 | |  Priced even lower...
I'll post a more detailed review after the installation is complete, but things have been moving well so far. A week after the contract was faxed in, I was told my Bell Atlantic apointment was set for the two week mark... That's the day after tomorrow now. Here's hoping they've got a lot of the kinks out of the process! 
Nonsanity
(Can't wait... I've read through the Netopia R7200 router manual twice now.) | |
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 | | Anon | Re: Priced even lower... When we found out about CAIS they were eager to get our business also. They sent email after email, called us on the phone, even sent out letters thoughout the first three weeks after signing the contract. After that the communications stopped completely. No exageration. We didn't even get a call or email letting us know when the installation was going to take place. Like it says in the contract, they will give you 24 hours notice as to when a COVAD technician will be there to install the service. The COVAD technician out of the blue called and said he was 10 minutes away and just showed up. Now, imagine if I or my partner were not at the site. This would mean that, if we were not there within 15 minutes, he would leave and call it a no show and then we would have to pay the technician next time. Kinda funny don't you think.. Get this, after the circuit was installed and no even half way working, "SLOWWWW", on the 11th of SEPT, CAIS sends us an email stating that we have an install date of SEPT 19th. WHOOOOOOOO! Good communication ditsos the line and service is already installed. We then got an email not ten minutes later sayin welcome to the service...... I am not impressed with this still,,,,,,,, BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!! | |
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| Anon |  CAIS/Covad Non-Response -- Down 1 Week & Counting
It was July 26 that I originally started trying to get CAIS to correct the Covad SDSL connection problem. I've spent much more than an hour a day just trying to get CAIS to respond to this issue. Despite my pleading and despite the fact that CAIS could see massive packet loss from its location, CAIS refused to monitor the line. It refused to ask Covad to monitor the line. It gave scant attention to the monitors I sent showing massive and sustained packet loss. It was not until Wednesday, a week after constant badgering, that CAIS arranged for a Covad technician to come here. This violates the promise CAIS makes its prospective customers about responsive tech support. It took two more days for Covad to send the technician. This violates the Covad response time promised by CAIS. Within an hour of his arrival today, the Covad technician confirmed massive packet loss and referred the issue to Bell Atlantic. As I understand it Bell Atlantic's labor contract with its technicians expires tonight. One step after another each and every promise that CAIS and Covad make to their customers was broken. I understand that machines break and that promises get broken through no fault of anyone. I'm willing to give CAIS the benefit of all doubts. But if CAIS is continuing to make these false promises to prospective customers, knowing as it now does that they are false, then that conduct falls outside the bounds of honest mistakes. We still don't have Internet service, and we are not likely to until early next week at the soonest, according to the Covad field engineer who was here today. Incidentally, of all the emails I've sent and messages I've left, over the last week and a half, yesterday's call from Betsy in tech support was the first time anyone returned any call or responded to any message I left at tech support. | |
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| Anon | CAIS Good? So far, hmm, not so good. After requesting the service and signing the contract, it onnllyyy tooook them 3 months to get the service to me. Then, after all that time, the speed is rediculous. I ordered a 1.1 MB SDSL and I got 128K ISDN. I am so frustrated with this that I can't type anymore......Funny how it works, I work for another ISP that provides ADSL service and what we provide smokes the hell out of theirs..... And it is asymetrical.... Go figure. I think that most ISP's think that the customer is a bloomin idiot when it comes to the Internet..... I called customer service and the tech on the phone says, " slow speeds huh? let me run a ping to your router." I thought yeah? and what is that going to prove as if he could monitor the connection rate by a ping.... his reply was, "hmm, 150ms that is not too bad, we only warranty 80%" Then out of the clear blue sky he says "oh, you are being routed through Chicago and that is why you are getting slow speeds". Idiot. On my ADSL connection through another provider I can ping somewhere in California at 40MS!!!! Seems like to me, that CAIS has not got enough bandwidth for their customers to share,,,, Beef up the pipeline buddys cause some downloading has to happen........ | |
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| | Take heed of the ratings
Apparently the sales person promised more than he should have,,,has been terminated and now CAIS does not want to hold up to their contract and price.
Also during peak periods the connection DOES slow considerably and short outages are fairly common. No long outages have been encountered.
