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Review by bruceko See Profile

  • Location: Lynnwood, Snohomish, WA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified. (24 month contract)
  • Telco party Verizon (ex GTE)
None
Terrible
If You value your phone service stay away
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Xo is now on hour 18 of a national outage for phone service in Verizon Territory
We have been on Xo Flex plan Phone and Data service for 2.5 years.
Our customers have not been able to call our office for the last 18 hours. It has already cost our company tens of thousands of dollars in lost business.
this has happened for 2 to 3 hours in the past but nothing this bad

Update 6/08/09
Service was finally restored at 6pm on Tuesday. Phone service went down about 10am Monday.
32 hour outage. We had been considering another service provider and called them yesterday. He said he had had 8 other calls from potential customers in the Seattle Everett area today also wanting to switch. We are gone from Xo asap.
Update
10 weeks after my post we dumped Xo for Integra Telecom.
The service with Integra has been good but not perfect.
Xo owed us about $3500 for future services we had paid when we cancelled service.
It took over a year and about 20 hours of phone calls to customer service to recover our money. Fun!

member for 23 years, 3892 visits, last login: 3 years ago
updated 14.8 years ago


sdfkjdjeiie
@algx.net

sdfkjdjeiie

Anon

Yup.

I find it interesting that their tech support lines go down when the phone service their providing does.

AngryAndy
@algx.net

AngryAndy

Anon

Re: Yup.

You all are the only information I could find on this problem in Northern CA. Like you I can't get a hold of anybody, and I have submitted a report via business portal but no response yet. They should at least post this on their website so we know it's an outage.

EdisonMan
@xo.net

EdisonMan

Anon

Re: Yup.

I have reached voice support. All they can say is "Yes there is a problem", "It's a nationwide outage", "Please don't call service as they are working on the problem and the lines are so busy that the wait is excessive." (Sort of like what happens when my cable service goes out. No point in calling to tell them what they already know.)

They had it working for a while this morning, but it went out again.

BTW, we're in New York City.

mad at xo
@aol.com

mad at xo

Anon

Outage

We have been down for a few hours so far in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. Our clients have been trying to call and fax, but get only a dead line. No messages or other information to tell them what is happening. This is the only information I could find on the internet. Customer service hung up on me. I contacted another office in downtown Chicago with XO, and they have had no troubles.
rschwartz
join:2006-11-08
San Jose, CA

rschwartz

Member

Re: Outage

I am sorry to hear about your XO problems as of late. I would like to offer our services to you (we actually have a redundant network that prevents issues like this). Please contact me at rschwartz (at) telepacific.com or at (408) 240-2388. We service the California and Las Vegas areas... Here is some information about us: »www.telepacific.com/abou ··· Pacific/

Rick

GermanDeli
@germandeli.com

GermanDeli

Anon

Service is back in Texas (I hope it stays up)

I am very disappointed in the service of XO at this point. I understand that problems happen and that we are going to have outages from time to time but they need to find a way to keep their customers informed of the status. They should have an area on the web site that they update every 15 minutes during an outage on the current status.
I hope they get their act together because I love the service when it is working.......

xobadxo
@xo.net

xobadxo

Anon

XO out now roughly 26 hours for incomming calls....

We are in a verizon area.. Bothell,Wa north of HWY405.
I heard from our local XO rep that a "Verizon" link in Indiana was down..?? And that some other carriers were affected also..like Cingular, Tmobile and Verizon. can anyone confirm this?
Why is there not a backup or route around the issue????

We have had good service from XO until yesterday. 5+ years of bundled services.
It is like pulling teeth to get a straight answer to Where, when, and WHY!?
PS: I find it hard to beleive I have only found this site and a brief note on a smalll news site about the issue affecting so many people... post your links to other news..
EdisonMan
join:2006-11-07
New York, NY

EdisonMan

Member

Re: XO out now roughly 26 hours for incoming calls....

Our services were restored yesterday afternoon. I contacted XO to find out what happened and they claimed that Verizon's link to VOIP carriers went down due to a software issue.

I'll give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Business VOIP is taking off and the need to strengthen the backbones and peering between networks is another challenge the big backbone carriers have to address. I wouldn't be surprise that in order to improve it's own services and the connectivity to other networks, Verizon performed an upgrade to their hardware and or routing software and something went wrong. AT&T had a similar occurrence on their Frame Relay network a decade ago.

