Another SpeedTest

Wow! SkyDSL's speedtest results are exceeding my expectations today.

I hope they keep the international link this fast. It's a far cry from the state this connection was in just a few days ago.

Quezon City
Download: 733 kbps. Upload: 497 kbps


Singapore
Download: 571 kbps. Upload: 187 kbps


New York
Download: 758 kbps. Upload: 493 kbps


Los Angeles
Download: 746 kbps. Upload: 491 kbps


London
Download: 406 kbps. Upload: 265 kbps

Crawling

Like Rom yesterday, I'm wondering if there's something wrong with BayanTel's international link today.

My Speedtest results for sites outside the country have been disheartening.

Quezon City
Download: 599 kbps. Upload: 387 kbps


Singapore
Download: 29 kbps. Upload: 69 kbps


New York, USA
Download: 34 kbps. Upload: 136 kbps


San Jose, CA, USA
Download: 93 kbps. Upload: 224 kbps


London, UK
Download: 30 kbps. Upload: 10 kbps

Case Closed

I'm pleased beyond words to report that my phone is back up and working! Woohoohoo!

[Note: Unlike my first three entries on this topic, this entry includes a second-hand account since I wasn't at home when the repair was done.]

A service crew from BayanTel arrived on the morning of May 9 (Wed) and in hardly no time at all discovered that one of the PLDT phone cables leading into our house's cable conduit was disconnected. Apparently, that happened by accident when the first crew came to install the DSL line. All they had to do today was reconnect that wire to our conduit and our phone service was restored -- all without affecting the DSL service too.

When I think of how easily the problem was fixed, I can only shake my head and wonder why it had to take 11 days and be so emotionally upsetting for me to get someone out here and fix the darned thing.

I'm also wondering if it will be worth my while to write the head of customer service to tell her about my experience, and enclose links to the related entries on this blog so they can review their customer service setup in light of my experience.

Will they be upset to learn that this story played out in such a public forum? Will they appreciate getting the feedback and re-examine their processes? Or will they not care at all and consider it a waste of time to look into this, now that the case is closed?

It might be worth writing them just to find out what will happen. ;-)

The Saga Continues

Well, it's official. I'm now royally ticked off at SkyDSL.

I've had no dial tone now for 10 days, thanks to the shoddy installation work of the guys who came and laid cables for my new DSL subscription.

After 4 phone calls and 2 emails from me, they finally sent a SkyDSL technician to my house last Saturday. He agreed that they had messed up and that linemen will be asked to come and check the line, because they had tapped into our PLDT phone cables when they should have just installed new lines to start with.

I made a point of asking him if there's anything I need to do to make sure this happens and he said no since the trouble ticket is still open.

Well, it's been three days since that technician's visit, and nothing has happened. So I was once again forced to call them, which I did just now.

The customer service representative I talked to told me that my trouble ticket is already tagged as Closed on their system, and that according to the notes there, the customer was advised to have an electrician check the wiring.

Man, I lost my temper! I told her that I was the customer, and that the technician they sent didn't tell me any such thing. In fact the technician who came on Saturday even said that the line installers may come the next day to perform the repair.

The CSR tried once again to explain to me that they are only responsible for the DSL and that since the DSL is working fine, they have no problem to solve. She said a different group is in charge of phone-related problems, to which my reply to her was -- this doesn't help me since I don't have a BayanTel phone.

Bottomline, I have fallen through the large gaping crack that's in their customer service setup. SkyDSL subscribers with working DSL service but screwed-up non-BayanTel phone lines have no one to turn to. I am literally in no man's land.

Thoroughly exasperated, I told the CSR that if she can't help me, she should at least give me the name and number of someone I can call to get this fixed. She put me on hold for a moment to consult someone, then came back saying she would create a new trouble ticket, with "special instructions" indicating that the drop line should be checked and that a new cable should be installed. She assured me that the service crew would arrive tomorrow.

All throughout, my confidence in the customer service process has really been eroded.

If this still doesn't work out, I think I will be forced to cancel my SkyDSL within the 14-day grace period and get my full refund, because I don't want them to make a single cent from me if this is the service that I can expect from them in the future.

* * *

Stepping back from the situation a little, I think it's a real shame that the BayanTel customer service representatives are so focused on triage that they don't actually listen to what you're saying anymore.

Here I am, using their company's service for the first time, and yet they don't go out of their way to give me stellar customer support, when they should know full well that this is one of the areas where they can truly distinguish themselves from PLDT.

Heck, that's the reason why I didn't even bother applying for PLDT's DSL service even though I already have a PLDT phone line -- most of the online forums and blogs that I read during my search for a new ISP have raved about the great customer service at BayanTel as loudly as they complain about the poor customer service of PLDT.

