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Review by Cybervictim 
Posted: 7.6 years ago
member for 7.6 years, 21 visits, last login: 3.5 years ago
 Washington,District Of Columbia,DC
 $17 per month
 "Connection usually goes through without a problem."
 "Lots of spam invades mailbox; Billing Dept. is INSANE"
 "If this is how they run a business, they're heading for chap. 11"
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Update to information below: Today (April 15, 2002), I received another invoice from Crosslink. This invoice adds another $100 to my April 4 bill, presumably in response to my e-mails requesting that they resend their invoice with itemized charges. "Mack Stone," who is an alias for the President, Ed Pechan, of Pechan and Associates (an environmental consulting firm that lives off of government contracts) must have been short of cash last week.
I've filed complaints with the BBB, FTC, Va. Attorney Gen., and DC Dept of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. As time permits, I am also sending my story to various television and radio outlets.
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I had Crosslink service starting in late 1995. Every month, they billed directly to my credit card and every month they were paid $17.55 (an introductory rate). Apart from the increasing amount of spam that invaded my e-mail account (or rather my wife's account--I actually never used Crosslink except to surf the web), I was relatively happy. On Feb. 22, 2002 I sent an e-mail to Crosslink to terminate my account (I signed up with Verizon DSL, which had begun on Feb. 5).
Crosslink informed that 1). I would be responsible for March '02 charges because my request was not 6 instead of the required 7 days in advance of the end of the month; 2). I had an outstanding bill because they were not able to bill my credit card for 3 months. Further, they inform me that normally they would charge me $35 for the "bounced" credit card; however, they are willing to waive that charge (but not the charge for March) as "consideration" for my being a good customer since 1995.
In my response, I noted that the only notification Crosslink had sent to me about past due payments had been a single e-mail communication (on Dec. 29), which I had not seen (I never opened Crosslink statements as they were invariably just a notification that my credit card was about to be billed; further, months would sometimes go by before I would open e-mail at home--it was not an account I used for personal correspondence). In any event, I send them a check for $52.65 to cover the 3 months when the credit card could not be billed.
In the course of writing back and forth about the disputed bill, I discovered that Crosslink's own web site (but not their user agreement) stated that one only had to notify them by noon of the 23rd to make an in-time request for termination at the end of a month. I send them this information and the response of the Billing Supervisor and the head of the company, Ed Pechan, is that what I saw on the web site is a typo and I am still responsible for March. Mr. Pechan further states that I should pay if for no other reason than I was still using the account. I reply that yes, I log on to the account to check for his e-mail and the only use of the site has been to send Crosslink e-mail disputing my bill and asking them to cease service.
The story gets even stranger now. Crosslink decides that my e-mail communications, which are in response to their e-mail and in any event are always related to the billing dispute, constitute "harassment" and that future messages from me will result in my being billed $25. I receive what can only be characterized as an obnoxious note from the Billing Supervisor, Mr. Mack Stone; and when I reply, he informs me that per instructions from the head of the company, Ed Pechan, I will be billed $25. I reply that that what he is doing is not legal. He charges another $25. I tell him that I will take this up with the Better Business Bureau and pursue other remedies if he persists--another $25 is charged to my account.
I figure this is all a joke until I receive an invoice in the mail for $127.65 along with notice of intent to go to a collection agency if I don't pay in full.
The invoice states that if you have a problem, write to the Billing Supervisor, Mack Stone. I do that. I e-mail Mack Stone asking how he arrives at the $127.65. He sends an e-mail instead telling me that it includes $75 in harassment charges, $35 in bounce credit card fees and $17.55 for the disputed month of March. Further, he tells me that if I don't pay they will go to a collection agency and notify credit reporting agencies. He also tells me that I am "sad and pathetic" person.
I write back that I want Billing to send me by U.S. mail, not e-mail, an itemized bill. I receive another obnoxious note from Mr. Stone informing me that I have just incurred another $25 fee. I write back again that I am entitled to an itemized bill in writing. Lord knows if I will be charged another $25 for this note.
That's my saga until now. I am pursuing my complaint with the appropriate legal bodies (BBB, FTC); however, it seems that just getting an itemized bill from these guys might cost me my credit rating. If so, perhaps someone out there wants to contact me about legal remedies I can pursue. Thanks.
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Review by itwonder
Posted: 8.8 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 67 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Warrenton,Fauquier,VA
$55 per month (month by month)
 about 1 days
"Advertises best performance and service in the area, no setup fee"
"High cost, did not perform as well as Earthlink on DSLR Speed test, rude billing support"
"I terminated the account and I will never use them again"
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For 2B IDSN, Crosslink charges $59.95/mo for 480 hrs. B channel time, much higher than Earthlinks $35/mo unlimited. Setup was NC, a good point. The promised superior performance would have been worth it to me but it was not evident in my experience. Hop count to west coast site I use was higher than Earthlink. Performance on a VPN to the west coast was terribly slow. My DSL Reports speed test and toast.net speed tests results were lower than Earthlink, particularly upload. I was astonished to receive a rude and unprofessional response from billing department representative upon cancellation. I still hope to discuss that matter with his boss. To their credit, I was not charged for the account.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 8.8 years ago
(review was emailed from domain cninetworks.com)
Gaithersburg,Montgomery,MD
 Business customer
$99 per month (12 month contract)
 Covad
CLEC party: Covad
"Just Bad"
"Stay Away."
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I have dealt with several DSL providers in the MD, DC, VA area and I have to say that this one is by far the worst. The tech staff did not return phone calls during the numerous outages and when I finally got them afterward, they blamed all the problems on COVAD. I have since moved to UUNet which also uses COVAD and have not had any downtime. I would recommend UUNet or Capunet before considering Crosslink.Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at »explorer.msn.com
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CrossLink Internet
