Review of AT&T CallVantageAll reviews of |
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Installation was a breeze. I received the D-Link Telephone Adapter (TA) 2 days after I ordered the service, but had to wait an additional 3 days or so for my current telephone number to be transferred from SBC to AT&T CallVantage. As soon as the transfer took place, I hooked up the TA in front of my router, went outside and disconnected my SBC line, plugged my TA into a phone jack, went through an automatic setup/firmware update online, and before I knew it, every phone in my house was connected to the AT&T CallVantage Service. It doesn't get much easier than that. The documentation that is provided for the setup process is very easy to follow. So far, I've had no problems with the service itself. However, there has been one instance where my cable service was down, therefore leaving me without phone service. Overall, the quality of calls is superb. Occasionally I do hear a slight echo when I talk, but it seems to go away within the first few seconds of the call. [UPDATE 1/1/07: I no longer hear echoes during my calls.] One thing I don't like is when I am on the phone, my web browsing literally comes to a halt -- I feel like I'm back on dial-up. It is bearable, but gets to be quite annoying. As soon as the call is over, things resume to normal. If you are always on the phone and surfing the web at the same time, you may not like the slow-down. [UPDATE 1/1/07: A few months after I initially posted this review, this issue seemed to fix itself. I can browse the web and be on the phone at the same time with absolutely no issues.] I'm also somewhat concerned about 911 dialing. AT&T claims that 911 service is compatible with CallVantage, however, they say that there may be some problems tracking your address if you're unable to give it to the 911 operator. I also don't like the fact that I can no longer dial 411 for directory assistance. I'll have to start using my cell phone or use the good ol' phone book or AT&T's "AnyWho" online directory. [UPDATE 1/1/07: E-911 service was introduced to my area several months ago, and as long as I keep my TA at my home address, I should have no issues with 911 service.] I haven't had to deal with the tech support yet (I've only had to call them to change my billing method which can also be done online). From what I've heard their customer service is fairly decent, but they have their downfalls. [UPDATE 1/1/07] My neighbors recently switched from their land line to Vonage VoIP service, which is about $5/month cheaper than AT&T. However, they claim that the customer service is terrible and they have a constant echo during their phone calls. I don't think $5 more per month will kill me. [UPDATE 8/14/08] Service has been going strong for a couple years now. I had to replace my old D-Link TA with a new, updated model a few months ago. Ever since, I have had very slight radio station noise in a few of my calls. Not sure what's causing it, but it only happens once in a while and it's hardly noticeable. Still very satisfied with service. BOTTOM LINE: If you are looking to switch to VoIP, GET AT&T CALLVANTAGE!!! Followup comments:
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I requested service on the 7th of July and did not receive service until the 22nd of July. I then found that the features their sales person said would work with my system would in fact not work forcing me to find a provider that could. Sales said that I could use the click2dial in MS Outlook contacts. You have to use their web based contact book. Another annoyance is you will need to dial the full ten digits even for local numbers. The big kicker is their service will not work with my security system. Vontage does just fine. I do know the problems with VOIP and security I have an APC and other backups. I signed up with Vontage and on the 4th of August the AT&T line was disconnected. AT&T acknowledges these dates but claims service starts when a customer signs up and requests service not the actual date service provided date. Why would I disconnect my current service and use a service that can only be use to make calls. I do not think that not being able to receive calls is considered a telephone service. So my claim is my service started on the day that I was able make and receive calls and that was the 22nd of July. So the 60.00 I paid with my credit card for their start up was good for 12 days of service. Below is the email communications. Thank you for contacting AT&T Consumer Services. If you would like to reply to this message, hit the Reply button. To ensure that we receive all correspondence on your issue, do not change the contents in the Subject field. Dear XXXXXX, Thank you for contacting AT&T CallVantage(TM) Service. Your account was reviewed by a manager and the email you received was to inform you of their findings. No additional adjustments will be issued at this time. If you have any further questions/concerns, please contact us at 1 866 596 8464. Sincerely, Jason For answers to many common AT&T CallVantage(TM) Service technical issues, receive feature information and get specific account information access the following URL: »https://secure.callvantage.att.com/cvweb/home/ Sign into your AT&T