061 - Frontier Has No Idea How To ISP
Mar. 2nd, 2015 09:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captain_slinkyI had been having this problem with our Frontier Cable FIOS Internet Service, where our 30MB Service was actually coming in at just under 2MB. Yeah, *TWO*. Havng worked for Comcast in the past, I did all the standard troubleshooting and tech support stuff on my own - Connect a computer directly to the modem, power cycle, reset, ping, etc - and the problem ended up being weird. After a powercycle/reset of the equipment, I would get my advertised 30MB service - for about ten minutes before it then plummeted back down to the 1MB range.
Dreading a thick-accented Phone Support person who could barely read the script provided to them for troubleshooting, I reluctantly called Frontier for support.
A nice fellow named Frank took my call and I told him what I had already done, he said "Well it sounds like you already did all the troubleshooting, let's go ahead and have a service guy come out there to take a look at it. Just let me know if he doesn't find anything". No appointment, no Scheduling Department, just a promise that a Service Guy would be here "soon". No need for me to be there, if the tech needs access to the equipment he'll knock or give a call.
(Comcast phone reps, by comparison, are required to go through the troubleshooting script regardless of what you say you've already done, and then if - IF they decide to bless you with a Service Guy, they schedule you a Service Window 3 to 7 days from when you called - usually a 4-hour chunk of time such as Noon till 4, or 8 till noon - where you MUST be home during this time frame or else the tech will move on to the next house on his schedule like some Internet-Fixing Santa Claus who found you hadn't gone to sleep yet on Christmas Eve).
I had called at like 4pm on a Thursday. Some time before noon THE NEXT DAY, my Service Guy was here. "Oh, hey, cool, you're home! Mind if I come inside and experience the problem first-hand before we try and tackle the problem?" I said sure and asked a few limited questions while he tinkered. All the service guys are Frontier Service Guys (Comcast has a lot of contractors, it's hit-or-miss if you're going to get an actual Comcast Technician or "Larry's Brother Carl Electrician, Computer & Used Stereo Sales" van pulling up your driveway). They trust that the customer has done the troubleshooting inside and it's up to them to find the problem from the outside, but being inside does indeed help the process.
After a while, he ended the Service Call with a "Sorry, this is our fault" - HE ADMITTED FAULT! COMCAST IS ALWAYS QUICK TO BLAME THE CUSTOMER AND/OR DODGE ALL RESPONSIBILITY! "We've been having a lot of various problems with this particular block of IP addresses, I've had them reprovision your account and moved you over to a new block... but I also think it may be your router so I'm going to leave you with a new one just in case. You've got your 30MB right now but if that drops try hooking up the new equipment and see how that goes - you know how to hook it up, right? instructions right here, it's really easy - And uh, yeah. If the problem continues let us know as son as possible so we can get this going for you. Thanks!"
Well sure enough, about 20 minutes after he left, the Internet dropped again. I swapped out the equipment, got my 30MB for ten minutes, then back down to 1MB. I called Verizon back to let them know (this is on Friday) and thought I was getting a run-around.
A nice lady named Kin took my call and this sounded more like what I expected from an ISP because this was the type of crap I pulled when I worked for Comcast. Lots of "Let me put you on hold while I look in to that", "Let me run a test from my end", "Let me get hold of one of my Upper Tier Technicians", blah blah blah, stall stall stall... and it ended with one of my favorite pass-the-buck phrases that I used on a friggin DAILY BASIS when I did Phone Support:
"Thank you so much for holding! It looks like they're doing some work on the service in your area, the problem should be resolved within 48 hours. If you still have the issues at that time, please give us a call back and we'll see what we can do".
AH HA! See, the reason I would use that line was two-fold; get the customer off the line, AND get them to call back when I'm having my days off so some other phone rep can handle it! I did this a lot near the end of my career at Comcast, mainly because I am a lazy and terrible person, but also because the focus of the company had changed from CUstomer Service to a Numbers Game - keep the calls SHORT, never send out a Technician and end every call with a sales pitch for HBO even if they don't have TV service with us.
And so when I went to bed last night and found that I had an internet speed of about 2MB (as it had been all weekend long), I was fully prepared to call Frontier and let them know I was on to them, that I wanted a refund, that I wanted a technician out here NOW, all that stuff.
But I'll be danged if I don't keep running the speed test this morning and consistently get between 27M and 32MB service!
That lady on the phone - she really WAS running tests and talking to upper tier support and checking the service in the area! And they really DID have it fixed within 48 hours!
This has just BLOWN MY MIND!
Dreading a thick-accented Phone Support person who could barely read the script provided to them for troubleshooting, I reluctantly called Frontier for support.
A nice fellow named Frank took my call and I told him what I had already done, he said "Well it sounds like you already did all the troubleshooting, let's go ahead and have a service guy come out there to take a look at it. Just let me know if he doesn't find anything". No appointment, no Scheduling Department, just a promise that a Service Guy would be here "soon". No need for me to be there, if the tech needs access to the equipment he'll knock or give a call.
