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Review by heberje 
UPDATED: 50 days ago
member for 164 days, 65 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Kensington,Montgomery,MD
 $72 per month
 Cavalier
 "Reliable, good download speeds"
 "I am far from thier closest dslam so my bandwith never really reaches it's advertised 8MB per second."
 "It has been good for me"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Cavtel sales folks never really tell you that speeds are dependant on your location in relationship with thier closest DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexor), and that would affect your true bandwith.Back end support was good. Since FIOS is not an option for me and I will never use our local cable provider. Thier (Comcast) poor network topology seems to lend to thier unreliability. Verizon had a 3MB metro ethernet service but I am doing a bit better than 3MB with my Cavtel 8MB per second although. because I am quite far from Cavtel's closest DLAM, my speeds are not consistent but very rarely sag under T-1 speeds (1.5MB) which is still better than what I had.
So given my situation Cavtel turned out to be a good value for me at $72.00 per month.Sometimes at certain times of the day like early evening I get these bandwith sags.Don't like that much but it passes and there a lot of things that are just out of the control of the ISP and end user. There are a lot of variables going on in between ISP and user that will also affect line QoS,
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Review by kainam00
Posted: 145 days ago
member for 4.6 years, 36 visits, last login: 4 days ago
Troy,Oakland,MI
 Business customer
$500 per month (24 month contract)
 about 30 days
Cavalier
"Speed, price"
"Horrible reliability, rude, slow, and incompetent customer service"
"If you like having your ISP on speed dial, get Cavalier"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
We've got a couple cavalier T1's to replace ones from XO... seemed like a good deal, price-wise, at the time.
Since we got the service a year ago, it has been nothing but a headache.
INSTALLATION:
We are an application hosting company and have had two class-C IP blocks from XO before switching to Cavalier. This requirement has been EXPLICITLY relayed to Cavalier sales people and put into the contract. However, when the tech showed up to set everything up, he was about to only give us 10 IP addresses. He got sent back, and it took us another two weeks of arguing with Cavalier to get our IP addresses, despite it being in the contract. The second time the tech came out, the T1's were configured with the wrong IP information again, causing it not to work... took Cavalier tree days to resolve. The "backup" DSL service they installed for us did not work either, and took many calls to fix.
SPEED:
The speed is usually pretty good, until you start actually using the connection. Cavalier core routers seem to be set up to drop packets if the connection approaches capacity. We see 15-20% packet loss almost daily, and according to Cavalier this is 'normal'. I've talked to everyone up to top level district managers about this, and the only solution they had was to replace our local Adtran with a Cisco unit, which helped a little.
RELIABILITY / SERVICE:
One word - horrible. I have never had such a horrible experience with a dedicated high-availability circuit like a T1 before. Additionally, there only seems to be a few people working the tech dept at Cavalier, because the service is horribly slow, and requires multiple phone calls to actually get someone to work on your problem. Incompetence runs rampant as well, techs don't seem to care about anything, will bring down the circuit at any time without any warning, will leave the router in test mode...etc
Here is an actual example of ticket history from our internal documentation:
----------BEGIN--------------
* 1454xxx - Packet Loss
o 11am 6/30/2009 - Packet loss and routing problems
o DM called cavalier at 11:20am 6/30/2009, opened trouble ticket.
* 1445xxx - T1 down
o T1 down at 11:30am 6/17/2009 - DM called Cavalier, told they are working on it.
o DM 12:05 - Cavalier called SS (out of the office, could not verify) and told him that everything is up and running and that they will test more after hours. DM verified that the T1 was still down, called Cavalier back and told them to do the intrusive testing now, since everything is actually down anyway. Told that they will do it, will take about 15 mins, and will call me back.
o DM 13:00 - no word from Cavalier, called them for an updated. After a run around, finally got through to someone who said that AT&T was on it. Requested the number of the AT&T tech, was not given it, instead the Cavalier tech said he will contact AT&T and call me back.
o DM 13:20 - Cavalier called back saying AT&T will be on site in 10 minutes.
o DM 13:30 - AT&T showed up, looking at the jack.
o DM 15:30 - AT&T replaced the wire going to the building, internet connection came back up, but one of the lines was still in a "loop" due to something Cavalier set in the router earlier (for testing) and never removed.
o DM 15:40 - Called Cavalier, had them fix the router. Everything seemed to come back up properly.
