Digital Path, Inc.

Thank you for taking the time to bring this billing error to my attention.  I want to apologize for your experience with DigitalPath, as this is not how we treat our customers.  I have already removed the fee off your account and notified the collection agency of the error.  I am very...

sorry it has taken this long to resolve this issue and your response dealing with the previous office manager.  I have sent an email to the above address so you have this correction for your records.  I thank you for the opportunity to make this right.

I am truly sorry for your issues with your connection at DigitalPath.  Please be assured we value all our customers and I do apologize for the delay in speaking with a manager in tech support.  A credit was issued on 4/8/2015 for 31.48 for 2 weeks.  I have also issued an additional 2...

month credit on your account for your past issues as well and emailed you a receipt. We have recently upgraded your relay tower so you should be seeing an improvement on your connection.  DigitalPath has been upgrading our towers to provide  more reliable services to our customers while still supplying unlimited bandwidth in our rural areas.  Our manager in tech support has also assured me he will be contacting you as a follow up to ensure your service is fixed and working the way you want it.  Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

I am rejecting this response because: While I did see improved speeds, I am still suffering from the same issues stated previously. At 7:23pm on 10/17/2016  I am only getting 0.4-0.8mbs/sec and earlier I was not able to complete a speed test. I attempted to contact tech support yesterday afternoon and was met with the generic response of tier 1 doing what they can and kicking it back to re-channeling. Additionally, I still notice periods of randomness where there should be no real dip in speeds due to high traffic, which is troubling because I have a final exam to take online and I'm wondering if I'll be able to complete it at all. I only have one opportunity to take the test and if I am disconnected for connectivity issues I may not be able to complete the assignment. I understand that today 10/17/2016 was a bad day for Digital Path due to a fiber line being cut, I believe many of my own problems are a more local issue that needs to be resolved. I have contacted several other Digital Path users who have been reporting similar problems, though they are not as severe as my own or perhaps not as apparent. I am willing to work with Digital Path as I can and am more than willing to keep logs of these problems. As a side note, speeds tend to drastically reduce after 6:30, could this be to high traffic? I have also noted that the most severe problems happen after 7 pm and last until past midnight at times. Finally, these problems were not here around May/June and before it may be worth investigating what changes were done around that time that affect users like myself so badly.

I do apologize for  your Internet not working and that we had to send someone out for a service call to fix your issues.  Sometimes this is unavoidable when we are unable to fix your Internet connection with one of our trained office technicians.  Perhaps there was a...

misunderstanding.  We called you today to offer you an appointment later this afternoon when we had a field technician in your area which you declined saying you went with another provider already.  An early termination fee has not been applied to your account and we have already refunded your last payment.  I wish you well in searching for another provider that can better fit your Internet needs.

I want to take this moment and apologize for the issues you have been experiencing with DigitalPath.  I understand it can be very frustrating when your internet is not working properly.  I had a tech support supervisor take a look into the account and it appears the relay in the area...

needed an upgrade.  We have recently gone to your area and upgraded the equipment for that relay and you should be experiencing much better reliability.  I have issued 1 month credit on your account.  The supervisor will continue to monitor your connection and has already left a call to follow up with you.  Please be assured that DigitalPath is constantly doing upgrades to continue to provide reliable internet to our customers in our service areas when most providers are unable to provide internet.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to my concern, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
I wanted to wait for the tech to come and go and to be able to perform a speed test, which is now possible. I am now seeing good speeds, over 5 Mbps. (I am subscribed for 6, but I don't expect a WISP to deliver full speed full time, that would be unrealistic.)I am saddened that it requires a call to the Revdex.com to get prompt service, but gratified that the process worked for me.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to look into your account.  I do apologize for the delay in getting someone out to repair your services.  While our highly trained Customer Service Representatives do their best to get someone out as soon as we are aware of an issue with your...

equipment, with the holidays, flu season and recent storms causing damage it has extended our service call times and we have been unable to respond as quickly as we would like.  DigitalPath has issued a 1/2 month credit on your account and authorized overtime to get someone to Lake County on the 23rd.  I will also have our tech support supervisor follow up with you once this is complete.  Thank you for your patience.

After I received the customers response, I had our technical support supervisor reached out to the customer.  He spoke to the customers wife and she was unaware that they were still having issues with their connection.  We then called Mr. [redacted] and he said that since his service call, things were better.  We show that he used almost 100GB more than our average customer in his current billing cycle. Mr. [redacted] admitted to having teenagers in the house that use it all the time. If the kids are using up all of the bandwidth while he is trying to use the Internet, this would cause his connection to appear slow. We see this often with customers who complain about slow speeds yet have high data usage.We also credited his account for $72.95 on 9/18/2015 and waived his tree climb fee.  Today we called again to verify everything is working good but have not heard back. We believe this case should be resolved.

I apologize for your ongoing issues with your internet.  I see that you have a service call written by our head of Tech Support scheduled for the 26th.  I thank you for giving us this opportunity to come out and see what is causing your continued issues.  I have applied a 1 month credit on your account.  Our head of Tech Support will follow up as soon as the service call is complete to verify your connection is working to your satisfaction.

