Birch Communications

STAY AWAY FROM ANYONE THAT CALLS FROM BIRCH!!! They misrepresent themselves as your current provider, which in our case AT&T. They are extremely aggressive and questions why we do not want to sign up with their service (right there and then) when they can save us about $ 20 per month. When told that we need to research and then decided as partners whether we want to switch out of AT&T then they said to me «what is there to research when they can save us money»!!! The guy that I spoke to is James Fields (1−844−244−4554), he indicated that he can get on the internet with me and allow me to research the company while he is on the phone. He gets more aggressive each time I told him we cannot proceed with the change unless all partners agree. If the company is that legit then they shouldn’t have a problem waiting for us to get back with them. It is a very bad sign when a company is so pushy and aggressive. STAY AWAY… FAR AWAY…

Why isn’t there a no star rating? Or at least «PANTS ON FIRE»?
If you’re old enough to remember «I’m calling about the copier there in the office.» then you will remember how creepy and bold these telemarketers can be. Hang up fast.

They have very poor customer service and do not follow through on what they promise. I have been owed a credit for referring them another customer. It has been months and they have not given it. I have emails with my account rep and his boss where they told me the process, I followed the process and still no credit. Then, my account rep and his boss stopped responding. I called their billing department to complain and they told me it was a 30 day review process. That time has come and passed and still nothing. They have their FB page blocked so people can’t leave a comment or even a review. That is a telling sign as well. I will make sure all of our internal blogs know about how they treat us as customers. And will make sure ALL SF agents know that Birch can’t be trusted and that they have the worst customer service around. This is just unacceptable and shows they do not care about their customers at all. Run from them and get the local cable company or someone else to provide your phone service.

If you have been deceived by Birch, I encourage you to file a complaint against Birch to the BBB and to the consumer protection division of your state’s attorney general’s office. I can’t believe they are successfully taking advantage of so many people. I’ve dealt with numerous dishonest businesses throughout my life, but this one takes the cake.
They pretended to be calling from our existing phone provider (Charter) and we stupidly took the bait. When we called to finally cancel our service, the agent told us that we had to pay a $ 200 termination fee. Doesn’t seem right… but was planning to pay it to be done with them for good. Then we get a letter saying that we owe $ 1450 in fees. WOW.
We called to dispute it and got them to admit that the $ 1450 was an «error» on their side and they meant to charge us just the $ 200. Riiight. The agent refused to explain what triggers some of their customers to be charged this outrageous $ 1450 fee. It’s obviously a common tactic for the company. She refused to «discuss anything one just reads on the internet».

Sign up with Birch AYOR. I am honestly surprised that they have not been closed down by the FCC.
Deceptive practices, bullying, and hugely overpriced service — all this served by ignorant and rude representatives.
Try to discontinue your service? They will threaten and bully you, They sign you up by pretending they are your local phone company; once they get your OK to provide service, they say they will send you the agreement to sign; they never do. ANYTIME you want to discontinue service, and I did after several years of suffering in their hands, they will slap you with a huge early termination fee. If you ask to see the contract where you agreed to an early termination fee, they will say it is in the mail. If you do not pay the termination fee ($ 300) they insinuate they will ruin your credit record.
This must be the most manipulative telecommunications company in the US; its practices hark to the days of the mafia. Sadly, they are still around. Sadly Unilocal does not offer an option for ZERO stars.

I just received a call from a Birch Communications saying they work with Century Link to get pricing down for their customers. This is a scam and I just want everyone to know. When I asked if I could verify them with Century Link he got defensive and said «No. We compete with them and I am trying to take business away from them.» But that was after initially saying that he worked for and with Century Link. Do not fall for it!

Do Not do business with them! horrible!
After swithcing to Birch after they merged from cbeyond we decided to cancel in Feb 2015. Birch continued to debt our bank account for 8 months even though I called them every month telling them that I had canceled. This went on for 8 months finally after months of aggravation Brich reimembursed us for their mistake in Oct 2015.
Now March of 2016 a year after we canceled from Brich we get another bill for $ 2658.48 for early cancellation. I talked to a women named Maureen and man named David Polzin in customer service they told me that I had to pay $ 2,658.48 because when we canceled we were supose to send them a written cancellation 3 months prior to canceling.
(Its funny that birch has no record of me talking to their customer service department before we canceled and at that time I was informed that there wouldnt be a problem to cancel and no metion of any cancelation fee).
But they do have record of somone from our office calling May 2015 to cancel! Hum?
We canceled in Feb 2015!
So now it looks like we over paid again for 3 months!
After all this we owe them $ 2,658.48
customer service said I should have read the contract!
Vincent Oddo You need to look at your Unilocal ratings!!! BAD BAD BAD

