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Review by mnt14 
Posted: 9 years ago
member for 9.7 years, 4 visits, last login: 8.9 years ago
 Tacoma,Pierce,WA
 $29 per month
 about 30 days
 Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
 "Have been on DSL 256k one year. Very reliable connection. People were very pleasant"
 "had some installation problems, took 30 days to get it going, but this was one year ago."
 "Works great, no problems, fast, good value"
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I did the install and had to work thru tech service to get it working. Tech service people were great. Main problem was line faults between my house and the CO. I am about 15000 feet and almost out of range. I have the Intel 2100 modem. I have the always on 256k service and had one or two times when their server went down, but zero problems in the last six months.
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Review by oheogulch
Posted: 9 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 9 visits, last login: 8.4 years ago
Colorado Springs,El Paso,CO
$48 per month
Qwest
"Solid, dedicated connection. Relatively cheap, very reliable, sufficiently fast."
"Install coordination rivaled the confusion of a botched Russian satellite launch."
"If you want to spend less than $50/month for a reliable, dedicated, fast connection and ISP service...this is it."
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USWest/QWest DSL
In general, I have had a good experience with USWest (now QWest). My
computer has never had trouble making the connection. Download rates
have never been below 256k, and USWest upgraded the download to 640k for
free this past summer/fall. My latency to an on-line gaming server in
Washington (I'm in Colorado) is 200ms or less. I can ping nearly any
server in the U.S. at 100ms or lower, many times getting avg pings of
60ms.
Pre-Sales Information: 2 stars
The salesman to whom I first spoke gave me bad information on 2 points.
First he said I would have 2 e-mail accounts, and that I could choose
them. I was assigned 1 e-mail account. And secondly, he said a
technician would install the modem for "free". One week later, a
service tech calls me, says he is at my house ready to install the
modem, and it would cost $100. No one scheduled this with me, and the
sales guy assured me it was "free"!! I told the service guy "no deal",
installed the modem myself, and have been on-line ever since.
Install Co-ordination: 1 star
Original sales guy gave me bad info. on installation charges, and
botched the scheduling of the installation. Did it myself instead of
paying 100 clams. If you can read and understand diagrams, shouldn't be
a problem.
Connection Reliability: 5 stars
I can vaguely remember only one time when my download speed was below
256k/sec. Connection is always there, line is solid, no problems.
Tech Support: 3 stars
My phone line and DSL line did go down once. I called USWest DSL support,
and after being directed to basic phone-line repair, I put in a service call.
The line was fixed 2 days later, and a female technician left a message
on my voice mail commenting that the problem was on a pole outside the
building. Fixed. No problem.
Services: 4 stars
The ISP bill ($17.95), and the high speed access bill ($30) is included
on my phone bill. One statement, one check, one stamp. Easy.
Value for money: 4 stars
I have a solid, reliable connection that is unaffected by other people
in the neighborhood ( as contrasted to "community" connections on
cable). It is relatively cheap, very reliable, and sufficiently fast.
J.M.
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Review by rkramer
Posted: 9 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 62 visits, last login: 3.9 years ago
Grand Forks,Grand Forks,ND
$70 per month (12 month contract)
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"1 phone bill, decent startup-deals"
"if it works, it works great, if it doesn't work, good luck."
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My worst experience has been getting caught in the great US.WEST recursive loop. You call tech support, and they transfer you to the DSL division. The DSL division in turn decides it isn't their problem and transfers you back to the phone line area. I've spent over 2 hours with tech support at one time, most of it being transfered from place to place.
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Review by IsaacM
Posted: 9 years ago
(review was emailed from domain rubyriver.com)
Salt Lake City,Salt Lake,UT
 Business customer
Contract price not specified.
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"I don't know, maybe you could say this whole company is a joke, and it makes me laugh. . ."
