I manage a block of buildings in uptown Oakland that encompasses numerous entities and uses. We had an old PBX phone system serving nearly 100 people in multiple buildings, with lots of sub departments. Alternative Techs helped us sort out and streamline 16 years of past programming and abandoned extensions. The people who work at Alternative are truly nice and helpful (and patient!). This is important because there is a lot of interaction needed to track details. They really focused on planning in advance and letting us know what to expect. I liked that! Lastly, the phones...Our old phones had fallen into disuse (partly because of Covid). But our staff... read full review
July 2025
Where can I start! Alt Tech is such a great company it is run by its own employees. They are 32 years old and thriving. I've had the pleasure to work with a few of them and it's been a fun experience. At the time I was a new Operations Manager who was in charge of a big project such as wiping all our old laptops, restarting our server and cabling. Honestly it was a mess. Chris was the initial person who I spoke to and we talked and talked nonstop. He told me about the company and how they went from phones to all kinds of things. There is no such thing as small projects. They do it all!
After talking to Chris for 1 whole year (because I was... read full review
September 2021
For years we used AT&T and we hated them. The Ecology Center in Berkeley recommended Alternative Technologies and I highly recommend them for so many reasons: 1) Any time I've had tech support issues, they have been super responsive. Unlike AT&T, you can actually reach a human being at Alternative Tech and they spend time on your issue until it's resolved. 2) They are actually quite a bit cheaper than AT&T, both their monthly fee and their phones / hardware 3) There is an awesome cell phone app which means now I can answer the shop phone anywhere and I can still answer the phone even when power goes out 4) This is a local Berkeley company with super... read full review
I manage a block of buildings in uptown Oakland that encompasses numerous entities and uses. We had an old PBX phone system serving nearly 100 people in multiple buildings, with lots of sub departments. Alternative Techs helped us sort out and streamline 16 years of past programming and abandoned extensions.
The people who work at Alternative are truly nice and helpful (and patient!). This is important because there is a lot of interaction needed to track details. They really focused on planning in advance and letting us know what to expect. I liked that!
Lastly, the phones...Our old phones had fallen into disuse (partly because of Covid). But our staff... read full review
Where can I start! Alt Tech is such a great company it is run by its own employees. They are 32 years old and thriving. I've had the pleasure to work with a few of them and it's been a fun experience. At the time I was a new Operations Manager who was in charge of a big project such as wiping all our old laptops, restarting our server and cabling. Honestly it was a mess. Chris was the initial person who I spoke to and we talked and talked nonstop. He told me about the company and how they went from phones to all kinds of things. There is no such thing as small projects. They do it all!
After talking to Chris for 1 whole year (because I was... read full review
For years we used AT&T and we hated them. The Ecology Center in Berkeley recommended Alternative Technologies and I highly recommend them for so many reasons: 1) Any time I've had tech support issues, they have been super responsive. Unlike AT&T, you can actually reach a human being at Alternative Tech and they spend time on your issue until it's resolved. 2) They are actually quite a bit cheaper than AT&T, both their monthly fee and their phones / hardware 3) There is an awesome cell phone app which means now I can answer the shop phone anywhere and I can still answer the phone even when power goes out 4) This is a local Berkeley company with super... read full review