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Review by charrison0 
Posted: 9.2 years ago
member for 9.6 years, 17 visits, last login: 9.2 years ago
 San Antonio,Bexar,TX
 $50 per month
 about 20 days
 Southwestern Bell
CLEC party: Covad
 "In before the average install time."
 "They did not do it faster ;)"
 "This pair seems to have their act together."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
After 2 other isps failed to install IDSL 144k in a timely manner, I gave bazillion a chance. Bazillion did a great job of getting
things installed. They offered no contract and only a $50 install fee. This was not billed until everything was up and running.
Covad and SWBell recently partnered so the cordination was perfect. SWBell much to my surprise sent at least 3 crews out this week
to get the line installed. Covad came out on time and my idsl was up before they left. Also another plus of the this service is the
400 minutes of long distance that comes with the plan. Quality is pretty good for being voice over ip.
The service seems pretty good after a few hours of use.
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Review by kensullivan
Posted: 9.2 years ago
member for 6.3 years, 2 visits, last login: 1.6 years ago
Fayetteville,Fayette,GA
$50 per month
BellSouth
CLEC party: Covad
"Great service from tech support!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
This is to report some really great service from Bazillion ... I'm
very network literate and have managed customer support and network
help desks of over 2,000 people. I RECOGNIZE GOOD SERVICE AND GOOD
PEOPLE.
My installation went quickly after the order, but I just couldn't
seem to get/stay connected to my new IDSL service from Bazillion.
After a couple of calls to tech support, I was handed off to 2nd
level tech support, who quickly determined that the router had not
been set up right by Covad. Rather than wait for Covad to reschedule
another trip to my home, a very patient guy talked me through a
telnet session to reconfigure the router (not for the average bear --
especially from the help desk end). He got it right the first time.
I rebooted the router and all at once everything fell into place.
During the initial problem, I had also questioned my thoughput.
Because I travel a lot and am hard to reach, Bazillion put in several
calls to me, leaving callback numbers to catch the proper analyst.
The rerouted my network to a better (closer) server for better
performance. Again, it worked the first time.
They weren't satisfied until I was satisfied.
Thanks, Bazillion... Jim, Janelle, Charlie. I really appreciate
your help.
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Review by frisbee9
Posted: 9.2 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 2 visits, last login: 9.2 years ago
Scottsdale,Maricopa,AZ
$40 per month (12 month contract)
CLEC party: Covad
"Slick direct marketing brochure in my mail box."
"They couldn't get their act together on the simple stuff."
"Run, don't walk from doing business with them."
| Pre Sales information:
|
To be honest, I never got all the way through the sales process, so I never had experience with the actual service. I ordered IDSL (only thing available due to distance) and quickly got an e-mail saying I'd get another e-mail in 24 hours with my 400 free minutes of long distance account info. Needless to say, I didn't get my e-mail. When I called, they had lost my order. I e-mailed the sales person, who immediately e-mailed me with a "no problem, give it another 24 hours."
Five days after that, the e-mail had not yet arrived. I sent a note to the sales person again, and got a terse "did you call the customer service number?"
I was put off by the "it's not my problem" attitude, which if it's in the sales department is probably pervasive throughout the organization, so I replied "If it's too much trouble to help me, cancel my order!"
My note was ignored, and I got so frustrated I took a guess at what Bazillion's CEO's e-mail address was (easy if you know what his name is) and sent a note to him. The next day I did get a response, and my order was cancelled.
I am grateful that I was able to get out when I did. If it was so difficult getting an e-mail with long distance account information from them, I could not possibly trust them with properly getting DSL provisioned, installed and troubleshot. My advice to others: STAY A "BAZILLION MILES AWAY" FROM THESE CLOWNS!!!
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 9.2 years ago
(review was emailed from domain gte.net)
Fort Worth,Tarrant,TX
$49 per month (12 month contract)
"Thar be DSL!"
": ( Only IDSL"
"Better than dialup coonection."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Hello:
I now have IDSL, from bazillion.com/Covad. Install was completed on the
afternoon Sep 1st, and I finished the Windows98 configuration that evening.
I had been monitoring the DslReports, Find DSL over the last 3 months. In
June, no ISP would show up on the listing for my Central Office (CO) which
is located in Southwestern Bell. Surprised I was when at the beginning of
August that three companies were listed offering the possibility of DSL. I
was 25,000 feet out from the CO so I decided the Company to try first based
on what I knew about DSL, IDSL would be the only thing that would work if
anything.
Bazillion.com met my requirements after investigating their background
material.
I initially placed my order online around the 9th and received a reply
from Bazillion on the 10th and Covad (the CLEC) on the 11th confirming my
request for DSL. I also received a telephone confirmation from Bazillion
on the 11th.
