Samples of Reviews of COVAD Communications Service by customers - from DSLReports.com

COVAD Communications Uses "Slippery" Policies

Read their DSL contract carefully.

Our experience with COVAD - Installed 3.0/768 - unable to maintain without high error rate. Techs unhelpful in getting lower error rates. Had to be put into "safe" mode at half speed, but full $s. Have now canceled and they required 30 days to terminate. They say the contract requires 30 days, however, that would be 30 days at 1/2 speed. I have disconnected and am not using service.
 

Sorry company- stay away!

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4/24/08 COVAD is TERRIBLE, line does not drop but speed is horrible. My speeds drop to 256 regularly. Call COVAD, speak to people you can't understand they then re-provision the line the speed goes back up to about 1.5. Then it goes back down soon. Call COVAD same stuff. Then COVAD gives me some excuse about I am to far from the CO.blah, blah, blah, and the want to put me in safe mode and they can guarantee that I will get better than 256 but not 1.5. NO WAY.

I switched to ATT, much better. BETTER deal and better service.
 

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"Line never worked (at all), horrific support" "Avoid at all costs"

Decided to switch a clients ISP after experiencing support issues. Covad seemed to offer good price/speed balance. Ordered on 12/20, line was installed on 1/9. At that time supposedly the local telco had left a "short device" on the line and were called to remove. Coved tech allegedly was onsite 1/17 and reported that the line was operational (he never was actually in the building though). Called tech support on the 18th to try to turn up the line and after about an hour they determined that there was an issue at the telco CO, which should 'resolve in a couple of hours". Tried again to turn up a week later, and after another painful hour long session of unplugging cords it was ruled that the router was defective. The tech did offer to dispatch a truck, and the account maintenance rep. even graciously offered to not CHARGE for that techs trip! The support folks were not very knowledgeable at all, and could not deviate at all from script. Was not allowed to speak with a manager or second tier support. Even the account maintenance dept. seemed unwilling to try and save the account. It was promptly canceled after learning that the last truck roll might be charged even though the line had never worked.

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"bounced my rebate check, horrible service (DOWN ALL THE TIME), tech support is in India (I CAN'T UNDERSTAND THEM), liars, F-----" "junk company - with no cares."

 
I bought the 3.0 package - TEST SPEEDS NEVER GOT OVER 2.0. BS. They said - 2.0 is good enough... i said - no.... 3.0 is not 2.0. then wireless router probs (THEY SAY YOU MUST BUY THEIR ROUTER TO GET SERVICE - BUT THEN THE ON-SITE TECH SAYS - "WE REALLY DON'T DO WIRELESS. WE USE THE NETOPIA ROUTER FOR IT CAPABILITIES AND FIRMWARE, NOT BECAUSE IT CAN DO WIRELESS." - - - OK - NOT WHAT ANN SPELMAN TOLD ME @ 866-757-8757 X 2908. OR when i lose internet all together?

THEN I'D CALL TECH SUPPORT IN INDIA (CAN'T UNDERSTAND THEM) - THEY'D ASK.. "CAN I PUT U ON HOLD FOR 2-3 MINUTES".. OK? APPARENTLY TIME IS FASTER HERE IN THE US THAN INDIA - BECAUSE 2-3 MINUTES HERE IS ONLY 120-180 SECONDS - NOT 15+ MINUTES... THEN - THEY'D DO IT SO MUCH MY BATTERY WOULD DIE.. 3 TIMES I WAS ON THE PHONE FOR MORE THAN 2.5 HOURS WITH "tech support". I love the names too "Abe Lincoln"? WTF - come on - "ABE"... im not that dumb...

then - when i called 4 months after getting service inquiring about my damn REBATE check - they said - it was sent out over 2 months ago - BUT - i never got it - so they sent me a "REPLACEMENT".. check # 02673387 for $304... BUT it BOUNCED!!!!!!! then when i called in - they said - well - we sent it to your service address not your "BILLING" address so we 'stopped the payment' for your security... ahhhhh ok? so they apparentl are UNWILLING to pay me the bank fees.. and all of the above? WTF, WTF? Can someone tell me... am i expecting too much? DSL that "WORKS" ... and if the router is bad or the line is bad, that i expect them to FIX it? or if they bounce a rebate check, that i expect them to PAY me for my fees? HELLO? MR. ATTORNEY? Really? ah ok.. btw dsl reports... there is NO PROFANITY in this "review".
 

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"Rude tech support and legal departments; will retaliate against you if you file a complaint" "STAY AWAY FROM COVAD!"

 
Let me preface this by saying that we had been with Covad for over four years, and had recently renewed for another year as I was busy and did not want to deal with the hassle of switching ISPs.

Several weeks ago, the DSL service went down on a Friday night/Saturday morning. It would turn out to be an authentication issue on their end. Though we spoke to numerous technical support agents, none of them could use our user id/password to log on. It wasn't fixed for at least a week. During this period, we asked for dial-up access, at a minimum, but this failed because the authentication wasn't working!

We asked for restitution for our troubles. They offered $6.44, which they calculated as "25% of the monthly service fee." Unsatisfied, we asked for two free months of service and were denied. In fact, one of the representatives said that if it were up to her, we would not get anything and should be "lucky" to get $6.44. Later we would amend our request and asked to leave the contract with the $250 early termination fee waived. They denied it again.

After filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, Covad had the gall to accuse us of being unsatisfied over EMAIL. Yes, the stupid @covad.net email. They initially claimed they fixed the DSL the following Monday, which would be one business day. They then claimed that we were angry because the email wasn't working for another week. In fact, both of these statements were LIES. The DSL was not working for at least a week; we were angry for this reason and for their incompetence at addressing their network problems.

Two weeks ago, we faxed a request to terminate the contract and waive the $250 fee. So last Monday Covad decided to "suspend" our account - that is, cut off DSL but still bill us, all while holding our line hostage. They claimed they were confused and didn't know what we wanted to do. Why suspend the account, if not in retribution to our complaint? By doing so, they gave us two options: terminate the contract OURSELVES (and thus pay the ETF), or beg to have them resume the service. This is completely unethical.

We have since switched to another ISP. The BBB complaint is still ongoing. They have backed down from the retarded email claims and even admit that the DSL problems were caused by "authentication issues". But they charged us a fee for suspending our account, and they continue to make false statements. This was also not an isolated incident; tech support acknowledged that at least one other person had a similar problem. If problems do occur, Covad is extremely unhelpful and will do everything it can to mischaracterize your complaints.

In short: DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH COVAD. Thank you.