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Review by wbruff 
UPDATED: 82 days ago
member for 8.4 years, 598 visits, last login: 26 days ago
 Livonia,Wayne,MI
 $35 per month
 TDS Metrocom
 "Very reliable and consistent. Same i.p. address for about 2 years even though it is supposed to be dynamic"
 "I have someone in the same local system that is repeatedly trying to probe my system"
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Very reliable with no interuputions. Although it is a dynamic address it has not changed in about 2 years. I started out with the 768k service but recently upgraded to the 2mb. I am getting about 1.5mb down and 500k up on a regular basis.
On the bad point I have a very secure hardware firewall which logs all attempts to gain access to the computer. I am having a daily instance of another TDS user in my same local hub attempting to access my computer at the rate of 60 or so attempts per day. They are not getting thru but it would appear they are scanning for vulnerability as another user friend is also experienceing the same. I have reported it to abuse@tds.net several times with logs in plain text. i have not received any feedback from TDS yet.
Bottom line. TDS is a very good company to deal with, I have them also as my phone provider and you cant beat their customer service.
I'm still with TDS and am still very satisfied with them.
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Review by wizzards10
Posted: 83 days ago
member for 7.3 years, 3 visits, last login: 83 days ago
Appleton,Outagamie,WI
 Business customer
$35 per month
 about 14 days
"hmmm, better than dialup??"
"disruptions, cheap equipment"
 "Consider someone else"
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I wasn't involved in the decission/setup process, but I have been supporting it ever since. We've been a customer for 2 years now and we are on our 3rd modem now as they keep dying. So we are completely down for about 2-3 days while the new one is shipped and configured. Also, we host our own EMail server, and recently all of a sudden TDS shutdown their mail relay, without warning. We were down for over a week until we finially had to purchase a static IP address. They gave us a $50 credit, which work out to 10 months of free Static IP Address, but still...
The modems have been made by ActionTec.
Please seriously consider someone else.
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Review by norest
UPDATED: 96 days ago
member for 96 days, 0 visits, last login: 96 days ago
Quincy,Gadsden,FL
$40 per month (4 month contract)
TDS Metrocom
"Value"
"slow response to problems"
"Good value in terms of money, very, very slow problem solving and attention to customer needs"
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Attention to customer needs demands more than significant improvement.
Delays in addressing customer needs prompt frustration, anger and
resentment. When available actual DSL service is appropriate, the
issue nonetheless is having the service up and running. Had an open
ticket for a month, when they called stating it was fixed, the
problem was still present and the solution they offered was to open
another ticket, I believe I will be waiting for another month to
resolve the issue. Paying for 3mg receiving down=00037; up=00293. Not
sure if this is what you can call good customer service. Multiple attempts made to
prompt a more efficient and speedy response have failed.Contact with
customer service was paliative in nature. Unfortunately there is no affordable competitor in this area!
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Review by neonrider
UPDATED: 123 days ago
member for 188 days, 2 visits, last login: 123 days ago
North,Orangeburg,SC
Contract price not specified.
TDS Metrocom
"You get a land line and a DSL and the cost came down recently! No outsourcing for support!"
"Line gets cut sometimes and their voice mail system is not the brightest."
"Needs improvement and more attention to cutomers needs and wants"
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Mostly mixed experiences, but I'd like to note the following issues (mixed, both DSL and the phone service):
1. While talking for a long time (20-30 minutes) the line suddenly gets disconnected. Not a battery issue and not an inside wiring issue.
