Many GVTC landline customers have been vocal about the poor service they've received from the company, citing everything from dropped calls and erroneous bills to long wait times on customer support lines. In some cases, GVTC has been completely unresponsive to customer complaints, leaving customers without recourse.
This article provides information on the drawbacks of using a GVTC landline and the best alternative - Community Phone.
Drawbacks of GVTC Landline
1. Difficulty in Reaching Customer Support
Several customers have been displeased with how inaccessible GVTC support personnel are when customers need assistance or clarification. Lengthy wait times, transfers to several departments, and unanswered calls are characteristics of GVTC customer support as per customer reviews.
Get Community Phone, the best wireless home phone service in the US, with the best US-based support team. With wait times of less than a minute, Community Phone reps are ever willing to answer your questions or address concerns. You can also reach their specialists via live chat or email.
2. Terrible Customer Support
Several customers opine that GVTC has one of the worst customer services they have ever experienced. Some customers have even gone to the extent of stating that this apathy comes from GVTC’s monopoly in certain areas. Reviews state that service reps have been rude when customers have called to clarify bill amounts or for assistance.
3. Complicated Cancellation Policies
GVTC has complicated cancellation policies that require extensive customer follow-up. The company processes cancellations only after customers mail the cancellation paperwork to them. Several customers are displeased that they had to call GVTC support several times and follow up as they kept getting billed even after canceling the landline.
4. Phones will Go Down During a Power Outage
GVTC phones powered by Fiber service will go down during a power or network outage or scheduled or unscheduled maintenance.
You will have to buy a battery backup unit to continue using your landline during power outages, but it is expensive and is not the perfect solution. The backup battery can help you only if you have a power outage, but your phone lines will be down if your fiber service provider has an outage or other issues.
5. Expensive Bundles
You may have to bundle your GVTC fiber landline with internet and other services like TV, OTT, and security. This may skyrocket your phone bill and you may end up paying for services you don’t need.
Port your number to Community Phone if you want to continue using your landline without paying for expensive bundles.
6. Poor Call Quality
GVTC uses fiber optic cables to provide landline service and the internet for communication. Call quality and clarity on internet-based phones depend your internet speed and bandwidth.
Since internet connectivity and speeds are subjective to several factors - time of the day, network congestion, and your device, etc, you may have call drops and poor voice quality frequently on your GVTC landlines.
7. Safety and Security Issues
Calls from your GVTC landlines may leave you vulnerable to hacks, attacks, malware, and internet-related threats, as it uses the internet for voice communication. You may become a victim of identity or data theft.
8. New Hardware
You must invest in a modem or router for GVTC to provide you with landline service. Read the fine print and T&Cs to understand installation charges, deposit fees, or equipment charges.
9. Installation Costs and Challenges
You will have to install fiber optic cables at home to use a GVTC landline. The expertise required for such an installation and the delicate nature of the cables makes the entire process complicated and expensive. A minor breakage or an incorrect setup could lead to myriad problems leaving you stranded without a landline.
Community Phone - The Best alternative to GVTC Landline
Community Phone, the best home phone service in the US, is fighting to keep the landline alive. The company’s wireless landline base connects your home phone to local cell towers, eliminating the need for internet or copper connections.
The unique design of the landline base and partnership with carriers nationwide ensure you get solid coverage with Community Phone across 99% of the US, including rural areas.
Enjoy great voice quality, the reliability of a landline, and wireless access at affordable prices. With features like call waiting, 3-way calling, spam call blocking, caller ID, call history, and landline texting, Community Phone is the best landline service for you.
How It Works
The Community Phone landline base does not tie your phone to the internet as it works off resilient cell towers. The company's partnership with nationwide carriers and the unique design of the landline base ensure connectivity across 99% of the U.S., including rural areas. The built-in antennas on the base amplify signals from mobile towers to ensure superior voice quality in low-reception areas.
The 12-hour backup battery in the base ensures your phones continue working during a power outage or blackout in your area.
What Makes Community Phone Better than GVTC?
Here are some salient Community Phone features that make it better than GVTC landlines:
1. Reliable Landline Service Without Bundles
Community Phone is the best wireless landline service in the US, fighting to keep the landline alive. The company provides affordable and reliable landline service, the freedom of wireless access, and excellent calling features without bundling it with the internet or other services you don’t need.
2. No Hidden Charges
Community Phone boasts transparency and does not surprise customers with hidden charges on their bills. You pay what you signed up for.
