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Review by fattycakes 
Posted: 29 days ago
member for 29 days, 0 visits, last login: 29 days ago
 Arlington,Tarrant,TX
 $78 per month (12 month contract)
 about 10 days
 "when i first signed up it was worth what i was paying"
 "they jacked the price up 2 times on me"
 "they suck and the cumtomer service is terrible. i will never use them again"
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i used grande for 3 years. in that time i had service problems constantly, even thought it was basic cable that plugged into a wall, whenever it would rain the "satellite" would lose signal. well we didn't have a satellite. along with multiple times of having to spend anywhere from 1/2 an hour to an hour and a half on the phone to have someone check the lines so the internet would work. this generally lead to a tech having to come out and the problem would not get fixed for 5-7 days.
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Review by dallas_tx
UPDATED: 76 days ago
member for 76 days, 3 visits, last login: 44 days ago
Allen,Collin,TX
$30 per month
"Very high latency during peak hours. Sub-par d/l speeds"
"Stay away"
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I've been with grandecommunications for about two years now. They used to be okay, but have recently gone downhill. I live outside the Dallas area, and there are EXTREMELY high latencies most evenings. A simple ping to grande's default router will average between 40 and 120ms, with peaks above that. If you play online games, forget it.
You may pay for the 6 or 8 Mbps bundle, but will usually get significantly less, especially in the evenings.
I have called their tech support numerous times, but so far have been unable to make any progress on the latency issues. Latencies are generally lower and speeds faster in the mornings, which tends to point to "not enough bandwidth for our subscriber base".
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Review by brybarnes
UPDATED: 139 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 706 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Little Elm,Denton,TX
$35 per month
about 5 days
"Reliable Speeds-Connectivity-Very few outages-Excellent field service techs"
"None (yet)"
"Quality Internet at decent speed/price"
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2 years now with Grande Cable; they continue to provide a reliable connection with few outages. I have had the same speed package and upload speeds can vary wildly anywhere from 200's to 400's. latency and jitter have become a concern with VoIP; the speeds only offer subpar or radio quality VoIP. Still cheaper and better the A** &T DSL!
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Grande only offered DSL in my area until they extended their broadband cable network into my neighborhood. Install went well. When there was an area outage (only one so far), the field techs were at my house the very next day to ensure service was up and speeds were there!!
Update: Field service tech came thru again! My neighbors built a pool and severed the line when installing a sprinkler. Service tech was out the next day to check signal at house (none), he ran a temp line. Total down time 3 days in a year!
Update: Upload speeds could be higher, mine 400.
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Review by mbizer
Posted: 171 days ago
member for 7.2 years, 67 visits, last login: 126 days ago
Austin,Travis,TX
$20 per month
"generally reliable"
"tech people are idiots"
"much better than Time Warner!"
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$20 is a special one-year rate for 6 mbs down and 384 Kbps up.
I've generally been very happy with Grande but my recent experience with them has given me pause. My router (or computer, if it is directly connected to the cable modem) is consistently getting a DHCP lease that lasts only an hour, it's filling up the logs, yet I get the *same* dynamic IP every time. I've spent countless hours on the phone with Grande, suggesting that their DHCP server is misconfigured or should be reconfigured to give me an IP for at least 24 hours, to no avail.
Followup comments:  retsej2007
join:2008-06-02
| .... Strange...I'm now in the Austin(ish) area on Grande, and my lease times aren't an hour the last time I checked. I was having a latency issue while playing WoW which seemed to occur at certain intervals, and I searched everything from leases to wireless connections and it ended up being the stupid wireless software. (linksys and windows sometimes fight over who owns my wireless lol)
Although I don't think it will bother me for what I'm doing, I'll check mine this evening out of curiosity. I wonder if it's possible it's specific to certain areas? | |
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ret
@grandecom.com | Re: .... Mine is working fine...maybe they fixed something? | |
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 Review by Scooby007
UPDATED: 266 days ago
member for 6.4 years, 154 visits, last login: 266 days ago
San Antonio,Bexar,TX
$44 per month
about 4 days
"super fast and reliable, professional and accommodating install, inexpensive bundle, best connection I've had"
"absolutely none so far"
"do it now if you can!"
