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Review by jedalton See Profile

  • Location: Virginia Beach, Virginia Beach City, VA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
  • Telco party Cavalier
cheap
very slow DSL
pay more for FIOS

Had this service for about 6 months. Could never get a fast DSL connection. Even bought a wireless router, as I was told they don't have one, still very slow. Broke down and had Verizon FIOS installed and now it fly's! Don't waste your time or money, spend a little more and get a fast connection. I also bought the magicjack for my phone service and it's wonderful. Cost $40 for 1st year & $20/ year thereafter. Works like a champ- free local and long distance in USA.

member for 15.2 years, driveby review (so far)
updated 15.2 years ago

videobruce
join:2002-05-14
Buffalo, NY

videobruce

Member

Copper vs Fiber

How can you compare copper DSL with Fiber???

Review by ab0z1 See Profile

  • Location: Grand Rapids, Kent, MI, USA
  • Cost: $99999 per month
  • Install: about 999 days
  • Telco party Cavalier
Price is reasonable
Ruined our lives with their incompetence.
1 Year later they're still trying to ruin us!
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

*UPDATE*

Over a year later, after having gone to a law firm and having them send a threatening letter, we thought we were done. But no, here's a collection notice for hundreds of dollars!

-Original review-

My wife had used this service provider previously as TalkAmerica, and they seemed to be fairly competent. She used the voice service along with the DSL service. The few times that there were issues while we were still dating were quickly resolved once I waded through the phone system. Shortly before we got married they became/merged with Cavalier Telephone. During the process of moving to the new apartment, we noticed no problems, and at one point a sales rep even helped us move to a cheaper plan with the same features. The service was reliable, and we did not have occasion to call customer service for a while. A year later we were moving to a new apartment. We called Cavalier a few days before the move to transfer service. We were informed that the transfer could take up to 2 weeks. This timeframe was a little ridiculous, but we didn't feel that we had any choice. We agreed to wait. THIS WAS THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF OUR LIVES. My wife was in the middle of a job search (laid off teacher) and also had to put her ebay sales business on hold while we waited. 2 WEEKS LATER THE SERVICE WAS NOT ACTIVE AT THE NEW ADDRESS. Our previous landlord was understanding of our situation and HAD allowed us to leave an answering machine on the old line, which my wife checked daily. At the 16 day mark my wife did not have a chance to check the messages. the following day she got a message offering her a job at a prestigious private school for $40k+/year. when she called them back they had already hired another applicant because they were in a hurry to fill the position. At this point we started to freak out. Numerous calls to customer service produced no results. 3 WEEK MARK: I am ready to start doing damage. I storm into the local business sales office, and demand results. while I am there, the voice service is activated. WITH A NEW NUMBER. 3 weeks later this is the first thing I have heard about getting a new number instead of transferring the old. Well, fine. If this means the nightmare is almost over then I'll just sigh and deal with it. 4 WEEK MARK: DSL IS STILL NOT UP. More calls to customer service, tech support, etc all result in "that's not my dept" "You have to call customer service between 7-5" and so on. NOT ONE PERSON THAT I TALKED TO COULD ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING TO HELP, OR WOULD BE WILLING TO CALL ME BACK WITH ANSWERS. THE ONLINE CHAT IS USELESS, AND I MEAN USELESS. They aren't authorized to scratch their own butts. WEEK 5: I shout down enough call center people to get to a supervisor in the repair dept. Larry informs me that the original order was entered wrong, with no request to transfer DSL service. W. T. F. ? I calmly inform him that if things don't happen REAL fast we will be suing the company for damages. He says he will do what he can, and call me back the next day. (A FIRST FOR THE COMPANY!) The next day he called back and gave a date 7 days out when our service would be installed. WEEK 6: DEADLINE PASSES WITH NO SERVICE. At this point I am so mad I could kill people. I call Comcast on monday. they install service on wednesday. AND IT WORKS GREAT.

At this point I still have yet to see how much of my life will be wasted on dragging a refund out of cavalier. If you see me on the news, you will know that I had to resort to physical violence. If you value your time, money, and sanity, DO NOT EVER CONSIDER THESE MORONS FOR YOUR COMMUNICATIONS NEEDS. They have cost us so much, we may never recover.

member for 17.5 years, 2 visits, last login: 15.3 years ago
updated 15.3 years ago

Lenagainster
join:2005-01-07
Silver Spring, MD

Lenagainster

Member

Rating

You rated them too highly. :>)

semick
join:2002-05-12
Cleveland, OH

semick

Member

Unreliable

Unreliability is the bottom line with Cavalier. The only reason I have it is to save money and I have two alltel wafer phones I can use as ISP backup for those times when they go down. Also all my important calls come to me via Grand Central and my cell phone so no worries about lost calls.

