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Review by sdot2389 See Profile

  • Location: Ada, Kent, MI, USA
  • Cost: $19 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 2 days
Great voice quality, good customer support, and inexpensive
a few quirks
best bang for your buck
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I really have no idea what some of these other customers are talking about, I have had BBTelSys for over a year and the voice quality is better tan any other phone I have ever used. As much as some of these people complain about customer service, the second you call BBT a REAL person picks up and tries to help you. It is a small company so they do have some quirks but they are very kind and try whatever they can to help. Workers there know me by name and are intelligent. BBT also has a web portal where one can change settings and voicemail and options online. Including checking voicemails online instead of calling the voicemail number. It is really convienent for me since I am hardly ever home to pick up the phone. Overall a great service, not too many bad things to say about BBT. Keep up the good work!

member for 14.4 years, 1 visits, last login: 14.4 years ago
lodged 14.4 years ago


Review by pyakit See Profile

  • Location: Wyoming, Kent, MI, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
cheap
tech support sucks, phone support sucks, features suck, communication sucks
what kind of company unplugs hundreds of customers and doesnt warn them
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I am a business customer and I have several lines with BBT. One day I just lost all outgoing. I called tech support and got a bs message like the rest of you that they were working on it. Next thing I notice is that I have no phones so I called tech support again and get a busy beep, same beep I got on my own lines. Thinking that I was somewhat important and having cell number of some of their employees I tried calling them as well. I think its total crock that a company of any kinda can't answer their phones, and especially a phone company. Now I thought maybe they lost their provider and it took out their office numbers too, but their cells???? Come on now. It seems to me that back when they did answer they were lost and never had any resolution to the problems. I got a call today asking if my number worked again. Today is the 30th and my phones went out on the 4th "i think" A month and then they call to see if they work again. Half of my customers think I went out of business because I couldn't even get that number ported. So anyways I got the call and I checked and nope not working still. Idiots!!! Why call me and ask if... its not fixed yet?? I would personally like to see ALL !!! of their customers go somewhere else just for the inconvenience that they caused me. I probably lost thousands of dollars worth of sales because of this. I should state that if they would have called or answered the phones and said hey we really are trying to fix this maybe it would be different but for a company to disappear for a month and then go hey were back heres your bill ... i don't think so. For some of us phones are important. What if the power company unplugged you and said oh too bad . Then called you in a month to see if your back on or if they should schedule a service call at your expense. WTF Got a new phone service and canceled them already. See if they can handle that or if I'll have to fight for my money back. Think of the expense of changing your number...business cards, signs, vehicle decals, billboards, phone books...ect. NOT a HAPPY customer here.

member for 20.8 years, 57 visits, last login: 14.1 years ago
updated 14.9 years ago


Review by leomarlin See Profile

  • Location: Corning, Tehama, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Quality Support and service
I cant find any..but maybe if I look with a microscope but hey nobody is oerfect!
Bottom line for the money you get a total pkg of support and service.

BBTelsys has been my provider for 3 years and I have to say they know me as a person by name and not a customer number. The tech staff is not in India and in they are patient and understanding on the non-tech savvy person. The network is solid and the call quality is great!

Recently BBTelsys has been dealing with a upstream provider change and that carrier cut them off before they could transition to a new provider and it is having a temporary effect on the company. This is a temporary problem and not BBTelsys going out of business.

member for 19.1 years, 50 visits, last login: 8.7 years ago
lodged 14.9 years ago


Review by shapirojm See Profile

  • Location: Austin, Travis, TX, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Started out pretty well
Company has completely fallen apart
A BIG MISTAKE THAT I'M NOW PAYING DEARLY FOR
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

For the record, I'm new to DLSreports.com, and I don't typically take the time to make posts of this nature. However, I appreciated the info that I gained by looking at other reviews here when I decided I needed to drop BBTelsys and select another carrier, so I'm paying my dues to warn others regarding my bad experience with BBTelsys.

At the time of this writing, I have been with BBTelsys for almost three years. Their service was reasonably good, and I had referred them to a friend, who did the same. All three of us thought they offered OK value...reasonable price and acceptable service. When problems have occurred (dropped outbound audio, setup issues and number porting issues), their small customer service team (we typically got one of three or four people in cust. service or tech. support) eventually got things working (except for recent dropped outbound audio issues, which were intermittent). Then the bottom fell out.

