My brother is in town visiting for the week and I took yesterday off from work to spend time with him, his son and girlfriend before they have to leave this Saturday. They had an entire fun-filled day planned out involving a caving tour, and an indoor water park adventure. We left early in the morning because they wanted to get to the cave boat tour first thing so that we would have as much time as possible to play in the water park. We drove for about 45 minutes and arrived at the caving place right at 9am when they supposedly opened. Well, we were informed that the gift shop opens at 9am, but since it's the slow season, their first boat tour didn't go out until 10am. Okay fine, we took a walk and did some "gem mining" to pass the time and had a really fun experience on the boat tour when it did finally go out. (This only set us back from our schedule about an hour.)
The water part was about another 45 minutes from the caving place, so we headed back out and stopped to grab lunch before heading to the water park. When we pulled up to the water park it was enclosed in a giant glass building that looked like a huge greenhouse. We could see all the twirly slides and waterfalls etc. It looked like a lot of fun. We parked and went inside and spoke to an employee who informed us that it was also their slow season and they weren't going to be opening the water park until after 4pm. (It was about 1pm.) Unfortunately, we couldn't burn 3 hours waiting for the park to open because we had other plans to pick up my brother's other son once school got out which was back about an hour the way we had come, so... we had to leave and make alternate arrangements.
It sucks that the websites of both of these tourist-type places did not better advertise their off-season hours. Had we known the water park was not going to open until 4pm, we would have saved ourselves the hour and a half drive and planned differently altogether. Fortunately we all made the best of it and had a fun day despite the bumps in the road, it would have just been nice to know for planning purposes. I mean honestly, what is the point of having a website if you are not going to use it to communicate information such as business hours and whatnot to people visiting the site?
Friday, August 27, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Air Duct Cleaning Pros - Scam or just out to make a little extra moo-la?
I bought my house about 3 years ago. The house was about 8 years old when I bought it, making it about 11 years old now. Month after month, I get value pac mailer and one of the offers in the mailer is for Air Duct Cleaning. After putting it off for a few years I finally saw an offer to clean all vents in the home, the return, drier vents (which the other advertising company did not include) and a free furnace inspection for $49.00. I went ahead and scheduled an appointment.
The guys came out pretty much on time, turned off the furnace, wheeled a rather large vacuum machine into the dining area, hooked it up to one of the vents and started it up. Meanwhile one of the other guys went around with a hand-held vacuum to each of the vents. While this was going on, the other guy went to inspect the furnace.
A few minutes later he comes up to me and asks, "Do you have allergies?" I responded, "No" and he said he was surprised and wanted to show me a problem I had in my furnace. I walk into the utility room with him and he reaches into my furnace blower fan and pulls out a dirty finger and says, "You have fungal spores growing in your furnace." He then begins in his sales pitch to tell me about how I have mold and if I don't take care of it right away I'm just going to be breathing it and it is a health risk. He draws me a lovely diagram of my furnace and the circulation and explains that cleaning the return is only about 20% and the air ducts make up about 10% and the furnace is responsible for 70% of the pollutants in the air. He then says truly cleaning the system is a 3-step process. Step one is the air ducts/vents Step two is to have a chemical (which he spelled chimicil) solution that is safe for people, even pregnant people and animals but will kill the mold and bacteria. He said one kit is $75 and covers about 300 sq ft so I would need about 4 kits in my house, but that they could start with the base of 3 and see if a 4th is needed. Then step three is to have the blower cleaned and sanitized which is $195.
Of course, I wasn't expecting to be told I needed $500 worth of additional cleaning so I told him it was a bit too expensive for me right now. Then he says, "Well, I understand you were not expecting to pay this much because you didn't know there was a problem. Let me call my office since you are not a customer of ours yet, and see if we can get you a better price."
At this moment I'm beginning to feel like I've just entered into a car negotiation with a car dealer (which since I haven't blogged about this yet, you will later learn I am VEEEERY skeptical of car dealers and think they are about the slimiest people on earth.) While he's making this call I went outside to talk to my brother who happened to be visiting to see what his thoughts were on it.
