Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Hajo on June 15, 2003, 10:31:26 PM
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The last two weeks I've been discoed 26 times. Certainly a new
North American Record (someone call the Guiness people!)
The problem is NOT on HTCs' end! I, as many of us have ping plotter to test my connection. Simple to use and does a good job of indentifying problem areas' Here's the aggrevation.....I've called my Cable Company after pinging at various times during the day. I've found packett loss up to 50% at times at the Gateway. And have packet loss up to 15% at times at the Cable networks routers.
It's a good thing I have a sense of humor......just thought I'd add that. I called the Cable company to report the problem and where the problems seem to be occuring. Lemme explain they have level 1, level 2, and level 3 help. I explained to them I was losing connection (lost UDP switched to TCP) would get that message twice in a row....then I'm staring at my Windows desktop.
Level 1........no help at all , passes you to level 2. ( where they tell you to run a tracert and immediately email it to them so they can see it as you're talking to them on the phone. ) Level 2 asks for and receives one ping....ONE LOUSY PING and says You're cable signal looks gooda me! At about this time I'm saying to Level 2...er um......THAT WAS ONLY 1 LOUSY PING! I ping using ping plotter every two and one half seconds for as long as I want....and within 1 minute I'm showing packet loss if not at the Gateway, then at your router which is my second Hop!
Now that I've dazzled them with this BS...on to Level 3....Level 1 and 2 help like Abbott and Costello doing Who's on First? I'm starting to explain how I end up at desktop........they don't know why I would end up at desktop......I'm starting to wonder why I called these people in the first place, and start searching the closet for my Remington 1100...to take with me to their office so it can help me explain to them what is wrong.
If you have Road Runner, as I do.......AOL Broadband is going through the same system......and guess what folks! Earthlink Broadband is also in some areas sharing the same system. (Places 31/2 Mags into the Remington.......low brass Trap shooting load) Supposedly they're going to check the lines in this area. Until they do........keep your eyes on the 11PM News for a Cable Customer going Postal at his local Cable provider!
(The statement above does not necessarily reflect the views of our sponsors) :D
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That sucks Hajo. I had a problem a couple of years back that went along the same lines. I finally went back to 56K. Three months of beating my head against the wall and I finally threw in the towel.
I have a great connect but it's ssssloooooooowerrrrr nnnnowww...
Good luck.
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something I have learned through many years of talking to tech support types:
Tech support is an entry level position, everywhere.
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Originally posted by rshubert
something I have learned through many years of talking to tech support types:
Tech support is an entry level position, everywhere.
It's not that tech support, in and of itself, is an entry level position, but that it has tremendous 'churn' -- the turnover in tech support is hideous. There are people who work tech support for years and years, but the vast majority of tech support positions are filled by people who use it to build up some experience in the tech industry, and then roll that experience over into a 'real' job.
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LMFAO Hajo .. You should have seen when I got it installed what I went through....
I had RR @ my parent’s house in their name (their cable service). I had a secondary account created under the master. When I went to move into my apartment I called 2 weeks before to set up the RR install. I asked about the modem @ my current house (looking to save money by transferring the one @ parent’s house which would no longer be used to the apt)
I was told by "level 1" they couldn’t answer that so on to "level 2" LOL. So level 2 says all is good just bring the modem to the new address.
What about the email accounts I say? they tell me that once the new system is up I should log on to the admin page using the parents account info and delete the account then 20 min later I can use that email addy in my new account. Makes sense... simple and straight forward.
So moving weekend comes and PC is apart for 4 days (can’t get any of the 50+ emails I get per day). I go to work and roommate is there when the cable guy comes and sets up new service. Taped to my monitor is a hand written note to the cable guy. I gave him the username, real name, password, mother’s maiden name, and account number of the old account, and told him DO NOT DELETE OR CLOSE THIS ACCOUNT so I can get the email thing done. I am assured by roommate that cable guy saw and read the whole note. It was all VERY clear.
I get home to a bill for $50 for the BRAND NEW MODEM and $90 for install!!! (http://home.wi.rr.com/jabostaffelhq/images/Hosted%20images/38786-6.gif)
I immediately log on and try to log into admin for my old account… Account closed! (even madder now)(http://home.wi.rr.com/jabostaffelhq/images/Hosted%20images/madsquare.gif)
I call RR and am transferred 5 FUGIN times between level 1 and 2. After 75 min on hold I lose temper and cuss out the “tech” I'm on the phone with demanding to speak to a supervisor. I'm told that the supervisor is on another line… can he call me back? (Fug I'm soooooo pissed now my cell phone is all we had and I'm going over my minuets fast)
An hour later I get a call back from the “supervisor” and he spends 20 min telling me about the last problem he was dealing with?!?!?!?! I want to kill someone now!(http://home.wi.rr.com/jabostaffelhq/images/Hosted%20images/grossecolere.gif)
After another hour on the phone (that’s 140 minuets now on my cell in 1 night) he tells me nothing can be done about the 4 days of emails (a lot from work and stuff). The old modem was taken back as a rule of the cable company (the person who told me I could transfer it was wrong… sorry about that he says).
