Re: Horrible Speakeasy Experience in Speakeasy http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r18095170 en Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:16:48 EDT Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:16:48 EDT Re: Horrible Speakeasy Experience http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18095170 TheDew : My feedback seemed relevant - sorry if that seemed like spamming.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18095170 Sat, 31 Mar 2007 16:29:04 EDT Re: Horrible Speakeasy Experience http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18095144 CylonRed : There is no reason to spam 3 threads with the exact same post - do the review and then post in one thread...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18095144 Sat, 31 Mar 2007 16:23:23 EDT Horrible Speakeasy Experience http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18095025 TheDew : We experienced disconnects every month with Speakeasy which were killing our business. I spent hours on the phone with them and all together had 20 trouble tickets in the period of a year. The biggest problem seemed to lie with their trouble ticket process since they aren't the ones involved with repairs. The first challenge was to time the call with the intermittentcy so the rep on the phone could observe the problem - they would typically say they didn't see a problem or say our utilization was somewhat high and I could push the issue no further. However we eventually succeeded in timing our calls with the intermittentcies, so once having crossed that hurdle, Speakeasy would forward the ticket on to Covad. Then (almost invariably) if Covad didn't find anything with their cursory check, they would drop the issue. Finally, after 20 trouble tickets, months of intermitentcies and packet loss, and who knows how many hours on the phone, we were able to have our issue pushed through Speakeasy, on to Covad, and then on to Bellsouth who came out and repaired an improperly ground copper pairing - a 1 hour fix. Unbelievable...

Our connection was finally sound until less than a month later our connection went down again due to a region wide Speakeasy outage. At this point I had had enough and cancelled my service siting poor performance (obviously). You would think that would be the end of it, but no. They later charged my credit card on file a $1000.00 cancellation fee! I had never paid them by CC, but I had one on file from when I signed up. The charge was completely unauthorized. The whole experience has been a nightmare.

I filed a complaint with the BBB and the responder - Lawrence McBride - instead of trying to resolve or even listen to our issues immediately went into defensive mode deeming the $1000 charge legal and then went on to try to place the blame for our outage on us!

If you value your time, your business, or your sanity - whatever you do avoid Speakeasy. We now have our T1 with One Ring Networks - who although aren't perfect - when I call them I am dealing with the actual people that can fix the problem (they use a wireless line of site signal thus avoiding the local telco "last mile")

If you have had a similar experience with Speakeasy or other provider file a complaint with the BBB at www.bbb.org. It may at least help the next guy.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18095025 Sat, 31 Mar 2007 15:54:53 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18094679 halfzero : The weakest link in SE business is that they have no control over the last mile. The recent legistlation changes give TELCO more edges over companies like SE. SE is a private company, being swallowed by Best Buy is a smart move for those who own SE. SE revenue of $80M is a tiny drop in Best Buy's bucket, but means a lot to SE's share holders. At least, they could get some of their investment back. Otherwise, they would lose more like those who own Vonage.

For SE fans here in this forum, it is time to plan your smooth transition. It takes time to find ISPthat could give you static IP and let you run servers. I don't think Best Buy would keep you guys around for long...it is just another business decision to dump varieties and keep only the most profitable one...VoIP, not bandwidth eaters.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18094679 Sat, 31 Mar 2007 14:29:44 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18090028 metrodust : dont forget the extra latency that qwest adds to each circuit. but that really only matters for gaming.
--
When you are leaving.. heaven is a distance not a place. --Carissas Weird]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18090028 Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:26:43 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18071157 lorennerol :
said by Dustbin See Profile :

At close to $100 million in revenue, I do not think Speakeasy will be going out of business. In fact it just proves they are doing something right.
By the same logic you'd come to the conclusion that 2006 was a great year for General Motors, as they had $207 billion in sales.

Of course GM's overall net income was negative $2 billion.

2005 was quite good too, with $195 billion in sales.

Nevermind that their net revenue was more than negative $10 billion that year.

