Red Shift Internet Services

I have been a customer for years and have grown used to worse then DSL speeds especially during peak usage in my neighborhood. I have a Salinas ZIP code but live near Castroville off of Highway 156, near highway 1. Our entire neighborhood does not have Internet service; it is unbelievable. My red shift has been down since Saturday– and upon my second call to get help was told that they don’t know when they can basically get a tech out to see me. It’s interesting too, when I look at other reviews I think that there are more people than me having service outages in my area. Check it out. That would mean that I’m not getting honest answers from this company that I’m paying I believe 70 bucks a month to for internet. They told me it was only me last Saturday! Somebody somehow someway has got to figure out how we can get decent Internet in this neighborhood. The people I have talked to at red shift lately have seemed dispirited and low morale. If I had another option I would jump!

I wish I could take away all stars. The Internet has been out since Sun and it is now Friday. They sent someone to install a new antenna but didn’t let us know they were coming and no one was home. It solved nothing and now they claim the Internet doesn’t work because of a large tree in the backyard. The tree was there since from the beginning and we use to have service. Then they said it’s because it has grown, it’s an oak tree not bamboo guys. Also, the tree was trimmed about a year ago so that’s bs

Service has been good and reliable, but once a problem develops, you’ll wait forever for support. The phone is answered quick, but if you need technical support, be prepared to have lunch and dinner, maybe, waiting for them. Maybe there’s only one person for technical support, but that’s no excuse if you happen to be the one waiting. And waiting. And waiting

This review is after having a DSL+ line installed in downtown Marina, replacing an existing unstable AT&T U-​verse line.
Customer service is excellent; there’s a human that answers the phone and was able to help answer all my questions very quickly. Initial setup required me to poke them once to make sure they got my faxed in contract, but then the tech visit to install went fairly smooth. The prices aren’t much different than AT&T’s and require an annual contract but just getting a tech sent out without going through four phone calls and having to justify the visit has been awesome. Since they use AT&T as a backbone, the tech was from AT&T and the modem is an AT&T modem, so don’t be shocked if you don’t see any Red Shift branding.
The install took much, much longer than expected but that’s because the tech saw a lot of issues in AT&T’s local infrastructure (outside of our house) and had to work with another tech to upgrade the local lines all the way down to the main road. By the end of the day we were hooked up and we’ve actually had a more stable connection as a result. Even have the latest router so the speed is extra stable.
If I could help it I wouldn’t give any money to AT&T but I’ve read Comcast is even worse, so Red Shift is the best alternative we have in our area and I’m thankful to have them as an AT&T buffer.

My existing ISP was maxed out at 3.6÷768 (downstream/​upstream), and I noticed that Red Shift had just raised a microwave relay to feed some vacation rentals in my complex.
They sent a salesman to the area soon after the vacation rentals were hooked up, and much to my surprise, the service was also available to other residents. I bought into the 10./3 service at a reasonable price point, and an installer came out to set it up.
When I got home from work that night, my wife showed me the installation– and it was pretty ugly. The tech had walked the wire from the antenna to the modem over a very fragile and unsafe roof to the far side of the building, then stapled along and down the side of the house, despite the fact that he had to crawl under the home to bring the wire up through an existing hole on an interior wall (in other words, he could have saved himself a lot of work).
As fate would have it, I’m a telecommunications professional and have been for more than 20 years. So… I called Red Shift and obtained their permission to move the wire. Ideally, I would have also moved the antenna mount to the other side of the building and installed a longer mast to clear the peak of the roof– but I couldn’t get them to go for that. As it was, I brought the existing wire nearly straight down the wall and under the house, then up from beneath through the same hole at the base of my interior wall. It took me about half an hour– but he was here for two and a half hours per my wife. I measured the extra wire I cut out (I had to put a new RJ45 connector on the shortened wire, no big deal) and came up with 31 feet.
This is a training issue; the kid was working his heart out per my wife, but whoever is directing the installation department may not be training for safety or good work practices. This is intended as constructive criticism– and let me finish by saying the service did perform as advertised after the original installation– hence two stars.

We have a business account where I work. Fast with the bill. Slow with the support.

Terrible on reliability and service.

I had my home computer repaired here. I’ve had this computer for about five years and my entire family uses it. Needless to say it wasn’t quite running up to capacity, but I didn’t decide to have it repaired until the fan stopped working.
It took a short time, the prices were very reasonable, and my computer is literally running just as fast if not faster than when I bought it. They called me every step of the way and were completely professional. I would recommend them to anyone whose computer isn’t running the way it was when you first got it.

Red Shift itself is good. I never had trouble getting customer service and they worked hard to make sure my questions were answered. The weakness with Red Shift lies in its borrowed infrastructure — they use AT&T for their DSL connections. This is understandable, as a small regional company doesn’t have the resources to build an entire infrastructure.
But that was the deal breaker for our household. Somehow our outside phone line became damaged and it was impossible to get it fixed. Red Shift rightfully said it was AT&T’s responsibility to fix it. AT&T said it was our landlord’s or Red Shift’s problem. Once we proved that it was AT&T’s problem they set up an appointment to fix it and never showed. So I called Red Shift figuring they might have more pull with AT&T than I did. They reluctantly agreed to call AT&T — the Red Shift representative said that they had trouble with AT&T as well — and set up another appointment and the AT&T repair person didn’t show up again. Red Shift was just as much at a loss as we were.
I called AT&T again, but they started back in on «It’s your landlord’s or Red Shift’s problem, not ours.» So we canceled Red Shift and switched to Comcast. Comcast has a lot of issues, however at least they have no one but themselves to blame should something go wrong.
In short, Red Shift is great if your telephone connection is working. Otherwise be prepared for a fight with AT&T.