Frustrated with living in the boonies

[DammitJanet]

Last week we had the AT&T salesman tell notify us and tell us that finally DSL had come down our street. We were absolutely thrilled because out where we live we have only been able to get dial up service. Cable doesnt run out here. The only other possibility is a T1 Line or Satellite internet and I cannot in anyway afford those. We have always been in this black hole.

Well..they swore that they now served us. We signed right up. Paid for the $50 deposit and the DSL modem right on the spot.

Should have know it was too good to be true.

Installer guy came out yesterday and went to run the DSL line and we are 500 feet too far away! There are 3 repeater somethings in either direction from the hubs! Unless they put in another repeater thingy...we are toast. Or another hub. Not likely. Like I said...I seem to be in some kind of black hole. Nobody wants to service my little area with anything.

 

[WhymeMom?]

Sounds like you need a "computer out house" 500 feet away from the house. Do you own property 500 feet closer to the hub/repeater?

 

[DammitJanet]

Actually family owns property about 400 feet closer.

 

[nvts]

Hey Janet! If I were you, I'd file a complaint with the FCC. See, on everyone's phone bill there are ridiculous "fees and charges". These fees and charges are supposedly collected by the companies to off-set the expense for the companies to service "boonies" areas. They're collecting the fees hand over fist, yet they come up with this type of excuse.

Call the FCC and level a complaint that it's a mere matter of 500 yards and that all they need to do is put in a repeater. Make sure that they know that this represents a HUGE expense to you if you have to go through other channels (ie: sattelite, etc.). Make sure that you also were told that this was absolutely possible to do (salesman) and that money exchanged hands based on this information.

Next: contact AT&T and file what is called an "Executive Complaint". These complaints directly impact the bonuses received by the upper mucky mucks. They jump through hoops to correct them.

Pound away at the fact that its a mere matter of feet that is preventing you from enjoying the service and that you know millions of people are supplying them with the capital to accomodate your "neck of the woods". When talking with the company, make sure that they know that you've already written the letter that will go to the FCC, the Better Business Bureau as well as the State Public Utilities Commissioner. Using these buzz words quite often spurs on action!

Nobody's going to make my friend Janet hate living in the boonies! No, siree!

Beth

 

[Lothlorien]

I had the same thing happen when I lived in my other house. They sent me notification and I signed up. They sent me the modem and told me to install it on a Friday after 4. So, I did....and cancelled my dial up. No matter what I did, the darn thing wouldn't work, so I called the company and was informed that there was an issue that I had to take up with billing, but they wouldn't be in until Monday. BILLING??? My bills have been paid....what the heck could it have been? Stupid company! When I called on Monday, they told me that it had nothing to do with the bill, but was because we were several hundred feet away and couldn't get it. Same as you.

Fortunately, we have cable in our area, so I cancelled service with the phone co and got hooked up to cable.

 

[Marguerite]

We have similar problems, Janet. In our village we are on good line-of-sight to the centre of Sydney. In fact, if we stand just outside our front gate we can watch the fireworks when they're on, in Sydney Harbour.

But we are still a forgotten corner of Sydney, technically we're a suburb of Sydney but nobody's ever heard of the place. We have to travel either a very long winding route by car (a peninsula) or we have to catch a passenger-only ferry, if we want to get to the city (the "mainland").

But because of the line-of-sight, about half of the village has good wireless reception (for satellite pay TV, for mobile phone reception, for wireless computer link-up).

But US?

Nope.

We rang up the providers for the telephone/computer service and were told over the phone, "No problem, your town is in our 'good reception' area." But when we went online to look at the map ourselves, we saw a line diving the town, with 'good reception' on one side, and 'poor/no reception' on the other.

It's a bit tricky. The local school is right on the street which divides the town. They're actually on OUR side of that street. But they have been on wireless for years, with great success.

So we talked to our neighbours. And we were right to be cautious - the half te town that has good reception is actually on a hill which faces the city. The town there is pointed right at the reception towers. But our place - we're in radio shadow just tucked over the edge of the hill and behind a couple of two-storey houses. So near and yet so far... if we had a second storey on our house with the computer set up on the top floor, we'd be fine. But no, we're in radio shadow. And no chance of it changing any time soon for us, because the place where they would need to put in another tower, just happens to be Millionaires' Row, on the other side of the water. And they're the ones that scream about how bad those towers look, and why do they have to put one near their homes, their reception is perfectly fine!

