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MegaPath is having a lot of POP problems. I have to keep two Web browser pages open to get mail for my two accounts. Stuart Leitch Overtones 708 848 7752 member for 19.4 years, driveby review (so far) lodged 19.4 years ago
have direcway - until that 2 yr nightmare expires- equipment is disconnected from that useless system (thats a whole different review in this site) I have frac T1 (384K) complete with sla and definately advanced (and knowledgeable) support. (I could have opted for a larger pipe for another 100 or so but have not yet seen that as a requirement). It all probably boils down to you get what you pay for. The install was all rebated back and though I hate rebates in general it is what it is. An issue with my netopia rebate (rejected - must be a company) but an email case to megapath billing resolved this in one day) Information re status of install was forthcoming through email and megapath provided an immediate link and logon info to track status learn of offerings and open up cases for assistance. The install through SBC was quite involved since I am many miles away from the nearest pop (hence direc_crap). SBC installer came by had it up and within acceptable parameters - but told me he was not satisfied with it so went off to replace some equipment. He plainly explained that in 90% of service situations - if the install was flaky so would be the service. The time frame was well within projected - but a long window had been allowed - I was pleased that they had a realistic projection (dependancy on the telco of course.) I ran my own internal wiring so this was a non-issue. The hookup was easy and painless. Once installed I decided I needed a few ip's and a 5 ip (usable) range was provided within 2 days. Further issues I had with DNS were resolved by megapath though this was clearly outside the scope of support (I was not familiar with the dns requirements for segmented (less than /24 range) The major downside of course is the cost but considering that I have 0 options other than direcway and spent many hours swearing at the equipment and numerous hours on the phonewith direcway (also opened a case witrh BBB and did get some free service which I never used since I had megapath before that finally came to fruition). All in all this is not for the financially challenged BUT if you have good tech expertise and can work with an elevated level of support AND require a good guaranteed bandwidth solution this is the way to go. (Especially if out on hwy 59 50 miles north of Houston - yes country living with all its' comforts). Also small to med businesses should look into it). Megapath support seems to be very good - probably the best I have experienced to date. (Being in a technology role myself I run into some real losers). If it changes - I will update- I am at best demanding as may be determined by my direcway review and postings - So if in texas N Houston area and it is your misfortune to need broadband- seek out louie papp who was instrumental in my final descission to go with megapath (patience especially coming out of direcway) I have had the luxury of DSL from qwest, dialup of course, satellite; and full and now a frac T1. member for 20.4 years, 15 visits, last login: 15.3 years ago lodged 19.4 years ago
When I first signed up it was good, very little problems unless you needed tech support. Then to get through to a human you must call after 2 AM... You know its bad when i'm not a network advisor or anything but on 4 occasions I was the one who had to explain to tech that there was a node not working. I moved so i called megapath to close my acct ( had the acct for over 2 years) suspoedly they closed my acct. Just recently I get a call from a collection agency stating that I owe megapath a months worth of dsl charges. So I called megapath and get told by the billing dept that they only close your acct when you send them an e-mail telling them to close your acct. Guess when you call on the phone it means nothing. So be warned if they dont send you a bill you might want to e mail them immeadiatly so you dont go to collections and have a mark put on your credit history because of there laxed billing policies. member for 19.5 years, 9 visits, last login: 17.1 years ago lodged 19.5 years ago
