SERVICE, WHAT A NOVEL IDEA!
Written: Oct 28 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: local company
Cons: complete lack of service
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| MumMumMum's Full Review: Archived Computers & Internet Reviews |
I am a computer and internet newbie, only being on-line for the past six months. Being such I asked many friends about which Internet Service Provider (ISP from here on) they would recommend. The overwhelming majority of them suggested Escape. I decided, based on their recommendations, that the time for me to take the plunge into the new millennium had come, and that Escape was going to be my diving board.
Escape was a locally owned and operated ISP in the province of Manitoba. When I went in to their office they were friendly and extremely helpful. I explained to them my total lack of knowledge of “this internet business” and they went through it with me step by step. Now, this was a wonderful feeling for me, since previous to this experience I had contacted several other ISP’s and was told by almost every one of them that they could not provide internet service to me because I was using a Macintosh. Not only that, but it was a very slow Mac. 14400 modem….slooooooow! So the two that would provide service for Mac users were not able to accommodate my needs because my Mac was just too slow. But Escape could, and would help me. And did they ever help!
I had many occasions to call their tech support line, and although they had no “official” tech support for Mac users, they did have two “resident experts” on Mac’s and the problems inherent with such computers. They were always polite, extremely helpful, and actually offered on several occasion to come to my home to help me if they problems I was having persisted. At no charge to me! I was extremely happy with their service, never had a problem getting connected,(once all my bugs were worked out) no busy signals, everything was wonderful! And for $20 a month for unlimited access, I was one happy camper!
I became extremely frustrated with my Mac (Yeah, I know, who wouldn’t?) and decided it was time for a new computer. So off I went to my neighbourhood computer store (I always try to support my local businesses), and bought a PC (no, not a Mac, I’m saving my “Mac Guilt” opinion for another day!). Oh, boy, what a difference! Now I had a 56K modem, and I was ready to join the “high-speed” crowd. And at $40 a month unlimited, I couldn’t say no! There is a world of difference between an old Macintosh and a Celeron 500 when it comes to the internet, and the difference between dial-up and adsl is phenomenal! Talk about “techno shock”!
So, this story has a happy ending, right? Wrong! Shortly after my switch to high-speed access with Escape, the company was bought out my Manitoba Telecom Services(MTS after this). This is the company that provides long-distance service (and a whole lot of other stuff that I don’t need) to the province of Manitoba. It used to be government owned, but was privatized a couple of years ago (that’s a whole other horror story). Well, you’d think a small local ISP would be improved upon by a telecommunications giant when they took over, wouldn’t you? Well, you would be wrong again!
Since MTS bought out the company the tech support has gone from friendly, courteous, and extremely helpful to vague and rude. Their billing department debits your account more than they should, and takes a month or more to correct their errors. Their sales and service staff has been rude, almost to the point of abusive, not just to me but to several other people I know that were customers. (I say were, they have since moved on to another ISP). Since August their servers have gone down for reasons varying from server conflicts to sundogs. (I don’t even want to discuss sundogs!) They have had numerous system crashes for “unexplained” reasons, and I have had enough!
My email has been down 14 of the last 26 days (for anywhere between 1-16 hours at a time)….that is unacceptable. They have had “DNS problems” every one of those 26 days. They have had “authentication” problems every day for the last 35 days. It’s up! It’s down! I feel like a yo- yo!!! And when you call their tech support lines, or their sales and service lines, even their billing department lines, do you get put on hold? No, you’re told you’ll be put on hold and you are promptly disconnected. (You would think that MTS, an internationally known telecommunications company, which provides services to many millions of people all over the world, could somehow manage to put you on hold, without disconnecting you). At this moment I am on hold, have been for 25 minutes, because their billing department is “busy right now, but my call is important to them and will be answered in the order in which it was received”. (Thank God for speaker phones!) This is after trying to get through to them for over an hour and getting only busy signals or disconnected.
My message to Escape….Internet Service Provider, you provide the service, I’ll pay for it. I am now paying more for less. I am tired of messages saying your tech support is working “diligently” to fix the problem. Obviously they are not diligent enough. I am sick of hearing busy signals, and being put on hold for what seems like hours. I am tired of hearing how “in the long run things will be so much better because you’re spending $133 million dollars on upgrading”. What good does that do me now? I am not going to accept rude behaviour or vague answers any more. In fact, I am not going to accept you any more! The cable company has happily offered me free installation and free access for two months, and they will be here next Thursday. I realize they may not be much better than you, but they certainly can’t be any worse!
Indeed, service really is a novel idea to Escape. Perhaps their phone lines are so busy because people like me are calling to cancel their services!
Note: I apologize for not knowing the proper technical terminology, etc. If I have made any errors in describing the problems, I am only telling you what Escape has told me. I really am a newbie, and I assume that there are others out there like me (Please, God, don’t let me be the only one!), who will benefit from my experience. Comments are welcomed
Recommended:
No
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Member: Beverley
Location: Canada
Reviews written: 290
Trusted by: 419 members
About Me:
So good to be home, but so very tired!
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