how-to block ads
|
next review in page
Review by cr 2618 
member for 15 days, 0 visits, last login: 15 days ago
lodged 15 days ago
 Caddo Mills,Hunt,TX
 $60 per month
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Area of service, Caddo Mills, Tx. Service 5 dwn/1 up, price around 60 dollars. Average hold time for phone calls to Skybeam, 40 mins concerning issues that eventually ended service agreement. I perceive this as a lack of "agents" as they put it in their "for my convenience" automated messages between the repetitive melody played while on hold. Which also leads me to believe they are reaching past their capabilities of an ISP. The tower that our service was connected to has been in "SOS" status since Aug of 2012; they knew this when they installed our service initially which seems to highlight their priorities. We called to cancel service in the first 30 days of service to recoup set up fee, they baited us in past that allowed time frame with a free month of service. I would not recommend their service to anyone. The actual internet service is too inconsistent for the price they charge and the customer service is inexcusable.
Comments:
 | next review in page (previous review)
Review by markb
(review was emailed from domain aircanopy.net)
lodged 150 days ago
- Palmer,Ellis,TX
- $45 per month
 Verizon (ex GTE) "Better than dial-up" "Sometimes really slow" "Would change for better internet speeds"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I have had Air Canopy (Skybeam) for about 5 years. It seems to be the best option in
Palmer, TX., but the speeds are way less than my plans says.
Here are results of some speed test done from Aircanopy web site. These are
an average.
Download: 1.17 kbps
Upload: 95 kbps
Latency: 157 ms
Comments:
 | | same Same as me & I'm in GJ Colorado | |
|
| |
| next review in page (previous review)
 Review by wilbarger
member for 12 years, 3441 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 169 days ago
- Quinlan,Hunt,TX
- $60 per month
- "Good speeds when no one else is at home"
- "Overloaded equipment and they are obviously not going to upgrade"
- "I give up!!!"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Like many others, I was changed from Partnership Broadband to Skybeam several months ago. The move was HORRIBLE for me. No notice and service went to hell quickly. No Tech Support, constant drops of service for days at a time and unreliable speed when it was working. I now am pretty satisfied with the service. Speeds are consistent and the service seems to be much more reliable. My speeds are 5 Meg down and 2 Meg up. Tech support now either answers directly or will return a call the same day. Per their techs, their towers where I live are overcrowded, but they have upgrades ongoing. Overall, I am now recommending their service where I live over USB modems or other wireless services.
UPDATE 12/31/12
I have finally found another provider that I am going to try. Skywave-TX. They have been around for a couple of years, but I just learned about them. I will have an install on 1/2/13 and will give a full review after a few weeks.
It is obvious that Skybeam is just sucking the profits out of all the companies that they have bought out the last few years. I don't blame their workers for their crappy service as it is a management issue. Their tech support has worked with me and they are exasperated with having to make excuses for the company they work for.
Comments:
| next review in page (previous review)
Review by Rbacke
member for 222 days, 0 visits, last login: 222 days ago
updated 222 days ago
- Glenwood Springs,Garfield,CO
- $49 per month
- "It good to be gone from Skybeam"
- "Speeds, Reliablity, corporate resposiblitly"
- "Use anyone else-even phone lines can be faster"
| Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
My previous post outlines poor speed and service- titled Pathetic. After discontinuing service with,Skybeam they demanded the equipment I purchased from a previous carrier. I finally gave in and told them to come and get the equipment I purchased. (time is money and i could not waste anymore time arguing). The icing on the cake is that after setting up a pick up date, I was notified the morning of the pick up that a tech would be by in 15 minutes. 1 hour and 45 minutes later the tech arrived. Its almost as if they try to irritate on purpose. Again, I would suggest to the employees of Skybeam to set up a meeting with management about the numerous problems that they are experiencing. This kind of service can (and the others on this website) ruin a company.
Comments:
| | Breaking rules Creating a new account to create a second review for the same company has got to be breaking DSLR rules | |
|
| |
| next review in page (previous review)
Review by musela
member for 223 days, 0 visits, last login: 223 days ago
updated 223 days ago
- Moody,Mclennan,TX
- $52 per month
- "from 3 a.m. to 4 p.m."
- "from 4 p.m. to 3 a.m."
- "Skybeam sucks since they took over local company"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I live out in the country so we're very limited to what internet provider is out here. Satellite was ridiculously slow and very expensive so when we were finally able to get a Fixed Wi-Fi access at our place I was excited. It was a local company called Centex Wi-Fi. Great customer support and Internet access was great with up to 7 MB dl / 5 MB ul. I was even able to play games online and watch movies online with no problems.
