[Dclug] [OT] Internet frustration

[Bruce Israel]

On Fri, Jan 25, 2008 at 10:36:24AM -0500, John Jasen wrote:
> Zachariah Mully wrote:
> >If Speakeasy has a problem they can fix, they do it proto. If it's a
> >problem with Verizon, then it's Verizons problem, not Speakeasys.
> 
> They really don't. They're much more happy to throw up their hands and 
> continue to bill you for 6mb or 3mb or whatever service they can get 
> away with, when they can't maintain sync at 1.5mb.

Well, I've never noticed an issue with connectivity lower than
expected but still full connectivity, so I haven't tried to do this.

But in the 7 or 8 years that I've had Speakeasy, I've called for
support 3 or 4 times for loss of connectivity and they've never
"thrown up their hands" at the problem.

> They also refuse to escalate to Verizon or COVAD unless you agree to a 
> technician to enter your house and bill you $175 for the "priviledge".

Not exactly, at least in my experience.  What they have done was be
willing to escalate, but with the caveat that *IF* they send someone
and it turns out to be a problem in the inside wiring, they'll
charge $175.  Every time I've had this problem, a COVAD tech has
been to the house, and I've NEVER paid the $175.  Also, every time
its turned out to be an issue at Verizon's CO (like someone moving my
connection to a lower quality port or something) and required
Verizon's intervention and fixing.  

Overall, while the cost of Speakeasy is definitely higher, my
experience with their support has been that they've always been
helpful, knowledgeable, and responsive.

The other thing about Speakeasy is that you can use their lines for
anything legal, such as running your own mail, ssh, web servers,
etc.  The last time I looked into switching to Verizon FIOS, their
terms of service said you were not allowed to run any servers at
all, and when I called them and asked about how to run servers, I
was told there's no way.

Bruce