posted on March 4, 2002 02:29:11 PM new
ATT Broadband has to be the worst ISP in the world. I had over 20 outages and over 50 periods of slow connectivity in the last 2 years. Every time(except one) that I called, they claimed to have no knowledge of any systemwide problems even hours or days later. They would insist on sending a tech who would show up on the average of two hours late if he showed up on the correct day at all. The techs never would find problems with my system and acknowledged that there were many systemwide hardware problems that the company was very slow to fix. The company says that if you connect at ANY higher then 56K modem speed that you are obligated to pay for the high speed connection anyway. The city I live in has filed a class action suit against ATT. I switched to DSL and so far have had 4 connedctivity problems in 2 weeks!
posted on March 4, 2002 09:00:09 PM new
I've had AT&T Broadband for sometime now and have had about the same results. I just switched my TV programming to Direct TV Seattleite and what a difference that makes! They offer a better deal in Internet (speed wise) than AT&T currently does.
My complaint was that I wanted to put some images up onto the web server service that we get with AT&T to host our images for eBay auctions. I needed to know what URL I would use for image1.jpg to put into the auction and in the html. I couldn't find it on their web site so I called them. Then came my adventure in the Twilight Zone.
WOULD YOU BELIEVE: I first got their Tier-1 "technician" for whom the notion of wanting to pull up the image from a different server was so complex an idea that I immediately got bumped upwards to a Tier-2 "engineer".
I then had to explain this concept several different ways to the "engineer"; including, "Please just give me the information that I would have to type into my Location Bar in my browser to see image1.jpg from your server." We went on and on for about 15 minutes - really, we did, and finally, in a fit of pure confusion, the poor slob sent me over to the REAL Engineer to take care of the problem.
You'd think that this incredibly complex internet/server question would bog down Stephen Hawkins, but it really wouldn't. Heck, the kids do this stuff all the time with more understanding of it than I have. So, getting to talk to the supervisor - a real engineer - I ended up trying different ways to explain this to him for 45 MINUTES! Yes, I did time it! In the end, he felt that I was pulling his leg -- not asking a legitimate question. I mean, how many ways can you explain that you just want the URL to the server that is hosting your pictures?
The supervisor got snippy with me, once he had decided that I was a prank called and brushed me of with a "no more help for you today" attitude.
I only let the jackass go because by this time, I was laughing so hard in sheer disbelief that their supervisor wouldn't HAVE A CLUE as to the concept of pulling up an image from a different server! I thought about reporting him for complete incompetence to AT&T higher-ups, but realized that they had hired not only him, but also two Tiers of incompetents, so what would be the point?
(I finally got the answer by word-of-mouth from friends, who got it by word-of-mouth, who got it by word-of-mouth, etc.)
In the meantime, I am considering Direct TV High-Speed Internet. I will NEVER go with DSL and give the local phone company any more of my business than I already do. I learned not to talk to the incompetent service personnel over there a long, long time ago.
posted on March 4, 2002 11:21:49 PM new
Odd. Other than the brief interruption during the demise of [email protected] and consequent changeover to AT&T broadband, I've had very few problems over the approx. 2 years of subscription that were not a result of weather related damage to the cabling immediately outside the house and one failed modem.
Borillar, it's useful to just hang up when you get a slow learner and call back. They've got a bunch of tier I and tier II people some better than others. When I've wanted to do something that's beyond their norm I call in the middle of the night and ask for a tier II person named John. The guy has been around since phone phreaking and black boxes and really enjoys his work. He makes me wonder just what he might be pulling up there in the dark hours, and he solves any problem with enthusiasm.
posted on March 5, 2002 02:17:02 AM new
When I lived in the Hub-Of-The-Universe (AKA "Bawhstan'), I had AT&T BROADBAND ROADRUNNER MEDIAONE WTF R THEY CALLING THEMSELVES TODAY for TWO years & never had any problems EXCEPT:
1) Their MAIL-SERVER was 100% WORTHLESS! Was DOWN approximately 25% of the time!
2) "Tech Support" was hilarious -- I'd call them & then end-up TEACHING them techniques!