That was until Skybeam took over. What I found weird was when they bought out Centex Wi-Fi, I was using the same radio and was pointed at the same tower. Basically, just a name change. Until I started to notice the change in speed.
My download and upload speeds lowered to 1.5 MB/512kb. As soon as I was able to upgrade, I went to Skybeam's highest plan (3 MB/1MB). From then on, my access has degraded. I averaged about less than 1MB/ 0.20 kb. I've had the techs come out about 4 times now, It would have been more, but support would rather try to troubleshoot over the phone. I don't know how many times I need to unplug/restart my "blackbox" or router before they figure out it's not on my end.
I just recently upgraded to the 5 MB/1MB plan thinking it would help... NOPE! Yesterday, starting from the time I got home till I went to bed, I had speeds of 0.14 MB download with 0.00 kb upload. OH, but when I got up in the morning and checked I was getting 5MB/1MB (so while I'm at work, I get the best speeds??). I called that night too to have a tech come out. Of course, it was set up for Friday. But I got a call today, while I was at work, asking if the tech could come now. So I obliged and head to the house... check the speeds and oh, it's working fine. He gets there does speed check with his almighty notebook... and he gets 7MB dl / 4 MB up. WTF? It's because his notebook doesn't have limits... (but I thought the highest plan I can get is 5/1???)...
Anyway, so the tech shows up speeds are good. He does some "tweaking" and he's on his way. No sooner does he leave my driveway, I check speeds and it's down to 1.5/0.60... GRRR. He was here between 3-4. 4:15 rolls around and the Internet slows down. I've heard of "peak" times, but this is ridiculous. The tech says he finds it odd that I get such slows speeds (I showed him my speed tests from the previous night) even at peak times. He's surprised. (Wow, really? *sarcasm*) I know what it is, the tower's over-subscribed and Skybeam won't do a thing about it.
I'm pissed that this is what we're left with. If a company is going to take over another company, shouldn't they try to do better? I've worked for companies that have either merged or were bought out, and they've succeeded not failed.
What the h***, Skybeam? As soon as I'm able to find another ISP, I'm dropping you like a hot potato.
The only good experience I've had with Skybeam is the friendly phone tech support (even though I'm on hold for awhile, but they do allow for call back) and the ones that come to the house. Other than that, the Internet that is provided is crap. Sorry, but it's the truth.
Does anyone know of a better ISP around the Moody/Mother Neff area?
~Frustrated
Comments:
| next review in page (previous review)
Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 234 days ago
- Springtown,Parker,TX
- $69 per month
- "none"
- "every thing"
- "DON"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
The worst! You can't even load their test site in less than 82 seconds.
Life is to short to list of all my complaints of Partnership then sky beam,
Going to Exede satellite. Skybeam is the worst theirs some lip service if
your willing to wait 30 + minutes with no followup and they ashamedly
charge you for service you do not receive.
Comments:
| | Skybeam is the worst Skybeam is the worst
After pathetic service for too many years (Speed averaging 0.39), I discontinued service with Skybeam ISP. The 'icing on the cake', is that they claimed to own the equipment that I purchased from their predecessor. Skybeam bought a small competent ISP provider and then turned it into its current miserable state. Somehow in the purchase of the previous small company, Skybeam lost record of the purchase of my equipment. Eight years has transpired since I purchased the equipment and I do not have a receipt (neither do they, or any document that I sighed indicating a loan agreement), and now they are demanding the equipment back.
Ok to recap the problems with Skybeam internet service:
Their service is incredibly slow slow. SO slow, that on one day, I could not send a complaint to the IT department via email. Forget about any streaming videos. Their speeds were averaging over the course of several months.
I never got a response for the numerous (more than 10) complaints sent by email. Not even a 'we will get back to you"
The Phone support staff was friendly but always blamed some external issue for the slow speeds (check your router, check the ping speeds, etc). I now have another provider using the same repeater tower (Glenwood Springs) and have speed 10 times faster. I never got a satisfactory answer by phone on why the internet speeds were so slow (polite yes, answer no).
Skybeam has no loan agreement on the equipment (that I purchased) but still is demanding the equipment back.
If you currently have Skybeam internet service your best hope is that they are purchased by a more competent company (or better yet switch to another ISP).
