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You may remember my frustration with Arcor and Telecoms in Germany in general, stated some time ago. Now a reader of this blog who wants to stay anonymous told me his story, and it is getting more absurd by the minute.
Background: I have a BS in Computer Engineering and an MS in Computer Science. My wife also has telecom experience [...] Thus, when we talk about phone and internet connections, we do have some idea of what we are talking about.
Before coming to Germany, I was told how good German Internet was. That it was high speed and inexpensive. The reality turned out to be something quite different. In the states, we had a DSL connection from a competitor to the local "baby bell" that ran at a symmetric 1 Mbps. I found it quite nice that I was able to upload in bulk photographs to a site that I was working with at the time at the same rate I was downloading. I also had a static ip address, which meant that I could host a web server, but at 1 Mbps, I didn't want to waste the bandwidth. On the downside, when I signed up for the service, I had been promised 8-10 Mbps and a neighbor, who had cable, was enjoying something in the range of 50 Mbps to my amazement. Costs were higher than I had been used to before getting DSL, but lower than other providers. My bill with the DSL service provider was about $53/mo and included a VoIP phone in place of the regular landline with 500 minutes of long distance and unlimited local service. The downside of this arrangement was that the local calling area was different than with the local "baby bell" that had been providing service before. We knew this because my work phone (I worked 10 miles away right across the county line) was now long distance when it wasn't before. My neighbor, who had cable internet without cable TV said that his costs were about $80-90/mo.
Here, I was originally set up with a 6 Mbps DSL line with analog phone from Deutsche T-Com. I was told by the person who set it up that the total cost would be under 50 euro. When I got the statements from T-Com, the phone service was 20 euro and the T-Com was 45 euro - well above what I was originally told. Since the contract was made via phone, I went to investigate other options. Arcor was suggested by a friend so I went to them. Before I cancelled the contract, I was told by the man at the Kiosk that I could get DSL flat 2 Mbps with ISDN phone flat for 44 euro a month. AFTER I cancelled, I was informed that that package was not available in my area and I would have to have analog phone service from T-com but could get 2 Mbps for 35 euro a month with flat rate phone in Germany. Not happy, having cancelled my T-com contract I signed up for it. That was July 31st. I was told I would have service in 20 days.
On August 18th, I received a letter claiming my service was up effective that day. HOWEVER, this was only the flat rate telephone service NOT the DSL, even though my router could detect PPoE going over my phone line using the equipment left by the previous tenant. Later, when I went to a DIFFERENT kiosk and had someone call (I don't understand enough German to deal with the Arcor phone system) they informed me that T-Com would not release the line because of the previous order that I had cancelled. It would be 6 weeks from the cancellation of the contract for the line to go dead. This struck both of us as obsurd since turning off a port in a switch can be done in only a few seconds! (So either German has some VERY antiquated equipment, or T-com was punishing us for cancelling the service contract with them.) I went to a company provided lawyer. After telling me I wasn't alone in having this type of problem, he called T-Com. The line was released THAT day.
A few days later, a friend called Arcor on my behalf. He was told they had received acknowledgement from T-Com that the line was available and that I should be receiving something in the mail in the next couple of days that indicated when service would be turned on. A week and a half later, we called again. We were told the 28th of September. A few days before that date, a package arrived containing the equipment. On the 28th, a letter arrived saying service would not be turned on until the 30th. The 29th, our first bill arrived. This was really a shocker, since I was told I would be web-billed and that a real paper bill would have an added service charge (which it did). When I went to the Arcor office that date, I was informed that since I hadn't authorized them to automatically debit (we planned to wait until we had a German bank account set up and a standard bill, and we were told this WOULD NOT be a problem) they had defaulted to sending a paper bill and that would be the case in the future as well. At least the representative at the office was kind enough to give me the option of cancelling the contract for failure to provide service AND gave me a prepaid envelope to write to Arcor about the bill (which was for the flat rate phone service I only got because it was required for the DSL but had been provided since the 18th) to explain the situation and ask for a refund. While its not a lot of money, it is the principle of the thing---I had also been told by the Kiosk I originally signed the contract with that I WOULD NOT be charged ANYTHING until the DSL service was provided.
