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Review by svetter 
member for 11.8 years, 5 visits, last login: 10.7 years ago
lodged 11.4 years ago
 48188
 $89 per month- (12 month contract)
 about 24 days Ameritech- CLEC party: Covad
 "Good support, nice & helpfull people, no down time" "Covad installer not too helpfull, performance fluctuations, billing is slow, only 1 static IP and 1 e-mail account, costly" "Ok for the intrim"
| Pre Sales information:
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I wanted DSL for home office use. Unfortunatly Ameritech / AADS couldn't quite reach my location (and they only had dynamic IP addresses). I found Onvoy from Covad's web site and the router and installation was essentially free (with a Covad rebate). They also permitted me to have a static IP address. The bad point was only 1 e-mail address (more could be added but for a cost). Also they would permit my system to have an e-mail server system on my machine but there is a $4.00 cost per month addition. Installation was delayed due to Ameritech (they had experienced a labor shortage) and it was also questionable if I could have ADSL or IDSL. IDSL was chosen since it could support the distance. A niceity of it is that upload/download speeds are the same. Another bad part is the bad part about it is the $89.00 per month cost (for a one year contract).
Once the line was put in place Covad came out (they had to ship someone in) which took about a week or two. I assisted in running the inside wiring. The Covad installer instelled the router and essentiall left. Everything that came with the router (setup disk, manual, terminal cable and such) he took. He also had to call someone to help him setup the router. He also had trouble interfacing his laptop computer with the router. I had later on contacted the router manufacturer to get the setup CD and manual. There was no offer to help interfacing my network with the router and no information was given to do so. I had to contact Onvoy to get this. Onvoy did send me their information packet after contacting them.
After this no problems. I have experienced no downtimes and had to call Onvoy only once or twice afterwards to find out information about the performance fluctuations (no guarentees on this), about an additional e-mail account (cost I can't recall) and setup costs to run my own mail server ($4.00 per month charge) and about another static IP address (not available with IDSL).
Home equipment is an internal network running OS/2, Linux as well as Windows (uck!). Thankfully I know enough about networking to get it all going without problem.
The order process was OK. The Onvoy people were courtious and helpfull. Though they did loose my order though. And found out after some tests that the cost was not going to be $39.00 per month but $89.00 due to the distance problem. For the cost vs speed and features, this is not the perferable choice.
Would I do this again, yes. But it is only intrim till Ameritech puts their project pronto in-place. And of course if they can up the performance with a guarentee and provide two static IPs. And hopefully at a lower price.
Is is better than having to do dial-up!
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Review by on8
member for 11.5 years, 2 visits, last login: 11.4 years ago
lodged 11.5 years ago
- 55441
- Contract price not specified.
- "Company is not going to serve residential anymore"
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The company is in financial trouble and has just had it's second lay off. They are not going to service DSL any longer and are not going to deal with residential customers at all.
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Review by dkleist
member for 11.8 years, 4 visits, last login: 11.5 years ago
lodged 11.8 years ago
- Minnetonka,Hennepin,MN
- $69 per month
- (12 month contract)
- "It's available"
- "For IDSL, it's either them or USWest; nice people but customer service is terrible"
- "Beats dialup but not by much"
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Took 5 1/2 months for install. Several missed appointments from USWest for installs. Onvoy people are nice but overworked: forget about getting a return phonecall. Try to get a direct dial number for a rep and call them directly, don't use the 1-800 number (if you are having problems like I did).
Also, get a dialup account to use until installation occurs. The pre-sales folks should get you set up with that.
Here's one piece of info (from Summer 2000). The problem escalation process is this: First, file something with Onvoy/Covad, and if Covad has to respond, they have 24 hours to do so. If there is no response (you need to call Onvoy again to find out), then it escalates one level with a 4 hour reponse time. If there is no response, then it escalates one more level with a required 2 hour response time. The 2 and 4 hour windows are business hours (8-5). This works best if you have settled in with one account rep.
Another piece of info: if USWest/Qwest is a no-show (twice for me), demand a credit for missed appointments to your account, especially if there is no phonecall to cancel.
