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Review by jarvislee 
Posted: 9.2 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 1 visits, last login: 9.2 years ago
 Eugene,Lane,OR
 Contract price not specified.
 Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
 "None, absolutely none."
 "Just try me"
 "Too bad I don't have another to choose from"
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For over a year now I have been trying to get residential DSL service. I would be happy with any speed faster than my 56k dialup, which isn't even 56k. Numerous DSL lookups provide names of companies that are capable, but upon investigating none seemt to be able to provide DSL service. Some QWEST/USWEST technicians say my line is qualifies, others say it is not. Can't they make up they're mind? All I wan't is DSL service, not any special deals or promos or anything else. Can anybody provide DSL service to my location at 2539 Rosebay ST in Eugene Oregon, ph# 541-688-5252?
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Review by leadhead
Posted: 9.2 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 1 visits, last login: 9.2 years ago
Seattle,King,WA
Contract price not specified.
 about 14 days
"Inexpensive and charged to existing phone bill"
"Tech Support varies from rude to ineffectual"
"Failure of tech support forced cancellation"
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I ordered the MegaBit Deluxe service back in January and was up and running fairly quickly. This was more a result of lower demand and backlog at the time than any efforts on the part of USWest. When everything appeared to be setup yet I couldn't connect to any external resources on the Internet, I had a very difficult time getting to their 2nd tier support. At that point to person told me that it was the line provider and he couldn't do anything and proceeded to give me instructions on modem dial-up. I informed him that I wasn't paying $50/month for 56K. The next problem was my login failing on the news server. When I contacted support the rep had me open up the browser to troubleshoot then admitted that they didn't even know what NNTP was.
After these early difficulties were resolved the service was excellent for about 4 months. I loved the Cisco 675, and the ease with which I was able to establish a home network and bring my laptop home and VPN into work with no configuration of the OS.
Then in late July I began having serious bandwidth issues. Tests at »computingcentral.com/topics/band···st50.asp resulted showed I was getting essentially 56K bandwidth. This corresponded to my experience: most web sites timed out trying to establish a session and my VPN connection couldn't even complete authentication. For over 2 weeks I worked with both the line provider and ISP's tech support (both through USWest, but, as I was reminded at every opportunity, entirely different entities). I was punted back and forth with absolutely no ownership or progress being made. I finally cornered a tech support person and told them that if they couldn't take ownership and resolve the issue I was canceling the service. After being put on hold for several minutes the person returned and simply said there was nothing they could do.
Unforgivable in my opinion.
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Review by woll0040
Posted: 9.2 years ago
member for 9.3 years, 83 visits, last login: 330 days ago
Minneapolis,Hennepin,MN
$47 per month
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Relatively short wait"
"Down over a holiday weekend"
"There are better offers out there! If you only surf it is OK 640K is OK"
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I ordered DSL January 4, 2000, the last day they were offering 256K, free installation, $50 Cisco 675, and a $100 rebate for signing up. Seeing as all other options would be much more expensive cuz you (at that time) had to have a phone line charge to have dsl on the line ($29.99 line charge plus $15 for phone because other dsl ISP's wouldn't use the current line like USWest did with the splitters + ISP charges of $29.99 or more). I was told install would be done around the 18th of the month. I received the equipment and self install kit about the 16th. Obviously I followed the instructions for installation immediately. I got it to connect to the lan but could not get a wan connection. I waited until the 18th checking daily anyway. That day there was still no connection so I called USWest tech support and they just bounced me around between the ISP (USWest.net) and their megabit tech support. The said they would call back later after they checked a few things. I always had to call back myself. Later that day I got wan link but no internet. So I call back and try to find out what is going on. No one had a clue, they just did the bouncing around game and finally said they would have to come on site to check the wiring, and if they found nothing wrong that I would have to pay for the visit. I said wait a minute here, the wan light is lit solid but there is no internet access and there was no IP assigned to the router. So at that point they sent me back to talk to the ISP and they said they would have to look into it to find out what was going on. The next day before work no internet access but when I got home it was up and running.