The DSL finally came on sometime on the 30th. At least it was as promised (so far) with one problem: My router, a NETGEAR WGR614, won't store the password provided by Arcor. In particular, the connection requires that the first part of the password be "dsl.arcor/", this part is dropped when the password is stored but appears to be sent if input into the password line and applied. It just dissappears after that. So, I do find myself concerned about the connection crapping out and having to go to the router to re-enter the password, but so far, in the 24 hours that its been up, the connection appears to be solid. Speed tests from a number of websites that do it have indicated I have 1.8 Mbps download and 181K upload. Accounting for overhead, that is what was originally promised. Now the only thing left is dealing with the billing. I also need to test if the upload will be adequate for VoIP, which is one option we plan to use to call home, or if I will need to upgrade to 6 Mbps service so I can have 512K upload. While I understand the logic, I really wish the service was symmetric. Like most connections in the states. In the end, I will end up paying more for roughly equivalent service.
As a caveat to the situation, I also learned that the person who had set up service with T-Com had added some unauthorized services. For one thing, he had signed our analog phone up for a lower rate on local calling beyond the initial 120 minutes provided in the basic plan. Cost: 4 euros. We cancelled to additions and downgraded. He had also signed us up for flat rate phone as part of the DSL package, believing that the analog phone costs would disappear. It didn't work out that way. All, said, I could have gotten what I wanted for less money and less hassle from T-com had I gone to the T-Punk store and set up service myself. I wouldn't have flat rate phone in Germany, but then, I don't need it. I don't know anyone living outside the area that I would call on my home phone and even if I did, I would rather use my pay-as-you-go cellphone. With our limited usage, it would be cheaper. However, at least the service is up, although now I have a very bad taste in my mouth when it comes to German business practices and their non-existant customer service. I would also add that the only time I did get real results was when I went to the actual Arcor stores, as opposed to the Kiosks. Originally, I tried to do business through the kiosks because they were accessible to where I worked while the stores were not. Thanks to a friend (who also had some real troubles with Arcor) I was able to get to the store in Mainz and actually got some satisfaction.
My costs, after all is considered, will be about 54 euros or more a month, which equates to about $70/mo. For 5 Euros more, I can get 6 Mbps service (which I have been told will be about 3 Mbps download and maybe 500K upload), but we'll see how the current level of service works out first. Then there was the cost of being without reliable internet for 4 months (2 months getting a house - that's another story), the multiple contacts I had to make with them to get things moving, the time spent going to the lawyer, and having to make other arrangements to meet the other needs usually done by us via internet - like paying our credit card bill. My wife had to cancel a class she was to take online because she couldn't go online (luckily the college refunded the money since the class hadn't begun). Getting bills paid took hours, as opposed to minutes and being disconnected caused problems in dealing with services such as insurance which needed to be changed because of the move (and mistakes were being made on the other side of the Atlantic in that regard). Starting this week, we'll need to start cleaning up the mess left behind. At least we are no longer stuck "waiting for Internet".
My opinion now: Deutsche T-Com should be broken up, just like the Baby Bells were and if German doesn't have one, they should create utilities service commissions like we have in the states when consumers can register complaints and get results. We had one such situation concerning Verizon in the states. We attempted to use their web bill pay and received a confirmation notice from their site saying the payment had been made. They failed to draw the payment and charged a late payment fee. We submitted the matter to the utilities commission for our state and it was investigated. A day or two after recieving notice from the commission that they were investigating (it only took one week from the filing of the complaint) we recieved a refund notice from verizon. Now THAT is good government in action!
Why am I telling you all this?
- I was glad to find someone who had the same situation as my friend and I in dealing with Arcor. Misery loves company.
- I would also point out that your advice has a minor flaw (it would probably incur that 6 month wait if you weren't careful).
Lastly, its nice to vent, and maybe some of this information could prove useful to you or others dealing with this issue (although I would ask that location references and any other identifying information be removed from the story before being presented to anyone else).
Now that I feel better, I need to get going. Let me know if you are interested in my friend's experience with Arcor and I will see if I can get him to write some of it down to e-mail you. He was also without Internet here for two months and was given the run around.
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