Sparklight — Local services in Lewiston

EDIT: I find it hilarious that they publicly “reached out” here trying to offer support. I’ll offer a quick review of that as well: they didn’t do jack. They 100% did that so it could look like they made reparations with me “behind the scenes” - they didn’t.

This is an objective review from someone who has lived in many areas of the country with multiple options for internet, as well as areas with much more limited options (like Lewiston). I am currently on one of Sparklight's most expensive plans here in the valley.

The reality of the situation is this - Sparklight absolutely knows that they are price gouging customers, and they know they can get away with it for two primary reasons: First, because they are the only real option for numerous people in the LC valley. Second, because many people do not REALIZE they are being taken advantage of.

It absolutely baffles me that an internet company can make data caps their "standard" in 2022; and even worse, charge people ridiculous monthly fees to "soft remove" that cap. I say soft, because instead of actually giving you unlimited data, they will throttle you HARD once you cross a specific terabyte threshold. For some context, I moved from Salt Lake City 1-2 years ago. At the time, I was paying for internet with notably faster speeds and zero data caps, and I was paying about the same as it takes for that simple upgrade from Sparklight ($50). In fact, I've found that this is the average price for high-tier internet in most areas with actual competition - data caps nowhere to be found, since these companies have brains.

But here's the thing - Sparklight's people know this; they aren't stupid, they're cunning. And in an area where Century Link's higher-tier options are limited to a block-by-block basis, Starlink is backlogged several years, and so on - Sparklight knows that you literally have no realistic alternatives. So what do they do? They implement data caps, gouge you as hard as they can, and make even their least-expensive options more costly than high-tier internet just about anywhere else in the country with competition.

And the worst part is that we have absolutely no choice in it. I cannot explain how eager and excited I am for literally any other company to be accessible at my address. I can assure you I will never switch companies more quickly than I will...

Edit 4/6/24:

Going back thru my old reviews and found this one. I did go to starlink and it has been amazing. The top speeds are slower, and the monthly cost and installation and gear were all more expensive. Yet I regret nothing. The stability and reliability has been nearly faultless and the few outages they have had were short lived and far apart. Sad that talking through a satellite from Lewiston to Seattle provides better Internet than a local fiber network. Lewiston infrastructure and expertise simply isn't there, it at least weren't a few years ago when I originally wrote this. Who knows, maybe things have changed. Doubt I'll ever know.

I get ads for Sparklight in the mail advertising gigabyte speeds now for less than starlink. It would be tempting if I had any faith in consistent, reliable service. But years as a Sparklight customer across multiple addresses has taught me otherwise. I'll pay more for less bandwidth if it means I can have reliable service. I require no less for work.

#End of edit.

My debit card expired and I forgot to update my payment details. I did not receive any emails or mail notifications my service was to be terminated, it just stopped working. Oh well, just log into thier support portal and update payment details right? Nope, down for scheduled maintenance. Dial in for bill pay over the phone? Nope, also down for the same maintenance.

I get this was on me. I neglected to update my payment details after my card expired. But if you're going to plan an outage where customers won't be able to pay thier bills, maybe have a little bit of foresight and don't allow subscriptions to expire during that window when they can't do anything about it. No internet until thier maintenance is done I guess. Hopefully its back up before I need to sign in for work in the morning. And hopefully no urgent after hours issues crop up in the meantime.

I'm not in an area that would normally call for use of a service like Starlink, but hey, I bet this kind of nonsense would never be an issue on their service. Reliability is kind of a big deal. If you're trying to inspire customer loyalty or instill any sense of confidence, I can't see...

My wife and I moved into a new house and wanted to transfer the internet to the new house and called a month in advance. I was told that they wouldn’t schedule any further out than 2 weeks so I couldn’t do anything. I then called two weeks before moving and was told that they needed one week to install the internet itself and then to call the next week to schedule the transfer. So the next week I call and they have not installed the hardware but was assured that if I called the day of moving that they would have it installed and would send someone over to transfer it. Then the day of moving comes and of course, nothing has been installed and I called them and basically was told “oh yeah...we have that on record. Sorry.” And was told the soonest I could get the internet installed and transferred was the first of next month. Then they call me the next day and said that an opening was available for a technician to come out the next day (today) from 8-10am to install everything. I said yes, they scheduled me and then 8-10am comes around - nothing. No one comes. So I call them back and they have me scheduled for the 26th. I asked if I could talk to someone in corporate because I knew the lady on the phone wasn’t at fault, and they forwarded me to their corporate answering machine which told me to press 5 to leave a message (they didn’t answer of course) and pressing the number did NOTHING and it kept saying “no response was made” and repeated itself. I tried EVERY number and NONE of them gave me any response.

The people I’ve spoke to were all very professional and understanding but this kind of disorganized “trust me, we’ll get it done” kind of treatment (and the subsequent failure to come through) has forced me to give a negative review.

Reader, if you have any opportunity to work with a different internet carrier, take it. Sparklight is not trustworthy, they are not organized, and they are not...