Ouroborus
join:2008-06-10
| My adventures with Qwest
In the last week of May, I decided to switch from Comcast to Qwest dsl. This is my adventure so far.
Let me first say that I opted to keep Comcast (but not let them know about it) until the dsl stabilizes. I'm glad I did.
After calling in to Qwest sales and ordering the dsl, they put me in the system and said they'd call back. Afaik, everything was good to go for May 28th. After a couple days (before the 28th), I called them to ask how it was coming along. The person I reached looked at my new install information and went through some gyrations to get the system to give me dsl asap. This apparently moved the installation date to June 2nd. Seems my local fiber to dsl gateway was full and they needed to wait for somebody to cancel and I was in luck because one was pending. They charged me for two things, one as some sort of deposit that I'd get back after a year of paying my bill on time and another as an advance for the first month of service. About $140 total.
I was also required to talk to their verification department and submit documents to prove I was who I said. I had expected this as I'm in an apartment in a poor part of town. First, the person I was supposed to talk to (Michelle) was on vacation (Memorial Day weekend, I think). Then they said in the meantime to fax in a copy of my drivers license, social security card and a piece of mail with my address. I did that (via a free online fax service) and after a few days got to talk with Michelle.
About the only positive thing I can say about Michelle is that she did her job as far as I can tell. She sounded like she was either suffering from a cold or was sick of her job. She told me that my ID & SS fax had come in to light and that the piece of mail wasn't acceptable, that it had to be a copy of my apartment lease agreement. For some reason it always took her the entire day to process everything so that every step took a day. This means it took about an hour of effort total on my part to get the docs faxed, corrected, and faxed again but took about three days for her to process it. At least I restrained myself from going off on her as I knew she would simply make things more difficult.
So after that was done, I was transfered back to sales and they said I was good to go, just wait until about 5pm on June 2nd and get plugged in.
June 2nd arrived, I plugged in, and nothing. As far as I could tell the modem wasn't seeing a signal. Called tech support and they said they were having problems with the install but were still working on it. The next day, there still wasn't a signal. Called tech support again and they sent out a tech for the 4th. It was a 8am-Noon slot and the tech called at 11:45 saying he'd be there in 15 minutes but arrived at about 12:20. Apparently it was a loose/unconnected wire in the junction box so the actual visit only took 20 minutes.
And it worked. Upload is about twice as fast as Comcast and bittorent spends most of it's time uploading when with Comcast it would spend most of it time idle. (I'm guessing that this is due to Comcasts filtering technique.)
Fast forward a couple weeks. I get a call in the late morning today (June 9th) telling me that they can hook up the dsl now. I tell them that it's already hooked up and working fine tyvm. They respond that they'll have to look into it. (Ominous now that I think about it.) Later that afternoon, I'm playing some games and at about 4pm, the connection dies. I reboot the modem, it sees the dsl but won't log me in. I call up tech support and as far as they can tell I'm on queue for new service scheduled for the 12th. The tech messes around a bit in the files without luck and eventually transfers me to the "business office". The guy I get there goes through the same motions (but apparently on a different database) and says he can't find any evidence of previous service at my address. Even the tech support call for the 4th apparently isn't there anymore.
So that's where I stand currently. Already wired up but no service currently. I'm gonna call Qwest tomorrow and see if I can't get some decent answers, possibly some account credit, and verify that they at least have record of the payments I've made so far. Maybe I can convince them to turn it on early or something.
If you made it this far, thanks for at least skimming my rant. |
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mrhuggles
join:2007-03-29
Ames, IA
| man thats horrible, i really feel for you, i have had more or less a good experience with qwest, with a few exceptions, im hopeing i can get them resolved, i like them and i kinda like dsl, especialy over comcast cable, comcast always erked me, i had some funky issues that didnt make sense, like ultima online, i played ultima online and i would have a little bit of lag, even tho my pingtime to pacific.owo.com was only 15ms, when i moved to dsl my pingtime went up to like 35ms but lost all laggyness completely... i havnt played since i moved to iowa and got on qwest, they use interleaving so the first hop is at like over 40ms, thats a little weird and im hopeing i can talk them out of useing interleaving
why you leaving comcast for qwest anyhow? just curious i guess, i would leave them too, but i know alot of ppl that wouldnt, personaly i game so, i go with whatever i can get the lowest ping on, sept the issues i just described :P
oh that and the highest upstream yay |
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Ouroborus
join:2008-06-10
edit:
June 10th, @04:14AM
| Qwest is offering a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Comcast is anti-bittorrent and anti-peer-to-peer. Their latest tactic has been to forge disconnect packets on bittorrent connections. There have been a few articles on the web about Comcast's 'unlimited' broadband being limited. Those people who choose to download 24/7 (I guess they need a lot porn or something) are sent nasty-grams directing them to Comcast's legal department or just simply cut off. (I don't think I fall into this power-user catagory, but I don't like the policy.)