2. Voicemail is not the brightest, because:
a. After listening to your voice message(s) it says "This was your last message" (funeral music is not playing indeed); I suggested (many times and years ago and now also) to TDS to change the wording to something less "terminal".
b) The user options and voice mail options take something like 5 sec. to be described by recorded voice, but once it starts, the options are shot at you at the speed of a machine gun; Although you can read them in a TDS phonebook.
c) There is no option for the voice mail to pick up after an X number of rings. You have to call the customer service (and sometimes be transferred from a rep to a rep to a rep and to another rep) to achieve that and sometimes it takes a long time for them to understand what you need done to your voice mail setting. All you want to do is for the voice mail to activate itself after 5 or 4 or 3 rings and not immediately. Their default seems (unfortunately) be "immediately". So when someone calls you you hear the voicemail instead of the caller... They have changed voicemail pick up after 5 rings now. Technician tested it yesterday, he said it works now after 5 rings (I hear 4 rings, the caller hears 5 rings). OK! Yet this morning all calls went into voicemail after no ring or just 1 ring. Called support, they told me it needs time to get P-R-O-C-E-S-S-E-D. Okay, let's give it some time. What a backwards system. Why can't I change the number of rings options myself?
d) There is no option to eliminate (delete) message and/or your name from the voicemail. All you can do is to change it. You can ask them to disable your voice mail though and save yourself some money.
I'd say a very user-UNfriendly and even failing voicemail system and can be very annoying and slow and inconvenient to make any change. A very backwards system that I would NOT recommend.
TDS! Consider dumping the current voicemail "machine" and get a better one.
3. After an "old" modem died, they sent me a new one "Actiontec" which is more round-looking and then they started charging me every month for it without my consent. One month they even double-charged me for the modem. Once I called them and notified also that I saw some lower priced plans now available they signed me up with new plan and that saved me about $12 a month.
4. Sometimes (every few days) the internet connection becomes "stale" (down). I have to powercycle everything to get back online. Not a huge problem though.
5. Faster than 3G speeds are unavailable, not even if you pay more.
6. Don't shut your modem down every night, - that will kill your modem sooner.
7. Is there a firewall in the modem? Seems not.
8. TDS! DUMP YOUR VOICEMAIL SYSTEM PROVIDER N-O-W!!!
9. NEW! July 2009. Just noticed this month that TDS has increased the modem "rental" (never knew I was renting the modem until they started charging me this fee!) charge from $2.95 to $3.95 a month without any prior notification. Soooooo TDS! They never let me know before they raise their charges.
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Review by NanooGeek
Posted: 202 days ago
member for 1.6 years, 28 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Condon,Gilliam,OR
$40 per month (36 month contract)
about 2 days
TDS Metrocom
"Mostly reliable, especially given the low customer density (remote area)"
"Sometimes hard to reach tech support"
"Decent price/performance"
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3.0mbps is only modestly lower-priced for existing customers, with multi-year commitment. New customers pay less, during promos. Satellite is more expensive, for lower performance.
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Review by ollywho3549
UPDATED: 224 days ago
member for 2.9 years, 3 visits, last login: 224 days ago
Lewisport,Hancock,KY
Contract price not specified.
about 2 days
TDS Metrocom
"Well Maintained"
"Does not over faster download speeds that others. Poor Upload speed"
"Barely OK. Better than dialup"
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TDS is not bad. Service is excellent. does not offer speed over 3. Since they changed over from tds.net mail to gmail.com upload speeds has dropped badly. Support is fairly good but sometimes with long wait time. A good point is that support is from within our Country and good support people. Very knowledgeable. Have been with them for a long time but would switch to another company for a faster download speed. That is not allowed for some reason.
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Review by xstriker
UPDATED: 285 days ago
member for 312 days, 4 visits, last login: 236 days ago
Madison,Dane,WI
$70 per month (24 month contract)
about 14 days
TDS Metrocom
"Good when it works"
"Connection drops VERY frequently"
"Save yourself the time and frustration, go somewhere else. Even ATT isn't this bad."
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This is a review of TDS's WiMax bundle in Madison, WI. I ordered the 4 meg down, 2 meg up wireless, along with its VOIP phone (30 min long distance, unlimited local).
First, the phone service.