Monthly fee was too expensive. Cable broadband (and most other DSL providers) are half Megapath's price. I was being charged $100.00 per month for IDSL. I asked them to lower my price based on my slow connection, they said they couldn't. Expensive install. I was charged $300.00. Install took 2+ weeks. Installer was overweight (substantially) and couldn't get in my crawl space to run the line. I had to do it myself while he was here. I called Megapath and told them to wave the install fee, they refused and said the best they could do was give me one month of free service. As soon as cable broadband was available in my neighborhood, I switched. Free install. Installer ran the line to my office, as requested. Monthly price is less than half what Megapath charged and speed is about 2x better. Magnificent Bastard Productions 2004 © (review was emailed from domain insightbb.com) lodged 19.6 years ago
We've had no issues with the overall technical side of the connection (144/144 IDSL). As for billing, we've had nothing but trouble. They never seem to receive our payments. The only way they seem to get them is to next-day mail them (which is real expensive). I'm the technical contact, not the billing contact, but for whatever reason they send the bills in my name and won't change it! Emails to billing seem to go on deaf ears. They won't take credit card payments over the phone. It's a real disaster. However the technical side is great! I wish they could get their billing issues sorted out! member for 24.4 years, 31 visits, last login: 19.7 years ago lodged 19.7 years ago
MegaPath Networks (www.megapath.net) is lying to its customers about the USF fee that they charge every month. When I challenged the fee, the billing agents simply hung up the phone on the first two attempts. I eventually reached the manager of the billing department (first name: Golden) who told me that this is a government charge and there's nothing they can do about it. In fact as the information below shows, they have total flexibility in the fee that they charge customers. What's more, MegaPath inflates its monthy charge and then issues a "discount" on each bill in order to further inflate the USF charge which is a percentage of the inflated monthly fee. Our bill came to $316 instead of the expected $249. They are probably using this deceptive technique with many if not all of their customers. For comparison purposes, our previous ISP provided the same service at a quoted price of $269. The extra fees on that bill were just $10.03 per month versus $66.04 from Megapath. Megapath is stealing business away from other providers by advertising lower prices and then recovering the revenue shortfall by using this USF scam. Summary: Megapath is deceptively over-charging their very large customer base and then lying about the fees when questioned by irate and uninformed consumers. Here is what our research uncovered about USF... USF (Universal Service Fund, Universal Service Charge) A national policy to promote telephone service to all households. Telephone service is a vital link to emergency services, government agencies and surrounding communities and the USF is a subsidy to make phone service available for all Americans. This includes consumers with low incomes, schools and libraries and rural health care providers. All carriers are charged the same USF%. However, pay attention to this fee because companies have flexibility in passing this fee to customers. The charge ranges from no charge at all, a flat fee, % of interstate and international usage or % of entire bill. The company keeps the difference between the fees they receive and the charge they pay. This excerpt came from: »www.telcobusters.com/FAQ ··· es.shtml member for 19.8 years, driveby review (so far) lodged 19.8 years ago
