how-to block ads
|
»next review in page
Review by EKrauss
Posted: 8.2 years ago
(review was emailed from domain ucsd.edu)
 Encinitas,San Diego,CA
 $99 per month (24 month contract)
 SBC
 "Fantastic install technician"
 "Horrid pre-install process, management, coordination, and information to customer!"
 "Company needs a huge remodelling of its DSL pre-install process and a lot more training of sales and project management force"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
--=====================_1347045==_.ALT
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Dear DSL Reports:
We just had our Sprint Ion DSL line installed today, after 5 weeks of sheer
aggrevation and dealing with the incompetence of Sprint's "system" for DSL.
My wife called up last month to order. She was asked how many computers we
had [2] and how many phone lines [2]. We went with Sprint explicitly
because they said their technician would hook up our two computers and my
wife [who does computers for a living and doesn't want to mess with them
when she comes home after a 12 hour day] wouldn't have to. She was never
asked how many phone lines we wanted DSL dedicated. Then 2 weeks later a
local Pac Bell technician shows up at my door and tells me he has an order
to install another line to my house. I said, "Oh, DSL." He says, well it
was ordered by sprint but doesn't say anything about DSL on the order. I
told him I already had 2 lines and wasn't about to put a third in until I
found out what it was all about. So he cancelled the order. Well, after
another hour of my time and talking to several people at Sprint, turns out
it was the 'loop line' that was needed after all. No one at Sprint had ever
told us or explained to us that this was going to happen so we were totally
unprepared. They had to reschedule the loop line connection.
In the process of talking to them about this I discovered that we didn't
need two lines dedicated to DSL, just one since it would handle both
computers and our phone service; indeed, that's one of the points of a DSL
line. So I told them I didn't need the second line DSL dedicated. Well,
that meant they had to cancel my order and put me back into the line for
installation. Installation date moved back three weeks. Then we get
confirmation on line and are told to fill out a long and cumbersome survey
about the house and our needs on a web page. Took my wife and I 30 minutes
to do. Then we submitted it and were told to wait for confirmation so we
could show the confirmation to the technician who did the install. 20
minutes later and no confirmation ever showed up. So I logged out and up
popped a customer satisfaction survey concerning their web page. I spent
another 15 minutes filling it out with scathing comments but when I went to
submit that, up popped an 'error' message telling me to start all over
again with the whole original technical survey. Yeah right!
Finally today a technician shows up and when we show him the two rooms for
the computers. He looks at the order and tells us that it is for only one
computer!!! If we wanted two computers hooked up they would either have to
charge us another $150. for a piece of equipment or wait another who knows
how long for a new profile to be set up. We called up Sprint's "Order
Management" Dept and read them the riot act. We were right on the verge of
cancelling the whole absurd process. Fortunately for us and Sprint, the
technician, Dave Campbell, was fantastic. He talked to the Sprint people,
and also told us in plain language what the problem was and the various
ways we could get it done, etc. They worked out a way to do it today at no
extra charge to us, even with a partial credit. And Dave was incredible--he
was really nice and got all the bugs out. So finally we are up and running.
Lessons to this story:
1)Sprint Ion's Management is totally incompetent: they are trying to save
money by putting stuff on the web, using voice mail messages, and throwing
a sales force out there totally untrained in the requirements of the
system. No division talks to any other division. The sales people don't
know the questions to ask and can't deal with any minor deviance like two
computers but on one phone line. Clearly, Sprint is trying to cut its
expenses but instead it is costing them money. Had the technician who was
going to do the install made an appointment to come to our house to start
with [turns out he lives only half a mile away from us!] . and spent 1/2
hour talking to us and looking over the setup in the house and asking
questions and explaining what was going to happen, it would have saved us
countless hours of aggrevation and Sprint lots of money since we must have
kept their customer service dept and order management dept and supervisors
busy for 5 hours total trying to straighten out all the mistakes their
sales people and they made along the line. Talk about stupid management and
the idiocy of trying to save a few pennies by employing fewer human beings
and not training them adequately!
2)The Sprint technician was wonderful! He saved the deal for Sprint and us
from destructive rage and finally got us hooked up. If you live in the San
Diego area, ask for Dave Campbell. Sprint should clone him and make his
clones their sales reps and managers.
