Allstream Reviews

Summary: I was a fully paying customer for a decade with Allstream, with one # (never rang anywhere) that received phone messages and another # that received faxes, both of which I could access online to playback/read. Then a) Zayo bought Allstream; b) made it so I could not gain access to my phone messages and faxes through their website; c) disconnected my two phone numbers when I refused to pay for the time I couldn't access phone messages and faxes; and d) refused to port my two decade old #s to a new carrier.

Positive: Satisfactory as Integra, and then as Allstream until the last year. But business went way downhill when Zayo got involved.

Negative: Became an unfair and fraudulent business, mistreating and attempting to overcharge long term customer

Summary: 1 out of 10, their outdated on everything, customer web portal DOES NOT WORK, I cancelled all services.

Positive: Zero customer service, Zero understanding of business, their customer web portal is a joke. They jacked up their prices 250 % and still claim that their contract has been renewed automatically, even under their own contract they increased their price from $250 to $450 !! I can not believe I am saying this but Bell will be much better that Allstream / Zayo Group.
It is like they hired staff only juicing out their existing clients, this line might have been in their job description. Stay away from their services.

Negative: Our phone line was from Allstream (through Bell Canada)

Summary: Terrible, incompetent, and dishonest company. We're being held hostage by them and are probably going to have bring down our email and website for multiple days in order to wrest control of our DNS from them so we can host with it with someone who knows what they're doing and isn't gouging us on price.

Positive: We originally signed up with Integra in 2007. They provided great service and support. As soon as Alltream bough them out everything changes.

Negative: 1. There tech support is jaw-droppingly incompetent. We need a simple edit our DNS TXT files for our cloud-based email provider and they can't even understand what we're asking. Instead they deleted the zone file, taking down our email and our website (neither of which they host) and then denied down doing it. I've paid our IT contractor hundreds of dollars for phone time with them and we're getting nowhere.

2.The only service we get from them is DNS hosting and yet our monthly bill went from $33 to $409 in one year's time, almost a 1200% increase. When I finally got ahold of them they said "We sent a notice about the change" and wouldn't budge on the price even though they acknowledged our services have not changed.

Summary: Awful. Customer service is absolutely terrible. Long hold times with no satisfaction. Even this complaint forum is not good.

Positive: Can't get their attention to cancel a bogus charge that no one here ordered. Don't know what to do. Anybody listening?

Negative: These people have THE WORST customer service in the universe. Can't get hold of them to save my life. Wait on hold forever only to be told "we are now closed for lunch, call back during business hours". If I can ever round them up we'll cancel.

Summary: Called multiple times, left messages, so far there is no response. It is almost impossible to get in touch with a person.

Positive: No pros that I can think about!!!!!!!

Negative: Expensive and without a customer support! Difficult to get in touch with a person to discuss the account and the service issues.

Summary: Price gouging, long waits, low integrity. Avoid if you can.

Positive: Have had many, difficult billing issues where I accidentally sent a check and they also took the payment via ACH and refused to refund the over payment. Now this 300% increase.

What other company provides there services.

Negative: The recent 300% increase should be banned by law.

A company that obviously does not care about their customers. Will report to the State Attorney General.

Summary: DO NOT USE ALLSTREAM!!!! THEY SUCK! Customer service is worthless, they increase your bill without telling you. The quality of services is not good. There are so many providers that can do a good job. Move on to a company that earns your business and trust.

Positive: Integra was a decent company. No Pros about Allstream. If you can't figure out how to waste money, they can help you.

Negative: Very long wait times to talk to anyone. They raised out prices from $350 a month to over a $1000 for basic internet and a fax line. No warning, just one day it was way higher. We did have all our phones with Allstream, but now we have just this last account to switch. If I could ever get through from the VERY LONG HOLD TIMES. I would cancel this account today.

Summary: We signed with Integra Telecom, better than six years ago. Initially, we had to pay a lot to bring fiber internet into the building. Our monthly cost for the first three years was over 500. When that was up, Integra called us, and we negotiated a new contract for another three years. Our new price was 229 a month; we were happy with that. We referred others who also used them in the building because we had already paid to bring service into it.

Somewhere in the second contract, Integra Telecom sold to Allstream. Our contract was up in February 2023, and Allstream increased our pricing from 229 to 595 monthly, a 160% increase. It took three months for me to realize they were taking 160% more from our checking account than we expected them to. We assumed they would pick up the phone and call us, like Integra Telecom did, or at the very least, they should have taken us off auto-billing and mailed us a bill with the new amount. The defense they present is they had emailed us about the price increase, but we have never been able to find an email from them.

After an hour on hold, I spoke to Rose, who offered us a new deal at 365.00 monthly. Rose told me she has many upset customers with the same complaint, I also found many complaints on the BBB with the exact same issue. That new deal was reasonable, and I'd have accepted without issue had they called us; they will not accept any responsibility, even the President agreed the increase was excessive, but wouldn't even consider a refund or offer any compromise, nor would the president speak with me on the phone, everything was via email. I spent hours on hold getting to the right people. I'd have signed the deal Rose offered if they were willing to refund the amount they took from our checking account without our permission.

Positive: We liked the old company, Integra Telecom a lot, they were bought out my Allstream, and the pros stop there.

Negative: They took money without our permission and wouldn't even talk about a refund.

Summary: Customer service not helpful, policy says if you did not pay and we disconnect the number cannot be yours unless you pay 500 reconnect fee and 75 for the current month. Outrageous price to reconnect a phone number. The disconnect was accidental, because my elderly parents did not notice that the card set up on auto-pay had expired and needed to send new card information.

Positive: Did not see any pros. I guess I could say that the paper bills arrived each month without fail around the same time of the month.

Negative: High prices for low bandwidth. Terrible customer service & I talked to several...they seem unwilling to help at all and say that it is company policy to about every question.

Summary: My company just wanted to cancel service- but for some reason we are not authorized to do so. They send us a letter to fill out, in order to add us to the list of authorized users- Guess what? We are not authorized to authorize new users. I call, I am 4th in line in the queue- it takes 30 minutes to speak to someone. She can't tell me who is authorized. She needs official company letterhead and supporting documentation to be authorized JUST TO CANCEL THE ACCOUNT. Garbage system, garbage customer service.

Positive: Nothing.

Negative: Everything.

Summary: It was the worst experience we've had with a telecom provider. When the acquisition took place we should have changed carriers.

Strongly recommend you find an alternative to Allstream.

Positive: Integra the company that Allstream acquired provided good quality phone services until the acquisition the it all went down hill.

Negative: No communication about the transition to Allstream
Contracts are 3 years and full cost to extricate yourself from. They also have auto renewals in them.
I would strongly advise to use a different carrier. You will look back on your decision to use Allstream with regret.