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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain peaceengine.com)
lodged 1.9 years ago
 Butte,Silver Bow,MT
 $50 per month- (12 month contract)
| Pre Sales information:
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Qwest service is great to where I'm at - immediately across the street from the
CO in Butte.
Comments:
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Review by TerryBur 
member for 11.1 years, 2912 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 1.9 years ago
- Davenport,Scott,IA
- $15 per month
 about 2 days Qwest "Package shipped on-time. Service available. Long term pricing lock." "Haven't found it yet." "Kicked me off cable!"
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Succumbed to the $15.95 price lock for 5 years with no contract. Pre-sale information informative. Connection package and setup flawless. Time will tell but this looks like a peach with no bruising. Seems to approach 7Mb/768k advertised.
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Review by rizzom5000
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 1.9 years ago
- Bellingham,Whatcom,WA
- Contract price not specified.
- "Was a customer for five plus years."
- "THey wrongfully turned my account over to a collections agency."
- "The worst customer service situation I have ever been involved with."
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To Whom It May Concern,
I cancelled DSL service with Qwest in February 2011. At the time that I
cancelled, I was told that I would not have to return the modem because
I had purchased it. This made sense to me, as I had easily paid for
value of the modem several times over during the many years I was a
Qwest DSL customer.
However, a couple of weeks after I cancelled my service, Qwest sent me
UPS shipping labels to return the modem. I dropped off the modem at UPS
on March 28, 2011. I have delivery confirmation from UPS that states
that the package was delivered to Pueblo, CO April 4, 2011 at 1:34 PM
and signed by DOUGLAS.
On May 13, 2011 Afni sent me a letter stating that they were a debt
collector attempting to collect a debt on behalf of Qwest. When I called
Afni to discuss the letter, I was told that the debt was owed for the
modem mentioned above. I told Afni that I would like to dispute the debt
and provided them with the UPS tracking number, which shows proof of
delivery.
I received another latter from Afni May 24, 2011; which stated that Afni
had verified the debt was valid, and intends to continue to pursue
collection of the debt.
On May 24, 2011 I contacted Qwest customer service and talked to someone
who gave me the ID KLMason. She told me that she worked in Qwest
Billing, and that she could not find a record of the returned modem; and
that there was nothing else she could do.
I am finding that in every detail in this matter, Qwest has shown poor
customer service ability. From telling me that I would not have to
return the modem, to turning the account over to a collections agency to
denying that they had received the modem, despite the clear UPS paper
trail from me to the Qwest facility in Colorado; it is difficult to find
anything that is not disappointing about Qwest in this matter.
I have begun to pursue legal options with Afni. The federal government
is very clear about what those options are. It seems that I could pay
the amount requested, but I returned the modem and I believe the facts
are clear in the matter. I would have no reason to lie under oath
regarding such a thing, particularly because Qwest sent me shipping
labels; but also because the modem is essentially worthless, not only to
me, but also in the general sense the value of the device in question in
year 2011. The federal government has various mechanism in place to
protect honest consumers like myself from being harmed in circumstances
such as this.
Regards,
Name Removed
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Review by frep420
member for 1.9 years, 135 visits, last login: 141 days ago
updated 1.9 years ago
- 85120
- $95 per month
- about 21 days
- Qwest
- "At least I have something"
- "They cancelled my install without even letting me know."
- "I would go cable in a heartbeat, these guys suck. :("
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I was stuck using Qwest.net for my home internet. I called for service after learning the local cable company was not available. They cancelled the initial install because they couldn't get my old number switched over. They never called, and when I called the morning of, they told me they couldn't do it that day. I begged and pleaded, I didn't want to be without internet for another month almost, so they said they would see what they could do.
I saw a service truck parked down the road from my house, I ran out and asked if he was installing my internet today, he said no, but checked out my line anyway. He looks and says, it's fine, they will turn it on for you. There was no "install" just a remote switch at HQ.
I haven't even had a dial tone in almost a year. When I did finally call for a service call, the technician left, never contacted me. When I called to check status, I was told that job was complete. I waited for my bill to see if I was charged, I wasn't so I called back, they said "the technician could not get in the property, the gate was locked." That is why I gave them my number, I always lock my gate. That was a couple of months ago.
I wish I could change ISPs, but 3g/4g WiFi hotspots are not feasible, and satellite has horrible low level up-link speeds, if any.
Comments:
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Review by vbigham
member for 1.9 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.9 years ago
updated 1.9 years ago
- Salt Lake City,Salt Lake,UT
- $55 per month
- about 7 days
- AT&T
- "Nice download speed."
- "Modem / Router always overheating"
- "Actiontec q1000 is a nice machine, but should be equipped with a fan."
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I've had Qwest broadband for 2 years at this location and started at the 1.5 mbps download speed, and upgraded to 7 mbps down about 1 year ago. For the first year my connection was always reliable, I was using the Actiontec m1000 that they sent me. When I upgraded they sent me the Actiontec q1000 since the new speed apparently requires VDSL2. Ever since the upgrade I started losing my connection at least once per day, the only way to get it back was to turn off the modem (which was hot to touch on the top), let it cool down for a couple minutes, then turn it back on. I went through everything with Qwest to no avail, the techs would keep saying that there is interference on my line, but when someone came out to check it, it would always be totally fine. I got a second and a third replacement modem from Qwest thinking that I had faulty equipment, but the problem persisted. For some reason Qwest could only send me the same modem.