Sincerely,
Ellis Krauss
Encinitas, CA
=============================================
Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Dear DSL Reports:
We just had our Sprint Ion DSL line installed today, after 5 weeks of
sheer aggrevation and dealing with the incompetence of Sprint's
"system" for DSL. My wife called up last month to order. She
was asked how many computers we had [2] and how many phone lines [2]. We
went with Sprint explicitly because they said their technician would hook
up our two computers and my wife [who does computers for a living and
doesn't want to mess with them when she comes home after a 12 hour day]
wouldn't have to. She was never asked how many phone lines we wanted DSL
dedicated. Then 2 weeks later a local Pac Bell technician shows up at my
door and tells me he has an order to install another line to my house. I
said, "Oh, DSL." He says, well it was ordered by sprint but
doesn't say anything about DSL on the order. I told him I already had 2
lines and wasn't about to put a third in until I found out what it was
all about. So he cancelled the order. Well, after another hour of my time
and talking to several people at Sprint, turns out it was the 'loop line'
that was needed after all. No one at Sprint had ever told us or explained
to us that this was going to happen so we were totally unprepared. They
had to reschedule the loop line connection.
In the process of talking to them about this I discovered that we didn't
need two lines dedicated to DSL, just one since it would handle both
computers and our phone service; indeed, that's one of the points of a
DSL line. So I told them I didn't need the second line DSL dedicated.
Well, that meant they had to cancel my order and put me back into the
line for installation. Installation date moved back three weeks. Then we
get confirmation on line and are told to fill out a long and cumbersome
survey about the house and our needs on a web page. Took my wife and I 30
minutes to do. Then we submitted it and were told to wait for
confirmation so we could show the confirmation to the technician who did
the install. 20 minutes later and no confirmation ever showed up. So I
logged out and up popped a customer satisfaction survey concerning their
web page. I spent another 15 minutes filling it out with scathing
comments but when I went to submit that, up popped an 'error' message
telling me to start all over again with the whole original technical
survey. Yeah right!
Finally today a technician shows up and when we show him the two rooms
for the computers. He looks at the order and tells us that it is for only
one computer!!! If we wanted two computers hooked up they would either
have to charge us another $150. for a piece of equipment or wait another
who knows how long for a new profile to be set up. We called up Sprint's
"Order Management" Dept and read them the riot act. We were
right on the verge of cancelling the whole absurd process. Fortunately
for us and Sprint, the technician, Dave Campbell, was fantastic. He
talked to the Sprint people, and also told us in plain language what the
problem was and the various ways we could get it done, etc. They worked
out a way to do it today at no extra charge to us, even with a partial
credit. And Dave was incredible--he was really nice and got all the bugs
out. So finally we are up and running.
Lessons to this story:
1)Sprint Ion's Management is totally incompetent: they are trying to save
money by putting stuff on the web, using voice mail messages, and
throwing a sales force out there totally untrained in the requirements of
the system. No division talks to any other division. The sales people
don't know the questions to ask and can't deal with any minor deviance
like two computers but on one phone line. Clearly, Sprint is trying
to cut its expenses but instead it is costing them money. Had the
technician who was going to do the install made an appointment to come to
our house to start with [turns out he lives only half a mile away from
us!] . and spent 1/2 hour talking to us and looking over the setup
in the house and asking questions and explaining what was going to
happen, it would have saved us countless hours of aggrevation and Sprint
lots of money since we must have kept their customer service dept and
order management dept and supervisors busy for 5 hours total trying to
straighten out all the mistakes their sales people and they made along
the line. Talk about stupid management and the idiocy of trying to save a
few pennies by employing fewer human beings and not training them
adequately!
2)The Sprint technician was wonderful! He saved the deal for Sprint and
us from destructive rage and finally got us hooked up. If you live in the
San Diego area, ask for Dave Campbell. Sprint should clone him and
make his clones their sales reps and managers.