From everything I've heard about Qwest, it's great once you get connected, it's just getting connected that's the hard part. Seems to be a lot of people complaining about getting the dsl setup completed and working reliably, but once it's up, it works great.
With the 30-day guarantee, I figure if they can't get it working in that time frame, I can say forget about it.
Also, I'm into the bittorrent thing and that works on a kind of tit-for-tat arrangment (kinda like back in the day of dial-up BBS). With Qwest's upload being about double of Comcast, I end up getting about double the download speed on a torrent as well. |
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Lunarnova
join:2008-03-17
Seattle, WA
| reply to Ouroborus
Make sure you keep on them for your credit and other billing issues. When I first got my dsl last year it took about 10-15 calls over a few months before my billing was as it should be.
I must say that I am pretty happy with the overal service though. I also used to have Comcast, but dropped them because DSL was cheaper. I also used to get dropped connections at least once a month, but since I switched I don't think I've been dropped at all and my speeds are far more consistant. |
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Ouroborus
join:2008-06-10
edit:
June 10th, @04:29PM
| reply to Ouroborus
This morning I called billing and badgered them about this issue. They put in a request for escalation. At about 11:30am I get a call to verify the information on the account for the June 12th install. So I call back to billing but they're still no help. Turns out escalation can take 24 hours. I called tech support and they're at least able to give me an vague explanation.
Seems there was something wrong with the line. I'm guessing they mean this in the business sense since technically it was working fine. Apparently whomever is responsible for the June 12th install date chose to kill the account and restart the install process without notification. Fortunately, the credit card charges still show up.
As far as I can tell, whatever has been done to my account that caused the June 12th install date and the disconnect side-effect is irreversible. With things as they stand now, either Escalation will get back to me or things will go "as expected" (hah!) and I'll have service on the 12th.
The tech I most recently talked to offered to note the account for a 5 day credit. (Apparently the billing portion of the account doesn't exist until it nears the first billing cycle.)
So far tech support has been excellent. They're able to answer questions (or at least BS it well enough that I can't tell the difference) and get stuff done.
Billing pretty much has it's hands tied when it comes to anything other than charging your account for something.
Sales is fine so long as an issue doesn't come up. If there are any issues with setting up your install (even minor ones, I suspect) expect all hell to break loose.
Qwest so far reminds me of the 1985 movie "Brazil". ( »www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/ ) |
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wingman99
join:2003-12-18
Bettendorf, IA
 ·Qwest.net
| I watched the trailer wow LMAO i can see how you feel what a comedy how in the heck did you get disconnected. |
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Jonbo298
join:2004-01-12
Council Bluffs, IA
| reply to Ouroborus
Seems like somewhere in the way, 2 orders were inadvertently placed somehow and one canceled out the line to 'prep' for the new one. Unfortunately mistakes happen once in awhile. All billing systems/order systems have weird things happen =/
The deposit/verify ID may have been either due to A) Bad credit or B) You were a victim of ID theft in the past and they just have to make sure it is you. Best to cover their bases so that if someone sets up service and then goes crazy and disconnects (lots of international Long Distance just as an example), Qwest can recover some of the damage.
If it is neither, it could be (rarely but it does happen) that the address has had so many fraudulent accounts setup in the past that they have to make sure it isn't someone trying to screw the company again. |
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Ouroborus
join:2008-06-10
| said by Jonbo298  :Seems like somewhere in the way, 2 orders were inadvertently placed somehow and one canceled out the line to 'prep' for the new one. Unfortunately mistakes happen once in awhile. All billing systems/order systems have weird things happen =/ Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing. The particularly strange part is that through this whole this, the various bits of info have remained constant (Order number, account number, customer code, security code, etc.).
said by Jonbo298 :The deposit/verify ID may have been either due to A) Bad credit or B) You were a victim of ID theft in the past and they just have to make sure it is you. Best to cover their bases so that if someone sets up service and then goes crazy and disconnects (lots of international Long Distance just as an example), Qwest can recover some of the damage. If it is neither, it could be (rarely but it does happen) that the address has had so many fraudulent accounts setup in the past that they have to make sure it isn't someone trying to screw the company again. Considering the neighborhood I'm in, I'm not surprised about this. I'm just glad they haven't managed to lose the deposit so far, considering. |
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Ouroborus
join:2008-06-10
edit:
June 11th, @02:24AM
| reply to Ouroborus
Just noticed that the internet light on the dsl modem is green now which means Qwest has reconnected me. From the logs, it seems it's been up for about 10 hours now (which would be sometime around 1:30pm pacific). Wish they'd called me to let me know. We'll see what happens when June 12th roles around. |
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Ouroborus
join:2008-06-10
| reply to Ouroborus
At about 2:30pm Pacific, I got a call from a tech. (He was lost.) He had been tasked with mapping out my connection. I'm really glad he called first, though, as part of it required taking down my connection for a few minutes. Apparently Qwest had lost track of what was hooked up and how. Not surprising, considering. Hopefully this is the last of the install issues.