At first their Order for local telephone service through Covad, to
Southwestern Bell seem optimistic. The LEC installation was scheduled on
the 18th. That fell through whatever the reason, and was rescheduled for
Sep. 1st. So I waited.
I received a 2nd confirmation by email on the 25th and telephone
Confirmation of LEC on the 27th. Sometime between the 27th and Sep 1st SW
Bell finished their DSLAM configuration and Covad was ready. I received a
call from Covad their installer would be out on the 1st of September.
The wife had to cover me at the house, I was already committed to covering
the office for the holiday schedule. The installer was ontime and
communicated with me, through the wife for how I wanted the DSL setup. The
Speedstream DSL modem was connected to the orange pair of my telephone line
(as a separate data line) and the installer confirmed data throughput by
her own equipment. She told me that I would need to do a simple install on
the Pc once I connected the DSL line to my NIC. Everything was ready and
the installation was complete.
In the evening, I connected the supplied CAT5 cable to the NIC in my PC. I
went to "winipcfg" and saw the default IP for Windows (169.x.x.x). I did
the Release All, anfd then Renew All and up popped my IP from
bazillion.com's DHCP server.
When MS IE 5.0 was ran, everything ran smooth as silk. It took my just a
moment to connect to MSN's Speed test, and I got a confirmation of 130 down
and 132 up.
Three weeks after placing my order I had DSL and the surf's up. I am like Snoopy
doing his jig. : )
Wesley Pierson
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Review by jvlgato
Posted: 9.2 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 58 visits, last login: 2.2 years ago
Chicago,Cook,IL
$49 per month
"Pre sale info, initial installation attempt"
"If anything goes wrong, look out!! Got charged when they assumed I was up and running. (I probably will get the money back)"
"Never got me connected. Two months and 25 phone calls later, I cancelled my order."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Tech Support:
|
Here is a summary of my experience:
I ordered service from Bazillion on 7-3-00 and was told to expect a 30
day installation. The initial installation and organization was good. I
heard from Covad within a few days, and they organized the site visits
with Ameritech. Ameritech came 7-12-00, then Covad came 7-19-00. All was
good so far.
After this, nothing worked out at all. When Covad came
7-19-00, they hooked up the line, but said there was no signal to the
central office, so Ameritech had to come back and fix something. No one
ever contacted me, so I called repeatedly, with no updates available.
Finally, I called on 7-31-00, and was told that someone had been to my
place on 7-29-00 and fixed everything, so it should be running fine. To
my knowledge, no one was here on that day, and I know for sure that no
one called or made contact with me personally, so they definitely had
NOT been into my unit to verify any signal to the modem. The modem sat
there flashing yellow/green, meaning it could not pick up a signal. This
set off a long and tortuous attempt to fix this, the details of which
can be seen below, if desired.
To summarize, I made about 20-30 phone
calls to Covad or Bazillion. Bazillion was always responsive and polite,
but always needed to go through Covad, so they were powerless. Covad
repeatedly ran loop tests, probably they did this about 5 times
variously saying it looked fine, there were problems at 6000 feet and
16,000 feet, or there was no modem detected. With great pains, Covad
came back twice, each time saying they could not pick up a signal from
the central office, so Ameritech had to come. Each time, I never saw
Ameritech show up, but whenever I called Covad back, they had records
indicating Ameritech came and left, and claimed a good signal. Round and
round we went, literally 4-5 times doing this, Covad saying the signal
looks fine when they test, Ameritech saying they've done all they can,
then Covad coming back to the site and finding no signal. After many
phone calls and just short of two months, I decided I had to get on with
life, and cancelled my order, and am in the process of looking at other
options.
The other part of the story is I was automatically charged
$281.40 for the installation since they claimed the installation was
successful. I'm in the process of getting this charge cancelled, and
with some effort, probably will be successful, but I have to pay shipping to send my modem back to Bazillion.
In general,I'd say Bazillion was mostly responsive and up front,but was at
the mercy of Covad, and just couldn't get me up and running. If they
can find a better DSL provider, they'd be doing themselves a big
favor.
Covad at first seemed okay, but now I think they're as big, bad, and
unhelpful as Ameritech. They rarely responded well, always deferred to
Bazillion, and seemed very disorganized. To 'fix' my connection, they kept running the same test over and over and telling me the same thing, but couldn't correct it! I'd avoid any ISP partnered
with Covad. I'm afraid of what would have happened if they DID get me
running, but I had problems later!!
If you want to read the details of my tortured 2 months, I kept an
ongoing log of my contacts. These are seen below, and organized first by
company, Bazillion or Covad, then by date.
