Posted on 08/21/2016 11:12:53 AM PDT by ml/nj
Well, my Internet "Service" must be back on or I wouldn't be able to post this.
I pay nearly $200 a month for Internet/Phone/Cable to Optimum/Cablevison a month. Ans sometimes it works. It reminds me of the stories I used to here from folks at a worksite in Yugoslavia. The electricity there was on from about 1 PM to 4 PM almost daily.
I tried to call Optimum Friday night to complain when my Internet (and phone) went out. Fifteen minutes of annoying PRESS ONE FOR ENGLISH, ENTER YOUR PHONE NUMBER FOLLOWED BY THE POUND SIGN, WOULD YOU LIKE TO LISTEN TO A COMMERCIAL ABOUT OUR GREAT SERVICES, I SEE YOU'RE NOT CALLING FROM A PHONE IN OUR RECORDS, (Hey stupid! The phone in your records doesn't work because your service sucks!) and so on until I got to a human.
Well, a sort of human, because it's obvious to me that he doesn't give a sh*t about my situation. He'll give me a credit for an hour because I didn't call the previous three days when the service was also spotty. (I'm not sure whether an hour amounts to a dollar or more as I start swearing at him. I asked for a direct number to bypass the Eventually I just hung up which I'm sure what these guys want.)
Some will suggest that I switch. I'm a pretty lazy guy. These Optimum/Cablevision folks treat me like the proverbial frog in hot to boiling water. The used to charge under $80 a month for the same thing a few years ago. Now like I say, it's nearly $200. I told my wife who's always looking to save money (I'm not. I just want it to work.) to look into switching to Verizon. This morning when I came down to breakfast there was an article waiting for me about some guy's travails with Verizon.
Arrrgh!
ML/NJ
we had to call AT&T to check something or other. No problem that. As long as we were on the line, we asked if we could do anything to get the bill reduced (its sky high and we don’t make calls anyway). They said NO, but they then offered on their own initiative to compensate for their high rates by upgrading our services for free. We asked and reconfirmed several times with them that the upgrades (which we did not need, but ... anyway....) were ENTIRELY FREE and that our bills would remain without any increases whatsoever. So they “upgraded” us. Limitless nationwide calling (we make about one call a month maybe, maybe not, and only locally to the drug store). Limitless data up and down, and much faster internet speed. We use the internet, that’s about it. SO ANYWAY we can’t tell if the services have been “upgraded” or not, since we don’t use the upgrades. But the BILLS have all been “upgraded”... by varying amounts every month, too (up to a 50 percent billing increase). The variations in the bills are amazing for limitless services where there can’t be any extra charges anyway, ha! In short, the AT&T billing computer has gone beserk....completely mad....... Every month they have us call or “chat text” them.... and they always check it and then they fix it and even a few times have apologized, always promising that the next bill will be back at their quoted amount. HA HA! Each time they fix it, it consumes between 2 and 5 hours of our time (getting it fixed, sometimes you have to chat with several of their employees and they usually keep you on hold several times during the communications, too). Each time they promise that the extra charges will NOT ever appear again. The billing computer is persistent, however, and apparently no amount of letter-writing or speaking with their supervisory staff.... can change its “mind.” It wants to RIP US OFF EVERY MONTH!
Conclusion: AT&T prices are WAY TOO HIGH (5 or 10 times what they should be). AND THEIR BILLING COMPUTER IS A RIPOFF BANDIT THAT WOULD MAKE PRETTY BOY FLOYD AND WILLIE SUTTON AND AL CAPONE AND JOHN DILLINGER ALL PROUD!
don’t use AT&T! (Sprint has a much better reputation hereabouts, any thoughts?) Thanks!
The truth of the matter is, THEY ALL SUCK!
Internet companies, phone companies, insurance companies, electric companies, cable companies, gas companies, you name it. Most of them know that you don’t have much of a choice and they simply don’t care.
They also know that the government has pretty much given up on enforcing Anti-Trust laws.
TWC here in Columbia decides to randomly drop and lose DNS a few times a day for week or so then stabilize.
Confirmation ping?
