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TekSavvy TekTalk (VoIP) Experiences

98K views 86 replies 37 participants last post by  the_refleks_78 
#1 ·
This thread is for discussion of TekSavvy' TekTalk service by subscribers only. Please share your experiences. How was the installation and setup? How does the service compare to your last telephone provider? Do the advertised features work? How well were customer service issues resolved?
 
#30 ·
If anyone is interested in troubleshooting some more, let us try to factory reset and re-provision your ATA. If your ATA is also your router, and it handles your PPPoE login, be sure to have your TekSavvy login details handy; you will need them in order to connect to the internet when we're done.

1. Reset the router to factory defaults by dialing the following in a phone connected to line 1:
a) Dial ****. You should hear a recorded menu.
b) Dial 73738# and then confirm by pressing 1.

2. Using a PC directly connected to the ATA, visit this website: http://192.168.0.1/

3. Click "Voice", then "Admin Login", then "Advanced", and finally the "Provisioning" tab

4. Enter the following in the "Profile rule" field and save your changes.
[--key $SN] https://p.teksavvy.com/spa/$MA

5. Once the ATA is finished saving the changes, make a test call. If it doesn't work, power down all your equipment, wait 30 seconds, and then power everything up, starting with the modem, then router if you have a separate one, and then VoIP ATA, waiting some time in between to allow each device to fully boot.

6. Make a test call. If it works, wait 10 minutes and verify that incoming calls also work.

Please let me know if this procedure works.

m.
 
#31 ·
Mango, thanks for taking the time. Folks I recommend you give what Mango suggests a try as he is the expert here and could quite possibly solve the problem before Teksavvy.
 
#39 ·
You really need to post this in a different thread as it is not very TekSavvy specific.

The problem with your dial plan is that the ATA cannot tell whether, when you have dialed something like 2123456 it should apply the [2-9]xxxxxx or the xxxxxxxxxxxx. rule. In the latter case, more digits are expected, so it waits until the long timeout.

An S0 at the end of a rule says "don't wait for any more digits", but rather than using this you would do better if you made the xxxxxxxxxxxx. rule more specific, as this would make the behavior easier to understand. e.g. If you are just using it to capture international calls, change it to 011x.

When only one rule applies and no more digits are allowed, the ATA starts the call. Linksys/Sipura admin guides document this reasonably well.

Incidentally, you have the [2-9]xxxxxx rule repeated, and the **275. rule is almost certainly not what you intended. ("." says the last item can repeat 0 or more times - it's not the same as regular expression syntax).
 
#37 ·
Sorry - I should have been more specific. I'm using the dialplan I've posted above, as it seems to have a couple of advantages (911 string being listed first for example).

I'm also trying to learn about dialplans, so I'm wondering which specific part of the plan Mango posted addresses the dial out delay.
 
#38 ·
Re: TekTalk Problems

As promised here is my update.
Teksavvy dropped the ball on porting the number from Tektalk to LAN line. :eek: They wanted to extend the porting date. When they informed me about the delay, I requested that they cancel the porting and keep my TekTalk going. Lo and behold, they canceled my TelTalk. I couldn't get any messages over the their portal. An hour later with customer service, I got it back, however, the phone did not work, no call in or calls out, at least we were getting messages through the web portal.
While all this was happening, the feeling helplessness was awful. I was frustrated and angry with Teksavvy that I almost canceled all my services with them. After calming down, I realized that forwarding feature still works on TekTalk. I forwarded the home number to my cell. It was annoying getting calls for the kids while at work. A light bulb flashed over my head, if I can forward the number to my cell, I can forward a number to a voip number. I sign up to VOIP.ms. It literary took me 15 minutes to setup. Since I already own the ATA and TekSavvy wants to charge me $25 restocking fee if I return it, it made perfect sense to keep it and use it with VOIP.ms.

I am happy with VOIP.ms service, no interruptions, voice quality is excellent and is cheap with full features. I just requested the phoneasamadi number to be ported to VOIP.ms.


Mango, I have tried your method numerous times with no avail. The registration on the ATA fails. Tech support kept tracing the calls but could not figure out what went wrong. Like I said earlier after spending more than 75 hours with tech support is too much for one person to handle.
Sadly, TekSavvy relies on a third party for their system and I believe that is why many people are having issues with TekTalk.

