“Once Again, The Internet Is Your Worst Nightmare”

(Please bear in mind the caller needs to budget one hour for any initial call to Pacific Bell or parent company SBC. This is the phone company with a really serious phone problem. Expect 20-30 minutes of “Thank you for calling Pacific Bell, all agents are currently busy helping other customers; you call will be handled in the order received” holds, and two to three transfers before speaking to one person for 5-10 minutes).

 As in dealings with any other firm or organization, you’ll encounter good guys, bad guys and total asses. Toward (what we hope is) the end of this long saga, we encountered some good guys. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. 

We finally got our DSL back on October 10th, 2000. Would we recommend Pac Bell DSL? When it works, it’s great, but until they get Pac Bell Internet (PBI) and parent company SBC (Southwestern Bell) working together as a team, and integrate respect for the customer back into the Product, we think “Al Borland” of the old “Home Improvement” show, said it best: “I don’t think so, Tim.”

Calls on THE TRACK RECORD:
 
July 19 Initial service change request
August 2 No ports available
August 25 Why would ports be available?
September 14 “Carina” You’re Not In The System
September 22 Software we can’t use arrives
September 29 we scheduled you for 10/4
October 4 “Anemone” “Of course no one was coming”
October 4 “Giuseppe” I’ll take care of it, call you back
October 4 “Sonora” I’ll take care of; you call me back
October 7 “Alana” DSL sync but still can’t connect
October 7 “Vinnie” here’s your case number
October 8 Turning Points?
October 8 Alana Try calling SBC again
October 8 Tracy “Keep Trying to connect”
October 9 More Failures
October 10 Alana Problem Solved!
October 12 No dial tone
October 16 Still no dial tone
October 18 Dial tone but no DSL
October 19 Alana saves the account again
October 22 WRAP-UP

July 19: One month before moving day. We call to set up the new phone lines and transfer our existing Pacific Bell DSL service. We’re told not to call on DSL so early because “we’ll lose your order”; please call back about two weeks before you need the change.

August 2: Two weeks before move day. I call. We’re entered into the System but no ports available in our new area yet. They’re adding on. Please call back Aug 25th when they’re expected to be available. You are a transferring customer, not a new customer so should get one right away.

August 25: No ports are available yet. We don’t know why you were told to expect Aug 25th when we have customers who have been waiting for months. You can try calling back in 2 weeks if you like.

Sept 14 (“Carina”): I don’t see you in the system at all, but I’m putting you in the system now. We’ll mail you a filter kit a few days before your service is scheduled to be turned on. We’ll e-mail you to confirm. You’re scheduled to have DSL service turned on October 4th. Sorry, we have a backlog, and that’s the earliest possible date we can give you.

Sept 22: A software kit arrives that will walk a newcomer through setting up an IP address, but no filter kit, no e-mail, or anything else.

Sept 29: note in the door: SBC Operations Support Staff was by, and found us not home. (We were never told to expect anyone would come by). Note says a problem was found,  “No DSL sync, Yet.” The note shows a Data Communication Technician is scheduled to install our DSL service on 10/4; please call if unable be here.

Oct 4 (“Anemone”): I stay home from work. Called the number (Dispatch) to get AM/PM arrival estimate. No service has been scheduled “because you are self-install, not full service.” I explain SBC is the one who left the note. I explain we are not new customers, but existing customers with a service transfer. “You could have called a day or two before, and we could have told you they were not coming.” If they have to send someone out to correct whatever the problem is, that will be another $200+ more, because we are “self-install”.

Am told all supervisors, managers and vice-presidents are in a meeting, Anemone cannot have someone talk care of the problem and call me back, even though I am already calling them, and I do not work for Pac Bell or SBC. There is a number I can call “and somebody will call you back in 48 hours.” She insists I need to call another number, and a manager will help me there.

Pac Bell takes care of the DSL sync; SBC can’t help with that.

Oct 4 (“Giuseppe”): At that number, a tech-type named Giuseppe says that he shows we “do have” a DSL sync but are just not receiving it. The node we need was put in 9/30. The problem must be because of the old Atacom 1000 DSL Modem they sold me with my $200 installation fee a year ago. It is “no good”. We need a newer kit. There was a ticket on our order, but it was closed.

