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AT&T CallVantage

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Full user review

  • 11 out of 13 people found this review helpful

    1.0 stars

    "Polite Support, Phone Line's a JOKE"

    by ak2k5 on July 1, 2005

    Pros: ATT Name, supposed low cost for long distance, low international calling.

    Cons: Everything else: Internet Freezes, Call drops, No dial tone, bad dialtone, choppy voice

    Summary: I've had this service for about 8 months now and its downright pathetic. Initially with a D-Link box it was okay but then that started working bad. They replaced it with some Centillium which had a dial tone akin to someone furiously banging on a computer keyboard at the other end. The device just freezes the internet at times, requiring a hard reset. This happens atleast 2 times a day. they replaced two centillium boxes with the same results.
    Funnily, they recommend you plugging the adapter to the wall outlet, not to a UPS even when its the only thing connected to the UPS. If you do, YOU ARE BLOODY WRONG according to them! The adapter has a voltage range of 110-240V which baffles me to the supposed requirement of plugging to the wall outlet. The UPS was to prevent failure during power cuts. I am just going to disconnect this but unfortunately, i've given this number to a lot of people. This is my non existent phone while my cellphone bills have gone skywards.
    My advice: Forget AT&T its a dinosaur that had hits high eons ago.
    Updated
    I thought I left the previous review with some holes:
    I have roadrunner ISP and thinking that their service is bad, I replaced the modem and got a brand new one from them. If i connect directly to the modem, the internet is blazing fast, but when the Voip box comes in, heck, even AOL Dialup seems fast. I did all the speed tests and whatnots and have come to the conclusion that this has been a very bad decision on my part. I cannot recommend any important calls on this phone simply becoz its so crappy. Also, you are asked what the make of the phone is that you've connected. They tried to blame it from the ISP to the internal wiring of my house to my phone equipment (Uniden 2.4G, a really good phone and a Sony corded) without ever acknowledging that the TA Box is a bad product.

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  • 6 replies to this review
  • reply by: cjlehnert on March 5, 2007

    I also have the same issues as ak2k5. I've had the service for over a year now and out of no where the voice quailty went straight south. Often times the caller could not hear me, or the call would drop. I have cable internet with speeds normally at 6MB/sec. download and 386Kb/sec upload. Well above the recommend 90kb/s downstream and upstream. I thought that my cordless phone had something to do with the poor quailty so I disconnected it completely and used a "land line" phone. Guess what, same problems. As I told the representative from callvantage, the service is great for people who don't want to use their phone.

  • reply by: roy13 on September 22, 2006

    You did not say, but if you have a wireless router and a 2.4 ghz cordelss, you are asking for trouble. They intefere.

  • reply by: brian1785 on December 31, 2005

    I had the exact same experience. A T & T blamed my equipment (which I replaced), they blamed by ISP (Comcast who willingly came out to test my system), my phone (which I unplugged and purchased a new one). The crappy customer service had no follow through on the crappy system. I had to cancel and pay to have my original service restored (through A T & T who now charges me $73.00 per month for the same service provided by their crappy VOIP service).

    When Comcast offers VOIP in my area, I am dropping AT&T like a hot rock.

    Sorry for using the word Crappy mulitple times but I can't come up with a better word for my experience.

    This only cost me money.

  • reply by: WalterPeng on August 18, 2005

    I with ATT for almost a year now... with my cable ISP has anywhere from 2mb ~ 4mb/sec. download and about 300Kb ~ 400Kb/sec. upload when I not using the ATT VOIP. It is fast until I pick up the ATT VOIP and made the calls or receiving the calls... The speed drop to 700kb/sec. download and "60kb"/sec. upload... It took alot of my bandwidth just to be on ATT VOIP line. called support for last 4 months and many problem tickets issued and changed 3 D-Link Phone Adopters... still the same... I give up and going to disconnect this ATT VOIP service.

  • reply by: bretbowman on July 19, 2005

    I had the exact same problem; exact same symptoms. I replaced my wireless access point and the problem was gone. I had a Netgear WG602 WAP and got a linksys (both 54g) and everything is cool. I also was using a 2.4 GHz wireless phone system, but now I have no problem (I had never noticed a problem before until I tried to use wireless phone, wireless access point, and IP Telephone adapter at the same time).

    Hope this helps you if you are still working with the service... try not using your wireless access point (just for a few days) and see if that makes a difference on your network and your ISP speed.

  • reply by: Jeron22 on July 6, 2005

    I wish that I had paid more attention to your review prior to my purchase of the AT&T internet phone service. My experience has been IDENTICAL to yours. Dropped calls, terrible reception, and hours on the phone with customer service blaming something else for the crappy product. Unlike you though, I didn't wait 8 months to cancel service. It took 1 week. I have way too high a call volume to accept that 40% of them will be unacceptable. This review is right on. Thanks for trying to warn me. For others, do not listen to the kind words that a few other users have left--it ended up costing me over $100 to get my old service back. What started out as a cost saving attempt ended up costing me more money and a lot more time than staying with my traditional land line.

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