The problem was getting extremely annoying, sometimes shutting down every hour or two while I was downloading / streaming a lot. I tried setting up the modem with transparent bridging so that my router would handle the pppoe connection and disabled the wireless thinking that it would ease the modems work load and maybe generate less heat. I stood the modem up vertically so that the vents on the bottom could get more air. The blasted thing was still overheating even while the room its in was at 70 degrees F or lower. I went to Best Buy and they do not have any VDSL modems at all, so I am still searching for a suitable replacement since I would still like to keep Qwest.
I rigged up an old power supply with a couple small fans and put them next to the vents on the modem blowing in. Now the modem stays cool and stays connected. Basically, the q1000 is a powerful machine, but with the extra processor core, it seems to me that there is a design flaw with the heat dissipation, perhaps this modem should have an internal fan.
Comments:
 | | Netgear makes VDSL2 modems »www.netgear.com/3g
I haven't tried yet, but since QWest is requiring a rental on future modems, this will be something to consider. | |
| | | actiontec q1000 overheating Thanks for the post. here is my case:
Ok,my internet connection was lost since 4pm saturday (06/04/2011), and I tried to reboot the modem many times, and it did not work. There were a few times, I was connected to internet, but within a minute, the internet was disconnected again. so I was thinking maybe the modem was overheated. The modem is Qwest Actiontec Q1000, the modem is kind of warm, but not really hot. Any way, I still suspect that overheating is the problem. since I am not a patient guy, I put the modem (wrapped in a plastic bag so no moisture will get inside the modem box) inside the refrigirator to cool it down quickly. and tried it again, and it worked for about 5 minutes. It did seem like a overheating problem. So I opened the modem, the inside components were pretty hot. I turned the PCB upsidedown so the components side face to air so heat can be dispated easily. Reconnected, and it worked! Called Qwest tech support, told them what I believe, the guy said he had not aware of the overheating problem for this modem, but he believed me and would send me a new modem. | |
| | | | Re: actiontec q1000 overheating They must have been surprised at how thourough you were. I have the Q1000 here and it just runs. Current session time is 9 days, 20 hours. You should do fine with a new modem. | |
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3 edits | Re: actiontec q1000 overheating You should check your snr (signal-to-noise ratio) in the modem interface--if either upstream or downstream is below 8db, you're not getting a strong signal which will cause slow speeds and a dropping connection. Also, if the margins seem fine when you first check--e.g. down 24db/ up 17db--it doesn't mean they won't fluctuate. I'd check multiple times. Also check the attenuation in the modem--if it is high (> 50db) it can indicate signal degradation (usually but not always). Also, if the attenuation is high, it can mean that you may just be within the distance parameters from the central office (21000+ feet is usually around the end of the line but it depends on the carrier--sometimes it can be as little as 17000 ft.) and although your margins may be fine at 1.5mbps, 7mbps is quite a jump in speed especially if you are at or around the furthest qualifying distance.
90% of the time, an intermittent connection is not caused by the equipment--if the modem is bad, it won't post.
Here's some tshooting steps (you may have already been through all these): Bypass the filter (if applicable) by putting the dsl (regular phone) line directly into the wall jack from the modem. Make sure all phones are filtered, if not, unplug all phones that are not filtered. If you have satellite tv and a phone line going into the satellite box, make sure it is filtered--if not, unplug it and see if that makes a difference. Home security systems which use a phone line can cause interference as well as lengthy dsl lines (> 20 ft). Phone jacks integrated into surge protectors aren't that reliable--put the line in an actual wall jack instead if it is set up this way. Test the modem on another jack & check to see if the snr margins have increased and/or the attenuation has decreased. Also, check the retrain timer to see when the last actual documented connection drop was.
The field tech usually just checks the snr and attenuation to the nid (the box at the side of your house). If they determine the margins to be good to the nid, the issue is most likely inside.
I've had a Q1000 for about 2 1/2 years now and sometimes the retrain timer is up to 3 weeks--never had a problem with it. | |
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 Review by Maxxxt
member for 11.9 years, 3965 visits, last login: 123 days ago
updated 1.9 years ago
- Denver,Denver,CO
- $31 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 7 days
- Qwest
- "Good speed for Surfer, Price for Life, its got tubes in it"
- "POP far away somewhere, 40ms first hop, lossy, on my second modem"
- "Recomended basic internet and even gaming is ok"
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Qwest has always made me cringe since back in 2001 when they had some corporate hotshot think it was smart to partner with MSN. I remember my line went from 8ms first hop to over 60ms in one day after the so called "added value of MSN" routing DENVER to WEST COAST then to the INTERNET, daily outages, I dropped them fast!
Fast forward 2006, I needed internet and I'm poor. Qwest was spamming price for life..ok ill bite.
I have to pay $5 more because I don't need their long distance..damn.
They have a fancy 2-wire modem, built in wireless and 4 port Ethernet on the back..sounds good.
2 year contract..Fine.
I ordered:
Qwest 1500/768 DSL w/..MSN ISP
2-wire modem..built in wireless ( purchase for $150)
They mailed the modem and I received it quickly, the line was provisioned in about 7 days.
The modem had instructions and a nifty little configuration CD that sets up the modem using a code in the paperwork. So after few minutes IP address, DNS, PPOE information all entered automatically. I ended the program right before it installed the MSN bloatware and I had internet.
I manually set up WPA2 wireless, Changed the SSID etc. Changed the router Password.
All in all the DSL works, rarely has outages. The speed is good enough for surfers and gamers that aren't concerned with ping or downloaders that don't mind having to wait a while for large files.
Update 1: Ive had one 2-wire modem die on me after 6 months and it was replaced by Qwest for free under warranty.
