These are reviews of Instaconnect from 2007. For more current reviews, visit the entry.
2007-01-15 16:23:19 I have been at Viking Apartments since September and the only thing worse than the Internet service has been the customer service. I have called several times to complain about low signals, slow speeds and recurring drop-offs, and usually the representative said someone would come over to do a "power cycle", which is just turning the system off and on again. When that didn't work I called again and was told there were no known issues at my apartment, but that someone would call me back, and of course nobody did. I called a third time and nobody even answered the phone, even during business hours. After about five days of nobody even picking up the phone, I finally got someone to set up an appointment to come to my apartment. Of course nobody showed up and apparently someone called, but did not leave a message, so I did not even know they had tried to contact me. Someone should hopefully be coming out tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath. —MattStauffer
2007-01-31 07:49:01 Most of the instaconnect APs I see only use MAC address filtering to verify your account, therefor it's easy to steal access by using a MAC spoofer, doing this also messes up the access of the legitimate user. basically what i'm trying to say is, I don't recommend this service since it's very unsecure —JoeCool
2007-01-31 22:52:45 Instaconnect sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's unstable and the service is not the same as what they advertised. Even if there is a problem and you call them for help, they cannot really help you. Service is crappy and slow. If you can get it for free, I guess it's okay. But if you need to pay for it, might as well find another company. —CarlieYang
2007-02-09 19:00:33 Instaconnect is horrible!!!!! there were days that our service was out for three days straight..a whole weekend! and two of my roomates hardly ever got service at all. When they called instaconnect to ask about it they said it was their computers' problem not the service. That is when they actually picked up the phone, i have their answering service memorized.. The only time they even offered to have anyone come out here to check out the problem was when we said we wanted to cancel, which by the way, you must pay a ONE HUNDRED FIFTY dollar cancellation fee that they don't tell you about when you sign up in order to cancel early. And it's slow as hell. —SaraNetto
- 2007-07-11 19:09:52 This is in response to those people who mentioned the excessive cancellation fee. You can always dispute a charge made to your credit card if you made a good faith effort to resolve it with the merchant. Basically, by not providing you with a minimal level of customer service, Instaconnect has sold you an unsatisfactory product/service, thus your credit card company will usually just refund the charges. I believe you have to dispute within 30-90 days of the charge though (unfortunately for me). In fact, you can even dispute their original charge to your credit card! I'd recommend anyone who's recently signed up for the full year plan do this ASAP. —davisGeek
2007-02-25 13:37:05 The free wireless service supplied by Instaconnect at Greenbriar Apartments has been either very slow or nonfunctioning for a month now. I called Instaconnect to complain twice. The first time, the support tech told me that they would fix the problem at the end of the day, but I saw no improvement. I called again about a week later, but no one answered the phone at 1 PM. —NerdUp
2007-03-06 14:04:31 I currently use Instaconnect at Alvarado Sunset Apartments. The internet here has been incredibly slow for a month and a half and I have had to call nearly twice to three times a week to even find out what is happening with the internet. Their customer service is awful. Although I will be staying in this complex next year THERE IS NO WAY I am keeping my Instaconnect service. —JeremyGimbel
2007-07-08 16:27:45 Instaconnect offers subpar service. Sometimes the connection suddenly becomes extremely slow. Sometimes all access points just disappear (no connection). When that sorta thing happens, there is not much you can do, even though the blackout periods have lasted up to 4 days in the past. But perhaps the most infuriating part was to have been deprived of internet the day before dead day, dead day and the first day of finals for Fall, Winter and Spring Quarters. Yes, all three. I guess that's when everyone starts browsing the web for information. Still, unacceptable. If you want to get a C on you final because your internet was down and you wasted 2 hours the night before your test, get Instaconnect. —PaulWilburn
2007-07-11 16:02:51 Well, it certainly sounds like everyone has been having problems with instaconnect, and complaining about them far more eloquently than I could. I called them to complain today - they claim that ALL of their wireless access points have been working perfectly, EXCEPT AT MY APARTMENT COMPLEX!!! They snottily implied that somehow it was my fault for living in a place where 'stuff' keeps happening to their access points. Just fyi, my service went down on July 5th, tech support voicemail was full, and monday morning I got a call saying their staff had gone home for the 'holiday weekend.' What kind of company doesn't have customer service on weekends? So anyways, I am interested in hearing everyone's Instaconnect horror stories - you can post em here or email me: [email protected]
Also, just FYI, anyone buying the pre-paid year's service - they WILL double bill your credit card! I paid it all up front, yet I still have been getting $28 charges to my credit card every month. I think this is part of their dishonest business practice to defraud unsuspecting customers (particularly those who have parents who pay for their internet service). Know your legal rights - you may demand interest to be paid on any fake charges to your credit card.