* 1421xxx - T1 down
o T1 down @ 15:13 5/7/2009
o SS called in to Cavalier at 15:19 5/7/2009. Opened ticket. No news call ends 15:29
o SS 16:19 - Call Cavalier 1 hour later. Notified there is a major network event for the whole Troy area. Told to wait and do nothing
o SS 17:16 - Call Cavalier 1 hour later- Told that the major network event is over. Should be working now. We are not. Put on hold unitl 17:32. Tech is very combative and told me they would have to send a tech out and theres nothing he can do.
o SS 17:35 - Call Cavalier - put on hold until 17:50. Talk to technician who says she will have to work on it and call me back.
o SS 17:55 - Reboot Cavalier's router after DM calls to tell me the tech called him instead of my phone number, even though i requested they call me back on my number. Things are working again. 2.5 hours downtime and no call back from tech still.
* 1416xxx - T1 down
o T1 down @ 1am 5/1/2009
o DM Called in to Cavalier at 2:10am 5/1/2009. Opened ticket, told that I would receive a call back shortly.
o DM 3:30 am - no call back. Called Cavalier for an update, told that they were testing the circuit and would call me.
o DM 3:45 am - call back from David@Cavalier. Had me reboot the router, got on it, and fixed whatever the problem was.
o DM 8:25 am - T1 went down again.
o DM 8:30 am - Called Cavalier, was told that we are part of a larger network outage in that area. The tech did not have an ETA, or any idea what was wrong specifically, but said to call back in an hour.
o DM 8:55 am - T1 came back up.
o DM 9:00 am - Called Cavalier to find out the cause. Said they closed the ticket. They didn't know and told me to call later.
o DM 11:00 am - T1 down again, called Cavalier and reopened the ticket.
o DM 11:30 am - Still intermittently down, no word from Cavalier.
* 1373xxx - T1 down
o DM Called about T1 going up and down at 17:43pm 2/22/2009. Told them that it's dying at the core router. Agent name: Kelli (?) ID: 79541
My traceroute [v0.71]
vx.x.net (0.0.0.0) Sun Feb 22 17:46:06 2009
Resolver error: Received reply from unknown source: 68.87.72.132s quit
Packets Pings
Host Loss% Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1. 192.168.0.1 0.0% 1.0 1.3 0.0 17.2 1.0
2. ???
3. ge-2-3-ur02.macomb.mi.michigan.comcast. 0.0% 8.3 17.7 3.1 194.0 20.3
4. te-9-2-ur03.macomb.mi.michigan.comcast. 0.0% 8.5 16.1 7.1 115.1 14.1
5. te-0-1-0-2-ar01.pontiac.mi.michigan.com 0.0% 11.4 19.0 4.6 219.3 18.0
6. pos-1-4-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comca 0.0% 56.7 30.1 8.6 172.4 14.6
7. xe-9-3-0.edge1.Chicago2.Level3.net 0.2% 25.6 34.3 11.2 221.6 22.8
8. vlan52.ebr2.Chicago2.Level3.net 0.2% 23.8 30.2 10.0 294.9 16.3
9. ae-5.ebr2.Chicago1.Level3.net 0.4% 35.5 35.1 17.4 288.9 16.7
10. ae-8-8.car1.Detroit1.Level3.net 0.2% 28.4 45.9 24.0 313.9 39.0
11. TALK-AMERIC.car1.Detroit1.Level3.net 55.4% 72.4 34.3 13.3 257.2 16.9
12. reverse.109.125.184.66.static.ldmi.com 55.0% 33.3 35.6 21.3 193.9 13.4
13. reverse.114.255.114.209.static.ldmi.com 55.0% 38.8 39.5 18.8 133.7 12.2
14. reverse.x.x.x.x.static.ldmi.com 58.4% 42.4 44.1 26.5 237.6 17.8
15. xxxx.com 58.3% 40.9 45.3 36.8 174.5 14.7
*
o DM - 7:26pm 2/22/2009 - no call back from Cavalier, T1 still down. Called and got the same tech, he said that they are waiting on AT&T, told him it's not a line problem and if he did a traceroute he would see that. He tried to track down a T1 tech, but he (the T1 tech) was not at his desk, had him transfer me over to the T1 department but no-one answered. Supposed to get a call back shortly.
o DM - 7:40pm 2/22/2009 - Cavalier T1 tech called, said AT&T saw a fault and needed to come out. I need to be there, apparently they called me (which they haven't) and left a voicemail (which they haven't). Told Cavalier AT&T never called, he said he would get a hold of them and have them call me.
o DM - 8:00pm 2/22/2009 - T1 still down - No word from Cavalier so called AT&T myself, got Sharol (313-496-2608). AT&T ticket number - HD332140. AT&T Direct number - (800)230-3442
o DM - 10:00pm 2/22/2009 - T1 still down data and voice - Drove into the office because Cavalier insisted I had to be here to let AT&T to the smart jack. Apparently the smart jack is outside. AT&T guy already gone when I got here, not sure what he did.
o DM - 10:34pm 2/22/2009 - Called the AT&T tech (586-876-0406) for an update - everything is ok from our end to the "box", tech is at the fiber hub now checking that.
o DM - 11:40pm 2/22/2009 - AT&T tech found a loose wire - T1 back up.
