Words cannot express my ordeal with setting up internet service though AT&T. Of course I’m going to give it a shot though.

When I was comparing service providers I wanted something that would be easy to setup and offer just the services that I needed. Comcast has given me the run around in the past and I was looking to try something new, also for a decent internet package you pretty much need to get television service so that kicks your monthly bill over 60. AT&T offers just a DSL install and that is all I was looking for so the decision pretty much made itself.  This was the easy part.

Contacting AT&T’s customer service is the hard part. Trust me this saga is going to be long winded but after my last interaction this morning I must put this down somewhere so I can have a recount of how truely frustrating this has been.  I also believe some form of this account is going to be sent to AT&T. Seconds ago I seriously packed up my DSL modem, repulsed by the sight of the mocking red blinking light.

OK here is where it begins.

Feb 23: My first call clearly did not go well. Looking around my new place I did notice that there are SBC and Ameritech equipment outside of the house and in the basement. Calling on a Monday I hoped to have everything setup by the end of the week.  The service rep that I spoke with after giving my address said they needed to send a tech out to survey the location. Even though I told them about the equipment outside and in the basement, I believe mostly as my apartment number did not come up in their computer system (my apartment didn’t come up on the online form but other units in the building did) she would not process my order. I agreed to that give her my phone number and left it at that. She said it would take a week to have somebody check out the place and determine of I would be elegible for service.

Feb 25: Frustrated I ended up calling again to place an order. This woman was actually quite helpful. She took all my information and I believe handeled taking my order correctly. Though the next week I was fine I received my DSL modem and my order confirmation to the correct address and was fine waiting a week for service from this call for service.

March 4: Today was the day that my service was supposed to be turned on. I had my DSL modem installed correctly but though the morning all I received was a blinking red light.  Today I ended up calling twice to AT&T to figure out why I was not receiving service. Each time I was informed to call back at a later time. To be honest my order confirmation letter did say to wait till after 8pm but it was impossible to find out if anybody did any work or really what the status of my order was. One woman said it was active and one said it was “pending”. I called at 5pm and was told to call at 8pm andat 8pm I was said to call at midnight.

March 5: I fell asleep the night before and did not call back at midnight. Today I only spoke with one woman that actually at least got something done.  She said I should recieve a call back within eight business hours with somebody that might be able to help me. Left my DSL modem installed though the day only received blinking red of death.

March 6: This morning I received a call at about 8:45am. APPARENTLY for reasons I will never understand according to the lady on the phone service was installed in apartment one rather then apartment five. This I do not understand. My DSL modem was sent to the correct address, and my order confirmation letter was sent to the right address. I made this very known on the phone and never recieved an answer how this got changed. The woman ran me though pretty much a new order assigning me a new account number. She also said it will take another six days to receive service. I said multiple times that I’ve been already waiting two days for service and she said she will put a “rush” on it but cannot make a guarantee. Pretty much I know what that means I’ll be waiting another week to recieve service.  Oddly enough when running my new order though she asked me where I work and I declined to tell her. After apparently placing a new order for me I get transferred to cancel my old account number.

See at this point I would have been fine if they said it was their mistake and would do something about it. I made no mistakes on this but because of a screw up I get thrown back in the back of some install queue. Never did I ever say I lived in apartment one. This was their mistake and they will not make any effort to rectify it.

I went with AT&T in an attempt to avoid this type of frustration. Seriously I don’t even know what to do. There is no way they put a “rush” on getting anything taken care of for me so this means another week of no internet service. I also have no idea how they got apartment one on my account even though my DSL modem and my order confirmation got sent to the right address. Right now I’m very much regretting my choice choosing AT&T.

March 13: My service was not turned on again. I had my DSL modem hooked up correctly though the last week and still no connection. Ended up calling AT&T CS and got passed around to three different departments and three different hold queues and asked three different times to relay my account number. At this point my call has been sent to the “escalation team” to find out why I don’t have service. At this point I’m expecting to hear that apartment one has my service again. Also my account is still “pending” not that I understand what that means.

