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Review by gilbuzz 
Posted: 2 years ago
member for 5.3 years, 67 visits, last login: 30 days ago
 Glenside,Montgomery,PA
 $50 per month (12 month contract)
 about 30 days
 "cheep"
 "poor customer service, slow dsl, email server often down"
 "cavtel poor customer service"
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I've had cavtel since the beginning, 5 years. As they've grown their tech and customer service has become fair to very poor. Price was right then, but now that quality has dropped and price is almost on par with verizon, comcast I've decided to switch. Recently, I've had no phone/dsl service for almost a week! Verizon maintains line, but there is no incentive to provide service to cavtel customers. I'm still waiting for complete repair.
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Review by efuhrman
Posted: 2.1 years ago
member for 2.1 years, 0 visits, last login: 2.1 years ago
Clinton Township,Macomb,MI
 Business customer
$750 per month (36 month contract)
about 999 days
 AT&T
"Promised VPN from 2 remote site to HQ"
"They have yet to make it work."
"Stay away from DSL and their false promises."
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Cavalier said it would be no problem to setup DSL and a VPN routers at our 2 remote offices and connect to a VPN router at our HQ thru our existing T1. $250 per managed VPN router per month. It took 6 weeks for Cavalier to get AT&T to install the a new phone line which held up everything. DSL's were installed next. The VPN routers took 5 days and a few calls to Perimeter, Cavalier's contractor that manages their routers. Cavalier them left and has not been out since. I cannot get the VPN's to work, even after changing my server setup. Cavalier refuses to send a tech out to prove that it works. And my DSL service is currently down for the second day in a row and was out a full day last week. I ordered 6MB DSL service, after the install, a support tech on the phone said I was lucky to have the 0.5MB service because of out distance from the CO.
Bottom line, DSL is unreliable as is Cavalier. Invest in cable modems like we are. Comcast now has business service and the support is much better.
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Review by youngmoore
Posted: 2.2 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 3091 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Marietta,Cobb,GA
Business customer
Contract price not specified. (36 month contract)
about 24 days
BellSouth
"They were fast to get everything installed"
"Buy out after buy out leaves us wondering who is going to be our overlord next"
"Fare"
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I have 4 T1's bonded through a cisco from them. Started with NTC, which was bought out by Talk america, which was bought out by Cavalier. Who knows where we will be next but for the time being there good for biz. There have been issues and we do have 3 other clients with them. However post outage they have done a good job of making things right.
Only problem is if there is an outage it takes time for them to get things rolling on the client end. Had a client down on a T1 data for 3 days. The excuse from Bell/ATT was we just don't have enough techs to go around with all the storms. When the ATT guy showed up it was a card swap that took maybe 5 mins. This wasn't Cav's fault but the new "ATT". Never had issues like this with any CLEC ever before when it was Bellsouth. Anyway Cav is getting better and thier SLA for biz good. Wouldn't know anything about their DSL or home phone service though.
ym
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Review by black_ops
UPDATED: 2.2 years ago
member for 7.9 years, 857 visits, last login: 12 days ago
Baltimore,Baltimore City,MD
$54 per month
about 7 days
Cavalier
"Order processing was smooth. Answered all my questions and had service turned up by the estimated date."
"None yet, surprisingly"
"Good value."
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I read a mail insert about Cavalier service and decided to check it out. I found out that I have three friends who have their service locally (phone and internet) and they have no issues.
So, after reading several reviews on this site I decided to take the risk. I ordered service on the 21st of August and was sent a letter stating that to have my service turned up on or about August 30th.The phone rep also mentioned this as an estimate. She also said that someone would need to visit my home and check out my NID. No one did show up. I was a Verizon DSL subscriber up until this point. I expected lots of trouble getting my internet and phone service transferred over, but I didn't at all.
The advertised speeds were up to 10Mbps. The phone rep said that I was 9,100 feet from my central office and that I would see 'good speeds'. What I did see from speakeasy.com's speed test was a consistent 6Mbps download speed. I downloaded some gameplay footage from a popular game site and it topped out at a steady 804 KB/s. Not bad.
As for phone service, I got a call stating that I should expect my service to be transferred on the 28th between given times. It happened without a hitch. I noticed the change when I saw some numbers show up on the caller ID with generic names. As the day progressed the names started returning to normal. I don''t know why though.
My mail insert said that I could easily submit caller ID names on Cavalier's own website since each carrier maintains their own caller ID database. Not bad either. 
There is one thing that concerns me with my Internet service. The activity LED on my modem blinks all time time as if there is lots of traffic passing over the wire. I performed the Line Quality Test from this site and the results are posted to this link: »/linequality/nil/2272289
Someone please respond and tell me if this data looks OK. I would appreciate it.
