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 Review by shimonmor 
UPDATED: 348 days ago
member for 8.9 years, 2343 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Sedro Woolley,Skagit,WA
 $45 per month
 about 4 days
 "4Mbps, sometimes good tech support"
 "Expensive"
 "At least I'm connected!"
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Just moved to the almost boonies (Prairie, WA...North of Sedro-Woolley) and I was glad to hear I could get broadband. I called Wave and scheduled a connection. Called on Thursday and they would send out a guy on Tues between 8-12. He showed up around 10 and got me connected (my own modem). Took about 30 minutes. Had a problem with the connection...was only getting around 20-200kbps called tech support and the guy said he would talk to the engineers and call me back. Never called back. Called again on a Saturday and they were busy and said they would call me back in about an hour...never called back. Called Sun morning and got a tech who was very smart and helped my troubleshoot and we found it was my router which was bad. Without the router I was getting 4Mbps and with it I was barely getting dial-up. Tried to upgrade the firmware but I need a new router. Anyway, things have worked well. Only been connected for a little over a week but haven't had a problem since the router issue. I don't watch TV so I have to pay $45 per month while TV watchers get the $35 deal. Oh well.
UPDATE: It's been a couple of months now and no problems to report. Service has been fine.
UPDATE #2: It's been over a year with no problems to report. Knock on wood!
UPDATE #3: Feb 12, 2007: For the past two months I have experienced slowdowns during peak periods. I used to be 6Mbps d/l all the time but recently I see around 1 Mbps (sometimes less, sometimes 1.5Mbps) during peak periods. I checked my router, modem, and system. All work fine and I get good speeds early in the morning but when I get home, the speeds plummet...and that is primarily when I surf. I called tech support and they tell me someone has to come out to check my line. I explain that it's not my line that it's at their end and there are too many people on this node. He says someone needs to come out. So, I take half a day off work so I can sit around waiting for the cable guy (will be here between 1-5...why can't I make an appointment!!??). Guy shows up and says yes they are having problems. Yes they know about it. They are waiting for new parts to get installed and all should be ok in two days. I ask why he had to come over to my house and tell me this when I should have been told over the phone by tech support?? He says he doesn't know why. Now I lose half a day of wages to deal with idiots. Well it's been two weeks since the tech guy showed up and still no improvement! So much for two days. Have no other choice for broadband less than $100/mo. I will keep complaining.
UPDATE #4: April 29, 2007: Well the poor speeds continue during peak hours. Early in the morning I get rated speeds but around dinner time when everyone gets home and jumps on the internet, speeds take a dive. Usually see less than 1Mbps during peak times. Slows to a crawl. Called tech support to complain again but all get is sympathy. No kidding. The last tech person was very nice and understanding and she said that she was very sorry to hear that I was having problems but said all she could do is pass on the info and to call back at a future date. How's that for resolution? Sympathy. No action, just sympathy. I guess it's better than apathy. They've obviously got problems in this area (hardware issues or oversold the area) and they don't seem in any hurry to repair the problem. I guess I'll just keep calling and complaining.
UPDATE #5: December 16, 2008: The slow speeds during peak hours is an ongoing issue. Sometimes I get close to rated speed but most of the time I get a lot less. Anywhere from 0.2 to 2 Mbps. Not good. On the other hand, upload speed has been increased to 1 Mbps...and I can almost always achieve that. But that doesn't improve my surfing experience at all. How often do I need fast uploading? Not often at all. I would much rather have my rated download speed. Should I bother calling to complain? I think they have sapped my will to complain with their inaction. I'm almost used to slower speeds now. It's a shame. But I'm so tired of complaining. Do I deserve to get what I pay for? I guess not.
