Complain about a product or service

Cavalier Telephone

myron of portsmouth, VA June 15, 2009

My television service is through cavalier. I cant get digital cable because I'm told that cavalier is contracted through the apartments here and digital cable is not offered....yes its 2009 and HD runs rampant but digital cable is not available in the city?? Cavalier's cable service is horrible, channels are fuzzy or just dont come in. I tried calling cavalier's internet service number but I was told that they dont deal with any cable services cavalier has to offer and "have a good day".

Right now Espn along with about 10 other channels including abc are blacked out. I could not watch the NBA game last nite because the channel was blacked out....yes only the most televised sporting event on last night in America and cavalier's crappy cable service was once again defective. This is not the first time I've had trouble, I cant type all the trouble I've had with cavalier (internet included) because my fingers would get too tired of typing. Cavalier is a sad excuse for a business and judging by all the complaints I've read from others I dont understand how they stay in business.

Gloria of Trenton , NJ June 8, 2009

In April 2007 I ordered Cavalier Telephone Service. I wanted to switch from Verizon to Cavalier. I paid the 70 start up fee and was told that it could take 7-10 days to transfer my service because I had an existing account with verizon and it would have to be transferred. Three days later I called in to cancle the service and was told that I would have to file a dispute. After filinf a dispute I was told that I was not entitled to a refund because I cancled the service but I signed no contract because It was over the telephone. I was also told by the CSR that I had a 30 days to cancle and still receive a full refund. Cavalier overdrew by checking account and I had to close it. I have also never received my money back. They never connected my service so I am entitled to a refund, I believe.

Laura of Flint, MI May 17, 2009

In March 2009, I decided to switch phone carriers from Cavalier to Vonage due to multiple issues and terrible service from Cavalier (including billing errors as in not receiving bills monthly, disconnections for not paying bills not received, rude service associates that refuse to deal with legitimate customer issues, etc.) Cavalier has REFUSED to switch my service, REFUSED to port my number, and REFUSED to work with Vonage even though Vonage had all the correct information. Vonage assigned me a new number in frustration. Cavalier has continued to maintain they're my carrier and now are charging me a very high rate AND have disconnected my service again.

I've now been without a land line for over 10 days. I'm being charged a 209.00 bill for a company that REFUSED to let me switch plus 39.00 reconnect AND a security deposit before they'll restore my service. Service has to be restored before I can switch phone companies. This is ridiculous, unacceptable, and unethical. Your advice, direction, and suggestions on how to best handle my situation would be greatly appreciated.

Linda of west chester, PA May 1, 2009

I ordered service for abundle of which I was told I onlu had to pay 35.95 installation fee and then I would be sent a bill for 50 for the month. I made sure I asked if this was the only charge at that time and was told yes. Upon looking at my account online I found out they had debited my account for 150.00.

When I called I got the run around and was told oh they were sorry it was not explained to me. I told them to cancel it and put my money back in my account. The person I spike with said she would put in a request to a supervisor since she could not authorize a refund and it shoul take 3 business days. What kind of bull is that. I will be checking in 3 days and belive me I will be a nightmare if it is not back in my account. Better business or somebody needs to do something about this company

Roy of Cleveland, OH April 20, 2009

I attempted to establish phone and DSL service with Cavalier for a few weeks in 2008. The modem they supplied was impossible to make an internet connection by, and I spent hours on the phone for several days trying to establish connection. After 2 weeks they still insisted that the problem was with my computer, even though I had it looked at by a qualified technician friend, who was also unable to establish a connection. My computer never had a problem before or since. Cavalier refused to send out a technician, and from reading other complaints I know why... because even their own techinicians aren't able to resolve the problem. I ended up having to cancel their 'service'. This was the worst company I've ever had the displeasure of trying to reason with. They were a total waste of time and money. Future customers beware - don't go there!

Lost about 40 in the long run.

Carol of Decatur, GA April 12, 2009

If you have a business and operate at all on weekends, you do not want Cavlier telephone service. Their customer service dept totally closes for the weekend. During the last weekend before April 15th, all of our e mails went down. As an accounting firm, many clients have been trying to email figures to us for finalization of tax returns. Not being able to receive information has been a total diaster for us. Although we have called several times and contacted the hostmaster, we have been told that the customer service dept totally closes for the weekend, no one one on emergeny call and we were out of luck. Another time we had a problem with voice mail over the weekend. the response was the same. The service is terrible. If you have a business, be prepared to be put out of business by Cavelier.

