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Messages: 15 of 15. Pages: 1
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For the past two years I have rented office space in the "Old Towne" district of my little Atlanta exurb. During that time I have had commercial-grade DSL service from Speakeasy. Using their OneLink DSL service I did not have to buy dial tone from the phone company - Speakeasy provided a dedicated high-speed line capable of 6Mb/1Mb service. In addition, I used Speakeasy VoIP service over that same line for my phone. After two years I can say that my satisfaction rating with Speakeasy is 90%+. While I had the occasional disagreement over small tech issues and a few minor billing snafus, the overall experience was excellent.
Now I am moving my office. Tired of paying rent, I have built a small out-building behind my house to serve as a workshop and home office. Sadly, Speakeasy does not have service in my area. My only choices for a connection of similar speed are BellSouth and Comcast - a motley group to be sure, but all I have to work with.
Based on my previous experience with the cable company, and similar experiences shared by others, I chose BellSouth. What a freaking disaster. To date I've had three calls to BellSouth's incompetent Philippine-based tech support seeking three simple pieces of information - my static IP address (requested when I placed my order), with the corresponding gateway and DNS server addresses for use in my commercial firewall.
This is apparently rocket science for the idiots at BellSouth. Not one of the people I have spoken to knows what I'm talking about. One had the temerity to tell me I needed to put the DSL modem online and logon for her to see what my IP address was - a sure sign that she didn't even know what the word "static" meant.
For equipment, Bellsouth sent me a little Westell DSL modem/router configured by default with firewall, routing, and DHCP services enabled - completely oblivious to the fact that I might, just might, want to handle those functions myself without the f***king phone company's interference. Since there are NO instructions provided with this modem, figuring out how to disable these "features" is left to the user, and god forbid you need tech support. BellSouth is the corporate equivalent of a babbling retard.
That we are still held hostage by these infirm, self-important telecom companies is absurd. It's time we owned our own infrastructure.
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For grins I put the BellSouth "wizard" CD in my laptop and scanned it. My antivirus/anti-spyware tools tagged the included utility [westellmodemtest.exe] as a 'Trojan Horse - Generic.FFJ'.
This doesn't necessarily mean anything - a google search on the term turned up nothing. I suspect the tool allows someone at BellSouth a way to access the modem or computer for diagnostics. But I sure didn't see any warnings or notices that BellSouth was going to put remote access software on my computer. Hmm.
BTW no, I don't install any software from any ISP on any of my computers. When an ISP does their job correctly they don't need to put software on my machines.
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Still trying to get a simple question answered by BellSouth - what is my static IP address? This morning I spoke to 'Monica' in India. Saturday it was 'Christopher' in the Phillipines.
My first question now when talking to a BellSouth technical person is, "In what city and state are you located?" I immediately request to be connected to someone in the US. So far this strategy is a miserable failure, as all I have accomplished is spending an additional two hours on hold, listening to really bad Muzak.
But there are some advantages to living in Atlanta. I know where the BellSouth building is and I can find the corporate directory. I'm not above parking my ass in the office of the guy who signed the mass-mailing letter that came in my dysfunctional modem until I get some answers.
I used Jigsaw to find phone numbers for a couple more BellSouth internet marketing folks. Maybe I'll call them while I'm on hold.
BellSouth's stellar customer service extends to e-mail response. I have sent e-mail requests last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. To date I have received a single, automated response, shown below.
Note the encouragement to try the new webchat service at http://bsischat.calltech.com/. Now see the screen that comes up when trying that service:
See anything odd? At every point I have specified that I am a "FastAccessDSL" customer. I have used the FastAccessDSL forms, called the FastAccessDSL numbers, selected FastAccessDSL from the drop-down menus. But BellSouth sends me to a service that will ONLY ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT DIAL-UP!!
What a bunch of fucking idiots!!!
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I have achieved a modicum of success - I have discovered my static IP address. After spending approximately 30 more minutes on hold I was connected with a young lady who speech patterns indicated a decidedly southern history, and gave me some comfort that she was likely here, in one of the numerous BellSouth call centers scattered around Georgia. In a few minutes she was able to give me my IP address, and to confirm the gateway and DNS server addresses I had retrieved from the modem's setup page.
