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Review by WiscGuy 
Posted: 6.7 years ago
member for 6.7 years, 1 visits, last login: 6.7 years ago
 Waukesha,Waukesha,WI
 $45 per month (24 month contract)
 TDS Metrocom
 "Easy Setup"
 "Will not refund modem charge if inside wiring is bad"
 "Do not get this service unless you know your inside wiring will work"
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I recently received my DSL modem through TDS Metrocom. From initial phone call to getting my modem was about 2 weeks, which was not bad. When I got the modem home and hooked it up, the DSL light on the modem would not stay on when the computer started up. I looked at the IP address and it started with 169 (which means you have a bad connection). I called Tech support which told me to try other jacks in the house and if that didn't work to try the phone box. I tried other jacks, which did not work.
I then went down in the basement of my 40 unit apartment building to find the phone box. Luckily, my phone jack in the box was labeled, so I was able to run a test against the phone box. This test was successful as the DSL light stayed on when it tried to connect. I took it back up to my apartment and it still did not work. I then talked with someone from the repair department and they stated that older buildings(my building was built in 1988) may not have wire capable of handling a DSL signal. They advised me to contact my landlord to see if he would rewire my apartment. Now I don't know of any landlord that is going to rip up his building just for one person, but I called anyway. The landlord, of course, was not willing to rewire his building for me, which is perfectly acceptable as I don't think I would tear up my building if I was a landlord either.
Now the fun begins, I called TDS and spoke to their Tier 1 support person, explained the situation and stated I wanted to cancel, but did not want to be charged the $150 modem fee since the service did not work. He then said he would talk to his supervisor and see what he could do. He got back on the phone and said his supervisor would not allow it because it was because of inside wiring. I then asked to speak to the supervisor, who turned out to be quite rude. He would not budge on it, so I asked to speak to his supervisor. His supervisor was more understanding, but still would not budge on refunding my $150. They claimed my landlord was being "unreasonable" in not wanting to rewire his building. I have yet to get my money refunded, but my fight is not over.
Bottom line here is this, make sure the wiring in your house/apartment will handle DSL signal before ordering. If it does not work, you will end up in the same fight I am in to try to get your money back for the modem they sent you. I am not sure how a private business can tell a private consumer how to act, but that is exactly what they are doing. If you order DSL through TDS Metrocom and your house's wiring is too old to accept a DSL signal, they will require you to rewire your house to make the service work. You do NOT have to option to not rewire. They will require you to spend hundreds of dollars to rewire your house just so you can use their service. To me this is a very poor business practice and if they are looking to gain market share over Ameritech, this is not the way to do it.
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Review by JayMadison23
Posted: 6.8 years ago
member for 6.8 years, 13 visits, last login: 6.7 years ago
Madison,Dane,WI
$45 per month (24 month contract)
 about 40 days
Ameritech
CLEC party: TDS Metrocom
"Reliable connection; competent tech support; no rate increases as yet"
"Install was messy; some of the tech support people were very unhelpful"
"All the services work well, though I hope I never have to move the line"
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I’ve waited quite a while to write this review, so let me start at the beginning. I originally ordered 256k DSL and phone service package in late May / early June 2001, and at that time I was told it would take about 3 – 4 weeks to get setup, which was fine since I could always use the connection at work or my neighbors.
About the 3 week mark I received my initial letter from Metrocom, stating my *approximate* installation date, which actually turned out to correct. The one problem was that the loop was totally dead. This required calling tech support, where I got a ‘not my problem’ sort of answer from several people. Finally I went for a supervisor etc and got a tech out to check it out.
Of course the line was dead (who knows why that couldn’t have figured that out the first time). That required Ameritech to do the whole process over again (which required waiting five business days, then another two for a Metrocom tech). This time the line was dropped off next door, which required a repeat of the process again, luckily the supervisor I had talked to before had given me a direct number, and Metrocom was nice enough to give me a cell phone for the remaining week of downtime.
