A few weeks ago when I ordered new wireless service, I also talked to someone at Qwest about standalone DSL. Some support muppet took my name and information and said that his manager would get back to me within 24 hours, which never happened. So Tuesday a week ago I called Blarg instead, and they created an account for me and gave me a number to call at Qwest where I would get people who know what they're talking about.
Thus, I called Qwest and ordered standalone
DSL. I'm really happy about this choice of service, because we get 1.5Mbps download speed for just less than $60/month, which (split in half with Jeff) is $2 more than what I was paying for crappy, slow AOL. Whee!
Qwest told me that the service would be activated this Tuesday. I was also told that I should have someone come out to work on the jack and that this service would cost $99. I opted not to have that done, since there was a chance it would work without that and the only risk was waiting a few more days to schedule a technician to come out.
So last night I plugged in the DSL modem to test it, and there was no signal, no connection. Rats. I was feeling tired, so I left it plugged in overnight. In the morning I tested it on the other phone line (just in case) and then called Qwest again, resigned to paying $99. I talked to a lovely tech support guy who led me through testing the connection at the phone box outside the house, called the central office to have them check the connection there, then submitted a ticket for a tech to come out to the house by 1pm tomorrow. Since I had been expecting to wait until next week, I was impressed. When I hung up from that call, it was 11:30.
At 13:30 my phone rang, and it was the tech saying that he'd be at my house in a few minutes! Wow! He came, played with the phone box, left to play with some connections farther up the line, came back, left again... Finally he tested the line inside and announced that it was fixed. Moreover, it is fixed, and I'm now online with Blarg! Yay!
The best part of this story is that since the problem wasn't in the house but in Qwest's wiring, I don't have to pay for it! Go me for not blindly coughing up the $99.
Stephen says:
I remember Blarg! I had them for dial-up for three years until I switched over to Copper.net (still dial-up) because it was cheaper. The name, though, "Blarg"-- I never did like the name. For my email address, I preferred to use one of their alternate domains, nwfirst.com. It's just aestetically more appealing. (Blarg sounds like something you do when you've had way to many drinks and your stomach decides to eject its contents.)