MrGetDown
@weather.com | reply to Kommers
Re: Quck summary of the situation with Speedfactory
I live in Hiram, GA. Speedfactory DSL service was back online at my residence at about 6:30 PM. I tried at 4:45 PM, the service was still down. I was on the internet as late as 11:30 PM. Hopefully they are back for good. |
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RedKnight
join:2008-04-13
Snellville, GA
 ·Atlantic Nexus
| reply to celeste_b
Celeste,
Given all I've read in »speed factory seems to be no more.... (with execs paid much more than line workers, and good workers leaving), I think we are seeing a classic case of "amateur execs" who think they can make a lot of money cutting corners. Even the message now shown on the SpeedFactory.net site highlights a lack of unprofessionalism. (They're talking about a month's free service for new customers now?? What about the 90% that are leaving?? What amateurs with their heads in the sand!) |
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bseybolt
join:2002-10-09
Atlanta, GA | reply to Kommers
I just rebooted the router and have a connection through SF. My service will be active with AT&T tomorrow and still plan on switching then. |
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celeste_b
join:2008-04-14
Douglasville, GA
| reply to da3dAlus
We signed up with SF in 2003, too, and until recently, we've been very happy. After seeing how they handled this outage, there was ZERO chance we'd continue with them. For $59.95 a month, I expect some minimal degree of competence and professionalism, and this ain't it.
Their executives should be ASHAMED. |
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da3dAlus
join:2002-12-18
Duluth, GA | reply to RedKnight
Yeah, I tried after 5pm and managed to get directly to a real person in both the sales and technical departments with little wait. |
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da3dAlus
join:2002-12-18
Duluth, GA
·Speed Factory
| reply to Kommers
My SF connection just came back up (I had last checked around 5:30pm). Though it's too late for them to continue with my business, as I did get in touch with someone at AtNex and already placed my order. I have absolutely NO FAITH in SF after this. I _was_ a loyal customer since 2003 (after the DirecTV DSL fiasco), but this was completely unprofessional to leave customers hanging.
For the record, I talked with a very nice tech at AtNex named Tim (I believe), who answered my questions and told me that they have a backlog of orders already. They are doing everything in their power to expedite SF customers' provisioning, but they place the ETA at 2 days out. As one would expect, their volume of calls and orders is 100% greater than typical, so no sooner they get 1 customer handled they get another call. For those that placed orders for service and did not recieve a confirmation email, they are definitely aware of that problem and are trying to get those notices out at soon as possible. I'm certainly not trying to speak for them, but I'm already impressed with their candor in admitting they're swamped. Hopefully their connection is just as good as everyone else says--I pretty much followed the BBR crowd with migrating to these guys.
Oh, and my line is IFITL, which should not be an issue. I thought I read that some people had questions about that, but they said I will be able to get service. |
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RedKnight
join:2008-04-13
Snellville, GA
·Atlantic Nexus
| reply to da3dAlus
Da3d, try later at night ... a lot of the public may not realize AtNex stays is willing to work past 7 pm (or whatever), unlike many utility companies! There have even been folks in »speed factory seems to be no more.... who report talking with AtNex at 2 am. I talked to them 4:30 pm Sunday and was online in one hour. Compare how, when I first realized SF was sunk about 7 pm Saturday, all AT&T and ComCast had were recordings saying "we open on Monday". |
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partlycloudy
Premium
join:2008-04-13
Decatur, GA | reply to Kommers
Well, I just came on line in Decatur, GA! Finally! |
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da3dAlus
join:2002-12-18
Duluth, GA | reply to partlycloudy
Oh, I fully intend to jump ship as soon as possible. But I abhor AT&T, and the lines at AtNex have been so swamped that I haven't reached a human on the line all day. I'd say the customer loss is going to be significant... |
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partlycloudy
Premium
join:2008-04-13
Decatur, GA
| reply to ByeSFHelloAtNex
No, I don't think it is odd to disconnect them at all. I think it is odd to disconnect them for an extended period and then try to help them get back on their feet, as the post implies. What will there be left to get going?
As to the quick disconnect idea, that was more to get their attention if they have been ignoring the warnings. Cut them off, then after an hour or so (something bad, but not enough to have folks abandon them), after being contacted, bring them back up while you send the credit counselors in.. Keeping them down while you negotiate potentially won't leave much to work with. I can't see the point of wasting the time negotiating after that, but then I don't know what the real impact would be, nor what other things might be involved.
No, what I find surprising is that after that major a cutoff, that they are even trying to work something out with them, if this is in fact the case. Of course, this forum may not be representative of what is going on in the real world, and the customer loss may be less than the threads here would imply. |
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Ataru
join:2008-04-13
Smyrna, GA
·Atlantic Nexus
| reply to ByeSFHelloAtNex
From NextPhase's latest SEC filing (»biz.yahoo.com/e/080306/nphs.ob10qsb_a.html)...
