CLARO failed after 10 years

windeguy

Platinum
Jul 10, 2004
42,211
5,966
113
After 10 years of acceptable service from CLARO/CODETEL/CLARO for DSL with a land line phone I had to cancel my service with them. I had been paying for 4 Mb/s download speeds and that changed to 1 Mb/s.

I called to find out why and they told me that I was too far from the Central Station and that I could not get 4 Mb/s. Now, neither I nor the central station moved anywhere. Something "changed" on their end. I asked what changed after 10 years and they had a hard time with that question. They kept telling me I was too far away and I kept asking "what" changed when nobody moved and we were still the same distance apart.

So I had them send out a technician and he confirmed I could not get more than 1 Mb/s. I told them to check into it again or they were being cancelled. They did check again and said the same thing. So I cancelled CLARO and went with a cable modem and VOIP service. CLARO demonstrated no ability to find out what had changed from one week to the next. By the way, if you want to cancel service in Cabarete, you have to go to Puerto Plata to do that at the main office.
 

caribmike

Gold
Jul 9, 2009
6,808
202
63
Funny thing.

As I posted a couple days ago here in PB in Bavaro Claro downgraded my plan from 8 / 1 to 6 mb / 1 mb with that very same "excuse" ("too far from the bla bla bla")... despite it was just working fine...

Something is going on here...
 

Riva_31

Bronze
Apr 1, 2013
2,533
179
63
San Pedro de Macoris
Im sure all of us are missing the very good service before Codetel-Verizon was sell to Claro, I have heard a lot people telling the same, they are paying for some Mb and they are receiving less, so if you dont keep checking the speed they screw you up.
 

Mauricio

Gold
Nov 18, 2002
5,607
7
38
I was actually calling the today while my speed was down from 6mb to 2mb or even less.

They told me it was probably the wifi having interference, I suspect they are having issues and that's their first way out. I plugged the cable, speed went up (why do I think they manage that from the office). After half an hour it was down again.

I called again and they filed a report, but I know what I ll do next time, I'll say I plugged the cable and leave it on wifi.

I am sure they are having capacity issues and these are their ways to take velocity from everyone. I am this close to change to Orange 4g. The only issue there is that they don't publish speeds. They sell: highest speed available.
 

demi56

New member
Jun 2, 2007
50
0
0
bayahibewebcam.com
They will have a big competition in Bayahibe / Dominicus / La Romana area very soon, Tricom (in the past only a TV company) is installing their cables everywhere, so instead of a ADSL we can have a cable internet, which is much better.
 

Hernandez

Banned
Feb 9, 2009
875
20
0
I had the same problem with Claro in Santo Domingo. After some years of normal service my ADSL totally f#cked up.... disconnections every day, slow speed, etc. The problem was the cable between the building and their CABINA down the street, I mean that thick cable with many wires inside.... too old, cracked insulation, water goes inside the cable after the rain.... They tried to switch me to another pair of wires, same sh1t again and again, after 6 months I got tired of calling them every week, finally I moved to Naco where they have fiber optic service.
 

caribmike

Gold
Jul 9, 2009
6,808
202
63
Fiber Optic is what I am waiting for in Bavaro. I know they are taking the "medidas" atm but I was told until it arrives here it will be a couple years... :(

I had the same problem with Claro in Santo Domingo. After some years of normal service my ADSL totally f#cked up.... disconnections every day, slow speed, etc. The problem was the cable between the building and their CABINA down the street, I mean that thick cable with many wires inside.... too old, cracked insulation, water goes inside the cable after the rain.... They tried to switch me to another pair of wires, same sh1t again and again, after 6 months I got tired of calling them every week, finally I moved to Naco where they have fiber optic service.
 

VJS

Bronze
Sep 19, 2010
846
0
36
They told me it was probably the wifi having interference, I suspect they are having issues and that's their first way out. I plugged the cable, speed went up (why do I think they manage that from the office). After half an hour it was down again.

I can't comment on Claro's equipment but cable boxes that Tricom supplies do have very crappy wifi performance (Arris brand). I was getting disconnects and slower speeds consistently and then plugged in my old trusted Linksys router into Tricom's box and now am using its wifi instead - now very reliable wifi.
 

Dolores1

DR1
May 3, 2000
8,215
37
48
www.
We have a faulty Claro service at the dr1 office. We pay for 4mbps and the service has been in and out. Today it was out all afternoon. I called and was told they have removed the service to incorporate improvements and that this could take 8 hours.

