Review by jef 
UPDATED: 207 days ago
member for 208 days, 8 visits, last login: 100 days ago
 San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
 $105 per month
 "Rock-solid (Covad) line, previously excellent tech support"
 "Non-tech service is non-existent, DSL SLA is meaningless"
 "Avoid like the plague"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Back in 2000, $105 a month for 1.5/384 residential ADSL service, bridged with a 4-IP assignment (Covad line on its own copper, Concentric provider) wasn't a bad deal. Over the past 8 years, I've had virtually no noticeable outages and always had as close to the "advertised" throughput as one could expect. The tech support back in the Concentric days was excellent. No "What version of Windows are you running?" problems and techs who understood, on the very rare occasions I had to call, what "traceroute gets a hop past the Redback" meant.
The tech support is still reasonable, though the level has fallen off over the years.
Unfortunately, the sales department leaves something to be desired. I've been trying to work something out so that I could stay with them, but far too many unkept "someone will call you back within two business days" promises. Even when I bring up that XO has left the residential DSL business, I keep getting promises about how important customer retention is to them and that they are sure they will be able to work something out.
Additionally, I've been virtually unable to pull the billing off my credit card, even to put it on another card. They don't even know who I am when I call, because my Concentric account number isn't properly referenced in their system.
Considering that I can get 6.0/768 ADSL with an 8-IP block through Sonic for roughly half what I'm paying now (even on a business line), this isn't looking too good. Even worse is that XO's DSL offerings seem to be stuck in the early 2000s for speed.
Its hard to move on, given the excellent reliability of the line and the quality of tech support -- there during the off-hours that I've needed it. I just can't recommend the organization based on their terrible business office.
Update 2009/04/15 -- Been on hold for over 17 minutes, just to get to the first-tier billing/order support line. At 20 minutes, was passed to "Retention," where I have been on hold for the last 10 minutes while they "try to find my account."
Interesting that the SLA at »www.xo.com/SiteCollectionDocumen···_DSL.pdf has *nothing* about the line itself or the connectivity of XO to anywhere else, just the "Network" (basically XO's colo). So, for business customers, you are "up" if their colo is up, disconnected from you, and disconnected from the rest of the Internet. (This was confirmed by the third-tier retention manager I spoke with.)
Oh, now after nearly 40 minutes, the silence ends and I'm told I've called the wrong number. Wait, three times calling this number I've been told that it would be taken care of with no such indication. 40+ minutes now, I'm back on hold as the agent who tells me that I've called the wrong number tries to escalate the issue. 53 minutes in, I've had a sub-minute discussion with the retention supervisor's supervisor who asked me about some account I had never heard of. Back on hold again as they try to find my account.
They finally found it, after over an hour on the phone. They can offer me a discount. "How much?" "We can offer you 10%"
Apparently they are "getting out of DSL."
So am I...
Leaving XO as soon as I can confirm service to replace it, probably within 72 hours.
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