Update 2: Cannot upgrade to anything faster than 5 Mbps in my area. Lossy routing and modem reboots are very common these days. Service works most of the time, but the low download speed is becoming more of an issue. Still no POP in Denver as far as I can tell, service is usually routed to another city like Dallas and then to the internet. I will continue with Qwest service for now, but I am becoming restless and dissatisfied with the speeds and routing.
Comments:
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 Review by Transmaster
member for 11.9 years, 3909 visits, last login: 7 days ago
updated 1.9 years ago
- Cheyenne,Laramie,WY
- $49 per month
- Qwest
- "Very reliable, no contract, billed on phone bill"
- "Billing problems"
- "Beats the hell out of cable"
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I have been very pleased with My Qwest DSL service from the beginning, I did have some billing problems when the former Qwest management sold off there subscribers to MSN, Now that Qwest has booted out all of the former management and as reclaimed their customers from MSN the service has improved. Since I wrote this I discovered the billing troubles I had three years ago where still haunting me. It turns out part of the MSN bill was recorded as have never been paid, something I though had long since been taken care of.
It wasn't discovered untill I upgraded my service to the new 7 meg speed. I suppose I would say Qwest is ok just as long as you don't have to call them.
Comments:
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Review by WCarp
member for 1.9 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.9 years ago
lodged 1.9 years ago
- Omak,Okanogan,WA
- Contract price not specified.
- Qwest
- "They provide Very Poor DSL Service"
- "Do Not recommend!"
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There have been many problems with Qwest's DSL service. The first problem was the modem failed around a month or two after I started. One BIG problem is Support. The first level people are not very well trained. One told me to buy a LAN cable since it was bad. I went out and bout one, and the new cable did not resolve the problem.
One very important thing is that I am not getting the download speed I am paying for---which is irking. At first, they credited me a few times, but after the problem has continued for several months, they refused---even the Corporate Office refused and have not been professional about this very important issue. Basically, you don't get what you pay for. That's OK with them!
At: »www.hdinternet.com/?refCode=RES0···ithphone, they advertise "Speeds stay fast. Prices stay low." This is false advertising concerning the speeds. I'm supposed to get 5 Mb/s download. A few days ago, I ran a test from their Web site speed test and the download speed was 0.760 Mb/s and upload was 0.049 Mb/s! When asked about getting a credit for the last period of slow speeds, I was told by Candas in the Corporate office that they would only work on one issue at a time. Finally, yesterday, when asked again, she refused to credit me. I said something like "This is not a good business practice." and she said something unintelligible and hung up.
To top it all off, they decided to change the e-mails to a different place and then I stopped receiving e-mails but I could receive them. After contacting the Corporate office about this problem, an upper level Support person messed things up and a substantial number of important e-mails were lost. There was no further response, so I called the Corporate office again and basically asked that this be fixed. Finally someone called two days later but didn't fix everything. Now it is approximately a week and a half later and it still is not resolved---plus I am supposed to try to retrieve the lost emails from a back up by my self.
Comments:
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Review by vlasche
member for 1.9 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.9 years ago
lodged 1.9 years ago
- Fort Madison,Lee,IA
- $95 per month
- Qwest
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I have had Qwest high speed dsl for about a year now and I am supposed to have 7mb speed. Lately I have only been getting around 1.2mb speeds. I called their tech support and they said that their gateway had congestion. I have been through this before, about 3 other times so it was expected. The only thing is this time they can't switch me gateways because all of the gateways are congested in this area. SO now I am stuck paying the price for 7mb when I only get around 1. This is ridiculous, so I am switching ISP's to see if I can get any better speeds. Mediacom has 20mb service for 5 dollars cheaper so that is the route I am going to go.
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Review by mystica
member for 11.5 years, 277 visits, last login: 299 days ago
updated 1.9 years ago
- Aurora,Arapahoe,CO
- $80 per month
- about 7 days
- Qwest
- "Amazing speeds, much faster than Comcast for the price! Low interleave delay, Youtube HD saturates the 40megs with ease!"
- "Line quality/makeup data in their provisioning database was WRONG. 1 mo. to get 40x5."
- "If you like the speeds Qwest.net's configurator gives, you will be fine. If you KNOW you can get faster, it will be hell."
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$80/mo includes the $70 line charge $8 modem rental and taxes/fees/etc.
I am still in a promo period where the DSL line itself is at $29.99/mo for 6 months.
------ History ------
I had wanted to try a different ISP last October after having received tons of flyers in the mail for "Fiber Optic Fast - Upto 40 Meg" internet from Qwest. After having ATTBI/Comcast after Digizip DSL for many many years between 2004 and 2011, I decided that the fees I was paying were too high for the service I was receiving. I ended on their 22x5 DOCSIS3 tier, which was quite nice. Of course, their marketing changed this to read "30x7 with Powerboost" and I think right after I disconnected they changed their tiers again, as the new 105mbit service was installed in my area.
------ Pre-install Misinformation ------
Every time I checked Qwest's online service qualification page, I saw that my address was listed as a maximum of 20 x 0.896. This seemed strange, because I literally live "down the block and around the corner" from the remote terminal which one day mid-2010 appeared out of the ground next to the old peeling-paint neighborhood splice box that's been here since it said US West on the side. »twitpic.com/33ks9h
I then took Google Maps and found the approximate loop-distance, by tracing my line from my house, to the pole, to the avenue at the end of my block, and 1 street over to the DSLAM as 1000 feet. Well within any and all VDSL2 specs and graphs I have seen for a very high sync-rate.
