Hi,
I'm finally able to use the interwebs again -- man what an experience.

I have DSL ( not for much longer!), and on Sept 21st, my phone + net went out.

I called with (my barely functional cell phone), and was told that service had a due date of the 27th! I protested a lot, but got nowhere.

I don't do a lot of phoning, but I use the web for medical stuff, bill pay, ordering, and FTE, tech sites, etc.

I checked in a couple of more times and learned that they had decided my problem was 'common cause' --i.e.something was screwing up several of us.
But, the date remained the 27th.

The 27th came, and I called about 3 in the afternoon and was told that my ticket was among the next 4 to be handled. Around 4:30, I took the garbage out, and my wife said that she got a phone message saying it was fixed. Only it wasn't. That call had gotten through, and then it went out. I immediately called with my (non) trusty cell phone, and they merely assigned a new ticket. They also told me that my new due date was Oct 3rd. That guy called back and said that my old ticket was still active, but that turned out to be bogus.

I called again the next day (daytime operators usually have a bit more info), and she marked my ticket expedite. When I checked back 2 days later, I learned that service had sent a note saying that it needed a supervisor's note. (nice tracking system). This agent got her boss to do that.

I checked again and learned that service had rejected the expedite request.
The 3rd came and at 4:30, I got a call saying too bad so sad, it will be tomorrow. MAKE SURE THAT SOMEONE IS AVAILABLE TO AUTHORIZE REPAIRS ETC. First time anyone mentioned that.

The next day (Oct 4th), I got a call ( land line) in the morning. Apparently they had finally fixed some lightning protection equipment a mile or so from my house.

There were more irritants, but you get the drift. Not much in the way of communication from a communication company through this whole experience.

Only 2 positives
1.I got a survey regarding the first call when I did a little internet at the library. Needless to say, it got marked as all 0's with lots of detail about why I was unhappy. Maybe somebody will look at it, who knows.

2. Billing agreed to credit me for the time out. I had just gotten their bill, and he said to just send in the amount minus the outage time. From what I could tell, he calculated it fairly.

So now, I have a more reliable cell provider ( that wasn't an option for many years), and I'm working on getting a separate internet connection -- satellite is probably the only option.

When I'm sure of things, I'll probably drop the landline. Storms may have been part of the issue here, but I'm pretty sure that landlines are far down on their list. Too bad, they used to give decent service.

hj

 

Sounds like the VA is your internet provider.......