Giuseppe will do his best to get someone out today. If there is any charge at all, it should not be more than $30 or so. Giuseppe promises that either he or Installation will call me back today. Neither ever does.

Oct 4 (“Sonora”): Sonora calls from Maintenance on her own initiative. This call is not the result of any referrals from my earlier calls, but because she has an outstanding maintenance ticket on our order. I explain the situation and history in some detail to Sonora; we have not had DSL service between August 19th and October 4th.  She is on our side and puts me on a three-way with another department. That person hotly informs me that I am “self-install”, so I need to call still another number. That person will not help me.

Sonora tells them they can drop off the line now; she will handle it from here. We cannot get an Installer today, so she has scheduled for my second choice, Saturday October 7. Will I be charged? If it is a maintenance issue, no, since there is no charge for maintenance or even a mechanism for billing it. Will the installer show? Sonora assures me that if she schedules it, he will show. I promise to call her back Monday to let her know how it goes.

How many things can you see wrong with this picture? Can one conscientious employee turn the tide against a whole company and its parent company? Stay tuned for the post-mortem. I promise to keep you, too, in the loop.

Saturday October 7 (“Alana”): Alana arrives at 9:30. She turns out to be our neighbor in a close-by apartment. The software is necessary to connect, but first we have to solve the “No DSL sync” problem. The line tests good. She replaces the Alcatel 1000 modem with a Wirespeed model, disconnects the splitter/filter combo I took with me from San Mateo, disconnects our Linksys router, disables a second ethernet PC Card and with it our local ethernet LAN. She connects the laptop ethernet directly to the new modem.

We install the new software and temporary user registration. We reboot. The machine freezes. It is still looking for the local ethernet hub we just disconnected. We get it going, establish a DSL connection to the PacBell secure server, and complete the registration forms. I and installer Alana get this message:

10:30AM: Sorry! Our system failed to register your DSL account. We may be experiencing system problems. Please try again later.

After repeated attempts to register, Alana has other calls. I hate to see my only lifeline to DSL go, but there seems to be nothing to do here but wait. We agree I can always use dialup while I am waiting for the PacBell server. I can leave a message at her work number if there are more problems, and I see her to the door.

But wait a minute, how will dialup work? The modem is connected on the phone side directly to the jack. I can only get a dial tone by disconnecting the DSL modem and hooking up a telephone or a dialup modem cord.

Our LAN is a mess, too. A PC connected directly to the DSL modem ethernet port will still look for the shared connections that it had in the previous session. Even if you disable the devices with software, it is a big deal. Windows is not terribly forgiving about such configuration changes, and it takes several restarts to get it settled down.

A Router is a device that connects between the broadband cable or DSL source and an ethernet hub “uplink” port. Any other PC connected to the hub can access the broadband service, either singly, or two or more PC’s at a time. The router’s job is to distribute the communications channel to the machine that requested the service.

That is how we were set up in San Mateo, but here, I cannot get the software-based connection to “see” the secure server over the connection, even though the Linksys “sees” the broadband connection. I reason that possibly this is because I haven’t successfully registered our service yet, but have my doubts.

I know that my laptop is finicky about having two PC etherlink cards running at the same time (one for DSL and one for the home network); I know that without the Router, we will either need separate cards for each function, or be forced to switch connections manually. With three machines, this could get ugly.

To eliminate any uncertainties of PC ethernet card conflicts, I install the DSL software on the older Compaq desktop machine, which only has a single 3Com ethernet card. With the software installed and the Compaq connected directly to the DSL modem (no router), I can get through the registration process, but still cannot complete it due to the problem on the Pac Bell secure server. This experiment led to no benefit over the laptop installation.

As long as a machine is hooked directly to the DSL modem, our local area network operates fine, but so far we cannot both surf DSL and network machines at the same time. There is a lot of ethernet cable juggling.

