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Review by jsnorman 
Posted: 28 days ago
member for 9.5 years, 148 visits, last login: 10 days ago
 Chicago,Cook,IL
 $425 per month (24 month contract)
 about 70 days
 AT&T
 "Reliable, no downtime, good ping, clean connection, knowledgable tech support (when you can reach them), competitive T1+Voip"
 "Unreachable tech support, extremely poor install support"
 "Good "do it yourself" option, but be prepared for problems that will take a long time to solve"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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I have had the Megapath DUET (Voip) service with a T1 for data for about 9 months. I waited until now to review, because had I reviewed immediately after installation it would have been a very poor review indeed!
In the sales process, I talked with very knowledgeable and professional folks. I was greatly impressed, and decided to dump my existing T1 with Covad for the Megapath DUET T1 (replacing what had been a plain data T1 supplemented by Callcentric Voip). Of course Megapath's T1 is provided by Covad anyway, so I did not expect much of a change.
INSTALL ISSUES:
(1) LINE INSTALL. Line installation took 2 months. Primarily, this was due to extremely poor coordination by Megapath. The local loop installer from AT&T had to show up 3 times (!!) because the Covad person was not there (there were noise issues detected by Megapath that required Covad and the local loop installer to work together). Similarly, the Covad guy showed up twice and the AT&T guy did not show. This was all due to Megapath failing to confirm the scheduling properly (according to BOTH the AT&T and Covad guys). To make matters worse, I HAD to communicate with Covad/AT&T ONLY through Megapath, but Megapath tech/install support never answered its phones (we waited on hold for over an hour at one point, then the AT&T guy had to leave). These long hold times turned out to be routine for Megapath (see below) and are the central problem with Megapath in my experience.
(2) T1/DUET SETUP. After the line was finally up and running, I was expecting a smooth ride, but was sorely disappointed. The "tech" they sent from from DSL.net, a Megapath affiliate as far as I can tell who handles all the DUET stuff. Despite the fact that I had (2 months previous) filled out a detailed install sheet, which included my Voip switch, phone layout, and network details, the tech came completely unprepared. He had NO IDEA how to setup the Voip part of the service. Basically, he got the T1 modem working and left (despite the fact that I was promised during sales a full install and testing of the Voip service). It took me almost another month before I had the Voip working due to issues with the modem setup, my firewall, and the Voip switch (which, FYI, was listed as a fully supported Voip switch by megapath). Many calls to tech support, each time I had to wait 30-60 minutes on hold. E-mails to tech support would go unanswered or would get a "please call" response. No one in tech support had the slightest idea how to configure my Voip switch (again, a "supported" model that I bought specially for megapath duet!). After almost 2 months we finally got my Voip working (sort of - see below).
(3) NUMBER PORTING. Porting my former landline to Voip should have been easy. However, Megapath incorrectly told me that porting my landline would not terminate my local AT&T service (on which I also had DSL, hosting, etc.), and that AT&T would just assign a new local number for my landline (which I was then going to change to an emergency only landline). Unfortunately, this was bad information, and AT&T terminated all of my accounts as a result of the porting of my local number - and AT&T told me that Megapath ordered the termination, and that they should have advised me to switch to a new number before porting. This has caused countless problems on the AT&T side, as I still do not have local landline backup.
(4) T1 MODEM/ROUTING ISSUES. I had ordered 5 static IP addresses. However, it soon became apparent that I only had 2 static IPs that worked. I thought it must be a firewall issue so I spent several weeks testing my firewall, trying different configs, etc. Finally, tried the tech support line at night which was the only time I could get through. I spoke to a tech who confirmed that the problem was on Megapath's end, but he said that the DUET service meant that he could not access the modem to do appropriate testing... he promised to submit the ticket in the morning to someone who could fix it. I waited 2.5 months without resolution, then I tried e-mailing for a status update. Over 1 month after e-mailing (3.5 months after first reporting the problem) I finally got a response "please call". Ugh. Well, after another week of calls and e-mails the problem finally got fixed (remember the incompetent installer? well, turns out he configured the T1 modem for only 2 IP addresses).
(5) CALL FEATURE ISSUES. It took a couple of calls to tech support just to get CALLER ID NAMES turned on (off by default? wtf). Our main line still does not work with call waiting - I have on my to-do list to try to reach tech support about that.
SERVICE QUALITY. Aside from the install-related issues, and horrible tech support queues, service quality has been outstanding. I have had the DSLreports monitor on for the entire time, and I get 20ms pings east coast, 80ms west coast, and zero dropped packets. No downtime since we went live. Phone quality is as good or better than POTS. FWIW, I am using a Talkswitch 288vs (and love it).
CONTRACT. The only other thing to note is that Megapath's termination policy is ridiculous. Unlike most other T1 providers (including Covad whose contract I cancelled to move to Megapath, and whose termination was 2 months service fees), Megapath will bill you for the entire remaining term if you cancel. This can be very expensive and basically means you cannot cancel unless you get a customer service exception.
SUMMARY. If you can put up with the install hassles, and do not need a lot of tech support to get up and running, the Megapath DUET service with your own Voip switch is a very economical and high quality service. The SLA is excellent, and I have never had to use the SLA credit feature (no downtime at all). Tech support is generally very good (outside of the installation process). However, tech support is about as difficult to reach as the Pope on Christmas Day, and their contract termination policy is about as un-customer friendly as the worst of the wireless phone providers. YMMV!
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of MegaPath |
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MegaPath
Very Slow Install and Abusive Contract Renewal
