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Review by dougpanter 
member for 8.7 years, 70 visits, last login: 3.5 years ago
updated 4.3 years ago
 Beaumont,Riverside,CA
 $33 per month- (month by month)
 about 2 days Verizon "Unbeatable customer service---LIVE---" "Verizon problems" "Generally very good"
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Speed 1500/384 tested usually at 1300+/360+ 33.16 per month on month to month basis.
Most downtime problems have been due to Verizon, not Surfcity.
My last problem though was my Westell modem supplied by Surfcity. Failed after several years of operation, new modem fixed the problem..
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Review by mbstone
member for 5 years, 7 visits, last login: 2.1 years ago
lodged 5 years ago
- Long Beach,Los Angeles,CA
- $50 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 5 days
- Verizon (ex GTE)
- "When it works, it works really well, and support is great if you can reach them"
- "It doesn't always work well, and you can't often reach them"
- "At least it's not Verizon"
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I originally signed up for Verizon, my ILEC. But they never sent a modem, and the support rep could not speak English well enough to understand that I did not have a modem. So I cancelled Verizon and signed up for Surfcity, a reseller of Verizon DSL, in essence $20 extra per month not to have to talk to India. Surfcity sent me this dirty, cruddy used DSL modem -- if you are going to ship used equipment to customers, use some Ajax (and I'm not talking asynchronous JavaScript). But the service does work well, and their tech support is local and friendly. The bad news is that most of the time support calls are answered by voice mail, and the service does go down some of the time (like right now). I assume someone will call me back someday.
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 Review by jdmurray
member for 11.2 years, 855 visits, last login: 40 days ago
updated 5.8 years ago
- Huntington Beach,Orange,CA
- $33 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 8 days
- Verizon (ex GTE)
- CLEC party: Verizon (ex GTE)
- "Cheap, fast, reliable, great tech support"
- "Minor and rare connectivity problems"
- "I'm very happy with SurfCity Networks"
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I have had an extremely good experience with my new ISP, SurfCity Networks, and I wish to use this forum to extol their virtues and to document my own broadband saga.
I am one of the Flashcom casualties. I am located in Huntington Beach, California --the home of both Flashcom and SurfCity Networks. Flashcom's GTE DSL subscribers (about 2000 of us) were some of the last Flashcom customers to be offered an ISP switch option, and only days before Flashcom went dark (at 21:00 PDT on April 15, 2001). The only switch option offered was to an ISP that had literally appeared out of nowhere, with no reports or recommendations anywhere on the Internet (except on their own web page), including on dslreports.com. This did not make me feel very good at all.
I first attempted a switch over to Speakeasy, but after three weeks of going around and around with them, they finally informed me that they only accepted customers with Covad DSL (I wish Speakeasy had that priceless piece of information on their switch form). Next, I did briefly consider looking into other broadband options (e.g., cable), but I already had an operational GTE (Verizon) DSL circuit installed in my residence and decided to stay with it.
After an exhaustive search through dslreports.com, I concluded that SurfCity Networks would be my best possible choice--and boy was I correct! I signed up for the same service I had with Flashcom (Bronze Plus, 768/128Kbps). Flashcom's servers had very good response on my end, and I do not notice any reduction in speed or quality of service with SurfCity's servers. On-line games, such as Quake III, Diablo II, Half-life, and Team Fortress Classic run as well as before.
The only real differences I've noticed so far is that there are many more newsgroups available from SurfCity than at Flashcom (I do not know which USENET news service they subscribe to), and also I pay about $6 less per month at SurfCity. I was also able to reuse my Fujitsu (Orckit OEM) DSL modem that was orphaned by Flashcom. And, unlike with Speakeasy, I did not need to give a credit card number in order to open an account. I instead receive a paper invoice snailed to me each month and pay by check (few things are scarier than realizing a bankrupt company has your credit card number!).