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Review by deep123
UPDATED: 2.3 years ago
member for 2.3 years, 0 visits, last login: 2.3 years ago
Atlanta,Dekalb,GA
$38 per month
about 45 days
Cavalier
"kinda cheap"
"customer service sucks, billing errors, inconsistant costumer service, billd months after concelling"
"dont ever ever get this phone service"
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Guys
They take 45 days to get connected and charge you for a part of time. Waiting time to talk to customer service is like 2 hrs. Customer service is inconsistent. Different customer service rep says different things. My service was active months after I called to cancel it and they billed me. I had to fight with CSR to remove charges. DONT SIGN UP FOR THIS SERVICE.
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Review by modulate
Posted: 2.3 years ago
member for 4.5 years, 108 visits, last login: 60 days ago
Media,Delaware,PA
$66 per month
Cavalier
"Pretty good peak throughput for DSL"
"Data transport quality"
"Good choice for phone and web surfing"
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Switched to Cavalier unlimited phone and dsl in mid-June. No problems switching the dial tone over and it's working just fine. The dsl didn't work out of the box. It would sync up but no packets going in/out. I waited until the official dsl install date before trying to call tech support to complain. On the install date, it still didn't work so I tried calling tech support. After several _hours_ of holding (several different attempts, but collectively hours), I got through. The tech identified the problem (vlan tagging) and fixed it. No connection problem since...thank goodness. Not sure I could do the hours-on-hold thing again. I also tried the online chat, but when I noticed that I was next in line for hours, I decided that no one was on the other end.
The dsl works pretty well, but does have quite a bit of packet loss at times according to the line quality ping tests on this site. The latency is generally higher than I would like also. Recently there was an event that lasted a couple of hours in which the downstream throughput dropped to ~200kbps. Thankfully that didn't last long and the connection has returned to its normal throughput of a couple of Mbps downstream and ~800 kbps upstream.
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Review by kmmccue
Posted: 2.3 years ago
member for 2.3 years, 4 visits, last login: 1.9 years ago
Richmond,Henrico,VA
$69 per month
Cavalier
"When it is working everything is okay. But may God help you if you ever have a problem!"
"Where do I begin? Customer service is non-existant, and there is only one good help desk ISP technician in the entire company!!"
"I wish that I could give Cavalier a negative number! Please do not use them!!! You will be sorry. I am not kidding!!!!"
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If you think trying to cancel an order with AOL is hard then I have one that is even harder. Try to cancel IPTV with Cavalier! I have spent over six hours myself and my wife spent at least six hours and we still have not gotten a confirmation from customer service. Instead I lost my telephone service and my DSL service while they could not figure out how to cancel it! I was supposed to get a call when they would schedule the technician. I never received a call. I was NOT supposed to loose my telephone connection. Wrong again! And I was never told my new IP address until my wife finally got through to the only technician in the entire company who can actually do his job. Simply amazing. If you ever are thinking about switching to Calavier Telephone then all I can tell you is that you will be extremely sorry! PLEASE do yourself a HUGE favor and do not consider doing business with this company ever.
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Review by iolaire
UPDATED: 2.4 years ago
member for 8.4 years, 1717 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Arlington,Arlington,VA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
about 30 days
Cavalier
"Low Cost, High Speed, Small Firm"
"Small Firm, Lacking In Newbie Support"
"Get it for yourself, get it for your mother if your around to help."
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6/8/2007: Had to cancel DSL - keeping phone service, wife's work needed cable connection. CavTel had Verizon disconnect us, they removed our phone dial tone, called to fix, two days later we had dial tone. Then a day or so later figured out our phone was hooked up to the wrong phone number, they fixed it the next day - and called twice to make sure it was working. Bad time working with that, but I have to say it feels like the support has been ramped up and they try to help. I got the feeling that maybe with some of the recent acquisitions they got some extra customer support people.
8/13/03: It looks like the speed increase was a fluke, I'm still getting the slow 300/150 speeds. I have yet to call them and try to work up to the new speeds.
I signed up with Caviler in late May after Verizon lowered their DSL rates and Caviler dropped its local & DSL package to match - and Comcast refused to match the new rates. Inclusive my bill is now right around $60 including taxes, long distance is additionally. Placed my order, was told that I would receive the modem in a few weeks (already a Caviler phone customer), and that I would be called about the install. Early June additional services that are part of the package like caller ID became active, late June the modem with a one page sheet with IP, Gateway and DNS showed up. Hooked up modem, it worked. I had connection, a little slow 200 down 90 up, I'm paying for 384/384. Went on vacation, a few weeks later speed is nearer 300/150. Newsgroups work well, not using email.
This week they upped the speed on all packages to 900/900 (now free modem if you sign up online - I paid $100 for modem), emailed to ask when I would get that upgrade, no response, but speed now at about 1200/300 last time I checked. This is now better than what I got with Comcast (no TV), at a savings of about $15/month, and 3 bills are now 1.
