PSA: when looking at reviews, check the dates. You'll see a clear pattern of disintegrating…read morecustomer service from 2024 onward.
Having been a customer of Mitec's internet service since 2015, my innards turned to ice when I was notified in 2024 that the company had "spun off the Internet department into its own standalone business," along with reassurances that the high quality of service would continue uninterrupted (my paraphrase).
And then the troubles began. The internet speeds were slower and slower. I'm self-employed and work at home, often through the weekend, so the slow speeds were noticeably causing me work delays. I was in denial, though.
Then there came what I could not ignore: a substantial outage, during which I was unable to hold scheduled meetings with two clients. Afterwards, customers received a multi-paragraph 430-word email from the general manager, expressing his belief in "honesty and integrity," promoting the dedication and commitment of the team, explaining the outage, and promising "a credit off next month's bill" as a thank-you for supporting a local business.
Anyone can say anything, and you may have guessed from the foreshadowing that there was no credit on my next month's bill. Was I surprised? Yes, because I had been used to the previous excellent customer service and No, because obvious. I emailed to ask for the credit on February 16. I emailed again on March 3 and received a response on March 4. How much was the discount? A whopping $6.49, when I lost 3 billable hours that, trust me, added up to quite a bit more, and had to rearrange the following week's schedule to make them up.
It bothers me to drop a local business in favor of an immense corporation, a corporation that I personally loathe for many many reasons. Originally I was on board with Mitec primarily because it was a small local business, even though there were other, cheaper alternatives. And until this change, I was very happy with Mitec, I was okay with the cost because it was dependable, the technicians were always fantastic, and the customer service was nothing short of amazing. I recommended them whenever the subject of ISPs came up.
When this other provider came knocking, offering $500 in gift cards, along with a monthly savings of $14.99 for speeds that tested as much, much faster, I emailed Lytwave asking if there was anything they could do, could they get me higher speeds? Failing that, could they match this other company's price? There was, as you might have guessed, no response.
I switched. The last day I used Lytwave was September 30, 2025. I meant to cancel but forgot. On November 7, I wrote to cancel my service. I received a response on November 10 that included a cancellation form for me to fill out and this note: "The form requires you to select a termination date at least 30 days out, but if you prefer an earlier date, please enter it in the 'Reason' section, and we'll do our best to accommodate your request."
I filled out the form and returned it within minutes. Did Lytwave accommodate or even remember my request? Remember the foreshadowing. No, they did not. In fact, they claimed that my service was "active and used" during those two months when the reality was that I had stopped using Mitec on September 30 and unplugged my router a week or two later, and so had not used the service for all of October, November, and the 10 days for which I was billed in December. Remember the general manager's proclamation of his belief in "honesty and integrity"?
Did I pay? Yes, all of $136.41 with the tacked-on late fees. So much for doing their best to accommodate my request. Let this be a cautionary tale. If a small local business wants to keep its customers, it needs to provide good customer service.
In contrast, last week I needed to call customer service at the big loathesome corporation. My call went through, I talked to an agent, he solved the problem, and that was that. I used my $500 in gift cards for groceries and Christmas presents, and this year, I'll save $179.88 on internet service.
