| I called support today and ended up speaking with someone that handled my inquiry quite well.
My speed should get bumped back up to 5Mbit/s tonight. I won't have access to multiple IPs, but it's a limitation they're aware exists for people in my situation.
I got the impression it's supposed to be a short-term limitation, but (understandably) the guy wouldn't commit to much more than saying it might get looked at in the future.
I think a similar issue occurred with the 2wire 2700 series devices and now customers do have the option of getting them switched into bridge mode. Hopefully the same thing will end up being true for the 3800s.
If it is a short term limitation and the 3800s eventually end up getting an update the situation I'm in is understandable. Some of the potential options such as installing a second device just for the internet side of things aren't very desirable (for Sasktel) if a single 2wire 3800 series device will (eventually) be able to handle the configuration I want.
With that said, my problem could have been handled better. First, being informed of the limitation prior to having our service updated is something that should have happened.
Second, when I contacted support to ask about the issue it was too difficult to get a definitive answer. There were a few things in particular that annoyed me:
1. The capabilities of the 2wire 3800HGV didn't seem to be understood. Twice I was told it could be put into bridge mode, twice I was told it could not.
2. One person assumed I wanted to set up a gaming server, giving me the impression they didn't think my issue was important.
3. At one point I was given the blanket 'we don't support customer hardware' excuse.
The support person I spoke with today did an excellent job of handling my call and can be credited with having me drop the issue and deal with the limitation. Specifically:
1. He assessed my issue quite quickly and re-iterated it in a way that made it clear he understood what I was asking.
2. He told me he wasn't positive what the capabilities of the 3800HGV were and asked if I could hold while he found out (why can't more people in IT do this?).
3. When he took me off hold he did several things:
- He told me the configuration I was trying to achieve wasn't possible at this time.
- When asked if it was an issue they are aware of he said it was, but that he couldn't tell me if, when or how it would get resolved.
- He suggested two alternate configurations for my network.
I won't end up using either of the configurations that were suggested, but it made it obvious that he was interested in helping find a compromise for the situation.
The whole support call took about 12 minutes and gave me all the answers I've been trying to get for over a week. The answers weren't what I was hoping for, but it's a lot better than getting the run around.
Ryan |
Reviews:
 ·Shaw
| Sadly... Tier one techs specialize in setting up pop3 e-mail, helping users setup spam filters, and resetting passwords.
and 9 times out of 10, when someone is complaining about speed... the problem is a virus or something the user is running that is eating up bandwidth & resources.
I've shared your frustration when I've called Sasktel in the past... "Well your usage is quite high, you likely have a virus... hence why your connection is intermittent" It usually takes me having to explain that I work in IT and I used to install High Speed for Sasktel before they believe that their is indeed something wrong with the connection. |
