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Review by koam See Profile

  • Location: Middlebury, Addison, VT, USA
  • Cost: $65 per month
  • Install: about 10 days
Friendly and responsive small-town customer service. Very nice people for the most part.
Slow speeds for 2009, very expensive, frequent severe slowdowns & occasional outages.
Nice people who can't deliver the speed. Monopoly power sits with the company and not the consumer.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

See UPDATES below.

Shoreham.net is from Shoreham Telephone in rural Vermont. They are the local phone company and I suppose we should be grateful that there is any kind of broadband here.

This DSL service has a maximum speed of 1200 Kpbs down (best case scenario). More frequently we get 600-900 speeds down. Frequently in recent months there are severe slowdowns that give us speeds of 50 - 500. Their published speed is 256 K / 128 K...shockingly low. Another reviewer says that they keep dialing that down, rather than up.

I moved here from suburban NY where, over the last decade,I had the excellent OOL and then had Verizon FIOS. Both were rock solid reliable and blazingly fast for me. I expected less here in Vermont, but not this much less.

See my test history: »/testh ··· 61/a7e62

Overall the speed is just not all that good. You can do things at 900 Kbps, but you cannot do a lot and streams and downloads can become a problem.

The customer service is friendly and fast. When there is an outage, they seem to care about it. Sometimes they claim that it's out of their hands due to a supplier issue...nevertheless, they do pay attention to the issue and communicate with me well about it. This is small town America and that is the upside of this company.

July 2009:

Today, a Sunday morning, I had a total outage. My neighbor was up and running. After trying to fix it myself for a couple of hours, I called their subcontracted 24/7 Tech support and tried for 2 more hours to get on - they tried everything to no avail. Their server was just not letting me on. I finally called Shoreham and left a voicemail at the office. I didn't get a callback (see below). A couple of hours later, I was able to connect. But it is working now. Total downtime was 1/2 day +.

MORE: They called me 7:30AM Monday morning to check. They had received my calls and trouble ticket yesterday. The problem was a bad card at their office and they pulled and replaced it on Sunday. Next time I'll leave them a voicemail before I call the 3rd party tech support. I'd note that this card issue has happened before as they've mentioned switching out bad cards several times to me.

Sometimes everything stops and I have to reboot my modem. Slow regular speeds continue, but not the major slowdowns at least in the past week.

The price is literally $50/month plus the cost of the local phone line of at least $15/month. I wouldn't even have the local POTS ( I use VOIP from another company) but the POTS is required to even get the DSL. So I am shelling out $65/month for the slowest broadband I've had in well over 10 years. What do I get on the POTS? Telemarketer calls and survey calls...just annoying. Every time those beggars and telemarketers call, I don't curse them, I curse Shoreham for publishing my number, even though I'm on all the DoNotCall lists and I never use the number for anything.

As you might suspect, my VOIP does not work well at these speeds. I basically have to stop all computer use in order to use the phone....and then hope for the best.

I hope they will upgrade the overall speed of the service and push their suppliers to reduce the frequency of slowdowns. (See UPDATE below)

Shoreham charged $50 for a replacement modem after the first one died due to lightning. They came and fixed it quickly.

UPDATE 7/21/09: This morning I got a call from the owner of Shoreham Tel. Like the rest of the staff, he was very nice and very professional. He was concerned about what speeds we're getting and said that we should expect a consistent 1 Meg where I'm located (we get that sometimes, but not always). He said that they expect to have a new DSLAM at the end of my road (a little over a mile) before winter and that we should be a good deal faster then. He said that everyone's set for 1.5 Meg max for fairness of coverage to all areas (close-in homes could be getting 4-5 Meg, but they are trying to make everyone equal (state regulatory?) and don't have tiered offerings) and that they were implementing new DSLAMs around the area. He said that at 1.5 M, that's about as fast as normal web sites serve up pages so that I should expect normal page-to-page web surfing to be as fast as I'd experience it on other ISPs (even faster ones). He said that the box near me had a shortage of voice ports currently (or something like that). I told him I'd keep a record of actual speeds and tracerts so that he could have a rich data set. We discussed what I may be able to do in my home to get rid of any dead ends on old phone lines that haven't been used for years. He said that my tracert hops should be around 30, not in the 40s as I have seen. Overall a good call and the kind of professional and courteous service that I have come to expect from Shoreham Tel. I'll keep the data set and follow up regarding whether they install our new DSLAM before winter and see how that impacts the numbers and report back here.