03-16-04 ordered service. this was the only thing that i could get after the hell sbc yahoo put me through. think that it is a little pricy but what the heck ill give them a shot. anyways ordered service $50/month plus all the fees and such along with a cayman/netopia router (3341-ent). $99 activation, $168 for the router with a $269 rebate. service term 24months. dynamic ip. pppoe built into router. 384/128 speed... probably will cancel when i move in a couple of months.... 03-19-04 had solid dsl sync light on my old router today. kinda suprised me so i called them and asked if my service was active already---nope. 03-23-04 recieved router today. hooked it up and it screwed up my network. had to reset it to the factory defaults and call about configuration. they were helpful on that issue. also had problems with my email through them but that was resolved quickly. 03-25-03 commit date. they swore up and down that the service would be on today and it wasnt. called and asked whats up and they dont know jack @#$%. say that they will look into it though. 03-26-04 they tell me that pacbell still has my old info in the dslam and my config at the CO is all jacked up. also told me that a systems engineer for sbc was out at the CO trying to sort things out. so far no internet or anything and they said i might as well be s.o.l. until monday (today is a friday and the provisioning group dosent work on weekends). dont know whats going to happen now, but i can say the the tech support people know what they are talking about and are not computer illiterit, which is nice. ill post another update when something happens.... 03-26-04 15 minutes or so after i first write the review and now the router has screwed up my network again.... i think its a piece of S#@%. maybe thats what the problem has been all along....... 04-04-04 well what do you know... i finally got some service. had it for about two days now and i love it for the most part. very fast connection, expensive though. it turned out that sbc/pacbell really messed up on this one and someone didnt do their job and got fired. all in all im pleased that i finally got service.... 04-26-2004 had problems here and there, not much to complain about though.billing dept. is shit. they dont give a rats a$$ about when you get paid and why the payment wasnt sent out until after the 15 of the month. well thats it for now.....ill update again soon. 04-28-2004 all is good so far.... 04-29-2004 mailing address that was given to send payments to was incorrect. payment was sent back to me and had to call to get correct address, which they said was the same one that i sent it to the first time and after telling them that it wasnt and then having them do some research the found that they had made an error. 05-01-2004 rebates are beggining to be a hassle. they say that they arnt in the system but it shows that i should have rebates. rebate support center told me that even though i mailed them in about a month ago they can take up to 6-8 weeks to be processed in their system. complete $hit in my opinion. overall kinda good experience so far. 05-02-2004 been having slow speeds and unresolvable dns issues for a while now. some sites come up and some dont. no clue whats going on and they dont know either. member for 20 years, 39 visits, last login: 19.7 years ago updated 19.9 years ago
I chose Megapath SDSL service because I needed a higher level of service than I would expect from shared ADSL service from providers such as SBC. Megapath had a comprehensive system for setup that made me feel like I was dealing with a company that was on the ball. The quality of service is great when it works. However, on the occasion (fairly rare) when there is a problem, Megapath's service is no better than I would expect if I had $29 service from SBC. I am treated like any other shared ADSL customer. On one occasion, I was unable to reach anyone at Megapath by phone for 24 hours. Their recorded message, when I could reach it, said they were not experiencing any troubles. After having an office off-line for most of a business day, I finally got a reply to an on-line inquiry saying that they had located and resolved a problem. Billing issues have also been problematic. Since my contract with Megapath has expired, I intend to move to a less expensive option that doesn't promise a service level it cannot deliver. member for 21.5 years, 22 visits, last login: 18.1 years ago lodged 20 years ago