CallVantage Service account. --Original Message-- Dear George I did not have service on 7-07-08. I signed up for service on that date with the understanding that my phone would be transferred over on the 22nd. Further my TA device was not sent out until the 12th of July and I received it on the 14th and called in to make the connection. I could still not receive calls until the line was ported about the 22nd.If you check your records this should be the date. Now as for you quoting me the law I understand. If that is the way AT&T wants to handle this I will be cancelling my DSL line and phone line at 901-274-XXXX. I was really interest in having a dependable AT&T VOIP service and since it could not meet my requirements which included Click2cal, security system compatibility and the requirement of dialing the full ten digits. Which BTW were never mentioned to me by your sales team or on your website. I had to go to Vonage. Again if this the way you want to treat me then Goodbye to the other service I currently have. I will be waiting to hear back from you. If not then I will use my options. Sincerely, XXXXXXXXX -----Original Message----- From: callvantage_accountservice@att.net [mailto:callvantage_accountservice@att.net] Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 4:48 PM To: XXXXX@XXX.com Subject: AT&T CallVantage(TM) Service [#1933602] Thank you for contacting AT&T Consumer Services. If you would like to reply to this message, hit the Reply button. To ensure that we receive all correspondence on your issue, do not change the contents in the Subject field. Dear XXXXX, Thank you for contacting AT&T CallVantage(TM) Service. Your request to have the billed charges for AT&T CallVantage(TM) Service telephone number 901-452-xxxx reviewed has been completed. Your claim is that these charges are to be removed due to you had difficulty with the service and the length of time you had service. You established this service on 7-07-08 and had the service moved to another carrier on 8-04-08. The length of time of service is 29 days. Per the AT&T CallVantage(TM) Service terms and conditions full adjustments are issued for service less than 15 days. Per the terms and conditions: "Where required by law in specific states, and subject to the requirements thereof, customers who cancel their service within the first three, five, seven, fifteen or other number of days specified by state law, as applicable, following acceptance of this Agreement, will be refunded all charges incurred with respect to their account" Also, per the terms and conditions 7.j. "No credit allowances for interruption of AT&T CallVantage Service. You acknowledge and agree that the Services are provided as is. Credit allowances for interruption of AT&T CallVantage Service, including international calling services, will not be provided" Based on these terms and conditions your request to have these charges removed has been denied. If you have any questions, please reply to this email. Sincerely, George For answers to many common AT&T CallVantage(TM) Service technical issues, receive feature information and get specific account information access the following URL: »https://secure.callvantage.att.com/cvweb/home/ Sign into your AT&T CallVantage Service account. Followup comments:
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The order process was very quick and easy via the CallVantage web site. I have AT&T for my mobile phone, so was eligible for the $5/month discount on CallVantage service. I opted for a new number rather than porting, as I'm still keeping the ViaTalk line for now. I received a confirmation e-mail as soon as the order process was finished, and the next day received a shipping notification that my adapter had been shipped. It was shipped FedEx 3-day. I actually received the adapter a day late because AT&T used my P.O. Box as the shipping address. I gave them that address as my billing address and gave my office as the shipping address, but apparently their system screwed that up. A quick call to FedEx fixed the problem. The adapter they shipped me was the new D-Link DVG-5102S. That was fine with me as all my other networking equipment is D-Link, and I've never had any problems with D-Link products. From opening the box to dialtone was maybe about 5 minutes. Since I'm fairly experienced with VoIP and networking I didn't read the instructions, and had no problems hooking everything up. I did quickly glance at the instructions after getting things hooked up, and they appeared to be fairly good instructions. The only problem I've had so far was caller ID was 3 hours behind. I connected my laptop to the adapter, signed into the interface, and changed the time zone to Eastern (it was set on Pacific). Since doing that the time has been correct on caller ID. I haven't had to call support yet, so can't really comment on what their support is like. Update 08/06/2008: It's been a little over a year now, and it's still working great. It's a very solid product, and I've had no problems or outages. I've had to call them a couple times now. One time was to update credit card info, and the other was for a problem I was having. Both times I got someone in the USA who spoke plain English, and I was connected to them almost instantly. This was a very welcome surprise, since most companies have shipped their support off to Bangladesh or where ever these days. The problem I was having turned out to be a problem with my phone cord and not with the service. Both times that I called, the reps were extremely friendly and helpful and actually seemed like they were glad to have me as a customer. The conference call issue that was happening with ViaTalk has never happened with CallVantage (and didn't happen with Vonage), so I'm guessing that was some issue with ViaTalk. I'm glad I made the switch to CallVantage, and plan on staying with them. Followup comments:
