After moving down here to sunny Florida I
immediately ran into problems with AT&T,
my dial-up ISP.

I've used AT&T for over three years and
spanning three states. (New York, Minnesota
and now Florida). I've never had a problem
until 3 weeks ago. Connection time was cut
to 14400bps consistently and for the first
time I was getting booted off the net. Getting
connected alone was taking 3 - 4 minutes.
Previously, I has been connecting at 48, 49
or 50000bps and never once lost a connection.

Nothing changed with my PC, nothing added
or new to use up any resources. All seems
O.K. Anyway, I decided that I'm going to
take a step up. (Sitting for 3 - 5 minutes
between e-mails gets on your nerves very
quickly) and patience is not one of my virtues.

I decided on DSL and BellSouth FastAccess
looked as good as any out there. Plus the fact
that a few people here are using it and haven't
had any problems.

Well, a user friendly web-site took all the
pertinent information (name, address, home
phone number, etc) and congratulated me for
prequalifying for their service. A small print
disclaimer stated,

"Pre-qualification does not guarantee service
availability at the installation location.
Although your phone prequalifies for FastAccess
there are circumstances beyond our control that
may result in your inability to receive this
service. Some of these limitations are not
detectable until our installers are at your
location and attempt the installation. If it is
determined that we are unable to install this
service, you will not incur any charges associated
with an installation"

Dang the disclaimer, they confirmed my order.
I had installation included since my skills in
that area would allow me to be electrocuted or
fry up my P.C. whichever was more painful and
costly. Installation would be done on May 9th,
between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM. All I needed was
a phone bill, my confirmation number, the
Operating System disks and be prepared to supply
a user I.D. and password. Oh yeah, and I had to
be there too. Funny they should mention that,
as I was just going to leave the front door open
so they could get in.....?

Now I'm starting to get jacked up. Dreaming
about the new found speed that will help me fly
through cyberspace ! 2 more days and no more
nodding off while going from page to page.

On May 7th, just two short days before
installation was scheduled, it happened.

Riiiiiiiing, Riiiiiiiiing, Riiiiiiiiiing..

Hello BellSouth, are you calling to confirm
my installation ? Nah, they called to totally
cancel it ! The reason given was that the
lines are inaccessible. I wasn't home to take
the message and decided to get a clarification.

First, to find out why it took three weeks to
discover this "slight" setback and secondly,
what the hell does inaccessible mean ? Trust
me, I know what the word means, but how does
it apply here ?

Another adventure begins. They left a number
for me to call if I had any questions. What
a joke that's been. Over the last two days
their automated answering system is about
as useful as my installation skills !

Five recorded prompts which take about 4 minutes
to play out, only to lead me to a - busy signal !
I finally got them on the phone at 6:00 A.M. and
got an answer (somewhat of an answer anyway).
It seems that the fibre optic cables being used
are not ready in my area but could be in a month
or two or three. They couldn't tell me when or even
give me an approximate date. They also couldn't

answer the simple question: If the service isn't available, then how did my number prequalify ?
They were clueless and somewhat surprised. While
I was on the line, they accessed the website,
plugged in my phone number and guess what ?
It PREQUALIFIED !

After shuffling some paper in the background,
hitting a few keys, they came back on line and
confirmed what they'd already told me. They
don't know why ! They asked me to call back in
a month or two to see if the service is available
at that time. Yup, I'll surely do that, yeah, right!

As of today, BellSouth, FastAccess should be
renamed to either "PossibleAccess" or
"NearFutureAccess" or simply "NoAccess".

Well, that's my tale of woe, but please excuse
me, I've gotta' run and see if I can find another
DSL service in my area. Wish me luck, I think
I'm gonna' need it !




Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 49.95