That said, I've yet to see any reporting on this other than on this site. And I've looked.

Any additional information would be valuable.

naptowner
@xo.com

naptowner

Anon

Re: XO out now roughly 26 hours for incoming calls....

Some explanation for the cause.

»www.networkworld.com/new ··· ges.html

telepacific6
Premium Member
join:2005-11-11
San Jose, CA

telepacific6

Premium Member

Service Restored?

I read a report that all services were finally restored yesterday at 11:00pm. Unbelievable they were not able to re-route calls or forward calls for customers - let alone their own support call center!

Luckily for XO, media coverage has been very light. This is the only news report I found:
»www.kxly.com/news/index. ··· _id=6111
phonehead
join:2006-12-02
Corona, CA

phonehead

Member

Re: Service Restored?

Just be glad that Telepacific SS7 provider didn't fail.This could have happened to any LEC or CLEC. I'm surprised my self that the outage lasted as long as it did but forwarding or rerouting calls would have been useless without SS7 routing.

Review by jef3 See Profile

  • Location: San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Cost: $105 per month
Rock-solid (Covad) line, previously excellent tech support
Non-tech service is non-existent, DSL SLA is meaningless
Avoid like the plague
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Back in 2000, $105 a month for 1.5/384 residential ADSL service, bridged with a 4-IP assignment (Covad line on its own copper, Concentric provider) wasn't a bad deal. Over the past 8 years, I've had virtually no noticeable outages and always had as close to the "advertised" throughput as one could expect. The tech support back in the Concentric days was excellent. No "What version of Windows are you running?" problems and techs who understood, on the very rare occasions I had to call, what "traceroute gets a hop past the Redback" meant.

The tech support is still reasonable, though the level has fallen off over the years.

Unfortunately, the sales department leaves something to be desired. I've been trying to work something out so that I could stay with them, but far too many unkept "someone will call you back within two business days" promises. Even when I bring up that XO has left the residential DSL business, I keep getting promises about how important customer retention is to them and that they are sure they will be able to work something out.

Additionally, I've been virtually unable to pull the billing off my credit card, even to put it on another card. They don't even know who I am when I call, because my Concentric account number isn't properly referenced in their system.

Considering that I can get 6.0/768 ADSL with an 8-IP block through Sonic for roughly half what I'm paying now (even on a business line), this isn't looking too good. Even worse is that XO's DSL offerings seem to be stuck in the early 2000s for speed.

Its hard to move on, given the excellent reliability of the line and the quality of tech support -- there during the off-hours that I've needed it. I just can't recommend the organization based on their terrible business office.

Update 2009/04/15 -- Been on hold for over 17 minutes, just to get to the first-tier billing/order support line. At 20 minutes, was passed to "Retention," where I have been on hold for the last 10 minutes while they "try to find my account."

Interesting that the SLA at »www.xo.com/SiteCollectio ··· _DSL.pdf has *nothing* about the line itself or the connectivity of XO to anywhere else, just the "Network" (basically XO's colo). So, for business customers, you are "up" if their colo is up, disconnected from you, and disconnected from the rest of the Internet. (This was confirmed by the third-tier retention manager I spoke with.)

Oh, now after nearly 40 minutes, the silence ends and I'm told I've called the wrong number. Wait, three times calling this number I've been told that it would be taken care of with no such indication. 40+ minutes now, I'm back on hold as the agent who tells me that I've called the wrong number tries to escalate the issue. 53 minutes in, I've had a sub-minute discussion with the retention supervisor's supervisor who asked me about some account I had never heard of. Back on hold again as they try to find my account.

They finally found it, after over an hour on the phone. They can offer me a discount. "How much?" "We can offer you 10%"

Apparently they are "getting out of DSL."

So am I...