Bazillion contacts:
Pete level 2
206-436-xxxx
Sales
Graham Eggers
877-430-2470
Internet Access
708-406-1250
773-243-0450
888-274-6526
7-3-00 ordered acct, Graham Egger
see Covad entries for installation
7/31 17:51
Josh/Bob sent email reopening trouble ticket
8/1 1:33pm
Sonya asking Josh why no trouble ticket. Will call back.
8-1 230PM
Bob - Josh is busy, will call
8-2-00 1011am
Pete-new trouble ticket #168369
will get call back by Pete, Charlie or Josh in >2 hours
8-2-00 121PM
Charles- Covad web site is slow, will call in 30 min.
8-2 200pm
called for Charles, will call in 5-10 min
8-2 209pm
charles called, need to perform loop test again; this was already done,
explained this.
will sched site visit, on hold
8-10-00
Pete called, new TT#173168
unsure if Covad or Ameritech needs to come, will call back or I can call
him.
8/11 17:53
no response,
emailed Pete
8/15 17:06
Pete-sched Covad site visit Wed 8-12N
8/17 19:10
email to Pete-Covad/Ameritech meeting by 7PM,so far no one is here
8-22 12:36pm Pete-
need to run tests- found problem at 6k,16k ft. per Covad
Ameritech tested fine
call to schedule site visit, Charlie or Janelle will call tomorrow 11am
8-23-00
Rec'd credit card charge for 8-1 of $281.40 despite no service yet.
8-23 1120am
No callback
called them, left message on voicemail
called again, got Charlie, on hold while calling Covad, will call back
8-23-00 1253p
Charlie called, conferenced with Robert at Covad tech
loop test is good, need to come to site, vendor meet? with Ameritech
will make notes into system
Robert pretty irritated that we called them
said to Charlie, 'who told you you should call this number?'
no clear steps to take at this time;
will call back with scheduled time for site visit after talking to
Ameritech
also told Charlie I was already billed despite no svc., said he's pass
it on to billing.
8-23-00 1:17PM
called Bazillion Cust sup, to clear credit card charge since no svc yet,
spoke to David, who said he'd take care of it.
8-28-00 7PM
No call back yet
emailed to cx service order,including note that they incorrectly billed
me despite no service rec'd.
8-29-00
rec'd form letter email verifying they will 'discontinue service'.
8-30-00 920AM
called credit card co., no credit seen yet.
called Baz cust spprt to verify they credited my acct due to never being
installed
told to call billing 206-436-3847 after 9am Cal time
8-30-00 945am
called billing # and got a pvt voicemail
called sales, spoke to EJ, tfer to -8642, no answer
took message and will give to billing
8-30-00
called sales, req billing, on hold 15 min.,tferred to support, who gave
same # for billing as above
gave new # 206-436-xxxx, tferred to Shirley, who DID help a lot
she will credit $56.40 for the Bazillion charge
if I send back modem to her, will credit $225 upon receipt and take the
loss for Covad
otherwise, can apply for rebate with Covad.
I explained to her THEY NEVER VERIFIED AN ACTIVE SIGNAL TO MY UNIT,
she was apologetic, and agreed it was unreasonable, will speak to her
manager of that dept.
8-30-00
mailed modem back insured
Covad contacts:
variously called either 877-389-3525 Dispatch or
888-462-6823 Scheduling
Acct 501293
7-12-00
Ameritech came
?made DSL connection to upper phone box
7-19-00
Covad came, connected upper box to unit,
found lower box was not connected to Central office
need Ameritech to come back
7-26-00
Cathy Cust Care, -3525
trouble ticket was opened 7/23
fwd to svc delivery department
7-27-00
Michael -3525
will check with svc deliv
ameritech has 24 hrs to respond
7-27-00
lisa -6823
no update yet
will req update from svc deliv again
will email them to get to 2nd level
7-28-00
LeAnne -6823
no ans from supervisor of svc dept
will fwd to manager of svc dept
Ameritech has 5 bus days to respond
7-28-00
FCC-Jan, call IL Commerce
IL Commerce-Barb 800-524-0795
need trouble tix#,plus they only regulate telephone svc; I gave up
7/31 10:17
per Tim-'closed out' acct Fri. 7-29, 'it should work';
apparently they came on Fri, but never came to my unit or contacted me
and, THEY NEVER VERIFIED AN ACTIVE SIGNAL TO MY UNIT!!!!
Covad cannot help me-call Bazillion to open a trouble ticket: see
Bazillion---
8-2-00
Tracy -3525
new trouble ticket #168369
need avail times for them to visit; but call Bazillion to do this
tfer to tech assist; not helpful-I hung up
called -6823 disconnected
called -6823 on hold
see Bazillion
8/3 9:16
-3525
Jimmy-need to visit site,
unsure of when, but have my available times,will schedule.
called back,need to unplug modem and call them
-Roger tech, checked loop test while plugged in,need to do same while
unplugged.Will call when I'm home.
