Southern York County Life

markG - 06 July 2008 07:03 PM

89GTA - 06 July 2008 06:30 PM

That’s the thing, it’s not always on, hence why I need to call so frequently...and be on hold for 30 minutes to “try” to talk to someone.

It’s satellite so 100 yards is not an issue, but $60/month for sub par service, I’d take cable or DSL any day for internet just to not have the latency issues inherent to satellite that tends to make alot of browsing functions seem to “time out” and result in unresolvable errors. Satellite is the high speed of last resort imo, I have used Clearview at plenty of friends/family’s houses and never seem to have the issues I hear about on here, but then again none of them live in the station either and that seems to be where I see the most complaints.

I had Wildblue.  Don’t know how Wild they were but they Blue for sure!  Horrible customer service, 128kb down and way less than that up.  $68 and month.  I signed up for Clearview when they finally ran down my road and I am thrilled 3MB down and high 600’s up.

They advertise 768k down and sometimes it’s faster but quite often it’s slightly over dial-up speed and now they have a 200Mb/day limit, if you exceed it they intentionally slow you down to less than dial up speed for 24+ hours. Definately switching to Clearview/Armstrong when/if they ever come down here.

89GTA - 08 July 2008 08:28 AM

I had Wildblue.  Don’t know how Wild they were but they Blue for sure!  Horrible customer service, 128kb down and way less than that up.  $68 and month.  I signed up for Clearview when they finally ran down my road and I am thrilled 3MB down and high 600’s up.They advertise 768k down and sometimes it’s faster but quite often it’s slightly over dial-up speed and now they have a 200Mb/day limit, if you exceed it they intentionally slow you down to less than dial up speed for 24+ hours. Definately switching to Clearview/Armstrong when/if they ever come down here.

I don’t like WB either and await some other broadband service to reach me, but what you are saying is wrong. WB has a rolling 30 day FAP. You can download from 7.5 GB to 17 GB per 30 day period depending on service plan. There is no daily limit, Hughs has that. While browsing is pathetic, I haven’t had much problem with downloading. My speeds are often as advertised, but I also try not to download much during prime time.

tim_k - 08 July 2008 09:36 AM

89GTA - 08 July 2008 08:28 AM

I had Wildblue.  Don’t know how Wild they were but they Blue for sure!  Horrible customer service, 128kb down and way less than that up.  $68 and month.  I signed up for Clearview when they finally ran down my road and I am thrilled 3MB down and high 600’s up.They advertise 768k down and sometimes it’s faster but quite often it’s slightly over dial-up speed and now they have a 200Mb/day limit, if you exceed it they intentionally slow you down to less than dial up speed for 24+ hours. Definately switching to Clearview/Armstrong when/if they ever come down here.

I don’t like WB either and await some other broadband service to reach me, but what you are saying is wrong. WB has a rolling 30 day FAP. You can download from 7.5 GB to 17 GB per 30 day period depending on service plan. There is no daily limit, Hughs has that. While browsing is pathetic, I haven’t had much problem with downloading. My speeds are often as advertised, but I also try not to download much during prime time.

No, what I said is correct, I have a 200Mb/day limit, I have Hughes, never had Wild Blue, recheck your quoting.

We have WildBlue...it is barely faster than dial up, but we are 3000 feet to far for DSL, so Verizon says, even though they keep sending me mailouts that say to sign up for DSL and cable won’t come down our road unless 18 families will subscribe to the service...there are only 9 houses on the road....isn’t technology great!?!

89GTA - 08 July 2008 12:11 PM

No, what I said is correct, I have a 200Mb/day limit, I have Hughes, never had Wild Blue, recheck your quoting.

Sorry, my mistake. Hughes FAP has to be the worst in the broadband industry.

Handy - 08 July 2008 04:32 PM

We have WildBlue...it is barely faster than dial up, but we are 3000 feet to far for DSL, so Verizon says, even though they keep sending me mailouts that say to sign up for DSL and cable won’t come down our road unless 18 families will subscribe to the service...there are only 9 houses on the road....isn’t technology great!?!