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Review by groofus
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 1.1 years, 8 visits, last login: 1 year ago
Woodland,Yolo,CA
$72 per month
"Fastest connection available to me"
"high price and poor support"
"Only get if you need the speed"
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I was with Charter when it became Wave. All of my servies and monthly fees carried over. I was comparing my bill against what their website shows for current charges for my area and I'm currently paying $17 a month higher than I should be. I tried to upgrade my service online but get a message that no upgrades are available to me. I don't often have any way of contacting them during business hours as I work at very odd times.
I have been getting the fastest internet package available for about 5 years. I started with 3m/256 and every time they upgraded so did I. I am currently at 10M/1.0M (I think). I would like to go faster but right now I can only increase upload speed to 1.5M.
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Review by iquark
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 4.8 years, 40 visits, last login: 120 days ago
Mount Vernon,Skagit,WA
$79 per month
"Price, appears uncapped for 7 hours in the early morning."
"Service is awful in prime time, tech support/customer servies is slow/doesn't care. Won't admit to speed problems."
"Great price, bad service/bandwidth."
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I moved out to Washington from Colorado where I had great Comcast Service for 3 years with almost no problems. I may have been spoiled, but seeing an averave of 10-12 Mb/s on usenet with almost no outtages was great while I was a student.
Now that I'm back in Washington state I found that I was outside Comcast's service range by just a mile or two so I had to get service from Wave Broadband. Looked at prices, and speeds and I was slightly supprised, they were about 10$ cheaper a month for the same service I was getting back in CO. When the installation tech came out I asked him point blank how heavy the traffic was on the node, and what could I expect in terms of reliable bandwidth. He told me that the node was not up to full capacity yet and that I would see my adverticed speed all day with maybe a dip down to 75% of max during prime time.
Little did I know that this was wrong in every way shape and form. The only time of day that I get my 10 Mb speed line max is after 12 at night and before 7 in the morning. At most other times of day I'm seeing more along the lines of 3-5 Mbps. Prime time slips me down to 1-3 Mbps MAX! I've called over and over to both tech support and customer service, but most the time the people I talk to probably don't even know what Cat 5 is!
Finally I had another tech come out on their dime so that I could talk to someone who knew what they were talking about. He told me that the node around here is pretty much completely full with all their new VoIP services and such, and that in a staff meeting a few weeks ago they had talked about the fact that they were seeing slow downs in my area. Still he said that I shouldn't be expecting to see any difference in my service for a long time as they didn't have any fixes they would be doing anytime soon.
I've been continuing to call customer service trying to get them to do something for my house (4 people just out of college or in graduate school) since we are paying for their top line service. The best 'deal' that they could make me was to lower my service to the 1.5 Mbps level... and this was after telling them that we had an entire house who could be using the internet at anytime.
Oh well, I'm stuck with these guys since they have the cable rights around here, and maybe if I annoy them enough they'll toss me a second line into the house and 2 power user accounts. If you're in a Wave Broadband area and have a choice at a higher reviewed company, I'd suggest to go with the second option.
Details of Service:
Package ordered: 10 Mbps Down - 1 Mbps Up at 44.95$/Month
Install: Free with TV/Internet service (this was nice)
Modem: Motorola SB5101
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Review by groingo1
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 27 visits, last login: 69 days ago
Port Orchard,Kitsap,WA
$35 per month
about 2 days
"NONE"
"Line speeds drop by over 80% late afternoon thru evening"
"They haven't a clue what they are doing!"
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I have been fighting with these clowns for many years over the same issue, late afternoon thru the evening the line speeds nose dive to 30% of what they should be and they kept giving me the same song and dance, "yep, the signal is pretty bad, looks like your on the very end of our service area" or the old, "you need to replace your modem bit"...I did three times and no difference.
The past two months they sent techs out five times and only one time did they do anything, again with the excuses!
But then a tech came out that said something different, he told me confidently that it was a bad REPEATER.
I learned that repeaters are a lot like power transformers, they boost and re-energize signals every so many feet...makes sense and now the phone techs agree, must be a repeater.
