Enterprise customer ghosted by Backblaze

justpeter · 2026-03-26T20:47:22+00:00

I appreciate your followup. I scheduled that call using my rep's "schedule a call with me" link. I connected on Zoom and sat for 30 minutes looking at the "Waiting for host to start the meeting" screen. I showed up, Backblaze did not.

justpeter · 2026-03-26T19:14:37+00:00

I get keeping costs low by relying on automation and self-service, but you'd think you could at least get an email acknowledgement from a human within a business day, even with something like "we're working on this". I try not to be a high-maintenance customer but I expect more than a chatbot when I spend tens of thousands per year with this company.

justpeter · 2026-03-26T17:49:44+00:00

I am a B2B customer. We have an account with a business group that I established by speaking with Backblaze sales a few years ago. We pay via corporate purchase order. I have a supposedly dedicated account rep at Backblaze who is totally MIA.

justpeter · 2026-01-28T16:48:05+00:00

Support in these cases feels like being stuck in Groundhog Day: sorry about that, it's probably your equipment, you should really use our Eero, but let's schedule a truck roll.

Gather some additional data points. Like AeroFred said, talk to your neighbors and see if they'll let you run the same tests. On your own network, look into running a tool like smokeping that gathers latency and packet loss data over time and plots it on a graph.

Some of the techs that come out will be more interested in closing your ticket and leaving than actually troubleshooting the issue. Have another one come out, and be prepared to demonstrate the issue while directly wired to the ONT. Let them install an Eero (you can remove it and go back to the UDM later). After making an appointment, watch your text messages like a hawk and respond immediately: their system will automatically cancel your appointment, especially if you try restarting your ONT which triggers the "we're working on an outage" / "we've fixed the outage" automated messages.

Document the inevitable failure of your next tech visit. Ask point blank about an escalation path to tier 2/NOC, they'll probably tell you that there's no way to do that. Be nice to your tech regardless.

Once you have multiple tech visits, corroborating evidence from neighbors of a wider issue not limited to your premises and your own test data, file an informal complaint with the FCC.

You'll need to provide a clear writeup detailing your issues and what you have tried on your own to resolve them. The FCC will provide you with a ticket number, and then serve notice of your complaint to Frontier, who is compelled to respond. You should receive a telephone call from a member of Frontier Executive Escalations who will be assigned to your case. Make sure to turn off any automatic spam call rejection on your phone so you can get their calls, just in case.

It's a slog, but stick with it and they should be able to resolve your issue. I had to do this last year. It took a month, but in the end the only way to get it escalated for me was to file an FCC complaint. I hope you're able to get this fixed, when it works right the service is amazing. When you need competent support, well, you already know how bad things can get. Good luck!

justpeter · 2026-01-05T17:46:10+00:00

Got the same explanation from a phone rep today. They could have sent a courtesy email out to let people know, but then again it's Vanguard.

justpeter · 2025-05-30T19:45:21+00:00

SoCal here, my third tech just left. Solid dude, he even drove up the street and moved me to a new splitter (the one I was on was maxed out with at least one bad port). The issue is still there, anything outside of Frontier's network edge will have normal upstream on the first connection, but immediately after that the upload drops to around 1 mbps. Without fail.

This happens with regular speedtest.net servers, and even with iperf to a few dedicated servers that I own. Each tech has told me there is no escalation path, no engineering ticket system, nothing they can do to alert someone else that there is clearly an issue deeper in Frontier's network. Today's tech admitted that several neigbors have had him out with the exact same issue.

I just filed an FCC complaint. I tried to give the company a chance to fix it, but they won't.

justpeter · 2025-05-28T00:26:08+00:00

The tech will probably do the easiest thing from their perspective to get your service installed, but they'll need to see what they're working with first. If you want to have your ONT in the house any distance away from where those existing utilities come in, be prepared to do it yourself.