Also, I called in to have my name spelling corrected and add a contact phone number added across the board. A minor issue which is why I waited so long. Listening to the person doing this, it seems an account is split up into 3 or 4 sections (billing, tech, contact, and so on) and there's no real way to just copy and paste across them. I kinda like when they talk to themselves while they work. Gives me a better impression of what's going on. |
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no_one
@QWEST.NET
| reply to Ouroborus
said by Ouroborus :said by Jonbo298 :Seems like somewhere in the way, 2 orders were inadvertently placed somehow and one canceled out the line to 'prep' for the new one. Unfortunately mistakes happen once in awhile. All billing systems/order systems have weird things happen =/ Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing. The particularly strange part is that through this whole this, the various bits of info have remained constant (Order number, account number, customer code, security code, etc.). said by Jonbo298 :The deposit/verify ID may have been either due to A) Bad credit or B) You were a victim of ID theft in the past and they just have to make sure it is you. Best to cover their bases so that if someone sets up service and then goes crazy and disconnects (lots of international Long Distance just as an example), Qwest can recover some of the damage. If it is neither, it could be (rarely but it does happen) that the address has had so many fraudulent accounts setup in the past that they have to make sure it isn't someone trying to screw the company again. Considering the neighborhood I'm in, I'm not surprised about this. I'm just glad they haven't managed to lose the deposit so far, considering. Yes that is also a possibility. There has been more than one customer skip out on a bill and open a new account in a different name at the same address especially in an apartment. If the last tenant left an unpaid bill there is a chance they will confirm you are a new tenant. Especially if you have not had previous service with Qwest. Helps Qwest not lose money and it could help someone not have their ID thefted. |
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Jonbo298
join:2004-01-12
Council Bluffs, IA
| reply to Ouroborus
Interesting about the order number, etc...staying the same. My best guess from when I worked in Sales at Qwest (but I pretty much knew how it worked in the backend over time), they may have changed the install date at the last minute but the system didn't get it right away or the tech had already connected it.
The system then realized the new install date, cut it off, and then had set itself up to reconnect but it went in sooner probably due to the nature of the situation at hand. That's my best guess unfortunately as I'm not able to lookup the order itself to see what truly had occurred. |
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Nicodemus
join:2008-06-12
Casper, WY
·Qwest.net
| reply to Ouroborus
Good luck trying to get any credit for time that you are down with no internet. Because of a flood somewhere and all the times my internet has been down I have missed a min of a full week of internet. But when I asked for a credit they said they could not do that. |
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Ouroborus
join:2008-06-10
edit:
June 12th, @09:48PM
| said by Nicodemus :Good luck trying to get any credit for time that you are down with no internet. Because of a flood somewhere and all the times my internet has been down I have missed a min of a full week of internet. But when I asked for a credit they said they could not do that. I generally get the response that the downtime has to be greater than 24 hours. Which sorta sucks 'cause that means that generally the only down times you'll get credit for are ones that require a tech to come out and fix them.
In addition, I'm thinking (hoping) that my billing will start on the 12th (or possibly the 10th) since that's the latest start date. |
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Ouroborus
join:2008-06-10
| reply to Jonbo298
said by Jonbo298 :Interesting about the order number, etc...staying the same. [clipped] I would seriously be interested in the internal workings of Qwest's system as related to my issue(s). But then I'm kinda nerdy that way. =P |
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Ouroborus
join:2008-06-10
| reply to Ouroborus
Friday, I got my forth security code mailer. Same security code on all of them but different effective dates. This latest one is for 6/11. Tried to sign up on q.com but it says the security code is invalid. This is slightly better than before when it wouldn't recognize the account number. |
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wingman99
join:2003-12-18
Bettendorf, IA | are you able to use your dsl yet |
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Ouroborus
join:2008-06-10
| said by wingman99 :are you able to use your dsl yet Yeah, so far it's been up since the 10th. |
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bizzyb0t
join:2008-04-08
Denver, CO
| reply to Ouroborus
said by Ouroborus :I was also required to talk to their verification department and submit documents to prove I was who I said. This is NOT a policy with Qwest. Don't believe me? Ask Qwest about it. It seems to me that you got inadvertently directed through one of those "connection service" companies that have been cropping up. I know this because it's what happened to me. I decided to call Qwest directly after I got off the phone with the lady telling me to fax ID stuff. The Qwest customer service person on the phone sounded confused. Hadn't any record of my order. There was some round and round until I realized that perhaps I hadn't spoken to Qwest to begin with. After double checking the numbers I called, I realized that the "connection service" I had called wasn't even part of Qwest. It was just some proxy service of some sort. They basically wanted to order service on my behalf and charge me for it! That part of the post I quoted should be a warning sign to future customers!
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mrhuggles
join:2007-03-29
Ames, IA | arrg that kind of scam should be put down by the BBB imho  |
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