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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain TWGI.com)
lodged 2.4 years ago
 Berkeley,Alameda,CA
 $110 per month "Used to be good" "Turned bad now" "Don't use them any more"
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They used to be excellent with their technical assistance and service
quality. Really bad now.
Comments:
 schmelikPremium
join:2002-04-03
Santa Cruz, CA | Agreed I have been a loyal client for many years (since 2000). But once their merger I have increasingly become frustrated, and service is interrupted more frequently. The time waiting on the phone has increase.
And the cost, well it's too much.
I am seriously taking a look at comcast cable. | |
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 Review by Eebobb 
member for 9.5 years, 3731 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 2.4 years ago
- Floral Park,Nassau,NY
- $110 per month
- (month by month)
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.
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Review by jbartas
(review was emailed from domain speakeasy.net)
lodged 2.4 years ago
- Cupertino,Santa Clara,CA
- $65 per month
- (month by month)
 AT&T- "Not much, anymore"
- "High cost, speed suddenly got much slower, and they think this is OK"
- "Once pretty good company has gone bad."
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This was a good company for a long time, but they've gone down hill.
The problems started about 4-5 years ago, when they started pushing
business VoIP and quit caring about us residential customers - the rates
stopped being competitive, and service calls went from being answered
pretty much instantly to 10 minute hold times or multi-hour turnaround
on problems reported online.
Things have gone from bad to worse in the past few months, coincident
with their merger with Covad. My service has simply gone dead twice in
the last few weeks. The last time they could only get it back up to 1.25
Mbps on my 1.5 Mbps account. The service reps tell me that that's now
going to be as good as it gets.
One last thing - if you were an ISP taking down your net for
maintenance, what's the dumbest night of the year to do so? That's right
- Election night! And that's exactly what Speakeasy did the first
Tuesday in Novenber 2010.
They seem to have forgotten that they have competition - I'm calling
Sonic as soon as I can get my email addresses changed away the speakeasy
domain.
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Review by ClintJCL
member for 11.6 years, 50 visits, last login: 1.4 years ago
updated 2.4 years ago
- Alexandria,Fairfax,VA
- $85 per month
- (month by month)
 about 15 days- Verizon
- "It works."
- "being kicked out for actually daring to use my bandwidth, when I told them in advance that that's what I'd be doing"
- "By far the biggest liars of any ISP I have ever dealt with. The worst of 7 DSL ISPs that I've had."
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After a VERY bad experience with Lightning Bolt DSL, I switched to SpeakEasy.
ALL problems were INSTANTLY resolved, but it didn't matter, because they are liars who screwd me over.
I negotiated for 5 IPs, as I am absolutely unwilling to pay $6/month for an IP. I know what an
UPDATE:
I have been harassed multiple times over the last few months for "using too much bandwidth". But of course, since they don't have limits, they wont tell me how much I am allowed to use. Just that it is "too much".
Against my best instincts, I complied with another request to install a scheduler, so that my bandwidth is limited to 25% levels during business hours. I even made business hours 10 hours long to deal with other time zones.
Again, I am called out and harassed today, despite the fact that I believe my usage has actually gone down a bit, and is certainly mostly during the evenings and night and weekends. Here is the email I got:
Hi Clint,
I know you can be rather difficult via email, but this cannot wait.
Are things still secure on your LAN? Have you added new wireless gear to your network that's not been locked down, maybe? You are severely over-utilizing your residential-class circuit, and are outside of compliance with our Terms of Service.
I know you are quite savvy, and since we have already discussed this matter, I must be firm. This download pattern must change, or your services will be terminated for abuse of our network.
Excerpted from »www.speakeasy.net/tos/#moderation
"Customers will not be charged for the bandwidth consumed, nor do we have specific limits or caps on that bandwidth. If you utilize any of your Speakeasy services in a manner which consumes excessive bandwidth or affects Speakeasy's core equipment, overall network performance, or other users' services, Speakeasy may require that you cease or alter these activities."
If something else has happened, then I humbly apologize for my tone, but you are still responsible for what happens at your end of the network.
Lawrence McBride
Executive Escalation Manager
Toll Free > 800-556-5829 ext. 5103
Direct > 206.971-5103 Fax > 206.728-1500
Email > lawrence@hq.speakeasy.net
www.speakeasy.net
At this point, I feel very lied to. Who else thinks I should take them to small claims court for my setup fees (both for them, and for my next ISP)?