This time everything worked fine, and the DSL modem was in my hand within the week. The installation was a breeze, the as was the email setup etc. It also integrated perfectly with my router, which tech support even helped me configure (a rarity). Since then things have been great, and they haven’t tried to sell me on lots of value added services, which is also a welcome change. I love my DSL, and it’s much more cost effective than cable, since I watch virtually no television.
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Review by Lmwrenchn
UPDATED: 6.8 years ago
member for 7.5 years, 75 visits, last login: 2.5 years ago
Beloit,Rock,WI
$40 per month (12 month contract)
about 30 days
TDS Metrocom
"Get Real close to advertised speed CONTINUESLY"
"Little bit rocky playing phone tag getting service hooked up"
"VERY Good compared to Charter Pipeline"
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Its been a year with TDS, and I couldn't be any happier with the service. I have the 256k service, and consistently have d/l of 221, u/l of 219. Speeds have been this for the whole year. TDS ROCKS!!!!!
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 6.8 years ago
(review was emailed from domain tds.net)
Milwaukee,Milwaukee,WI
$135 per month (36 month contract)
Ameritech
CLEC party: TDS Metrocom
"I signed up a year ago and their were coordination problems between phone and internet services, but we worked through them."
"I gave them the benefit of the doubt because I had heard their customer service is so good. It is."
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 Review by whiteinelgin
Posted: 6.8 years ago
member for 6.9 years, 376 visits, last login: 15 days ago
Grand Rapids,Kent,MI
$45 per month (24 month contract)
about 27 days
TDS Metrocom
CLEC party: TDS Metrocom
"Fast speeds at a reasonable price"
"To get the DSl service you must get their phone service"
"Very good value"
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I ordered the 24 month plan with 768K Residential DSL, $45/month and the Deluxe Phone Package, $34/month. I placed the order on December 27th and the phone service was switched over on January 17th. The 5360 Speedstream modem arrived about 5 days later. The installation was very simple and went smoothly. In a matter of minutes I was up and surfing with no issues.
My residential IP address is dynamic. So far I have run three speed tests with the following results: 645/413, 637/412 and 606/407. Granted I have not had TDS but for a short time however I am very pleased with the installation and speeds so far.
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 Review by weebies$
Posted: 6.8 years ago
member for 7 years, 161 visits, last login: 6.6 years ago
Wayne,Wayne,MI
$45 per month (48 month contract)
about 38 days
TDS Metrocom
CLEC party: TDS Metrocom
"One stop shopping (local, LD, DSL) at good price"
"None"
"good option for those in TDS service area (WI, MI, IL)"
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Received my Speedstream 5360 modem today. Hooked it up per instructions and started surfing. Haven't set up TDS email account yet, still using my Earthlink email account. Ran couple of speed tests and numbers look good. Pleased with service.
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Review by marquitos0
Posted: 6.8 years ago
member for 6.8 years, 3 visits, last login: 6.8 years ago
Madison,Dane,WI
$45 per month (24 month contract)
about 29 days
TDS Metrocom
CLEC party: TDS Metrocom
"Acceptable connection speed"
"Bad customer service"
"Wish I would have gone w/ SBC"
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I decided to sign up for TDS DSL service largely because of positive reviews on this website. Unfortunately, this has not been my experience. In particular, their customer service sucked. No, really it was non-existent.
I signed up for the service December 15, 2002. Several days later I received a letter from TDS stating that the service would be hooked up the week of December 24, and that I would receive a letter and phone calling detailing the service before activation. When I called to confirm the order, they told me that installation would be the week of Dec 29. On Dec 29 I called TDS again to check on the order, and they told me it was scheduled for the week of Jan 6, and that it had ALWAYS been scheduled for that week. I told them that I had a letter saying that the installation would be the week of Dec 24 and they pretended like the letter did not exist.
Well, TDS did NOT send me a letter a week before activation nor did they give me a courtesy call the day before installation like the letter promised. In fact, my only communication with TDS has been what I have initiated. So, it came as a bit of a surprise on Jan 6 when Ameritech came and unconnected my phone line. I called TDS to see what was up and a very rude customer "care" representative told me that maybe tomorrow TDS would hook me back up. Why can't Ameritech and TDS coordinate their work so that this is done at the same time rather than leaving customers w/o phone service for 24-72 hours? Who knows, and TDS doesn't explain this.
