Review by megawhizz 
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 6.8 years, 126 visits, last login: 59 days ago
 Detroit,Wayne,MI
 $70 per month (12 month contract)
 "Good service, easy to contact"
 "Outages more frequent than expected. Condescending, petty approach to customers"
 "LBDSL has a good product, but needs to develop some business acumen"
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I've been with LBDSL for almost 2 years now, and have have consistent, fast service. They provide a number of extras, such as dialup access and dedicated IPs. Speed is as advertised - I have the 3.0/768 line share package (static IP).
The only complaint I have is about outages. Though not quite frequent, I have noticed outages every few months that last for a couple of hours. While most of the time LBDSL has been "aware" of the outages, sometimes I have been the first person to report them. The outage is generally fixed overnight, and is apparently always the fault of entities other than LBDSL.
I am happy with my service and will stick with it. I have been thinking about upgrading my speed, and I may consider another ISP for this.
UPDATE
If you do business with LBDSL, be warned that they will nickel-and-dime you for everything they can. After over 2 years with LBDSL, I needed to move to a different address. I contacted them to provide service at the new address, which they happily agreed to - however the address change would constitute a breach of contract, requiring me to sign a contract for the new address, and pay a fine equal to the total cost of service remaining in the old contract. Effectively I would pay LBDSL double the money for the same service. This was contrary to what LBDSL said when I renewed my contract, however since that conversation happened over the phone, I had no documentation of what promises were made. Result: LBDSL loses my business, and gets an F in customer service.
In this highly competitive market, I would advise business-class DSL buyers to look for an ISP that is willing to work with them - inflexibility is a big red flag for any small business. If you buy the cheapest service, you get what you pay for.
Followup comments:  bshensky
join:2004-09-20
Ann Arbor, MI
 ·Lightning Bolt DSL
|  Solid connection; sympathetic to "nickel and dimer" post
However, I must agree with the recent post affirming that LBDSL nickel-and-dimes its base. We were 6 months into a yearlong contract with LBDSL when our company owner wanted to relocated to a new suite in our office complex. LBDSL did their due diligence to suggest that we find a way to cross-connect to the new suite from within the office complex, but geography was against us, and we clearly would have been forced to cancel the old location's service and establish new service at the new address. With this would have come office-move breach-of-contract and new-office installation fees that, honestly, approached the cost of a plain-vanilla breach-of-contract cancellation fee.
That is, it would have cost us darned near as much to move the DSL service as it would have to cancel it outright, amounting to a lack of incentive for us to continue to commit to LBDSL.
I understand that DSL business is unusually cutthroat, especially with AT&T loss-leader carpet-bombing. And I understand that companies like LBDSL have upstream relationships and contracts that they must nurse to stay afloat. And, yes, we read the fine print in the TOS that outlines the early termination penalty. Still, these are awfully bitter pills to swallow, and I'm a surprised and a bit disappointed that LBDSL seemed to lack wherewithal to "think outside the financial box" in any effort to keep its customer base. I wouldn't so much call it poor customer service as I would a disappointing customer satisfaction approach.
That said, if you read the fine print, your connection is solid, and you plan to stay put, LBDSL is actually a pretty good value, and despite the tummyache, I'd still cautiously - cautiously - recommend them. | |
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