Alana drops by again on her own initiative. The server page is not working, but she gets the splitter/filter combination working again so we can get voice and data out of the same line. I promise to let her know.

11:40AM, 11:50AM, 2:25PM, 3:33PM, 4:05PM:

Sorry! Our system failed to register your DSL account. We may be experiencing system problems. Please try again later.

And you know what THAT means. Time for a nap.

4:35PM Alana calls. She has been able to register her other customers through the secure server. Wants me to try my existing userid and password from my ongoing Pac Bell dialup account. I try it three times. We cannot get it to authenticate on the DSL connection. There is nothing more she can do today, will try something at the outside phone box Monday. I leave my work number.

6:00PM Naps are tough when you dream about DSL and ethernet. Will my dialup account still work? Yes, it does. This eliminates my Pac Bell dialup account user id and password as a source of problems. They are still good. I get my email and surf the web on my 56.6K connection.

Now, what the registration server is actually trying to do is merge my old dialup account with my “new” DSL account, so we don’t have to pay for a dialup that’s included free with DSL. I wonder if the registration process can be completed via dialup. Sorry! No, it can’t — same result.

6:05PM (“Vinnie”): Since Alana has been able to register other clients all day on the same server, I’m thinking the problem is either the Merge Accounts code underlying the secure server web page, or some kind of password issue. I call the Tech Help line supplied by the server page, and get connected to “Vinnie” almost immediately.

Vinnie thinks this is probably a server page problem, since I haven’t been able to register all day. He mentions that this page has been a problem for Tech Help for a long time.  He gets my userid and “keyword”, and gets the same Sorry! error message. He needs to refer this to a more technical supervisor, and promises to speak with that person as soon as he’s off the phone.

I almost agree, but I didn’t just get off the boat. I thank him and ask him if he will be able to call me back, or email me. He cautiously explains that is not really possible, so I assume he is not allowed to call customers back, and isn’t allowed to tell us that.

So, I ask him: “Very well, then, so what is MY next step? How will I know what I should do next, and when to try it?”

Vinnie admits I have a good point. He gives me my “case number” for reference. I’m learning how to play the game. We agree I should try again in about an hour.

7:30PM: Sorry! Our system failed to register your DSL account. We may be experiencing system problems. Please try again later.

Most of all, at this point, you are probably wondering: why does this guy put up with this at all?

Good question. We have been through SO much already, and seem SO close to getting to the objective, that it seems a shame to toss in the towel now. Even though AT&T Cable is but a phone call away, there will still be ethernet and router obstacles to get past anyway.

I can always try again tomorrow. I can always call Alana and Sonora Monday and let them know we have been defeated by a webmaster’s server page. If I stick with Pac Bell, we will deal with the router issue later. I have two “good guys” on my side now, maybe three if Vinnie comes through.

Besides, if I bail out now, we’ll never get the answer to the standby Tonight Show question, “And, how bad WAS it?”
 

Sunday October 8

Turning Points: Far out beyond Neptune, comet Igotcha-PBI turns at the apogee of its orbit. It begins its slow, icy descent back down the ladder of planets to the sun. But this time, the first such conjunction in over a quarter of a billion years, two satellites of Saturn align to exert an extra pull on the comet. This nudges the comet, ever so slightly, into a new orbit which will bring it closer to the Earth’s own. Some day, in the time of our grandchildren perhaps, the comet will be noted for its spectacular visible display in the skies of night and day.

Similarly, I finish the Sunday comics section and return my attention to yesterday’s problems. One of them, like the orbits of the outer satellites, I can do nothing about.

But my Linksys router, the one-port Etherfast Cable/DSL Router (model BEFSR11) is compatible with virtually any cable or DSL modem that supports ethernet. My manual says so, and I believe them. My manual shows my router supports a number of disabled protocols we have never used or configured.

The Pac Bell software (EnterNet 300 v 1.4, Efficient Networks Inc.) has a message log feature and a remarkably detailed Advanced window. I am finally able to determine my DSL service is using the PPoE protocol (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet) to establish communications with the end user. But Pac Bell’s web page Help states explicitly that they do not support equipment other than that which they supply.

