This is the letter I sent to Adelphia, my high speed (?) internet supplier.
Dear Adelphia Executives,
I am writing to you to inform you of an intolerable situation in the Brattleboro, Vermont area. I have tried to resolve it with my local office and the Adelphia northeast regional director.
This situation has been ongoing for years and is currently acute. I have tried to resolve it with dozens of phone calls to various Adlephia offices. Others in my community have done so as well.
My problem concerns the PowerLink service. When it was first introduced about 4 years ago a serious problem developed less than a month after I got it. It was unusable for 3-4 months after the first month. It would rarely display even one web page without timing out. Terry Gould, your Northeast director, told me on at least 20 occasions during this problem that no one else except me was having this problem. He decided it was my computer. I then tried 5 different computers but the problem persisted. Service calls could not resolve it. As more people signed up for PowerLink every single one of them had the same problem.
Many of them tried calling Adelphia and we were all told only they had the problem. After about 3-4 months a newspaper story ran in Burlington, Vermont saying every single person in the state of Vermont had this problem.
Soon after the story ran Adelphia admitted there was a problem and promised refunds. They did NOT stop advertising and selling the service during the time it was unusable, both before and after they admitted there was a problem and said it would take some time to fix.
I am aware of the people with problems in Brattleboro because I own a computer repair shop in Brattleboro and in fact your local office has paid me more than once to fix computers damaged by your technicians.
Over the years your service has been down or unusable at least 20 times more than any other internet service available in Brattleboro. Every time I called to complain my service was unusable Terry Gould said it was only me. That no one else had called to complain. EVERY TIME. In fact on one occasion I asked the last 15 people who called me thinking their computers needed repair because their internet was slow to call the local office. In fact the local office then called me to ask people to stop calling and reporting the problem.
Lo and behold, on talking with Terry Gould he said no one had called with any problems. After I informed him of what happened at the local office he said he would check. He called back and said no one had called.
I have had at least a dozen service calls over the years. Not one fixed a problem. They all were resolved on Adelphias end. They were a waste of my time.
I feel that you have deliberately wasted my time by asking me to be here to resolve problems that you knew were area wide.
I ask for 6 months re-imbursement of PowerLink fees for my time. The 6 months probably equals the time my internet was down or slower than dial up.
A short time ago I was informed Terry Gould was no longer with Adelphia. I had hoped that he was the cause of the problems.
Yet the problems continue. Both with the internet service and customer support. I and 3 others on my block have been experiencing extremely slow internet browsing with pages timing out routinely. I am currently once again in the process of finding out how extensive the problem is.
Why should that be my job? Isn’t it yours?
Of course when informed of the problem the local office said no had called, etc. This even after 3 of my neighbors said they also called.
I request:
You clarify your policy on keeping records of complaints on service.
You fix the current problem.
You clarify the policy stated many times by your staff that you claim no speed standards and that as long “as a page load occurs in even over 5 minutes it’s working).
You immediately cease and desist claiming your service is “Way faster than DSL”. Your office claims a speed of 1 mbps is acceptable and you will not do service unless it is lower. DSL is routinely over 1 mbps. I am writing my state consumer protection board to ask that they look into this. Your ads also claim up to 7.5 times faster than dial up. That is also false.
I request every customer in the State of Vermont who has had internet speeds at or near DSL be refunded their PowerLink fees. They signed up under false advertisements.
I have been in the computer repair business over 6 years in Brattleboro. I have spoken to many hundreds of your PowerLink customers. The number of people who reply when asked about Adelphia PowerLink start their reply with “They outright lied to me...”
About 6 months ago after my town was encountering significant difficulties I had a technician over to check on it. We tried it with various different computers (laptops brought over from my shop). The technician saw the problem, realized it was not on my computers or modems. He said it had to be on Adelphias end. He said he would get Adelphia to fix it. It eventually took three weeks. When I called Terry Gould he immediately said the tech did not say it was broken. Then he said he would call the tech and ask him (?). He called back and said the tech did not say that. Do you at Adelphia care so little for your customers that outright lies are your way of business?
Every time this happens I have to contact my elected representatives and State consumer protection agencies to get it fixed. I believe you have shown a pattern of abuse consistent with fraud and unless this is immediately corrected you will find out that I have a HUGE list of people who will testify to your actions.
Lastly. The people in my town and adjacent towns served by Adelphia have had so many problems and so few were corrected by service appointments that most don’t bother any more. If this is your only record of “trouble” when a customer agrees to a service call it is no longer valid.
Yours in frustration,
Techs