Leaving XO as soon as I can confirm service to replace it, probably within 72 hours.

member for 14.9 years, 176 visits, last login: 3.8 years ago
updated 14.9 years ago


Review by Blaksmith See Profile

  • Location: Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
NONE
This isp SUCKS.
IF YOU CAN, STAY AWAY!!!
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I have been with Consolidated Smart Systems, which goes through XO communications for almost 1 1/2 years now, and I have had NOTHING but problems. On a good day, I am lucky to get dialup speeds for the download. One good thing, my upload speed is constant, when my connect is ONLINE. I am supposed to be getting 1500 down, 256 up. my "average" over the last year is about 150 down, and 230 up. What is wrong with that picture? I have done some research, and they are OUTSELLING their connections. There are (2) T1 lines servicing upto 250 apartments in this complex. Doing the math, the max that can be handed out would be 12. Back in October, I got them to tell me how many they had, and they already had 18 clients on the (2) T1 lines. Neither Consolidated nor the apartment complex are willing to resolve this. (Part of this is my apt complex, and part is by CSS, which is owned by XO).

Bottom line... STAY AWAY IF YOU CAN

member for 17.3 years, 174 visits, last login: 15.2 years ago
lodged 16 years ago

socali21
join:2008-02-12

socali21

Member

....

XO doesn't own CSS.. nor is CSS the only internet provider you have the option of utilizing. If your service with consolidated has been so bad, why don't you just get DSL from your telephone company? Or Satellite internet?
Blaksmith
Premium Member
join:2006-12-08
Rancho Cucamonga, CA

Blaksmith

Premium Member

Re: ....

Can't get DSL, because the wiring in the apt complex is the wrong guage, and can get only 128 up / 768 down, which is unacceptable.
Satellite only gives 64 up / 512 down, in my area, and that is unacceptable. I maintain servers all over the US, and need at least 256 up / 1.5 down. Also, satellite costs almost twice as much as CSS. No thanks!

My solution is going to be moving out of this hell-hole of an apartment complex in the next few months.

Review by digmax See Profile

  • Location: Plymouth, Plymouth, MA, USA
  • Business customer Business customer
  • Cost: $600 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 999 days
Price
Speed Reliability Support Value
Stay Away
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

It took XO 8 month to get us a working T1 that wouldn't go down when it rained. We have moved and now have tw T1's from XO. One PRI and One for Data. It took over 3 months to get them working. Took major complaining to upper management in order for them to even service the line. Now at 11 month our data line has not been working for over a week. We are waiting for a cable modem being installed in our office. I get almost 5 times the speed at home for a $50/month (5MB) than our $600/month T1 (1.5MB down hill dry day wind behind you if you are lucky).

member for 16.4 years, 1 visits, last login: 16.1 years ago
lodged 16.4 years ago


railhead
@charter.com

railhead

Anon

SPAM

My complaint about XO is the volume of SPAM that cascades into my mailboxes everyday. Close to 1,000 per day now and growing. Why do I blame XO for this? Well, you see, I am about 90% certain that XO is the culprit who sells our e-mail account info and domain names to anyone with fifty cents. Hurting your own customers and then pretending you know nothing about it? Is that good business XO? Then pretending you are "trying" to do something about it? Can I actually prove any of this? No. I obviously don't have access to their internal operations. But I can put two and two together - I usually come up with four. I contend there somebody rotten inside that company - one individual or many - who is selling our info.

XO is not protecting their customers.

