Problems with Flashcom, a national DSL service provider
From: Ed Anderson
Subject: Re: Flashcom - Good or Bad - I need help
Date: 23 Feb 1999 00:00:00 GMT
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Chris Feahr wrote:
> George (grkarl@@-DESPAM-@@earthlink.net) wrote:
> : How is Flashcom as an ISP ?
>
> I have this exact setup with flashcom and it works fine.
> There have been a few posts here about customer service
> issues around installations, etc. but, frankly, once a
> service like this is plugged in and functioning,
> "customer service" is pretty much a non-issue. how often
> do you have to interface with the customer service rep at
> your power company?
Yes, but how often does the power company decide to deliver 60 volts
instead of the 120 they promised you, and cram triple charges in your
bill? The utilities are regulated, and ISP's are not. At all.
I signed a one year contract for 384k service with Flashcom, and after two
months they said there were boycotting PacBell and switching me to Covad
for the same price. What they neglected to tell me was that they were
dropping my speed to 192k, even though Covad also offers 384k.
In the meantime, they had glommed my entire phone bill, and in the three
months before I got it back, they have deducted over $1100 from my
checking account through autopayment. That's in addition to $700 in
regular charges to my credit card. They refused to honor our contract, or
acknowledge any billing problem on their end. I had little choice but to
terminate the account and switch to another ISP. That's over $1800 and
three months I've lost by choosing them for simple DSL connectivity. I'm
now back at square one, and Flashcom hasn't returned my calls. It looks
like we're going to end up in court.
For more gory Flashcom details, see http://www.pinch.com/flashcom/
The colocated connection at AboveNet in San Jose is fine. For Flashcom's
own mail relays, DNS, website, etc, they use Windows servers. Be prepared
to handle the ADSL trouble tickets on your own with the CLEC if anything
happens on the weekend.
Oh yeah, the last person I heard from, over a month ago, was a guy in
accounts receivable named "Hurt".
-- Ed "ouch" Anderson
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Problems with Flashcom, a national DSL service provider