8-3 437pm
called -3525, Tim, cannot pull up ticket,asked Jimmy, got to tech, spoke
to Vu, ran more loop tests,while modem is both on + off,doesn't work,
need to visit site
gave to dispatch to schedule ('refer to tac')
gave trouble ticket #TT168369
8/4 8:26
-3525
Sandra,system down,will call back
8/4 9:30
-3525
No callback,I called-
Jimmy-site visit not scheduled,will schedule + call back
8/4 9:50
Sandra left message at home(I had given office # too),which I picked up
at night-I need to turn off system and call them to run loop test,cannot
schedule until then.
8/4 21:15
I freakin' give up.They can call me from now on.
8/5 7:58
emailed angry letter to both Covad and Bazillion
8/6 9:25
rec'd email back undeliverable
re-sent email-my error; typo in email address
rec'd automated response c new number 229475
8-16 11AM
John and Paul came to site, 'need vendor mtg' w Ameritech;
Central Office not connected to downstairs IT
will arrange and get back to me
if calling, use -6823
use TT 173168
8-16 3PM
came back same day
detect signal,but weak,prob 'open line'. Need Ameritech to find problem.
see Bazillion entries
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 9.2 years ago
(review was emailed from domain baxter.com)
Chicago,Cook,IL
$50 per month
"It worked for a couple of days ;-("
"Pretty much everything so far."
"I just wish that they would have told me they sucked up front. ORDER FROM SOMEONE ELSE"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
The following is an e-mail that I sent to bazillion and covad.
--------------------
I am writing this message to inform you of my frustration with your,
frankly, horrible service and support.
From the installation period on I have been frustrated and angered by your
poor communication, lack of support and your lack of concern for my needs.
It took nearly 8 weeks for my DSL connection to be installed and working
correctly. During this time I called repeatedly for updates and received
little to no response. Covad consistently gave me dates and did not follow
through on those dates. Finally, on August 11th my DSL was installed and
working correctly. One week later, on August 17 I was no longer able to
access the Internet. This service interruption continued from the 17th to
the 21st. I was told that this was a result of a network upgrade. Let me
interject, what type of company plans a network outage for 4 days and does
not inform it users? In my opinion that is deplorable customer support.
Then on August 23rd there was another 5-hour outage. Finally, Sunday
afternoon my wife called Bazillion Customer Support to report that we did
not have access to the internet via our DSL connection. She was told that
there weren't any known problems. She asked to speak to a supervisor and
was told that one would call her back. We never received a call back.
Later that evening I wanted to complete some financial transactions but the
DSL connection was still not working. I called Bazillion customer support
and I was told that this was as a result of a DHCP server needing to be
rebooted. I asked how long this would take and was told that no one worked
in the server room on the weekends and the server would not be rebooted
until the next morning. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that
I would receive a call back. I never received a call back. As of 6:00am I
still had no access. I have had my DSL connection for 18 days and have
been without service for 8 of those days. This is unacceptable and I am
outraged.
Finally, unbeknownst to you I am an Advanced Systems Engineer for Baxter
International Inc. I am in a pilot group that is testing DSL connections
for possible use with Baxter's 4000+ remote users. Baxter is a 16 billion
dollar company located in 68 countries and employing approximately 45,000
employees. As a result of your horrific customer support, consistent
unannounced network outages, and lack of service I have a very poor
perception of Bazillion, Covad, and Covad affiliates. Although Covad may
be one of the largest Nationwide DSL providers it is certainly not the only
option.
Frankly, for a company that supposedly provides an "always on" connection,
you have provided me with a connection only 60% of the time. As a result,
I will not recommend your services to any of my colleagues or friends.
Unhappily,
~Nathan Habeck
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Review by uncertain
Posted: 9.2 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 614 visits, last login: 2.4 years ago
Gilbert,Maricopa,AZ
$49 per month
"Free 400 min LD Calls per month"
"support can't fix anything, unstable ISP - Just above 56K Modem speed, constant support required"
"Will the real price please standup !!!!!!!!!!! - Misinformation, Disinformation, Incompetence - Is that a phone or my ear!!!!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
BEWARE - COVAD / BAZILLION - August 27, 2000
I was introduced to the above companies via mail about 2 to 2 months ago. I was excited to get the drop because DSL is not available in my area. Since then it has been a nightmare of misleading information to flat out distortions of what the company(s) purports they can do. Not only has the system been unstable since install but as well I just got my billing. I purchased the $49.00/mo IDSL 148/148 (or so I was told) and I have been billed 69.00 for something equivalent to 56K modem speed. While Bazillion is quick to respond, most of the problems appear to be with Covad. The following recites a cursory trail of my experience with the companies. After reading, need anyone ask if I am glad that I retained my Qwest ISDN !!!!!!!!!!!!!
