 Review by Gemologist 
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 7 years, 3663 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Hanover,York,PA
 $60 per month (12 month contract)
 about 5 days
 Sprint
 "Nothing Anymore, THEY SUCK!"
 "Lack of Customer Service, Lack of Tech Suppport, Outrageous Prices, Bad Lines, Loss, High Pings"
 "Don't Recommend!!!!! Stay Far Away from these Crooks!!!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
|
Update 10//8/04: Sprint has really been going down hill for the past 6mths+. Paying $90ish//mth for 3000/512 and lucky if getting 1500/220.. and pings are huge on a regular basis.. 3-4 hop in Sprints network jumps from 200ms-700ms+ depending where trace to.. always same exact IPs.
Update 1/10/05: Still going down hill.. Now being told unless pings are always above 500ms not their problem and nothing will be done about it. Save yourself $$ and just buy DialUp as that is what Sprint DSL in PA is like browsing the web at night. Downloads can be nice but bounce all over.. lines and quality are terrible. Gaming is impossible!
To pay $90-$100/mth for this is a complete rip off and nowhere near worth it! My equipment is a Brand New 645M with current firmware. Dynamic IP.
Update 9/06/05: Still nothing but problems with Pings and packet loss. Always Hop 4 or Hop 8 and usually an ROA or CHI Sprintlink.net hop. But yet it is not a Sprint problem..lol.. They can't even supply existing customers solid 3Meg service but yet are promoting and selling 5Meg service. Gaming is useless and even uploading my pictures is useless during any peak hours due to packet loss issues and files ending up corrupt. Tech/customer support has went down hill extremely bad. It is ALWAYS your fault and a problem on YOUR end... Constantly asking you to turn off hardware and firewall routers and hook directly to the Internet which anyone who knows jack chit knows that is a large NO NO! I am very disappointed and would not even think of recommending Sprint's DSL service to anyone anymore. I have been a faithful customer and have recommended their product for many many years but can no longer do that and keep a good conscience! I hate cable service but I would have to say if you are in my area definitely look into Cable instead of Sprint's DSL service. Sad thing is all they would have to do is reroute this areas customers through a less crowded path and things would speed up and be alot more stable.
9/19/05: Sprint has fixed some of the issues and is working on the other issues as well. They are estimating a completion time of today. I will post more to follow up and adjust ratings as necessary.
2-27-06: Still the same old BS and nothing has been done nor is anything going to be done I don't think. What a waste! Spend $60/mth and half the time it is as slow as 56K Dial-Up 
6-6-06: STAY FAR AWAY FROM THESE CROOKS!! Sprint sucks, plain and simple! Now they spin off to Embarq, so now all the problems that existed don't have to be fixed, because Sprint says it is Embarq's problem and Embarq says it is Sprint's problem. So al you the customer get is a big run around and crappy service! Embarq was probably created for the sole purpose of making the "loop" so no one has to assume responsibility. They over sold their bandwidth beyond belief in many areas and yet they are continuing to add more DSLAMS and upgrading customers to faster and faster speeds but yet don't even have enough bandwidth to support existing DSLAMs and existing users @ existing speeds!! Sprint has been well aware of the problems in the Eastern US with their service, actually well aware for over a year, and they even admitted they don't have the bandwidth to support their customers, but yet they just keep adding more and faster speeds off of the same bandwidth and things keep getting slower and slower and higher pings. During peak hours pings far exceed 400ms and massive packet loss and time outs as well as disconnects. Pitty their isn't any other high speed in my area worth a crap.
7-19-06: Still the same crap, but now it is even worse. Instead of adding the bandwidth needed to supply us with what we are paying for they seem to be throttling connections back to 3/512 during peak hours instead of the 5/640, then during off peak the line speeds go back up. Sad thing, latency is still terrible
Update:
I FINALLY GOT RID OF THESE CROOKS, AFTER 3YRS+ OF CONSTANT 56k SPEEDS, RIDICULOUSLY HIGH PING (300-800MS+) EVERY NIGHT DURING PEAK HOURS DUE TO THE OVERSOLD BANDWIDTH!! CONSTANTLY GETTING TOLD IT WOULD BE FIXED IN A FEW WEEKS AND THEN MONTHS LATER IT IS STILL SCREWED UP!!!!