I signed up for a prequalification and installation of broadband with MegaPath Networks. After doing some more research, I decided to go with another company (faster connection for the same price), so I cancelled my scheduled installation. THEN, I got a bill for $150. I was not told of this cancellation fee in my initial conversation with the company, nor was I told about it when I cancelled the order. When I complained, I was told that I received an email that pointed me to a web site that listed the fee in the Terms and Conditions section. So, lets see, to learn about this fee I would have to: 1. Open the confirmation email. 2. Read through the 3 screens down to the FINAL PARAGRAPH 3. Then click the Terms and Conditions link. 4. Read through that page of information. OR, I could have: 1. Clicked on the main web site. 2. Located the About menu. 3. Selected Corporate Policies. 4. Read the Terms and Conditions section. Why couldnt the company have told me of this fee, or included the information in my confirmation email (and not a link to the information)? It seems a bit deceptive to me. The other company (Etheric Networks) that I ended up with told me of their cancellation policy when I called, AND sent me an email with their Service Level Agreement and Terms and Conditions clearly stated. Also, they had me up and running in a week (from initial call to working service). member for 20.1 years, 18 visits, last login: 18.3 years ago lodged 20 years ago
HIGHLIGHTS Had cable modem for a year with MediaOne, but moved before ATT bought 'em. Had direcPC for a year, and moved again just as dial up lines became too busy. Ordered Covad/Bazillion DSL. Order cancelled after Bazillion drops out of market. Ordered new StarBand. Installer cancelled due to trees, Equipment returned. Ordered Sprint Broadband direct, Installer also cancelled due to trees Ordered MegaPath/Rythyms, but was 21,500' from CO. After tasting cable for a year and satellite for a year, IDSL was really slow. Moved to a new location 5,000' feet from CO. Ordered new service from SpeakEasy because offers dialup on the road. After days of attempted start up, cancelled service and returned equipment when SpeakEasy tells me to work with phone company to fix line drop. Happily Began Operating with MegaPath again. After one year at new location, service was usually good. I had to hound them for nearly nine months to get my rebate. However, last three months (Aug SepOct 03) includes service degradation, speed drop, and intermittants with NTF (No Trouble Found). 30 mins wating for tech support. Final blow was Fri 10/31/3003 when DSL Modem/Router smoked, smelled and quit, one month after 1-yr warranty expires. Replacement cost $300. Decided to cancel service and investigate SBC or Comcast, each offering same or similar, for slightly less per month. Surprised to see SBC represented well on Forums for Tech Suport, so leaning to SBC,which is my wireline provider anyway. DETAILS 2/27/01Ordered NP/MegaPath IDSL 144/144 for $99 3/2/01 Sales Call offers 256K for $99 - Dream On! $218 Deactivation if cancel 3/16/01 Ameritech tags existing installed line 3/27/01 Inside wiring installation. This was my first dissapointment. Installer arrived 5 mins before end-of-window, narrowly avoiding having to refund me $100 for a missed appointment. Installer mistakingly removed two installed phone lines. I wanted promised new line run, but installer cobbled several patches together, leaving open, exposed splices, and drooping outdoor wiring. Netopia router lights up OK, but no configuration or verification of operation is made with my PC, and the installer hurridly departed. Oh well. 3/27/01 5 PM My second dissapointment is when I call sales contact and learn I am actually 21,500' from CO, so can have only 128K IDSL 4/5/01 I contact a patient and friendly tech at MegaPath, Joshua, who downloads new code to the netopia and starts me up. 4/6/01 Invoiced for $634 Description Qty. Total ---------------------------------------- ------ ---------- RTH SOHO IDSL 1 99.00 RTH Netopia R7100 Router 1 375.00 RTH SDSL Setup Fees 1 350.00 RTH Instant Install Rebate 1 -190.00 Invoice Total 634.00 Previous Balance 0.00 Balance Due $634.00 Note- This is a mistake - Actual Model is 3100-I - and is IDSL, not SDSL Speed Varies - see my first report below Outage report for this week to date seen by East Coast UP 2001-04-23 00:01:24 - 2001-04-29 23:51:37 (992 samples) ** Your IP had 100% reachability during the period! Outage report for this week to date seen by West Coast UP 2001-04-22 23:57:06 - 2001-04-29 23:51:37 (918 samples) ** Your IP had 100% reachability during the period! Random Line tests we performed ec 2001-04-23 02:46:59 16,22 (est. ms avg,min to your first hop) ec 2001-04-23 02:47:01 19,26 (est. ms avg,min to your first hop) Speed test history wc 2001-04-23 22:54:19 130/251 kilobits per second down/up wc 2001-04-26 23:56:35 129/129 kilobits per second down/up wc 2001-04-27 08:32:30 116/132 kilobits per second down/up ec 2001-04-29 06:21:15 115/130 kilobits per second down/up Ping times have consistently been in the high 50's 8/24/01- Oh woe is me - I am one of Rythm's cancellations. However, not-to-worry. I am up and running the day the Covad tech shows up, as scheduled. I keep my same Netopia IDSL router. 