Heights2Bastrop Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 My mom lives in the townhomes on Kemp Forest and Gessner. She got her phone bill today from SBC. It was in Spanish!I told her to send it back and write "No Comprende" on the front of the bill.BTW, she also recieved a phone book that was in Spanish as well. Not sure if it was SBC or not as she already pitched it. This is America, damnit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 from recent personal experience, SBC has a hard time keeping things in order... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 I was never able to get SBC to hook up the phone when I lived at Dakota Lofts. I lived on the fourth floor, but SBC insisted there were only two floors in my building. They evern refused to send out a technician to verify that I was in a four-story building that had been there for almost a hundred years. I ended up going with Vonage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjb434 Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 I am currently without phone (except for cell) and my internet using Road Runner.I was also dissappointed with SBC (Time Warner isn't much better though) from a service standpoint. The days of relying on people having to have a land phone is gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowspark Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 I recently switched to Vonage too and so far so good. In any case, it's saving me about $25 a month! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pineda Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 SBC wins again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 I recently switched to Vonage too and so far so good. In any case, it's saving me about $25 a month!When I moved out of Dakota Lofts in late 2003 my next place had free phone service so I dumped Vonage. But then when I moved the next time my new place didn't have free phone, and SBC was the local so I signed up with Vonage again. They've vastly improved their hardware in the last two years. The new box they sent me was a brand I recognized and interacts really well with other network equipment if you let it. The lesson I had to learn is "trust the Vonage." Meaning, put the Vonage router at the closest point to your network tap as possible, then feed all your other routers and such after that. I have about 10 WiFi things in my apartment and often when two or three would wake up at the same time my phone calls would go to crap. Once I moved Vonage to the head of the line and let it do the negotiating the phone service has never dropped and my other devices don't notice, not even my webcam which is usually a little flakey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 With any luck I'll never have to deal with SBC again. I used to have their DSL. It didn't seem as reliable as cable modem, and every time it cut out I had to re-sync the wireless router, which is kind of a pain. SBC DSL doesn't work well with routers because they want to limit you to one connection. Worst of all, they bundle the DSL with landline service, ie you can't get the DSL unless you pay for landline on top of it. If you don't need or want a landline phone, tough luck. When I finally tried to get rid of both the landline and DSL, they stalled for a couple of months on disconnecting the DSL and kept billing. I've read online that this has happened to a number of people that tried to cancel DSL. They seem to figure that if they make it hard enough to cancel, you'll eventually give up and keep it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatieDidIt Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 With any luck I'll never have to deal with SBC again. I used to have their DSL. It didn't seem as reliable as cable modem, and every time it cut out I had to re-sync the wireless router, which is kind of a pain. SBC DSL doesn't work well with routers because they want to limit you to one connection. Worst of all, they bundle the DSL with landline service, ie you can't get the DSL unless you pay for landline on top of it. If you don't need or want a landline phone, tough luck. When I finally tried to get rid of both the landline and DSL, they stalled for a couple of months on disconnecting the DSL and kept billing. I've read online that this has happened to a number of people that tried to cancel DSL. They seem to figure that if they make it hard enough to cancel, you'll eventually give up and keep it.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>We have switched comletely to cell phones, as everything for us in The Woodlands is long distance. We do have an SBC land line for the alarm only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 I have a $20 land line and $19.95 DSL at home. Works fine for me. In fact, the Time Warner connection used to be terrible. Depends on where you live and what kind of connection you have. At work, I have a multi router LAN for about 6 computers and seldom have a problem. I pay $26.95 for DSL for those 6 computers.Of course, I always remind them that my dad worked for SBC for 40 years, so maybe they are taking care of their own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 I just hated having to pay for landline when no one ever used that number except telemarketers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjb434 Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 ^^RedScare, you're the second person I've heard that cable modem sucks in the heights. My friends live on 13th street near Yale. I'm wondering if the cable lines are just really old.When I moved into my home in the Cottage Grove area, Time Warner installed a new trunk line through the area. My