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Review by xQim See Profile

  • Location: 01234
  • Cost: $60 per month
  • Install: about 2 days
It Connects Most Of The Time, No Contract
Constant Slow Downs & Drops Requiring Reboot, Never Get Close to Advertised Speeds
Way More Expensive and Slower Than The Competition, Terrible ISP
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

unFairpoint has to be the worst ISP in the areas it provides services too. I don't need anyone to counter my claim because you will be 1 person out of 10,000 that actually gets the service you are paying for. Except for FAST, the price to speed ratio is downright abysmal. It costs $60/Month for 7.1Mbps/1Mbps. How is that competition when you can get TWC 50Mbps/5Mbps for $5 more? I still think TWC packages are garbage too. The Ultimate should be a minimum of 10Mbps upload. Anyways, I have had unFairpoint DSL several times. All of them were not by choice, as the house wasn't hooked up to the cable grid and I wasn't going to pay $6000 for TWC to run a line up my 1200ft long driveway. I also had it in another town where my distance was 5000ft to the CO, and another town where my distance was 3100ft from the CO and still didn't receive advertised speeds. It started out with Pivot.Net. Anyone remember that horrendous service? It was $60/Month for 256Kbps/96Kbps. Anyways, Pivot.Net was taken over by unFairpoint and the speed went up very slowly. The quickest package for DSL is 15Mbps/1Mbps if you are lucky enough to be in the area that provides this. Most people only have access to the whopping 3Mbps/1Mbps service. Furthermore, GWI leases lines from unFairpoint and can provide 20Mbps/1Mbps @ $44.99/Month. Why can't unFairpoint provide these speeds and pricing?

This is opinion based on experiences with this company. They do not care at all about their customers. Out of all the times I have had their DSL service, at no point did I receive advertised speeds. I realize the gimmick is "up to" but there should at least be a "best effort" to try and give customers the speeds they are paying for. I was even told by a technician that they oversubscribe DSL users 200% plus above what their equipment is capable of and what the town is allotted for speed. Every single time I had the service I would have frequent drops (which was blamed on a hop in New York), slow speeds, even slower between 4pm - 11pm (3rd Picture). Generally, the upload speed was quicker than the download. I also ran into an issue where everyday my speed would be cut in half for no reason, forcing me to continously keep rebooting the modem until my speeds returned to normal. The tech support is terrible. It gets old hearing, "Have you tried rebooting the modem," or "you need to plug the computer directly into the modem," as if either one of these fixes anything.

The service, tech support, and prices are terrible. Yes, the tech support speaks English, but what good is that when they have no idea what they're talking about? The best advice I can give anyone is AVOID this company at all costs unless it is the only landline service.

Here is what I received on a 7.1Mbps/1Mbps service (2nd Picture) and the other picture is what unFairpoint speeds should be (1st Picture | Ethernet 30Mbps/30Mbps). Furthermore, why is DSL always capped at 1Mbps upload when some of the DSL protocols are capable of 3.5Mbps upload? The answer is obvious. They have no competition so there is zero incentive to improve anything. As stated before:

Zero Competition = Terrible Service

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member for 20.5 years, 338 visits, last login: 8.4 years ago
updated 9.5 years ago

bejee
join:2007-07-30
Orleans, VT

bejee

Member

I guess it just depends...

Click for full size
...on where you are located. Westmore, VT:
xQim
join:2003-09-20
01234

4 edits

xQim

Member

Re: I guess it just depends...

Glad you get such great service.
bejee
join:2007-07-30
Orleans, VT

bejee

Member

Re: I guess it just depends...

Down boy - lets not bump the blood pressure! Unfortunately, most of your assumptions are not correct. I am a semi-retired IT consultant whose only connection to FP is through my clients and at my residence. My home service was installed 1 year ago July and most anyone who was going to sign up did at that time, except the numerous well to do seasonal folk who signed up this summer. The only option to FP is Great Auk wireless (Great Ugh!) and they have become, for the most part, a non issue where there is any competition. No cable in Westmore.

You might remember the feel good national news story about FP using draft horses to string fiber through the mud and snow - that was us. What you probably didn't read was that residents of this town brought drinks and tasty goodies out to the crews that were stringing the cable in appreciation of their efforts to bring reliable broadband to this corner of Vermont on time in spite of terrible spring flooding. I pay $50/mo for 15 down and 1 up and I get what I pay for and happy to pay it. To accuse me of Photoshopping my upload is rather childish.

Professionally I deal with FP, Comcast, Charter, Great Auk, and a myriad of phone providers and I can honestly say I have fewer issues with FP than the cable outfits. My guess is that is not as much technical as much as right of way issues in bad weather (read trees falling on lines!).

I agree that there are many sites trashing FP but as we know, satisfied customers rarely post to forums. Pissed customers often post. You posted because you were upset with your treatment by FP - I posted because I have a problem with your gross generalizations. I don't doubt your poor history with FP but I have a problem with stretching that to include the total footprint of the company. As I said before, it depends where you are...
bejee

bejee to xQim

Member

to xQim
I applaud your decision to remove your original review.