[Daytimer]

Hello everyone and thank you for reading this post and shareing your opinions with me on this matter. Here's my story .
Years ago when Bellsouth DSL was introduced , I applied for it but was turned down because the service was not availible in my area , but soon after ,my cousin ,a buisness-woman called and asked me to come install her new Bellsouth DSL modem and filters on her home computer ! After that I went home and once again applied on line for the service but not the phone service because I'm 100% satisfied with my phone service , and once again turned down but asked for my home phone # to be notified if the service becomes available in my area. My cousin only live half a block away. A few days after my online ap. I recieved a phone call from Bellsouth asking if I would like to switch , I said no , but I would like their dsl service and was given the standard unavailible reply ,so I went and borrowed my cousins xtra modem and filters and password and guess what everything worked perfectly ,I even speed tested it all !None the less Bellsouth told me after I informed them of this that it did not matter if it worked but how close I lived to an access point .? So I just quit trying and went with cable dsl.
Now a few years later my nephew , who lives less than 1/2 a mile away recently had me install his dsl modem and filters and I just went through the same dance with Bellsouth regarding availibility !!
Is Bell south attempting to force me and others to buy their phone and internet package or is realy just unavailable half a block away, which I'm not so stupid as to believe.
Is this crap legal , cause I know I can prove connectivity in court.
And has this happened to any one else and what can we do?
Thanks before hand for reading and I apprciate your replies

[bassetman]

Originally Posted by Daytimer

Hello everyone and thank you for reading this post and shareing your opinions with me on this matter. Here's my story .
Years ago when Bellsouth DSL was introduced , I applied for it but was turned down because the service was not availible in my area , but soon after ,my cousin ,a buisness-woman called and asked me to come install her new Bellsouth DSL modem and filters on her home computer ! After that I went home and once again applied on line for the service but not the phone service because I'm 100% satisfied with my phone service , and once again turned down but asked for my home phone # to be notified if the service becomes available in my area. My cousin only live half a block away. A few days after my online ap. I recieved a phone call from Bellsouth asking if I would like to switch , I said no , but I would like their dsl service and was given the standard unavailible reply ,so I went and borrowed my cousins xtra modem and filters and password and guess what everything worked perfectly ,I even speed tested it all !None the less Bellsouth told me after I informed them of this that it did not matter if it worked but how close I lived to an access point .? So I just quit trying and went with cable dsl.
Now a few years later my nephew , who lives less than 1/2 a mile away recently had me install his dsl modem and filters and I just went through the same dance with Bellsouth regarding availibility !!
Is Bell south attempting to force me and others to buy their phone and internet package or is realy just unavailable half a block away, which I'm not so stupid as to believe.
Is this crap legal , cause I know I can prove connectivity in court.
And has this happened to any one else and what can we do?
Thanks before hand for reading and I apprciate your replies

Not sure if it's legal, but itsure seems to suck!

[Fyzbo]

I guess the real test would be to have one of the people who live half a block away to check if it is available without switching phone service. If it is, then it might just be location.

[Wino]

From my POV, don't understand why you would want DSL over cable unless your cable service is really, really bad. In our area cable, on it's worst day, is better than DSL. Even the cost is of little difference. DSL is cheaper as advertised, but once the telephone fees / taxes / access / line charges hit, it's really not that much cheaper, if at all. I'll never say never, but it would be a cold day in Texas before I'd make the change to DSL.

[Fyzbo]

I prefer dsl over cable. Of course where I was the price difference was $40-Cable and $15-Dsl. On top of that, dsl often reached it's top speed where cable was always much slower. So although slightly faster it was not worth the additional cost.

[Wino]

Originally Posted by Fyzbo

I prefer dsl over cable. Of course where I was the price difference was $40-Cable and $15-Dsl. On top of that, dsl often reached it's top speed where cable was always much slower. So although slightly faster it was not worth the additional cost.

That's a huge difference if talking the same service. Here 7-8Mbs is $44.95 cable. The closest DSL is 6Mbs for $35 and is close to $45 with all the fees & taxes. The next step DSL (10 Mbs) is over $50 and cable is $55. The cheapest DSL is $14 for .765Mbs, 1.5 $19; 3.0 $29.95, all + taxes and fees which equal about 30-40% of cost.

[Mulderator]

Originally Posted by Fyzbo

I prefer dsl over cable. .

That's like saying you prefer watch television with a lot more commercials. Cable blows away DSL all things equal--the only reason to have DSL is for lower price and or lack of availability of cable or where the particular cable company happens to suck with their service. But with all things equal, you'd never choose DSL over cable.

[Mulderator]

Originally Posted by Wino

That's a huge difference if talking the same service. Here 7-8Mbs is $44.95 cable. The closest DSL is 6Mbs for $35 and is close to $45 with all the fees & taxes. The next step DSL (10 Mbs) is over $50 and cable is $55. The cheapest DSL is $14 for .765Mbs, 1.5 $19; 3.0 $29.95, all + taxes and fees which equal about 30-40% of cost.

Its even more profound here--I don't know the exact figures, but cable is much faster than DSL although it is more expensive, but not by much--Last I checked, I could get DSL about $10 a month cheaper than cable--not even close to worth it.

[Littlefield]

Depends on who your cable is I guess mine is Charter and there is no way I would trust them over BellSouth .
I have BS and have been happy with it.

[Mulderator]

Originally Posted by Littlefield

Depends on who your cable is I guess mine is Charter and there is no way I would trust them over BellSouth .
I have BS and have been happy with it.

I've never seen any DSL come even close to my cable download speed. Now again--this depends of course on the service, number of people using it, etc., but the technological advantage of cable is fact--you get much higher bandwith capability with Cable. That doesn't mean its always faster and that's why I said "all things being equal." I can tell you that in my area, the cable serice is exponentially faster than DSL.

[Littlefield]

Charter Communications is the key word .I do not like them . The way they go up in cable prices and have a monopoly here sucks and their customer service is the worst .I have had good service with BS for my phone for years and the IS is fast enough for me.

[Bastiat]

Don't believe Mulder,he's just trying to get you to sue BellSouth knowing that BellSouth's insurance company will hire him to defend the suit. Ba$tard.

[LauraMJ]

Around here we have Comcast Cable (well, not me, I am stuck with dial-up, but I have several friends that have it), and it is down far more than it is available. My friends are constantly telling me that no, they haven't got my latest email because Comcast is down again......They've had quite a lot of trouble with getting help with service problems, the people that come out to troubleshoot problems are worthless. Many of them have switched to DSL.

[Stoner]

DSL was never considered because at the time, the phone line was old, a section underground and water leaks a problem in the spring time..
I'm on Road Runner, but I did get a $10 reduction in monthly rates , last year, by arguing I was a long time cable TV customer and valued.
So my computer connection is now ~$35 a month.
It's worth it to haggle prices in a competitive market.

[TooBad]

Originally Posted by Stoner

DSL was never considered because at the time, the phone line was old, a section underground and water leaks a problem in the spring time..
I'm on Road Runner, but I did get a $10 reduction in monthly rates , last year, by arguing I was a long time cable TV customer and valued.
So my computer connection is now ~$35 a month.
It's worth it to haggle prices in a competitive market.

Here in the DC area, we have Cox cable and verizon which offers both DSL and FIOS (new fiber optic service). I have Cox because I don't have a land line phone and have been ripped off by Verizon in the past. I have family and friends that have the new FIOS and like it alot. You do have to find all the channels again as even the local channels are not anywhere close to the channels you were used to. If I were to need a land phone line, I might switch, but it would gall me due to past history with Verizon.