Review of AT&T CallVantageMember review of |
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This adventure took me four separate attempts over a two week period to complete my number porting. First attempt was the day after a major system overhaul at CallVanatage service center. They were having major problems with internal systems for days after the change. Customer service lady tried on three times to get the conversion process all the way through the process, but system kept bombing out. She took all my information, and assured me she would complete the process the next day. She said she would then e-mail me the confirmation of the change. She did tell me if I didn't hear back within three full business days, five days total, to call back. On the third business day, after no response I called again to confirm the service had been changed over. This service center gentleman talked in circles, he confirmed the recent systems issues and assured me the lady I spoke with would complete the transfer. He would not attempt the conversion for me while on the phone, because he was certain if she took the time to record all the notations on my account about what she had tried to do and her plans to complete the switch she would do it. He was concerned about messing things up if she had begun the process. I asked if he could transfer me to her, and he said there was no way. He stated there were a thousand people in the call center and there was no way to know who she was since it just shows a number. He encouraged me to wait a couple more days.... I waited three more days until the end of the business week (Friday) after receiving no calls or e-mail communication. After explaining to this service center gentleman my experience, he attempted the conversion because there appeared to be no activity on my original calls. It seemed like everything was going fine when the process bombed out again. This associate got a technician to his desk and after nearly 30 minutes had to give up due to technical issues still on their end..... At this point I’m on a mission!!! After the weekend I tried this yet again, giving this service center gentleman the background and doubting highly I would have any new outcome. To my surprise it appeared he was able to walk through the process without a hitch and told me the date my service would be ported. I received a confirmation e-mail within an hour after the call confirming the service, and another confirmation that my number could be ported with the date of transfer. Within this e-mail it told me to be on the look out for my TA, which I thought was odd since the service center associate instructed me to call repair on the day of transfer to walk me through the process to reprogram my current TA to receive calls under my new number..... Within 3 days a new TA arrived!!! I called back to inform them what had happened, this gentleman said it appeared the system had set this up as a completely new account. He stated he had a couple of similar calls, but this was no problem and (get this) he would send out a USPS pickup label via FEDEX for me to ship this new TA back. He told me to follow the last associate’s instructions and call back on the day of transfer to have repair walk me through the process of changing my TA settings..... On the day of transfer, I called repair to have them walk me through the process. The repair technician told me that because this was set up as a new account I needed to install the TA I had recently been sent. She stated she couldn’t reconfigure my TA because of the way the account transfer had been handled, and that I would need to call customer service to have them cancel the original account... Thankfully I had procrastinated for a couple days and hadn't sent back the new TA. I installed the new one and everything has worked beautifully since! I called customer service to cancel the original account. The customer service associate, after hearing my story, refunded my entire first month service I had already paid for. Bottom-line, this gave me a full month of service free for all my troubles. With the exception of the second gentleman I spoke with everyone of the customer service associates were excellent! They made every attempt to make things right, even with all the technical issues they faced with their system. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get returned communication as I had been assured I would. I could tell by the wait times these folks are swamped! Being in the service industry I know this stuff happens, and they will get their stuff together. Since signing up, they have added new features like the Simple Reach Number and dropped the price $5 to $29.99. Even with all the pain, I think the service is excellent. I love all the neat features, although the call waiting indicator that triggers my phones indicator light isn’t working perfectly. Based on others posts, it appears to be a problem with the service I’m sure they will address with time. I haven’t yet received my first bill on the new number so I’m waiting to see how they have handled my six months at $19.99. My current plan information shows I have the first month free and then the $29.99 after that. Since this number transfer fiasco happened just after the price drop and introductory offer change my timing may have been perfect for more problems. Stay tuned, the drama may continue……. -----Update: 8/26/2007----- It's been nearly three years now that CallVantage has been my phone provider. During these past few years, the price has come down from the original $29.99 to $24.99. My experience here was disturbing because I had to call to get my rate changed for the same service. I called to request the new rate and then explained how disappointed I was that this didn't' happen automatically after having been a loyal customer for so long. I requested a credit for the few months the price had been lower and was quickly granted it. All prior technical issues with the call waiting indicator have not been an issue. In fact, I can't think of any technical issue I've had since my first review. Overall, it's a stable consistent experience that I would expect from AT&T. I recently moved a couple towns away and decided to keep my service and number to make the move less painless. Since the house was new construction I didn't bother to call the local telephone company to have a phone line installed. I did call the local cable company to run a cable and subscribed to high speed cable just like I had at my old home. The good thing is my configuration is the exact same, the bad thing is I move to a prior Adelphia area that has been in the court with my local towns deciding on if they want to assume the system. This means Time Warner is acting as the temporary provider and are doing a lame duck job of it.... I've had more issue with availability in the last few months than the past three years. This has nothing to do with the service; it's all about the cable system and the dependability. I've used Broadband's monitoring service to prove to my local maintenance technician it's not my router, configuration, etc... I learned a new thing to be aware of if you are moving to new construction. When I first moved the service prompted me to confirm my address because the adapter had lost power. I signed onto the CallVantage site to change my adapter service address to my new location. The site claimed it couldn't find my address so I called support. I was informed that AT&T's policy had changed since I first singed up and that they don't provide service to areas that don't have e911. Since the e911 system is dependent on the postal service to update their mailing database I would need to discontinue my service or (this is where the support person helped me and still followed their policy) tell the website that I had not moved when it asks me to acknowledge it's location. The representative told me that their system gets update about once a month with the new addresses. The good news was I have phone service and the bad news was if I used 911 it would go to my old homes local emergency services. I programmed the local emergency service into my speed dial and informed the family of the issue, so that was an easy work around. It took almost three months for the AT&T databases to acknowledge my new address. I now have my old number assigned to my new address and everything with 911 is as it should be. If it's not new construction I doubt you would have an issue like this, but with all the heat the VOIP providers have taken over 911 issues I understand AT&T's position on this. -----Update: 6/14/2009----- After receiving the "Dear John" letter from AT&T CallVantage a couple months ago I did some research and found a new love in CallCentric. They are better due to outstanding support and lower cost. I'd strongly encourage those leaving CallVantage to check them out. I've completed a detailed review of them under the CallCentric service. Followup comments:
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AT&T CallVantage
(14)
Davidson,Mecklenburg,NC
$19 per month (12 month contract)
about 4 days
"Voice quality, reliability, and continuous service improvements"
"Buggy call waiting indicator, start up problems"
"Overall value for your money, and it's AT&T!"
