Consumerist
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verizon
Verizon Won't Give Elderly Couple Their $600 Back
Bonnie's elderly parents switched from Verizon dial-up to Verizon DSL, but Verizon didn't turn off their dial-up account when switching them to DSL. They somehow failed to notice when they continued to be charged for dialup. For two years. More » -
dsl
AT&T DSL Customer Sold Wrong Series Of Tubes
Richard is annoyed at AT&T. Due to what we will optimistically call a mixup, he didn't exactly get the DSL service he ordered and was paying for. While he has straightened things out with the company, he wants to keep other customers in his area from having the same experience. More » -
Wasted effort
Try To Get DSL From AT&T, They Dare You
The person who blogs at MichiganTelephone just tried to help his friend sign up for DSL from AT&T last week. Their experience was so full of fail that now his friend doesn't even want to bother trying anymore. Yes, a customer came to AT&T ready to sign up, and AT&T drove him away. Michigan telephone wonders, "Does AT&T have a death wish, or are they really just that incompetent?" More » -
deals
Verizon Offering $20 Naked DSL
Verizon is sad that so many of you are jumping ship, so they're hauling out the bargain naked DSL offer again. ("Naked" means no home phone line is required to take advantage of it.) The deal is $20/mo with a 1 year commitment, and they're throwing in a free router—although DSLReports says a Verizon rep told them the router freebie will go away at some point. Also, it's available online only.
"Verizon Offers $20 Naked DSL" [DSLReports via MichiganTelephone]
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DSL disasters
AT&T Reserves Its Best Neglect For Elite DSL
A Consumerist reader has pretty much reached the limit of poor AT&T customer and technical service over his shoddy Elite DSL account, which for two years now drops to speeds of around 10k every four months. Check out this letter and included chat log for some stunning examples of all the ways AT&T fails at providing a service it charges lots of money for. More » -
landlords
Landlord And Service Tech Call Tenant A Nerdy Dipshit
The wireless Internet connection at Ari's new apartment isn't very useful. Neither is his landlord, or the support tech who's supposed to troubleshoot this kind of stuff. More » -
qwest
Qwest Says It's Throttling Customer's Online Video Streaming, Then Says It's Not
Update: It turns out the problem is with OpenDNS, not Qwest. The original post is below. More » -
clearwire
Customers Sue Clearwire For Rotten Service, Early Termination Fees
Customers from Washington, Hawaii, Minnesota and North Carolina have teamed up to file a lawsuit against Clearwire for misrepresenting the quality of its hit-or-miss wireless network, and then charging ETFs for account cancellations even when there's no service as promised. If they win, Clearwire will be banned "from enforcing the Early Termination Fees and from further false advertising."
"Clearwire Facing Lawsuit over Advertising and Early Termination Fees" [Cellular-News via mocoNews]
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comcast
ComcastMustDie Declares Victory Overy Comcast
Bob Garfield, creator of ComcastMustDie.com, has declared victory. Comcast isn't dead, but he says instead of being "a vast, greedy, blundering, tone-deaf corporate colossus," it's merely all of the above with the exception of tone-deaf. ComcastMustDie is one of the many online different outlets for customer rage that Comcast has tapped into to proactively respond to customer complaints. They still have a long way to go, but at least they're listening. That is all Bob really wanted, it seems, as he's moving on to a new project, CustomerCircus.net, that will solicit and broadcast consumer complaints against all kinds of companies. And yep, Comcast will still be one of them.
ComcastMustDie
CustomerCircus.net (forthcoming) -
cancellation
AT&T: You Can't Cancel Your DSL Because You Don't Have A Landline
Naked (or "dry loop") DSL is generally considered wonderful, especially among people who haven't had a landline since, um, wait... oh yeah, never. But it seems that although AT&T was forced to offer it by the FCC as part of their merger with Cingular, they haven't yet realized that it's a product that they sell. Reader Brent just wanted to cancel, but AT&T said no. And then they said yes. And then they told him he never tried to cancel. And then they sent his account to collections... More » -
complaints
The "New" AT&T Sucks The Same
Even a TV producer with 5 years experience in doing consumer complaint stories is powerless against AT&T's incompetence. Anderson writes: More » -
att
ATT Chatbots (People?) Don't Even Pretend To Help Anymore
This unedited transcript from a recent "customer support" chat is pure, undiluted idiocy. Do not be surprised if after reading it, you feel a little dead inside, or a little stupider. That's how you know the customer service chatbot—or person, which is kind of sad—is doing its job. More » -
att
How To Avoid AT&T's Connection Fee For A New Phone Line
An alleged insider for AT&T sent us the following tip on how to avoid a connection fee if you plan on getting both a regular phone line and DSL through AT&T. We don't know if it works, but you may be able to avoid a $40 charge for what amounts to "flipping a switch" at AT&T HQ. More » -
verizon
Verizon Changes DSL Without Your Permission, Demands Multiple Fees To Fix It
Reader Kevin wanted to sign up for Verizon's One Bill service, so he called to see if he qualified. The CSR told him that he did, so he signed up for it. Turns out, the CSR secretly signed him up for a more expensive DSL plan because his current one did not qualify. Now Verizon wants an early termination fee for the new, faster DSL and an activation fee to put Kevin back on the plan he used to have. Yuck. More » -
verizon
It Takes 40 Verizon Reps To Fix Your Address
You know those Verizon ads where someone is trying to make a call and like 100 Verizon people show up to help them do it? Arelene's story is sort of like that. Except they all showed up to help her change her address. And they were one at a time. And it was over the phone. And it took several days. Here's her tale, and how she eventually won...
More »
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phone numbers
Updated: Reach Verizon Landline Executive Customer Service
Call 1-800-483-7988 and press 3 to reach the Verizon Customer Advocates for landlines and DSL. Other valid executive customer service contact information: More » -
att
AT&T Calls 9 Times In 12 Days Trying To Sell DSL
Would you buy DSL service from a company that either doesn't care about Do Not Call lists or doesn't know how they work? A man in Missouri was harassed to the point where he considered calling the police, because no matter what he did, AT&T wouldn't stop calling. Every time he tried contacting AT&T to get it to stop, he ended up in automated phone systems with recorded messages, busy signals, and disconnections—but never a live person. Only after he wrote to a local consumer advocacy columnist did AT&T pay attention and turn off the telemarketing fire hose. AT&T didn't, however, explain why they were targeting this person, or whether anyone else is facing the same barrage of calls. More » -
download cap
Frontier Charges Up To $10.80 Per Gigabyte For High Speed Internet
Frontier Communications, a Rochester, NY based DSL provider, has recently added language in their acceptable use policy that caps "reasonable" high speed internet usage at 5GB per month, after which they may "suspend, terminate or apply additional charges to the Service." Metered-internet-hating blog "Stop the Cap" calculated that at Frontier's most expensive price (for those who do not accept a multi-year contract) the ISP is charging a whopping $10.80 per gigabyte. More »
dsl
New York, 4:22 AM
Sat Nov 21
27 posts in the last 24 hours
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