Good luck to everyone:)
 
#40 ·
Months after signing up and yet more calls to tech savvy and I still do not have a voice mail message waiting indicator or call display that works consistently. I still have to press pound when dial or wait 20-30 seconds.

I'm to the point where I'd like to cancel. The only reason I haven't is time because I'm dreading hours of more hassle and I really think they should take back my locked SPA2102 because they were unable to deliver the promised services when I signed up. I'm not sure what to do here. Suggestions?
 
#41 ·
Snrub, sorry to hear about your problems.

My suggestion is to call billing and tell them that you would like to cancel because of the inability of technical support to resolve your issues and the having to wait 20 seconds to dial out.

I'd also politely tell them that you would like to return the SPA2101 because it is off no value with another service etc.

My guess is that they will be honourable and refund the cost of the SPA2102
 
#42 ·
I called in a couple of weeks ago to cancel TekTalk, but customer told me I needed to speak to the billing department who wasn't available. I explained to a customer service person what I wanted to cancel because of the unresolved issues, etc. By the next day the message waiting indicator worked and the call display issues were much improved. I'm going to guess the timing of the resolution was not a coincidence. I still have to press # to dial in a reasonable amount of time.

During a couple of the days last week we could not make outgoing calls. My other half has asthma and happened to experienced a medical emergency. When I attempted to call for help I was unable to use the phone line. I feel this service is unsafe.

I called in again and spoke to customer service. They contradicted what I was told last time and said that I didn't need to speak to billing. I indicated I was willing to switch to the standard home phone service if I received a full refund for the Cisco SPA2102 ATA. TekSavvy was willing to provide a "partial" refund for the Cisco ATA device of ~$16 (so ~$0 by the time I ship the device). I'm surprised they would treat this issue this way. I never received what I was promised and it took two months to resolve a basic issue.

I can't think of an occasion where I have been more displeased with a product/service purchase. After hanging up the phone I called Rogers and signed back up for their home phone service.
 
#43 ·
TekSavvy TekTalk opinion

So I'm thinking about ditching my Bell home phone and internet and have been shopping around for other providers. I've been thinking about TekSavvy as they seem to be held in fairly high regard at Digital Home, save for the issues they seem to be having with their cable internet and TekTalk (I've posted a question specific to their cable internet in the appropriate forum). I'm just wondering if anything has improved with the TekTalk service as there hasn't really been a great deal of posts relative to it recently. For those who do have it working, how do you feel it compares to other voip services? In a houshold with two personal cell phones and one wrk cell phone, I'm having a hard time justifying the cost of even basic Bell home phone (going up another $2 a month come Janurary), so I was thinking voip is the way to go. Thanks in advance for any help or info the board can provide me.
 
#44 ·
malonzi, TekTalk is a new service and therefore there is limited feedback to date.

At this time if you are going VoIP, I would probably suggest VoIP.ms or Vonage which get very good reviews around here. VoIP.ms is cheaper and Vonage has been around a lot longer with a proven track record.

Why be an early adopter and risk problems when you can hook up with proven suppliers?
 
#46 ·
After six weeks as a Tektalk subscriber, I am pissed. The actual service was fine, no problems with installation, and after being sold out by Bell & Cogeco it was refreshing not having telemarketers phoning minutes after it was connected. But Tektalk completely bungled porting over my old number, and after six weeks of playing customer service phone tag it is now apparently gone.

So far between Cogeco (old provider) and Tektalk (new provider) I've been given five different reasons why my old landline number, a number I've had in Canada for fifteen years and the only reason why I was subscribing to Tektalk in the first place, is now gone. I've been through half a dozen providers and the complete incompetence and lack of any form of restoration or restitution is why I am soured on this hole of country as a whole.

So:
1) I am out a few C-notes for hardware, installation, and subscription for a service that was never useful, and in fact harmful. Zero chance of me seeing any money back on wasted subscription fees or purchased hardware. Awesome.

2) The ten hours I've spent on hold being passed from one agent to another.

****WARNING TO ALL POTENTIAL TEKTALK SUBSCRIBERS****

After SIX WEEKS of waiting for my landline number to be ported over I was finally told that you can not move addresses and switch to Tektalk at the same time. You MUST have a previous service at the address you wish to have an older number ported over to.

