My Telephone providers are idiots

[phiferpharm]

After much complaining by folks calling me about my telephone service (hearing me), I decided to have the line moved from my old house, which is now serving as a guest house, to my new house, which is about 100 feet away. I was just using an extended wireless phone in the new house and figured that was the problem, so I really don't need a phone in the guest house anyway.

As I explained to the service person I made the appointment with, this would require either extending the buried line to the new home or re-routing the old buried line. I also let them know that the line was clearly marked from when the electric company buried the electric service.

Here is the short version of the comedy that ensued as I explained it in my Public Service Commission complaint:

" After CLEARLY stating the service needed to be moved to a newly placed modular, the service tech came out and ran a telephone line across the grass approximately 100 feet and stated to my wife that it "was not his job" to bury the line. When she stated that we had vehicles and animals that had to go over the area, he said it should be "alright" and would put flags up. I'm sorry, but I have not yet taught my horses that a small orange flag means pick up your feet.

I called to complain and was on hold for about ten minutes. Once the call was answered, the service person asked to place me on hold while he checked something. In about 5 more minutes, the phone went to the fast disconnect signal.

I then called the company again and was once again placed on hold for about ten minutes. Once again, I explained the problem and was placed on hold. When I finally spoke with the person who could schedule having the line buried, he stated it would be 4 to 6 weeks and that it was Windstream normal procedure to just drop the line on the ground until they got around to burying it. Again, placed back on hold at this point and told they promised to call me within 7 business days to tell me when they could schedule the line to be buried. This was described by the Winds___m representative as "escalated service". Really??

This is a ridiculous way to provide service and furthermore could be a potential safety issue as this company is the only provider of telephones out here, hence the method to contact 911 in an emergency. I believe this service provider should be reviewed."

So now, there is no phone in the old house, the new phone snap, crackles, and pops like cereal, and my yard is decorated with about a dozen little orange flags.

Okay end of vent..

 

[roadhunter]

Might be easier to get a cell phone and do away with the land line. I have not had a land line in many years. Many people are doing the same. Another option is the land line alternatives like vonage or magic jack that run through the internet.

 

[phiferpharm]

Might be easier to get a cell phone and do away with the land line. I have not had a land line in many years. Many people are doing the same. Another option is the land line alternatives like vonage or magic jack that run through the internet.

No go where I live. At best you get kinda sorta 1 bar service if you hold the phone just right outside.

 

[roadhunter]

No go where I live. At best you get kinda sorta 1 bar service if you hold the phone just right outside.

You can get booster antennas for your house that will help with your cell service. Vonage and magic jack use internet and cost a whole lot less than a regular land line. That might work better for you assuming you have internet service.

Vonage - Home Phone Service & International Calling Plans - VOIP Provider

 

[Jstpssng]

I would like to have a landline again for basic service... but have never been able to get past their "Talking Computer"; which doesn't understand English. And I honestly believe they make it as obnoxious as possible, when the computer says in a saccharin voice " I'm sorry, I didn't understand that."
To add insult to injury, 10 years ago I paid >$700 to run a line down the town road because they claimed it was my driveway... by the time they got around to hooking it up I had changed jobs and didn't need it for several years.
Now my cell company has a really good offer so that I can have service at my house and use a normal phone...

 

[oosik]

Hey, don't complain about the cell service. On good days I get 2-3 bars but normally one. I have no land line service - never have. I've always said, if its truly important, they can call the State Police and they will come out and tell me.

 

[k0ua]

I just got a dial tone delivered yesterday from the cable company. I didn't really want it, but I could save $7 a month by taking it in a "triple Play bundle" . It is not VOIP it is digital out of the cable box itself. It sounds extremely clean and doesn't really have that VOIP like sound. We have a VOIP line already and a Telephone company landline. I am thinking I may dump the landline to save some $$$. Of course we have our cell phones which work well here also. Sorry to hear about your trials and tribulations with the W company. I don't work for them anymore as of last fall. They decided they didn't need a bunch of us Engineers. The customer service portion of the business always made me cringe. I can tell you why the tech has nothing to do with burying cable, because they got rid of the cable construction department many years ago and got rid of the people and equipment. They have no way of burying cable. It is all contracted out and at the mercy of 3rd party contractors. That is no excuse, but that is the way it is. Good luck with your cable project, and I suggest you start training that horse about the dangers of "unburied" buried cable.