Basically, the arrangement is screwed because USWorst/Qwest (for a clue) hold Covad hostage because of access issues. I found Covad to be very reliable in showing up for appointments, etc. In this arrangement, I'm not even supposed to talk to Covad, but things were so screwed up that I started dealing with Covad directly, then updating Onvoy on what was happening.
Overall recommendation: find an alternative if you can. If not, plan on waiting a long time for IDSL. (shortest implementation time I've heard is 3 months).
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Review by wampach
member for 11.8 years, 3 visits, last login: 8.3 years ago
lodged 11.8 years ago
- 55128
- $79 per month
- (12 month contract)
- "I'm still alive...and my neighborhood has all new wiring!"
- "Almost one year and counting..."
- "I think I'll be old and dead before this circuit works"
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It all start a year ago...
I kept trying different providers...day in and day out. Then I found this
site about a year ago. So I started to track down where abouts the
"invisible" line of service ended. After entering serveral different
businesses address and telephone numbers I quickly realized that it was all
based on a city limits. The DQ in one suburb was able to get 1+ meg DSL
service, while a bike shop across the street in a different suburb (OK the
distance between the two was no more than 100 ft) was outside the 7 mile
radius? SO I called up US West and complained...explaining both are using
the some CO, the only difference is one is in one suburb, the other is in a
different suburb. Oddly within a week when I tried dslreport again...I was
in range for 768k service.
So I ordered my DSL line in September of 1999 from Onvoy. I waited and
started to worry after 30 days, so I called Onvoy and was told they were
experiencing delays and might take 45 to 90 days. I can live with that I
thought...since US West wasn't even going to give me service. So after 90
days I finally got my router installed and the cabling...but US West had
not installed there wiring. I also went out and bought a DBS system to
replace my cable / cable modem...thinking it was going to be working soon.
This was in December of 1999. So I've kept my cable...for my cable modem.
I'm still paying for cable and DBS. I'm told my DSL will be up any day now.
It's now July and I still have yet to see my DSL circuit work. I've called
every other week...only to have my sales person be switched...and my calls
returned a couple of weeks later...or not even at all. I've watched as US
Worst gradually replaced my entire neighborhood's wiring. Back in about
April I notice lights flashing on my router...I quickly went out to the
demarc on my home and noticed US Worst / Qwest what ever the hell you want
to call them...installed the DSL termination equipment. I was almost in
tears...not really but I was thrilled to finally see some progress.
So it's now the end of July...still no service and when I got to Onvoy /
Covad's website I see I am no longer able to get DSL...so I'm wondering how
long it will be before I get a phone call from them telling me this. So in
my opinion...I am very unhappy with the customer service from Onvoy. I am
the one who has always called to find out the status of my order...and have
not had good luck with my calls being returned. On top of this I was being
billed...funny how I was suppose to get a month's free service and how I was
suppose to get free equipment because of the delay. After several months
worth the billing..they finally have stopped charging me.
Aaron
Aaron Wampach
Network Analyst / Trisept Technology
www.trisepttechnology.com
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 Review by jhboricua
member for 11.9 years, 3670 visits, last login: 40 days ago
lodged 11.8 years ago
- Minneapolis,Hennepin,MN
- $79 per month
- (24 month contract)
- "Helpful tech support and sales staff, stable connection"
- "small personal web space, very little info on their website, no website portal"
- "A much better alternative to US West and a good value too!"
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I ordered my service on Feb. 5th and it took 10 days, 10 DAYS!!! to get the line running. Is a line-share setup. I was actually surprised by a Covad guy calling me at home on the 14th. He told me that even thought US West had not updated their log with a FOC date, he believed that the crossconnect at the CO was done and was scheduling a tech to come the next day. And work it did, not even a blip of a problem. I'm at 1500/384 and it is cool.
I'm still surprised at how fast it was to get it going, since my brother had his dsl line, but because it was sdsl and it was a separate copper loop, it took almost a month from US West to deliver. Line Sharing is truly a blessing.
