Avoid this company like a deadly virus. Their internet is slower than slow, their costs are high and they trap you into a contract even AFTER you notify them you are cancelling their service. We inherited Birch when they bough CBeyond, who we had phone/internet service with for over a decade. The people in customer service were nice at CBeyond, but our interactions with Birch have been entirely unpleasant, even before we cancelled them. STAY AWAY!! read more

Had them for a year. What a lousy outfit. I have seasonal business in Mackinaw City and they told me I could put my phone on vacation when I shut down for the winter. So I signed up and at the end of season I called and they said they could not. So I had to pay the full price while I was not even open. Very deceitful! Wanted to change for the reason and cancelled and went with charter. They then said even though I was under no contract I would be fined $200.00 I I hope you don't waste your time and money with this outfit. They are a total scam!!! It makes me feel stupid that I trusted them to be a decent outfit. read more

They keep calling despite my requests to have our number removed. Very rude cold callers

If I was able to give you a minus rating I would! Lousy service! OVERPRICED SERVICE! Beware of these people. It is going to take them 30 days to stop my service and send me a bill in the meantime! read more

For some reason, I have kept my land line. In June, I asked a CSR at Birch about a plan that wouldn't cost so much and she told me about "Essential". When I received the next bill, there was a termination fee of $600 They tried to say that I contacted AT&T about switching. Wrong answer. With each call, I am told that the $600 will be credited to my account. "Melissa C" and I have both had similar experiences. The first chance I get, I'll be out of there! read more

Horrible, unorganized, clueless, pathetic, a total rip off. Been with birch, formally c beyond for 6 years. I thought c beyond was bad enough, did not think it could get any worse....boy was I wrong. Will not waste my professional time berating a company that seemingly cannot get more than 1 good review out of 100. Do yourself a huge favor and listen to someone whom dealt with continuing problems for 6 years from billing to cell phones to moves. They are a terrible company to deal with and I will profess to everyone DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THIS COMPANY. You have been warned!!! read more

Birch acquired the VOIP provider I've used for 8 years (Aretta aka CBeyond). It used to be a great service, but after the business transfer took place in last year -- the quality of their help desk staff went way down. Three support calls over about a 2 month period (Mar-May 2015) resulted in CSR telling me "the individual that is able to answer question is not available, leave a message for them here and they will get back to you." Never a callback or a response to logged trouble-ticket. From my experience, this organization offers very poor customer support. I've since taken phone service to another vendor. read more

I currently have service with Birch formerly Cbeyond for my company. I liked the services I received especially customer service when the company was Cbeyond. I always hated calling AT&T or Verizon and getting transferred a dozen times before finding someone that could handle my issue, this leading me to use Cbeyond now Birch Communications. Our internet service is horrible and only continues to get worse. We experience problems on a weekly basis and sometimes 2-3 days a week. EVERYTIME we call customer service we are on hold for at least 45 min before even getting to talk to someone. Once we are able to talk to someone they can't answer any questions and tell us they will look into it and return our call. Our service will eventually come back up but we never receive our return phone call. With this review I am currently on hold with Birch due to no internet and have been holding now for 41:25 minutes. Have decided to move forward with looking at other options for my company. read more

If you ever have a chance to sign up with Birch Communications for telephone and internet service, do yourself a favor and WALK AWAY! The mouse print pretty much has you signing a lifetime contract. It's kind of like selling your soul to the devil. Only you aren't aware that your soul is gone until you try to switch carriers. read more

Do not under any circumstances do business-to-business with Birch. Check out the VOIP ratings site - learn that out of 36 reviews, Birch has 36 1-star reviews. They make verbal deals then renig; change at will the contract termination dates; change at will the "early cancellation" charges; do not provide adequate business services; do not contact the customers; their associates are not available on a regular business basis. (ie. if you call and/or email them the call you will be waiting 1 or more hours for a live person; emails go unanswered.) read more

A - STAR RATING FROM ME. Received the 2nd call from Birch with a fast talking sales person and told him he could not help me that I had a lower price and then another person came on the phone and when I told him he could not help me he asked me if I had a " front lipping policy" and when I told him I didn't understand he asked me if I had a"back door policy" and then he hung up. I believe if I was code word savvy I would have caught on that he was being very inappropriate. This is a scam don't let any sales person bully you into making any changes. I have blocked their phone number. read more

