Internet Providers Which one do you have?

[mps]

Hi guys,

You guys think you have it tough you should see what I struggle with connecting to New Zealand - cripes, it is driving me bonkers.

I am on Fibretel which I have been told is the best - well it must be the best of a really terrible lot then. I then checked speeds to US and also got a poor result, at least nothing like the 3Mb that others are getting.

I then tested it again about 10 minutes later and got:

So it looks like my wireless connection is really up and down. I have had Fibretel over here twice now - the first joker had no clue what he was doing. The second at least checked the speeds and admitted they were low - then said call Fibretall - what the? Like a pair of tits on a bull - bloody useless.

Anyone have any other advice? Should I connect with a cable instead perhaps?

Mark

 

[markbsas]

The speeds international are all over the chart, not much we can do about that - traffic and bandwidth out of Argentina. Sometimes my speed to the US is decent, other times it's a snail's pace. If I test to a location here in Argentina it's always 3 meg.

In terms of Fibertel techs, call them and keep them coming over until at least your wiring in the house/apartment is good and cable out to the street is good - good cable and no bad connectors etc. And keep calling them until they get it right.

Installers suck and typically do as little as possible so expect techs to have to come out and clean up their mess and make it right. Then it's a crap shoot what the guys who actually work directly for Fibertel will do - i.e. are they worth a damn or not.

I would temporarily eliminate your router from the equation so they can not point to it as the culprit. And if they tell you on the phone that you need to do x,y and z every time you call tell them you already did.

Unfortunately, I will tell you that it will almost become a necessity to get a little nasty and stand your ground with them. It is unfortunate but it seems to be the only thing they respond to. Although I have not tried to bribe them, maybe that would work I don't know.

 

[jazrgz]

Hey folks, i live in palermo and I have Telecentro: 3mb internet + cable tv + ip phone line (it´s very cheap when not free and real good quality connection). The service overall is quite decent and it´s all for 149 final (means no extra charges for unkown last minute items which happens a lot here hehe).
Im not sure why no one mentioned telecentro but service and price wise i believe is the best option (have not done and checking as to what´s the real internet speed, but it does work pretty good ) - note: im local, so i cannot compare it against the speed connection in other countries (i understand is usually way better ! )

 

[SaraSara]

Fibertel is horrible. The only way to get action is by threatening to drop them - all of a sudden they turn nice, and offer all kinds of special rates, and free tech service to solve whatever problem you are having. I've done this twice, when pushed to the edge - worked like a charm.

 

[HowardinBA]

I am with Sion and they seem to be ok

 

[jazrgz]

Yeps SaraSara, that works perfect. The problem with service being so poor comes from the fact that up until not to long ago, there were only two options in the whole Buenas Aires area. It was either Fibertel or Multicanal (telecentro was just starting and had very little coverage) and they had come into agreement as to which area each company would cover, so it was pretty much monopoly, so, threating to go to another provider was useless and they knew it and for instance, they didnt really care much about good customer service. These past years new options have appeared and so i guess the are learning that when someone threats to get a different provider this time it may be for real and that´s when they make sure they dont loose you. the average poor service i guess is because they are still mindset on we dont care cuz there´s no other options....that tends to happen a lot in these latituds !! hehehe IMHO of course

 

[sharkbait08]

We had Telecentro and we just canceled all services... They repeatedly charged us for services we didn't have (and it took months to correct), when we asked for new services, they either a) came without advising us before and we just happened to be home or b) never came (we had 4 installation dates and they were no shows for all... they did not call to advise us they were not coming and in fact, twice called to tell us they were coming and never did.) My boyfriend's cousin had the same experience. She had to miss so many days of work for no show installation dates that her work actually denied her any more and her mother had to sit around waiting in her place until they finally felt like showing up. Additionally, its near impossible to get them on the phone (even when you want to up your services). And last of all, the service was down in the entire neighborhood for a 24 hour period twice in the last month and was at all times pretty varying in speed. It may be the cheapest option but not worth the customer service head ache. We just ordered Fibertel and I can't say yet how it is but I will say they answered the phone within about a minute... which is more than I can say about Telecentro.

 

[SaraSara]

I just dropped Fibertel's cable. The operator told me I had to go to their office in person between June 1st. and 15th., with a letter stating that I wanted to terminate service.

Luckily, I remembered reading about a new regulation that says that whatever service is contracted by phone can also be canceled by phone. When I pointed that out, the operator acknowledged that such a law did exist, and said my service would be discontinued on April 30th.

 

[ghost]

Had Fibertel 3meg, it sucked and service was horrid. And they even wanted to charge extra for wireless [with my own router]. Got Arnet 3 meg. It works OK but you reboot 6 times a day. In the States I have 21 meg with a meg up, which costs me exactly the same as Arnets 3 meg junk. Always pisses me off to see that people who need it the most pay more for less. In a closed market cost of goods does not correlate with price of goods. Comcast would love Arnets margins.

 

[Alzinho]

I had Arnet for 2+ years in Iguazu and it was useless. And their customer service (sic) was worse than useless.

Since moving to BA 5 months ago, I've had Speedy, and except for the fact that the wi-fi has never worked, the connection has been fast and constant - it's never dropped once in fact. No idea what their customer service is like because I've never had to call them!

Doh! I've gone and jinxed it now haven't I?

:-/