Review of AT&T CallVantageAll reviews of |
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EDIT SUN 26 JULY 2009 : No longer available! Yay! It sucked monkey nuts! Followup comments:
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A major (for me) advantage is that the AT&T CallVantage service/ATA is able to utilize the load balancing features of my dual WAN DI-LB604 router. With the Vonage service/ATA(s), I had to setup the router to only use only one WAN port for VoIP. I don't know if this is due to the hardware/firmware in the AT&T ATA (D-Link DVG-5102S), or to how the AT&T servers handle SIP and RTP traffic, but it was an unexpected pleasant surprise. The only operational downside so far is with the AT&T CallVantage voice mail. There is no way to disable it, and no matter how I setup the "Locate Me" function to forward unanswered calls to my cell phones, voice mail usually gets left with the AT&T CallVantage voice mail (which I have setup for the maximum 10 rings) instead of the AT&T Wireless voice mail. That means that the $5.00 per month discount will likely be eaten up by charges for the three text messages that get sent to the cell phones for each AT&T CallVantage voice mail. The only real problems were related to delays in porting the two phone numbers, and with canceling the two Vonage accounts (one of them is still active after several attempts to cancel), but neither of those problems are related to the AT&T CallVantage service. Update: 05/06/2009 AT&T CallVantage no longer provides my telephone service because they are discontinuing the service. The official replacement U-verse Voice was not an available choice to me, so I ported one of the CallVantage numbers to a cell phone and dropped the other one. Thanks for reminding us how much you care for your customers AT&T. 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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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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Their website is set up so you have to pass through all their ads to get to your account information, another negative. Followup comments:
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Update 2/4/07 The quality of AT&T's CallVantage service has been very good, but I was annoyed by the fact that I was limited to 20 blocked callers (even after paying an extra $2 per month for the service). Additionally, I had been reading a lot of reports about incompatibility with the CallVantage Telephone Adapter and the Actiontec router that is used when Verizon FiOS TV is installed. That started me looking at other VoIPs and I signed up with VoicePulse and was able to compare them side by side, which pointed out the minor shortcomings of CallVantage. VP seems to allow unlimited filtering, so I no longer had to keep a log of who I was blocking in order to delete older blocks to make room for newer ones. It seems that if one doesn't subscribe to CV's Call Filtering, then one cannot block incoming anonymous calls. CallVantage call logs do not show the duration of a call. While this may be unimportant with unlimited local and long distance service, I find myself wishing the information was there. With the opportunity to compare websites, I realized that logging in to my account on CallVantage's website was slow; I had to enter my passcode every time, and it took several annoying seconds for my account to show up. (My new VP online access is fast.) So while not degrading my rating for CallVantage due to these minor issues, I have found something better and have switched. (The CV TA/Actiontec router issue is not a problem for me since I don't intend to install Verizon TV.) ORIGINAL REVIEW I initially was looking at the packages with unlimited local calling and per minute long distance. Wasn't interested in a plan with limited minutes of local calling. CallVantage seemed to fit my needs best at $20 per month plus $2 for call filtering, total monthly bill with taxes about $27. The customer reviews for voice quality with CallVantage were very good (and that proved to be true for me). When I tried to 'port' my number from a local CLEC online, the application was denied, and a CS rep explained that AT&T does not have a porting agreement with that phone company. He suggested I port my number to Verizon, then to AT&T. I wanted to try out the service before committing my home number of 40 years to AT&T. So I signed up with another local number. Worked great from the get-go. As soon as the Telephone Adapter (TA) arrived, I plugged it in to the FIOS wireless router and after a brief automated setup, I could use the phone. (Some configurations suggest putting the TA between the router and modem so that the TA can channel enough of the bandwidth to provide high voice quality. But with that configuration, I could not access the Internet with my computer. At 5M/2M with FIOS, there was plenty of bandwidth when the TA was plugged in to the router. The TA typically needs 90K of bandwidth to operate.) Once my number was ported over to a Verizon landline, and then to AT&T, the copper line was dead and I could rewire the house, so I can use the house wiring for multiple phones. Before my service was shut off, I measured the voltage and polarity of the incoming landline and wrote it on the wall. As the instructions indicated, I disconnected the incoming wires (I have an old house, old installation, and the wires are easily accessible). I unplugged every phone and answering machine in the house. Plugged a telephone wire into the back of the TA and into the nearby telephone jack. Measured the voltage where all the lines come together and found that the POLARITY WAS REVERSED!!! The instructions say nothing about checking the polarity, or reversing leads on the jack that the TA plugs in to. I tediously reversed the red and green wires on the back of the jack that I was using for the TA, and rechecked the voltage and polarity at the junction of all the phone wires. Polarity correct. Plugged one phone in at a time, tested for a dial tone, and every one worked. It now appears that my VOIP phone is set up exactly as the landline was with a few differences. No need to dial 1. An occasional requirement to verify that I haven't moved the TA when the power goes out. A lot lower bill than even the most basic landline provides. And a ton of useful features that would cost an arm and a leg if purchased through Verizon's smorgasbord. For over two months, we have been using VOIP and have had none of the problems that I read about from other users. The voice quality is as good or better than a landline. We have had no problems making or receiving calls. No one has called us and said they tried our number and couldn't get through. There is hardly any difference between using the VOIP phone and a landline Obviously, the router must be kept on. The modem is always on and has a Verizon installed battery backup system, good for about ten hours without power. We lost power in a thunderstorm a few weeks ago for 23 hours. Calls were automatically forwarded to my cellphone. I shut down the battery backup for the router and computer, since our