All things optimal, Ikanos has released (through a trade magazine it would seem) some graphs of the potential for line-length vs distance at full VDSL2 bandwidth: »www.convergedigest.com/blueprint···p?ID=232
Granted, Qwest likes using Profiles 8a and 12a (8 and 12mhz bandwidth) which effectively limits some of the speed. Even with the 8a profile "speed vs distance" graphs I had found from others showed I still could achieve good speeds, so I knew that it was not specifically a problem with VDSL2 itself or my line length.
»chipdesignmag.com/images/idesign···ure1.gif is the actual diagram comparing ASDL2 and VDSL2 at lengths for certain spectral bandwidths (profiles) and the article it came from is at »chipdesignmag.com/display.php?articleId=1130 . The "+" marked graph lines are Profile 12a (what Qwest gives for 40x20) and the "triangle" graph lines are Profile 8a that Qwest is doing for the 40x5 tier. Also note that the "+" and "triangle" lines MATCH for downstream- this is because the difference between profiles 8a and 12a: 4mhz UPLOAD bandwidth! There is no extra Downstream until profile 17a. Check out a VDSL2 bandplan: »www.ospmag.com/files/Magic_Fig1_0908.jpg a much bigger one can be found in the actual white paper by Aware Inc. »www.aware.com/dsl/whitepapers/wp_vdsl2.pdf
Please note that I have seen far higher speeds in testing than the graph shows, yet, it still indicates regardless of Profile 8 or 12, my house should be faster than 20x0.896 at 1000-1500 feet of line length.
Qwest's provisioning database dictated however, for some strange reason, that this house was not able to receive such fast speeds. Everyone I contacted mentioned "20x0.896" as the max.
Interestingly enough, I started punching in addresses near my house... ACROSS THE STREET from me, same remote terminal, the database stated THEY could receive 40x5. Nobody on my side of the street, merely 120 feet approximately more wire length, could get past 20x0.896. If I lived exactly one block North, I could have subscribed to 40x20 initially. This result came up from the initial first flyer sent to my house.
This intrigued and bothered me. I clearly was close enough as every single street I checked I believe to be attached to this particular neighborhood splice box, DSLAM and fiber vault. as I have gone around looking and detailing where the physical wire goes underground from the aerial plant.
------ Initial contact to TalkToUs led to 0 actual result ------
During October 2010, I had started to try initial contacts with the Twitter/TalkToUs end of Qwest's customer service team, to attempt to get a straight answer of either: "Why can't I" or "Is your info wrong and perhaps I could?". After many tweets and about 5 back and forth emails with a manager, I still failed to get any concrete information. A network engineer finally delivered a simple screenshot stating my address was able to get 20x0.896. Hardly new info...
------ Waiting it out and initial order ------
I stuck with Comcast for a few more months, as I was guaranteed the 5meg upload I have come to rely upon, and the reasonable 22 megabits of download. (All speeds *after* shaping, as Comcast would PowerBoost burst to 35x10 for about 50-60 megabytes of data transfer at the beginning of a long upload/download. )
Come March 2011, I had enough of paying $220 for TV and Internet and killed off my cable entirely. I finally and ordered Qwest DSL online and and got in on their current promo which was 6 months at 19.99 (with voice) or 29.99 (dry-line) so I chose the dry-line option. VoIP and cell are all I personally use. I decided to keep the billing for my line separate from the preexisting house line which my family uses so as to not have to deal with paying family a portion of the monthly bill.
There were of course the standard choices: self install or tech install; rented or purchased cheap or full-featured modem. I chose the rented Q1000 modem as I was unsure if I wanted to keep it should I be unable to get the line speed fixed and because I have seen such modems sell on Craigslist/Ebay for significantly less than Qwest wanted to charge. I also chose a self-install, as I had plenty of cat5 and keystone jacks for all sorts of connectors. I wired my own cable into the modem a few weeks post-install, (yes I'm lazy) and prior to that, all the initial setup/testing/speed-increase were on my modem through a cable out my window into the 'test' jack for my line in the NID outside.
------ Order process fails to properly delete the DirecTV package using the 'remove from order' feature ------
I had initially looked into doing a package deal with DirecTV, but before I submitted the form, I had removed (so I thought) the line-item from my order. Their order system did something wonky and I still got info stating I owe a deposit to DirecTV and this canceled Qwest's side of the DTV order. I honestly wonder why after I clicked "remove" it still showed up on the final email confirm, but not the webpage confirm.
Strange and potentially buggy order system. Check!
I thought to myself, after ordering, "Well, once the technician sees that I am so close, maybe he can just have the odd info in their database changed so I can get faster service here."
The tech was scheduled 7 days from that order date.
------ Installation ------
I was UPSed my modem, from Denver, to Aurora (I could have walked there and back in 4 hours, instead of the 5 days it took for them to send it off...) and it arrived the day before the technician was scheduled.
When the tech arrived, he and I discussed in detail what would be done before he even went to grab the latter from his van. Then he worked his magic on the drop to my old house, circa 1960. The wiring inside seems to have been replaced since then, mid-80s, but there is still one rather old looking cable that darts into the house through the utility hole between the foundation and floorboards. A brand new drop was installed with 2 pairs, one specifically for my DSL and the other for the house's already present landline. As stated above, I decided to self-install a home-run with CAT5 cable from the NID to my modem directly. This was completed 2 weeks after the tech was here, and I had the green CAT3 cord hanging out my window going into the NID's test port.
His installation was efficient, fast and still extremely well executed. The quality of the drop: taught but not stretching, secured to the house and snaked down an existing cable bundle (yay comcast wiring too much crap) to the new NID, was very good. He was literally THE most professional technician I have ever had the pleasure to watch at work. During our pre-install chat, he was both very informed and informative when answering my questions and the end result was beautiful. This was far superior than the 'mediocre at best' work done by Comcast/ATTBI/TCI and their contractors over the years.