The guy comes back to me and says his boss authorized him to clean the blower for free since he's already out here and it's just labor, but the "chimicil" treatment would be necessary. According to what he quoted me, he just wiped out $195 from his quote but he also lost a ton of credibility. Then he says, he can perform a free mold test so that I can see what is growing in the furnace. We go back to the utility closet and he pulls out what looks almost like a strep throat test. It's basically a cotton swab, and a tube with some kind of liquid at the end of it. He swipes some of the substance from the blower fan and puts it in the tube and says we can check it in 10 minutes.
Well my brother and I go to peek at the tube after about 10 minutes and the liquid is still clear, but at the time I didn't realize you needed to pop the end of the stick in all the way into the liquid. Well, when the guy goes to show me the result of my test, he had already popped the stick in. (He did this before he got me, instead of in front of me, so for all I know he just swapped it out with a test in his bag... the whole thing was feeling very shady to me at this point.)
The liquid was purple which meant mold, but I told the guy that I just didn't have the money for the services he wanted to perform... to give myself time to do a little research. First of all, I'm not terribly convinced that this guy wasn't just delivering a well-practiced sales pitch. Second, if there is mold, I'm sure there are home tests that I can perform to verify there is a problem. Third, if a chemical solution is needed to kill the mold, I'm also fairly certain that there are do-it-yourself kits for such things at a much lower price. Forth, if I'm wrong and it needs professional cleaning, I can always call them or another company back out to perform the work and that gives me a chance to compare rates from other vendors in the area.
Upon further research I found a government EPA site with the following information:
The guys came out pretty much on time, turned off the furnace, wheeled a rather large vacuum machine into the dining area, hooked it up to one of the vents and started it up. Meanwhile one of the other guys went around with a hand-held vacuum to each of the vents. While this was going on, the other guy went to inspect the furnace.
A few minutes later he comes up to me and asks, "Do you have allergies?" I responded, "No" and he said he was surprised and wanted to show me a problem I had in my furnace. I walk into the utility room with him and he reaches into my furnace blower fan and pulls out a dirty finger and says, "You have fungal spores growing in your furnace." He then begins in his sales pitch to tell me about how I have mold and if I don't take care of it right away I'm just going to be breathing it and it is a health risk. He draws me a lovely diagram of my furnace and the circulation and explains that cleaning the return is only about 20% and the air ducts make up about 10% and the furnace is responsible for 70% of the pollutants in the air. He then says truly cleaning the system is a 3-step process. Step one is the air ducts/vents Step two is to have a chemical (which he spelled chimicil) solution that is safe for people, even pregnant people and animals but will kill the mold and bacteria. He said one kit is $75 and covers about 300 sq ft so I would need about 4 kits in my house, but that they could start with the base of 3 and see if a 4th is needed. Then step three is to have the blower cleaned and sanitized which is $195.
Of course, I wasn't expecting to be told I needed $500 worth of additional cleaning so I told him it was a bit too expensive for me right now. Then he says, "Well, I understand you were not expecting to pay this much because you didn't know there was a problem. Let me call my office since you are not a customer of ours yet, and see if we can get you a better price."
At this moment I'm beginning to feel like I've just entered into a car negotiation with a car dealer (which since I haven't blogged about this yet, you will later learn I am VEEEERY skeptical of car dealers and think they are about the slimiest people on earth.) While he's making this call I went outside to talk to my brother who happened to be visiting to see what his thoughts were on it.
The guy comes back to me and says his boss authorized him to clean the blower for free since he's already out here and it's just labor, but the "chimicil" treatment would be necessary. According to what he quoted me, he just wiped out $195 from his quote but he also lost a ton of credibility. Then he says, he can perform a free mold test so that I can see what is growing in the furnace. We go back to the utility closet and he pulls out what looks almost like a strep throat test. It's basically a cotton swab, and a tube with some kind of liquid at the end of it. He swipes some of the substance from the blower fan and puts it in the tube and says we can check it in 10 minutes.
Well my brother and I go to peek at the tube after about 10 minutes and the liquid is still clear, but at the time I didn't realize you needed to pop the end of the stick in all the way into the liquid. Well, when the guy goes to show me the result of my test, he had already popped the stick in. (He did this before he got me, instead of in front of me, so for all I know he just swapped it out with a test in his bag... the whole thing was feeling very shady to me at this point.)
