> > > My experience with Qwest ADSL was good, but only after complaining about > > dropouts and poor service caused them to send out a computer/DSL tech > > rather than the first guy on the list. The first guy was only able to > > say, yup, its weak and noisy, just like I told them. He exhausted his > > limited set of diagnostic methods and scheduled a callback from the next > > higher tier of DSL service tech. The DSL tech had the equipment to look > > at the line, see the levels and noise at my end. .... > > Relevant old story: I had significant problems with my Qwest phone lines > when I first moved to the Eagan edge of Apple Valley in > 1986. After several useless service calls, I contacted engineering > friends who worked for AT&T to inquire about specs. I find it > interesting to note that the couple had met when undergrads at MIT. She, > then a young mom, was a hardware engineer (he software), > who as a hobby interest had bought and assembled a small-town central > office switching system in their garage. Greg told me that > Carolyn would know my answer - and she did. She had and sent the relevant > spec pages, and pointed out that I could easily verify > the POTS spec with a DVM. It was out of clearly way out of spec. > > Turns out the phone company stands to lose their ICC-approved billing > rates if caught and allowing out-of-spec operation. My > service call reporting the out-of-spec data was almost instantly escalated > to the engineering manager. He was cordial, but > efficient. When I told him the measurement and the spec page number, he > said he would be at my house withing 1/2 hour, and he was - > along with two of his guys. They confirmed the data, and he sent them off > to a distribution box about 3 miles away while we "talked > shop". Due to lots of new construction requiring many expansions to that > box, they had over-extended lines (distance without > boosters) and had not had the needed boosters due to demand...and expense > My problems were all fixed within a few hours. Had to > call again many months later for another problem. Turned out one of the > field guys had pinched a line in the cabinet door, leaving > it badly unbalanced. Being on a first name basis with the manager got > quick attention :-) > > DSL tests aren't as simple, but probably have similar force of ICC > regulation behind them. Likely that just claiming the DSL line > is out of spec and insisting on getting their measurement report from a > qualified DSL service tech would be enough to get any needed > corrective action in the future. > interesting points chuck. i've certainly been through the mill with qwest support in the past, scads of phone calls almost always an hour or more each, many dropped calls, many deadend conversations, numerous service appointments, always requiring a scheduled 4 hour wait, several noshows, numerous "no problems found", several actual fixes to the wire, and after each actual fix the quality did actually improve, but it took many of those before finally having a reliable connection. now we're working with a different, likely same age wire at the same location. ATM. VDSL unavailable there. it sure would be nice to know the wizard's incantation to get it all fixed in one call. your suggestions seem pertinent. further suggestions to that end still welcome. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20111129/11a538ee/attachment.html>