written by Nexusix on 26/02/2014
I needed to move my mother onto a VoIP phone when she moved house, and she wanted to maintain her existing telephone number. Having been recommended Gradwell by a colleague, I duly created an account to see what was available.The following day I received an email asking if I needed assistance. I replied, explaining my needs, and got a fantastic email back explaining the process, what was required from me, and also what hardware I needed to purchase. This email exchange continued, forms passed from me to them, and hardware ordered. The process was so smooth and uncomplicated, and I was kept informed every step of the way. The number port took place when it was supposed to, the hardware arrived pre configured, and within minutes of the port I was able to call my mother on her new phone using her existing number. Simples!! I cannot thank Gradwell enough, and I will be singing their praises to everyone and anyone for the foreseeable future.
written by milsy_77 on 26/02/2014
I’ve spent many years dealing with Telco's and putting up with bad service which seems to be the norm in this industry. Gradwell is totally the opposite, exceling in customer service and support from the start to finish. I’ve seen some negative reviews, what people have to realise is that a ) this is VoIP so you need to have the right connectivity for this to work and b ) nothing comes for free - although very close , Gradwell need to make some sort of money back to keep the high level of service ( and pay the costs they incur ) , and this normally means a contract of some sort. Don’t complain because you didn’t read the contract properly prior to signing.
written by on 19/02/2014
Good service and the support team are helpful. They assisted us recently on a matter which it turned out had nothing to do with them but they offered several solutions and detailed reports to assist us in getting to a solution.
written by on 03/02/2014
Possibly the worst internet company ever. They have a highly confusing log in system, and response to problems is long winded and ineffective. Sad to think a UK company could be this bad. I’m still in the queue to get a refund for money taken after my account was closed. Sent in a request over a week ago, and now insisting to speak with a supervisor. The excuses they come out with not to help or refund are risible. I strongly recommend you DON’T use Gradwell.
Written on: 03/02/2014
Hello,
I am sorry to hear that you have had this bad experience with us and I would be keen to get this matter resolved for you. Can you please email me with your incident id so that I can investigate further and give you a wrap this matter up?
Kind Regards
Matthew Mackenzie
Customer Services Manager
written by Jamiemedia on 28/01/2014
I signed up for Gradwell VoIP in August and I am extremely impressed with the service so far. Within 20 minutes of signing up online I received an introductory call from the support team to offer assistance with my setup. This was useful as although I was easily able to configure the hardware I did find the control panel slightly overwhelming. The only improvement I would suggest for Gradwell would be to simplify their control panel (and make it a bit prettier), however I did speak with the Customer Services Manager, who informed me that this will be happening soon. The customer service team are friendly, helpful and have always promptly resolved my queries. The call quality is crystal clear and we have saved a packet on calls since switching to Gradwell. I would happily recommend the service
written by globelink_admin on 17/01/2014
I am trying to make a call to a customer in Ireland. Call is barred. Gradwell have implemented call barring feature and put it on our account without telling us. Typical. So first time we know of another new infantile security measure, is when it interferes with our business. Again. So I go to the call barring feature and do what seems obvious. Now instead of being barred I am told the number does not exist. Restore the defaults now I am told the call is barred again. Now try and create an exception from the home page and number does not exist again. Call the helpdesk and you have to navigate a 3-4 layer system of "press 1, for this", etc. Takes a good minute or more to do. That is a long time. And all the while getting wound up by listening to self-congratulatory "we are a multi-award winning provider..." rubbish. Then all of a sudden after waiting for helpdesk I was told to leave a voicemail, no choice, nothing. So the helpdesk, like a brake pipe, fails you when you need it most. Gradwell's approach is what I would expect from an introverted socially-awkward 12 year old pupil executing a school project, and I suspect that I am being unflattering to most school pupils. Gradwell from balls to bone do not understand customer service, and have no ability to balance the conflicting requirements of security with service. Oh, and its not value for money when it interferes with your ability to do business - no matter how cheap it is.
written by unhappy123x on 03/01/2014
Good: Cheap Bad: Dreadful quality of service Dreadful customer support Dreadful MD who doesn't care
written by frank_r_p on 28/11/2013
We've been with Gradwell for a few weeks after conducting an extensive review of 5 VoIP (SIP) providers recently and selected Gradwell from that list. This was because their service delivered a number of features that were must have: Users with more than one phone at the same time (PC/Mobile + Desk phone) & Hot Desking, together with good prices, especially on their pre-bought (like mobile "minutes") packages. Other suppliers couldn't do all those things. Equally their sales team and support team were very helpful with quick answers to questions both over the phone and through support tickets (though I'd like to see a support "chat" service too). [Another "top" supplier made me wait 2 days for a mail response and they had no phone contact capability at all]. So far, so very good.
written by jocarlo on 26/08/2013
Signed, just to test phone forwarding service, unfortunately when decided to cancel I found out that I signed 12 months contract with them!!?? 12 months contract!? For what!? Unbelievable!
written by on 21/07/2013
Everyday there is an issue. If you are trying to run a business, PLEASE AVOID GRADWELL. It takes months ( I am not joking) to resolve an issue. I wouldn't recommend to my worst enemy.