When the modem for an account is checked back into inventory the account is immediately closed. (Sorry about that too he says... just re-create it if no one else has used that email addy yet) this dense Fugger doesn’t seem to get that I'm missing 4 days of emails!
What about my cell phone and the 140 minuets on hold tonight? He can’t do anything about that too.
Can he credit my account for a month’s free service or get rid of the “install fee” for my troubles? NOPE. They do not a whoopee thing. A quote:
“You were a victim of bad luck… sorry about that and enjoy your cable service”(http://home.wi.rr.com/jabostaffelhq/images/Hosted%20images/firemad.gif)
It just pisses me off so much that there is no other option than them. It should be illegal to treat customers like this, but what can I do? Get lame-arse DSL? Dialup? The cable company has got us by the balls and there’s not a single thing we can do about it.
I reported it to the consumer protection agency, and they just said “we will file your complaint”.
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JB73 LOL........they are are hoot to talk to. I don't think they know very much about their jobs.
Great story though Made me laugh the way ya splained it LOL Sorry you had to go through that!
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Heard you get disconnected once your P47 crosses 30k.
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Manx LOL I'll have to try that one....LOL
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Yeah Hajo, stay low... it's safer :D
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Had a similar problem with my DSL line a few years back.
Horendus packet loss, terrible connect etc.
Worked with tech support for 3 weeks before I got high enough to get someone who had a smidgeon of a clue.
He finally gave me the # for the local Telephone company tech who runs the boxes.
Called him, explained problem, he said, ohh, bet you have a bad card in the box.
Try pingplot again in 10 minutes.
10 minutes later my connect was pristine.
No packetloss, latency back down lo 80's, no problems at all.
Its a bit tougher with cable because they tend to oversell it, but hang in there.
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On a slightly different tangent of the same thread.... keep trying on the disco record. Two tours back I was fighting with video issues caused by my upgrade to XP. I did the upgrade instead of full install, and any game that I played would crash to desktop after a highly variable time period. I solved the problem by doing a clean XP install. My grand total for one tour of AH... 43 discos. Needless to say, I almost acted out those commercials showing the worker tossing his computer out the window. I'd be curious to see if anyone has topped this "record."
:D
Oh, and on the topic of tech support, to give you an idea of the overall quality... 2 years ago, my 16 year old son was hired as a tech support rep at our local regional ISP. The sad part was, he scored higher on the "tryout" test they gave him, re; computer & net knowledge, than anyone else (mostly adults) that they had ever hired. He ended up being the most knowledgeable, helpful tech they had... so much so that one time, after a frustrating session with one of his co-workers, I called my son on his cell phone at a football game to run my problem by him. Within about 30 seconds we had it solved. Sadly amazing, but I'm afraid somewhat typical.
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Djust ordered an 26mbit DSL service for my home... I wonder how many times i will reach 26mbit :rolleyes:
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Originally posted by Skorpyon
My grand total for one tour of AH... 43 discos. Needless to say, I almost acted out those commercials showing the worker tossing his computer out the window. I'd be curious to see if anyone has topped this "record."
Had 45 disco's in tour 31, 40 the tour before, but those were caused by CTD and not connection. Still equally frustrating. (and I still don't know what caused them or how I got rid of them)
I'm topped by Mitsu in tour 33 tho, he had 64 discos, but as mine these were also from CTD's I think.
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Yep, going throught the same thing here w/ Charter. I've logged 10 trouble tickets and had 3 dispatches to the house. Every time, "No trouble found" No chit! I've told them it only happens between 7:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. during what I would consider "peak" usage hours. Runs like a champ all day, just can't play AH during those times. Sounds like they have too many subscribers on their network to me, but they swear it's not the case. Have been attempting to escalate to management for about 1 month now, with no calls returned. DSL not coming to my neighborhood until 1Q or 2Q 2004.
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Did you have your ISP in the trunk of your BMW when you were rear-ended?!? :D
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had the same problem with my CM when I had one (AT&T Broadband). Took them seven months to resolve it. In the end it boiled down to a bad router on the local cable provider's side; the broadband folks couldn't do more than ask the local cable folks nicely to fix the line.
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Originally posted by recon7
Yep, going throught the same thing here w/ Charter. I've logged 10 trouble tickets and had 3 dispatches to the house. Every time, "No trouble found" No chit! I've told them it only happens between 7:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. during what I would consider "peak" usage hours. Runs like a champ all day, just can't play AH during those times. Sounds like they have too many subscribers on their network to me, but they swear it's not the case. Have been attempting to escalate to management for about 1 month now, with no calls returned. DSL not coming to my neighborhood until 1Q or 2Q 2004.