In the end, the terminated me. THEY CALLED ME UP AND SPECIFICALLY SAID, "DOWNLOAD LESS THAN 100 GIGS NEXT MONTH, OR WE WILL DISCONNECT YOU". Does that sound like what Lawrence McBride just said? Hell no. I also specifically asked them if I was negatively affecting other users' service, and they said no. They just didn't like me downloading 250G in a month. That's my prerogative!
They even threatened me with a $300 early termination fee, despite the fact that THEY WERE TERMINATING ME.
EarthLink may be the worst ISP ever, but SpeakEasy is the biggest hypocrite of an ISP.
Here is the link to my screenshots of their pre-sales chat where they, apparently, lied to me about the ability to use 100% of my bandwidth!:
»www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/76331358/
So yes -- I caught them lying. They say in pre-sales you can do what you want, then when you dare to actually do what you want, they cut your service. They are liars and should be sued.
Attachments:
Comments:
| | Simple Solution The "bandwidth usage courtesy calls" only apply to residential customers. If you want them to stop without changing your habits, just bump up to business class. | |
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 Review by sharondippity
member for 12.4 years, 5558 visits, last login: 2 days ago
updated 2.5 years ago
- San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
- $49 per month
- about 30 days
- SBC
- "service has almost never been disrupted"
- "don't know yet"
- "haven't had a problem to test out their customer service yet"
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I have had no problems with Speakeasy besides a one hour outage a month or so ago. I have yet to try to resolve anything with their customer service because they have not given me a reason to do so. I had a miscommunication at the very beginning with some jacka$$ who had terrible phone manners, i.e. interrupting me and talking to me as if I were an imbecile. Every company has their token jacka$$ so that does not even factor into how I think their service is overall. I have nothing but praise so far.
**update**
switched to Sonic 11-18-2010 for better price and faster speed.
Comments:
Reviews:
 ·MegaPath
 ·Verizon FiOS
| speakhard i always have problems with speakeasy. we actually had an instance where we switched from speakeasy voip to a PRI hand off (which is what it was supposed to be from the beginning). they had us up to a PRI within an hour which was nice, but the tech did not actually save the configuration. so we unplugged the router and moved it back in our rack and it didn't work. we tried to call back and apparently enterprise support doesn't work after 5pm EST and of course it was a friday and they said it would have to wait. they also said it was our PBX, not their end of course. we tried back saturday and no support, they blamed our equipment again. sunday we tried and same response. told them to get us an enterprise tech to fix this, it's not our equipment. they claimed to have no number for enterprise support, but after 4 hours, we finally got somebody from enterprise. he logged in and sure enough, the original configuration was still there.
we also had a problem when we moved service to a new building. they left the old bonded T1s lit in the old building and tried to bill us later for $6000 or they were turning off all of our services. good stuff man! hope you're happy with the new company. i may have to check them out if they're in DC. | |
|  jaykaykay4 Ever YoungPremium,MVM
join:2000-04-13
Scottsdale, AZ
kudos:22 | I have had no problems either Perhaps it is those of us who have stayed with SE for years that don't have problems. But, for whatever reason, I have had no complaint either and will stick with their service until given one. They have been so reliable, with constant speed and no huge ups and downs as I have had when using other services, such as cable. I have had not often had need to use support either. When I have, on a very few occasions for the need, I have had good response.
--
JKK
Age is a very high price to pay for my maturity. If I can't stay young, I can at least stay immature!
»www.pbase.com/jaykaykay
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 Review by kwisatz
member for 11.8 years, 1709 visits, last login: 2 days ago
updated 2.5 years ago
- San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
- $119 per month
- about 21 days
- AT&T
- "speed, static IP's, bridged connection"
- "cost"
- "you get what you pay for..."
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6.0/768
order smooth, install smooth
Broadxent DSL bridge
The connection was extremely reliable until ATT U-verse came to town and installed a VRAD next to the old box, and Speakeasy/Covad no longer had access to ATT's RT, which meant my loop length went from 800ft to ~19000ft, which in turn killed my dsl speed, and they were perfectly happy to still charge me the same amount, saying they aren't guaranteed transport on other lines, and have to make changes once in awhile.
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Review by jaykaykay
member for 13.1 years, 4935 visits, last login: 2 days ago
updated 2.5 years ago
- Scottsdale,Maricopa,AZ
- $79 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 5 days
- Qwest
- "The connection time to hook up was amazingly quick and pain free. The TAC follow up info was also easy to follow."
- "Sometimes the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing support-wise."
- "Using this ISP was the best move I could have made given my other options."