They called my office to tell me that they were lowering my AT&T bill by 50% and I didn't need to do anything, also that I would have 2 months of free service and would no longer have to pay all of the extra FCC fees and taxes. When I asked if they were AT&T the rep said "yes we're AT&T", I was then transferred to a "floor supervisor" who was going to complete the transaction and needed my date of birth and social security number. I stated I would not give that information over the phone and he hung up. Pretty shady operation. read more

I have been a customer for 6+ years and my service has been nothing short of a nightmare! My phone is in my very busy dog grooming salon and half the time I cant get a phone call to go out or connect. Right now I have NO service and am losing substantial amounts of money daily as customers cannot reach me to make appt.s. It tells them that a number that is not even my number has been disconnected but I have a dial tone and can make some [sone calls occasionally]. My customers are having to use facebook to contact me! Ridiculous right? I have tried for 6 months to call them on every number that they provide and every menu option on it as well and NEVER get an answer. I have held on as long as 40 min. waiting on an answer. Absoloutely do not use this company customer service is horrible! read more

The best way to deal with Birch Communications is to not have ANYTHING to do with them!They are the first company I have dealt with where each representative seems to be progressively more ignorant than the one before. They have no idea what they are selling, and actually told me they were re-sellers for Century Link, which is complete nonsense and really just an outright lie! Avoid them at all costs! read more

Don't use them unless you plan on never leaving, like sub standard customer service and very slow internet! Got a call Feb 2016 saying I was in my renewal period and offering new services and possible discounts. I thought that would be a good time to switch. Got everything set up with my new provider. Once Birch received my port request I was informed that I had to give them 30 notice of intent not to renew prior to Dec 2015. (So I wasn't really in my renewal period, that was just a line to "hook" me and up-sell their services. October 2016, sent them the letter that I was leaving. Got everything changed out Jan 2017. I am now hit with a bill for two months service that covered a time period where I did not even have their equipment for over a month. They tell me the charges are valid as it takes up to 20 days to "disconnect the service." read more

If Zero stars was an option that is what I would have chosen...this company is awful...when I told them how unprofessional I felt they were and how even just in setting an appointment they did not keep their word so I would NOT use them and to not call again ....7 days later (today) I received an email from the phone rep that said "SHUT UP BITCH". I am reporting this to the better business bureau and will be sending them the whole email sequence. This company is AWFUL! read more

Please Be AWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, how I wish I could give ZERO stars!!!! On November 12, 2014 around 2:00 p.m. I received a call from a female named Sarah, she stated that she was calling from AT&T and would like to tell me that the bill for the office phone would be going down next month because of changes to the system and coverage in the area and to hold and she would get me the confirmation number I would need to verify all of this. So I hold, and man named Jason, who claimed to be supervisor for Birch Communications, came on the line and told me that he would need me to verify some information regarding the account through their automated system and when I was done the system would give me the confirmation number I needed to receive $120 credit for the next two months on the AT&T account. During the recording the guy was talking over the automated system and was trying to explain to me what the automated machine was saying. I asked him to be quiet so that I could hear it for myself but he kept talking as though he did not hear me. Jason seemed to become agitated when I asked him why he needed my date of birth to confirm the conversation. He said "never mind" and gave me the confirmation number, told me that someone would call me back in 15 minutes to get the order confirmed and the account set up. Researched online about Birch Communications, because the whole process seemed rushed, forced, and weird. According to the reviews on several creditable customer service websites, this company is a scam. They call pretending to be from your phone service provider and make you feel like they are doing something new and you have to change over. In reality you do not. Birch communications make money off of contract termination fees. Meaning when you are done signing up with them, they go into the system and terminate the contract with AT&T and you have to pay them a fee to get the services switched back over to AT&T. The fees could range into the thousands because you are having to pay Birch Communication out of a 36 month contract. Around 2:17 pm- I called Birch Communications back at 1-877-772-4724 and got no answer and almost immediately Jason once again called to confirm everything from the previous conversation. I told him that I did not want to terminate my contract with AT&T, I will not authorize my contract to be terminated with AT&T, I would not give him any billing information and he said ok. I asked him why the woman said she was from AT&T when she first called and he said no she did not say that. I did not argue the point with him. I asked him for the cancellation confirmation number and he said that he did not have one because the order was never placed. Jason then said that I would not receive a bill from them and I would not receive further communication either. I immediately called AT&T after dealing with Jason. The agent told me that she has received several calls in reference to Birch Communications attempting to contact their customers. She said that she did not know the exact details of the conversation I had with Jason. The AT&T agent was very helpful. She added a 3rd party block to my account meaning that other competitors cannot obtain my information and also a passcode was added so that no one without passcode could have access to my AT&T account. Now fast forward a month later and I am receiving weekly calls from "AT&T" stating they need to talk to the person in charge of billing or the office manager. I politely tell the individual that I am not interested and if I want to make changes to my AT&T account I will go online or contact AT&T myself to do so and hang-up. These people are pathetic. And somehow, because they are able to "resolve" their issues, they are in good standing with the BBB. read more

