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filbo
Premium Member
join:2012-02-20
Mountain View, CA

filbo

Premium Member

Railroaded SDSL replacement

Hi,

My sister's SDSL modem was recently knocked out by a windstorm -- we don't know exactly what happened, just that it stopped working. There were lots of power "events" etc. during the storm. (It also took out the Comcast cable modem, which Comcast replaced quickly, with no fuss and no charge.)

MegaPath took their sweet time sending out a repair crew. When it finally arrived, they took away the old modem and put in an ADTRAN NetVanta 3133, for which they billed $150 labor + $510(ish, I forget what she said) for equipment.

As far as I know my sister's setup is single-line SDSL and does not need the 3133's line bonding feature. [I'm vague about this because her husband, who maintains all the tech infrastructure, is busy dying of cancer I'm running interference for stuff like this since he can't at the moment.]

Q1: should they be charging $150 labor for basically go in, replace modem, leave?

Q2: is NetVanta 3133 the normal equipment they supply for SDSL? Sorry I'm also vague about the rate: I know it's symmetric, might be 750Kbps, don't know the distance to C.O. If it makes any difference, it's static IP service routing to a class C (/24) network my brother in law owns.

Q3: is $510 a sane price for 3133?

Q4: if I don't like all this, is there any department, phone#, email address etc. I should contact at Megapath to get it fixed? I can call regular customer service but expect it to be pure runaround.

Q5: assuming we can get them to take back the $$$ router, what would be good to supply for ourselves (a) if it's single-line, (b) if bonding is really needed?

URLs to various FAQs that I Should Have Read welcomed...

They were Covad customers long ago, switched to Speakeasy for one reason or another, liked Speakeasy a lot, rode along when it got gobbled up by (I think this was the route) Covad and then Megapath. Megapath clearly sucks but they haven't had time/energy to find something better.

Thanks,

>Bela<
cramer
Premium Member
join:2007-04-10
Raleigh, NC
Westell 6100
Cisco PIX 501

cramer

Premium Member

A1: NO. They shouldn't be charging a thing for a normal repair. (in fact, there's no need to send anyone anywhere... just mail them the modem.)

A2: I have no clue what they use for SDSL... or that *anyone* still provides SDSL service.

A3: NO. You can find them for 200 new. Even cheaper used. And there are *lots* of old SDSL gear gathering dust. (I have a small stack of netopia 7200s(?) and a few ascend pipelines) [translation: you should be able to find SDSL hardware for free.]

A4: Lots... just none that will ever get anything "fixed".

(F'ing dialup is better than dealing with those morons.)