Review by voipman340 See Profile

  • Location: Saint Clair Shores, Macomb, MI, USA
  • Cost: $14000 per month (36 month contract)
  • Install: about 190 days
  • Telco party Ameritech
  • CLEC party: XO Communications
They did a great Job on Selling me the Product
Very Shady Information about Installation
Any Company that allows sales rep to unethically conduct business should be sued
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I have a very successfull privately held property management company. We have 5 office all in Lata 340 AT&T/SBC in metro detroit. We own and manage about 48 properties in detroit with five Major Offices that handle michigan, ohio, Chicago and Indiana. In addtion we have about another 350 pots lines in our leasing offices. I very nice looking your lady came into your livoina office one day and present her self very nicely. I agreed to an appointment with her to review our services. Although XO could only cover about 29 locations I was impressed considering it would at least cut down on the amount of invoice I received each month. The sales rep promised that XO could put all locations on one invoice each month. At the time I had about 550 pots line and 45 dsl lines. My bills were in excess of $28,000 per month I was intrested in reducing cost and carriers across the board. I agreed to let her take my invoices and I signed a LOA (Letter of Authorization). She came back with her sales manager about a week later and gave me a detail proposal. The price looked great and I was able to get a T1 in each location and greats reduced the cost on my pots lines. They proposed XO Flex Option a VoIP product that allowed me to call between offices free of charge. I always wanted a T1 but it was not affordable 10 years ago. Basically I cut my cost to $14,000.00 per month. The sales manager and sales rep both promised that this was an out the door price and no hiddens cost would appear on my bill. They even said there would only me about 9% of sales tax totaling $1400. When I asked if there is anything I would need to do for equipment or my phone vendor. The sales manager said that XO would take care of everything in reguard to installation of my new services. I thought this was odd because anytime I switch providers I needed to have my guy from BSB communication there. But again he reasured me that everything would be taken car of. I signed the paperwork and off they went. AT&T dropped of a T1 at each location and I hooked my LAN up and set the VPN up the data was working Fine. Then on December 21st 2006 28 locations went dead in the water with no phone service. I was confused and upset when I called the rep and the sales manager I had no reply. Later on I found that both XO employees left the company. Three weeks went by untill my services were restored. Please avoid this company by all means they are the satin of telecom.

member for 17 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 17 years ago


Edrick
I aspire to tell the story of a lifetime
Premium Member
join:2004-09-11
San Diego, CA

Edrick

Premium Member

Bad reviews

I've heard nothing but bad stuff about XO and they work with some shady companies such as the old Managed.com.

Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: Bozeman, Gallatin, MT, USA
  • Cost: $1200 per month
They provide service in Utah
Very shady contract terms
Service was OK until cancel time...
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Our service with XO was standard at best. My review is about the "shady"
contracts. Buried on page 11 of a 23 page service contract they have a
clause Section 8, in that clause there is 1 sentence that's states that
if you do not cancel on your anniversary they will "auto-renew" your
contract term for a like term. They make a point during the sales
process to avoid spotlighting this clause and they will not contact you
when you 1st contract is about to expire. They just hope you don't
notice and hold you to another year of service with termination
labiality.

We signed a 1yr (12month) service contract for (2) t1's. After 22 months
we canceled them. At the time of cancel they do not tell you that there
is contract liability, in fact they waited 2 months after we canceled to
send us the bill with the "early termination" charges. I contacted them
to dispute this charge, explained I only signed a 12 month agreement and
I went 22 months of service, tried to explain that there had been a
billing error. I was told "I should ready my service agreements better"
then was informed of the "auto-renew" clause. I asked if they contacted
us at the 1yr point about the "auto-renew". They made it very clear they
do not contact anyone they just roll the contract into another year.
They refused to drop the additional charges ($500.00 per t1) and were
more then happy to let me know of possible late charges and collections.
They did say "sorry" our sales person did not inform you of this clause
at the time you signed it, but refused to do anything about it. When I
contacted the public service commission, they informed me that this was
a civil case, because it was a private contract and not between to
carriers.

I don't know how many people they have stung with these shady tactics,
but if you ever have to get service from XO, well don't, If you must, be
Very Very aware of the "Auto-Renew" nature of the contracts. I am not
sure how this is legal but I hope someone learns from my $1k lesson. I
will never do business with XO again, and will tell everyone I know in
the ISP world about my experience.

Garrett Talbot

(review was emailed from domain bridgeband.net)
lodged 17.2 years ago

ChiTang
MVM
join:2002-08-23
Alhambra, CA

ChiTang

MVM

Auto renewal

In some state, auto renewal is illegal. It is worthwhile to check.
ChiTang

ChiTang

MVM

Re: Auto renewal

See here, something similar.

»www.ripoffreport.com/rep ··· 0558.htm

cadyman
@cox.net

cadyman

Anon

Contract terms

Every contract, including XO's, states or at least implies they will provide you "service" in return for money. "Service" includes dial tone, internet access, etc. but it also includes delivering an accurate invoice. XO is a terrible company with terrible leaders. Don't let them steal your money; refuse to pay. They wont pursue small amounts and you have the grounds to stand on. (call Carl Ichan's office in NYC, they hate that!)

ex_xo_cus
@qwest.net

ex_xo_cus

Anon

Don't pay them

It is clearly that it is not fair, even you signed it without seeing that fine print.