What part of B'ham do you live in recon? Right now I am pissed off with Bellsouth because they can't seem to get the billing done correctly. Other than that when they actually decide to have their billing working correctly the DSL service is excellent.
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nothing is easier to give to your customers than good customer service.
nothing sucks worse than not getting it.
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Ripsnort LOL.........thinking of taking one hostage now, maybe tie him or her up......place them in the BMWs' trunk and leave them in there. Tuesday morning it goes to the shop to be repaired, replace the bumper. Maybe when it's done I'll inform Road Runner where their techie is located......if they solve the problem.
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On the Disco's....I was CTD every 30min to an hour non stop for quite a while. 25 disco's? heck...that's not even a good week for me. I was unable to figure out what it was until by accicent i noticed how hot my case was when flying AH. Turns out that AH uses A LOT of CPU power and heats it up. After a little bit of trial and error I found that AH was causing my CPU to go mega-hot and caused the CTD. I installed a hvy duty CPU fan and have maby CTD 10 times in the past 4 months.
Now here is my story on getting DSL.
They had a special deal where you get 20.00 off your bill per month for six months if you sign up for a year contract, and a free modem. Sounded like a good idea so I went with it. Within 48hrs they shipped a modem and setup up equip. (nic. card etc) so I proceeded to load the software, and attempt to get online. I was unable to do so and when I called the DSL tech's they said "give it 24-48 more hours, maby your account is not turned on yet" so I waited 2 more days. After 2 days passed I called them again, and this started FIVE days of 4hrs a night or more speaking with the South Western Bell DSL technical peeps. Wonderful bunch of folk, dumb as stumps, but for the most part quite courteous. They could not figure out why I could not get online. After five days, and close to TWENTY FOUR HOURS of their bumbling help they decided I needed an in-home visit from one of their local tech's.
I had finally had enough.
I snapped on this poor girl who was being quite nice. I didn't curse or raise my voice, but explained to this young lady that she was going to pull up whatever screen was on her computer that she reads to help her tech. customers problems. i.e. If the customer says this, it might be this, this, or that. etc, etc. I then had her read to me the subject lines and click them for me if they sounded correct. She was very helpful as she read off various ways to tech my problem. WITHIN TEN MIN. of her reading off the FAQ help I had not only figured out what was going on, but I had fixed it and was online. Turns out it was a conflict with Zone Alarm hozing the PPP virtual software gateway thingy they use. I had to go into reg-edit and play a bit, but I had it all fixed in about 10 min. They KNEW about my having Zone Alarm installed on my computer. Every tech was given the information that I had used to fix the problem myself. FEK. I was torn between happiness at being online, and pissed over how flat out stupid the SWB tech's were. After about a month, my local phone service was shut off over a billing error on THEIR part. I had my phone up and running quick, but my DSL would not work. Turns out that's because when my phone line was turned off, the DSL was automatically turned off and my info jerked out of the local routers. I was told that it was all automated, and this was S.O.P. for their company. Even after they were explained that it was all THEIR fault, I was told I had to cough up a $200.00 deposit for being a high credit risk now.
Oh no.
They did NOT just tell me that.
Looking past the crappy download speed, and just how limited my bandwith was (I usually surfed at 700/k bandwith and 150/k download speed) and just how crappy their tech's were, I asked to speak to a supervisor, and told THEM to stick it. I was warned that I was under contract, and breaking contract with them would cost $200.00 for an early termination fee. So I had two options. I could tell them to shove it for 200.00 or keep up with this horrendous service for 200.00.
Hmmmm......
What did Lute do you ask?
Closed my account, and told them to kiss my arse for the remaining 10months on my contract of course.
IDIOTS.
I still get happy little letters from SWB and they DO seem to want to try and charge me a 200.00 early term. fee. Well, good luck South Western Bell. Hope they hold their breath waiting. They are NOT getting a dime from me.
Bastards.
-Lute
III/JG26th 9ST Widow Makers
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EVERY tech-help weenie in the world (and in my business I have to deal with a LOT of em)...spends his/her time between phone calls staring at a large sign in front of room--it says..................
"thats funny, i've never heard of THAT PROBLEM BEFORE"
they are required to say this ten times in a row to get card-access door open in the morning
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Originally posted by bj229r
EVERY tech-help weenie in the world (and in my business I have to deal with a LOT of em)...spends his/her time between phone calls staring at a large sign in front of room--it says..................
"thats funny, i've never heard of THAT PROBLEM BEFORE"
they are required to say this ten times in a row to get card-access door open in the morning
LMAO, man. You are right. If I had a nickel for every time I got that response, I'd be retired.
shubie