Pre-Oct 2009 Core User Cannot Manage Blacklist On-line

ItsAllGood · Post by **ItsAllGood** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 11:33 am

Hello All,

I can no longer manage my blacklist on-line. When I go to My Ooma | Preferences | Blacklists, all that displays is a notification that blacklisting is a Premier feature. Yet, from my call log I can still successfully add numbers to my blacklist; the adding process displays a successful completion. Also, Customer Service confirmed that my most recent addition is on my blacklist.

I've had the Core service since May 2009, before the last change to the Terms and Conditions. According to the most recent change, all current Ooma Core users' feature set will not change.

Has the subject issue already been reported? If so, will a change be made to the site to allow "grandfathered" Core users to manage their blacklists on-line?

I look forward any help.

Thanks,
Chris

southsound · Post by **southsound** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 12:20 pm

I've had my hub/scout since February. During my Premier trial I was able to use the blacklist feature - but when the trial ended, it was no longer available. No change in TOS as far as I know. I am also able to add calls to the blacklist from the call log - I believe this is a feature that will flag the caller's information so if in the future you do order Premier your blacklist numbers will not be lost - or if you have added some, they will remain.

dogdad · Post by **dogdad** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 5:28 pm

I just noticed this as well. I am not a Premier subscriber but according to My Ooma: "For a limited time, take advantage of our sneak preview of this feature, for all ooma users!" I can blacklist a number but cannot manage it or unblock it. I just put a number on the list but I don't know for sure if it is actually blocked or not.

I have a similar issue with call forwarding. I have my Hub number forwarded to my Telo and that works fine but I can no longer manage or unforward it.

1kenthomas · Post by **1kenthomas** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 10:54 am

Same boat here. July 2009 Amazon core unit, blacklist suddenly disappeared this week. (Without blacklist, no protection against VoiceMail spoofing of my own CID on the unit).

Do we have any further info from OOMA on this issue?

Groundhound · Post by **Groundhound** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:50 am

dogdad wrote:I just noticed this as well. I am not a Premier subscriber but according to My Ooma: "For a limited time, take advantage of our sneak preview of this feature, for all ooma users!"

I don't see that statement in my.ooma, but I'm already a Premier subscriber so that may be why. I guess that "limited time" has reached its limit.

1kenthomas · Post by **1kenthomas** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:39 am

Groundhound wrote:I don't see that statement in my.ooma, but I'm already a Premier subscriber so that may be why. I guess that "limited time" has reached its limit.

Well, that's one way of looking at it. My way of looking at it was that it was a feature advertized to core subscribers when I purchased, that it is a feature necessary for OOMA to work properly without exposing my voicemail on my particular hardware, and I darn well expect the feature based on OOMA's contractual obligations to me. But hey, I'm just one guy who knows how to file a civil complaint.

southsound · Post by **southsound** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 11:11 am

1kenthomas wrote:
Groundhound wrote:I don't see that statement in my.ooma, but I'm already a Premier subscriber so that may be why. I guess that "limited time" has reached its limit.
Well, that's one way of looking at it. My way of looking at it was that it was a feature advertized to core subscribers when I purchased, that it is a feature necessary for OOMA to work properly without exposing my voicemail on my particular hardware, and I darn well expect the feature based on OOMA's contractual obligations to me. But hey, I'm just one guy who knows how to file a civil complaint.

I guess you COULD do that. But possibly a better way would be to send an email to Dennis P (you can find his posts all over the forum - just click on the envelope next to his name) and nicely explain the problem. I agree that the current voicemail is not secure and that the fix of being able to blacklist your own number is a necessary thing. Possibly ooma can at least offer blacklisting our own number as a free feature for everyone. I've discovered that ooma really tries to do the right thing. Maybe a polite email to Dennis (he is the Vice President of Product Management) will do the trick. Let us know his response.

Dante R · Post by **Dante R** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 12:50 pm

I'm not sure I follow the issue here. Blacklist is and has always been a Premier feature as long as I can remember.

Am I missing something here?

southsound · Post by **southsound** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:54 pm

Dante R wrote:I'm not sure I follow the issue here. Blacklist is and has always been a Premier feature as long as I can remember.

Am I missing something here?

Sure. If a bad person calls into an ooma system and spoofs the caller id to be the same as the number called, the system thinks it is you and does not ask for a password. Caller messages, options, and outgoing messages are all exposed. We know that spoofing is easy - you can either use a spoofing service or configure an SIP system to spoof the CID with any number you want to be. That makes ooma's voicemail something less secure than posting your password on a bathroom wall with instructions as to how to use it.

What we need is for ooma to either fix the gaping security hole reagarding voicemail - or allow us to blacklist our own number with any level of service. It is just the right thing to do. I use Google Voice as a front end so I almost never have ooma voicemail but if I did, I would feel very exposed.

ItsAllGood · Post by **ItsAllGood** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 10:08 am

Dante R wrote:I'm not sure I follow the issue here. Blacklist is and has always been a Premier feature as long as I can remember.

Am I missing something here?

Hello Dante,
I'm rather convinced that is not the case (Blacklisting always being a Premier feature). In the e-mail that I received when my Premier trial expired (Jul 17, 2009), it listed these features as becoming disabled -

Instant Second Line
Three-way conferencing
Message screening
Do not Disturb
Send to Voicemail
Voicemail forwarding
Personal numbers
Private voicemail

Since Blacklisting is not in this list, my expectation is Blacklisting would remain on my account. I was further convinced by the system behaviors I noted when I started this thread (successful addition of numbers to the blacklist).

I very much hope my current access to Blacklisting (on my Core account) is not seen as a mistake. Our household is very glad for such a feature, but not enough to justify buying Premier (since many of the other Premier features aren't important to us).

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