Reliable faxing should not be a premier feature

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topdotter
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Joined:Thu Apr 04, 2013 6:58 am
Reliable faxing should not be a premier feature

Post by topdotter » Thu Apr 04, 2013 7:06 am

After frustrating experiences with faxing, I'm exasperated that reliable faxing has been introduced but not for standard users.
John: Thank you for your question, one moment please while I access that information.
John: How may I help you?

You: I see that premier faxing has been introduced.
John: Yes
You: The ability to reliably fax should not be a premier feature. Just saying.
John: You can install fax to Ooma regardless of your service level, Premier faxing is just an enhanced feature that allows you to send and receive faxes smoothly
You: Even for non-Premier users?
You: How do I turn it on then?
John: Premier fax can only be use by Premier users
John: I'm just saying that even if you dont have Premier fax, you can still use your fax with Ooma

You: Your previous two sentences just conflicted. But I'm back at my initial statement. The ability to reliably fax should not be a premier feature.
You: No I can't.
You: It doesn't work
You: and the forums are replete with people saying so.
You: Which is why you had to introduce this functionality.
John: If you are unable to send or receive a Fax, try the following additional steps:
You: I disabled error checking.
John: 1. Disable “ECM” (i.e., “Error Correction Mode”) on your Fax machine. 2. Decrease the transmission or baud rate. 3. Reduce the number of pages that are sent per fax. 4. Decrease the desired image quality of the fax. 5. Discontinue any large file downloads (for receiving faxes) or uploads (for sending faxes).
You: Here's the thing
You: Here's the thing:
John: Ok
You: If you know everyone can fax no problem there's no need to introduce this new redundancy functionality.
You: The fact that you introduced it proves you know everyone can NOT fax reliably.
You: Not you John. But you represent Ooma and what I tell you I expect to get pushed up the chain.
John: With Basic, faxing is considered as a best effort, with Premier, faxing should work correctly
You: Exactly!
You: Faxing reliably should not be a premier feature.
You: Premier features are things that are conveniences.
John: I respect your opiniion
John: And I fully understand that you are frustrated with this issue.

You: For longer than two decades, a phone line came with reliable faxing.
John: Ok
You: Not forward anywhere (premiere), not enhanced voicemail (premiere), not blacklists. But faxing yes.
You: Please let everyone know.
You: Thanks!
John: We can reassure you that your feedback is greatly appreciated.
John: We urge you to forward your concerns directly to feedback@ooma.com
John: Is there anything else that I can help you with today?

You: Nope. Thanks!
John: Your satisfaction is very important to me. Are you satisfied with the way I handled this chat session?
You: Yes.
John: Thank you for using our Live Chat Support, we appreciate your business with us!
John: Happy Thursday
John: Bye for now
John has disconnected.

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focuspuller
Posts:175
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Re: Reliable faxing should not be a premier feature

Post by focuspuller » Thu Apr 04, 2013 5:24 pm

I only use FAX on my OOMA TELO.

I agree that it is wrong to bundle the improved fax feature with premier as all the items listed under premier are not used for a dedicated fax line.

If OOMA must recoup development costs then do it as an LOW COST add-on single item.

WRONG TO ADD TO PREMIER SUBSCRIPTION!!!!
One if by Land
Two if by Sea
Three if by Limo

kensmiles
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Joined:Sat Dec 17, 2011 12:06 pm

Re: Reliable faxing should not be a premier feature

Post by kensmiles » Fri Apr 05, 2013 9:06 am

Topdotter..... I understand exactly what you are saying. They say that regular faxing is "best effort". In other words, it might or might not work. They would never say that about phone calls or voice mail. And you can be certain that their billing is never best effort. ;)

If you assume that their monthly "tax" billing is truly a pass through, their only real revenue comes from selling hardware and selling premier. And hardware is not "recurring" revenue unless the hardware breaks out of warranty and the customer re-ups. So getting us to go for premier is quite valuable. And you see that most (all?) new features are premier features. Makes sense, I guess, from their point of view.

rmeden
Posts:64
Joined:Fri Oct 21, 2011 2:13 pm

Re: Reliable faxing should not be a premier feature

Post by rmeden » Fri Apr 05, 2013 11:25 am

For what its worth... I'm a premier member and just tried to send a fax (redundancy=3). Still didn't work. :(

I also tried some modem connections and they didn't work either.