internet and digital cable work fine.I remember my mom getting digital cable back in Louisiana, the cable company ran a new line from the connection all the way into the house and redid the wiring in the house for no charge because the old lines wouldn't handle the signal well. I guess Charter may treat customers better than Time Warner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 This happened to me over on Memorial at Durham in some condos, but you are correct, that the wiring sucked. Problem was, they refused to redo it, probably because we had a group deal for about $10 per unit, so it wasn't worth it. I couldn't get HDTV to work either. So I switched to DSL and DirecTV when I moved to the Heights, out of spite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjb434 Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 I wouldn't call it spite. I would just call it capitalism and Market Dynamics. You were an unhappy customer and you found what you believe is a better product from a different company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbigtex56 Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 As a current (dissatisfied) SWB customer, I"m interested in finding a different landline telephone provider. No DSL, no call waiting, no caller ID, none of that um, stuff. Just regular ol' dialup. Since I don't have broadband, Vonage isn't an option. In other words, I'm looking for cheap.I realize that this is a market about as hot as that for manual typewriters. However, does anyone know of a local provider who's cheaper than SWB? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 my basic landline (no call waiting, etc) with SBC is cheeeeeep...and i pay about 24.95 for the DSL (i didn't get in on the deals...)my main complaint about SBC is their customer service folks and lack of training and follow-through. they have been super nice over the phone, but can't get anything done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjb434 Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 I think there are some, but they primarily market to people who can't get approved by SBC because of past customer histories. I think there basic prices end up be a little more.Would you consider going to just a cell phone? Unless you have an alarm that needs the land line.You can also use Digital Phone from Time Warner if you have cable. You don't have to have broadband to get digital phone despite what they may tell you. Digital phone is just like regular phone except from your house to the main normal switching station it runs on a cable line. After that it is a normal phone call. Many people have reported running an alarm system on the Digital phone system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm1fd Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 With any luck I'll never have to deal with SBC again. I used to have their DSL. It didn't seem as reliable as cable modem, and every time it cut out I had to re-sync the wireless router, which is kind of a pain. SBC DSL doesn't work well with routers because they want to limit you to one connection. Worst of all, they bundle the DSL with landline service, ie you can't get the DSL unless you pay for landline on top of it. If you don't need or want a landline phone, tough luck. When I finally tried to get rid of both the landline and DSL, they stalled for a couple of months on disconnecting the DSL and kept billing. I've read online that this has happened to a number of people that tried to cancel DSL. They seem to figure that if they make it hard enough to cancel, you'll eventually give up and keep it.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>You can sign up for a REALLY cheap ($5 per month) landline, and get the $14.95 DSL special. I tried to do that, but apparently Shepherd Forest is too far from the CO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamtagon Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 I just hated having to pay for landline when no one ever used that number except telemarketers.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>I know that's right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssullivan Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 I've considered dumping my basic, no options landline (it doesn't even have caller ID). But since I need it about once every couple of months to do online training for clients for now I'm holding onto it. But the only time it ever rings is when a guest I'm expecting is at the access gate needing to be let in or someone is trying to sell me crap I don't want.As for Time Warner, I've never had anything but great experiences dealing with their technicians and phone agents. They've always shown up when they said they were going to if I had a problem. And my cable Internet has been great the last three years that I've had it -- MUCH better than SBC's DSL ever was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BayouCityGirl Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 my basic landline (no call waiting, etc) with SBC is cheeeeeep...and i pay about 24.95 for the DSL (i didn't get in on the deals...)my main complaint about SBC is their customer service folks and lack of training and follow-through. they have been super nice over the phone, but can't get anything done!<{POST_SNAPBACK}>That's what I got... $24.95 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heights2Bastrop Posted August 11, 2005 Author Share Posted August 11, 2005 Changing the (ahem) subject here, Warner Cable used to send me literature in Spanish only. This was when I lived in Timbergrove. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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