Love Letter

[hwgang]

OK, sure, I can spot areas for improvement, contribute to a wish list of features I'd love to see and kvetch with the best of 'em about CS hold times, but a few weeks in I'm IN AWE of the features, quality and flexibility I have for the price! I am in love.

1) The techs. Yeah, I know it's hard to get a hold of you guys sometimes, but when we do you a) REALLY know your stuff, are b) cheerful and not condescending and c) speak English really well. So well, that you don't read from a script, you can <gasp> ad lib a conversation and you don't "apologize for any convenience" meaninglessly and endlessly Those three things are KEY for me. I don't wait on hold once I have you while you read a manual, or ask your boss. You don't learn your job on MY time. You already KNOW your job when you go "live"! You don't punt about things you don't know (I HAVE stumped the panel) which is great "I don't know but I'll find out" is a fine answer in my book. You DO find out and you're good to your word. You're THE BEST. I haven't needed you in a while, but you were there when I did. Kudos. I'd bring you snacks if only I lived closer. LOL!

2) The features: little things, like having the best of voicemail and an answering system in one. I didn't even know how much I'd love that feature 'til I used it. I have all my voicemail sent to email because that's convenient for ME and I get the bulk of the calls, but now family members can check on their own from the hub, too.

3) The hardware. It's so well-designed it's a joy to use. It's small. For ONCE I can turn off those blue lights! (Who knew it could be done? I've got a thousand blue-light-laden widgets around here and NONE offers that feature!) You give me features I wouldn't have thought to ask about but love anyway. That's why they pay YOU the big bucks, no doubt.

Ooma is still a start-up and I am willing to put up with the growing pains to be a part of such exciting, cost-effective, joy-to-use technology! I'm sure there's features I'm still not using that I will grow to love. My numbers aren't ported yet but I can't wait to kiss most of my phone bill good-bye. (I'm keeping one number on Vonage to use as a fax for $10 a month because a) it would be a virtual number on Ooma and b) it would still cost me $5/month. I've ported my other two numbers.) I'm spreading the word because I honestly believe you've built a better mousetrap.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. If I'm not mistaken this is one of those all-too-rare win-win situations. Happy Monday, Folks. May the winds of commerce bring you all you deserve. In this (euphemistically) "troubled" economy you are a bright spot.

[number9]

You can turn the 'blue lights' off?! How is this done?!
It's like having a mini K-Mart in my house with those things on.

Thanks for the help!!

[Rod]

You can turn the 'blue lights' off?! How is this done?!
It's like having a mini K-Mart in my house with those things on.

Thanks for the help!!

There is a dial wheel on the right hand side of the HUB. That wheel is not volume control for the answering machine but rather a light dimmer rheostat.

-Rod

[number9]

Rod, THANK YOU!!!

[Bobby B]

Haha, nice one. This reminds us of an idea we had for the ooma "blue-light" special.

There's a purple and red light under the "play" button on the Hub. The idea was to illuminate the blue light when there was a new cool feature added to the system. Perhaps we'll see this in the future.

You can turn the 'blue lights' off?! How is this done?!
It's like having a mini K-Mart in my house with those things on.

Thanks for the help!!

[circlef]

While I mostly lurk here (great way to learn) I wanted to jump in and second Hwgang's "Love Letter". We sometimes forget the difficulties for a start-up, forget that this product is great and becoming more popular thus requiring more initial hand holding and that we all EXPECT rapid responses to our questions, but you guys do a great job and for that I wanted to say Thank You. I too am telling everyone I know how great Ooma is.

Alan

[av8rdude]

(I'm keeping one number on Vonage to use as a fax for $10 a month because a) it would be a virtual number on Ooma and b) it would still cost me $5/month. I've ported my other two numbers.)

I'm also amazed at this AWESOME product. No other company can match the features! And it has worked flawlessly for almost 3 weeks for my family.

Ditch that Vonage line at $10/month and get a k7.net account. k7 is free and you can get all the faxes you want sent to your email. They will give you a free phone number with a Seattle area code to receive faxes.

Cheers!

[hwgang]

Thanks for the reference, but it won't save my fax phone number, which is important to me.

[murphy]

Thanks for the reference, but it won't save my fax phone number, which is important to me.

You may have already lost it. You appear to have ported the main number on the account away from Vonage. That usually is the trigger to close the account. I've also never heard of Vonage allowing just a fax line with no main number, but it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong.

[hwgang]

Hi Murphy,

I didn't port the number. I have 3 numbers and I ported 2. Also, anticipating the concept of a "stranded" fax line, I contacted Vonage and discovered they have a $10 very limited voice plan for under 100 mins a month, which is all we'll ever use for faxes and MORE. They don't advertise it and they usually charge to "convert", but the retention dept. was, of course, trying to keep me in whatever limited fashion they could. So it was a matter of a phone call and I'm all set.

Also while a voice line is not optimal for faxing, we know enough about adjusting packet sizes, etc, to make it work for our minimal needs. And, for that matter, I've faxed over Vonage voice lines in the past. At the rate ooma is growing and adding features, etc, I'd suspect this is just a temporary fix for me anyway. Eventually, I expect I'll be able to bring the 3rd number over.