128/132 is slightly better than the prior week, so about the same speeds. I am not charged anything for install. Monthly rate $99 stays the same. Its a lot of money for not a lot of BW, but read above and see my prior experiences. Still no cable available. And the satellite vendors seem to be raising more pointed statements about throttling down serious streaming video and audio users, in favor of the casual text surfers. Oh well - 9/29/01 - Last several weeks line speed has been better: 135/132, so have modified my "Bottom Line" and am happier with Covad than Rythyms. Distance to CO is listed lower [16,010] on the Covad Client Install Order. Pretty sure this is also a different pair from the one Rythyms used. 8/12/02 - Move to a new location, closer to CO. Order ADSL Basic+ Service for $90/month plus $299 router plus $99 activation [Sales Tax $19 and monthly USF is $5] 9/6/02 - Rcv email saying DSL install to occur on or about 9/16/02 9/13/02 - Netopia Router Arrives 9/16-02 - no DSL modem light - line in op 9/22/02 - "port was locked" but Bob at ASI unlocks the port. Speeds in the 500's and pings in the 90's. Email access denied. 9/24/02 - Email works. "Speed cap" removed. Speeds in the low 900's and pings in the 50's. First invoice for $90/month plus $462 Router & Activation 9/25/02 - Applied for Rebate. Secure VPN link to Office works first time, no sweat. Linksys 802.11b network through ADSL router works first time, no sweat Speed Test History 2002-09-28 06:00:32 Speed test (wc) 944/216 kbps 2002-09-25 08:00:59 Speed test (wc) 944/183 kbps 2002-09-23 08:54:27 Speed test (wc) 868/227 kbps 2002-09-22 19:46:48 Speed test (ec) 678/133 kbps 2002-09-22 19:21:38 Speed test (la) 531/211 kbps 2002-09-22 19:18:03 Speed test (ec) 614/213 kbps 2002-09-22 18:49:31 Speed test (wc) 309/205 kbps More tests Time (US east) Test Results.. Comment.. 2003-06-04 12:26:41 Speed test (ec) 1234/234 kbps 2003-05-27 10:32:16 Speed test (ec) 1216/235 kbps 2003-05-27 10:29:28 Speed test (la) 902/235 kbps 2003-05-26 18:47:09 Speed test (la) 973/236 kbps 2003-05-25 08:15:31 Speed test (la) 912/232 kbps 2003-05-10 05:04:28 Speed test (wc) 1218/236 kbps 2003-04-27 06:24:19 Speed test (wc) 1174/238 kbps 2003-04-23 12:24:13 Speed test (wc) 1129/235 kbps 2003-03-24 10:48:25 Speed test (wc) 1219/236 kbps 2003-10-09 09:24:13 Speed test(dslreports.linkline.com) 1261/223 kbps 2003-10-09 09:18:25 Speed test(ec) 1103/230 kbps 2003-10-09 09:17:18 Speed test(dslr-west1.megapath.net) 976/230 kbps 2003-10-06 19:02:24 Speed test(ec) 116/230 kbps 2003-10-06 18:52:12 Speed test(dslr-west1.megapath.net) 253/228 kbps 2003-10-06 11:46:20 Speed test(dslr-west1.megapath.net) 454/230 kbps 2003-10-06 11:34:27 Speed test(dslr-west1.megapath.net) 594/230 kbps 2003-10-05 22:27:55 Speed test(dslr-west1.megapath.net) 566/230 kbps 2003-10-05 06:31:39 Speed test(dslr-west1.megapath.net) 1026/236 kbps 2003-10-04 18:42:10 Speed test(dslr-west1.megapath.net) 160/220 kbps 2003-10-04 10:45:57 Speed test(dslr-west1.megapath.net) 438/236 kbps 2003-10-04 08:51:45 Speed test(dslr-west1.megapath.net) 1026/236 kbps 2003-09-13 13:24:36 Speed test(dslreports-west1.speakeas) 1216/234 kbps 2003-08-19 16:08:32 Speed test(dslreports.linkline.com) 1111/236 kbps 2003-08-15 10:36:38 Speed test(dslreports.linkline.com) 1112/238 kbps October 2003 I dropped MegapathDSL after modem/router fried and they wanted $300 for a new one. They almost replaced it under warrenty, but too late. I switched to SBCglobal, which took two months to get up and running. I am also using Comcast, which took only 7 days over thanksgiving to get up and running. I plan to compare both services and keep the best. member for 22.9 years, 162 visits, last login: 19.7 years ago updated 20.1 years ago
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