[SATLUG] Re: DSL - San Antonio - Problem Update

[Luis Garza]

SBC/ATT is pretty good about giving you credit.  In fact they would rather
give you the $14.99 credit than have someone come out on weekends and
actually fix the problem.

As for Monday, you will be at the bottom of the queue.  Business customers
are handled first, then if you are lucky maybe late Monday.

One time I had the problem and I was down for 10 days.  I receive a big
credit though.  For me they had reset the card, "replaced the card" but
actually moved me to another bad port and then "actually" replace the card
with a "new - but really from a used replaced pile" card.  I was put on a
bad port for that card.  They then admitted that it really was an old used
card.  Finally, I just asked the tech to swap ports for me and put me on a
good port.  That got me going but I am sure, that who ever he replaced me
with, just went down.

Basically, if you are a business, you will be treated like a customer that
matters.  But as long as you are paying $14.99 a month for relative high
speed, instead of the competitors higher priced $25.00 a month for higher
speed, they figure .... "You get what you pay for"

I am still with ATT mostly because TW reran my cable underneath my carpet
and tore it plus punched holes in my walls and did not repair it.  Plus
the hold time for TW is like 45 minutes.  Plus TW blocks port 25 and if
they find that you are running a web server, they will block port 80
inbound.

I made a little chart listing some of the features for both ATT and TW. 
Please feel free to add to it or correct.


Feature             ATT                   Time Warner
==============================================================
Price               $14.99                $25.00
speed               1.4                   ~5
port 25             open(1)               blocked
phone support
 - first level      bad                   bad
 - country          India/Philippines     US/India/Philippines
 - second level     better                better
 - country          US                    US
support hours       M-F ~8-6              24/7 (2)
hold time           5 minutes             ~45 minutes
Windows AntiVirus   Yahoo                 CA
 - Price            Free                  1 yr Free


(1) ATT will open port 25 upon request.  You will need to email your
request to their support.
(2) First level account information support is open only M-F during normal
business hours.  Any support calls requiring that they have to look up
your account or reset passwords can only be done during normal business
hours.


Luis Garza
www.luisgarza.com
luis at luisgarza.com
lrgarza2000 at yahoo.com