I pay for the fastest service and it works about 50% of the time. they have no clue why it doesn't work. they always blame the tower, yet another install on my ranch only 150 ft from me never has an issue. same tower they continue to bill me full price even though they can't fix my system. they say CS will call and they NEVER do. if it worked I'd say it's great. if they had a tech guy that could fix it I'd say the same. they send a good who is borderline rude and clueless. every single time. so here I am again, paying anywhere from 300 -500 $ again this month for a hotspot. and paying surf net full price. think it's time to check out Ranch WiFi. read more

We've been Surfnet cudtomers for years, in a mountain area where internet access can be difficult. Service is up more than 98% of the time and any interuption is restored quickly. Surfnet is highly dependable and customervice is great! read more

I live in a fairly rural area and had to suffer through another company's spinning icon for many years. When Surfnet started to provide service in my area, my internet experience changed. If there is ever an issue, the tech department is on it right away. read more

In our remote area, we tried every internet provider we could find to get us internet access. None have been as effective or as fast as Surfnet. They Rock! read more

We seldom have problems and that is usually for an upgrade or repair and we are notified ahead time. Highly recommend. read more

I have always had amazing help with surfnet. calls answered and issues dealt with in a timely manner. I can't remember the last time I had problems or needed to reach out to them. highly recommended for a service provider. I value the small town family owned business. read more

We have had Surfnet for the 7 years we have been in San Miguel, CA. We have never had a bad experience. Their pricing is comparable to other internet services. I would recommend them. As we live outside of town we thought we would have a lot of down time and we don't! read more

We're using the wireless service, 30Mbits down/4Mbits up. Speed is very consistent. Very little down time, maybe 2-3 times per year, each less than 12 hours, typically in bad weather. We're very happy with Surfnet. We've been a customer for 10 years now. Only a couple truck rolls to our place needed: Once to replace antenna with larger one, once to re-aim antenna after our roof repairs, once to re-aim antenna based on change in their network. read more

Reliable fast service for rural Templeton. Customer service has been great. I went through 3 service providers that were lousy before I found them and I am sticking with them. read more

Excellent in gendral abd certainly much better than other options experienced over the last 22 years in 95033. Reliably available to remotEly troubleshooting issues at all hours. Very few issues, generally. Recommended. read more

We have been with Surfnet for about 4 years and have always enjoyed reliable service, affordable rates and great customer care. Thanks

Great!! they always solved the problems quickly,,, they answered me quickly,,Thank you to Surfnet,,

We moved to our rural mountain home in 2013. There were only 2 providers offering internet service. the "big" guys, at an unreasonable cost, with customer service we'd dealt with before (not good), or Surfnet. Never heard of them, but booked an assessment appointment. The guy was so nice and helpful, the price was reasonable, we signed up. The first time we had an outage, I called in and was SHOCKED when someone, locally, answered the phone and worked with me. no phone tree, no wait time. It's been YEARS since I've had to call in, so don't know the current set up, but that sold me. Real, local folks providing great service. When my kids had to come home from college in the pandemic, there was plenty of juice for all their uploading and zooming. I could not give a higher mark for excellence to Surfnet. read more

We Have lived in the Santa Cruz mountains for thirty plus years it is a very challenging environment for internet providers. We have had terrible service from Frontier for many years. Look inside the Frontier switching boxes and you will see the inches of mold on the mechanical connections. We now have Surfnet because Surfnet works!. Surfnet has an excellent management and technical staff in the field. This is totally different from other internet providers whose managers do not support the field people with the investments they need. Surfnet realistically keeps you informed of the status of their network and provides outstanding excellent service. We are now increasing our contract with Surfnet and getting their to fiber to the home... Again, in this area, surf net is way outfront. We have had months of no service from Frontier as they made up, excuse after excuse... There is no doubt about it, SURFNET IS THE COMPANY TO USE.. read more