Sincerely,
Ellis Krauss
Encinitas, CA
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Professor Ellis S. Krauss
Graduate School of International Relations
and
Pacific Studies [IR/PS]
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0519 USA
Email: ekrauss@ucsd.edu
Office Fax: 858-534-3939
Home Fax: 760-943-8881
Short bio/photo:
»www-irps.ucsd.edu/irps/faculty/e···dex.html
"Expert sheet" : »www-irps.ucsd.edu/irps/expertshe···uss.html
Recent research: »www-irps.ucsd.edu/irps/faculty/e···papers.=
html
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D
--=====================_1347045==_.ALT--
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Sprint ION |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
Review by scdiver1 
Posted: 8.2 years ago
member for 8.2 years, 127 visits, last login: 7.5 years ago
Placentia,Orange,CA
$125 per month (24 month contract)
SBC
CLEC party: SBC
"Great Speed. Very good comunication before install. Quick install"
"Speed is only half of what tech tested at."
"So far, so good. We'll see in the coming days."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I just installed Sprint ION this morning. I order XT2 which gives me 2 phone lines with all of the features, 400 minutes of long distance and kick ass internet speed (up to 8 Mbits) with one static IP. I was told that I could get 7.5 Mbit down and the tech tested around 7 at my computer. After I conected to my computer, I was only testing around 3. I think that SUCKS. Granted that is still TWICE as fast as DSL. If anyone knows what I can do to get my 7.5 Mbit I would appreciate it.
Preinstall went very well. I had something that I had to do, so I called them at 6:45am and the lady said that the tech would be at my place by 8:30. I recieved a phone call from the tech at 7:15 and he said he would be there in about an hour. Sure enough, at about 8:15 he was there. The install went very smooth... UNTIL he was ready to leave. I found that my phone was not hanging up. This seemed like a small problem, but was not an easy one to figure out. He rewired some things, then I could not call out. Well, after about ten minutes he called someone and come to find out the PacBell never switched my line to Sprint. Well, the person on the other hend called PacBell and after about twenty minutes, we were back in business. That was about the only slow down in the whole install process. The tech was gone before noon and I had two lines, and an internet connection. I went to DSLReports speed test and what do I see, but a 3 Mbit connection. BUMMER!
I had to leave for work, but before then, everything was great. So far, I would highly recommend this service. I will see after I set up my network and see about doing a tweak or two. Hopefully I will be able to get more than my 3 Mbit down and 800 K up.
If anyone knows any tweaks that can help on a Win 2K system, please let me know. I will make another post after I get everything hooked up. I hope Sprint keeps it up. This is an awsome product for the consuer market.
UPDATE: I did some tweaks, and tried some different things. I am now behind a router and testing anywhere from 648k up to 6.4 Mbits up! (most are around 5.9 to 6.3 Mbits) WOW! I am very happy with the tweaks. Thanks guys. DSLR you are awsome. I am still curous why the tests very so dramatically from one site to another. I have had the best, and most consistant results with LinkLine, LA. I think I will be very happy with this service. Again, I would definately say they are 5 stars after one day.
One problem I am having is voice mail, but that is not a huge issue since I already have an answering machine!
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Sprint ION |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by mbelveal9
Posted: 8.2 years ago
member for 8.4 years, 26 visits, last login: 2.8 years ago
Oxnard,Ventura,CA
$120 per month (24 month contract)
 about 45 days
Verizon (ex GTE)
"Fast, Easy Installation, Good Connection Speed"
"Very Pleased with system and installation"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
The above cost includes my monthly phone charges for two lines including phone features like caller ID, call forwarding, 400 minutes of long distance with addtional minutes charged at .07 per minute, and the DSL line capability. In looking at past phone bills, the addition of the DSL capability was nearly free. Service contract I chose is a two year contract, which includes a free modem and free installation. Other contract options are avaliable, with reduced benifits.
Installation took about three hours, start to finish. The longest time took when the installation tech had to figure out how to build a cable to meet up with my network patch panel. Not exactly rocket science here, but for some reason the guy had some problem visualizing my network setup.
The system provides two Static IP addresses, Voice over IP, and two independent phone lines. I already had two lines coming into the house and they were able to port both lines over, so didn't have to change any numbers. I can control may of the phone features (i.e. call waiting, call forwarding, voice mail) from the web without having to call anyone!! Big Plus. Net work speeds average about 2.8M down and 550K up. They advertise an ideal 8M down. The line at the service entrance to the house typically measured 4M/550K up/down during installation. I have found however that different speed test sights give very different results, so I'm not overly sure what the right numbers are, I just knows this thing kicks over a modem.