I am sorry to hear about the issues the customer has been experiencing with DigitalPath.  I had a technician take a look into the account and they have determined that this is a signal issue.  We have written a service call to go out and fix the problem and applied a 1 month store credit...

on the account.
If the customer has any further issues we ask they they call and speak to our tech department so we fix the issue in a timely manner, but this service call should get them fixed.

Mr. [redacted] I do apologize for the delay in scheduling your service call. We were able to get a hold of you once we received your updated contact information and we went out on Apr 5, 2016 to upgrade your antenna.  I had the Tech Support Supervisor take a look at your connection since your upgrade and he reports: Signals are very good, speeds are testing at 6Mb, and his tunnel is not dropping. I have issued another month of credit to your account for a total of 2 months credit.  If you continue to experience any more issues, please contact our tech support [redacted] and they will be happy to assist you further.

Digital Path is my WISP, though I live in Kelseyville. I recently had to seek assistance from the Revdex.com to get them to respond to my unusable internet connection literally in less than a month's time, which did work. Here I am again. For the last three days they have been dropping packets left and right, and not delivering anything near promised speeds. I use ping to one of the routers between me and the internet to check for packet loss. They have never complained about this method of troubleshooting previously, but now they are telling me that they are down-prioritizing ping responses from that router when they have previously informed me in no uncertain terms that they are doing no such tampering. (I have email reference for these statements and can provide it on request.) When I provide the troubleshooting information that shows the problem to be in their network, they tell me that I should perform troubleshooting steps I have already performed like rebooting my router (which is a PC running [redacted], which has far more than enough power to do this job) or doing the tests from the router itself, which is what I have already done and in fact what I always do. They are also outright lying to me either about down-prioritizing those packets, or about not prioritizing packets -- which is it? Not only is my internet connection not working as promised -- I can barely even use the Revdex.com website this morning at 0436, when there should be basically nobody else awake -- but I am also wasting considerable time troubleshooting Digital Path's failure, arguing with them about it, contacting the Revdex.com, etc. I have already proven that the GigE between my router and my PC are working without flaw, and capable of carrying near-theoretical levels of traffic. My ping tests differentiate between packet loss between my router and the CPE, and the CPE and one of their own routers (the hop just after whatever my CPE talks to.) Digital Path has already replaced the CPE and the wiring to same. What's left? Not me.I want to be refunded for the full month, and if Digital Path can not stop blaming me for their failures, I want my complete installation fee refunded so that I can go somewhere more competent.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to my concern, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

I want to apologize for your experience and thank you for giving us the opportunity to address these issues.  Our tech support manager [redacted] has looked into your account and already contacted you.  As discussed, we are going out sometime next week to update the tower 1/2 mile away that...

should stabilize your connection and provide a more reliable Internet connection.  In the meantime we have issued a 2 week credit on your account to compensate you until this repair takes place.  In regards to our blocking your email, I want to assure you DigitalPath does not block our customers from contacting us and there must have been other issues outside of our network.

Mr. [redacted], I do apologize we have not been able to complete the work to better your connection as we had originally planned due to storm damage and outages that have occurred during the last two weeks.  We are scheduled to perform the work on Saturday morning 10/29/2016 unless another outage occurs.  We will contact you once we have completed the work so you can monitor your connection and verify it is working to your satisfaction.

My sincerest apologies for the issues you have been experiencing with DigitalPath and the delay in getting your relay updated.   I'm sure it has been frustrating not being able to use your Internet to your fullest capacity.  I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to make...

amends.  We have issued a 1 month credit on your account and have recently upgraded your section of the network that was causing your issues so you should see a stronger connection.  DigitalPath has a knowledgeable staff dedicated to maintaining our network and its reliability.  We value your business and have enjoyed being your Internet  provider these past months.

I am rejecting this response because:Dear Digital Path, you have no desire to work with a legitimate complaint from a consumer as demonstrated with your impolite letter ending: "...we consider this matter closed."  This is why I have gone to the Revdex.com.  Your raise the issue of increased customer usage but this is not my problem.  It is yours to deal with by upgrading infrastructure.  Bandwidth increases are on the rise and simply raising a customers rate will not increase the bandwidth you are capable of delivering.I am grieving a 54% monthly price increase with a decrease in performance.  Please demonstrate for me how this 54% monthly price increase results in better service for me. What are the infrastructure upgrades you are implementing to deal with increased bandwidth usage?  My hope is that you are not simply charging me an excess usage fee while continuing to take on additional subscribers.  But I do not rule this out; my monthly service cost has risen 54% and the quality of service has decreased.You "increased" my speed from 3Mbps to 6Mbps but the service has noticeably decreased.  I would prefer to be on my previous plan at 3Mbps as it was more consistent.

Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to take a look into your account.  I want to take this moment to apologize for your recent experiences with DigitalPath.  I can understand how frustrating it can be when the services are unreliable to non-existent and no one is getting back to...

you.  DigitalPath is constantly trying to approve our network with our quality field technicians, but sometimes situations arise we are unable to control and they only way to repair the service is to dispatch 2 field technicians to climb into your tree to swap out the device.  We are going to waive this tree climb fee and issue a 1 month credit on your account.  We have already emailed you a receipt for your records and our technical supervisor, [redacted] has already been in contact and will be monitoring your connection to ensure your service is working.  Thank you for being a valued customer of DigitalPath.

