Upgrade to new Telo: Excruciating process!

[vaughnsimon]

I recently bought an Ooma home security package, which came with a new Telo. Had I known how terrible the process was to switch my account to the new Telo I might have reconsidered. You can't do this online, you must first call 888-711-6662. There I had a long conversation with a nice Account Representative, in the process supplying several numbers from the back of my new Telo. Then she transferred me to a "Technical Specialist" After a long wait on hold, that person answered, and I got to basically repeat the first (did I mention long?) conversation. That person put me on hold twice whilst doing whatever he had to do (it didn't sound easy) and then finally, after about 40 minutes on the phone, the deed was finally done.

I have no complaint about the Ooma people I had to work with,they were polite, helpful, and spoke great English, but why is this process so excruciating?

Why, oh why, can't us customers just go to our account dashboard and then enter the MAC address of our new equipment?

Also, the instruction manual that comes packed with the Telo makes no mention that the activation process it describes is only for NEW accounts. There was a sheet I finally found packed with my kit that gives the proper instructions for someone with an existing account, but I properly read the manual first and was quite confused until I finally stumbled onto that bit of paper. Why can't the manual contain the proper instructions?

I am a happy Ooma customer, but this is a detail that needs to be addressed. Had I known in advance how much trouble this would be, I doubt that I would have bothered with Ooma home security.

So again, Why, oh why, can't us customers just go to our account dashboard and then enter the MAC address of our new equipment?

[orware]

I too am upgrading hardware (trying to go from older Telo v1 hardware to v2) and have hit the exact same thing as well.

Since the hardware came in after 5 PM I can't do anything with it today since it's after hours to receive phone support. Live chat referred me to phone support as well.

Like the original poster said, this should be a much more straightforward process that can be done from within the Dashboard area and be self-service.

Right now there's very little clear documentation on what to do, and I contacted the Live Chat support first before finding this thread here.

Frustrated multi-year Ooma user as well.

[orware]

So just to provide an update on my end. Luckily I was able to take care of the switch over the phone after about 20 minutes, but did need to go through two people (luckily I didn't have to repeat much info to the 2nd support person that actually handled the switch).

I was worried that since I had simply taken a picture of the bottom of the Telo unit on my phone and came into work, that maybe I wouldn't be able to complete the process since I didn't have the new unit physically with me but that wasn't an issue so I should be able to go back home on my lunch break and switch out the hardware easily and hopefully not run into any issues.

[newt1]

Edit add: see my update post below-- Although I still think we should be able to upgrade online, it turned out that the upgrade process went smoothly.

Here's my original rant:

It is 8 years later, and it looks like nothing has changed. I got a new Telo because my old one has died (Lasted 14 years--not too bad). There was no information on-line or in the manual on how to do an upgrade. I finally used their chat service and they said that someone would contact me within 24 hours, then disconnected.

(Heck, couldn't they include just one bullet point on their support page that says 'Upgrading your Telo Device'?)

I can't believe I can't just go online to my account to update the device. They could verify with emails or a phone call if needed for security but everything else should be automatic.

This is a complete waste of my (and their!) time. I work long hours and am not likely to be at home when they call/email me. In the mean time I have no Ooma phone.

Don't they employ software engineers at that company? (This would take very few lines of code to implement an automated upgrade procedure).
Would they rather unnecessarily spend money on support people spending unnecessary time interacting with customers?
Don't they want customers buying their hardware? Making it impossible to automatically upgrade is a huge disincentive to buy new equipment.

I don't see any advantage for them to not automate this. Well, if they haven't automated it in the last 8 years since people have asked for this, then I guess it will never happen. Maybe they don't make any money off of home phone customers and just want us to go away. It has crossed my mind to take them up on it and return this unit to Costco and just cancel my account--I don't use it that much anyway.

[Robek]

Whatever reasons Ooma may have for requiring that users contact them to replace an existing device with a different one, they do at least document how to get it done, here, here, here, and here. They also refer to the process indirectly, here, here, and here.

[newt1]

Well, I'm one to admit it when he is wrong.

I thought the 'chat' guy couldn't help me, but it turns out he passed on the device info to Ooma support and I got an email the next day that it is all transferred and all I have to do is plug it in and I'm good to go, with no interaction needed, and everything worked great. So all my fuming was for nothing.