Consolidated Communications — Attraction in Bath

Horrible customer service & terrible internet. We had the cheap plan - 15mbs (which worked ok) and wanted to upgrade to the 25mbs plan so that upload speeds would allow the use of Skype for work. YES the 15mbs plan isn't even fast enough for Skype. Anyway, we had to wait 4 weeks to get an appointment until they came and installed a new modem/router. The technician clearly didn't know what he was doing because he plugged our old router into the new modem for some reason (which had a router built in) so we had 3 WiFi networks running (we did get rid of the extra router). We were happy with the internet for approximately 1 day until it stopped working. Sometimes it would work for 10 minutes and then stop. Resetting the modem/router didn't do anything -- sometimes the internet would come back for 2 minutes, then stop for hours. Unplugging the DSL lines and the router/modem for a couple hours would sometimes give us some internet back for up to an hour max. Most of the time though, resetting it did not make the internet come back. This whole time though, the upload speeds were still too slow for Skype. We were paying extra for nothing. Every call we made to customer service was "uhh did you try unplugging it and plugging it back in derrrp" YES THAT'S WHY I"M CALLING YOU IT DOESN'T WORK. They gave me the same runaround every time - the customer service people have absolutely no understanding of how internet connections work, their job is just to get you off the phone. 15 year old children have a better understanding of how this stuff works than their trained customer service staff. If you want help you have to complain enough that they'll send someone out to your house, but then you have to wait 6 weeks for an appointment. In conclusion, the internet finally stopped acting up and guess why?? The Rt. 100 construction project! The FairPoint trucks fixed some wiring I'm guessing. I saw them there for days working at the end of my street and when they left.... we now have upload speeds that allow for Skyping, and download speeds that will let us stream Netflix. There are still interruptions to the service once per day, requiring a modem reset daily. Sometimes every 2 days if we're lucky. At least it's not every 10 minutes now. Sad that this is where they are at as a company. Their product only stops working once per day and I am finally ok with it. I'm actually moving because I can't work from home and deal with them anymore. YES IT'S THAT BAD. Look up what internet service is available if you are moving anywhere in Vermont and if Consolidated Communications/Fairpoint is your only option I would consider moving...

Not a happy customer. Due to limited options where I live FairPoint was the only choice. My Family Business uses FairPoint and have had nothing but bad experiences (outages, service techs saying they "missed us" and on our security camera no one appeared and people were there), ungodly hold times... I've used Comcast in the past, and when I say that Comcast has better customer service (and more prompt) I mean it. I called last Sunday because all of a sudden my internet speeds were crashing. Uploading a compressed image took 15 minutes, when before I could upload 300 photos in 15 minutes. Our download times were suddenly slow. I don't have many devices connected to the internet at once, but I was noticing the speed drops across the board. It is not our wifi, I have tried ethernet as well. The company promised a service tech on Wednesday (today) so I stayed home. Around 1pm I didn't have a phone call and no show so I decided to call them to ask when. I spoke to a rep who did not have me in the system with an open ticket, she placed me on hold while she called the local office. 15 minutes later and the line disconnected from her end. NO CALL BACK, though she did confirm the call back number. I waited figuring it could be a mistake, nothing. So I called back. I spoke to two people who did not seem to care that I needed to take a day off from work to stay home and wait for them to fix a utility that should not have an issue (I've had their services for about 4 months now). The tech I spoke to first said he could have someone there at 7pm the next day, but that I should speak with customer service about the issues and to fine tune the scheduling. He transferred me and customer service said they could not do any calls past 5pm. It would not be easy for me to take another day and the rep seemed to be frustrated when I let her know that those times did unfortunately not work. Not one of the three people I spoke to seemed to express genuine concern, nor did any of them offer to go out of their way to rectify the situation or speak of any sort of compensation (I did not ask nor press). I work in a call center as well, I know the reps are not the ones causing the issue. I was cordial and polite in all my dealings though inside I was VERY angry. They need better policies, better system, and more empathetic reps. Thumbs down until this issue is resolved. Though I doubt they are a company that takes such ratings seriously. I'm just one unimportant customer. Normally I give high ratings for places and have patience... Now I have...

First, BEFORE I bought my house I called to see what internet speeds were available. It is important for me to be able to work from home. AFTER buying the house they told me those speeds were NOT available.

6 months later... I'm told an upgrade is available! OK, let's do the upgrade so I could bring my productivity up to where it was, previously. Took a day off and no call no show.

A few bad phone calls later, we schedule again for 6 weeks out. The tech showed up and said he did the work at the house, but someone else has to come out to do some work at the street. He said I didn't need to be home, and that it would be done in a few weeks.

2 months later... I come home to a note on my door that says 'sorry we missed you!' I had no clue anyone was even showing up that day. They have 2 phones on record for me and not one call to let me know. Hell, even an email would be great! Also, I was told by the first guy that I didn't even need to be there.

Time passes with me being unable to have a productive conversation on the phone with them. I give up, completely demoralized by the whole experience.

Except I really need to be able to work from home sometimes. So, let's wait a bit and try again.

This time, an appointment is scheduled for 8 weeks later. I take a 3rd day off of work for this and again, no call/no show. I call them up and they say someone will be out in a few weeks (no exact date) and I give them both of my numbers AGAIN. Yesterday I came home to a note on my door saying 'sorry we missed you!' Mind you they didn't try to call me or anything this time, either.

If they weren't the only option for internet where I live, I wouldn't bother. If you have a choice, I suggest you don't bother, either.

TLDR: poor customer service, spotty internet, and they often don't show up when scheduled leaving you with wasted days...