I am now looking for another provider,,,,at least I acquired free installation out of the deal. | |
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| | Problems, problems, problems 1. Today is Feb. 20, 2001.
My CAIS service went down on February 2, 2001. I'm still waiting for service to be restored. Qualified service people would have this repair completed in short order. There also appears to be a problem in ordering parts in an expedient manner. There also is no appearance to dedication to the job since no repairs are being done on weekends.
2. Last night I called tech support at 7:35 PM. I finally got to talk with tech support at 10:35 PM. 3 hours on hold is wayyyyy toooooo long....
3. CAIS accounting department double billed me with two different account numbers. After getting that corrected, they failed to bill me consistently. After attempting to get that matter corrected, I've had to call them to request that they bill me so that I don't get a huge, accumulated bill.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see gross incompetence in the management of this company. The disorganization and failure to fill job openings with qualified people is very apparent! | |
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| | better than a modem
- tech. support is non-existent. Just hope it doesn't break.
- bad router had to be replaced.
- double billing, no billing. What a joke.
- salesman (2) both gone.
- no response to email.
but service has generally been steady and fast. So once you get it installed, if it stays up, you are ok. Given I needed some static IPs there were not a lot of choices. Got locked into a good monthly rate for three years so I figure I'm ahead of the game. Surely will have to pay more when the contract time is up...but then I doubt their billing system will ever figure it out. I run a web server for our chorus and you can see it at »www.nationalmenschorus.org | |
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| | 50% Price increases CAIS just announced across-the-board 50% price increases on all DSL Services.
W00p!
Tom | |
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| | CAIS ABSOLUTELY SUCKS !!!! THEY ABSOLUTELY SUCK!!! CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS! SALES REPS SUCK! MANAGEMENT SUCKS! THEY SCREW EVERY BILL UP! STAY AWAY FROM THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!!!!! | |
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|  Augustus IIIIf Only Rome Could See Us Now....
join:2001-01-25
Gainesville, GA | Re: CAIS ABSOLUTELY SUCKS !!!! well.. even if they suck, cais is the one ISP i have friends using who had a no interruption of service (read this as 24/7 connection at full bandwidth) for more than 76 days. i think that's something to consider. | |
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| | Well, to be honest their service I feel is very good. My problem just became the fact that I wanted to switch to another ISP cause of the recent price increase, and they won't give me an ISP release. They will cancel the service, but not allow another ISP to take the existing line.
So, Instead of a switch that would take a day or two, I have to re-order and wait 2 - 3 weeks to get service restored on the line.
I guess if they are not getting money from you, they don't care to be helpful. Which is a damn shame, cause other then this I've had zero service problems. | |
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| | What Customer Service? I have been a customer since April. I found out last week that CAIS is no longer servicing residential customers. Instead of notifiying me that my service was about to be cut off, they just shut it off. I have been trying for a week to get the sales department to give me the options I have in getting the service restored. I am still waiting for them to call me. I have called daily but the sales weasel doesn't seem to have time to call and make a sale. Now I find that I can't even order another service because they need a release for the line despite the fact that THEY were the ones to shut off my ADSL service. The lack of ANY service is absolutely appalling. While the service was rock solid when I had it - the fact that they can't figure one end of a connection from the other in the sales and tech support department should be a BIG influence in your decision to go with theses folks. The fact is it is not a matter of IF, it is WHEN you will need service and support. When you need it - they are not capable of providing it. You would think for their prices they could provide some customer service. Any sense of customer service is a mystery to them. in 5 months I have need their help twice - first getting connected - that took 3 weeks and 8 phone calls which turned out to be an ameritech connection issue - and this time when they shut me off with out notice. So far I am up to 5 phone calls and still have not yet talked to anyone with a clue. Look elsewhere- you can get the same connection for less money and hopefully less aggrevation. | |
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| | From the inside I used to work in the DSL tech department in Northern Va. Coming from someone who has seen how they operate on the inside, GO with another provider! Cais in unison with Covad have screwed their infra-stucture big time. They have done this by over utilizing their pops and mail servers without adding new ones. Their company goal seems to be sell, sell, sell, while spending as little as possible on upkeep and expansion of their network (who knows when they are going to see another dollar). Wonder why you are paying for a 768kbs line and your only seem to be getting the speed of a 56k modem out of it? It's probably cause the have you on a POP that's on the other side of the country. Now why is this? Well lets see, could it be A)that the sales team if feeding the consumer every line of BS they can think of to make their quota. B)that they sold you a speed that you would only see after pigs fly. Or C)that the pop in your area is full and was full way before you dreamed of having DSL. If you said all of the above, I think you have got a pretty good idea about what's going on. Now they do have some great techs in the DSL Department. But how can you operate when the upper management will not help resolve problems in anyway.
