New Contributor
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3 Messages
BVE Installation & Customer Service a TOTAL disappointment
I'll jump to the chase - we are still within our 30 day "money back guarantee" window with Comcast BVE. Is this system worth the hassle or should we get out while we can?? We had the Comcast BVE installed last week and even though we only have 12 phones, the installation took over 7 hours. When the technician was finally done, he just left with no instruction whatsoever on how to use the phones. I've read the help manuals, watched the videos and tried to get assistance from our Project Manager to no avail. I've identified six problems so far that, in my opinion, are just basic issues (dial by name does not work, etc.) and should have been addressed and fixed quickly. I'm going on day 4 of lost productivity because I can't figure it out myself and can't get a live person on the phone to help. I was told to put a ticket in with Customer Service and was on hold for 19 minutes before someone picked up the phone. When someone finally answered, she could not help and transferred me to the "trunking" department. After being on the phone for 42 minutes, all they did was take a list of problems and give me a ticket number. I was told to expect a return call in 1.5-2 hours. Should we stay with Comcast or try another system?
Accepted Solution
countyfire
Visitor
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6 Messages
9 years ago
We have had a horrible experience, but I would not say it was with "people." It's the whole package.
We choose BVE because it would not be using any of our data connection and the voice would be totally isolated. The actual quality of the calls are standard to any VoIP solution (that is a positive for Comcast). Although, our bar was set pretty darn low and I have had experience with serveral solutions (Mitel, Avaya, Cisco, Verizon, RingCentral to name a few).
We liked the option of using the Cloud vs. on premise for the factor of cost, but functionality is horrible at best. Typical Comcast, as an IT department who supports our organization with 18 locations of BVE, the portal at best is HORRIBLE. It literally takes FOREVER to load anything. Yep, tried, Safari, Firefox, Chrome... all are pitifully slow. It takes forever to make any sort of change. Oh, but we could call in to support and have them make the changes, but they too have to suffer through each mouse click and wait. That would mean a VERY LONG time on the phone with them vs. me being self sufficient.
One would think that a company the size of Comcast would have spent some serious money on the back end vs. using tapes (I'm being sarcastic). How about using flash storage and at least a 10G network backbone to run the application. Sheesh, move it to the Amazon Cloud Services and you will increase performance as they have some killer data center setups. You CAN afford it! You need your VP in charge to actually make some good calls vs. the insanely horrible design today. Fire that guy! Yes, we did notice the "new" design of the portal and the new paging feature, but it's cosmetic. It's still reeeaaalllly sloooowwww.
Polycom phones. Love the phones, but the ability to do so many things are cumbersome at best. The features available on the phones are awesome, but your software does not take advantage of them. Outside of the portal being super slow, the mobile platform is weak and works ok, but its clunky. I presume its due to you choosing a PBX vendor that has what they have and you are at their mercy. gosh, have them look at RingCentral, at least they designed the system to use the features of the Polycom phones!
When we first launched, the simple feature of Caller ID blocking (when a caller calls you and they have their number blocked). If you turn on the feature to force the inbound caller to expose their number before you will except calls, this is done by a caller dialing *82, then your number. If they do not do that, they are prompted that you do not except calls, but you give the caller NO DIRECTION on how to actually make a successful call. What programmer came up with that brilliant idea? At least provide a courtesy message that states (because users are not aware of *82) how to make the call successful. This is standard in the industry and is simple programming. For the record, I was told that this was something they were not going to implement. Not sure why, but hey. It's your phone system.
I really want to make this successful and you guys have an incredible selling feature with customers who have both data and voice. I HOPE that your executive management will wake up and actually invest the cash it takes to crush the competition. Serious, I really like the concept. We also were sold down the road for features that "sort of work," but are clunky.
Right now, for those considering this system, as long as you only have a few phones and only need to dial numbers, place a call on hold and get voicemail, this is your system. Anything more complicated, I would look to other vendors.
We are still a customer, we are trying to make this work well, but this service is IMHO still very immature and needs someone at the top who knows what they are doing. Whoever the Executive VP running BVE today should be fired!
For the record... the agents are really nice! I mean that. Truly good people. BUT... for the most part are weak supporting the product. They just need time and experience under their belts assuming they were recently hired off the street with zero VoIP experience. They do have a few folks who are ok. Comcast just needs to be hammered and they need to look at the competition so they can improve.
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CC_John
Retired Employee
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1.9K Messages
9 years ago
HIGKowalski1242. I apologize for the issue your've encountered with the recent installation of you Comcast Business Services. I contacted the Business Service Center informed and they informed me they were engaged today to assist with resolution your service issues. Please let me know if additional assistance is needed.
