PSN wrap
(old news - 08:39PM Wednesday May 24 2000)
A PSN customer, Sean Patrick, posted this review of his PSN DSL experience so far. Within a very short time of the review appearing, he received a voice mail from PSN telling him his pending line had been cancelled. Surprised, Sean wrote to us advising us that this had happened. We contacted PSN and asked about this, and received the reply: We would never cancel a customer's order due to a posting on a web site.
There are many causes for a cancelled order.
At the time of this reply from their management, PSN had already posted further here, contradicting the statement above, and confirming the main point, that his line order had been cancelled as a result of his public review. To verify events, we asked Mr Patrick for more detail, and he kindly sent us this wav file (1.1mb), taken off his answering machine, which clearly states that as a direct result of his review on dslreports, for the good of PSN, his line order had been terminated and he would receive a refund.
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 | Anon |  Re: PSN wrap
but also PSN says they never cancle an account for reviews , so now they are liers.. dont ya love it when they dig thier own hole lol!!
"(Sabrina is a compulsive liar)" LOL seems the reviewer hit a sensative part lol!! you cant insult these guys puzzy(GF?) on a web page and keep your DSL service lol!! and also some guy from PSN post here flexing his muskels just really showing the mentality of these guys.. I can see why they got a bad review lol!! damm!!! lol | |
| AdrianD
join:2000-05-06
Brooklyn, NY
| ... what a nightmare!
you might want to try megapath.com. if psn tried to provide service via northpoint chances are you can get dsl service from them. i switched to megapath after having made some really bad experience with other dsl providers. it is the first time i feel "home".
i really enjoyed the audio file  .
adrian | |
|  | 
Gegner
Let's Fold
Premium
join:1999-11-22
Highland, CA
clubs: 
| Re: PSN wrap Ditto on MegaPath... Great folks to work with, excellent service and they keep one up to date on what's happening with ones order, etc.
Unbelivable arrogance on PSN's part. I believe they just signed their demise. I hope so anyway.
Great .wav file... and has been stated above, if this is all on the up and up (no offence) that little tidbit will be all over the 'net, and rightly so. I plan to make sure all my associates throughout the US stay way far from any dealings with the outlaw PSN. | |
| | Anon | I wouldn't mind hearing a wav of mr. patrick's voice before assuming that this file is truly a PSN representative on his answering machine....I don't doubt it since they do troll this site, but you never know who to trust. | |
| | 
Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02
Host:
Road Runner
PC gaming GAMES
PC gaming Tech
| PSN wrap
That a company official would take this personally and cancel the order. Sounds like communism.
What a bunch of morons.
I hope this Tone guy gets slammed by the BBB.
Good riddance to another arrogant, unproductive company. | |
| | | | Anon | Re: PSN wrap I bet in two weeks,Tone becomes the new fry cook at KFC!!!! | |
| | Anon | No DSl provider, on this planet, will EVER be able to make spatrick happy. The guy is obviously a two-faced whiner. He talks to the PSN rep, says he is happy and then bashes the (same) rep on the internet? why not tell us both sides of the story, spatrick? Why not bash the local phone company, who by LAW, has to install your line? How do you propose PSN deliver you service without a phone line? magic? ESP? a trained army of ants delivering 1 bit at a time?
You can NOT have dsl until you get a support outside line wiring. PSn can NOT provide that. This was explained to you, and you agreed.
The date given for the outside line installation was MAy 30th. After that than you could have DSl from ANY isp.
You would have had exactly the same problem with *ANY* isp.
The customer is not always right. Sometimes a customer is so problematic they will never ever be happy and just aren't worth dealing with. It is clear the PSN spent a great deal of time working with you, and explaining the time delay (which were not their fault!)and you still bashed them online. PSN's best move to dump you in some other ISP's lap and let you bash them for while.
Everybody, come back in a few weeks and see spatrick bitch about his new DSL provider...
he still won't have an outside line and he still can't get an answer from (insert new ISP name here) on when he will get one.