------ Astonishment ------
After installing the new NID and testing the line with his meter, he exclaimed that the line was one of the best he had ever tested, something like 35dB SNR margin up/down, 0 attenuation. He was quite curious as well as to why Qwest's line database said I couldn't get the higher speeds, as he himself had installed a 40 meg line at about 1700 wire-feet.
Heck, I've seen a 40x20 tier provisioned on a line with much less SNR margin and signal strength listed here in the DSLR forums. ( »Qwest 40/20 - new service - dropped connections.... )
The point is, with a much lower quality point, they *WERE* provisioned, while I was being stonewalled.
------ Fix attempt 1 ------
Over the next few days post-install, the tech contacted Qwest's back-end IT department to attempt a line provisioning change, but the few speed alternatives he could offer were still improperly constrained. Either 18x3 or 12x5.
I didn't want to give up my 20 meg down (close enough to Comcast's) but boy did I want the 5meg up again. He had them set a test on the line at 18x3, which I tried a few days, and the results were the same: I needed faster speeds both directions. I declined to call back to have this setting made permanent.
------ Attempt 2 ------
So the tweets and emails started again to TalkToUs.
(During all of this pre and post install questioning, I initially decided not to call in to either sales tech support as I figured it might be easier to convey my "high quality line" and "extremely short distance" to someone via text and graphics versus trying to yell on the phone.
I included DSL line quality diagnostics from the router, which in no uncertain terms stated maximum speed near 80 meg down and 15 meg up - the upload being stifled by the DSLAM on profile 8a not allowing for upstream2/3 to be used. I included the google map from my house, to the pole, to the avenue, to the DSLAM and indicated 1000-1100 approximate wire-feet.
All of these should have indicated a problem, that something beyond simple "line quality" was affecting my ability to subscribe to a particular service tier.
Yet not a single "Wow maybe we need to escalate this and fix it" sort of reply.
I mostly got no reply or very terse replies via the twitter feed and the manager I had initially conversed with back in October.
------ Attempt 3 ------
I then started pulling any strings I could and looked at my installers business card. His manager was listed, so I tried emailing her. Another week of no response at all.
Now, this set of emails ended at week 3 post-install. Week 1 was technician; 2 was TalkToUs (waited a week for a reply, nothing), 3 was Technician's Manager (another week, no reply)
------ Last straw before I canceled and begrudgingly went back to Comcast ------
Now at this point I'm lacking any idea of where to turn next.
Lo and behold one morning my DSL connection starts flapping, every 5 minutes. PPPoE login/logout. For 8 hours straight while I slept, midnight - 8am.
I tried one last time with tweeting the TalkToUs guys about the issue, and they said they would look into the issue, but as the issue persisted I decided to try calling the repair line.
After being forwarded to some country decidedly not in the same hemisphere of our planet from Denver, CO, I talked through the static-filled-digital-g.729-mangled VoIP trunk to a friendly agent who put in the ticket and then asked if I wanted to be contacted when the issue was fixed. I said 'yes' and then I was prompted to verify my email and my voice phone number.
About 25 minutes later the connection stabilized only disconnecting twice during the interim.
------ HOPE! ------
BUT: The most unexpected thing appeared in my inbox. A boilerplate "Here are a few things you can try while we fix your issue" email, written and 'signed' by someone with the title of "Director of Network Operations".
I thought: If *HE* can't help me, no mere mortal could. (Maybe Superman...)
So I took his name, applied the Firstname.Lastname@qwest.com logic for corporate (as the pattern had been established by the lengthy email trail prior) and sent him a simple letter. I stated the avenues I tried, the responses I received, and my now 3 weeks into service inability to receive a service tier that I should have 0 technical inability to subscribe to.
------ SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!! ------
Within exactly ONE HOUR I received 2 emails, one from the director and a second from an engineer who would call me back.
By 4 pm that day, after running a remote line-quality loopback test with the Q1000, the back-end engineer called me and stated "Wow, your line definitely can take the 40 meg tier. I'll have it changed and you should be able to call up and order the new tier directly through sales tomorrow."
I profusely thanked this engineer and re-emailed the director a follow up thanking him very much as well. I also described the pains I had gone through trying to bring my issue to a closure to which he thanked me for describing my experience. I hope(d) that this will actually help others, as I believe I have identified a severe ineffectiveness/inability of this particular support channel.
Recent DSLReports forum posts as far as a month past this resolution date seem to indicate that it is still just as hard, if not impossible, to get a straight answer from TalkToUs on the issue of "Can my line actually attain such and such speed?" »Can my line handle 12mbps???
------ Disillusion at the inadequacy of the TalkToUs team ------
Now. I have ONE HUGE question to Qwest:
Why could the TalkToUs team NOT get this issue escalated properly?!
I am incredulous at the seemingly bureaucratic inability for a customer service branch of this
organization to properly identify a problem and escalate to a proper team to investigate further and resolve the issue.
Why must someone with a good question, reasonable supporting documentation and a hell-bent determination to solve such a stupid problem caused by improper database information, go through this hell to find a backwards way into the corporate hierarchy to get some results?!
After a week of waiting for the upgrade on speed, as apparently they need a week to push a button on their provisioning interface, I finally was upgraded to the 40x5 meg tier. The engineer I previously spoke with on that fateful afternoon informed me that perhaps by June to July I could bump up once again to the 20 meg upload tier due to upgrades they were doing in my area, so I will wait patiently for this.
