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The Phone Company We Love to Hate - RIP 2001-2004 ITS OVER! READ HERE! | |
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story Robbed for $90.
. CLEC's
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Fr ATT EXITS RESIDENTIAL LOCAL AND LONG DISTANCE MARKET Good riddance I say!
FLASH!
Class
Action Suit filed by
screwed DSL customers! "The point isn't
merely the $90. that your food chain stole from me. You should have paid
attention to that a LONG time ago..."
DUNKIRK FREDONIA TELEPHONE DFTel.com UPDATE: The only thing they sell is an overpriced $50 a month package. They will not do basic budget, or pay per call. GARBAGE! Broadview Networks 1-800-260-8766 GARBAGE! * see notes below Some Details:
They're about 10-15% cheaper than Bell Scamlantic *Broadview They (SAY they) pay a $20. referral to YOU for bringing them a new customer (who stays 3 months or more) * Broadview They have Long Distance at MUCH cheaper rates than BellScamlantic. BOTH! I signed up for the full package, local service, inter-lata Long distance, and intra-lata Long Distance carrier. I WILL keep you updated on my perception of their service, right here. I will try them out for 3 months, to see if they've got their ducks in a row THE BILL's IN.... The Bills arrived. MUCH cheaper!! BUT... The updated skinny on the Broadview switchover... Nothing escapes Mad Phoneman...I decided to do some serious digging behind the "NEW" company and here's what I've found. 1) They're a Bell-Scamlantic reseller, NOT a new phone Company at all, but merely a purchaser of BA wholesale and then they resell it at a discount. They DO have their own switches, two of them, one in NYC (turned up 3Q/99) and one in Syracuse (turned up on 3/27/00). 2) They've changed their NAME! They're now called Broadview Networks and they offer residential, business and Internet services as of this writing. NOW THE BAD NEWS.... First off, They're a new company, so I was inclined to cut them some slack. We understand for some people, running a phone company can be a real steep learning curve. (It escapes me why it should be however). 1) They
came out and told (or insinuated that) us they were a totally new
operation. In fact they're one of the shell companies created by Bell
Scamlantic to make it look like Bell Scamlantic was actually operating
in a pro-competitive market, a fraud they push, so they can get into the
long distance market. THIS is solely the reason, any competition is
feigned in the NY market. Bell Scamlantic is desperate to get into the
lucrative LD markets, and the FCC mandated that effective competition
must be in place before they will allow any of the
"baby-bell's" to offer inter-state LD service. 2) Their customer service people are idiots when it comes to handling other than the plain vanilla service requests. It appears they outsource their customer service department to somewhere in Chile, because half them can't speak English, and the other half doesn't know where NY State is, or what any of the area codes or cities are. 3) There is NO way to get in touch with anyone in a management level of the company by telephone. All you get is that dammed 1-800 number, with the idiots. This re-enforces the image that they are a shell company of Bell Scamlantic. (The act is the same anyways) 4) This one is the killer: The $20 referral for new customers is a fraudulant, mismanaged operation. PERIOD! I was especially interested in this from the beginning, and I have tracked this one extensively. I was "referred" by a friend, who told me about the referral kickback. Ok, I said, I will make careful note of the date when I sign up, and see if you get your credit when its due. The date came and went. I asked if she had got her $20 and she had not. I called the 1-800 number from hell, and asked them about it. They apologized all over themselves, and assured me they would credit my referrer for the $20. THEY DID NOT!!! It took her calling and complaining, and then she only got $10!! She also had referred a multi-line customer, and only got a portion of the promised $20 per line on the 3 lines the customer took over to them. And here's the kicker... I've got a piece of paper from Broadview in hand, in front of me now.. "$25 New customers are priceless to us, (but for a limited time, they're worth $25 to you!) Well, this one ain't over yet. I referred a few customers myself to check the accuracy of this program, one is coming up on the 90 day period when I should see my credit, and I can tell you, the feces will fly if I don't see it!! 9/8/00 MORE BAD NEWS! The best way to judge a phone company... The best way to judge if you should be spending money with a phone company is when the chips are down, when you owe them money. I was in that situation the first of September. I sent them the check, and called to make sure they did not turn the service off as scheduled. Guess what? They did anyways. Seems they have a answering service filled with third world illiterates who cant take messages and forward them as instructed. Or at least this is the excuse they gave me. Ok, so I call. I get a lot of dysfunctional people and finally through to a Mrs. Wyatt. She seems polite and helpful, and she assures me the service will be back on the next day. Comes the next day, around 11am, I check, and the service is restored. Fine I say. Good show. AROUND 5PM the service goes OFF again, and is not to return for 3 days. THREE FU***** DAYS! I call her, and complain, and nothing is done, I call again, nothing is done, the last day, with a call waiting to the PSC, they manage to get it back on. What did I get in return for this lousy service? $20. - a stinking twenty dollars.
VERDICT: Theyre liars, I never got a referral fee from them, their bills kept growing incrementally and in the end, I dropped them. WHAT THE HELL DID NY'ers DO TO DESERVE SUCH SHITTY PHONE SERVICE?
OK.. More competition looms... ATT Enters Fray - But their high-pressure telemarketing clones leave me with a BAD taste. I can't recommend them to anyone. Let their stock freefall, maybe some foreign investors will buy them out and put them out of their misery. MCI Worldcom gets into the local phone business as well... They're big, they know how to run a phone company. I have a couple people who signed up, who are going to brief me on the level of service/incompetence they run into with them.
STAY TUNED.... An Inspirational Picture...courtesy 2600 magazine
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Pitu!
