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olePigeon · Jul 28, 2005, 11:01 PM

So I moved to a new apartment that already has DSL installed. I just hook up my modem and there's a DSL signal and everything. SBC was suppose to transfer my account. I figure, hey, this should be instant. Everything's already set up!

Nope. They tell me it's going to take a 7 business days for a technician to hook up the DSL. I'm telling them all this time that it's already hooked up, I have a DSL signal, all lights are go. Just hit the little key on your keyboard and turn my account on.

Nope, won't do it. I have to wait 7 business days for the technician to hook up the DSL. Riiiight. So at exactly 12:00AM on the day the "technician" was suppose to hook up my DSL, my account magically works instantly.

It's connected at a full 7Mbit/1Mbit. I'm thinkin, "SWEET!!!" They tell me to leave my modem on for 10 days to "optimize" the connection. The next day, it's down to 5Mbit/768Kbit. Then the next day it's at 2.5Mbit/512Kbit. Then the next day it as 1.2Mbit/312Kbit.

So I call them, told them my line got slower after their stupid "optimization." The lady actually laughed at me, said she's never heard of that. They connected me to a line technician and they insisted the line was fine.

So a three months pass and I got the chance to talk to an SBC Technician who was a contract job at my school. He said it sounded like they were "choking" my line. Apparently they do that.

So I called them up again, told them the story again. She said she couldn't do anything, so she transferred me to a Line Technician. He ran his little utility, said the line was fine. I told him that I'm paying for a friggin Pro line, it WAS connection at the theoretical maximum speed of 2 to 3Mbit down, 512Kbit up. Why would it get slower over the optimization period?

He was silent, then said, "Oh, looks like we have you rated at a standard line connection. I'm going to reset your connection, it should be faster."

So he resets it, and it's now connected again at that 2.5Mbit/418Kbit. Nearly 3 times faster than it was before.

So I call them back (luckily they kept the notes on file) and told them that I've been paying for a pro line for the past 3 months and you guys were only giving me the basic line. I want a refund.

She tells me SBC has a policy and they can only refund up to 2 billing periods.

So I'm kinda pissed. That's $60 down the drain and I really don't have a lot of money in the first place. I count my pennies and take it.

Anyway, I wonder how many other people this has happened to. Buy DSL, they stick you on a slower line but charge you for more. If you don't notice or bother to call in time, they'll still only refund 2 billing periods.

This is just flat out stealing, especially when the SBC people already have a nickname for it.

nforcer · Jul 28, 2005, 11:07 PM

That's pretty bad. It really is stupid as crap that they made you wait for a "technician" to fix things. I'm also not a fan of their "optimization" period.

I have found it better to post a complaint or request on the SBC Direct forms on dslreports.com. The techs there have helped me twice when I have had problems. Calling SBC support has only resulted in wasting 45 minutes when the problem was theirs all along (some new guy crippled our main line one weekend).

Agasthya · Jul 28, 2005, 11:10 PM

We've had DSL for the past 4 years and our contract is coming up for renewal soon (we are currently paying $30 for the Pro service). SBC sent us a nice letter saying that they recognize that we are a valued, long-term, customer and because of that, they can offer us an exlusive deal not available to anyone else. The deal? $34.95 for the standard service. ****ers.

Webscreamer · Jul 28, 2005, 11:32 PM

If you can get this ISP i'd highly recommend it. www.speakeasy.net

The best customer service ever. It's not like talking to SBC robots... it's real, young, normal people.

Agasthya · Jul 29, 2005, 12:09 AM

Originally Posted by Webscreamer

If you can get this ISP i'd highly recommend it. www.speakeasy.net

The best customer service ever. It's not like talking to SBC robots... it's real, young, normal people.

They are freakin expensive though.

suvsr4terrorists · Jul 29, 2005, 07:57 AM

SBC just LOVES to **** you over. Literally, EVERY OTHER MONTH the screw up my bil. For a while, they had a great record of messing up my bill 4 times in a row...and guess which way it was screwed up? "WOops! We charged you an extra $15-40! Woops! Sorry!"

