M33-ACCESS

Do not respond to issues in a timely manner. Slow service.

We are a new, local business in Comins, MI. When we opened we wanted to use a local company for our phone service. We went with M33. I can honestly say I have never been more disappointed with a phone service. We decided to switch phone companies and were told we would have service with M33 until the day of the port. As soon as we put in the work ticket to have the number ported, our service stopped. We couldn't receive any incoming calls. Not to mention we only had one line, no caller ID, no call waiting and were charged for every phone call made, local and long distance. Our bills from M33 were about $150 per month. A bit outrageous and we can not afford a phone bill like that being a new business. I spoke with the "customer service" department which I believe consists of one person. He seemed rather annoyed that I called him regarding the issue. I spoke with him on several occasions and he continued to say it was not their problem, it was the problem of the new phone company. I called the new company and they said our service was with M33 until the day of the port (of our number) and they do not take control until that day in case the customer changes their mind. I again spoke with M33 and he again said it's not their problem. He offered me no help, solution nor compensation. He continued to sound annoyed with me so I then asked to speak with a supervisor and he put me through to her voice mail. I did leave a voice mail but I'm not really sure how she is going to contact me seeing as we can't receive incoming calls. It states on their website and I quote "thank you for your business. Never will we take for granted the opportunity you?ve given us to serve you. Sincerely, Glenn A. Wilson, Sr. President and CEO M33 Access". They did take us for granted. If you're thinking of using this company for your phone service, I would not recommend it. It's just my opinion from my experiences and if you do give them a shot, hopefully it works out better for you.

Paid to have their guys set up the internet service in our home so that if there were any problems, they would correct them. M33access did an initial test of the phone line to be sure the service would work for us in our home, and concluded we qualified. Since then, the internet connection has been unreliable. Now that service is spotty, M33access has required us to do our own troubleshooting, while working with tech support who tend to talk "tech lingo" and aren't very patient when you don't understand their language. I have had to take my modem outside twice so far to plug it into the outside phone box to see if the trouble is with the inside lines or outside. Why do I have to do my own troubleshooting? I paid them to install the service, why don't they send a repairman? In tech support, Ron seems to be OK, but George is condescending. George says my choices are: 1) accept the service as it is, 2) rewire the phone lines inside the house, even though the testing shows only a minor decrease in signal between the outside phone box and the modem or 3) cancel our contract. George now says that we are far enough away from the equipment in Fairview that the connection may be unstable. Why wasn't that mentioned as a possible problem when they did the initial test before we paid them to install? I think the problem might be with a faulty phone filter they supplied (I reported this initially, they don't seem to be concerned). Over the last few days, I've been conducting my own test to see if I can eliminate this filter as a problem. The installer (Nate) first mentioned filters could be a problem when he set up the service initially and only brought one filter for one phone. They were out of filters, said more would be delivered when they got them. We waited a couple weeks, then bought two filters ourselves from a retail store. We left 2 more phones unfiltered, sound quality was good so didn't think we needed them. Nate later said all phones must be filtered or it could affect connection. He brought us 2 more filters, one of which I think may be faulty. I'm doing my own testing. Second problem is their billing. The first bill I received was printed 10/30/2008 and due 10/30/2008, due the same date as the invoice printed! Guess what, by the time they got my check, a late fee had been added and my account was "past due". I paid the bill on time, including the late charge, then my next bill comes also labeled "past due" in red letters. Apparently, when Nate added the cost of the two phone filters, it was done in November, making my December bill past due again for that portion! Melissa in accounting was very understanding, and last week reversed the late charge. She apologized and was very nice, but it seems their billing process is weird. All in all, tech support and billing is not great, connection is spotty, and you have to do your own troubleshooting. I'm not ready to change my email address again, or I would go back to dial-up.