Bell + Dry Loop DSL Craziness

[chezmax]

So, I have dry loop DSL (DSL without phone service) with Bell, and submitted a move order online to tell them I was moving.

They called me back today to confirm, discovered I had dry loop, and told me he couldn't help me and transferred me to someone else to do my move request. Agent 2 told me he couldn't help, and transferred me again.

I'm now being transferred to the fifth agent...

Apparently Dry Loop is still enough of an oddity that no one seems to be able to help me.

[Edit: fifth agent couldn't help, transferred me to sixth agent, sixth agent is now transferring to seventh.]
[Edit: eighth...., and I think that's a call drop.]

[Edit:] Oh fuckpants. So, I called back and got through to someone who could actually do it. They informed me that there's still an active phone line there, and so couldn't process the move request. Well, no fuck! The previous owners still live there!!! You'd think this would be a fairly common occurrence.

Comments

[nobodyhere.livejournal.com]

I think execulink does dry loop DSL now...

[chezmax]

I really didn't want to change providers or anything. I just want my service to move exactly as I have it. Apparently this is rather difficult.

I think after 8 transfers the line quality is deteriorating...

[insaint.livejournal.com]

I didn't think Bell even offered dry loop (on account of them wanting to sell their POS phone service, too).

Execulink and TekSavvy do reasonably-priced dry loop DSL. I don't have any first-hand experience with either company, but heard good things about the latter.

[chezmax]

I switched from Roger's as soon as Bell offered it. I originally switched to Bell because they were the only company that could do dry loop (it wasn't available to resellers until a year or so later).

[silly-boy42.livejournal.com]

After 8+ people I think I could cancel and either choose another provider (if anyone else offers it) or just order again from the same provider at the new address.

[balatro.livejournal.com]

I don't know how it is up there but Verizon pissed me off enough with some line repairs that I drove to the mall and got the starter kit for cable modem. Now they offer FiOS in my neighborhood and I'm vaguely interested but hesitant.

[chezmax]

FiOS?

[chezmax]

I called them back, and that seemed to work better, as the front line people seem to know where to transfer, as opposed to random guy who called me to follow up.

Gah!

[epiphany.livejournal.com]

Oh I hate that! The classic tech support buck passin' run around!

I had a similar experience recently when I called tech support at my cable company because I couldn't find where my new server space was located since the company changed ownership. I kept getting sent to tech after tech because no one knew what servers were or what FTP meant. :-/

[balatro.livejournal.com]

You don't have FiOS up there yet? It's fiber optic internet (and cable if you want it) from the phone company. For the price of cable I could get like 10/2 up to like 50/20 Mbps.

[amarylliss.livejournal.com]

Fuck pants INDEED. (Oh, wait, that's not what you said.)

[fweebles.livejournal.com]

I had a similar problem when we switched from Rogers to TekSavvy when we bought our house. Except the problem was that TekSavvy had asked Bell to do the dry loop, Bell said they'd done it, but they hadn't actually...done...anything.

And of course TekSavvy can't do anything except call Bell over and over and ask them to please hook the goddamn wires up right. Took like a week.

[halfwitted.livejournal.com]

oh, Christ. Can't they move your line to that location and keep the existing line? Each house has capacity for two lines before they get into charging you extra anyway.

[snatchcarrie.livejournal.com]

Yes, Bell, Rogers, it doesn't matter, they're going to fuck it up and not be able to answer your questions. I would call back in a couple of days and confirm that everything is setup and ready to go on the right day.

I had issues getting my shit sorted out with Rogers and one of my friends had issues with Bell that took weeks to sort out.

Best of luck!

[phantasm13.livejournal.com]

*HUGS*

Hey you could still have Bell Canada calling you twice a month to ask you why you left Bell.

It took us 11 months to get them to remove us from the list.

I think the last lady who called actually pulled up a file and realized that in 11 months we'd told the same thing every time.

They come fix the phone line outside the house and we'd switch back, and when they'd accuse us that it was inside the house we would then tell them who the landlord had come in and check the lines inside the house and they ran perfectly fine.
They would then tell us that they could only fix the line if they switched back and we would promptly tell them we would switch back the day they called us to tell us the line was fixed and hang up.

So sadly as much as it pains us, we are Rogers customers.

[beskippy.livejournal.com]

Funny, the EXACT SAME THING happened to my brother. Either someone at Bell or TekSavvy had screwed up the original request and had hooked up the DSL to the wrong account... and they only did it after being bugged about not having it connected on time in the first place.

I think it took my brother about 1.5-2 weeks to get it sorted out.

[gandalfgreyhame.livejournal.com]

I like the word 'fuckpants', it just kind of rolls off the tongue.

In the apartment before this one I just couldn't get the phone company to acknowledge that my apartment existed, despite a few weeks of trying. I eventually just got a cable modem.

Thankfully this apartment they had no problems finding.

[lakme.livejournal.com]

Weird; I have dry loop and it took exactly one phone call and six hours to get it transferred when we moved last year.

[lothaekor.livejournal.com]

Same thing happened to one of my co-workers, and she ended up canceling Teksavvy because of Bell's pain in the ass behaviour.

I suspect it's a tactic they use to try and convert users who don't know better.

But we must all worship the conglomerate of Bell Canada. They control the horizontal... They control the vertical... But not the diagonal! And that is where we will strike! BWAHAHAHAHA!

...um yeah. I'll go back in my corner now :P

[taffer.livejournal.com]

Teksavvy does ;-)

[taffer.livejournal.com]

Nobody's offering that sort of thing up here, we've still got max 6 or 7 down-stream unless you spring for an expensive "business" connection.

[taffer.livejournal.com]

Bell keeps calling us trying to get our Internet and cell business. Screw off, dudes, we just switched to ExpressVu recently because they gave us a good deal (basically what we had with Rogers at the same price... but with HD everything and a massively superior PVR).

Rogers Wireless sent us a letter thanking us for our loyalty right after we cancelled cable. Suckers, we're bailing as soon as our cell phone contracts are up next fall. $7/month/phone "access fee" my ass.

[chezmax]

Not quite, but sure. PANTSLESSNESS FOR ALL!

You first.

[chezmax]

All the major providers have an access fee. :P

[chezmax]

I had a slightly more offensive word instead of fuckpants, but I editted out. I do like the sound of fuckpants much better than what I had before. :)

[chezmax]

No, all innovation stopped a few years ago. :(

[amarylliss.livejournal.com]

I am surprisingly okay with this.

[taffer.livejournal.com]

That doesn't make it right. :-P

AFAIK Virgin and those Koodo doofuses don't charge it.

[chezmax]

They're not real providers :)

[asmodeusb.livejournal.com]

Unless you're in Listowel. Wightman is doing teh FTTH thing and you can get 20Mbit (+tv, +phone) in LISTOWEL. Of all places.

[chezmax]

My Grandfather mentioned he just signed up to get TV through the telephone company in Milverton, as well. Hooray for small co-ops. :)