I used to own a few thousands shares of XO a few year ago. Using holes on the stupid laws, took my (and other investors) money, came back with the same name, and continuing its semi-fraud business.

John21042
@verizon.net

John21042

Anon

XO Communications has horrible service.

I inherited phone service from this company because of the business I took over last July. It took from May 25, 2006 until December 14, 2006 to JUST change the business name on the account from the old business owner to me. Each person that I spoke to (23) over a 6-month period either quit or was fired. Each time I called the service line I had to wait 45 minutes or longer before I spoke to a human.

When I finally got the service to show my name I ported the business phone numbers (4) to Verizon. Verizon did everything for me in less than 24 hours and if there is a problem they are there in less than 2 hours. I couldn't be happier.

I have had Verizon DSL at home without any problems. Because XO can't even change an account name for nearly 6 months, I wouldn't even consider them for any other service, especially DSL.

cyberoach
@rr.com

cyberoach

Anon

I had the same experience

But we were stuck with a 3 year contract! that auto renewed on us whithout us knowing. I would not reccommend them to anyone!!!!! stay clear of XO very shady!!!

Review by mediamath See Profile

  • Location: Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Cost: $90 per month (12 month contract)
None
All
Bad service and product
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Our firm used XO to host our web pages and our email and we have had nothing but trouble. Stick pins in your eyes it will hurt less.

member for 17.3 years, 3 visits, last login: 17.3 years ago
lodged 17.3 years ago

mediamath
join:2006-11-20
New York, NY

mediamath

Member

My websites don't load

My web sites don't load and they say there is no trouble!

I've read a lot of reviews on XO and I'd say XO Communications offers poor service based on my personal experience with them.

Like the other reviewer said.. we're looking for a new company to host our sites too because XO Communications complaints are not addressed. When they lose enough customers they will go out of business like they did before.
kakashi05
join:2006-02-02
Encinitas, CA

kakashi05

Member

They seem to be going downhill!

We've hosted a website with them for many years Our website is down a lot more frequently than before. The good news is that our package went from $49.95 a month to $15.95 due to industry competition. However, technical service never seems to answer the phone in the past few months even after being on hold for 15 minutes. When they do answer, they're not nearly as nice as they used to be.

I used to be a cheerleader for them, but now I'm looking for a new host...

CADYMAN
@rr.com

CADYMAN

Anon

XO makes big service changes !! beware!

XO HAS MADE AN INTERNAL DECISION TO "SEGMENT" SERVICE BASED ON REVENUE YOU SEND THEM. WHAT THAT MEANS IS IF YOU ARE A CUSTOMER THAT PAYS LESS THAN $1000 A MONTH, YOU CAN EXPECT WAIT TIMES OF MORE THAN 10 MINUTES IN THE CALL CENTER AND MORE THAN 3 DAYS FOR REPAIR. MR GRIVNER, THE CEO, HAS NO IDEA HOW TO RUN A BUSINESS AND THEY DONT HAVE ANY SENIOR OPERATIONS PEOPLE ANYMORE. THEIR NEW "BUSINESS SEGMENT" HAS NO CHANCE OF WORKING ... TOM CADY DOESN'T HAVE A CLUE. XO WILL SHUT DOWN THEIR DENVER LOCATION THIS YEAR AND WILL ALWAYS BE FOR SALE. THEY ARE IMPLODING AND IF YOU ARE A CUSTOMER, RUN DONT WALK TO ANOTHER PROVIDER FAST!






Review by filcro15 See Profile

  • Location: New York, New York, NY, USA
  • Business customer Business customer
  • Cost: $200 per month (12 month contract)
Not anymore
Service, connection, features, help desk, tech support
If you have a choice pick another company
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

They have turned into a rip-off poor service provider. We have trouble with them a couple of times a month. Their servers are slow, their connections go down all the time, their e-mail is a joke.

Do a tracert on ANYONE they host and see what you’re getting!!!!!!!!!!!!

They make money by purposely letting a lot of junk mail into your company boxes and charging you for the disk usage when other ISP's would never even let that type of garbage touch their customers. IT’S JUST A WAY THEY MAKE MONEY.

Their email filers DO NOT WORK!!!

