Even the best of engineers can't really be sure.... unless they show up and look.

LoopyByteloose

A bit of venting about how the internet has matured.

I have been in a snit since July as my ADSL modem has been dying... likely over a year or more. I've had more than my fair share of sudden internet disconnects over the past 12-18 months.

My ISP is the Taiwan national telephone company and they wouldn't come out and look at it until I went down in person (second appearance) and demanded very severely that someone must come out.

A guy came out, turned on the ADSL modem and it was all green Leds and promptly said it was okay and good day. (When I turn on the computer, it starts in on a flashing red, flashing green routine).

I forced him to stay long enough for me to turn on the computer and attempt to login via the attached wifi router. Finally it became obvious to him the the ADSL modem was haywire, he swapped it out and all was fine.

+++++++++
I have no idea what the telephone company's computers do to check for a good ADSL modem and good connection remotely, but whatever it is... it won't pick up a slowly dying 10 year old ADSL modem that may just be out of spec due to worn out capacitors. (My ADSL was an Acatel-Lucent product.. supposed to be sophisticated and good.. but won't share documents with the public).

I know we all are confronted with broken electronics these days that we just chuck as impossible to diagnose. But I can't quite accept an ISP that avoids admitting that ADSL modems wear out in a decade of steady on. And it is really an affront when corporate cost cutting reaches the point of ignoring your aging internet structure.

I do admit that...

In some cases we replace too much prematurely due to age ... buy a new car or new computer to avoid the frequent trips to the shops and mounting repair bills. Or replace a dead router after a lightning strike when it is the wall wart that died and the router is good for many years more use.

But in this context, it felt as if I was being pushed into hiring an IT tech to visit with a spare ADSL modem to verify the problem and then get sold a replacement when my 17 year service contract includes the modem.
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i just simply can't accept the ISP that I have used for 17 years spending so much time refusing to make a service call. I had to actually turn off the ADSL modem before I visited them today... so that their 'computer' would show a failure. They were vague about coming Monday or Tuesday for the service call and request a cell phone number to contact me later. And then, the guy shows up on my doorstep today (Friday) unannounced.

It seems they are trained best to hide away and ignore problems.

I even asked him why he was there. I was tempted to tell him I was busy and just leaving and to come back Monday.

Gadgetman

The 'showing up unannounced' bit is because ISP techs go to the same school as FedEx delivery personnel...

http://www.precociouscomic.com/archive/copperroad/2012/03/03

EDIT: Be warned, that comic is really, really addictive...

Another one:
http://www.precociouscomic.com/archive/copperroad/2012/10/03
This one is really, really scary, though...

LoopyByteloose

I don't really enjoy role playing the irate customer/consumer to get the attention of a business, but more and more we seem to have to so in order to get someone to listen.

In this case, I suspect that all and any ISP could benefit from offering a bring-in/ walk-in service that will test and swap out a bad ADSL modem. It is a win-win program. The customer doesn't have to wait for a service call, and the ISP doesn't have personnel offending customers with blithe claims that everything is okay.

With such a service counter, I would have had the problem resolved back in July and I would have an entirely different opinion of Taiwan's Chung Hwa Telecom.

For a few decades we have all been told that the world's jobs are shifting from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. And yet, service has gotten worse and less over the same period.

At least Parallax is excellent, so I remain loyal. It is that simple.

SRLM

I'm not sure that's a global problem. My ISPs have been responsive. I had the exact same situation, except the ISP was AT&T (California) and the modem was less than a year old. They came out, tested it with their little automated tester, and replaced it on the spot. The tech was courteous and prompt.

My current ISP in Massachusetts (Comcast) is very responsive. I've called them several times, and they've always been polite and helpful. They've even go so far as to give me a several hundred dollar credit, no questions asked, to fix a mistake they made.

LoopyByteloose

It is a huge difference when compared to living in Taiwan. I suspect my problems are pretty much related to ISPs in lesser developed nations where a lot of the infrastructure is new and the training discipline is not quite as rigorous.

The tech didn't actually test the modem for failure, just swapped it out and when the new one worked his dashed out the door. Happily, I haven't seen the flashing red Led return.

And of course, when I call them.. they can't speak English and my Chinese is not enough for technical ADSL configuration. So I have to show up at the main office and beg for an English speaking representative to call their tech support and relay my service request. The person doing the translating is a sales representative that is just trained to sell.