UPDATE 9/21/09 We still get big slowdowns. When more than one user is trying to do any download or streaming, the whole thing locks up.

UPDATE 9/12/10 It is still not great service. It bogs down with any serious activity and using VOIP is very unstable if someone is streaming online.

UPDATE 4/10/2011: In recent weeks, the service was so slow that I thought that my computer itself was dying. See this thread in which I was contemplating wiping my computer ( a good computer) and reinstalling everything. »[WIN7] Should I reinstall Windows?

As it turns out the problem was the ISP speeds.

Then something happened. A few days ago I lost my connection. The modem lights were flashing and it took some time to establish a solid sync with the CO. But approximately since then, my computer has seemed very zippy. I mean noticeably so. Not only speedy downloads and webpages, but it made the entire computer seem to come back to life. (see that thread, it was dramatic how badly the ISP slowdown would bog down the entire computer)

Tonight for the first time in a while I ran some speed tests and got results like I've never seen before. Downloads of 4800 to 6000 K (previously the best I ever saw was 1200 K) See this: »/archi ··· 60&r=353

So something has changed. I'm afraid to ask. If this stays like this for a few months, I'll have to write a new review. In any case, I'm happy and hope that it's not a fluke.

UPDATE 4/14/2011

It was a fluke. We're back to very slow speeds. Latest test is 540K down 67 K up. I suspect that they are way over-throttling the speeds so that no customer had anything fast. It's pretty sad.

UPDATE 4/15/2011

Back up to 5,000K down 700K up.....but at times we see slowdowns. Regarding my thread above "should I reinstall Windows?", a slow connection absolutely can make the whole computer seem almost like it's infected with a bad virus or as if the hard drive is full and 90% fragmented. As soon as we got the speeds, the computer itself seemed brand new. Same thing for Sony PS Call of Duty.

UPDATE 10/26/2013

Shoreham.net no longer exists. Sold last year to OTT. Still too expensive.

Attachments:
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member for 23.6 years, 6307 visits, last login: 2 days ago
updated 1.3 years ago


koam
Pink Pecker
Premium Member
join:2000-08-16
East Puddle

koam

Premium Member

Can we at least claim to have the worst package in the USA?

256 Down / 128 Up, $65/month

Discuss:
»What's the worst broadband package out there?

Review by aclark1974 See Profile

  • Location: Middlebury, Addison, VT, USA
  • Business customer Business customer
  • Cost: $69 per month (12 month contract)
none
everything. it's worst than being in a third world country
it is the only internet service available in Cornwall (rural) VT
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

this company sucks. the internet is spotty at best and they charge high prices. they obviously don't care since they have made no changes in the 4 years that I've been here.

member for 17.1 years, 58 visits, last login: 12.8 years ago
lodged 13.5 years ago







Review by nicrfe1370 See Profile

  • Location: Middlebury, Addison, VT, USA
  • Cost: $65 per month (12 month contract)
Has been reliable for me UPDATE: Not Any More
Painfully slow, terrible bang-for-your-buck
Better than nothing(dial-up), but just barely
Install Co-ordination:
Services:
Value for money:

I was amazed to see that I am not the only person to review Shoreham.net. The other reviewer must be right next door to the switch or whatever it's called, because I've never gotten better than mid 600Kbps down, and it's usually in the 500s. I've had dsl with Shoreham for over five years, and their advertised download speeds have dropped. I think they advertised 500Kbps when I signed up, 400Kbps just a year or so ago, and now they advertise 256 Kbps down, 128 Kbps up. So technically I'm getting better that advertised speed, but it's still brutally slow. Plus, $65 per month before any taxes or fees are thrown in is embarrassing. I also had to BUY the modem from them, I think I paid around $230 for it, and had to do all the setup myself.

I must say though that my service has been very reliable. I can't think of more than a very small number of outages in the five plus years I've been with Shoreham, and I (fortunately) haven't noticed massive slowdowns like the other reviewer.

I've been told that Shoreham has a fiber backbone surrounding their (tiny) coverage area, but with copper spokes down roads and into houses. Maybe they'll get some juicy Obama vote-for-me-in-'12 slush money and upgrade to fiber everywhere, but I sure won't be holding my breath.

