Re: [Plug] the voicenet/dsl saga

["Joel A. Matz" <jmatz@bellatlantic.net>]

Sorry, I gotta to vent:

I had and ADSL from Bell Atlantic in Collegeville for a few months. 
Service was so-so.  Lots o' router problems, but a pretty fat line
none-the-less.  To my great dismay I had to move.  7 miles up the road,
to Pottstown.  I signed up for the BA DSL for a year back in February,
so I kept the service as it was more expensive to break it than to just
use their free dialup that comes along with.  Ever since, I've been
trying to get my/a DSL back.  I spoke with Voicenet in the course of
this.

The gentleman I talked with seemed to have a clue.

He was honest.  They can get service out to anywhere in their area, but
it has to be wired first.  He basically said that Bell was dragging
their feet, although Covad was tryin to do pick up the slack.  In either
case, until the lines went in, the ISP really couldn't do a dang thing. 
Even then it's bandwidth is limited by the distance to station/repeater
(duh).  Common repeater installations could be a ways away yet.

I'm not trying to justify the sales department, just the service.  I had
Voicenet for a few years (used to be jmatz@voicenet.com) and, although
we'd bitch about the news server & ocassional email FUs, their
connectivity was always solid.  They gave an honest-to-goodness shell
acount.  When there was a problem they honestly tried to let people know
through their service page (kind of a catch 22 when you can't log on). 
When the problems were a little more personal, I had several interesting
dialogs with root@unix01 and they seemed generally motivated & helpful,
especially to the non MS types with a clue.

Relax dude.  Sales people suck, techs rock. Voicenet rocked.  I'd switch
back in a heartbeat.  Ever read User Friendly?  Save the angst for the
halfwits. ;>)

Joel



"Jason S." wrote:
> 
> The voicenet DSL saga continues. I'm sitting here looking at my
> worthless contract, wondering what on earth possessed me to pay
> $700 in advance 3 months ago. The date on the contract is
> 6-24-99.
> 
> Covad is running the lines. At the begining of the month, I checked
> their website for availabilty and according to them, it wouldnt be
> until the 9th (at least). Now, why is it that I could find that info
> in 2 minutes, yet voicenet felt the need to lie to me, then trap
> me by claiming "cancelation fee" when I asked for my money back
> earlier in the month? So I sit and wait.
> 
> When a friend in my area tried to get DSL from concentric they were
> initially told it was available. Later, they were told it wasnt, the
> contract was canceled, and no money changed hands. They were pretty
> much told "Sorry, we cant do this now, contact us in a couple months"
> This was back in june.
> 
> When I called, they said yes, 30-40 day install time "blah blah"....
> its been almost 90. Now I can spend a bunch of $$ on a lawyer to
> get back money I should never have spent in the first place.
> 
> I just attempted to call to find out the status of my order around
> 4:30. I doubt I'll hear back. "The Person" I need to talk to was "on the
> phone". Evidently there's one all knowing person that can answer the
> question of "When can I expect service?". I guess monday morning I'll
> try to call one last time. At this point I dont even want the service.
> They've already broken the contract by not installing the service in
> a timely manner.
> 
> If you're considering Voicenet, dont bother. This reminds me more of a
> bad racket than a serious business. I've absolutely no desire to support
> a business that flat out lies to its customers. When I called at the
> begining of the month to cancel, I was warned that "if you cancel now,
> there will be a cancelation fee. You're very close to having it
> installed, you should just wait it out". When I aske how much the
> fee was, it was "several hundred dollars". So I guess its a good
> thing I'm patient. Otherwise I'd have to pay a bunch of money for a
> service I never recieved.
> 
> Maybe other people have other experiences. But I just felt like sharing
> mine.
> 
> J.
> 
> When I grow up, I wanna be more like me.
> I had a clue. I didn't like it. I took it back and exchanged it for an
> attitude.
> 
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