When I first moved to zip code 95033, I was dismayed by the lack of high speed Internet options. Even if I were willing to pay exorbitant prices, I could only find speeds a fraction of what I could enjoy in more urban areas. SurfNet was the fastest I could find at the time, and pricing was comparable or better than other available options. At the time I signed on, the fastest commercially available plan topped out at 25 Mbps downloads (4 Mbps up, I think). I did have some service problems initially, but after weeks of service requests, we determined that it was a hardware setup issue that I caused when I inherited the service address account from the seller of my home. The seller had never explained what portions of the network setup were critical to the service and which could be safely replaced. Once my hardware was placed downstream of the critical networking hardware, my service issues basically stopped. A new installation would not have my problems. Since then, my service speed tier (but not pricing) has increased twice; it's up to 75 Mbps down. The upload speeds are certainly underwhelming by comparison, but I rarely need fast upload speeds. I have generally enjoyed solid connection speeds for years now with very few issues. The few times I have contacted support, they've been responsive and helpful enough to get my service back into shape quickly. I've been a customer since November 2020, and SurfNet has been a solid choice for my service area since then. read more

After the recent rains our internet went down. Turns out that the rain had driven water into our antenna cable which shorted out the antenna amplifier. Kenneth from Surfnet was there the next day at the scheduled time. Even though replacing the amplifier box fixed the problem immediately, Kenneth insisted on replacing the cable so the problem wouldn't repeat. He worked very quickly and efficiently. I was very impressed. read more

I agree totally with the other reviews that say to improve the network, customer service and communication. I as well have tried to express my concerns to management and have never received a return call after 4 emails and 3 phone calls. The issue is unreliable connection speed reliability and lack of customer service. To ensure that my speed issues were not on my end I increased my package to the highest speed plan and bought a high quality router. I still got speeds much lower than I was paying for. After countless calls into tech support and waiting weeks for techs to do an on-site visit the problem was still not fixed. I was told their tower needed to be replaced because a tree was covering it but until then I would still get slow speed. I signed up for a two year contract as who wants to change service providers. After one year of countless hours spent on reporting problems to technical support and unable to do my business work I asked to get out of the contract. I was holding up my end of the agreement by making on-time monthly payments but they were not providing the agreed upon service. I have always stayed patient, kind and reasonable. I have detailed documented email communications and for some reason I cannot get a manger to contact me to discuss. I was told by billing that I still need to pay a cancellation fee. I am responsible so will pay the fee however the service is atrocious and I'm glad I'm going to move to a local company. Surfnet is based out of Santa Cruz and for this reason I think they feel comfortable with not responding. It's been 11 weeks since I emailed and called to ask for a manger to contact me to discuss my issues and I still have yet to get to a manger to contact me. From the other similar recent reviews clearly there is an upper-management leadership problem with this company. I understand service will occasionally go out with bad weather but this was not the case and if I had received a return call from a manger as I requested four times over 11 weeks - this review would not have been written. read more

Took a week for an initial site visit and a week to schedule around the rain after assessment proved the direct line of site was available. Install went well and the initial performance is exactly as advertised in speed tests. There was a pricing mistake in the email correspondence that could be perceived as a bait and switch tactic but my sense it that it was a genuine mistake and they owned up to it prior to any commitment being established. Overall it's a small business and I get the sense that they care about their work. read more

I tried to like and support Surfnet but unfortunately they are UNPROFESSIONAL and the actual SERVICE IS "FINE" AT BEST. The service I had installed with them constantly cut out at random times and it was near impossible to reach anyone in a timely fashion when these issues could not be resolved by me or my husband. I CALLED 3 TIMES OVER 2 DAYS WITH ABSOLUTELY NO RESPONSE and when I finally got a hold of someone and thought progress would be made I was informed I had to wait until the next day for someone else to provide me with help ... the next day arrived and I received no calls and when I tried to call I was once again not able to reach anybody. In total it took over 3 days to get in contact with someone who could actually help me and even longer to actually get my service fixed. In conclusion the lack of concern with their services (both professional and technical) left me feeling dissatisfied, frustrated, and without vital services for days. I do NOT think their services are worth it and if you can avoid them your money will be better spent somewhere else. This HORRENDOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE coupled with the already SUBPAR WIFI permanently put me off the company, I tried to call them to give my concerns to them more privately but once again I wasn't able to reach anyone and got no call backs so here we are. read more

