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Review 3/29/2009
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Well where to begin.
They seem to go after apartment complexes, trailer parks, and the like. I'm guessing the business model is to lock in people who don't have the money to move or have more options. Regardless of the motives or reasons, the final service is just flat out terrible.
A few years back our park switched to them. As part of our deal, a basic package for television is a part of our rent. Our former provider's basic package was about 80 channels, covering all the basics. Broadstar's is about 50 for us. That I could deal with.
The tv service is terrible. channels are always out, or mislabeled on the laughable channel guide, or changed without rhyme or reason. We are currently missing a channel completely (AMC), and another (VH1) was changed to the Outdoor channel weeks ago. Still says VH1 on the guide. Of course you call and say anything "it's not our fault". they'll blame the park, the cable itself, or anything else they can. Plausible denial-ability at its finest. Let's not get too much into the fact that though they say "All of our services are priced well below the incumbent service providers in your area" (from their own website) the prices quoted to me on the phone were on average 20-40% more expensive for the same tiers directly from the digital service provider.
That I can live with, since it's just a part of my rent. Then we get to the internet service. Nevermind the fact they are trying to charge 3 times the price of ATnT for low level service. The fact I could get something else in my park was decent enough (we can't get the local cable company here now thanks to this deal with Broadstar).
The service is even worse than the tv side of it. For over six months ( I saved all my emails from the ONE person who bothered to respond), we were paying for 1.5 down, and getting barely 768. On top of that, the allotted bandwidth was SO constricted for the park, that it made playing any sort of game or watching anything streaming impossible. It admittedly wasn't always like this, so I know something changed. It was sudden. So for 2 months I complained (more on the "customer service" later), sending things to the website through the "contact us" page. No responses for months. Call them and leave a message? no response. Got to the point I told them not to call back anyways, just please fix it.
After two months of this, a Mr. David Haan responded to me, with "I apologize for my delay in responding. I have had our tech support people working on this and it seems to be an issue with bandwidth. Currently you are on a plan to provide 1.5 Megs of speed, but from what we are now seeing your modem is receiving about 768k of speed. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do to improve the speeds at the moment" and tossed me a 20$ credit.
When I asked if it will be ever bumped back up to the old speeds I was paying for? "If we are able to restore the old bandwidth level I will make sure you are bumped back up. At the moment it is something we are working on but do not have an exact date on."
That was July 24th, the issues started in March/April. Finally around December I had it with the whole thing, switched to ATnT. After over half a year, still unresolved, and the customer service....
There isn't any. You have a problem with something? Oh, sorry only open 9-7, no one there on weekends. Any problem you do have, they automatically assume it's your computer "cause our checks show everything is fine". They say you can leave a message, but they never call back. Only time they EVER called me was if I was late on a payment..funny how they could find my number then. Man *I'll* work local customer service for them, I need the job and they need SOMEONE to do it around here.
The website contact page is useless. I sent between 7 and 10 problem notices total, never a response. I will admit though after the first 5-6 I would tell them not to bother unless they have some new information.
Now, I apparently owe money for 1 months worth of service. Funny considering I was all paid up and canceled my service immediately (I have that email also). They of course didn't turn it off for a few weeks, then charged me that last month in full. Christmas comes, bills pile up, I figure, hey the service was terrible, they could barely find me any other time, they can wait a bit. I even told them on the phone " you'll get your money, just leave us alone. Your service was terrible, badgering is once a week for money I probably shouldn't even owe isn't going to get it any quicker" (petty I know, but they were terrible).
So I get the monthly pestering via mail. Fine I owe them, I have no issues. Looked at the latest today. Jumped up from 32.05 to 43$...and it wasn't interest. Somewhere along the lines I get charged 5$ for "services". Nice... so a hidden late fee on top of the interest I would rightfully owe.
Stay away from them if you have a choice. you won't get what you pay for, and what you will get will be bottom-dweller level service. I await some representative to come and deny, obfuscate, and generally hold to everything I have come to expect from them. Since they probably were able to stay within whatever contract they have with the park, I am sure this will eventually be all for naught. But I had to try.
Except Mr. Haan, he was the one person out of everyone I ever talked to that did anything remotely of value for customer service.
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