If it were not for that feedback, I would have just applied for a PLDT MyDSL account straight away, especially since the installation fee would be cheaper. As it is, I shelled out an additional P1999 just to have this BayanTel line installed, so having them screw up the installation when I paid good money for them to do it just really gets my goat.

I'm a brand-new customer who still has the option to walk away with my money back. It's at this critical time that you really want to keep the customer happy. Why is that not obvious enough to them?

Updated: See also Case Closed.

Busted Phone Line: Update

The background story for this entry is here.

The gist: I lost the dial tone on one of my phone lines on Apr 28, when my DSL provider came to install cables for my new DSL subscription. DSL was up and running by Apr 29, but as of this entry, my phone service has not yet been restored.

* * *

My first two phone calls to the SkyDSL customer service hotline (411-2000) on the morning and the afternoon of April 29 were met with noncommittal responses ("we'll make a note of it, ma'am") from the customer service representatives. As a brand-new SkyDSL customer, though, I was willing to take their word at face value and wait for a resolution.

However, when days passed and there was no indication that the problem would be fixed, I called the CS hotline again around 1:00am on May 2.

This time, the customer service representative I spoke to (Darwin) understood me right away when I explained the situation, and agreed that it was likely the fault of the installation guys that my phone line no longer works.

He advised me to write a letter of complaint via email and address it to [csdip AT bayantel DOT com.ph], making sure to include an explanation of the work that the installation guys did. Half an hour later, I sent the email as instructed.

By close of business on May 3, I had not yet received a reply, so I forwarded a copy of the original email again to the same email address.

When no email reply came by 5.30pm on May 4, I called the hotline again to follow up. Although it was a bit frustrating, I explained the situation all over again to the CSR (her name was Arlene), including all the calls that I had made, as well as the email that I had sent to CSDIP two days earlier.

Arlene put me on hold and checked with the folks at CSDIP. After a few minutes, she came back on the line to tell me that she will be creating a trouble ticket for my problem, so that a technician can come to my house to troubleshoot. She gave me the trouble ticket number over the phone, so I can refer to it in future communications.

I tell ya... for the first time since this problem came up 6 days ago, I finally felt that someone was actually listening to me. I immediately felt better because at least there was hope that my problem would be fixed.

When I got home from work a few hours later, I did my routine e-mail check and found a reply from CSDIP.

They said the magic words as far as I'm concerned: "We apologize for the delayed response" and "Thank you very much for bearing with us." By golly, I really appreciated that too.

So while this story does not yet have a happy ending, I must say (from the point of view of a customer) that Arlene has helped to restore my confidence in BayanTel's customer service. The apologetic tone in the email from CSDIP's Marlo Austria coming a few hours later was icing on the cake.

Together, they helped move me from "disgruntled customer" to "patient customer".

Now all that needs to be done to make me a "happy customer" is to have someone actually show up at my house to restore my phone service.

* * *

See also: The Saga Continues

SkyDSL Installation: A Recap

I applied for a SkyDSL account three days ago. It is now up and running and I am using it to write this blog entry.

Below is a description of the installation process that was followed, which I hope will be useful not only for my future reference, and also for anyone else who is trying to set up their own DSL modem.

To clarify, SkyDSL is actually BayanTel's DSL service. The only difference is that under the SkyDSL brand, you don't need to get a BayanTel phone line; you are literally getting DSL only.

Basic Installation

Installation began yesterday, when two BayanTel contractors arrived to set up our phone cables so that a BayanTel phone outlet can be added to our home office. Although we have existing phone outlets in the home office, they're all from another provider.

After looking at the various options, the installation guys decided to use the spare third (red) wires in our existing phone lines inside the house for the DSL connection, so they would not have to lay down a new set of cables. The entire installation process took around two hours, although the bulk of that time was spent tracing the phone wires from room to room inside the house.

Overall, the installation process went well. There was one catch however: I didn't have the presence of mind to check our existing phone lines before the installation guys left. I learned too late that one of our phone lines was no longer working: we had lost the dial tone, and people who call the number can hear it ringing on their end, but the phone inside our house doesn't actually ring. More on this later.

Before they left, the installation guys advised us to expect another guy to arrive, either later that day or sometime the next day, to setup the DSL modem. Apparently, the first set of guys were experts on the phone cabling, and a different guy with networking skills was required for the computer-specific stuff.

As expected, the second guy arrived today just before noon to install the cable modem. The process was straightforward, and took around 15 minutes. I think anyone who has worked with a modem before would have been able to figure it out on their own.