The liquid was purple which meant mold, but I told the guy that I just didn't have the money for the services he wanted to perform... to give myself time to do a little research. First of all, I'm not terribly convinced that this guy wasn't just delivering a well-practiced sales pitch. Second, if there is mold, I'm sure there are home tests that I can perform to verify there is a problem. Third, if a chemical solution is needed to kill the mold, I'm also fairly certain that there are do-it-yourself kits for such things at a much lower price. Forth, if I'm wrong and it needs professional cleaning, I can always call them or another company back out to perform the work and that gives me a chance to compare rates from other vendors in the area.
Upon further research I found a government EPA site with the following information:
You should consider having the air ducts in your home cleaned if:Okay, that was a lot of information, but to be to the point, this company didn't do half of that. They did not exhaust the vacuum outside of the house, they used no brushes of any kind, and they basically just put on a show to try to get this chemical up-sale. Needless to say, I'm going to buy a mold kit and test the build-up on the furnace myself to see if his claim is even legitimate. If yes, I'll look into self-cleaning suggestions, or call a different professional to come help me with the problem. If no, I'm going to file a complaint with the BBB because it's terrible to appeal to a person's health and health of their family to make additional money putting chemicals into your home that your home does not need.
Other Important Considerations...
- There is substantial visible mold growth inside hard surface ducts or on other components of your heating and cooling system
- Ducts are infested with vermin (rodents or insects)
- Ducts are clogged with excessive amounts of dust and debris and/or particles are actually released into the home from your supply registers.
Suggestions for choosing a Duct Cleaning Service Provider
- Duct cleaning has never been shown to actually prevent health problems
- EPA does not recommend that air ducts be cleaned except on an as-needed basis because of the continuing uncertainty about the benefits of duct cleaning under most circumstances
- If you think duct cleaning might be a good idea for your home, but you are not sure, talk to a professional
What to Expect From an Air Duct Cleaning Service Provider
- Do not hire duct cleaners who make sweeping claims about the health benefits of duct cleaning -- such claims are unsubstantiated
- Do not allow the use of chemical biocides or chemical treatments unless you fully understand the pros and cons
- Check references to be sure other customers were satisfied and did not experience any problems with their heating and cooling system after cleaning
- Contact your county or city office of consumer affairs or BBB to determine if complaints have been lodged against any of the companies you are considering
- Interview potential service providers
- Ask the service provider whether they hold any relevant state licenses
- If the service provider charges by the hour, request an estimate of the number of hours or days the job will take, and find out whether there will be interruptions in the work.
- Open access ports or doors to allow the entire system to be cleaned and inspected
- Inspect the system before cleaning to be sure that there are no asbestos-containing materials in the heating and cooling system
- Use vacuum equipment that exhausts particles outside of the home or use only high-efficiency particle air (HEPA) vacuuming equipment if the vacuum exhausts inside the home.
- Protect carpet and household furnishings during cleaning
- Use well-controlled brushing of duct surfaces in conjunction with contact vacuum cleaning to kislodge dust and other particles.
- Use only soft-bristled brushes for fiberglass duct board and sheet metal ducts internally lined with fiberglass
- Take care to protect the duct work, including sealing and re-insulating any access holes the service provider may have made or used so they are airtight.
- Follow NADCA's standards for air duct cleaning
Monday, August 23, 2010
What Makes Someone a Bad Friend
Okay, so I have this friend who is pretty much terrible at being a friend. He never returns phone calls, text messages... says he'll come out to something I've invited him to, and then doesn't show up. And it's not just once in a while, this has become such a regular behavior that I basically don't expect any different. I have on more than one occasion just decided to let this friendship go and stop pursuing it, but after a couple of weeks of no communication on my part, he will get in touch with me. When we do talk, the conversation is fine, and on the even more rare occasion that we hang out, we always have a good time. I'm just getting to the point now where the annoyance of feeling like I'm "chasing" the friendship is starting to out-weight the benefit of the friendship itself.
The thing is, he doesn't just do this to me. At one point when we were hanging out he met my neighbors and both he and my neighbor ride motorcycles so they had a common ground. Every once in a while my neighbor will text him to see if he's out riding and wants to meet up, and apparently he never returns his text either so I guess he's just terrible at making contact in general.