- This is not intentional. I'm not exactly sure what's going on there, but I'm going to try and find out. —RyanCastellucci
Anyways, if you too feel like you are getting an unacceptable level of service, contact me. I worked for a crooked telemarketing company that STILL provided better customer service than instaconnect!! Also, to maximize your chances of speaking to a real person, when you call the instaconnect number (530-7591570) enter the extension for 'new account activation' (I believe it is #4). They only are interested in talking to you when taking your money =)
- If nobody answers at Aria it's either because everybody is on the phone or out of the office (yes, Aria has staffing issues. Turnover sucks. I've complained about this often internally. It seems that it is being worked on, though I do 99% of my work remotely, so I am less in touch with what is going on there.). All those options go to the same group of lines as far as I know, and our current phone system is too dumb to tell the rep what option you pushed. I'm supposed to be replacing the current phone system with Asterisk by the time classes start back up to deal with those issues. Key added features will be hold queuing (hopefully with 'hold tickets' to call back later and get to the front of the queue, we know a lot of people use cell phones, and using up airtime waiting on hold sucks), and the ability to page the on call tech. I have been complaining about the limited functionality of our phone system for quite a while, so don't think nobody cares. I give a damn at least. —RyanCastellucci
I'd like to thank everyone for sharing their stories about this deplorable company. I'd like to go down to their office with all their dissatisfied customers in person! Also, I notice that for the last year or so (since 2006) Mr Ryan Castellucci has had no response to any of the customer complaints. Ryan, this comment is directed at you or any other instaconnect employee who reads this. What kind of crooks are you? How can you even pretend to compete with legitimate businesses such as Comcast and Verizon DSL? —davisGeek
- Ok, I'll bite; the crook comment did it. I have not lived in Davis since December 2007, and I've been very busy with school since August 2006, which is why I have not been addressing things on the wiki (I significantly cut my hours with Aria at that time). Responding to complaints on the wiki is something I was doing in my spare time when I could; it is not and was not my responsibility to do that. I've since been going to college full time, which most people here should understand is a huge time-sink. Only reason I saw this is because someone mentioned your comment on my user page. I do have my own internal list of gripes, mostly related to staffing and the phone system. I've also had gripes about the way customer service gets handled, and that is WHY I was monitoring the wiki. —RyanCastellucci
- Don't be fooled. Instaconnect did the same thing *last* year before I signed up - Ryan went around and made excuses and I bought it, they were working to address their issues, etc. The point is, these are known issues, the company is woefully understaffed, and run by a crook (John C. Reedy). They promise the world, then can't deliver on half their promises. DON'T BE FOOLED THE SAME WAY I WAS!!!!!!! Note how changes are only being made so they can suck in a new year's worth of prepaid customers. Even the current phone reps seem to be dissatisfied with the company in similar ways to Ryan. Don't let a shady, fly by night local company scam you! They have the attitude that college students are cash cows to be milked, and could care less about customers (except when they complain loudly, longly and annoyingly, then they offer token refunds). —davisGeek
- There are some outstanding issues that need to be addressed, and some that have been taken care of. I am personally working on the phone system, since that is something I can make better. I actually give a damn about people, and have personally been onsite past midnight working on an issue more then once, and have gone to people's apartments to spend hours fixing their computers. Don't make ME personally out to be a bad guy. I'm not. —RyanCastellucci
2007-07-11 17:43:02 They are the worst internet provider I have ever met!!!!! The internet is VERY SLOW AND UNSTABLE. The worst thing is that, everytime you complain they promise you they will fix it but they ignore it. I do also have the weird problem about the service, by which I can't open any page. I can log in to their service but I can't open other pages, everytime I try to open to page it keep bringing me back to their front page!!! THIS IS FRUSTATING PLEASE DO NOT USE THEIR SERVICE UNTIL THEY IMPROVE. —UCDgrad
2007-07-11 18:34:13 I want to say I'm in painful to this instaconnect provider. Even it is very cheap compared to other providers but I always feel bad about the connection. The signal is always unstable and have problem all the time. From my experience, I could not use internet almost 1 week a month, I did believe me. Icalled service center to solve the problem and they said they will fix it for me but nothing happened!!!!!. I can't see ANY reason for the existance for instaconnect's technical service anymore. —mac
2007-07-11 23:11:33 When using Instaconnect's public wifi services in/near downtown Davis, I've noticed unreliability similar to what some on this page have complained about - e.g. being redirected to the captive portal page mere minutes after seeing it, even though I maintained a constant connection during that time.
