A Tale of Two Phone Companies

When I moved into my new place back in February, I put a lot of thought into my internet service. I have always used the local cable company for their broadband service, but they had already announced that they were being sold to Comcast, and the switch over from Insight to Comcast would take place a few weeks after I was moving (so in other words, they weren't taking any new orders for service at the time.) My biggest problem with Comcast is the fact that I have heard nothing but complaints (honestly, I have yet to hear anything positive about Comcast) about their cable/internet/telephone service and customer service. Comcast has also been known to screw with the service of people who do P2P file sharing.

So my options at the time were DSL (but I wasn't wanting a telephone landline), a mobile broadband card from one of the cell phone companies or trying to steal borrow somebody's wireless signal. All of those options have pros and cons...none stand out any better than the rest.

At first I was "borrowing" a local wireless signal. The good thing is that I believe that the signal is a free wireless connection for the area. So I wasn't technically stealing. The problem, the signal was spotty where I live (on the edge of the downtown area) and it was super slow too.

So for my second choice, I ordered a mobile broadband card from Sprint. Sprint's prices were the same as the other companies (Verizon or AT&T), so that didn't persuade me one way or the other. But my cell phone is a Helio. And Helio uses the Sprint network, so I knew I got a great signal at the new apartment. The problem was, after I got the card and got it setup....I got the worst internet service I have ever used. The speed was so bad, I couldn't even open any Sprint pages 90% of the time. Yahoo.com, google.com and other popular, easy-to-use websites would only open maybe 25% of the time. The one time I did get the Sprint website to open, I tried their speed test. I ENDED UP WITH A NEGATIVE NUMBER FOR MY SPEED! How in gay hell do you get a negative speed? So after trying that for 7 days with no luck, I canceled that service.

Next up was AT&T DSL. I broke down and ordered local landline telephone service and DSL. Their promotion at the time was good. Free DSL modem, discount service rate for 3 months and a $50 visa card. The only problem, it took me 3 different attempts to get everything ordered properly. The first time, I even took a day off from work, so I could be there for their installation. The window of time they gave me was from 8am to 5:30pm. Wow, thanks for narrowing that time frame down! What really sucked though, I had to call them at 5:30 to find out why they never showed, only to find out there was a problem with my order. Did they ever call me to straighten it out? Hell no. After I called them, it took 2 minutes to get it fixed. My telphone would be on the next morning and I would get the DSL modem within 3 days. fast forward 3 daysNO DSL MODEM! So after another call, I found out they had messed up the order again. They would send the modem out right away. Within 3 days I would get my modem have my DSL service turned on. They offered me another $50 visa card for all of the trouble. I was happy.

I got my DSL modem on the third day. I hooked it up, did the installation and VOILA! I had internet service! YAY!!! I had to get the slowest DSL service they offer, the faster options aren't available in my area. But I was super impressed with the speeds. And back before Insight sold out to Comcast, we had super fast internet, this DSL wasn't that bad considering the much cheaper price.

Now here is where the real fun begins. Sprint wasn't very fast about canceling my service. In fact, for 2 months after the cancelation, they were still charging me for service. I was calling them 3 times a week about this problem. And everytime I would get the run around about how my service had never been canceled. I had been keeping notes (and all of the paperwork they were sending). I even had one of their people tell me that he couldn't belive they had sold me a broadband card because they don't even offer broadband service in my area! WTF!!! I finally had enough when after 2 months they said I have never canceled my service. So one night I spent 2 hours on the phone, I talked to 4 different Sprint people in 4 different locations. By the end of that call, I had my service canceled, I had them change the cancelation date back to the original date of March 5th, I got confirmation that they had received my broadband card (of course I had to give them the UPS tracking number to prove it) and I had been promised that I would be refunded all of the money they owed me. fast forward another monthI STILL HAD NOT RECEIVED ONE PENNY FROM THEM!!! After a few more not-so-nice calls, I was promised that I would be getting a partial refund within a week and I would get the rest by the end of the next billing cycle. They even gave me a dollar amount. fast forward another month I had received the 1 partial payment. But I got another bill showing that I still owed them money. So another set of very-not-so-nice calls, I was told that I wouldn't be refunded the $125 I had paid for the broadband card, because I hadn't paid for it. I quickly gave her the date of the first bill I had received from them that showed that I had paid $125 for it. She then changed her tune to say that I had received either another broadband card or a cell phone in it's place. I asked her why in gay hell would I get another piece of their equipment when 1)I had canceled the account and 2)they didn't even offer broadband service in my area. She had to transfer me to her supervisor, but instead she hung up on me. I made one more call, this time I was done! I got a very knowledgeable person who actually knew what she was talking about. I apologized for having to be rude, but I told her a lot of the problems I had been having with getting a refund for something that had happened 4 months ago. She apologized to me, she told me that she knew their customer service was lacking. And I will be damned, within a week, I had a full refund from Sprint. That took over 4 months to get. BUT I WILL NEVER, EVER, EVER USE SPRINT AGAIN!!!

So back to AT&T (in my long-winded story). After waiting a lot longer than the 8 weeks I was told it would take to receive my 2-$50 visa cards, I still had heard nothing about them from AT&T. So while looking for something about them on their website, I ended up sending a complaint about the problem. I was still a bit upset by Sprint, so I sent a kinda-not-so-nice email to AT&T. Within 24 hours I had received the automated email response. It said I would hear back from them within 48 hours. The next day, I had somebody from AT&T try and call me two different times (I was at work, so I didn't get the calls). But by the time I got home, I had an email letting me know they were sorry for the problem and she had already credited my account $100.

Now who would I recommend? Sprint? I would recommend them to my worst enemy. AT&T? I highly recommend them. Pretty fast service, cheap rates and customer service that actually cares what the customers think. Did you hear that Sprint??? "CUSTOMER SERVICE THAT ACTUALLY CARES WHAT CUSTOMERS THINK" How queer!