Internet Service

As long standing customers of Time Warner, I have literally never lived in a house that didn't have Road Runner internet (at least since it was invented). Our neighbors out here also have Time Warner, so we figured it wouldn't be an issue of running it to our house.

Time Warner has the basic installation fee of $40 for a new account. They told us that they can only run a line 700 ft. So, they came out to measure how far ours would need to be. Going down the driveway, and around behind our house is...775 ft. Dern. That's not going to work.

It not impossible for them to run service out there. Obviously, for Time Warner to have service ALL over this country in rural parts, they have to run lines longer than 775 ft. What they could do is run a "construction line" to our house. It's my understanding that this is the mega line that they would run to a new subdivision. At the cost of $2700, they said they would discount it and we'd only have to pay $400.

Still way too much, but not completely out of the question. I mean, internet is kinda a necessity. We can't even "borrow" our neighbors unless we walk half way to their house and stand in the driveway. So we thought and thought. Maybe if we have them run it through the woods and over the hill, instead of down the driveway, would be a straight shot and could shave off 75 ft.

We'd have to make a 6 ft wide path for them to drive their trencher through the woods. That's not a big deal. We've done it many time for our own benefit, BUT Matt pointed out that we'd spend close to $200 in fuel for the bulldozer and have our time in it, so we'd be better off paying the $400.

Still looking for other options, we looked into AT&T DSL service. They have NO installation fee and can run a phone line up to a mile and a half! We scheduled them to come out and run the temporary line (just laying on the driveway and hooked up to our house). That guy was super nice, but he said there was some reason he couldn't actually turn the service on that day (I forget why). And said someone would call me and be back out here in a few days.

That never happened. A week later I called AT&T. They apparently had our order down for phone service NOT dsl service, and didn't have anyone scheduled to come back. The guy on the phone "deleted" the phone order and started a new dsl order and said it would be another week before they came out. I'd been patient and polite up to this point. Now I wasn't happy. First, they make the wrong account and I spent a week waiting for them to come out. Then, they fix it finally, and now I have to wait another week because of the computer generated date?! You've got to be kidding me! If it's your mistake, you need to bump us up on the scheduled installation list! I voiced all this to the guy on the phone, but he basically said he'll "see what he can do". Which means, he doesn't care.

At this point, I was so unhappy with their service, but there was no other company we could go with. We were stuck. Finally, on December 30th (the computer generated date), the nice guy came out to hook us up. He was kinda shocked to see we still weren't online and very apologetic since he had said ATT would call me and they didn't.

We were also supposed to buy/order a modem, phone cord, and some other stuff, but nobody told us. So he found some parts on his truck and GAVE THEM TO US! The modem is $100! And he came inside to install it all (including the phone jack) for free. He was just trying to make up for us having to wait 3 weeks to get internet. He also saw that we had two orders still. The phone guy never deleted the first one, so this guy did it. He was amazing. I gave him a tip because I was so thankful to have internet when he drove away.

Not having internet for 3 weeks was torture! I don't have a smart phone and I don't get to use the internet at work. Twice I went to our old house to use the internet we still had service there. But mostly I stood in the driveway with my laptop that only has 10 minutes of battery life, and "borrowed" the neighbors.