* 1343xxx - Packet loss and intermittent outages
o DM Called about loss at 66.184.125.221 (fourth hop in traceroute) and intermittent outages at 12:10pm 1/6/2008
o DM Cavalier called back at 12:30pm 1/6/2008 telling me they are seeing an issue and are going to test it. Direct call back number: 800-382-4288 ext 22241
o DM T1 went down at 7:30pm 1/6/2009. Called Cavalier for an update on the ticket, supposed to get a call back from them, never happened.
o DM T1 went down briefly at 10:05am 1/7/2009 again.
o DM Called Cavalier at 10:10am 1/7/2009, they have tested it the night before without calling me (despite it being specified in all CAPS in the ticket). The level 1 tech had no answers, transferred to level 2, who also had no answers, had to explain to her that the problem was at their router, said she will speak with the switch and transport people and get back to me. Direct call back number: 800-382-4288 ext 22241.
o DM 4:14pm 1/7/2009 - No call back from Cavalier so I call (Karen ID 75021), says no updates to the ticket.
o DM 4:38pm 1/7/2009 - Call back from Lynette (or Annette?) (level 2) confirming that there is a problem with an internal router. They are supposed to look at the router tonight.
o DM 8pm-ish 1/7/2009 - Cavalier tested the circuit extensively, checked and normalized the timing...etc. Called and said everything looks ok.
o DM 9am 1/8/2009 - Still getting between 10-15% packet loss at the 4th hop.
o DM 11am 1/8/2009 - Annette? From Cavalier calls and says she is still seeing packet loss and that it is indeed probably their router, since they checked everything else last night. She will get in touch with their lead tech on this and have him look at it.
o DM 12pm 1/9/2009 - 20-30% packet loss today. Even the phone is not working well.
o DM 1pm 1/9/2009 - Called Cavalier, still no answers, Anette agrees there is a problem but has no answers.
o DM 2:40pm 1/9/2009 - Phones are unusable, called Cavalier and told them to resolve this now.
o DM 2:50pm 1/9/2009 - Cavalier resolved the phone problem, said someone else will be out to check the Adtran today.
o DM 5:40pm 1/9/2009 - Cavalier tech (Bob) came out and changed the Adtran. Pings look normal now. Call Bakary (Cronix group) @ 248-440-4168 if problems continue.
o DM 10:20am 1/12/2009 - 15-20% packet loss again, same spot.
o DM 6:10pm 1/13/2009 - Mark @ Cavalier took the T1 down for testing without telling us. Didn't find anything.
o DM 1/13/2009 - Bakary sent us an email with the traffic graphs to try to say that the packet loss is due to that, replied saying it shouldn't be.
* 1338xxx - 25 percent packet loss
o SS Called at 12:10 pm 12/29/2008 regarding packet loss at 66.184.125.221 (fourth hop in traceroute)
o SS Operator - Karen ID 75021 - New ticket opened, no new data given.
o SS Testing shows that traffic coming in from XO yields no packet loss (from secure5) but anything coming in over Level3 is around 25 percent (secure3) - outgoing to secure5 and secure3 is still high in loss
o SS 8:05 pm 12/29/2008 - Charles called and said there were issues in the area, and if there are still problems to call and let them know. Packet loss still exists, so I am calling them back.
o SS 9:12 pm 12/29/2008 Called and talked to Mark ID 75859 - reopened ticket and sent him an email to mkabiskhiroon@cavtel.com containing mtr ping/traceroute reports showing loss. Email is attached to the bottom of the page "Packet Loss problems on 12/29/2008 for Cavalier network"
* 1334xxx - Intermittent outage of Voice and Data
o DM - Opened ticket at 10:55am 12/22/2008
o DM - Cavalier followed up around noon 12/22/2008. Said everything looked good now.
o SS - Called to confirm outage between 2:15 - 2:35 A.M. 12/23/2008 - tech said they were testing the lines which caused outage
o DM - Called again because of packet loss. Cavalier updated the ticket and sent over to L2 - 2:25pm 12/23/2008
o DM - Cavalier called back saying they will get ATT involved and let me know when the testing will take place 3:00pm-ish 12/23/2008
o DM - T1 went down completely, voice and data 3:50pm 12/24/2008
o DM - Cavalier said they see the outage, they will call the "vendor" (ATT) about the line and let me know what's going on. 4pm 12/24/2008
o DM - 4:30pm 12/24/2008 - line still down. 10-20% packet loss at Cavalier CO hops. No word from Cavalier.
o DM - 4:50pm 12/24/2008 - followed up with Cavalier. Packet loss 70% at CO, 100% on line. Cavalier confirmed line being down and transferred the ticket
to AT&T.