Non-premier users.. you're not missing much :)

Robert

Aubuchon
Posts:34
Joined:Fri Nov 05, 2010 10:02 am
Location:Phoenix

Re: Reliable faxing should not be a premier feature

Post by Aubuchon » Tue Apr 09, 2013 9:50 am

Same here. Faxing worked perfectly back in early March of this year 2013. Local and long distance faxing went through every time without a hitch. I tried it yesterday and today April 9th and it doesn't work. I've tried with redundancy x3 and without. Please bring back the T.38 codec for those of us who only use Telo for faxing. If that codec has a confict with HD voice then please remove HD Voice codec from my Telo. It's a trade-off I can live with since I don't even use it for voice anyway. Thank you.

(P.S. Ooma has now been advised by two people on this forum that Premier Faxing doesn't work and it's only been available for one week. Just imagine the customer service calls you'll be receiving after someone upgrades to Premiere and finds out that faxing still doesn't work. I'd hate to be the Customer Service Rep on the other end of the line. Just sayin...)

Aubuchon
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Location:Phoenix

Re: Reliable faxing should not be a premier feature

Post by Aubuchon » Thu Apr 11, 2013 9:28 am

Yep, you guys really shot yourself in the foot on this one. If you have the gaul to charge me for a feature that was originally included with the Telo without a charge and previously worked fine untl you disabled it then you deserve all the critisism you receive. I'd like to hear from at least one person (on Premiere) who has successfully used the 3x redundancy feature to fax a document. Crickets... I'd still like to know why faxing worked so well when I first bought ooma (early 2010 before the HD Voice firmware upgrade) and now it doesn't work at all even with the new redundant feature. Can't you just reinstall the T.38 codec into specific Telos that have faxing enabled? Is that really too much to ask?

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MapleOne
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Location:Canada

Re: Reliable faxing should not be a premier feature

Post by MapleOne » Fri Apr 12, 2013 12:28 pm

I agree with the poster... charge for extra services but do not charge for quality.

Reliable faxing is included with all telephone companies and Ooma should not lump this into premier

+1

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lbmofo
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Re: Reliable faxing should not be a premier feature

Post by lbmofo » Fri Apr 12, 2013 12:58 pm

Aubuchon wrote:I'd like to hear from at least one person (on Premiere) who has successfully used the 3x redundancy feature to fax a document. Crickets... I'd still like to know why faxing worked so well when I first bought ooma (early 2010 before the HD Voice firmware upgrade) and now it doesn't work at all even with the new redundant feature.
I realize there are a lot of variables at play here but I've been faxing fine with my ancient Muratec M920. Using my Hub, need to use dialing prefix *99 but using my Telo (via wifi dongle to boot), just dialing normally works fine with faxing. For the Telo, I haven't gone in to my.ooma.com to up the redundancy but faxing worked even before "Premier Faxing" came about.

There is one number I found that I can't fax using my Hub nor Telo (My K7 Fax Number) but my dad with his Hub has been faxing to it fine using his old Sharp UX 300. We have never tweaked our fax machines.

Hence, it is entirely "YMMV" with faxing over VoIP. My money is on your faxing not working over GV/Obihai either because of your fax machine/internet setup etc but best of luck with your new setup you'll be trying.

Aubuchon
Posts:34
Joined:Fri Nov 05, 2010 10:02 am
Location:Phoenix

Re: Reliable faxing should not be a premier feature

Post by Aubuchon » Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:23 pm

Thank you. Faxing worked fine for me recently. I pulled my ooma out of a drawer around 02/15/13 and was going to give it to someone who needed a phone but it didn't work on their slow DSL for some reason. I then brought it home to test it and was surprised to find that I was able to send faxes. It stopped working right at the last automatic update in the middle of March. Nothing else has changed. It's hooked directly up to my Cox router at 15 MBPS. I begged and pleaded for ooma to allow me to opt out of auto updates in these forums but I guess I really needed to contact them directly. When it worked it worked every time without any flaws for several weeks. When it stops working then there's no amount of troubleshooting that will make it work. It's just that unreliability that has me on this new path.
I also have doubts about being able to fax on Google Voice but one Moderator on thier forum stated that he had success so I'll just hope for the best and if it doesn't work then I'll sign up with a SIP. I will post results whether they're good or bad. My intention is not to sell people on oher devices but to research which device works best and is most reliable. If it turns out that some other variable was at play then I will post that as well.

Tuan
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Joined:Tue Apr 20, 2010 8:37 pm

Re: Reliable faxing should not be a premier feature

Post by Tuan » Thu Apr 25, 2013 5:46 pm

I just faxed a 6 page document and it went through fine with my Telo with Premier Service. My fax machine is Brother MFC 7820N. I didn't use *99

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