Anyone have a friend like this? What do you do, just let it go or just accept that it is what it is?
The thing is, he doesn't just do this to me. At one point when we were hanging out he met my neighbors and both he and my neighbor ride motorcycles so they had a common ground. Every once in a while my neighbor will text him to see if he's out riding and wants to meet up, and apparently he never returns his text either so I guess he's just terrible at making contact in general.
Anyone have a friend like this? What do you do, just let it go or just accept that it is what it is?
Friday, August 20, 2010
Traffic Annoyances --- Rubberneckers
---------------Rubberneckers----------------
Okay today's blog is dedicated to you nosy weirdos out there who somehow feel the need to slow WAAAAAYYY down any time you pass anything along the road to see what is going on. It could be an ambulance, a fire truck, a guy getting pulled over for speeding... You just can't resist slowing down to see what is going on.
You are an idiot! It's people like you who cause ridiculous backups on the interstate or single lane road when people are trying to get to work in the morning. It's people like you who CAUSE accidents because you aren't looking at the road, but instead trying to see if the woman in the car accident lost her arm, and then bash into the car in front of you.
That last statement actually just happened to my co-worker the other day in her brand new Venza. She was sitting at a traffic light (red) and there was an accident ON THE OTHER SIDE OF A DIVIDED STREET. Some idiot was so pre-occupied looking at the accident ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET that they failed to see there was a traffic light and several stopped cars directly in front of them and ran into my co-worker's brand new car and put a hole in her bumper.
When she called in to report the accident the dispatch did not send anyone out right away because they thought she was reporting the other accident that had already sent out emergency vehicles for. So because this idiot was busy watching THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET instead of where they should have been, my co-worker sat for over an hour waiting for dispatch to realize that in fact, this was an additional accident at the same intersection.
I've been behind rubberneckers who slow down to watch an accident that is on the highway below and overpass that we were on. REALLY? It's not like whatever is going on down there is going to have any impact what-so-ever on us... unless of course some moron slows down to try to see what is going on below.
Okay, so that's it for today. Rubberneckers (you know who you are), quit being so gosh darned nosy and keep your eyes on the road. If you want to know what is going on in the world around you, here's a novel idea... read the newspaper. Then you can find out all the blood and guts that went on that day and you might even get to see pictures! Since you might be too ignorant to read.
Okay today's blog is dedicated to you nosy weirdos out there who somehow feel the need to slow WAAAAAYYY down any time you pass anything along the road to see what is going on. It could be an ambulance, a fire truck, a guy getting pulled over for speeding... You just can't resist slowing down to see what is going on.
You are an idiot! It's people like you who cause ridiculous backups on the interstate or single lane road when people are trying to get to work in the morning. It's people like you who CAUSE accidents because you aren't looking at the road, but instead trying to see if the woman in the car accident lost her arm, and then bash into the car in front of you.
That last statement actually just happened to my co-worker the other day in her brand new Venza. She was sitting at a traffic light (red) and there was an accident ON THE OTHER SIDE OF A DIVIDED STREET. Some idiot was so pre-occupied looking at the accident ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET that they failed to see there was a traffic light and several stopped cars directly in front of them and ran into my co-worker's brand new car and put a hole in her bumper.
When she called in to report the accident the dispatch did not send anyone out right away because they thought she was reporting the other accident that had already sent out emergency vehicles for. So because this idiot was busy watching THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET instead of where they should have been, my co-worker sat for over an hour waiting for dispatch to realize that in fact, this was an additional accident at the same intersection.
I've been behind rubberneckers who slow down to watch an accident that is on the highway below and overpass that we were on. REALLY? It's not like whatever is going on down there is going to have any impact what-so-ever on us... unless of course some moron slows down to try to see what is going on below.
Okay, so that's it for today. Rubberneckers (you know who you are), quit being so gosh darned nosy and keep your eyes on the road. If you want to know what is going on in the world around you, here's a novel idea... read the newspaper. Then you can find out all the blood and guts that went on that day and you might even get to see pictures! Since you might be too ignorant to read.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Get the party started!
