Internet saga, cheapest service not always best

I received the following letter from our son Rob recently and thought it was quite humorous and informative.

Thought you all would like it, especially those of you that have computers.

"Hi Mom,

Did you get the new email address I sent you?

I know…I know. It's like an acid flashback. Didn't I just send a change of address? Is he loosing his marbles? Did he just resend the same message?

ALAS, NO!!!! The saga continues. My quest for inexpensive, reliable Internet service has been painful to say the least …

I was not unhappy with the service I had with TDS … they were just too expensive and would not come down on their price (because the advertised price on their website was for 'new' customers only … what kind of garbage is that?).

That led me to make a grave error … I switched to AT&T. How could I go wrong? The advertised price was cheaper (I was a new customer J), the service was supposedly better (unlimited local and long distance phone calls and faster Internet access (up to 2MB)), and it was Ma Bell …

WOW!!!! What a fiasco. I ordered online (undoubtedly my first mistake). The ATT technician showed up and switched over the service. I asked where the DSL modem was for the Internet … he said he didn't have it … they usually mail it directly to the customer … "if it's not already here, it should be here tomorrow, just plug it in and it should work," he said … And so the nightmare began …

The modem didn't show up the next day or the day after that. I called and asked where it was. The nice lady on the other end of the line said, "I don't see any record of you ordering Internet service."

HUHHHHH???? WHAT THE (I almost said a bad word here)?!?!?!? I ordered on line, I printed off the receipt of the order, I had a 'Confirmation Number'…She apologized (of course it wasn't her fault and I wasn't mad at her…but her company on the other hand…) and said she would get it ordered.

'When would the modem be here,' I asked. She said it would be the following week before they could get the service turned on and get the modem to me. I just about blew a gasket.

As you know mom, I work in the computer industry. The Internet is my life line. I communicate through email and I need remote access to my office and all my customers all the time. I had already been without Internet for 2 days at this point.

As politely as I could, I asked if I could at least get dial up access until I could get the DSL modem for high speed access since her company had screwed up and was preventing me from doing my job properly. She told me that she couldn't help me with that but would transfer me to someone who could. I went through several more people, explaining the whole situation and getting more agitated and frustrated, before a decent guy named Doug finally got me hooked up with dial up. As all the kids say, OMG!!!! (Oh My Gosh -- for all you old people like me), I forgot how painful dial up was. I haven't had to deal with dial up in years and snails pace would be an understatement.

Ten days of torture later, I received the DSL modem. I plugged it in and breathed a sigh of relief. The pain was over. AU CONTRAIRE!!! That was just a warm up. I couldn't get the DSL modem to work (mind you, this is what I do for a living … you have no idea how hard it was for me to call and ask for help setting up a DSL modem). Fortunately, some confidence was restored when the first and second person I talked to had no clue either. The third person scratched her head and said, "I wonder", then had me change some settings within the bowels of the modem which I had never seen before (and hope to never see again), and VOILA! I had Internet access.

Once again, I foolishly thought the pain was over… yet again, I was mistaken. Death by a thousand paper cuts seemed like a more preferable option. When I had TDS, my Internet speed was 500K -- 600K. ATT actually owns the line and TDS was renting it. ATT had claimed I would get up to 2MB. Me in my ridiculously foolish optimism thought, well maybe I won't get 2MB, but 1 MB would be awesome … and even if I only got 500K -- 600K that would be OK … That's what I had with TDS and with ATT it would be cheaper.

You know where this is going don't you? I got 180K (3 times slower than I had with TDS). PAIN you say. Oh no, the real pain was yet to come, the Coup de Grace came with the bill(s).

According to the website (where I ordered originally), the bundle I ordered (unlimited local/long distance and 2MB Internet) was $69/month, no installation fee and $100 dollars back for ordering online. Not only did they charge me an installation fee and not give me the money back, they are trying to charge me for dial up access which I only needed because of their incompetence in the first place.

I am reasonably sure I have talked to all the people at ATT now and most of them were fine to deal with … but AT&T as a company fell flat on their face (or perhaps it was the other end of the body they fell flat on).

I couldn't take it any longer … I called Charter Cable to see what they could do for me. They had a bundle on their web page (Unlimited local/long distance phone, 5MB Internet, and basic TV) for $69/month.

Getting Charter hooked up is a story for another day (it had its own trials and tribulations … perhaps I'm just cursed … ) but suffice it to say, I now have Internet service that screams (> 4MB, Hopefully, I will be with these guys for a while…

Love, Rob."