On April 9, 2009, I lost outbound calling capability. I called to complain and was assured that the technicans were going to fix the problem, but no additional detail was offered when I asked. I suffered with no outbound for a few days, then on April 14, 2009, I lost inbound calling as well. Currently, my lines ring to a message telling callers that the number(s) have been disconnected or are no longer in service or they give a fast busy signal.

The company's phones have now gone unanswered for days (my guess is that they turned them off since they're getting so many complaints), and now the only way to reach them is by instant chat on their Web site. The agent there, who I've spoken with many times over the past couple years, provides a canned response that "our technicians are working on the issue." They offered a temporary number with inbound/outbound capability, but no estimation of how long the outage will last or when I can get my numbers to at least ring to a voicemail box...I asked for anything other than "disconnected" tape!

Emails from the company (3 in 6 days) simply indicate that they have lost service to several hundred business and home customers and they're working on the issue. Their generous offer for the inconvenience is credit for days that the service was out...COME ON!

For a VOIP service provider to not have a backup in place to prevent an outage of this nature...for this long, reflects pretty poorly on the company. I would like to advise other consumers that they should envision the nightmare of having your phone numbers go completely dead with a hosting phone company that won't take incoming calls, won't call you back to discuss the problems and won't convey significant information regarding the nature of the problem or the time frame for resolution. Now, decide whether this is a company that you want to do business with when selecting your phone carrier. This has been an absolutely terrible experience, and I consider it inexcusable that BBTelsys apparently had no backup plan to deal with whatever problem they're experiencing. By the way, my friend, and his friend are having the identical problems.

If BBTelsys survives this, it will be a miracle, if not, I'd be weary of any "new" VOIP provider showing up in Grand Rapids, MI.

UPDATE - SHAME ON ME...I RESEARCHED BBTELSYS ON THIS SITE BEFORE, BUT SOMEHOW MISSED THIS STRING. AMAZING THAT THIS COMPANY HAS DONE THE SAME THING ONCE BEFORE. »BBTelsys Gone?

member for 14.9 years, 8 visits, last login: 14.9 years ago
updated 14.9 years ago


noservice
@bellsouth.net

noservice

Anon

I'm right there with you

I am right there with you i have no service as well. i have been with them for about 3 years. and now i have been with out service for a week. thinking about moving to another service but worried i will have problems porting my number. their 877 number finally started working today.

hecenter
@cbpu.com

hecenter

Anon

dropped service

We too have not had any inbound now for 4 1/2 days and no outbound for a week and we are a medical practice. Same problems with tech support and customer services. If your phone service is critical to your operations, I would stronlgy recommend that the savings offered by VoiP are not worth it - no telling how much revenue we will have lost because of this, not to mention we are unavailable to our patient's and their medical needs.

JustPist
@charter.com

JustPist

Anon

BBTelsys online chat

I got the cleaning lady answering the live chat tonight. I think the owners have taken off with the buy-out money and the employees have walked.

BBTelSys Cust
@sbcglobal.net

BBTelSys Cust

Anon

Ditto

I'm also a customer and first lost my outbound call capability and now lost my inbound capability.

I suspected the company went out of business.

I guess I need to shop for a new VOIP provider.
leomarlin
Premium Member
join:2005-02-01
Corning, CA

leomarlin

Premium Member

Re: Ditto

Strange my inbound still works!

hecenter
@cbpu.com

hecenter

Anon

no service

Has anyone been able to reach a resolution? I spent about 30 hours on trying to get service through someone last week and get some alternative ways for customers to contact us in place. Still no service and even problems with Verizon being able to port the numbers. Our numbers were actually disconnected, not just inactive.

Computer Company
@verizon.net

Computer Company

Anon

BBTelsys No Service

We sell computer services and telephony products in NJ, NY & CT. We also lost service on April 9,2009. We have recently re-partnered with a level 2 tier service provider and are now turning up our own VOIP services. We think being without service for over 10 days is absolutely ridiculous. We have heard nothing from BBTelsys. Whether they go out of business or not we don't care. Our customers come first and as a reseller, our image comes first. If anyone needs an immediate turn-up from loss of service, leave us your email and we will contact you. we will assist anyone who needs to get their VOIP service back.
leomarlin
Premium Member
join:2005-02-01
Corning, CA

leomarlin

Premium Member

Re: BBTelsys No Service

I was a three year customer and believed the story they were a wrongfully shut down. I found out they did not pay bills for 6 months! Looking at the number of posts BBtelsys was not a major player!
shapirojm
join:2009-04-15
Austin, TX

shapirojm

Member

Update

BBTelsys began answering their phones again today. As of yesterday, I was told by NGT that BBTelsys ported out hundreds of numbers to their new provider/system. This was confirmed by BBTelsys' agent today, who told me that they were porting hundreds more today (including mine). What this has meant to some people who got a new provider through NGT and activated service is they got slammed by BBT, who took the number back! Guess what, they were disconnected again.