------------Welcome to my new rant and rave blog.-------------
I've decided that life is too stressful not to scream and holler and get things off your mind. This is my outlet for doing just that. I'll be dropping in to blog about all the stupid people, horrible businesses, and terrible experiences I encounter along the road. I invite you to comment and chime in.
The first post is important so it really needs ranting worthy of being the initiator. Last night I got so irritated with a company's customer service I thought... What a perfect place to start!
But before I begin, I want to back this up and rant about Comcast. Because regardless of my new crappy experience with AT&T, if it weren't for Comcast, I wouldn't have reason to have switched in the first place.
Does anyone see the irony in Comcast's new advertising campaign about having the best customer service? I challenge ANYONE to mention the word "Comcast" around a Comcast customer and see their reaction. I've done this a lot over the years of being a Comcast customer myself. Anytime I would complain about how crappy my service was, or how my internet had dropped out, or how my billing kept increasing, I'd have about 5 other people chime in with an equal amount of hatred. Comcast is known for having horrible service and even more horrible customer service. The sad thing is, cable companies are like monopolies. In fact, I even think enough people complained to the senators to try to break them of their business practices, but unfortunately there are enough "alternatives" that they can get away with murder.
As far as just cable companies in my area, the competition is limited. In the Indianapolis area there's Comcast, Brighthouse, and I believe Time Warner. The trick is, most of these providers do not overlap. Which means, even though there technically are "competitors", they are not competing against each other because they don't service the same areas. In my area, Comcast is the ONLY cable provider. If I expand my options to include satellite TV, there is also DirectTV and DishNetwork.
If you look at internet services, the options spread a little more. There's cable internet, DSL providers, FIOS providers, and of course dial-up. But here again, not all of the available options are truly available to every zip code or area.
To make a long story longer, I searched and searched for an alternative to Comcast and through word of mouth discovered that AT&T had begun service in my area with the popular new Uverse and had heard nothing but good news about it.
---------The switch to AT&T-----------
I can't tell you how happy I was the day I told Comcast where they could shove their crappy service. I called AT&T and spoke to a representative who informed me that I could not qualify for Uverse because it is a bundled service and currently do not have any other AT&T services.
The day that I called for AT&T service (Tues August 3rd) the agent quoted me a rate of $29.95/mo and told me it was optional to buy an AT&T modem or purchase one on my own. She then setup my DSL to be installed on Monday August 9th 2010. While I was researching modems I discovered that according to AT&T's website, the highest rate for their very highest speed DSL internet service was $19.95. I couldn't figure out why I was misquoted.
The next day I called back to ask about the pricing difference. The agent I spoke with apologized for the mix up and informed me that they just got some new specials on Monday (?? it was Tues that I called so if new pricing went into effect Monday I should have still received it.) Then after putting me on hold decided to open a "new account" for me so that she could get the correct pricing in the system. At this time she also informs me that Monday the 9th is no longer available as an install date, she would have to set me up for Wednesday the 11th. Okay, that's a minor inconvenience...
I purchased a modem online (after much research bought a TrendNet that reviews revealed works with AT&T service), and awaited my service install on Wednesday. Wednesday I get a phone call to confirm my service install but she confirms the install date as Friday, August 13th. I informed her that her information was incorrect, I had already been pushed back from Monday the 9th to Wednesday the 11th, and all she could do was apologize and tell me that her system showed Friday the 13th so that was the earliest date I could have the installation. Okay, another minor inconvenience...
Friday rolls around and I get a call from an AT&T tech that my DSL has been activated. Great! That evening I go home and hook up my modem. I try walking through my modem setup and get nowhere. I called AT&T DSL internet technical support and after holding for a few minutes got an agent with a very thick accent. The agent said all I needed to do was use the default user name "attreg@att.net" and default password of "attreg". When I asked for the information that my modem manual says to get from my internet provider, he could not help me. He then transferred me to another support department.
After waiting on hold for nearly 35 minutes I finally get through to the other department. The agent asks for my account number and then my user name and password. When I gave him the attreg@att.net username, he sighed and said that the DSL department had "passed the buck" and that the Tier 3 support desk could not help me until my DSL service was activated and I had a user specific username and password setup. He apologized and transferred me back to the DSL department. Another 10 minutes on hold and I get yet another agent with a thick accent. This agent also insists that all he can do for me is give me the default username and password. He then told me that he could not help me further and referred me to the technical support of my modem manufacturer.