I’m the aggregator for my CSA for the BFRR program https://www22.verizon.com/foryourhome/bfrr/ They told me I have to get 50 people to sign up, but you are only suppose to need 50 or 25% (whichever is less) of the people in your CSA. I handed out 60 flyers and hit 50-75% of the people in my CSA. Between their difference in opinion of the number of people living here and the fact that Clearview ran cable past my street to get to the trailer park on Sawmill Rd where most of the people around me live, I’ll never get enough people to sign up.

Well, I’m not off to a good start, lost 1 Digital Box yesterday and part of another and the internet has been lost on a couple occasions(all yesterday)

Armstrong’s excuse was they did a sweep of units per Clearview records, they said Clearview didn’t turn over all the Serial Numbers on my account so it knocked it off the Network. Yes I have 2 Boxes and have been paying out the tail pipe for them too.

Well I called back today since the Tech wasn’t there when their guesstimate said he was(surprise) and gave them both Serial Numbers for the unit. They had the Serial Number of the unit they knocked off my plan, go figure. The one they didn’t have they knocked partial channels off. Lovely

2nd Concern, I haven’t received my July Bill and per the first Armstrong rep, she said I won’t and probably will get July free, the 2nd Rep said their Billing cycle is different(Clearview wanted a Month in advance and Armstrong wants 2 weeks) Not sure how this is going to work out since I don’t have cable or a bill, lol

Anyway still waiting on the Tech, no surprise there, both Reps seemed helpful land apologetic, but my problem isn’t close to being fixed yet. The internet support was spot on, I didn’t wait long she reset the modem and I was back in gear after about a 10 minute delay. All options on the phone line led to real people who I could understand. They also said there was no immediate plans to change over EMail accounts.

It appears Clearview didn’t do a good job turning things over, people ran for the doors I assume July 1 and haven’t looked back.

Not off to a good start, but I’m taking a few Pitches before I swing

EDIT: Well I took the first strike right down the middle, 4pm passed no Armstrong Tech, I called Armstrong and they tried telling me that the appointment was scheduled for tomorrow(Saturday), lol. I gave the 3rd Rep I’ve dealt with the other 2 names of Reps and the reason they were supposed to be here today and I was told they were going to be here today. Well she put me on hold came back apologizing like she ran over my dog and guarantied they would be there tomorrow(Saturday). I think a change-up is coming, but I’m looking for the fastball, lol Note(they didn’t call me at all to tell me we were rescheduled, I called them for the 2nd time today)

BTW, the one consistent story I’m getting is how bad a mess Clearview left everything, outdated systems and such. So they are going to use that card for all its worth. The odd spin of everything is that the Clearview crew out of Rising Sun, which is the same group that serviced us so well over the years have been kept on with the exception of one, soooo....

Day 3, Held Hostage, No cable, is on its way. I guess the AC could be out, it could be a lot worse.

people ran for the doors I assume July 1 and haven’t looked back.

  I laughed so hard when I read that I almost choked!  LOL!

Hang in there RSJ - I am pulling for ya, and Armstrong too. Hopefully their growing pains are truely from Clearview being so screwed up and not just the same old song and dance.

I was actually able to work from home one day since they took over, stayed online for just over 9 consecutive hours without losing a single packet. I geeked out over that

I know our internet (which, by comparison to everyone here, is usually great) had been ‘eh’ this month.  Lots of SLOW service, pages not loading, etc.  We’ll see what happens!

Well the weekend is over and here is the recap

Waited until Saturday 2pm for Armstrong to arrive, and they replaced the Naughty Converter box with a Newer Converter box. Yeah working cable, they went upstairs to check the Cable upstairs and it still worked even though I was worried about their(yeah 2 Tech’s for me) amazement. So as I was asking one of them questions, I thought I heard one of them say “Go start the truck”. They were polite enough, they let me know I was not the only one with issues. The other guy was revving the engine and I could’ve sworn he blew the horn a time or a dozen and after the smoke cleared from their spinning tires I walked in just in time for my Son to tell me the cable was out again. Same problem. Of course most of the funny stuff I just typed(I have to think its funny) is made up, but the replacing the box with a box that lasted all of 10 minutes was not.