The fact that it took Teksavvy/Tektalk six weeks until somebody finally told me this, coincidentally after all payments have gone through and one day after my final Cogeco bill was paid, sniffs of underhanded dealing bordering on fraud to sign up new users.
 
#47 ·
Wow,

I have just arranged for Tek Savvy to provide cable internet in a house I'm moving to at the end of June. I thought ( for some reason ) that it made some sense to also have them provide the home phone service. Talking to one of their sales folks, I discovered that I could not maintain my current phone number ( that I have had for about 20 years ) unless I used their Voip service, but this forum is certainly giving me pause to question this - especially the previous post. Can anyone else verify the fact that you cannot move addresses and switch to TekTalk at the same time ?

We currently have Rogers Home Phone, and thought a cheaper alternative would be nice, but after the years of completely care-free service we've had, I'm thinking it might be better to stick with them.

I have looked for a thread regarding Vonage here, but can't seem to find anything current - are they that good that no one has had any issues with them ?
 
#48 ·
Can anyone else verify the fact that you cannot move addresses and switch to TekTalk at the same time ?
Port BEFORE you move and you should have no problem.

FYI, I had Vonage for five years and was very happy with it. I moved to VoIP.ms because it was cheaper (but requires a little more tech savvy) and have been happy with its service also.
 
#49 ·
new to tek savvy and looking for help

supplied my own modem and ata (therfore very limited support)

finally got internet working, but still having issue whit tek talk

i am at the point now where i can place out going calls, but all in coming calls just ring and ring but the call never get thru to me.


went from bell regular home phone to tek talk (ported number)

have tried all I have read in this thread with no luck

used mango's info to get rid of call delay;

( [23456789]11 | *xxx. | <:1>[2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxxS0 | 1[2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxxS0 | 011xxxxxxx. | [#*x][*x][*x][*x][*x][*x][*x][*x][*x][*x][*x][*x]. )

had to make one change. when i entered as is i would get a recording that i did not need to dial 1 before the call. removed <:1> and it seems to be working.

i am using a cisco spa122 ata and thomson rca modem

i have currently removed my router from the set up

tech from tek savvy said the correct conection path was moden, ata, router then computer.

he said when i had it hooked up moden, router then ata that the router was causing problems with the port opening for incoming calls. well i tried it his way and have even removed router and still no luck

have tried doing resets on all units via the reset buttons and hooked everything back up with same results.

anyone able to help me look and see if i am missing something in the settings?

p.s. this lack of support for not buying their ata is silly. if it does not work I will just end up cancelling thier service and then they are out my biz!

thanx in advance for any help
 
#50 ·
Wondering if someone can help me out.......just got tektalk up and running and im problems with calls dropping. Its totally random, quite frustrating. The calls have all dropped before the 10 minute mark in the conversation, usually before 5 minutes. My set up is a Pace 4111n and the ata i purchased from teksavvy, i have nothing connected to the pace modem just using its wireless for my devices. I also changed the firewall settings in the modem to allow incoming traffic to the ata. Any help would be appreciated.
 
#52 ·
Kind of an old thread, but for anyone still having issues with call delays, you can also adjust the inter-digit timers.

On the admin control panel, with advanced settings selected, go to the regional tab. Under control timer values set the Interdigit Long Timer to 5 and the Interdigit Short Timer to 4.

If the delay is still too long for you, decrease the Long Timer by one and try again.
 
#54 ·
Thank you very much for posting and letting us know. I've a question if you have the time to answer; how would you compare TekTalk to a landline? Do any features work differently, or does the phone behave differently in any way?

Thanks. I'm glad to hear the port went well.
 
#55 ·
@ Mango

I had switched from Rogers Home Phone to Tektalk and cannot say that there is any difference from the two. Although my number ported yesterday i have used Tektalk for about a month now. My family is still able to text the house via there cell phones and leave a message. I had looked at other Voip options was just not sure i was that teck savvy about it to set it all up, although i know this forum would have helped out. The ATA 122 was shipped from them setup and all i did was disable the DHCP option and put it behind my router. Time will tell i will report back later good or bad.
 
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