****ing assholes. They've double charged me for service, given me the wrong rate for my DSL, and when I moved they managed to screw everything up. I think I've wasted a good chunk of my life talking to their retarded service people.

Also, I noticed that slowdown crap you were talking about too. Whenever my connection gets slow, I go to my router, disconnect, wait about 1 minute, then hit reconnect. It's usually quite a bit faster.

turtle777 · Jul 29, 2005, 09:23 AM

*sigh*

I don't have a choice, I'm stuck with cable on Cox, $ 40 for a basic line. No DSL available. Darn monopoly.

-t

Webscreamer · Jul 29, 2005, 09:28 AM

Originally Posted by suvsr4terrorists

SBC just LOVES to **** you over. Literally, EVERY OTHER MONTH the screw up my bil. For a while, they had a great record of messing up my bill 4 times in a row...and guess which way it was screwed up? "WOops! We charged you an extra $15-40! Woops! Sorry!"

****ing assholes. They've double charged me for service, given me the wrong rate for my DSL, and when I moved they managed to screw everything up. I think I've wasted a good chunk of my life talking to their retarded service people.

Also, I noticed that slowdown crap you were talking about too. Whenever my connection gets slow, I go to my router, disconnect, wait about 1 minute, then hit reconnect. It's usually quite a bit faster.

Yeah, exactly, when I had them, my bill would be diffrent almost every month. One time there was a $200 extra charge. So they did it for and switched to a dedicated DSL line (www.speakeasy.net) and Vonage (www.vonage.com)

nica · Jul 29, 2005, 09:54 AM

SBC is the worst company I have ever dealt with they cannot get their act together. If you have to do business with them keep your records and check on placed orders the next day to make sure they don’t disappear.

tooki · Jul 29, 2005, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by Agasthya

They are freakin expensive though.

They are the same as any other Covad-based DSL ISP. So yeah, kinda pricey -- but you get what you pay for. Speakeasy's been a superior ISP in every way.

tooki

spatterson · Jul 29, 2005, 10:56 AM

I remember that it took me a couple of weeks speaking to technicians, just for them to remove the Port 25 filter they placed on my account. Imagaine not being to access, work, personal, and freelance POP3 email from Mail App. I was furios. After this contract is up, SBC is getting dumped. They suck!

turtle777 · Jul 29, 2005, 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by spatterson

I remember that it took me a couple of weeks speaking to technicians, just for them to remove the Port 25 filter they placed on my account. Imagaine not being to access, work, personal, and freelance POP3 email from Mail App. I was furios. After this contract is up, SBC is getting dumped. They suck!

Uhm, port 25 is for SMTP, which lets you SEND emails. For receiving, you need POP3 (port 110). Access with a blocked port 25 is NO problem. I think you are a little confused here...

-t

spatterson · Jul 29, 2005, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Uhm, port 25 is for SMTP, which lets you SEND emails. For receiving, you need POP3 (port 110). Access with a blocked port 25 is NO problem. I think you are a little confused here...

-t

Well then they had both blocked. I could not send or receive emails. They said it was for spam protection. I'm not an IT genius, but I had my pop3 settings in mail app set just they way they were while using Charter Pipeline. When I first connected to SBC’s monstrosity of a DSL service, it just plain didn’t work until they removed the filter.

turtle777 · Jul 29, 2005, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by spatterson

Well then they had both blocked. I could not send or receive emails. They said it was for spam protection. I'm not an IT genius, but I had my pop3 settings in mail app set just they way they were while using Charter Pipeline. When I first connected to SBC’s monstrosity of a DSL service, it just plain didn’t work until they removed the filter.

Well, I have no idea what really happened, but I sort of doubt that the blocked port 110. in general. If that was the case, they are really dumb. Sort a like "we protect you by NOT giving you access at all ?"

-t

spatterson · Jul 29, 2005, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Well, I have no idea what really happened, but I sort of doubt that the blocked port 110. in general. If that was the case, they are really dumb. Sort a like "we protect you by NOT giving you access at all ?"

-t

Thats why I was so mad, in the meantime I used someones unsecure wireless bandwidth just to check my email.