If you are contemplating new service with Skybeam, DON'T! You probably can get faster speed using dial up phone service. (Cans with strings may work better than Skybeam)
Oh, and if you work for Skybeam, your first priority should be to make sure that upper management knows how dissatisfied your clients are. Everything can be fixed and so can your company. | |
|
| |
| next review in page (previous review)
Review by seminat0r
member for 7.6 years, 7 visits, last login: 108 days ago
lodged 244 days ago
- Cedar Creek,Bastrop,TX
- $60 per month
- "They provide service to an area nobody else does"
- "The service is borderline unusable"
- "Don't get it if you have ANY other choice. At all."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I was originally using a small mom & pop ISP known as PVCO -- The service wasnt amazing, but it was honest. The owner even warned you that low latency applications might not work well and if thats what you need, his service isnt for you. And, well, it did spike a little bit. More often than not though it was downright usable.
I move away for a few years, come back, and I find out skybeam has bought them out.
Price has gone up quite a bit. Service has gone down even more.
They claim 5/1 is their lowest plan, but I'm lucky if I even get 1 megabit down.
The bandwidth isnt even the problem though, its the latency. Throughout the day you'll have anywhere from 200-300ms ping TO THE SECOND HOP. By the time you get outside of their network its usually 500-800 minimum. And thats not counting the spikes.
The spikes are between 2-3 seconds, with 20-50% packet loss..and they last for 30+ minutes at a time. I once left a multi-traceroute running and came back to find out that one of the packets managed to take over 60 seconds to come back. Thats right, 60,000 ping. Brutal.
You can not game with this connection.
You can not stream video with this connection (netflix, hulu, or even watching a youtube video).
All you can really do is check your email, and hope nobody sent you any attachments.
One time I was playing WoW on a server located in Dallas. I found out that my friend playing on a 3g connection from the middle east had about 1/10th the ping I have. It's that bad.
I sent an email complaining and asking about this awful latency to their "24/7 support" email. 4 days later, no reply yet..
Honestly at this point I think I'll just swallow the cost of the microwave tower I had to buy and just get a 3g service. I hate bandwidth caps, but I'd rather have a capped usable connection than this.
Comments:
| next review in page (previous review)
Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain ymail.com)
lodged 252 days ago
- Weatherford,Parker,TX
- $60 per month
- "Nothing"
- "Too much to list"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I have been a unite wireless / Skybeam customer for several years and until Skybeam came along... My service was great and if an issue did arise, the customer support desk was quick to answer the phone and help resolve my problem or send someone out. Once Skybeam took over, "Great" went right out the window. I have had poor service, long hold times when I call in along with poor tech phone reps who usually somehow hang up and never call back. If I do get a tech to come out, it usually took 2 weeks to a month. I have searched high and low for a dependable company or even a company at all but sadly, most had sold out to Skybeam.
I recieved a flyer in the mail for Nextlink wireless high speed Internet in the weatherford tx area about 3 weeks ago so I quickly called and had a tech out in no time... I had Skybeam removed and have had superb service with NO downtime. Just out of curiosity I called the NextLink call center at 1-855-NXTLINK,,, just to see what the wait time was like and I waited no longer than three 2 minutes for a rep to answer. This service is far better than dsl that I had at my previous address and of course my Skybeam service. The price is cheaper and I'm paying for and getting faster service. I highly recommend Nexlink.
Comments:
| next review in page (previous review)
Review by trenticle
member for 273 days, 2 visits, last login: 262 days ago
lodged 273 days ago
- Terrell,Kaufman,TX
- $55 per month
- (24 month contract)
 about 7 days- "It provides internet... sometimes."
- "Unless this is your absolute ONLY option, run for the hills."
- "Terrible, Terrible internet service provider horrible speeds no customer support."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
There are some companies most of us love to hate, for instance AT&T... maybe comcast where you live, maybe Time Warner, but for those of us who currently live in the more rural areas of Texas... well we get a nice little company called "skybeam." This is the cream of the crop of what a company absolutely should never do to maintain success. They bought every single mom and pop wireless ISP in the North Texas area and crammed all customers onto fewer nodes in order to save money. This basically puts us all on the same network at the same time. If you want to get on the computer to play any sort of video game and it's between the hours of 12am to 12am (24 hours a day if you didn't catch that) you might as well forget it. Below is a recent ping I ran a few minutes at 10:30 CST on 9-18-2012 and this is the type of thing you will come to terms with every single day if you have the nightmare misfortune of this "company" providing you internet. Enjoy.
Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 282, Received = 220, Lost = 62 (21% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 45ms, Maximum = 1577ms, Average = 719ms
Note the 21% packet loss. One fifth of the time you literally can't talk to the internet, and that is wholly unacceptable. Max round trip time to googles DNS server 1577 ms (Horrible) Average round trip time to google's DNS 719 (Horrible)
Basically what this tells you is if you are paying this company more than 0 dollars a month to provide you with anything you are paying too much money. Every time I turn on my computer and hit the wall that is lag I want to burn every wireless tower they own to the ground and slaughter innocents Genghis Khan style. Please, for the love of your own sanity do not ever purchase anything from this company.
Comments:
| next page (previous review)
Review by TheJabberwok
member for 3 years, 16 visits, last login: 262 days ago
updated 289 days ago
- Greeley,Weld,CO
- $55 per month
- "Human tech support. Speeds as advertised (5 Mb down 2 Mb up)...when it works."
- "Poor troubleshooting"
- "STAY AWAY!"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
When it works it is great.I have had to change my review a couple times.
The yearly problem is back again... There was a "weather related outage" that started 7/6 and ended 7/9. Despite the outage having ended, I still have intermittent or no connectivity. This happens every year in the summer months. After 4 calls to support and over an hour of hold times, they issued a service call on 7/11. Based on previous years experience, they will issue 2-3 service calls, and then eventually they will realize it is at the AP and finally fix the issue. Last year, I had to contact the BBB before it got fixed. I like the service when it works, but this gets REALLY old. Got the service call (he actually came early, but didn't bother to phone prior to showing up.) First he wanted to replace the power cable, which was suggested and tried at the beginning of my troubles last year. Then he checked some things and finally said the AP was getting interference from another AP, and that I would have to install a pole at my expense to reach a different tower... I know this is BS.
UPDATE 2012:
Iiiiit's baaaaaack. They not only have started a bandwidth limit and implemented some kind of bandwidth allocation snake oil that has turned latency from 10-20 ms pings to 50-60ms pings, but my yearly problem is back. Severely intermittent connectivity. I guess it's back to the BBB. I can no longer recommend this service on ANY level. STAY AWAY!
Comments:
| | Unreal I have been on hold for over an hour now and still no answer from Tech Support. I've tried to reach them by chat and e-mail as well. This company sucks! | |
| | | | Re: Unreal Please email us, concerns@corp.skybeam.com, with your account number, name on the account, and a great contact number and we will help you ASAP! | |
|
| | second time with same prob this co really has customer service issues this is the second time in as many days being on hold for the same prob am looking for another isp waiting on hold for 1.25 avg each time i call is an issue especially when i do get someone on the line very rude and no help at all 5ybeen with them for 5yrs and this sucks | |
| | | It's REALLY poor. Sucks BIGtime I got so tired of the service dropping to NONE or a 10 min load of a page after the ISP I signed up with was bought out. All anyone ever does at Skybeam is either tell you that they can't do anything for you or tell you that someone will call you back. Do NOT let anyone off the phone if your issue is unresolved. It NEVER will be.
I banged my head against the wall with them an ungodly number of times... holding or waiting for a call back... No-shows for SET appointments... I even had someone call me once to CANCEL an appointment supposedly scheduled for THAT DAY of which I had never been informed. Try to escalate to a supervisor. HAH! You know what a supervisor told me when I asked "Ok... so if what I have is the best it will get until NEW tower equipment is installed... when is that scheduled?"? The answer I got was "It isn't scheduled but they don't tell us." One supervisor told me that she would PERSONALLY call me back... NEVER did. Two other times I was told that a supervisor would call me the next day... and no one EVER called. Needless to say I finally cancelled with Skybeam (Um....yeah their "5Mbps download" Texas plan) and had ATT install their 1.5Mbps DSL (the best they can offer my area at the moment). I actually kept Skybeam for two months while "testing" the DSL to be sure it was better. OMG! 1.5Mbps is consistent... I can watch Netflix, I can watch a newsclip video without waiting 15 mins for it to load... I can get INTERNET! Sure it's not as fast as cable... but at least you can GET internet all the time. With Skybeam I was lucky to get ANY signal a great deal of the time.
Oh... and just an FYI. When they finally DID come to get the equipment, they took the box and left all their other trash on my roof. Someone is supposed to call me tomorrow to get the rest (after I complained), but I doubt that anyone will ever come. I will have to pay someone to take Skybeam's trash off my roof.
Sad. With all the job outsourcing and with the level of "service" (read: "I'm sorry, there is nothing I can do") they may as well have their call center in India like everyone else.
Anyway, if you currently HAVE Skybeam or ANY of the JAB Wireless companies and are having issues... take it from me, 1.5Mbps DSL from ATT is FAR superior and you actually GET service from ATT. | |
|
| |
|
|
·
·
·