I can relate to many of the disappointed customers in their dealings with Surfnet, as I too was in that boat for some time, BUT, with persistence, a technician eventually arrived and addressed all of our issues. 'Joel' took no time to discover our problem, was very professional, and obviously knew the network communication system inside out. Needless to say, we have had no problems since. So, hang in there, and hopefully your problems will be solved. Oh...a prayer sometimes helps...! God bless... George read more

Say what ya want about poor this and that. Surfnet was up in the Santa Cruz Mountains dragging a propane dolly in a foot of snow to restore service. Go back to satellite service if its so bad. I'm in really rural area and appreciate the reliable service through the weather and fires. It allows me to work from home and understand shit happens. Been with them for almost 10 years read more

I have had the service for about a year at my house in the 95033 zip. It's in the Santa Cruz mountains and no cable services are available. The previous owner used Surfnet for 2 years and recommended them. We have PGE outages on a regular basis but surfnet seems to always stay up. I was impressed that a customer service rep called me today and gave me a free month for taking a short survey, She was very polite and professional and gave me her direct line if I ever have any issues. Who does that anymore I would recommend Surfnet read more

Surfnet installation was horrible with wires laying in the flower bed and wires hanging from the ceiling. Then sporadic internet or slow internet, with no return call from Surfnet to correct the problem. I called 4 times before I received a call and that took 3 days. Their commitment to 1 year of internet was mandated when I switched 3 months prior to the commitment date expiring, so I paid in full and cancelled them. I am so happy with the new carrier. Buyer beware! Joanie R. read more

Excellent service. Installer was on time and very nice. He ran the cable right where I wanted it even though it was a little bit of a pain. I had 5 grandkids the week after all with tablets, no problems, thanks Surfnet! read more

While surfnet has great internet service, they fall short in two areas. 1. No advance notice of scheduled outages (unknown issues do arise - but send out an email when they do please!) 2. Their bills are so stupidly formatted. How many times do you have to put the same amount on the bill, only to end up with the total at the bottom? (last bill - 5 exact amounts) As an accountant, I'm extremely both annoyed and amused that they are so redundant. And yes, I have contacted them to let them know how confusing their bills are. The rep laughed. read more

Surfnet advertises 24/7 Tech Support, which is followed up by the statement "Complete around the clock support available 24 hours a day. I called customer support on Thursaday to discuss internet connection issues. I was told that a ticket would be opened and that a Level 2 tech would be contacting me that day. When not hearing anything, I called again on Friday. It was confirmed that a ticket had indeed been opened and they would "reach out" and I should be getting a call back later in the day. Again not hearing anything, I called again on Saturday and was told the same thing. It is now Sunday and I a have again called. The person that I spoke to today again said he would reach out, but it will likely be Tuesday before anyone can come out to trouble shoot. 24/7 suport NOT. read more

I recommended to them, that they fix there issues or try a business that they can support. I have been trying to either get them to fix our download back to where it was before they changed there antenna tower last month, or let all of us on my property out of any contract and refund our equipment purchases so we can change to a provider that cares. Many many call, many many promised call backs but they never came, finally got a tech to come out and confirmed that our problem is real, he left us a week and a half ago with the promise that he would escalate and solve the problem and now we are waiting once again with no resolution. tried again today to find out whats up, so far no answer. I would recommend you avoid this company at all cost, just not worth the work read more

