Tags: | qwest | customer service | DSL | modem |

2007-07-09 15:01

Qwest Customer Service and My DSL Problems

Qwest is one of the two big communications companies in this area, and they happened to have the best price for broadband Internet when I moved into my apartment (yes, I am a cheap bastard), so I decided to go with them for their mid-range DSL package. Besides hating the modem they sold me I enjoyed their service up until a few weeks ago when my Internet connection started dying randomly for a few hours at a time. Now, as a computer geek who is constantly using my connection whether I am home or not, random downtimes is completely unacceptable. After waiting a week to see if the issue would resolve itself I connected to Qwest's "online help" chat service through their website and was promptly greeted by a Qwest representative who listened to my problems, asked me to check a few simple things, and quickly agreed with me that there was a problem with my connection and had me schedule a time for a repair technician to come visit me. I was quite happy and surprised by this easy interaction with an online helper, and I was happy to have a tech coming out to look into the problem. Today I had the pleasure of dealing with Dan, the technician who came to my house. He was very friendly and knowledgeable. Unfortunately for me, when he tested my connection he came to the conclusion that the speed I was sold was actually too high for my location, and that the best solution to the problem I've been having would be to lower my speed one step. It turns out my connection had lots of packet loss due to the distance from the central office, and lowering the speed was the only solution. This is unfortunate because I obviously wanted the speed promised to me when I bought the service, and I now have to settle for something less. Now I have to decide whether it is still worth my money to subscribe to Qwest. Even though I signed up for a two year contract with them, I think the loss in connection speed is enough of a reason for me to get out of the contract without punishment - I just have to determine if I have any better options. My previous speed was 1.5 Mbps download/896 Kbps upload, and I now have 640Kbps download/256Kbps upload. Dan explained to me that it was unlikely that I was actually getting the speeds that the modem told me I was, because of all of the packet loss - but I still think it had good days and bad days, and I am now locked into the slower speed. He was unclear whether the billing department would automatically give me a cheaper price for this diminished service, so I will likely be calling them soon to find out. If not, I think I will definitely have to back out of the contract and go with someone else, but for now I can't seem to decide.

On a more cheerful note, I told Dan that I hated the 2wire 2700hg-d modem that Qwest sold me and he was very concerned with my many problems, trying to address a few of them, and looking into warranty issues for me. He spent some time on the phone trying to find out from 2wire experts whether there was any way to do IP address port forwarding on the 2700hg-d, and unfortunately it was unanimous that it wasn't a possibility. He told me that I still had plenty of time on my one year manufacturer's warranty to send the modem in for a replacement that wouldn't randomly drop my wireless signal, and he gave me a great lead on getting a cheap replacement modem that wouldn't have all of the problems that the 2wire 2700hg-d has. For now, I will see whether my connection dropping problem is actually solved, and whether I can live with the locked-in slower speed. Either way, I have absolutely no complaints about Qwest's very responsive and helpful customer service team, and I would recommend them as a communications company because of this positive experience. Has anyone else had a surprisingly good customer service experience they want to share? Has anyone had an experience that is opposite of mine with Qwest's customer service? Does anyone have DSL at the 640/256 speed that can tell me if it's livable?

- Kevin
Kevin (at) Upcsite (dot) Net

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