TDS mails the dsl modem from Indiana after the service is connected. They claim that this is so that they can verify that I have a good, fast, clear connection before finalizing installation. They said that a tech person would come out to check this. This "check" consisted of hooking a modem to the line and saying "look, see there is a light here. You have a connection." Whoopie. There was no test of the speed or to see how clear the line was.
Anyway, this was on Tuesday. TDS waited until Thurs nite to mail the modem, which didn't arrive until the following Monday, almost a week after the installation. Why couldn't the "tech" person drop off the modem at installation? It's like waiting for Christmas... Why does it need to take a month to set up dsl service? Who knows, and TDS is not interested in providing a serious explanation. This is third-world type service, and reminds me of the time I tried to get a phone line installed in a house in South America.
Then connecting the service into my Linksys router turned into a needless hassle. TDS includes a crossover ethernet cable to connect the modem directly to a ethernet port (which worked fine), and instructions to use a straight through ethernet cable to connect the modem to a router (which did not work). After spending several hours on the phone trying to troubleshoot the problem with Linksys (which, interestingly, supports interfacing its products with dsl modems while TDS refuses to support interfacing its products with routers) I gave up and called TDS. The TDS technician told me to use a crossover cable to the router, even though the instructions they send out with the modem explicitly say to use a straight through cable. This worked.
In addition, to get this dsl service we also had to change our phone service to TDS which so far has proven to be a mistake--they don't seem to have the infrastructure necessary to service their customers, like available lines to make and receive phone calls. Furthermore, they are 3x more expensive than Ameritech which they justify by bundling services that we do not want and will not use (call waiting, conference calling, call forwarding, etc.).
TDS only includes one line filter w/ the modem. How many people do you know with only one phone in their house? So, the lines screech until they mail you more filters. Fortunately, the filters arrived overnight (why couldn't they have done that with the modem?). Also, users have to call in to set up email addresses–and then wait for the ONE person who knows how to do this to call them back. Everything seems to be the responsibility of the user, much to the odds of their bragging about their customer service.
I compare this to my experiences with SBC when I had DSL service with them in Missouri a couple of years ago. Even thought they rank worse here on this site, in my experience they were much more courteous and professional. They provided enough line filters, the modem was here by the time the dsl line was installed, and they also provided backup dialup service for when I travelled. Since I ordered TDS, SBC has also now offered a special that makes them cheaper than TDS. There were details of TDS service that I did not know until after I was hooked up--they do not do a good job of providing full details in advance. Compare TDS and SBC's websites; SBC provides much more complete information about what their service entails.
In a nutshell, TDS's dsl speed is usually good (generally in the range of 500-600 kbps, but well short of the advertised 768k), but adding in the cost of their phone service and their lousy and rude customer service made them a bad choice for me. I now believe that dsl gets a bad rap not because of the technology but because of bad customer service. I wish I had gone with SBC instead.
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Review by rjofromwi
Posted: 6.9 years ago
member for 7.1 years, 6 visits, last login: 6.7 years ago
Madison,Dane,WI
$77 per month (24 month contract)
about 26 days
TDS Metrocom
CLEC party: TDS Metrocom
"DSL + phone service (local + LD) at a fair price."
"Aggresive spam filter with no user access to blocked messages."
"Installation coordination was good. So far reliable phone & DSL service."
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I switched to TDS Metrocom phone service with DSL because it was cheaper than any other way of obtaining broadband when I compared available local plans in October, 2002. (I was/am not interested in the local Charter digital cable/High Speed Internet program.) TDS said it would take 3 weeks to get connected, and during that 3rd. week my phone & DSL connections were made and I received and plugged in the high speed modem. I experienced no problems in connecting to the internet at a very satisfactory up- and download speed. (I had earlier installed the necessary high-speed Ethernet card.)