JON
P.S
I am on Pacbell dsl, and had similar problems, however I have a brain and realized there was no point bitching about problems that were outside my isp's control! | |
| | spatrick
join:2000-04-12
Washington, DC
| Re: PSN did what they had to!
They had to post a message on a public forum that my account was cancelled BEFORE they notified me? I am glad that I do not find myself in those "have to" position at my current job.
DSL providers have made me reasonably happy in the past and I have all beliefs that I will be satisfied by an appropriate provider in the future.
As far as telling ANY PSN representative that I was happy on the telephone, I can assure you that is a situation that never occurred. I may have given up and allowed the conversation to end, but I was never happy, nor did I express those sentiments to PSN. PSN repeatedly gave me dates when progress was going to be made on my account. Those dates would come and go and I would hear nothing. I understand that PSN is at the mercy of Bell Atlantic for outside line installations. I realize how DSL installations take place. This is not my first DSL service. I was previously a Bell Atlantic customer until I moved. If anything, because I paid PSN to negotiate the line install with the local telco (my contract was with PSN) they could have at least picked up the phone and left a voice mail to let me know that there was a delay. This never happened. Likewise, when asked for the telco contact number to follow up on these items myself, I was told that information could not be provided to me. I was a client of PSN. I reported on their level of service to me.
I do not "bash" the phone company because they did not make promises they could not keep. They never said they would call me and didn't. They never said they would email and didn't. They never took money for services not rendered.
As I said, I understand the outside wiring issue. That is not the issue with PSN.net.
The bottom line is that the only tangible thing I ever received from PSN.net was a bill and a photocopied welcome letter.
My story of service is not unike others posting on DSLreports or reporting to the Better Business Bureau. Perhaps we are all a misguided group that are unhappy with the phone company and taking it out on PSN. Perhaps the phone company forbids them from returning phone calls or sending emails. Perhaps the phone company forces them to interact with customers in public forums rather than interact directly. If that is the case, I stand corrected. Somehow, I think it is not.
If you would like to check the status of my new provider, I am currently signed up to receive service from Zyan. I encourage you to do so. DSL or otherwise, I have never had the level of customer service from any company as I had from PSN.
Sean Patrick | |
| | | | Anon | Re: PSN did what they had to!
I posted my comment largely to counter the negativity of the current posts. People heard one side of the story, and a wav file saying you were terminated. Without any more information, how can anybody make a judgement on PSN? Many people did without asking follow ups like mine. If you has said "breathing air while the sky is blue will kill you!" People would have responded "oh my god! I am never breathing the air again!" The full story is it takes, on average, 72 years for a human male to die while breathing the air "when the sky is blue"
A lot of the whining I have seen here had been, in my opinion, self-inflicted. People don't understand what the delays are for, so they yell and scream, or even worse, they don't understand there own computers (the Mac guy, who could have ordered the part he needed a at a dozen Mac shops online, but instead ranted about the poor DSL service!) I want the full story before I condemn PSN.
Now that I have more info, I am pretty sure they are badly managed !
But they will survive as customer service is meaningless these days, and if they suckered you into coughing up 2 bills upfront imagine what they can do with a clueless end user?
thanks for replying. I look forward to your review of Zyan.
JON | |
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Orphious
join:2000-05-04
Atlanta, GA |  Re: PSN did what they had to!
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| | | | | | Anon |  Re: PSN did what they had to!
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| | | | | | | Anon | Re: PSN did what they had to! | |
| | | | | | | | Anon | Re: PSN did what they had to! | |
| | | 
rootshell6
join:1999-12-01
Fresno, CA
| PSN dropped the ball.
In my opinion, PSN dropped the ball. You are their client, they have to deal with the telco/dsl providers for you. I admit that it generally sucks to get information about installation and qualification from them (I deal with Pacific Bell daily). This is no suprise. And if you have a customer who may difficult to deal with (not that you are), get past it cuz not everything is peachy in ISP DSL land. As the client, you are entitled to know EXACTLY what is going on with your DSL installation. This is the sole responsibility of the ISP, in my opinion. Sometimes the ISP has to chew some ass to get things done and escalate the install through the proper channels. Believe me, this works well.