My biggest complaint at the time was the fact I had to pay for business service to get a load of services I didn't need just to get one static IP address. I need this to set security on my servers at work (denying access to ftp and other services by IP addresses). Well I figured DHCP woud be fine cuz I was keeping the same IP for about a week or more I could just change it when it changed. I was using an intel video phone (which requires specific ports open) I figure out which ports to use and tell the caller my IP. Just after the session my IP had changed already. I think OK that was just coincidence right? So I started monitoring my ip's, and accessing the router from work via telnet and web. Sure enough the IP gets changed everytime I telnet in or access the web interface. I can barely get in twice in a row without it changing. But if I don't access the IP will stay the same! What a big miserable experience. Not only can I not securely work from home (the few hours I need to) but I cannot access files if necessary. So the only thing I am paying $50 a month for is fast internet access which was thankfully upgraded to 640k the day after I signed a contract with Phoenix DSL (review of Phoenix so far will follow). I am spending $10 dollars less for a static IP and what seems a much better provider.
The service was down only once after initial setup over Memorial day weekend. It went down Thursday night so I called and they said they could see a break in the line and it would be fixed by 11:00 am friday. No such luck so I called back Friday evening and they said it shouldbe up Saturday by 11 am. He said he would call back to check on it. After I called back Saturday night I was told there was a skeleton crew and that they would get to it as soon as possible. It wasn't up until Tuesday morning.
As for the $100 dollar rebate I was told it would automatically be sent to me after 90 days. So I waited 4 months and finally called and they said I was eligible but it wasn't put on the list to be sent out so they put me on the list and it was in my hands about two weeks later. So if you are promised something write it down and make sure you get it.
Final opinion: There are much better providers out there than USWest/Quest offering a bigger bang for the buck. If all you plan to do is just plain surfing and downloading without video phone and stuff like that, and sharing access between computers, it is a fair deal, but it is cheaper elsewhere. So only go if they offer quicker install times without a 1 year contract (I didn't sign one!!!!  )))))
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 Review by ZSaltzman
Posted: 9.2 years ago
member for 9.4 years, 188 visits, last login: 77 days ago
Denver,Denver,CO
$50 per month (month by month)
about 25 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Reliable, Fast, Good hardware"
"Tech support needs to be improved"
"If your willing to deal with a few quirks and mishaps (usually small) uwest is well worth the money."
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First off, I want to say that I am happy with uswest (now qwest). Now, to back up. In the very beginning of the process, there was already a little mishap. USwest said I could order online, but it never worked out. I had to end up calling them, which wasn't that big of a deal. The hardware arrived at my house within a week and a half, faster than they had told me. My activation date was then two weeks off. I installed the hardware myself, which was VERY easy, everything was well documented. But, if the documentation doesn't solve your problem you're in trouble. My activation date came and went and no connection. I knew my modem was talking to the DSLAM, but not connection was every made. Eventually after being bounced from Megabit (the DSL line provider) back to USwest.net (the ISP) about 5 times I finally got to speak with a higher level technician that simply had to look on his machine and see that I was set for Bridging mode instead of PPP. Once that got fixed everything worked perfectly. I ordered 256/256 at the time, and the first time I actually checked what the modem was set to I was amazed that it read 640/272. I guess I got what I paid for....and a little . I use a dynamic IP for my modem, and use NAT behind my network with the Cisco 675 as the dsl modem/router. The Cisco 675 is a great piece of hardware, highly configurable. I have only had 2 outages so far in over a yaer and a half, so I can't complain at all. Recently there have been a few times where for 10-15 minutes nothing will work, but that hasn't happened in the past month. Overall the connection is very reliable. One last thing I think I should add is that if anyone is looking to go with USwest/Qwest for DSL I would always suggest that you use them for your ISP as well. I know many people in my area who use USwest/Qwest for the line and another company for their ISP and they are down weekly. Well, what can I say, USwest has come through with their promises and as long as the lines stay reliable, hopefully you won't need to deal with tech support on a regular basis.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 9.2 years ago
(review was emailed from domain uswest.net)
Minneapolis,Hennepin,MN
$48 per month
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I have been using US West.net for DSL and ISP for over nine months and have experienced excellent service and quality tech problem solving and support. I had read such negative reviews on DSL reports about US West but am glad that I went with them anyway. Last week I received a letter from the new owner Qwest telling me that my 256/256 service has been increased to 640/256 for no extra charge. I use the internet quite a bit and am extremely pleased with US West/Qwest.