Scott Emick
ab0z1
join:2006-08-28
Grand Rapids, MI

ab0z1

Member

oh cmon... SERIOUSLY?

The review is updated with further shenanigans that would be funny if they weren't actually occurring.

Review by uarf See Profile

  • Location: Virginia Beach, Virginia Beach City, VA, USA
  • Cost: $29 per month
  • Install: about 90 days
  • Telco party Cavalier
its better than dail up - but not much
Speed goes up and down and drags
very poor service for streaming - hard with netflick ,customer service poor
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Modem needs to be re-booted often.

Speed drops to a crawl.

No response via email from customer service.

Telephone hold time to customer service is forever.

Tech people are un knowledgeable - seem to follow a script - don't listen to what you are saying.

They never use aspirin as that requires a brain to be effective.

member for 18 years, 1 visits, last login: 15.3 years ago
updated 15.3 years ago







Review by Phillysim See Profile

  • Location: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
  • Cost: $63 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 8 days
  • Telco party Cavalier
Good value. Easy install
DSL Speed not near the advertised 8 Mbps
Good value, for 3.5 to 4.0 Mbps DSL + phone
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Services:
Value for money:

I had to switch my ISP from DCA Net (an excellent service) as they are getting out of the residential market. So I chose the Cavalier C2 plan (DSL, free local phone, & free long distance) at $50.

Presales service was good. Questions were answered, though I was not told about the $13.14 fees for End User Access and End User Common Line.

Modem arrived within 5 days of order. DSL was switched from DCA Net to Cavalier at 8 days. Switch was painless. I continued to use my DCA Net supplied modem (Speedstream 5100) which is set in "bridge mode". All I had to do was alter my Netgear router (FR114P) DNS setting to Automatic and that was it.

After two months of service there have been no interruptions. DSL Download speed is typically from 3.5 to 4.0 Mbps. Slowest has been 2.3, fastest time was 4.3. Speed is the same if I measure at the phone company NID/demarcation box. Upload time is a fairly constant 600 to 700 Kbps. I do not know how far I am from the Central Office, though Cavalier runs on Verizon phone lines (I think).

The IP number is listed by Cavalier as dynamic, but has not changed in 2 months (nice). I have had no trouble with VOIP (Skype & iChat AV).

Verizon charges $50 for similar phone + DSL service but with a speed of only up to 1 Mbps. For phone + 3 Mbps DSL Verizon charges $70/mo.

Overall Cavalier service as been trouble free. Recommended.



member for 15.4 years, 9 visits, last login: 11.3 years ago
updated 15.4 years ago

Landin_CH
join:2003-02-04
Fredericksburg, VA

Landin_CH

Member

No problems here, either



:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Download Connection is:: 6124 Kbps about 6.1 Mbps (tested with 6144 kB)
Download Speed is:: 748 kB/s
Tested From:: »testmy.net/ (Main)
Test Time:: 2008/11/05 - 9:16pm
Bottom Line:: 107X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 1.37 sec
Tested from a 6144 kB file and took 8.219 seconds to complete
Download Diagnosis:: Awesome! 20% + : 128.85 % faster than the average for host (cavtel.net)
D-Validation Link:: »testmy.net/stats/id-Y2R49CGQ8
User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1) ; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648) [!]

Review by JBE7 See Profile

  • Location: Hampton, Hampton City, VA, USA
  • Cost: $75 per month (24 month contract)
Pre-Sales and Billing
Tech Support, and upload speed (50% of even what is advertised)
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:



Grades
A Download speeds are consistent and as advertised

C Our DSL upload speeds are consistently 1/2 of what they advertise
and we are rather close to (much less
than 1 mile from) the serving DSLAM

D in trying to resolve the upload speed inconsistency, Cavtel merely
points to the best efforts of DSL. We all know that there are no
service level guarantees with DSL but come-on! A 1.5M meg upload
advertisement that consistently is 768K is not acceptable. Speeds are
the same regardless of time of day and traffic loading.