"The bills / jailtime I'll have when I destroy USwaste, now Qwaste"
"Yep, you guys didn't need me to even write this if you've had any interaction with them"
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 I work in the MIS department of a Business that has close to 20 dsl / ISDN
accounts with these guys and they just SUCK. They prequalify stores that end
up taking anywhere from 6 weeks (okay) to 6 months (!) to get a link. One of the accounts I ordered in August and it still hasn't ever worked. To even get a DSL link to their DSLAM at the CO has been a miracle at times - even with the lines that they themselves have installed into our stores. The tech support sucks. 7 times I've been transferred into circles of departments until someone in the endless chain finally has the guts to say "I don't really know." These phone calls usually end up being 10-30 minutes of actually speaking to a rep, but the hold time ends up being 5 minutes (good) to about to 4.5 hours (no lie, I actually spent more than half a day on the phone for a single call a few times). A couple times, I've had qwaste screw me over this way: after calling and talking with an install. tech who was doing inside wiring, and EVEN having the manager of our store, on site show the guy where to put a new high-speed jack, just to make it totally plain, the install tech. has installed the jack on opposite sides of the building and then charged us to come out and move the jack to where we wanted it in the first place!!! One time I even ended up at the Demark in an attic, ripping out what the Qwest guy put in, and re-punching down a jack. He came in and punched down a jack for the main line's number in the attic! His order was for an ISDN jack! wha..? There had already been somebody from Qwest that actually had a clue in there (boy I'd love to meet him) who clearly labeled the demark with SPIDs for him to see very plainly! Sometimes (4 times) the DSL circuit was wired for the WRONG PHONE NUMBER! Do you know how frustrating it is to try for Hours, wait on hold on the phone and talk for hours to an account rep to get a DSL link when nobody cared to tell you that they wired the circuit on the wrong number? I understand that hardware can go bad, and even be D.O.A., but what I don't understand is how it should take 8-10 weeks to get a new Cisco675 that was D.O.A. - and why do they have to charge us with the cost of a new 675 if the one we originally were shipped never worked in the first place? Unfortunately, the only pleasant experiences I have had with this company are with my account rep, who unfortunately has similar frustrations with this company. I hope I can steer you away from this beast. Isaac Morton, MIS dept. Sizzling Platter, Inc.
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Review by DjTabby
Posted: 9 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 13 visits, last login: 7.5 years ago
Portland,Multnomah,OR
$47 per month
about 20 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Solid power and speed"
"some times long hold time for tech support"
"Great over all with Great Tech support"
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Order'd 256kbps download / 272kbps upload, Oct 1999, Installed early Nov 1999. 7 Counts of downtime. Avg of 2 hours on each downtime. Upgraded to 640kbps download some where around July 2000.
I get 45 - 46 db line quality. Running off a Cisco 675 router.
Dynamic IP on the WAN, Static IP's for my NAT.
Only Bad Stuff I can say was the starting order and getting going. Was a pain. But after all the fighting and phone calls got hooked up and going. Been great since.
Newsgroups are great. Mail server is solid also. Just wish they offer'd more space for the web site. You would figure with a High speed DSL user they would offer 25 megs of web space vs the 10 megs.
Good Point. Low Latency for Multiplayer games. Avg times is 10 - 70 ms with servers on the east coast. West coast is 0-50 ms. (Useing Half-life as Test benchmark game) Going to europe servers pings are avg of 50-150.
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Review by FieryLynx
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.7 years, 11 visits, last login: 8.5 years ago
Renton,King,WA
$29 per month
about 30 days
"Was upgraded to 640, friendly tech reps the couple of times I've had to call."
"Downstream speed frequently drops severely."
"Not bad if you don't mind the slow downs."
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Was speaking with a c/s rep about my dial-up connection with them (they are both my ISP & my DSL provider) in early April 99 & she told me that they were going to be offering DSL service in my area soon - even offered to call me when it was available for me to order. Got a call from her on May 18th and placed the order. No line needed to be run & since I chose to do the installation myself no one needed to come out to my house. About 3 weeks later the Cisco 675 & everything else arrived. I was able to install everything fairly smoothly and the one small glitch I did have was quickly & easily resolved by tech support. Have only had to call tech support a few times and each time was a good experience: friendly, knowledgeable techs and very short wait times to get through to them! The problem is the frequent speed loss. I will be cruising along and my speed will start dropping dramatically, often to almost nothing. It's frustrating when doing anything interactive (chatting, playing games, etc) and downright infuriating when trying to be productive.
Other than the slow downs though, I'm not unhappy with the service.
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Review by stevew99214
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 11 visits, last login: 8 years ago
Spokane,Spokane,WA
Contract price not specified.
"Ive got a bad point....."
"I dont have DSL, only dialup and here is my rant about Qwest (USWest)"
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I live on the eastern side of WA state and I have Qwest as both a phone company and as a ISP, but I heard horror stories from friends who have jumped on the DSL ( they live in the same town I do and are able to live in an area where they can get DSL) wagon and have turned right around and jumped off the Qwest DSL ship and jumped on another ISP company who can tech support their questions with DSL but after hearing they have changed to another ISP other than Qwest, Ive asked them if they are having any problems with their new ISP they have told me that so far they have had no problems with their DSL dls and uploads. I live in an area where the nearest DSL station is over 4 miles away (Im not joking and I have checked the distance with DSL Reports) and I live by I-90. Thank God I dont have DSL, cause my phone lines cant even support it cause I live in an area where the phone lines are older than dirt ( again not joking) and how they can still support talking on the phone is unbelievable and surfing on the net is also amazing since I only have a dial up connection. Yes I have two nice 56K V-90 Flex modems installed in my two PCs. If you are reading this and wondering what connection speed I have while Im writing this its 26.4Kps (Again Im not joking, I said 26400bps ), and there is nothing I can do about it cause Ive sent emails galore to Qwest about them Improving the phone lines to possibly improve my Internet connection or to maybe get DSL available to me in my area. And if anyone is reading this and wondering where do I live on the eastern side of WA, its Spokane. I dont live in one of the areas outside on the outskirts of Spokane like Mead ,Chattaroy, or Liberty Lake (where all the new things are like DSL and Cable Internet lines are, granted you have to be have alot of money to live there) . So thanks for reading my rant and let me say that Ive seen both DSL and Cable in action and they both are quick, so move out of the way cause Im driving on the Information Highway with my Go Kart Connection.
