How long is too long to wait for a tech to come to fix the internet?

[Deleted]

Actually really upset about this. About 2 and a half weeks ago, there was a pretty bad storm. Internet went out temporarily, and didn't think anything of it, as it's usually done that. So, the next day, I notice the internet would continually throughout the day, stop working for 5-10 minutes. Figured ok, that has happened before too, and after it would continue a day or two we'd call the ISP and they'd clean up the line or what not, and it'd work just fine. Fast forward to 9 days ago, the period of internet downtime became more numerous and longer lasting. We called them and asked them to please, come fix the damn thing, send a tech, do something.

It took 5 days straight of calling, and they finally sent out a tech...well, they send the phone tech. There's exactly nothing wrong with our phone line. He replaced the split, phone worked perfectly (forgot to mention, the phone line was crackling that entire time as well). He said that he could do nothing about the internet as that wasn't his job. But with that split, the internet would not work at all. Period. So to use it, I had to switch back to the original split, and pray if I wanted to do something for longer than 30 minutes online, the internet would hold.

We called the company yet again last Friday. They said a tech would come out on Saturday. We called Saturday, they said the tech might come that day, or Sunday. We called Sunday to find out, and they said techs don't even go out on Sundays, and anyone who said that one was coming was just lying to get us off the phone. We called them today , and they said they can't even tell us when one will be available.

Quite frankly, at this point, I'm pretty pissed. I actually have no idea what recourse I have here, and what options are available. I'm unfamiliar with the consumer law (I live in Croatia). My wife knows pretty much nothing about this as well. I figured since now the Croatia is a part of the EU, perhaps someone here with some experience with this kinda thing can tell me just how much longer I must wait before there's some kind of legal action I can take against this company (if necessary) and what kind of compensation I can legally get (or should ask for).

[drwelfare]

Depends on scheduling and available people. After a storm there can be a lot of problems, and they may have you on the list of "on-call" to try and work you in if there is a cancel or reschedule.

They should give you credit for time out of service maybe a bit more.

[Vargur]

Stop phoning and go face to face.

[Deleted]

Depends on scheduling and available people. After a storm there can be a lot of problems, and they may have you on the list of "on-call" to try and work you in if there is a cancel or reschedule.

They should give you credit for time out of service maybe a bit more.

I understand that there can be and probably is a large amount of problems. However, they haven't even given us a time frame or anything of the sort except bullshit lies, which is...well, wrong.

And now everytime we ask, they just say they will get to it when they can get to it.

Vargur - They don't have an office at all in this city.

[Kadil]

Phone them and say you will cancel if not fixed within two days. If they don't fix it cancel whatever you have with them and go with a new provider. No excuse for shoddy service.

[Deleted]

Phone them and say you will cancel if not fixed within two days. If they don't fix it cancel whatever you have with them and go with a new provider. No excuse for shoddy service.

I have thought on doing that, the problem being that it would break the contract with them and the cancellation fee is kinda pricey .

[Cosmic Janitor]

I hope he isn't a t-com technican, I don't know a single person that ever had any positive encounter with one of those ..

Also the fact that they have 2 technicans, one for phone and one for internet is so ridiculuous, that it hurts.

[volescue]

If they completely miss an appointment, I would consider that unacceptable. They already schedule themselves for a whole day rendering you incapable of doing anything away from your house that day. On top of that, they usually only schedule appointments one week from you call.

Are you dealing with a local number or one of their corporate numbers? If you are dealing with their local number, I would suggest trying their corporate one and inform them you have been trying for 2 weeks to get someone to come out and that all you got was a phone technician and an appointment no one even showed up to. If that still doesn't produce a result, call the corporate office again and tell them if it isn't fixed you are going to be forced to have to switch to another ISP, or even satellite (oh the horror). No business wants to lose a paying customer with a bad taste in their mouth. If they are fine with that, it is probably best to get rid of them anyhow.

[Deleted]

I hope he isn't a t-com technican, I don't know a single person that ever had any positive encounter with one of those ..

Also the fact that they have 2 technicans, one for phone and one for internet is so ridiculuous, that it hurts.

Funnily enough I had T-com previously, and didn't have nearly as many problems. The guy that came to install it actually was really early and friendly . And since they are owned by the same parent company it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. But at least then they had given us a time frame and stuck to it.