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(1/7/09) Another yes. I am still with SE although thinking seriously of leaving after all this time. They are just too expensive and for the $79 per month, I am not getting nearly what others get elsewhere. I am still on the Legacy plan which is so legacied, I doubt it even makes sense to stay with SE on this plan, but their other plans are also too expensive.
We have not been getting anywhere near what we should be getting now, 768 up and down. Even with overhead, we should be getting better than this:
Speed Test #64405602 by dslreports.com
Run: 2009-01-07 22:15:14 EST
Download: 621 (Kbps)
Upload: 637 (Kbps)
In kilobytes per second: 75.8 down 77.7 up
The Spam filter, which I once praised, has gone to h***. It's catching a lot of Spam but SE is failing in picking up way too many addresses that have already been in my black list for some time. I got quick service/response when I put in a trouble ticket about this. I was basically told that the filter just wasn't very good. I agree!
I would still like them to upgrade the number of addresses that are allowed beyond the 500 for the Spam filter. After going on almost 10 years with SE, one can easily collect many many addresses for Spammers. They are still as prolific as rats! 500 accumulated addresses, after as many years as I have been with them, is waaaaaay too little, IMHO!
However, on a good point, my phone response time was not long and those I spoke to when needed for service were polite.
(3/19/08) Yes. I am still with SE. Other than finding my speed tests less than consistent, which they used to be, I have nothing bad to say about them yet. I've still had no problem with Support, and while I would like my speeds to be rock solid as the used to be before the past 6 to 9 months, I see no reason to leave them.
My service, the old Legacy connection of 768/384 was supposed to give basically the same up as down, the 768 minus overhead. Seldom any more am I getting that speed and I am unhappy about what i am getting as it is even slower than it should be most days. Nothing, absolutely nothing, has changed on my end so I have no idea what has caused the slower speeds.
I also would still like them to upgrade the number of addresses that are allowed beyond the 500 for the Spam filter. After going on almost 9 years, from the start of 2000, one can easily collect many many addresses for Spammers, as they are as prolific as mice. 500, after as many years as I have been with them, is really too little, IMHO.
(05/13/06) I am still using this ISP and aside from a question or 2 that I have had, I still have nothing bad to say about them. Granted, they are horribly expensive compared to many, but for my $$$, I think the service and uptime has been fantastic and I wouldn't want to try to find any other ISP for the same good record.
I would like one thing changed that they say they cannot do at this time though. I would like to be able to add more than a 500 cut off to Spamming addresses. Over the years, and I've been here for quite a few, the addresses have built up to the point where I may have to start deleting and hope I don't open a pandora's box.
Aside from that, I give a jolly 3 cheers and more to my friends at Speakeasy. It's a pleasure doing business with them.
(10/15/04) Today, I thought I would update my review and checked to see just how many Trouble Tickets I have had to enter since starting with SE and how well they have responded to them. In all the time I have been with SE, I have had only 19 TT and almost all of them have been handled well. There was only one that got handled with a lot of aggravation on my part. However, it eventually did get properly taken care of.
This is quite a record for any ISP when it comes to support/problems and solving them. I will still most certainly continue to recommend SE. They seem to be putting everything together well and continue to be A-1 in my book.
(1/15/03) I have had SE for going on 4 years now. I haven't written a report up till now finding it easier to do my writing in the Speakeasy Forum and elsewhere that I could. SE is not perfect and has its warts just like any other business, but over all, my choice to have gone and stayed with them couldn't be a more amicable one.
My service connection is not offered any more, 768/384 which most of the time is almost as good with the upload as with the down. While I qualify for a faster one, I am going to stick with what I have. If it ain't broke, why fix it.  I get at least 80% throughput, and for me, this is great. I am not a gamer, so the latency issues don't really come into the picture unless there is a problem. I would love to see SE have a local POP here, but from the looks of things, that is not to be in the offing. If there was a local POP, I would then have to say that everything was just about perfect as the latency would be far less as well. Going 1800+ miles to ones POP does affect the pings!
Would I recommend SE to others? You bet!!! Would I be upset if I had to try to find another ISP? You bet!!! Do I hope to remain with SE? You bet, and I believe that they will only get better. Is it worth the extra money I pay for my account compared to the other choices that I have available to me, both DSL and cable? You bet!!!!
October 30, 2010
I used another ISP when on vacation this year. While I loved the speed at some times during the day, the delays during other parts of the day were really frustrating. I may have a slow up and down with SE, which is exactly what I pay for, but since it is an old connection not offered any more, it works more like a business connection, the same up as down. After using the other connection, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that!
Plus, per usual, SE has been spot on about not losing the connection or dropping it for me. I am still pleased to have them even though they are far more expensive than others that I could easily have, including cable.
