Salutations all. I belong to the same biological make up that Me2wired does and thought I would drop in and give you all my story. It's a fun one.

So this whole story started three weeks ago. I called Brian (the "direct" qwest representative for daybreak). I proceed to then call him every other day for a week and left 4 voice mails. He never once responded. I finally got a hold of him on the 8th. Me calling him not the other way around.

After getting a hold of him he told me he would get my internet up and running by Wednesday at 6. Wednesday came and left and a technician never showed up. I called Brian and asked if there was a delay and if a technician was coming out on Thursday. Thursday morning someone showed up. I went out and talked to him and he said my internet should be working by end of day or first thing Friday. It doesn't work Thursday night so I patiently wait till Friday. Friday comes and goes and at 6:00 pm I call them and ask them if it's running. It takes them 45 minutes to find my account. No joke. After finding it, they say that the "order" is pending and will be pushed through at 7:30 pm. So I wait and still no internet. I call them back to find that their offices are now closed for the weekend. I call Brian again on Friday and leave a voice mail. I get a hold of someone on Saturday, after 6 different reps, and she tells me the whole reason why they are having such a hard time with my account is that I have to go through some department called Choice Online. So basically I have wasted 3 days talking to people who literally can not help me in any way. I finally get over to choice and a nice lady tells me that something must be wrong with the box on my house and that she will send a technician out on Monday.

Monday comes and so does a technician. He replaces the box on my house, comes in and is able to connect to the internet using his laptop. We can't get it working on mine though. So he tells me to call tech support. At this point I am thinking it is my computer since his worked. So I call tech support. I spend 3 hours on the phone with them talking to at least 8 different people. After this time they say that they are sending someone back out from 2 to 6 to check the internet again. No one shows up. I call them and they say that they couldn't find anyone so they changed it to Tuesday from 2 to 6. Real glad that qwest thinks that I can just take unlimited days off to help them fix their problem.

At this point I am starting to think it is not my computer. So I borrow the biological version of a female me's laptop (my sister). Bring it over to my house and it is not working. I try my xbox, it won't connect to the internet either. At this point I am not thinking it is my fault. All the while tech support says it's my computer and theirs basically nothing they can do. At this point, I lie to tech support. I tell them I took my computer over to my neighbors and it worked just fine. This forces them to send this technician out.

Tuesday comes. A nice qwest guy shows up. He tests his computer, right on the internet. Mine still won't connect. I inform him that I still think it's something wrong with the box outside. He goes out side, 15 seconds later, my computer connects.

He comes in and I ask him what he did to get it working. He looks at me strangely and asks if it is up and working. I say yes. He then breaks eye contact from me and informs me that the connectors they use are 4 pin connectors, but that some technicians don't connect all four pins. They only connect 3. Well, all qwest personnel laptops can connect to the internet using 3 pin connectors. He then tells me that it appears that the first technician never installed the connectors properly. (By the way, I have no clue what this means, this is just what the qwest guy said).

I have left out a lot of details, because the more I sit here typing the angrier I get with qwest.

To sum it all up, I checked my phone records, I left Brian 7 voice mails. He NEVER called back even once.

I called Qwest 29 times over the course of a week and spent more then 12 hours on the phone with their technicians telling me over and over again that it was my fault not theirs. I spent 12 hours sitting in my home just waiting for technicians.

In the end, one man forgot to connect an extra pin in a connector.

I work in the customer service field. And I can now say that I have a much greater appreciation for what some customers have to go through just to get what is promised of them. If anyone ever has problems with getting qwest up and running, please let me know. I have several contact numbers at qwest and I can give you information on just what to say so that they will send a technician out instead of blaming everything on you.

Welcome to Daybreak DRAKEIR. Your story is all to familiar to numerous residents. Sadly, the Qwest service has always been poor and the outlook for improvement is grim.

I hope HOA doesn't renew the Internet contract with Qwest. I don't know whether Verizon has invaded Utah extensively yet but I heard they offer good services (FiOS) for Internet, TV and VOIP.

Wishful thinking.

Seem like Daybreak renewed the contract with Qwest, because I got a letter from Qwest stating that fact, and internet connection is running at 10 mbps, up from 5. About 2 years ago, it cost $10 more per month to get that speed.

10 mb for $35 is pretty good price right now. I just wonder how long the current contract is for.

I did a test and got 8.5 mb download, and 1.5 mb upload. I only have standard equipment; I am sure people with nicer routers running with hardwire will get better performance.

If nothing else, Qwest is getting a little better with their public relations...got a letter, yesterday, that said that the extra charge to upgrade my service, each month, was being waived in the future.

Since the number of folks who sign up for that enhanced speed service is, by many accounts, very small, it is a minor accommodation by Qwest but good public relations. Now, to get the word out to everyone that they can upgrade for nada...

Sam, will the upgraded service automatically be provided to all as one would surmise by your letter? Thanks.

From that letter, it seem like the process is automatic. I didn't have to do anything and the enhance speed is observed. The improvement was made as of Oct 1, according to their letter.