F Cavtel Tech support services are spotty at best....I've had some
knowledgeable techs, others are "read-the-script" types with seemingly little or no
diagnostic experience;very frustrating for those of us with some
datacom experience and savvy . There was one occassion where I had to insist that the tech do a Bit Error Rate test on the loop. He insisted there was nothing wrong with the service. While
this is technically true (VZ owns the loop) It remains a Cavtel service
issue. Come on! Get some folks in there who know what they are doing. By the way, the loop was at fault with a high BER

F Wait times for support are way too long. Cavtel Management needs
to get a grip on customer tech support or they will continue to
experience high churn. Haven't any of these telecom companies learned
their lessons about churn? Hey guys, understand this...it costs a bit
of money to run this kind of business. Yes margins are thin due to
competition, but this is the business you are in and and your reason
for being as a CLEC. Otherwise we can just stay with VZ or whoever.
CLECs need to be good service providers not just a thorn in the
sides of the incumbent. Your business is as much about customer
service and support as it is about technology. Does anyone there
understand that?
* BTW . Wait times on Sales and billing lines are practically non
existant...What does this tell you about pre and post sales activities

A Pricing, is good.

Summary
A Presales
F Post Sales
C Service performance

member for 15.8 years, 2 visits, last login: 15.6 years ago
updated 15.4 years ago


Review by dbarnett See Profile

  • Location: Richmond, Richmond City, VA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Static IP, fast downloads, low price
Inconsistent customer service
Flexibility, good value

I have been a Cavalier Telephone customer for over ten years, both residential and business services. Overall, I have been very satisfied and find their customer service agents to be responsive and quick to move you up to a higher level if you ask. For $50 a month, I have a POTS line, including local and long-distance services, and a static IP address. I get around 12mbps down and 1.2 mbps up.

member for 22.3 years, 442 visits, last login: 4.4 years ago
lodged 15.5 years ago







Review by joey_rogo See Profile

  • Location: Buffalo, Erie, NY, USA
  • Cost: $58 per month
cheap
long wait for customer service, 45minutes - 1 hour. DSL drops and slow speed
I moved to timer warner, too inconsistant
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I had the g3 package. They could not get over 768 on the line and there was frequent drops. They don't respond via email and if you call it is about an hour wait. NOT WORTH IT. I'm switching to time warner.

member for 15.5 years, driveby review (so far)
updated 15.5 years ago







Review by nightfireivy See Profile

  • Location: Lakewood, Cuyahoga, OH, USA
  • Cost: $50 per month
  • Telco party Cavalier
Fast internet, Not a lot of money like Cable ISPs.
Connection works half or less of the time. Huge pain to get internet to work. Technicians are clueless and can't solve problems.
Great speed, Price, but only worth it if you can get a solid Connection without any disconnecting losses.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Cavalier was a good idea at first. 8 Mpbs at $30 plus telephone charges. No contract.

However the connection only works half of the time. You could be surfing on the internet or streaming a video and it constantly stops due to the internet disconnecting or losing connection about 5-10 times per hour, twice as bad in the mornings. Sometimes it likes to disconnect and come back on 30 minutes later. Horrible connection.

The modem is a Paradyne mostly used by Cavalier, it's very small. It has the Power light, Status light, Activity light, Lan light, and USB light like many other modems.

The Technicians are an extremely clueless group of people. If the world was going to end there was no way you can depend on them. Anyways, basically when you call for one, you have to wait sometimes 30 minutes or more until someone gets a hold of you. At least they aren't all in India like what AT&T has. However the Technicians don't know much about the disconnecting problem .... even though that's the main reason why Cavalier customers call the tech support. I've called about 5 times within the week and nobody really solved it.

So overall. Cavalier is only good if you can get the internet connection to be solid and great which is almost impossible and a pain in the behind. It's fast, and it's price is great. However I was very disappointed by the connection losses and the bad technicians. I am at the moment going to join COX HSI.

member for 15.6 years, 1 visits, last login: 15.6 years ago
lodged 15.6 years ago


Review by impeccable1 See Profile

  • Location: Pontiac, Oakland, MI, USA
  • Cost: $50 per month
  • Telco party Cavalier
When you have a solid connection... FAST & CHEAP!
You only have that connection 1/4th of the time.
Good when it works... which isn't much
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I recently signed up for c2 from Cavalier for $50 going up to 8 megs. I received a free modem & all that jazz, and I figured it would be great since we've had Cavalier before (after the change from Talk America in 48341) and it was nothing but great but now to the beef of the review.

