Embarq... again (a rant)

Don't bother reading this. I just need to get it off my chest, and I'll feel much better.

Before we moved back here, we had decent DSL speed with Embarq. I paid for the fastest speed they offer, and was quite happy with it.

Once they ran the phone line out to the mobile home, though, everything ran slow. I called a tech, and he went through the usual list of instructions: Unplug your router, turn off the modem, reboot the computer.

No matter what we tried, I was running at less than half the speed I was paying for.

Since nobody was interested in coming out to check into the problem, they cut the rate I was paying. That was something, at least. But I sure get tired of watching pictures loading so slowly.

Today I decided to try again. After punching buttons on the phone about twenty times, I finally hit the "O" and got a real person.

"I have line guard," I told him. "I pay five dollars a month extra to have it. Why is it nobody will come out and see why we can't get my Internet up to speed?"

"What firewall and anti-virus are you using?" I told him. I guess he approved of them.

Then, "Unplug your router; turn off the modem; reboot your computer." Blah blah blah. At my age, it's not easy reaching and crawling and groping around my computer desk.

With all those things done, he asked if it seemed faster now.

"No, not that I can tell."

He had me go to 2wire.com for a speed test, and asked what my results were.

"1467 mbps, whatever that is."

"Well then, you're getting the speed you're paying for," says he.

"Yes sir," I sighed. "That's because that's the best Embarq can do for me. I can't get any better speed; that's why they reduced my rate."

"Well, I can call you back in two hours and we'll run some further tests and see if there's something in your computer causing the problem."

It's the same computer that did just FINE until they ran the line to this house. But I agreed.

It's now been three hours, and he hasn't called back yet.

While I was waiting for his call, I figured this was a good day to deal with Dish TV. They've been charging us $5 a month because we don't have our television hooked to a phone line so we could order movies with our remote. The grandson recently hooked up our big flat-screen high-def television to the line for us, and I called Dish today to see if they had taken that charge off our bill.

Guess what? That isn't considered our main TV. The old portable TV in the bedroom that I only use to fall asleep by is the one they have listed as primary; it's THAT box that has to be wired.

Some days it doesn't pay to get up.

Embarq, if I can ever get the cable company out here, your days are numbered. We don't need the house phone any more; our cell phones work just dandy.