If It Isn't Comcast, It's AT&T

I think that in general, service providers are all the Devil. I went from having somewhat crappy and terribly over-priced internet service with Comcast, to terribly delivered and now terrible service with AT&T. When I was a Comcast customer I thought no customer service could be as bad as with them. I still somewhat believe that statement, as even though I had the hardest time in the planet getting my AT&T service started and billing correct, the customer service has at least tried to be helpful and stayed relatively friendly, whereas with Comcast you always got an attitude and excuse and at the end of the call absolutely no resolution.

Well it's been several months and my Internet service has been more or less okay. I didn't expect anything fabulous from AT&T as I am using their DSL service and I'm at a promotional rate of $19.95/mo for the first year. Even though this is supposed to be a high-speed service, I doubt that is what I am getting, but I just chucked it up to "You get what you pay for." For the past few weeks I have been having Internet service issues again. The wireless signal keeps fading in and out continuously making it nearly impossible to get any work done at home, and since right now my primary source of income is freelance work, well that is a problem for me.

I called AT&T and after placing me on hold for a while it was determined that the lines are bad outside of my home and they scheduled to have someone come out. On the plus side, unlike Comcast who schedules maintenance like a week out, as though you have nothing important going on in your life, AT&T did schedule to send a maintenance person out the next afternoon. It's not afternoon yet, so it remains to be seen whether that will actually take place or not. I will be happy after it has been resolved. After holding an additional 15 minutes I was able to get a whopping $8 credit on my bill, which I guess when you consider my bill is only $19.95 a month, is not a horrible service credit, but given that it's taking me 3 times longer to get any work done, it doesn't even come close to compensating me for the troubles I'm dealing with. I guess again I have to revert to the comment "You get what you pay for." I wish I were not unemployed right now and had the money to upgrade to a more efficient service, but that will have to wait for now.