*
o DM - 5:20pm 12/24/2008 - Still down.
o DM - 6:20pm 12/24/2008 - Call from Cavalier. New ticket opened with AT&T (apparently one wasn't opened already?!)
o DM - 7:12pm 12/24/2008 - Still down. No word back from Cavalier or AT&T
o DM - 7:16pm 12/24/2008 - Traceroutes are not making it into Cavalier network at all. Stops at XO from the west and Level 3 from the east.
o DM - 10:46pm 12/24/2008 - Still down, traceroutes dying before Cavalier with "host unreachable" (!H)
o DM - 10:51pm 12/24/2008 - Called Cavalier, AT&T checked everything on their end and it looks good. Told Cavalier that it looks like it's one of their routers. Said that they are looking into it and will give me a call back.
o DM - 10:55pm 12/24/2008 - Cavalier called back, they looked at the router and found out that it's actually broken (didn't think that I was the one who had to tell them their stuff is broken?). Scheduled a maint. window for midnight.
o DM - 1:23am 12/25/2008 - Still down at the same router. Called Cavalier for an update, the tech there knew nothing about the maintenance window for the router and said he was the only one there. Said he would look at it and give me a call back in 10 minutes.
o DM - 3:27am 12/25/2008 - Call back from Cavalier, apparently 10 minutes means 2 hours. They say the router issue is fixed, but a line tech now needs to go on-site and fix a more local problem. Promises to call me with an update in a couple hours.
o DM - 11:25am 12/25/2008 - Still down. Router issue is STILL there! No word from Cavalier.
o DM - 11:30am 12/25/2008 - Called Cavalier. Still no concrete updates, gave the tech a piece of my mind. Told me I will get a call back in 10 minutes.
o DM - 12:20pm 12/25/2008 - Finally get a call back from Cavalier. Apparently our outage is a part of a bigger network event and there is a tech en-route to the location of the equipment (still 45 min away?! It's been down for 20 hours!). Apparently they also had the wrong IP information associated with the ticket/our account, so they were working on the wrong equipment all day yesterday... they should have at least confirmed it with me if they weren't sure.
o DM - 12:50pm 12/25/2008 - The routing problem has finally been resolved. T1 back up.
* 1322xxx - Packet loss (between 10%-25% all day)
o DM - Opened ticket at 15:23 12/4/2008
o No follow up from Cavalier
* 1303xxx - Intermittent outages throughout the day
o DM - Opened ticket 15:15pm 11/5/2008
o SS - Called at another outage at 17:00 - rep told me they arent allowed to work on anything until after 20:00
o SS - Called at 20:54 11/5/2008 - no update on status
o DM - Called at 23:07 11/5/2008 - Cavalier tech said ATT supposed to come out tomorrow (11/6/2008) to fix the issue
* 1239xxx - Packet loss
o DM - Opened ticket 12:50pm 8/21/2008
o DM - Cavalier followed up 4:50pm - Nothing found, asked for traceroutes to be emailed to dewoods@cavaliertelephone.com
o DM - Emailed traceroutes 8/25/2008
* 1233xxx - Packet loss - Closed 8/15/2008
----------END--------------
CLIFF NOTES: Horrible service and reliability. Low price.
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Review by ab0z1
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 3.2 years, 2 visits, last login: 1 year ago
Grand Rapids,Kent,MI
$99999 per month
about 999 days
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:
(ratings match consensus)
|
*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.
Followup comments:  Lenagainster
join:2005-01-07
Silver Spring, MD | Rating You rated them too highly. :>) | |
| 
semick
join:2002-05-12
Cleveland, OH
 ·RoadRunner Cable
 ·Cavalier Telephone
| 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 | oh cmon... SERIOUSLY? The review is updated with further shenanigans that would be funny if they weren't actually occurring. | |
| | | |
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Review by joey_rogo
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 1.1 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.1 years ago
Buffalo,Erie,NY
$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:
(ratings match consensus)
|
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.
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Review by markd9
Posted: 1.3 years ago
member for 1.3 years, 2 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
Detroit,Wayne,MI
$40 per month
about 8 days
"Technician visit was friendly. Static IP."
"Long wait for equipment, sales rep lies, worst "broadband" service ever!"
"Not even if you're desperate to intertron."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
If you're in Detroit (not suburbs, the city), you've seen the many ads during local programming (mostly sports) for Cavalier Telephone (formerly known as LDMI), and their alleged 8.0 mbps ADSL2.0. I live in an area that Comcast has yet to provide broadband to (and it's not the "hood" either), and had ATT dry-line DSL which was only getting me about 130k/s down and 35k/s up max. Plus, my IP would change seemingly every 30 minutes. Kinda sucks when you're making secure IP based connections to places like work, etc and would have to re-sign in because your IP would change in the middle of your session. I kept seeing Cavalier's ads, but couldn't think it was possible to get faster DSL service since I know that ATT owns the telco, so no matter what company was offering the service, you still had to deal with ATT's connection. With today's downloads being larger and larger, I finally gave in and thought I'd try to see what Cavalier was all about.