 

[Stimw]

I switched from a land line to Verizon Home Phone last November and could not be happier!
For $20. a month I get free long distance, caller ID, call forwarding, 3 way calling.
The little box is wireless and sits on a convenient window ledge.(where I chose to put it) It has battery back up so it works if power is out. Here is the good part, I can take it with me if I travel and as long as there is a signal I have my home phone anywhere I am!! (have read about people in motorhomes using it while driving down the road)
The box can be connected to the house wiring (with land line disconnected) and all home phones will work normally.
The only thing it won't do is a FAX machine or medical alert.
I think they even had a 3 day money back deal on it so if it didn't work well you are covered.

 

[paulharvey]

that it was Windstream normal procedure to just drop the line on the ground until they got around to burying it. Again, placed back on hold at this point and told they promised to call me within 7 business days to tell me when they could schedule the line to be buried. This was described by the Winds___m representative as "escalated service". Really??

Okay end of vent..

Sounds like Windstream. I was paying for high speed Internet, and getting 10-20 kb/sec. Then it when out or nearly out for a week. I called them, and I was told there is a "bandwidth outage" but they where working on it. No change, so 3 days later I call back "bandwidth outage" but working on it.

After about the 2nd week, I call again and ask to speak with someone from our area. Local guy says there's no outage, yes they over sold band width, and although you pay for 5 mb/second or whatever there isn't enough to go around and there where no plans to fix it through 2016. But he says you should be getting 50+ kb/second; and after doing some "pining" he determines my Windstream provided modem is shot. Now, he says although the modem is Windstream equipment I would have to buy a new one from them for $100.... ended up flying off the handle to some poor girl in customer service, who gave me a $10/month "protection plan" free for the month, and replaced the modem under that. All of this top level service for $59/month. Of coarse they are the only provider in the area...

Now, I get from 0 to 200 kb/second; but it's not at all unusual to be down at 10 kb/second for hours.

The "great" part is they got Obama money to run fiber out here, but they didn't actually hook any up; which isn't that odd; something like 70-85% oof fiber nation wide is "dark" and much will never be hooked up


Edit: router or modem; what ever the heck it is

 

[deerseeker001]

I went with AT&t for my cell Phone,got Hughes for my internet do not regret getting rid of land line

 

[phiferpharm]

There is no good answer here - Verizon has a maybe signal, I have the booster for my Sprint line, but it has about 6 second delay as my internet is Satellite, and I guess my only hope is that rumor has it that there is a new Verizon tower going in on a Blueberry farm that's about 5 miles from me. Until then, I am stuck with Windscream service I guess.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I feel for you, similar thing happened for me when I built my house. I told verizon in detail where the line needed to be buried to avoid my future garage area. They "buried" (visible above ground in areas) the line right across the garage area. Now the line is buried under my garage.

 

[Bird]

Putting the line on top of the ground, and someone eventually coming to bury it is standard practice for all the phone companies, isn't it?:laughing: And my experience is that you have to call at least 2 or 3 times before someone comes to bury it.

 

[BobRip]

It took the cable company about 10 months to finally bury my cable. I threatened to quit paying my bill and call the state cooperation commission to finally make this happen. They said they only get a trencher for one or two days a month. I could walk down the street and see many cables not buried.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Phone companies don't want to deal with rural customers any more. I called the phone company to get DSL service at my mother's house. They sent her a modem/router by UPS. My brother-in-law tried to get it to work for 4 hours, with no joy, so they sent a tech out. He tried for two hours, and finally decided the phone line doesn't support a digital signal. That's not surprising, since it is a single wire and ground rod that was installed in 1928. Multiple calls over the last two months have resulted in no action. This is with a fiber optic cable running within 100 feet of the house.

My next call I'm going to tell them I'll cut into the fiber optic cable myself and do a termination with some "stuff" I ordered off of the internet. Maybe that will get their attention.

