My Qwest Nightmare

[Sandan]

In relating this I'm essentially asking ... Is it worth switching to Cox

First the nightmare.

Yesterday Qwest arrived to upgrade us to their new technology. Moving us from 3m to 7m for no cost increase. Unfortuantly the install didn'yt go smoothly [shock and awe].

Turns out the wires from hosue to Qwest box sucked and the speed was low and it kept disconnecting. So guy came back today. TUrns out we have a spare set of wires in cable which delivered an exremely good connection. Unfortunatly, I've been working long hours as was too tired to think 'Ah I should check this'.

Turns out their definition of 'good' is within 20% of what they advertise for DL and they make not gaurantee on upload speeds.

Well It seems I do break that 80% level 4 times out of 5. I have a bazling fast new hight spped link that DL at about 5.8Mb on a supposedly 7Mb link. But the )(*&*(&* &)&_*(_(*&*(&) upload is ********* slower than it was before [7.0 down from 8.5Kb].

They defined this as accsptable when I called support. I think the tech detected a faint hint that I didn't entirely agree with him. I almost got lucky, I was reading 5.58Mb for a while and that is below their 5.6Mb 'acceptable' level. I think I suggested that I would be unwilling to overlook the slight delta, unfortuantly the next 2 tries were around 5.7.

Now I'm looking at Cox, for a few buck more I can get their hoghest speed offering which is over 2x what I get now in both directions. What I'm tring to find out is if it delivers ?

Also I would like to find Cox's fine print to determine what their 'acceptable' minimums are.

I should have guessed I was in trouble when the tech responded to my casual 'So how fast is upload now' feidnly conversation with .. "I'm tols to respond with, we make no gaurantee on upload speeds"

My upload speed actually dropped 12% grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[dreamcastrocks]

For the problems that they have with TV, Cox internet is as solid as they come. Switch and don't look back. I'll never have DSL again.

 

[JS22]

I am stuck with Qwest or some weird company called "Ygnition" in the apartment I live in. Ygnition is $40 a month for basically 1.3/1.5. It's some form of a T1 that is shared with the complex. No thanks.

Qwest is a little bit better. For $34 I get about 4.3/800. Cox cable wasn't really much faster at our other apartment, but at my parents house it's pretty fast. About 12/700.

Cox can be good or bad depending on where you live. My parents love it, but it was a nightmare in my other apartment. Constant disconnects, DSL speeds, etc. I'm somewhat satisfied with Qwest at the moment. I know it's not blazing fast, but it's been running like a champ for 5 weeks straight. Not a single disconnect. And it's cheap.

 

[JS22]

I am stuck with Qwest or some weird company called "Ygnition" in the apartment I live in. Ygnition is $40 a month for basically 1.3/1.5. It's some form of a T1 that is shared with the complex. No thanks.

Qwest is a little bit better. For $34 I get about 4.3/800. Cox cable wasn't really much faster at our other apartment, but at my parents house it's pretty fast. About 12/700.

Cox can be good or bad depending on where you live. My parents love it, but it was a nightmare in my other apartment. Constant disconnects, DSL speeds, etc. I'm somewhat satisfied with Qwest at the moment. I know it's not blazing fast, but it's been running like a champ for 5 weeks straight. Not a single disconnect. And it's cheap.

Spoke too soon. Got a $55 bill for the "free" modem, in addition to a $20 fee for the "free" self-installation.

Thanks Qwest. Now I have to spend at least 30 minutes on the phone sorting this out.

 

[TalkToQwest]

Hello my name is Steph I work for Qwest, I am sorry to hear of the different frustrations the users of this forum have experienced with billing and with service, if you would like additional assistance, please email me at talktous at qwest.com, put Steph in the subject line and any additional information that might help us assist. I would love to help resolve these concerns!

thank you

Stephanie Boyd
Manager - Consumer Affairs Team

"At Qwest your account information is confidential and protected by law, so I need your permission to access the account.”

 

[Mulli]

has this been resolved yet?

 

[82CardsGrad]

Switched to Cox 4 years ago and never have experienced any problems. Did the bundled deal (Digitial Phone, Cable TV and Internet). Download speeds are FAST! And very reliable service. Best of all, their techs actually know what the hell they're talking about...

 

[LVG]

Hello my name is Steph I work for Qwest, I am sorry to hear of the different frustrations the users of this forum have experienced with billing and with service, if you would like additional assistance, please email me at talktous at qwest.com, put Steph in the subject line and any additional information that might help us assist. I would love to help resolve these concerns!

thank you

Stephanie Boyd
Manager - Consumer Affairs Team

"At Qwest your account information is confidential and protected by law, so I need your permission to access the account.”

How far are we down on the Google search?