Installation

I've had high speed internet since 7th grade and installed it for my family each time but twice (2 times with Comcast), so I figured "It's only DSL I can install it."
Well I ran the setup which was fine until I got to the registration portion.
The registration called for the account number on the welcome letter & your zip code.
I looked and guess what? NO NUMBER! I tried the phone number... NOTHING!
So I called the tech line & because it was sync'd to the network he told me to just close out the registration and register a screen name through the phone. So great now I installed DSL without the repair & analysis program that comes with it. I figure "Ok. I rarely used it with AT&T, Comcast or Cavalier." BIG MISTAKE

Usage

I have not had a solid 24 hours of usage without a loss of connection.
Most days I have to power cycle my modem at least 3 times (literally. not a joke) and I don't get anywhere near 8 megs.
I average 1 meg & at it's highest yesterday at 3.2 megs, and at night times like now when boredom ensues and I need youtube videos & radio streaming can't be done because I only get 800-900 kbps.

Also if you get C2 you better memorize 866-221-1063 because tonight alone I've called customer service 3 times because of speeds slower than dial up (It's bad when google doesn't load!!) and my service continuously dropping at random and technicians "fixing" it only to malfunction 50 minutes later.

When you have a solid connection, it is excellent, impeccable to say the least but getting it to work is the major issue and can be a major pain!

member for 16.7 years, 2 visits, last login: 15.6 years ago
updated 15.6 years ago


nightfireivey
@cavtel.net

nightfireivey

Anon

The most horrible service ever.

Basically, Cavalier High Speed Internet is fast and cheap but it doesn't work most of the time. I get disconnected about 7 times in an hour. If you can the internet to work then it's great.

Another problem, is that the technicians are completely clueless to your problem and only waste your time. I called about 5 times within the week and none of them seem to get it right.

The main point is that Cavalier works only half the time. So basically how much you pay is how much you get. Horrible service.

Review by hsindogg See Profile

  • Location: Baltimore, Baltimore City, MD, USA
  • Cost: $65 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 95 days
  • Telco party Cavalier
Good value for the price.
Took forever to get installed, bad communication, bad customer support.
If you're looking for a good package for a very good price...they can't be beat, but you'll pay the price for support.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I placed the order for Cavtel on June 17th, and was told it could take up to 30 days to install/switchover from Verizon. So, after a month, with no information at all from Cavtel, I called their support line. They said that my CO didn't have the available equipment and that I had to wait, and to call the following week. So I did, and this time they told me that Verizon hasn't released my line, which was probably true because they were about to strike and were in labor negotiations, so I'm sure they weren't in any hurry to fulfill their work orders. So now it's early September, I call and they say they still don't have the equipment at the CO, so at this point I basically give up and then maybe a week later, in mid September, our voicemail system no longer works, so I called Cavtel, and low and behold, our POTS line was switched over. So now it's just up to waiting for the DSL line to be provisioned. I wait a few weeks, and on Sept. 25th I called to see what the status was because their automated telephone service said the product was suppose to be delivered between Sept 8th and Sept 22nd. The support person told me, that due to Hurricane Isabel, their work orders were behind and they're going down a list of work orders to ship out modems. Well, we did have a hurricane, so I went with that story. Well, I get home, and what do you know...there's a Fedex package waiting for me. The modem arrived that day, and I call tech support for the static IP, gateway, and DNS and I get it up and running in an hour.

I signed up for the Unlimited Local/Long Distance and Hotwire DSL package at $74.95/month. They advertise speeds from 4Mbps/1Mbps, but so far my speeds are more like 650kbps/550kbps. I'm going to call them to have them check my loop because when we had Verizon, we reached speeds of 1400kbps/200kbps. But so far I can't complain, mainly because I finally have internet service after 3 months!

Overall: B- for lack of communication and a long long wait, but a very good product for the money.

Update:

I ordererd in mid-June and at the time, the DSL service speed was offered at 768/768. Since then they've upgraded to 960/960, but unless you've ordered just recently, older service might not have been upgraded. I made a quick call to tech support who confirmed my DSL service was at 768/768, and I made another quick call to customer support who sent out a service order to upgrade it to 960/960. And if you're lucky enough, you'll qualify for their new RADSL service, which has speeds up to 4mbps if you're within 4000 feet of the CO and 2mbps for within 8000 feet.

