 Review by igotthisone 
member for 10.2 years, 872 visits, last login: 26 days ago
updated 2 years ago
 Davidson,Mecklenburg,NC
 $12 per month about 9 days "The Tech Support Is The Best I've Ever Seen!!" "Would like a Do Not Disturb option to be set by time of day, like CallVantage" "Should have switched long before AT&T informed me I had to go."
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(ratings match consensus)
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I have been an AT&T CallVantage customer for nearly five years and received notification from them that “AT&T will be discontinuing AT&T CallVantage in 2009”. The statement went on to say “You are not required to take any action at this time, unless you choose to.” which I did.
AT&T was kind enough to offer that I could move my number to one of their other services and pay a minimum of $5 a month more as part of a bundled service for exactly what I was getting from them today, how nice…
I quickly began my search on the DSLReports.com website and discovered many new VOIP companies I hadn’t heard of before. My brother has Vonage so I knew what I’d get there, but CallCentric was getting rave reviews. I landed on them and began my migration with some level of caution after my past AT&T experience. I was going to try it out before I committed fully and was interested to find their website encouraging me to do just that.
I maintained my AT&T service and just forwarded my number to my new CallCentric account so I wouldn’t miss calls and could test their service fully for about a month. I found the services to be nearly identical with the exception of some small feature functionality. I do miss the ability to set my “do not disturb” feature during set times each night so people calling after hours are prompted to consider if the late night call is an emergency or not. CallCentric with just a couple exceptions has many more things I can do with the service.
My first experience with CallCentric’s exceptional support staff was when I requested an incoming number or Direct Inward Dial (DID) number. I opted to order a “pay per call” number for $1.95/month just to test. The website stated the number area I ordered should only take one day but it did take them nearly 9 days to establish my account with an incoming number. A note to support to inquire where it was on day 2 returned the following within an hour, “the area you ordered was not in stock within our numbering pool and was back ordered at the carriers that serve the area”. This wasn’t a big deal since I had service with AT&T and they credited my account $.54 for the lack of service.
My second experience with support was getting my PAP2T to work properly once I had the number. I was having problems receiving incoming calls. They gave me very detailed instructions of the screen shots they would need, how to upload those to support, and what I could do to upgrade firmware from Cisco’s website in the meantime. All this was done very quickly and thoroughly through the web. I eventually realized after some trial and error that my issue was due to my router and its firewall. After doing some additional web research I found documented issues with VOIP devices sitting behind my Belkin Pre-N Router. I ended up ordering a different Linksys SPA2102-NA device that could sit in front of my router like I’ve had my AT&T service configured for years. This was my issue not CallCentric but they hung with me…
Once I received and configured my new ATA device everything has been working great. My old number was forwarded to my new service so all calls were received fine while we played with the service. This month was a great opportunity for me to play and learn about what I really needed for services going forward. First, I learned that the unlimited plan I intended to move to wasn’t necessary. The unlimited plan, like I had with CallVantage, was a bit less expensive than AT&T. However, the “pay per call” program was going to end up costing me about half of that due to seeing our detailed calling habits during the trial month. Because of the detailed visibility of our minute usage and charges I was able to see I didn’t need that much service. Coming from a POTS service to VOIP back in 2003 and getting phone service in the $25 dollar range was a steal. I found I could get the same service today for half that and explains why AT&T is getting out. I also learned how to tweak my ATA device, which I never had the ability to do with AT&T service. Now this isn’t necessary but the information is out there if you want to learn. The CallCentric support website provides a standard setup scheme that requires 11 digits and I’ve been so accustom to using 10 digit dialing with AT&T this was something I needed to research to see if 10 was possible. After reading a few post I found one showing me how to do 10 digit and another showing me how to do 7 digit. I learned from those posts enough to create my own dial plan that allows using 7, 10, and 11 digit dialing. The following is what I’ve been using successfully for over a month.
(Please click on the attached screen shot of my dial plan below. My original post didn't correctly render the actual post because the DSLReports.com blog filters elements of the string because it believes it's HTML code)
*You will need to replace “704” to be your local area code for this to work correctly.
I have since ported my old number from AT&T to CallCentric and have said goodbye to AT&T before they gave me the permanent boot and on my terms.
All-in-all, this is a great service with outstanding support. If you have been an AT&T CallVantage customer I’d strongly encourage you to check these folks out. I’d also encourage any other customers of Vonage, Time Warner, or other more established VOIP providers to do the price comparison. I assure you you’re overpaying like I was for the exact same service with less features than these folks provide.
-----Update: 1/24/2010-----
I’ve been using Callcentric for 7 months now as my primary phone line and still no problems. Thought I would add a couple pointers about what I've done since my first review to reduce the cost even more. I changed my service to personal unlimited for $5.95 per/month for all incoming calls based on my calling habits. The additional $4/month above the pay per minute plan saves me a couple bucks per month.