I called March 13th at about 9am and as I update this it’s 6:12pm and have not heard anything. This means that nothing will be done about anything though the weekend and really I do not know what to do at this point. Really I’m making due minus internet service and mostly just want to ride this out to see if I can go a month since initial contact before getting service setup and to see if they make any effort to compensate me for my time and my understanding. This post will be updated with the outcome please keep tuned.

UPDATE March 13 6:40pm: Just got a call from AT&T and got my call pulled up on escalation. They said it was a technical error and apparently several other GR residents with new setups have run into a similar issue as I have. The guy said I should be setup by Monday. I asked if there was a better number to call just in case I have any problems and I was told to call the toll free number if I have any problems or questions. So my new install date is March 16 and I will make sure to keep everybody posted with what happens. This is the last straw if service is not installed Monday I go with another service provider.

UPDATE 2 March 16: Well another install date has come and past. Though the entire day I had my modem hooked to the line and tried both connections in my place after 8pm. Still no service. Not shocking at all. Blinking red till I die.

UPDATE 3 March 17: Got up early and placed another call to CS. After the customary pass around I did end up speaking with a very pleasant woman. She told me that stand alone DSL is not guaranteed in every area. I knew this from reading their website but nobody I’ve spoke with on the line ever said this so I appreciated her candor. She said she would make a call and get back with me within the half an hour. She did what she promised and confirmed to me over the phone that my place should be eligible for “Elite” service. She told me that my service should be active by 8pm today if not earlier. Tonight I work till 7:30 and will rush home to check the line. Again I will keep everybody posted and also post a reminder that my first call to AT&T was Feb 23rd.

UPDATE 4 March 17: Came home today AGAIN to no service. Checked both lines in my place and tried all lines with the filter and doing power cycles multiple times. Just to make my life worse I decided to call tonight rather then tomorrow morning. I was unable to get though to “Check the Status of my DSL Order” as they are closed. Called the general number and just said “agent” 15 times until I got somebody on the line. Told the lady my situation and got tech supported (power cycles, line checks ect). Went though that with no avail. I did ask the lady to check the status of my order and apparently I should be active according to her.
Ended up putting a trouble ticket in to the “line check” department and should get a call back by 2pm tomorrow.  One day closer to a month till my first initial call.

UPDATE 5 March 18: While at the dentist today I got an automated call saying my line was tested and they need to speak with me. Called back and waited in queue for 15 mins. Again I spoke with a very kind CS representative. He looked up my ticket and said the line checked fine. Recieved a new ticket number and apparently a tech is coming to my place before 11am tomorrow to check the place out. Apparently my service is “active” and my line checked out fine so it must be an issue with the house and honestly that is not shocking at all it just sucks that it took this long to get to this point. Again I will make sure to post everything ASAP with how this all turns out. I could have internet tomorrow but clearly my hopes are not very high at this point.

SIDE UPDATE March 18: Just to put this saga into perspective. My friend recently moved to a new location and called Comcast Monday morning for a new service installation and had service confirmed and installed Wednesday morning. Somebody came to his place day one to make sure everything is taken care of were it’s taken me 23 days to get to a point where I was able to have AT&T decide to have somebody come to my place (and at this point I’m really not expecting to get a call tomorrow morning to be honest).  Comcast installed new service for him with a one day turnaround. With AT&T I’m on a 23 day turnaround.

UPDATE 6 March 19: This is just insanity. Ok here we go. Got a call this morning at about 9:30am from the tech. He came up to my apartment and ran the tests on the line, and checked the basement a few times and the line outside. He said he got everything to go. When I asked him what was wrong he said “the line wasn’t hooked up”. Not a shocker there. After he setup the line he came back up stairs and the DSL light was solid green. Stupid me figured we were good to go. He left and I started running the setup wizard.

Failed.

I end up getting to a point where the DSL line is solid green but is unable to connect to the internet. Goes blinking green, to solid red, to nothing. Tried the normal stuff (power cycle, diagnostics on the modem) and apparently I’m failing the ATM and the PPPoE tests. Of course I don’t have any internet to look up what these things mean so I call the tech back on the number he called me on. Said he did what he could and got me connected to DSL and I would need to call tech support. Called tech support, started talking to the woman explaining everything after a 10 min hold and of course get disconnected. My cell has full service downtown.