On going saga of Bazillion and Covad BAIT AND SWITCH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
?????
1.. Covad (Bazillion) missed two appointments costing me 1 full day of
contract payments. No calls advising that they would not make the
appointment.
2.. Covad (Bazillion) then missed another appointment for router
installation and configuration. Another half day of lost contract wages.
Once again, no calls advising that they would not make the appointment.
3.. Reschedule install for the following week - Wednesday after 5:00PM
4.. Installation occurs at 7:30AM Saturday morning 4 days before the
scheduled installation. No problem, except once more they did not call.
They just showed up. I'm at my mountain home and my wife is greeting the
technician in something less than full attire - DOG HOUSE TIME.
5.. Since then, no less than 15 phone calls in the last 30 days have been
made addressing line speed, packet loss and a host of other issues. I have
talked with Jamal, Larry, Tom, Sonya and OTHERS. FOLKS, WE ARE ON A FIRST
NAME BASIS AND SOME RECOGNIZE MY VOICE. Names are not needed here! The
issues continue.
1.. Guaranteed 128/128 - yea right !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2.. Actual average line speed has equated to 60 - 80 down and about 63
up for most of the time.
3.. Ping reports for the 1st week with DSL Reports TELL THE STORY. Ping
time has been excessive and has resulted in significant packet loss and
often a disconnection from important sites such as my/your broker etc.
4.. After sending numerous emails and finally telling Bazillion to get
it fixed or get it out, they admitted that they or Covad are having server problems
and they were working on it - hmmmmmmmmmmm. They escalate me to tier two
support.
5.. Talked with a Charles Falconi (206-436-8631 -Support Engineer) on
or about 08/18/2000. He stated that they were in process of reconfiguring
servers and that he would call me either Monday or Tuesday (week of August
21, 2000) and complete the reconfiguration and optimization. I HAVE NOT
HEARD FROM THE MAN YET.
6.. AUGUST 27, 2000 CONNECTION GOES COMPLETELY DOWN.
7.. Once again I rebuild the TCP/IP stacks and run the winipcfg to
re-establish the IP address ERROR MESSAGE !!!!!!!!!!
8.. I check the ping reports via ISDN. Connection down since 6:30AM.
9.. Call Bazillion - they advise that I am not getting IP assignment and
escalate to TIER TWO (KEEP IN MIND THAT I HAVE NOT HEARD FROM TIER TWO
SUPPORT SINCE CHARLIE TOLD ME THAT HE WOULD CALL).
10.. ADVISE BAZILLION OF THE CONVERSATION WITH TIER TWO AND BROKEN
PROMISES AND OBLIGATIONS.
11.. Bazillion states that all they can do is send an email and that I
will hear from someone 'IN A COUPLE OF DAYS - - - - GO FIGURE!!!!!!!!! If
experience is a factor it will be a couple of weeks, if at all.
12.. I then ask Bazillion when will I be back on-line. Sonya stammers a
little and remarks --------------- (I DON'T KNOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
13.. QUESTION - DOES THIS MEAN THAT I COULD BE DOWN UNTIL I HEAR FROM
TIER TWO - - - SHE STATES - - YES !!!!!!!
14.. KEEP IN MIND THAT I HAVE YET TO HEAR FROM TIER TWO FOR PREVIOUS CALLS.
15.. Now I am thinking, thank God for mothers because someone has to
love them.
16.. Now I am thinking that if this is not up and running by about
12:00PM today (August 27, 2000) then THEY (BAZILLION/COVAD) CAN PICK THERE
EQUIPMENT UP. IT WILL BE ON MY PORCH.
In conclusion, I just thought my Qwest (USWest) was bad. This has been an absolute cluster of misinformation, disinformation and I am not at all sure that it does not qualify for review by the Arizona AG office. This misfortune has been without exception the most frustrating introduction to the most incompetent people that I have ever met in my 50 years of life. I have,heretofore, refrained from public admonishment but this appears to be tantamount to fraud. I like many in the forum would like to nail the bastards and I believe that I will start by contacting the AG office Monday morning (August 28, 2000).
This type of thing only happens on the Jerry Springer show !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IF YOUR INCOME DEPENDS ON A STABLE INTERNET CONNECTION THEN DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT THESE TWO COMPANIES
If anyone out there is considering a class legal action, please reply to this review and and so advise.
I thank companies like DSL Reports and will gladly pay there fee today as a contributing member.
