Bazillion sending out 'distress' signal
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Seattle's Bazillion.com has joined a list of financially-troubled Internet-access providers and at least one angry customer says it appears to be ignoring his complaints of poor service. Bazillion.com, which sells high-speed digital-subscriber-line (DSL) services, is on a list of "distressed partners" of Covad Communications Group, itself an ailing provider of national DSL service.
Bazillion.com buys its connectivity from Covad, based in Santa Clara, Calif., and essentially resells it to consumers. Covad, which has slashed 800 jobs in the past two months, lists as distressed partners those resellers that have had trouble making payments or filed for bankruptcy. Amid a shakeout in the DSL industry, a number of these companies recently have begun transferring customers to larger providers. For example, Covad is taking customers from a number of its distressed resellers.
Service at some of the resellers appears to be slipping. One local Bazillion.com subscriber said the company appears to have stopped supporting its existing DSL users. Dan Lykken of Bellevue said his Bazillion.com DSL line became much slower two weeks ago and hasn't worked at all the past two days. Calls and e-mails to the company have gone unanswered, he said. "I haven't heard boo back from them," Lykken said.
He spent four hours calling the company Tuesday evening but was put on hold by an automated answering system and then disconnected each time. He had the same experience yesterday.
"When you spend that much time on hold, you get so aggravated," he said. "I've now gone to Covad and said sign me up."
Bazillion.com declined to comment on its financial strength. It said it is continuing to provide service to its 5,000 subscribers in the Seattle area, but has stopped signing up new accounts.
"We are continuing to provide service to our customers as we have been," said Joseph Lawson, chief marketing officer at Bazillion.com. "We're just not adding customers to that total."
Lawson said it wasn't fair to draw conclusions about service levels from the experience of one subscriber, and that any number of problems could be to blame.
However, the company, which has about 100 employees, said it is reviewing whether it will continue as DSL supplier.
"At this point in time, we're making a strategic assessment of our entire DSL business and how we're going to proceed," Lawson said.
Recognizing that a number of resellers were having trouble making payments, Covad last month set up a program to help move those subscribers directly to the Covad network.
Covad officials declined to comment on Bazillion.com, but employees at the transition program are telling consumers to stay away from such distressed partners. Lykken said he was told Bazillion.com had stopped offering DSL and was on the distressed list.
Covad also lists four DSL providers that it says have recently filed for bankruptcy protection: Relay Point and Zyan, both based in Los Angeles; Flashcom in Huntington Beach, Calif.; and Fastpoint, in San Jose.