It's interesting to look back here, many moons after writing the original message. I see there are lots of ways to re-interpret what somebody says, eh? So for the record, let me follow up and comment. I'm not an SBC hater, per se. I do know I spent 1.5 years trying to get my network routing working, and was utterly unsuccessful after several 50 minute phone calls to an endless succession of first level "feel good" technical support people. I also know I spent $200 ($100 twice) to get my static IPs configured correctly, but they never were. Sure *I* figured these things out myself eventually, (like they had me configured to have an onsite router, when I didn't...) but SBC let me have "the priviledge" of spending dozens of hours on the phone every time something went awry trying to find the right person to talk to, so *I* could help them, and hopefully fix the problem.
And the billing!!! Every single month, for 5 YEARS, there was an error on my bill! Not just my phone bill (even though they routinely make "errors" on those), my bill, oh, what a headache. They randomly changed my service a couple of times, then after I called for 6 months straight over one of those changes, trying to get it straightened out, they shut off my service when I refused to continue to pay, for something they couldn't seem to fix!!! They even charged me for a router which I never received, although SBC after a couple of years finally did refund my money on that. Oh....
To SBCs credit, I was was 'breaking' the rules, since I was running what SBC considers a very high speed connection, a bit too far from the CO (13K at the start, then 17,700 total after they changed the wiring on me, with 11K of it 36ga). Unfortunately, pacbell opted to "re-wire" me, after 3 or so years of fairly reliable service, and ended up adding over 4K feet to my connection length. After that, nothing but troubles for me
Every time it broke, which was very frequently, it was ME who was on the phone for the 50 -55 minute phone call, hoping THIS time they won't hang up on me before I reach a human.. And every time the same story, nobody would ever call back, and everytime they would "fix" my line, they would in fact only change it, to a different service, that I wasn't paying for. And then I'd be on the phone again... This is how it went on FOR YEARS.
My rule of thumb, was 3 - 5 hours on the phone everytime my line died. I factored it into my week, usually leaving my schedule open enough to do this at least twice per month. I even bought a special phone to deal with the ridiculous hold times. Lets just say my level of frustration was extremely high, ok?
Then I discovered Mike @ Rawbandwidth.com, he even though he does NOT work for SBC, he works "around them" as he put it, as a DSL reseller, and HE was able to fix my routing, and my connection problems, and hook me up with the right people after years of my trying myself.... So i'm eternally thankful to him. Even though he benefitted not one bit by helping me out, since I never really subscribed to his service.
Unfortunately, It seems that I'm the wrong kind of customer for SBC. I'm way too technical, I use Linux, OS/2, Windoze, and I have servers, and I have little interest in all their marketing rhetoric. I've always been interested in only one thing, a fast, reliable connection- and frankly, they just couldn't deliver. I have no idea why SBC insists that you always talk to a first line tech support person, no matter what. I've designed dozens of networks, and I found it appaling that their "technial support" specialists, would say things like "my computer couldn't possibly work because it wasn't running their sanctioned netscape client...."
In general I always knew more than their first and second level tech support specialists. And I had the priviledge of no fewer than 2 or 3 hours on hold, EVERY TIME, I got to demonstrate that to them, over and over. Please!!! SBC hater? give me a break. If you are into this kind of thing, hey, more power to you.
As for me, I'm with a small company now called Etheric.net, fast service, with a person who takes RESPONSIBILITY for my connection. When it breaks, HE beats on it till it works. I like that. My phone calls are now 5 minutes, and happen, oh, once every few months. Now thats progress!!!! and want to know something else? No billing errors! Period! I LOVE THAT!!
I can't think of any better plug, for any company than that. So I'll say it again: Rawbandwidth.com and etheric.net are small, top-notch companies. They both have a customer first mentality, and for me, that is very important.