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**edit (2/28/08): after almost 2 years I am still perfectly happy with Grande - I pay the same monthly fee and now get 8mb/1mb according to my last test at bbr. I've noticed literally NO downtime since I've had their service - an unparalleled record in my long broadband experience!
(original review) Grande was a very nice suprise. I've had cable and it worked fine, but never knew I was in a relatively small area that Grande was doing fiber to the house in. I originally contacted them only because the bundle price was less than Time Warner Cable. **Only after I signed up, did I find out they would be running fiber to the house.** In my opinion, this should be their #1 selling point on the phone. It's faster upload and download than cable right now. Anyway, I was very happy. The guy came out and told us they needed to put a power supply in the house somewhere. As we had just remodeled the house, I was really picky about where to put it, and he accommodated every request - I was very surprised.
This is another way they do things differently. We had a very nice rep come out, talk about everything and set an appointment for install. If there's any downtime, we are supposed to call him directly. This type of service I thought didn't exist anymore...!
When the install guys came out, they were less enthusiastic about our special install requests... probably because they had to first pull the fiber from a couple of blocks away outside.... But, eventually, they delivered as promised, putting the power supply and ethernet port neatly in my office closet. On top of this, because they missed their first appointment, they waived the install fee (which, in this case, was probably substantial, as they were on the property somewhere for about 3 - 4 hours...).
Since the install a couple of months ago, the connection has been rock-solid. No downtime and blazing upload and download speeds.
I am a web designer / developer, so I am very picky about this kind of thing, and I can say this has been the best broadband experience I have had. I would recommend Grande to anyone.
p.s. To answer the questions below:
We get 8Mb down / 1Mb (edited 2/28/08) up / dynamic IP for $43.95 (includes 20% off with bundle)
Cost Calculator on their website: »www.grandecom.com/Residential/bu···byob.jsp
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Review by hughesjr
UPDATED: 274 days ago
member for 274 days, 4 visits, last login: 28 days ago
Corpus Christi,Nueces,TX
$42 per month
about 1 days
"Fast speed, courteous service"
"none"
"12 mbps down, 1 mbps up, $42/month"
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I have had the highest bandwidth offering by grande for more than 3 years, they just increased the max plan from 6/512 to 12/1024.
They have quickly resolved any issues i had over this period and I highly recommend this company and this plan,
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 Review by Plif
Posted: 315 days ago
member for 315 days, 6 visits, last login: 62 days ago
San Marcos,Hays,TX
$50 per month
about 5 days
"Fantastically stable"
"Sales reps provide little information about the service"
"Great service from a company right here in Texas"
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Currently on the 8mbps/512kbps speed package, renting a Motorola Surfboard 5100 cable modem.
The initial order process was fine, though the sales rep only knew so much about the internet service itself. The tech scheduled to come out and install service showed up within the four hour window allotted, installation was quick and painless.
When pressed, my sales rep finally told me my upload speed would be 768kbps, and my bills even reflected that speed. But a few speed tests after the service was installed told me a very different story, and a call to Technical Support revealed that the speed package was never for 768kbps, it had always been 512kbps.
Further into my service from Grande, I found my download speed had dropped to 6mbps, the next tier down. Ran the test a few more times, got the same result. Called Tech Support, who had me test again and bypass my router, same result. After a few tests my download speed came back up closer to 8mbps. In short, we wasted half an hour proving what we already know about broadband: your download speed won't be at 100% all the time.
All in all, I'm extremely pleased with Grande's internet service. My standard uptime hovers around 40 days, and only then because of power outages or swapping which router/computer/device is connected to the modem. Stability is my primary desire from my internet connection, and Grande has it in spades.