BBT was in the process of activating service on lines that they got control of, but with hundreds to configure, no telling how long that will take. They told me that I could be up and running on their system today with my numbers, but I didn't trust that this would happen and told them to not port my number back and cancel service. Frankly, they could give me free phone service for life, and I'd still go elsewhere. Given that they did this once before in 2005, I wouldn't ever trust them. To be honest, I'm not entirely happy with what I ended up signing up for, as it's fewer features and much more expensive, but I'll learn my lesson and pay for a more reliable company for the foreseeable future.

Sadly, they'll probably stay in business with not even so much as a slap on the hand. They'll lose part of their current customer base, but most people probably don't spend much time researching a company before signing up for a cheap service. I'd love a class action lawsuit for business interruption and fraud, but I wouldn't even know where to begin that adventure.
shapirojm

1 edit

shapirojm

Member

Further update

THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCHANGE IN RESPONSE TO A COMPLAINT THAT I FILED WITH THE MICHIGAN BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU:

BBTELSYS:
TO: Better Business Bureau of Grand Rapids
Terry Glenn - Trade Practice Supervisor
Re: Case # 37016096
Complaint filed against: BBTelsys L.L.C.

We have been responding via email to all our customers since Friday April 10, 2009 about the loss of service. This service was the result of a forced outage that originated with our upstream carrier on the evening of Thursday April 9, 2009. We were in the process of switching our customers to a new carrier, when the old carrier pulled our services. We were overwhelmed by the amount of customer emails and phone calls. We did continue to update our customers with daily emails. We are still not 100% switched, but most of our customers are staying with us. We did suggest to customers that an alterative was to go directly to the upstream carrier for immediate connection.

Our customer is always first, and with this in mind, we had already responded with a credit coupon that was emailed last week. With regards to this case, our customer service department received an email from him Friday April 17th regarding his cancelation and porting of his number. We acknowledged him within 30 minutes, and our billing department emailed him that we would refund the portion of the year he did not use.

We are working diligently to get service restored. If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at 616-828-5454 or 877-511-5688, or via email lee@bbtelsys.com.

Sincerely,
Dawn Carter

MY REPLY:
This response includes some factual information, but is very misleading. First of all, what BBTelsys fails to convey is why their service by the upstream carrier was cut off. It is my understanding that they were cut off because they failed to meet their obligation to pay for service. To have collected money from customers and then not paid their provider to ensure that customers' service is maintained is at best irresponsible and at worst fraudulent.

Second, while BBTelsys did send occasional emails, they were not daily, and they did not convey useful information other than "our technicians are working on the problem" until the last email that suggested going to their upstream provider. This suggestion was an effort on BBTelsys' part to transfer the blame and flood their provider with calls from angry BBTelsys customers desperate to get phone service reactivated after a week of no service. This only made things worse because the upstream provider was not set up to deal with consumers. Bear in mind, BBTelsys, a telephone company, refused to answer their incoming lines during most of this outage, leaving consumers to believe that they were in the process of going out of business regardless of what their encouraging emails said. Who would trust a phone company that doesn't answer their phones...no message, no voice mail, just perpetual ringing on the other end of the line.

While BBTelsys claims that most of their customers have stayed with them, I would like to know how many of their disconnected customers have stayed with them. Furthermore, anyone who has remained may only be doing so because they have prepaid contracts and it takes time to port numbers to other carriers.

I'm not easily angered, but for BBTelsys to make a claim that their customers come first pushes me to the point of being VERY angry. They failed to tell customers the entire truth regarding what happened, and they continue to try to blame someone else for their failure to meet an obligation of providing service to people who paid them.