This new information dovetails with a PPoE reference in the Linksys software. It is currently disabled because evidently we did not have or need this service in San Mateo. I enable it, supply the temporary registration userid and password, and clink the CONNECT button on the Linksys HTML setup page. Voila!

I have an active DSL connection, and navigate Explorer to the Pac Bell registration page, without using the EnterNet software connection at all. This means all our home LAN problems are solved, and we can connect any or all machines through the router.

Equally important, the router hides machine ports and internal networking addressing from outside intruders. We again have a far more secure firewall than software shields and dynamic IP addressing. If you don’t know what this means, you should still consider getting a router to protect yourself against hacker attacks.

But the secure server web page is still broken. I try it a couple of times. “Sorry!”

11:20AM: I call Alana’s work phone with a heads-up on my secure server page impasse. This is her day off, but she answers. She recommends I call PBI (Pacific Bell Internet), not the SBC Tech Help folks. She will drop by later to find out.

11:38AM “Tracy”: the only PBI number I can find on the web (dialup) is the same number I used to reach Vinnie last night. I reach Tracy, describe the problem and give her my case number. At first she is skeptical and dispenses canned questions, but warms to the problem. She’s been there before.

Tracy is polite and apologetic but can only advise me to “keep trying”. She would register me herself if they had that capability, but they do not. They’ve gotten several calls on this web page. The webmaster types keep issuing an ECD of “2-4″ hours (Tracy and I both laugh) but it is still broken. First-time users report the same problem, so the problem is probably not specific to Merge Accounts feature that I, an existing customer, also need to use. How long is “keep trying?”, I ask. Should I attempt rapid retries, bing-bing-bing-bing, or at intervals of some length, say, an hour? Tracy advises trying about once every hour.

Alana rings the bell at brunch and I update her on the situation. Nonetheless, there is something she wants to check out on the outside box. I will keep trying.

Sorry!

Monday, October 9:

A very frustrating night. No change in DSL Registration secure server page. I find an email address and try mailing my complaint and request for assistance. It is in no way abusive, but it is a scorcher. I receive a reply that I have reached a wrong department and need to call such and such a department. I hotly reply back that I intend to do no such thing. This link is the text of this exchange.

Tuesday, October 10: “Alana” Saves the Account

“Alana” comes over after work, on her own time. Calls PBI San Francisco. A sharp Tech Support person soon finds they have linked our account to our old, disconnected San Mateo Phone number. There never was anything we could have done on our end to rectify this. He fixes it, and in a few minutes I am surfing the web on DSL and receiving email.

The correspondence and thank you note on this, as elsewhere, has been changed to alter the names of the principal players. I am eternally grateful to “Alana” and her SBI contact, but having one’s name published on the Internet just does not come with the job.

As I try to point out in my final note, a few key employees can be instrumental in turning around a really bad situation for a client. This has happened here.

It has truly been a nightmare, and one can never say that this sort of waste of energy and time has “been worth it”. DSL is great, and we are glad to have it back. I feel too drained to attempt the obligatory post-mortem, so we’ll just skip that.

The saga is over.

Thursday, Oct 12:

Well, it’s almost over. We came home to find the whole phone line out of order. No dial tone. “611″ traced the problem to an outside physical line break. It should be repaired Friday. Ah, well …

Monday, Oct 16:

Well, it wasn’t. We went away for the weekend, and found a note on the door that Pac Bell determined the problem had to be inside. We were not home, so they left. We called for an appointment and obtained one for Wednesday morning.

Wednesday, Oct 18:

Bob took a vacation day, and watched Pac Bell spend about an hour in our apartment tracing lines. While unable to isolate a specific problem, they switched wire pairs with an unused pair, and restored telephone service. We had a dial tone for line #2.

Bob called me at work to report he couldn’t access AOL via the direct ethernet connection. The Phone repair person didn’t know DSL so couldn’t help here. I said I would check it out that evening. Shortly I realized I forgot to tell Bob to turn on out Linksys router.