Your review helps others learn about great local businesses. They sold me a phone service without sending a contract, even though I asked several times. Birch is engaging in illegal business practices by posing as an affiliate of AT&T, Under the impression I was dealing with AT&T, I signed up with Birch to "reduce" our telephone charges. I received their bill & after a few months of of using their poor service I cancelled Birch and restore the service with AT&T that Birch unilaterally cancelled only to receive a bill from Birch for $1600 for contract cancellation fees. That's right, $1600. I am in the process of disputing this with Birch and don't know the outcome yet but I suspect that they will determine that I owe the $1600, which I will refuse to pay. They sold me a phone service without sending a contract, even though I asked several times. No one would agree to send me info BEFORE I answered their 5 minutes of tiring recorded, scripted questions (she even told me what to answer!)Of course, after you have answered "yes" to many many questions, they throw in a quick note of 36 months (I had been told it was a one year TRIAL contract, I didnt really hear that time line correctly and said "yes", also that there would be early termination fees, with no amount mentioned. I should have hung up right then, but was hoping to reduce my phone bill. You get what you pay for. Started in Dec of 2014. Beware of their horrendous, ineffective and rude customer service. I had been a customer for about a month. Had first issue with the service and received the worst customer service experience I've ever had. Got passed off from one department to another until the 4th person I spoke with. He was rude. Kept talking over me...and all he could say was there was nothing he could do. After all of this false representation, they then make you verbally agree to terms and conditions that they won't let you read (and never send you a copy of). To this day, Birch will not send us a copy of the Terms and Conditions, not even to substantiate their charges. The more complaints filed against this company, they better chances we have of making them obsolete. Please help save us BBB from these scam artists. I will be refusing to oay any termination fees for such shoddy service and have tried to talk to several people there for months about their bad service. THEIR BILLS DO NOT EVEN HAVE AN ADDRESS ON THEN ONCE YOU TEAR OFF THE PAYMENT PORTION There are 45 bad reviews with these same kinds of complaints on this website here- http://www.yelp.com/biz/birch-communications-macon-2 Please do stop them, BB, we plead with you! I WILL NOT BE PAYING ANY TERMINATIONS FEES, NO MATTER HOW MANY BILLS I HAVE TO THROW IN THE TOILET. Your Desired Resolution: REFUND MY 5 MONTHS OF $45.00/MO CHARGES FOR YOUR BAD SERVICE PLUS STOP TRYING TO GET A $16OO TERMINATION FEE. Please don't review this business if you received a freebie for writing this review, or if you're connected in any way to the owner or employees. read more

If you are a business owner, steer clear form Birch!!!! At least in Kansas city. They will destroy your business. They are unable to correct any problems that may arise with telephone complications. We are medical facility without fax capabilities for over 2 months!!! The cannot get the problem corrected nor do they seem too concerned. I would give them negativre stars is possible. Please, Please, if you are a serious business owner, DO NOT use this service. read more

Our business was without phone service for 10 days and their 'Service People' (?) could have cared less. We cancelled our service with them and had to pay a $900 cancellation fee. This was actually pretty cheap compared to the loss of business we suffered. Highly recommend you steer clear of this outfit. read more

As many have mentioned, I would give them a zero star if able to. Birch employees are very deceptive, from their billing department to the executive staff - no one takes responsibility or time to help out in any way even if we've had record of calling over and over requesting refunds or billing disputes. But, when they reached out to us to become their customers, they were on it 24/7. We enrolled with Birch after CBeyond closed and now we know why Birch kept asking and almost demanding for us to sign a contract - we live and learn. Do not make business with Birch!!! read more