I've had a line monitor on my DSL line for a week, and the pings and packet loss are excellent. I think their service is top notch for the price.

Update:

I switched to Phonom/Cavtel VoIP. Switchover was easy, since Cavalier supplies the DSL, and Phonom operates under Cavalier. The problem relates to customer service, and what appropriate DSL service I should be receiving. I was told many things, and after days and days of trying to get some resolution/truth, I may finally be getting the appropriate ADSL service. Basically, I was lied to on several occasions by customer support, it seems that all they want you to do is hang up, but they don't understand that we have real problems that need to be fixed.

Service/Price is great, but their support is really making their image terrible.

Update 12/12/07:

It's been a while since I updated this, but for about 24 I've had pretty reliable service and never had to contact Customer Support.

2 weeks ago, my VoIP service went out, I put in the dreaded Customer Support call, and for the last 2 weeks I've gotten no where. Called last night to Tech Support instead of Customer Support, and of course......Cavtel had switched me over to PoTS, instead of VoIP.. Now there's a ticket to switch my service back to VoIP. Why they switched my service to PoTS is unknown. I estimate it will take at least 2 more weeks to get it fixed.

Update 7/30/08:

Well after 3 years of having pretty good service, my DSL line grinded to a halt (40-60% packet loss) and Cavalier wasn't able to repair the line. I gave them 7 business days (10 overall), and even troubleshot the line for them. My packet loss was between my IP and the Gateway IP. I ran a new homerun line, and changed the cat5e cable from the DSL modem. I tested it with 4 machines to make sure it wasn't my desktop NIC...same result for all 4 machines. It had to be outside from my NID to the CO or wherever the Gateway IP hardware was located. It may have even been my DSL router, which they refused to send me a new one even after we had exhausted days of trying new things and trouble shooting.

I cancelled today and ordered Verizon DSL.

8/7/08 - See my Verizon review - »Review of Verizon DSL by hsindogg

Cancelled with them as well as their support/installation was horrible.

member for 21.7 years, 4480 visits, last login: 1.4 years ago
updated 15.6 years ago

rexdog
join:2003-09-24
Parkville, MD

rexdog

Member

rexdog

I feel your pain. I contacted them in mid-August for the same package as you requested. I received the same story that you did. They switched me over on Sept. 12 and they are still giving me the run around about the modem. They told me that I should be getting it sometime this week (a story that I have heard several times). If I do receive the modem, I'll let you know what my speeds are. I live in Parkville, so things should be somewhat similar.
rexdog

rexdog

Member

Re: rexdog

I finally have everything set up with Cavalier with the exception of e-mail. Tech support was very helpful. My speeds were slow at first, but that was entirely my fault. I am getting download speeds in high 600's to low 700's. Upload is somewhere around 600. I hope this is helpful. Cavalier was slow to get everything going, but worked out well in the end. I think they may be growing faster than they had planned for.

Rexdog

hsindogg
Premium Member
join:2002-06-21
Potomac, MD

hsindogg

Premium Member

Line Quality & Speed Tests

Line Quality Test

Speed Tests, Note: my tests are under "Hsindogg".
neftv
join:2000-10-01
Broomall, PA

neftv

Member

Re: Line Quality & Speed Tests

Hsindogg,
How far you from your CO? I thought the bandwidth they give you for internet was max'ed to whatever your distance to CO and your modem can do reliably not just 9xx kbps? I seen a press release on their web site on this.
I just place an online order to Cavtel myself just this past Wednesday. Have not heard back yet. My Number can't be switched but they can run a new line for me according to their web site registration order process.

hsindogg
Premium Member
join:2002-06-21
Potomac, MD

hsindogg

Premium Member

Re: Line Quality & Speed Tests

They told me I'm 12,900 ft to the CO. Well, they don't max you out to whatever your line can do reliably. From what I can piece together is that, right now, they have 2 technologies available. ReachDSL and RADSL. If you don't qualify for RADSL (8,000 ft limit), then you get ReachDSL which is 960/960. I saw the press release too, but in the FAQ it says up to 4mbps for those who qualify...I think Mellow, another Cavtel subscriber, noted that they plan to roll out ADSL2, which should further up our speeds. I'm not complaining about consistent 700/600 speeds for $25, and it'll be interesting to see how much faster our speeds will get down the road.