 

[MNBobcat]

" After CLEARLY stating the service needed to be moved to a newly placed modular, the service tech came out and ran a telephone line across the grass approximately 100 feet and stated to my wife that it "was not his job" to bury the line. When she stated that we had vehicles and animals that had to go over the area, he said it should be "alright" and would put flags up. I'm sorry, but I have not yet taught my horses that a small orange flag means pick up your feet.


Okay end of vent..

I hate to break it to you but that is how all phone companies have done things for the last 50 years or more. You didn't get bad service you got normal service. Before burial the guys who do the burying have to have a locate done for utilities like gas, cable, etc. They are often contractors who aren't employees of the phone company. Its a whole different crew with different skills then the guys who do the wiring.

 

[JDgreen227]

I am so effing sick of the worthless service I get from my landline provider (Frontier) I want to scream...being hearing impaired I have no use for a voice phone but they told me I HAVE to pay $40 a month for landline service just to get their crappy worthless DSL....and they said I would get a MINIMUM of 3 mbps download....well, my service delivers me 1.51 mbps download MAXIMUM....so I am stuck paying them $85 a month (2 year contract) for barely minimum DSL. Know what? My brother in the city pays $165 a month for Comcast that gives them UNLIMITED voice landline service, 15 mbps internet, AND WITH THAT PRICE HE GETS CABLE TV SERVICE THAT PUTS MY $65 A MONTH Directv service to shame.

It makes me so angry that rural customers get the dregs of what is available to suburban customers AND we end up paying to subsidize THEIR cheaper and better service. WHAT A FARCE.....

There is no reason that cable companies like Comcast cannot run lines further....I could get Comcast IF the cheap bast*ards would be willing to extend their service 500' feet down....

 

[Ken45101]

It makes me so angry that rural customers get the dregs of what is available to suburban customers AND we end up paying to subsidize THEIR cheaper and better service. WHAT A FARCE.....

Isn't that the truth!

As others have said, they really don't want to be bothered with rural service. They hate customers.

A couple of months ago, one of the telephone poles fell over, blocking the road. Dangerous situation since it was on a curve with a ten foot drop to the creekbed. I called the 911 and reported it. They had already called AT&T. This was 3 pm. AT&T didn't show up. As it was started to get dark, I put some orange flagging tape on it to warn people. Traffic had to back up over a half mile in the dark on a narrow one lane curvy road in the dark with big drop offs on the side I checked the next morning, still the same. Called 911 again. She had assumed they would show up! I emphasized the danger. The county finally sent out the fire department who used a chain saw on the pole! and tied the cable to a tree. Finally that afternoon, AT&T showed up.

Oh, when they repair the main cable around here, they use a black plastic trash bag to protect the repair work....permanently! Oh, did I mention that we gave up on landline service years ago because the line was so bad that you couldn't carry on a conversation?

 

[MNBobcat]

When I moved in we didn't have DSL or cable and I'm rural. I talked to the cable company and they said if I could get 4 neighbors to sign up they would run cable in the area. Those 4 neighbors were between me and where the cable ended. I took around a petition and they ran the cable.

 

[MNBobcat]

I am so effing sick of the worthless service I get from my landline provider (Frontier) I want to scream...being hearing impaired I have no use for a voice phone but they told me I HAVE to pay $40 a month for landline service just to get their crappy worthless DSL....and they said I would get a MINIMUM of 3 mbps download....well, my service delivers me 1.51 mbps download MAXIMUM....so I am stuck paying them $85 a month (2 year contract) for barely minimum DSL. Know what? My brother in the city pays $165 a month for Comcast that gives them UNLIMITED voice landline service, 15 mbps internet, AND WITH THAT PRICE HE GETS CABLE TV SERVICE THAT PUTS MY $65 A MONTH Directv service to shame.

It makes me so angry that rural customers get the dregs of what is available to suburban customers AND we end up paying to subsidize THEIR cheaper and better service. WHAT A FARCE.....

There is no reason that cable companies like Comcast cannot run lines further....I could get Comcast IF the cheap bast*ards would be willing to extend their service 500' feet down....

They need something like the rural electrification act but for internet.