Now, right off the top, I did 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tier tech support for 5 years with one of the top modem companies... so I do know quite a bit about how to run a tech support line.

Ok, so those who have followed my path with DW know that i have literally hundreds of calls logged to tech support - and pages of documentation.

Now, I know that DW outsources there tech support (level 1 at least) to what sounds like India.  Outsourcing is EVIL  - not only for the US economy, but shows a true lack of concern for the end user of a product.  I hold nothing against the tech support people over there... in fact, they are some of the most gracious and patient in the world.  AND hats off to anyone who can learn our dreadful language AND all the tech terms and carry on conversations with a bunch of ugly angry americans..... shudder.

However, my grief is that every time I call I am FORCED to go thru their little routine, which I call "The Cable Dance"... where the check all your settings, have you shut down the computer, pull every wire, coax, 25 pin cable, power cords, etc.. from your boxes to remove static charge.... then you have to put it all back together ... only to discover one of two things..... doing this fixes some problems, or that things still suck.  I suspect that by the time you have finished turn at the Cable Dance, the tech support people have turned on a secret switch - you know  the one, it reads "Enable Connection for 'so and so'".... or that thier congested pipes have cleared out a bit, OR, that the nightmare of networking protocols and firewalls and ICS have sorted themselves out due to the reboot.  

However, if I have to reboot the computer everytime satellite gets slow, I'd be doing nothing all day but rebooting.

On to an example....
Each time I call I get a different set of instructions to try..... this guy says turn on proxy, this one says turn it off, this one says turn on firewalls, this one says turn off all anti-virus software .. on and on...

So, yesterday, after 2 hours of not being able to work because my connection was in the 4-5Kbps zone... I mean DeAD slow .. but still there... I ventured a call to tech support.   This nice lady had me Re-Enable Proxy... which is what was disabled by the last tech support person the day before...... this INSTANTLY gave me a 540 - Satellite Outage Suspected Error - and no connection.   Well, I KNEW how to fix this... but I thought I'd play along and spent the next 45 minutes as she walked me thru changing and resetting all my networking - including DNSs and Gateways etc..... I actully just sat and nodded and waited..... Finally I turn off proxy, thanked her for her time and hung up.

This happens time after time after time.

Sometimes.... I get a bit miffy and ask to speak with a manager.... especially when the level 1s say things like - Well, if you are able to browse, then there is nothing more we can do...... even tho I'm getting like 48 Kbps.. and it is taking 1.5 minutes to bring up Google.  I ask, I plead, I BEG on my hands and knees to speak to a manager - they say no..... OR< when I get really upset, they will put me on hold and say... Oh... the manager is in a meeting (this is the response 100% of the time)  they say I can call back in a 1/2 hour, or an hour which ever..... but when I call back... the new tech person is FORCED to put me thru another 1-2 hours of troubleshooting before saying exactly the same thing.

It is a scam, cuz there are NO managers at the outsource place.... come on.... in 50 tries to speak to a manager .... 0 connections.

Getting to second level support???? Don't get me started .... las time it took 7.5 hours of 1st level (in a single call) just to get them to admit they had pretty much crashed my computer .. and a 2nd level would be contacting me in 48 hours....... HELLO... NEVER GOT A CALL.

Anyone even considering this product..... just hear what i'm saying.

At this point, forget the limb... I'd give a genital just for a call from a manager, or a second level techsupport.

Can you tell I've had it?
Not even sure if this post will make it to the server... currently getting 8Kbps... sigh