BellSouth DSL Savings May Be Just a Line
A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. And a DSL line that works is worth any money-saving deals the phone company might offer you, as one BellSouth customer recently learned. The reader wrote: "When we moved to Florida 10 years ago, we had three phone lines put into the house by BellSouth -- a dialup for my wife, a dialup for me, and a voice line for everyone. Over the years my phone line became the DSL line,
Follow @infoworldA bird in hand is worth two in the bush. And a DSL line that works is worth any money-saving deals the phone company might offer you, as one BellSouth customer recently learned.
The reader wrote:
"When we moved to Florida 10 years ago, we had three phone lines put into the house by BellSouth -- a dialup for my wife, a dialup for me, and a voice line for everyone. Over the years my phone line became the DSL line, which I had through DSL Express. I installed a network, and all was good. Then I decided we didn't really need three phone lines any longer. This was the first mistake."
"I went onto the BellSouth website and the only line that qualified for their DSL was the one I was currently using for my DSL. So I called customer service and explained the situation, telling them I wanted to drop the phone number on my line and to transfer the voice line number to that line because it was the only one that passed the loop test. She said 'Sure, let me test that line...' When she came back on, she said that I qualified for their new 6.0 MEG service and if I got their complete package -- since we also use Cingular, which they bought -- we could actually save money. I said great, let's do it! Strike two."
"A few days letter the techs showed up to move the lines and switch the numbers. My DSL Express was still working once they made the switch. They came back a while later and said they had to fix something. Once fixed, my DSL stopped working. We called and BellSouth said my new DSL modem should arrive the next day and I would be up and running. I set us up on dialup for the interim. (My wife works from home setting up training sites for various companies on the web -- she was NOT a happy camper.) The next day our modem did NOT arrive, so we called. Oh, our order had been cancelled because the local switch was not provisioned for 6.0 DSL! Did we want the 'regular' service instead? Yes. 'OK, you'll receive your modem in 4-5 business days.' Now my wife was REALLY unhappy."
"The next day, our phone line is dead, so we call BellSouth again. 'Oh, yes, we show that you're moving and wanted this number disconnected!' So now my wife proceeds to explain what we ordered, versus what we got ... 'Uhhh, let me get my supervisor ... I'm sorry, ma'am, you can't have DSL, the switch in your area has no more free slots!'"
