City of Longmont Power & Communications — Local services in Longmont

UPDATED REVIEW: After a very negative, FRUSTRATING experience with a NextLight phone tech and also our initial broadband connectivity (and other issues), NextLight immediately responded and sent out two qualified, professional broadband technicians who helped us get our broadband maximized. I've changed my rating to 4 stars, and if it were just based on the techs that came out to remedy the situation I would give 5 stars. However, NextLight does need to change how they do business, particularly with their installation protocol - installation techs need to be better trained on where to put routers, etc., and use of phone techs needs more structure. The phone tech I happened to deal with gave me zero correct information (e.g. no the ethernet cables behind my walls ARE NOT old/incompatible with 1 gig) and this was confirmed by the two techs who came out. I basically wasted 20+ min on the phone with that guy whereas he should've just sent out the techs. Finally, if you're looking for the 1 gig just get your own router, don't mess with renting the NextLight router...NextLight should just tell customers this.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: I recently moved from Boulder to Longmont and was so excited to try NextLight 1 GIG and dump Comcast. The home I bought in Longmont was built in 2012 and previous owners did not have NextLight so NextLight did the fiber install and I'm paying for 1 GB. After 4 weeks of horrible WiFi in some rooms of our moderately sized, if not small, home (main floor 1473 sq. ft.) and very slow speeds (nothing close to 1 GB), particularly for my son's Xbox, I called NextLight to try to figure out what the heck was going on. (Yes I should've called sooner but I've been swamped at work.) Over the phone, the tech had me run the router down to my basement where the modem was set up by the NextLight installation tech and plug it into the ethernet cord down there. I'm not a techie person and the tech on the phone had very poor customer service and instructions, but after probably 20-30 minutes, I was able to do what he instructed while on the phone with him. In the end, moving the router down to the basement near the modem did help solve the poor WiFi in most of the home and we're now getting 350-480 Mbsp on our phones and laptops except not in our front bedroom where it is much slower. The tech said the Xbox issues are due to the fact that the ethernet cable behind the wall is old and can't support 1 GB. He informed me that Next Light techs do not do this replacement and that I would need to pay someone to do it. NextLight knew this house didn't have NextLight previously and that there was - what I've now learned - a high probability that the cables in this house wouldn't support 1 GB but NextLight still sold me 1 Gig. I feel duped and misled. And NextLight customer service really stinks. That guy - wish I got his name - is not cut out at all to provide customer service over the phone. While many issues may in fact be customer/user error, NextLight should expect this and have a better strategy for providing A+ customer service. The fact that NextLight doesn't send techs out but rather tries to solve these issues over the phone is ridiculous when you go past like 5-10 minutes and just aren't solving the problem. The least NextLight could do would be to hire technicians who are very skilled at communicating to non-techie people various instructions for troubleshooting problems. NextLight needs to be more transparent with people about whether 1 gig is even really an option for our homes. Overall, I'm fed up with Next Light and sorry I ever tried to get it set up in this house. If this is how a city-run broadband works, give me Comcast any day and paying a little more is totally worth it. What a total disappointment. I work at a business in Longmont and initially had been pushing them to switch over to NextLight but now I will tell them don't...

I wouldn't even give them 5 stars or even one star but had to to do this review. They shut my power off June 10th I couldn't get an appointment at the place that we go through for help until Monday the 16th. So June 12 I went to my boyfriend's house from June 12 to Monday, June 16th. Right before my appointment, and in that time frame, my meter went missing. Somebody stole it and put one in the turned my power on when I paid into the back pay and they still hadn't turned my power back on. I called them asking them why they haven't been out here? They charged me $2000 because somebody stole my meter and then rudely and being nasty accused me And said, I had somebody do it that I know who did it, and I know who's been around my house. All kinds of things they're just rude and I feel very insulted and truly hurt because I don't know what happened and i can't say i do I have now paid almost $1600 into that bill, I have called every day. I'm trying to talk to somebody. Nobody's called me back. They take my number down and they say we'll have a supervisor call, you know no supervisor has called me. I am without power still to this day. It is now July 1st, and I'm still out of power. I have children I have dogs baby puppies which i was told yesterday June 30th, that they would get me in July 1st reconnection nobody came out to reconnect my electricity. Nobody's called me to let me know what was going on, like they said they would. And here we are with out power again I'm so disappointed disgusted with the way that these people behaved with this Not only did they accuse me of me messing with something I have no idea about But they wouldn't even listen to what I was trying to say that I wasn't around. I left because like I said, I have children and dogs. I'm not gonna stay in an apartment with no electricity where my kids and my dog are dying of heat. So we went to my boyfriend's house, and in the meantime, they still accuse me saying that I know something about it. And I don't they said that they're not gonna turn me back on until I produce the meter, how can I produce a meter that I don't know where it went or how it got taken or who took it I can't produce something I don't have. I paid $1600 into this bill already, and I didn't even do this. And I'm being accused and told that I'm going to be charged for tampering with the meter, which i did not do it is really messed up because here I am paying on something I didn't do. They insist that I have something to do with it, and I did not I've talked to the officer that they called out to look at it, they said that they went and looked for the meter in the trash can they didn't find anything but that's because it's not here and the cop, that was taking the investigation Went on their side just automatically assumed that I did it. I have never been in trouble with the law but a small misdemeanor one time in my life, and he acted like I was a hardened criminal that knew all about meters and or had somebody who didn't know something about meters and i'm sorry, but i'm a single a mom trying to do this on my own. I just had to pay all that money out, and I still haven't gotten turned on. The people that work here should learn how to have a little bit more care and sympathy, and not accuse people of things that they have no clue what happened and that is not true. And by the way, if you guys shut my power off, and somebody was to put a meter in to turn my power back on everything that was on when you shut off the power would turn on, which would have used the meter and the power it doesn't mean anybody has to be here for...

Edit: I left my original review after a negative experience with customer service. The same afternoon another rep, Anna, who had spoken with the Field Supervisor, and developed a workaround plan that will suit all involved with no gap in service. Thank you, Anna!

I'm a Charter Member, and my family has enjoyed NextLight's service and price for nearly 5 years. I am moving within Longmont soon and I wanted to make sure that my new home will be ready to go when we move. The new address is within the service area, but does not have the box installed yet. I asked, with over a month's notice, if we could schedule the installation for the week after our closing date. I was told a work order could not be created because we don't own the home yet. I asked why not, because we will own the home by the time the work would occur and that I would cancel if the sale fell through for some reason. The customer service representative could not give me a reason except that I am not the current owner. She became more and more rude and short with me as I tried to get a straight answer as to why NextLight would allow a gap in service for one of their customers. All she offered was to have someone call me on the date of closing, which I had provided. After that, she said it could be up to a week and a half before the work could be performed. I work from my home office and cannot afford a gap in service like this. Now I will have to go to my old property and sit in an empty house in order to get work done? I will happily edit my review if a workaround is provided in response to the email I sent. This review would be one star if I hadn't been enjoying the service I've received up to this day. This call was so unsatisfying that it cost this utility...