Now after the dude removed the fiters, everything works fine... Though I have not ran a speed test in a while, and I think I will do so tonight after work.

ghporter · Jul 29, 2005, 11:27 AM

SBC is not coordinated enough to intentionally screw you over. They are a mega-super-uber corporation in which people in adjacent offices may not even know what their neighbors do at work. Their internal communication is often VERY bad, and that goes all the way down to communicating what a customer asked for and what they're paying for.

Even with all that, once they get it right, they tend to keep it right. Unless you have horrible copper, your connection will stay pretty good just about forever. If there's a line problem, SBC will more times than not know about it before you do and be fixing it before you realize there's a problem-though they could actuall TELL customers there's a problem...

The real secret to getting what you want from SBC is to stay on them like glue. I once had a problem with my bill that took a call to their billing department EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR A WEEK to get fixed, but not only did they fix the problem, they comp'd me half of the month's service because they'd screwed up. You have to be an assertive customer to keep their attention enough to get what you're trying to get.

d.fine · Jul 29, 2005, 11:40 AM

I just did a speed test and it rated my cable connection at 2.6 Megabits/second, cnet speed test gave me 1344.8 kbps, while another have me 652 kbps.. any reliable tests out there?

jcadam · Jul 29, 2005, 11:44 AM

In the days of dial-up, the small, local ISPs were always better than the national ones (AOL. etc. )
Too bad the small ISPs seem to be dying with the advent of broadband.

suvsr4terrorists · Jul 29, 2005, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by ghporter

SBC is not coordinated enough to intentionally screw you over.

Wrong. In the past year and a half, I'd have to say they've screwed up my bill about 12 times. Out of those 12 times, I was overcharged for 12 of them.

Sandkat · Jul 29, 2005, 11:46 AM

You can always change you outgoing mail server port to 587 as a workaround.

ghporter · Jul 29, 2005, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by suvsr4terrorists

Wrong. In the past year and a half, I'd have to say they've screwed up my bill about 12 times. Out of those 12 times, I was overcharged for 12 of them.

I can't see how being inept and bungling makes them coordinated enough to target a customer. They're imbecilic, not evil.

suvsr4terrorists · Jul 29, 2005, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by ghporter

I can't see how being inept and bungling makes them coordinated enough to target a customer. They're imbecilic, not evil.

Then how come they've never screwed it up the OTHER direction? How come they've never FORGOTTEN to bill me for some period, or something like that?

Mastrap · Jul 29, 2005, 12:03 PM

So far I am happy with Rogers. 5 Mbit up, just over 1 down. $49 CAN a month.

ghporter · Jul 29, 2005, 12:12 PM

Originally Posted by suvsr4terrorists

Then how come they've never screwed it up the OTHER direction? How come they've never FORGOTTEN to bill me for some period, or something like that?

Their computers automatically send out bills (though I have talked to people who haven't received a bill for a couple of months-even after they called to point this out). The problem comes in when people change things on your account, whether because you changed an option or because a package you get is changed. THEN there's trouble. The trouble though is that SBC hires people who appear to be trained by lab monkeys in how to use their (multiple, outdated, and ludicrously complex) software systems to update your account. The update is hosed up (95% of the time, it seems) and your bill is wrong.

Have you ever called their tech support? I think the lab monkeys are SUPERVISING that department! Everything I've ever done in working with them as a customer points to lack of coordination. Further, I've communicated with a lot of people who WORK FOR SBC, and they tend to agree; too many bosses, not enough leadership; too many markets, not enough focus. Check out the SBC forum on BroadbandReports.com and read some of the posts by SBC employees-the ones that are still allowed to post.

spatterson · Jul 29, 2005, 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by Sandkat

You can always change you outgoing mail server port to 587 as a workaround.

I considered that... though now after all the phone calls months ago... everything is honky dory, and ports 25 and 110 (thanks turtle) work fine.

Link · Jul 29, 2005, 05:23 PM

Originally Posted by Mastrap

So far I am happy with Rogers. 5 Mbit up, just over 1 down. $49 CAN a month.

How much bandwidth do you get for that bad boy?