Broadstripe Internet Service Issues

Lousy service, dropped connections. Can't wait to have another choice.

According to a letter I got a few days ago Qwest is bringing fiber to my area on Nov. 10th. I live around 23rd and Dearborn. Hopefully that will mean much faster speeds!

I kicked around trying Broadstripe as currently my DSL tops out at 300k, but glad I didn't.

Broadstripe also known as brownstripe is the worst. In addition to interrupted service we have gone through 2 HD boxes in the last 3 weeks. It takes them over a week to make a service call. It is very disappointing....

I encountered problems with my broadstripe high-speed internet about 2 weeks ago and called in to tech support. The customer service guy said they had no record of systemic problems in the area, so he'd have to send a repairman out to take a look. He then tried to sell me some kind of repair insurance, so that if the problem turned out to be somethign stupid and my fault, I wouldn't get charged a service fee. No thanks, I said.

Next he told me that it would be a week before they could get a tech person out to see me. However, if I upgraded my package to cable + internet + TV then they could be out the next day. I asked him "so you're telling me that I need to pay for additional services, to get the service that I am already paying for working in a timely manner?" He was flustered but basically had no response and I didn't feel like pushing it with a supervisor so I left it there.

A week later on the day that the repair guy was scheduled to come out, my internet started spontaneously working again. When the guy called to say he was on his way I told him not to bother, it was fine. He then said oh yeah, they were doing outages in your area. :P

WTF? Was the whole thing planned all along and they were just trying to scam me out of money? Or does the left hand not know what the right hand is doing with broadstripe?

have had broadstripe for 3 years and they are terrible... tried qwest... my neighbor gets a good connection with them and i do not... any other options i just want 6mb connection like a real internet provider... not 300k like the everyone in the CD...

Thanks for posting the link to the office of cable communications for seattle. I have filed complaints with the FCC but not seattle city--so thanks!
Internet speeds are far less than they advertise and that we all pay for. Customer service is horrible (did you know there is no tech support on Sundays?) And cable offerings are nowhere near the same as Comcast. Not to mention, any time I have had a loss of service (internet or cable)-they always seem to forget to compensate me on my bill. So I have to talk to them again.
We are unfairly trapped!

http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/cable/comments.htm

Publicola had a wonderful article on this very topic just a little while ago. Apparently some neighborhoods (surprise, poorer ones!) get stuck with this crappy service and have no choices...all the details here:

http://publicola.net/?p=15237

Giffy, I live close to you and am interested in Qwest Fiber. I don't remember the mailer. Did Qwest say they'd be in contact with houses in the neighborhood once Fiber is in? Thanks!

And by love fiber I mean marry it and have it's beautiful 20 Mbps babies.

When I first moved to the CD I lived in a small gerrymandered area that could get Comcast and knew nothing of the bizarre internet situation until I read it on here. When I moved to my current place I took the advice of this blog and went with Qwest. It's been ok so far, I'm really close to the CO (located on 23rd and Jackson so the Qwest dude said) and I average about 4.8 Mbps. However, I work from home much of the time as a web designer so the more megabits the better!

We live down by the Post Office on 23rd, we are able to get great speeds via the local company Speakeasy.net. Not only is their service reliable, their customer service is amazing!

Hey, folks,

The city isn't responsible for broadband, although they can monitor Broadstripe and complain about it. They lack regulation authority for broadband, which is reserved to the FCC. But the city can also complain to the FCC.

The city's authority is over the cable TV portion, for which Broadstripe is required to meet certain benchmarks related to its specific franchise in the areas it covers. (Seattle has several franchises areas; Comcast controls about 90%, Broadstripe about 10% of households.)

So complain to the FCC, too, on the broadband side. I'm working on additional articles for Publicol about both how bad broadband is in Beacon Hill, and how to get better broadband.

The impact Broadstripe's service is having on the CD community is really an issue.

Ultimately the bad service hurts the economic vitality of our district....

I heard the Amazon center by Lowes had to change operations due to the bad internet service.

The situation is lame.

I dumped them a long time ago. they have sucked since they were millennium fir years and years

I have qwest and its supposed to be 5 I think and its more like 3 but it doesnt really hack PS3 online gaming all that well but its a lot better then buttstrip.

Speakeasy just resells service over existing qwest lines as part of an anti trust agreement

If it makes anyone feel better, the nice parts of Mt Baker are also stuck with broadstripe, and it sucks there also.

I would think that Qwest would be pretty good in the CD, what with the big Qwest office up by the TV towers.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/10/want-50mbps-

Who wants to bring muni-fiber or internet to Seattle? I know Mcginn was about it but who knows if he will drop support for that in a heartbeat as well.

broadstripe out for over 1.5 days now.

