Review by jameswade 
UPDATED: 269 days ago
member for 6.7 years, 1481 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Atlanta,Fulton,GA
 Contract price not specified. (12 month contract)
 BellSouth
 "Naked DSL"
 "Can't follow directions, thick accents when talking with support"
 "Outgoing mail is blocked! If I wanted this kind of service I'd have gotten cable!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
After a lot of troubleshooting I found that BellSouth is blocking port 25 and will not unblock it unless I spend substantially more a business account. If they can open the port for business they should be able to open it for residential. This is bait and switch, they lure you in then try to charge more to open up what should already be open.
Here's an update - Overnight this magically started working, but I'm only getting around two Mbit down instead of six. More phone calls, more hold time, more explaining the same thing over and over!
Last week I discovered that BellSouth (AT&T, whatever they're called now) was finally offering naked DSL. At the same time my current ISP, Speed Factory was getting more unreliable and their support was getting worse and worse.
My 3 Mbit/sec down with Speed Factory was around $59/month and the unused voice line with BellSouth was around $29/month so I ended up saving about $40 per month and doubled my speed going with BellSouth.
I called for service Wednesday the 5th and was told that my service would be changed that Friday. I asked when I would receive the new DSL transceiver and was told early next week. I was amazed that the sales person would shut off my present service early for no good reason and asked here to not change my service until next Wednesday so that I'd have the new DSL transceiver.
This morning, Saturday, I started up VPN to do some work and found that DSL was down. I called Speed Factory and after an hour and a half of waiting around their "support" they found that my service had been switched to another ISP! No more Speed Factory!
After calls to Bell South and many conversations with people that couldn't speak or understand American English very well I asked to be escalated (two levels!) I got a nice person that could retain what I said for longer than 30 seconds. She confirmed that I had been changed over from Speed Factory, but only "partially" changed, the rest of the change could take up to 24 hours.
I asked her to switch me back to Speed Factory, but she was unable to - Speed Factory (They resell BellSouth) would have to do that. Not much chance of that with their "support".
She did have the bright idea of just using my Speed Factory transceiver, but that wouldn't work because she thinks (they can't be sure) that the line is not fully provisioned yet.
I've lost a day of my life messing with this because of BellSouth's incompetence. Should have just ordered cable, they're cheaper and offer better speeds. I wouldn't have done that in the past because of their unreliable service and poor support. Hmmm...
12/4/2007
Service was out last night. Calls to support would not work, all circuits busy. Turns out that access was out in nine states. Great.
Followup comments:  
Arizul
@bellsouth.net
| Sorry to Burst your bubble Before doing the switch to BS you should've read the TOS.
It clearly states that port 25 is blocked by BS due to residential spammers. You could've gotten your email provider to open up the esmtp port as an alternative to port 25.
2nd.. I agree with your review on the support side. But as a consumer you should've plan for the worst. Thinking the grass is greener over the cable side is another big time fallacy. You might end up finding out that the promised speeds are not attainable and the support is as bad as bellsouth.
I've had 2 of my neighboors venture into cable.. and lets just say they are back with bellsouth although they despise the support.. But they started noticing that thier downtimes are minimal which means that support is no longer the issue.
Either way good luck with your cable company. | |
|  | | | |
Shallah_z
@bellsouth.net
| Re: Sorry to Burst your bubble said by jameswade :Maybe I should have read every square inch of every piece of paper that comes with everything that buy. I really do need to get on with my life. Why should I plan for the worst if I'm a consumer? So far I've not seen the problems you're describing with cable at the neighbor's houses. So not a fallacy here. What was the first big time fallacy? After BellSouth (AT&T) screwed up nine states' Internet access last night and non-functioning support, I don't see that BellSouth is any better than cable. I stand by my review and don't care whether you agree or not. I am guessing for you that Terms of Service is something companies just decide to give out because they have nothing better else to do.
I am guessing as well if you are signing a contract you never read it.
Sorry to burst your bubble, your #1 fallacy is right there.. I have to agree with Arizul's comment.
