For the past 4 or 5 months, we've notice that our 1 mb connection has dropped down to about 200 kb/s in the afternoons/evenings, which makes doing most anything beyond loading text unbearable. We were tirelessly slamming our ISP, Forthnet, for these issues, until we found out today that because OTE controls our line (Forthnet, unfortunately, does not have their own lines in our area), OTE controls our lack of bandwidth. It seems that the node we are on is overcrowded, and OTE doesn't give a shit since the people that are complaining are not their subscribers.
Since the point of having other ISPs on OTE lines was necessary to avoid a monopoly and allow users a choice, it would seem that these practices would not be acceptable, at least, I doubt any company would get away with such a thing in America. But of course this is Greece, the top of the line in "I don't give a damn" countries. Still, you would hope that since OTE has some German blood in them now they would improve things a bit. Forthnet has sent orders to OTE three times on our behalf in the past few months, and nothing has changed. Here's hoping it does soon, but maybe not before we switch our phone service to another provider. I'm not inclined to pay OTE any more money for their corrupt business practices. For now, I guess we are forced to suffer with an adsl connection that isn't much better than ISDN, unless, of course, we ally ourselves with the evil empire and get our internet service from OTE. Not a chance.
5 comments:
I know how you are feeling! In 2005, after 1 year of ISP services by Tellas, with the exact same problems that you describe, I finally gave in and jumped over to te evil empire. I felt exactly like you about not rewarding their sloppy business practices with my patronage, but i had no choice, my work depended on having a connection that worked, as simple as that. I didn't want to switch to Forthnet at the time because I had similar bad experiences with them in an office where I worked part-time.
To be truthful I have to admit that since then I find the mentality of the staff much improved at my local OTE office (Iraklio, Crete). They are customer oriented now to a level which makes it almost a pleasure to have an occasional glitch (okay, I'm exaggerating a bit here). I have established a direct rapport with one of the technicians who now recognizes me as a customer with some technical savvy, making the process of diagnosing problems (there will always be technical problems) much more efficient.
I also hear good things about Cyta (www.cyta.gr) but they don't offer a 4Mb connection as I need. They operate independently from OTE though and have some nice entry level packages. Maybe worthwhile looking into for you?
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But of course this is Greece, the top of the line in "I don't give a damn" countries.
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I'm shocked! Corruption in Greece! AAARRRGGGGHHHHHH! You don't say!
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I tried to leave a comment, but my speed is so slow, it loses the comment before posting. We never get above 56K
Please don't assume that things automatically work better in other countries? I live in North America and believe me I have not been happy with my current telephone company's internet service. The customer service is lousy and whenever I have attempted to contact them about the really crappy net connection I am kept waiting on the phone for at least half an hour for a live person to answer the phone. Last winter due to bad weather, my internet connection was very slow and I kept getting bumped off. It was very frustrating!! I finally made the switch to a slightly (slightly!) better competitor, but by no means flawless. So you see, OTE is not the only company that sucks! It's best to shop around and get recommendations from other folks.
Might be the perfect time to write that novel.
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