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Ask Slashdot: Holding ISPs Accountable For Contracted DSL Bandwidth

Posted by samzenpus on from the fight-the-power dept.

mcleland writes "I'm not getting the bandwidth I paid for from my DSL connection. My '3mbps' fluctuates between about 2.7 during the day down to 0.1 or 0.2 in the evening according to speedtest.net. Let's assume DSL is the only viable option for broadband at my house and I can't really move right now (rural area, on north face of the mountain, no cable service, very poor cell coverage). This was discussed 6 years ago, but I'd like to see if there are any current thoughts on whether I'm just stuck or if there is some way to make the ISP hold up its end."

6 of 345 comments (clear)

  1. The answer was the same 6 years ago: by DogDude · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Get a lawyer. But, of course, the lawyer will be prohibitively expensive.

    So realistically, no, there's nothing you can do short of terminating service.

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    I don't respond to AC's.
    1. Re:The answer was the same 6 years ago: by sortius_nod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is why I'm happy to live in Australia.

      We have an independent body called the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman, which investigates matters such as this & refers them on to ACMA if need be.

      I'd say, stop letting your politicians crow on about "small government" & push them to set up consumer/business protection systems like the rest of the civilised world.

  2. Did you sign up for "up to" service? by Glendale2x · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you did, then "up to" means anything in between. You'd be getting exactly what you're paying for as part of the "up to" modifier.

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    this is my sig
  3. Re:What did you sign up for? by Smallpond · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you think about it, "up to" means "not more than". it's actually a negative feature, not a positive.

  4. Re:The beauty of "best effort"... by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If complaining directly to them doesn't work, you might try griping about them on Twitter. My mother-in-law was able to get Comcast to make good on a bad deal that way.

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    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  5. Re:Ya be persistent with the calls by green1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Too many people complain about their service in public, and change providers, telling everyone how awful the first one is, without ever giving the first one a chance to fix it. If you don't tell them it's broken, how do you expect them to know?

    Call, every time you have a problem. It's the only way they will know and fix it.

    (well... almost the only way. I work for an ISP, and we've actually just started to do proactive line monitoring where we call people and tell them that they are having trouble and arrange to send a tech out before they even call in. The frustrating thing is most of them know they have a problem, they just never bothered to call in about it (though you can bet they called all their friends to complain about the lousy service))