So what have we learned? We have learned that it is NOT the DSL Techs fault that CAIS won't release your line, that you are having huge latency issue's or that you can't figure why your DSL won't work in the middle of a black-out. When you have to deal with a bunch of frighten middle-age males that have no idea how to run an ISP correctly. You will begin to understand the long road of frustration that Cais DSL tech have to deal with on a daily basis. So next time you do get thru the hour and a half hold time be friendly. They will probably go out of their way to see your problem is resolved.
BTW guys, when your stock drops from $55 dollars a share to 11 cents in the span of 6 months. You doing something wrong! It's not just the economy's fault. | |
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| | Dead in the water CAIS Internet alias Ardent Communications is no more.
They are fooling the customers. Call their tech support and you will hear a recording saying that the estimated wait time is 4hours and then you get directed to a voicemail. In the past you may have gotten a response a day or two late but this time you ain't getting any because there is no one to return your call. Bottom line,STOP PAYING CAIS and get a different provider ASAP. | |
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|  ph
@verizon.net | Re: Dead in the water Ardent is not dead in the water but I will say that no techs are manning the tech support phones. They were all layed off. All DSL customers now have a valid reason to try to escape thier contract. The contract that you have indicates 24 hour tech support assistance (or should) now that this is not being provided you can refute your contract on that basis. | |
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| | ph
@verizon.net | Re: Dead in the water Oh by the way..
If you really need help contact the NOC. They will more than likely refuse to help you but you can at least have a chance of talking to someone hahaha | |
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| | | | Maybe we could get out our contracts since the original mailing I got from them said "guarantees downstream speeds of at least 256kbps and upstream speeds of 128kbps". Right now were only getting 17kbps down and 10 up! It also says that you can "utilize the internet 24 hours a days with an 'always on' constant connection." What a crock, we are never on for more than 2 hours without a glitch that can last anywhere from 45 seconds to 10 minutes.
UUUGGGHHH!!! | |
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| | | ph
@cais.net | Re: Dead in the water If the service is not there and you can not get any tech support for the service then cancel. If you can prove that your service was non existent and that no tech support was available to help you resolve such problems then I would have to believe that you would be justified in quitting the service. | |
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| | | | | Anon | Re: Dead in the water | |
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| | | | | | | Re: Dead in the water | |
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| | | CAIS Internet - Ardent MIS-Communications does really stink. I have been put on hold for more than four hours (gone to lunch, left the building, came back and still on HOLD!). Anyway, I have been trying to reach them for TWO weeks to fix our service. Have not gotten anything. THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE THE GUTS TO TELL THEIR OWN CUSTOMERS THEY FILED FOR CHAPTER 11! I've dealt with ISP's going under before, but at least they gave the customers warning in order to plan to move to a new service provider. I think it is terrible of them to not even issue a press release to their own customers. MAYBE THEY NEED SOMEONE LIKE WORLDCOM TO BAIL THEM OUT. WORLDCOM IS THE BEST! (We use them for dial-up services for our "on-the-road" users). | |
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| | | | Re: Dead in the water UUNET aka Worldcom also serves up the best DSL and other high speed connections in the business. The 24x7 support is -real- and I have never waited more than 5 minutes to speak with someone.
I use UUNET at home, turn my customers up with UUNET, and use a UUNET provided T-1 at work.
Tom Petersen | |
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| | ph
@verizon.net | UMM HELLO... The DSL Tech support for CAIS/Ardent got laid off. You can wait for 48 hours and not an answer. Pick a number. You can wait that long and not get an answer. Noone is manning the phones.
I don't mean to be rude and I would agree that Ardent sux in several areas but please read what people are writing and save yourself a future 4 hours of waiting for something that will never come. What is that something(that will never come)? That something is Ardent DSL Tech Support.
I would like to hear if someone has tried to get out of their contract yet. If you are able to get out of your contract please post what you used to do so. I am sure many people would like to know. | |
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