The serve comes with Earthlink and I gave up ATT as my ISP, and have not been disappointed. I was an advide supporter of ATT for the past 20 years, but I'm changing my mind. I travel a lot and have found that Earthlink is just as accessable as ATT was from the various areas I travel to.
So far, I have nothing bad to report about these guys or their service!!!
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Sprint ION |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by underthegun
Posted: 8.3 years ago
member for 8.3 years, 2 visits, last login: 8.3 years ago
Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA
$179 per month (12 month contract)
about 60 days
Sprint
CLEC party: Sprint
"When it works right it's REAL fast."
"I think SprintIon is caching their service."
"Okay when they correct the above problem"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Some weird things are happening here. I cannot load some sites at ALL, but if I switch my connection to another DSL I have here, it loads with no problem. Funny thing is though they use Earthlink, I cannot connect to Earthlinks site with SprintIon, but if I switch to my other DSL connection it works no problem.
Weekends are terrible, I think that's when they play the most caching games as I cannot load many sites including my own, but again if I switch to my other DSL connection it works fine. Come monday afternoon things are back to normal, or as normal as I see.
I signed up for the two line service, at the time it was $99 a month, but I get a bill for $119 a month plus a $5 line charge and a ********** $49.95 internet service fee**** plus tax for a total of around $180. This $49.95 addition wasn't listed in the contract, but once you get hooked it's hard to change as they grab your phone lines.
When this works it works REAL fast but the caching and not being able to connect a lot of sites makes me contemplate a change.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Sprint ION |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by Nomjr
Posted: 8.3 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 139 visits, last login: 4.8 years ago
Sun Valley,Los Angeles,CA
$149 per month (12 month contract)
about 30 days
Sprint
CLEC party: Sprint
"Fast, 4 phone lines and 2 static ip's"
"none yet"
"Much better than what I had"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I ordered my Sprint ION the 2nd week in July. I had checked for this service last year, and it wasn't available at that time. Checked again a few weeks ago as I was having trouble again with my adelphia cable and my directtvdsl was also unacceptable. Oredered ION online and got a conformation for my install date of Aug. 14th. A technician from sprint arrived on the 7th for one last check on my line, and I was assured of no problems. On the install day, the technician called me about 7:30am to let me know he was within an hour of my house. He arrived at 8:10am. The first gateway he installed wouldn't synch for over an hour, so new gateway, and synch. Set up my phonelines(4), and no problems there. On the Sprint speedtest I got 3700+ down and 680+ up. Here on dslreports I get anywhere from 2000-3000 down and 400+ up. So far so good, everything works except for the control panel your suppose to be able to log into, as they said it was down in the morning and it's still down 4 hours later. No big deal for me as everything that I wanted to work, works. I have two friends that are getting the 2 line single ip service after trying my dsl. Hope it stays like it is now.
Nomjr
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Sprint ION |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by jteitelbaum
Posted: 8.3 years ago
member for 8.3 years, 16 visits, last login: 8 years ago
Oak Park,Cook,IL
$99 per month
about 60 days
Sprint
"value for money; speed"
"DSL fine; phone service erratic, poor quality, subject to failures"
"looks promising; but phone service is a serious concern"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
I had Sprint ION xt1 service installed last week. This is a combined service:
one local phone line, DSL service, plus 200 minutes of long distance, along
with voice mail, caller ID, etc for 100 dollars/month. I got a deal: first month free;
installation free; hardware free; no service contract, plus a free digital camera (which hasn't yet arrived).
My local phone bills were running 75 dollars a month (thanks Ameritech) so
this looks like a good deal. I'll have to see how it sorts out.
The lead-up to installation went well. It took about 8-10 weeks to get the service, but partly this was my fault because I was away on vacation. Sometime during this 8 week period they tested my lines and installed the box outside my house.
Sprint called me once to schedule the inside installation, then cancelled because of some set-up problem; they wanted to reschedule two weeks later but because of my schedule it ended up three weeks later.
The home equipment is called a C50 residential gateway. It handles both the phone and data lines. One concern is that it has no internal power supply, so right now if we lose power we lose phone service. I hope to get a backup battery soon.
I have a fixed IP address, which is pretty unusual. I also bought a netgear firewall/router.
