nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
 ·Cox HSI
 ·Speakeasy
| reply to djpiazza
Re: End of Reg Fee = Higher Reg Compliance Fee???
said by djpiazza  :Did I miss something, When did Adam leave? **UPDATE** Never mind, I just did a search and saw Adam left. What a shame. Ok than, Lawrence how about a comment from you. Are you monitoring these boards or not? First Kat, then Adam. It seems no one's taken their place. So, what is speakeasy doing, any more. This forum used to be something you could point to to say "SpeakEasy goes that extra mile." Doesn't seem like we can say that, any more, does it?
-tom
--
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -Louis D Brandeis |
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KoolMoe
Aw Man
Premium
join:2001-02-14
Annapolis, MD
clubs:
 ·Verizon FIOS
·Speakeasy
| I agree. I'm becoming disillusioned as well. Same kinda thing all around. I have a contract with SE until sometime around March, I think, and I'll happily stick with them until it's up.
At that point, if FIOS is here and SE isn't reselling it, buh-bye. The lack of responses in this forum and especially this topic are turning me a little sour.
Plus, it's damn aggravating to not be able to have line issues addressed. My OneLink was pretty solid for the first few months but, like so many others, it's degrading. I loose sync every time it rains - which could really suck for this week! It's frustrating not to have any recourse.
Now that I've moved most all services to a hosting provider, I really don't *need* static IPs anymore. I like the TOS and features of my SE account...but if my line's not up, those are useless. I'm almost ashamed to say it, but maybe time to explore cable options myself.
KM
--
Don't Lie - Be Kind - Realize your Potential |
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gjgfjfgj
join:2006-04-07
Tucson, AZ
| said by KoolMoe :if my line's not up, those are useless. Bingo! The one thing I can say I love about my new cable connection is that it is always up and running. It gets a little slow at night, but not any slower than what I had with Speakeasy. |
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nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
·Cox HSI
·Speakeasy
| Yup. SpeakEasy used to be fairly quick. Now... well, they've as much as admitted that the DC PoP is obersubscribed. They've also done a bunch of consolidation of their private network (ensuring that the remaining PoPs are also oversubscribed). It's just not good. It all makes me wonder if I'll soon be getting a letter, one day, similar to friends that use to use North Pointe.
-tom
--
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -Louis D Brandeis |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
| reply to gjgfjfgj
said by gjgfjfgj :said by KoolMoe :if my line's not up, those are useless. Bingo! The one thing I can say I love about my new cable connection is that it is always up and running. It gets a little slow at night, but not any slower than what I had with Speakeasy. But his problem is not an SE issue - it is a ILEC issue unless it is an inside wiring issue but if it happens when it rains - 99.99999999% of the time it is an ouside - before the nid issue and that rests solely on the ILEC to fix...
--
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." |
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scooby
Premium
join:2001-05-01
Schaumburg, IL | reply to nixen
Seems most Covad resellers have fallen on hard times. Last I looked Covad did not make money on residential DSL due to the prices being so low. I'm betting your prediction is not too far off. |
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gjgfjfgj
join:2006-04-07
Tucson, AZ
| reply to CylonRed
said by CylonRed :But his problem is not an SE issue - it is a ILEC issue I know it is and so was mine. The thing is, Cox went out of their way to make the cable lines work well. Qwest, well, Qwest didn't really do anything and never has. |
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KoolMoe
Aw Man
Premium
join:2001-02-14
Annapolis, MD
clubs:
·Verizon FIOS
·Speakeasy
| reply to CylonRed
Yeah, definitely an ILEC issue. I got it fixed in the past with a shared line with the Fax excuse. But now with OneLink, I've screwed myself (apparently) because - even though SE is certainly paying VZ rent for that line - apparently VZ does not actually provide any guarantee of the condition of that line (!). So as the line quality degrades, so does my service, and while really VZ's fault, so does my satisfaction with SE.
KM
--
Don't Lie - Be Kind - Realize your Potential |
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bhan261
join:2001-02-12
New York, NY
| And, of course, SE will point the finger at Verizon and say "there's nothing we can do about it". But they gladly cash your check each month and live off a decaying reputation for superior customer service.