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Review by Aleck79
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 5.3 years, 1778 visits, last login: a few hours ago
San Marcos,Hays,TX
$39 per month
about 7 days
"Decent price, straightforward billing, easy install on a Saturday morning"
"Speed fluctuates wildly, no self-install option, regularly loses connection until the modem is reset"
"mediocre at best"
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Called up Grande Communications and asked for the details on getting their 7.0mbit internet installed. I had their Basic TV service that came standard with my apartment, so they let me just add on the internet service for $39.95 plus sales tax. Unfortunately there was no "self-install" option and they charged me $25 for an installer to come out and give me the cable modem and call into the office to get it working. This took 10 minutes tops.
Initially it was running pretty decent, was getting about 8.0mbit downstream and 430kbit upstream which i thought was awesome but knew it wouldn't last. The speed is not reliable at all, it would randomly reduce to 2mbit in the "prime-time" hours. Although it is a reduction in speed it didn't really bother me because it was still usable until the modem started going out.
It seems like every night about 4AM to 6AM the modem would go out and would not let me back online until I reset the cable modem. This is very frustrating. It seems like almost every night it is doing this and since I like to idle on IRC I know exactly when this happens.
Overall, I guess its decent for its price, if your willing to live with the shortcomings. Since this was my only choice, Time Warner is available locally, but since I live in an apartment that is wired for Grande I can't get it. Definitely do not order this if you need a reliable connection.
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Review by salisalaam
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 1.2 years, 26 visits, last login: 114 days ago
Richardson,Dallas,TX
$29 per month
"They at least have DSL. Ok service."
"Not offered faster speeds at my apt complex."
"If you are in an apt complex you are stuck with 1.5MB DSL speed when Fiber is being planted all around you."
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I am in an apt complex serviced by Grande Communications. They initially charged me around $50/mo for DSL service. Shortly there after they changed their rates to a lesser amount but did not change my rate. They continued to charge me $50/mo when the service was now around $25/mo. I only found out be calling and complaining that I was not getting the 1.5MB download speed I was promised. They reduced my rate going forwarrd but they didn't prorate anything.
In the neighboring complexes and towns fiber is being laid for verizon FIOS. I called plenty of times to find out if Grande would lay fiber and their operators are told to tell us it's about 6 months away. Guess what I will say next.
I don't have any complaints for service. I think they are pretty good except those times when I can't explain why my connection feels slows to a halt. ** I just went back to edit and add this line... I HAVE NO CONNECTION NOW AT MY APT. I dont know why. ** I've since had them send me two modems and I even tried buying my own. In the end I am back to their modem and I cycle the modem every few days to survive. Oh and by the way. When they come to "Fix" your connection they will most likely blame the modem and they will charge you $75 for it.
Finally, where I live you cannot get higher than 1.5MB/s. BUT look at this lil marketing gem (see pic or follow link). I hope they read dslreports and follow up and correct.
»www.grandecom.com/get_service/services.php
I could do without the empty promise of faster speeds. I have only 1.5 which is not solid but good when it is working. I would at least like to go up to 6MB down. I like the online payment system.
**
Second day in a row after putting in a service call to check my service. They apologized for not sending a tech yesterday... Today I dont know what the excuse is... I'm not calling back. I don't care anymore. I do not like Grande Communications.
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Review by ruscusa
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 17 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
Austin,Travis,TX
$400 per month (24 month contract)
about 60 days
"Good Sales and Support Team"
"Some less than desireable installers"
"Excellent value and easily upgraded bandwidth"
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My choices were many: Cable, SWB T1 variants, Time Warner Telecom and Grande. The only 2 offering fiber to my shop were TWTC and Grande. We purchased our 3M symmetrical Ethernet delivered service from Grande. We also purchased a PRI to our PBX. We received both services for less than the PRI from our previous phone provider. I will admit that we have had more problems with the PRI than the internet service. But most of that is due to our old Nortel PBX.
Previously we were using RR with a 4M down and 2M up and it was quite good most of the time. However the monitoring done by Grande is far better than RR (well you are on your own with RR). But, my home connection has been RR for 5 years!
If you can get Grande internet service, buy it.
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