EMBARQ HAS OVERSOLD THEIR BANDWIDTH IN THIS AREA SO TERRIBLY AND THEY KNOW IT AND YET CONTINUE TO SELL EVEN MORE ACCOUNTS BY SELLING MORE SERVICE TO MORE PEOPLE KNOWING IT IS NOT GOING TO WORK VERY WELL IF AT ALL FOR THEM!! EVERY TIME YOU CALL IN THEY TRY TO BLAME IT ON YOUR PC WHEN THEY FULL WELL KNOW IT IS ON THEIR END DUE TO NO HAVING ENOUGH BANDWIDTH TO SUPPORT ITS CURRENT USERS! THEY HAVE TO HONESTLY BE THE WORST ISP THAT I HAVE EVER HAD THE DISPLEASURE OF HAVING TO DEAL WITH!!!
COULD NO LONGER GAME, COULD NOT USE MY VOIP, HECK.. LUCKY TO BE ABLE TO EVEN BROWSE THE WEB DURING PEAK HOURS, LOL.
Followup comments:  kyraeus
join:2006-07-25
Red Lion, PA
| Changeover/Embarq Well, everyone's entitled to their opinion, so I won't bash. That said, I'm a newer tech up here in PA, and it seems like (NOTE THIS PART) -SOME- of your expectations from the original review are unreasonable to begin with.
Now before I get flamed, hear me out. A lot of your arguments may have a lot to do with where on the loop you are, which you just happened to not mention. If you're pretty far out from the CO, you're going to see this kinda thing. Secondly, I've YET to hear of any problems where the whole 'Oh, it's sprint's problem' 'Oh, it's Embarq's problem' has played out like that. Note that you are a solitary instance of this, not every customer that ever went to Sprint/Embarq. That said, agreed, I'm, slightly biased, but then I've also talked to about 20-30 people in this area at least just by myself who've had nothing but simple problems or 5 minute solutions.
What you seem to not be understanding about tech support in general, is that 90 times out of a hundred, the problem IS on the user end. We DO screw up, but techs in general usually go through a process about a billion times, usually the same way most of the time, and unless you hit a new tech who doesn't know the process, generally the provisioning is set up just fine.
All of that aside, yes, you personally seem to have a server side issue offhand, which I couldn't troubleshoot without actually looking up the line info. But offhand, I'd guess it's simply a bad line in the area or port on the DSLAM, which happens. Ask them to send a line tech out to check for line noise, they'll be happy to oblige, or at least I always am. There'll probably be a charge, but this is why they offer Lineguard service for a grand total of, Oh, $5 tops usually?
As for billing, not my dept, but unless you have a really bad credit rating or equipment still on your bill, I don't see where all of that is DSL charges. I've yet to see the DSL service plan alone go over about $50-60 max for 5 Mb down plans. And as for speed issues, take a look at your agreement. Unless you bought in for a dedicated 3Mb all the time service, 1.5 is the minimum, which you should be getting at least all the time.. it's in the contract, and as much as I agree, you SHOULD be getting closer to 3 most of the time, you signed it, knowing that 1.5 was all they were required to make certain you have at any given time.
Note: There's no law saying you can't ask what the MEDR/AIDR are for your line, thus finding out how close to the max your connection is on the loop.
(For others not in the know: MEDR = Max Engineered Data Rate, AIDR = As-is Data rate. These basically tell what max service speed you can put on the local line.)
All this says to me you're one of the isolated incidents, being either on a bad line, or far down the loop.
The last point I'll touch on is the one about connecting minus a firewall router/etc. Note that we deal with residential customers (sadly, most of whom know little to nothing about the internet), and that I personally agree, not having a physical hardware firewall IS very bad. But also remember that a company CAN'T tech support equipment it didn't sell and doesn't know a thing about. Embarq employees don't get trained on 'blahthirdpartycomany''s routers, or 'suchandsuch's firewall equipment. We only get training on things that we sell and companies we have partnerships with. Expecting them to troubleshoot from behind your third party equipment is just not realistic.
I AM sorry to hear you've had bad service in the near past, which lately is probably due to the large amount of bouncing around in the ranks going on. But then, after just switching to mostly internal tech support instead of outsourced, this can happen. But give the new company a chance. It's been a grand total of two months since Embarq has pretty much opened up and become a new company, give them a chance to set things right.
