Review by jahiel 
UPDATED: 5.5 years ago
member for 6.3 years, 21 visits, last login: 4.5 years ago
 Davis,Yolo,CA
 $105 per month (12 month contract)
 about 40 days
 SBC
CLEC party: MCI
 "Fast service; company wants to get things right"
 "VERY rocky start"
 "Worth it in the long run"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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[updated on 13 Sept 03 for clarity and additional content]
[updated on 15 Sept 03 with new information]
[updated on 17 Sept 03 with new information]
[updated on 19 Sept 03 with new information]
[updated on 18 May 04 with status update]
~25th July 03
I had just moved to Davis from Santa Cruz, where I had ADSL via Sonic.net. Sonic was great, but they don't serve LATA 3, which includes Davis. I wanted DSL (*need* it for work, actually), but my options stink. So, I tried to order Speakeasy Sysadmin 768/768 SDSL via New Edge Networks for $159/mo. However, the Speakeasy sales rep told me that they couldn't place an order without an existing telephone line in place at the service address. I told him that my housemate, who was moving out at the end of August, had a voice line in place, but he said it'd need to be a line in my name. None of this made sense to me, since SDSL uses its own pair of copper (unlike ADSL which runs on an existing line), but he was insistent, so I acquiesed and ordered a phone line from SBC/Pacbell. I was told that I had to wait until the new line was up and running before I could order.
31st July 03
New SBC phone line was up and running. Ordered SDSL (order # 70110).
8th August 03
Speakeasy/New Edge said that my house has no available copper, and that trenching to install new pairs would be required. Apparently the house only has two pairs of copper, and the second just got taken by my new voice line. Thanks, Speakeasy.
13th August 03
Speakeasy e-mailed me to say that they were going to cancel my order because of the trenching issue. (What if I was in the process of digging a new trench out front for a few new pairs of copper? They didn't even ask!) I responded via e-mail to say that my housemate would be leaving at the end of the month and that her voice line would be disconnected on 31st August 03. I wanted to put the SDSL order on hold until then, and I asked what I'd need to do to make that happen.
1st September 03
No response from Speakeasy. Ever the optimist, I e-mailed in to say that the housemate's voice line had been disconnected, and that a pair of copper was available.
2nd Sept 03
Still no response from Speakeasy. Do they or do they not want my money? So, I called. Apparently Speakeasy canceled the order without telling me or responding to my email. Thanks again, guys. Plus, the New Edge SDSL service I wanted was no longer available at my address. However, a 1.5Mb/768Kb ADSL line was available via MCI for $90/mo, with the first 3 months @ $30/mo, so I ordered that instead. I made it clear that I would do a self install and that I had my own equipment, and the sales rep indicated that that would be no problem.
I later found out that this is actually an $80/mo package to which the sales rep helpfully tacked on a $10/mo upgrade without asking or telling me. Slimeball.
3rd Sept 03
Was told that I'd get free dialup while I waited for my DSL to get activated, so I tried it. Didn't work. Modems would connect, but authentication would fail. Submitted support request via the web via my old ISP's dialup.
3rd Sept 03
Got a DSL order confirmation, complete with a $199 hardware fee. Submitted request via web reminding them that I had my own equipment and didn't need or want theirs.
6th Sept 03
Got sync. Speeds were great. 1.5Mb down, 768Kb up. Latency low (good). This rocks.
7th Sept 03
Tried to use news.speakeasy.net to find internal speakeasy discussion groups. Authentication failed. Submitted request to have news service activated. Why can't they just ask me at the time of order? But hey, at least they activated my dialup account... on the day before the DSL install due date.
Wednesday 10th Sept 03
Still had sync, but download speeds suddenly sucked. Worse than dialup. But hey, they activated my news server account, just in time! I waited 15 minutes for the list of newsgroups to complete downloading before giving up.
Thursday 11th Sept 03
Got an email informing me that my credit card had been charged more than $200 for the ADSL equipment I didn't want, order or receive. Submitted billing dispute via the Speakeasy web interface. Also, it turns out that they'd set up my account to auto-renew via monthly charges on my credit card, even though I was never consulted about this. Slimeballs.
Download speeds still worse than dialup. Submitted a request via the web and called for follow-up. Tech on the phone asked me some basic questions and told me to call back after 8AM on 12th Sept 03 to get an advanced support rep.
