 Review by jabbawest 
member for 10.5 years, 669 visits, last login: 268 days ago
updated 1.6 years ago
 75166
 $39 per month- (12 month contract)
 about 5 days "A connections, sometimes." "Disconnect between Office and Outside Techs" "Poor service, poor customer relations."
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##### This review mirrors my review for TierOne Networks due to the fact that Cool Access was acquired by TierOne in 2008 and is technically maintained by the same technicians.
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On 07/17/09 I ordered the Platinum Plan 5.0/1.5 Mbps for $49.95 a month which was exactly what I received from Verizon FIOS at my previous home. Install took hours, even though I already had a mast for the radio left behind from the previous owner. Once up and running I did receive the promised speeds but began to have intermittent drops offs in speed down to a dial up level. The inside techs said they needed to do some tweaking on their end but the problem persisted. Tech support then checked & tweaked their broadcast radio but still, the problem persisted. After about one week of this it was determined that other signals in my area were interfering with my radio. I asked what they were going to do about it and I was basically told that they've done all they can and that I could either live with it or they would allow me to back out of the contract. I didn't take that very well and I "kindly" suggested they do some additional brain storming. A day later they called back and suggested that they might have a solution that was suggested by one of their installers/outside techs. The solution was an older style radio with a dish to help isolate the signal from other possible interference.
It worked and I was happy, until...
On 9/9/09 the same tech came back (unannounced) and stated that they were looking into whether to move me over to Cool Access, one of Tier Ones recent acquisitions. The tech claimed their would be no difference in speeds and that it was a pencil pushing procedural move. The tech even called the home office and I heard his end of the conversation where he asked them if my speeds would change. They said nope.
Well, on Friday, 5/14/10 I noticed a huge drop off in my speeds, 1.5/0.5 Mbps. It was late, so I left a message on their voice mail and continued to check the speeds. Monday arrived with no change and I called them because they had failed to return my call.
According to the tech, on 9/9/09 I signed a new contract to be on Cool Access with those speeds AND at the same price I was paying to be on the Tier One Network!. They sent me a hard copy of what I signed and NO WHERE on the new contract were the speeds advertised, implied, suggested or I would not have signed.
What's really strange is the fact that they waited months before throttling me back. I was also told by the inside techs that there was nothing they could or would do to try to get me back to the speeds that I originally had.
I brought this to the attention of the President and CEO of Tier One, Kevin Weaver in an email and a follow up phone call. Mr. Weaver contacted his techs and one day later a solution amazingly appeared.
The solution appeared in the form of another radio, just like the very first, and was pointed at a rarely used Cool Access radio that would allow me 3.0/1.5 Mbps for $39.95. Fortunately, the outside tech was honest, knew his stuff and had initially tried to shoot a signal from a Tier One radio over a mile away but I would have needed a 25 foot tower in order to raise it above a tree line 1/4 of a mile away.
Since that day I've had great pings 25ms to the radio and fairly stable ups and downs. Unfortunately I find myself waiting for the next shoe to drop where I have to do battle with this company in order to hold them to their contract or word.
Honestly, I was so ticked off that I considered Hughes Net or even dial-up just to stop giving this undeserved company my money.
The real frustrating thought is that that I'm just 1/8 of a mile away from Verizon FIOS but the city of Lavon has yet to contract with Verizon for FIOS service delivery.
####UPDATE: 7/23/10
Well, the other shoe has dropped and I'm fighting poor service again! Currently receiving 1.5/0.80 Mbps on a plan that is "UP TO" 3.0/1.5 Mbps. The "UP TO" is the out Tier One has begun to use for the low speeds. Was told by a tech that they are waiting on the FCC to approve a multiple broadcast set-up for the radio I'm receiving their signal from.
