SBC Nightmare!

[!!!FED-UP]

I am just plain fed up with SBC/SBC Yahoo service. Moved the first of the year and guess what ---my bill is 3 X what was quoted to me when I signed on to the service!. I kick myself for choosing this unfriendly, uncooperative mega-company! I wanted to let others know that SBC is not a company anyone with choices should deal with. I have asked them repeatedely if they would send me confirmation email of thier promises to send repair/technical service---guess what they tell me ----they do not have access to email?????? WHAT>???????They provide our internet! Three times they have promised to send out a technician, and guess what---no show each time spent all day on three different occassions waitning for them and nobody showed up. When I wanted to register a complaint, I was told that I :mad: would have to WRTIE a letter to MO. They do not have an electronic way to communicate with thier customers. WHAT A JOKE! WARNING CHOOSE another compnay if you want reliable, honest service!!!!

[ibew21member]

Hello all,
I have worked for SBC for 4 years now since the merger of Ameritech and SBC,before that I worked for Ameritech for 8 years.
I can relate with everything that is said about SBC customer service,these people have to follow a script on EVERY call or they are out the door!
SBC is nothing more than a blood sucking leech that will stop at nothing to make a profit at your expense and ours.

I too have a complaint,I was suspended yesterday for 1 day to be servered on 5-16-05 for my cell phone bill,Cingular-we are majority owners in that company.All company calls FROM FEBUARY this is now May 13.
I had 1200 minutes are they only allow 1000 minutes I can deal with that but from Febuary? Please don't get angry with the employees of SBC they go through more grief than you could ever imagine.
Please call you state reps. from Illinois and ask that they vote down SB1700 this is critical.If you think it's bad now let SB1700 pass.

[KarlT]

SBC has very misleading ads, and they fail to tell you that after the first year promotional deal, your rate for only the Express service will go to $49.95 which is $7 more per month than Comcast's standard rate which is for 4 Mbps service instead of 1.5 Mbps max.

I have been with them for 10.5 months as both telephone and DSL customer and it has been a non stop nightmare.

You can read all about my experinces here:

http://www.karltipple.com/sbc

I am not surprised that they have a high turnover of customers after the first year; so does Cingular (60% owned by SBC) and as a result Verizon is rapidly overtaking them.

I really do not understand what is wrong with the management at SBC . . . they fail to understand that they must be competitive price-wise and service-wise. Is the management just another crowd with golden parachutes that don't care what they do to the company?

KarlT

[Mr SupportSentry]

In SBC's defense, they will give you the same rate if you commit to another term with them. I felt the same way, but when I called they told me they would continue the rate if I committed to another year (which is what you do to get that rate in the first place). And, Comcast's service is crap...don't get me started on them. Do a search for Comcast DNS and you will see what I mean.

I switched from Yahoo/SBC DSL to Comcast and my service never worked well for over two months. I made the switch to Speakeasy and their 6Mb/768Kb line and I don't see myself ever going back. Their network is far superior to either.

[KarlT]

How can you go with DSL with another company when SBC has to provide the line set up to use it? Or are you talking about a high cost separate T1 line?

I ask that because I switched to SBC from AT&T when government rulings began forcing competitive telephone services out of areas where the telephone service was being offered by someone that did not own the lines.

And yes, I know Comcast has a terrible reputation too . . . I personally know people that have gone thru the Comcast nightmare!

Thank you.

Karl Tipple

[Mr SupportSentry]

You can go with another company because there are federal regulations to allow competition in the telecommunications sector. So, anyone is technically able to use the phone lines that run into your house no matter who owns them. Even if you don't have a phone number at your house, as long as your house has phone wires connected to it, Speakeasy can offer you service for like $5 or $10 extra a month.

[KarlT]

Well, I looked at Speakeasy, and it looks to me like you have to go with a T1 line . . . ? Not cost effective unless you are a business with high volume traffic. Even the town of Addison, TX has gotten around having to pay for a T1 line by making a deal with RedMoon for free wireless service in return for which RedMoon is allowed to sell broadband service to any residents for $30/month while using the antennas they installed for the City.

Also, I know that in theory anyone can use your phone lines, but as a practical matter, SBC (and other companies) managed to get legislation passed that pretty well put AT&T out of business in the local phone business in Texas in areas where SBC owns the lines. This is rather academic in the case of AT&T because it has been mismanaged into the ground over the past decade with one incompetant CEO after another, to the point where SBC is trying to buy the remains out, but I would think the same factors would be involved with *any* service that was trying to use SBC lines.

KarlT

[Mr SupportSentry]

Karl, no you don't have to get a T1 line to get DSL with Speakeasy.

And, any DSL provider can use SBC's or anyone else's telephone lines to provide a DSL or any other data circut.

[KarlT]

OK, thank you.

I suppose the next step for the phone companies will be to try to get legislation to prevent other companies from using their lines to provide DSL (i.e., data circuits) too, as they have in the voice area I mentioned above.

I saw last night on TV where the city of Alexandria, VA is now providing free wifi to all its residents. This appears to have initiated a rush by phone companies to stop this with attempts at new legislation against it. The absurd argument by one phone spokesperson was that the poor city would be over burdened to the point that they would have to neglect their infrastructure . . . can you beat that?

I already knew that a number of cities around the country (including Philadelphia), were planning or had installed wifi for their residents (although not necessarily free, of course).

KarlT

[Tom Parker]

The only way SBC will ever improve their service and rates is for everybody who feels that SBC is a third world/third rate provider of internet and phone service is to fire them. That is what I'm doing..Does $98/mo vs $37/mo get your attention?