When you put in tickets for customer support all they do is send you an automated e-mail. Not once were they able to fix things.

About once a month we go down and we have no e-mail or hosting. I'd say that sucks.

When you call tech support which they charge you $100.00 a year for!!! They lie to you and tell you nothing is wrong. I'm sitting here doing a tracert and getting 200ms to 300ms and they say that's normal and expected. I'd say 20ms to 30ms is normal, with 85ms if your going from east to west. ANYTHING over that is "junk".

They charge twice to three times as much as others and their service and product is a 0 on a scale of 1-10

Our company can't wait to get away from them. As soon as we can we're switching to another company

STAY AWAY!!!!!!



member for 17.5 years, 4 visits, last login: 16.4 years ago
lodged 17.3 years ago

filcro15
join:2006-09-18
New York, NY

filcro15

Member

XO Communications sucks - STAY AWAY!!!

They have turned into a rip-off poor service provider. We have trouble with them a couple of times a month. Their servers are slow, their connections go down all the time, their e-mail is a joke.

Do a tracert on ANYONE they host and see what you’re getting!!!!!!!!!!!!

They make money by purposely letting a lot of junk mail into your company boxes and charging you for the disk usage when other ISP's would never even let that type of garbage touch their customers. IT’S JUST A WAY THEY MAKE MONEY.

Their email filers DO NOT WORK!!!

When you put in tickets for customer support all they do is send you an automated e-mail. Not once were they able to fix things.

About once a month we go down and we have no e-mail or hosting. I'd say that sucks.

When you call tech support which they charge you $100.00 a year for!!! They lie to you and tell you nothing is wrong. I'm sitting here doing a tracert and getting 200ms to 300ms and they say that's normal and expected. I'd say 20ms to 30ms is normal, with 85ms if your going from east to west. ANYTHING over that is "junk".

They charge twice to three times as much as others and their service and product is a 0 on a scale of 1-10

Our company can't wait to get away from them. As soon as we can we're switching to another company

STAY AWAY!!!!!!
AdrianG17
join:2006-10-26
New York, NY

AdrianG17

Member

Re: XO Communications sucks - STAY AWAY!!!

I'm sorry you had this kind of experience with your service provider.

$100.00 a year for tech support is INSANE!

If and when you are available to switch providers please consider using USLEC/Peatec Communications. If there is anything that we could do for you, I can be reached at agonzalez@uslec.com

Good Luck,

AG

grudog
@xo.com

grudog to filcro15

Anon

to filcro15
You don't get charged for tech support!!!!
Hosting has started a new thing for after hours support ONLY ON THE WEEEKENDS..... Get your facts straight

Good luck with your other carrier your going to need it!!!!!
mediamath
join:2006-11-20
New York, NY

mediamath

Member

Re: XO Communications sucks - STAY AWAY!!!

I didn't know that XO employees could post here.

I thought the Internet was open 24/7. I guess if you're an XO customer you're lucky if you get service at all.

I just got off another blog with a guy that's been given the run around by XO and he thinks that XO employees are going out of their way to make his service bad because they can't fix his issues and want him to just go away.

For someone to say that XO Communications sucks is not so bad because they do. But now they are finding out who is posting on these reviews and punishing those customers by placing their sites on OLD slow servers. Talk about the EVIL empire....

SterlingJ85
join:2000-11-19
Austin, TX

2 edits

SterlingJ85

Member

Maybe just DSL

I am the IT Director for my company, and have contracted with XO for a 10 Mbps Ethernet (over copper) line as our primary ISP. Once up and running (about 6 weeks) it has been rock solid, and my pings to most carriers within NYC is 3-4 ms.

Granted, this line is more expensive than DSL ($1450/mo.), but I havn't seen XO be bad all around.

We also use USLEC for our Voice T1 (PRI) (strangely enough), and they have been perfect as well!

