a solid F

Yesterday, HayJax' DSL was down. Today, it was my turn for a DSL outage.

SBCat&t's Tech Support ["ATS"] was less than perfect; when they asked what model modem I was using, I told him "Zoom X6".

This is not the modem SBC supplied when I signed up, years ago. When i upgraded to the faster "DSL Pro" package, the SBC modem (a SpeedStream 5360 from Efficient Networks) couldn't take the higher speed of ADSL 2/2+, so I bought the Zoom from CompUSA rather than pay SBC's inflated price.

Almost immediately, ATS said my modem was at fault, and I'd have to buy one of their (overpriced) modems if I wanted support. At the end of the call, I thanked ATS, and assured him it wasn't the modem. Being more perturbed than usual (!), I said something like "well, I guess i'll just have to wait until the DSL link magically reappears" and he said "yes, that's correct".

After hanging up, I muttered (to No One In Particular), "Thanks for Nothing."

I give them a solid F for the day.

The link came back online a few hours later, no thanks to ATS. Now, I notice that my contract expires in the next few days, and they're running a $17.99 promo for new subscribers only. I'd give Verizon a call, but they're one of the trio of phone companies that handed over my phone records to the NSA, so I'm not in the mood to give them my business, either. I wonder who else would like my DSL business?