Call again. I get a kinda snippy rep that doesn’t really listen to what i say. Right when she asked what my problem is I run down half her job as I know the drill.

1) Tech came to my place, ticket was placed that she should be able to look up if they have any modern incident tracking system in seconds.
2) Explained lights situation as stated above
3) Stated I’ve power cycled multiple times
4) Read off the failure points on the “Technician Readout” screen off the modem.

This should be enough information for them to know I know what I’m doing and get me where I need to go. I end up getting tech supported for 10 mins. Power cycles, line checks, and put on hold for about five minutes while a “ticket” is created for the “line check” team. I seriously cannot wait to post this.

End up getting transferred to the “line check” team. Call time 19 mins at this point. I have heard “please wait” one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen….

…while I’m waiting for this I walk over to my DSL modem and I’m getting a red blinking light on the modem  and trying to connect on the modem using the test account provided gives me the following message in bold red text.

DSL connection is down. Please check the following:
Phone line is securely connected to your Device.
DSL Sync light on front of your Modem is green and not blinking
Filters have been installed on all phone jacks that have telephone devices connected to them.
Please try again to connect.
If problem persists, please contact the help desk.

….fifteen, sixteen times by a very “firm” sounding computer voice. After waiting for about 10 mins on this perma-hold the lady I was talking to earlier said “they are checking your line in the street” and to call back in an hour I shit you not. I was just on the phone for 30 mins for absolutely nothing.

As a very trustworthy person and not one to embellish I cannot make this up. What a fucking disaster. Tonight after work I’m 100% positive I’m going to have to call again. I cannot believe I’m putting up with this. The ONLY reason I’m riding this out is because it’s fascinating how poorly this has gone and I would honestly like to see if I can go a month with dealing with this. As I leave to go to work I try the test login account on the router again…

Cannot connect to target service. Please contact the help desk.

UPDATE 7 March 19: On my way to work I get an automated call from AT&T customer care due to my tech visit from this morning. Waited on hold for about five minuets after pressing “0” and talked to another gentleman. Explained to him my situation and my connection issues as I’ve stated above. He looked at my technician ticket resolution and ran a test of my line. Asked the normal questions about power cycle of the modem ect. What he was able to come up with was that the “line wasn’t tied down” and I’m not sure exactly what that means. He said the fault here was with the tech that came to my place and he should have done another step for full connectivity. He also said the next morning appointment he could give me was Monday. At this point was the first time I’ve been firm with the CS and explained how long I’ve been waiting and that this is their fault this wasn’t taken care of today. He told me he could get a Friday morning tech visit approved. As we stand I’m now at least I now have a  solid green DSL light but no connectivity to the internet. This has taken over three weeks to get to this point.

SIDE UPDATE March 19: Chatting with Tom about this ordeal he had the following to contribute.

w. vanlandw [5:02 PM]: are you broc’ing?
farquja [5:02 PM]: i just ead ur deal thats such BS u sending that shit to them ight?
farquja [5:02 PM]: R

UPDATE 8 March 20: Got a call bright and early at around 8:45am from a very pleasant sounding lady saying she is here shortly and based off the trouble ticket believes she knows what the issue is. She is outside my place now and will call me when she needs to get inside. Power cycled my modem still “Searching for ATM PVC”. Modem lights still doing the same behavior. Power, Ethernet, DSL all solid green. Internet goes from blinking green, to solid red, to nothing.

At about 9:33am apparently I’m no longer failing the ATM test. Still failing PPPoE and getting a solid red light on the modem for “Internet”

One min later I’ve passed the PPPoE test and now just failing authentication.

Three mins later I’m failing the PPPoE test.

