Standby for Ygnition

Moving to such a big house has created new problems as far as networking is concerned. When we were looking at this place back in November, we were told that it was wired for T1 access. Sure enough there are Ethernet jacks all over the house, in every room. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was one in the gargage. We signed up with Ygnition, the ISP that supplies our community with juice, and set an installation date for a day after we hoped to arrive so I could get right to work. I did not receive a confirmation or a time window.

I called the night before to confirm that they were coming and the person I spoke with looked up the work order and said all was well, though they could not give me a time window. I then wrote an email to Ygnition customer support and asked them as well if I should expect someone, and what the time window would be. I received this response:

Paul,
Your appointment is for the 6 th of January. This looks to be an all day appointment which means from 8 am - 5 pm. If you have any further questions you can call our support line at 1-866-876-3278

Thank you for contacting Ygnition,
Tanya
Customer Response
Ygnition Networks

Quite a window! At the time we were running out 10 times a day for paint, hardware, groceries and other things that we forgot we would need while we waited for the movers. I did not want to sit around the house all day. But, the movers didn’t give us a time either and they were in and out of the house by noon. Maybe I would be lucky with Ygnition.

I’m sure you can tell where this is going. We sat by the window all day, poking our heads up everytime a car passed, or seemed to slow by our driveway. Nothing. The hours rolled by and no Ygnition. To pass the time, I surfed reviews of Ygnition’s service on my SideKick. Sure enough, every review portrayed them as a company that wired these communities promising them T1 access, and then would share one T1 line with 500 units. Reports of service were worse. People posted trickling download and upload speeds and horror stories of dealing with customer service. I had prepaid $64.95 and now it was 5pm and no one was here.

I gave them until 5:30 so that customer service would give me “Oh, the installation guy is probably still finishing up. Give him a little more time.” The woman I got was very pleasant and looked up my account. She apologized and said that she noticed on my account that it had never been confirmed, so they did not send anyone out. I pointed out that I had called and emailed and was told both times to expect someone. More apologies. Would I like to set up another appointment? I don’t think so. I’d like a refund. I can offer you free installation. I don’t care if you offered me free Internet service for life, something feels horribly wrong here. Please give me a refund.

Comcast was scheduled for the following day to hook up our cable. I called them quickly and asked if they could tack on Internet service to that order. Not a problem. Phew. I can’t say that my connection has been blazing with Comcast, much slower than my connection with TimeWarner in Queens, but compared to the experience with Ygnition I am very happy with Comcast.