XO Trace Route:

C:\>tracert dslreports.com

Tracing route to dslreports.com [209.123.109.175]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms (removed)
2 8 ms 4 ms 3 ms (removed)
3 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms p3-0-0.mar2.nyc-ny.us.xo.net [207.88.86.169]
4 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms p5-2-0.rar2.nyc-ny.us.xo.net [65.106.3.49]
5 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms p1-0.ir1.nyc-ny.us.xo.net [65.106.3.42]
6 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms 206.111.13.6.ptr.us.xo.net [206.111.13.6]
7 5 ms 5 ms 5 ms tbr2-p013802.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.123.0.86]
8 4 ms 3 ms 3 ms 12.122.84.53
9 4 ms 4 ms 4 ms att-gige.esd1.nwr.nac.net [12.119.140.26]
10 9 ms 4 ms 4 ms 3.ge-3-0-0.gbr2.nwr.nac.net [209.123.11.189]
11 156 ms 142 ms 43 ms 0.so-0-3-0.gbr1.oct.nac.net [209.123.11.233]
12 27 ms 23 ms 24 ms www.dslreports.com [209.123.109.175]

Trace complete.

Review by kapil See Profile

  • Location: Chicago, Cook, IL, USA
  • Business customer Business customer
  • Cost: $300 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 42 days
  • Telco party Ameritech
  • CLEC party: XO Communications
Stable connection...as SDSL should be
Price. Features. Support.
Not Bad...but for the money there are better business ISPs to be had
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I had 1.1Mbps SDSL from XO for my business. Install took forever...and it was half XOs fault and half because of the ILEC.

Install charges, equipment charges and MRC are up there. For the money there are many better options...but the service performed as expected.

Level 1 tech support is as bad as any other ISP...but level 2 is competent and takes care of stuff promptly, should the need arise.

The worst part was pre-sales...no one knew what the hell was going on...everyone I talked to gave me different information...it was almost as if they were trying to convince me NOT to buy from them.

I'd recommend Covad over XO...better pricing.

member for 23.9 years, 6796 visits, last login: 91 days ago
lodged 17.3 years ago


Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: Des Plaines, Cook, IL, USA
  • Cost: $103 per month (12 month contract)
  • Telco party Ameritech
  • CLEC party: Covad
Rapidly Provisioned, Reliable
Lousy Performance That Deteriorated Over Time
A ripoff - they sold a service they knew they could not deliver. AVOID XO.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

We were a user of XO ADSL for over 5 years. They sold us 1.5/384 service
that *never* hit anything close to rated speed. Every couple of months,
the speed would drop noticeably from its "normal" level of about 608/384
to something considerably worse. We'd call in and it would take several
days to get it back to it's "good" speed. This went on for years as the
bill steadily climbed higher and higher.

Several weeks ago this happened yet again. I called XO tech support and
asked them to fix it. This time they decided to spend some time on the
problem. After several days of fiddling around, the speed was *worse*
than when we started. Finally, one of their tech people said, "Oh, you
could never have gotten 1.5Mbit on that circuit, you're too far away." I
replied, "In other words, XO has happily taken our money - in increasing
amounts - knowning full well they could never deliver the service they
advertised." His answer was "Switch to SDSL or T1" which (predictably)
costs 3x+ what we were already paying.

I had resisted changing ISPs because we run our own domain (DNS, web
etc.) and reconfiguring it is mildly painful. But this was the final
straw. I promptly signed up with Speakeasy and migrated the DNS over the
weekend. Speakeasy has been a joy to work with. Out of the box - no
tuning - they almost tripled the throughput of the circuit, for about
the same monthly fee as we were paying XO (well, Speakeasy is charging
us an additional $9/mo, but then again, we have over 2x as many static
IPs now). They promptly installed reverse DNS in minutes when we were
ready for them. Their tech support people actually understand how this
stuff works from the physical fabric all the way up to the higher levels
of IP routing and DNS. And Speakeasy isn't done yet. They're busy trying
to get the circuit to run even faster (we provisioned 3/768 - but it's
not there yet). If they cannot hit the 3Mbit speed, they have assured me
that they will promptly reduce our monthly bill to reflect the lower
speed achieved. Even so, as I said, they've already exceeded 1.5 Mbit
down, something that was a remote dream with XO.

I should have dumped XO years ago. The transition to a new ISP really
wasn't that big of a DNS configuration task and Speakeasy is superior as
an ISP in pretty much every meaningful way.

Today I called XO to complain one last time about their taking our money
knowing full well they could never deliver on their promises. Their
answer? They have graciously agreed to not make us pay for the final
month of service. How very big of them.

