AT&T Jens Dissatisfaction Page
I've been very dissatisfied with some aspects of living in Japan. I've already served my country by being in the U.S. Army for 10 years. I'm here because my wife is still serving, so I'm here in the spousal capacity. I've had a pretty bad time adjusting to japanese life, but on the whole, it hasn't been bad. My major beef is with AT&T Jens, the ISP that a very high majority of U.S. affiliated folks rely on for internet services. AT&T Jens has some very important issues that need to be worked out. Being the only ISP that supports the Armed Forces here, they've pretty much monopolized the situation. They say things are pretty much as good as they'll ever be, since we don't have to pay toll calls to access their dial-in lines. I say otherwise.
I received an email from a Mr. Phil Pelfrey, as have all of the AT&T Jens customers. You can review this document by clicking this link. The way he phrased the email, it seems that he had his mind made up to extend the AT&T contract with AAFES. He asked for feedback from us but I could have sworn I sensed that it wouldn't really matter.
In response, I sent him this email. I was already primed. I had talked to my wife about how the service lacked substance and she totally agreed. I had also talked to some neighbors and they pretty much agreed but didn't seem too fired up about it. One has a military account and relies on it more than he does AT&T Jens. Alot of us are not as lucky as he, and I somehow doubt the legality of using a military account for other than business at home. Maybe he is so fed up with AT&T Jens that he uses the tools he has at hand to satisfy his needs.
Anyways, on the 5th of April, I get this email from Phil again, as do every other Jens customer. Here it is. Not very satisfying at all. I remember groaning and resigning to fork over $360 over the next year for crappy service. I keep running up on my 90 hr. limit......the lines keep dumping me.....the lines crawl and fall below 1 kbps. No wonder I keep running up on my limit: trying to download, browse and whatever at 1 kbps download speed will burn up your hours quickly. Let's see....$30 a month, 90 hour/month limit......12 months in a year.....we'll be here for 2 years, 8 months....that totals out to $960 for the whole time in Japan. $960 for almost 3 years of 1 kbps d/l speed and 19kbps modem speed, no email reply-backs from customer support, and no help from local customer support at Zama. Sickening!! I'm SOOOO surprised that AAFES sactions this. I realize they are a "for profit" organization, but DAYUM!
If an ISP rep from another company reads this, PLEASE, HELP US AND SAVE US ALL! This is ridiculous. It cannot be THAT hard to make money as an ISP in Japan without screwing the customer.
Oh yeah. I have an acquaintance
in Sasebo (Navy guy) who said he has his account with USO. He says
USO has a server there for both on-base and off-base accounts. Can
anyone follow up on this???
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Last Updated on 11/13/99
By Ron Sinclair
Email: sinclair@zma.attmil.ne.jp