I am remaining anonomous in my gripes with this company in fear of retaliation. I am honestly scared of the people that run this business.
Flashbyte (AKA Assbyte or Crashbyte) is currently being sued by several ex customers and at least one ex employee, this should be a reg flag to anyone considering their services.
This website shows current judgemnts against the comapany FLASHBYTE
More lawsuits are pending so check back to see the judgements:)
I really don't know where to start with this company, so I will make some quick points to try and avoid a very long read, as I can go on to infinity of flashbyte's wrongdoings.
Initial Install: 4 months after paying 700 commitment for 1 year. Was initially promised 2 weeks install. During this period I made numerous unanswered messages, emails etc.
After Install: Speed tested via speedtest.net at less than 1/3 of promised speed. I consistently got 500kb download and 70 kb upload. This is 1/20th the speed of Cable and 1/10th the speed of DSL.
During the entire service (Little over 1 year) We experienced NUMEROUS outages, often several in one week period. Every time we had an outage there became a routine phone call with either leaving a message that was never answered or a grouchy employee giving excuses. Throughout the use of the service we were down about 1 day to every 3 days that we paid for service.
When a tech did come out to repair the equipment it typically took at least 3 days after finally getting a hold of someone in the office.
The nature of the faulty system was really no suprise after finding out how the network is set up. The actual network of flashbyte is comprised of repeater antennas that serve as links in the system. These antennas are placed on every house to give it service and are linked in line house after house to the main network in joshua tree. What this means is that anytime one house either loses power, antenna fails, antenna is accidently reset ETC, the entire line of houses beyond it will lose service until they find the faulty link. To make this worse, they used the cheapest antennas possible, which were prone to failure and not easy to set back up by the employee when down.
I had several confrontations with people in the office including Linnea (owners wife) Brenda (owners sister). These two women are absolutely nasty and downright apathetic. I have been hung up on several times by Brenda. I have been threatened by the company that my account would be taken into collections, I will not go into details as it will give up my identity. I can assure you however that Flashbyte was being absolutely unreasonable and irratic, including several more sessions where i was yelled at and hung up on over the phone.
I would be happy to discuss any details to fellow customers or ANYONE considering this service, I would not wish this service on my worst enemy, well other than the owners of Flashbyte. To contact me please do so under my anonomus email at [email protected]
Also, I have found a local internet provider! Email me if you would like to know, I have been signed up with new provider for nearly 4 months with MUCH better speed, service, and quick outage response. I have only experienced one outage with the new provider and someone was here that same day to fix it! It has been a wonderful contrast. Please contact me for the company info.
An interesting tidbit: I spoke with an ex employee of the beatnik, also owned by Mike and Linnea McKinsey, owners of flashbyte. She is suing them for unpaid wages, and when asked why the service was so bad she said that it was because the owners mike and linnea were always back and forth between vegas, san diego and hawaii on vacations. SAD while people are frustrated with poor service and pulling their hair out, the owners are laughing it up getting fat on constant vacations.
Im sure that this company will be out of business soon as I also know of several pending lawsuits from ex customers, also their beatnik coffee shop already has recently gone under.
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