I have no assurance these numbers will work, of course, because no one at BellSouth has ever heard of anyone ever, ever, ever connecting their own equipment to the internet. But LaQwanisha (I asked her to spell her name for me) was both professional and prompt in her answers. This alone is a breakthrough of no small measure. Sadly, when I told LaQwanisha of my miserable, life-shortening experience with BellSouth and asked her to connect me with a customer service supervisor she connected me to a fax number and I was summarily disconnected.
But never fear, I still have the phone numbers and e-mail addresses of the internet marketing directors.
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My correspondence to Senior Director of Internet Services Don
Livingston, Senior Director of Customer Care Cindy Searcy, and Director
of Internet Marketing Scott Asher...
Dear (your name here),
I am writing today to share my abysmal, life-shortening experience with BellSouth technical support as a new FastAccess DSL customer.
A few weeks ago I ordered a new phone line and aDSL service at my residence. At the time I placed my order I requested a static IP address. I was told that all the FastAccees DSL Xtreme service comes with a static IP and it would be no problem. The sales rep did not volunteer any additional info nor did I ever see any mention of static IP in any documentation I received. Nothing in the box with the modem made any mention at all of IP addresses, how to configure the modem, or anything else. The entire kit was designed for me to trustingly hand over my computer to BellSouth and believe in my heart that all would be well. Unfortunately, BellSouth seems oblivious to the fact that not everyone is an internet moron, and not everyone wants the phone company to assume away all their options in configuring a connection. Some of us actually want to connect our own equipment, like we have done for years with real ISPs, and manage our own networks. But I digress...
On Tuesday 8/22 the technician arrived, the line was installed as expected and there was no problem. I asked the technician about my static IP. He said, "I don't know. Not many people ask for those." And thus began my descent into Hell. Since Thursday of last week I have sent e-mails and made numerous calls to technical support, each time getting some English-as-a-Second-Language phone answerer in the Philippines, India, or God-only-knows-where, all offering to help me configure my computer. At least one of them didn't even know what a static IP address is. One did manage to give me the local IP address of the modem so I could set it to bridge mode, but actually getting my very own static IP has taken four phone calls spread across five days, 2.5 hours on hold, six different phone-answerers/tech reps, and at least three weeks off my life expectancy.
It has been an utterly abysmal experience. I do not yet have my firewall successfully connected, as I only managed to get the needed information about an hour ago. It goes without saying that I have little or no confidence that it will work once connected.
It's not as if I haven't done this before. I'm no networking guru, but I have had an internet account since 1994, a broadband account since 1997, and either aDSL or cable-modem service with six different ISPs. I have had static IP addresses with three of those ISPs, and in each case they have sent me a very direct piece of correspondence that contained three simple pieces of information:
- Static IP Address
- Gateway Address
- DNS Server Address
Getting this simple bit of information from BellSouth has been a nightmare - a god-forsaken stroll through the depths of mindless outsourcing, incompetence, bureaucracy, and negligence. Finally this morning - after insisting that "Monica" in India connect me to someone in the US - I was able to get someone here to give me the static IP address and confirm the Gateway and DNS server addresses I retrieved from the modem. However, when I told her of my ordeal and asked for a direct line to a senior person in support or customer service she connected me to a fax line and I was summarily cut off.
This is the sort of experience that causes virulent hatred among customers. I would rather chew off my own foot than deal with BellSouth again. I chose BellSouth over Comcast because, frankly, Comcast has a reputation for being even more oblivious. But I just can't imagine that's possible. You guys have set some sort of record. Comcast would have to be executing customers in public to outdo you.
I am going to attempt to get my firewall successfully connected over the next few days and hope that this entire experience fades from my memory like some bad acid trip. But I am not optimistic. In the event that I cannot get this worked out I will simply have BellSouth disconnect the line, take back the equipment, and pretend I never even heard of you. I will find some other way, *any* way, to get my connectivity.
But all complaints should have an actionable request and give the recipient a chance to undo, or at least minimize, the damage. Here is mine:
Can you please provide a direct line to a qualified technical support person who is familiar with the connection of standard, linux-based firewalls and private networks. I DO NOT need anyone to support my firewall. I just need someone at your end who knows what your end actually needs from me. I do not believe this is rocket science - at least it hasn't been until now. Surely to God BellSouth can manage a simple static IP connection.