I called and to Armstrong’s credit, I think I’ve spoken to at least 9 different operators, which is probably good for those guys and they all are very apologetic. I called, they Lady hit the box and told me its down. Well alright at least I’m not deaf and blind since that is what I told her. She said, she will contact dispatch and send the Tech’s again. This was about 3pm and told her, hey we are locking down the Town here for a Parade and I intend to take my Kids, so I may not be home, so call my Cell Phone.

We get home from the Parade, I did not see an Armstrong Float in the Parade, so I did not expect them to be there. One of my older Son’s who is too good to chase Candy thrown at him was Home and verified that.

Well thinking the attack of Armstrong couldn’t get any worse, I rounded everybody up for Sweat fest Wiffle Ball game and dip in the Pool. Low and behold the doorbell rings and it’s another Tech guy. He told me which rooms had my 4 Sets. Uh, I only have 2. Oh he says here it says you have 4. I said since Clearview’s/Armstrongs math started this issue by reducing my 2 Converter box’s to 1, I only found it natural that I would have multiplied by 4 since Thursday and still have 1 set barely working, lol. He was a good sport and entered my house armed with 2 HDTV capable Converter Boxes. I said yeah, break out the big guns, now were talking. So to make a long story even longer, he replaced both boxes including the one that was working. The Downstairs was working like a champ, the upstairs had some issues, but to his credit he fixed it while I was riding shotgun with the 5 year old mentality of “are we there yet?”

Great I have 2 boxes that work, HDTV Capable, so when I’m ready to make my life even more miserable I’ll upgrade to HDTV. So I’m walking Joe Tech to the door and thanking him for his troubles and such, I expected to walk into a hero’s welcome of great perseverance, but no. I walk back in to another blank screen and the Converter box where the time or channel settings are, the lights are just a spinning. My Wife said we were just changing channels and it turned off. Well it seems if you click on the remote fast enough to go 3 Channels it turns off, click on guide it turns off and click on just about any button it turns off. Not to mention it turns off when ever it feels like.

I called again and with all our schedule issues this week, we have to wait for a Tech on Wednesday, yeah

Then when all is supposed to be well, I click on the internet check out the Ball scores and the Internet drops. Last night I lost the Internet for 10 minutes or more about 5 times between 9 & 11pm and I just gave up. I called once, there were no issues on their system, they had me unplugged the cable modem and unscrew the cable from the Modem as well. Screwed the cable back in and powered it back up and it worked, well go figure. 10 minutes later 1 light on the Modem is blinking, and I do it all again with out the help of Armstrong, it worked, ok a new secret. 20 minutes later Cable Modem blinking 1 light do the cable line shuffle, this time it didn’t work. Hah, I’m not calling them back tonight, that’ll teach ‘em. I’ll monitor the Cable Modem closer tonight and see what’s going on.

What puzzles me, is I’ve heard very little of others having issues, but all accounts from the Tech’s and Operators say this has been a big problem. Ah well

I know you must be frustrated with all this but your posts are almost as interesting to read as Gizz’s history!!!  I wish you good reception and connections soon, but I’ll miss your artistic license!!

Thanks, lol I think, Sad part is I didn’t include most of the conversations. I’m frustrated but it’s almost like fighting an unseen opponent. Sure its easier to blame Clearview, we’ve all done it. I’d love to blame Clearview, I’ve had them the past 6-7 years and haven’t had half the problems most of our regulars have, but Armstrong pushed the button to cause my original problem. Which one of the Tech’s said that Armstrong knew there would be issues and allegedly there have been a lot.

Most of the better Comedians use real life as a basis for their jokes and this real life joke just kicked me square in the well you know. As I said earlier at least the AC is working, I’d hate to have to go outside to get cooled off these days, sheeze.

When I got home the Internet was down, I called got it back on-Line myself and they are going to include this issue Wednesday when their Tech gets here. Maybe I’ll get a HD compatible Cable Modem that will turn off everytime I click on SYCLife.com.

We had a problem a while back that sounds like yours, RSJ.  It was fixed when they upped the signal strength to my area. 

They told me the modem struggles with a weak signal for a while then drops it.

I have a stupid question - do you have to have Armstrong’s cable TV service to get their internet service?