As others have stated, I would prefer a «no star» rating for this company. I am beyond frustrated with Birch. In October 2015, I mailed out, not only one but two notices to Birch to insure that they had notice that we were canceling our service with them. I gave them more than 90 days notice. In January we did successfully port over our lines to the new provider. Last week I received an invoice from them for services past our cancellation date. When I contacted them they stated «The notice you sent was never received by Birch. The address you sent it to is our billing address that only processes payment.» Really? Suggestion to anyone trying to cancel services with Birch, GET A CONFIRMATION OF CANCELLATION! I am hoping that they will not try to charge me an early termination fee.

Birch is the worst.
DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM.
they allowed my phone number to be slammed (ported out without my authorization) and then dared to try to hit me up for early termination penalties after the lost phone service (18 days) cost me a lot of money
originally they were Daystar and they were decent. now that Birch took over they are just the worst. run away from them fast.

These people call every once in a while and at one point they called everyday. Thankfully after looking on Unilocal and contacting my AT&T representative I’m so happy I never went through on their scam. They call and ask who takes care of the AT&T account and how they can lower our price. I’ve constantly told them to stop calling that this is harassment and the last guy was yelling at me that they are part of AT&T (which is a total lie). Wish I can put zero stars on this and let more people know about this scam. They will put as many people on the phone to keep you on the phone until you go through with their contract.
PLEASE, review companies before going through on their «great deals».

DO NOT FALL FOR THIS. They outright lied about the rates the double spin it when you give the voice confirmation. I asked the first two sales people specifically if there was any form of contract and they said NO. They said I would receive the extremely low rate for 36 months.

I Wish I could put 0 star.
Be very careful this people are crooks. They called my company pretending they were my local phone line company w/​whom I have service.
They said my service will end soon if I don’t renew now my service will jump to a higher price. They stressed me out to the max. Next thing they mailed me a bill over $ 2000. I reported them to the BBB. It’s recent therefor I will return to update Unilocal w/​my final review .
Be very careful they are crooks.

To begin with, I have LITERALLY been a business AND personal customer of Birch for 12!!! years with 2 lines in my office and a home line or 2 at any given time. I have received decent service over the years, hence my loyalty. I like to support small business. I am small business. I always recieved prompt phone service and had my issues resolved in a timely an professional manner. Recently i have had such SLOW internet speeds that i inquired into xfinity business and after consulting w Birch, switched to much faster and cost effective internet with the other company. BOY DID THAT COST ME!!!
I was in the habit of OVERPAYING Birch as in the past billing fluctuations would lead to disconnect notices so i just sent them extra in every month thru my bill pay. This accrued to having an overage on my 2 accounts of over $ 700 at the time I cancelled with them,.
Little did I know that my «contract» auto renewed (illegal in Ga since a few years ago”) a couple of months ago that by canceling prematurely that i owed them collectively $ 800 on my 2 accounts. When I tried to appeal to the service reps better judgement and asked for help as an ANCIENT customer i was told that I was out of luck.
–So, To recap.
—Long term loyal customer with multilple accounts.
UPGRADED To service provider with more modern product for less money.
Screwed by Birch out of my $ 800s that they had on the books that they refuse to refund to me.
TAKE THIS FOR WHAT ITS WORTH. I SUGGEST YOU AVOID BIRCH LIKE YOU WOULD A CHEAP WHORE.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU EVER DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY.
THE SERVICE IS OVER PRICED, UNDER PERFORMING, AND THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE IS NON-​EXISTANT.
I attempted to cancel my service with Birch/​Cbeyond Communication. I informed them, in writing, within 90 days of the end of my contract. I was told by the representative at Birch that once the contract ended, that our account would revert to month to month.
It took our new telecom vendor MONTHS to successfully port out all of our numbers. Birch was incredibly difficult to deal with when trying to retain the phone numbers for our business. They repeatedly denied almost every port request with no assistance in reasoning, and when I called they said they didn’t even show a port request in the system. After over multiple months of back and forth, I was able to finally port out all of my numbers. I finally was able to completely disconnect after 5 months of nonsense.
Now, over a month after my disconnect request, they tried to charge me $ 4500 in early disconnect fees. Stating that the 30 day notice, and month to month contract, expired after 90 days. Something EVERY SINGLE PERSON AT BIRCH FAILED to inform me of when attempting to disconnect. I was specifically told on multiple occasions that I would NOT be charged a disconnect fee and that our balance would be pro-​rated to the date of the final disconnect. I have yet to see an adjustment to the pro-​rated date, and they charges me double disconnect fees.
THIS COMPANY WILL LIE TO YOUR FACE, WILL NOT HONOR THE PROMISES OF THEIR EMPLOYEES.