Fortunately I have Tricom at home -- didn't want to take the same provider. Night to day compared to Claro and it is speedy, a pleasure. So have been working from home. Fingers crossed that Tricom be the new buyer for Orange, and that the competition does happen to Claro. Their mobile service is flaky to say the best. I can try to call someone right besides me and the call doesn't get in.

So far am very happy with Tricom in Julieta.
 
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onlyinthedr

New member
Nov 25, 2013
3
0
1
we're having so much trouble trying to get our building wired for claro use...

we need to work online but the speed of the internet here is difficult, how do you all do it? speed is necessary to voice communicate over the web I hope this gets better
 

Mauricio

Gold
Nov 18, 2002
5,607
7
38
We have a faulty Claro service at the dr1 office. We pay for 4mbps and the service has been in and out. Today it was out all afternoon. I called and was told they have removed the service to incorporate improvements and that this could take 8 hours.

Fortunately I have Tricom at home -- didn't want to take the same provider. Night to day compared to Claro and it is speedy, a pleasure. So have been working from home. Fingers crossed that Tricom be the new buyer for Orange, and that the competition does happen to Claro. Their mobile service is flaky to say the best. I can try to call someone right besides me and the call doesn't get in.

So far am very happy with Tricom in Julieta.

Where's the DR1 office? in my sector they are finally installing optic fiber, I might wait for that before I change to another provider. If the DR1 office is in a neighborhood where 'fibra optics' is available they will install it for free.
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
0
here we had the exact opposite. one day oscuro informed us they will up our speed for no additional charge as a part of area upgrade. then internet died. 2 weeks later they finally admitted we could not actually have the speed they gave us because we were too far from the central. it took them a while to downgrade our internet so that it would work again. recently they put a new "box" somewhere close so we were bettered again. this time it worked.

when we were in poland TV was full of 110 mbs internet commercials. miesposo looked and said bitterly: "100? we get 7..." i laughed out loud. only it is not that funny. and, of course, 100 mbs is also "restrictions apply" type of a deal.
 

Hernandez

Banned
Feb 9, 2009
875
20
0
100 Mbps is too fast for DR, because their brains work much slower. That's why only foreigners here complain about slow internet, Dominicans just don't notice any lags, because even on dial–up connection pages load faster than they load to Dominican user's head.
 

Eugeniefs

New member
Jan 24, 2008
286
0
0
I did have a Tricom 'tower' but the connection was so sporadic that I couldn't stand it and cancelled my contract - even if it did incur a fee. However, 4 years ago that was the only option I had. Then 3 years ago Claro came along with their USB stick (dongle) which was so much better, it worked for most of the time. After my first year with them I noticed that the dongle was getting worse so as I had to take a friend to the Veron office to help translate, I decided to take it with me, where they told me that it was now an 'old' model. Gave me a new one, with a new contract and so far - so good!
 

Riva_31

Bronze
Apr 1, 2013
2,533
179
63
San Pedro de Macoris
Where's the DR1 office? in my sector they are finally installing optic fiber, I might wait for that before I change to another provider. If the DR1 office is in a neighborhood where 'fibra optics' is available they will install it for free.

Have you checked the prices for fiber optic? are crazy expensive, if you are paying for one speed and they are giving you less, my recomendation is to keep record of all the complains you make, with ticket number and who you speak and what they says, if they dont solve your problems, you can open a case in Indotel and make them to give back the money you paid for one service that you never get.
 

Mauricio

Gold
Nov 18, 2002
5,607
7
38
Have you checked the prices for fiber optic? are crazy expensive

I don't think it's more expensive than the conventional internet fijo. Claro will install free of cost in sectors where it's available and the price of the internet plan seems to stay the same.

If you want 20Mbps in this country you pay an incredible high price. But for my 6Mbps with Fiber optics I supposedly pay the same as for my 6 Mpbs with ADSL.
 

Hernandez

Banned
Feb 9, 2009
875
20
0
If you want 20Mbps in this country you pay an incredible high price. But for my 6Mbps with Fiber optics I supposedly pay the same as for my 6 Mpbs with ADSL.

My package is 20 mbps/2 mbps, cable tv with some premium channels, phone line with some minutes included, all together is about 7800 pesos monthly with taxes included.