Malcolm LeFever
malcolmlefever@uswest.net
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 9.2 years ago
(review was emailed from domain cibs.sns.it)
Iowa City,Johnson,IA
$40 per month (12 month contract)
"Good things come to those who wait"
"and wait, and wait, and wait."
"If these guys have the neighborhood DSL racket, consider cable."
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Ok, so I've just moved back in the country and I need to make a broadband decision. DSL seems the best way to go, and USWest (now part of QWest) is offering it in my neighborhood. So I log in here and the only negative posts I
could find related to USWest/Qwest are of the semiliterate "It sucks"
variety, with a few "My poor line quality gives me slow speed" and "I hate having to select both a DSL hookup (Megabit) and an ISP (USWest/Qwest)" comments mixed in. In other words, the only ones upset have user-related issues. So I decide to give them a shot for residential RADSL service. Problem is, I don't have any feasible internet connection (this is being written in the office, on a first-generation power mac shared by 22 people), so time is important.
Early on August 21, I called USWest to have the phone service turned on in
my new apartment. Having learned from some online broadband finder that
my apt. was about half a mile out, I inquired about DSL service. After
about five minutes, I was told "We'll have to activate your phone line
before we can find out. We'll call you on Wednesday or Thursday."
Thursday I call them. Yes, DSL is available (and the person I talked to on Monday evidently could have determined it), but due to capacity issues, their ISP side can only sell me a connection that kicks you off after two
hours. Rumor has it additional capacity will be available "around
Septmber 15", but the free hardware and installation promotions end with
August.
So I sign up, and they schedule me to go live on September 5.
On Friday, September 1, I receive a note from Qwest Megabit informing me
that if I haven't received my hardware (DSL modem and microfilters so I
can use the phone) by 3 business days before installation, to call a
number.
Factoring in the holiday, I call the number immediately. And get a
machine. No, not some customer service machine, more like a fax or a
modem. I call the general support number, and after wading through
options and waiting ten minutes, I get forwarded to the appropriate
person.
45 minutes and three loads of dishes later, someone answers.
"The hardware hasn't been shipped yet. I'll see if I can get them to
expedite that for you."
The next day the software arrives, along with some handy documentation of
an uncertain date (It contains one future-tense reference to 4th quarter
1998, and one to July 1998).
September 5, and the hardware's not there. No problem. They call in the
afternoon and leave a message: "Hello, this is Nathan from Megabit. We're
putting your installation on hold because we don't have the capacity at
our central offices. If you have any questions please call us."
So, they wait two weeks, to the DAY of installation, to tell me that they are unable to hook me up, and they have no guess on when they'll have the space.
This time it only takes half an hour to reach someone, but then it's
another 25 minutes to cancel my order.
I dunno folks, maybe it's just that everybody is sitting around spinning sweaters waiting for the post-merger axe to fall. On the other hand, it could be that I'm dealing with one company that's so far behind the expansion of the industry they'll never acquire the hardware and personnel to catch up. I'm willing to bend some, but frankly, if it takes the guy who's supposed to turn on the connection to realize they're impossibly oversubscribed and don't have the capacity, who's running the network?
Time to try ATT@home
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Review by southwest
Posted: 9.2 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 76 visits, last login: 6 years ago
Tucson,Pima,AZ
$19 per month (month by month)
about 17 days
"ease of instalation, tech wait time has improved from 1hr plus to 2-5 min."
"inability to transfer from tier one tech to people with real knowledge when needed"
"Can't beat the price"
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Have had a bit of problems but am satisfied overall. Some problems are ongoing. I origionally went with uswest megabit and uswest.net as an ISP because they are the same company and the price was competive. The problem is they are really separate entities and uswest.net points the finger at megabit, and megabit points the finger at uswest.net, and I'm in the middle with 15 or more trouble case tickets. Uswest.net writes them and megabit says everything is fine and dismisses them. This is a pattern. All the basics have been done, I even ran a dedicated phone line to the computer. I refuse to do the basic tier one support level checks when I call in, I know it's not my micro-filter. I know my line quality is adequate, they've tested it from the house.