With regard to their credit offer, it hardly generous to refund the cost of a week's phone service when the true cost to consumers of having residence or business phone numbers ring to a "this number is no longer in service or has been disconnected" recording is far greater.

It's nice that BBTelsys has now decided to start answering their phones and respond to emails again now that they are nearing the end of what has been an absolute nightmare to me and at least (by BBTelsys' admission) 200 consumers. Their behavior as a company in this matter can only be likened to a child hiding in a closet hoping that parents won't find him after he's misbehaved, then denying any wrongdoing and blaming a someone else for what happened.

When I consider this event in the light of information that I have showing that they had a very similar event of disconnecting customers in 2005, BBTelsys has no basis for claiming that what happened is unexpected or something that they shouldn't have adequately planned for. Their response to my complaint lacks substance with regard to their underlying failure to provide service to paid accounts or adequately inform customers regarding the problems that they were experiencing (as opposed to stringing us along with email statements conveying that they expect service to be restored soon).

Consumers need to know that this company cannot be trusted to provide the service that they advertise and that professional marketing materials do not make a reliable telephone company. To anyone who has ever had to pick up the phone and dial 911 in an emergency or who relies on phone service for their business, ask yourself if you want a company with BBTelsys' history being the one responsible for connecting calls.

AFTER THIS DEBACLE, I WOULDN'T PUT IT PAST THE COMPANY TO TRY INITIATING SERVICE UNDER ANOTHER NAME, AS I'VE SEEN WITH OTHER VOIP PROVIDERS. I'D BE SUSPECT OF ANY COMPANY WITH A GRAND RAPIDS, MI BUSINESS ADDRESS.
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

Re: Further update

It's also interesting that their website expires in a few days:

Domain Name: BBTELSYS.COM
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Hale, Arthur
bbtelsys, LLC
3001 Orchard Vista Dr SE
Suite 150
Grand Rapids, MI 49546
US
616-828-1111

Record expires on 02-May-2009.

------------------------------------

Hope they remember to renew it!

Dave B
@cox.net

Dave B to shapirojm

Anon

to shapirojm
Exactly!!!! I only found out by accident when I tried to call my house I didn't have inbound service. That was on the 16th. These people are lame! I am not cutting them off yet, hoping I get my service back. Maybe I should get a burial plot in case it takes a while? As a yearly plan customer, I worry that I would get a refund if I shut them off now. The FCC needs to shut them down and pull their business license. I let them know today via live chat, which isn't working now, that they provided me with the most horrible customer experience I've had in my 50 plus years of existence. I am just as angry as you.

Dan in MA
@myvzw.com

Dan in MA to shapirojm

Anon

to shapirojm
I have been without service for almost a month. I have received ZERO emails and can't get their website to do the online chat.

hecenter
@cbpu.com

hecenter to shapirojm

Anon

to shapirojm
I received the exact same response to my complaint filed with the BBB. There were no responses to my emails to BBTelsys as implied in their response to the BBB. I have also lodged a complaint with the Michigan Utilities Commission. I wanted to contact the FCC but their website suggests going through your state commissions first. I am also not satisfied with their response and the tremendous losses to our company are going to be very difficult to determine, based on long range projections of how many customers think WE have gone out of business.
CocoaFL
join:2009-05-04
Cocoa, FL

CocoaFL

Member

Replacement VOIP provider?

I've been with BBTelSys for almost seven years. There was one other snafu back a feww years ago, but that only lasted about a week and a half. This is about to break my business. I have four numbers with BBTelSys and none ring in. No ring, no eat. It's simple. I think that it's time to make a change due to inactivity.

Are there any VOIP providers that anyone recommends?
Should I stay with VOIP at all?

hecenter
@cbpu.com

hecenter

Anon

Re: Replacement VOIP provider?

If you stay with VoiP, I would suggest getting at least one land line to use for emergencies. We kept our fax machine on a land line and were able to use it when VoiP went down.

