I am gravely pissed off at my ISP. And the more I think about it, the angrier I feel. Allow me to vent....
I am a Road Runner broadband customer.
I am also a student at the local university. The local university offers many sometimes useful web utilities. A few hours ago the occasion arose to make use of one of the web utilities. I click on the appropriate bookmark in my web browser and I get an error. It says the domain name cannot be found. This has happened before, like last week. The last time (last week) I submitted a problem report via RR's web site. The next day it worked. Then the day after that it didn't work anymore. Great. It's like a peek-a-boo domain. WTF?
So when this happened again, I decided to actually try to contact them to speak with someone in person in the hopes of resolving this issue once and for all. So I call them up, go through two or three different menus, talk to one person, who just transfers me to the tech support department (isn't that who I called in the first place?!?!), hold again, and then there is a human on the other end of the line. WOW! fucking-a right on this is going well so far!
I tell him about how I can't resolve this one domain name. He seems like he genuinely wants to help. But it is obviously something he doesn't know too much about as he put me on hold twice during the call to (presumably) ask someone else about it or look into it or something. Then finally he tells me he's going to escalate the ticket and asks me questions about my system. Now, being an honest person I answer "Linux" when he asks what OS I'm using. Then he says "O, Linux..." in that certain way that is hard to describe. He puts me on hold again. He comes back and says that the next support tier won't accept the ticket because of that magical word. He then tries desperately to offer me some alternative solutions that in no way have any bearing on my particular issue. All he knows is I said the magic word and now he's basically waiting to get off the phone with me.
fucking hell. fucking hell. fucking hell.
Let's get hypothetical for a second. Let's say I actually use the email account that Road Runner gave me when I began being their customer. And let's say one day I can't remember the password to that email account. Technically they cannot help me because of my choice of OS, Linux. Fucking BULLSHIT!
back to the issue at hand.
After a little additional research on my part, it is clear that this issue is one on THEIR end and really has absolutely nothing to do with the system I have plugged into their network.
So what pisses me off, is that after painting the picture that something is not working right on THEIR servers, Road Runner refused to look into the issue upon seeing that odious word Linux.
I'm pissed. I plan on knocking on the doors of their local offices this morning. growl.
I am a Road Runner broadband customer.
I am also a student at the local university. The local university offers many sometimes useful web utilities. A few hours ago the occasion arose to make use of one of the web utilities. I click on the appropriate bookmark in my web browser and I get an error. It says the domain name cannot be found. This has happened before, like last week. The last time (last week) I submitted a problem report via RR's web site. The next day it worked. Then the day after that it didn't work anymore. Great. It's like a peek-a-boo domain. WTF?
So when this happened again, I decided to actually try to contact them to speak with someone in person in the hopes of resolving this issue once and for all. So I call them up, go through two or three different menus, talk to one person, who just transfers me to the tech support department (isn't that who I called in the first place?!?!), hold again, and then there is a human on the other end of the line. WOW! fucking-a right on this is going well so far!
I tell him about how I can't resolve this one domain name. He seems like he genuinely wants to help. But it is obviously something he doesn't know too much about as he put me on hold twice during the call to (presumably) ask someone else about it or look into it or something. Then finally he tells me he's going to escalate the ticket and asks me questions about my system. Now, being an honest person I answer "Linux" when he asks what OS I'm using. Then he says "O, Linux..." in that certain way that is hard to describe. He puts me on hold again. He comes back and says that the next support tier won't accept the ticket because of that magical word. He then tries desperately to offer me some alternative solutions that in no way have any bearing on my particular issue. All he knows is I said the magic word and now he's basically waiting to get off the phone with me.
fucking hell. fucking hell. fucking hell.
Let's get hypothetical for a second. Let's say I actually use the email account that Road Runner gave me when I began being their customer. And let's say one day I can't remember the password to that email account. Technically they cannot help me because of my choice of OS, Linux. Fucking BULLSHIT!
back to the issue at hand.
After a little additional research on my part, it is clear that this issue is one on THEIR end and really has absolutely nothing to do with the system I have plugged into their network.
So what pisses me off, is that after painting the picture that something is not working right on THEIR servers, Road Runner refused to look into the issue upon seeing that odious word Linux.
I'm pissed. I plan on knocking on the doors of their local offices this morning. growl.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
Never heard from the RR supervisor on Wednesday. Thursday morning I called and left him a message explaining that I would be out of the house all day and most of the next. I asked him again to email me with any information/follow-up on this issue.
Thursday evening I had an email from him explaining, basically, that it wasn't something on RR's end but that the university had DNS problems during the time I reported having the problem. He went on to say that everything should be fine now (read as: it isn't us, it's the university, we're done with this!) .
fucking great. So after reading that I tried again to bring up the university web site. No joy. Same shit. So, up to this point I have called RR tech support, gone down to their local offices to speak with someone in person, and then waited two days to hear back from them. And I'm still in the same place I was when this began.
I looked around a bit. I found some addresses of other RR name-servers. I shouldn't have had to but I did. I modified my standard network configuration. Guess what? It worked. Only AFTER making non-standard changes to my network configuration did the trouble stop.
Next steps:
- pursue the issue of the breakdown in technical support with RR. I maintain they cannot refuse support to anyone simply based on a user's choice of operating system.
- bitch at the university. Time and time again the university has shown itself to be incompetent in its treatment of standard network services. From technical support reps who cannot help with simple issues to the school's web site serving up incorrect pages to this peek-a-boo domain nonsense. I am afraid of what their next folly may be.
I am uncomfortable paying this bill now. I mean, apparently I am not worth as much to them as a Microsoft or Apple user is. Remember when I heard back from RR? I wrote the supervisor a reply in which I asked him what other nameservers were available. I must've asked on September 16 or 17. Still haven't heard from him.
Either their billing should reflect the fact that I am receiving less service than other users or their technical support policies must change.
I think what I will do is return this bill to them unopened but wrapped in a relatively polite letter explaining what they can go do.