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Time Warner's digital phone offering worked amazingly well, but was little more than a POTS replacement when it came to features. CallVantage is loaded with tricks and features. Voicemails (included in package) can be sent as email attachments. You can have it ring multiple phones to track you down. You can go to your online phone book and "auto dial" by clicking a link. Initially there were call quality problems due to issues with my U-verse internet service. As soon as AT&T fixed whatever that was, my CallVantage call quality has been pretty unshakable. So, for less money per month, I now get unlimited US calling and more features at the expense of some dependability. I have a cell phone that mostly works here, so I can live with that. Followup comments:
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*End Rant.* After getting things right with AT&T tech support, they overnighted a new TA to me. From what i said on the phone they knew i was pissed and would have dumped them if i didn't see working product within 2-5 days of my calls. It was here the next day, hooked up and working within 10 minutes of pulling it out of the box. THANK GOD! I ordered this service after researching it because i was sick of BellSouth's crap and over pricing for so little services. I was paying 45+ for BellSouth. Now, i pay 33 bucks a month for what i had and so much more, GREAT DEAL! Ordering the service was flawless, but only after was when the problems started. Six days after i placed the order, the TA came, a D-Link DVG 1120M. I pulled it out of the box not knowing the frustration that was ahead. We plugged it in according to the directions and all I got was a green power light and a SOLID red status light no matter what i did. I had 5 people try to help me, but to no avail, it had the same result. After about 10 emails and more trying, they came to the conclusion that i had a dead TA, like i didn't know that from the beginning. A request for a new TA was put in by a AT&T tech on the 18th. Days later, still nothing. So, i got on the phone and started tracking down. They had NO record of ANY emails that i sent them, nor any request for a new TA. After a 53+ minute wait on hold i finally got ahold of a live person, she told me she was still on hold for tech support (she said they were swamped with business) and it would be some more waiting time. I couldn't hold on any longer. (I was on a neighbors phone and she had calls coming in.) So, I told her, will you talk to tech support and tell them to get a new TA here, pronto!? The next day, i open my door to find the FedEx man walking up package in hand. YAY! After taking about 10 minutes to open the package and hook everything up. I made 5 test calls and all but two (to a cell phone and during bad weather) worked flawlessly. I called my uncle and he was in disbelief that calls over the internet could be so clear. Bottom line: If you're sick of your Bell company and can get AT&T CallVantage, GET IT! It works. Just a note, the D-Link TA they put out sucks bandwith like crazy, so if you can get the new Linksys TA they're putting out, go for that instead. I believe it performs better. Note: 11/4/04 I heard a knocking on my door today, and opened to see a package from FedEx sitting there. It was ANOTHER TA! It would've been great except for one thing: I already received a working TA from them. Looks like i'll have to get a 2nd return label and send this one back. Update: 6/17/05 I received a new firmware for my D-Link today marked as R2.0m19b. It has fixed the slightly annoying VMWI problem I had with the box from the start. The service is better than ever and is still highly recommended. Now If we could get seven digit dialing and a five dollar price decrease. The service would be perfect. Update: 11/2/05 Today marks the one year mark of me using the AT&T CallVantage service. Aside from some problems in the very beginning with a bad box, the service has been flawless and always up when I needed it to be. I still recommend this service to anyone looking for an alternative to the overpriced bells. Update: 7/6/07 Since my last update 2 years ago, service has been rock solid, great voice quality and almost 100% uptime. Other than this, I have had a small issue of only being locked to half speed when the box is hooked into my router, I thought my previous router was dying after two years, so I went and bought another one, only to have the same exact problem. After talking to a guy on DSLReports, I called AT&T and got a guy named Harry who helped to address my wanting to change my address since I moved. He put in the