Zayo Extortion

[HonorFirst Name Ethics via NANOG <nanog () nanog org>]

Question to the NANOG community,  Is anyone else being extorted by Zayo? Is Zayo threatening shutdown over bogus and 
fabricated charges?

The purpose of this message to the group is twofold: 1) to share our experience being extorted by Zayo with the 
community and 2) to understand the depth and extent of Zayo's less than ethical behavior by getting feedback from the 
community.

Abovenet was a great organization with quality service, reasonable prices and nice folks to work with.  Since being 
acquired by Zayo we have seen a significant degradation of service quality and responsiveness which is not unusual from 
a provider, but Zayo has taken things to a level of low ethics that would make Tony Soprano proud.
Most interestingly they seem to identify points where you are dependent on them and threaten a shut down unless you pay 
them some arbitrary amount.  In our case we use multiple Zayo IP, Transport, and Colo Services -- they set their 
extortion amount at $128,000.  A completely arbitrary and fabricated number.  They put significant pressure threatening 
to shut us down by setting their lawyers on us.
Our detailed contract breakdowns, invoice and payment spreadsheets, along with all other commonsense and professional 
efforts were simply disregarded.  At one point their lawyers and accounting people had the nerve to say "our accounting 
system does not track invoice details -- it only shows the total amount due so your numbers mean nothing to us."  All 
the while they relentlessly levied disconnect threats with short timelines such as: "if you don't pay us $128,000 by 
this Friday, we will shut your operation down."
We have had anecdotal feedback that we are not alone in our experience and that there are many more like us.  If you 
and your company have had a similar experience with Zayo, please share it with the group or if like us you are 
concerned about retaliation from Zayo, please respond privately.  

If the group shares their experiences  the public shaming may drive Zayo to stop operating like mafia thugs.  If the 
problem is as common as we suspect, it may warrant getting the Attorney General involved. 

In the mean time, I strongly urge anyone already in a relationship with Zayo or considering a relationship to make sure 
your are well diversified with other more ethical carriers. Otherwise please consider another organization to work with.
In our case we were better of with Ransomeware, than Zayo as a vendor!  Its cheaper and less damaging

A Zayo victim and a NANOG Member