The tech arrived on time (first thing in the morning). He brought along a manager because I think I am a very early Chicago adopter and the installers were new to the process. The DSL installation really went very smoothly and I was up on the net within two hours.
Speed tests outside my house show about 2.4 Mb/sec download, 0.7 Mb/sec upload. Once I tweaked my receive window under MS Win 98 I got about the same at the PC according to DSLreports tests. The service advertises 8/1.5,
so in some sense I am getting a "slow" connection, but in practice it feels REALLY FAST. So I am not complaining.
The problems came with the phone service, not the DSL. Due to some screwup, when the phone was off-hook it responded to incoming calls with "You have reached a number that is not in service," rather than forwarding the call to voice mail or even generating a busy signal. The manager who came along tried pretty hard to get this fixed the same day, but didn't manage to do this. Eventually he had to leave (he was there all day on the phone) and our phone service was very flaky that evening and the next day. We made a lot of phone calls, and the manager helped us contact various people to try to force them to fix our problem. I had the sense that people were well-meaning but we weren't a very high priority. Finally my wife spoke to a helpful tech in the Sprint ITS department and used what I would call "firm language." (DSL reports was mentioned). The effect was that we were "escalated to executive services." Remember those words! The difference was drastic. Suddenly we had people calling us every few hours to run tests, and in another half day or so they got us mostly straightened out.
The only remaining flaky part of our phone service is that we get a "voice mail" signal on the phone line even when we have no messages. But supposedly they are fixing that, too.
Interestingly we don't dial "1" for Chicago area codes any more. This takes
some getting used to.
As things stand now I am fairly pleased with what I've got, but the phone troubles cost me two days work plus a lot of calls on my cell phone. While the phones were messed up I was really enraged at Sprint, but I've calmed down a little since.
I don't know if the problem was due to new procedures or just general incompetence, but others that I have spoken to who have ported their local phone service (not only to Sprint) also experience problems.
UPDATE 2 WEEKS LATER:
Our voicemail problems were mostly fixed, but we find the phone quality poor.
Today (Monday Aug 13) we called to complain about echoes, static,
fade outs, and the result is that we've lost our phone service entirely.
I'm drifting towards cancelling this service because who needs fast internet service if you can't use the phone?
UPDATE ONE MONTH LATER
Things have settled down now; and the phones have been working, though
the quality isn't great due to clipping and echoes. Still as matters stand I'm
reasonably satisfied.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Sprint ION |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by natrab
Posted: 8.3 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 94 visits, last login: 5.8 years ago
Sacramento,Sacramento,CA
$150 per month (month by month)
about 50 days
SBC
CLEC party: Covad
"Wide data pipe"
"Horrible latency and service. The telephone lines are horrible too."
"Not worth a single penny"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Well, this was quite the traumatic experience for me. I recently found out that my old ISP was doubling their prices and was on the lookout for a new company. Low and behold these Sprint Ion representatives happened to be roaming around my neighborhood looking for customers. After formally grilling them and being amazed by what they were offering, I signed up. What they SAID I'd get: a 8mbps/1mbps ADSL line with low latency. Two static IP addresses in case I wanted to host a server or a LAN. Four phone lines running over the DSL line with unlimited calling features. Tech support whenever I needed it. After pushing back our installation date five times, the install guys took so long hooking up the DSL part that they didn't get to port our phone lines the same day. So we had to continue using our old phone lines for an additional month before the lines would be ported. They told me that a Pacbell rep would call me before they ported the lines to let me know to hook up the Sprint lines (cuz it messes up if you don't hook back up within 15 minutes). Well I received no phone call, and as I picked up the phone to call them I realized there was no dial tone. Of course the lines had been ported over an hour ago with nobody telling me. So I've spent the last two days trying to get my phone working and it is still not fixed. They opened up a "trouble ticket" which hasn't helped me at all. Then comes their incredible DSL. True the datapipe was huge. A whopping 2mbit/800k. However, the latency just to the first hop was already at 40 ms, and it had spikes up to 800 nearly all the time, raising it's average to 100ms. I was lagging out simply trying to browse the internet. Once again we got a "trouble ticket." Lastly, we got a call from them when I started up my webserver. Apparently in their contract it says "No providing services of any kind through your DSL service including hosting websites, servers, etc." thus making what their salespeople told me COMPLETE AND UTTER LIES. This has been the worst experience I've ever had with DSL and I hope nobody else falls for their salespitch that they same to fabricate out of thin air.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Sprint ION |
| »next review in page (previous review)
 Review by drmorley
Posted: 8.3 years ago
member for 8.9 years, 4815 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Chicago,Cook,IL
$150 per month (month by month)
about 56 days
Ameritech
CLEC party: Sprint
"Incredibly Fast, Good Phone Quality, 4 phone lines, Did I Mention Fast?"