For three weeks I've been dealing with this S*** and NEVER was this mentioned during any of the phone conversations. I was only told it was an equipment issue on their end and that they were working on it. That tells me that they are actually WORKING, NOT sitting back waiting on the FCC to approve a new signal distribution plan!!! IF THAT'S EVEN TRUE!! For two weeks I've been sending TO line quality and speed test results, which they said would be appreciated and may help them determine what the issue is with regards to the slow speeds and the poor quality of my VOIP. Meanwhile I'm sitting back hoping that I'm helping them help me, but no one was reading the emails.
I swear I would SELL or RENT this home to get away from this BS with TO if it were not for my Mother, whom has stage 4 cancer and will go under the knife for a third time to repair a hip.
Tier One is a nightmare!
####UPDATE 9/30/10
Around 9/10/10 I began noticing intermittent drops in my service, no WAN IP for a minute or two then I was back up. I called TO and reported the issue after several of these outages, they started to run a line monitor and asked that I call back when any future outages occurred. As I began to call in with my outage reports, and they began to compare them with the traffic on the access point, it was clear to every person I spoke with that they had a hardware problem on their end. At that time I was told they would be replacing the AP but couldn't give me a specific time as to when. I was asked to continue to call in with my outage reports, which I did.
As I'm calling back in these reports, the techs are telling me they have done some tweaking of the AP, including changing the distance settings, rebooting and uploading new firmware. From these conversations I gathered that they were trying to provide me with a stable connection until they could replace the AP but it appears I was wrong.
A little note about one long time technician. I called in with my reports and asked this tech about a time period for replacing the AP. He didn't know that I was told a replacement AP was to be put up as he told me he had no idea what I was talking about. I explained everything again and he said, "Well, you know, there are times when we just might not be able to provide service to certain customers." I'm assuming he meant technically provide service. I thought to myself, you sorry so and so, if that were the case, you shouldn't have contracted to provide the service in the first place. Your company knew the parameters required to provide service to this area. I'm only 1-1/2 miles away from the AP on the Lavon water tower and I'm surrounded by hundreds of acres of open farm land.
I asked this tech to transfer me to someone else that had been working on my issue. This individual told me that the AP would be replaced as soon as they took care of another AP that was totally dead. I told him I understood and would continue to make do. Days later I was told that my problem AP would be replaced on Saturday, 9/25/10. Unfortunately, it rained most of the day and I understood why they couldn't do anything, but again I was told they would get around to it during the upcoming week.
It's now 9/30/10 and no one at TO has any idea as to when this issue is going to be fixed, if they were ever going to fix it at all in the manner I was told they would. It appears to me that they were hoping the button clicking on their end would keep them from actually spending the money to replace the AP. During this past week the outages have come in clusters of 10-15 per hour, some of them lasting for more than 2 minutes. This has caused me to unplug my voip line and only use my cell phone. It has also caused me to lose revenue from my ecommerce sites because I cannot administrate them properly and I'm now having my wife handle any banking activities from her work place. Now I'm being told nothing definitive about when this problem AP will be replaced.
As this problem began to manifest itself, I sincerely got the sense that the representatives at TO had somehow changed their attitude, relative to the past experiences I've had with them. They were much more polite, seemed to care about my issue and actually seemed to have a game plan in place to fix the problem.
In the final analysis however, it seems that my chain has been pulled again, only in a kinder and gentler method this time.
I'll replace the word lie with deception because I feel as though I have been deceived into believing that TO was going to fix this issue in the manner I was told they were going to. Never in my life have I dealt with such a frustrating service issue. The problem with my service this time has been well documented, on my end and theirs, and the solution is as clear as day, replace a piece of failing Tier One hardware but, for any number of reasons they have simply refused to do so.
The overall feeling I have today is that I'm not a good enough customer, that I bother them with these service issues and that they wish I would just deal with it and never call again.
###### UPDATE 10/1/2010
Received a call from TO aka Cool Access to inform me that they had replaced the AP atop the Lavon water tower. I have had been up for over 7 hours and will continue to monitor the connection and update this review as needed.
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