Cost: $19.99 month to month 256, limit two hours (log off before 10 minute notice, and log right back on, kicked off once for time and tried again 7min. later and was back on), ISP uswest.net $17.99 Month to Month service and a Free Intel(R) 2100 PRO/DSL internal PCI modem, and 70 or 80 dollar connection charge they don't tell you about until the end.
They show connection of 640dwn, 272up. Test show real downloads of 550-640, and I've achieved 232up. Line quality here is only 18db.
Original connection trouble was someone at megabit forgot to turn it on according to uswest.net, they just need to "throw a switch". Several hours of phone time to accomplish this.
Modem disconnects, driver has been upgraded, but doesn't solve the problem.
The ongoing problem I talked about concerns the Intel(R) PRO/DSL modem and modem Connection Manager. The Connection Manager has crashed the computer on several occasions, on a current AMD Athelon 850 fully loaded, and on a bare bones Intel 200MMX.
I also have trouble with RS Corrected statistic it can climb to over 200,000 in an hour, while RS Uncorrected remains below 40. This is an intermitant problem and I have been unable to determine a pattern or cause. Performance suffers drastically when this occurs. Of course everytime someone from Megabit calls on the trouble ticket, it doesn't occur and they declare everything is fine. This has been going on for almost two months.
I love the cost, I love the service when it works, I enjoy downloads double what's promised. I'll also swith to @home and pay more if this problem doesn't get resolved in the next month.
I've posted questions on your website, I'm hoping it will help. Uswest hasn't, but again it all comes down to price. You get what you pay for, and I'm getting what I'm paying for. My time on the other hand may deserve a higher priced service.
PPPoE, dynamic IP, but has been the same since first used. Technical support has gotten better (wait time that is), support for serious problems is still lacking. If I could get a real techi on the phone looking at my account while the problem was occuring, I'm sure it could be fixed in a matter of minutes. Haven't tweaked reg yet bcs. speed is ok and I don't want to waste the time on a borrowed system. New system is coming piece by piece will let you know how it goes together.
Order to turn on - 2 weeks, modem arrived in 3 days.
9/6/00 Received post from dsl rep. who had me turn default transmit power down, I was only able to turn it down to -.03db, but my line qulity went from 18db to 21db, even hit 28 once. My RS Corrected numbers haven't climbed since change was made, will keep posted.
Also tweak reg. to 65538, only test was run during busy time 5:30pm, will run test later to see if actual speed increased. Had to edit reg. by hand, dslreports little regedit program wouldn't run on my machine. CRC Errors seem higher since tweak.
Jerome
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Review by rmccall0
Posted: 9.2 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 16 visits, last login: 6 years ago
Albuquerque,Bernalillo,NM
$60 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
"Installed when promised"
"Expensive and could not set-up Lan without spending more for a hub"
"Hope cost comes down, but is worth it due to speed and having phone back"
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One word of caution, if planning on using on a Lan, you must use a hub and their Cisco 675 external modem/router. I attempted to use 2 NIC's in one computer and a crossover cable to the other computer with Microsoft Internet Connection Sharing software. IT WILL NOT WORK! Spend the money and buy a hub. The 2 Nic's won't work or so MS says if your ISP is using PPoE which is what USWEST is using here in Albuquerque, because it can't see the NIC card for the LAN. Take my word for it. One other word, their instructtions were wrong regarding the TCP/IP settings, You have to enable DNS and put the DNS numbers in yourself or you will not connect. But one 15 min.call to tech support fixed this problem. The cost is too much, but have to have it. Cost breakdown $30 DSL line (on all the time), 17.95 Uswest ISP service. External Modem $14 ($150) up front.
Ron McCall
Deluxe 256/256K $29.95
Self-installed
Cisco 675 modem/router and NIC card Phone line filters
Speed is great (tested at DSL reports 222 up/ 533 down)
Tech support is adequate?
See Notes above.