However, I find the recent nasty pseudonymous reviews very difficult to credit. They'd have a lot more credibility if they maintained a more respectful, balanced tone and used their real names. As it stands, I wouldn't be surprised if one or more of them were competitors or otherwise acting in bad faith. —GrahamFreeman
2007-07-12 01:41:31 My experience with Instaconnect was positive. I lived at College Town Commons apartments for more than a year and Instaconnect was included with the rent. (One of the few good things I can say about those apartments.)
There was an access point mounted just outside my apartment. I had a strong reliable connection for over a year. The one time I couldn't connect I got through to Customer Service almost immediately and she made some adjustments on her end that took care of the problem over the phone.
Maybe I had such good luck because the access point was right outside my apartment. But really I had no complaints and especially not for free. I left Davis six months ago and maybe things have changed. —SteveGreen
- 2007-07-12 08:58:59 I'd like to suggest in response to the comment about Collegetown Commons that it fits the pattern of certain apartment communities being 'second class citizens' in the eyes of Instaconnect. I can only speculate as to why: physical distance from the main office, relatively few people who use the service, perhaps the presence/absence of Instaconnect employees also living there. Maybe someone smart can do a distance based plot of complaints vs distance from Instaconnect main office? I bitched out an Instaconnect employee and she admitted that the company has an extremely small number of employees. I spoke to an Instaconnect repairman and he said that they'd only recently hired him, and he's their **second** repairman. So - seems like it makes sense that the closer you live to Instaconnect office, the faster your internet goes back up (especially if the repairperson must physically powercycle the AP). —davisGeek
2007-07-12 22:30:04 Also, last I knew, Ryan no longer works for Aria/Instaconnect. It's highly likely no one there has any idea what's being discussed here —TarZxf
Having worked for a WISP I can say that having everybody in an apartment complex maintain an acceptable level of service is quite a task. In fact, we only did it once, because it's such a pain in the ass. You can have a signal pushing the FCC limit, multiple access points and lots of bandwidth and still have tons of problems. Unless you have very expensive tools you cannot track the source of interference and even if you could track it, you can't control it. Other people have the right to run wifi routers, microwaves, cordless phones, etc. These things can effectively DoS an entire network...and you'd be surprised how far away a microwave can be and still interfere. If your internet goes out every time somebody in your complex uses a microwave, you're not gonna have very stable internet. The point of this is that while I would agree that Instaconnect is definitely not an ideal solution, that doesn't mean they're just ignoring you and not trying to fix the problem. That doesn't mean they're not, either. It could be that they're not answering the phone cause they're out working on the problem. Who knows. I don't think a lot of people understand how wireless connections and internet access work. Basically, the chances of a it being reliable in an apartment complex are very close to none. I do not understand why there is any demand for this type of service at all, but for some reason there is. If there is a demand for it, people are going to be trying to make money off of it. I'm VERY surprised that this whole wireless apartment thing still exists. Cafes, restaurants and stuff are a whole different story. Right, so the point is that Instaconnect probably does have you unhappy, but that doesn't mean they're out to fuck you. I actually don't doubt that they're trying to fix the problems that people are having. That doesn't mean the problem will get fixed though. They're just trying to provide a service that for some reason there is a demand for. If people had researched this a little more before they subscribed, I'm sure they would have strongly considered a different service. However, maybe they didn't have the information, which is what I hope this message will give them...even though it is kinda long and messy. —BradBenedict
- I quote from above: "It could be that they're not answering the phone cause they're out working on the problem. Who knows." Well, last time I checked, most businesses do not have their receptionists also handle on-site technical service issues, leaving them unable to answer the phone. They are usually separate entities...maybe you did both at your WISP? That must suck. Point is, Instaconnect's customer service is dismal, AND their actual service happens to be substandard. This is why people are questioning the motives of this company. It seems more than mere coincidence that they can't come up to par in either area, don't you think? —Eganio
