;-)

(ISPs almost invariably go with the low bid on lease equipment, then put customers through support hell to get help with it.)

Whenever–on those rare ocassions when it’s called for–our local ISP techie has to make a service call here at twc central, he always wants to “look at” (look, not touch–none of the equipment belongs to the ISP) my network closet, complete with its own cooling system, along with routers and cable “modems” (there are no such things as cable or DSL “modems” but that’s another semantic gripe)–the plurals indicating cached spares just sitting in ranks like soldiers waiting their turn… juuuust in case. :-) Just cos he likes to see it. *heh* (Oh, and I have the local service guy’s cell phone number. An advantage to living in America’s Third World County™. *heh*)

But I rarely have to call my ISP. My last call to my ISP’s tech support resulted simply in listening to a recorded message telling me about a service interrupotion in my area and what the techies were doing about it.

Nice ISP. I have experienced service outages related to severe weather (trees taking down lines, etc.), but otherwise, more reliable than our local mom n pop chewing gum and baling wire telco.

Your experience with your ISP reminds me more of the ongoing battle with my hosting “service” (2.5 weeks and counting; several days straight of escalated calls, emails and I’m sure back room sacrifices of chickens and shaking of chicken bone rattles by my hosting company…). Be very afraid when you see the words “Fatcow” and “server upgrades” on the same page…

*heh*

BTW, would you help me spread the meme, “Fatcow sucks dead bunnies through a straw”? It really cracked up the service rep I last spoke with, but I think it might do more to avert others experiencing what I have with “the hosting company that must not be named” (Oops! Too late!).

:-)