When we first moved here we were given very bad advice: to get our initial ADSL line from a private provider named Netgate. Boy are we sorry.
Without whining too much, I want to tell you this story so you don't get beguiled into repeating our mistake and misery. The Reader's Digest Condensed version is this:
the service never gets close to the bandwidth for which we pay,
the service disconnects for anywhere for a few seconds to 10 minutes several times daily, and
worst of all, the majority of the dynamic IP addresses we get from them are SPAM Blocked so that we cannot send email, EVEN THOUGH OUR OWN EMAIL SERVERS AT OUR WEBSITES.
We complained more than three dozen times. Finally we told them we wanted to cancel the service. They told us to cancel we had to pay for the entire length of the contract PLUS a two month disconnection fee.
We decided to take our case to the Consumer Protection Tribunal. Our office manager represented us at the hearing. Netgate showed up with 3 technicians and an attorney and simply overpowered our office manager. We lost. The result was that WE HAVE TO PAY FOR THE SERVICE EVEN IF THEY DO NOT DELIVER IT.
We can always go to court, but I prefer the court of public opinion. Hence this post.
IF YOU WANT THIS KIND OF SERVICE, because you are a secret masochist, please use Netgate.
IF YOU ARE NOT A MENTAL DEFECTIVE, I suggest you make another choice. As much as it galls every fiber of my libertarian free market capitalist makeup, I have to tell you that the service provided by Anteldata, the Internet side of the state phone company Antel, is much better.
once again I would like to thank you for your efforts and info
Left by snowykarma on September 2nd, 2006
How do you know what speeds your Netgate and Anteldata connections are achieving?Does your Anteldata speed test approach the stated speed?
Left by Hugo on September 19th, 2006
There is a free speed test you can use at: http://www.dslreports.com/speedtestWe usually get above 75% of what we are paying ofr, which is pretty standard anywhere, except for frame relay.
Left by The Southron on September 19th, 2006
[…] There are important lessons to be learned from this experience, as there are from my previous recounted experience with Netgate (http://www.uruguayliving.com/2006/09/01/a-pig-in-a-pokeinternet-service-from-netgate/). Among these are: […]
Left by UruguayLiving.com » Blog Archive » Frankly, Scarlet, I don’t give a damn… on November 11th, 2006