I, for one, am getting near my limit for enduring the crap SE tries to get away with lately. |
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nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
·Cox HSI
·Speakeasy
| said by bhan261 :And, of course, SE will point the finger at Verizon and say "there's nothing we can do about it". But they gladly cash your check each month and live off a decaying reputation for superior customer service. I, for one, am getting near my limit for enduring the crap SE tries to get away with lately. So, how many of us found DSLR because we were looking for recommendations for a new service provider? How many of us are going to be using it for that again?
-tom
--
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -Louis D Brandeis |
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claudeo
join:2000-02-23
Redmond, WA | reply to bjcatlin
Let's not confuse the issues. I'm not happy about SE billing practices, but I'm happy about my SE service. |
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nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
·Cox HSI
·Speakeasy
| But, ultimately, it comes down to, are you getting value?
Just out of interest, I checked Adam's "goodbye" post. He'd posted the DSLR name of his forum successor. Guess what? The named replacement hasn't posted anything in the last 90 days. So, it's not just that they're staying quiet on this thread, it's that they've abandoned this forum. Seems to me, some of the value left when Adam left and noone took up the slack.
SpeakEasy (or whoever) can charge all they want for a product, so long as they provide value. Unfortunately, the value has been evaporating, of late. The bogus fees are just another example of it.
-tom
--
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -Louis D Brandeis |
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grobinette
Premium,Mod
join:2001-01-27
Springfield, VA
clubs:
·Verizon FIOS
Host:
Home Repair & Impr..
Millenicom
1 edit | reply to bjcatlin
Lawrencem Last seen: 2006-08-31 19:42:22
He's around lurking, but that's about it.
--
Team Discovery |
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jcricket
join:2002-08-30
Seattle, WA
| reply to bjcatlin
I think the problem is that Speakeasy's not interested in growing its consumer DSL business anymore. Their marketing quite clearly indicates a shift to small business, VOIP services, etc. I can't blame them, as Cable and ILECs are in a apparently in a better position to offer low-cost, no-frills high-speed internet access to consumers.
But rather than forcibly jettison their long-time customers (probably all of us), they'll just slowly get rid of any reasons why we would stay, and they won't do anything to keep us should we try to leave. Their silence on this BS fee issue and lack of presence in these forums are classic examples of that.
As much as getting DSL service from some faceless monopoly scares me, I can't ignore the greater than $150/year savings and higher speeds forever. My guess is that when Qwest offers me their premier service for $25-ish/month (the price of their current 1.5 offering) I'll be out of here. |
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speakeasy2k
join:2006-09-01
Seattle, WA
| reply to bjcatlin
This is a pure-and-simple, sleazy, back-door land grab for higher profits. As I wrote to speakeasy-ceo, "what's next? Are you going to pass through the cost of sales tax on the employee's pizzas and say it's a "regulatory fee" that the customers need to pay for?".
I'm checking with Qwest this AM about their DSL service options...any other (non-cable) providers in the Seattle (UW) area I should be looking at?
Note that I've been with Speakeasy longer than probably any of you - my DSL line was installed in 3/2000. That's over six years. If a guy like me is willing to jump ship over this, and Speakeasy doesn't sit up and take notice - then, well, I don't think anything is going to get through to them. |
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waka
join:2002-06-01
Tacoma, WA
·Speakeasy
1 edit | reply to bjcatlin
Thought some of you would like to see my current ticket asking for clarification on this subject:
--------------------------------------------------
Me:
2006-09-01 10:25:10
I have two questions that I would liked answered in as much detail as possible:
1) I would like an explanation of what exactly each of the above fee's are and why I am being charged for them. I understand the Federal Compliance Fee has now been combined into the Regulatory Fee, but I want an explanation as to what each fee was prior to the change.
2) I want to know why my Regulatory Fee has jumped from $1.92 to $3.57 especially in the light of recent FCC changes towards many CLECs NOT having to pay into the USF fund.
--------------------
Speakeasy (italics added by me)
2006-09-01 10:58:34
As per our glossary, the Regulatory Compliance Fee "covers Speakeasy's cost for complying with government regulations, tax changes, and processing. This fee is not a tax or charge required by the government."
