This is so true! Where I live, in a medium-sized town in Central PA, DSL Extreme is the only ISP available. I have used them for over a year, and when my first year contract was up for renewal they sent me an email telling me I could upgrade for faster service, which was something I really wanted to do because I had just had to disconnect my DirecTv and switch to HuluPlus (I am on a fixed income, and it was just getting too expensive, especially since I watched a lot of network TV - I have a very old Magnavox console that the previous tenants just left when they moved out).
Anyway, I told them I wanted to upgrade and they told me, "Sorry, we made a mistake, we don't have the bandwidth." When I asked them to explain this - because I am an old bat who is not at all tech-savvy, they just kept repeating they didn't have bandwidth. They continued to send me promotional emails about it, and even when I went to their website and did the "input your address and we'll tell you if you can get these phenomenally fast speeds", it told me I could. But, sure enough, when I tried to actually upgrade, I got the "no bandwidth" reply.
So now I have streaming that stops altogether in bad weather, buffers like crazy even on a good day, and have the choice of either buying a new TV and an antenna (my neighbor downstairs did that, and she gets 2 - yes, 2 - channels), go back to DirecTv, or put up with DSL Extreme. DISH is not an option because the landlady "doesn't want another satellite dish on the roof."
My contract is up in October and I honestly don't know what I am going to do. Streaming using Verizon's data on my smartphone is out of the question, as my data is only 2 G per month and just one episode of one hour-long TV show will wipe that out, pretty much.
I hate it but I don't know what to do.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Muse 2005.
Re:
Anyway, I told them I wanted to upgrade and they told me, "Sorry, we made a mistake, we don't have the bandwidth." When I asked them to explain this - because I am an old bat who is not at all tech-savvy, they just kept repeating they didn't have bandwidth. They continued to send me promotional emails about it, and even when I went to their website and did the "input your address and we'll tell you if you can get these phenomenally fast speeds", it told me I could. But, sure enough, when I tried to actually upgrade, I got the "no bandwidth" reply.
So now I have streaming that stops altogether in bad weather, buffers like crazy even on a good day, and have the choice of either buying a new TV and an antenna (my neighbor downstairs did that, and she gets 2 - yes, 2 - channels), go back to DirecTv, or put up with DSL Extreme. DISH is not an option because the landlady "doesn't want another satellite dish on the roof."
My contract is up in October and I honestly don't know what I am going to do. Streaming using Verizon's data on my smartphone is out of the question, as my data is only 2 G per month and just one episode of one hour-long TV show will wipe that out, pretty much.
I hate it but I don't know what to do.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Muse 2005.
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