| Customer Reviews: Average Rating: 4.5/5 |
| Goodbye AT&T (landline): Rating: 5/5 |
I hardly ever use my landline these days...mostly just the cell. My landline is almost like my junkmail mailbox (i.e. when I need to give a phone number to some untrusted party). The phone spammers love my landline. So I have become tired of paying monthly for a voice junkmail service. However, I still wanted a landline-like service to supplement my cell. Enter Ooma. I was nervous about the number porting and wondering about the voice quality, but everything has worked to perfection. My number ported in about 3 weeks. On the few times I've used it voice quality was excellent; no echoes or background noises or noticeable delays (I do have good cable internet service. As an aside -- I recently got a new 11n router with claimed automatic QoS for voice-over-IP and other applications -- so I decided to connect the Ooma to the router rather than between the router and the modem as Ooma rightly recommends as the default scheme. This is working fine and is more appealing to me to let the router be king rather than let the Ooma filter the VoIp traffic). I've received a few robocaller calls on the Ooma and I just put that number on my Ooma blacklist -- haven't actually seen it work yet but I am pretty confident. This is a very nice feature. I hope this feature does not go away when my free 60-day Premier service expires. For the time being I plan to use the free service; therefore my only costs have been [and will ever be] the Ooma Core box and the $39 number port. I looked into getting the new Telo but soured on it when I learned they may start charging a small governmental fee (maybe $12.95/yr) on that box. I don't begrudge Ooma recovering some costs and this is a tiny fee...but zero monthly cost is awfully convenient and avoids one more [tiny] brick-in-the-wall of endless monthly fees. If you want the Premier service [which I think is quite reasonable if you want/need the features] then you should probably get the newer Telo -- it looks cooler, is alleged to have a better voice codec, and has some other extra features...but none of which I need for my minimalist situation).
I do have a few minor concerns...
1. Like many others worry -- if Ooma goes under I eat the startup cost. However, I break even with my previous monthly landline rate in about 7.5 months so it's not that big of a gamble.
2. If/when my Ooma Core box breaks they probably won't still be selling the same box and I will be forced to buy the Telo or some even newer box (hence probable small monthly fees...albeit reasonable ones compared other landline or VoIp solutions).
3. I do FAX occasionally and it probably will work for me [especially after adding a delay...find the thread on that one] but I haven't tried it yet.
In summary I am very happy with the Ooma cost/performance and would recommend it heartily to anyone with good & stable internet service.
|
|
| Customer Support was Fantastic: Rating: 5/5 |
| I have had the ooma up and running for about 6 weeks now and I love it! I wanted to port my old land line phone number that I have had for over 20 years and it went very smoothly without a hitch; took about 2 1/2 weeks. Before the number ported, I was unable to really test a lot of the features as caller ID did not work, etc. The sound quality was not the greatest and had a buzzing/humming sound on the line. It was annoying so I went to the ooma forums to find the answer. Apparently there is a 3-prong grounded power supply to replace the 2-prong un-grounded supply it comes with. I called ooma customer support and they helped me troubleshoot the problem and then sent the power supply right out. In fact, they even called me a couple of days later to follow up and make sure I was taken care of which is almost unheard of anymore. I had a great experience dealing with them and found them to be very responsive to my complaint. I wonder why they don't just sell the unit with the 3-prong, grounded power supply in the first place. Since my number ported, I have been able to access all the features and it is absolutely wonderful. My favorite part was calling my phone company to cancel the service with them and say goodbye to phone bills with all kinds of mysterious charges. I love it and could not be happier that I switched. It will pay for itself in about 4 months. I am recommending this to all my friends and family. I may even purchase a couple as Christmas gifts this year. |
|
| Great Product: Rating: 5/5 |
| I love it.The only thing that I was unhappy with is that Ooma did not indicate ahead of time that I might not be able to keep my phone #. Because of that, I did not get up and running for a week. It also caused the inconvenience of having to notify everyone of our new #. In meantime I had no home phone. Luckily I have a cell phone that I could use. |
|
| No more phone bills: Rating: 5/5 |
| Sound quality is excellent. A little delay between speaking and the listener hearing what you said, but you get used to it and adjust your conversation. Would recommend this product if you no longer want monthly phone bills. |
|
| Almost ex-Vonage and TW phone user: Rating: 5/5 |
Jumped on the new lower prices of Ooma after seeing it in the 300-400 range for the last year. My personal phone configuration is 2 lines on Time-Warner, 1 Vonage line for inbound calls from a remote number, and Google Voice number. Have eliminated one of the T-W lines ($40/mo) and will be cancelling the Vonage service ($25/mo). Am replacing roughly $800/yr with $100/yr and have more features. Upfront cost was less than $200 and they threw in a 4 GB Ipod. I like the math.
After reading the other reviews and personal bad experiences with offshore support, I was hesitant to purchase. Once set up, the devices are easy and fun to use. A couple of routine calls to support which were answered by Phillipine-based call centers went surprising well and were easy to hear and understand. Porting issues are being overseen by someone stateside who is helping manage the cutovers. Not a service I would recommend for the technically fearful but otherwise it's an incredible bargain. |
|
