3:47pm today - Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005, I got a voice mail message from Cavtel Customer Care:
"Hi this is [Jeff?] calling from Cavalier Telephone, and I see that you've already received your new DSL modem and everything's working fine. If you have any further difficulties with your DSL service, or there is anything we can do for you here at Cavalier, please give us a call at.... "
must.... resist....
I called back at 3:54pm -
After hitting 1, then 1, then 0, then putting in my phone number, then waiting on hold, Steve picked up and asked me for my phone number, to verify the name on the account, then give my address, and then asked who was calling. *sigh*
I said that I was still the same person who'd just given him all my ID info and that I was in fact returning a call I'd just received stating that my DSL modem had arrived, and wanted to make sure they were aware that it hadn't. Steve verified that the address it was supposed to ship to is mine, then looked up the tracking number, which I requested twice before he decided that he could share it with me. Turns out the modem had "JUST BEEN SHIPPED", but interestingly enough, when I checked the tracking number, it was just that UPS had received the BILLING info, not the package. [ 1Z XY7 990 03 9337 109 1 ]
I mentioned that I was thoroughly dissatisfied with the service, and asked Steve if he thought it was reasonable that they waited an entire week to ship out something they'd promised to expedite, and he asked me to hold on while he read my trouble ticket. I'm impressed that they still have that, btw, I thought it would be lost by now for sure.
He came back on the line and pointed out that I should be sure and set my IP address correctly on the modem when I get it, since it still says on my ticket that I was using 64.83.191.100 instead of 64.83.19.100 - in short, the original typo that was made by the first tech has persisted. I probably sounded exasperated when I repeated yet again that my IP address has been the same number for about 5 years, in fact, ever since I first tested the DSL service for Cavtel when they first implemented it in this region, and that I'd appreciate it if somewhere on that trouble ticket, he make a note that the error was made by them, not me.
He said it was understandable that I was annoyed by this and asked if any other progress had been made in the meantime. I said that I'd had a lot of trouble finding anyone who could comprehend the high-level technical information I was trying to give them; words like "packet loss" and "traceroute" and wondered if he could think of a reason why I would get 70% packet loss consistently after a lightning storm, and only be able to connect reliably while I was on the phone. He paused and said "that's backwards" and then asked if I had one of those little filters on the line.
I said "now Steve, do you really think that after all this time, I wouldn't have filters?" and he said no, then I said "Can you think of any reason why I'd have a good connection while I was on the phone, that could originate at MY HOUSE?" and he thought about that and said no again. Then he said something I've been hoping someone would say for over a week - "I wonder what's going on with the DSLAM, let me see which one you're connected to." and after a few minutes, he said "yeah, it looks like there's too much power on the line, I've reset the offhook power level to a -2, which will sometimes alleviate problems of bleed-through between voice and data packets on DSL lines. Please let me know what happens when you get your new modem."
Stay tuned for more in the continuing saga.....