Well, the service guy did some followup work and found that from the node that serves my area to my repeater I had a lot of line noise, mainly from LACK OF MAINTENANCE by WAVE!
He worked on tuning the system today and re-tuned my repeater and it is evening and line speeds are 99% of what they should be...lets hope it holds.
The bottom line either way, got slow line speeds in the late afternoon and evening, tell the cheap Bas-ards to check the repeaters and be sure they have been re-calibrated recently!
If your in the Port Orchard service area the guys name is Eric Johns...ask for him!
UPDATE: 7/24/08
Well, the golden child Eric Johns has mysteriously become un-available and the problems continue so I took it to the CEO of Wave Steve Weeds...he promised it would be resolved right away.
A week has now come and gone and not only has time passed the terminology keeps changing, the most recent terms to describe the problem were bad repeaters, bad transmitters, upstream problem, too much line noise and now we have low bandwidth in your area and that...will take another two weeks to fix.
The tech was telling me this is a wide spread problem that is a result of their OVERSELLING services and not having enough bandwidth...That I Believe!
I fully expect the next thing to blame will be Alien spaceships in the area!
For the past three nights, one out of three was good, the rest were running at 9.3 KBs after 7 in the evening!
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Review by twogreek
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 5.8 years, 19 visits, last login: 123 days ago
Sedro Woolley,Skagit,WA
$34 per month
"When working it's ok"
"When it's not they don't have much technical knowledge to resolve issues"
"Don't rely on them for critical connections."
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I got this connection when it was first available in my area 5 years ago when 3 Meg was the fastest they had. Now I notice that the price I pay is supposed to be 6 Meg and they still have me capped at 3. $34.95 plus cost of cable TV AND digital package.
I have a degree in computer electronics, a degree in Information Technology, I am Cisco certified, I have been both a Network Engineer and a Network Administrator for major, critical operations companies.
Two weeks ago I started noticing connection and latency problems. A week ago latency got bad enough for secure logins to time out while waiting for simple text pages to download. I called to report the problem. Four days ago, although the modem had an IP, there was no connectivity at all. I called and was assured that a Technician would be at my home the next day. Still waiting for someone to show up.
During the day upload speeds are near what they should be but download speeds are less than 50 kbps and sometimes less than 10. Packet losses during the day range from 15% to 65%. For the last two days, from midnight to 9 am there is no connectivity period.
Last time this issue existed they required me to pull my LAN off the modem and do a fresh install of the O.S. on the connected PC before they would send a technician. If you have any more than that for them to deal with don't expect much expertise from them.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS. IT'S A SIMPLE PROBLEM.
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Review by magic1058
Posted: 1.6 years ago
member for 1.7 years, 1 visits, last login: 1.6 years ago
Silverdale,Kitsap,WA
Contract price not specified.
"always on"
"speed fluxuates 6 megs down to 720k"
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inconstant speeds getting slower and slower lately dog squat
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Review by gorion
UPDATED: 1.7 years ago
member for 4.2 years, 126 visits, last login: 29 days ago
Stanwood,Snohomish,WA
$48 per month
about 90 days
"Service has been like a rock"
"Took forever to get them to install."
"Once it's hooked up it works great"
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This is probably more unique to new construction but after I had my house built it took over 3 months to get my service connected. I had received some very lame excuses over the phone and it was just a very frustrating process.
However once it was hooked up it has been a very reliable service. I just upped to their 10m/768 plan and have been very satisfied. testmy.net is the only test site I don't see the full 10Mb on.
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Review by wolfieman420
UPDATED: 1.7 years ago
member for 3.4 years, 5 visits, last login: 343 days ago
Belfair,Mason,WA
$160 per month
"Good equipment... I guess...."
