Direct TV DSL [Archive] - SpeedGuide.net Broadband Community

MosDef112

10-16-01, 10:57 AM

Welcome to SpeedGuide!

From my personal experience with Telocity/DirecTV DSL and their service, I can guarantee you that you will save yourself lots of headaches by not getting their ADSL service. Here's a few reasons why:

- Their nationwide network: They've built a nationwide network with POP's in major cities across the US. Some of the most congested, or heavily populated POP's reside in New York, Chicago, and San Jose. When service first launched in 1997, subscriber base was obviously not as affecting to their network as it is now. Now with over 68,000 subscribers, and evident signs of no immediate improvements to their network despite their claims, new subscribers can only expect nothing but Internet access of inferior quality. Their network also isn't as interconnected as the networks of many other ISP's. Sometimes accessing a website residing across another state would prompt their network to route the traffic all the way around the continent, and back to it's intended destination, resulting in high latency, and lagging network response to any site.

- Their tech support: Not only do they say that they will look into a problem within five business days, leaving you stranded for almost a whole week without Internet access, or with an annoying problem with your line, but more than often trouble tickets aren't even opened. When they do bother opening trouble tickets, more than often techs simply ping your modem, and if a response is received, they close your ticket, and tell you there's nothing wrong with your line. This sort of thing went on when I had their service with the countless trouble tickets I opened, and/or re-opened.

- Their billing: They will NEVER issue a credit for downtime, despite confirming a service credit with them on the phone, and they will NEVER stop billing until the problem is resolved, and/or the alleged opened ticket is closed. Once the problem is allegedly resolved, and you claim your service credit, they simply won't charge your credit card for the next month of service, but will then resume charging on the following month afterwards. Even though the free month was always appreciated, this didn't help when my trouble tickets were often left in limbo, or not opened at all.

- Hold times for customer service: I haven't called their toll-free customer service number because I no longer subscribe to their ADSL service (THANK GOD!!), but when I was a Telocity DSL user, average hold times during the afternoon and evening hours were about an hour or longer. I do say that once you were connected to a representative, the person was usually nice, and did seem to actually listen to what I had to say. The usual tier-1 troubleshooting script does get annoying after a while because even though after telling them that you've already done what they want you to do repeatedly, they insist that you do so, or they won't help.

- Their actual speeds: You said; "I received a telemarketing call from Direct TV and they were offering DSL. 1.5mb download and 486 upload." Don't be surprised if you don't get these speeds at all. These speeds vary from market to market, and are usually much lower than they advertise. I would recommend going through the online order process, once you type in your phone number, and address, the wizard will tell you the actual approximate speed you will get. Of course, the sales rep on the phone will sugar coat it for you, and tell you that you can get UP TO 1.5MBps. What he won't tell you is that the speeds you will actually get will depend on where you live, and the condition of your phone line.

Hope this helps into deciding, don't be too disappointed if you get their service, chances are you will.