Thank you for your help.
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Within two hours of sending my heartfelt invective to BellSouth Senior Director of Customer Care Cindy Searcy I had a phone call from a competent technician. Tim Gray verified the information I needed and confirmed the type of connection I should make. All in 25 words or less. Turns out this really isn't rocket science until you throw a massive, public-monopoly bureaucracy between the customer and the people who actually know stuff.
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terry,
your twilight zone dsl wizard story is the funniest thing i've read in a long while. relating well to the "T-zone" in just about all experiences from my dsl to my loved-ones. well sir i thank-you for your well written humor.ya know, they say laughter will cure whats hurts you.thanks.
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Remember the Sam Kinison bit about the dead guy and the gay necrophiliacs? "It never ends! It never ends!"
One last bit on the BellSouth saga. Part of the construction project is laying a power line from the house to the out-building, which requires digging a trench. Before digging one is supposed to call a central number that gets all the utilities out to mark buried lines. So a couple of weeks ago I called the number and arranged to have my utilities marked. Yesterday BellSouth and the electric company came out and spray-painted the ground and stabbed in flag markers.
Today the electrical contractor showed up with the trencher and started digging. About 10 minutes later the phones went dead. Great. Turns out the BellSouth technician marked lines on the wrong side of the house - the side that doesn't have any phone lines as far as I can tell. He (or she) seemingly just guessed at where the cable would be, put some flags in the ground, and left. Not very effective.
On the bright side, I called the 800-digg-it folks, reported the damage, got a repair number, and within two hours a BellSouth truck pulled up. This technician had the cable patched in less than 30 minutes and all was well. This incident really didn't cause me any inconvenience or heartburn. It was resolved quickly and as long as I don't get a bill for it I don't care. I just thought it was a funny cap on the BellSouth saga.
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Terry, your exp. with BELLSOUTH is really eye opener that gov. organizations in the world are all the same. Here is same scenario. In Vaishali, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India; maximum people give AIRTEL clear preference over govt. owned BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) for the same reasons you stated above, though BSNL's rates are low in comaprison to AIRTEL. And also, AIRTEL is giving stiff competioin to MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) in Delhi and Mumbai, where MTNL operates and to BSNL in all India telecom circles where AIRTEL has got permissions to start its services.
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I see the last post to the BellSouth nightmare was August 2006. Here it is July 2007 and the BullSh*t continues. Yesterday I upgraded my BellSouth DSL Extreme to Extreme 6.0 that was supposed to give me 6mb down and 512k up. Today I tried a speed test and my 2.7mb connection dropped to 903K. I called their tech support and they did something that dumped my Linksys router's static IP setup. I too tried to get the three little pieces of info. I had my static IP, I needed the default gateway and DNS addresses. The person on the other line didn't have a clue and tried to tell me my default gateway was 192.168.1.1! Sound familiar? It's the default address to the Linksys router. Well, after two hours on hold, I'm haning up and tryng again tomorrow. Word of advice, save your configurations in a safe place!
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Yes, BellSouth (the New AT&T) is appallingly bad - a horrific example of brain-dead management and outsourcing gone haywire. There is nothing to be done. Nowhere to turn, no place to look, no one to call. Most of the management at BellSouth should be put in stocks on the public square where they can be spit on and otherwise humiliated.
The company absolutely sucks and if they were to disappear from the ISP space tomorrow I would not shed a tear. I still have my 3.0mb "FastAccess DSL" line as a backup. It delivers a stellar 700k-900k D/L speed, with an impressive 150k-175k U/L speed.
But that's enough to support my VoIP line and get me by in an emergency if my cable ISP goes down. That's all I use it for.
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i take offense to this... considering i do work for AT&T tech support... but somehow i cant seem to manage a reason how u can complain ... when you're the one calling us. i guess we're expected to be programmed with individual accounts so we know exactly what you u want when u want it. GOOD LUCK and best wishes in speaking with the Mumbai tech support.
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> i take offense to this... considering i do work for AT&T tech support...
> but somehow i cant seem to manage a reason how u can complain ...
> when you're the one calling us. i guess we're expected to be programmed
> with individual accounts so we know exactly what you u want when u want
> it. GOOD LUCK and best wishes in speaking with the Mumbai tech support.