Still, I think that throughout much of Southeast Asia, the ISP grew so rapidly that the technical support is not likely to be well trained and under-staffed due to more recent hard times. It just isn't as easy to make money by providing ADSL.

You would never get a credit for poor service in Taiwan.. this is 'the land of no refunds'.

xanadu

I feel you... I used to live in a DSL only area. They shipped a 2Wire modem/router/switch/ap thing to me. My DSL sync dropped regularly, even though the wiring was good and I was close to the CO. Tech support would open tickets, escalate them, close them and re-open them. They sent me a "new" modem in the mail. IT seemed nothing would fix it other than talking the cable company into installing a drop to our house at the time, which was closer to the pole than 50' so we had to pay for the trench to be dug etc.

One day I was listening to internet radio and I turned on a vacuum and the music stopped shortly after. Sure enough just about any AC noise would drop the modem off line. I connected the modem to a computer ATX power supply 12v and had a perfectly solid connection from there on out.

It just reminds me of that because you said when you turned on your computer you'd lose sync. I test all power supplies before I even bother with the device now. It is very common especially with low end network gear to include an inadequate power supply.

Genetix

I have AT&T here in Sothern California and they've been good about servicing me quickly and easily. In fact I had a problem recently where I lost service for a while and a tech came the next day and ran a new line from the Telephone to the building because the other line had deteriorated. I was not impressed though when I had been given Fiber Optic service over a year ago at my old location and it was slower than the DSL I had before. The DSL before was around 3 Mbps but the Fiber was less than 1. The technician who installed it said I was too far from the main office and that was after I had to pay for a new modem.

The modems here seem to change every few years and our top speeds are no where near as fast as you get other places in the world for less. Consider yourself lucky.

LoopyByteloose

Just to give you an idea of the contrast, my original telephone line was installed with it routed under the doorjam to the front door to my building, up the stairwell, under the door to my room, and to the phone.... lots of opportunity for abrasion and damage that soon followed. The phone company has never been willing to do a reinstall. Twice when it was broken under the front door, they patched it. Every time they visit, it is a rush rush hit or miss kind of affair.

I finally purchased enough telephone wire to rewire the whole service by a more conservative route as both telephone and the internet were flaky.

I even have a second ISP line into my room provided by my landlady that is a fiber optic feed into the building. I pay about $3.50 a month for that as a backup, but currently I can't seem to get a live connection. And when I do, it is firewalled in some odd fashion that will not allow full Yahoo or Google services.

Advertised rates are far lower than actual performance regardless, and when I connect outside Taiwan the speeds fall further.

bill190

I love it when I need something which is not an option on an employee's computer screen!

Or give an answer to a survey for which they don't have that as a check box.

They get all flustered and don't know what to do. People can't think on their own any more (like write down the answer on paper and contact someone to report the problem???)

It used to be that a manager or supervisor would be called in if there was such a problem. Then the system would be fixed so that problem would not happen again. As time went on, things would get better and better - run more smoothly.

LoopyByteloose

Yes indeed, what we started out call "The Communications Age" has pretty much put a huge dent in communications up and down the line while forcing anyone that wants to keep their job into scripted monologue.

I dislike the edgy feeling that people get when you just ask them to pause a minute and behave human. As for surveys, I am willing to answer all the questions... for a fee.

People enjoy being heard. They become more cooperative and patient, even more loyal to your enterprise.

Too_Many_Tools

Considering how important connect speeds, why doesn't every browser have the current transmit/receive speed displayed prominently?

LoopyByteloose

You might take a look at the fine print in your ADSL service contract. If every browser told you what the actual speed was, customers would soon be aware what a sham their service contracts are.

At peak times, the bandwidth available to you goes down. The ISP salesperson quotes the best you will ever get, not actually what will be delivered. And if you tie into slower networks from other ISP or firewalled countries, performance further degrades. From here in Taiwan to European websites my ADSL is horribly slow, but jut leaving Taiwan is a big speed penalty.

If you use Linux, you can easily monitor your WAN connection in real time from another window that is separate from your browser.

If you bought a new service with new infrastructure, you got excellent speed in the beginning... but as more people buy into the same infrastructure speeds go down AND the service contracts are written according to that reality.