Monday, someone would "get the job". The following
Wednesday, I call, to ask the status of the trouble ticket, and I'm told
it's closed out, and marked as completed. The ready light flashes.....8 or
10 fast.....4 or 5 slow.....8 or 10 fast. After screaming for hours .. I'm
told I'm too far from the CO, 22,000 feet. I explain that the physical
distance and the distance per the engineering diagrams the FCC obtained for
me the last time I seriously fought them (Smell Atlantic) shows different,
to no avail. I try to explain that after about an hours work, the MLT went
from 32,000 to 22,000 and would not logic dictate, that if the work their
own techs said had to be done WAS done, perhaps, things would work? My
response? .. They Now claim All 3 lines are over 22,000 feet, I guess they
where smart enough to match the address, and be consistent, and it knocks me
out of getting service from any other competitors (Gee you think they would
do that ?).
To me, the saddest part of this saga, is that my wife is a 28+ year employee
of this company, I as a consultant for many many years have given them
Millions of dollars of sales, with not a whole lot of benefit to me, other
than keeping my customers happy from time to time. We are both stockholders
in this damned company (not much longer, out of principal) and this is how
we are treated. I actually MISS the early days of AT&T, New York Telephone
and NYNEX At least back then, people cared. At least back then the upper
management cared. Now It's 'Mergers R Us , Telco stuff ????? what's that????
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