I would give this company a negative 5 star rating if it were offered. Run very far and fast from this company. I was with orbit com which was taken over by Birch. had several months of double billings which after several months of continual calls was resolved. only 2 of the 3 lines are working, and have been paying for all of them. Now that I have switched to a different carrier, they have hit me with a $1375.56 early termination fee. This contract expired about 2 years ago. It would be a cold day in hell before I would every use this company. read more

These guys have somehow 'stolen' our lines from AT&T and we are a business without a phone now. AT&T refuse to help and we cannot get Birch to pick up. May have to seek legal recourse. read more

I have to give Birch a rating of zero. They called me and offered a savings to our phone bill. They transferred my 2 phone lines. I never received a bill since I later found out they did not have my correct billing address. They shut off my lines without talking to me. Without any attempt from them to get the correct mailing address they turned me over to collections. Do not do business with these people. read more

Purchased our previous communications company. Never sent a new contract for equivalent services. (Previous contract has various branded bundle services.) We attempted to reach a resolution of adequate services at an agreed upon billing level over a 2 month period starting April 12th. Birch was contacted over 12 times during this time via phone and email. Birch consistently disregarded or ignored our requests. We were promised communication from the "special pricing team" no less than three times over this period, not once hearing back within the promised 48 hour windows. We went well above and beyond what would be expected of a customer trying to maintain a current provider and services. All we wanted was a reasonable broadband speed. They had us still on a 1.5mb/s old DSL line. They were charging over $300 for it. Not broadband by anyone's definition, particularly the FCC's. They originally said nothing faster was available than 3mb/s and it would cost $800. Days after porting over our services they sent a letter saying that suddenly fiber services were available! Still a rip-off price, however. As Birch was unable to meet the services specified in our previous contract and was unable to contact us in times and manners promised, we decided to change providers. Birch was notified of our intention to do so throughout the entire sales/negotiation period of 2 months if we were unable to get the services we were paying for. We notified them of our cancellation due to breach of contract (even though the contract itself was invalid as they were not the original provider with the branded bundles and they had not provided us with equivalent products.) Despite the acknowledgment from their Customer Care agent, we were sent a bill from their Collections Department for a contract cancellation charge. They are being referred to our lawyer for any future communication barring a cancellation of their charges. read more

We were with Cbeyond for years and loved their customer service.. Birch is terrible.. simply terrible.. we're leaving them

once again, i wish there was less than one star to give. nothing positive to say at all. i got looped in with them acquiring another company that we set up with and somehow ended up with a 2MB plan that is horrible. locked into a horrible contract. and useless customer service although ross from texas thinks he's great. read more

all i can say is unless they are your only option for internet stay far far away not only does their "broadband" internet service suck their customer service and technical support is virtually non existent. i wouldn't recommend them to my worst enemy. read more

I wanted to give Birch Communications absolutely zero stars!!! Not only is what the previous review correct that Birch Communications makes it seem as if it is AT&T and they just want to lower your rates. Our office manger agreed to their service... well that is wheree our nightmare began. They cancelled ATT&T and then we had a disconected phone for 4 days so far!!!!!! This is a Doctor's office!!! We have no way for our patients to reach us it is a nightmare!! I have been on the phone with that company for over 10 hours on the phone and noone is able to resolve anything. I will also keep you posted but BEWARE do not go with Birch Communications-even if they tell you your service will be free!!!! read more

I started with Cbeyond which Birch bought last year. In September, 2014, I asked them to cancel the internet service. As of March, 2015, I am still being billed. When I talked to them in January it was going to be "45 days". When I talked to them in early April, "they are working on it". Horrible customer service. I have another year left on my contract and when it is up, so is Brich. read more

I was called by a sales rep who said they were "with" AT&T and wanted to lower my phone rate. After some prodding, they admitted they were with Birch. They switched me to another rep who promised me that the price they quoted included surcharges and that only taxes would be added to price. When I got my first bill, the charges are now higher than they were with AT&T. The sales rep clearly lied. The kicker is that when they replayed the "contract recording" that was made the day I agreed to join, it was clearly edited. I had responded to a live female and was emphatic about the price and surcharges included in that price. But the tape has me responding to a computerized male voice with only my "yes". I have now switched back to AT&T and pay a higher price than before. Birch lies, is deceptive, bait and switch, crams, and doctors the recordings. Stay away. read more