Oh, the equipment is now on the porch - 3:00PM
September 08, 2000 - Update
Since the original posting above I am pleased to report that Bazillion has solved virtually all of the problems that I have had since installation. Even more, they have either added servers or reconfigured there servers and my line speed has increased considerably. All though my initial experience with them was less than pleasant they seem to be making considerable strides in their service and stability. My opinion is turning from one of horror to almost pleasant. Gooooooo Figure.
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Review by crimsontech
Posted: 9.2 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 10 visits, last login: 9.1 years ago
Phoenix,Maricopa,AZ
$49 per month (month by month)
about 120 days
"Everyone I've dealt with has been very friendly"
"Almost four months - STILL NO DSL!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
I heard an ad for Bazillion on the radio and was excited by the speed and price. I didn't qualify for USWest DSL (They WERE USWest at the time), but I thought I'd try to qualify for Bazillion, since they were powered by Covad. The 400 free LD minutes was nice, too!
I filled out the form online to check my line, and a few days later, I got a call from a guy in sales who said I "qualified for all their services". So, I called him back and got a friendly salesman, though he wasn't knowledgable AT ALL about DSL in general. So, I signed up, and I was told I'd be called within the next 24 hours with instructions/numbers for my dial-up and Long Distance. Apparently you get to use these services while you wait, because their estimated time for install was 4-6 weeks. I had also asked for a static IP, which was quoted to me at $4/month (after you guys say it's $1.95, I'll have to check that out!)
I waited two days and didn't get a call, so I called them. When I first called, it didn't work because my account hadn't been set up. So, I called again the next day and it was active. I got the dial-up and LD numbers and was on my way.
I soon got an email that USWest would be "installing my data line" two weeks after my order date. (This is the beginning of May now). I didn't hear anything, until about a week and a half later, Covad informed me that they were unable to verify whether or not this had been "delivered", and would reschedule. Sooo... I was scheduled for about the last week of May. After that date, my next email was for my Covad installation. They would arrive June 1st between 8am-12pm. It's been 5 weeks at this point... longer than I'd hoped, but within reason.
The Covad technician arrived at 9am. She was friendly and answered all my questions. She completed the installation with no problems and even rewired my bedroom jack because my cordless phone was somehow interfering on the pair it was on. She didn't see anything on the form about a static IP, which was curious, but the least of my problems.
But, alas, the DSL modem wouldn't connect. The "DSL" light continued to flash green/yellow. She called Tech Support (probably an internal Covad number?) and they ran a few tests. Nothing. She then left and said she would try a modem at the CO to make sure the signal was leaving there properly. Otherwise, she would report to the phone company "loop test failed". She called me from the CO saying that the modem connected fine there, and mine still wouldn't, so she said it would probably be about a week before USWest could get the work done on my line necessary to get me service.
I was supposed to hear when they would be out within a few days, but I didn't. So I called Covad, and apparently I had just missed the outbound email to me with my date. USWest is supposed to "remove load coils and/or bridge taps" from the line. Now we're in the middle of June.
Now I'll skip ahead. I received many false promises, and basically what turns out to be nothing helpful from USWest. Finally, in the first week of August, a lady named "Donna" (I don't know which department she's in) has been assigned "my case" because I had been waiting over 3 months. She called up USWest (I think they were Qwest by now) and finds that they are doing something to the effect of routing me a separate data line, which they are now testing.
Finally, August 7th, I come home from work and switch on my modem (as I had been doing for the last few days to see if it will connect), and forget about it. 15 minutes later, I happen to glance at the modem and notice the light is green!!! I was so excited. My brother was over, and we slapped each other high fives. I immediately ripped out my modem and put in my ethernet card (I don't have spare PCI slots for both), and hooked everything up. After tweaking a few settings in IE, I was able to get web sites! I was thrilled. It was SO FAST to me in comparison to my stinky dial-up, which could only connect around 28800 bps. I was getting about 170k, which was great by me.
This went on for three days. Thursday, August 10th, I woke up, and nothing. The light was flashing again. I turned both my computer and modem off, and turned them back on again. I could not connect. So, I called Bazillion Tech Support again and was instructed to turn it off for at least 5 minutes and actually unplug the adapter for it. I left it off for 15 minutes and nothing. I didn't want to deal with it at that time, so I called that night and got Larry on the phone. I explained the problem, and he had me use winipcfg to renew my ip. This didn't work. He said the particular problem I was having happens often, and he just ha to escalate my case to Tier 2 and they'd fix me within a day. I didn't have any luck, so I called back. Got Larry again. He said they still hadn't done what he'd asked, so I should just wait another day. He was very sympathetic. Another day, nothing. I called again and got someone else. When I gave him my name, he asked if it was regarding the cancellation request. "What cancellation request?"