The sales rep was friendly and somewhat knowledgeable of the verbage I was asking him (dry-line, ADSL2.0, etc), looked up my address and then got me excited by telling me I was very close to "Cavalier's" telco and would definitely be getting at least close to the 8.0mbps that they claim they offer. He also told me that they own their own telco in the area and were independent of ATT. So that means that Cavalier has gone through the city and dropped their own lines and boxes on the poles. Sounded improbable, but I had to press on. Plus, I have seen Cavalier's trucks driving through the city from time to time. Anything had to be faster than what I was getting and they said they had me all taken care of. Had to give an $80 deposit because my credit isn't stellar - I don't quite understand service providers that do this. I can see why DTE Energy would do this for electric service, or a cell phone provider because you have the potential to run up an enormous bill by usage, but for something like Internet or Cable/Satellite TV, you can't accrue a usage bill, and failure to pay should simply mean termination of service. But nonetheless, I paid it.
About two days later, I received a "welcome" mailing from Cavalier telling me my account number and introducing me to the company, and then about three days later my modem came via UPS. On the same day my modem arrived, the tech came out to switch my line over from ATT to Cavalier. And of course, the person that did it was an ATT technician, ATT marked vehicle, ATT identification and all. He was very nice too and just kinda smiled at me when I asked how come ATT was switching me over if Cavalier owns their own boxes and drops.
Inside the house, none of the phone drops seemed to have the right wiring for DSL, so I ran the phone line out the window, directly into the box on the back of the house (plus, that would surely get me the best service as there would be no inside interference - a direct connect from box to modem). Hooked up the modem, plugged it all into the PC (I had a router running OpenWRT, but thought I'd do the direct to PC thing in case their "software" had to do some sort of registration and I know they didn't provide a linux/OpenWRT based installation - of course the modem bound to the MAC address of my PC, but that was easily handled with the OpenWRT interface by masking the router's MAC as the PC's MAC later). Turns out, all their software did was install their own version of the "Internet Technician" that would annoy you everytime you tried to bring up a page that was slow to respond or whatever).
Got everything setup and online and of course the first thing I did was hit up a speedtest site, anxiously and eagerly. Talk about disappointment! After running through three different speedtest sites, the most I got was off of Toast, at 94k/s down and again around 30k/s up. I started to boil. Not only were they jacking off ATT, their stuff was way slower than ATT. And I forgot to mention, I had to cancel the ATT before they could come hook me up, so it wasn't like I could just switch back over. After about two hours, I called Cavalier and was told that my "order" hadn't even been completed yet, so call back within 24 hours if I am still getting the same results, as if their computers would have to "open my line up" to get the ADSL2.0 speeds. And of course, it stayed the same for over 90 days until they finally disconnected me because from day one, I just refused to pay.
In summary, if you're forced to have DSL, stick with ATT, as Cavalier lies about their service in order to get you to sign up. They cannot avoid ATT's telco, no matter what they tell you. They also charge you fees up the wazoo for something simply as making an electronic payment (another reason why I refused to pay - how can an online & phone provider company charge you a fee for making an online or phone payment?!?!), and they just overall suck.
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Review by rossman
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 7.9 years, 36 visits, last login: 249 days ago
Slidell,Saint Tammany,LA
$455 per month (36 month contract)
about 37 days
"Smaller company, American english speaking staff."
"Still have to use the Bellsouth/ATT line"
"No Longer Available"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Product T1:
I talked with these guys and covad for more than a week and could not (in good conscience) go with covad. I tried covad for dsl several years ago and they never got it installed correctly and their price for a T1 ($459) was $150/mo more than Cavalier ($306). Plus covad wanted me to supply PBX equipment while Cavalier supplied all Adtran TSU router with 4 phone outputs and even a UPS! So I chose Cavalier. From what I understand it is a more solid technology taking a 64k channel from the T1 when a phone is lifted and returning it when hung up.
I am very happy that I did, as they are still small enough to have only skilled and knowledgeable employees. Soooo much better than Bellsouth/ATT and the Cablevision!!! (don't you hate the outsourced support too)
After I finally chose the package I wanted and signed the contract, they got started right away. They sent a guy out for a site survey one day, a bellsouth guy came out to drop a line another day, and then the equipment install and line test another day, all before transitioning my phone numbers.