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Review by b0i
Posted: 9.3 years ago
member for 9.3 years, 28 visits, last login: 2.1 years ago
Corvallis,Benton,OR
$47 per month (month by month)
"Get for more than i pay for, everything smooth since the day i ordered"
"it's expensive, isp is not included (have to pay extra) my upload is lower than advertized."
"Although i do get more than i pay for (in download), USWEST is money grubbing, and they have to give the lowest speed they can."
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From day 1, it was smooth, my dsl has crashed one time, the problem unknown. After a call to uswest, who really didn't help too much, i had to reinstall everything. When i did so, it worked just like new. My download is actually faster ** Speed 456(down)/227(up) kbps ** than what i pay for, although my upload speed is a little slower. 256/256. USWEST should quit trying to get as much money as they can, and lower their prices, i think i should get more than 256 for my total monthly cost of almost 50 dollars. For all of you who don't care about the money, DSL is the best thing that's ever happened to my computer.
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Review by rickpdx
Posted: 9.3 years ago
member for 9.3 years, 23 visits, last login: 8.4 years ago
Portland,Multnomah,OR
$48 per month
"Great if you can be easily installed so they don't have to hassle with you."
"Unbelievably poor customer service"
"Stay away! US West is expensive and not worth the nightmare."
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Ordered US West 256k Deluxe for $48.95 per month on month to month contract.
Equipment was Cisco 605 internal PCI ADSL modem that connected at 272Kbps down/256Kbps up, dynamic IP but almost always the same.
I first ordered US West DSL in August 1999. They promised a delivery date of Sept 14, 1999. They called me two days before that date and informed me that my installation was "indefinitely postponed," but that they were not charging me. On the morning of Saturday, October 9, 1999, my installation package including the Cisco 605 internal ADSL modem mysteriously arrived on my doorstep. I installed it myself easily and was instantly online at good connection and the promised speed. I contacted US West to find out that my installation had taken place on September 14th and that they had been charging me from that date. This was the beginning of my nightmares with US West's billing department.
In January, I informed US West that I was moving to a new house in the same area and CO. I asked them beforehand if DSL would be available and that I needed to know if it would not be, because if it was not, then I would not move into that house. They informed me that DSL was, indeed, available. So I made the move.
DSL was not available in that house. It was within the proper distance to the CO (I was told 11,000 feet) and that CO was DSL ready. In fact, US West insisted that I had DSL on my line and charged me every month for it despite my complaints that I could not get a connection. Every time I called Tech Support, who was very helpful I must add, they would check my line and discover that I had no signal. But customer service and billing would insist that I had DSL. Although they would credit the charge back to me each month for the 6 months that this went on, they were extremely rude. Usually I would spend hours on hold only to be switched from one department to another and from one incompetent, rude, and arrogant employee to another. Each month I was promised that the matter would be fixed. Each month I used their dial-up service at an average speed of 31.2Kpbs. They promised to get repair out to fix my line for months. Only once did I ever get a phone call from repair: to let me know that they were canceling an appointment that I didn't even know existed. They NEVER returned a single phone call that I made to them, even though once I let weeks go by before I called them back. On and on this comedy of errors went.
Finally, in July, an AT&T@Home commercial on the radio informed me that their cable internet service was finally available in my area. Now, as a DSL user, I had heard all the nightmares about cable and was very leery. But I called them up, desperate for broadband, and they came out to my house and installed the setup, for no installation charges, the very next day, gave me two months free and it only costs $39.95 per month, $9.00 per month less than US West 256K DSL. On top of that, I connect at an average speed of 3Mbps, or 3000Kbps, more than 10 times faster than US West DSL. Anyone interested can email me their request to see screenshots of my bandwidth test at www.2wire.com made at 4pm on a Friday afternoon.
What happened with my nightmare with US West, you say? It continues. After getting cable, I called them up immediately and cancelled all my internet related services with them. I have called back three more times and sent them a letter canceling my internet services with them. However, they continue to bill me for it. At this point, I am considering hiring an attorney and making complaints of phone slamming. If it wasn't for the fact that I need to use a fax machine in my house, I would cancel all my phone services with them altogether and use my cell phone for my personal calls.
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U S WEST
