Although it's of the "dare not speaketh its name" variety. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/10/business/10PHON.html?hp When I first moved to Chicago, it took 9 (!) appointments with SBC (then Ameritech) to get my phone service. Either the "technicians" didn't show up, they showed up and weren't able to access certain rooms in my apartment building (despite me asking in advance whether I would need any special keys, etc.), or they would show up before the arranged time. The latter was especially maddening. They would make an appointment to come between noon and 4:00 PM, and I would come home early from work at 11:30 to find that they had already been there--at 11:00! This happened at least twice. They even tried to bill me for these missed appointments. It took a couple of angry phone calls to set things straight. A year or two later, when I had the opportunity to switch to another provider, I did, happily. My rates were lower, too. Then, a windstorm knocked out my line. Because SBC controlled the line, it was their responsibility to fix it. I made a few appointments. They didn't show up for any of them. Not one. At that point, I cancelled my land line and got a cell phone. When I later moved in with my girlfriend, we dumped her land line, too. The rates are lower and the sound quality is better, too. I have never had a worse experience with a utility, and I have never paid more for phone service than I did in the two or so years I had SuckBC. During this period, they were losing something like 3000 customers a month in Chicagoland because of their terrible and unreliable service. And now I see that Bush is siding with them and the other Bells. They have been **********ing Chicago up the ass for as long as I've lived here. How nice it is to see our President joining in. At least give us the courtesty of a reach-around, will you, George?
Electric 6 theorizes it's not just consumers... http://www.campchaos.com/show.php?iID=647 Not work friendly, mainly because it's loud.
See, my experience with SBC was the exact opposite. I switched to AT&T for local service because they were offering better rates. The phone service itself was OK (it was the same SBC lines, after all), but AT&T's customer service was craptacular. The final straw was when they didn't credit me for a payment that I had sent. After six months of wrangling with them, including threatening letters and such, it finally got resolved, but in the meantime, I had switched back to SBC, with whom I had never before had problem and with whom I haven't since had a problem. Maybe the difference lies in the fact that I'm in the territory of the former Southwestern Bell and deal mostly with former Southwestern Bell people and that you're in the territory of the former Ameritech and deal mostly with former Ameritech people. I dunno. Local phone competition hasn't taken off the way people had envisioned or hoped when this law was first passed, but this ruling sure as hell isn't going to help.