They did run into some problems (of course) with test signals getting looped back to them through bellsouth's line which set us back about a week. After 2 more visits from bellsouth and cavalier it was all working.
On activation day, the visit from the Cavalier Tech was actually quite short as it all worked right out of the box. It's a shame 'cause he was way easier to talk to than anyone form Charter Cablevision.
Needless to say, "I have to recommend a T1." It is actually cheaper than my Red Bull habit. And sooo much more stable than any other option. I have been using broadband since Feb '99. We have tried ADSL, SDSL, dual DSL's (with a xincom dual wan router) cablevision and a "wireless T." This is the best product and the best company we have tried (God please help them keep the quality of service high) update -- rats  (
Cavalier A++ update=B+ update=C+
UPDATE:
Price:
The price quoted and the price billed are 2 completely different thing. I was quoted $296 but am routinely billed $450
Line quality:
The upload speed is typically 1.54m and I am very satisfied. I am able to serve up about 10g per day. The download speed is typically 500k~700k and noticebly slow. It gets worse every time it rains.
I have had the line go out 4 times now. The problem is (of course) the last mile -- Bellsouth's line. The AT&T lineman who repair the line say "If I want a better line that I should sell my house and move, because they have no intention of fixing or replacing our 40+ year old trunk."
Cavtel Support Incedent: I was disappointed (like numerous Cavalier reviewers here) that everything is super until support is needed. I was pleased that there was a separate line/menu for T1 customers to get phone support but it didn't seem to make any difference they fiddled around and blamed their cell phone coverage for not being able to dispatch a tech. It broke down early on friday but I had to wait until monday to get a Cavalier tech to tell me it was Bellsouth's line. Within hours Bellsouth fixed it and we were back in business. Alas! If bellsouth only supported their own customers like that I would still be a loyal bellsouth patron.
Broadband Reports???
I am very displeased in DSLR for deleting my review of bellsouth. It was not a rant, the rating was below average, but it was my honest review of my experience with them. If no one ranks service providers higher or lower than the consensus then there is no way to achieve anything useful -- just AVERAGE for everybody -- and how does that help us shop for better service?? What feedback does that give the Telco's? Can they easier have bad reviews pulled than improving their service?
I just tried getting basic service from cavtel for a friend who is having the SAME problems as everyone else with AT&T and Charter Cable. Cavtel no longer supports Louisiana. I called ALL of the alternate phone companies in the front of the book and (except for re-connect type rip-offs) there is no one other than AT&T
that offers phone service. All voip type companies would require Charter Cable because AT&T allows no dry_dsl regardless of the provider.
Well I blame George Bush and the 911 over-reaction. I am somehow sure that AT&T was allowed to buy up bellsouth, numerous cell companies and so forth to provide Uncle Sam with a more singular source of "evesdropping"
We will soon no longer need Broadband Reports. They will just be able to replace their entire website with a single page that says:
AT&T "Again -- your only choice in communication"
Summary:
Cavalier C+
AT&T FFFFFFF
Charter Cable FFFFFFFFF
Covad D
DSLReports.com gets a C- (somewhat below average but no other useful information is allowed here)
.
Followup comments: 
Horn
@cox.net
1 edit | E-mail sent 9/19 to local office/ aft 72 hrs no response From:(removed)
Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 2:09 PM
To: CustomerRelations@cavtel.com
Subject: Former Customer
Size: 3 KB
(removed)
My experience with Cavalier has been taxing to say the least. May be my phone
and Internet issues are an isolated incident. I ended my service with Cavalier
July 6th 07 the and received a confirmation E-mail from your staff stating: My services
has been disconnected and my balance owed is zero. To which I was given credit on any balance. I received a treating letter
from Cavalier if I do not pay $57.87 by ----date my acct. will be forward to
Settlement dept. which will affect my credit. I call your billing dept. The
Rep. apologized and said not to worry I will not receive anymore bills. I
received another Letter Aug. 2007 stating the same threat. I called the number
on the letter and once again I received an apology and saying I will not receive
any more letters. I received another bill saying my debt has been sent to the
Settlement dept.
If you review my account over the last three or four months as your customer you will see I have
been treated unfair. I do not agree with consumers taking further action on any company unless the company is at fault of neglect or showing disregard to its customer concerns. In today business world 24 hr is a considerate time frame to receive a response. What is your response to a to my . I was hoping on July 6th all this was behind me. I have lost hours of work, time and money due to Cavalier.
Also the issues caused by your company has caused serious consequence for me affecting my College curriculum.. June the stress was to over whelming I
was admitted to the hospital do to the stress. I am asking, It the e-mail and phone conversations I had with stating I owe the co. nothing due to not having access to my P.C. or my phone for 3 months. Or was the e-mails and phone conversations an act of an unprofessional and .
please resolve this issue. I hope to a have a reply with in 24 hours. I will
have my dept. to continue to pull my credit report to insure Cavalier has not
reported this to the Credit Bauer.