One big bonuses of joining SurfCity Networks is their friendly, helpful, and easily reachable technical support. Their email response time is excellent and I've never been put on hold when calling in. My tech support dealings have been strictly with Rosemary and she's great! One thing Rosemary helped me iron out is why Verizon didn't release my DSL circuit when Flashcom went dark. It turns out that when Verizon processed my disconnect order they tried to send it through as a 'switchover rather than as a "cancel and new order", which would not work in my case. She contacted the proper people (Verizon DSL support at 888-391-1234) and got my circuit released immediately. (To their credit, Verizon had my new circuit up two days earlier than promised.) Rosemary also got me all the info I needed to reconfigure my Linux server and Win98 hosts ahead of time. Once my DSL modem was green/green/green again I was up almost immediately (although RedHat 6.2 required a reboot).
If I had to grumble about anything it's that I couldn't get a free static IP address from SurfCity on the Bronze Plus package like I had from Flashcom (static IP's aren't a cost-effective thing to give away, I was told). It's not a big deal, as I hope to upgrade to the Gold package next year, which has a free static IP.
Historically, Flashcom served me well for the 20 or so months I was with them. Yes, they had long waits on the phone to speak with a CSR, but I only needed to call in to complain about their billing. In fact, it was Flashcom's frequent inability to conduct proper billing (or any billing at all) that finally did them in. Reports that they could not get enough customers, or that they charged too little for their services, do not seem true. Flashcom knew the importance of advertising, but not of managing proper cash flow.
Long live SurfCity Networks!
The following is an update posted on 03 Sep 2003:
I've been with SurfCity Networks for a little over two years now and I've had no real problems with them. My only outages have been Verizon's doings, and those have been very few. I upgraded to 1500/128, and with Verizon's new charges for their OC-12, I pay around $62.50US for a static IP and (almost) all of the Internet service I can eat.
I say almost because I did hit a hidden threshold on SurfCity's router that slapped an upstream speed cap on me without warning. Their tech support cleared the cap for me no problem, and I promised to reduce my upstream traffic significantly (which I have by 60%). SurfCity has no posted warnings or guidelines for upstream bandwidth usage, so it's anybody's guess when their router's threshold will be tweaked and I'll be unexpectedly capped again.
Upstream caps are becoming more common-place these days, so I'll deal with it when it happens.
The following is an update posted on 18 May 2004:
In early May 2004 I read an article on dslreports.com that Verizon was now offering a new 1500/384 service at the same cost as their current 1500/128 service. I quickly emailed Rosemary at SurfCity and enquired if they were going to offer the same upgrade to their service. To my delight, Rosemary informed me that since I was a long-time SurfCity customer--and the first to mention the new service from Verizon DSL--they would upgrade me to the new DSL speed package for free and give me the introductory monthly pricing as well! I now have triple the upstream bandwidth (average 353Kbps) for $10US less a month!!
I know I've said this before, but it's worth repeating:
Long live SurfCity Networks!
The following is an update posted on 30 July 2006:
With all of the recent issues occurring with SurfCity due to extensive problems with SBC and Level3, I felt it necessary to update my review. I have one-year contract with SurfCity for 1.5/384 DSL InfoSpeed service using Verizon DSL (not Frame Relay) and for $33US/month. I do not use VoIP or any other extra services, but I do rely on 24/7 uptime.
Yes, there have been connectivity and uptime problems occurring for some SurfCity customer for the past few months, and especially in mid-July. However, most of these problem are not directly SurfCity's fault. If anything, a small ISP can be blamed mostly for not having redundant systems to provide hot fail-over when faults occur. This is not due to poor business management or technological incompetence, but instead due to the lack of financial resources, partly incurred by the need to offer competitive pricing and features to attract customers.
I have been with SurfCity for five years now, and I can say that many of the connectivity problems SurfCity customers will face will also affect the customers of other ISPs at the same time as well. NSPs botching router firmware updates, screwed-up ATM network configurations, backhoes operated by 6th-grade educations, etc. Hardly SurfCity's fault.
Are there problems which will occur that are directly attributable to SurfCity? Most assuredly so. I'm sure that there is an occasional billing problem, or inefficiencies on their Web site that should be corrected, just as with all other ISPs. However, in my personal experience, SurfCity has far exceeded the service and expectations I've experienced with any other ISP since I first signed on to the Internet using UUNET back in 1988. SurfCity is not going anywhere, and I'm certainly staying.
