integra telecom - Integra Telecom multitude of problems, Qwest vs. Integra, No Savings, nightmare Internet

I would like to give you an idea of the multitude of problems that we have had to deal with since signing our contract with Integra. 

Lets start with the reason for the change from Qwest to Integra. I was approached with a promise for significant savings and in the end with all the little fees there was NO savings, just lots and lots of issues and a signed contract to lock us in AND fees if we try to move back to Qwest. In fact I am willing to bet we are paying more now than ever before. The sales reps made all kinds of promises and once the paperwork was sign he was gone!

Here we go.

The installation process was a nightmare.  We were without telephone service a minimum of three different times/dates.  My office manager has a log with no less than a dozen phone calls to Integra that were all answered with Ill have a manager get back to you, and only in ONE case did that actually happen. 

Various excuses for the installation problems included that the Integra representative had mistakenly not entered the order in, then the necessary people were not in the office to get the process started, then Integra mistakenly gave Qwest a turn-off date that was one week prior to Integras turn-on date so our service was interrupted, then there were evidently some problems with the ports on Integras side that caused another outage.   It was one problem after another, and the frustration just mounted with the lack of responsiveness from Integra.  The apathetic and dismissive attitude from many Integra employees is not acceptable and turned the situation from bad to worse.

Once this was finally corrected and our phone service was installed and working, the next set of problems arose when we tried to set up our two phone trees. If we called two different people about the same issue, we received two different answers.  Even when we called for support for the phone trees this last November, it took (literally) three times being transferred for someone to help with editing our phone tree/voice mail.  We finally reached Rebecca Rodriguez, she said that she did not know how to help us and, to her credit, she did call us back the next day with an explanation. 

We have also had problems with billing.  We had e-mailed very specific instructions to Integra about what we needed, but for some reason we were charged for two additional lines.  We finally did receive a credit for this, but the process takes too many phone calls and too much time on our end, when it was Integra that had made the error.

In addition, when our office changed locations about a month ago, when a private telephone installation company came out to move our telephone system, he noticed that we had a line that was not working that had used to be a functioning number.  Were not sure when the line went out, but Integra had continued to charge us for it.

The latest issue with moving IP address to a static one is just another fiasco in our short but tiresome history with Integra.  My understanding is that this was due to yet another faulty port on Integras end.  The technician walked into the office on Tuesday morning, saying we would be up and running on the temporary wireless broadband fix in five minutes, but two hours later he was just finishing up.  The Integra equipment he had brought was faulty and he needed to wait for his boss to bring a replacement.  I was told by my office manager that you were going to have someone from Technical Support call her back earlier this week to discuss the issue with the bad port, but no one ever called.

Not only has Integras quality of service and equipment been inferior, our experience with customer service has been well below satisfactory.  By having Integra as our telephone and internet service provider has negatively affected our business and has cost me, a small business owner, to spend hundreds of dollars in payroll that we cannot afford.  Whether its having my office manager spend her time on the phone with Integra while being transferred around, or (like this last Tuesday morning) having my entire office staff sitting in the office unable to work because due to another Integra error our e-mail and internet were unexpectedly down.  Not to mention the hours we paid an outside IT technician to be here Monday night to meet your Integra technician including the 45 minutes he was sitting there waiting because the Integra tech was late.

Coincidentally, our accountants office was approached by Integra and they were considering changing their service from Qwest.  After a brief run-down of our history with Integra they will not be switching.