Just in case anyone is interested in switching to Cegecom here is a
description of my experience with them so far....
The basic learning points:
1. Cegecom will not provide any support unless you have their modem and
are using Windows.
2. Cegecom's first line tech support people are systems guys. They know
windows very well, but they can't do anything beyond simple
troubleshooting.
3. As a customer you can't get into direct contact with the real
engineers, even if you tell them what the exact problem is, and how they
can fix it. (I guess no one likes being told how to do their job)
Ok, so here is my painful story. It only took 2.5 weeks to resolve....
My service was supposed to start on the 14th of December. I bought a
Linksys all in one router and tried to hook it up. Unfortunately it
wouldn't synchronize with the DSLAM. So I called Cegecom and asked them
if I could bring the router in for testing. I was told that I could
bring it in at any time. When I arrived at the office they asked if I
had an appointment, which I didn't. In short, they refused to do
anything that day. I had to set an appointment for the next day. So
the next day I show up again, the tech support guy comes out to meet me,
he takes one look at my router and says "We don't support that." At
this point I was positive that I had a hardware problem (I had done
loads of other tests on the router by this point) and all that I wanted
them to do was to check to see if the stupid thing would synchronize
with a line that they knew worked. It took quite a bit of pleading just
to get them to do this small thing. Total time pleading: 10 minutes
total time to do my test: <2 min.
The test confirmed that I had a bad router, so I got a replacement
(netgear this time). This router synchronized with the DSLAM instantly,
but PPPoE wasn't working. I tried calling their tech support to see if
they could check their configuration, but was told that they don't
support this router either. In fact, they only support the Alcatel
Speedtouch router.... By this point I was certain that they were at
fault, so I went into their office, bought one of their routers which
was "Guaranteed to work" brought it home, and amazingly, it didn't
work. So, once again, I called their tech support, they ran throught
the usual troubleshooting steps with me, asking which version of windows
i was running. I said Linux and was told that they don't support
Linux. No problem, I said, since the problem is with the DSL line and
not my operating system. Of course that didn't get me anywhere. I told
the tech guy that I was not receiving any replies to my LCP
configuration requests. The answer: "What's LCP?" (in case any one
doesn't know, LCP is Link Control Protocol, it is the part of PPP where
the end devices negotiate the communication rules, how authentication
will be handled etc...) Anyway, he checked the Radius server to see if
my credentials was correct only to find that he wasn't receiving any
authentication packets from me (no kidding, since we haven't even gotten
through LCP yet). At this point he wanted to try to debug my computer
again..... I eventually brought the modem into Cegecom, made them test
it and confirm that my configuration was correct. It was. At this
point my wife called our sales rep and started tearing the poor girl
appart. They agreed to send a tech rep out to my house to install the
system for us. When the tech rep arrived, he got out his router hooked
it up and guess what, it didn't work either.... He called the guy that
manages the radius server and asked him to check things out. At which
point the raduis guy said that he saw something wrong in the DSLAM
configuration. He made one change and my DSL finally worked. We
returned the modem to Cegecom and demanded our money back. We've also
demanded that they pay the installation fee (for sending a tech rep to
our house), our phone bill for all calls to tech support, and our phone
bill for the analog modem connections to our old service provider. The
financial problems are still outstanding.
In short, I'm not very impressed with the company. However, once I got
through to a good tech rep (probably the youngest employee in the
company) my problems were resolved very quickly.
Regards
Mike
hi there,
i have a question concerning ADSL modems as i plan to purchase an all-in-one
wireless router. Is there a difference between DSL modems for ISDN splitters
and analog line DSL modems?
thanks in advance
--
Frédéric BECKER
