Review by MouserW 
Posted: 1.4 years ago
member for 1.4 years, 1 visits, last login: 1.4 years ago
 Los Alamos,Los Alamos,NM
 $55 per month (12 month contract)
 about 19 days
 Qwest
CLEC party: Covad
 "Installation required no effort."
 "Installation cost $225. Inflexible business policies, not customer-oriented."
 "Not exactly bending over backwards for customer satisfaction."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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I am technically a new LBDSL customer, though I have been living in an apartment with LBDSL service for the last two years. I didn't pay the bills at that location, but I have still been using their service for a reasonably long time.
At the old location, we signed up for a 3.0/384 shared line and had numerous problems. Most importantly, we never got the 3.0Mbps speed advertised and had to run in "safe mode" constantly. Despite this 30% cut in our bandwidth, no reduction in the fee was made available. We were told that we had signed a contract for the 3.0/384 service and that was what we had to pay for, whether or not our line could support the full rate.
In addition to the reduced bandwidth, we had frequent short outages that would result in lost connections.
When I recently moved into my own place, I checked the line distance at the new location and found it to be very short. I assumed that this would alleviate the reduced bandwidth problem, and my roommate convinced me to set up my own contract with LBDSL. I was impressed with the professionalism and courtesy of Brent during my initial calls to him regarding the particulars of the service.
My one gripe leading up to signing the contract was the issue of having to pay a hefty ($225) installation fee for dry line service. He insisted that it was necessary because the technician would have to test the line, configure the router, and do a host of other operations that I was not qualified or capable of doing. It sounded like a scam to me, but more importantly it sounded like the process was engineered such that even a reasonably competent end-user could not complete the installation, thus allowing them to require the installation service and fee. While I find such business practices unscrupulous, I didn't see that I had much choice other than finding a new ISP, which would probably do the same thing. I went ahead and signed the contract.
Everything went ahead according to the schedule LBDSL had sent me in an email. The phone company checked (and in my case, replaced) the line leading up to my house (free of charge), the free package arrived containing my router, etc., and today the Covad tech showed up to do the "professional installation."
Before he arrived, I went ahead and connected my internal wiring to the TLI and tested the house jacks to make sure that all of the customer-side wiring was functioning. When I told the Covad tech this, he went ahead and just plugged the router in using the supplied cabling and verified that the connection came up automatically. We then transferred the ethernet cable over to my laptop and verified that the connection worked there as well. That was it for the professional installation, it took approximately 3 minutes.
The tech told me that I could have just plugged it in myself and it would have worked, and it would have saved him the two hour drive up from Albuquerque. I told him that I hadn't done so because Brent gave me the impression that some sort of black magic had to be done with the line and/or router configuration that I was not able to do. "Two hours to drive here, five minutes to do the work," he said. I clocked it at more like three minutes. At $225 for three minutes of work, that's $75 per minute that I was charged to watch a guy plug in a cable and fire up a web browser. I was not impressed. I told the tech this and he said that I shouldn't be charged for it since it was already setup and he hadn't really done anything.
I wrote LBDSL an email stating my extreme displeasure at being charged for what amounted to nothing at all, and I found their response lacking: "Any Dry line service requires a professional install fee per our web site, per the terms of service, and per our previous conversation." When I pointed out that I felt they had been disingenuous when they convinced me that some elaborate work had to be done for which I was not qualified, they rudely replied that I had the option of ending my contract during the 21 day grace period.
The attitude I got from LBDSL, consistently, was that they were very sorry, but any sense I had that I had been deceived was an error on my part.
And in response to my assertion that the installation work took three minutes, he said, "Also, just as an FYI, looking at the work log, I see: 'Arrival Time: 9:00, Finish Time: 9:30,' So it appears the Tech was on site for about 30 minutes, not 3." As far as I can tell, he must be assuming I'm an idiot or that the tech just happened to arrive exactly at 9 and left exactly 30 minutes later. Regardless, the content of this comment (which was extraneous to the rest of the email), was LBDSL telling me that they think I'm lying. Great customer-based attitude, guys.
I guess my complaint with LBDSL is that their policies are carved in stone, and making things right for the customer doesn't seem to be one of them.
This is the second location at which I've used their service, and both times I've been charged money for service that wasn't provided or needed because it was "in the contract." I feel that making the customer happy could only help their business in the long run. I've already steered a coworker away from LBDSL as a result of this interaction (he was prepared to sign up today if I gave LBDSL the nod) and I can't imagine reviews like this will help their sales. This seems to be a pattern with the LBDSL reviews on this website; either everything goes as expected and people are happy with the service, or something goes wrong and the LBDSL service reps get defensive and hide behind their contract rather than correcting the problem.
Followup comments:  
LBDSL
Lightning Bolt
VIP
join:2002-01-07
Auburn Hills, MI
| Thank you for your review The one thing which I would like to address, without getting into specific account details in a public forum.
A DSL install involves a lot of work, more work then just a basic tech visit. So if you feel your $225 install fee only went to pay for a "3 minute" tech visit, you should be aware of the basics of DSL installation.
1) A DSL loop has to be ordered and installed via the Phone company.
2) we need to stay on top of the phone company to make sure all commits of the order and install are met, this can takes hours on multiple days depending on the order
3) once the phone company delivered the loop, we must test and accept or reject the loop, to make sure it meets are specs.
4) an Account needs to be created in our system, including billing, RADIUS, email, dial-up, etc
5) The final step is to have the on-site tech visit for dry/dedicated loop products.
As we talked about earlier, I apologize you feel we have cheated you in same way, however I promise you, unless you have access to our DSLAM (equipment in the Central Office), access to the phone companies copper in the ground, access to our systems, and knowledge of all these systems, you could not have installed this service yourself.
We have not surprised you with any fees. All charges were brought to your attention prior to placing an order with us, and agreed to upon ordering service.
I would certainly understand your frustration, if we charged you more then we quoted you for installation, however we did not.
If you would like to talk about specific account issues, or a past account, which we are not aware of you having, feel free to reach out to me, or anyone else here via phone or email.
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Lightning Bolt Technologies | |
|  | rdarlington
join:2007-04-01
Los Alamos, NM
| Re: Thank you for your review The account he mentions having previously was under my name (Robert Darlington) at our previous address. The problems he mentioned are accurate and some of this can be seen at one of my previous posts here:
»Lots of great talk....
The work you describe in your 5 steps to setting up DSL hardly takes more than two 5 minute phone calls and the running of a script to add a user to your radius servers. Your techs may or may not have this script also e-mail the customer with his new account information. On the outside edge, being very conservative, I'd say this process takes no more than 11 minutes.
Mind you, I used to own an ISP in Philadelphia (long story here, please, feel free to contact me about this) and kinda know a little bit about this.
Your response post is also very typical of previous defensive measures I've witnessed after a problem. Guys, take a lesson, hire some hand holders and don't let your techs answer the phone. They're not good at assuring the customer that your business is working on the problem, is on top of things, etc. "It's not us" really doesn't cut it in this business. ISPs are easily replaced by another ISP more willing to serve the customer. | |
| MM331
Premium
join:2005-01-22
Miami, FL | I told you so Just scroll down and keep reading. I said it a year ago. | |
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