Only reason they get one star is because zero stars isn’t an option. Our company stayed with CBeyond for 7 years. Birch bought them out. Waited for our contract to term and cancelled service. Now Birch want a $ 997 early term fee because we stayed with their business claiming an evergreen clause. Evergreen for who?
We’ve never signed a thing with Birch. BTW we also had a security breach where $ 4000 in long distance calls were billed to us by an insecure line. Birch finally credited that back after 8 months of investigation.
So glad we left. One more one star for Birch.

STAY VERY FAR AWAY from this company if you want to keep your blood pressure down. I went through all the proper steps to cancel my service to ensure I would not have to pay anything extra… I waited until my contract end date, I gave 30 days written notice to cancel, and I called to port out my numbers and cancel. Since then, I have received excuses like «we never received your 30 day written notice» and «you never canceled your line» to try to continue to bill me. Today, I was hit with a termination fee of $ 1269.88. SERIOUSLY, BIRCH?! My contract ended back in April. It’s taken you this long to come up with some lame reason to bill me yet again?!
You have been warned. We were stuck with Birch after they took over Cbeyond, so we didn’t have much of a choice. You do, and you should take your business elsewhere.

They keep calling our business to sell us phone service. I spoke with one person who put me through to her supervisor who told me to do some research and check out their BBB page. I did. Their rating is high, but ALL of their reviews are negative. So I determined they won’t be getting my business.
Someone else called and I told him exactly this, he then demanded that I read him the negative reviews. He was belligerent with me and I asked to be taken off their list.
This morning they called again, as soon as she said «Birch» I (politely) said «let me stop you, based on reviews I’ve decided to not go with your company. I have asked to be taken off your list, please don’t call me again» to which she responded «OK, I’ll call you tomorrow!» in an angry way (tomorrow I will just mute her call and let her talk as long as she’d like).
I called Birch directly after this experience, I’m giving them 2 stars instead of 1 because the lady I spoke with, Pat, from the Macon office was SO NICE and sounded genuinely irritated that I had been treated so poorly. She told me they use outside telemarketers and would put in a report. Pat, thank you for being a human and a kind lady.

This is a total scam, targeting Century Link customers, among others. Very slick. Luckily I Googled them as they were talking and cut them off mid-​way through their bait and switch, but not before they got some information out of me.
Call came from 720−651−4893 and told my assistant they were from Century Link. I didn’t look for caller ID before taking the transfer, which I should have done. Guy gave his name and direct line, 844−244−4554…
I was then transferred to someone who finally, in very fast sales-​speak, mentioned «Birch Communications» which tipped me off. Save yourselves a lot of trouble and just don’t take any of these calls!
Others have suggested going to the BBB to file a complaint, which I tried to do. The local office actively tried to dissuade me from filing a complaint; when I would not relent, I was told I’d have to file it with the Atlanta BBB. Several links later, there were about ten to choose from, and each routed you elsewhere. VERY STRANGE. I even asked the BBB person if, they are in fact, an organization designed to protect consumers from scammers like Birch, and she said «Yes, of course, but Birch has an A+ rating with us. It must have been someone else using the Birch name.»
I could get nowhere with BBB, after a good hour long try. Interested to see what others find…

SCAM! Told me that they were representing ATT.
SCAM !!!

WOW, They just called me saying they represent AT&T — Right when I was going to go through the recording I googled them. HOLY PHUCK did I dodge a bullet.
SHADY SHADY PEOPLE.
Any of you with issues with them need to report to BBB. This is because they have a very high rating with BBB and obviously care about their reputation on the BBB. Forget Unilocal file a complaint with BBB and you might actually get somewhere.
Also the consumer financial protection bureau.