The only downside on Onvoy is the lack of info on some features. U have 5 megs of webspace, but neither the website or the welcoming package documentation say anything on how to access it, nor how to setup a second email address. I had to call their tech support to get the info. Oh well, just a phone call. I recomend them to anyone, specially US West dsl customers.
As far as equipment, I have a Speedstream 5260, and I bought a Netgear RT-311 Router to share the line with my four systems. Is working flawlessly. I'm a happy internet freak.
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 Review by brudy
member for 12 years, 1320 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 11.9 years ago
- San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
- $49 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 38 days
- SBC
- CLEC party: Covad
- "Friendly sales and support people"
- "No backup dialup access outside twin cities area, too many groups involved to set up new service. High latency to first hop."
- "Good service, let's get some dialup POPs in CA!"
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I ordered the 608/128 residential service, with 1 static IP address, 5Megs of web page space, and two email addresses via Covad for $49/month. Having read all of the detailed user reviews on DSLR, and heard horror stories from friends who had endured the DSL install experience, I kept a day by day record of all activity for posting on DSLR:
5/15/2000
DSL order first attempt: Telocity says they do not provide service for my number. Later in the day I placed an order for Onvoy via Covad. I am optimistic, let's see how long this takes 
5/17/2000
Onvoy had not called me yet, so I called them. After reaching their "Account Consultants" they informed me that my account was not yet on record, and to wait a few more days.
A coworker who lives in the same CO service area told me an interesting story: Apparently our PacBell CO was maxed-out for leased-lines, and that they would not sell any more to Covad or other alternative transport providers. However, they would be able to provide DSL access through their own service... Noncompetitive business practices, strong-arming customers, this sounds familiar
5/22/2000
I finally received an order confirmation number from Onvoy this morning. It has been one week since the order was originally sent via Covad. The message claims that service should be installed in ~45 days (approximately 7/6). I will call later this week to check into line
availability with Covad at my CO.
5/26/2000
I called Onvoy to get a status update, and passed on the story about line availability to the customer service rep. She couldn't tell me anything other than what was on her screen. A call placed to Covad was equally unfruitful. I did get one piece of useful information: PacBell technician is scheduled to come and test the line on 6/7. I will check-in with Onvoy after that to see if any more information has propagated...
6/12/2000
Onvoy tells me that the PacBell line test went off without a hitch. I wasn't home at the time, so who knows. A call to Onvoy this morning revealed that Covad is scheduled to come out tomorrow morning to install the equipment. (Good thing I called If everything happens as it is planned to, this whole process will have taken exactly 30 days, a whole 15 days less than I was originally told!
6/13/2000
Covad came, they saw, they installed the line. In fact, they were 15 minutes early! It worked fine for the 30 minutes I played with it before leaving for work. However, it stopped working soon afterwards. When I got home from work I tested the line, and it was dead, no physical connection. I called Onvoy's tech support (I was on hold for an hour before getting automatically kicked-into voice mail!) generated a Covad trouble ticket, but no resolution timeline or other info.
6/14/2000
Covad thinks the problem was caused by PacBell at their CO, and a trouble ticket has been issued to them. No resolution timeline.
6/15/2000
PacBell hasn't done anything, no projected resolution. I hope they get it up before I get back from my drive trip in Curacao...
6/25/2000
I am back from vacation and the line is up! Onvoy's records show the line was reactivated on 6/20, but I have no way to confirm this. If it is true, it has taken 38 days for this whole process; still seven days less than projected.
Speed tests in the last few days have ranged from 240/112 to 508/113, and the connection has been stable.
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Review by chuckleb
member for 11.9 years, 96 visits, last login: 8.3 years ago
lodged 11.9 years ago
- 55117
- $49 per month
- (12 month contract)
- "Low cost, good speed, low number of hops to the U of M"
- "Onvoy has to deal with Covad to deal with US West, pre-sales was okay"
- "Quite nice, would recommend."
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I have the 608K/128K plan, $49.95 monthly. Not bad. Order was decent, called up, they were un-aware of the plan even though I had it confirmed on their web site and via a flyer. Rebate of $198 for the install. It took a month to get the line, just as they promisd. I wasn't informed of the install date/time, I happened to call and got the info. I wish they would have been more proactive.