Review by openupshop See Profile

  • Location: Phoenix, Maricopa, AZ, USA
  • Cost: $26 per month
  • Install: about 60 days
Crystal clear calls, no echo, no dropped calls
Could be a bit cheaper, would like to change on hold music, Free calling only to usa/canada
Trying about 5 different VOIP providers. This is the best
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
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Ordered and VOIP Device came in about 4 days. No problem with service at all to date. The web interface and be a little better but okay. I would recommend this company looking for crystal clear calls. I wish they had a local calling area plan. I pay 24.95 a month for unlimited calls within the USA/Canada.

member for 23.3 years, 889 visits, last login: 58 days ago
updated 16.2 years ago







Review by Xpmplay See Profile

  • Location: Belmont, Kent, MI, USA
  • Cost: $9 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 35 days
Price, Sound, Quality, GREAT CS
None.
The best VoIP carrier out there.
Web-site:
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These are from bbb.org so hey if you base your stupid shopping on BBB check this out.

Vonage :
The Bureau processed a total of 4324 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total 4324 complaints in the last 36 months, 3157 of those were closed in the last 12 months.

Sunrocket:
Number of complaints processed by the BBB since the firm's BBB file was opened in October 2004: 349
Number of complaints processed by the BBB in the last 12 months: 238

BBtelsys:
The Bureau processed a total of 30 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total of 30 complaints closed in 36 months, 21 were closed in the last year.

Now for all you people out there posting these lame and uninformed reviews you need to get a freaking life and stop posting this junk. OMG you had to wait 1month for your device so lets trash talk the company. The records above indicate out of all these main Vo-IP Providers BBtelsys has the highest turn around for answering complaints. Also has the lowest amount of complaints as the records clearly show. BBtelsys may have some kinks to work out but so does every company and from the looks of it the bigger players have more problems then BBtelsys, so for all those out there that are concerned, you wont know until you try it yourself, make the switch, I did....

member for 18.7 years, 27 visits, last login: 16.8 years ago
lodged 16.8 years ago


Review by qualtran See Profile

  • Location: Oakland, Alameda, CA, USA
  • Cost: $24 per month
  • Install: about 90 days
Ok phone, cheap
Horrid customer service
Don't waste your time/money!
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

We have been using BBTELSYS for about 2 years now. The phone itself has generally worked all right aside from having to reset daily for quite a while. Also, they are pretty cheap.

Now when it comes to customer service, this company is pitiful! If you have any problem, calling them results in myriad false promises that are never met. We have been trying to get an additional phone line for 3 months now, and they had no problem charging us the day we requested it, but we still have no additional phone line and every time we call them (about 30 times now) they tell us it will be ready the next day.

The phone we do have works, but I certainly would steer clear of this company because if they are treating an existing customer like this, who knows what they will treat a new one like!

member for 16.9 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 16.9 years ago


Review by ezcall2000 See Profile

  • Location: Hampton, Hampton City, VA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
None
Never shipped equipment or provided service, yet they collected payment!
Rip off, they take your money and do not provide service
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Do not be fooled by their offers like I was. Check their report on the Better Business Bureau www.bbb.org They have 36 claims against them and only after filing the claims they tried to help the customer! I did not check their report and that's what I got: ripped off. I paid them for the yearly service ($200.00) and they said their refund will take place two billing cycles after cancellation. I'm past that time frame and yet to get my money back. I called them numerous times and left voice messages for the billing person and their supervisor without progress! The rep delivered hand written messages and that did not help either!

Bottom line they promise the best service but it's the worst: non existent. They are frauds. See attached report.

Attachments:
bbb_report.pdf
64,367 bytes


member for 17.2 years, 2 visits, last login: 17 years ago
lodged 17 years ago

qualtran
join:2007-04-10
Oakland, CA

qualtran

Member

Ok, phone but Horrid customer service

We have been using BBTELSYS for about 2 years now. The phone itself has generally worked all right aside from having to reset daily for quite a while.

Now when it comes to customer service, this company is pitiful! If you have any problem, calling them results in myriad false promises that are never met. We have been trying to get an additional phone line for 3 months now, and they had no problem charging us the day we requested it, but we still have no additional phone line and every time we call them (about 30 times now) they tell us it will be ready the next day.

The phone we do have works, but I certainly would steer clear of this company because if they are treating an existing customer like this, who knows what they will treat a new one like!

BBB website info
@ussignalcom.net

BBB website info

Anon

bbtelsys on bbb site

Direct from the BBB website -

On May 24, 2007, the company filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the federal Bankruptcy Act, case number 07-880. Those with monetary claims against the company are advised to obtain a Proof of Claim form by writing to U.S. Bankruptcy Court, One Division Avenue, N.W., Grand Rapids, MI, 49503 for resubmission to that court. The case number should be entered on the form.