Should I switch to sBC from Comcast?

"wkearney99" wrote in news:87OdnVDe6JwVg33cRVn- snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net:

I wouldn't know about that, Comcast doesn't serve my area so I don't have any experience with them.

Personally I'd be thrilled to have an option. I'd dump comcast in a heartbeat if I had another broadband option. Comcast cable TV sucks here and I have to hang up at least four times a week on their damn marketing people trying to push their VoIP on me. Until they can run a decent cable system and ISP I would never consider their telephony.

In article , wkearney99 wrote: :> I already had a preference for Comcast since :> there's no PPPoE to deal with, and I've been quite happy with my Comcast :> service (except for the first week, when there were two lengthy :> outages). : :While PPPoE is less attractive then straight IP it's something most DSL :routers will handle transparently for you. But if it's straight IP with :port blocking then it's no bargain. : :The point you make about downtime is important. Telcos are usually much :better equipped to handle loss of service and generally are much faster at :fixing it. People's telephone lines are important and the telcos have had a :century to get that point. The cable companies, on the other hand, continue :to act like they're just pimping TV stations. They have no real track :record for being responsive in effecting repairs. After all, losing the :ability to watch TV isn't exactly life-threatening and that's how most cable :companies treat response time for repairs. : :If you depend on using your internet connection for things like home :business work then it would seem foolish to use cable. There might be speed :advantages in some situations but uptime is a lot more important.

I agree. If I had a business that was dependent on my Internet connection I'd probably get a T-1 line and the service response that comes with its high price. I haven't had a cable problem that required a truck to roll, so I don't know what the response time for that might be.

BTW, telco response to service problems ain't what it used to be, especially if you're buying service from someone other than the company that owns the cable plant. I know a local business that was without service for several days while two companies pointed fingers at each other over a basic "line high and dry" problem. He had to get his calls temporarily forwarded to a cell phone so someone could explain to customers that there was a phone problem.

$19.95 is the montly fee IF you also switch to SBC as your long distance carrier. At some point they are going to "slam" you (i.e. yank you away from your current LD company). At least this is so in California.

$26.95 / month if you do not use their long distance services in CA.

Trusting a SALES person to quote line distances is like trusting a butcher to repair your car engine.

They say somewhere in their web site they have a 30-day money back guarantee, but if you read the review above, they enjoy disconnecting customers early and CONTINUE BILLING after service has been shut down.

If you see a 'X' in my address, please remove it before e-mailing me. Do not add me to any MicroSoft address book; let's stop the viruses. Do not send me unsolicited mail. I track and report spammers.

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Yikes!

Well, for whatever it's worth, I took the plunge and have an order in progress with them. I won't hesitate to cancel quickly though if things aren't up and running happily within the first few weeks.

I do have a question about that which I'll post in another thread.

--Al

That's fine. Just get as much as you can in writing, and get lot's of names. If something goes wrong, you want to argue from a position of strength.

But if he already has phone service from SBC, being on the do-not-call list doesn't stop SBC from calling him and offering additional services: there is an existing business relationship.

Perce

On 01/09/05 07:05 pm Erik Freitag tossed the following ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

Al,

What are they going to charge you for your service? They have been running a $14.95 and a $3.20 basic phone service ad's recently (I'm on Vonage) and I was wondering what are the real costs.

Pierre