------ Provisioning Delays? ------
And that brings up another thing: Why if I wasn't in the uncommon 'provisional line' situation I was in, does it take 6 days to provision a speed upgrade? The woman on the phone at Sales stated it would be only "one extra day because a tech has to verify the line can take the speed," as it is a provisional line.
To me, this indicates that the 6 day waiting time is normal, and that the 7 days I waited was the exception. Comcast for all their pricing failures, could at least click a button and boom, my modem resets with its new config profile.
------ End result: Delayed extreme happiness! ------
My line so far, has been utterly rock stable. After the initial issues I dealt with, I haven't dropped sync once, never yet have deviated from my faster initial sync rate of 40127 x 5120, and the service is quite zippy!
YOUTUBE is FAST~! - 1080p causes a fully saturated line.
Browsing is instant!
Compared to the PowerBoost bullcrap and packet de-prioritization annoyance from Comcast if you exceed a certain percentage of your capped speed, this VDSL2 line is ALWAYS testing fast.
Qwest's own test:
Last Result:
Download Speed: 36.778 Mbps (4.6 MB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 4.36 Mbps (0.5 MB/sec transfer rate)
The closest server located in Denver, CO performed this test with a latency of 23 milliseconds.
Test Date: Mon 23 May 2011 12:40:34 PM MDT
GreenHouseData (Cheyenne WY) test, which has higher upload speeds, yet also higher latency due to a weird server (ICMP ping latency is 25ms) »www.speedtest.net/result/1308941226.png
traceroute to speedtest.greenhousedata.com (208.89.163.194), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 0.167 ms 0.217 ms 0.275 ms
2 hlrn-dsl-gw82-147.hlrn.qwest.net (207.225.112.147) 21.572 ms 21.956 ms 22.185 ms
3 hlrn-agw1.inet.qwest.net (71.217.190.137) 22.398 ms 22.627 ms 22.859 ms
4 chy-core-02.inet.qwest.net (67.14.24.73) 25.872 ms 26.258 ms 26.290 ms
5 chy-edge-04.inet.qwest.net (205.171.158.101) 26.303 ms 24.186 ms 24.204 ms
6 65.114.247.174 (65.114.247.174) 24.659 ms 24.668 ms 25.121 ms
7 CYSWYDC01ESW1-001-1-1.GREENHOUSEDATA.NET (208.89.160.11) 26.319 ms 26.343 ms 26.366 ms
8 SPEEDTEST.GREENHOUSEDATA.COM (208.89.163.194) 26.126 ms 26.158 ms 26.186 ms
------ Intra-Denver Qwest Comcast routing is FUBARed however... Good thing I don't game ------
I traced to my old IP:
traceroute to 75.70.x.x (75.70.x.x), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 0.203 ms 0.246 ms 0.299 ms
2 hlrn-dsl-gw82-147.hlrn.qwest.net (207.225.112.147) 22.139 ms 22.169 ms 22.196 ms
3 hlrn-agw1.inet.qwest.net (71.217.190.137) 22.333 ms 22.530 ms 23.013 ms
4 dap-brdr-03.inet.qwest.net (67.14.2.85) 46.008 ms 46.469 ms 45.753 ms
5 Vlan507.icore2.DTX-Dallas.as6453.net (206.82.142.1) 56.248 ms 49.874 ms 49.892 ms
6 Vlan554.icore2.DTX-Dallas.as6453.net (206.82.142.22) 43.850 ms 45.014 ms Vlan553.icore2.DTX-Dallas.as6453.net (206.82.142.18) 45.036 ms
7 pos-2-5-0-0-cr01.dallas.tx.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.85.25) 45.206 ms 45.757 ms 45.783 ms
8 pos-2-15-0-0-cr01.denver.co.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.85.173) 62.774 ms 62.718 ms 62.891 ms
9 pos-0-14-0-0-ar02.aurora.co.denver.comcast.net (68.86.91.102) 63.321 ms 60.832 ms 61.540 ms
10 te-8-3-ur01.aurora.co.denver.comcast.net (68.86.103.38) 60.989 ms 61.311 ms 61.329 ms
11 te-17-10-cdn15.aurora.co.denver.comcast.net (68.85.107.6) 63.699 ms 61.927 ms 66.783 ms
12 * * * (either host isn't up, or is firewalled ; point still made)
DALLAS to get back to Denver... Where's Level3 in this? Qwest directly peers, and I get nearly the same ping latency to a friend in BOSTON!
traceroute to friends-dyndns-hostname.net (146.115.x.x), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 0.165 ms 0.221 ms 0.280 ms
2 hlrn-dsl-gw82-147.hlrn.qwest.net (207.225.112.147) 21.295 ms 21.959 ms 22.172 ms
3 hlrn-agw1.inet.qwest.net (71.217.190.137) 22.656 ms 22.974 ms 22.996 ms
4 dvr-core-02.inet.qwest.net (67.14.24.29) 23.232 ms 23.459 ms 23.939 ms
5 dvr-brdr-01.inet.qwest.net (205.171.10.10) 24.918 ms 22.143 ms 22.158 ms
6 63.146.26.138 (63.146.26.138) 21.861 ms 21.885 ms 21.912 ms
7 vlan52.ebr2.Denver1.Level3.net (4.69.147.126) 22.169 ms 21.975 ms 22.876 ms
8 ae-3-3.ebr1.Chicago2.Level3.net (4.69.132.62) 47.521 ms 47.546 ms 48.127 ms
9 ae-6-6.ebr1.Chicago1.Level3.net (4.69.140.189) 48.836 ms 49.337 ms 49.367 ms
10 ae-1-5.bar1.Boston1.Level3.net (4.69.140.93) 72.266 ms 71.514 ms 71.788 ms
11 ae-0-11.bar2.Boston1.Level3.net (4.69.140.90) 71.000 ms 71.230 ms 71.256 ms
12 RCN-CORPORA.bar2.Boston1.Level3.net (4.53.50.14) 71.728 ms 70.053 ms 70.266 ms
13 port-chan7.aggr1.sbo.ma.rcn.net (207.172.15.135) 69.189 ms 69.473 ms 69.673 ms
14 wtr-ubr1.sbo-wtr.ma.cable.rcn.net (209.6.160.19) 70.376 ms 69.964 ms 70.067 ms ; This is the same "CMTS" hop that my previous trace ended on. Notice, similar latency!