Before long, one of our PCs was online, and speedtest results were looking good.

The Challenge: Extending Access to Other PCs

The next challenge therefore was to set up our home network so that the other PCs at home could also get on the Internet. I knew from reading the fine print that SkyDSL only accepts responsibility for getting one computer online. The customer is free to connect as many other PCs as they want, but they're on their own when it comes to setting up that kind of network. It was therefore no surprise when the DSL guy kindly but firmly declined to assist me in figuring out how to get the other PCs online as well.

Anyway, it turns out that all the instructions that I needed to share the DSL connection with the rest of the computers via our Linksys router was fully documented in the User's Manual that came with the DSL modem.

Modem Background

The unit they gave us was a Huawei Smart AX MT880 ADSL Router. As the name implies, the modem actually has a built-in router that can act as a DHCP server. It also has a software dialer that can be configured to automatically dial and create a connection to the ISP.

Out of the box, the modem defaults to "Pure Bridge" mode, which means its router features are disabled, and your PC's dial-up networking settings are used to initiate the connection to the DSL provider.

Since we had an existing Linksys router (which all our PCs connect to either directly or wirelessly), I knew I had to connect the modem in series with the router. I also didn't want to have to boot up a "host" PC to initiate the dialing if other computers needed to get online. So "Pure Bridge" mode was definitely not what I wanted or needed.

After examining the various options, I concluded that what I needed was the "PPPoE Mode," which (a) enables the router capabilities of the modem; and (b) enables the modem's auto-dialer so that a PC was not needed to initiate the dial-up process.

Modem and Network Configuration
Updated: May 1, 2007

Here's the process that I followed, for future reference:

1. With the DSL modem connected directly to my PC, I changed the default IP address of the modem, to make sure it doesn't have the same IP address as the Linksys router. I kept both routers in the same subnet, so they can find each other.
   
2. With the DSL modem still connected to my PC, I followed the instructions in the User's Manual to set the DSL modem in PPPoE Mode, using the user name and password provided by the SkyDSL installation guy. I also rebooted the modem as instructed.
3. I went to the TCP/IP settings of each PC's LAN card and set them all to "Obtain an IP address automatically" and to "Obtain DNS server address automatically".
4. I also set all of the PC browsers to "automatically detect network settings".
5. After all the PC settings were changed, I reconnected the PC to my Linksys router, then connected the DSL modem to one of the ports on the Linksys router as well (making sure it's not connected to the Linksys WAN port).
6. I logged into the administrator panel of the Linksys router and disabled its DHCP (since the DHCP on the DSL modem is enabled). After that, I reset the router.
   
7. I next forced the PC to re-acquire a new IP address by disconnecting and reconnecting the network cable.
   

After making all these changes, I tested each PC and found that they were all up and online, using the DHCP router of the DSL modem. Step number 5 was the one that took some figuring out, since the instructions on the modem's manual didn't assume the use of another router.

I had originally connected the DSL modem's ethernet port to the Linksys WAN port and was getting frustrated when it wouldn't work. A search on the Internet led me to a page that advised against using the Linksys WAN port.

Next Steps

I'm not completely convinced that the setting I chose (PPPoE) is the best option, especially since the modem is not connected to the WAN port, and therefore it probably doesn't take advantage of the built-in firewall on the router. So my next step is to explore some other mode and see if it will work.

If you've had some experience setting this up, I'll be happy to get your advice.

Busted Phone Line

One final thing to add to this entry is my frustration dealing with the customer service people at BayanTel when I reported our busted phone line.

The BayanTel customer service trunk line (412-12-12) advised me to call the DSL support guys, since the problem is not with a BayanTel phone.

I called the DSL support guys (411-2000), who advised me initially to call their telephone support (171) until I explained that the busted phone line was from another provider. Their next advice therefore was for me to call the other provider since it's "obviously" a problem with their line. They gave me this advice even after I had explained that the problem started after the BayanTel telephone cabling guys had messed around with our phone wiring inside the house. Talk about passing the buck! * sigh! *

The SkyDSL cable installation guy was listening to my side of the phone conversation as I talked to the customer support guys, and I guess he could clearly see my mounting frustration at getting the run-around, because he volunteered to take care of raising it with the guys who did the installation. That was nice of him. Only time will tell whether the issue will truly get raised and resolved.

So there it is. A recap of my latest adventure with internet connectivity. After our disappointing experiences with our cable modem provider (whose service declined steadily after typhoon Milenyo hit last year), I am hoping that I'll be able to join the company of other friends who are happy BayanTel DSL users.

See also: Busted Phone Line: An Update