Speakeasy → Had to call today after DSL went out last night...

during bad storms. Opened a ticket online at roughly 8:25 AM Eastern and first response was 8:47 AM Eastern.

They needed me at home to do some testing, so after a school play I got home. tried the modems at the NID with same result - ATM light out and DSL light blinking green\yellow or orange. Called up support and they noted the CPE was turned off - it wasn't. Tried to do the loop test and one other test and they got no results - likely the line is broken somewhere. They opened a Covad ticket and by 5 PM tonight I should know if AT&T is coming out to fix the line.

During the time between working\play and getting to the house - Vincent tried to contact me to ask questions and then he tried to call when I was talking to Heather in support by phone.

In short - opened the ticket at approx 8:25 AM local time and by 11:15 AM Eastern I had the likely answer of what the problem was and the Covad ticket was opened.

AT&T has a ticket - their commit date is 5/31 - SE tried to move it closer but with the pea to baseball sized hail we got Wednesday night has created some work for them.

SE has tried everyday to try and get AT&T out to the house early but no such luck...

AT&T is blaming Covad - line is supposedly flagged as a dial tone circuit - since it is a dry pair - wrong circuit id and no signal from Covad.

Truck roll for Covad tomorrow - supposedly the loop is now showing up.

In AT&T hell - they fixed something on the line but the voltages are everywhere. AT&T is going to be called back out and it probably won't be till Monday...

Going to be asking for prorated charges for being down for over a week.

First time in 11 years I have been in AT&T hell with this line. Other than 9/11 and a hour outage sometime last year - this line has not been down for more than an hour since 2000...

AT&T has a date for Monday...

It pains me to say it, but welcome to the new Speakeasy.

But SE is doing everything right, quick, and trying to get AT&T and Covad to get out to me as soon as they can. The problem is AT&T as easily seen in the posts so far.

AT&T did not call before they came to the house as requested by SE\Covad. Covad did call. AT&T blamed everything on Covad - but AT&T did do something to the line even when they said they didn't.

They have failed to restore your service quickly, which is the bottom line. And things like this didn't used to happen with them when they were focused on maintaining excellent relationships with the LECs.

They have never been able to force ILECs to do anything - they don't have a real relationship with ILECs unless they were reselling an ILECs DSL. Covad has the relationship to the ILEC in my case. And AT&T dragging is more about them trying to get me to go to AT&T DSL - the AT&T tech immediately told my wife their DSL was better and why did we have Covad...

Sorry - in my case - AT&T is the only ones at fault for not having me up in less than a week.

Um, you know it's Megapath now, right?
I had several extended downtimes, all post-merger, often lasting a week or more. The ISP / LEC blame game went on for days before, each time, the problem was discovered to be ISP side. I don't doubt one bit AT&T is stalling work for a 3rd party order - they prioritize their own first, 3rd party ISPs get the back seat, or no work at all. I'm glad I left when I did - should have done it far sooner. I now have 50/10 broadband that has had zero downtime since install. Far better than what Megapath achieved post-merger. I pay a bit more, but the value for money is far better. The Speakeasy we once knew and loved is no more. Even the cool support hold music is gone.

Yea - Megapath - no biggie. If I go with another DSL it would still be via Covad and I would still get the same crap from AT&T.

I am not doing AT&T DSL at all and I hate Time Warner even more (I could not even get to a pricing page for plain RR on the TW website). I go to TW and they need to see if they service me - I add in the info. They state they do not recognize the address. I go to a page they suggest to see who my provider is and shockingly - it is TW. It passes the data to TWs page and it states TW does not service the address... Amazing service TW provides on their website...

For exactly what I have now - no one is cheaper than what I have now. Even LBDSL is the same price and I get to deal with PPPoE as well and the ISP is still 3rd party.

EDIT - Not to mention - I know of no ISP config that would cause the tip and ring voltages to fluctuate both over time and between each other:
T-G = 1.36, .396, .393, .392, .417

R-G = .421, .443, .403, .407, .398

Actually, speaking as a former Covad DSL reseller, this is the normal course anytime a Covad/AT&T (bellsouth) circuit has any problem. AT&T *ALWAYS* blames Covad -- 99% of the time it's entirely AT&T who screwed something up. (Covad rarely has physical access to the circuit, so they cannot mess it up.)

Yep - since you have some insight to this - this is what the AT&T tech said when he first came out...

1) He stated that Covad had a ID on the line that IDd the line as having dial tone. Since the line did not have dial tone and it was flagged as having it - Covad 'cut'\turned off the circuit.

I have no idea why Covad would flag a line as having dial tone - since they do not provide dial tone to any lines - the ILEC does.

2) He then said that the line was perfectly fine - just did not have a signal from Covad so either Covad shut me off or the modem was bad (as he could not get a signal from it either).

I somehow doubt he tried to get a signal from the modem since it is not his concern. When I told him I had 2 modems and tested both - he said the modems must be incompatible... Not to mention - it DOES look like AT&T did something to the line - when I called SE\MP - the loop test failed completely. After the AT&T tech left - the loop tested ok by Se\MP. And from the trouble tickets - it does look like something was done by the AT&T tech.

Either Covad entered the wrong number, AT&T has their records wrong, or AT&T is out-right lying. (this happens alot. I've done it myself.)

Covad rents space in CO's for their hardware. Generally speaking, they have zero access to physical wiring. There's a handoff between their gear and the ILEC. Beyond there, it's entirely the ILEC's problem. (read: only a few dozen feet of the line belongs to Covad.) So, in almost *every* case, it's something the ILEC has to fix. (and, in fact, is usually something they've done in the first place.) All Covad can do is shutdown the port on the DSLAM; at which point, there should be zero voltage (signal) on the dry loop.

AT&T got out to the house - found a ground and fixed it. He then called Covad to do testing but both modem still will not sync.

Will have to call SE to see if there is anything they want to do on their end and see what my options are. I know I am out of contract so I either go to TW (shudder) or Cincinnatti Bell DSL.

got home from work and modem was synched up and I have the internet back....

Regardless of who is at fault, no business can tolerate an 11 day Internet outage from any ISP. You are far more tolerant than any client of my business, who would hold accountable the company to whom they write the check for the service.

It is residential service - it is not life and death and no business is at risk from me not having a connection. Going to get a credit so I will be out convenience for the 11 days.

Of course - nothing but nothing is guaranteed and our TW line at work, that provides out backhaul, went down today. In a period of time at another job that had TW - we had so many issues it was not funny. From all 3 DNS servers going down to running out of IPs.

I have few choices - TW, Cincy Bell DSL, and AT&T DSL or stay with SE (include any Covad reseller). Only 1 of the other choices were even palatable but still a big unknown. SE still has a great TOS, uncapped, and been down for more than 1 hour, a grand total of 3 times in 11 (closer to 11.5) years.

Checked out other ISPs for DSL - like LBDSL and for what I have now - would cost me the same or a bit more and I could easily have the exact same issues.

And as promised - the credit was given and on the next bill.