I called TrendNet technical support and spent some time with an agent there trying to configure the modem and see if we would get up and running with the default username and password I was given. I even spoke to a supervisor at the Trendnet technical support who concluded that the username and password were not correct and that the best way to continue troubleshooting would be to conference call with the AT&T DSL support.
At this point I had been on the phone for 3-4 hours and was out of time for dealing with the situation any further that evening. I had a busy weekend of plans so I figured I'd try to get a solution the following Monday August 16th.
Monday I call AT&T DSL support and ask if I can conference in a TrendNet tech so that I could finally get my internet going. Once I had both agents on the phone the TrendNet agent concluded that if my WAN light was flashing, that meant I wasn't getting the DSL signal. The WAN was the DSL line on that particular modem. With that I released the TrendNet agent and the AT&T agent said she was going to run some tests on the DSL line and that another AT&T agent would be contacting me within about an hour after the tests were run.
An hour later I got an automated call and after following the menu was patched through to an AT&T representative who had no idea what I was talking about. I explained the whole circumstance to her and she put me on hold to run a couple more tests. She then said she would have to have an AT&T service technician come back out to my house. We made an appointment for Wednesday August 18th, from 4pm-8pm.
On Wednesday I had to leave work an hour and a half early so that I could make it home to be available for the AT&T service technician. By 7pm I began to question if a technician were coming out so I called AT&T DSL technical support yet again. The agent put me on hold to contact the dispatch department to see if a technician was being sent out. He then apologized to me and said there had been a large number of emergency outages and all the technicians were busy and would not be making it out. I of course was really upset to hear this.
At this point it has now been nearly 2 weeks I've been without internet. I had had the installation date pushed back from Monday the 9th to Wednesday the 11th, then again to Friday the 13th. I was told on Monday the 16th that a technician would be sent out on the 18th and was now being informed that I would have to delay yet again. I had spent a total of about 7 hours on the phone between AT&T support and TrendNet support. Meanwhile, not having internet service was really starting to affect us at home with my kid in school unable to look things up when he needed, and me not being able to access the internet for my needs. Additionally I had missed an hour and a half of work trying to be available for my so-called appointment. It had gone from minor inconvenience to major inconvenience and I wasn't even a customer yet!!
Needless to say, I'm not impressed with AT&T so far. I intend to write a letter to AT&T corporate. I'm very disappointed in my initial experience with AT&T and if this is the level of customer service I can expect from them, I might actually be better off with Comcast. I can't even believe I am saying those words.
Until next time! Thanks for listening.
This continues to be one of the worst internet experiences I have ever had. I received a statement in August for $45.00. I called and spoke with a DSL customer service agent, who after explaining everything that has happened, did make the necessary adjustments to that statement and said that it might take a little while for the promotional price of $19.95 to kick in but that she would make sure that the promotional price adjustment took place. I received another statement in October for $45.00 again. I have had a very busy month so I haven't been able to address the issue until now. I contacted AT&T email support and requested to be put in contact with a MANAGER who can help me get all of my issues resolved. I sent the following email:
In addition to continual billing issues (of over twice the cost I am supposed to be paying) I have had the worse internet service. I'm supposedly on the highest tier of DSL high speed internet that AT&T offers, but I can't even watch YouTube videos without interruption, and I have continual issues with my Netflix streaming as well. I haven't needed to do a lot of downloading, but at the very least I should be able to stream video at this tier of internet service. I'm very disappointed. I hate to say this, but I may have to switch back to Comcast or find an alternative internet solution. I was so hoping that AT&T was going to make me a satisfied customer as they seem to have a good reputation, but so far I am shocked at how poor my service has been since day 1.
I've decided that life is too stressful not to scream and holler and get things off your mind. This is my outlet for doing just that. I'll be dropping in to blog about all the stupid people, horrible businesses, and terrible experiences I encounter along the road. I invite you to comment and chime in.
The first post is important so it really needs ranting worthy of being the initiator. Last night I got so irritated with a company's customer service I thought... What a perfect place to start!
