comments on review of USONET → Questions for USOnet

I am currently searching for a good, cheap dsl provider and have stumbled upon USOnet many times. The pricing looks very good, as does the CLEC (Rhythms). However, I, as have many other people, have been reluctant to sign up because of the rumors that have come up. I know that a USOnet employee comes to this board often, so I wanted to ask you (USOnet) a few questions regarding your service and your company. This should give you the opportunity to clear a few things up. The questions are based upon the issues others have brought up, and give you an opportunity to make yourselves clear to everyone. I'd really appreciate it if you took the time to answer all of the following:

1. I've seen your advertisements in the ISP forum suggesting that resellers of failing ISPs switch over to you. I have also seen two reviews for you with people saying you connected them to PSN. Are you a reseller or do you sell directly through Rhythms? If both, which offerings are resold?

2. What exactly is your relationship with Teliquest (we all know you have one)? People have discovered that Teliquest currently does (or did) operate out of your building, but why at one point did you deny it? Also, why do former Teliquest employees (Victor and Dawn, to name a few) now work for you? In the Teliquest forum, people have stated that they called your number and gotten both Victor and Dawn. Both say that they have left Teliquest and are now with USO. Considering that the BBB, NYSCPB, and possibly the law are now after them for the thousands that they have not refunded to former customers, why are they now working for you?

3. What tier do you provide your service at? In your advertisements and web page you state you are a tier - 1 provider, but in the ISP forum, uuallen has tracerouted and shown that you are collocated with Verio, making you (at best) a tier - 2 provider. I'd appreciate it if you cleared this up.

4. What hours do your employees work and what extensions can they be reached at? Many people, including me, have called up to ask about your service, but have not gotten answers or only gotten voicemail boxes. In order for people to contact you, you need to make those clear.

5. Do you offer line sharing or dedicated data lines? There has been some confusion to this, as you state you use dedicated lines, but others say you only offer line sharing, including the Rhythms website.

As you can see, you have been delisted from dslreports. While I don't know the exact reasoning for this, my guess is that it is because of something that I have mentioned in my questions to you. IMHO, I have just given you a great opportunity to publicly defend some of the accusations made against you. I, as well as many other people, would love to get dsl service at the great prices you are offering, but would like you to clear up a few things first. If you could take a few minutes to answer my questions, it would be highly appreciated, as it would give everyone a clearer view as to who you are and what you are offering. It will probably increase your sales and get you re - listed, too. I don't mean to sound rude, but I know you will come across this message. If you don't respond, it'll only increase suspicion and convince people to send their business somewhere else. Again, I don't mean to sound rude, but I would really appreciate a response from you.

Thanks!

To respond to the above questions, with some explanation:

Are we a reseller? NO. In the old days of DSL, we were in fact reselling other ISP's lines. With all the problems associated with a business model of that type, USONET decided that it would no longer provide service through other ISP's. We are now direct partners with the carriers.

Relationship to Teliquest: Originally the plan was to acquire all of their lines, and take some of their good people. Since the majority of their lines were provisioned through PSN.net, when PSN went down, so did their lines. We were not going to acquire problems, so called the deal off, and hired away some of their people, including Victor and Dawn. As far as refunds go, we have knowledge that they have refunded in excess of 177,000 dollars to customers whose lines never got turned up through PSN. We are also aware that there are a few customers that haven't received refunds. It is out understanding that the principals are wotrking to return those customers money, and are in contact with the BBB, Consumer Protection Agency, and the NYS Attorney Generals office. It is also our understanding that they are doing this slowly, as the money must come "out of pocket" personally from the principals. The original plan was for us to help Teliquest do this, but without being able to take over their PSN lines, this became impossible because there was no revenue with which to refund.

Tier 1 or Tier 2? You are correct that our routers are located at colocation facilities with Verio. Where the tier 1 comes from is from an ISP standpoint. In other words, we ARE the ISP connected directly to the carier and the Internet (via our backbone of choice, Verio at this time) Sorry for the confusion, and you are correct, by true networking standards, since we do not own the network and Verio does, it would be considered Tier 2 by those standards.

Hours of Operation are from 9AM to 5PM for customer service operations. We are overburdened right now because of the large influx of orders from customers of companies that have gone under. We are installing a new NEC phone system this month to help control the "voice mail" nightmare, and are adding staff as well. We have also implemented online customer service and tech support that has also seemed to help. With the implementation of added staff, the new queing system and the online support, we feel confident that this will ease the majority of our communication problems.