3. Zero Cost Installation
You do not need a technician or advanced skills to install your Community Phone landline. You can set up your landline in 30 seconds with the following steps:
1. Unwrap the landline base
2. Connect the base to a power outlet. Do not turn it on yet.
3. Hook your phone to the base per instructions in the manual (Phone 1/Phone 2 port)
4. Toggle the ON/OFF switch to the ON position
5. Turn on the power and wait for 5 mins. Once the base finishes setup, make a test call to ensure your phone works as intended.
5. Reliability
Resilient technology and thoughtfulness make your Community Phone landline the most reliable option to stay connected with loved ones and emergency services. Their landline base works off resilient cell towers with power backups to support them during a massive outage. The base also has a 12-hour backup battery that keeps your phone working during a power outage or blackout in your area.
6. Connectivity
Community Phone has partnered with nationwide carriers to ensure coverage across 99% of the U.S. Since the wireless landline base does not need an internet connection to work, you will not face issues such as call drops, jitter, or latency.
7. Call Quality
Community Phone has partnered with carriers nationwide to ensure robust coverage and clear voice quality in rural areas. The landline base has built-in antennas that amplify mobile signals to ensure crystal-clear voice quality in poor-reception areas.
8. Security
Since Community Phone does not tie your landline to the internet, it does not leave you vulnerable to hacks, attacks, data, or identity theft. You get an additional layer of security as the wireless landline cannot be wiretapped like conventional landlines.
9. No Geographical Limitations
Community Phone's landline service covers 99% of the U.S., including rural areas, making geographical limitations and the monopoly of certain carriers a thing of the past. Take your landline with you anywhere across the country. You only need a power outlet and a phone to get reliable landline service without changing your number, as Community Phone works off local cell towers.
10. Flexibility
Community Phone's partnership with nationwide carriers and the unique landline base design ensure excellent voice quality and connectivity across 99% of the U.S. Experience extreme flexibility with your Community Phone landline, as you can take it anywhere without changing the number. Plug it into a power outlet and a phone, and your landline will work as well as new!
11. Emergency Tracking
First responders can easily track your location in an emergency, as they can trace the data originating from the cell tower and zero in on your location.
12. Hardware
You don't need fancy equipment for your Community Phone landline, except the landline base and a SIM. You will receive the SIM with the base when you sign up with Community Phone.
The landline base is compatible with all phone models, saving you the hassle of buying new phone equipment. Save time and money with the zero-cost installation of the landline base.
Community Phone Landline Features
1. Spam Call Blocking
68.4 million Americans were victims of phone scams in 2022, a 23% increase from 2021. Manual call blocking is no longer effective due to scammers' persistent attacks. According to reports, con artists have discovered a technique to get around the STIR/SHAKEN regulations that the government has implemented for customer safety.
Get the Community Phone spam-blocker, your one-stop solution to barring unwanted and unlawful calls from ringing your phone. The spam blocker challenges robocalls and blocks them before the call can ring your phone, ensuring protection against spam.
The "Safelist," a new Community Phone feature, allows you to list the numbers you want to accept calls from. Your phone will ring to let calls from these numbers through and block all others before the phone rings. You can update your allowed list anytime to add or delete numbers, or Community Phone specialists will be happy to assist you.
Studies report that several people miss legitimate calls fearing spam. Understanding the need to balance robust spam protection and legitimate calls, Community Phone is launching another iteration of the Safelist soon.
This feature will allow you to accept calls from numbers you want and route the rest to voicemail. Since Community Phone will not block other numbers, you can check your voice messages and respond to the ones you deem necessary.
The soon-to-be-launched "blocklist" is an aggressive spam blocker that blocks over 6 million spam calls based on an ever-growing database of spam numbers and a spam score. You can actively contribute to this database by adding a spam number to protect yourself and other Community Phone customers from scams and fraud.
Talk to Community Phone specialists to learn more!
2. Call Waiting
The call-waiting feature helps you handle two calls simultaneously. You will hear 2 beeps when there is an incoming call while you are engaged on one call. You can place the first call on hold, talk to the second caller, or route it to voicemail.
3. Call Forwarding
Enable call forwarding to forward important calls when you cannot answer them from your business landline. You can opt from one of the several Community Phone options to forward your business calls to a number of your choice.
