DO I???
When I moved into my apartment complex in 2006, I was using Charter at the time and I was completely happy with it. I received net speeds slightly faster than what I was paying for, tech support always offered discounted prices whenever I called for something, and any issues that happened, it was fixed in 24 hours.
However, in 2013 the complex had changed management and the new people decided to do with an exclusive contract with an ISP that didn’t even serve the area, named Xcelerate (I learned they originated from Atlanta, GA but our division in AL wasn’t associated with them). They had mentioned that it would be “cheaper” since it was made to be included with the rent (more on that later). Originally, I unknowingly didn’t mind the thought as long as the service was equal or better. However, it was FAAAAAAAAAR from it.
Right from the start, they were plagued with intermittent latency issues; it would be fine for a few seconds and then it’ll spike to complete packet loss - not just a high ping time, a complete packet loss. Some of my online games were able to resume if that packet loss only happened for two or three hops; other times it would happen for 5 or so hops, causing me to disconnect from my games and voice comms, my downloads interrupted, and YouTube vids stopped to buffer. When I called in a tech to check out the issue, apparently I learned from him it was already an issue prior to my apt complex getting their service, when he told me about a complex they served on the other side of town had someone complaining about constant disconnections when they were playing on Xbox Live. He said it was a problem he couldn’t fix, which was understandable since two complexes had that issue, seemed like it was somewhere in the network infrastructure rather than the local property. Either way, I had to resort to tethering off my cell phone whenever I had to do something online that was sensitive to latency, like gaming.
What made the whole matter worse was that my internet service would mess up when it rains. It wasn’t satellite - they were piggybacking off of Charter’s lines so it was all hardwired…yet somehow it got messed up. When I would call, they’d always be so quick to point to finger at you initially making you think the problem is on your end: blaming your router, other folks using their systems on my LAN, the internet just being busy…you name it. I constantly had to tell them I always disconnect the router and do a ping test directly on the line before I make the call. After back and forthing with them for whatever amount of time, that’s when they decide to send someone out.
Oh, did I forget to mention they only have like one tech servicing both properties and that we only had availability from him two days of the week - Tues and Thurs for my property? If your service goes down Thurs night you’re just S.O.L - you won’t be able to see a tech until Tues.
Remember when I mentioned “cheaper”? It was included with the rent, but only 5Mbps. Anything faster and I would have to pay the difference of the extra speed myself. This was at a time where most national providers were offering 30Mbps as the slowest speed. Xcelerate was only offering up to 10Mpbs and that cost me $30/mo., the same $30 I was paying Charter for 30Mbps, minus the issues. Cheaper, my behind! Anyone can easily tell we were paying 3x the price per MB.
It wasn’t until I got fed up with all the latency issues that I started reporting them to the BBB, FCC, and leaving negative reviews on Google. Now all of a sudden the Network admin of the ISP wanted to start looking into the latency issues I’ve been telling them about. For nearly the entire duration of MoP, I had to deal with the intermittent latency issue that only got fixed just prior to the launch of WoD. However, rain still messed it up.
New problems and other inconveniences arose over the years. I sometimes like to connect to my home network from afar. That means I need to have open ports and a DNS address. Unfortunately, they control the firewall rules so I would have to call every time I want a port opened. It was a real hassle because I needed all sorts of custom configs; I just told them to open a DMZ to my router’s address so I can do it myself; though it didn’t fix NAT-3 errors on my consoles. Plus with their network setup, the entire building shares one modem connected to a switch, putting us on the same network as our neighbors. If it wasn’t for my router, I would see my neighbor’s systems - major security/privacy risk.
Another issue that happened was my bandwidth speeds would frequently dip below than what I’m paying for - in some cases as far as <1Mbps. Once, this complaint went on for five months because each time they claimed to have fixed it, and whatever bandaid they put on would fall off, which warranted more complaints to the BBB, FCC, and even the property managers themselves, in case they didn’t know what was going on.
This bandwidth issue stuck with me only until this past July when their contract with the complex was finally up and was able to go back to Charter. Now I’m enjoying 400Mbps of flawless connectivity (though their 1Gbps was tempting to get… 
).
I told people in my complaints to stay away from complexes using Xcelerate.