(no subject)

[serene]

We're frustrated with Comcast's crappy customer service. Does anyone local to us (San Francisco Bay Area) have UVerse? What do you think of it? Do you have another internet and/or phone and/or TV provider(s)? If so, again, what do you think about them?

Comments

[wild_irises]

See, here I am on DW!

We use Speakeasy for Internet (I think they are Megapath now). I couldn't say anything about their customer service because we never have a problem that needs it. TV we don't do, and phone (landline) is good ol' AT&T.

[badgerbag]

sonic.net is the best. they are ethical! and cheap and fast.

[badgerbag]

and really great in customer service - they answer the phone and are very sensible so that it is just like talking to an actual nerd friend who helps you fix your stuff.

[zdashamber]

I'm a fan of Unwired Ltd, http://www.unwiredltd.com/ . Radio internet from the Berkeley hills! Run by a small local group, where if you call, you can talk to the actual people who do the stuff. Completely unreliant on the Evil Empires of DSL or cable. As fast up speed as down speed, so if you want to upload Vids or something, you're golden. If your landlord will let you have Dish TV, you're ok for radio internet. Took about 5 hours to get set up, with the screwing the dish on the house and running cables down the wall, through the wall, and then up from the crawlspace, and then testing etc, but it has never ever gone down. And that was 3 years ago? And they occasionally send emails about upstream backbone issues, but never spam emails. It's like being friends with people with equipment.

[serene]

Thanks!

[serene]

Thanks! I guess in our neighborhood, they don't give direct service, but give you AT&T DSL and Sonic customer service. Sonic was James's first choice, though, before he found out that, because when he was in Sonoma, he LOVED them.

[serene]

Ooh. Do you like your speeds?

(James is doing some research on them. They do limit you to 4 computers, it seems, so that's gonna be a potential issue (we have 4 computers up all the time, but we also have a netflix box, an iPad, an iPod, and an EEEPc that may be on at any given time. Oy. That's a lot of computers for three people!)

[zdashamber]

Yes, so far as I can tell (when I check using Speakeasy's service) the speeds are as advertised.

Elf, when I suggested Unwired to her, was a bit o__0 at their terms of use which say something like "if you're doing a ton of filesharing we may choke your network usage down some" but I think that it's nice that they state flat out what everyone else does under the table, and I think that they're talking about stuff that is so noticeable/ongoing that an actual human notices it.

For computer number, I haven't noticed trouble when I have friends over and there are two laptops and two iPhones, or a laptop and a bunch of iPhones; but I use a wireless router, so that may be the difference?