This put us out of business for tax weekend and caused a disaster for us.

Linda of Leesburg, VA April 9, 2009

Hello. I'm writing to review Cavalier Telephone. This is the worst company I have ever done business with. I'm frequently faced with Customer Service Reps who do not have the necessary information to do their job, which is bad, but with this company, it is more a matter of the actual company policies that are underhanded and downright illegal.

I signed up for Cavalier Telephone in Virginia in early March 09. Thankfully I did not take them up on their offer to refer anyone else because I wanted to see how it worked out first. I would have been mortified if I had gotten anyone else caught up in what I'm dealing with. It took them over 10 days to get my service activated, even though I received my DSL modem long before then. Once I received notification that my service had been activated, I attempted to install the modem. I am very computer savvy and have never had a problem with self-installation. However, with this service, the installation did not work at all, and would have been impossible for a non-computer person to follow. When I had trouble with the install, and received a notification that I needed to call tech support, the number provided in the install wizard was for directory assistance in New York, not their tech support.

I finally found the number for their tech support and called it. After waiting on hold for over 15 minutes (the standard time for anything other than signing up) I got an agent who did not know anything about how modems work. She was just following a script, and not very well at that. She even went so far as to tell me the reason I couldn't pick up the wireless signal was because of my computer, even though I was picking up other signals in my complex at that very moment, and have used the same computer to pick up wireless signals everywhere from my public library to the local coffee shop. We finally scheduled a technician to come out (they had offered a free professional installation, which I had not expected to need to take them up on).

The day before he was to come, I figured out how to fix the problem myself (the install defaults to a silly option for security and you have to manually fix it, which works differently depending on whether your wireless is managed by Windows or other software). He came out anyway just to check for any other problems. While he was here, he literally asked me show him how I got the wireless running. Turns out that they didn't even train their own installation professionals on how their convoluted install process works before sending them out to perform installs.

Even after my wireless was installed, I continued having problems, so another trouble call was scheduled. The technician did not come during the scheduled window, even though I explained that I was leaving town the next day and would not be back for two weeks. So, they agreed to call me to schedule a trouble call for when I return and to credit me back for the time that I was without service (basically since I joined).

Of course, they did not bother to call, but it was too late by then anyway. My previous phone company had agreed to beat their offer, so I decided to switch back. Turns out, when Cavalier asked during sign up if it was okay for them to place a freeze on my long distance carrier preventing anyone from switching me without my express permission that they also illegally placed a hold on my local and regional carrier. So, in order for me to even schedule a number port from them to my new (formerly old) carrier, I had to call them. I did, and was told that it would take 7-10 business days for them to allow the number to be accessed by the new carrier, and then 7-10 more business days before the actual service could be switched.

Not wanting to stay with such a terrible company a day longer than necessary, I decided to suck it up and just get a new number. After all, they claimed that the reason it was going to take so long was because of the complex issues involved with number portability (although they seem to be the only ones with these complex issues...). So, I called my carrier back and told them to set me up with a whole new number. I also asked them at that time if I needed to do anything to notify Cavalier that I was cancelling. They indicated that it is not possible for two phone carriers to be on the same line at the same time, so once their service kicked in on my activation date, Cavalier would no longer be my carrier. As such, I did not have to call them unless I Just wanted to. I almost did not call them since I figured even an underhanded company like Cavalier wouldn't try to charge me after I'm with another carrier, right?

Turns out that they claim it takes up to 10 business days for their system to fully close out an account. I am incredulous, asking them why it takes them 10 days to discontinue service when other companies can do it in a matter of hours. No, they corrected me. My actual service would be disconnected within 24-48 hours from the time I made the request but it would take the system 10 business days to close out the account and they planned to continue charging me during this time. I pointed out that on April 17 my other carrier would begin providing service and there was no way they could possibly claim to be providing service when I had another carrier providing service on that line. No matter, it is evidently standard practice for them to charge long past the time the service is disconnected anyway.

By this point I am livid. I mean, I have never had full internet service; they refused to let me port my number gracefully, and now they are telling me that they are going to knowingly charge me for services they have no intention of providing. So at this point I mention the 30 day guarantee. It seems if you cancel within 30 days, you are supposed to be responsible for only the shipping, fees, and taxes you were charged. Well, since my phone worked even while my internet wasn't, and since the shipping, taxes, and fees came to roughly an amount that I would consider fair for the phone service, I was willing to accept that and instructed them to cancel my account immediately under the guarantee. But then the agent informs me that since it takes them 10 days to close out the account (even though my service would be disconnected within 24 hours of the request) that would put me past 30 days from March 17, and so I would not be eligible for the 30 day guarantee.