If you've shelled out money for a service that cannot be provided, you should be entitled to a full refund. If they try to stick you with any cancellation fees, go for the jugular and claim for the inconvenience of being sold a pup; for the false representation of their capabilities and for the lower quality service you have to put up with, often for the same fees as everyone else. And if it is correct tat people are paying a levy on their bills in order for te company to provide the service that you're NOT getting in your area - yes, I'd be kicking up a fuss about that as well.

Go get 'em, Janet!

Marg

 

[DDD]

Sorry, Janet. We have a similar situation with natural gas lines. I cook with electricity because I would personally have to pay for them to run the gas line 200 feet to reach my house. Geez.

Do you have cable TV? DDD

 

[eekysign]

Ha! I actually have an open Firefox window right now, researching internet service for my Mom's boonie area!! We were getting this big wireless-tower high-speed signal, but it's gone out about 10 time in the last month, and Mom's finally fed up.

So now I'm looking for other options, too. Anyone got any? No cable out here, no DSL, no FIOS, just satellite cable and dial-up. Anyone used the satellite internet? Any good?

 

[hearts and roses]

My sister had the same exact thing happen to her when she lived in the mountainous sticks of west virginia. She recently moved closer to an actual town and has everything her little heart has always desired but could never imagine how fabulous it really was!! Hahaha.

I'm sorry - I like Beth's idea of complaining to the powers that be. Perhaps something will get done.

 

[DammitJanet]

No cable tv. I have satellite tv. If satellite internet was like satellite tv I wouldnt be so upset but its not. Number one, they charge really high fees to set up satellite internet. Then they charge high monthly fees. And then...they limit usage.

Dial up is getting really old too. Most websites simply arent set up for it anymore. Everything is done in flash and is loaded in graphics these days. It takes forever to load. Forget loading youtube.

 

[Hound dog]

If that's the case Janet, do what Beth suggested.

No sales person should've approached you, nor should you have been allowed to sign up ect unless they already knew for a fact you could get service. Sorry, but that's fraud.......big or little company it doesn't matter. You signed up for and put out money for a service that was unavailable, that the company knew was unavailable.

I'd go Beth's route. Worth a shot. Hate to see you stuck on dial up.

((hugs))

 

[Star*]

I thought you were frustrated living with big boobies.

Sooooooo sorry.

 

[Marguerite]

Even if the company didn't realise there was no service - the contract should be easily able to be overturned, because you shouldn't be having to pay for aservice that cannotbe provided.

The alternative - you are paying for a service, so they must make it happen. If you stop paying for the service, what are they going to do? Cut off a nonexistent service?

We've found it sometimes takes a bit of effort and a lot of patientce, to get te message across tat your areais out of range. So if tey still insist you should be able to connect, ask them sweetly to send out a technician to facilitate this, because you just don't seem to be able to make it happen...

It reminds me of the story of a Sydney University lecturer back in the late 80s/early 90s. He had heard that so many of his colleagues were enjoying working from home and linking in to their work computers from home. This was in the very early almost pre-internet days, but there was still a strong trend for academics to make increasing good use of computers.
So our pet academic went to the computer store to ask how he could do this. "You need a modem," the computer tech told him. And sold him the latest one, with the fastest speed (probably 28/8, back then).
But he couldn't make it work. He rang the computer store. "I can't seem to connect to work with the modem, he complained to the computer tech.
"OK, let's work through this," the tech said. "Have you got the modem plugged in to the phone line using the phone jack?"
A pause. "Yes, I've got tat done. I've been doing that."
"OK, then have you ade sure your modem is powered up? It needs to be pugged in to the power socket but it also has its own power switch. Do you have the modem switched on? There is a small green indicator light that shows that the modem is powered up."
The professor replied, "Yes, I'm not stupid. The power to the modem was the first thing I checked, I thought it may have blown a fuse but the indicator light was obvious."
The technician said, "well the next thing to check is the connection to the computer. Can you check that the modem is firmly plugged in to the computer, the lead hasn't slipped out?"
A longer pause this time. "Computer - you mean I need to have a computer?"

THis is a true story. I wish I had the name of the professor concerned. Needless to say, he wasn't from Science or Engineering...

Marg

 

[Hound dog]

OMG Marg!!!