Let our pain be your guide - avoid XO insofar as you can. Speakeasy - if
available in your location - is a MUCH better choice. The only way we
ever are going to remediate corporate misbehavior is by starving them
for revenue. Let's help XO go out of business, shall we ...

P.S. XO's defense was that "...there is no SLA associated with our DSL."
This is true as far as it goes. Their initial contract called for
service levels only on a "best effort" basis. However, the problem
here is in several parts:

1) They sold a service they apparently knew they could never deliver
and continued to accept full payment - even increasing it over time.
2) They refused to make meaningful financial restitution.
3) Speakeasy DOES provide a written SLA for ADSL - same premise,
same CO, and same media coordinator (Covad) as XO. Why
can't XO match this, I wonder.

(review was emailed from domain tundraware.com)
lodged 17.6 years ago


xo-man
@suth.com

xo-man

Anon

know about what your gettting before you cry about it

P.S. XO's defense was that "...there is no SLA associated with our DSL."
This is true as far as it goes. Their initial contract called for
service levels only on a "best effort" basis. However, the problem
here is in several parts:

1) They sold a service they apparently knew they could never deliver
and continued to accept full payment - even increasing it over time.
2) They refused to make meaningful financial restitution.
3) Speakeasy DOES provide a written SLA for ADSL - same premise,
same CO, and same media coordinator (Covad) as XO. Why
can't XO match this, I wonder.
--------------------------------------
I work for XO Communications and would like to address your issues before you play the blame game and cry about things you have no understanding of. I will address your problems one by one:

1. The local ILEC in your area owns and operates the equipment in the area no matter what company you decide to go with. When a location is qualified, the results are generated from a database that the ILEC provides nation-wide companies with for qualification purposes. The information they provide is a guestamit based on the areas distance from the Central office in the area as well as line quality.

If you wanna blame someone blame the phone company for giving other companies incorrect information. On top of that, your a liar because if you was locked into a contract; your monthly price would not change until your contract term was up.

2. The reason they failed to credit your account is because it IS a best effort service. When you buy services and try to cheap out for a business using ADSL; which is a RESIDENTIAL service, you should expect to recieve decreased quality due to the fact that ADSL is distance sensitive, and bandwidth is shared by all users creating bogs or slow-downs when more users get online.

3. Since i used to work for speakeasy, your a liar with this comment as well. They do NOT offer SLA's with ADSL. What they did is sold you what called an SDSL line. It is for small business and is mission critical; meaning it has an SLA.

Get your facts right before you bash another companies reputation. I'm sure the rep told you the specs of the service but you decided to ignore the facts and cheap out on a residential connection.

The Guy
@xo.com

The Guy

Anon

Re: know about what your gettting before you cry about it

Your issue should be with your sales rep not XO. Your rep must have did a bad job explaining the SLA to you. DSL is public access. Any way you look at it, no company is going to guarantee anything for $103 per month. I hate to say it but you get what you pay for.That's like buying a new car and asking the dealership to guarantee there is no traffic when you drive, It can't really be done by anyone !

SterlingJ85
join:2000-11-19
Austin, TX

SterlingJ85 to xo-man

Member

to xo-man
Are you kidding me with this?

You used to work for Speakeasy? Uh-huh.

Speakeasy does have an SLA on DSL, look at OneLink.
»www.speakeasy.net/busine ··· onelink/

ex_xo_customer
@comcast.net

ex_xo_customer

Anon

Stay away from XO!!

HAHA, XO is a major Cluster you know what! Stay away from them. As an owner of a National ISP, we have changed hundreds of companies from XO. They are all used cars salespeople now selling VOIP and data solutions, LOL!!!

customer
@spcsdns.net

customer

Anon

XO is OUT!

We had an account with XO communications for 3 years.. after a 2 year contract. I could never get a sales person to call me back.. finally, after getting a new contract (by the way the price fell by over 1500 per month for TI and 8 lines..) the salesperson was fired.. Since we cannot get a reputable salesperson to renew our contract...XO! you are fired! everyone check out COVAD. I got improved service for (full t1 data, plus 6 lines, plus no long distance, metro number and losts of other value for $499/mo XO wanted 799 for less! XO is a sinking ship.. swim away fast!