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Review by jbcg 
UPDATED: 6.1 years ago
member for 8.2 years, 38 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Milwaukee,Milwaukee,WI
 $69 per month (12 month contract)
 Ameritech
CLEC party: WorldCom
 "Calvin is a hero. Also a little faster than my prev. svc."
 "Outages, inavailability of promised 24/7 support, calls not returned AND NOW OUT OF BUSINESS??"
 "Run away! Far, far away!"
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I selected Bean Net earlier this year, under some duress, as a replacement for my DirecTV DSL connection (which had been great). For six weeks I researched and sweated the issue, though regrettably I didn't read the user reviews on DSLR. I finally went with Bean Net because they were the only ISP in my area who offered static IP and 24/7 support (I have an email and a Web server) at the $70/month price point. (I have 768/384 connection speed.)
Initially they told me Bean Net could use my DTV equipment (something I doubted, as the DTV gateway is proprietary). I called later to verify and spoke with Calvin, who indicated I'd need a self-install kit after all. Although I didn't order one, a self-install kit arrived two days later, thankfully at no charge. My IP addresses were available a few days later. But it took several weeks to get my service set up--the "hanger" being getting things worked out with SBC (and presumably WorldCom).
The speed has been better than with the Ameritech service I had two years ago and much better and more consistent than the DTV service. But I've had too-frequent outages that have lasted for as long as 36 hours.
One such outage started last Wednesday. After verifying my config, checking my equipment and rebooting everything, I decided to just sit tight until Bean Net got it going again, my usual strategy. Friday afternoon, still down. Called the 24/7 support line and ended up leaving a voice mail. Mem Day Weekend and four more messages later, still no service, no returned call and their support line was giving me an "all circuits are busy" message. Uh oh.
So I looked up the name of the helpful and professional tech rep who gave me my original IP addrs . . . Calvin . . . and called his extension directly. He answered within a couple of rings, and despite the incredible amount of activity he must have been suffering, was able to mediate my problem right over the phone.
Turns out Bean Net had switched my IP address and gateway on Wednesday, with nary a call, voice mail or email! Apparently I wasn't the only one, as a later call to Bean Net to inquire about the 24/7 support ("oh, that's not available any more since we had to let go a bunch of our techs for poor performance") I learned that a number of other customers were out, too. (Judging from the "all circuits are busy" message, I'm betting it was a LOT of customers.)
Now I'm going back and reading comments of other reviewers and really regretting my decision to do a 1-year contract with these folks. I feel like a real idiot. I'll talk with their sales rep later this week (when the call volume dies down), but based on Bean Net's own responses on these forums, I don't hold out much hope for a professional, responsible fix.
The most infuriating thing is that I'm an independent contractor (MCSA/MCSE) and my web site and email services are a professional showcase of my skills. When I'm down for 5 minutes (let alone 5 days!) it impacts my business and looks terrible to my clients.
Bottom line: Bean Net is not the service for you if you have infrastructure that must be on the 'net 24/7 or if you telecommute, and I'd probably skip it even for just gaming use, based on some of the customer service indications in Beannet's (Matthew Dalton) own posts. His posting titled "Clearly, you have a problem reading" was especially sobering.
Good luck.
--UPDATE--UPDATE--UPDATE--
Well, Bean.net and its illustrious principal, Matt Dalton, have apparently bitten the dust. While getting my most recent critical outage fixed (see my comment under DUMBBEANUSER below) I was told by an MCI employee working for BritSys that Bean.Net was basically not providing any service whatsoever and had turned over repair service to BritSys, Bean.Net's upstream provider. I got a very helpful call from MCI who fixed the problem almost instantly after they called me, and my service has been rock solid ever since.
Now today I get the following letter in the mail (and I quote directly):
BritSys Inc.
(address)
October 22nd 2003
URGENT
Dear BEAN.net DSL Customer,
We're sending this letter to inform you that BEAN.net will no longer be providing DSL services to your location. Your DSL line was migrated to BritSys.net in May 2003 as part of cost cutting by Bean.net to ensure that your connection remained up and running.
Unfortunately we have yet to receive any payments from BEAN.net for DSL services migrated to our network which is why we are contacting you directly.
Since your DSL service is already part of our network, you will not have to make any changes to keep your DSL service active. BritSys.net will now be the ISP that will be billing you for your service and supporting your DSL line.
Since we have not been able to reach any officers or employees of Bean.net for some weeks we are assuming that they are ceasing operations and are unable to make payments.
We recommend that you dispute the credit chard charges should you be charged for DSL service by Bean.net November 2003 onwards. Bean.net cannot charge you a cancellation fee for service since you are on our network.
We apologize if this comes to a shock [sic], our job is to ensure that our customers (wholesale or retail) remain up and running should their ISP cease operations.
Please contact us by November 5th 2003 to migrate your account to BritSys.net to avoid any interruption of service. There are no fees for migration and you will be billed the same amount for your DSL service.
Information needed for the migration:
Full Name & Address and contact telephone number so that we can match your information to your order in our system. Please contact Regan King directly with this information on 1-800-459-5996 x4 or email Billing @britsys.com. Please feel free to leave us a voice message after hours and we will return your call.
If you have DNS/hosting changes to make or would like new email accounts to be created please call or email BritSys support. Contact Support: 1-800-459-5996 x3 or email Support@britsys.com
BritSys Background:
BritSys.net has been providing DSL service since 1999 and is highly rated by DSLreports.com for service and support. You can visit our website htp://www.BritSys.net or call 1-800-459-5996.
Thank You,
BritSys Management
If all this is true, all I can say is that Dalton and his accomplices are getting their just deserts. I hope BritSys tackles them for their past due accounts as aggressively as Bean.net has tackled its own customers in the past.
I've adjusted my category ratings above to reflect the fact that Bean.net is apparently defunct. My original ratings were considerably higher.
JG Balius
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Review by techgoddess
Posted: 6.5 years ago
member for 6.5 years, 3 visits, last login: 6.3 years ago
Chicago,Cook,IL
Contract price not specified.
"NONE"
"everything about them!!!"
"DO NOT USE BEAN.NET.....EVER!!!!!!"
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I tried to set up a DSL line with Bean.net and they totally screwed me over!!! They lied and misled me. They told me that my existing equipment would work, which was my condition for agreeing to get their service. Then when Covad told me that my equipment didn't work, Bean.net told me that it was my problem and that I had to pay for equipment. I tried to cancel my service before it was even installed they still charged my credit card and told me that I was responsible for the cancellation charge. Any decent company would make accept their mistake.
I am anxiously awaiting the fall of Bean.net and Matthew Dalton. Dalton has no ethics and no business sense, and from what I can neither does the rest of the company. Karma will take care of Bean.net!
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Review by bill2992
Posted: 7.6 years ago
member for 7.8 years, 22 visits, last login: 257 days ago
Chicago,Cook,IL
$69 per month
 about 100 days
"After a rocky start, my connection has been stable. That is until last week ..."
"after which Beannet has been out for more than a week"
"if I get my connection back, and Beannet stays up, I'm O.K.."
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Beannet has been out for more that a week. They say they are supposed to be back online tonight. Good thing I am not dependent on my connection.
After the outage, I did not call tech support because I was going out of town. The first unsolicited correspondence I got from them was one week after the outage started. I think if I was Beannet, I would try to let my customers know a little sooner that there are MAJOR problems.
I must say that besides last week, I've had months of continuous service from Beannet.
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BEANnet Interactive