2007-07-17 11:35:04 Great point, Brad. Learned something about wireless from yer post. So basically by not having staff on weekends they're almost guaranteeing outages, since all those things you mentioned could screw up the connection, and the fix is to reboot the wireless APs. As far as them not being out to fuck me: I *feel* fucked whenever I've got something important (like bills, work etc) and the connection goes down, and tech support's voicemail is so full I can't even leave a message. I think a lot of people in Davis are very nice and slow to assume malice where it could just be stupidity/incompetence — I'm not one of them! Bottom line is they should make it very clear what you're getting with the service. —davisGeek
2007-07-27 19:36:40 you have to keep in mind, the professional network link strives for 99.9 percent uptime, it would appear that aria doesn't come close =/ —StevenDaubert
2007-08-02 15:29:05 Instaconnect at College Town Commons has been okay for the last few months - I can remember more than once in the last year though that they "upgraded" the APs or the network just went down, and it took an entire week talking to customer service to get it fixed - they either weren't there, their hours suck, they have no idea what's going on OR they just lie to get you off the phone. (And if internet goes out on Friday, you're screwed until Monday!) Only once when I called for a tech problems do I feel like I got an actual tech and not just a receptionist. Overall it's okay but when I move I'm getting DSL again; students need something reliable... and if they really do roll out "captive portals" at apartments I will be switching the day I see one.. —AshleyRummel
- There is captive portal software at the complexes where the management isn't paying to give it to all users. It's supposed to only pester you once every couple of weeks, and not every time you connect, precisely because it would be annoying for it to come up every time. —RyanCastellucci
2007-08-22 17:25:33 I've been unable to use any public Instaconnect hotspots all summer. I used to get the login page in my browser and continue on successfully, but now I never see the login page. I tried logging onto their support site, but it won't load. I tried e-mailing their support address, but it bounced. I tried calling their support, and got routed into a loop back and forth to a non-existent receptionist. Does this company even exist anymore? If so, do they support Macs? —RobWestergaard
2007-08-22 20:04:07 I've got a huge complaint to add to this ever expanding list. I started using Instaconnect in late June signing a three-month contract with them just for summer session. The service was dreadfully slow to begin with and it was frustrating to do the simplest things like researching information, etc. About four weeks ago, at the end of July, one of the access points at the Sycamore Lane Garden Apartments, mysteriously disappeared. I dismissed it as the first day went by just saying that the internet must have been out and Instaconnect would send a tech out immediately to fix it.
When our internet was still out after two days of no service, my roommate called, demanding to know what was wrong with the service. They responded that they knew about the problem—as others had complained about it—and would send a tech out to fix it. A week and a half went by without any blip of service whatsoever.
My roommate and I were told that our service was "disconnected" for absolutely no reason and they had "turned it back on" for us. I had thought this was kind of weird and it didn't seem like she knew what was going on at all with our internet—despite being part of the technical support staff—and just said that someone would come to fix it.
They also took this opportunity to lie to us and tell us a tech was sent out to resolve the problem that day. But, like I said before, nothing had changed. By day five, I started calling them more frequently and talked to someone named "Stephanie." She told me she would look into getting me a refund and would get back to me. Every single time I called and spoke with "Stephanie," she always told me the problem was being looked into, the problem was being looked into, etc, etc, etc.
Finally, I guess enough people complained and Instaconnect sent someone to deal with the problem. The tech simply reset the access point and it began to work. After a week and half of having no service, we were awarded with subpar internet. Finally, I decided to pursue my refund. "Stephanie" told me she would look into getting a refund for me and get back to me. After about one week of waiting for a response, I finally decided to call again and ask her what had happened. She told me, she would look into a refund for me. I was surprised that she hadn't even decided to do anything about it in the first place.
At the end of it, today, I finally got ahold of her again and told demanded to speak to someone who could tell me about a refund. She told me that she had the details of the refund worked out. I was going to be refunded $18.