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Review by longbeachDSL
member for 7.6 years, 9 visits, last login: 3.6 years ago
updated 6.2 years ago
- Long Beach,Los Angeles,CA
- $68 per month
- about 5 days
- Verizon
- "They used to be wonderful"
- "Constant outages since March"
- "I'm looking for a new ISP"
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It is with great sadness that I'm going to be saying goodbye to Surfcity. They have been a great ISP for the past 5 years, however, the constant outages and hiccups since March have made their service all but unusable. Today, service has been down since we got up this morning at 6 am. It is now 6 pm. Twelve hours. We have been calling all day, trying to get some information, ANY information, and all we get is a busy signal on their line. Their web site is down, which means our website and email which is hosted with them is down. I can't even reach my business email via dial up. The very least they could do is put a message on the phone line telling people what is going on and to stand by for more information.
Update 2/4 - needless to say, I stayed with Surfcity through their crisis of last summer. Now, however, a new crisis has finally done me in. Email servers have been down since 2/1 - try and run a business when all your clients emails get kicked back... This is the last straw, really. Unbelievable.
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Review by murkyin01
member for 10.5 years, 37 visits, last login: 1 year ago
updated 6.5 years ago
- Hacienda Heights,Los Angeles,CA
- $23 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 3 days
- Verizon (ex GTE)
- CLEC party: Verizon (ex GTE)
- "Real live person, friendly, technically knowledgeable"
- "none yet"
- "Not the cheapest, but a comfortable feeling"
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Did a switch from another ISP to SurfCity. Sign-up was a breeze on-line. I am on the fringe so I knew I was only going to get 768/128. Zero sign-up costs since I was using same modem from before. Called to ask a few questions before choosing and received very friendly and knowledgable person. Disconnect happened on Monday and link light back on Thursday. Their email notifitication said the schedule was for a connection on the following Monday but I will not complain that it actually happened 4 days earlier.
Lost service today but called it in and left a voicemail message. Got a call back within 5 minutes that my line was good and my router probably needed to be rebooted. Worked like a charm and everything is OK again. In fact, each time I have called I have talked to the same person and she seems to remember me. How about that! Would recommend this ISP to anyone looking for quality and a personal touch.
Update 11/4/05
My contract came up so I had to consider whether I wanted to renew or find another better ISP. I called CS to see what the new rates were and they were cheaper than before but not lower than other companies. After considering all the options, I decided to renew with SurfCity. The next day the same CS person called me back and asked if I would like to get an unpublished lower rate since my line was restricted to 768/128. I think that is smart business considerate customer service. I think I will be happy for the next 12 months with SurfCity.
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Review by robherz
member for 10.9 years, 112 visits, last login: 56 days ago
lodged 6.7 years ago
- Pacific Palisades,Los Angeles,CA
- $38 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 7 days
- Verizon (ex GTE)
- "Pleasant on the phone (when you can reach them)"
- "Terrible treatment of customers during major outage"
- "Does the company have a death wish, or what??"
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I've had SurfCity for a year. I went with their service due to strong reviews and a desire to avoid the huge ISPs (already had Earthlink....). Despite the fact they were a bit more expensive than Verizon, offered NO initial 30-day satisfaction guarantee, and have no real 24-hour support (or even a way of checking system status online).
Initially I had configuration problems that took a couple hours on the phone with both SurfCity and Verizon. Apparently due to miscommunication between them; don't know whose fault this was.
Everthing was pretty smooth and reliable for about 8 months. Then, with no configuration changes on my end, I started losing connectivity several times a day. I would have to repeatedly power-cycle my modem and/or router. I tried a different router but had exactly the same problem.
Then, they had their complete outage for a day or two. And they were completely unreachable by phone, apparently because their phone lines all used VOIP with the same provider (how stupid is that??). They didn't make any effort to contact customers (go to Starbucks with an email list on a laptop and send out a mass email? Temporarily transfer their website to another ISP? Post some info here on Broadband Reports? Be resourceful and creative? etc. etc.).
This was a totally unacceptable and suicidal way to treat their customers. I would have given them a second chance, however, if they had done a better job of communicating with us after the problem was resolved. But there was no direct communication with customers, no offer of any credit, etc.
I signed up for VOL on their website and my new DSL was up and running at 3000/768 in 4 days for less than I was paying for 1500/350 at SurfCity. It's been rock-steady, and my experiences with tech support (so far) have been very good. And I can reach them in the middle of the night!
