apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Oh my goodness, where to even begin?? Our issues have mainly been with Bell Sympatico. Because Bell also provides television, home line, and cell phone service - all of which we subscribed to at the time - we inquired about having our highspeed internet bill attached to the bundle so we'd only be getting one paper bill per month. "No problem!" they told us. That is, until month #1 went by. We paid our bill like happy little customers, and then - on Friday - our internet service was shut off. Of course, the tech support called it a billing issue, the billing department called it a tech issue, and we were told that nothing would be done about it until the following Monday. As it turned out, the Sympatico department of Bell billed us despite the fact that we had started paying through the "combined billing" process.....yet they never sent us a paper bill. So when we didn't pay this second, unknown bill....they cut off the internet.

This went on for SIX FULL MONTHS. Every month, our internet connection would be cut off on a Friday due to it being a "delinquint account." No apologies were made. Nothing was fixed. At the time, there really were no other affordable options - they were a monopoly - so we were stuck with the shoddy service.

The last straw was when we were preparing to move. We were told that it would be a full month before Bell would be able to come and set up our internet. I rely on my connection for work. So we did a little research, bit the bullet on the price increase and arranged to have cable internet set up through another company.

Imagine our surprise when - on moving day - a tech person from both Bell and Rogers (the cable internet people) showed up at our front door. Arguments between the two insued, and Rogers finally won after we kicked the Bell guy out. Bell tried to charge us "set-up fees", and for the first month of service that we never asked for.

Ridiculous.

We're seriously thinking of having Cox and Qwest come out at the same time to see if having to compete gives either the urge actually to provide us with phone service.

We have Qwest in the old place, but they deny the existence of our new address.

Cox initially told us it would take two weeks (!) to activate our phone service. Last weekend, a truly very nice technician came out and determined that none of the phone wires in our building are connected for active service. He promised someone would fix this within 72 hours.

It is not fixed. They might come out on Saturday. Or not. They see no urgency, though I suspect they will see urgency in getting us to pay for phone service during the weeks in which we haven't had any.

I am this close to switching my cell phone to a local number, buying a plan with more generous minutes, forgoing clear TV reception on the theory that Top Model isn't good for my brain anyway, finding a local ISP operating out of someone's garage, and telling both monopolies where to stuff themselves.

I just finished a war with Comcast over their cable internet and tv service. To make a long story short, both my cable service and internet services were not working properly, (slow speeds and crappy picture). After going back and forth with their customer service staff who were completely inept and unhelpful, I simultaneously filed complaints with the Federal Communications Commission and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. It took several weeks of their working and the intervention of someone in the company chairman's office, but eventually they cured the problem. The solution was a partial rewiring of my apartment building and replacement of defective network equipment out in the street. I was credited 5 months of service charges.

The moral of this story, if you're not getting satisfaction from the company's customer service staff, start filing complaints with your state utility and federal regulators (FCC). Also find the company's executive office address and either mail or e-mail them a complaint. All of these companies (ISP's, cable, VOIP, and telephone) are regulated and they do not like it when a consumer starts filing complaints with their regulators. So they become quite eager to resolve problems when you do.

It is appalling that other countries (all over Europe and eastern Asia) have internet service that is literally about 7 times faster than what we have and at a cost of $5 - $10 a month. In most American markets there is minimal if any competition, while in Asia and Europe there is a LOT of competition, offering great service at excellent prices. Customer service is pretty good too; these companies know how easily they can be replaced by disgruntled customers and work to maintain their client bases. We can thank our politicians for keeping us held hostage to the likes of Comcast and Cox at ridiculous prices.

Time Warner Brooklyn has reached a point where I get about 4 days of the week with the RoadRunner highspeed working. It might go down for 12 hours on a weekend. Or an entire day. All I know is, if I'm only home from 6:30 till bedtime (2am) and the modem lights go down that entire time, I deserve compensation. To say nothing of ebay auctions you miss or other internet discounts that expire while I'm denied access.

When I lived in Toronto we had basic cable service (40-something channels). After the people moving in below us got their cable hooked up, we suddenly had 70-something channels. Incompetence? Probably. But at least it worked in our favor.

Comcast for a lack of a better word, is a bunch of complete assholes.

If you think Comcast is bad, pray you don't move into a neighborhood/area serviced by Qwest.

I've had both and I would choose Comcast each and every time. They're not perfect but this whole cable/internet endeavour is like going to the doctor for a hemorrhoid problem. Best case scenario its still a pain in the butt.

Cheers!
Sean