A couple additional pointers for ways to cut cost even more if you want to squeeze the very most out of your Callcentric service. I added the a new string to my dial plan to route all toll free calls over free SIP broker. This dramatically cut my bill and is great if you happen to do a lot of conference calls for work using 800 numbers.
(Please click on the attached screen shot of my dial plan below. The last string is the one I'm using today that eliminates any charges to toll free numbers. This works for my SPA-2102 phone adapter)
I've also recently started using Google Voice to initiate calls I know will be long outgoing ones, like to my mother... By using the Google Voice service, it basically calls my Callcentric number (free incoming call due to my personal unlimited plan) and once I pick up it connects to the number I've instructed Google Voice to dial. Treats it like an incoming call yet I'm the one initiating the call like it's outgoing. The call quality has been spotty on a few calls because you are using VOIP over VOIP but no worse than a normal cell phone call.
These couple changes have me below $10/month for phone service. I hope these couple tips will help you.
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 PX EliezerPremium
join:2008-08-09
HuttRiver US
kudos:11
1 edit | CC review Thanks for interesting review.
On your dial plan: Shouldn't the .75xx actually be *75xx ??
This is for their speed dial.
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Great folks at CC. I love their services. | |
|  | | | Re: CC review You are correct! I pulled this from a word document I created and had corrected before pasting to my ATA. I neglected to change what I had saved in a word document, so thanks for the catch. I've updated the review to correctly reflect what you have called out. | |
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| | Using Call Treatments for time based Do Not Disturb rules Thank you very much for this wonderful and detailed review.
Just as a side note (because you mentioned it) - there is a way to use Call treatments for time based handling of Do Not Disturb. You may configure a rule to send a call to either voice-mail or to an error message (or to anywhere else like "We've been captured by monkeys") during certain hours. You may even configure "white" list of those who will still be able to get through to your phone (like close relatives or work-based emergencies). Yes, it's a bit complicated (because you have to set it separately for each day of week), but once set - you may enjoy your privacy during night hours  ). | |
| | | | Re: Using Call Treatments for time based Do Not Disturb rules Thanks, I wasn't aware this was possible but will give it a try. Just shows how customizable this service really is. The one thing I assume still isn't available is the ring through option in the recording if it is a true emergency though. | |
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| | Looking to migrate from Callvantage I am also a current customer of AT&T Callvantage and wanted to test these guys out. I have a few questions.
1. Do we need to select an inbound product and an outbound product? If I read right, we need an inbound product to get our number ported.
2. If we have to take an inbound product what was your selection?
3. Do you know if its possible to change the outbound product selection later? Like if I see my usage has changed, can I switch from pay per call to unlimited?
4. One of the feature that I liked with AT&T was the 'Locate Me' with simultaneous ring? Does Callvantage have the same or do I have to forward the call each time I go anywhere?
Thanks in advance
Mat | |
| | | | Re: Looking to migrate from Callvantage 1. Yes you need to choose both, and yes you need an inbound number to port. I used a temporary one for the period I was testing. I'd recommend reading the following »www.callcentric.com/faq/17#29
2. I selected "Pay per Call" for $1.95/month and $0.015/minute to test with the intention to switching to unlimited once I decided if the service was right for me. Because I calculated I would need to use over 1596 minutes a month to break even with the unlimited plan incoming and outgoing I'm staying with the "Pay per Call" as my primary plan.
3. Yes you can switch at a later time if you think you need more or less.
4. Not exactly the same as CallVantage. They do offer a feature called "Call Treatment" and "DID Forwarding" that aren't exactly the same but do allow customized routing of very specific scenarios or general scenarios. This isn't the same though as what you have used. | |
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| |  Former AT&T Call Vantage Customer Agrees 100%
One suggestion I've already sent CallVantage is regarding more help with the dial plan. Heck I even had to go out and look at it to remember how to get to 7 and 10 digit dialing and I architect large VoIP systems for a living! There's no reason they can't add it to their site, in fact having it raises Bing and Google hits which could drive new traffic to their site for conversion to their offering.
I just joined DSLReports, so will add my review and will also add in my tweaking hints for a Linksys SPA2102 gateway. | |
| | | | | | | Re: Former AT&T Call Vantage Customer Agrees 100% Did you confirm that your post rendered 100% correct? I noticed after you posted that my original post wasn't due to use of syntax that the forum thought was HTML tags. My use of the angle brackets or less/greater than signs was removing some of the needed sting code. | |
| | | |  TrimlinePremium
join:2004-10-24
Windermere, FL | Re: Former AT&T Call Vantage Customer Agrees 100% It is correct. Try it. | |
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