I almost laughed before I realized the agent wasn't kidding. I am telling them to cancel my service on the 24th day of having it, after multiple calls telling them it isn't working (so it's not like I waited until the 29th day or anything) and they are saying that since they can't get their ducks in a row to close out my account until two weeks from today (the 10th business day) that I am not within the time of the 30 day guarantee--even though I am calling on the 24th day!

Basically, this company is dishonest, underhanded, and sneaky, and they also have poor customer service (even before they knew I was planning to cancel), poor tech support, and poor software design. In short, they are just plain bad. Please please do NOT work with this company under any circumstances no matter how good the deal they are offering seems.

(to put this in perspective, I had had several bad experiences with my previous carrier over the past 5 years, which is why I originally left for Cavalier Telephone. The experiences I have had with this company are so bad that I am literally THRILLED to be going back to that carrier, even with a 5 year history of problems.)

Matt of Farmington Hills, MI April 1, 2009

I was reviewing the elderly mothers personal bills when I discovered two bills, one from AT&T and one from Cavalier. Not from Michigan, I wasn't sure what Cavalier was and the bill didn't tell me much. My mother was paying a few dollars a month, for something called energy Recovery Charge. If a payment was late, she was charged some late payments.

I contacted Cavalier and spoke to a women who was helpful. After further examination of the account, she discovered that the Cavalier service was actually cancelled in March of 2008, but that the energy recovery charge continued monthly, and in some months a late charge. She went back and closed the account again, including the additional charges and explained a refund check would be issued in four to six weeks for the amount of 44.71.

I thought this is something people should be aware of, specifically the elderly. Though this was a small amount, the company should have been aware they were issueing bills on closed accounts. Once notified, they were helpful and polite. Hopefully, they follow through with the refund and no further billings.

Jodi of Grand Rapids, MI March 2, 2009

We joined Cavalier Telephone in December 2008 with the promise of lower prices, great customer service and a 90 day satisfaction guarantee. We were also promised 2 months free service. On February 24, 2009 our phone service was disconnected. I called in a repair order and learned that our phone bill was past due.

I inquired how this could be since we had never received any bills and that we were to have the first 2 months free. The very rude customer service rep stated that they had been sending our bills and it is our fault for not paying and that is why our phone was disconnected. I asked her what address they were sending the bills to and she provided an incorrect billing address. I told her that our service agreement had our correct billing address and why were bills not sent to that address. She could not answer that.

After dealing with several rude billing and service people, I was told they would get our service back up and running by the end of the day.

We are a small medical facility and were without phone service for 4 hours. Up to this point, we also had problems with dropped call and bad connection. During the course of our first 2 months with Cavalier, we had 2 repair orders - never had ANY problem with our other phone company in the 9+ years we had them. Only swithced to Cavalier to save money in a down economy.

LONG story short, now Cavalier is not allowing us to cancel our contract even though we are still in the 90 satisfaction range - they are saying we will have to pay high penalties. Also, no one is responding to my calls at this point. Honesty and integrity are something this company does not have and I hope no other business signs up with Cavalier you will be sorry if you do!

Mariah of Utica, MI February 12, 2009

Cavalier - Poor customer service and trying to get rich quick buy ripping off small business will not keep you rich or in business for very long. We were a little late paying our phone bill. We sent a check out January 25th, It was posted to our account on February 7th. is 13 days from when we mailed the check to when it was posted to our account. So maybe the mail lady to 7 days to get our check to cavalier (which is highly unlikely) that still leaves 6 days that our check was at Cavaliers office just sitting there. Meanwhile, We got our new phone bill and there are 4 reconnect fees of 38.50 for each fee.

When i called to ask them why there were 4 reconnection fees on our account they said that they had to put an order in but never went through with disconnecting or reconnecting our service. So I asked them to take the charges off they said they couldn't because they had to put the order in. But why didn't they suspend our service when it was scheduled on the 6th. I know why because they had our check and purposly didn't post it to our account until the day after our shut off was going to take place. Just so they could have a reason to charge our account 4 reconnection fees. We won't be signing a new contract with cavalier, their service isn't that great.

154.00 (that we don't have) in false charges

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