Claro's internet billing question

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rendul

Bronze
Feb 24, 2002
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For the past week I have been dealing with Claro to try to get the internet speed I pay for. Yesterday, when I called again they said they have closed the ticket as they cannot provide me with the speed that I pay for. OK, I accept that but what I don't accept is that they cannot reduce my billing below the minimum billing amount while receiving only half of the speeds in the minimum billing. I asked them to reduce it to a reasonable amount that reflects the reality. They said that they cannot do this and I ventured to say that they are billing me illegally as they know I am not receiving the stipulated speeds. I suggested that they bill me the lowest amount and apply a credit with every billing. I thought this was reasonable but today a Supervisor is calling. Can or does anyone know if it is illegal to charge for goods, admittedly, not being received?

:ermm::ermm::ermm::ermm:
 
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rubio_higuey

Gold
Feb 7, 2007
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Claro te da mas ... (Claro gives you more)... more headaches, more aggravation, more incompetence, more service issues, more outages, more promises ... than ANY other operator in the DR
I think their slogan describes it pretty well.
 
cobraboy

cobraboy

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We keep being told that the DR has the most advanced telecommunications in Central America(or something.) That's tough to believe. Claro/Codetel has gone into the crapper since Verizon sold to Slim.

That being said, we finally have the speed we've been promised, 4mbs/1mbs. Makes a difference.
 
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Ken

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Jan 1, 2002
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cobraboy said:
We keep being told that the DR has the most advanced telecommunications in Central America(or something.) That's tough to believe. Claro/Codetel has gone into the crapper since Verizon sold to Slim.

That being said, we finally have the speed we've been promised, 4mbs/1mbs. Makes a difference.
Click to expand...

Where are you located? What plan do you have?

Right now all I am getting is 1.57 mbs/0.25mbs and Skype calls worthless due to my speech badly garbled although I have no problem hearing what other party is saying.

I checked the computer in office where I live and its speeds same as mine.
 
cobraboy

cobraboy

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Ken said:
Where are you located? What plan do you have?

Right now all I am getting is 1.57 mbs/0.25mbs and Skype calls worthless due to my speech badly garbled although I have no problem hearing what other party is saying.

I checked the computer in office where I live and its speeds same as mine.
Click to expand...
Jarabacoa. We had the 1.5/756 plan that was upgraded to 4/1 plan.
 
K

Ken

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Jan 1, 2002
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cobraboy said:
Jarabacoa. We had the 1.5/756 plan that was upgraded to 4/1 plan.
Click to expand...

I'm going to look into that. Skype working again, so that must have been a different problem. 0.25mbs quite different than 756 on present plan. Are you getting 4/1?
 
cobraboy

cobraboy

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Ken said:
I'm going to look into that. Skype working again, so that must have been a different problem. 0.25mbs quite different than 756 on present plan. Are you getting 4/1?
Click to expand...
Last I checked we got 4.95/.85. I'll take it.

My Skype has been really acting up lately. Most of the conversations are "can you hear me now?"
 
caribmike

caribmike

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Jul 9, 2009
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cobraboy said:
Last I checked we got 4.95/.85. I'll take it.

My Skype has been really acting up lately. Most of the conversations are "can you hear me now?"
Click to expand...

Cobraboy, that skype has its "hickups" atm must not necessarily have to do with claro. I am in Bavaro using Tricom Wimax and Orange Flybox and I had lots of issues recently. My employers in the US (California) faced lots of skype problems in the last 2, 3 weeks, too. Coincidence with been aquired by Microsoft, maybe ;)
 
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DannyTenaglia

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Mar 29, 2011
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cobra, i'm in jarabacoa too.
On the last month something strange is happening to me: i pay for 512 and i receive 1meg, dont know why. Anyway i think your problem should be the trafic: i guess you live in an internet populated area and the signal has to share within many people. I live in the campo, and i dont think theres so many internet user here, so i have extra band.

I know this is not a really technical explication, i'm only trying to guess...

Anyway, the orange wireless signal is now active in the pueblo, you should try it but remember the orange band is 3mbit only for the first 3 gb of download, then they cut at 384kbps. You will have to wait a month to have the 3mbit again.

Good luck
 
caribmike

caribmike

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Jul 9, 2009
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DannyTenaglia said:
cobra, i'm in jarabacoa too.
On the last month something strange is happening to me: i pay for 512 and i receive 1meg, dont know why. Anyway i think your problem should be the trafic: i guess you live in an internet populated area and the signal has to share within many people. I live in the campo, and i dont think theres so many internet user here, so i have extra band.