"No On-demand anything cool anymore, paying for 10mbps/1.5 and getting 4 and 1"
"They need better cheaper movies on-demand or lower the price of their cable, Seriously need to update their internet support"
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So I have had wave before now at an apartment it was... as we say .... ok... at best. Then moved up the street literally like 2 blocks and got Comcast, Thank God!!! They at least had decent On-demand and radio channels without Fuzz and static. Then moved into my own house and found out I had to go with Wave again. Even though I had been with wave for 2 years prior paying like 150 a month for cable and internet they still made me pay up front again, gee what a trusting local company.
Then once we got our service all they had cool was shotime and tmc with our package. We never use these channels and we miss our good on-demand and miss our radio channels. We miss comcast and as much as Wave looks and acts like comcast they are not and just need to be bought out so we can get some fiber optics in here like comcast is doing in Oregon. BTW GUYS WE GET OUTDATED EQUIPMENT IN WASHINGTON, EVERYTIME WE GET NEW EQUIPMENT OREGON HAD IT 5 MONTHS PRIOR. At least that was comcast that is why I said wave was cool cause they gave me some of the new stuff comcast is rolling out in Oregon
Oh and the install guy was like a crazy ADD person that wanted to pull all my stuff out and hook it all up even though I continuously said I would do it. Watch out for that crazy dude with glasses and then he even forgot his line tools and had to comeback after he go to the next customers house and started installing under the house.
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 Review by downinit
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 8 years, 428 visits, last login: 179 days ago
Port Orchard,Kitsap,WA
$54 per month
about 10 days
"Speeds exceed tiers at times (very nice)"
"Horrid news server speed caps. pings are Terrible since system upgrades."
"Service is Terrible... prices are also ok...."
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Considered Qwest but the speeds/price weren't what i was looking for..
Speed tier: 10 Mbps down/768 Kbps up
Installation was terrible at first, but after it was installed things have been great on the most part...
The speeds can be very fast at times, hardly drops below the tier speed...
Some Connection drops have happened... Tv service drops quite a bit. 
Modem: SB4100
Update: Since the system Upgrades in Dec, the services has made a turn for the worse, speeds are still there when the service actually works, but pings and websites slow to a stop.. I wouldn't Recommend the service to anyone at this time..
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 Review by 0zero01
UPDATED: 2 years ago
member for 9.3 years, 1018 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Port Orchard,Kitsap,WA
$65 per month
about 1 days
"I'm online I guess"
"only getting half my rated line speed"
"On the fence, thinking DSL unless it gets fixed soon."
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Well, It hasn't been all roses after the last modem swap. Most of my issues went away, but I don't get what I pay for. I'm only getting about 5mb/1.5 and I'm paying for 10mb. It's been this way since about a week after my rave review below. I hate the f'ng roller coaster, but my only other option is 1.5 DSL with Qwest. I know I need to fire Wave and get DSL, just on principal alone. I need to stop giving them my money. The only way they'll learn is if they lose customers. If I don't switch then I guess it's my fault, as long as they get the money why should they care.
Thanks Wave. ;-(
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It appears it wasn't Waves fault. Click link below . . .3rd cable modems a charm.
None of them leased, (All my "Owned Modems"). So it's my fault . . .
Thank you Wave. This time I got an answer after 15min . . . 3rd modem and
VIOLA!
»www.speedtest.net/result/190638404.png
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I was happy with Wave Broadband for a bit, I used to have a clean fast connection, but now . . .
I'm paying $65 a month for 10Mb / 1.5Mb. That's not what I've been getting for the past 2 months. My VOIP used to work great, but I had to cancel due to packet loss. It became impossible to have a phone conversation. The connection seems fine during the day but in the evening is almost unusable. I've been trying to keep track of my connection problems. You can view my disappointment with Wave in the Wave Broadband forum (link below).
»Major crap!
The last 2 times I tried calling Wave Tech Support I was on hold for 45min each time and refused to wait any longer. I emailed support a week ago and have yet to receive a reply. Hope this helps in deciding on your Internet provider in the 98366 area. Good Luck!
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