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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 25 days ago
 New York,New York,NY
 Contract price not specified.  "Speakeasy used to be great" "Megapath is wretched" "Stay away from Megapath, Speakeasy doesn't exist anymore"
| Tech Support:
(ratings below consensus)
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Terrible.
We used to have Speakeasy, which was great -- rock solid, excellent service.
At some point we decided to cancel our service and switch to ATT because we
could get much higher speeds. Some months later a collection notice shows
up from a lawyer in Tampa FL claiming there is an outstanding amount from
speakeasy/megapath. We NEVER received an sort of bill from them.
Tried to call three times but there were long hold times. The third time I
had enough time to hold on and get through, and the guy claimed that they
had no information on our account, we had to talk to the collection agency,
they had all the information. He didn't even try to look up the
information, he just stonewalled, which is infuriating.
Megapath gets 0 stars for service if possible. Speakeasy is dead, they're
just using (abusing) the name and squandering the trust and goodwill they
built up.
Comments:
 tkdslr
join:2004-04-24
Pompano Beach, FL | RE: Collection notice from Megapath.. Don't ignore it... Demand written proof of the debt owed.
At no time do you ever admit to owed debt. | |
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Review by espertus 
member for 11 years, 32 visits, last login: 87 days ago
updated 87 days ago
- San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
- $109 per month
 about 20 days Covad- "Cheaper than XO for same service (384 SDSL)"
- "ISP switch was painful, long hold times"
- "Getting started with them is a hassle"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I decided to switch from XO (formerly Concentric) because their customer service and prices were awful. I chose Speakeasy because of its lower price and good reviews for customer service. The customer service is not good. I spent over an hour on hold one time to speak to a tech support person who couldn't help me. The ISP switch was supposed to be painless but most definitely was not. I don't regret switching but wish I'd been better prepared for a multi-day downage.
UPDATE YEARS LATER (2011): I had a >2-week outage recently and spent hours on hold, while the blame was passed from agency to agency. I had to explicitly request a partial refund for the time without service; it's not automatically given. My online tickets were not responded to promptly, as they used to be before the MegaPath purchase of Speakeasy. Furthermore, they incorrectly billed me $150 for a technician call. I'm on hold yet once again trying to get that charge removed.
After that, I'm switching to sonic.net.
Comments:
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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain lbservice.com)
lodged 110 days ago
- Pikesville,Baltimore,MD
- $171 per month
- (24 month contract)
- Verizon
- "Service very bad, hideing from a issue."
| Pre Sales information:
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Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Since Friday afternoon, I cannot connect with any user in my isp provided
class c wan public addresses.
IE: 66.92.46.1-255
I can connect from Comcast or Verizon but cannot connect to any ip address
with the octets 66.92.46.***
There is a problem that Megapath refuses to even look at. So I have no
choice but to go back to Verizon.
Comments:
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Review by Mino Taoyama
member for 8.8 years, 3094 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 136 days ago
- San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
- Contract price not specified.
- "Reliable service."
- "Cost a bit more. Support and terms went downhill."
- "Speakeasy was great. Megapath brought them down."
| Pre Sales information:
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Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
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(ratings match consensus)
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The line quality was good but after the Megapath merger support and terms went downhill. I was a customer for over a decade and I wanted to make a change. They wanted a one year contract. Not the way to treat a loyal customer. I remember the good old days when Kat was in the forums here.
Comments:
| | Service has gone to shit I agree. I, too, have been Speakeasy customer for over a decade. Once Megapath took over, my trouble tickets get ignored. Customer Service Reps spout technical bullshit (I'm a professional network engineer so I know when they're trying to snow me). And when they get called on it, they suddenly ignore me.  | |
| | | | Re: Service has gone to shit Performance seemed to go down the toilet after I was cut over to Covad links (at least the reverse lookups indicate it's covad stuff) -- I dropped from regular 1.48mb/s to 650kb/s service.
Calling them up on it, I get some burned out tech stating "well, the line tests clear".
I miss the old "chit chat" I'd have with service personnel, who weren't stumped when I was working from an OS that didn't have a "start menu" nor an "apple".
Right now checking out Verizon FIOS service; which gets good reviews. Honestly, though, after being a VZ customer (largely without choice) for 30 years, I'm very wary of giving them any business. Even VZ's ordering page is shafting me; but I definitely don't want to go the cable route. | |
| | | | Service support has certainly gone downhill since the merger. Wait times have gone from a few minutes to 25 or even 50 minutes. Ticket will stay open forever unless you call back to get status. If you get an ex-covad guy on the phone you are lucky and may get help. Otherwise, you are likely to get a helpless script reader that cannot understand any technical network issues; She would log the ticket and hang up. | |
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Review by paulwermer
member for 138 days, 3 visits, last login: 123 days ago
lodged 138 days ago
- San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
- $142 per month
- "reliable connection"
- "customer service; E-mail blocked by other services"
- "Doesn;t want small customers any more- Just MEGA ones"
| Connection reliability:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Some years back, I switched from ATT Worldnet to Speakeasy - and life (at least Internet life) was good
Then I started finding my e-mail to folks with Hotmail, Yahoo, Comcast blocked
and this is now getting worse. They do not provide accurate information on System status, and they do not try to notify customers when mail servers are blocked (it's only a few blocked servers try sending it again"
Then I discovered my VOIP service blocks some area code/prefix combinations - for good reason, but finding the info is hard. The initial customer service response was classic bafflegab, not taking the time to give me real information.