But before I begin, I want to back this up and rant about Comcast. Because regardless of my new crappy experience with AT&T, if it weren't for Comcast, I wouldn't have reason to have switched in the first place.
Does anyone see the irony in Comcast's new advertising campaign about having the best customer service? I challenge ANYONE to mention the word "Comcast" around a Comcast customer and see their reaction. I've done this a lot over the years of being a Comcast customer myself. Anytime I would complain about how crappy my service was, or how my internet had dropped out, or how my billing kept increasing, I'd have about 5 other people chime in with an equal amount of hatred. Comcast is known for having horrible service and even more horrible customer service. The sad thing is, cable companies are like monopolies. In fact, I even think enough people complained to the senators to try to break them of their business practices, but unfortunately there are enough "alternatives" that they can get away with murder.
As far as just cable companies in my area, the competition is limited. In the Indianapolis area there's Comcast, Brighthouse, and I believe Time Warner. The trick is, most of these providers do not overlap. Which means, even though there technically are "competitors", they are not competing against each other because they don't service the same areas. In my area, Comcast is the ONLY cable provider. If I expand my options to include satellite TV, there is also DirectTV and DishNetwork.
If you look at internet services, the options spread a little more. There's cable internet, DSL providers, FIOS providers, and of course dial-up. But here again, not all of the available options are truly available to every zip code or area.
To make a long story longer, I searched and searched for an alternative to Comcast and through word of mouth discovered that AT&T had begun service in my area with the popular new Uverse and had heard nothing but good news about it.
---------The switch to AT&T-----------
I can't tell you how happy I was the day I told Comcast where they could shove their crappy service. I called AT&T and spoke to a representative who informed me that I could not qualify for Uverse because it is a bundled service and currently do not have any other AT&T services.
The day that I called for AT&T service (Tues August 3rd) the agent quoted me a rate of $29.95/mo and told me it was optional to buy an AT&T modem or purchase one on my own. She then setup my DSL to be installed on Monday August 9th 2010. While I was researching modems I discovered that according to AT&T's website, the highest rate for their very highest speed DSL internet service was $19.95. I couldn't figure out why I was misquoted.
The next day I called back to ask about the pricing difference. The agent I spoke with apologized for the mix up and informed me that they just got some new specials on Monday (?? it was Tues that I called so if new pricing went into effect Monday I should have still received it.) Then after putting me on hold decided to open a "new account" for me so that she could get the correct pricing in the system. At this time she also informs me that Monday the 9th is no longer available as an install date, she would have to set me up for Wednesday the 11th. Okay, that's a minor inconvenience...
I purchased a modem online (after much research bought a TrendNet that reviews revealed works with AT&T service), and awaited my service install on Wednesday. Wednesday I get a phone call to confirm my service install but she confirms the install date as Friday, August 13th. I informed her that her information was incorrect, I had already been pushed back from Monday the 9th to Wednesday the 11th, and all she could do was apologize and tell me that her system showed Friday the 13th so that was the earliest date I could have the installation. Okay, another minor inconvenience...
Friday rolls around and I get a call from an AT&T tech that my DSL has been activated. Great! That evening I go home and hook up my modem. I try walking through my modem setup and get nowhere. I called AT&T DSL internet technical support and after holding for a few minutes got an agent with a very thick accent. The agent said all I needed to do was use the default user name "attreg@att.net" and default password of "attreg". When I asked for the information that my modem manual says to get from my internet provider, he could not help me. He then transferred me to another support department.
After waiting on hold for nearly 35 minutes I finally get through to the other department. The agent asks for my account number and then my user name and password. When I gave him the attreg@att.net username, he sighed and said that the DSL department had "passed the buck" and that the Tier 3 support desk could not help me until my DSL service was activated and I had a user specific username and password setup. He apologized and transferred me back to the DSL department. Another 10 minutes on hold and I get yet another agent with a thick accent. This agent also insists that all he can do for me is give me the default username and password. He then told me that he could not help me further and referred me to the technical support of my modem manufacturer.
I called TrendNet technical support and spent some time with an agent there trying to configure the modem and see if we would get up and running with the default username and password I was given. I even spoke to a supervisor at the Trendnet technical support who concluded that the username and password were not correct and that the best way to continue troubleshooting would be to conference call with the AT&T DSL support.
