Birch Communications

If I could, I really would give it a NEGATIVE 5-​star review. I read all other reviewers’ 1-​star review and couldn’t agree with them more on all incidents and issues.
Because I signed a 3-​year contract in 2012 at a ridiculously high price for this T-​1 line for my business, whenever I called, they would tell me that they will transfer me to the Elite account team. One time, I asked why my account is «Elite». They told me it is because of the premium fee I pay every month. However, the service I received from this Elite account team is never Elite quality. At the end of 3^rd year, I called and talked to them about not renewing and just wanted to keep it month to month. They said OK (I think it was CBeyond then). Now, I am ready to change the provider since this T-​1 line speed is unbelievably slow at 0.17, all of a sudden, they dropped their mediocre customer service down to another lower level and became even uglier and meaner. I found out they auto-​renewed my contract as soon as my 3-​year contract expired 11 months ago despite of the fact that I called and talked to them about it. My renewed contract is finally approaching the expiration date again. So I was asked to notify them by email of my intention not to renew. Guess what? I followed their instruction by sending that email and WHAM, I got a response back from their EAM (Elite Account Management) laying out all rules about it is our responsibility to return all equipment in mint condition and if we involve their technician to remove the equipment, it will cost us $ 200, and we (the customer) need to do this and that, and porting out number is not their responsibility. OMG, they are the worst and it seems to me that they know they are going to lose the fat monthly fee from me, so they simply turn into a vindictive monster! What a horrible customer service! What a unpleasant experience! Leave bad taste in my mouth for a long time to come.
Run away as fast and as far as you can from this company. Do not ever fall into their trap because, if you are, you will be mistreated just like the rest of us. Worst customer service, worst internet service, worst monthly charge. Pretty much WORST all round.

My workplace was a fairly happy Cbeyond customer. Cbeyond was purchased by Birch, and since the changeover, we’ve had a lot more issues and today was the last straw.
They sent an email to the deceased ex-​partner in the business, asking for confirmation we wanted to continue service. After getting no response, they didn’t call the number of the business, they didn’t email the owner or the admin contact; instead they removed our DNS A and MX records. No warning given, it just happened around lunchtime today. It wasn’t mentioned when I called YESTERDAY about a different outage, either.
The lady I dealt with in customer service was very pleasant (sorry I’m bad about not writing names down) and was able to get us back up and running. She was a pleasure to deal with in a very frustrating situation, but we will be looking into changing providers asap.
²⁄₁₉ update
They did it to us again. I was able to get the name of the person who helped us before, her name was Misty. Today I’m dealing with Nathan and he is a very nice person, but not quite as helpful as Misty was.
He is telling me it can take up to 48 hours for the client hold to be removed, and in the meantime our mail and web servers are unreachable for a lot of our clients. When I asked for an escalation, I was told there is no escalation available for this issue.
On the 2^nd, the problem was fixed in in a few minutes by Misty, but today it is an insurmountable problem with no solution. I asked to speak to Misty, but she is helping another customer. I’m hoping she will call me back soon.

Birch Comm. bought out Cbeyond Comm. as our ISP. Avoid this outfit @ all cost. 1 of our previous employees signed us up for a 3 year contract with 3 Mbps Dn. load /​up load (2) T1 lines agreement. The service is intermittent as we typically only see .86 to 1.4 Mbps bandwidth speed. I’ve documented it for years with no resolution. Whenever it rains we lose (1) of our T1 lines, which Birch blames on ATT which they lease their lines from. I couldn’t wait to terminate their pitiful service @ the end of the 3 year contract in December 2015. I called yesterday & was told the contract had an «auto renewal clause» that requires written notification of termination no more than 90 days & no less than 30 days before the contract period expires or the contract is automatically renewed for 1 year. Even with the documented poor service, they wouldn’t allow a 120 day termination notice. Terrible service is what Birch provides, stay away from this outfit or you’ll regret it. CDean

We were a business internet customer. They provided terrible service. When we switched internet providers, they kept trying to stick us with an ETF despite the fact that we have given adequate written notification several months ahead of time.
I’ve had some pretty bad interactions with telecom customer service.
Avoid this company at all costs.

They didn’t get our router to us before terminating our other internet line with our previous company. They shut our business down for a full day, and when I called to cancel our service, they slapped me with a $ 1750 termination fee.
I’ve never seen a company treat their customers so terribly. Spare yourselves the hassle and expense.

Our managing partner decided to switch our internet service to Birch from AT&T because their rates were lower. They promised to send a router in plenty of time before the switch. But it didn’t come, and the managing partner called, and called, and called, never getting a call back. At the appointed time, our internet service was switched off. Just off. We never got the router. Then when the managing partner called to cancel the service, they deigned to call her back. She explained the gallingly horrible service they had provided, leaving us without internet service. They told her they would be charging us for early termination and that we should feel welcome to lodge a complaint.
I will make it a priority of my company to make sure anyone who regulates Birch knows about this. I will contact their lobbyists and the legislators who sit on the committees with jurisdiction over their issues. This will continue until someone apologizes for making my life worse because they suck.