[ale] [OT] A vent and whine - ignore with dignity

[Tom Freeman]

Thanks for the leads, but I'm 200 miles and change up I85 from Atlanta. 
Comcast isn't in this neck of the woods, and I've never heard of 
net2atlanta (but I'll check their region)

On Sun, 20 Jun 2010, James Taylor wrote:

> I don't know if it's available in your area, but I've been using net2atlanta business service.
> I have 6MB DSL, and have been very happy with level of service and the ability to get a response when I do call.
> Alternatively, I have heard good things about comcast business class, though I have no direct experience with it.
> -jt
>
>
>
> James Taylor
> The East Cobb Group, Inc.
> 678-697-9420
> james.taylor at eastcobbgroup.com
> http://www.eastcobbgroup.com
>
>
>
>
>>>> Tom Freeman <tfreeman at intel.digichem.net> 6/19/2010  09:52 AM >>>
> To all - thank you for the use of your bandwidth here. If you are busy,
> or just don't need to listen to whining and bitching, please send this
> to /dev/null with prejudice. If I were not the one writing it, I would.
>
> Background: I have been with SpeakEasy on a 144kB symmetric IDSL
> service for nearly seven years, and have been largely happy.
> Unfortunately, continuing rise of web eye candy and other issues is
> making 144kB uncomfortably slow, although for my money there is a
> little more life in it. Not much, but a little. I would upgrade service
> with SpeakEasy in a heartbeat, but they are unable to provide better
> connectivity here. Customer service is AWESOME, and they have stood
> with me through two lightning strikes and a couple of strange sessions
> of gremlins. But it is time to move on, and their tech support has
> supported the change as a good choice for me. (Honest too - I like
> that.)
>
> Now I have registered my own domain, and host it here at the house, so
> I figured I need business class right off the bat. Since that is the
> only level of service at SpeakEasy, that part is an easy choice.
> Choices here for faster service appear to be the local cable franchise,
> AT&T, and a couple of local businesses have Windstream. Irrationally, I
> don't trust AT&T, and the Bush era stuff out west made that worse.
> Plus, after dealing with support for my girlfriend on her AT&T consumer
> line, I'm getting hives just thinking about them.
> Windstream took three days to return a sales call, and could only offer
> T1 service at this location, somewhat overkill for my needs. This
> leaves Time-Warner.
>
> This is turning into an exercise in futility. First, the cable
> operation expects only a business, so I'm now a customer listed as my
> name followed by "Inc." I can participate in a joke as well as the next
> person, but...
>
> It is a good thing that they answer their phones, since installation
> took three or four calls to get scheduled, and about 10 days to
> accomplish overall. This is for basic connectivity. The cable modem has
> at least one bad port on it (otherwise workable), but getting that
> swapped doesn't seem to be possible in the politest possible way.
>
> In fairness, getting the new cable buried in the back yard worked out
> well this time, with the phone line staying intact. Last time I had
> cable to the house, the phone company and the cable guys managed to cut
> each other's cables to the house twice each before getting it right.
> A positive note here.
>
> Well, with connectivity now established, it should be time to get the
> Domain Hosting setup. Three calls from me just to get to the right
> person, including them sending fresh copies of the router configuration
> setup in the process. Now 5 business days to see if the request makes
> it through the office to get the domain hosting installed. We will see
> how that plays out.
>
> In fairness to the personnel involved at Time Warner, everyone has been
> polite, and has made the correct noises respecting getting the
> customer's needs met. I'm not moaning much about the worker bees on the
> front line, as the problems seem to be systemic through the corporate
> structure.
>
>
> So far, the _only_ advantage I have seen with a new service provider
> over SpeakEasy is a larger bandwidth. The customer support people and
> sales people of the companies I've contacted (and there were a few
> others) should be instructed to answer the phone "<company name>
> Customer Abuse - How can I make your life more complicated today?"
>
> Thanks for letting me vent. I do appreciate it.
>
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