The previously reliable customer service (esp out of normal working hours) has dropped significantly - excessive hold times, bad connections (over their VOIP), bad phone tree.
And the Upload/download speed is not guaranteed; not a minimum, it's a maximum
I realize other major ISPs are no better - but I can get equally bad service for a lot less money.
Comments:
gariac
join:2004-01-30
Fremont, CA | Megapath tech support I was on the phone to Megapath tech support today from 4PM to 4:45PM. Well not really on the phone, but on hold. I gave up after 45 minutes.
My question? Have you started some port blocking. Speakeasy was simple. They didn't block anything. All I want to know is if Megapath changed this. The UMA on my phone no longer works. I spent hours hacking it, then drove to a hotspot to only to find it does work. Argh! | |
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 Review by Kambriel
member for 11 years, 1405 visits, last login: 16 days ago
updated 154 days ago
- North Arlington,Bergen,NJ
- $85 per month
- about 27 days
- Verizon
- "Not Verizon. This is a real ISP. Decent value, depending on your needs."
- "Bandwidth caps on the newsgroups. Unacceptable hold times for techs during normal business hours and evenings.."
- "It's far better than Verizon"
| Pre Sales information:
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What started out like a racehorse is now running like a snail during peak hours. I am just at 10000 feet from the main office and was getting above my 1500/384 performance for the first week or two in January 2001. Speakeasy has been reporting congestion issues on the NY POP, but have blamed "a few users" who are using full bandwidth 24x7 for the slow down in the area. If a few users can take down an entire region, what does that say about that ISPs ability to manage and cover that region?
In all fairness, I am waiting to see the results of the upcoming upgrade proposed by Speakeasy to the NY POP before I start calling to complain like a madman. I'm paying for the speed I want and I'm not near the max I was told I can get in my area. They would happily get my monthly fee if they provided what I was paying for in the first place. To never interface with anyone other than the billing department after an install is my idea of a perfect ISP.
My interaction with the billing department has been horrific. My original order was for 2 IP addresses and 3 e-mail accounts (including the 2 offered in my speed package). I followed the FAQ on their site for my request to have the additional e-mail addresses created and sent an e-mail to them with the two names I wanted along with alternates. I was lucky to get the two additional e-mail addresses I wanted, but they created 5 accounts... using a couple of the alternates as well as my first choices. I spoke to tech twice about this and billing once (a second time via e-mail). They were billing me for the extra e-mail accounts even after tech claimed they removed them. I have still yet to get a credit on my account for the charges they imposed for those extra e-mail addresses.
However, my insult to injury story is when I finally managed to get through to a tech to report the speed drop. I told the tech that my download speeds were great a few days before on the newsgroups and on the web/ftp. As soon as he heard "newsgroups" I started getting a lecture about how newsgroups are a haven for pornographers and warez distributors and were not designed to transfer files. Okay... I didn't need to hear your personal politics but what about the speed drop? He went on to say that they cap the bandwidth to 20kbps to their newsgroup servers. Hello? Where the hell was this in the TOS? I was told that I was lucky that I was getting between 10kbps and 17kbps from the newsgroups. Newsgroups weren't designed to transfer files? That tech better talk to all those alt.binaries moderator/admins. 
Getting back to the performance issue, while I'm getting near 56k modem speed on the download during peak hours (ie. all evening), my upload speed has never dropped below 324. The upload speed is the only part of my service that has been consistently in the realm of acceptability.
Right now they are in the middle of the road since I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt until the upgrade to the NY area is complete.
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Update: May 03, 2001.
A lazy Verizon installer stole my second pair that is tagged as a Covad circuit to give a person living in the basement a normal phone. I was out of service for nine days! It took Covad 6 days to get out here to find out what the problem was and then another day before Verizon showed up to correct it. The Covad rep was the same rep who did my install and he was a great guy. He explained what was wrong and why he couldn't do anything about it, but said that Verizon had to fix it. Verizon people are hit and miss - there is no middle ground with their staff. Luckily, the Verizon tech who came out was one of the good ones and within two hours fixed the lines. My speed is back up to the low end of acceptable. However, after I called Speakeasy to report that this problem was corrected but that the speed was off... I then find out another revelation: RADSL speeds have to drop below 128/64 before Covad (the CLEC) will do anything about a problem REGARDLESS of what your speed package is. I'm paying for 1500/384 and my download speeds have fluctuated greatly since my install, though the upload speed remains consistent.
In Speakeasy's defense, I will say that since the Boston POP went live about a month ago things have been better and now they are almost ready to bring the Washington, DC POP into service. This should address the remainder of my speed issues. However, I'm still waiting to hear about the installation of those DS-3 lines their CEO mentioned in his monthly e-mail to the users back in February/March. Also, I was able to get through to their billing and tech support departments within 30 minutes each. In fact, I spent a record 60 seconds getting through to level 1 support to report my problem closed (however, the level 1 tech had to put me through to level 2 support and that took 20 minutes).
