Last week I decided to save some money on my phone bill by switching from AT&T local and long distance to Vonage. Going from having four land-line phones to one would definitely be a change, but we hardly ever get phone calls at our home number. I also wasn't happy with having to put the Vonage device and our remaining land-line phone in my already overcrowded work room, but the savings were too good to pass up.

I spent last Thursday evening hooking up the Vonage device to my DSL router and my WI-FI router, and everything worked fine. I made a few phone calls and the sound was excellent. Then my wife called me at work Friday afternoon to tell me that she could no longer access the internet, either through our PC or our laptop in the kitchen. At that point, I thought I must have plugged the wires in wrong or something.

When I got home, the DSL light on the AT&T DSL router was flashing red. I proceeded to call the AT&T DSL support, which put me in touch with some joker in Bangalore who didn't even know what Vonage was. I then spent over a half hour going through really obvious stuff with the phone bank guy, like:

• Are the cables plugged in securely? Yes.
• Did you hear a click when you plugged in the cables? Yes.
• Did you reboot your PC? Yes.
• Did you shut down your DSL router and wait 30 seconds before turning it on again? Yes.
• Did you disconnect your WI-FI router and pug your PC directly into the DSL router? Yes.

I could go on but as you can see it was a very tedious and unproductive series of questions.

At the end, the guy told me to contact my phone provider. This made absolutely no sense as Vonage only works with a DSL connection. However, I figured maybe there was something I didn't know, so I called the Vonage tech support line. Naturally, they told me that Vonage only works with an active internet connection.

With my blood pressure rising, I called back AT&T Bangalore and told them that I needed someone to help me get my DSL working again. The guy I spoke to this time at least seemed to understand technology. He told me that my DSL was not working (whoa!) and that he'd do a line check. After a long wait, he told me that he would check with someone with AT&T tech support in my area. After a ten minute wait, he came back to tell me that when AT&T transferred my phone number to Vonage, AT&T cancelled all traffic going to my house, including DSL. Furious, I told him that I've been paying for DSL for several years, and that I wanted this problem fixed now.

After another long wait, I was connection to a tech support person in the states. He told me essentially the same thing, but added that Vonage does not tell their new customers switching from AT&T that they need to contact AT&T and tell them that they need a "dry loop internet connection". He said that this happens all of the time for Vonage customers. He said that I could call the AT&T Business Center on Saturday and request a "dry loop internet connection".

At this point, I was very upset that both Vonage and AT&T, two very big and successful companies, have such poor customer service. After all, if Vonage had told me at any point to contact AT&T about the "dry loop internet connection", I would have done so. I fail to understand why AT&T wouldn't contact me and ask if I would like to continue my DSL, something I was already paying for!

I called the AT&T Business Center last Saturday to get my DSL going again. After waiting for twenty minutes for a customer service rep, I was told that I could get the "dry loop internet connection", but that since AT&T doesn't have any connection going to my house, I would be starting off as a new account. This meant that AT&T would need to start the DSL activation process from the very beginning, starting with line checks. Best case is that I would have my DSL connection back by this Friday. I asked why AT&T didn't contact me to ask whether I still wanted to continue my DSL service through AT&T, and she said that after my phone number was transferred to Vonage, AT&T is prohibited from calling me. (Still can't figure that out.)

I thought that I would at least be able to keep paying $25 per month for the DSL by combining our DSL and AT&T Wireless bills, but the customer service rep said that they could only do that while I still had local phone service. So now I'll be paying $30 a month for DSL.

This didn't stop the service rep from trying to upsell me on U-Verse. I said I was open to switching from Brighthouse to U-Verse if U-Verse was cheaper, but the customer service said, and I quote, "The price is the price". Never mind that AT&T has been calling my house incessantly trying to sell me U-Verse. It makes no sense to not offer me a cheaper monthly rate for six months or twelve months, but no, the customer service rep said that I'll get a crisper picture and better sound in return for paying more. Whoopee.

So now I find myself going to Biggby to do my internet-related stuff for the rest of the week. I usually don't post screeds like this, but I thought I should try to help out anyone else considering a switch from AT&T to Vonage. I think the key is that when Vonage tells you that your existing phone number has been transferred, be sure you contact AT&T and tell them you want the "dry loop" thing. Otherwise you'll be like me, left high and dry.

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Now that I've left the stone age that is dial-up and have SBC/Yahoo! DSL, I called NetZero's 800 number and asked that my dial-up account be cancelled immediately. The person on the other end of the line said that my account was paid up to the end of the month, and that it would be terminate it then. So much for getting a refund on the unused portion. I stated that I wanted to keep my NetZero e-mail address active, and the person said that it would cost $10 to convert my account. What a joke. I've had that e-mail address since 2003, when it came with unlimited dial-up access. So why does it cost $10 to convert it? Because United Online wants to make money off of you no matter how wrong their methods are. That's capitalism in action for you.

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