New guy here that just spent the better part of the afternoon perusing your forums, especially the WB section.
Having been stuck with WB for a long time now due to no possible success with a 12 to 14k limit on dial up it has become painfully obvious that I could have or should have written nearly all the posts concerning this sat provider.
My initial WB setup was purchased from a local, 60 miles downriver, dealer who was also a personal friend which made some of the following bs somewhat more bearable:
Starting with the basic 512 package, in the first year I went through four Trias, two modems and two complete reinstallations before even approaching a somewhat stable connection. (stable meaning a totally clear sky, no fog, wind, loud noises or hummingbird droppings that invariably kick connection back to sending smoke signals.)
I have no idea how many hours have been spent on the phone with tech support but over the years there have been several visits ranging from local installers to high powered trouble shooters attempting to correct the problem or problems I've encountered. I was never charged for service calls apparently due to the fact that I never had a working system in the first place.
Eventually I was told that because my location, extreme NE Wa on the Canadian border, was in a fringe area of the elusive spot beam I was being switched to a different sat/beam/dope dealer or whatever. But it did improve my connection to the point of being useable. This of course was long after being told my PC's were old or broke or outdated or that it was just my fault for being computer challenged.
Anyway, I lived with the cheapo package @about 1/2 advertised speeds on good days til last December when I purchased a new high tech go faster gaming platform, Win 7 64bit with all the bells and whistles. As soon as it was up and running (@1/2 rated speeds with basic service) I called customer support and requested to try the pro pack. This was accomplished by a very polite little gal with the push of a botton. Wow, instant pro pack performance. Tests run during the last week in December were stable and consistant at rated speeds and above. Some dl tests with testmy.net were showing l700 to l800 with not much drop during the evening (peak I guess) hours. Uploads were comparable.
But sometime during the night on New Years Eve the gremlins appeared. January speed tests are so deplorable that it is forcing me to drink, (more). Great in the morning like everyone, degrading during the day, like everyone, and damn near extinct during the now famous peak gremlin hours.
It has to be the gremlins and they work for WB, probably hired on as the Rocket Scientists you guys refer to.
Not being a happy camper and with no alternative isp available it was back to the phone to whine and cry. That is when I discovered the fix. It's not the overselling of bandwidth, the bad installations, the lack of support or faulty satellites or equipment, it's the people working for WB. For years I have envisioned them as upper crust, driving around in their new SUV's or Porches, living the high life. In reality I'm guessing they are locked in the WB dungeon on bread and water with no one but the gremlins to talk to.
Anyway, the last two times I called I played the disabled vet, advanced old age, vision impaired, one foot on a banana peel card (which I am) and guess what. You betcha, test results back on par with the touch of a button, for a few days at least. My plan should continue to work until one of them damn gremlins rat me out or I start getting the same tech support person.
Just thought I'd share.
