FreeBaGeL
Footballguy
For the last few years I've been using Rise Broadband as my ISP. They run fiber to towers, then broadcast the signal from the towers to a dish on your home for your internet.
I was on the 12mbps plan. About 8 months ago I upgraded the plan which required signing a 2 year contract. About 2 weeks later my internet speeds tanked, down to less than 1mbps if I could connect at all.
A tech came out, said he couldn't figure out the problem. Said I should look for another ISP or have him try again in a few months. No other ISPs in the area at the time so I waited it out. A few months later he came back, same thing. He told me I should cancel and find another ISP, or if I wanted, they had a new firmware update coming down the pipeline in a few months that might help. I told him about my contract, he said he's sure they'd waive it no problem.
Still no options so I waited a few more months, no change. Then Comcast finally runs cable to our street, so I switch. Hooray. I have real internet now.
I call Rise to cancel and they tell me I'm under contract and owe them $250. I explain the situation, they forward me to a supervisor. He tells me that the way the tech wrote the notes in their system was that it was a firmware issue and would be fixed on the next firmware release. Contrary to what the tech told me, which was that he had no idea what the issue was and that the firmware upgrade was a hail marry. It came and went without any change in my service, btw.
Anyhow, supervisor tells me that in order to even consider waiving the fee they'll have to send the tech out again to make sure everything still sucks after the firmware update (as if I can't run speedtest.net). Problem is, when the Comcast guy installed the stuff I had him to re-use all the drilled holes from the Rise installation, so he had to rip all those out. IE this thing is not installed anymore, so they can't do the test.
So we're basically at an impasse. They're charging me $250 for canceling and I don't think I should have to pay the $250 because the problem was on their end. A contract goes both ways, and all that.
So what are my options here? If I don't pay he said they'd send it to collections. How badly is that going to ding my credit? Will disputing that remove it from my credit? I'm not disputing that I have a bill that says $250 (most of the stuff I could find online about disputing collections was about making the collector prove you actually have a bill), I'm disputing that the bill is BS and I shouldn't have to pay it. Do I have any options here?
I was on the 12mbps plan. About 8 months ago I upgraded the plan which required signing a 2 year contract. About 2 weeks later my internet speeds tanked, down to less than 1mbps if I could connect at all.
A tech came out, said he couldn't figure out the problem. Said I should look for another ISP or have him try again in a few months. No other ISPs in the area at the time so I waited it out. A few months later he came back, same thing. He told me I should cancel and find another ISP, or if I wanted, they had a new firmware update coming down the pipeline in a few months that might help. I told him about my contract, he said he's sure they'd waive it no problem.
Still no options so I waited a few more months, no change. Then Comcast finally runs cable to our street, so I switch. Hooray. I have real internet now.
I call Rise to cancel and they tell me I'm under contract and owe them $250. I explain the situation, they forward me to a supervisor. He tells me that the way the tech wrote the notes in their system was that it was a firmware issue and would be fixed on the next firmware release. Contrary to what the tech told me, which was that he had no idea what the issue was and that the firmware upgrade was a hail marry. It came and went without any change in my service, btw.
Anyhow, supervisor tells me that in order to even consider waiving the fee they'll have to send the tech out again to make sure everything still sucks after the firmware update (as if I can't run speedtest.net). Problem is, when the Comcast guy installed the stuff I had him to re-use all the drilled holes from the Rise installation, so he had to rip all those out. IE this thing is not installed anymore, so they can't do the test.
So we're basically at an impasse. They're charging me $250 for canceling and I don't think I should have to pay the $250 because the problem was on their end. A contract goes both ways, and all that.
So what are my options here? If I don't pay he said they'd send it to collections. How badly is that going to ding my credit? Will disputing that remove it from my credit? I'm not disputing that I have a bill that says $250 (most of the stuff I could find online about disputing collections was about making the collector prove you actually have a bill), I'm disputing that the bill is BS and I shouldn't have to pay it. Do I have any options here?
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conversation including the Tech. Question him on the notes. Use his refusal to include the Tech as leverage. Why would I cancel if I was still getting 12 Mbps?"
