 Review by CCarson 
member for 11.8 years, 1422 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 1.8 years ago
 Redlands,San Bernardino,CA
 $29 per month- (12 month contract)
 about 42 days Verizon "Great support by reps in DSLReports forum" "Service & support highly variable; sales reps in my case were quite poorly informed" "Good service, once you can get it working"
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(ratings match consensus)
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Here is my experience setting up a dry-loop ("naked"/"standalone") DSL connection in Verizon territory through DSLExtreme. I have been a DSL subscriber since 1998 with Earthlink/Covad, SBC, and Verizon.
The DSLX rep informed me in no uncertain terms that my activation date would be 0-4 days after my Verizon disconnect date. It turned out this date would instead be 3-6 WEEKS after Verizon disconnect, leaving me without internet during that time.
I called them three times for status updates; on the final call, the rep contacted Verizon and managed to get an activation date.
The activation date came and went with no service. Most of the time I was able to get through to reps quickly, but twice I had to spend 30-45 minutes on hold waiting to talk to someone--usually in the afternoon (Pacific time). I was told a week later that my service *should* be active, but I had no service. Moreover, I was twice promised a call back from DSLX tier 2 tech support, which never happened.
Ultimately, this was mainly the fault of Verizon, which owns the phone lines. I believe the real problem is that Verizon originally installed and wired my NID/MPOE (phone box outside the house) incorrectly.
I ultimately fixed this myself by rewiring the box using information I looked up online (while at work). Although this was mostly Verizon's fault, DSLX could have done a far better job keeping detailed trouble-ticket notes. (For example, I called customer service to get credit for the time I was supposed to have service but did not. Despite a tech support ticket mentioning that Verizon needed to tag the wires for DSL, the rep would not credit my account; she didn't understand that this makes the service unusable.)
In the end, the process was more painful than any DSL installation I've ever encountered, even though I would do it again to avoid having to pay Verizon for its incompetence.
If you go dry-loop, be warned that you may have to spend a large amount of time on the phone talking to customer service and tech support at DSLX and that you may have to learn to work on your home's internal telephone wiring on your own. It's not any one company's fault, but it's the burden you as a consumer have to bear due to imperfect communication between DSLX and the ILEC.
* Addendum for upgrade 768k -> 3M service 1/2009 *
Upgrading should have been easy but was difficult. Tech support reps in house could do nothing and their actions resulted in my being offline for 2 days. Ultimately it was the actions of TS and the general manager in the forum on this site that got the connection going. Upgrades are said to generally take 5 business days. This took 24 days total from request to upgrade as well as hundreds of cell minutes on hold. In the end, the GM's attitude via this forum is what will keep me with DSLX.
* Revisited Summer 2011
My rating in individual categories stand. DSLX is a great value for money, especially for those who are technically savvy and want to avoid bundled services they won't use. Support is uneven, though the dslreports forum is frequented by the best techs in the company, so use it.
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