Thank You,
(removed) | |
|
T1 jockey
| new Cavalier T1 service I have a Cavalier T1 scheduled for install in two days, the BellSouth/AT&T guy said the local loop will be ready in one day.
service= pure data T1 (I use packet8 for voip - they are excellent)
I will report back on Cavalier.
I have a current AT&T T1 with the disconnect order delayed for 30 days so I can have both circuits up before I make the full jump.
I have had BlueStar (purchased by Covad), Sprint, MCI/UUnet, AT&T and Xspedius circuits, all over the same BellSouth local loop going back to 1998.
BlueStar (Covad) $1175.00 per month, cudos for your CLEC lawsuit that forced BellSouth to install my circuit in the first place, sad to see you go. Covad dropped the circuit like a hot potato, did not want a pure T1 so far outside their envelope.
Sprint excellent circuit, $1020.00/month
MCI/UUnet excellent circuit, best customer service I have ever experienced anywhere. They mapped my entire circuit including the local loop to force BellSouth to keep it patched. Simply the best T1 experience we ever had. $859.00/month
Xspedius $425.00/month very nice people, the circuit was so bad I had to cancel within their 90 day window, cancelled it at 30 days. It was not monitored, I knew more about the hits it was taking than their network guys. This was a couple of years ago and in the Montgomery, Alabama area, hopefully they are much better now or they are out of business?
AT&T - ACC Business an iron clad stable AT&T circuit at the ACC Business rate of $459.00/month Apparently, they do not offer AT&Ts SLA but they jump on every bump. It is a fully AT&T monitored line and if you speak Hindi the customer service is great. Really, the "I have no idea what he just said" aside, the circuit was rock solid. I have my reservations about the carrier now owning the local loop. I have had some issues since the merger and have noticed BellSouth is MUCH slower to fix the local loop than they were when AT&T was a customer, and especially for Sprint and MCI/uunet.
Cavalier $299.00/month never heard of these guys but did some due diligence. Looks like some investment money buying up a bunch of dark fiber by the bankrupt 2000 telecoms. It reads like a billion dollar network purchased for pennies on the dollar - I will report back how they do.
Cavalier experience so far: I was provided their pricing through one of the thousands of online pricing T1 brokers. Once I got the great price I called Cavalier direct as I had never heard of them. Their customer service promptly told me they did not sell T1 products and certainly not in Alabama!! I re-confirmed with my quote provider, location details they said all was made for love. I called Cavalier back, not once, but three times, each time told the same thing! No joy for T1s, and certainly not in the SouthEast. I did some research and found a division that Cavalier purchased that according to their archived website, archive.org, did provide T1s. They answered as Cavalier and yes, they offer T1s. So, circuit not installed yet I see their customer service VP needs to be fired but I figure merging companies can be difficult.
I signed the contract, entered the order. The Cavalier SLA is excellent, as good or better than Sprint or MCI/UUnet. I was sent email contacts to my install rep at Cavalier and was good to go. After a few days, a week or so I was getting concerned as I now have a pending AT&T Disconnect Order for Nov 29 and have seen no connect confirmation from Cavalier. I call my rep and she says that Cavalier is blind at the moment. Their system is not showing the local loop responses, install dates. In other words, they ordered the circuit from BellSouth but have not heard back, neither an install date nor a no-facilities. This is a Cavalier software issue, has me a bit worried. So today, after I emailed Cavalier suggesting they pick up the phone and call BellSouth for an install date the BellSouth tech shows up to provision the local loop. I email Cavalier to send my router and am told they will have a rep to do the install in two days. That's nice, I thought it was a self-install.
I will let you guys know more as I do. | |
| |
T1 jockey
| Re: new Cavalier T1 service BellSouth (AT&T) tech just left completing the local loop circuit. Cavalier is due tomorrow with the router. Looking at the BellSouth order I see that it is Network Telephone listed as customer. Network Telephone (a Talk America company) merged with Cavalier back in December 2006. »www.networktelephone.net/NTCport···rica.htm
I feel better about my "Cavalier" T1 now seeing that Network Telephone has some pretty good reviews at dslreports for T1 service.
I will keep you posted.
Network Telephone = Talk America = Cavalier | |
| | |
T1 jockey
@networktel.net
| Re: new Cavalier T1 service Cavalier came out with their router, a monster compared to the little Lucent Pipelines I had used for AT&T/Sprint/UUnet/Bluestar... but I had to manage them, Cavalier manages this one. For those that don't know, there is no management once it is setup, a ten minute operation. I did ask if I could access it but was told no, I will look up the default passwords and try to jack in to look around. It is an Adtran 608.