I must agree with everyone absolutely the worst customer service. I was with Cbeyond till Birch bought them out. Converted to their cloud phone services and have had nothing but trouble since. One month and half later and recorded phone calls we are still not operational. Good luck talking to someone who knows what is going on and they do not return calls. The list unbelievable on their ineptitude. read more

I have never encountered such aggressive, unprofessional and disrespectful sales representatives. They contacted our office and when I informed him I was not interested the rep became extremely agitated and angry. So much so that I had to hang up on him only for him to call me again to continue the argument. I had to yell at him to not call our office again. I was baffled...based on the sales call alone I would NEVER do business with this company. read more

This company is not even deserving of 1 star. The phone lines at my business have been down for 4 days. 4 DAYS. Did I mention my entire business depends on my phone lines? I have called MULTIPLE times and they say someone will call us back or that they'll send a technician. They never call back. It takes forever for the technician to arrive. I called them back and asked why they hadn't sent a technician yet and they said "A technician came to your business and closed the ticket because the phone lines were up and running." What!?!?! The issue was never solved! I've been calling for days and you're telling me my ticket was closed this entire time? Just don't even bother with them. Worst experience I have ever had. read more

This is one of the worst companies I have dealt with. Their customer service sucks and their sales people are shysters. Do not do business with them! In addition to that their service is not priced competitively with others in the market place. There is not really one redeeming quality about the company. read more

This HORRIBLE company bought out another phone company I was with. I completed my contract and just disconnected from them, yet they still sent me an invoice for recurring charges and taxes. I had already paid my bill in full. I spoke with the billing department and they refused to do anything about it. It is illegal for a phone company to continue to bill you after you have satisfied your bill and ended your contract with them. DON'T DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY!!!! THEY ARE SCAMMERS AND THIEVES!!! read more

Birch Communications puts Kafka to shame. My company was originally with Globalink which was purchased by Birch in 2015 and we had no problem until recently. Under Globalink we had one account for two phone numbers (Birch insists it was two). In 2017 we started getting two invoices from Birch. One invoice for one of the numbers and 3 trunk lines which were not ours, and the other invoice for the other number including a number that was not ours. At some point Birch stopped service for my phone (the one with the 3 mysterious trunk lines) until I paid the bill for $43, which I finally did to get the phone turned back on, and it was correctly credited to the other account. I assumed that was that until yesterday when I got an email demanding $175 for tax for the account with the trunk lines, that is not mine and Birch will not give me any information about it since, not having the invoice, I don't have the access number. Got that? They want $175 for an invoice that they did not send me, for an account is not mine and that they cannot tell me anything about (including the address to which it was allegedly sent) because I don't have the invoice that they did not send. I've spent hours on the phone with Birch trying to straighten this out and finally emailed that I would not continue unless they agree to pay for my time. Avoid Birch at all cost. Nothing is worth the aggravation. read more

I wish there was a -star for this company. They claim to be a telecommunication company but don't wish to actually speak to their customers instead expect them to handle their own account online. They purchased our previous provider so we had no choice but be stuck in a contract with them failing to inform us that contracts automatically renew and only had a small window to end or cancel. We called to do so and were expected to go online and email them. We did but that system was so slow that it took days for them to acknowledge and that put us over the window of cancellation notice by a few days and not they want to send us to collection to get us to pay an cancellation penalty for an extra year of contract. Rather terrible business practice!!!! read more

STAY AWAY FROM BIRCH COMMUNICATIONS!!!!. My company had a business phone contract that was well past mature date when Birch acquired Cbeyond who was our original provider. We moved our business to an area that is not serviced by Birch/Cbeyond. After the move we kept getting invoices even though Birch no longer provided phone service. After numerous phone calls and emails by my staff and many assurances from Birch service and management contacts that the account was closed "we still get bills and past due notices" They invoice...we call and email to communicate that we don't have service with Birch. This loop has continued with no end. It has now been 8 Months of continued billing for service not provided and we can't seem to resolve the problem. Birch is either hyper disorganized or unethical in there business practice. STAY AWAY FROM Communications!!! read more

I would give less if I could! Promised the moon and stars... everything was great at first and then it all has been down hill. I am stuck in a contract and I can't get a single "supervisor" to return a phone call. I have had dispute tickets and trouble tickets open for months and I am threatened to have my service cancelled and have to pay penalties, but I cam getting no help from their end! Every time I have called in the last couple of months, "there isn't a supervisor available" I WOULD NEVER USE THIS COMPANY AGAIN! read more