"Some Minor Bugs w/the ION Control Center Page, Long Install Process"
"Awesome!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I currently have a 1.5 SDSL line from MegaPath which I absolutely love, but when Sprint ION came to my area offering 3 months of free service, free installation, equipment and no contract I found the offer to good to pass up. I'm going to keep my MegaPath line and after the three months is up I'll decide which service I like better....god bless capitalism 
The sales rep that took my order was pretty good, but couldn't answer any of my questions re: routing or latency. I'd been reading reviews on ION for the past few months so I knew that Interleaving would be turn on and left on regardless of any attempts to get switched to Fastpath. Anyway, he took my order and gave me a due date about 50 days out.
After that I didn't hear anything for about 3 weeks. I got the email informing me that Ameritech would be out on such and such a date to install my loop. My NID is in the basement so I had a friend let the tech in to do his thing. I'm only 2,500 cable feet from my CO so the speeds I was tested at were really good. 6.2 Mbps down and .7 Mbps up!
The first time the tech came out to do my inside wiring and final installation he didn't want to run CAT 5 from my NID to my apartment. He gave me some bs story about how the distance was over a 100' and he'd have to drill holes through my neighbors apartment. It was obvious that he didn't want to be at work and I didn't want him doing a half-ass job so I let him tell me how I couldn't get ION and let him walk. As soon as he was gone I did the inside wiring myself and then called order management to explain what had happened. They got a manager on the phone and apologized for the mishap. The very next morning they had a senior tech out there as well as an area manager to ensure everything went smoothly. Everything did and since then my service has been nearly flawless.
At the SpeakEasy speed test site I get 6.1 Mbps down and about .688 Mbps up. My ping times are higher than with MegaPath, but they're only slightly higher. I can still ping under 100 to some of my favorite servers and the speeds are absolutely incredible. The phone service is very good, but about 1 in 15 calls gets some static that is usually corrected by just hanging up and redialing. I had some voice mail issues initially, but they were corrected within a couple days. The only problem I have it that I cannot access any of the administrative features on the ION control page.
I was the first kid (literally) on my block to get this service, but if it comes to your area I would highly recommend getting it. If the service continues on like it's been I may just cancel my golden Megapath line.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Sprint ION |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by peclark
Posted: 8.3 years ago
member for 8.3 years, 11 visits, last login: 7.7 years ago
Overland Park,Johnson,KS
$120 per month (month by month)
about 20 days
Southwestern Bell
CLEC party: Sprint
"Very fast speed, phone service doesn't impact speed. No SWBell to deal with anymore!"
"Service a little disorganized."
"Incredibly fast for the money, cheaper than comparable service from telco, polite/helpful customer service."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Upgraded from SWBell 1.5mb DSL to Sprint ION 8mb DSL. Installer indicated tested at over 7000 down to the NID, speed test at DSL Reports indicates 4900+. Fast install, although a little disorganized; IPs were not available when installer arrived. Once assigned, they worked great. Hardware works flawlessly, phone service (over IP) works great, phone number switch from SWBell to Sprint was flawless and pratically instantainious. Speed is unbelievable, over 700K bytes/sec from download from IBM. Customer service actually answers the phone, and was helpful. Highly recommended! Static IPs (2), 2 Phone lines, 400 minutes of long distance.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Sprint ION |
| »next page (previous review)
 Review by traitors
UPDATED: 8.3 years ago
member for 8.9 years, 2706 visits, last login: 15 days ago
Plano,Collin,TX
$150 per month (24 month contract)
about 80 days
Verizon (ex GTE)
CLEC party: Sprint
"Download speed unbelievable, should give telcos run for their money"
"tech support not exactly up to speed, nice phone manners though"
"A great package at a competitive price"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
After horrendous experience with Internet America and Covad (took me 6 months to get my money back), was a little reluctant in signing up for Sprint ION given its track record with PCS service. Boy, was I pleasantly suprised! Went live in about 80 days from time of order, service rep. kept me informed each step of the way, confirming appointment dates well in advance and they actually showed up on time! Wasn't sure if the whole thing would fly since Covad previously stated that the pair used for DSL had a short, however, both Verizon and Sprint ION tech verified viability of line and even suprised at quality. I signed up for the XT4 package which includes 4 numbers (can keep current numbers by "porting" them over to Sprint ION), Earthlink email addresses, personal web page with control center that allows you to customize each line with options such as call waiting, etc. Even with three computers hooked up, see little degradation in bandwith available, able to run streaming video on all three with no problems. Only downside so far has been inability to port current phone numbers to Sprint ION, however, based on previous threads concerning no dial tone, voice quality, etc. sort of glad phone line still under local telco carrier. However, still haven't received a bill yet from Sprint ION...uh, maybe I should stop here. After 30 days, so far so good!
