Coditel - Re: [Lilux-info] Alternet anyone? My ISP research

Late as usual, but too busy so I'll make this short and painful ;) on 15-12-2005 (!!) Mike G. wrote: I don't think anyone answered this part and I don't know if you found some more information... First let's make this clear : I HATE CODITEL ! I am a very dissatisfied former customer (prisonner) of theirs and I could rant for hours about them, except I don't have much time (right now - meet me for an ice cream after work ;) Coditel is/was/pretends to be a cable operator. They started offering IP-over-cable a while back and that was (should have been) "a good thing" [tm - Eric I believe ;)] Coditel sucks ! Big time ! Technical service : well... I suppose they do have one... somewhere in outer Mongolia (no, that'd be mean to the Mongols who are fine people). Hot-line : apparently rerouted to somewhere in africa where the main response is "we don't see any problem on our net, there must be a problem with your system... try one this - reboot - reinstall your driver - check connectivity" (where did I hear this before ?) Usually after insisting for about 30 minutes they suddenly notice there IS a problem on their net. Hot-line (2) : although my contract specifies 24/7 availability, the hot-line switches to an answering machine between 19h and 8h... do I read breach of contract ? Hot-Line (3) : don't talk to them about Linux, they know the word. Don't try explaining to them that a dual-boot is not the same as having two machines over a router - which they won't support or allow (!) Billing : add a random number of megabytes to your useage and adapt your bill accordingly... no possibility to complain... All in all ? I sent them 3 (paper) letters of complaints over a period of 6 months. I haven't received a single answer to any of them !! Not even when I told them they sucked and I was considering suing them. Efficiency : My e-Mail adress @coditel is still valid... after more than 7 months ! Funnyly, I checked the cable-modem recently... it's still on-line... (!) I left their prison in July, have been an Alternet customer and though I'm not happy that they won't adapt my contract to the new tarifs and conditions (not until July), I'm VERY satisfied with their Quality of Serivec there, with the efficiency and response of PEOPLE ! and with the fact that they do take responsibility for what they do ! I switched my parents' line to Alternet as well... they use WiFi, no problem at all. (And I didn't buy my modem from them - no problem there) About the UCL vs. Coditel trial : I'm a member of UCL but didn't follow closely on this. I'd understand they don't want to comment too much on something that is still being tried. AFAIK Coditel is being sued for _very serious_ discrepancies in their _CABLE_ billing system and several cases of double-billing. that all - it was longer than I thought ;) serge