The sound is clear both ways. The package includes call-forwarding, Caller ID, etc., and all of those are nice features that work pretty well. In fact, the phone service can be rather excellent. What is bad about the service is that phone calls tend to drop, especially when the call can last for more than an hour. I'll even say that my cell phone has less of a chance of dropping calls (even from the basement). In fact, when I have to call for technical support (and I've had to call more than several times), I use my cell phone for fear of the home phone call being dropped, and consequently, be placed into another 10 - 20 min queue.
Now, the WiMax Internet service.
TDS gives you 3 months before committing to the 2 year contract. Within the 3 months, you can cancel if you're not completely satisfied. The first 3 months, I was very happy. I had to call for another service, maybe just halfway through the first 3 months. I thought that was just a fluke, and decided to give TDS a chance since other than one time, I was pretty satisfied (internet and phone went down, had to call to fix it). I should have cancelled.
After committing to the two year contract, I had been pretty satisfied, but as time went on, I began to have more and more problems. For no reason at all, internet speeds would just dip to 100 kb/s. Speeds would stay that way until I call TDS to repair it. Sometimes, internet and phone would just stop for no reason. Sometimes, they'll come back (anytime from 6 to 18 hours), in which case, I'd have to call for technical support.
Technical support is garbage. First, getting someone on the phone takes about 15 minutes. Next, since WiMax is relatively new, whoever you DO get on the phone doesn't know you're talking about. If you call the internet dept., they send you to the phone dept. (something about VOIP as the phone service and that they can coordinate with WiMax from there), and then you get transferred to the phone dept (another 15 min wait) and they have no idea what to do. When you DO finally get to the right dept, they just say they'll send someone to you (who will come without notice, generally the next day at some fairly random time). All the technician does, is looks at the modem and router for a few seconds, then makes a phone call, and BAM, internet is back up and running. When you tell the person on the phone that you've had the problem in the past (oh, it comes up a lot), and that it can probably be fixed at the antenna or tower (because that's what the technician said, since all he had to do was make a phone call) without sending someone, they don't listen, and send someone anyway.
Fin
I went with TDS because it was relatively new, and I liked that it had a higher upload service than ATT and Charter. I thought I'd give it a try, and that it couldn't have been worse than ATT (I was wrong). But if I can, I'm jumping ship to Charter (or whatever alternatives I will have).
EDIT: I've heard from a friend who have also been using TDS that they haven't had any problems. They're not exactly computer literate though, so I didn't inquire too much about their experience. Customer service has also said that they didn't see the problem all that often (as if they could say otherwise), so experiences may vary. As of now, almost a year with TDS, I have cancelled, and they said they will waive the cancellation fee.
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Review by Greycat
UPDATED: 301 days ago
member for 6.9 years, 35 visits, last login: 115 days ago
Knoxville,Knox,TN
$55 per month
about 14 days
TDS Metrocom
"No Contract Required, Service Reliability, Customer / Tech Support"
"Installation Contractors, Initial Bill has Errors"
"Good Value for Good Service"
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FiOS 15 Down / 2 Up, actual performance consistently meets (or even slightly exceeds upstream)
Actiontec Modem/Router MI424WR
** Update 1/2009 as Bundle composition has changed slightly
- Inside Wiring Maintenance now an extra $6 per month (vs previously included in the bundle).
- 25 Down / 10 Up speed now just $5 extra per month
Data is part of the $139 service bundle with:
* Unlimited local and LD phone, w/ usual extra amenities
* Digital TV service comparable to what I viewed on Dish 250, plus 1 premium channel, limited HDTV and also music
* HD includes Discovery HD, MTV, TNT, Universal HD, Outdoor Channel, A&E, History, National Geographic, HDNet, HGTV, Food Network, ESPN, all local channels of course, plus HBO (or whichever premium channel is selected in the bundle)
* On Demand (non-porn) is not available. Nonissue for me, but others may care.
STB for TV is Scientific Atlanta IPN330HD. DVR model also available for additional $10/mo.
