Competence

BTW did you get a new computer? Your timezone is wrong.

Over the last couple of weeks or so I've been having trouble with my DSL service in that it's been intermittent. That is, sometimes I got the bandwidth I was paying for, and sometimes I might have just as well been using a dialup connection or not been connected to the network at all.

After going through a couple of levels of offshore troubleshooters I finally got passed off to hardcore US tech support, and what a surprise! And a pleasure.

A tech with a voice from Ohio checked my system and said that the line seemed to be fine, so it might be my modem and would it be OK if a tech showed up tomorrow to check whether the fault was on my side of the line, or theirs.

We scheduled an appointment for between noon and 5PM, and as soon as I went back on-hook my periodontist's office called, wanting to know if I could come in early for my cleaning since there was an X-ray of the implant site that needed to be taken...

Traffic, here in Austin, has gotten to be horrible, so in order to get to my gum dentist on time I have to leave home about 45 minutes before the time of my appointment.

Anyway, in order to make a long story longer, after I got home from the dentist, the tech guy showed up this afternoon and proved that the problem was the modem by installing a new one which worked.

After that, everything worked. No charge, BTW

SBC Internet Services rules, as far as I'm concerned.

Not being a mind reader, I wasn't able to glean that from your ramblings on orthodontia.

You're the one that seems to think that swapping one part and having it work for two minutes constitutes a fix for an "intermittent problem". When the tech came out, did he show you a poor sync rate or anything like that? Did he do anything besides cracking open a new modem?

And power cycling/rebooting everything else while you were at it had zero effect? For all we can tell from your post, you could have a trojan that periodically wakes up and trashes your bandwidth. A statistically far more likely occurence than a "bad" modem. I'm just saying you might not want to start counting your chickens just yet. OTOH, since we don't know how long the stretches were when it was working with the old modem, overnight may be long enough to be reasonably sure it's working.

I'm not the one trying to take $100 from a 15 year old girl. If you want professionalism from me, paypal me some money. :-)

What exactly did you expect to be charged for? The phone company swapped a piece of their hardware, I wouldn't expect anything different than a no-bill.

To establish a better understanding of their true competence level perhaps.

I was referring to when you got DSL initially. If you installed all that Yahoo stuff, then it's no wonder you have problems with your connection. I hope you have some kind of router/firewall and not a direct connection.

Hmm. Good ISPs are rare. As the tech solved the problem without charge, I'd be less interested in the how. I've had two failing modems over the last year and had to buy a new one both times. So the last one I bought from the ISP as I have now them to solve any problem when the modem fails again.

petrus bitbyter

They're not amateurs in that they get paid for their work, but given some of the things I've personally seen I beg to differ if you think they're all good. For example, a 2-1 adapter to plug two computers into one DSL modem port, real professional that was. That really indicated a profound understanding of the differences between phone lines and network cabling, didn't it?

You probably believe that.

Touch a nerve did I? I bet you weren't singing that tune when you were talking to the first level support person in India.

At any rate, you don't need to ask. Whenever I feel like offering something up, I will continue to do so...with or without your blessings. Other, less thickheaded, people might actually find something useful in what I have to say.

Once it did come up, it didn't stop you from making one of the most offensive remarks ever posted here, did it? What's worse is that you knew she would read it. You should probably be locked up IMO. You're just a bitter old man that makes endless mistakes, suck on that for a while.

In case you can't tell Fields, I'm pretty well sick and tired of your garbage. Some days your Mr Nice, willing to do anything for anyone.....the rest of time (and that's probably the majority of it) you're nothing short of ticking time bomb just waiting to go off on someone for some trivial reason. The problem is that you can't observe any semblence of decency when you go off, no holds barred as it were. You crossed the line with your vulgar comments about Jims grandson and you did it in the thread with the young girl. Since you didn't apologize to J.T., I'm sure you won't apologize to the girl. I can't wait to see your next great act of public indecency.

Nothing, if you lack a conscience I suppose.

What warranty is there on CO supplied equipment? Get real John.

Hmmm......

Well, if you installed it then there are certainly no secrets about your machine; at least between you and SBC and Yahoo. And if you don't have some kind of external firewall, you're even more ignorant about computers than you let on. That's not an attack, it's just a fact.

Nothing wrong getting paid for your work, it's a good thing. Once you found out she wanted to find a way to protect her payment, just as you wanted to make sure you got paid for your time, you came to an agreement, not to do the work. Fine! Then after you found out her age you lost your common decency.

I was shocked by your comments to the young lady.

Would you like someone to respond to your granddaughter in such a way? Mike

Ok John, I see you responded to JOKE! line. I still think it was a poor response in a thread started by a 15yr old young lady. You'll note she never posted again to the thread. Mike, dad who's working at keeping his own 15yr old young lady on the straight and narrow in these times of MTV, VH1 and Myspace.

I hope she got it working, she never followed up with any further information. I hoped she would tell us what her project was. Mike

...

Well, happy customers beget more customers! :-)

And, bottom line, sending out a tech and a new modem is probably cheaper than a TV ad. ;-D

Cheers! Rich

Aww, John, you were doing so good )-;

Cheers anyway! Rich

Just curious - are you in an area where you could have called another DSL provider? 'Cause competition is what causes this kind of exemplary service.

Ain't the Free Market great? :-)

Cheers! Rich