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.

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:

[url]http://www.karltipple.com/sbc[/url]

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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?