Update #1
Remember when I told you I was having trouble porting my phone numbers over, well I don't have trouble anymore because I don't have service anymore Let me explain...Okay, where should I start? I initially placed my order for Sprint ION back in Nov. 2000. Everything went pretty smoothly from installation to actual live date in Jan. 2001. I was a happy camper with download speeds in excess of 5Mb/sec although latency was a slight inconvenience. I wasn't able to port my two phone numbers from the ILEC initially but I wasn't concerned because of some concerns posted by others about voice quality, echos, etc. with Sprint ION.
Now, the fun starts...I receive a call from a sprint ion rep. stating that they were having problems porting the two numbers over from my ILEC. A little background info. before we proceed further, I originally had two phone lines into my house, one for voice and the other for internet use. One line was being serviced by Verizon while the other was being serviced by another ILEC Southwestern Bell which actually was leasing the line from Verizon who actually owns the entire loop. According to the sprint ion rep., I had to request from Verizon to switch my second line currently from SWB back to Verizon before porting could take place (MISTAKE #1). So I did what I was told and on Feb. 23, the switch was made. That same day, my dsl line from sprint ion ceased to function.
Coincidence? No, as I would find out later that Verizon when switching my second line "accidently" took out the entire loop, data line and all (MISTAKE #2). So with trepidation, I called the solution center and talked to about 4 different people, each taking about 20 minutes to understand the problem before passing off to the other one. (I do want to say thanks to D. in Support for at least making an effort to keep me informed and providing a possible solution.) I opened a trouble ticket that same day and prayed for a quick resolution...yeah right!
Five days later, I find out that because I had requested Verizon to switch my second line, they took the entire loop and that's why my dsl line is down, also adding that I shouldn't have placed the order with Verizon to switch the second line but rather sprint ion would have taken care of it. Apparently, the fact that their own people stated that I needed to switch the second line didn't seem to matter which I also found out later was the WRONG INFORMATION for those of you out there wanting to port your numbers over. To add insult to injury, I was told that I would have to redo the order process over again...yes again! to get my dsl back. I'm afraid to even ask if my current account will be terminated or will I get two bills a month for the same service (don't laugh, I wouldn't put it past them to do something like that). Oh well, at least I have everything hooked up and ready to go:) I'll keep you posted on further developments...
Update #2
FINALLY, my ION service is up again no thanks to Verizon. They finally returned the loop back to Sprint thanks to persistent tech support at ION. Thanks guys!
Update #3
Do you remember when I mentioned that I had to redo the order process again when they screwed it up in February? Well, they were able to get it running again without having to redo it...so I thought. Again, my service went down on June 29. This time it was for real. I found out that because of the mixup several months earlier, my account was CANCELLED for no apparent reason. Didn't have any phones or DSL for at least 4 weeks. Finally, they set up a totally new install and account which took close to 30 days on an "expedited" basis. I won't even go into how many times I had to ride their asses to keep the order going, I had to make all the phone calls. Even after a new loop was dropped by Verizon, it took them 3 days to dispatch a truck roll...at least the install tech knew what the hell he was doing, had me up in two hours even with porting problems AGAIN. Well, lets see how long I stay up with this new account
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Sprint ION |
|
|
Sprint ION