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Review by reman
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 9 visits, last login: 9.1 years ago
Silverdale,Kitsap,WA
$29 per month
about 12 days
Qwest
"Great Setup, no problems @ all. I self installed everything & has worked great."
"Slower speed than expected (256) but recently that was jumped up to 384"
"No problem at all. I haven't needed customer service, & is always up."
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I ordered static 256K at a monthly cost of $29.00, free internal modem and no setup charge except from my ISP. So far I have had no problems and think Qwest is trying to make up for past bad rep of USWest.
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Review by n7gtj
UPDATED: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.3 years, 47 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago
Gilbert,Maricopa,AZ
$44 per month
"I got to know every service tech in the Arizona market."
"Customer service is non-existant."
"If I had to do it all over, I would pick anyone but USWest."
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In September of 1999 I ordered the VDSL service from USWest. The online select service at $49.95 per month, also known as the megabit plan. It was supposed to be 1024 up and down. What I got turned out to be the biggest headache I've ever had.
The first problem was when they installed the gateway. Bad lines and low signal. Ten days later they were able to boost the signal enough to boot the gateway.
A month later they repaired the neighbors line, but they informed me that I was now no longer in the sevice area and had to live with bad lines or cancel the service.
The list goes on for every time I have called for repair, too long to post here. Each time they loose my repair order and send a new tech to tell me my signal is too low.
September 2000 My line died completely. I am now on a dial-up. I had to contact the City Manager of Gilbert AZ to get any response from USWest about the problem. The City is the charter for the video part and USWest has to submit areas serviced to the council. In the past week they have sent out three more techs to tell me they have to dig a new line. Every day I call about the status of the line I am told there is no repair order in "the system".
The only reason I am still trying now, is for the pure satisfaction that someday they will have to come out and actually dig in a new line so I can switch to a new DSL service.
After contacting the city manager again, they sent out the cronic problems dept. and said they still can't fix the video feeds so they offered to only charge for the internet service and kill the video. I made that offer to them about 6 months ago but they said it could not be done. Since then they have probably spent $10,000. in digging, equiptment, and man hours only to do what I offered months ago.
Terrible customer service!
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Review by rs357
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 88 visits, last login: 8.4 years ago
Minneapolis,Hennepin,MN
$108 per month (12 month contract)
about 35 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Faster then dialup modem connection :), routable"
"Service is lacking (sucks)"
"Circuit uptime and speed are generally good, but when a problem occurs it's very bad."
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A bit of history, I ordered DSL from us west when they first offered it in 1998,
actually August of 98 and I got in on all the free deals/stuff (NIC, DSU
ah modem, etc.) I orginally signed up for the 256 Megabit service, always on
and I installed everything myself. A tech did have to come out to verify the
line, which was fine. He was new to the job and I was his 10th service call so he was very glad that I showed what he needed to do and how to do it quickly.
The 3 systems I had at the time all connected without a problem.
I had kept that until this last August when I decide to upgrade to 512 as
the speed had started to degrade. Basically I was satisfied with the speed until
early summer this year (2000) as then the increase in users was becoming noticable. I got the upgrade Cisco 675 free from us west.
For the first 6 to 9 months I was getting download speeds of 490 to 720 Kbps not
bad for 256 and upload speeds max'd at 280.
I've had a few problems, 6 to be exact, all of which I called support and
opened trouble tickets for them. All of the problems were within us west's
network and each one was very annoying and difficult to get the tech's to own
up and fix the problem. One time, after 1.5 hours on the phone, they told me
that they'd have to send a tech to my place to check the line/wiring after they
told me that their router was down. Real boneheads.
Qwest seems to be following the same path regarding support, as in the last 5
days my speed has dropped to less then 70 Kbps (9KBytes), so today after 2+
hours on the phone with 6 different people (4 techs & 2 sales) they moved my
connection to a different circuit. I had been on one of their circuits that is
shared with "bridged" and "non-bridged" users. The last tech told me that there
was also a large number of users on that circuit, but wouldn't tell me how many.
She did tell me that the circuit I'm on now only has 34 users.
The speed has come back, (490 Kbps down & 480 Kbps up avg.) so I'll see if it
continues. This was my first support call to Qwest.
The cost and days to on reflect my upgrade to 512.
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U S WEST