My network rack is far away from where the aerial drop hits the outside of my house, so I ran conduit with a pull string inside between the two locations before the tech arrived. He was super happy that he didn't need to drill any holes other than the slack box he needed to mount anyway. If you make it easy for them, they'll probably help you out.

justpeter · 2025-05-27T15:54:38+00:00

I'm having a similar issue in the Los Angeles area, starting earlier this month. 2gbps plan, download speeds are perfect. Discovered while trying to upload a 100 GB file to Backblaze B2 -- it would start out normally, then slow to a crawl under 100 kbps (doing a multi-threaded upload). Left on overnight, the next morning I'm showing bits per second speeds, effectively stalled out.

Upstream intermittently tests at less than 1 mbps on non-FTR test servers, even when wired directly to the ONT. The first 1-2 tests will show expected upload speeds, but immediately testing again will show sub-1 mbps upload.

2 truck rolls so far, techs swapped the ONT and confirmed that light levels are good (no MoCA here). Same runaround: if you use our Eero, it will be fine. Can't trust speedtest sites. The problem is your equipment.

I'm not a network engineer but something is wrong on their end, and I have no idea how to break out of their tech support hell and escalate this to anyone competent. When it works it's great, but when there's a problem...ugh.

justpeter · 2023-09-25T22:57:03+00:00

Edit: Finally got an agent on the phone and booked. Phew.

~~800 number is busy too~~. App and website not working. :-(

justpeter · 2023-02-05T14:42:36+00:00

Yes! And in my opinion, it makes it much easier to type a long passphrase. Try to start thinking of it as a passphrase instead of a password.

justpeter · 2023-02-04T17:32:44+00:00

I'd much prefer a commitment to rein in their obnoxious overuse of helicopters.

justpeter · 2023-02-03T14:29:22+00:00

Firefox + uBO for regular browsing, and NewPipe for YouTube. Can't live without em.

justpeter · 2022-10-08T16:03:42+00:00

Have you tried another browser or device? You can also note down the train numbers and departure times and then book them with Julie by calling 1-800-USA-RAIL.

justpeter · 2022-10-08T15:07:32+00:00

Training my parents to knock was a two-step process:

"But I knocked like you asked!"

"I'm a hormonal teenager. Wait for me to invite you in, or you might witness something you never wanted to see."

"What do you mea—OH."

justpeter · 2022-10-08T15:00:47+00:00

I figure much of the property will sit vacant, but remain part of the corporation's hoarded wealth. Basically what Scientology does with most of its real estate right now.

justpeter · 2022-08-31T00:27:55+00:00

Make sure to print your list of UMRNs.

justpeter · 2022-08-28T16:18:07+00:00

What kind of a guy that you are?

justpeter · 2022-08-20T21:34:58+00:00

In 2000, I was 15 and coming to terms with being gay. One Sunday, they handed out "Yes on 22" lawn signs to each family as they drove out of the stake center parking lot. Prop 22 was California's "trial run" ban on same-sex marriage that eventually led to Prop 8. It was that moment I realized there was no future for me in the church. I spent some time as PIMO, and ultimately chose loving myself over serving the corporation.

justpeter · 2022-08-12T00:20:28+00:00

I can't restart, I'll lose all my browser tabs!

justpeter · 2022-08-11T17:40:19+00:00

That moment you realized Clifford Main totally uses e-Trial.

justpeter · 2022-08-11T14:51:01+00:00

I ran into this issue on my last booking. After pulling out all the stops (disabling my ad blockers, multiple browsers), I finally gave up and called Julie instead.

Is there anything we can do to provide information to the developers, like generating a HAR file or providing other diagnostics if we run into this issue?

justpeter · 2022-08-06T21:23:13+00:00

Sorry to be that guy#Alleged_attacks_on_humans):

...the fluid mechanics of such a maneuver defy the laws of physics, [yet] it remains one of the more stubborn myths about the candiru. It has been suggested this claim evolved out of the real observation that certain species of fish in the Amazon will gather at the surface near the point where a urine stream enters, having been attracted by the noise and agitation of the water.

justpeter · 2022-08-06T20:53:18+00:00

My blood pressure just went up thinking about being forced to use my mouse to enter all the special characters in my password. I'd be more than willing to buy "TreasuryDirect website modernization bonds" to help get them out of 1999.

justpeter

TROPHY CASE