written by on 18/07/2013
Gradwell's telephony offer was always a little erratic but good technical has support made up for this. This has changed in the last 2 months and is appalling.
written by AttainTM on 18/07/2013
I have been with Gradwell for almost 2 years and up until recently I couldn't fault the service. Gradwell have recently upgraded their servers on the day these went live the service completely failed for the whole day and for a good part of the following day. Ever since there have been intermittent issues causing a good amount of downtime. More annoyingly nobody can ever tell you what the issue is or when it will be resolved. It takes anything from 10 or more minutes to get through to technical support that's if they don't put you through to an answer machine after 5 minutes of being on hold. What's the point of that surely just put you straight though to an answer machine rather than wasting peoples time. You are promised a call back which never materialises and 8 days after reporting an issue Customer Support send an email asking about the issue. I would of given Gradwell a glowing reference prior to the changes they've made but now the service is simply unreliable and the customer service is virtually non-existent. Sorry Gradwell but you need to sort it out or your going to find yourself with far fewer customers.
written by on 12/06/2013
We too have used Gradwell for our telephones they have now been out since last Thursday now it is Wednesday! Got our IT guys on the case but Gradwell keep saying the technical team will call them back. I tried to call again this morning and was told that they had engineers working on the problem and could do nothing! The status on their home page shows NO problems...even although the lady at Gradwell said they have a vast amount of outages! Think this may be a case for the lawyers now! We are at the moment looking into how to change providers as we are a company who cannot survive without our phones.
written by on 10/06/2013
Once again a routine upgrade of the service causes massive problems and the company is unable to satisfy customer complaints. For a business service this is unsatisfactory.
written by on 07/06/2013
I used to run my business using gradwell voip services. They used to be good. Now they have outages every week for at least a good few hours. If you intend on using Gradwell voice services for business, STAY AWAY. When they have an outage, its always for hours, sometimes days as has happened recently. Calling support is almost always a 30 minute plus wait until someone awnsers, and I was a Key account customer spending over £1500 per month with them. They are simply not professional. Business relies on telecoms. If the outages were once in a while that would be ok, but its EVERY WEEK for hours. Once again - let this be a warning to you. STAY AWAY
written by on 30/05/2013
As a Gradwell Partner and user since 2006 we have seen the service go from strength to strength. As an IT company that white labels the service we have an agreement with our clients that we only sell services we are prepared to buy and use ourselves, well considering we've been using the service since 2006 this should tell you something. Of course there have been some issues but name a new technology, any technology that hasnt had its problems, the main thing we look for is how the problem is resolved and the level of support we're provided, Gradwell support is excellent, helpful, quick and straight forward which is what we look for in a partner.
written by on 28/05/2013
I've used Gradwell's multi-user Centrex system for several years and for a few different organisations I've owned or worked for, and to me it's been ideal for setting up a bigger-business style phone system on a sensible budget. I've looked around a few times to see if we should change, but really the sort of commitment needed to buy and run something bigger has always put me off. To be fair there have been occassions when the service has gone up and down over the years, but I understand their business is growing and for all the benefits I can't complain on the whole. The only drawback would possibly be this is typically more of a 'self managed' system if you are doing it on a budget, but it is easy to look after and with a competent member of staff i.e. me in this case it works fine.
written by BlueWest on 24/05/2013
I have used Gradwell as well as other voip providers over the past few years and Gradwell are by far the very best in reliablity, cost and customer service. I have a small business and had used several different providers until I found Gradwell two years ago. Now I can just get on with my business and not worry about the phones. Also it is easy to check calls stats etc. too. I am not technically minded at all so when I get a problem or need another phone I just call them and they set the phone up and send it out to me, normally within 24 hours. I wish I had found them earlier.
written by Salonserve on 16/05/2013
2+ out of 5 is not fair. The magic words are ... "compared to what/who?". The industry is still in its infancy and if you don't understand this then you should not be using VoIP as a serious business solution. We use Gradwell for our VoIP lines and have about five broadband lines with them as well. We have others, Gradwell is far from Perfect but the best. Gradwell has evolved on the brain power of the founders, however this can be a problem as a company grows it can mean they are reluctant to let go of some processes and stay focused on the most important issues. I am sure in time this will be better. Gradwell are head and shoulders better than the competition (but not 5*). I have backup VoIP services to our site and the other lines constantly (almost every day) drop. In two years with Gradwell we have had two serious outages. One was a local issue and one 100% Gradwell. Not bad. I think their fair usage policy excess charges for Bradband are harsh. With so many providers not even having a fair usage policy limit, £1 per GB is high.
written by on 11/05/2013
I'm slowly moving all of our sites to Gradwell's hosted Multi-Voip platform. Hardware orders are fulfilled within the timescales promised. Their number porting works efficiently and again to the timescales promised. Their Multi-Voip platform provides a feature rich and cost effective method of providing a multi-site phone system. To date it has provided a suitable alternative to separate phone switches and ISDN30.
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As rated by our community of reviewers
Petergradwell's Response to milsy_77's Review
Written on: 26/02/2014
Thank you very much for your review and honest words.
We have been striving to deliver an excellent product,outstanding customer service and support.
Kind Regards
Gradwell Communications Ltd