 "Beware of the Reactivation Fee" | 2010-07-22 |
| - Reviewed By Gary Scott |
I was a long time Vonage user, until my unlimited plan began to increase in with
the addition of higher taxes. So I made the switch to Ooma Core and have not
looked back. Service is great and the customer care folks got me up and running
in minuets. Normally one wouldn't need customer care but I purchased a
used devise which had to be reactivated. This is my only bone of contention. The
price to reactivate a used or pre-owned device is $79.00! A little factoid I was
not made aware of when I made the purchase. Not to mention the number porting
fee and the yearly premier service fee or a 9.99 monthly fee. All in all, this is
an expensive little system. Crunching the numbers, it will pay for it self with
in 18 months and best of all no monthly bills to contend with. Word of advice,
purchase a new unit and reap the discounts!
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 "I Love It" | 2010-07-20 |
| - Reviewed By maclouie from Simi Valley |
| The Ooma Core provides excellent VOIP from an excellent and professional company. Packaging was first rate and so was customer support. I had to call once or twice because I did not read the instructions. Service was so good I ported my landline already. Rock solid, never dropped a call and my domestic long distance, local long distance, all calls that I make are free. No taxes nor fees to pay. Works with my existing phone and fax equipment. No one inside or outside of my home knows I made the switch. No computer needed as in Magic Jack. Optional services, services I dont need, cost less than what the phone company charges. I love everything about it. I have also tried Ooma Telo and both are essentially the same except ooma Telo you have to pay monthly taxes. Dont have to use the Scout and the Hub (and Telo) are the size of an answering machine. |
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 "Sounds Too Good To Be True - And Is" | 2010-07-17 |
| - Reviewed By scookstlmo from St Louis, MO USA |
This product has never worked reliably for me in the nearly one week that I had it activated. As a VOIP user for 5+ years, I was seduced by the prospect of purchasing a device that would provide free calling without incurring annual fees and a litany of taxes. It sounds too good to be true and believe me, it is. The Ooma hub is not reliable and its customer/technical support will drive you insane with having to repeat yourself over and over again because they are either too lazy to read your case or are not keeping enough details about your problem to allow anyone to work it. I've wasted hours of cellular minutes on the phone with various personnel in a good faith attempt to resolve the problems that I was experiencing but there comes a time when you have to cut your losses.
Now, for the problems. I could make some outbound calls but others in the same area code would not go through. I would consistently get 30 seconds of dead silence and then a rapid busy signal. Also, I was not able to make any toll free calls (800, 866, etc) because Ooma technical support said that some 800 numbers are regionalized (what does that have to do with anything?), and that means that you cannot even call Ooma from your phone with a question because that number is... a toll free call (they don't provide a local number or mention this restriction in any of the documentation)!
Lastly, I could not receive ANY calls to my Ooma hub. Everyone that attempted to call me received "We're sorry but the party that you are trying to reach is not available. Please leave a message after the tone." and then the Ooma hub would never notify you that you had any messages!
I don't understand how this product could receive so many positive reviews because my experience has been anything but that. As I've stated previously, I've had VOIP service for over 5 years and Ooma has been the most diappointing, miserable VOIP experience ever. This would be enough to scare a first time user into staying with a POTS line and never attempting this technology ever again. |
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 "ooma disappointed with a very long delay when speaking/listening" | 2010-07-15 |
| - Reviewed By computer guy from Pawleys Island, SC |
ooma was pretty easy to setup. However even after speaking several times with tech support I was unable to reduce the long delay between words spoken and words heard. It was particularly bad when RECEIVING calls. ooma tech support was very good and surprisingly quick to reach. They recommended I speak to my internet provider, Time Warner Cable, suggesting that jitter on my line was the culprit. My jitter level varied from 9ms to 13.5 ms. I contacted Time Warner and they seemed to be able to get the jitter down to constant 8-9ms. That did not help. The really mysterious thing about that is that I have been using Vonage, also a VOIP system for a couple of years and have had very little problem with delay (or anything else for that matter). The only reason for my effort to switch was that Vonage upped my monthly charge by a LOT. I paid $287 for the year last year, and this year they sent an email that it would be $269. but when the charge hit my credit card it was, are you ready, $374. That was enough reason for the switch.