I have a 24-month contract for local 200 call + 60 minute LD, with caller ID+ name, and voice mail phone service with TDS. My DSL is 768 KB with up to 5 email addresses and a 5 MB personal web page (that I know nothing about at present).
If I leave TDS before 24 months I must pay $150.00 for the modem TDS supplied; if I quit after 24 months I may keep the modem without charge.
My cost is $77.54/month including all taxes and fees, staying within the 200 local call (funny how the number of local calls drop when you convert from dialup!) and 60 minute LD limits. Additional local calls are $.04 each; additional LD charges are $.095/minute (Sam's Club/Walmart sells phone cards for .037/minute).
My stand alone PC is a Gateway with a Pentium III 1,000Gb; 20 GB hard drive; 378 MB of memory; I have IE 6.0 and MS Outlook for net and email use. The connection to TDS is a static IP. I run Norton AntiVirus 2003 and a Zone Aalarm Pro firewall.
At almost 2 months my experience with both the phone service and the DSL has been good. My next step? Upgrade to Win XP; my OEM Win ME gives too many error messages, locks up, etc.!
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Review by casner
Posted: 7 years ago
member for 7 years, 35 visits, last login: 212 days ago
Neenah,Winnebago,WI
$35 per month (24 month contract)
about 17 days
TDS Metrocom
CLEC party: TDS Metrocom
"Reliable service, speed very close to advertised, good tech support."
"Communication during installation not clear, web signup doesn't get transferred to system."
"Good value for the money, best DSL in the area."
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I ordered the 256k DSL ($35/mo for 24 months with free modem) and conversion to TDS phone service ($18.50/mo for 24 months package option) on the web sign up form on a Saturday. On Monday I called in to check something, and found that several pieces of the information I had entered on the web did not make it into the order. The person at customer service was very polite and helpful, and finished all of the application process with me. I got a letter two days later telling me when they would need access to the house (CPW demarcation point in basement). I stayed home that day on vacation. I called TDS repair at 8 am and again at 12 pm.. to confirm that they would be there, and received confirmation. At 5 pm when I called, they said that someone would maybe be there the next day.
I was burned, and I called back to customer service. Turns out, it wasn't TDS fault - it was Ameritech that needed to make the changeover. TDS, however, did not tell me this originally and left me to get mad at them. It further turns out that Ameritech did not even need access to the premises, they switched the service at the central office and tested the line from there. I told TDS that I would not be available until the next day after noon, and they said that they would send there DSL testers then. The truck showed up at 10AM with only my 13 year old at home, who of course would not let strangers in the house. Turns out that TDS was able to DSL qualify the cable from the central office anyway! As I said, poor communication.
That all said, my service since then has been excellent, with good fast connections and no drops. The modem arrived about 3 days after the DSL was confirmed. They included one inline filter, but my main phone is wall mount, so I called and they sent out a wall mount filter. I had a couple of technical questions about the modem, and I emailed the modem maker (Paradyne Hotwire® ReachDSL™ v1 (MVL®) Modem, Model 6310-A4, with Inline Phone Filter). They responded promptly with good information.
I did have a few disconnects the first week after installing the modem and had trouble figuring out why. I was about to call TDS, but asked my wife and it turns out she was disconnecting the modem (from the taskbar icon) every time she left the house, as she used to do with the dial-up modem. No more disconnects now!
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Review by dcolesr
Posted: 7 years ago
member for 7 years, 11 visits, last login: 6.5 years ago
Sanford,Midland,MI
$49 per month (month by month)
about 2 days
TDS Metrocom
CLEC party: TDS Metrocom
"Fast, Great junk e-mail filtering, multiple connections"
"Dynamic IP Adressing"
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We ordered 768K Residential DSL for 49.95 a month. The same day we ordered the telephone company was at our door wanting to check our phone lines. About 2 or 3 days later the modem and the rest came in the mail. The modem was included free, and scince we alredy had a home network set-up was easy. Windows XP automaticly reconized the connection and we were surfing. The only problems that we have had has been when our DSL modem stoped working. But, that was because of defective workmanship, nothing with TDS Metrocom.
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TDS
tds dsl wiring