25 Down / 10 Up data service available for $15 additional per month - original price, see 1/09 update
Overall I'm very pleased with the experience of switching to FiOS from DSL / Satellite TV. Ordering was easy, installation took two planned trips (one for data, one for TV and Cat-5 wiring), plus a same-day repair trip when a separate regular phone line (which was to remain in place as separate POTS line) was disconnected in error by the contract installer.
Had one tech question afterward and, as usual, tech support was helpful and pleasant to deal with. Both Tech Support and Customer Service remain onshore, a plus.
I have had TDS service for the past 8 years and remain happy with their service reliability...and if there's a bump in the road I always come away with questions or issues resolved to my satisfaction. Which is much more than can be said of my experience with the local cable company, but that's another story.
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 Review by Island Jeff
UPDATED: 332 days ago
member for 4.3 years, 1470 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Beaver Island,Charlevoix,MI
$99 per month (24 month contract)
about 16 days
"Simply amazing to have low-latency broadband at last"
"Not wild about the actiontec modem's firewall/setup/documentation but works ok"
"Simply Excellent! THANK YOU to TDS for providing this"
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~~~ 12/27/08 Update ~~~
Received a system PM prompting me to update the review. Nothing much to report -- I've used the system heavily these past months and am still 100% satisfied. Great service at what I feel is a fair price for this market. Rock solid system as good now as the day it was installed. Thank you TDS.
~~~ Original Review ~~~
I've only been a TDS DSL customer for 1 day now, but after waiting for this for 8 years on Satellite (Starband, Wildblue), couldn't contain my excitement on finally re-entering the 21st century. TDS DSL is simply amazing compared to any other option ever available here (with the exception of T1s at $800-$1100/month)
Thank you TDS!
Added: I have now been on TDS DSL for a month and a half and am extremely impressed -- being online ~8 hours per day, I have not witnessed a single glitch, disconnect, slowness, etc. It has been flawless. I expected good service, but with a brand new service here actually expected some issues. I'm blown away by not only how quick the connection is but how rock solid reliable it has been. Well done TDS! Updating rating because in the scope of things install and tech seem better than 4/5. (I'd like to see the rating options be more granular than 1/2/3/4/5 as the results are then displayed in percentage; I'm now giving install and tech support a 5 because they were a whole lot better than 80%. Previously I had given them a 4 because I would have liked to see the paperwork shipped with the modem instead of separate as mine lagged behind by a day causing confusion (which number the dsl was setup on where we had more than one line) and related, to get a simple answer there was some hold time involved. But these issues are really minor and don't warrant knocking 20% off, so I wish there was something between 4 (80%) and 5 (100%) possible to give... I'd honestly give them 100% on presales, reliability, services, and value, 95% on install co-ordination, and 90% on tech support.)
Followup comments:  
spider died
@cox.net
| yay!! I am so happy for you!
You have been putting up with underpar services for so long..
This is the least you deserve..especially since you have been so helpful on the satellite boards.... to everybody.. congrats, goodluck and whatever else. yeah have fun!!  | |
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Island Jeff
join:2005-07-18
 ·WildBlue
 ·TDS
| Re: yay!! Thanks so much!
Being here 30 miles out in Lake Michigan I absolutely love everything about it with all my heart with the one exception that I've really missed and longed for a solid low-latency Internet connection for the last 8 years since having to give one up when leaving the big city where I went to school. Satellite provided a lifeline since 2001, but now this TDS connection is simply amazing in comparison. I am so happy with it that I can't put it into words! I imagine they felt the same way the day electricity came to town.