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Review by sunbee
member for 2.6 years, 1 visits, last login: 2.6 years ago
updated 2.6 years ago
- Scottsdale,Maricopa,AZ
- $55 per month
- (12 month contract)
- "Absolutely None"
- "salesman misrepresented terms, off-on problems with connection, lousy lying customer service"
- "Worse DSL experience ever had. Stay away"
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Speakasy has been the absolute worst dsl experience I have ever had in the 9 years I've had high-speed internet.
When I signed up, I gave them my debit card and the salesman said it would not be charged and that I could use auto-billing or go on-line to pay. A few months into the service they charged my card resulting in numerous overdrafts. The rep told me they would not reverse the charge but credit me on the next bill for a months service. I was also told a supervisor would call me the next day. That was 9 months ago, never happened.
To get the bill credit, I had to call in again. When I told them I wanted to cancel, they said I was under a 12 month contract and would be charged an early termination fee. Salesperson had told me when I signed up it was month-to-month.
Also I told them I wanted my card out of their system. They said they COULD do that, but I decided not to. Now today I want the card out of the system, now they say they CAN'T.
At first the service was alright. Installation did go smooth. But for the first six months this year, I've had intermittent outages esp. for hours in the early morning and slow speed. Then for three months it was fine. Nothing has changed on my end at all - it was on their end. Now I'm having the outages in the early morning again.
It is absolutely ludicrous to talk to these idiots at SpeakEasy. They lie, pass the buck, ignore direct questions (simple ones like what date the current bill covers). Run-around. Do yourself a favor, stay away from them. They don't value their customers at all.
Comments:
| | YEP! Been there done that with them. But let them try charging you for an install fee when install never happened. then you buy their CPE then they charge you for that AGAIN! resulting in a threatening letter via email. Otherwise nobody will return you calls or nothing.
Their install team is a joke and they don't care; they never return calls either. So i'm sure the whole company is like that.
I changed from them and went direct to ATT for dryline.
Oh! Did you know you get to pay ETF even if Covad decides you can't get service. How in the hell is that possible? Covad says one thing and sends you the email and them but they say something else. Talk about a bunch of BS with that company and they can kiss where the sun doesn't shine! and stick their bill there too, as they won't see a dime from me.
--
www.twopugsbrand.com Kosher, Vegan, and Organic Certified Dog and Cat treats/foods and other products! www.etsy.com/shop/snakx4u/ Organic, Kosher, Gluten Free, Vegan Human Baked Goods | |
| glenbear
join:2010-09-16
San Francisco, CA |  Don't support these losers "service" is down the crapper
It is absolutely ludicrous to talk to these idiots at SpeakEasy. They lie, pass the buck, ignore direct questions Run-around. Do yourself a favor, stay away from them. They don't value their customers at all.
I couldn't agree more. Since they made the switch (in March) from ATT to Covad or vice versa the connection has been horrible. The "customer service" has evaporated! They clearly DO NOT CARE.
Paying for 1.5/384
Here's the best I get..
Download Speed: 651 kbps (81.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 316 kbps (39.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Here's the worst so far
Sunday 10-Oct 2010,
Download Speed: 220 kbps (27.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 254 kbps (31.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
This is AFTER putting in a dedicated direct CAT5E line to the modem, and AFTER their Covad "tech" "found" a supposedly loose wire.
Escalation only results in more lip service and denial.
This for $65/month!
Hide your wallet from these folks!
My2Cents | |
| jaykaykay4 Ever YoungPremium,MVM
join:2000-04-13
Scottsdale, AZ
kudos:22 | I have been so lucky... »Review of Speakeasy by jaykaykay When and if I can no longer get my legacy connection, slow as it might seem, I may have to reconsider, but for now, I am happy. Getting the same up and down and hardly ever losing a connection in all the years I've been with SE, is a pure delight. I am sorry to hear that things have gone down for others from when I started with them, at which point, they were one of the best.
--
JKK
Age is a very high price to pay for my maturity. If I can't stay young, I can at least stay immature!
»www.pbase.com/jaykaykay
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Review by glenbear
member for 2.6 years, 3 visits, last login: 2.6 years ago
lodged 2.6 years ago
- San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
- Contract price not specified.