As far as them cancelling your account, based on your DSL reports posting...wow...that is just blantantly wrong.
My two cents. | |
| | | | | Anon | Re: PSN dropped the ball.
since you are on the 'inside', do you think what I did would help other users who are waiting on the ISPtelco connection? You call the teclo directly, get the line, then call the isp with the line already ready to go. Kind of tricking the local telco...
JON
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rootshell6
join:1999-12-01
Fresno, CA
| Re: PSN dropped the ball.
My general feeling is that the telco company will respond more adequately to requests if dealing directly with the individual. Such as in your case Jon.
Nick | |
| | | Anon |  PSN.net is not innocent in this
PSN still handled the entire situation VERY poorly. They claimed, when DSLReports contacted them, that they would never cancel an order due to a poor review; yet that is exactly what they did do. Getting caught publicly in a lie is VERY bad for a company's image.
Cancelling an order of someone because they are complaining loudly sends a very bad message to the public. The company becomes seen as either having something to hide, or not wanting to work hard (ie: only 'easy' clients). I doubt either impression to be true, but that's how the action will be viewed.
The best way to handle problem clients is to offer to cancel and to offer a full refund with no obligation IF THE CLIENT WANTS IT. Of course, someone as unhappy with a company as spatrick would almost certainly have taken it. His only reason for not cancelling previously was having in writing that he would have to pay $250 in penalties if he did cancel.
Which brings up the question of why did spatrick have to pre-pay for an install, with a promise of a refund after the install, to the free installation? I'm yet to see an adequate explanation of that one.
In summary; I agree that spatrick would have most likely had similar delays with most other ISPs. I have GTE dsl, and that took 1-1/2 months to get thru the install; I fully understand that the ISP has little control over the telcos timeline. However, I believe that nearly all ISPs would have dealt more professionally with spatrick. PSN is fully to blame for their poor handling of the entire situation. | |
| | | | | | | | Anon | "The customer is not always right. Sometimes a customer is so problematic they will never ever be happy and just aren't worth dealing with."
BS!!!!!! if there wasnt any problems with him being set up there wouldnt be any problems in the FIRST PLACE! god man get real.. do the job rite or dont do it at all and there wouldnt be these problems.. wanna insult people about brains. well use yours for a change. anyways READ!! the FACTS.. put away the rambo books and stop beating people up when they all ready been hit to the ground...gezz !!... | |
| | | | Anon | Re: PSN did what they had to!
Not doing the job was NOT what hurt PSN here. based on spatrick's response, he seems reasonable and knows what is involved with getting DSL in. What hurt PSN was extremely poor communication with the client. If spatrick had some rational reason for the delay, then he would not have been AS ticked.
JON | |
| | | Anon | Hey JON
I'd Just like to say your a retard. I used to work for a local ISP and although i hated my job as a customer rep in no way possible would i ever even consider getting revenge at a customer for a review. Oh yah and a note to Spatrick what they did to you could be illiegal and i would notify the CPUC.
David | |
| 
sbhusted
join:2000-05-14
Bethlehem, PA | It Sounds like to me that PSN is being managed by Bell Atlantic! =) | |
| 
MrCornell
join:2000-04-06
Seattle, WA
clubs:
| Congratulations PSN, you have just completely insulted and infuriated a customer on a public and widely read forum. I would also like to congratulate you, PSN, for destroying probably dozens, if not hundreds, of potential subscriptions and alienating many of your customers, and yes, i dare say, making complete fools of yourself in public. I don't think firing Tone Sharfner will be enough to save this ISP from self-immolation, no siree.
Here's a secret PSN: The goal is to satisfy the customer. The goal is not to take revenge on a customer. The customer is NOT your enemy.