cordless phones didn't work anyway without power. The battery backup for the modem died after 10 hours. When power was restored, everything came back on normally with no resetting required. The only "issue" I had with the service is that in order to comply with the requirements of locating a VOIP phone for 911 is that every time the telephone adapter (TA) loses power, it notifies AT&T, and before the first call can be made after a power loss, I must endure an automated announcement to verify that I have not moved the TA. Unfortunately, the TA sends a power loss signal even if the power loss duration is less than a second. It would have been a more intelligent design if the power loss signal only happened when power was out for over a minute. Who could move and install the TA to a new location in under a minute? In an attempt to reduce the frequency of the power loss glitches, I purchased a small battery backup unit for just the TA, which seems to have fixed the problem, as we have not had the automated message since the backup was installed. Currently, there is a problem with the time that AT&T sends with the Caller ID information on an incoming call. In my case, I must add three hours to the indicated time. The call log on my account online shows the correct time of incoming and outgoing calls. Speed dialing through the AT&T system is impractical. To dial the number in speed dial location 9, for example, one must dial ATT9# That's FIVE keystrokes to dial a ten digit number. We use the speed dial provided on our cordless phones; quite a bit easier. AT&T provides speed dialing for only 9 phone numbers. Our cordless phones provide for 20. My experience with CallVantage so far has been very satisfying, and I have no regrets about giving up an expensive, spartan landline in favor of an inexpensive, feature packed broadband phone system. I was excited to learn that AT&T dropped the price of their unlimited local and long distance calling plan from $29.99 to $24.99. I signed up immediately. Even if we don't make enough calls every month to justify paying an extra $5 (125 minutes of LD), the idea of making any call any time any where without concern for the cost is well worth the fee. Followup comments:
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Out of the box the TA wouldn't register. It took an hour working with at&t support to get the TA to register. I suspected a defective TA and asked why I had received the D-Link when they were using Centillium and if the unit could be switched. I was told Centillium TA’s were back ordered and the D-Link would only be replaced if I COULD PROVE it was defective. If it was replaced it probably would be another D-Link. Intermittently the TA would loose registration with the server. All the lights on the TA would show working, but test calls would go to voice mail instead of ringing the phone. Outgoing calls would go to dial tone. (Dial tone + dialing number = second dial tone instead of ringing) Sometimes the problem would be resolved if the TA was power cycled. Repair support is practically a joke. Five minutes of listening to IVR and punching buttons to reach a “live” person. Then all they could do is walk me through resetting the TA from a scripted aid. (Something I had already done several times prior to calling for assistance.) When that didn’t resolve the problem, I received the typical monopoly phone company response; the trouble is with your equipment. After multiple reports over 3-4 weeks, I was finally connected to the next level of support. That person informed me their service wouldn't work and if my Vonage service worked, I should cancel at&t CallVantage and keep Vonage, then hung up on me. I called back and was connected to a supervisor who told me he would work with their Tier 2 support and call me back. Five days later, no call. The next day I cancelled at&t CallVantage. An hour and a half after canceling, someone from at&t called to see how they could assist to resolve my service issues. Bottom Line: There are other providers out there who consider customers as more than a source of revenue for something that doesn't work. Followup comments:
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After doing my research, it seemed like AT&T had the best call quality according to most reviews, so after trying it out for a couple weeks, we finally switched our old POTS number over to AT&T and were very happy... For a few months... Eventually, the cost of the basic AT&T CallVantage plan dropped from $29.95 to $24.95 and I decided to use the AT&T account management settings online to change to the cheaper plan since no one had informed me about the price change. AT&T lets you change calling plans at any time (there are three - the normal plan, the international plan, and the local-only plan). Within an hour of doing this, I could no longer accept incoming calls. The phone would ring, and as soon as I clicked to answer, all I got was a dialtone. The calling party would just hear the line ringing. I called AT&T to speak with customer service and they took me through the basic troubleshooting (reboot the telephone adapter, etc.) and finally escalated my case. I was told I would get a call back the next day. It never happened. I had to call them, and after waiting on hold yet again for a while, I was finally brought to L2 tech support. They confirmed that the issue was with AT&T and not my adapter. I was told they would call me back after they had conducted some internal tests. During this time, my outgoing calling features stopped working, presumably because they had configured a telephone adapter at AT&T offices to "spoof" mine so they could help diagnose the problem. They did not call me back. I had to call them. In fact, I have had to call them several times on my cellphone because I am told each time that someone is looking into it, and I will definitely get a call back. It has now been two weeks since I have had a working phone. The only bright point out of all of this is that my account settings at AT&T still work, and I am able to forward my calls to my cellphone. However, I am now out of peak cell minutes, and my issue is still not resolved. I don't know how AT&T calls this acceptable. I have been pleasant with every person over there with whom I have spoken, and perhaps that's the problem. The local cable company set me up quickly with a new VoIP account with them, and I am now forwarding my AT&T calls to that number. AT&T meanwhile has my old POTS number, and I hope they will give it up when the cable company calls for it. It has now been four days since I have spoken to anyone at AT&T. I have a feeling they have just given up on me. So if you're thinking of AT&T CallVantage, think about how you will do without a phone for two weeks or longer if anything goes wrong. You might be fine, but you might not. Is it really worth it? Followup comments:
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AT&T CallVantage
(16)
(16)
Winnetka,Cook,IL
$39 per month
about 5 days
"Nice-looking router"
"Too many to list..."
"Sucks. Totally. At least you can no longer get it..."
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gerr