Friday 12th Sept 03
11AM. Called; was told that advanced tech was not available at the moment, but that he'd call me on my mobile phone as soon as he got a chance.
4PM. No call yet. Called back. Apparently the advanced tech was out sick, but nobody bothered to tell me that. This tech said I needed to do more troubleshooting or no manager would re-assign a non-sick advanced tech to the issue.
8PM-10PM. Tried three different computers (2 Macs and a Windoze box), two different CAT5e patch cables, two different ADSL bridges, two different phone cables, and only directly at the MPOE (bypassing all the house telephone wiring). Results were exactly the same as with my normal setup: download speeds in the 7kb-12kb range, with packet loss in the 30% range.
11PM. Posted results to the relevant Speakeasy trouble ticket on the web, and called for a follow-up. Tech said to call back for an advanced tech Saturday at about 11AM. I've got deja vu.
Saturday 13th Sept 03
11AM. Called, referred to existing ticket with troubleshooting data, and finally got transferred to an advanced tech. Advanced tech was friendly but asked questions that were already answered in the ticket - he claimed to have read it, but he didn't seem to know what was in there. Regardless, he and MCI/WorldCom collaborated with me on a "cooperative" or "coop" test of my line, which involved me disconnecting all telephone wiring in the house from the MPOE. The tests came back with excellent results, which is normally great but in this case wasn't helping to resolve the situation. The Speakeasy advanced tech informed me that their San Francisco POP has been overloaded for some time and that an upgrade would happen Tuesday night. He advised me to wait until then to see what the results were. I expressed skepticism that simple overloading was the cause of my problem, since my upload speeds were great (768kb) but download speeds were roughly equivalent to those of a 14.4kbps dialup modem. However, we agreed that I'd wait until Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and see.
1PM. Advanced tech called back with news: Apparently MCI/WorldCom finally got a clue and admitted that they had a problem at the CO that I'm served out of. No ETR, but at least they admit that there's a problem and they're working on it.
8:30PM. Download speeds suddenly are back to what they should be (~1300kb), and packet loss is down to 0%. Woohoo! We'll see if it lasts. No word from Speakeasy yet.
Mon 15 Sep 03
Download speeds are still high, and packet loss is still nil. Good. However, Speakeasy issued an invoice which conflicts with promises made by the sales rep with whom I placed the ADSL order. The sales rep said that the first three months of service would be $30/mo, and that the price would rise to $90/mo thereafter. Great, I thought at the time. However, Speakeasy invoice # 1239531 (dated 14th Sept 03) bills me 188.60 with a 89.95 credit for the first two months, which works out to be more than $50/mo for the first two months after Speakeasy's tacked-on fees in the name of regulation. Presumeably they plan to charge me $90 for the third month as well,
This won't do. Either Speakeasy will fix this, or AmEx will.
Wed 16 Sep 03
Connection still fast & stable. So far so good.
On Monday evening, I got a long, thorough e-mail from an "Executive Escalations Specialist" explaining Speakeasy's side of things, apologizing for their failures, and offering to work with me to resolve all the current oustanding issues.
Although we still need to work out the equipment situation, the Speakeasy rep credited my account to fulfill the salesperson's $30/mo * 3 mos promise plus some for all the time I had to spend dealing with all of this. He also gave me reason to believe that my critical review will result in Speakeasy improving certain areas of their operation.
All in all, I'm much happier than I was. We'll see how the equipment situation gets resolved, but I'm optimistic. I've adjused my ratings here as a result.
Fri 19 Sep 03
We've worked out the equipment situation to my satisfaction. We're in great shape, and I'm ordering a similar service for my workplace to replace the SBC/Yahoo crap.
Tue 18 May 04
Since my last update I've upgraded my home installation to a business-class service (more IPs, better support) and have ordered and installed the same package at my primary workplace. The upgrade was not handled smoothly (the IP addresses were not reallocated as they should have been), but Speakeasy fixed the problem in a relatively timely manner. Otherwise, both ADSL lines have been rock-solid, fast, and dependable. It has been a real pain in the rear to get to this point, and I'm not confident in Speakeasy's ability to deliver results correctly the first time, but overall I'm happy.
-Graham Freeman
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