 

[Ryanwb]

That upload speed is boarderline for VOIP usage. I would swtich to Cox. Sorry Stephanie

 

[Treefiddy]

Today's Penny-Arcade is about this same issue.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/5/1/

 

[KloD]

Qwest is horrible. Before I was married I bought a house and called all the utilities 2 weeks before moving in. I was given a date about 10 days after I moved in for my DSL to begin working. I was told I would get the equipment a few days prior to that date. So the date came and went and I had not recieved the equipment. I called and they said I had canceled the order. Huh? They refused to accept that I hadn't, so I placed another order. Another 10 day waiting period came and went and I called back. They said I canceled the order again. Now I'm annoyed. I told them to cancel my phone service as well as informing them that I would never use any of their services again. I turned around and called Comcast who showed up the next morning and installed my internet, less than 24 hours later. That was also the time I decided to stick to cell phone only. The topper, about 6 weeks later I recieved a package from Qwest with the DSL gear. I couldn't believe it! I called them and told them they were paying for its return and they assured me they were sending a return label and I would be charged nothing. I never got the label.

 

[Sandan]

Today's Penny-Arcade is about this same issue.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/5/1/

lmfao, that pretty much describes my conversation with Qwest

 

[Sandan]

The finale to this story.

All week my link has just seemed slow, the speed checks out but its like we were getting dropped packets.

Brighteyes complained that Youtube was unusable.

Cox set us up today, instant improvement. We are getting close to the rated DL speed [17.5 - 19.5] and +50% on the rated upload speed. When it slides both ways I can live with it. My worst measurement was still closer to the best Qwest had [% wise]

 

[Treefiddy]

Glad you got everything worked out. Cox has amazing internet service.

 

[Sandan]

agreed

 

[Mathew81]

I am stuck with Qwest or some weird company called "Ygnition" in the apartment I live in. Ygnition is $40 a month for basically 1.3/1.5. It's some form of a T1 that is shared with the complex. No thanks.

Qwest is a little bit better. For $34 I get about 4.3/800. Cox cable wasn't really much faster at our other apartment, but at my parents house it's pretty fast. About 12/700.

I'm moving into an apartment next week and those are my 2 options as well. I'm going with Qwest (Ygnition's 1.5 isn't nearly good enough) and I just hope my experience is better than the other posters' here.

 

[JS22]

I'm moving into an apartment next week and those are my 2 options as well. I'm going with Qwest (Ygnition's 1.5 isn't nearly good enough) and I just hope my experience is better than the other posters' here.

Well, they did take the charge off pretty quickly. Took about 5 minutes of my time, so it wasn't as bad as I though it'd be.

Its a pretty stable connection, though obviously not very fast compared to a solid cable connection.

 

[thirty-two]

I had Qwest for 2 years at my last apartment and I didnt really have any issue with them. The only minor thing was my non-qwest wireless router would cause the TV cable box to reset about 5-10 times a day (always during important TV of course!). They told us it was our wireless router, but we scoffed at paying for their wireless router when we already had one and why didnt they offer a better cable box. The tech guy basically said "here is our wireless router, test it out, try it, try it for a while... a long time... wink wink" Basically we used that thing from them on and I was never charged for it.

Their customer service seemed okay - I did get one really stupid guy who told me I couldnt cancel my service 3 weeks in advance and I had to wait closer to the date. I called back to get another person and she was like "um no, that is totally no even close to being correct. of course you can cancel now" Overall, I had no major complaints.

 

[joeshmo]

Havent had any problems with Quest at all yet, 1.5 years total of having it. I think it depends on where you live, and the install tech that you get. I live in a brand new neighborhood, which comes with brand new state of the art underground grid with all the lastest wiring and shielding. Also depends on the houses wiring, I got the upgrade wiring and shielding package for free. Also the tech guy that came out to install a new outlet, I for some reason didnt buy with my house, did a direct connect from the street to the box, meaning its sole duty is internet, its a straight shot internet connection and isnt the same dual duty line that does both Phone and Internet. All that and I have been within 5% of the max speeds eerytime I have checked. Also ahve never had to call the customer support either so I cant say if that is bad one way or another.

I must be really depend on where you live and its just a fickel set-up and I just got lucky with the exact right conditions. But I have heard horror stories from co-workers that live on the East and South side of the valley.

 

[Sandan]

My Qwest 1.5 and 3.0 worked fine, not sure the 7.0 did but that isn't the big issue.

Qwest 7.0 [which is really less than 6] costs the same as Cox 20 and is worth about $30/month by the same standards as opposed to 50+.

Funnily enough that's what the offer to drop it to if you bitch and threaten to leave. So the know they are screwing you over at 50+ a month

 

[Mathew81]

Had my Qwest internet set up today and so far it's been pretty good. The tech guy was early and set it up pretty easily. I have the 7.0 mps plan. I checked out speedtest.net and it's running right around 6 mps. Pretty happy so far.

 

[Sandan]

6 out of an advertised 7, sounds good [not to me], have you checked your upload speed, that has likely dropped.

Oh and Qwest know this service is overpriced by about 80%, they offer to drop the rate if you threaten to quit to be on a par with Cox [on a bandwidth basis].

Its not that its bad, its that Cox is almost 3x faster down and up for the same price. I'm actually getting almost 5x up and much closer to the advertised bandwidth [getting 19 out of advertised 20]