So starts the next nightmare. Covad has shut off my service and said they were unable to deliver. To sign me up for a lower grade of DSL, a new ticket would have to be opened. I didn't understand this, as I had the service for 3 days! The tech I talked to at that point said he hadn't ever seen that happen before. I mean, I used the service, I downloaded quite a bit of stuff as soon as I had the power! 
I called back during the times when Covad was open, and the tech support rep had me hold while he talked to them. After hearing my service worked, they realized they had cancelled in error, and a manager would try to get it reopened. Oddly enough, it took them about 5-6 days to get this done again. Today I called to get an update, and they have just reopened the ticket. Eesh. Hopefully tomorrow or the day after, they will be able to turn my service back on. I'm to call Sales to see if I can get any kind of free service for this hassle.
While this has been one of the most aggravating experiences of my life, everyone I've talked to has been VERY nice and sympathetic. They've apologized a number of times for this, and hopefully I can get some free service out of the sales department to compensate me for this hassle. I have a big family that's getting into the web, and they would definitely sign up with Bazillion at my recommendation. Unfortunately, I can't do that now while I don't have much good to say about them. I wouldn't want them to go through this.
I will update this when I have more stories!
ADDED 9-18-2000:
I've given up on them. Cox @Home has their fiber optics here, so I'm sitting happily with my 1.8mbps downstream, MUCH faster than my maximum possibility of 604k with Bazillion... and less money per month... I had a perfectly running connection within two weeks of my order. Pbbbt.
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Review by electrum
Posted: 9.2 years ago
member for 9.4 years, 23 visits, last login: 8.9 years ago
Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA
$49 per month (month by month)
"Good customer service, reliable connection, month-to-month contract."
"Doesn't seem to be the fastest, but for now I'm satisfied."
"Long term contracts are risky to apartments dwellers, the month-to-month option is the way to go."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I signed up for the Covad Telesurfer 608/128 service.
I have no complaints with the installation. Considering the number of players involved: i.e. PacBell, Covad, Bazillion, and myself.
Things went pretty smoothly. PacBell came out on their day. Spent all day fiddling around with the wiring. At the telephone box and down the street before they could get an extra twisted pair that would work.
On the Covad installation date the installer came 45 minutes earlier than scheduled, (before I got home from work). I called Covad's 800 number, they called despatch here in Los Angeles and scheduled another installer to come out. He was pretty well dressed and turned out to be a supervisor.
He checked my wiring in this old apartment that I live in. It looked encouraging at first, but it turned out that there just wasn't another twisted pair going from the telephone box to my apartment. I was bumming it. He was thinking about leaving, and I was thinking about how I was going to get the wiring installed.
He didn't seem too thrilled about the idea of crawling around under the apartment building to install the wiring. Plus he wasn't dressed for it. So before he decided to leave, I threw on my coveralls, grabbed my flashlight and said I'd do it. I went to the back of the apartment building and slipped through the access hole. (Of course my apartment happens to be at the front of the building.) There wasn't much space under the building so I had to crawl my way to the front, thinking about spiders, choking on the dust, wishing I'd remembered to wear a dust mask.
I finally made it under my apartment where the Covad guy then fed me a twisted 4-pair cable that he had in his truck. I pulled quite a bit of it out right there in one big tangled mess. Later I regretted not pulling it a little slower and coiling it up into a neat little coil.
I then started pushing the big mess of wire to the back of the building where the telephone box happened to be. As it turned out, at the very back of the building just before the telephone box, there wasn't any clearance to get my big mess of wire through. I ultimately had to untangle it first (not fun), so I could feed the end of the wire through to the Covad guy.
He then hooked up the new cable to my phone, and to the dedicated DSL line in the phone box. He already had things connected in the apartment while I was crawling around under it.
Next we installed the DSL modem and turned on the computer. He was observing the lights on the modem to see if it could find a signal. It kept flashing red, so he called in to double check the connection for the telephone box. As it turned out PacBell had tagged the wrong binding post in the box. One PacBell technician had left a note with me telling me to give it to the Covad installer, it identified the correct binding post. However another PacBell technician had come later that day and tagged the telephone box with the wrong number. Anyway the Covad guy says that PacBell mis-tags them all the time. He then went back to the box and switched the wiring over.
While he was doing that I was busy changing the settings in my TCP/IP control panel on my Macintosh computer. When he came back we recycled the power on the DSL modem and the blinking red light now turned to green.
Next we tried to get Internet Explorer to work. It wouldn't, we kept playing around with the settings, but it wasn't working. It was about 8:30PM and the Covad guy wanted to get going, so he left.
I called Bazillion to see why I couldn't get connnected. After some discussion it was decided that I should just turn the computer off and then turn it back on. Which is what I did and then everything worked. (Duh.)