While Digitalpath.net provides good speeds as a rule, when those speeds are slow and it's necessary to contact tech support, expect exceedingly long wait times before speaking to a tech rep. When the tech rep does answer your call, chances are he (I've never spoken to a female tech rep at Digital Path) will be both polite and responsive, likely resolving your issue or taking some time to address it and then calling back with a report of having resolved it.
The downside with DP is the ridiiculously long wait times to speak to a customer service representative. Unfortunately, in a rural area, we have little alternative than to suck it up and deal with it. Years with [redacted] taught me that they were not worth dealing with, despite their high Revdex.com rating. Their tech people give callers the runaround, and the speeds they delivered were consistently a small fraction of the promised speeds.
So with DP, you get the full six bottles in your six-pack, but you've got to suffer the lengthy wait times to speak with a tech rep.
I certainly do wish they would up their game in the customer service department!

Review: Digital Path, Inc. is an internet service provider in [redacted]. They service primarily homes outside of the city who have very limited access to internet connectivity. Their motto is "The freedom to live where you want and still be connected." I believe their current price structure is an act of price gouging because I have no alternative for internet connectivity.

The cost for my service of 3Mbps was $52.95 through January 2016 (1/22/2016 bill). In February (2/20/2016 bill) the cost went up to $55.95. On March 3, 2016 a Digital Path representative contacted me and told me that my current plan of 3Mbps at $55.95 was being eliminated and a new comparable plan would now cost $85.95. I pointed out that this was an increase of almost 54% and I felt this was unreasonable. The representative pointed out that the new plan would feature 6Mbps and a new feature called a data limit. Today (3/26/2016) I received an email from Digital Path that I was approaching my data limit and needed to check their website for ways to lower my data usage.

I believe the price increase of 54% is unreasonable. I believe Digital Path, Inc. in engaging in price gouging. I believe Digital Path, Inc. is exploiting customers who live in remote areas and who have very limited options for internet connectivity. I believe that Digital Path's act of forcing me into a 54% monthly increase is unethical.Desired Settlement: -- Refund of any amount over $55.95 per month returned directly to me;

-- Reinstatement of my previous plan 3Mbps at $55.95 for the next 12 months.

Business

Response:

Mr. [redacted], I want to apologize for your confusion regarding our data allowance policy. DigitalPath implemented this policy for all new customers in July of last year. Since then we have been migrating existing customers to this policy after notifying them well in advance of the upcoming change to their accounts. This was necessary because over the last several years our average customer’s bandwidth usage has increased well over 300%, which was unsustainable. Our records show that you were initially notified of this policy change on 1-29-16. Then on 3-3-16 we contacted you again, notifying you that your data usage in your current billing cycle was 203 GB which greatly exceeded your plans new data allowance of 75GB. During this call, the CSR informed you that starting in the next billing cycle, your 75 GB data allowance was going to be enforced per our policy. The CSR also recommended a data plan during the call that supported your actual data usage which it appears you switched to at a higher price. We did not remove your old $55.95 plan. The $55.95 plan is still on our website and offered to customers every day. If you wish to switch back to that plan, please contact customer service and we will be happy to make the change. Please note that if you decide to do that, you will need to adjust your data usage because that plan will not support your current billing cycle data usage of 235 GB. Thank you for your understanding and we consider this matter closed.

Consumer

Response:

I am rejecting this response because:Dear Digital Path, you have no desire to work with a legitimate complaint from a consumer as demonstrated with your impolite letter ending: "...we consider this matter closed." This is why I have gone to the Revdex.com. Your raise the issue of increased customer usage but this is not my problem. It is yours to deal with by upgrading infrastructure. Bandwidth increases are on the rise and simply raising a customers rate will not increase the bandwidth you are capable of delivering.I am grieving a 54% monthly price increase with a decrease in performance. Please demonstrate for me how this 54% monthly price increase results in better service for me. What are the infrastructure upgrades you are implementing to deal with increased bandwidth usage? My hope is that you are not simply charging me an excess usage fee while continuing to take on additional subscribers. But I do not rule this out; my monthly service cost has risen 54% and the quality of service has decreased.You "increased" my speed from 3Mbps to 6Mbps but the service has noticeably decreased. I would prefer to be on my previous plan at 3Mbps as it was more consistent.

Business

Response:

We apologize for not being able to deliver unlimited bandwidth on our residential plans anymore and we are truly sorry that you do not agree with our companies data allowance policy. We do want to work with you but we must also adhere to our policies. We can lower your plan back down to $55.95 per month with a 75 GB data allowance or you can stay on the plan you upgraded to. Please keep in mind you have already used 108 GB in the last 10 days and you would already be at 144% of the lower plans data allowance until your next billing cycle starts on May 1, 2016. Please contact customer service at [redacted] and let us know how to proceed.