Comments on: What happened to Downeast.net (and Jordan Networks) ?

By: Matthew Baya

Matthew Baya — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:21:13 +0000

I noticed today that one of the mailing lists I run had about a dozen addresses from downeast.net unsubscribe today. I wrote support@downeast.net asking what was the cause and got this note back:

From:
Stephen Dame
Date: March 24, 2009 10:13:57 AM EDT
Subject: Re: Mass unsubscribe

Matt, Downeast and Dialmaine went out of business in December and we migrated their customers on 2/20 only keeping the active email accounts of paying customers alive. So any bouncebacks should just be stale addresses that are no longer in use.

Regards,
Stephen Dame
http://www.207me.com

By: mbaya

mbaya — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:59:48 +0000

The Ellsworth American has an updated article detailing some of the things mentioned above and also has some interviews with downeast.net customers.

http://ellsworthmaine.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18238&Itemid=1

By: Matthew Baya

Matthew Baya — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:38:27 +0000

Press Release:

Downeast.Net LLC, former owner of Internet dial-up and email services provided under the label of Downeast.net, has recently been working with Jim Troutman, another former operator of the Downeast.net network, to rectify the recent problems with Downeast’s Internet and email service. Downeast.Net, LLC and Troutman have noted the recent grave mismanagement of the Downeast.net dialup-up and email business by its most recent operators, Jordan Networks, Inc., and are working together to transfer business to a new company.

Jordan Networks is no longer associated with Downeast.net at all, and all operations will be undertaken by Airolink Wirless, LLC, a company owned by brothers Mike and Charles (Chuck) Crawford. Chuck will be a familiar presence to many Downeast.net clients, as he has provided technical support to them for quite some time. Neither Downeast.Net, LLC nor Troutman have had any direct hand in running the business since 2005 and 2007 respectively, but both parties have been so concerned about the unacceptable way in which Downeast.net customers have been treated that they decided to band together to find a solution. Email and dialup access both have already been restored, and all services, including technical support, should be online by next week. More updates to follow.

– Jim Troutman

By: Jim Troutman

Jim Troutman — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 21:18:35 +0000

Hi there. Matt did some good investigating, a few details wrong, but pretty close to the mark. I’ve been in the ISP business several times since the mid 1990s, and have worked as a consultant on a lot of sales and mergers of ISPs over the years. Finally, I got tired of the fast pace and high stress (and low margins!) and sold the businesses and went off to do less stressful work.

After getting alerted to the situation and finding out what had happened to the downeast.net customers (which was intentional on Jordan Network’s part), I worked with the McKillops and the folks at Airolink.net in the past two days to quickly get Jordan Networks out of the picture. We reached an agreement this morning. We are still assessing things, but have restored basic service, and are picking up the pieces. We are committed to ensuring continued services for all customers, and all prepaid services will be honored.

By: Racheal Wallace

Racheal Wallace — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:10:38 +0000

Jean at downeasthost.com is recovering our email from loss of service by downeast.net through our website service at downeasthost.com. Thank-you Jean!

By: Jean McKillop

Jean McKillop — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:47:19 +0000

Bryan wasn’t always the easiest young man to deal with, as he might even admit himself. We all grow and learn, and Don did the best he could, as we all do with everyone, but there were definitely two sides to this story.

There may still be a happy ending to all of this. Stay tuned. Even those of us not responsible for any of this failure have been searching for the best possible outcomes for folks concerned.

By: Sarah Robinson

Sarah Robinson — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:07:54 +0000

Thanks for the legwork, Matt. I called most of the numbers and you get the same voicemail as the Tech Support line for Downeast.net. BTW, you can’t just cancel the automatic monthly withdrawal from your credit card, you must close that card and get a new one. Instead, I am opting to dispute the most recent charge by Downeast Net and will dispute future charges–if there are any. My credit card company suggested that I send a copy of the Ellsworth American article with my dispute.

My biggest question, is does anyone have a suggestion of a good, reliable ISP? I have to stay with dialup. Don’t suggest Prexar to me, I left them in August and went to Downeast Net!

By: mbaya

mbaya — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:58:01 +0000

The Ellsworth American wrote about this this week.

http://ellsworthmaine.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18201&Itemid=1

By: mbaya

mbaya — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:01:21 +0000

Whether their webserver failed or not this doesn’t explain their disconnecting phones etc. It’s clear this was a ‘cut and run’ on their part, my guess is the finances got really bad and they thought it would be easier to just disappear than to actually explain to customers what was happening. That’s really why I wrote this post, to help those who are screwed by this call the appropriate people on their disrespectful business practices.

By: A. Non Amous

A. Non Amous — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:54:23 +0000

It’s obvious that their webserver has screwed itself up. And it’s likely that the skillset it not available there to fix it.

Unfortunately, when companies change hands, new owners are not always the best at changing the listing of responsible parties.

BTW, the address for http://www.downeast.net goes back to a web cluster. It happens to be a web cluster that I helped build. I can pretty much assume that one of two pieces of equipment have failed. Possibly a third.