I'm waiting to see what kind of credit I get for an outage that spanned nine days. Things are improving with Speakeasy, but I'm not going to be a fully satisfied customer until they go a bit further. Look for an update to this review within the next two months.
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Update several years later....
As I'm writing this, Speakeasy is essentially a memory as they were bought by MegaPath. If you are reading this, believe the other reviews and comments in the Speakeasy forum here on DSLReports.com. I've only had mail and news services with Speakeasy for the past 8 years and that was only because I couldn't get their service in Florida, but now I'm glad I don't have their service. As soon as I can figure out how many accounts were tied to my Speakeasy address and change them (and my son and wife will need to do the same), I will be dropping them.
Comments:
| | dial-up? cant you convert your account to dial-up still to keep the email addys until you convert? | |
| | | | When is this purported upgrade? About 2 weeks ago I suddenly dropped from ~1.48M down to ~650K downloads, and upload has gone into the toilet as well.
I've been shopping at Verizon FIOS *business* service (hoping I'll miss port blocking) -- but I'm not overeager to get involved with Verizon unless I have to .... | |
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Review by donfede
(review was emailed from domain casagrau.org)
lodged 163 days ago
- Bethesda,Montgomery,MD
- $84 per month
- "I used speakeasy for over a half decade with no problems."
- "After the recent speakeasy 3-way merger with Covad a Megapath, I have found their service to be HORRIBLE."
- "DSL line with ping latency over 4000ms when downloading other web pages. Service ticket open for TWO months with no fix."
| Pre Sales information:
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I had been a relatively happy customer of speakeasy.net for over a half
decade. Unfortunately, after speakeasy merged with megapath and covad, I have
had problems with their service due to very high latency (4000+ ms ping
results to their router, my first hop). Their tech support was horrendous!
After trying to get this resolved over a 2 month period, they finally
informed me that this is the quality of their service.
Needless to say, I am shopping for a different ISP. Good riddance speakeasy.
Federico Grau
frustrated (soon to be) former customer of speakeasy.net
Comments:
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Review by rachel
(review was emailed from domain mediumreality.com)
lodged 164 days ago
- New York,New York,NY
- Contract price not specified.
| |
boo. shopping for a new provider.
i was happy to pay more for them when i set this account up years ago
because it was easy to get a human on the phone and i got a dedicated
ip, didn't need to have a phone, good rate.
called to change to a new address, they told me my rate would go up, and
it took them 13 minutes to get me to talk to the right human.
R.
Comments:
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 Review by AtariBaby
member for 5.9 years, 24 visits, last login: 87 days ago
updated 176 days ago
- San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
 Business customer- Contract price not specified.
- AT&T
- "polycom phones still work well, voice quality is decent"
- "Totally gone downhill since merger with megapath"
- "It's the situation you hate. You signed up with a good but expensive company that was bought out by a crappy company."
| Pre Sales information:
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Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
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(ratings match consensus)
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I am an IT consultant who setup speakeasy voice services in many business. They were pricey but the service and support and quality was top-notch. Then they merged with megapath. Now that they are megapath, we pay the same premium but deal with outages and long hold times and people who don't know how to support speakeasy's system. I am looking for a replacement. Avoid Megapath/Speakeasy.
Comments:
johnnyna
join:2001-12-27
Arlington Heights, IL | true story Got off the phone with my increasingly mediocre provider. Happened to read the bottom line above, "It's the situation you hate..."
I clicked on it thinking, "that sounds like Speakeasy". I've been hanging on as a Speakeasy customer because service was good and predictable and support was good.
No more. Looking for better values now. If I'm going to be on hold for 30-40 minutes for crap service, almost anyone will do.  | |
| | | The situation
I've just started shopping. I had an outage about 2 weeks ago, got put into "safe mode" (about 500K), and it was 4 (!) days later. Now I'm stuck about 650K down (for my 1.5M down), and they think it's fine. My standard is just a notch above the "safe mode"? I never really got them to work on it -- a Verizon tech showed up one day, but didn't know why ...
Looking at Verizon FIOS business (but still paranoid about blocked ports) | |
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Review by jksnake
member for 8.5 years, 0 visits, last login: 8.5 years ago
updated 232 days ago
- Culver City,Los Angeles,CA
- $105 per month
- Verizon
- "Pure Internet connection with none of the nonsense interference that you get from cable companies and many other DSL providers."
- "Nothing for Speakeasy. Verizon, the telco provider, screwed up my circuit provisioning during install. That's why the 20 days."
- "I have 8 public IPs that I make good use of with an enterprise class server running 4 mail servers and 1 web server."
| Pre Sales information:
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I have had Speakeasy DSL service for over 13 years starting with IDSL.
I have never had a problem with them that they did not resolve within 24
hours. The only issue that I have ever had was with the provisioning
carrier (Verizon) when I moved to a new location and re-established my
service there. Speakeasy is a bit more expensive than other providers
but in their case you get what you pay for.
Comments:
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Speakeasy now Megapath
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