Congratulations. You've just validated everything I believe about BellSouth's incompetent, untrained, unqualified, miserable, useless, and offensive tech support. It may be acceptable in Sri Lanka or wherever you live to assume customers have no rights, no options, and will remain with you no matter how stupidly they are treated. But it ain't so here in the US.
I have no doubt that people from almost any country, and of almost any nationality, can do a serviceable job as support technicians. It's not rocket science. But those people have to actually *know* something. They have to be able to do more than read a freakin' script over the phone and walk customers through the same bizarre, entry-level, time-wasting, step-by-step "This is Windoze. This is your mouse" scenario regardless of the problem. They have to be able to *think* - something BellSouth/ATT apparently goes to great lengths to avoid.
It's pretty clear that you don't think because yes, I certainly do expect that you will have access to individual accounts and will be able to know what is happening for my account, or you will be able to quickly triage my call and connect me to someone who does. Otherwise you are completely wasting my time - which is, in fact, what happens.
BellSouth should be immortalized in text books and business journals as the singular best example of outsourcing gone wrong, of the arrogance and incompetence that grows like fetid fungus from the foul base of public monopoly. It's absolutely horrible. I'd be ashamed to work for them.
- twf
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Hi Terry,
I was reading you blog about your technical support nightmares, and you mentioned those who are based in the Philippines. I hope you are not generalizing all technical support agents that are located in the Philippines. I am a tech support agent and I am working for Bellsouth which is now AT&T, for over year now and I know what you are talking about your Static IP, your DNS Addresses all those kind of stuff. I agree that there might be some agents that don't know what their doing or they just don't really know, but I hope next time you'll call us and speak with someone in the Philippines, give that person a chance and judge him or her not based on his/her location nor his/her accent because you will never know, you may be a few minutes away from getting your issue resolved.
To be honest, Terry, sometimes it is not the fact that the agent was unable to understand what the caller needs, it is sometimes how the caller explains what he/she needs. I am a tech savvy person, I studied computers, assembled computers, designed and managed networks, and I am working for residential customers which most of the time I handle calls from people with zero computer knowledge which I respect with all my heart (Just imagine explaining a computer issue in lay-man's term). Never complained, coz I love helping people.
I have nothing against you complaint, it is your right. I may not be in the U.S. but I know how it feels to be a paying customer, it's practically the same here in the other side of the world. If you want to get most of what you paying for you need to tell them, right? Btw, I know how to value those people who calls in for help.
Moreover, difference with the U.S. and here in the Philippines, we don't have technical support like the ones provided to you by your providers, but we can manage to make all things work, that is something I can say I am proud of.
Chris
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Well...
I had Bellsouth for like...a long time. Then in 2006, we have FastAccessDSL, and it was my first time setting up a IRCd server. I needed help on getting port forwarding, I chatted with a support tech. and one person sort of knew what he was talking about. Then I didnt get it a little bit, so I went back, I talk to another tech support (which was a n00b) and she says "We can only support things that are related to Bellsouth"
I'm like...dude, your so retarded.
2007--
Now in 2007, everything is going good. The internet is going smoothly, and then somehow my internet stops working for a moment. I chatted with tech support, and they said to call the Bellsouth Support number, so they can do a connection test with your router. Although, they always do that when I ask them a question with some stuff sometimes. Like...What the hell is that gonna do?...
But when I first got Wireless networking, they gave us a crapy router, and I called bellsouth, and they said they will send a new one.
Later on...I get ddos attacked...
Once again...I called Bellsouth, and they do another connection test.
They also wanted me to restart my computer, and the other computer to place in "safe mode".
Then somewhere around Summer, I downgrade my system from Vista to Windows XP.
Then I had problems with the Wireless router CD.
It took almost the whole day for this dude to get it right. They transfer me to different people.
Then on the next day...He tells me what the version of the CD is...
(WHY THE FUCK DID IT TAKE ALMOST TWO DAYS FOR SUPPORT TO ASK THAT QUESTION!!!???)
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Things I think Bellsouth should improve.
1. Improve there Servers.
2. Get 'SMART' Tech support.
3. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, TRAIN THE TECH SUPPORT.
4. Test the routers before you send them out to people.
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Total Messages: 15. Pages: 1
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