15 146-115-x-x.c3-0.wtr-ubr1.sbo-wtr.ma.cable.rcn.com (146.115.x.x) 79.807 ms 79.830 ms 83.529 ms
------ Addendum: Statistics of my line data that either TalkToUs was unable to understand, or was incapable of acting upon: ------
Line quality graph (SNR per Tone) »i.imgur.com/r4YU4.png
(20x0.896 sync rate, before moving my modem to the CAT5 homerun)
> adsl info --linediag1
Max: Upstream rate = 15308 Kbps, Downstream rate = 79356 Kbps
Path: 0, Upstream rate = 893 Kbps, Downstream rate = 20128 Kbps
VDSL Port Details Upstream Downstream
Attainable Net Data Rate: 15308 kbps 79356 kbps
Actual Aggregate Tx Power: -2.7 dBm 15.7 dBm
============================================================================
VDSL Band Status U0 U1 U2 U3 D1 D2 D3
Line Attenuation: 3.2dB 25.1dB N/A N/A 15.1dB 31.5dB N/A
Signal Attenuation: 3.0dB 25.1dB N/A N/A 15.1dB 31.5dB N/A
SNR Margin: 0.0dB 31.3dB N/A N/A 31.5dB 31.2dB N/A
(Today's test, sync rate 40x5, cat5 home-run to keystone jack next to modem: )
> adsl info --linediag1
adsl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime
Retrain Reason: 0
Max: Upstream rate = 15336 Kbps, Downstream rate = 82464 Kbps
Path: 0, Upstream rate = 5120 Kbps, Downstream rate = 40127 Kbps
VDSL Port Details Upstream Downstream
Attainable Net Data Rate: 15336 kbps 82464 kbps
Actual Aggregate Tx Power: 6.1 dBm 16.9 dBm
============================================================================
VDSL Band Status U0 U1 U2 U3 D1 D2 D3
Line Attenuation: 3.2dB 25.1dB N/A N/A 15.3dB 32.0dB N/A
Signal Attenuation: 3.0dB 25.1dB N/A N/A 15.3dB 32.0dB N/A
SNR Margin: 31.1dB 27.8dB N/A N/A 23.8dB 23.7dB N/A
(Lower SNR margins due to wider-amount of bandwidth consumed; signal power is a sum of OFDM tones aggregated together. Still VERY good.)
Comments:
| | Easier to read Traceroutes and Modem Diag infotraceroute to speedtest.greenhousedata.com (208.89.163.194), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 0.167 ms 0.217 ms 0.275 ms
2 hlrn-dsl-gw82-147.hlrn.qwest.net (207.225.112.147) 21.572 ms 21.956 ms 22.185 ms
3 hlrn-agw1.inet.qwest.net (71.217.190.137) 22.398 ms 22.627 ms 22.859 ms
4 chy-core-02.inet.qwest.net (67.14.24.73) 25.872 ms 26.258 ms 26.290 ms
5 chy-edge-04.inet.qwest.net (205.171.158.101) 26.303 ms 24.186 ms 24.204 ms
6 65.114.247.174 (65.114.247.174) 24.659 ms 24.668 ms 25.121 ms
7 CYSWYDC01ESW1-001-1-1.GREENHOUSEDATA.NET (208.89.160.11) 26.319 ms 26.343 ms 26.366 ms
8 SPEEDTEST.GREENHOUSEDATA.COM (208.89.163.194) 26.126 ms 26.158 ms 26.186 ms
------ Intra-Denver Qwest Comcast routing is FUBARed however... Good thing I don't game ------
I traced to my old IP:
traceroute to 75.70.x.x (75.70.x.x), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 0.203 ms 0.246 ms 0.299 ms
2 hlrn-dsl-gw82-147.hlrn.qwest.net (207.225.112.147) 22.139 ms 22.169 ms 22.196 ms
3 hlrn-agw1.inet.qwest.net (71.217.190.137) 22.333 ms 22.530 ms 23.013 ms
4 dap-brdr-03.inet.qwest.net (67.14.2.85) 46.008 ms 46.469 ms 45.753 ms
5 Vlan507.icore2.DTX-Dallas.as6453.net (206.82.142.1) 56.248 ms 49.874 ms 49.892 ms
6 Vlan554.icore2.DTX-Dallas.as6453.net (206.82.142.22) 43.850 ms 45.014 ms Vlan553.icore2.DTX-Dallas.as6453.net (206.82.142.18) 45.036 ms
7 pos-2-5-0-0-cr01.dallas.tx.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.85.25) 45.206 ms 45.757 ms 45.783 ms
8 pos-2-15-0-0-cr01.denver.co.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.85.173) 62.774 ms 62.718 ms 62.891 ms
9 pos-0-14-0-0-ar02.aurora.co.denver.comcast.net (68.86.91.102) 63.321 ms 60.832 ms 61.540 ms
10 te-8-3-ur01.aurora.co.denver.comcast.net (68.86.103.38) 60.989 ms 61.311 ms 61.329 ms
11 te-17-10-cdn15.aurora.co.denver.comcast.net (68.85.107.6) 63.699 ms 61.927 ms 66.783 ms
12 * * * (either host isn't up, or is firewalled ; point still made)
DALLAS to get back to Denver... Where's Level3 in this? Qwest directly peers, and I get nearly the same ping latency to a friend in BOSTON!