Temporary Forwarding: Use the manual process to turn call forwarding ON/OFF if you are temporarily away from your business phone. Here's how you can enable it:
- Get a dial tone
- Dial **21*1
- Dial the 10-digit number you want the calls forwarded to and #
- Three beeps will indicate you have enabled call forwarding
Follow the same steps, but press ##21# to turn off call forwarding.
Unconditional Forwarding: Forward all calls from your landline to a cell phone or another number of your choice and ditch your landline.
Conditional Forwarding: You can program several phone numbers to ring simultaneously with one incoming call, allowing the person available to answer the call.
You can also have numbers ring in succession if the first number is busy or does not answer. For example, your cell phone can ring if you do not answer your landline within 20 seconds.
4. Call History
Enable the call history feature and access information on incoming and outgoing calls to and from your Community Phone landline.
You can use this feature to
- Return missed calls from known contacts
- Store legitimate contacts
- Check caller information against known contacts
- Send a message or
- Block spam calls.
5. Caller ID
On Outgoing Calls
Opt for the caller ID feature so the recipient can see your number or name when you make outbound calls. This feature can help loved ones answer your call or return missed calls without mistaking them as spam.
Incoming Calls
You will be able to see the caller ID of the person calling you if:
- The person has enabled caller ID
- Has registered in the national register
- Your phone can support the caller ID feature.
Community Phone does not use third-party apps to provide the caller ID feature.
6. Landline Texting
Studies reveal that millennials and later generations prefer texting to talking. Stay in touch with younger children or grandchildren by texting them from your Community Phone landline through the landline texting feature. The unlimited text feature and 2-way messaging enable you to see the messages from the recipient and continue the conversation.
7. 3-way Calling
Connect with 2 or more of your loved ones simultaneously with the 3-way calling feature, spend some great moments, and create memorable experiences. You can connect with your loved ones on the same call and hear them speak simultaneously without worrying about free calling apps, internet bandwidth, or patchy and dropped internet calls.
Benefits of Switching to Community Phone
Besides having a reliable landline service that does not require internet, Community Phone members enjoy the following benefits:
Unlimited nationwide calling and text: Stay in touch with loved ones across the U.S. with Community Phone's unlimited talk and text.
No internet needed: The Community Phone landline base works off cell towers without tying your phone to the internet. Since your phones are not dependent on the internet, they will continue working during an internet outage or maintenance.
Number choice: You can get a new local number FREE when you sign up with Community Phone. You can also transfer your existing number through their unique hand-held porting process.
Zero-cost Installation: The landline base does not require a technician to install it. You or anyone in your business or household can install your Community Phone landline in under 30 seconds and be ready to make calls in 5 mins.
24/7 reliable customer support: Contact Community Phone customer support via phone, email, and live chat 24/7 to experience world-class support from live agents. Glowing customer reviews on BBB and Trustpilot are testimonies of their commitment to customers.
Works during power outages: The 12-hour backup battery in the landline base ensures your phones continue working during power outages and blackouts.
How to get a Community Phone landline?
Follow these steps to get a Community Phone landline:
- Call Community Phone at (866)-340-6256 and speak with a specialist.
- The rep will check your area for coverage. Since Community Phone covers 99% of the US, this should not be an issue.
- You get a local number FREE when you signup. Choose a new number or port your existing number. The specialist will help you get a similar number if your preferred number is unavailable.
- Choose a plan to suit your needs.
- Complete the signup process
- Wait for your landline base, and install it per instructions. You can contact Community Phone support if you have challenges or questions.
- Wait until the base completes the setup. Make a test call to check if your landline works as intended.
FAQs
What are the drawbacks of GVTC Landline?
Here are some drawbacks of the GVTC landline service:
- Poor customer service, which customers attribute to the provider’s monopoly in some areas.
- GVTC Phones will go down during a power outage
- Needs a high-speed internet connection
- Inaccessible customer support
- Erroneous billing
What is the best alternative to GVTC Landline?
Community Phone wireless landline service is the best alternative for GVTC customers unhappy with their current provider. Community Phone’s reliable service has been praised by customers and independent reviewers, resulting in a major uptick in new subscribers.
Unlike GVTC, Community Phone provides enhanced coverage, exceptional customer service, and shorter wait times for assistance. Talk to their specialists at (866)-340-6256 to learn more!
Conclusion
Community Phone has emerged as the best alternative to GVTC Landline. With its reliable service, enhanced coverage, and excellent customer support, Community Phone provides GVTC customers with an affordable and dependable alternative.
Make the switch to Community Phone today and see the difference!