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TI Sped Up My Internet!
Okay, so, a few months ago, I had Qwest internet. DSL. I was paying $40/mo (plus taxes and other bullcrap brought me up to $46.70/mo) for "7mbps". I was getting 3.2mps, so, I called up to let them know. They got it up to 5.6mps, which they said was good enough, as it was 80% of the speed.
I told them DSL or not, I'm paying for 7mps, they don't get to adjust my speed at their convenience. The woman tried explaining to me that the DSL office's distance determined how much speed I could get. I almost interjected, but decided to keep my card for a moment. "Where is your DSL office?", I inquired. She gave me an address. It was as I thought. "That building is less than a block and a half away from me. I can see it from my balcony." The woman was quiet for a bit, and I continued with "I feel sorry for the people across town. Do they even get dial-up?"
The woman informed me that by company policy, which was in compliance with the law, they only had to provide me with 80% of the internet speed I was quoted. I asked her if she wouldn't mind if I paid 80% of the bill, then. She was not amused.
At this point, someone brought the mail in for me, and for 79.99/mo, I'd get internet and cable, with HBO free for three months form Comcast. I told the woman I'd like to cancel my internet, and she transferred me to their "loyalty departmnet". I had to deal with a woman who told me that it was "a beautiful day, here in Sioux Falls" or something, but, I convinced her to let me cancel (she was seriously acting like I needed her approval!), and I called up Comcast.
Some nice guy set me up (this was a Friday), and a guy came Monday morning to give me my modem, which I hooked up to my corporate router, giving my house internet.
Last month, I was calling to inquire about a letter I had received informing me that I'd need to get more boxes for my TVs, as they were switching to all digital. The boxes cost an additional $8.99 a piece, so, I'd have been upset if it didn't turn out that I didn't need any, as we only have 1 TV. The guy was trying to act really enthusiastic about it "Well then guess what? I'm got a surprise for you. You're all set!" I'm like, "Uh... huh." He did inform me that I'd need to call up the upcoming month to cancel my HBO if I didn't want it, to re-upgrade my internet.
I had no idea what he was talking about regarding the internet (I knew about the HBO obviously), so, I inquired further. He explained that I was on some promotional offer for three months, that I'd be downgraded to 2mps lower the next month unless I re-upgraded for another $5. For $5, I'll take the 2 more mbps, and besides, I liked my 12mbps. I sometimes hit 15mbps, but that is because of some PowerBoost thing that accelerates my downloads/uploads for the first 10MB/5MB respectively.
So, that month arrived today. I called up, bill in hand, to cancel HBO, and to fix my internet speed so it stayed the same. The man I spoke to said he only had 6mbps and 8mbps for my area, but that he could cancel the HBO. However, he informed me that he was in a different state, which might account for his unawareness of the speeds here. He said he could transfer me for the "loyalty department" (am I losing my service?! XD) for my state.
The woman at the loyalty department was not nice like the man who had answered my call. She was snippy, and insisted I was mistaken. Luckily, I -had- the flier in my room. It's made of cardboard, and it's all glossy, so, I read it to her. She seemed a little taken aback, but repeated to me (3 times!) that my choices were 6mbps, or $10 extra for 8mbps. I told her that I'm a web developer and a gamer, and I need my high upload and download speeds. That much is true. Uploading to a server with less than 2mbps is painful, and less than 1mbps or so for games can start getting really horrible. I also likes me some torrenting, but, she didn't need to know that. XD
Anyhow, she kept repeating herself, and I asked to speak to a supervisor. She said she would get one, and *while* she was getting one, why not explain to me the difference between my internet speeds. We kept debating, and eventually, I cut her off:
"I get it, I get it. You have 6mbps, or 8mbps for $10 extra, and you do not have any speed that is 12 mbps or 15mbps. You do not think my flier is valid since it came from a different state, even though you can see what I'm paying on my account. But let's get something straight. I don't care if your flier came from Washington State or New York City. It was an advertisement to me, so long as it came from within this country, you're going to honor it. I have bills to pay and a family to feed, and I'm not going to be ripped off now that you've got me hooked so that you can charge me more for less than I've been getting. It's not happening."
I did all this without yelling, I spoke sternly. She was silent, so, I asked "So, what's the ETA on that supervisor?". She replied, "I'll get her".
The supervisor leveled with me. She said she'd be more than happy to give me the 12mbps for 10 or even 5 extra dollars a month, but she doesn't have that speed. She has no coupon to put in. But, I just so happened to have a lovely little speedtest.net link. Now, where did I put that? I know I did this a couple of days ago. Wait, that's right, it was right here!
Armed with the image there, direct-linked from their site, she offered me 16mbps for $20 more a month. That is double the speed I was allegedly getting, and even so, only $5 more per mbps. The hard-hitter though, is that that brings me up to $45/mo for internet, as my current internet price was $25/mo. For a dollar less than Qwest, I'm getting over twice the speed I was supposed to be getting in the first place. I still have to reboot my router to check it, and I'm doing important stuff in shell, so, I'll post later confirming that it went through.
I still think this is entirely too much, though. We need to catch up with the rest of the world. Korea has speeds of 1Gbps a month for what we pay here, and all over Europe they have 100mps. In Japan, they have "slow" internet, which is 20mbps, and they have medium, which is 100mbps, and their fast is also 1Gbps, and for roughly what I'm paying now for 16mbps. All these horrible companies invested money putting copper everywhere, and now they are too invested to want to switch to fiberoptics. God forbid they give us better service for less money.
Google is selecting random towns though, and putting 1Gbps internet in them for around $20/mo in order to stimulate other companies into changing their policies. So, here's to hoping.
If you enjoyed reading this, it took me half an hour to type, so, thank me! :001_tongue:
Also, all these smilies have white pixelly crap on them. I think I might fix them and try to get them to an administrator. Hmm.
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Originally Posted by Cruiser