order for that and I'll know next time I reset my VOIP box. After talking to him for a minute or two more, I waited on hold for 10 minutes and got a tech support girl named Adrienne. We went through the motions and finally, she had me unplug the Ethernet cord from the Ethernet jack on the VOIP box, and into a port on my router, and to my surprise, the phone was still live. I went back and speed tested and got the full blow that Comcast's 8/768 puts out. I'm not too happy about the wiring situation taking up three of my router ports instead of just two, but for now I'll deal with it and talk to some people to see how I can improve this. I'm getting more than my full speed now without having to unplug and reboot my phone everytime! AT&T CallVantage continues to rock! Update: 1/15/08 Since my last review, things have continued to be great service wise, but money wise has taken a hit. Yesterday, I read that AT&T is cranking up the price I'm paying from 28.26, adding .99 to 2.39 to my bill. I do not like this and if they continue to crank up the price, I will be looking into some alternatives. Comcast or Vonage may get my business if the price is right. Beyond the recent price hike, I still highly recommend the service who is looking to ditch overpriced POTS lines and wanting all the features you've come to expect. Will update after I get my next bill showing the hike. Update: 1/22/08 I got my bill on the 17th and it actually dropped the price from 28.26 to 28.12. A little deception to relax my bitching about the price going up after the 12th? Time will tell. With the news that CallVantage will be phased out down the line and U-Verse Voice phased in and at a 40 dollar price point, I'll stay with them only until they close the service and I'll be jumping ship to Vonage or Comcast Digital Voice, depending on which can give me the best price and no start up costs. Update: 2/23/08 I took a look at my bill today and was expecting it to go up. Instead, it went down. I now stand at 26.42. That's damn close to the 24.95 my plan is supposed to be. I'm loving this so far and will be staying for the foreseeable future. Update: 3/22/08 Two days ago at about 9:30 AM I went to use my phone, only to hear dead air. Resetting my equipment showed no effect and a blinking light on my VOIP box. Coming here, I found that just about everyone in the East who had the service was out. It lasted from 9:30 in the morning to 3:10 in the afternoon. About 5 hours worth of outage. Not that it mattered too much because I wouldn't have been able to do what I wanted that day anyway, as it turns out. Also, I took a look at my bill a few days and find that they've cranked it up to 29.21, almost 30 bucks. They keep cranking it up and I'm gonna have to look for something elsewhere. If the price gets to be 40 bucks I'll be switching to Comcast Digital Voice if the money's about the same or less. Update: 6/13/08 Well, the time has come, later this month I’ll be a Comcast Digital Voice customer and dropping AT&T CallVantage after 4 years of very great service and decent price until recently. In an effort to save money, I went to Comcast today and checked into the Triple Play and walked out with one called Triple Play Premier. The package I customized includes every channel the TV lineup has, a DVR box that I paid to have added, 6600/1000 internet that I paid to have upped to the fastest they have right now (8800/2200), and unlimited phone service with all and even more features then CallVantage has, included. With the promo price for the year, I’ll be saving money over CallVantage. Even after the year is over and I’m paying full price, I think I’ll still be saving money. Time will tell. Despite my switching, money was the biggest reason. Other lesser ones would be phone doesn’t work when the power or internet is out and the 911 differences. Still, I accepted all of these for the time I used the service. The only things that bother me about switching services is not being able to port my number that I've had for 4 years, losing it after I cancel the service, (Getting a new number actually turned out to be a good thing, so it isn’t all bad.) the portability of the VOIP box I have now that I won’t have with the CDV modem, and having to pay for another month’s worth of service that I won’t be using all of since my CDV install is just days before I cancel my AT&T CallVantage account. Still, I would highly recommend the CallVantage service and would use it again if it came to it. They left a good impression on me and I’ll always remember them for it. I’ll update this review after my CDV install is up and running and I’ve gone to cancel AT&T CallVantage. Update: 6/30/08 I got Comcast Digital Voice today. It's been a pretty trouble free experience, but I've found something better. I would definitely still recommend this service to anyone looking for a solution to the overpriced Bells. Tomorrow, I'll be calling AT&T to cancel my CallVantage after 4 years. In a few ways, I'll miss it. In others, CDV is an improvement. Update: 7/4/08 Yesterday, I called up and canceled my AT&T CallVantage service. About 5 minutes on hold and I got a person, said I wanted to cancel, gave email address and after the phone call was done, the box shut off and my web access to the site was disabled. Good thing I saved any messages and contacts I wanted to keep. Good-bye to a number I've had for four years. I'll miss it in a lot of ways, in others I definitely won't. I still highly recommend the service to anyone looking for an alternative over the bells prices. Update: 7/11/08 A few days back, I read in the CV forum that AT&T is possibly dropping the VOIP service. Guess it's a good thing I jumped to Comcast Digital Voice when I did because it doesn't look like my former VOIP service is going to last much longer. Time will tell, won't it? Followup comments:
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At that moment I was plunged into telephony Hell. The information I received during the transfer request didn’t sound right, so I called back and eventually called almost every day for 7 days (along with daily email exchanges). Every time I contacted them I got a different story. I finally discovered they initiated the phone number transfer, but had no intention of making it work! The TA they just sent me was not compatible with the new exchange (or so they say) and their solution was to shine me on until my phone was disconnected. I asked them about this point blank – and his answer was: “yes, but after it is disconnected, you can request your old phone company to re-connect”. Their customer service was incompetent at best, and unethical at worst. I only discovered what they were doing when I tried to cancel the service and telephone number transfer. They told me it was impossible to stop the transfer and I just needed to wait for my phone to be disconnected (later a supervisor said she would simply not complete the last step of the transfer). After groveling with my existing provider I was able to keep my phone number and existing service. I will NEVER attempt to use AT&T CallVantage again. 4/16/08 Update - The service may have been cancelled, but the bills keep coming. No single mechanism to stop the bills. 7/1/08 Update - After complaints to the credit card company, the FCC and the PUC and even after receiving an apology from AT&T Executive Appeals - they are still charging my credit card. Followup comments:
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It's been nothing but problems since May 1. The calls have been crossing over/misrouting to the wrong number. Outbound calls often fail to connect. Inbound calls are randomly being routed to the Safe Number for no reason. The line constantly broadcasts a voice mail dial tone regardless of whether there are messages or not. Call quality is poor, choppy. The TA often reports it's been powered down even when it's not which blocks outbound calls with that annoying 911 alert message. AT&T is sending me another TA for this line. I have my doubts and am seriously planning on moving back to MCI WHATEVER THE COST. I'm sure ATT will charge me an extra $50 to early out and MCI will charge me all sorts of start up charges plus the service costs 3x more than ATT. I don't care. ATT is that bad. The most bizarre thing of all is that as I said, I already have this service on another line and it's worked acceptably well. Not wonderfully but it's acceptable. My company pays those bills so I'm not exposed to the billing nonsense. Moreover my first bill was twice as high as I was lead to believe. They waived the first month bill and charged me 'shipping' for the first TA but they also charged a 'startup' charge and another charge which I can only describe as a 'request for startup'. Plus there are $3 dollars in incidental charges which may or may not taxes. They are probably junk fees. So in the final analysis, it's junk. Straight up junk. If it were free it wouldn't be worth it. Seriously. There is nothing on planet earth cheap enough to make me listen to a houseful of family members screaming at me for forcing this on them. Every day I hear grumbling and complaining about what junk this is. And at this point, it doesn't matter what the problem is, even if they call someone's cell phone and the other end drops out, CV had been so bad so far that it gets blamed. If that wasn't bad enough now ATT tells me that there's no way they can port the phone number they got from MCI back to MCI - well they can, sort of, but only for Long Distance. Apparently I am trapped forever in CV for local (only) service. I don't even know how that would work - use two different phones for the same # depending on whether it's long distance or local? That sounds insane. The problem with porting the number back to MCI seems to be MCI's problem. I have replaced my router and tweaked the ports, assigned a static IP and dumped it in the DMZ and it may or may not be functioning well now. I DO know the complaints have lessened. So perhaps there is hope on the horizon. 6/20/2008: My home line was cancelled today. I have moved that homeline to Vonage. My business line, paid by my employer, is still AT&T CV. Followup comments:
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AT&T CallVantage
(14)
Lemont,Cook,IL
$25 per month
about 5 days
"Easy setup, Crystal-clear calls, HUGE savings, GREAT features, UNLIMITED!!!!"
"Questionable 911 service"
"An outstanding service -- an upgrade from your land line for less $$$!!!"
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