Comments on: Access Switch

By: Pat

Pat — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:20:01 +0000

I just had the same conversation with Earthlink. I’ve been checking out AT&T and the only thing that is holding me back is the dang email account. I have my domain for business, but the family has been using the Earthlink email account since 1993, when their headquarters were down the road from me in Pasadena. Maybe I will try the cancellation department to see if I can get the speed at the new customer rate!

By: earlpearl

earlpearl — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:21:23 +0000

Nice comments. I have found this to be incredibly true for so many products offered by so many companies connected with telecom, whether it is a home, business, or cell phone, whether it is with ISP’s, it just doesn’t matter.

In fact this type of attitude and customer treatment has been going on in these industries that move communications through wires for decades. It is sort of good policy to review pricing once a year.

By: What has your web host done for you lately. | www.keepingupwithjonesy.com

What has your web host done for you lately. | www.keepingupwithjonesy.com — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 04:57:55 +0000

[...] out that same door, and telling the people waiting in line just how bad the company really is. Eric Meyer’s has a great story dealing with a similar [...]

By: Trevor Davis | Blog » Weekly Link Round-Up #13

Trevor Davis | Blog » Weekly Link Round-Up #13 — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 04:00:54 +0000

[...] Access Switch [...]

By: James leslie

James leslie — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:30:27 +0000

The situation is the same in the UK too. One day these companies will realise that the offers they are willing to make to potential customers should be equally used to retain current customers, as these are the bread and butter of their living.

By: Jason Crowther

Jason Crowther — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:09:59 +0000

I so know your pain. After being a loyal Time Warner customer for 10 years (Road Runner and cable), I asked for a reduction in rate when I recently changed location. Between internet and cable I was paying $50 more/month than someone who signs up today.

The first level customer service gave me the normal line of crap that everybody pays the full amount after their promo period elapses (funny, but their site now doesn’t even mention that the bundle deals are only good for 12 months). I said thanks, but no thanks; I’ve been getting the shaft long enough, I’m gonna terminate all my services.

That sent me over to the ‘cancellation department.’ I relayed the same story to another agent and without ANY arm twisting they immediately cut my bill in half for 12 months (~$500 savings for the year) to keep me as their customer.

I understand everybody is in business to make money, but overcharging your customers until they call you out on it just rubs me the wrong way. Looking forward to haggling with them again next year when my rates adjust back again. Argh.

By: John

John — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 03:21:16 +0000

Eric,
I have had AT & T DSL since it was Ameritech – 3+ years now. Not to jinx myself, but my service has been faultless – like my phone service — except for one incident caused by a contractor running new sewer systems – who cut through the buried line. It was fully repaired in 2.5 days, but they ran a temp line within about 6 hours of notification. They didn’t just patch the busted buried line, they replaced the entire length to the box – about 400 ft – including under a road. To me – that was great service!

I started with the 384/1.5 service and bumped up to the package you are on about a year or so ago. The upstream speed is as advertised – I test using variety of services on web 3-4 times a year and it always matches or exceeds the 768. The downsteam speed is not as advertised… I consistently get 1.5ish speed – but have never seen 2, 3, or 6Mb.

I am 4500 ft from central office (well under 3 mile distance). In fact, as crow flys I am actually about 2500 ft from it. Of course, there are a few twists and turns to get the line here.

Perceived net speed is great. Uploads to my site are just fine and occasional downloads – e.g. MS Office 2007 – took a few hours but I had no breaks in the download and was even online a couple of times during that download.

FYI – I have read that AT & T has agreed to “naked DSL” – a service without requiring being a phone customer – but there are caveats… At present – I don’t see the point…

RE: calling for price adjustment
After my first year on intro rate – the price was going to go up. So I called and suggested that I would move to another service vs. paying the higher rate. The customer service person agreed to a $5 increase and shift to next higher speed at the time. Win-Win

My only other option is Comcast – $20-25 more in price and given the outages we experience in the cable TV service – it would be a significant downgrade – even over the marketing hype of the speed difference.

From my point of view – you made a good move – until “real high-speed” service (50Mb+) becomes available…

By: Ben Buchanan

Ben Buchanan — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 02:26:17 +0000

(should have mentioned, I’m in Australia; next to the Sydney CBD)

By: Ben Buchanan

Ben Buchanan — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 02:25:10 +0000

With the exchange rate, my ADSL costs almost exactly the same as yours… for a grand speed of 512k/128k (shaped after 5gigs).

6M/768k? Sigh.

By: John Faulds

John Faulds — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 23:54:03 +0000

My ISP in Australia would’ve automatically upgraded me to ADSL2+ at a plan costing the same as my previous plan with no intervention at all from my part. As it turned out, I contacted them before the automatic switch and now I’m paying less than I was before for the same download limit and much faster speeds!

By: Nate

Nate — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:05:31 +0000

Like Patrick said, the only real problem I have with AT&T is that they require you to have local service with them to get plans with decent speeds. I use Vonage for my phone service since I get/make a lot of phone calls to Canada, so the AT&T local service is unnecessary for me. They're required to offer dry loop service by law (a requirement that was imposed as part of a merger agreement with the government), but last I checked it was $19.95 for 768Kbps down and 128Kbps up, which isn't even really competitive with their other plans, and could barely run Vonage while doing anything substantial on the net. They don't go out of their way to advertise the dry loop service either. As far as service goes, I've been extremely happy (other than the fact that I can only get 1.5 Mbps at my current address...I'd prefer faster). Very little down time or service issues, and being able to pay month-to-month without a contract is nice. Pings are also very low if you're a gamer and care about that sort of thing. =)

By: Bryce

Bryce — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:54:49 +0000

We had a similar experience with a satellite TV provider. They wouldn’t work with us, so we left for better a better deal from our local cable provider. A week later they’re calling us up begging us to come back. We said “screw you” on principle alone.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:52:52 +0000

Now if only ATT would allow you to subscribe to DSL without a landline… As an employee for a state university, I get RoadRunner at a discount. But, Time Warner’s service is so horrible that I would gladly pay a few bucks more for someone else.

Based upon the experience of several family members, ATT seems to be fairly responsive to service issues. Hopefully that standard holds true for you as well.

By: Joseph Lowery

Joseph Lowery — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:49:17 +0000

No FIOS available? Verizon is promoting it heavily here in NYC, but everytime I’ve checked for availability it’s not available in my area. The frustrating part of this is that when they were first rolling out FIOS, they contacted me as a potential customer and I passed them onto my landlord to make it happen. Something didn’t click and now it seems to be out of reach. (Why do I suddenly flash on “Faster, Pussycat, Kill, Kill”?)

By: Matt Robin

Matt Robin — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:06:53 +0000

Hmm, sounds very familiar Eric – I’ve got a similar situation with my current provider. When approached for a lower usage allowance (and in theory, a lower price) – I was told that it would cost more than my current setup…to have less!! I’m very, very close to changing provider in the near future – based on my current provider’s poor customer service and absurd pricing for slower connection speeds than their rivals.

Initially, I justified paying slightly more for my current provider on the basis of having the most reliable connection service (not neccessarily the fastest) but even that reliability has got steadily worse over the past year or so. Better customer service could actually help keep me as a customer…but that just seems beyond them!