I am an employee of AT&T and the following is my opinion...?!
So I started running speedtests and found my download rate was .21meg/sec. That is only slightly faster than dial-up! I checked my cisco router, seemed ok. DSL modem was all green and the carrier signal to it tested at 1.4meg/sec so I felt it wasn't my trouble, but AT&T's. Tried speedtests on three different computers, one running windows7, one macOS-X, and one ubuntu. All three had the same bad download rate. Then decided to check with our neighbor, who also has AT&T and discovered the same identical problem. That gave me confidence my first assumption was correct, it was probably a system issue with the fiber to the curb(ONU) that serves us both.
On Wednesday, I went to work and forgot all about it. I had intended to check with one of the Alabaster technicians to see if they had other reports in our subdivision. But alas, upon my arrival home, I remembered the problem and to my disdain, it still existed! I put out a facebook message just to see if anyone else around was having issues and discovered a friend in another subdivison nearby(still on a fiber ONU) was having a problem as well.
I remembered that the BellSouth.net site used to have a list of system outages. I went there and found AT&T had discontinued it and I had to go to ATT.net now to report. So, I started that process on a .21Meg service... soooooo slooooowwwww! I admit the site made me want to disconnect. It started out okay, then suggested trying some things(which I was already way ahead of)... Then asked, "Did this fix your problem"? "Was this suggestion helpful?" "Would you rate this fix a thumbs up or thumbs down"? NO, it was not helpful!! I just wanted to send an email to a support tech with a quick list of what I'd found and where I thought the trouble was! Can't do that...
Finally, I gave up on that and decided I'd just make a report. Because, at the bottom of the page, after all the helpful suggestions, hints, and prayers, there was a link that said, contact repair. Yes, I would just do that. Clicked that, and it took me back to the first page, where I had started. Oh, one page also offered me, after going through all the slow speed problem tips, to upgrade to faster DSL. I didn't want to upgrade, I just wanted my original speed back!!!! "Would you rate this suggestion helpful to your problem"? #$*%@& NO!
On Thursday, I woke up to a new problem. Before leaving for work, I discovered the DSL was completely down. All green lights, but no surf. At work, I mentioned it to the guys, and Travis C. told me his brother had the same trouble at Savannah Point. I thought, "they have ONU's there!" Midmorning, I called a technician in Alabaster, who told me they had taken several hundred reports on slow DSL from all over the city. He said it was a bandwidth issue only only affecting fiber fed ONU's out of the local central office. I'll explain it this way, picture a fire truck needing water for a burning house, but being fed by a garden hose from the hydrant! There would not be enough water to do the job. We were all trying to use the internet from a straw instead of a big pipe! "So, I don't need to make a report with DSG(Digital Services)", I asked. He said, "Nope, they're working on it." Well, I felt better. Someone was working on it. Probably some supertech with a cape and it would be back on when I arrived home. But... NOPE, they were still working on it!
Saturday morning, I woke up at 5:30AM. Almost didn't check it, I wasn't sure I wanted to know, but I did. Still down.....! At this point, I'm wondering how much Charter internet costs???! Went to work, and to my surprise, my wife called me around 8:30am to tell me the DSL was back up. I didn't figure it would stay, but it was still functioning when I got home.
So, what did I learn from all this? I'm too dependant on the internet. I will modify my habits and not let it own or control me. I can also relate better to customers who are angry over having to deal with the repair process of AT&T. Most customers hate it. I had a 77 year old gentleman today who said, "I just wanted to talk to someone about my problem!" The voice response systems companies use are not going away because they keep employee head-count down. We will just have to get used to it! Last, but not least, I discovered my AT&T loyalty weak, when my service was down. In other words, companies who put faith in brand loyalty, saving them from poor customer service will be rewarded with quick customer departures!
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