--
Wildblue in Lake Michigan | Color Printing Forum
Unhappy with noticeably slower secure sites, higher latency due to 11/17/06 firmware changes | |
| weierj80
join:2008-05-16
| TDS... I had some issues with them initially too. Took almost two weeks for them to get my DSL turned on (they had turned on the service to an empty apartment in my building by mistake apparently). As far as the constant dropping, that previous message about "every 23 hours" is 100% correct! I had the same issue. After 5 heated phone calls to support I figured out what the deal was (got fam who work for Verizon...little hint, when you finally talk to someone from a phone company demand to be put through to escalation...makes them a little jumpy). TDS uses temps for just about everything, I don't even know if they employ permanent staff. This includes some of their techs (I know I've applied). The constant dropping has to do with their primitive system for load balancing their DNS servers. If your using one of their modems or routers this doesn't seem to be a big deal (for reasons I cannot explain) , however if your like me and using your own router you'll have to power cycle to get things back "...or... Use OpenDNS. OpenDNS is free, you set up and account, add their addresses into your DNS fields in the router and TADA! No more resets. 3 months power cycling every day...haven't had to do it since adding OpenDNS.
PS did I mention it's free? | |
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Island Jeff
join:2005-07-18
·WildBlue
·TDS
| Re: TDS... I first ran with the supplied actiontec modem only for a couple of weeks with no issues. I now have my own router (smoothwall box) behind the tds modem because I like its easier firewall rule input, squid, and usage graphs per client -- I set the actiontec modem to transparent bridged. I also have had zero drops and no glitches at all and no dns errors with the smoothwall box set to pickup dns servers via dhcp from TDS. (I did run my own dns server with treewalk and use opendns on a previous satellite system, so I don't doubt your advice if the dns server that serves you is having issues) Also don't mean to be a TDS-fanboy, but my TDS service has been perfect so far for the last two months. Being on satellite for so many years, I expected some glitches here and there, maintenance windows, etc., but so far I have had zero downtime with TDS which has been quite nice in this remote location!
--
Very happy TDS DSL user | Wildblue in Lake Michigan | |
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 1.1 years ago
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
Eau Claire,Eau Claire,WI
$40 per month (48 month contract)
TDS Metrocom
"Appeared to be a good value"
"Never got connected, given wrong informatiom"
"(For WIMAX): Buyer beware -- poor intracompany communication and little ability to fix mistakes"
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*08.25.2008
Madison, WI (Northside)*
*
Subject:* TDS WIMAX service.
*The short of it:* It never happened.
*The why:* They gave me incorrect information.
*The outcome:* They told me they gave me incorrect information, apologized
for my trouble, and may no attempt to make it right.
*Take home point:* *Buyer beware*, my experience suggests poor internal
company communication and little desire to fix or make amends for mistakes.
*The details:* We have been having spotty performance with our ATT DSL
service here in Madison and had used Clearwire WIMAX in Eau Claire, WI, a
few years ago and liked it. We were excited when TDS offered WIMAX in our
area. We went to them and asked about getting WIMAX. It was available in our
area and the price and speed quote sounded like a great deal. The catch was
that it was a three week wait and that their install hours were 1 - 5 pm. I
said to the sales person (over the phone) that my wife and I were not
allowed to leave work until 3 pm. To do otherwise would require using
vacation time (or some lame thing like feigning sickness or a doctor's
visit). The salesperson said it was ok -- he would make a note that the
install had to be after 3 pm.
Go ahead three weeks to now: I worked ahead in my hours, going in early and
staying late, and then going in early today (and missing sleep) so I could
be home for the install by 3 pm. Even left slightly before 3 to get here (at
3:04 pm). Basically, I planned ahead a couple of weeks and then rearranged
my schedule on several days to make sure I could be here in the window they
said they could meet me. I arrived at home to find a "we missed you, call to
reschedule" tag on my door.
I called TDS and explained my situation. They acknowledged that the note
about 3pm or later install was on the account but told me that they cannot
actually say they will arrive at any specific time between 1 and 5 pm. This is after
my customer care representative had talked to a supervisor. Apparently I had
been misinformed. No offer was made to see if an install person might be
available, to "bump me up" in the waiting list, or to otherwise make up for
my (in good faith) lost time and effort.
So, for now I stick with ATT DSL. I am disappointed: previous WIMAX service had been good and I had been looking forward to doing business with a more "local" company.
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