Comcast has a similar reputation as Broadstripe but at least they don't close for the wknd and outages are taken care of somewhat quickly.

I can't believe we asre stuck with this incompetent, failure of a company. I have had them for over 5.5 years and they only bring you bad service, , Cheat you of your hard earned money, give you problems, wasted time on the phone; they simply don't give a damn about their customers, that is US. They have been in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy for almost a year and have appealed to the Federal District Court in Delaware to exrend their protection. They have no money to do anything to upgrade their servie or system. They have appealed to the Feds to be able to continue to provide old set top boxes that don't meet current standards. They think by changing their name to Broadstripe from the well known horrible Millenium Digital Media (Brownswipe here in my circles), by having flashy comercials with animated silly fish and the "Broadstripe Forever" campaign where they try to lock us saps into their lousy service and inferior technology for life that they will remain in business. Why are there so many satellite dishes in our side of Seattle? Why are so many using other service companies? Because Broadstripe is an inferior, Parochial company that has never served any other Major city in the USA than Seattle. They have horrible programming, their Cable line up is for the suburbs and the villages. Seattle it the ONLY major city they serve, you can look it up on their web site. They recently gutted their digital music line up, eliminating anything smart, alternative or minority oriented. They simply have a village mentality and a conservative, parochial vision and don't care about our incredibly... read more verse, intelligent, alternitive community. They dont' give good service, they cheat their customers, waste our time and give lousy programming. And the complicit City of Seattle Office of Cable Communications has gone along with the "ghetto" service quality for what reason? because no one cares about us, and Broadstripe keeps shoveling up the cash from us and sending it to the Bankruptcy Lenders. Broasdstripe just needs to go away and wither at the vine.

is making us use those boxes which render my vcr useless. Claiming it's part of the conversion to digital, but it is not. I'm ready to go dish.

In addition to the lousy internet service, the options for cable TV are horrible. I pay more for my service than I did when I lived just a few blocks north with Comcast, I have fewer HD options and pretty much zero On Demand options. How is this allowed? WIll Comcast not serve this area? I don't understand!

Okay I have lived here for 7years in the central district now, and I have had my share of issues with broadstripe/millineum.

Okay after talking with them about the internet issue, this is what I have been told. There has been a problem with our ip address's were showing up on the East Coast, like were living in Washington DC or something.

If you go to www.speedtest.com or is it .net and test your speed you will most likely be in that region of the country. They are offering up to a 1week credit currently and I advise you to go get it.

I for one am using my Sprint Air Card 99% of the time other then to just test to see if this is resolved. Its faster then my current 0.50 Dowload speed and 0.30 Upload speed.

Also you might want to check your internet security apps and see if there has been some blocks on intrusions lately. I have had np4s.broadstripe.net try to reach my ports in a strange way and have had them blocked by my security features on both my server and stations in my home.

I also work for Comcast and will say they ain't alot better, only thing is they send someone out quicker. They would only take over the lines and service already installed and charge more for prices. I have old plan where I pay 126.00 a month and I get all channels HBO, Starz, Cinemax, encore ect.ect. and internet included.

They typical solution to fix the central district area would be to replace and upgrade the district and that would require millions of dollars. They aint going to do it. Just ask alot of the people in Issaquah who went to comcast. There still having problems, and comcast isn't... read more ing to cough up the money no time soon. Were F***ed till someone brings in fiber or soemthing along the lines of that. Major investment money to get us up to par, thats the secret replace and repair the nodes and lines on every street.

i ordered the digital cable, what a mistake, the box has about 3 options, all of them pay per view practically. i am stuck with this shit service that gets 1/12th the advertised bandwidth and the company isn't doing much to help out. suchhhh bullshit

I have been fighting with Broadstripe over the past 6 months. I agree to one price on the phone and they charge me another....each time I call I get a half ass story about how my account will now be cheaper - but it never is. There is no way to view or edit your services on line - you must call in to do so, and then you can't prove what was agreed to. As for the service - it totally sucks: My HD doesn't work properly as I get A LOT of pixelation and buzzing on my HD channels...and I don't understand how my bill has reached $160.00 per month!!! I spent 7 years with Comcast and had many more channels for at least $40 less per month before moving here. This company is ripping me off! I am in a 13 month contract that I can't get out of but it is SOOOO unfair. My community insists I use Broadstripe due to a contract they signed years ago with Millennium....I thought this was a free country and we could choose our own vendors....but in this case I can't - and it pisses me off. We should be able to use Comcast if we want to unless the rental company is paying for the service for us!