I'll be lucky if this review posts, since my internet is in terrible shape....again.
Ok, people, here's the deal with Washington Broadband, the good and the bad...everything you need to know if you are thinking about signing up. It's a two-star review, so mostly bad...if Washington Broadband wants to step up its game and get a better review, more power to them, I would gladly write a more positive review if they can improve my overall experience.
The Good: If you are in a rural area around Yakima, then it might be that Washington Broadband is the ONLY service available to you. Oh, there might be some terrible satellite company, perhaps, but out where I live there is no DSL, no cable - we are up the virtual creek, and Washington Broadband comes to the rescue. That's cool - I appreciate that their service finds its way out this far. Good job! In some areas you will find a local competitor....I have no experience with any of those, because in my case WB is my only option.
The Bad: First off, it is slow. If you are coming from the city get ready for whiplash. Frustrated with bogged down DSL? You'll kiss the DSL provider on the mouth after sampling wireless speeds for awhile. And cable? Our last cable connection, nothing special, was more than 10x faster than this, and cost less per month. Now, that's mostly apples and oranges, not really fair to compare the two and, as you can read above, those other options are no longer available for me, or probably for you if you're reading this. How fast do you really need? Well, for media streaming, like we do a lot of, you want 5mps....it's not amazing, but it will certainly get the job done most of the time. So that's what we signed up for, the 5mps plan. Sounds good....except...
Second, the service is terribly inconsistent. The performance fluctuates constantly, rarely delivering the promised speeds for any reliable length of time. We roll with a lot of this, but when it gets too bad for too long, I call tech support. They push a few buttons and bingo, back to 5mps. For a day or two. Which, to be honest, is pretty frustrating, because it suggests that they have it in their power to improve your network performance if they would bother to check how things are going. If they would deliver the promised speeds, slow as they are, I would be a much happier camper. (For kicks I ran a speed test just now...averaged .26Mbps...yes, .26...about 5% of promised speed)
Third, there is general low-level of professionalism in most interactions. I've met a couple of sharp tech guys, but the feel of the place, from billing to tech support, is odd, not much concern for the customer. We had a more serious interruption in service awhile back, leaving us without internet for a week. Tech visits were hard to schedule and days out. After another outage due to some WB equipment failure, I called to get a sense of how long we'd be down, and asked for billing adjustments for the lost service. Though promised a call back, it did not come. Only repeated calls to tech support got our service up and running again. Lame. The billing is paid in advance, so every day down is just taking our money and delivering no service in return. Some proactive problem solving and return calls would go a long way to improving this category.
I am still using WB because.....well....I have to. If I had any other options, I'd use them. Which isn't a great place to be for WB, because as soon as other options open up, which they no doubt will at some point, they will have no loyal customers, only former customers. I'd be happy to upgrade this review if WB can improve the service. (I just ran another speed test...up to .98Mbps!....that means up to ALMOST 20% of what we pay for!....things are looking up already!) My name is Duncan M., I welcome feedback from Washington Broadband.
There you have it - good luck in your search for an internet provider! read more