4 November 2000 Ian Ballantyne [address deleted] [address deleted] The Manager UPC Telekabel Erlachgasse 16 A-1100 Wien Dear Sir, On 22 August I had Telekabel installed in my flat and have taken a Priority Telekom line, Chello, and a mobile phone service with ONE using the Take Two package. I am very dissatisfied with the installation and the quality of service and support I have received to date. As a result of the poor quality of service of Priority Telekom and Chello, I have not obtained a mobile phone through ONE, and have since taken a mobile phone with Maxmobil. The installation of the cable necessary for Telekabel was unprofessional, sloppy, and has left damage in my flat. As you can see from the enclosed photo, a new hole has been made for the cable, when an already existing hole was available and could have been used. You will also see in the photo that a large section of my wall has been damaged by the careless drilling of the new hole. I must now repair this damage myself. The fragments of the wall that fell to the floor were simply left there, and no effort what so ever was made by the installation people to clean it up. You will also notice that the cable has simply been left to hang, without being pinned anywhere. The installation people also borrowed my ladder in order to complete their work. They left my ladder outside where it could have very easily been taken by someone else. They made no effort to bring it back to my flat, and I had to find where they left it. Finally, after all of this, the connection did not work. There was no telephone and no internet connection. Since then, a technician has visited my flat and there is now a service of internet and telephone, however these do not work satisfactorily and often simply do not work at all. The telephone connection I have has intermittent problems, and the Chello connection has significant problems. With the Chello connection, there is a large volume of unknown junk data that is coming to my computer, connection and response times from internet and the router I am connected to are often very poor, there are regularly networking errors, and sometimes there is simply no network connection at all. The junk data is usually at a rate of one to six Kb per second, but is at times up to around thirty Kb per second rendering my internet connection unusable. Almost all of this data is completely irrelevant to my computer and connection, and a significant portion is simply uninterpretable. This data is consuming at times up to one third of my computers processor time and is slowing every thing else for me down. I have completed recording of all data sent to my computer over a one hour period and make it available to you per email. I have also discovered that the email system at Chello is sometimes causing emails sent to me to simply vanish. I have had a number of contacts, both personal and work related, who have sent me mails, received a confirmation from the Chello server that the mail has been received at the server, but I have never seen the mails. This has already happened at least 4 times that I know of. I have no spam filter entries, and no entries for the automatic deletion of mail from unwanted senders. There has also been at least two occasions where I have sent email through Chello and those mails have also simply vanished without explanation. Another problem with the email system from Chello is that sometimes I have tried to send email through Chello and the mail has been returned to me because of a "data format error". There is no explanation for this, and sending the identical mail a few minutes later is completed apparently without difficulty. As there have been so many problems with Chello, I have reestablished an internet service with my old service provider, who has proven fully reliable. I currently use his services for all email, DNS lookups, and as a backup connection when Chello either doesn't work at all, or is extremely slow. The telephone service has also been very unsatisfactory. There have been times when a valid number is responded to as if it were not valid, messages saying an error has occurred and that I should dial again, and during some phone calls the callers voice or my voice is broken up or not audible at all, or the connection is simply lost. Two examples of valid numbers that are responded to as being invalid are mobile phones that I regularly calls are 0676 [number deleted] and 0664 [number deleted]. I have also been told that on occasions friends and potential employers have tried to call me, but they also get an indication that my number is invalid. There has also been one occasion where every number I tried was, according to the priority system, invalid. In this case I was forced to go to a public phone and make my phone call there. Additionally, there are times when there is no phone service at all, no dial tone, no possibility to call in or out, and no explanation for this behaviour. I have called support a number of times with no avail. Each time I have been told that because I use Linux, the problems I am experiencing with Chello are mine. One support person went so far as to suggest I should install a second computer as a firewall so the junk data would be hidden from my main working computer. This is not a solution as it does not stop the junk data and does nothing to reduce the bandwidth consumed by the junk data. The second last time I called support, approximately eight weeks ago, I spoke of the problems with the phone and Chello, and was told simply that because I use Linux and not Windows, all the problems I am having are mine and nothing would be done about it. I have since carried out a detailed examination of everything I possibly can here, and come to the definite conclusion that the problems I am having are totally outside my control and the responsibility of Telekabel. Since those examinations, I had simply given up calling for support on the problems I was having with the service since it was clear that nothing would be done. My last call to support was today at approximately 12:50. I had to make that call using my Maxmobile phone because there is again no phone or internet service available in my flat. That phone call lasted about 15 minutes where I was transferred four times without having a very simple question answered. The fourth time I was transferred, I simply hang up because I was sick of being handed off from one place to the next The final area I was transferred to appears to have been for people that are not customers of Telekabel since I was getting the recorded message of if I was interested in one of the products of Telekabel. That was the point at which I hung up. The question I had was that I wanted an explanation of what the line "Mehrwertdienste" means on my bill. I am insulted and offended by the actions and reactions of Telekabel so far. It is insulting that I have received a bill asking me to pay full price for a service that has been completely unreliable, and charging me for the initial days when there was no service at all. I am insulted by being repeatedly transferred from one section to another without having a simple question answered. I am offended by being told that the all the problems I have with my phone service and Chello are mine because I choose to use Linux and that there is no possibility for me to have Telekabel do anything about it. I am offended by the damage that was done to my flat, and that my ladder was left outside by the installation people for someone else to take. I require that you take action to have these problems corrected. I require that my phone service is reliable, that no valid numbers responded to as invalid, that no phone calls are interrupted, and that people can reach my number without difficulty. I also require that my Chello connection be made reliable, that the junk data to my computer is completely stopped, that email becomes reliable. I also require an explanation of why I should pay full price for a service that has been so unreliable. Depending on my schedule, I am available at varying times to speak with you should you wish so. I can be contacted on my Maxmobile phone on 0676 [number deleted]. Yours sincerely, Ian Ballantyne Customer Number [number deleted]