Response from management to dissatisfied customers is doodoo, just like their service. You can smell it as you read it. They know they're providing doodoo service while taking your money and the best response they can come up with is "sorry" and "good luck". read more

We have had trouble with internet service for many years in the mountains. BUT Now that we have surfnet our service is AMAZING! What a difference! read more

Reliability has decreased dramatically in 2023. It works when it works, but video calls will often hang multiple times. Customer service claimed that issues were fixed, but issues keep recurring the next day. Mr. Kim from customer service called me back on the phone to give me an arrogant lecture on personal responsibility and how they cannot be responsible if their network is not working well enough for my remote work purposes. The customer service agent then threatened to cut my service right that moment which would have disrupted my remote work and caused a large loss. If that is how you treat a customer of 11 years, then something is broken with this business. They live in the past where some rural areas have only one internet provider option and think they can run rough shod over their customers. There are multiple options these days and they need to improve reliability and customer service etiquette. read more

Thank you surfnet, I am very pleased with my service and speed all 8 years running.

Surfnet started out well, but when the service drops, or speeds drop, they are very slow to respond. They are running this utility like it's a 9-5 business. NEWSFLASH! It's not! You have to have technician available to fix problems, not just right up a ticket on Friday at 5:05 and say, yea they will work on the problem on Monday. NOT EVEN CLOSE TO GOOD ENOUGH! We are paying a premium for Internet with this wireless service, We are paying for a service, and your service support needs to be better than a 1 man business!!! read more

I have had the quality of our service go down and down. Multiple emails have gone unanswered. They obviously don't give a $#!+ about me or my problem. Unfortunately there the only game in town. read more

Beware of contract! The contracts renew every two years each with a two year commitment. I moved to a location where Surfnet was unavailable. Even though I had been a customer for 3 years I had to pay a $262 cancellation fee. read more

Surfnet if you are listening, you have a lot of potential... please please please fix things. For some you are the only internet option. Fix your network and fix your customer service. I wanted badly for your service to be good. This is my second time using your service... 3 years the first time and 2 years this time. The connection reliability was actually much better the first time. When it works it was ok... when it doesn't good luck. No callbacks... maybe it gets fixed maybe only if you call them back 20x. I even had a tech once tell me to call sales to get things fixed. I get that L1 support is a necessary filter that can only do a couple of basic things... which I would always do before calling. Having such poor communication with L2 support is really where the problem is. Also having L1 blaming my router every time I call doesn't help. It would be really nice to have some expectations set by someone as well as status updates when it's fixed. And to have people call you when you are told they will call you. I don't even care what time.. just call. If this was the experience a few times a year I could live with it... but the bad thing is how often I've had issues... at least once a week I'd have severe bandwidth reduction, random crazy high latencies measured in the seconds, or just a complete outage. This makes it really hard to do school from home with the kids on zoom and work remote. Also the connection is asymmetric... so if you pay for 18Mbps you get 18Mbps up OR down, but never up AND down simultaneously. Other ISP's are symmetric. This caused a few problems for me. I had to manually throttle some of my cloud syncing apps so the download network speeds worked at all. 4 times in the last few months I've had strange partial outages where streaming from my TV or Roku apps just wouldn't work at all... other devices and regular internet usage seemed fine. This would go on for 3-10 days at a time. This last time I called in ever day till it was fixed. Each time L1 says L2 will call me... nothing... no callbacks.... Ever. One day it starts working again magically. I called in to tell them it was fixed and asked what they did so next time maybe I can help point them in the same direction. The L1 tech can't find the ticket... started talking about an issue from 4 months ago where they moved their antenna but didn't reposition the clients antennas to point to the new location... yes you read that correctly. This caused signal issues for me and a few neighbors. I had to mention several times that I was calling about a different issue that was only days old. He then said my router was the problem... I reminded him my router wasn't involved (I had connected directly to the POE)... then I got there was a storm... these connections shouldn't be affected by a storm unless the antennas move or there is a power outage which there wasn't... it was one excuse after another but never any answers or even a "I'll check with L2 and get back to you"... just complete uselessness and frustration. I'm not sure if this is a problem with ignorance or apathy... or both. Either way I'd recommend seeking out service from one of the other ISPs if you can. Ridge, Etheric are often available options. read more

