It may seem strange but I’m actually considering hiring a bilingual Dominican attorney not for any legal issue but simply to make phone calls, get accurate information, and exert influence so that I can get what I need.
Problem 1
In my 13 years of living permanently in the D.R. this has been my experience with respect to needing service from a business and receiving correct information and then, subsequently, appropriate follow through to execute that service:
a. Infrequent: You receive correct information and appropriate follow-up to implement the service.
In a country where a large swathe of the population is undereducated and underpaid, it is often the case that –
b. Frequent: When you ask a question someone tells you that they don’t know the answer but they make no attempt to find the answer (e.g. calling someone else),
c. Frequent: They don’t know the answer but instead of saying that they lie, give you false information, and then if you proceed to act on that lie, which you thought was true, you end up in frustration and failure.
I provide the foregoing as background to:
Problem 2:
In Santo Domingo we have Altice cable internet but:
a. The wi-fi in the modem/router stopped functioning. My wife took the modem to the main office in Sambil on Saturday March 5 and they said that a technician would arrive on that day to swap it out. It is now the 4th day, Tuesday, March 8, and we are captive in our house, a call is made every day and we are being told that “someone will come today” which is evidently a lie.
b. For my work, I require a modem/router with advanced configuration options, specifically, port forwarding, or I cannot do my work. The Altice modem lacks that feature and they have no modem that has that feature,
c. But when we speak to Altice tech support, one person says that the problem is that the Motorola Modem MG7315 that I purchased and want to swap out for the Altice modem, is blocked, and that I must take it to one of the many cellular businesses that unblock phones. Another Altice tech support person says that the other Altice support person is incorrect and that a technician can install my modem (I have tried and failed but my LAN chops are weak, on the other hand, I am not pretending to be a LAN technician!). One or both of these guys are talking out of their *ss and there’s no way to know who is correct. Third opinion maybe? But no one is showing up anyway.
d. My wife, dominicana, calls Claro today to find out if they offer the service we need. She does confirm that fiber-optic (not DSL) is available for my area and that it is mandatory to use the Claro modem and that they will not permit a swapout. (Of course, that really doesn’t answer the question if a swapout is possible independently of Claro). She then tries to find out the name and model number of the Claro modem/router so that I can download the manual from the net and find out if it has the config. features I need. But, here, customer support is unable or refuses to answer a basic question: What is the name and model of the modem? So now I have to go to the Main Office on 30 de marzo to seek an answer for this simple question . . .
So, if I cannot get the ISP service I need within a reasonable time, I’m going to hire an attorney just to cut through the bullshit. I mean how many days can we tolerate being captive in our house?
Questions:
(1) In the D.R. and, specifically, Sto. Dom., what other ISP’s exist besides Claro and Altice that have home internet at bandwidth > DSL?
(2) Does anyone know how I can find a LAN technician to come to my house and do my setup?
(3) Has anyone used their own modem/router and, if so, with what ISP?
Many thanks for your ideas . . .
Problem 1
In my 13 years of living permanently in the D.R. this has been my experience with respect to needing service from a business and receiving correct information and then, subsequently, appropriate follow through to execute that service:
a. Infrequent: You receive correct information and appropriate follow-up to implement the service.
In a country where a large swathe of the population is undereducated and underpaid, it is often the case that –
b. Frequent: When you ask a question someone tells you that they don’t know the answer but they make no attempt to find the answer (e.g. calling someone else),
c. Frequent: They don’t know the answer but instead of saying that they lie, give you false information, and then if you proceed to act on that lie, which you thought was true, you end up in frustration and failure.
I provide the foregoing as background to:
Problem 2:
In Santo Domingo we have Altice cable internet but:
a. The wi-fi in the modem/router stopped functioning. My wife took the modem to the main office in Sambil on Saturday March 5 and they said that a technician would arrive on that day to swap it out. It is now the 4th day, Tuesday, March 8, and we are captive in our house, a call is made every day and we are being told that “someone will come today” which is evidently a lie.
b. For my work, I require a modem/router with advanced configuration options, specifically, port forwarding, or I cannot do my work. The Altice modem lacks that feature and they have no modem that has that feature,
c. But when we speak to Altice tech support, one person says that the problem is that the Motorola Modem MG7315 that I purchased and want to swap out for the Altice modem, is blocked, and that I must take it to one of the many cellular businesses that unblock phones. Another Altice tech support person says that the other Altice support person is incorrect and that a technician can install my modem (I have tried and failed but my LAN chops are weak, on the other hand, I am not pretending to be a LAN technician!). One or both of these guys are talking out of their *ss and there’s no way to know who is correct. Third opinion maybe? But no one is showing up anyway.
d. My wife, dominicana, calls Claro today to find out if they offer the service we need. She does confirm that fiber-optic (not DSL) is available for my area and that it is mandatory to use the Claro modem and that they will not permit a swapout. (Of course, that really doesn’t answer the question if a swapout is possible independently of Claro). She then tries to find out the name and model number of the Claro modem/router so that I can download the manual from the net and find out if it has the config. features I need. But, here, customer support is unable or refuses to answer a basic question: What is the name and model of the modem? So now I have to go to the Main Office on 30 de marzo to seek an answer for this simple question . . .
So, if I cannot get the ISP service I need within a reasonable time, I’m going to hire an attorney just to cut through the bullshit. I mean how many days can we tolerate being captive in our house?
Questions:
(1) In the D.R. and, specifically, Sto. Dom., what other ISP’s exist besides Claro and Altice that have home internet at bandwidth > DSL?
(2) Does anyone know how I can find a LAN technician to come to my house and do my setup?
(3) Has anyone used their own modem/router and, if so, with what ISP?
Many thanks for your ideas . . .