I don't care much for the Efficient Networks Speedstream 5260, but it works. It's not too helpful since I can't access it to see if there are any filters, I'm having problems with certain things not going through. They don't mind me using NAT, so I have:
--->[DSL]--->[Speedstream 5260]--->[Sonicwall SOHO/10]--->[3Com 8port hub]--->[Lucent Wavelan 802.11b wireless hub]
Quite nice, the tech was very polite and loved the wireless. I recommend getting a firewall, keeps everyone out, let's you do NAT/DHCP. The appliance was good for the small footprint.
Got a static IP, good for work and filters on work end. Speed is consistent. I have telnet windows popen all the time and I don't get knocked off. CustomerCare group is marvelous. The rep gave me her direct number so that I could talk to her direct.
Had one problem, US West problem. They put in a temporary line in mid-April. To this day, it is still above ground. It is not scheduled to be in the ground till mid-July. I called Onvoy, they said that since I am a Covad customer, Covad has to talk to USWest. Covad told them that it was "customer's responsibility to bury the line", where my Onvoy rep said, "Heck no" and she called US West direct. Still waiting for resolution of this.
When this is all over, I'll be writing a letter to Onvoy, Covad, and US West explaining the full story.
Overall, I recommend them. I also recommend my network layout, if you had money 
Charles
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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain baesystems.com)
lodged 12 years ago
- 19426
- $79 per month
- (12 month contract)
- "24 hour tech support"
- "poor latency"
- "don't go with Onvoy if you're into on-line gaming."
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I signed up for 144k ISDL. One of the main reasons I went with DSL was to
improve my latency for game play on the net. How wrong I was. My first hop
to Onvoy ranged from 100 to 240 Msec. My sons 33k dial up out preformed
this. Onvoy tech did try to work with Covad and had me reprovesoned a number
of times. The best first hop ping ever achieved was 100 msec. My bandwidth
was fine, Covad check this claimed it was fine and that all they cared about
was bandwidth and not latency. I'm not sure if this is an Onvoy problem or a
Covad one. But in any case, if your signing up with Onvoy and being put on
the national circuit beware. I your looking to have good internet
performance for game play I would stay away from Onvoy.
Pre Sales information: ***
Install Co-ordination: ***
Connection reliability: *
Tech Support: **
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Review by cf07
member for 12 years, 31 visits, last login: 4.3 years ago
updated 12 years ago
- Rockwall,Rockwall,TX
- $69 per month
- (12 month contract)
- "24 hour, 800 tech support"
- "Techs don't return phone calls"
- "I was down for 1 month after the install while they worked out the bugs. Now that it's working, I love it."
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I'm up and running after 2+ months of getting the run-around. My connection has been solid since they figured out the issues. 120K+ up/down just about everytime I check it.
___________________
It is my opinion that the ISPs are at the mercy of the phone company and Covad. I have found Onvoy to be very courteous, but not very helpful. When something doesn't work, they dispatch Covad. There is no urgency to get this resolved. If I didn't continue to call them every other day, nothing would get done. I've been without service for almost a month now and they have the nerve to send me an invoice! I believe that they can't do much more that they have, but I'm buying the service from them. I'll cut my check to them when the service works. That makes them responsible for the service.
Through all of this, there were many unreturned phone calls from Onvoy's tech support and a lack of competency on Covad's part. Covad couldn't care less about my service. The canceled service calls without notification are evidence of that.
Ordered IDSL 144/144k on 2/23.
3/7 Received a call from Onvoy to verify my address. Covad had questions about it. Someone misspelled the city I live in and the Zip was wrong.
3/14 Called customer support to check the status. They said the SWB canceled the order. No reason given. I wrote an email to my sales person and she said this isn't the first time she's seen this happen. Asked me to wait as they resubmitted it. She thought it would eventually go through.
3/23 Call from Onvoy telling me that SWB will be there on 3/27 to install the line.
3/27 The line was installed.