Net loss for the nine months ended December 31, 2007 was $11,050,030 or $5.39 per shares as compared with a net loss of $1,268,285 or $1.03 per share for the nine months ended December 31, 2006. Monthly operating cash losses are now approximately $150,000 per month. Sounds like the past due amount is probably substantial, whatever the rumors may be. |
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ByeSFHelloAtNex
@uslec.net
| reply to partlycloudy
You think that is odd to disconnect them? I think that depending on how many times they were notified they were past due, they should consider themselves lucky especially if the past due amount is what the rumors say.
A "quick outage" would do nothing. If the money isn't there (check out their SE filings), then a "quick outage" does nothing to help them raise funds, so any person with any business sense would cut his losses while he could. |
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krushgroove3
join:2008-04-11
Atlanta, GA
| reply to Kommers
The question is "how many times have they been notified" ... they probably have been getting "past due" notices since January, and this time they meant business and cut them off.
Oh well, myself, like many of you, are just lingering aroud to see what the outcome of this really is with SpeedFactory. And, like many of you, I'm just waiting on provisioning. I'm told NLT 6pm tommorow, but I asked for an escalation. |
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partlycloudy
Premium
join:2008-04-13
Decatur, GA
| reply to daveatl
said by daveatl :
Just talked to a Paetec rep (paetec is my business isp) and they confirmed that Speedfactory was suspended for non-payment, and a Paetec "credit counselor" is currently trying to work with them to see what can be done.
Kind of an odd way to do it. After a 4 day outage, they will be in far worse shape... If they were going to work something out, a quick outage (to let them know they mean business) or sending the credit counselors out before pulling the plug would have been a better approach. Ah well, it will be interesting to see what the story is a week from now. |
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AtlGeek
@atlanticnexus.net
| reply to Kommers
The existing rumor is NextPhase/Cali didn't pay the techs and/or checks got bounced and they basically put the sign on the door, turned off the power to everything and walked out the door, LOL.
Don't know how true this is ... but it seems to jive with all of the existing evidence. |
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Kommers
@not.configured
| reply to daveatl
Thanks. Well, I am not Sherlock Holmes by any means, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to visualize the situation and make the right assumptions based on the info provided in previous posts  |
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daveatl
@uslec.net | reply to Kommers
Just talked to a Paetec rep (paetec is my business isp) and they confirmed that Speedfactory was suspended for non-payment, and a Paetec "credit counselor" is currently trying to work with them to see what can be done. |
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spdfacbye
@myvzw.com
| reply to Kommers
Re: Quck summary of the situation with Speedfactory
It is quite sad, but I can't see how SF can survive this regardless of the cause. I had a backup plan so I have maintained (slightly slower) connectivity thru all of this, but I have already switched, and in around an hour I was back up with my new provider! (why can't it always be this quick?  ) All I am waiting on is my static ip block so I can get my network back to normal.
To the employees of Speed Factory, thanks for a number of years of good service and support. For the management of Speed Factory, you will make an excellent business school case study of how not to handle a crisis.
Goodbye SF, we'll miss you... |
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Kommers
@not.configured
| Well, I read all the posts here and tried to analyze them then present the result. Here is what we have as of now:
1. Speedfactory service is down.
2. Someone who claims to be from Speedfactory staff publishes optimistic notes citing problems with the main router and asking everyone to hang in here because service will be restored soon. True identity of this person cannot be verified but I am inclined to believe he is what he says he is. However, whether he is giving us a correct account on what happened is highly questionable. Moreover, to boost a morale, this person logged in under different name and impersonated some ordinary user who "just rebooted his modem and everything is back and working" giving us the impressions that service is already restored in some areas. Alas, unfortunately for him, he left a footprint that allowed us to link these two accounts together so that lucky guy and "speedfactory staff" is one and the same person. Trick didn't play well.
3. We have a message from someone who appears to be one of the Speedfactory ground workers. He confirms that Speedfactory is down because of upstream issues, but doesn't know if services are coming back or not. He mentiones that SF phones in Marietta went down on Thursday night, whereas Internet service went down next day. If the problem was technical, then we would expect both things to go down at the same time, correct?
4. There is a version that SF defaulted on its bill to upstream carrier.
Conclusions:
I could be wrong but it appears that non-payment is most likely to be the issue (see #3). Did you notice how this "Speedfactory staff" guy carefully ignores all questions about bringing up temporary web page with technical issue description, and updates? This is because such webpage will be official document (unlike forum chat) and can be used in the court of law as evidence. Hence, they can say on the forum that it is a techical issue but they won't dare lie on the web page.
My gut feeling is that SF managament is still undesided whether to pay the outstanding bill and bring the service back, or turn the lights off. I can understand this because even restoring the services will probably just postpone demise of the company but won't cancel it, so it is a tough decision to make. Since they are yet undecided they want to keep customer base until the final decision is reached. Therefore, they sent that "Speedfactory staff" guy to keep us all on the hook by promising qucik service restoration, free Internet for some time, etc. Once the decision is made (hopefully today), all this bs from him will no longer be published.
Don't know about you but I already switched. Whatever happens to SF now is the concern for their employees and investors, not mine. I just need the Internet. |
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