Earthlink is not far behind. At times, it takes minutes for a page to load, especially late at night. Maybe they figure they can ease off the speed late at night because fewer people will use their internet. It is very annoying, to say the least.
Have optimum for more than 20 years. Maybe small outages once a year. Had full services during the 10 days my power was out after Sandy. Whenever I ran my generator I had cable internet and phone.
I give them A+
Heck, every one of those companies is in bed with the government.
The government is their protection arm.
Oh no. Switching to Verizon would be going from the frying pan into the fire. About six years ago I dropped them as my cell phone server. A couple years later they started calling, claiming I owed them over $600. I had paid my final bill in person at the time that I closed the account.
My monthly bill amount fluctuated, but the basic plan was about $85. With various usage fees the total was a bit more. I was in the process of moving when I cancelled their service, and the receipt disappeared. I was also switching banks, so I paid cash. It wouldn’t make a difference even if I had the receipt, because Verizon is claiming I didn’t cancel my service, and the $600-something bill is for several months of service after I paid my final bill and cancelled the service. I wasn’t under contract at that point, so it wasn’t that obligation to complete the term of service. Since this was after I stopped using the phone, there would not have been any fees for usage, cell data, text messages, etc. The basic phone bill would have been about $85. I would have had to go at least 8 months without paying my bill to rack up the amount they’re claiming I owe. And they wouldn’t have cut off service for non-payment after a month or two or three or four or five or six or seven? They waited until I skipped eight payments before they cut off service? And then they waited almost a year and half after that before they called to ask for payment? They never mailed me anything after I paid the final bill.
Verizon was fine with my final payment and cancelation of service at the time, and for a couple years afterward. Then one day they decided to try to con me into paying over $600 they know I don’t owe them.
They’ve been calling me about 8-10 times a week for the past four years. They fill up my voicemail so nobody else can leave any messages. I don’t use that phone anymore, except when signing up for discount cards and other things that tend to generate telemarketing calls.
I don’t have any documentation to prove I paid the final bill and cancelled the service, so going to court would be a gamble. Meanwhile they’ve destroyed my home phone and put a dent in my credit rating. This is the only blemish on my credit, so my score is still high enough to satisfy my needs.
Verizon calls from dozens of different numbers. Whenever I see a new number on the caller ID, I look it up on 800notes.com. There are always comments from others who are also being stalked and harassed by Verizon.
If I had known when this started how bad it was going to get, I’d have probably paid the extortion. Now I’m just going to try to wait them out.
I tried that years ago. Within a short time, I was back with Earthlink. The guy at the post office said to me, "Oh, another Verizon modem getting mailed back?" He said he saw many people sending their Verizon modem back to Verizon and finding another provider.
Anybody have any opinion on FIOS?
LOL
The Comcast name is so toxic here in the midwest they are using an alias now:
Xfinity
I have to endure Comcast - about $98/month for their Internet service. There is no viable competition, of course. All I can do is pray that Google Fiber will see fit to wire my town - about 10 miles down the 85 from their headquarters. Unfortunately, Google is mostly sticking to red states for their fiber rollouts - obviously, Google’s corporate politics don’t stand up to the reality that red states are far easier to roll out infrastructure projects in.
“Obviously you’ve not heard of CenturyLink (CenturyStink). It makes your service seem like the best there is.”
My wife and I were just discussing their wonderful service and great customer service. North Korea has faster speeds. I’m just holding on until our town installs our own fiber network.
Where I live the internet speed is .750mps download.
Verizon Fios worked perfectly without any issue, and then frontier took it over. Now I get latency, seems slower, etc. They apparently couldn’t just take over a great service but chose to ‘optimize’ it... don’t have time to complain but seems I have to waste time on that... not happy at all.
Vonage is not a land line. It is voip that runs over the internet.
//The electricity there was on from about 1 PM to 4 PM almost daily.//
True story. I lived in Yugoslavia (near Belgrade) as a child. Those were about the hours. TV was propaganda news (a lot like our news here now) and Loony Tunes cartoons overdubbed in Serbian with propaganda.
I have Verizon fios internet only for 35.99 / month. It has been flawless.
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