[colug-432] ISP Recommendation

[Tom Hanlon]

When we as members of a group of what I most likely correctly assume
to be highly literate, very intelligent people have trouble with
"customer service" over technical issues I pause with horror to think
about the struggle that the non-technical or the semi-literate face
when dealing with the same issues.

If you think we are angry when we often _know_ what the problem is and
have to convince the script reader on the other side to listen to us,
those without the power of knowledge or the literacy of tech.. they
perhaps just end up hurt and taken advantage of and feeling stupid.

At least we know they have a script, we know at least in theory how to
escalate, we understand structurally what these companies have done to
ignore the customers needs.  The semi-literate non technical masses,
they just end up losing time and money and money is something that
they also most likely have little of.

It is a personal issue, and a societal issue.



On Fri, Jan 16, 2015 at 11:54 AM, Rick Hornsby
<richardjhornsby at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Jan 16, 2015, at 09:36, Stephen P. Molnar <s.molnar at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> A tale of wor!
>
>
>
> I have been with AT&T as an ISP since 2003, 10 years with DSL and 3 years
> with Uverse.  Each year has required a new router.
>
>
> I lost service early Wednesday evening and immediatly called what they
> non-laughingly call "Tech Service".
>
>
> ugh.
>
> I've mentioned Wide open west on this list before, but we had a great
> experience with WOW in Columbus some years ago.  They were always quick to
> help on the rare occasion something went wrong, and were technically
> competent.  When we described a problem in technical terms, they didn't
> treat us to the whole "here's how to first clear your internet explorer
> cache" nonsense.  They sent a tech a couple of times when needed without any
> argument and quickly.
>
> It was about 10 years ago (moved to another house which had no WoW service),
> so YMMV today.
>
> After sorting out some initial issues with a "stolen pair", ATT dry-loop DSL
> was reliable and a crapton more consistent than TW* residential service ever
> was.  They were the worst, and support almost entirely useless.  Then again,
> my experience in another state with ATT DSL was that when it rained the
> interwebs quit working. They wouldn't troubleshoot or fix it because it
> would never be raining when the tech finally came out.
>
> * I know there's at least one TW biz class employee on this list who in the
> past has been helpful in troubleshooting issues and providing good advice.
> I had a co-worker up in Delaware who was happy w/ TW biz class service at
> his house. He may have had an SLA, I don't recall.  However, the residential
> class experience has always been awful and I'd only recommend it as a last
> resort.
>
> Then again, you could always try this [awesome] lady's approach to get ATT's
> attention -
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/17/AR2007101702359.html
>
> -rj
>
>
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