bjowens
join:2003-08-25
Colorado Springs, CO | Worst ISP/customer service ever!! Only God and your undying patience will get you through a technical issue using Peak to Peak phone support. My issues started with them right from the start never stopped. I finally cancelled them out of pure frustration.
Upon getting DSL service in July 2003 I specified I wanted a static address. When I received my network settings from them I was given an IP address and subnet mask that were incompatible. Directly from their instructions:
Step 5. Click on the IP Tab. Please Enter the IP address 199.165.157.91 and subnet mask 255.255.255.252.)
When I discovered this and called them, their tech support argued that their settings were correct until I proved to them otherwise. Only then did they escalate the issue to get it fixed. It took 3-4 business days and a weekend to get this worked out.
When I set up the service about the only thing they did get right was the billing address! I never got the static IP address I was paying for. Finally my service went down completely so I called them up. They immediately started denying the problem was theirs (even though my traceroutes were dying in their network) and refused to listen to any information I had about the issue. Realizing I was getting nowhere I asked to talk to their supervisor who was even less receptive than the tech support person. I finally cancelled my service with them and would advise anyone considering using them to think twice. I am going back to my previous ISP (Data West).
I have been doing computer work for almost 25 years and seemingly without fail know more about the technical issues I am calling about than the so-called experts trying to help. The cocksure attitude of the tech support at Peak to Peak is a sign of limited experience. If you like to diagnose your ISPs issues using your time and your computer as a lab rat because your ISP lacks the experience to understand they could be wrong, then Peak to Peak is a good ISP for you. They will only admit a mistake if you are able to prove beyond any doubt that the fault is theirs. I might add that you can only make your case after diagnosing their network with your PC. They will not listen until then.
From A-Z, Peak to Peak is the worst ISP I have ever had. I was even been forewarned on this very site that Peak to Peak was fully capable of this type of service. I should have listened, and so should you!
Other stuff:
Upload/Download speed: OK but less than advertised (my Qwest line is rated for 1 Megabit so I doubt it is a line issue)
Ping Times: Pretty bad actually (I don’t have stats but hitting my website from the Internet always had a severe lag time for everyone)
Uptime: Mediocre (I was down constantly and never received warnings for outages)
Phone support: Tech support is the absolute worst. Sales were polite but nothing I ever heard from them turned out to be true. |
bjowens
join:2003-08-25
Colorado Springs, CO | I'm finally back online after 10 days. I was able to get Qwest to give me a refund for my line charges while I was down. I'm back with my old ISP (datawest.net) and they are awesome. Right as I hit the OK button on the DSL router after entering the the new settings all my IM programs logged in and I started getting email almost immediately. It only took one try with datawest.net, exactly how I remembered it happening 2 years ago when I started with them! It took peakpeak.com 6 days to get me online! The reason I left my previous ISP was because they cancelled usenet overnight without telling anyone...so I went to peakpeak.com. Well, peakpeak.com's news server pretty much suck; only a few good groups. I wish I would have just stayed where I was and bought my own easynews.com account since that is what I am doing now anyway.
The moral of this whole ordeal has been that there are good and bad ISPs out there. When you have a good ISP it can be easy to take them for granted. NEVER TAKE GOOD SERVICE FOR GRANTED! |