I think what arizul meant that as a consumer it is your responsibility to investigate the service you will be acquiring, and see what are the pros and cons of the service. So far it seems you think that cable is better than DSL , but how do you know it is?
good luck | |
| | | | | | | | |
Shallah_z
@bellsouth.net
| Re: Sorry to Burst your bubble said by jameswade :I don't care whose comments you agree with. You're both defending these guys a lot, do you work for them? I don't think that cable's necessarily better than DSL, but I know, all of my neighbor's cable Internet access is consistently faster and more reliable than my residential and two business accounts. I've moved one of my business accounts to another non-DSL provider and will be moving the rest soon. The service and reliability is much better. I'm removing myself from this thread - it was created to help others who might be considering service, not to debate what fine print I should read. I am not defending bellsouth, I am just pointing out the obvious here, you never did research before acquiring the product.
Its like trying to buy a car without looking at its specs and consumer reviews.
good luck with your new service.. | |
| jerrymaynor
join:2003-12-17
Alpharetta, GA
| "finally working"?? Are you saying that your Port 25 is now open or that your DSL service is finally working? Mine is blocked in both directions and if you've figured out some magic bullet to have it unlocked without a business-class account there are many of us here that would love to hear it! | |
|
letsthinkfirst
@bellsouth.net
| you should think first Why would you need port 25 open for residential? Sure they block the ident port for irc, but who cares. Please do complain over this little issue and say i'm paying x$$ for this and i didn't know that, because we really care, and i'm sure att cares about your rating (they are a monopoly now you know)! | |
|
Commonsensia
@bellsouth.net
| Bellsouth/ATT ROFLMAO, I am one of those that tried cable, after using bellsouth, mostly because it was new here and I figured I would have most of the pipe to myself "Small Country Community" the speeds promised never occurred, and was continuously dropping and reconnecting causing my personal network to have fits. I had the Bellsouth Xtreme before changing and I got 5.5 to 6 almost all the time. The cable promised 8 and I never topped 5.1, and I am less then 100 yards from one of the cable line booster. Which by the way the cable servicemen stated would make it seem like I was in the next room from there main trunk.
So personally I absolutely love Bellsouth, support has always been great, but keep in mind if I get a foreigner on the phone I immediately request an American Technician, which they will provide simply by asking.
Lastly as for the mail, as was stated in one of the replies it is in their terms of service that port 25 is blocked along with a few others, but there is a very simply and easy fix by using one of the portal sites on the net like NO-IP.com, DYDNS and so forth not only give you the mail port but the ability to use any of your own domain names.
So before you knock a site for doing something that is common practice for most of the large providers.
The only grip I have is with the new AT&T's new Internet Security Suite, the dang thing has a limit of about 3 or 4 per account, and there is 5 PC's and 2 laptops.
"BUT"
The cable company just finished running brand new Fiber Optic lines here so I may have to give them another chance, but know that fiber can offer up to 40+ MBPS as Verizon is doing I may wait for them to get with the real program.
Happy Holidays All! | |
| 
Pashune
Your average, anemic person.
Premium
join:2006-04-14
Gautier, MS
 ·CableOne
 ·AT&T Southeast
| Service..? Service was not out on 12/4/07. Only their DNS servers were out. I use completely, free, different DNS servers, and not once has my connection hiccuped because of that, but I will say I've spent 2 years getting my connection to full 3 meg due to line work.
Right now, I'm really satisfied with service, but about port 25.... you do know that most ISPs in the U.S. block port 25 anyway, right? Atleast Bellsouth/AT&T doesn't block port 80...
--
I have achieved 3 meg , fastpath sync on a 15,700 ft. 26 ga copper line. =] | |
| spincycle
join:2007-12-05
| tech support
right on with regards to AT&T providing us American tech supports. you just ask the first guy you talk to...they then give you to their supervisor who in turn will personnally get you his american counterpart before transferring you over....only when their are available US based techs though. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of AT&T Southeast |
|
(81)
·
·