I have only needed to contact customer service once, and it was to help me set up a Linksys router that Linksys customer service failed to help me with. They were super friendly, and I'm guessing it was farmed out customer service because the guy helping me had a Texas accent, and I live 2000 miles from Texas. Ultimately though they didn't resolve the issue. The local in-home service leaves a bit to be desired, I got charged $35 for the tech to show up and say "do xyz with your line filters."

UPDATE 8/2/10

A few weeks ago during a lightning storm my connection went dead for 24 hours. This is strange to me because decades ago the company buried ALL their lines. Anyway, I tried calling the after hours repair line, which no one answers but supposedly they check for voicemail. Bullshit. Never heard a word from them, nor was my service fixed. I had to spend nearly 5 hours during the following business day on the phone repeatedly resetting the modem, to no avail. And in the biggest bullshit maneuver (in my opinion), they made me hard connect to the modem. Like a lot of you, this is no mean task. Anyway, just to appease them I did it, and -surprise surprise!- no different. I even got a call from the repair guys at one point saying it was all fixed and ready to go. Baloney. No change. FINALLY, like I said after almost five hours of doing their ridiculous dance, they "changed my port" or something stupid like that, and my connection was back to it's usual self.

Since that day, we've had two more storms. Each time, the connection goes to shit. BUT, only the download; latency and upload are "normal". On a good day, I might get a download of 1.2 Mbps. Yeah, you read that right. At least it's better than the .6 Mbps I used to get, right? After tonight's storm, I'm now getting 0.2 Mbps, if I'm lucky. Again, latency and upload are normal. I decided to call the farmed-out 24 hour tech support, and got ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE. In fact, because the package I subscribe to is only advertised as 256 kbps, I was told I am technically still getting about that speed, minus the overhead, so there's no problem. Wow. You can be sure I'm calling the utilities board tomorrow.

member for 21.1 years, 42 visits, last login: 12.6 years ago
updated 13.6 years ago


koam
Pink Pecker
Premium Member
join:2000-08-16
East Puddle
·Shoreham Telephone

2 edits

koam

Premium Member

Good Review

I must agree that we are being rather ripped off by this little monopoly. We simply have no choice here and what they deliver to us is crap. The one upside is that they do try to help when there are problems, but sometimes the problems are out of their hands. They are super nice so I try to complain in an equally nice way. That said, buyer beware.

I wish other customers (victims) would post reviews here. Is there not some kind of utilities commission in socialist Vermont (yes there is but am trying to ask the company's help first...namely: "do you have a plan to improve this and bring us up to speed with the rest of the state and country?") that would like to protect us from this one-sided relationship? The right to run wires is a public good, right? I'm pro-business, and all for turning a profit, but this is ridiculous.

Neighbors, comrades, where are your pitchforks?

Discussion
»What's the worst broadband package out there?
koam

koam

Premium Member

Shoreham Tel responded to my letter

UPDATE July 21, 2009: This morning I got a call from the owner of Shoreham Tel. Like the rest of the staff, he was very nice & very professional. He was concerned about what speeds we're getting and said that we should expect a consistent 1 Meg where I'm located. He said that they expect to have a new DSLAM at the end of my road (a little over a mile) before winter and that we should be a good deal faster then. He said that everyone's set for 1.5 Meg max for fairness of coverage to all areas (close-in homes could be getting 4-5 Meg, but they are trying to make everyone equal (state regulatory?) and don't have tiered offerings) and that they were implementing new DSLAMs around the area. He said that at 1.5, that's about as fast as normal web sites serve up pages so that I should expect normal, page-to-page web surfing to be as fast as I'd experience it on other ISPs (even faster ones). He said that the box near me had a shortage of voice ports currently (or something like that). He said that 256K (the package offered) was not acceptable, but didn't say why that's the package or discuss the reduction in promised speeds.

I told him I'd keep a record of actual speeds and tracerts so that he could have a rich data set. We discussed what I may be able to do in my home to get rid of any dead ends on old phone lines that haven't been used for years. He said that my tracert hops should be around 30, not in the 40s as I have sees.

Overall a good call and the kind of professional and courteous service that I have come to expect from Shoreham Tel. I'll keep the data set and follow up regarding whether they install our new DSLAM before winter and see how that impacts the numbers and report back in my review.
koam

koam

Premium Member

cell beats dsl

my new cell phone gets much faster service i'm shoreham.net