Thank You
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disappointedinPA
New Member
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1 Message
9 years ago
Gkowalski1242 - I feel your pain! I have had 3 other phone systems installed in my business over the past 20 years and I've never been left in the dark like the Comcast install. I expected my phone to be setup by Comcast professionals who know their system and how it works - NOT setup by me, who does not know their phone system and how each component works! In one day, I'm ready to send the phone back within our 30-day "money back guarantee" window! I've wasted hours of my work and personal time reviewing videos, with little to no real information to get me up and running quickly. The one setup they did do was mysteriously undone the next day when we came back into our office.
Honestly, this is the worst customer service after the sale I've ever seen! I explicitly went to Comcast's demo room in my city to make sure the phones would do the simple things I needed. Never did I expect to be left in the dark after installation. The wiring installation contractor was great. It's Comcast's "now that you bought it, I'm done" and "now you're on your own" attitude. Maybe Comcast should talk to Amazon and learn about full-circle customer service! If I gave this kind of service to my non-profit membership we would have been out-of-business a long time ago.
I'd like to suggest to Comcast that you have a phone technican follow the install contractor. Ask your customer how they would like their phone system to work, then set it up for them. Build this service into the install fee, if necessary. Better to have happy customers than upset customers posting comments on the web. Save the inital setup to a DEFAULT file to revert to anytime needed. This would allow the customer to play with the system and always go back to their original default setup effortlessly. By the way, this is common sense to me, but since Comcast didn't think of it, my fee for this idea is a free setup! lol
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GKowalski1242
New Contributor
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3 Messages
9 years ago
Between calling customer service and posting on this forum, I finally got all of my issues addressed. I still lost 5 days of productivity but the phone system seems to be working properly now. I was fortunate enough to find two Comcast employees who were very customer-service oriented and seemed to know the product well. Unfortunately, I think they are the exception and not the rule. Before I found these stellar employees, I was working with our "project manager". After trading several emails, he left me a voicemail after hours (5:46 p.m.) last Friday and told me our issues would be addressed early this week. It's now been a full week and I still have not heard from him. I did get a "noreply" email informing me that the VoiceEdge services have now been implemented and our order is complete. I think the Comcast BVE can be a good solution but they definitely need to work on customer service, training and follow-through. Good luck!
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CC_John
Retired Employee
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1.9K Messages
9 years ago
HI disappointedinPa. Sorry to hear of your disappointment with the the set-up of your Comast Voice services. We appreciate your feedback as to how we can improve on the delivery of our services. If you will send me a private message with your contact details I will engage our BVE Customer Trainer to assist you with completing the set-up of your services.
Thank You
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BLibersher
New Member
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1 Message
9 years ago
run... and run fast... Took us 3 months for installation. A year later we finally got a great customer service guy yesterday that actually fixed our issues! Ask for Elliot if you're able to ask for a customer service guy. He's the one who finally took the time to help me fix all of our issues.
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GKowalski1242
New Contributor
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3 Messages
9 years ago
We finally found someone who was a tremendous help and all seems to be fine now. My advice to anyone considering the system is to get a full commitment from their sales person that they will track the installation and support until the customer is satisfied. Once the installer left, we could never get ahold of the salesperson again. Comcast needs to up its game. They are not currently "built for business".
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JacquiAWP
New problem solver
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20 Messages
9 years ago
I agree - I've had a couple of training sesions via the web portal which were good, but the initial set-up was terrible - it took over 12 hours with no training-they couldn't get out fast enough - that being said I still have issues here and there & the fact that Comcast can't get it together enough to set up a system when a ticket is opened to send you the info to keep track of your issues is astounding to me. Currently my issue is with the speaker phone & a delay that is occuring.
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JacquiAWP
New problem solver
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20 Messages
9 years ago
I'm curious if you've had the issue with the delay & speaker phone resolved - we have the same problem - it's about a 5-10 second delay
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CCMichael
Gold Problem solver
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575 Messages
8 years ago
Hello,
If you are experiencing issue with your BVE service please call their dedicated support line at 1-877-761-7401.
Thank You
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emilyemily
New Member
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1 Message
8 years ago
This phone number is a black hole. Anytime I call, I'm put on hold for 30+ minutes. It only ends when I get fed up & hang up or when whoever is on the other line hangs up on me, first. This phone number should not even be given out as help - as you will not be helped.
That's an easy cop-out, Comcast_Michael. Try addressing the issues.
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