And yeah, I found that to be really weird. The guy that came out to check the phone line though wasn't even from Optima or T-com, but a different company.

[Kadil]

I have thought on doing that, the problem being that it would break the contract with them and the cancellation fee is kinda pricey .

Check the contract you have with them. If my provider lets it go more than 2 days without fixing a reported fault they cannot charge me for the full month and also cannot charge me at all until it's fixed even if it sometimes works. If you don't pay them they will be fixing it very quickly, they want your money.

[russ555]

Have you tried Googling your provider? I found a forum for my ISP where the customer service staff are all English and get things done much faster compared to the people at the Indian call centre. At the very least you will probably find other pissed off customers and their solutions.

[Poopymonster]

Phone them and say you will cancel if not fixed within two days. If they don't fix it cancel whatever you have with them and go with a new provider. No excuse for shoddy service.

If he's in the US, there are no other options in most places. So they can be vague and such since they are the only game in town.

[Deleted]

If they completely miss an appointment, I would consider that unacceptable. They already schedule themselves for a whole day rendering you incapable of doing anything away from your house that day. On top of that, they usually only schedule appointments one week from you call.

Are you dealing with a local number or one of their corporate numbers? If you are dealing with their local number, I would suggest trying their corporate one and inform them you have been trying for 2 weeks to get someone to come out and that all you got was a phone technician and an appointment no one even showed up to. If that still doesn't produce a result, call the corporate office again and tell them if it isn't fixed you are going to be forced to have to switch to another ISP, or even satellite (oh the horror). No business wants to lose a paying customer with a bad taste in their mouth. If they are fine with that, it is probably best to get rid of them anyhow.

That's part of the problem. The techs on the phone apparently have nothing to do with the techs in the field, or something like that. They just pass the info along. So I'm not even sure if the fact they lied to get us off the phone was some kind of binding scheduling or ..just what it actually was, bullshit that should never have been spoken.

And we're calling the support number on the bill. There's no local office here. I have no idea if it's also the same number as their main office or not, but I will look into that as well.

[Kadil]

If he's in the US, there are no other options in most places. So they can be vague and such since they are the only game in town.

In that case I'd stop paying for it until it's fixed. Keep a record of all calls you make to them, keep copies of any emails or letters, send letters by registered mail (they sign for it) and stop paying. If they bring you to court no judge will make you pay when you have no service.

[Deleted]

Just for clarification - I'm not in the US. I'm Croatia . And they don't have an official forum that I could find. The provider is Optima Telekom. Maybe someone will have more luck finding something than I did.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Funnily enough I had T-com previously, and didn't have nearly as many problems. The guy that came to install it actually was really early and friendly . And since they are owned by the same parent company it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. But at least then they had given us a time frame and stuck to it.

Being a new customer is diffrent. A car salesman will be very friendly too,the first time you buy something, but once you come back with problems they suddenly don't know you anymore.

[drwelfare]

Call again and speak to "The Big Man" (The Boss Man)

Get a time and date for an appointment, and be there.

If all else fails, cuss them the F.. out

[volescue]

That's part of the problem. The techs on the phone apparently have nothing to do with the techs in the field, or something like that. They just pass the info along. So I'm not even sure if the fact they lied to get us off the phone was some kind of binding scheduling or ..just what it actually was, bullshit that should never have been spoken.

And we're calling the support number on the bill. There's no local office here. I have no idea if it's also the same number as their main office or not, but I will look into that as well.

Well another option would be calling your local BBB (Better Business Bureau). They can and will mediate on your behalf, and it is a giant red flag to the company as the BBB logs and tracks complaints about companies. Nevermind, just read that you are in Croatia, though it could be worth checking out if you have something similar to the BBB.

[Attackrabbit]

Well I've been having connection issues, up until 5 or 6 weeks ago I was at steady 36Mbs down and 9Mbs up....here's a couple of my speedtest graphs:



Been waiting about 5 weeks now for some help from BT, done online chat with BT India a few times and they have opened support tickets, had callbacks and they've monitored the line etc....each ticket has been closed and marked resolved somehow :/

Trying one last time this week to get it fixed then fuck BT, my contract finishes mid next month so there's no way in hell I'm renewing that...just a pity all the other ISP's in my area are also terrible ^^

edit: Thanks to whichever BT spy was in this thread and sent the internet elves out overnight to fix my connection:


Still most likely not renewing my contract though