At this point I had been on the phone for 3-4 hours and was out of time for dealing with the situation any further that evening. I had a busy weekend of plans so I figured I'd try to get a solution the following Monday August 16th.
Monday I call AT&T DSL support and ask if I can conference in a TrendNet tech so that I could finally get my internet going. Once I had both agents on the phone the TrendNet agent concluded that if my WAN light was flashing, that meant I wasn't getting the DSL signal. The WAN was the DSL line on that particular modem. With that I released the TrendNet agent and the AT&T agent said she was going to run some tests on the DSL line and that another AT&T agent would be contacting me within about an hour after the tests were run.
An hour later I got an automated call and after following the menu was patched through to an AT&T representative who had no idea what I was talking about. I explained the whole circumstance to her and she put me on hold to run a couple more tests. She then said she would have to have an AT&T service technician come back out to my house. We made an appointment for Wednesday August 18th, from 4pm-8pm.
On Wednesday I had to leave work an hour and a half early so that I could make it home to be available for the AT&T service technician. By 7pm I began to question if a technician were coming out so I called AT&T DSL technical support yet again. The agent put me on hold to contact the dispatch department to see if a technician was being sent out. He then apologized to me and said there had been a large number of emergency outages and all the technicians were busy and would not be making it out. I of course was really upset to hear this.
At this point it has now been nearly 2 weeks I've been without internet. I had had the installation date pushed back from Monday the 9th to Wednesday the 11th, then again to Friday the 13th. I was told on Monday the 16th that a technician would be sent out on the 18th and was now being informed that I would have to delay yet again. I had spent a total of about 7 hours on the phone between AT&T support and TrendNet support. Meanwhile, not having internet service was really starting to affect us at home with my kid in school unable to look things up when he needed, and me not being able to access the internet for my needs. Additionally I had missed an hour and a half of work trying to be available for my so-called appointment. It had gone from minor inconvenience to major inconvenience and I wasn't even a customer yet!!
Needless to say, I'm not impressed with AT&T so far. I intend to write a letter to AT&T corporate. I'm very disappointed in my initial experience with AT&T and if this is the level of customer service I can expect from them, I might actually be better off with Comcast. I can't even believe I am saying those words.
Until next time! Thanks for listening.
--------------UPDATE November 6th, 2010-----------------
This continues to be one of the worst internet experiences I have ever had. I received a statement in August for $45.00. I called and spoke with a DSL customer service agent, who after explaining everything that has happened, did make the necessary adjustments to that statement and said that it might take a little while for the promotional price of $19.95 to kick in but that she would make sure that the promotional price adjustment took place. I received another statement in October for $45.00 again. I have had a very busy month so I haven't been able to address the issue until now. I contacted AT&T email support and requested to be put in contact with a MANAGER who can help me get all of my issues resolved. I sent the following email:
I need to be put into contact with someone with authority to help me with my situation. I have spoken to several DSL Customer Service Agents, and I have not received resolution for the issues that I am encountering. (Although the last Customer Service rep did help me with the current billing issue, I'm still having problems with this account.)
I am a relatively new AT&T customer and have had nothing but problems since the day that I signed up for my AT&T DSL account. It took AT&T almost a month to get my DSL service activated due to several problems I had with AT&T, then I have been receiving poor service (I can't even stream YouTube videos which at your highest speed service I shouldn't have issues with) and my billing is wrong. My statements are for $45.00 when I'm supposed to be paying $19.95.
Please have a customer service MANAGER contact me as I don't want to repeat myself over and over again to get this resolved.
In addition to continual billing issues (of over twice the cost I am supposed to be paying) I have had the worse internet service. I'm supposedly on the highest tier of DSL high speed internet that AT&T offers, but I can't even watch YouTube videos without interruption, and I have continual issues with my Netflix streaming as well. I haven't needed to do a lot of downloading, but at the very least I should be able to stream video at this tier of internet service. I'm very disappointed. I hate to say this, but I may have to switch back to Comcast or find an alternative internet solution. I was so hoping that AT&T was going to make me a satisfied customer as they seem to have a good reputation, but so far I am shocked at how poor my service has been since day 1.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)