A downside and benefit is this is a small company. I like that because I think there is a potential to fix problems if they arise. However it means that you will not get the flashy pieces of paper - they sent a photocopied page saying that the modem would arrive in a few weeks - on that paper it said the modem would be $290 - but of course they billed it at the correct rate of $100. I have not called support but the support website is lacking, generally I'm concerned that newbies might need better service sources, but hopefully they are helpful via the phone.
iolaire
PS: We have had their phone service for 1 year no problems. And I love having the static IP.
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Review by mjancola
Posted: 2.4 years ago
member for 2.4 years, 1 visits, last login: 2.4 years ago
Glenside,Montgomery,PA
$49 per month
about 13 days
Verizon
"inexpensive"
"slow, horrible customer support hold times, dumb techs"
"stay away, unless you just need to upgrade from dialup"
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This is a review of Cavalier but I'll throw in the history so you can see how I came to Cavalier and where I ended up.
I had Verizon DSL and was getting 3mbit until one day the speed dropped to 200k. A number of 1+ hour phone calls and I finally got it repaired, 3 days later. I work from home so this was a major pain in my butt, which is why I called comcast on the 2nd day. So the same day Verizon came out and verified there was a problem at the CO, Comcast hooked up my cable. Bam, I'm running way over 10mbit with Comcast.
Bad thing about Comcast is price $59/month (after the promotional 3 months at $25). So when I saw cavalier offering unlimited local and LD phone AND high speed DSL for $59, I thought I would give it a shot.
Install took 13 days with Cavalier (as opposed to 1 day with Comcast). The speed was only 300-600kbit. In my opinion, this is horrible!. I know the distance shouldn't be a problem since I got 3Mbit with Verizon. I called their tech support and finally reached someone after 45 minutes! He verified the speed, reset the modem and said there was nothing more he could do! I even explained that it should be faster since Verizon could get me faster over the same wires. (In fact it should be better because Cavalier uses ReachDSL instead of ADSL, right??) I had no choice but to cancel.
I was transferred to Customer care. 20 minutes later, I was actually speaking with someone. These hold times are ridiculous! I was surprised no one offered to re-troubleshoot. For all I know, the guy I got was brand new and didn't know how to fix whatever the heck is wrong. Regardless, I'm tired of dealing with companies that make me hold on the phone for over an hour.
This morning I rechecked the speed to just to make sure, still slow. And still working even though I asked for it to be cancelled yesterday. It'll probably take them another month to shut it off.
So, Comcast is the clear choice in my area. Highest speed and reliability (go figure, you get what you pay for, right.) Oh, one last tidbit. Verizon SUCKS because they block port 80.
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Review by ezsebas
Posted: 2.4 years ago
member for 2.6 years, 12 visits, last login: 1.6 years ago
Springfield,Fairfax,VA
$14 per month
about 10 days
Cavalier
"Inexpensive (NO CONTRACT REQUIRED) Reliable 24/7. Decent DSL"
"Not the Fastest internet out there..OK for the price i guess. NIGHTMARE installation!"
"Decent DSL Conection for a great price"
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I ordered my DSL on April 14th. they Said my service will be ready on April 21st. My dial tone was off for about 4 days(18th, 19th, 20th, 21st) when i finally received a call from Cavalier tellin me that i can now use my DSL service. When i set everything up my internet didnt work, i first thought it was my computer. I called customer service and they said everything was fine. but no. so i figured it must be my computer. i spent a whole day trying to make it work but nothing. i couldnt get the status light on. i finally gave up the next day, they said they would send a professional to see whats goin on. had to wait another 2 days. the technician figured somehow that the problem was outside my house and that he will take care of it, so he took off and said he would be back. for my surprise, He came back with a new MODEM and asked me to try it on. IT WORKED! i was like WTF?! all that 'cuz of a faulty modem (i didnt actually said that) but ya, so he took my modem away and apologized for all the trouble i went through. so yea, after 10 days my internet finally worked! but thats not it. it was WAY too SLOW! more like 56k people pc internet. so i called back and asked why it was so slow (DLS REPORTS GETTING 140k/s SPEED!) the rep said that my internet was set to work a low speeds and he didnt know why, so he changed it and put it at max bandwith, and asked me to try the speed test again. (DSL REPORTS 900k/s!) Finally a DECENT conection! it worked. i bought a linksys WRT54G because we have a couple of computers at home. Everything works smoothly. Now that i think about it, it was REALLY BAD LUCK. i had a faulty modem, and i dont blame them, probly im 1 out of 100 ppl that gets a broken modem. but who knows? i got their plan for 39.95 + taxes for internet and unlimited local calling and DSL for a whole year. it is still a pretty good deal (vs. Verizon $64.95 contract/year) and besides the installation, my internet NEVER went off, its always FAST, and u get all the call features too, for free. thanks for reading!
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Cavalier Telephone
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happy camper
This company sucks!
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