The install tech was competent and professional, after checking the circuit he plugged in the router. I tested it side by side against the AT&T and it actually tested a bit faster on the sites and speed tests I chose.
So far so good, just a few days right now but we are very pleased. | |
| | | |
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 Review by pimpddy
Posted: 1.3 years ago
member for 7.7 years, 671 visits, last login: 156 days ago
Philadelphia,Philadelphia,PA
$54 per month
about 25 days
Cavalier
"I can Get on the net"
"Wayyyyyyyyy to long of a wait"
"There is no 8megabit service"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
Very slow speeds,on minute your flying the next your creeping along,the signal drops constantly,now i have called tech support,changed lines,routers,modems and it still drops the signal 7 to 8 times a day.Comcast or verizon are the only sure bets in philadelphia to go with.
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 Review by mike417
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 1481 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Philadelphia,Philadelphia,PA
$67 per month
about 20 days
Cavalier
"Service has been stable."
"Slow at times"
"Cheaper that Verizon and faster based on my CO distance"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
But it is still cheaper that Verizon.
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Review by mohjarr
Posted: 1.4 years ago
member for 1.6 years, 20 visits, last login: 11 days ago
Philadelphia,Philadelphia,PA
$50 per month
about 7 days
Cavalier
"The phone service is ok"
"Horrible DSL service"
"It was a big mistake"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
After I saw their commercials on TV for their Revolutionary New Service C2 !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I decided to give them a try after they mentioned that the speed will go up to 8mbps .
I had verizon Dsl 1.5mbps and I wanted something faster so I did the switch and guess what!! The same day I got the service was the day I decided to cancel with them!
The DSL service was horrible .. It disconnect every a few minutes... I couldn't get higher than 500kbps and not even stable!! The upload used to be just 95kbps most of the time.
I tried to contact their customer service but nobody could do anything and they used to lie saying everything is good from their end and I suppose to be getting at least 1000kbps!!!
Something else about their modem they gave me... They changed the ip address for the http configuration page so you won't be able to see the real speed you are getting and if you asked their customer service no body will give it to you!!!
It was my biggest mistake.. Now I am paying the price for this mistake and switching back to verizon.
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Review by djsky73
UPDATED: 1.5 years ago
member for 1.5 years, 3 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
Belleville,Wayne,MI
$50 per month
Cavalier
"Friendly Pre-Sales"
"Everything from tech support to the service itself is horrible"
"I wouldn't recommend this to anyone"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
Cavalier (or CavTel) has been one long scary nightmare. Signing up for service was a pleasure, as easy as finding out that I can save about $50 if I switch my phone and Internet from AT&T to CavTel. The salesperson on the phone assured me several times that there will be absolutely no interruption in DSL or phone service. And then at the top of the rollercoaster, the awesome ride finally breaks.
5 days later I receive a DSL modem. After connecting it to my PC, I get no connection. To get someone to answer the phone the first time took 45 minutes. The "tech" walked me through 2 troubleshooting steps (both included pinging my LOCAL IP) after which he determined that my network card was bad. My network card worked 5 days ago with AT&T, but to satisfy the tech I connected the CavTel modem to another computer and got same results. "It seems like this network card is bad too", replied the tech. Right... I asked to speak to his supervisor, he hung up the phone on me. I called back and listened to "someone will be right with you shortly" message for 2 hours (I really needed my Internet back). No one ever came to the phone.
The following day I called CavTel tech support in the morning. The gentleman on the other line notified me that at their "busy" times the wait can exceed an hour which in his opinion was just a bunch of you know what. He also promised that one of their "senior" technicians will call me at night so I don't have to wait. Needless to say, the night came and I got no call. After an hour an a half of waiting on the phone I finally reached tech support...again. Same steps as before followed and I was told there is nothing that could be done to get me connected. Coincidentally, none of the "senior" techs were available at that time and all the "managers" were gone for the day. Day two passed...
Day three didn't get me connected either. Once again I patiently waited about an hour for tech support to pick up the phone and when I got someone and explained everything from the beginning (don't these people enter notes into the their Customer Service system?) and threatened to switch back to AT&T. I was told that my modem is faulty and they will ship me a new one overnight. To make sure that this was going to get done, I asked the support tech to call me back with the tracking number of this supposed shipment. "Sure, no problem", he said. The call never came. Day three, four, five, and six passed...
Day seven, I received a modem. So much for overnight FedEx shipment. Plugged it in and the DSL light doesn't want to come on at all. Another faulty modem. As of today, I switched back to AT&T and was out of the Internet Connection for almost 2 weeks. I'll end up paying a little bit more but at least I will have the service re-instated in a few days. Or so I hope.
Thank you CavTel...Thank you for everything...NOT!!!
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