Just moments ago, I gave my wife the go-ahead to call Mediacom and order broadband internet service. Just moments before that, she finished her final of countless support sessions with our current internet provider, CenturyLink. After over a week of very sporadic connectivity, we severed our ties and are moving on.
What began as a love affair with CenturyLink DSL ended, as many relationships do, with finger-pointing and disappointment. When the decision was made to move to Ankeny for our new careers, I really felt we had only one choice for getting internet. My experience at Spencer Municipal Utilities competing against Mediacom had left me determined to never do business with them. I don't think they are a bad company, or necessarily have bad service. It's just that they made my life fairly difficult for a number of years as Mediacom fought to keep SMU out of the cable, internet, and phone business. I was called names, I was forced to testify in a court proceeding, and I was subjected to a smear advertising campaign against the municipal telecom utility that I had helped to establish 14 years ago. So it never seemed an option to call Mediacom for internet. Instead I turned to CenturyLink, formerly Qwest, and for the first time in my life subscribed to DSL service.
Our romance began strongly. For the first four months of our residence in Ankeny we rented a townhouse where we were able to receive 15 Mbps VDSL from CenturyLink. The speeds we experienced were, with few exceptions, stellar. We had decided to forgo a paid video subscription, and that decision was made fairly painless by the ability to stream high-definition video via Netflix on our Apple TV box. That, along with rabbit-ears to pick up the broadcast stations, kept us satisfied with our entertainment avenues.
As we searched for a home to purchase, the "need for speed" was at the forefront of our minds. Unfortunately, almost nowhere else in Ankeny had speeds even approaching 15 Mbps. As we identified each new potential Dean home, I anxiously awaited a verdict from CenturyLink on the DSL speeds available at that location. And each time I found myself disappointed by the answer. The home we settled on-the home we now own-was one of only a few where even 3 Mbps was said to be available. However, during my initial conversation with a customer service person, I was told that there were no DSL circuits available in that area. I informed her that the people who lived in the house already had DSL, and that they wouldn't need a NEW circuit...they would only need to keep it active so that I could begin using it. They accepted that logic, but later I discovered that maybe they shouldn't have.
The problems began immediately upon our move. We were told we should be able to just "plug and play" our modem from the townhouse. It didn't work. I spent a few hours on technical support to find out that the VDSL modem I had used before was "too advanced" for the ADSL speeds available at the new house. So they shipped me a new modem and I shipped the old one back. It still didn't work, at least not reliably. We put up with marginal service for a couple of weeks, but the interruptions kept getting longer and more frequent. Finally, a little over one week ago, my wife's German-descendant blood began to boil and she decided to get things resolved once and for all. A technician appointment was scheduled. My wife waited at home for several hours for the technician that didn't show. She called in and was told that the technician HAD been there, but didn't need to come inside because he had discovered that the problem was in the CO (central office), not at our premise, and that we weren't the only people affected. Still no internet.
As all of this was going on, we were watching the blinking DSL light on the modem for hours at a time. When the light went solid for more than a few seconds, we raced to our computers to try to complete some task before it went out again. Inevitably we would be half-way through that task when we would lose the connection again.
Things all came to a head last night when I was unable to complete an online course for my job as an instructor for Homeland Security. We decided it was time to break up. My wife called CenturyLink and after crabbing her way up the chain, CenturyLink admitted that the reason why we weren't getting a reliable connection...their DSL circuits WERE overloaded in our area. As a result, the agreed to release us from our contract.
So this backstory leads to a very inconvenient truth, and thus the reason I feel dirty. I will be going back on my pledge and being a customer of Mediacom for the first time. Alright, technically my WIFE will be the customer...the account will be in her name to help me save at least some face. I'm relieved in a way because I'm fairly certain that Mediacom's internet will be faster and more reliable than CenturyLink's was (not that it will be difficult). But still, it's the first real setback in our entire transition to central Iowa.
At least I can take a long, hot shower.
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