Thank god I use a reputable ISP: Mindspring. They care when I have issues. They have nice people who try to resolve any problems I have. Oh yeah, and it took me exactly 10 days from my initial order to get my DSL up and running. Can't beat that. | |
| AdrianD
join:2000-05-06
Brooklyn, NY
| hi jon,
i was very surprised about your post questioning the integrity of spatrick. the issue is that an isp canceled an account because of a posting in a public forum.
this is wrong PERIOD!
which facts give you the right to call spatrick a whiner?
why should spatrick bash the telco? he doesn't have a business relationship with the telco. psn is run by network specialists who know that their product is based on a telco's performance. psn takes the money - psn deals with it.
that you can't imagine your isp to deliver service to spatrick doesn't mean it is impossible. check out the megapath reviews and you see what i'm talking about. megapath sees it as part of their product to maintain a good relatoinship with northpoint. ... and this professional behavior helped in my case. if psn decides to just sit there and blame the telco fine. but how could they possibly be surprised about critical postings on this board?
adrian | |
| | | Anon | Re: PSN wrap I'm simply appaled at this! This Tone guy must be the biggest idiot ever! Too publicly say that on a forum that is read by so many people looking for a DSL isp... what a moron. lol
I really hope DSLreports keeps up with this situation. I wanna hear the outcome of it, like PSN's official response, or better yet when the BBB is notified of this:)Too think I checked out PSN.net before I went with my current DSL isp..heheh If I would have gotten PSN, and had them right now, i'd cancel right away and i'm hoping alot of people do that have this... put this lousy POS company outta business for good.
Uh oh, I better not put who I am on here...Tone might come and like beat me up for bad mouthing him! 
Dan | |
| | | Anon | yeah this jon guy is just an other one of them guys who seeks the chance to kick someone when they are down.. one in every crowed.. dont pay any attention to him.. totaly skiped over the facts of course and just bursted out some insults..lovely.... | |
| | | | Anon | Re: PSN wrap
Who is doing the 'kicking', and who wants to know what really happened?
I have seen way too many one-off posts from frustrated (often clueless) users to know that one posting NEVER tells the full story.
JON | |
| | | Anon | PSN can cancel anybodys account, at any time, for whatever reason. It's not 'wrong' , just stupid. What they did was awesomely stupid, but they do have the right. It is probably buried in the fine print somewhere.
I stand by original assertion that we (the readers here) were not getting the full story, they _were_ in communication with spatrick, they just did not have any good news. They _did_ have a date (05/30/2k) to do the outside line install.
On hindsight, spatrick should have held out unti 05/30, then he would at least have the line and be able to easily switch ISPs.
JON | |
| | | | Anon | Jon
You forgot one point. They did not tell him of the 5/30/00 install date until the same message in which they told him his service was being cancelled. Personally, I find it questionable that "come to find out" his install date was 5/30/00 - convenient timing to finally get the date just as the decision is made to cancel everything. I would need confirmation from the telco before I would be willing to believe that date. | |
| | | | Anon | Re: PSN wrap
While not all the facts are known, I feel that enough is known that if it were my choice, I would not choose PSN.net unless they were the only option in my area (unlikely). Professionalism and good customer service go a long way with me; and neither are being demonstrated by PSN.
Allyn K C | |
| | Anon | I can't believe this! What, do we live in a communist country or something? This is the United States of America for God's sake. We have the RIGHT to say what we want without being afraid of being punished for it. And if a company doesn't believe in this philosophy then it shouldn't have the privilage of doing business in this great nation.
Screw PSN! I even considered signing on with them too. Not anymore! | |
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See 8 replies to this post | |
| Anon | I think I will sue PSN. My name is David Brooks, and I'm in DSL sales at CapuNet. I regularly check this forum and news to stay on top of what's happening in the industry. This thread, although not directly relevent, has been so incredibly amusing I've surely lost money taking the time to read all the details. I've really enjoyed this topic, even if it is part of my job. Hats off to the principals for a mighty good show!! I'll still need to blame someone for my lost prospective commissions. Cheers!
David Brooks
Account Executive - DSL Sales
CapuNet
www.capu.net
dbrooks@capu.net | |
| jrn
join:2000-03-20
Milwaukee, WI | I actually called "Tone" and left him a voice mail message condeming his actions. This is very pathetic. | |
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