Benjamin Collins
Texas A&M University
College of Engineering
Department of Computer Science
Email:
bencollins@tamu.edu public key
Resume [PDF]
[PS]
<--- back to rants
ISP Woes
All I want is an ISP that will give me an internet connection; that's
it. No frills, no extra features, no restrictions, no desktop
support. Instead of 24-hour 365-days-a-year customer service --- how
'bout 24-hour 365-days-a-year of a functional internet connection with
customer service that works 9-5? ISP's job is to make sure that their
network is operational and that network traffic can successfully
travel to and from their clients. Nothing more, nothing less.
Quite simple, is it not? Why then, are we plagued with service
providers that can never accept responsiblity for their own mistakes
and/or defects? Why are customer support people totally unable to
cope with anything other than "did you reboot your computer", "did you
reboot your dsl modem", "did you release and renew your dhcp address
lease"? When they finally realize that there is a problem that is out
of their realm of understanding, they say "I'm sorry sir, we don't
support that." Whatever it is. If they don't understand it, they
don't support it. When you ask to speak to a supervisor, they can
cope with that because it's in the manual and within their realm of
understanding. Then you talk to a supervisor, who may or may not be
sympathetic. In fact, they may just be downright belligerent because
you dared to interrupt their game of solitaire. They give you an
abrupt "what is your problem?", and then you tell them. If you have
the belligerent one, they say "We don't support that". You ask for
the supervisor's supervisor. The supervisor says "I'm not going to
give you that information" because she knows that if you talk to her
boss, her games of solitaire are over and she might have to man the
phones again. If you're lucky and get a supervisor that is
sympathetic, you might get an explanation of why your problem exists,
but even then they will not say "we'll get right on that". They still
say "I understand your problem, but there's nothing I can do". Right.
Back to square one and twice as frustrated.
A little less on the hypothetical side: this happened to me. I pay
for a 768k/128k dsl line from Verizon and have been mostly satisfied
with their service. I have never, ever been anywhere close to
satisfied with their customer support. As of this week, for some
reason incoming internet traffic is no longer being routed to my home
network. No more remote ssh access. No more hosting my own mail. No
more hosting my own web server. No more anything except the internet
that Verizon wants: an internet where no one does anything but surf
the web and check email that is provided by someone else, all from
home. No more doing things for myself. No more playing with
different services to learn things. When the service is up and
working as it should, things are generally hunky-dory because it's
basically what I want --- they don't tell me what to do with my
internet connection (well, they don't force anything on me anyway.
There's still a TOS agreement that is totally rediculous.), they stay
out of my hair, let me be. When the service is not as it should be
(meaning TWO-WAY unrestricted traffic except when network management
really requires some operational change in order to handle a problem
temporarily), I am stuck with either calling a customer support center
that doesn't care and even if it did, doesn't understand anything
technical at all.
If I were in Dallas or Houston or Austin or anywhere else that has
more than 2 broadband (err, broader than dial-up anyway) providers I
would have severed my service immediately without even thinking about
it. I would kiss Verizon's sorry customer support good-bye and good
riddance with a scathing letter explaining why I have cancelled my
account and why I will encourage anyone and everyone else to do the
same. I am not in those places. I am in Bryan-College Station,
Texas, home of the fightin' Texas Aggies. I'm proud to be here.
However, the ISPs in this region really blow, mostly because a 3-toed
sloth can count on one foot the number of available ISPs that offer
anything other than dial-up.
Why can't I just pay my $40/month for an internet connection and only
an internet connection?