One other problem with ooma. When it was connected to my home circuit I was unable to get any phones to work unless they were connected to the scout unit. My old wired phone on the elevator no longer worked. Never a problem with Vonage. I did try to wire the ooma with the "phone wire" into the wall even before that was suggested, but to no avail. I also tried connecting the ooma hub on each side of my linksys wireless router WRT300N, but that did not solve the delay problem. I have been a computer builder, programmer, network manager, technician for more than 25 years. If it could be solved, I think I could have done it. Hope this helps.
Ladd Dezendorf |
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| "Note on OOMA Core Reviews" | 2010-07-08 |
| - Reviewed By jbwam from Birmingham, AL United States |
I bought 2 of these OOMA Core products a couple of weeks ago that were purchased and shipped directly from Amazon, and I believe most if not all of these reviews are about the Amazon sold/shipped product, up to now. Mine had no tax/no fees, but I understand that some of the newer core units (hub and scouts, and the Telo) have these fees of about $3.45 per month, but it is actually worth it anyway. I like mine so far, and have cancelled my ATT landline, but I am not a heavy phone user. I wanted it to call the bank and other facilities on an encypted path, which I understand that cellular is not. This also usually reduces the time lag that you have when using cellular.
It looks like Amazon itself has run out now, so check with any other sellers on this site to see what you will get from them. Try google of the two words ooma frys, and buy the core system (not refurb), because the box says free for life of the hub. Good luck!
By the way, if you buy a hub that has been previously activated, it costs $79 (last I heard) to get it reactivated, so if it is not new in sealed box, then watch out. Also, warranty is an issue on a used hub.
07/12/2010 update:
Amazon itself lists the core systems back in stock today. |
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| "Breaking up with Vonage to date Ooma" | 2010-07-08 |
| - Reviewed By A. Boston from Boston, MA United States |
I've had vonage for years for my home office line, so it gets used a lot. I held off on ooma for at least a year(and researched it the whole time!), because I was terrified of losing my phone number, and also because the fax is not guaranteed to work. Plus the entire task just seemed daunting.
But the price dropped, so I decided to take the ooma plunge. I was completely sick of my vonage bill creeping up in price every month. It started around $39, now it's over $50 a month, with no change to my service. The number porting is in the works, and I'm confident it'll work out no problem. You can also check the status of the number porting on your ooma account, which is great.
Setup, well...you know how people are always like "oh, its so easy! no problems, done in minutes!"... I don't believe those people because I always run into some kind of snag despite being very tech savvy. And I hate to say this, but all those praises were true. I had it done in about 10 minutes. I followed the easy to use set up directions that came with it, and off I went. When the light turned blue on the top of the Hub, I stared at it for awhile, waiting for something to go wrong, but nothing did. It was a seamless setup, which is not something I can say often.
I got a temporary phone number while my office vonage number is ported over, but I was dying to start using my ooma NOW. So I did some forwarding in my vonage account so that when clients call my vonage number, it forwards along and rings my ooma temporary number(confusing, I know!)and I'm even using the ooma voicemail now!
I decided to ditch my traditional fax for efaxing(all via email), using ring central which is working out beautifully as well. I signed up already for ooma premier service, since $10 a month isn't a big deal for all the fun features, like personal blacklist which is my favorite. All in all, I'm saving a bundle of money and I'm really happy with the switch.
Only downside so far: I called Ooma to inquire about faxing and the scout, and number porting. I asked some fairly simple questions. The guy responded to me like I was speaking Swahili. He didn't seem to understand my questions, and his answers made no sense. He just talked in technical circles that actually had not much to do with my original questions. Thankfully there's a great official ooma forum/lounge where you can just pose questions to other Ooma users and usually get fantastic advice. |
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