Don't confuse revenue with financial stability.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18071157 Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:53:39 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18071000 anon : yes.. doing just enough right to sell their business to BestBuy!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18071000 Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:22:00 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18052002 Dustbin : At close to $100 million in revenue, I do not think Speakeasy will be going out of business. In fact it just proves they are doing something right.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18052002 Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:14:26 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17950417 Y0tsuya : Sure bridged is better than PPPoE, but not better than routed. I had PacBell DSL before switching to SE. The PacBell DSL was routed with a /29 subnet.

First time I plugged my unhardened Win 2K3 server directly into the SE network it went down in 10 secs, before I could even start downloading patches. Was a bit miffed with SE's bridged solution but it's usable. Took a bit more work to configure my firewall since the IPs are not contiguous and I was half blind without a working server. Without the firewall, there constant RPC attacks by others on the shared /24 subnet as soon as the ethernet cable's plugged in.

Now I've just switched to another ISP and got routed subnet again, yay.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17950417 Mon, 05 Mar 2007 21:57:04 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17948074 halfzero : Just to be clear, I ran web, mail, and ftp servers while I was with SE. I am doing the same thing now with Qwest, running the same servers. Yes, Qwest use PPPoE, rather than bridge, but that does not cause any problems for me. They also provide web tool to setup DNS with static IP addresses you get. Yes, a few years ago, only SE offered this kind of service.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17948074 Mon, 05 Mar 2007 15:43:45 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17947440 tkdslr :
said by halfzero See Profile :

I don't know what did I get from SE with that extra $43.
Speakeasy.

Bridged DSL. (Always on..)
Permission to run Servers.
(Host your own domain and email,
eliminates issue of email portability, etc. )

Allows wireless sharing with neighbors.
Proactive support, Email's about up coming
maint outages.
]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17947440 Mon, 05 Mar 2007 13:53:25 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17946318 halfzero : I recently switched from SE to Qwest. I used to pay SE $110/month (including taxes) for 6mb/760kb with 4 static IP's using line share. Qwest charged me $67 for 7mb/820kb, using dry line (DSL only). Service has been great so far. Realized speed has been 5.1mb/750kb (SE was 3.6mb/500kb). I called tech support a couple of times for assistant on purchasing and setup static IP (8 static ip's, 5 usable), the hold up time was less than 1 minutes, it was more than 10 minutes for SE on the average. I should have made a switch long ago. $67 vs $110, that is $43 less. I don't know what did I get from SE with that extra $43.

I used to hate Qwest for their habit of ignoring customers because there were the only guy in town (USwest.) It seems like they are much better now.

I wrote this not to discredit SE, they are also a good ISP. I only share the information of how did I save $43 a month with better service. SE might want to look into it, it is a competitive world!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17946318 Mon, 05 Mar 2007 10:21:32 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17807588 CylonRed : People will still defend them - I am tired of doing it since folks seem to want everything for virtually nothing.

It is dissapointed that help has left the forum but then I have never needed it either. SE is obvisouly courting business as other ISP's have done as that is virtually the only way to make any money.

I simply have nothing bad to say about my SE/Covad connection - I have been down for longer an a few minutes since Sept 11, 2001. I always get at least 80-90% of my rated download speed. It is virtually a business uptime for residential prices. I have not had to reboot my router to reconnect for at least 2 solid months and probably more like 3-4 months and don't plan on rebooting it anytime soon.

Remember - while AT&T and ILEC CAN sell DSL for a loss since they have other businesses to make money on (althought AT&T has had issues doing that as well) - SE relies on residenital DSL and business services. No cell phones/service, no residential phone (not VIOP as AT&T can sell both), no internet backbone business etc... They can't sell their DSL for less than it costs them to provide it unless they want to go out of business VERY fast. I am paying less for service now than when I switched over to SE over 6 years ago. The only way the ILECS can provide DSL for a lot less is to lose money on the service and when they desperate enough - the prices will rise.

While not for the casual residential service - it is great for those power residential service users. Even when I was a part of the America's Army beta team and had to download full installs at 900 to over a gig - I never needed anything faster than 1.5 meg download. I would get 1 gig in about 3-4 hours and do it over night.

