We don't have a magic deactivation button
-
We decided Comcast sucks too much for the price, and the only other thing around here is slow ADSL, so we decided to give Clear's wireless internet a try. They told me a used modem would work so I ordered one. Turns out it's still attached to someone else's account who just stopped paying their bills rather than actually disconnecting their service (first thing it did when I connected was ask me to pay "my" bill). So I called them up and asked them if they could do anything about it. Of course not, I have to hunt down the original owner (who's going to be nearly impossible to find, I bought this from a used electronics site, not an individual) and get them to deactivate it.
I don't expect them to just do it for me with no further questions asked, but they seriously couldn't think of some way to prove that I'm physically holding the modem? What if the original owner is now dead/became an uncontactable hermit/went to live on another planet?
(The site I bought it from is sending me a new one for free, so I'm not too concerned. Their advice when I asked if I should send the old one back to them? Throw it against the nearest wall. I like these people.)
-
A friend of mine is going through something similar with British Telecom but on the other side.
He moved house, cancelled his old account with BT, as in his new house he's using Talk Talk ( A WTF in their own right, but still strangely better than BT ). BT needed two weeks notice to cancel the account (fair enough), it's been three weeks now since he cancelled.
The new tenants have moved into his old house, attempted to activate his old line with BT and BT said... The line is still active with him so they can't transfer it over to the new tenant. Luckily he gave the old landlord a forwarding address so he's been able to contact BT again on behalf of the new tenants to cancel the account for a second time. Hopefully this time they will actually do it. If not then no doubt he'll be running up a line rental charge for an account in a house he no longer lives in.
-
Similar BT story from one guy at work: he lives in a house previously owned by his parents. The phone line was attached to his parent's account of course. One day he decided to upgrade the line, but to do that he needed to register the line on his own account. WTFs in order or appearance:
- you cannot just change the account owner - you have to cancel and reregister
- reregistration results in a line setup fee
- he cannot upgrade for some reason, but has to get the current line connected and then upgrade it
- BT promises no downtime in either case
- line "reconnection" results in downtime
- line upgrade results in downtime
-
@viraptor said:
Virgin sorted everything out in ~15 minutes with next day delivery of all needed hardware.
... and that's why the company I work for and our parent company are migrating all their phones & internet from BT to Virgin!!
If the list of WTFs you gave is just for a residential customer, imagine how many WTFs you get with a 30-site, 100's-of-phone-lines nationwide business customer!
-
@viraptor said:
Doesn't sound like a WTF to me.WTFs in order or appearance:
- you cannot just change the account owner - you have to cancel and reregister
- reregistration results in a line setup fee
-
@pink said:
in his new house he's using Talk Talk ( A WTF in their own right, but still strangely better than BT ).
Better?!?!! Despite being AOL in drag? And all the hoo-hah about TalkTalk secretly keeping lists of which Web sites you've visited?
-
@MeesterTurner said:
@viraptor said:
Virgin sorted everything out in ~15 minutes with next day delivery of all needed hardware.
... and that's why the company I work for and our parent company are migrating all their phones & internet from BT to Virgin!!
If the list of WTFs you gave is just for a residential customer, imagine how many WTFs you get with a 30-site, 100's-of-phone-lines nationwide business customer!
Both BT and Virgin are not suitable for work grade. Get a smaller commercial grade company to do this.
-
Update: got the new modem today, set it up, and it turns out the admin interface is publicly accessible and the default password can't be changed. Well, actually, Clear can change it, and they did.
"Ah, it's still motorola? You must not have that update yet where we changed it."
"That one is on the internet too. clear123?"
"... Oh. Lovely."
They offered to send me a modem with fixed firmware (because apparently they don't have a way to flash it either) but after finding out the public admin interface can't be disabled and that they screw with incoming connections on port 80 we're switching back to Comcast. Stuff like this makes them seem remarkably competent.
Congrats, Clear.
-
@scgtrp said:
Update: got the new modem today, set it up, and it turns out the admin interface is publicly accessible and the default password can't be changed. Well, actually, Clear can change it, and they did.
"Ah, it's still motorola? You must not have that update yet where we changed it."
"That one is on the internet too. clear123?"
"... Oh. Lovely."
They offered to send me a modem with fixed firmware (because apparently they don't have a way to flash it either) but after finding out the public admin interface can't be disabled and that they screw with incoming connections on port 80 we're switching back to Comcast. Stuff like this makes them seem remarkably competent.
Congrats, Clear.
Until i read that, i didn't even think it was possible for a company to make Comcast seem like a good option.