3/30 Got a reminder message from Covad (never got the original message) that they were going to do their part of the install on 3/31.
3/31 Covad showed up and installed everything. They said that something was wrong with the order and Onvoy was going to have to fix it. It should work by 5:00pm. I tried it and it didn't work at 6:30pm. I wasn't able to try it again until 9:00pm. It still didn't work. Called Onvoy's 24 hour tech support. They said that their database crashed and they would call me back at 10:00pm. They never called back, but the service started working at 10:30pm. Played around with it 'till midnight.
4/1 Got home around 9:30pm and decided to jump on line to race. I couldn't get on. Couldn't ping the gateway. All of the lights on the router indicated that everything was ok. I called tech support at 10:00pm. The tech told me I had something wrong with my account and he couldn't change it. He was going to call the Network admin to fix it and I would be up later that night. I didn't wait up for them.
4/2 At 8:00am I still didn't have service. Called tech support and they said that Covad left them a note to call when they had me on the line. It was determined that Covad was going to come back to my house to do some testing. They asked for my availability and asked me to call back the next day to get the date they would come out. Covad was dispatched to come out on 4/5 between 12:00 to 5:00pm.
4/5 The Covad tech showed up but didn't fix the problem. He said it was a problem with SWB, and it would be fixed within 48 hours.
4/7 It still doesn't work. Called Onvoy. We did a conference call with Covad. Covad dispatch determined it was a bad router. I asked dispatch if the tech should have been able to determine I had a bad router on the other two visits. He said no, they only try to fix what's on their notes!!!
4/10 Called Onvoy. Covad will be out to my house on 4/14 between 12:00 & 5:00.
4/14 4:30 got a call from a Covad tech saying he's running late. He showed up at 6:00pm and left around 7:30. He said the problem is with Onvoy and SWB. He can't fix it, but he's going to escalate it to his supervisor. "Covad will call you in a couple of days and say try it now." Guess what, they never called. Two days later I called Onvoy and they said Covad would come out again on 4/19.
4/19 Covad didn't bother to show up. They rescheduled for 4/21 without notifying Onvoy or me.
4/21 Covad didn't show up again. No reason given, just "canceled."
4/24 Called Onvoy to reschedule and complain. They said that one of their supervisors would look into it. Covad is supposed to come out to my house on 4/28. I'll keep my fingers crossed, but I ain't gonna hold my breath.
4/27 Covad called and said they were comming out to the house. This was one day early and without warning. The tech said he knew nothing about the 4/28 date. He called back later and said they would be out 4/28.
4/28 Covad and SWB came out to the house and worked on it for a few hours. They fixed it!! Yipee! The problem, according to Covad, was with a setup issue on Onvoy's side and hardware belonging to SWB at the CO.
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Review by plymouthMN
member for 12.1 years, 14 visits, last login: 10.5 years ago
lodged 12.1 years ago
- 55442
- $59 per month
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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I ordered dsl from Onvoy/Covad back in December, 1999. First install date was going to be mid-December. That date came, I had arranged to be at home. A Covad tech showed up, and promptly found out that US West hadn't done their part, so that installation wasn't done. The next install date came, I was again at home, but this time no one showed up. I called to find out what was going on, and was told that US West had held the installation for an F2 Facilities issue. Fine, that's not Onvoy's or Covad's fault, other than the fact that neither of them notified me. Okay, they set another date. The day before that install, I figure I had better call to see what's going on, as again, I hadn't heard a thing. Good thing I called. There was now an F1 Facitlities issue from US West. No resolution date, the install was postponed again. Once again, if I hadn't called, I wouldn't have known. Finally, mid-March, I found out about this site. I checked, and decided to switch to try another ISP. I found Phoenix Networks, with a cheaper price for higher speed. Hopefully I'll get dsl within the 30 to 60 days they promised.
As one last kick, when I called Onvoy to cancel, they tried to talk me out of cancelling, because they had an install date of April 11th. Was I sure I wanted to cancel when I was that close? Gee, if I hadn't called, I wonder when I would have found out about that install date? Yes, I was sure I wanted to cancel.
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