Review by mnmpeterson 
UPDATED: 69 days ago
member for 1.8 years, 48 visits, last login: 6 days ago
 Phoenix,Maricopa,AZ
 $22 per month (24 month contract)
 about 14 days
 "Price"
 "Horrible service!"
 "Won't honor Price For Life Guarantee!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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We used to have Qwest's VDSL service but switched to ADSL to take advantage of their "Price For Life" offer. Both services advertised 1.5 MBPS speed but the VDSL was a little bit faster. By switching, our bill went from about $45 to $22 per month (with a Qwest phone package) plus the cost of the DSL modem. The price should never increase, unless we make changes to our service.
Qwest's VDSL service is actually a sub entity of Qwest (Qwest choice TV & Internet) in the few markets that offer it (Denver, Omaha, Phoenix). Before we could switch to ADSL they had to switch our phone line over from the fiber-to-the-neighborhood network. They couldn't even begin the paperwork until after this happened. We were lucky to get a service representative that knew the ropes and got people from both sides of Qwest talking to get the service change. But it meant we had to go without Internet service for a few days. When they finally said we were connected, the DSL modem wouldn't connect to the Internet. When we called for support they said a technician would be out the next day. When the appointment time came and went without a technician showing up we called again and they had no record of the appointment. After a couple of hours on the phone, escalating our complaints as high up the corporate chain we could go, they found out there were problems with out account that needed to be fixed before they could get a technician scheduled.
By the time they fixed the account it was Saturday afternoon and they said they couldn't get a technician out until Monday -- This is after already waiting several days. We were furious and demanded that they get someone out the next day. To make a longer story not quite as long, they finally sent a technician to come out and fix the problem the next day.
The technician wondered why we were switching from VDSL to ADSL but understood when we told him about the price difference. It's kind of funny how the two Qwest entities compete with each other. Since then our service has been fine. My only complaint is that the download speed on the ADSL modem reduces over time. It will start at about 1250 kbps and drop down to around 800 kbps within a couple of weeks. I have to re-boot the modem to bring the speed back up again. It is an Actiontech GT701 modem. We never get the 1.5 mbps speed advertised, I guess that's why they say "up to..."
Update: Well, after about 14 months of Qwest's ADSL service we starting hearing a humming noise when using the telephone. A while later we noticed that our Internet service kept disconnecting several times a day. We figured it was due to whatever was causing the hum. After several visits from Qwest technicians they finally decided that there was a bad splice in the line that they had to dig up to repair. After the line splice fix the noise on our voice service went away (mostly, we still got it once in a while but not like it was). But the DSL service continued to disconnect repeatedly. So they sent out a DLS technician who said we needed to switch to their VDSL service to solve the problem. We were fine with that solution as long as it didn't affect our price. But after talking to three different people form the Choice Online division (Qwest's VDSL group) we were told that we would have to pay an additional $13/month to switch -- even though it was Qwest's idea that we needed to switch, not ours. Also, there was the possibility that whatever was causing problems with the ADSL service could also cause problems with their VDSL service too.
We were very disappointed that Qwest refused to honor their price for life guarantee but had no choice but to switch over to their only competition in our neighborhood -- COX Communications. Rather than honor their guarantee, they lost a long-time customer for Voice and Internet service. I guess Qwest has more subscribers than they can handle. I wonder how much money they lost on all of the service calls and the excavation to fix the splice? That's a lot of cash to dole out just to lose a customer in the end . . .
Update:
Before switching phone and Internet service from Qwest to Cox I talked to a Qwest customer support rep. who assured me that we would not be charged the early termination fee (ETF) for dropping DSL because it was due to Qwest's inability to provide adequate service. He put a note in our record stating that we are not to be charged ETF. Well, a couple of weeks later we get a bill from Qwest showing a $200 ETF. Since we had our account set up to automatically pay from our credit card they took the money before we could dispute the charge. When we called to ask what was going on they just said it was a mistake but, get this, they couldn't refund the money back to our credit card -- they would have to send us a check in a few weeks. What a joke!
So here is my summary of Qwest DSL:
Nightmare getting service connected.
Average speed and connectivity for a while.
Poor service when their infrastructure degrades.
Horrible customer service, especially with billing.
Crooks who steal money from you and claim it was a mistake.
Advice: Qwest better get its act together or more people like us will be dropping all of their services for Cox. I don't want them to go out of business because competition is good. But I'm afraid they will because they can't keep even their loyal customers anymore due to degraded infrastructure and horrific customer support.
Followup comments:  
qwest tech
@mchsi.com | price for life call 602-266-1700 for vdsl price for life | |
|
groingo
@wavecable.com
| Qwest DSL I had the same problem with line speed, it wasn't half of what they said it would be, beware the half truths.
Also, the phone plugs cause my tv to change channels when a call came in, they laughed and said they'd heard about that, just the way it was.
In one week I finally gave up and went back to my cable provider, at least it works and I get what I pay for. | |
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