[TriLUG] Fully OT: Time to leave TWCBC? was: Re: semi-OT: mail relaying broken for other time warner customers?

[Scott Chilcote via TriLUG]

On 03/24/2015 12:10 PM, Brian via TriLUG wrote:
> That's very impressive.  More impressive that they broke outbound SMTP
> forwarding for business class a long time before they broke it for
> residential.  I'm a business-class user and I've been relaying through
> pilot.trilug.org for a year or more now because of the changes to
> TWCBC's outbound SMTP policies.  It's now a service they want to sell,
> I think; my account doesn't even include an e-mail address (but I can
> get one for the low low monthly price of $ridiculous!).
>
> Maybe it's time to drop TWCBC for lower-cost, higher-speed (but
> possibly lower-reliability) residential.  BC 15/2.5 is still over
> $100/mo while residential 50/5 is $65/mo... Now that I don't live in a
> super-dense apartment complex (and now that TWCBC front-line support
> is no better than residential..five years ago, you called and got a
> local person...now you get the computer followed by the offshore call
> center), maybe now is the time...
>
> -B
>

Hi Brian,

I have Time Warner Business Class and it includes email service for no
additional cost.  The email addresses end with "ncrrbiz.com", and I have
created a handful of them using their web interface. 

Are you certain that this is not available to you?

Full disclosure: I certainly would not have paid for the _basic_ email
service that they include.  It supports only POP, and SMTP over port
25.  There is no encryption, and their server authenticates via clear text.
I use it only for low priority stuff.

Another knock is the web interface that they provide for setting up your
email addresses.  It looks like it was hastily assembled by retired IBM
JCL coders over the course of a weekend.  I got it to work through trial
and error, but each time I have to touch it it seems just as weird.

Regarding their tech support, I have found that their business class
service is much more responsive.  No complaints there.

There was a big downside though!  We had their residential broadband for
years before I switched to business class.  They never closed that
account, even after we switched to AT&T for a couple of years.  So when
I moved to their business class, their automated system continued to
shoehorn every call I made into residential tech support. 

It didn't matter that I used the new account number, or entered the
business class voip phone number they were providing, and specifically
selected the business class option on their menu tree.  I'd get
auto-shunted to Residential and left sitting in the queue every frickin'
time for months.  I'd complain every time, and they said it was fixed
every time.  Nope.  Getting that fixed was ridiculously hard. 

If you've had their residential service before, be advised.

Best of luck.

   Scott C.

-- 
Scott Chilcote
scottchilcote at ncrrbiz.com
Cary, NC USA