Buyer Beware. Unreliable service, many interruptions and down times with very poor customer service. Surfnet Communications internet service to the Creston area has become unreliable and unusable. Constant interruptions in service with many service down times along with poor customer service and NO customer service over the weekends. These issues are recent in the greater Creston starting in June of 2018 with no fix or resolution after 6 months - so we have changed internet services. Surfnet Communication systems are out dated and are showing their service limits from our initial service install in 2009. Buyer beware. Chose another internet service provider that has up to date equipment and multiple direct towers along with a customer service staff that responds. This is NOT Surfnet Communications. read more

This outfit has been taking people's money for inferior service for over 10 years now. Even as recently as February 2013, I myself made some performance tests of their fixed wireless infrastructure that shows how badly it performs, especially if you have an alternative like AT&T DSL or Comcast Cable Internet. Don't kid yourself. Giving your business to the "local guy" is actually giving your business to some CEO guy who lives in Portland OR. He couldn't care less what's happening in Scotts Valley or SLO or Soquel or anywhere else. Years ago I called them on their lousy infrastructure and they complained that they couldn't afford to upgrade their old crummy equipment. Realize that all of the networking is done by Sprint, or AT&T, or one of the other big name companies. Little companies like Surfnet just give you the "last mile" or sometimes, they don't even do that -- they just subcontract from the Phone Company to run the service to your house. They provide "customer service" and "tech support" (yes, in "sarcastic quote marks") but really are just one more layer of middleman between you and the actual technology provider. Why pay for extra middlemen and a smaller, less responsive support staff, providing a technically inferior service? Why, indeed.... I have no idea why. Just say no. read more

Here we are almost a year later. The service is so crowded at times that the ping is 490 ms and the download is 300kbps and up is is in the 20kbps range . The tech support guy blames "bit torrent" but does nothing about it till you complain. His attitude is frequently that of someone over worked, over wrought, under paid, and out of the proper meds. I'm not sure of the reason for the poor service but ALL the neighbors agree. read more

Initially, we were thrilled to move onto Surfnet as they are the only high speed internet available - other than satellite. Up until a year ago, the service was great. Over the past six months, it has become impossibly unreliable. Like the other reviewers, we have experienced the blame the router, blame interference, even blame the neighbors. We were paying $90 per month for premium service, but speed tests indicated that at best we were getting between dial-up and below satellite speed. Connections routinely timed out. Forget about playing xbox live or streaming anything, I would be happy if I could respond to email. Reluctantly, we are moving back to satellite. At least it will be reliable. I will be able to do email again. It's a shame because basically Surfnet is a victim of their own success. Too many customers and not enough bandwidth, along with the increased popularity of streaming video and on-line gaming, makes their service basically unusable. Given that their internet speed is currently around dial-up level, I would recommend you stick with dial-up or go to satellite. The amount of time we have spent dealing with tech support alone and their poor attitude - as one reviewer said - a "blame the customer" POV was stressful and simply not worth it...not when you are paying that amount of money. You also can sign up for Verizon 3G wireless internet if you are using internet on a limited basis. read more

I live in the mountains and despite several big ISPs declare themselves as available, this isn't true. I've been struggling to get connected for many months and finally came to Surfnet. Previously I had a strong bias against wireless mesh networks, so considered this type of internet connection as last resort. After a month with Surfnet I've changed my mind. The service is stable and reliable. Another important point is that the company is small and I communicate to people I know, instead of anonymous support service (think Comcast). All the guys from Surfnet, starting with their CTO and all the way to the engineer Lawrence, who does the installations, showed themselves very friendly, reliable and helpful. read more