The tech gives me a call and says she got everything taken care of. I go to the door and let her in she comes up uses my PC for a few mins and I’m FINALLY solid green connected to the internet. She says and waits for me to complete the registration process and confirms I’m able to connect. Before she left asks I asked her what the problem was. Apparently there are two switches or something in the house and I was connected to the other one then what I was suppose to be. Find out the tech’s name is Lori. She offers me three contact numbers and says to let her know if I have any problems in the next few weeks she will help me where she can. After such a long voyage this was it was nice to see somebody go at least a quarter mile out of their way to help me out.

After she left I messed around on the internet and ran into some problems hooking up my router to the modem (ended up having to have my router do PPPoE authentication) but I left my house for work today with my iMac on wireless and everything looking to be working. Will test out the consoles tonight.

Oddly enough I’m still having one problem. Looks like I’m not getting the ‘elite’ speeds I’m paying a premium on. Doing a bandwidth test shows I’m really not getting the speeds I should be. My download speed is about half of what I’m paying for at this point. I will monitor the situation and post here of course.

SIDE UPDATE March 20: This came though gchat before leaving work today and sums up this ENTIRE situation….

gunbunnie: Dude, you are the most patient person I know.
me: LOL yeah it’s a fault trust me
gunbunnie: Although I can understand you carrying this out of morbid curiosity.

Chouse stated this yesterday and again really is the dead truth…

chouse: your at&t saga is completely fascinating

Last Result:
Download Speed: 2559 kbps (319.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 642 kbps (80.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

UPDATE 9 April 21: Ran a bandwidth test today still not getting anywhere close to the “6 MBPS” I’m suppose to be getting for $45 dollars a month.

Download Speed: 2583 kbps (322.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 655 kbps (81.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Just recieved my first bill this past weekend. AT&T did not charge me for my DSL modem but I will need to make a call soon regarding my transfer speeds. Either I want them to take me down to the “Direct Pro” pricing or check to see why my  transfer rate is so slow. Also on my bill they started charging me on March 13th when I did not get service till March 20th. UGH

What a terrible way to start the day. I wake up, check the mail and there’s a wierd envelope from the 17th Judical Circuit Court. Fairly certain I haven’t committed any major crimes the justice system would have indisputable evidence to lead to conviction I knew exactly what the letter contained.

I have been selected for Jury Duty….

The one thing I’ve noticed when reading all the paper work is how RUDE they are. On the first line they refer to my person as “Term #31 Juror”. I have a freakin name they addressed a letter to my house! They also write this documentation like I have no idea how to read or find what is important in a selection of writing. Every other sentence has either bold or bold underline or CAPITOL UNDERLINE even BOLD CAPITOL UNDERLINE font and poorly executed exclamation points. The best part is the least important part of information (Jury Clerk’s name) is in the largest font size and bolded….ugh….pffft…sigh….eh….

Here is an example of this travesty….

“You cannot postpone your service, after Thursday, July 26th, 2007!”

Give me a freaking break. I understand there maybe others that need assistance and have a hard time understanding this document but if they want to help only underlining “cannot” “postpone” and “after” they should have just gone ahead and underlined the date.

I’m just bitter. The court doesn’t pay you jack crap, I’m going to have to waste vacation days to take care of this, and of course it’s in the middle of the summer. Nowhere in these documents is there a “thank you”. After going though these documents and filling out the paper work I can see why Jury Duty is so loathed. Regardless if anything comes up I’ll just postpone my serve date.

UPDATE:  Upon getting to work and reading my employers “Jury Duty and Witness Pay” policy I will not have to take PTO/vacation to appear in court.  I will get paid my normal rate for hours missed for up to 90 days. This news makes this process at least a little bet better. I’ll post my experiences….