I know this is not a really technical explication, i'm only trying to guess...

Anyway, the orange wireless signal is now active in the pueblo, you should try it but remember the orange band is 3mbit only for the first 3 gb of download, then they cut at 384kbps. You will have to wait a month to have the 3mbit again.

Good luck
Click to expand...

Orange has a plan with 25 GB limit, too. That's what I use.
 
cobraboy

cobraboy

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DannyTenaglia said:
cobra, i'm in jarabacoa too.
On the last month something strange is happening to me: i pay for 512 and i receive 1meg, dont know why. Anyway i think your problem should be the trafic: i guess you live in an internet populated area and the signal has to share within many people. I live in the campo, and i dont think theres so many internet user here, so i have extra band.

I know this is not a really technical explication, i'm only trying to guess...

Anyway, the orange wireless signal is now active in the pueblo, you should try it but remember the orange band is 3mbit only for the first 3 gb of download, then they cut at 384kbps. You will have to wait a month to have the 3mbit again.

Good luck
Click to expand...
To be clear, I get 4mbs down, 1mbs up. That is a free upgrade from 1.5mbs/756k.

I'm totally OK with it.

Codetel upgraded everybody.
 
K

Ken

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Jan 1, 2002
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cobraboy said:
To be clear, I get 4mbs down, 1mbs up. That is a free upgrade from 1.5mbs/756k.

I'm totally OK with it.

Codetel upgraded everybody.
Click to expand...

Apparently they haven't done Sosua yet. I recall the announcement saying something about being done by end of August. I go to the US for 2 months on the 28th, so hopefully I'll be upgraded by the time I return in late September.
 
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belgiank

Silver
Jun 13, 2009
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DannyTenaglia said:
cobra, i'm in jarabacoa too.

Anyway, the orange wireless signal is now active in the pueblo, you should try it but remember the orange band is 3mbit only for the first 3 gb of download, then they cut at 384kbps. You will have to wait a month to have the 3mbit again.

Good luck
Click to expand...

Orange has 3 plans at the moment... 5GB, 10 and 25 GB... If you have the 5GB plan your speed will be cut to 256kbs once you reach your limit. From 10GB onwards it will be cut to 384.

Mind you, I am very happy with their service. My flybox died after 3 months of service, and after some negotiating in the Sosua office I was offered a temporary one free of charge until they get mine replaced. The other option was having to drive to Santiago, which I declined of course.

My experience up to now? Orange, excellent and consistent service, customer-friendly. Claro, well, hmmm, no service, no consistent service, customers whoehaaaaaaa......
 
R

rendul

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Feb 24, 2002
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rendul.tripod.com
I am in Cabarete and in the office, last week, there was a line-up at the counter all complaining about their speed. They say they can do nothing to improve the speed - no extra bandwidth. A supervisor called me yesterday to let me know that they have a new billing amount for less than their minimal billing plan. Taxes included, I will be billed RD $700.00 p/m and they are going to issue a credit retroactively for the overbilling. I'll wait to see that. It really sucks! I can't use skype and yesterday it took 7 hours to download a 304 mb update!!
 
cobraboy

cobraboy

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rendul said:
They say they can do nothing to improve the speed - no extra bandwidth.
Click to expand...
Bandwidth can't be manufactured out of thin air. It requires significant hardware and infrastructure additions.

My wife's nephew is a technical engineer for Codetel's internet dept. dealing with T1 lines for business. He has said for over a year there will be no more copper trunk lines. It's all going fiberoptic. The fiber cables go in that skinny orange plastic pipe you see laid here and there.

So until you see the cable being laid don't expect an increase in bandwidth.

We went through many, many months of horrible DSL service here until Codetel brought fiber in and tweaked the system. Now it's solid.

The good news is it seems Orange broadband is a viable alternative in Cabarete. Some areas don't have an option.
 
K

Ken

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
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rendul said:
A supervisor called me yesterday to let me know that they have a new billing amount for less than their minimal billing plan. Taxes included, I will be billed RD $700.00 p/m and they are going to issue a credit retroactively for the overbilling.
Click to expand...

It is not like Codetel/Claro to admit something is their fault and make a price adjustment. Most likely this is because Orange is now a viable option so you don't have to stick with codetel/claro whether you like it or not.
 
R

rendul

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Feb 24, 2002
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Thank you for the info. How reliable are they? I will check at the orange desk in Janet's to see what plans they have, if they have any printed material. Great to know there is an alternative because I can't stand this speed!!!
 
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