(Comcast phone reps, by comparison, are required to go through the troubleshooting script regardless of what you say you've already done, and then if - IF they decide to bless you with a Service Guy, they schedule you a Service Window 3 to 7 days from when you called - usually a 4-hour chunk of time such as Noon till 4, or 8 till noon - where you MUST be home during this time frame or else the tech will move on to the next house on his schedule like some Internet-Fixing Santa Claus who found you hadn't gone to sleep yet on Christmas Eve).
I had called at like 4pm on a Thursday. Some time before noon THE NEXT DAY, my Service Guy was here. "Oh, hey, cool, you're home! Mind if I come inside and experience the problem first-hand before we try and tackle the problem?" I said sure and asked a few limited questions while he tinkered. All the service guys are Frontier Service Guys (Comcast has a lot of contractors, it's hit-or-miss if you're going to get an actual Comcast Technician or "Larry's Brother Carl Electrician, Computer & Used Stereo Sales" van pulling up your driveway). They trust that the customer has done the troubleshooting inside and it's up to them to find the problem from the outside, but being inside does indeed help the process.
After a while, he ended the Service Call with a "Sorry, this is our fault" - HE ADMITTED FAULT! COMCAST IS ALWAYS QUICK TO BLAME THE CUSTOMER AND/OR DODGE ALL RESPONSIBILITY! "We've been having a lot of various problems with this particular block of IP addresses, I've had them reprovision your account and moved you over to a new block... but I also think it may be your router so I'm going to leave you with a new one just in case. You've got your 30MB right now but if that drops try hooking up the new equipment and see how that goes - you know how to hook it up, right? instructions right here, it's really easy - And uh, yeah. If the problem continues let us know as son as possible so we can get this going for you. Thanks!"
Well sure enough, about 20 minutes after he left, the Internet dropped again. I swapped out the equipment, got my 30MB for ten minutes, then back down to 1MB. I called Verizon back to let them know (this is on Friday) and thought I was getting a run-around.
A nice lady named Kin took my call and this sounded more like what I expected from an ISP because this was the type of crap I pulled when I worked for Comcast. Lots of "Let me put you on hold while I look in to that", "Let me run a test from my end", "Let me get hold of one of my Upper Tier Technicians", blah blah blah, stall stall stall... and it ended with one of my favorite pass-the-buck phrases that I used on a friggin DAILY BASIS when I did Phone Support:
"Thank you so much for holding! It looks like they're doing some work on the service in your area, the problem should be resolved within 48 hours. If you still have the issues at that time, please give us a call back and we'll see what we can do".
AH HA! See, the reason I would use that line was two-fold; get the customer off the line, AND get them to call back when I'm having my days off so some other phone rep can handle it! I did this a lot near the end of my career at Comcast, mainly because I am a lazy and terrible person, but also because the focus of the company had changed from CUstomer Service to a Numbers Game - keep the calls SHORT, never send out a Technician and end every call with a sales pitch for HBO even if they don't have TV service with us.
And so when I went to bed last night and found that I had an internet speed of about 2MB (as it had been all weekend long), I was fully prepared to call Frontier and let them know I was on to them, that I wanted a refund, that I wanted a technician out here NOW, all that stuff.
But I'll be danged if I don't keep running the speed test this morning and consistently get between 27M and 32MB service!
That lady on the phone - she really WAS running tests and talking to upper tier support and checking the service in the area! And they really DID have it fixed within 48 hours!
This has just BLOWN MY MIND!
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no subject
Date: 2015-03-02 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-02 05:58 pm (UTC)I'm not saving any money and, when my year ends, the TV is going to cost me way more. I may end up switching back and forth between this company and Comcast in order to get the 'new' customer deals.
The ISP, however, is a different breed altogether. It went down, once and I got about 4 emails of apology. The speed is consistent and 5 times faster than Comcast at the same price. When I call, it rings about 3 times and a person answers. That part is just freaky. Comcast has lost my internet business for a long long time.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-03 08:02 pm (UTC)Thing is, they're trying to charge us for that, even though it's external wiring they're supposed to be responsible for. It's outside where their wiring should have hooked up to our house, but it was just a bare-ended wire sticking out of the ground.
I'm not going to have fun talking to billing. Any advice?
no subject
Date: 2015-03-03 08:16 pm (UTC)I worked there during a golden age, where the guy in charge of operations had been tasked with improving the rock-bottom customer service rating that Comcast had been shackled with for years and years. My first two years there, we came in *first*, Nation Wide, in terms of Customer Service. Won all sorts of awards, had a banquet and recognition pins and bonuses and it was awesome. Then the head of Operations was hired away by somebody else, and Comcast *immediately* went down hill :(
Also, since I have you here... I've been getting invites from you for moving day stuffs via G+, but it won't let me respond or see the invite or anything, sorry :( Hope it all went well?
no subject
Date: 2015-03-03 09:45 pm (UTC)We looked into the alternatives for Internet in our neighborhood. Comcast seemed like the least bad option. I still have time to back out if things don't go well, though.