I did a traceroute on the connection. The latency (225 ms) to the backbone server was horrible. (Worse than my dial-up modem connection; 105 ms.) This really kills throughput. There was some type of bridge or router between me and the backbone server. I called Bazillion to see what was going on. There backbone server is in Seattle and they have a trunk line from Los Angeles, that's why the latency is so bad. He said they're going to install a server down in San Diego within a few months and I'll probably get switched over to that one, which should improve things considerably.
That was a month ago. It seemed like the connection was faster for no particular reason so I did a traceroute a couple of days ago. The backbone server is still in Seattle, but they got rid of that bridge/router that was killing my connection. Now the ping time to the backbone server is a respectable 79 ms. It could be faster, but probably won't improve until they install a backbone server in So. Calif.
Originally I wanted to go with a local ISP, but Bazillion is the only ISP that I know of with a month to month service contract (you have to pay $50 for this arrangement). All the other ones want 12-24 months with outrageous termination fees. If you think you might be moving, or you just don't like commitments, then you probably can't go wrong with Bazillion.
(Today is 22 August, 12 noon.)
I did a traceroute on my connection again today just for the heck of it. Now its 160ms to my first hop. Plus it looks like there's another router between me and the backbone server again. This is very high latency which degrades throughput enormously. Obviously Bazillion is playing around with their network. Unless you live in the Pacific Northwest expect a poor connection to the internet.
(Today is 9 Sep, 6:45 PM.)
Well, it appears Bazillion has been upgrading their network. The ping time to my first hop is now 74ms. The best yet. I've noticed a marked improvement in my throughput. Right now I'm getting:
Speed 519(down)/109(up) kbps
This is pretty respectable for a 608/128 connection. Finally, I'm getting what I'm paying for.
I suppose the free long distance is a bonus. However I never really use it.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 9.2 years ago
(review was emailed from domain VirtualVillage.com)
Dallas,Dallas,TX
$79 per month
"Cute-sounding sales rep, good communication with customer"
"Not much info from Covad"
"Good deal for the money if it gets hooked up"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
Here's my review (so far) of Bazillion:
Called Rebecca from Bazillion after noticing their prices and doing a test
at my apartment. I qualified for their "Telesurfer Pro" package (ADSL
1500/384) and was very pleased that they offered a static IP for an
additional $1.95 per month. They seem to be one of the few ISPs who
encourage their users to setup websites, FTP, etc.
The very next day (7/21/00) I received a welcome email explaining exactly
what would happen, and that the order for the local loop from Covad would be
placed in the next few days. On 7/23/00 I received an email that informed
me that Covad had given an install date for the local loop and the date
would be 7/31/00. The emails were a very welcome sight, and I felt informed
about the delivery.
On 8/3/00, three days after the scheduled install date, I received another
email from Bazillion. The text of the message was:
We are sorry to inform you that we have been unable to verify the delivery
of a
new data line by the local phone company, which was scheduled to be
delivered on
July, 31 2000. We are actively working with them to resolve this issue,
and we will notify you as soon as we receive the new data line delivery
date.
No big problem - they seemed to be keeping me informed again, and I
understand the delays involved with DSL. Unfortunately, I received no more
email. On 8/14/00, I finally gave them a call. The log for the install had
no information except that Covad was having "undocumented difficulties" and
"sincerely apologized" for the delay. The Bazillion tech support rep
(which, btw - I was talking to in less than 5 minutes) told me to call back
by the end of the week for more info.
I called back today (8/17/00) and got Lori with Bazillion tech support
within 5 minutes. She went over the log quickly, and told me there had been
no update. She apologized and told me she would call Covad and request an
update to the log, which would take about 24 hours. She suggested that I
call back tomorrow (8/18/00) afternoon or during the weekend and that they
would know more.
The delivery date for the local loop is now 17 days late and Covad has not
informed Bazillion of a reason yet. So far, I've been impressed with the
ability to reach and speak to a Bazillion rep, and with the email
communication that they have given me. Though it is over 2 weeks late, it
is more a problem with Covad than Bazillion.
A couple of other notes:
1) Their $1.95 static IP is awesome
2) The 400 minutes of long distance is worthless. There's no local
access number in Dallas, so I have to bridge through a 1-800 number and am
billed 2/1 minutes, so I actually only have 200 long distance minutes. I
have free LD with my cell phone, anyway.
3) The ability to pay $50 up front and have no contract is great! This
means that if I'm not getting the speed from my 1500/384 that I want, I can
drop it down to 768/128 instead and not have to pay a huge fee. It's sort
of like $50 "DSL insurance".
I'll post an update when I know more.
- Jeff
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