Review by geopb 
Posted: 10 years ago
member for 10.2 years, 5 visits, last login: 8.6 years ago
 La Jolla,San Diego,CA
 Contract price not specified.
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I ordered the basic PacBell Package back at the begining of '99. As the program was just up and running in my area, I was told it would be three weeks before they could do the install. After waiting so long for it just to be available in my area, I figured 3 weeks wouldn't be bad and that they would eventually "gear up" and process orders more quickly. Doesn't seem like that happened.
I lived about 3 blocks from the C.O. and my copper was clean, so my line tested out at 1.5 Mbps on a minimum 384 Kbps line.
Wound up buying a new place months after that and I couldn't get them to give me a break on the install (free only for new accounts), and I didn't want to pay for it, so I just did it myself. Was fairly easy to do. Only problem was trying to undo some of the wiring mistakes previous owners had done to the existing copper inside the house. Otherwise, if anyone wants to try it themselves, it is an easy job...
I moved about 3 blocks away on the other side of the same C.O. so my line speed is still as fast. Tech that came out to provision (?) the line said it was one of the cleanest he had seen. Can't complain.
Only had the modem go out three times since I had it (in both locations). Twice all it took was to pull the power on the "modem" and let it sit for a few minutes.
[Techs told me to turn the modem off, pull the power, then turn it back on and let it sit. As if there is some kind of capacitor inside that needs to discharge...]
Also cycled the power on the machine it is hooked up to (either NT server 4.0 or PPC Mac 8.5.1 depending on how I have things hooked up that week). Seems to work.
But, about 2 weeks ago, had a problem with the modem going in and out of sync. After many calls to the tech centre and delays while they look up my paperwork, the problem resolved itself. Think that something was just messed up at the C.O. Have no idea what was wrong.
Only complaint about PacBell is that they just seem really messed up internally and the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. When I called in my out of sync error, they couldn't find any record of me having a DSL line (why couldn't it have been the *billing* department that lost my info?). Then whatever record was found had all incorrect info on it. Tech kept trying to ping an IP that didn't belong to me. Then my service ticket got lost because my info wasn't in another system and thus couldn't be forwarded to repair. Etc. etc. etc.
But I have found the techs I have encountered to be great. It takes a lot of trouble to finally get through all the other operators/people to them, but the few "real" technical people I have talked with have really been on top of things. My advice is to, when you find someone of the other end of the phone line that sounds like they know what they are doing, be really nice (they want to help and they respond to people being understanding), establish a rapport, and *get a phone number*. Keep that number in a safe place for next time.
I have noticed that when I first got the line earlier in the year, I could call up the tech center at about any time and speak to a tech. Now they have so many buffering layers (operators, phone trees, etc) that is takes longer to finally get to the tech than to speak to him. And they seemed to have dropped down to "normal business hours." When I had my trouble a few weeks ago, it was on the weekend, and my number was taken so a tech could call me back on Monday. I used to be able to call directly in the middle of the night or weekend. But I guess any growing service is going to encounter that. Just sorry to loose the comfort of being able to call at anytime to have a problem, if not fixed, at least looked at right then.
I can only presume that PacBell will get its act together as it grows and that this internal nonsense is just growing pains. Other than the administration errors and the lack of communication between the PacBell divisions (and the people they contract the modem/splitter installation to), the service has been great so far.
A fast, clean, cheap, reliable connection is a great thing.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Pacific Bell - SBC |
|
Pacific Bell - SBC
(13)