I sent SurfCity an email requesting a cancellation of my account at the end of my 1-year term this month. I got no response. 10 days later, I sent another email and got a standardized reply (still no personal response, e.g., sorry to lose you--is there anything we can do?). The reply had a URL to visit to confirm my cancellation. So far, it hasn't worked....
Sorry, Surf dudes, but I run a business, I don't have time for these problems, and I know how to treat customers if you want to stay in business. Apparently, you don't.
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Review by tnixon
member for 10.3 years, 49 visits, last login: 353 days ago
lodged 6.8 years ago
- Redondo Beach,Los Angeles,CA
- Contract price not specified.
- (12 month contract)
- Verizon
- "Excellent Customer Support and Service"
- "Just a Great ISP...they look after their customers"
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Surfcity Networks is a Great ISP located in Huntington Beach, CA. They have excellent customer support, which has been great when having to resolve issues with the major Telcos.
There has been some issues related to the SBC backbone that are currently being resolved.
The tech support and customer service has worked with us to resolve all of our connection problems.
Keep up the Great Job Surfcity Networks.
Tom Nixon
Redondo Beach, CA
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Review by jlk8
member for 10.4 years, 23 visits, last login: 4.8 years ago
lodged 6.8 years ago
- Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA
- Contract price not specified.
- Verizon
- "Long term reliability - Exceptionally good customer service"
- "Reliance on flaky SBC fiber connection"
- "Best...and with a plan to get better."
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Gang:
I drove down to their office this morning (still during the outage) to get the straight talk.
Here's what really happened, according to Rosemary Saylor, regarding the 28 hour outage that ended today.
The service went out at 6:11 a.m. PDT on 6/13, and was restored at 10:41 a.m. today.
I'll start by providing you with a verbatim copy of the letter text they were handing out to those of us showing up at the front door today:
==========================
July 14, 2005
Dear Customer,
Our main fiber circuit via SBC, which has given us all so much trouble over the past several weeks, was brought down ysterday morning by SBC. Either this was a mistake due to their gross incompetence or it was in retaliation for our legal demands that they repair the circuit. We don't know at this point.
What we do know is that SBC is working to re-establish the circuit at this time. We don't yet have a time frame for recovery but hope that it will be today.
Unfortunately our phone system is tied to this circuit so we are unable to answer your calls until the circuit is re-established. Beginning next week our phones will be isolated from the internet circuit so this should not be a problem in the future.
Regards,
Your Account Team
SurfCity Networks
========================================
Rosemary told me that they're waiting on Verizon to install a new fiber to their data center so that can get off of the SBC circuit. Until that happens, however, they're (we're) subject to any SBC problems that might crop up.
Now you know the full story as seen from the SCN perspective.
I've been with SurfCity for over 4 1/2 years now. We have two DSLs at different locations in the Los Angeles area. They are a service-focused ISP that beats anything I've ever known.
This glitch is sad since they have had such an amazing record of way-above-good customer service. Look at their reviews here on BBR and you'll get the flavor of how good they are.
I'm a solid supporter of Dave and Rosemary Saylor, Julie Mickle, and the others at SCN.
Jonathan Kramer
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Review by CheapDate
member for 8 years, 2 visits, last login: 4.7 years ago
lodged 6.8 years ago
- Long Beach,Los Angeles,CA
- Contract price not specified.
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July 14, 2005-11a.m.
Surfcity is back on line! I've been with them for 5 years and I sincerely hope that Rosemary and David haven't alienated their customer base by the most recent outage!
I'm not planning a change anytime soon. Surfcity has, overall, been excellent. I view the most recent connectivity issues as minor glitches. I hope the 24 hour plus outage was part of major surgery to correct the connectivity issues.
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Review by Mico
member for 7 years, 1 visits, last login: 6.8 years ago
lodged 6.8 years ago
- Manhattan Beach,Los Angeles,CA
- $60 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 25 days
- Verizon
- "None"
- "Constant Downtime"
- "Good when it works"
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They were ruined by SBC. I now feel bad for SurfCity. Nice people, but seems like there is some communications issues going on aside just their lines. This last outage was for over 2 days. At the least a non disconnected line with a message would be nice, or an email.
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