[KarlT]

Yes, it does . . . but how do you fire them when they are the only phone company left in town now that the government has ruled against competing phone companies using SBC's lines?

Karl

[KarlT]

Well, the FCC screwed us yesterday; they ruled that local phone companies no longer have to provide DSL capability to competing companies (eg., Earthlink, Speakeasy, etc.) at rates other than those set by the local phone company. Consumers Union has denounced the ruling because it will "stifle competition" and even Earthlink admits it is going to be tough. This is the same thing they did to the voice phone service a year or so ago. Customers and ISP's are given 12 months to decide what they are going to do, before this goes into effect.

Now what?

Karl

[Mr SupportSentry]

It will be interesting to see how that plays out. Here is a good article (http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/12319362.htm) on the ruling. Sounds like the people that might get hit hardest are the ones in rural areas. I think it would really cause too much of an uproar if they were to clip everyone in a big city.

[KarlT]

I don't know about that; SBC drove AT&T (which they are now trying to buy anyway) out of the phone service market in Dallas, TX, so I don't see why they can't drive out Earthlink, Speakeasy and others from the broadband market the same way.

Karl

[janer]

i signed up with SBC in april 2005 because i didn't think i was able to get other service for one reason or another. from the beginning i was bumped off the internet because of using the phone (the whole reason to get DSL!) and crappy phone service - static on the line etc...while on the internet. last week, my internet just went down - over the course of a week, i spent about 7 hours on the phone with SBC and they couldn't identify the problem so told me it was the modem and sent me a new one which took 3-5 business days which fell over the weekend so my service was down for 8 days! when i got the new modem, it still didn't work so i called my computer manufacturer - i had to spend $99 for the support since i was 5 months beyond my warranty but they helped me - SBC took me through virtually all of the steps the manufacturer did except about 2 - SBC should have been able to help me with this - they were 2 steps away from solving the problem but since they stick to the scripts and prompts, they kep passing me around. now, SBC has offered me a $5.32 in my bill - i asked for a month's compensation and a waiver of the early termination fee - they refused - i recommend looking for any other service than SBC and i will definately be looking so that when my contract is up, i won't support them anymore!

[KarlT]

If you live where there is cable service (and I assume you do if you can get DSL phone service) read the latest update (scroll to the bottom if you don't want to read the whole thing!) to my nightmare exerience with them at http://sbc.karltipple.com .

I have received some really helpful advice and suggestions from other readers of my site and this thread.

P.S. I'm sorry the link above did not work before; just discovered it and fixed it November 26.

KarlT

[pattero]

I have had nothing but trouble with SBC for my phone (local and long distance) and my web service. The last couple of weeks have been so bad its absolutely remarkable. About a month ago I opened my phone bill to find out my long distance plan had been hijacked by Sprint. SBC said that there was nothing they could do even though I was signed up for their long distance plan. It took over 3 hours on the phone to get it cleared up.
2 weeks ago my e-mail stopped working. After a couple hours on the phone with them the final result was "too bad you'll have to get another e-mail address and start over:. I was so fed up that I cancelled my phone and internet on the spot.
Guess what ...they charged me $200 for ending my contract early! I couldn't believe they cut me off and then I cancelled the service but they want to charge me for it.
I have never encountered a more incompetent bunch in my life. The process of fixing anything with these people is worse than I've ever experienced. You can spend hours on the phone only to be cut off.

Good Luck getting your $200 SBC AT&T Yahoo or whoever you are.

[KarlT]

I have recently found that if you write their Chief Operating Officer rather than the worthless over paid crook CEO, you do much better. It finally dawned on me to write to him, certified with green signature card receipt, and in less than a week, a woman from his office called to ask what she could do for me. Try it!

Mr. Randall L. Stephenson, COO
SBC Communications, Inc.
175 East Houston
San Antonio, TX 78205-2233

Next, get yourself a web site and run your email thru it, and you will never have to put up with the problems of any ISP's mail, which is problematic at best, based on my experiences with SBC and before that, with AT&T.

http://sbc.karltipple.com

[kwv]

You can go with another company because there are federal regulations to allow competition in the telecommunications sector. So, anyone is technically able to use the phone lines that run into your house no matter who owns them. Even if you don't have a phone number at your house, as long as your house has phone wires connected to it, Speakeasy can offer you service for like $5 or $10 extra a month.

It is the same in Australia as even those a certain phone company called Telsuck (people in Australia would know who I am talking about and why I call it Telsuck) owns the line, other phone companies rents the line off Telsuck.

[KarlT]

Yes, in theory you can sign up with another telephone company, but in practice, the US government has ruled that local phone companies who own the lines no longer have to rent their phone lines to anyone else at a reasonable price. Same with cable companies. As a result, in the US, it is almost impossible to get much financial advantage any more (in my experience) by trying to go with someone in my area other than the owner of the phone lines (SBC in my case).

Yes, there is about a $5/month gain in going with a competitor, but that leaves one in a mess when the phone lines get messed up . . . who do you think is going to get their DSL service back up first?

Also, before SBC bought out AT&T, I was with AT&T up until almost 2 years ago for my regular phone service because I was on dial-up with AT&T also, and altho they used the SBC lines, when I asked them for DSL service, they said "Go with SBC if you want DSL"! And that was before the government ruled against them!

Of course that is all academic now because SBC has bought out the remains of AT&T, having helped run them into the ground (altho granted AT&T management was mostly responsible for their demise).

KarlT

http://sbc.karltipple.com