Valley Internet (credit, low cost, bills)

[Red*J]

I absolutely cannot stand GCI a minute longer, but as far as I know MTA is the only other option for internet in the valley. Does anyone know of any others that you would suggest?

[Nephler]

I think MTA is about the only other one here, other than one of the dish networks.
What do you dislike some much about GCI?

[AKStafford]

I've got GCI and their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. On several different occasions on two different accounts (one business, one personal) I had nothing but trouble.
It's not just me, either: Convincedgcibillingerrorsareintentional's Blog

[richelles]

Originally Posted by AKStafford

I've got GCI and their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. On several different occasions on two different accounts (one business, one personal) I had nothing but trouble.
It's not just me, either:

How strange you should mention this because yesterday we went to complain about GCI billing us for a wireless phone we dropped last month. We got our cable TV and Internet service last September and they pointed out we could also get wireless service or a land line at a low cost added to the plan. We selected the wireless plan to have a local cell phone in addition to the Verizon cell phone we made a decision to keep. We soon found that GCI wireless had a dropped call rate that was horrendous. In some twenty calls every one had a dropped call and in several instances more than once. We elected to drop the wireless and get the land line and a month later are getting billed for both. A GCI person was at the desk and tried to explain how GCI had an old and a new billing system and tried to blame all the problems on a purported transition of both to a new single system. I pointed out that when something is added to a computer system all servers on that system should have access to the same data and why was GCI different than all the other systems in the world? That brought about more gobbledygook that convinced me the over billing was deliberate when the only solution was to collect the full amount and issue a credit for the over payment in the next billing cycle. I'm going to find out who regulates GCI and start giving them a fit. It will cost GCI more than they will get from me and if I'm right they should be fined for committing a fraud on this customer. I don't like GCI but they are the only thing available even though they aren't a suitable provider. They are too small to not know what is going on every day. I have yet to talk to anyone who genuinely likes GCI as their provider. They desperately need some strong competition so they will fail and go out of business from lack of customers.

[gobrien]

http://www.law.alaska.gov/pdf/press/acs_suit.pdf

There actually was a transition from one billing system to another and there was some duplication issues, the programs themselvers were from different software providers so it is more complicated. The problems customers have been experiencing are really due to stupid data entry errors. It may not seem like it but money is spent and time is wasted having errors like that, not to mention hurting the image of a company. Please read the above court document though and look into the competitors because they have been found to have conducted unfair business practices.

[gobrien]

http://www.law.alaska.gov/pdf/press/acs_suit.pdf
Regulatory Commission of Alaska Rules Regarding Consumer Complaints (http://www.gci.com/about/press/rca_ruling.htm - broken link)

More court rulings against ACS

[Nephler]

I will agree that GCI's customer service sucks, not to mention how their billing is done. Why in the hell can't they send out one (1) bill for the service we get, phone, internet and TV, instead of two (2) separate bills, phone and TV on one and another for internet.

[gobrien]

GCI Wireless - Unlimited Cellular Phone Plans, Cell Phones, Prepaid Cell Phones,

Here is another action against ACS. The reason you have two bills is because the billing platforms are on two different systems, one specifically designed to capture cable information such as pay per view, video on demand, etc. GCI is undergoing another billing transistion to make everything go on one bill but it takes some time to do this, otherwise there will be massive problems passed on to the customer's bill.

[Nephler]

It doesn't take 2 years to do a software billing change over. I'm an IT tech and have done many large software upgrades for HUD, and they are much larger then GCI will ever be.

[gobrien]

I don't know when it is starting, I just know it is a desired and planned change to make. It's very cumbersome to deal having more than one system, especially since the cable one doesn't feed into the one for phones and internet or into the main accounting system.