Do not get this service. Stick with DSL or comcast, service is always slow and signal strength (at least in my apartment) is subpar. This is just a shoddy company who is highly disorganized and willing to allow a problem to fester before taking care of it. —CalvinCheng
2007-08-27 18:48:26 I suspect they use a caching proxy server, on at least some of their systems. Many people have intermittent problems authenticating to UC Davis websites while on instaconnect. http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3143 —TheodoreSuryapurnama
- We used to use squid, but stopped doing so due to load issues. There was one problem a couple years ago causing authentication issues with UCD sites that was an issue with Instaconnect's routing setup (the same problem was also causing people to be booted off instant messaging programs fairly often), but that was long since fixed. People do have problems authentication to MyUCDavis from instaconnect sometimes, but as I understand MyUCDavis in general has authentication issues fairly often (our other *nix guy looked into it a couple times, and thinks that it's just UCD's servers being moody, but I haven't been able to look into that problem myself). —RyanCastellucci
2007-08-27 19:21:17 you know, a buddy of mine and his friends lived in Jstreet appts and used instaconnect, it was reliable to the point where they had no complaints... —StevenDaubert
2007-08-30 20:53:40 After weeks of customer service hell they finally refunded about 4 months of service (about $100). Unfortunately I had to threaten them with small claims court, and spend hours of my time being lied to. PLEASE THREATEN THEM WITH SMALL CLAIMS IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO GET A REFUND. Anyone who regularly has outages should persue this. Don't even bother with customer service — talk directly to Evan Grey, call the instaconnect number and then hit extension 20 or email [email protected]. He will lie to you, but stand your ground. Maybe if enough people do this it will force this blatantly dishonest company out of business. —BillSimms
2007-08-30 20:55:19 Don't believe Castelluci's lies, nothing's changed —BillSimms
- This is not a place for attacking (ex?) employees. Ryan really does care about solving customer's problems, or did when I (briefly) worked for SoliSys several years ago. This page may be in need of cleaning up old comments/reviews. —SeanRegan
- I do, in fact, still care about making people satisfied. Thanks for backing me up, Sean. —RyanCastellucci
- Rather then personal attacks, why don't you just state what I've said that you feel is untrue and why. I haven't knowingly said anything false here, and I don't appreciate accusations of such. —RyanCastellucci
2007-10-02 01:47:31 I signed up for one month and checked the "do not renew" option. But they charged me for another month. Now I have to dispute the charge. Sigh. —AndreyGoder
2007-10-08 22:08:17 i'm using instaconnect at university commons right now, where it's provided free. the service died over the weekend (no response from the wireless spots though they were up) and no one i know here can connect to any ***.ucdavis.edu site (though it was fine a couple weeks ago, the past week it has stopped connecting to any ucdavis site *shrugs*). it's also painfully slow during "peak hours" during evenings . i've decided to resort to purchasing comcast's special of $19.99 for 6 months going on right now. —MiranPark
2007-10-09 19:02:44 DO NOT USE INSTACONNECT. They are complete LIARS and the internet is totally shitty. DON'T DO IT. —LizzEhrenpreis
2007-11-17 13:24:47 Don't get Instaconnect. The speed is abysmal, and getting them on the phone to cancel your subscription is nearly impossible. Plus, I told them about how I could only connect to the net 3-5 times during the three weeks that I used it, they said they would refund me, then never did. Attempts to contact them later were entirely unsuccessful. These people have shady business practices, and I can't imagine they'll remain in business much longer. It is truly amazing that no one ever answers the phone, and when it goes to the answering machine, the machine is full since they never check it. A very bad experience, and I got charged for an extra month that I didn't even request. —digweed014
2007-11-19 12:46:48 Simply put: Instaconnect blows at Arbors, all the time. —jefffy
2007-11-24 18:46:24 The wireless at Greenbriar Apartments has been flaky for several weeks now. Sometimes it works fine, but frequently connections time out. The apartment manager called Instaconnect to complain, and the customer service representative tried to convince the manager that the age of her computer was the true culprit. I'm no network engineer, but I don't see how the age of a computer causes connections to time out. Apparently, the age of the apartment manager's computer also somehow influences the terrible service that the rest of the apartment residents experience. The quality of Instaconnect's internet service is abysmal, and their customer support staff do not seem interested in remedying the problem. If you have a choice of going with another ISP, do it. —NerdUp
2007-11-27 14:23:47 How do you cancel your Instaconnect account? I cannot find a way to do so on the Instaconnect website, and I am able to access an Instaconnect hot-spot because I am abroad right now. My account has been billed $40 a month ever since I left my apartment in the beginning of August. I selected a two month temporary contract, so it should have been automatically canceled. But apparently if you read the fine print, your account remains active even after the contract. This is a dirty trick to make money. I have written e-mails asking to have my account canceled, and I received an e-mail saying that I was being billed because my account was not selected to be terminated, but that this problem had been corrected and that I would be receiving a refund for the months that I did not use the service. However, about two months after that e-mail, I have been charged each month, and just recently, twice this month! I have received no refund either, so my account is still clearly active. What terrible service, I hope I don't have to sue this company for extortion.
If anyone can figure out how to cancel an account either on the Aria Communications website or the Instaconnect website, please help! —Marrs487
2007-11-29 21:43:15 It is true, Instaconnect does suck. But, they are improving!! I hated their services until about a month or two ago. And while the phones are not always answered, I have been getting calls back. I was billed twice, I called, left a message and it was taken care of almost right away. The people were helpful and friendly (despite popular belief). Sorry that others had a bad experience, but I like it! —sarahk
2007-12-24 21:08:25 instaconnect is unusable @ university commons. But I don't really care since I'm using comcast, just letting everyone know don't pay for it when their service is so bad —acidicbase