traceroute to friends-dyndns-hostname.net (146.115.x.x), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 0.165 ms 0.221 ms 0.280 ms
2 hlrn-dsl-gw82-147.hlrn.qwest.net (207.225.112.147) 21.295 ms 21.959 ms 22.172 ms
3 hlrn-agw1.inet.qwest.net (71.217.190.137) 22.656 ms 22.974 ms 22.996 ms
4 dvr-core-02.inet.qwest.net (67.14.24.29) 23.232 ms 23.459 ms 23.939 ms
5 dvr-brdr-01.inet.qwest.net (205.171.10.10) 24.918 ms 22.143 ms 22.158 ms
6 63.146.26.138 (63.146.26.138) 21.861 ms 21.885 ms 21.912 ms
7 vlan52.ebr2.Denver1.Level3.net (4.69.147.126) 22.169 ms 21.975 ms 22.876 ms
8 ae-3-3.ebr1.Chicago2.Level3.net (4.69.132.62) 47.521 ms 47.546 ms 48.127 ms
9 ae-6-6.ebr1.Chicago1.Level3.net (4.69.140.189) 48.836 ms 49.337 ms 49.367 ms
10 ae-1-5.bar1.Boston1.Level3.net (4.69.140.93) 72.266 ms 71.514 ms 71.788 ms
11 ae-0-11.bar2.Boston1.Level3.net (4.69.140.90) 71.000 ms 71.230 ms 71.256 ms
12 RCN-CORPORA.bar2.Boston1.Level3.net (4.53.50.14) 71.728 ms 70.053 ms 70.266 ms
13 port-chan7.aggr1.sbo.ma.rcn.net (207.172.15.135) 69.189 ms 69.473 ms 69.673 ms
14 wtr-ubr1.sbo-wtr.ma.cable.rcn.net (209.6.160.19) 70.376 ms 69.964 ms 70.067 ms ; This is the same "CMTS" hop that my previous trace ended on. Notice, similar latency!
15 146-115-x-x.c3-0.wtr-ubr1.sbo-wtr.ma.cable.rcn.com (146.115.x.x) 79.807 ms 79.830 ms 83.529 ms
(20x0.896 sync rate, before moving my modem to the CAT5 homerun)
> adsl info --linediag1
Max: Upstream rate = 15308 Kbps, Downstream rate = 79356 Kbps
Path: 0, Upstream rate = 893 Kbps, Downstream rate = 20128 Kbps
VDSL Port Details Upstream Downstream
Attainable Net Data Rate: 15308 kbps 79356 kbps
Actual Aggregate Tx Power: -2.7 dBm 15.7 dBm
============================================================================
VDSL Band Status U0 U1 U2 U3 D1 D2 D3
Line Attenuation: 3.2dB 25.1dB N/A N/A 15.1dB 31.5dB N/A
Signal Attenuation: 3.0dB 25.1dB N/A N/A 15.1dB 31.5dB N/A
SNR Margin: 0.0dB 31.3dB N/A N/A 31.5dB 31.2dB N/A
(Today's test, sync rate 40x5, cat5 home-run to keystone jack next to modem: )
> adsl info --linediag1
adsl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime
Retrain Reason: 0
Max: Upstream rate = 15336 Kbps, Downstream rate = 82464 Kbps
Path: 0, Upstream rate = 5120 Kbps, Downstream rate = 40127 Kbps
VDSL Port Details Upstream Downstream
Attainable Net Data Rate: 15336 kbps 82464 kbps
Actual Aggregate Tx Power: 6.1 dBm 16.9 dBm
============================================================================
VDSL Band Status U0 U1 U2 U3 D1 D2 D3
Line Attenuation: 3.2dB 25.1dB N/A N/A 15.3dB 32.0dB N/A
Signal Attenuation: 3.0dB 25.1dB N/A N/A 15.3dB 32.0dB N/A
SNR Margin: 31.1dB 27.8dB N/A N/A 23.8dB 23.7dB N/A
(Lower SNR margins due to wider-amount of bandwidth consumed; signal power is a sum of OFDM tones aggregated together. Still VERY good.)
--
:wq!
Wrote dslreports_forum_post
mike@thor:~>_ | |
| |  lordpufferComfortably NumbPremium
join:2004-09-19
Rio Rancho, NM
kudos:1
 ·CableOne
 ·CenturyLink
 ·Vonage
 ·T-Mobile US
 ·Dish Network
·Time Warner Cable
·AT&T Wireless Br..
| Re: Easier to read Traceroutes and Modem Diag info Hi.....I also have the 40/5 tier. When I run a speed test using Qwest's speed test site, I almost always get about 37.3/4.6 with about 31ms. However, in the evening hours, when I use speedtest.net, I only get about 29Mbps d/l speed, with about the same upload, and between 70 and 142ms.
I may have missed it in your review, however, have you run a speedtest.net test? Or was that CO test done on Qwest's speed test site?
--
If you need a re-format, just ask and I'll do it. If you don't need one, just give me 5 minutes with your computer, and you will. | |
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MBps vs Mbps