Linesharing or Dedicated? All Rhythms residential lines are now linesharing lines, while Commercial lines remain "dry-loops" or dedicated lines. The major carriers are all talking about moving to only linesharing lines for both, but this has not yet been implemented. Please not that the QOS is exactly the same on both linesharing and dedicated lines, and that linesharing simply eliminates provisioning issues (no copper, etc)

Thanks for bringing these issues to our attention, we sincerely appreciate it!

Team Usonet

USO is a tier-2 provider period. You will get no service and they will rip you off as they have so many people in the past. They are a bunch of lying crooks. With all the choices out there for DSL why would anyone choose USOnet?

OK I ordered 1500/400 service for $70 a month in early December.
I was told that it will be up in 2 weeks. I didn't believe the guy (Mitch), but I thought maybe I can get it up and running in a month or so. Wrong.
Its now Jan 22nd and they are still having problem with Verizon checking the line or something (they are saying that its Verizon's fault, but do I care whose fault it is? Nah). I think I will have to wait a while longer...
--
HK[TyTAN]

It is Verizon's fault and you shouldn't blame USONET. I waited over two months for Verizon to release my line after I canceled order with them. No other DSL provider could complete my order prior to Verizon releasing my line, and that happened just a week ago. USONET placed my order again with Rhythms on 1/8/00 and on the 15th Rhythms completed my order. Now, I'm waiting for the modem and will see what happens then.

It's been over 12 weeks now since I ordered 784/392 ADSL from USONET and I'm still waiting to go online with them. Got the 3com modem 4 weeks ago but it cannot connect.

There are 2 reasons why I have not given up yet: 1.they are the only provider in my area and 2.my expectations were very low to start with.

Just a friendly warning - BE PREPARED...it will probably take many months of frustration and lots of time wasted on the phone before you're online with USONET!!!

Hmmm then why on earth they claim that it will be up in 2weeks?? I think its a little too optimistic. Sigh...

2 weeks is nonsense. They'll promise anything as long as you give them you credit card # and sign a contract which basically says that they're not responsible for anything.

Guess what, I was prepared but not for what I got
I received modem today and within 20 min I was up and running or should I say surfing.

Not bad, huh?

You're a lucky gal! How is the performance - throughput/latency? Keep us posted!

Sure I will, just thought I'd wait awhile not jump to conclusion after one day of service. One question though, I am not really all that familiar with internet tools and things like that, so help me out. How can I check if the speed I am getting is really the speed I was told I would get?

And what other things should I look for. You are welcome to send me an email, but use agatka@accesshub.net for now.
Thank you.

Yeah its sad but true I guess...
I just hope I get my line up and runnig soon.
Today they have disconnected their toll free number. I was able to get through using 1-631-691-0737, but it scared the hell out of me...

I called too and got scared when the 1888 number was disconnected. They seemed to not know anything about it.
If you need to talk to anyone, call Victor Lupus at ext 19. He is the only one that really answers the phone. Tell him what you need and he will help you or get someone to help you. Also, Mitch at ext 14 can do that, even though he is just in sales.

I had the service since 1/25/01 now and everything looks good (just 5 min without service on Friday night). The only think that I am still waiting for is the revDns and the newsgroups.

Yeah I talk to both of them. I also talk to Ms. Dawn. So far, there is not much they can do about speeding up the process of "Verizon's checking the line" part... I am leaving the country in two weeks and am not sure if I can get it before then. If not, I will be away for two weeks and I don't know what I am supposed to do after I come back... I hope they don't forget about my order.

Glad to hear that you are getting a stable connection.
Try the following URL for bandwidth testing
»www.2wire.com/services/b ··· idth.asp
»bamazed.bconnected.net/
»www.squigly.com/performance/

Ok I am back from my vacation and it seems that I am finally getting my DSL line!!
They already shipped my modem via UPS and I am picking it up tonight. I was told that once I get the modem connected, I have to call USOnet to activate the line or something. I hope to have it done by tomorrow.
I will report once I get it up.

OK I got my DSL line up this morning.
Somehow the connection is not very fast. I will try different bandwidth tests and report my results soon, but so far I am not getting anywhere near 1.5mbps download speed... I seem to be getting good connection to my usual Q3A server though. I ping servers located in East coast with 60-70ms.