I’ve been getting more and more spam comments on my blog.  Some of them are quite vulgar and for that I am sorry.  Soon I will be looking to upgrade the spam protection and I’m looking for some ideas.  I really don’t want to approve every comment that comes though but I also don’t want to have people go though some round about way to comment on the site.  I do have Akismet running but too many foul messages have been coming though.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Today has been just an absolutely terrible day.  Not like terrible as in loss of job or anything tragic just the type of day where you do everything right and you get nothing back in return. Vanbergs likened my day similar to Jack Bauer’s “Day 4″ of “24″.  Jack did everything he thought was right.  He helped everybody, went beyond the call of duty, and did more for our country then anybody will ever know.  In the end…he was totally f’ed over and betrayed by everybody. Today I feel similar…
I will start with my first bout of bad luck first.  Recently I have agreed to work countless extra hours though the next few weeks and months.  Also I need to work third shift Christmas Eve/Christmas Day and New Years Eve/New Years Day. I recently came into posession of two Tickets to Disturbed in Battle Creek the day after Thanksgiving. Last week I put in a PTO request to have the day before Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving off.  Along with that request I sent an e-mail VOLUNTEERING to be on call for the weekend before Christmas. After all the goodwill i’ve shown to my employeer and fellow co-workers I didn’t think I would have a problem getting any days off I needed to go to the concert.  Also this request was put in over five weeks in advanced of the date.

Come to work today getting an e-mail saying my PTO for Friday was not approved, thus I have to work and miss Disturbed.  ugh

I come home tonight and have a very nice Spaghetti dinner with vanbergs.  While fuming over “The Disturbed Curse” aka somebody always gets screwed over for a Disturbed concert.  Vanbergs injured himself at a Disturbed concert while Taproot was playing concert thus MISSING disturbed.  Vanberge had to travel for work to Chi-town thus MISSING Disturbed.  Vanlandw put in for PTO five weeks before the event and couldn’t get the day off thus MISSING Disturbed.  I guess it was just my turn….

OK a little off topic, while sitting down watching Mythbusters I got a text message.  I replied to said text message and was going to put my phone away in my bag.  My bag was open so I kinda just tossed my phone nonshalantly into the opening.  APPARENTLY my phone bounced off the chair the bag was resting on and plummeted into full glass of soda.  My cell phone that had four months to last before getting a new one is ruined.  I spent $270 dollars on that phone new becuase of getting screwed over on a warranty issue is totally worthless.

If anybody has an extra old cell phone that would work with the verizon network they would be willing to give me please PLEASE think about letting vanlandw borrow it for awhile.  I really can’t stomach buying a $300 dollar phone right now

For my birthday my grandparents got me a window air conditioner for my room. This past weekend I went home for the weekend to celebrate my birthday so I had to drive this box all the way back from Farmington Hills and into my house.

The Gato and myself spent quite some time installing this device into my dormitory. Put the whole thing together during a 87F evening. Sweating and poured our SOULS into getting the air conditioner into the window. I ended up plugging it into the wall awaiting the nice cold air to absolve my sweat. What I ended up with was the complete opposite of what my desires were. APPARENTLY after hitting “power” the engine sounded like the bathroom after a Mongolian Barbeque trip.

Now my room is in utter disarray and parts of this defective air cooler is thrown around. I am sure the air conditioner was not cheap so a call to my grandparents is in order and hope they kept the recept.

**EDIT**
Today I got the recept in the mail from my grandparents.  I will go to Lowes tomorrow and try to either get cash or at least another air conditioner.

**EDIT 2**
This past weekend I went to “Lowes” and returned the broken conditioner with no incident. They gave me store credit and I was happy with that. Not unexpected two Lowes had not one single conditioner that wasn’t over 11,000 BTU’s so I wasn’t able to replace it yet. MORE TO COME!

Apparently my car got “tossed”. This morning before going to class after I opened my car door I noticed somebody “tossed” my car. I must have forgot to lock my door last night and low and behold some jackass went though my car looking for god knows what. I hardly keep anything in my car but there is a lot of information for the taking.

If somebody was smart they could find out quite a bit about me. They have my full name because my work badge was in my car. Also they know where I work. Moreover I keep recepts in the center console. I have bank recepts so it shows my avaiable balance.

Personally I think the criminal was looking for money and expensive trinkets. Thank god I took my briefcase into the house last night. For a few weeks I’m going to start parking in the garage. Also if I see any local scum looking at my car ever again they are going to get the living crap beat out of them.