If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me, I've not been in this game for very long yet, so I might be a bit off. Just my 2 cents. | |
|  | kyraeus
join:2006-07-25
Red Lion, PA
| Re: Changeover/Embarq - second serving And because I forgot wanting to comment on one last topic from another reply here..
With the changeover to Embarq, the metrics used to grade techs were reviewed. They grade on average call times, calls back within a certain time period, average hold times, and the wait times in queues, with other specs looked over that the techs don't even know about, I'm sure. As well, QAs and other personnel can and HAVE BEEN listening to calls on the floor, and can actually see every click of the PC using specialized software if they so choose. They do this completely randomly from time to time, so techs don't actually know when/if they're being recorded. If there's a problem with a tech, be secure that it will be handled appropriately. | |
| 
Fixdmix
@verizon.net
| Earthlink > Embarq Migration. I realize this string mostly concerns Sprint. Don't get me going on them, they were hands down the worst company I can remember dealing with in my adult life... until I found Embarq.
I do not have the time nor inclination to relate the horror stories of what Embarq did,, numerous times, and their reckless implementation of forcing the migration of Earthlink customers when they fired Earthlink. I have stories, I have facts. Apologies, but in this post all I offer is my opinions, and my condolences to the (many, from all accounts) others who have been screwed in the same ways I have been.
I simply want to share some of my pain, and scream from the rooftops.... If you have a choice... RUN!!! Don't walk!!
Embarq SUCKS bad. I am continually amazed.
I will say, in their defense, I have ended up speaking with VERY good and competent support staff there. They have told me some of the truth of what is going on in the company, and it is NOT pretty.
Maybe I'll try to come back here and give the specifics, to validate this rant, which I can do. Right now its a RANT, and I'm pissed. Embarq sucks, bad. They have screwed me again.
MD
Las Vegas | |
|
Gemologist
Premium
join:2001-11-15
USA
clubs: 
 ·Embarq
edit:
September 20th, @01:05AM
| Wrong kyraeus-- Embarq just plain sucks! Sorry, but Embarq just plain sucks!
First off, I am like 100 feet from the CO, it is literally right up the street. The local techs have checked everything on my end of things and it has nothing to do with me or my equipment. I tis NOT even on the local end of things! It IS a lack of bandwidth!! Embarq does NOT have enough to support their current customers! This came directly from Engineering! This is the PA/OH areas hopping through CHI or ROA hops on Sprintlink.
My requirements were far from asking too much, lol. All I asked for was a working connection! Every single night starting around 4-4:30pm until 1-1:30am the speeds would drop down to below 1M, most time dropping down below 500K. Now, along with this came tons of Packet Loss as well as pings averaging 350ms to 1000ms.
The connection was junk and made browsing even slower then a 56K dial up line!! In fact my God Daughter's Mother, who is still stuck with Embarq for a few more months, made this comment the other night while on the phone with me, "I think I would be better off back on my dial up, it was faster browsing the Internet." And she is a complete computer know nothing but how to browse the web and check email!!!
I had to give up gaming because it was not even doable on Embarq's service! Heck, in most cases, browsing the web was not even doable!
The problem could have been fixed, had Embarq just added more bandwidth!! But that would cost too much money of course.. ripping off customers was easier and made them $$$.
Sprint/Embarq were well aware of the issues for over 2 years!!!!! They even told me what they were, lack of resources to support the amount of customers. But yet nothing was done about it the entire time!! Embarq obviously doesn't give 2 craps about their clients and never will either! The local Techs were top notch, but they can't do things the Company itself refuses to do. Just look.. they took away our webspace, backup 56K (which was a major necessity..lol), took away good email and gave us this crappy stuff, etc. Then to top it off, spam the heck out of us with Ads on their website and Email panels to make even more $$$ from us!
BTW.. if 1.5 is all they have to give.. fine.. they were NOT even providing that during peak hours!! ROFL
Enough said!
--
Images are Copyrighted and use is NOT
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|
S of Carlisle PA
@embarqhsd.net
 from:
Gemologist
| Embarq Suxs 
Have had Embarq for almost a year now, and it's gotten so bad that I can't even watch a news video because my DSL speed is down to 349kb. Where's my minimum of 1500? Now I've got so much noise even my phone line is becoming unusable. DO NOT SIGN UP WITH EMBARQ. I'm going back to Comcast. | |
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