Int he end - only each indiuvidual can determine if it is better to go with another service...
--
Brian

"Some people are like Slinkies...
Not really good for anything......
But they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs."]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17807588 Sat, 10 Feb 2007 13:59:41 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17806050 anon : A couple of years ago, SE used to be great, a lot of users here would defend SE vigorously if someone say bad thing about its service, not any more. At this point, I doubt that how long SE would survive. Their business model does not make sense economically today, even with VOIP. SE cannot swim up stream for much longer. COVAD, SE strategic partner, has been also in coma for a few years.

Qwest is not a good company either. It has been suffering from recent internal scandal. They just try to get their head above water. Qwest could do better for its DSL service, but it choose not to. Its PPPoA DSL scheme is cumbersome and troublesome. They made a technical mistake to chose it at first, now they have to live with it. It is quite costly to upgrade their equipment to a better DSL service. If you look at Qwest web site for DSL service, it is like a joke. It is not clear how many choices do you have or how would you order what you like. They assume that all users are stupid and should use MSN, but at the same time, they assume that all users are smart to piece together Qwest DSL service with dozen of independent ISP and splitting the bill.

You know? These days, every big corporations employ a bunch of MBA's who want to get rich quick...taking money and run. They are extremely smart and creative in filling their own pockets with money, but they are also damn stupid once come to making the right technical decision that would benefit the company and its customers. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17806050 Sat, 10 Feb 2007 06:19:58 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17805518 metrodust : if you game you dont want qwest. they use max interleaving which will add 32ms to each hop.
--
When you are leaving.. heaven is a distance not a place. --Carissas Weird]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17805518 Sat, 10 Feb 2007 01:10:35 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17803196 mhy : "Others" wins.

I have switched from Speakeasy to Verizon. I was paying $65 for a 1500/384 onelink that would only work in safe mode (928) and delivered an effective rate of about 750/300

I now have two (redundant!!!) Verizon lines at 29.95 each, they run at a true effective rate of 1500/384 each (sync rate 1792/448) and the total cost is actually a bit lower than the single SE line.

The only thing I lost is a static IP, makes no difference to me.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17803196 Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:58:41 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17800121 Endorphine :
said by Old_boy :

Could anyone tell me why I should not switch to Qwest?
I honestly went through the same dilemma this last month. I actually switched to a cable service that offers 8/1.5 for $55 a month. While Speakeasy's network is slightly better, it wasn't worth paying $120 a month for me. I had both running at the same time, and my cable has only gone down for me one time. It was also only for less than 30 mins at 1am, so no big deal.

I really wish Speakeasy would have stayed competitive with the rest of the market place. :(]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17800121 Fri, 09 Feb 2007 03:41:01 EDT Re: Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17799697 KoolMoe : Reliability, first thing. If you do switch, be willing to bear the burden of both connections for at least a month. Does Qwest have a trial period like SE's 25 day?

If you're happy with your DSL's performance now, it's a gamble switching. Not only do you risk the new provider's equipment and routing to be as good, but also the quality of the line pair they pick to deliver your service.

If Qwest is your ILEC, the line pair may not be too much an issue if they're willing to swap pairs if needed. Trying to get your line pairs swapped when using a third-party or CLEC, however, is almost impossible.

FIOS just became available here. I just signed up for the TV service this evening. I want to stick with SE as long as I can but, I'll tell ya, the pricing is just killer....especially with FIOS in the house. Will see how long I can stick it out.

Anyway, I understand the cost issue and say go for the switch, BUT be sure you give the new line a solid test for a month or two before you disconnect the SE line.
KM
--
Don't Lie - Be Kind - Realize your Potential]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17799697 Fri, 09 Feb 2007 00:37:24 EDT Speakeasy VS others http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17799166 anon : I have been using speakeasy 6MB/728 with 4 static IP's for a few years. The service has been OK. I don't use SE FTP, email, or anything besides it internet connection. However, for $110/months, I recently looked around. I found out that I could get Qwest DSL 6MB/820 for $36. If I need static IP, I would pay $15/month for 8 IP addresses. Of $30 for 16.The total is less than half of what I pay SE.

Could anyone tell me why I should not switch to Qwest?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17799166 Thu, 08 Feb 2007 22:47:32 EDT