 Review by hsindogg 
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 7.3 years, 2791 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Baltimore,Baltimore City,MD
 $65 per month (12 month contract)
 about 95 days
 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."
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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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 Online DSL by hsindogg
Cancelled with them as well as their support/installation was horrible.
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