The Federal Compliance Fee was the literal FUSF fee, which has been eliminated. However, we have consolidated all regulatory fees into 1 monthly charge. We did reduce the total amount that you must pay in fees by about 1% of your total DSL charges, but the remaining amount is necessary for us to comply with the above mentioned costs.
Thanks,
Charles Ervin
Business Support Representative - Online Support
(800) 556-5829
My Hours Mon-Fri 5am-1:30pm PDT
www.speakeasy.net
---------------------
Me:
2006-09-01 11:23:28
From your own statement, the Federal Compliance Fee IS the FUSF fee and nothing else. So if the Federal Compliance Fee has been eliminated, then why has my Regulatory fees gone up from 1.92 to 3.57?
What is now being added to the regulatory fee to make it higher? An itemized detailed explanation of what exactly goes into the Regulatory fees would be appreciated.
---------------------------------
Keep in mind that the invoice only shows two fees:
1) Federal Compliance Fee (was $2.25 for me)
2) Regulatory Compliance Fee (was $1.92 and now 3.57)
Logic states that if fee #1 is eliminated then fee #2 should not be higher! |
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knightmb
Everybody Lies
join:2003-12-01
Franklin, TN
·AT&T DSL Service
| reply to bjcatlin
Not to start any flames here, I use the Speakeasy Business DSL package so I went looking through old invoices to see what had changed. Basically the Regulatory Fee has remained constant (has not gone up or down), but from what I read everyone else is having changing numbers. Is this only affecting non-business customers? Basically my Regulatory Fee has remained constant all of this year. Anyone else here using the Business DSL package from Speakeasy? |
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drmorley
Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-20
Park Ridge, IL
clubs:
| reply to jcricket
said by jcricket :I think the problem is that Speakeasy's not interested in growing its consumer DSL business anymore. Their marketing quite clearly indicates a shift to small business, VOIP services, etc. I can't blame them, as Cable and ILECs are in a apparently in a better position to offer low-cost, no-frills high-speed internet access to consumers. But rather than forcibly jettison their long-time customers (probably all of us), they'll just slowly get rid of any reasons why we would stay, and they won't do anything to keep us should we try to leave. Their silence on this BS fee issue and lack of presence in these forums are classic examples of that. This is exactly what is happening. MegaPath did the same thing about four years ago and they're probably better off financially as a result. It sucks for us as residential users, but without the change in direction they're probably facing certain doom....Hell even with the change it's going to be tough for them to compete. |
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Fragmaster
join:2001-03-05
Abingdon, MD
| I could see that being true if Speakeasy was charging $50 a month for service but they are not. At the rates Speakeasy charges they are most certainly making a profit on residential DSL. I am into my sixth year with Speakeasy and many of the posters here are long time Speakeasy subscribers, it doesn't make sense to cast aside the customers you are making money on.
My bill has gone up since the current change in pricing, not down 1% like they claim.
Bill before change:
*Federal Regulatory Fees 4.72
*Federal Regulatory Fees -0.38
*Tax Reimbursement (g): Statutory Gross Receipts Tax - State 0.88
*Regulatory Compliance Fee 4.03
*Regulatory Compliance Fee -0.32
Subtotal 124.88
Bill after change:
*Federal Regulatory Fees 0.00
*Federal Regulatory Fees 0.00
Compliance Fee 0.10
*Tax Reimbursement (g): Statutory Gross Receipts Tax - State 0.88
*Regulatory Compliance Fee -0.60
*Regulatory Compliance Fee 7.49
Subtotal 125.43 |
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plutarch
join:2002-12-29
Kansas City, MO
| reply to waka
I opened a ticket asking about this as well, and have gotten similar doubletalk. (I've asked for permission to post their replies as an official response, and will if they agree.)
Bottom line is this: SE rolled the FUSF from the "federal compliance fee" into a "regulatory compliance fee." When the FUSF requirement went away, they jacked up the "regulatory compliance fee" and eliminated the "federal compliance fee"--almost penny for penny except for a small (1%) bone. So this was a net fee increase of a couple of dollars when you take into account that they don't contribute to the FUSF.
If I don't get a straight answer, I am going to go ahead and file an FCC complaint, citing the Verizon example. They at least shouldn't be able to get away with shenanigans like this unchallenged. |
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