- "Used to be a decent company, support is US based"
- "Since Covad/bestBuy bought them straight downhill into the cr**pper"
- "Don't waste a cent of your money on these losers"
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Paying for 1.5/384 DSL. Worked fine till a few months back when Covad/BestBuy bought them out. Service is now pathetic, speed is a joke! Connectivity is intermittent, many times speed is lucky to be 160K downstream. Customer service could care less. Think they would rather you just cancel. Had a "homerun" installed to clear up ANY inside wiring issues that they could lamely point to. NO DIFFERENCE. Distance to the CO has increased by over 6000 feet. Hmmmm My house didn't move I'm pretty sure. They won't/can't troubleshoot/monitor/investigate or even do the basics with Covad without making excuses and saying they'll send out a Covad tech for a "Possible Billable Visit"
But the "tech" was certainly willing to help me cancel the service.
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Review by js9999us
member for 11.5 years, 518 visits, last login: 1.4 years ago
updated 2.7 years ago
- Sacramento,Sacramento,CA
- $119 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 30 days
- AT&T
- "Great Telephone Tech Support. So-so Line Speed. Order status updated along the way."
- "Incorrect Order Entry."
- "Definately worth the switch"
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I switched from XO to Speakeasy. XO was great, but a problem with my DSL line, a downspeed from 1.5 to 768, and the fact that they no longer support residential DSL prompted me to start looking for a new DSL provider. Found Speakeasy's 6.0/768 admin package cost slightly more than my XO line, but it would be potentially 4x/2x better with more mailboxes, the same number of static IP addresses, and a cheap webhosting option.
Called and ordered Speakeasy the same day. Felt a little pressured by the sales guy, but knew I wanted to switch anyway. Another sales guy called the next day and wanted to sell me OneLink. I told him I'd already ordered the Line Share but had a question. He transferred me back to the original sales persons, who wasn't there, so I left a voice mail. I never got a call back. Uh oh, not good.
One of the good things about Speakeasy is their order status website. It shows you your order and where it is along the way. They even put updates from Covad in there so I can see what's going on!! That's where I found out I had been set up for a standard install ($99) instead of a self-install ($0). Tried the online support but received no response. Posted on the Speakeasy forum and was immediately contacted by Adam at Speakeasy who informed me my order had been placed incorrectly. He was able to fix it, but it did delay things for about a week. With another ISP I would not have known my order was screwed up until it was too late. Thanks to Adam and the Speakeasy order status website I definately feel like these people want my business!!!
Once PacBell and Covad were finished with their little "Dance of Fools" everything went fine. Because of PacBell (they seemed to think I had another ISP already on my line, which wasn't true because my XO was on a dedicated line) the install was delayed an additional week. Once they determined my pair at the CO was labelled incorrectly, they fixed the label issue and then proceeded with the order, which meant I had to wait another 5 days. So, after two weeks of the ILEC/CLEC dance, everything is finally hooked up at the CO.
So now that everything is hooked up at the CO, Speakeasy shipped my self-install kit. It arrived a day before the install completion date and included a BroadXent 8012, 4 dongle-type filters, and a wall plate filter. Hooked it up and I'm in business!! I'm getting 5.0/640 at aprox. 3600ft from the CO (at least according to Covad) which is 4x/2x better than the 1.2/320 I was getting with XO. Way to go Speakeasy!!
It's really cool to be able to download RedHat iso images in 15 minutes instead of one hour. Time to set up a Quake 3 server!! My Quake 2 server is down at the moment, so my friends aren't able to test the new line for latency, but latency to my default gateway appears to be about the same as it was before.
I also ordered basic webhosting and moved my domain. Move went very well. I get 8 mail boxes with the @speakeasy.net address and 5 with my domain. I also get 500Mb of disk space and 10Gb monthly bandwidth limit, far better than XOs 20Mb/200Mb limitations!! I like being able to manage my DNS entries myself. I can always upgrade to the next package, which has no bandwidth limitation, should my website suddenly become the hotest site on the net (highly unlikely). This portion of the order went very well.
Bottom line, I'm paying more for Speakeasy, but now that I'm in, it's worth it!!
Update 09/02/2010
I've been paying the same price for DSL for 6 years now. Other ISPs have been upgrading and making their Internet products faster and cheaper. Speakeasy offers ADSL2, but not in my area.
Loved the tech support at Speakeasy, but I can't justify the price anymore. Plus, the copper in my area seems to get worse year-after-year and trying to come up with real reasons to have AT&T fix it is getting old.
If the pricing comes down I'll reconsider when my new two year contract is up with SureWest. Otherwise, thanks for the memories Speakeasy, it's been great working with you.
If your only option is DSL and you can get Speakeasy you should. You'll pay more but its worth it. If you need higher bandwidth or have other options available(FIOS, FTTH, Cable, etc.) you'll need to do some due diligence to determine if you are willing to pay more for Speakeasy service.
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