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We use AT&T (nee Pacbell, BellSouth) for POTS (yep!) and DSL. WORST customer support ever. But we stick with them because I hate switching.

1. May years ago, we used to have two bonded B channels on ISDN. When DSL was installed, we switched over. Network came up, but no email. POTS people pointed the finger at the DSL people who pointed the finger at the Internet people who in turn pointed the finger at the email people. It took a MONTH to get email service restored. We must have spent 25 hours on the phone with them. They finally dispatched one guy to the house who knew something and was able to talk to the right people to restore email service. It wasn’t network related, but they couldn’t figure that out.

2. Our internet service stopped working about three years back. “It must be your DSL Modem; here, install this new one.” My wiring closet is not very accessible, so that was a pain. No luck. Several truck rolls and tech visits, but no Internet. Tests showed the problem was in the outside plant, but they kept insisting it was inside. Finally the ONE right guy came out and found water in the pedestal at the end of the block. He cleaned that up, replaced some damaged equipment, and resealed the box. Bingo, back in service after about a week-long outage.

3. Our internet service stopped working about 6 months ago. Several visits from techs said the problem was in the outside twisted pair wiring from our house to the pedestal. They said they had to rewire the entire neighborhood — no more pairs available and the wiring was dated! A week went by and nothing at all from them - no returned calls, brand new CSRs on the phone every time we had to re-educate from ground zero. Drove us insane again. Finally got the ONE right guy out who knew how to trouble shoot and he found squirrels had gnawed through our pair on the pole a few doors down. A simple splice and we were back in business.

My advice? Well, I’ll leave that up to you to figure out.

POF