If Computer/Tech Stuff Bores You, Skip This
A bit of background: several years ago, our formerly local (right here in Excelsior Springs) Excel Computer sold the DSL portion of the business to KCNet, which was still sorta local. Then, a couple of years ago, KCNet sold out lock, stock and barrel to Turnkey Internet in New York. I liked the fact that even though they were no longer local, at least they (and their tech support) appeared to still be in the country. But it was definitely limited and not 24/7 as advertised.
Don’t get me wrong - their tech support is excellent during working hours. I always got the same guy - Dave - who obviously speaks English as a first language and I'm pretty sure he lives in New York. Unfortunately, I think he’s the only guy there, because if you call at night (Eastern time) or on a weekend (which invariably was when I had a problem), you get the following:
Female Voice - “Please hold for the next available agent.”
Music - which is actually almost enjoyable for on-hold music.
Female Voice - “Thank you for holding. Your call is first in line.”
More music.
Female Voice - “Thank you for holding. Your call is first in line.”
More music.
Male voice - “If you’d like to leave a message, please press 1 now. Otherwise, please continue to hold.”
Pause
Male voice - “All of our agents are busy with other customers. Please leave a message and we will call back as soon as possible.”
I thought I was first in line... ?
Dave?
“Dave’s not here...”
Anyway, because of this and also as a cost-saving measure, we recently changed our landline/DSL service from a straight AT&T landline with DSL provided by Turnkey, to AT&T U-verse. (Just phone and Internet, no TV.) I figured that if they sucked as an ISP, I could keep Turnkey and still save a little on the phone bill. (Yes, based on the standard rate, not the introductory rate which only lasts a year.) The installation went pretty smoothly: Brad (the installer) has been out here to work on our lines before, and he did his usual good job.
One drawback to U-verse is that the modem routes the phone line as well as the Internet. If the modem goes down, you have no phone. For power outages there is a battery backup, but that doesn’t help when the modem simply fails.
So guess what happened in a day or two?
I noticed, “CHECK TEL LINE” on the screen of one of our phones. Sure enough, no dial tone. Went to the wall-mounted phone in the kitchen (which doesn’t require power) - same deal. And of course, no Internet. Obviously the modem was down. I’d been warned about tech support at AT&T, so here was my chance to find out if it truly sucked. Squee.
I called them on my cell phone, hoping to be able to get through to a live human, even though I knew it would be somebody in India who didn’t speak English very well. (Though to be fair, probably much better than I speak Hindi.) But I got the AT&T Answerbot, which was having none of it. However, in explaining what the problem was so it could “route my call to someone who could help” (which took a few tries, but probably no more than to a poor English-speaker), it offered to “run a few tests on my line.” Okaaay, that’s a new one. So I said yes. It did, and it came back saying the tests were complete and suggesting that problems like this could often be solved by re-booting the modem. Would I like it to re-boot it for me, or have it walk me through the process? As far as I can tell, my cell phone doesn’t have a speaker feature and I didn’t want to mess with it while trying to hold my cell phone to my ear. So I said no and hung up. Re-booted the modem. Nada.
So I called back. Answerbot asked, “Is this the problem you called me about earlier?” Um... yes?
“OK. Unplug the modem, wait thirty seconds, plug it back in, and wait ten minutes. If that doesn’t work, you can call me back within 24 hours and we can take this up where we left off.”
I hung up, kinda creeped out. Of course, I hadn’t waited the thirty seconds while re-booting the modem, nor had I waited ten minutes to call back. So I re-booted it properly and in five minutes, problem solved.
Still kinda creeped out by the answerbot, but really it's only advances in the technology, which are to be expected. And apparently if you let it help you, it remembers your problem for 24 hours, which is definitely a plus if you have to call back - you don't have to start all over with a different techie.
So now I have a single data point on AT&T's tech support which indicates general non-suckage. Not statistically significant, of course, but I'll take it.
Don’t get me wrong - their tech support is excellent during working hours. I always got the same guy - Dave - who obviously speaks English as a first language and I'm pretty sure he lives in New York. Unfortunately, I think he’s the only guy there, because if you call at night (Eastern time) or on a weekend (which invariably was when I had a problem), you get the following:
Female Voice - “Please hold for the next available agent.”
Music - which is actually almost enjoyable for on-hold music.
Female Voice - “Thank you for holding. Your call is first in line.”
More music.
Female Voice - “Thank you for holding. Your call is first in line.”
More music.
Male voice - “If you’d like to leave a message, please press 1 now. Otherwise, please continue to hold.”
Pause
Male voice - “All of our agents are busy with other customers. Please leave a message and we will call back as soon as possible.”
I thought I was first in line... ?
Dave?
“Dave’s not here...”
Anyway, because of this and also as a cost-saving measure, we recently changed our landline/DSL service from a straight AT&T landline with DSL provided by Turnkey, to AT&T U-verse. (Just phone and Internet, no TV.) I figured that if they sucked as an ISP, I could keep Turnkey and still save a little on the phone bill. (Yes, based on the standard rate, not the introductory rate which only lasts a year.) The installation went pretty smoothly: Brad (the installer) has been out here to work on our lines before, and he did his usual good job.
One drawback to U-verse is that the modem routes the phone line as well as the Internet. If the modem goes down, you have no phone. For power outages there is a battery backup, but that doesn’t help when the modem simply fails.
So guess what happened in a day or two?
I noticed, “CHECK TEL LINE” on the screen of one of our phones. Sure enough, no dial tone. Went to the wall-mounted phone in the kitchen (which doesn’t require power) - same deal. And of course, no Internet. Obviously the modem was down. I’d been warned about tech support at AT&T, so here was my chance to find out if it truly sucked. Squee.
I called them on my cell phone, hoping to be able to get through to a live human, even though I knew it would be somebody in India who didn’t speak English very well. (Though to be fair, probably much better than I speak Hindi.) But I got the AT&T Answerbot, which was having none of it. However, in explaining what the problem was so it could “route my call to someone who could help” (which took a few tries, but probably no more than to a poor English-speaker), it offered to “run a few tests on my line.” Okaaay, that’s a new one. So I said yes. It did, and it came back saying the tests were complete and suggesting that problems like this could often be solved by re-booting the modem. Would I like it to re-boot it for me, or have it walk me through the process? As far as I can tell, my cell phone doesn’t have a speaker feature and I didn’t want to mess with it while trying to hold my cell phone to my ear. So I said no and hung up. Re-booted the modem. Nada.
So I called back. Answerbot asked, “Is this the problem you called me about earlier?” Um... yes?
“OK. Unplug the modem, wait thirty seconds, plug it back in, and wait ten minutes. If that doesn’t work, you can call me back within 24 hours and we can take this up where we left off.”
I hung up, kinda creeped out. Of course, I hadn’t waited the thirty seconds while re-booting the modem, nor had I waited ten minutes to call back. So I re-booted it properly and in five minutes, problem solved.
Still kinda creeped out by the answerbot, but really it's only advances in the technology, which are to be expected. And apparently if you let it help you, it remembers your problem for 24 hours, which is definitely a plus if you have to call back - you don't have to start all over with a different techie.
So now I have a single data point on AT&T's tech support which indicates general non-suckage. Not statistically significant, of course, but I'll take it.