| slingshot customer service i live in southern illinois_in an area that has only dial-up
i somehow stumbled upon slingshot and naturally i got excited cause dial-up sucks and i would don't mind the up front cost since you get 2 months unlimited with the deal.
i grabbed the phone and called slingshot customer service
and got a solid busy signal for 2 hours but i did finally get thru only to have the guy check my zip code and tell me i was just outside the coverage area_bummer. anyway i went to their website and put in my physical address and to my surprise their i was right in the middle of the grand orange area so i said hummmm??? i called back and calling for hours i got a female and had her recheck and sure enough
i am in the covered area yipeeeeeee. i am gonna pick up a slingshot in the morning since there is a pilot truckstop near me that sells slingshot.i will report tomorrow any problems i have setting this up. glad to see a forum on slingshot. |
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jlsoaz
join:2005-06-17
Rio Rico, AZ | It sounds like the customer service you got was just terrible, in terms of being able to get through.
I am surprised just one guy tried to check just with a zip code. After all, this is about a cell phone tower, no? So, it would be a detailed issue, down to the exact street and neighborhood, I think.
I think Slingshot uses sprint towers, so if you know anyone who uses sprint cell phones, if they can have a decent conversation at your house, that might be an indicator that slingshot might be ok. If not, then that might be an indicator that you should look into Verizon or one of the millenicom deals that use Verizon towers instead of Sprint. I don't know anything about T-Mobile or ATT, as to whether you might be able to use them.
So, let us know how it goes, but I hope you don't get burned. It sounds like, from a customer service standpoint, you are not off to a good start. If I had to rely on wireless for my main internet service, I don't know if I would go with slingshot.
This brings up a question: if I exceeded 5 gig during a month, I wonder if I could just pay another $60 to continue using that month or not?
jl |
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| reply to duffybno1
great news!
i went to pilot this morning and bought a slingshot.
when i opened the box_it had no cd so i just plugged
in the usb modem and everything installed perfectly_i'm running xp_pro. i called a number on the box '1-866-506-9600
guess what no busy signal_gave the guy the numbers on the back of the box and he said it would take 1 - 4 hours.
there a box that pops up that says activate. after 1 hour
i hit the activate and boom it went thru and i am on line thru slingshot right now and it is pretty fast compared to dialup. it has a meter like a cell phone and i have 3 out of 5 bars right now but sometime i get all bars. so far i love it but we'll see if i get any drops. so far so good. |
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| reply to duffybno1
got my slingshot this morning
just stuck the usb stick in the desktop
everything installed very smoothly
a activation screen came up so i hit it
it said activation unsuccessful
i call slingshoy @ 1-866-506-9600
and was surprised there was no busy signal and i got an answer so he asked me for the numbers on the back of the box
and said to try the activation box again in 1 to 4 hrs.
well after half an hour i hit the activation box on my desktop and it went right thru. i am on slingshot right now and its great compared to the 28.8 i was getting on dialup.
the phone lines are terrible out here. i have 2 bars right now but i have seen it go to all bars. right now my speed is 115.2kbps. been on and off all day and no drops at all
even with just 2 bars. i am happy with this slingshot deal.
oh there is'nt a cd in the box at all, i'm running xp_pro |
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jlsoaz
join:2005-06-17
Rio Rico, AZ | said by duffybno1:[...] right now my speed is 115.2kbps. been on and off all day and no drops at all even with just 2 bars. i am happy with this slingshot deal. oh there is'nt a cd in the box at all, i'm running xp_pro Hi:
Are things still going well?
Strange that you received no CD. It sounds like it worked anyway.
Any improvement in your speeds? I am at 3 bars or sometimes higher, and typically get faster than you mentioned (though I'm not sure if the bars affect things directly?).
For example, here is a test from from a few minutes ago:
Approx. 1 meg is the fastest I've seen on the download side. The approx. 100k upload is slow, from what I've seen previously. |
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jlsoaz
join:2005-06-17
Rio Rico, AZ | Maybe my upload was slower because I forgot to fold out the small thingie at the top of the modem? When I put it to the open position, my upload speeds seemed to get faster, though it's hard to say for sure there was a correlation. |
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| On Slingshot customer service, they seem friendly and knowledgeable if you can get through. But it may be better to self-serve for something like coverage maps (Sprint PCS maps for data on their website or use Verizon or AllTel for roaming maps).
On upload/download speeds, I have similar results on slower uploads than downloads, and latency is usually quite long(sometimes 1000-1500 ms); may be partially a function of an older slower laptop. Speeds are generally very high at my office near Sprint towers and T3 lines, but not as high at home in a rural area generally roaming on Verizon(but it still blows away dial-up when I have a solid signal). Maybe we should start another thread where we can compare results? |
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