But I couldn’t DSL going, either. We had the green DSL sync light on the DSL modem, but none of our machines could connect. And, mind, you, we hadn’t changed anything. I bypassed the router and phone line voice/data splitter: DSL modem directly to wall jack, computer ethernet cable direct to DSL modem, reconfigure TCP/IP for the IP address and other parameters we had been assigned.

Nothing. I was so steamed that I decided to sleep on it overnight, before deciding what to do.

Thursday, Oct 19:

Our Knight in Shining Armor: We both knew that if I had to call Pac Bell’s one-hour touch-tone telephone maze on more time, our DSL account was in danger of being cancelled by two irate customers. “Alana” is a neighbor of ours, and works for Pac Bell. She has the know-how and resourcefulness to solve the problem. I hate leaning on neighbors, particularly for professional or occupational help. I called her anyway.

“Alana” spent the better part of an hour of her own time, thoroughly checking out everything on our end. It was fine. She couldn’t even establish a DSL connection on her own laptop. She called her contact at SBC in San Francisco, and he looked at our account. We sent some “pings” to various IP addresses. “Uh-Oh!”

The SBC contact determined that someone had taken away our IP address. We’ll never know why, but someone probably saw the address was associated with a phone number that had no dial tone, assumed it was dead or disconnected, and reassigned it.

With our new IP address assignment, we had DSL running again in a matter of minutes. I thanked “Alana” profusely and wrote a letter of appreciation to her supervisor.

WRAPUP -Sunday, October 22:

DSL STILL RUNNING FINE. Is this the end of the saga?

We hope so. With contacts like ours, we stand a fighting chance.

By chance, this morning we noted and read PC World’s reviews of the leading internet providers (“ISPs: The Best and the Worst”, by Gregg Keiser, November 2000).

ATT&T WorldNet, who provides both cable and DSL services, won top place and “Best Buy” ratings. The results were based on a survey of user’s grading of “performance” and “service”, among other factors. AT&T received evaluations of “outstanding”/”outstanding”.

GTE Internet (now Verizon) won second spot with “good”/”good”. AOL came in with a solidly mediocre “fair”/”fair”, though AOL users were “the least happy with log-on and connection experience”.

Pacific Bell Internet finished in a dead heat for last place, tying Microsoft Network’s scoring of “poor”/”poor”.

What are we recommending? We’ll have to abstain, but you can look at the track record yourself. Following are points to consider:

• Not all ISP’s are available in all areas.
• Not all offer the service you may want (MSN offers T1 but not DSL).
• Anecdotal user experience suggests DSL and cable are about equally fast, on an average; download speed should be in the neighborhood of 384Kbs, and upload speed, around 128Kbs.
• AT&T cable does not include a free dialup account. On vacation, we access Pac Bell through a local Phoenix dialup number.
• You can get free dialup accounts at several sites, if you don’t mind the ad banners.
• Experience at one location may not be representative of all locations. Once we got Pac Bell DSL in San Mateo, we never had service problems with it at all.
• Our horrible experience was atypical. We were an account transfer from another area. DSL in the Bay Area is a little more than a year old. We’re quite sure Pac Bell and SBC didn’t have a clue how to handle this situation.
• We had a “static IP address”, whereas new “self-install” customers now get no-brainer software kits that set up for dynamic addressing. The software is actually pretty cool, and almost as good as a firewall, but we couldn’t use it.
• If you’re pretty sure you would need a help desk to solve routine problems, we can’t recommend Pacific Bell. As soon as you pick up a telephone to talk to the Telephone Company in our area, often as not, you’re in a world of hurt.
• If you know the lingo and your dialup is still working, Pac Bell support people on the Internet are as responsive as you’ll find anywhere.
• If you’re a first-time DSL customer and elect Pac Bell’s “self-install” plan (you save $200 on installation), the software looks pretty bullet-proof to us.
• If you take “self-install”, you get dynamic addressing and PPoE, but you can still have a router. You should have a router if: you need DSL access at more than one machine, or prefer the extra firewall security, and have the machines connected on Ethernet or are willing to connect them. You can enable PPoE and dynamic addressing on a Linksys router, and other brands should support this as well.