No Google Voice for original hub

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kylander
Posts:3
Joined:Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:18 pm
Re: No Google Voice for original hub

Post by kylander » Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:23 am

I have to say I'm surprised by the pass Ooma's largely getting in this forum on the GVE issue. What burns me is what I believe has been Ooma's misleading and deceptive marketing of GVE. Here are a few lines from the March 2009 news release:

http://www.ooma.com/media/press-release ... experience

> "ooma Adds Features to Enhance Google Voice Experience"
> "...compatible with its current and future home phone systems planned for summer release."
> "An ooma system consists of the ooma Hub connected to a broadband connection and an existing home phone."

The description of each of the GVE features uses present tense, as though the features currently exist.

I activated my Google Voice account in July of last year. I loved (and love) it and within a few weeks, I was ready to ditch the landline. I purchased the Ooma Hub a short time later with the expectation, reached after reading their own marketing material, that it would soon support Google Voice extensions. (It took me an hour so to realize that the GVE were not, in fact, live.) I had no reason to believe they wouldn't be coming soon, and wouldn't be supported by the Hub, so I went with it and Premiere, too. I made the second mistake of porting my primary number to ooma in October and canceling my Time Warner digital phone account -- the "press 1" required on call transfers makes Google Voice now pretty much useless with my primary line. (Stupid me figured, "GVE has to be coming soon, right?!?")

I do PR for a living. The March 18, 2009, news release, in my opinion, is highly unethical and, for me, has called into question ooma's business practices. If they later learned GVE couldn't be supported by the Hub, then testing of GVE certainly wasn't far enough along to have made the March announcement in the first place. Why not come out with an official statement -- in these forums or elsewhere -- on the status of GVE, based on what they announced a year ago? Have I missed that?

Finally, this can't be compared to a car or computer being out-of-date within weeks or months -- ooma announced certain features would be available on "current" systems and it appears that was and is not true. I'm OK with the actual phone service delivered by ooma, but I won't be an ooma apologist.

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Mike-o-Matic
Posts:169
Joined:Wed Nov 18, 2009 7:45 pm

Re: No Google Voice for original hub

Post by Mike-o-Matic » Wed Feb 10, 2010 12:17 pm

Not to change the subject, but I've a small bit of good news for you, kylander. At least the "press 1" problem will apparently be getting cleared up.

From Rich Buchanan's Tweets on Twitter, just before he left:
"@lmcalpin Press 1 is slated to become an option that you set to address your issue."

I assume he's talking about the same thing you are, but it's the only "press 1" issue of which I am aware. And it bugs MANY people, so it makes sense they'd fix it.
Customer Since: November 2009.
Number Port: ordered 12/14/09; completed 01/07/10.
Hardware: one Hub, one Scout, one Telo.
Service Level: Annual Premier.

sgrunspan
Posts:27
Joined:Thu Dec 11, 2008 11:31 am

Re: No Google Voice for original hub

Post by sgrunspan » Wed Feb 10, 2010 5:09 pm

Yeah but press 1 option will only be available on the teleo.

sgrunspan
Posts:27
Joined:Thu Dec 11, 2008 11:31 am

Re: No Google Voice for original hub

Post by sgrunspan » Wed Feb 10, 2010 5:37 pm

kylander wrote:I have to say I'm surprised by the pass Ooma's largely getting in this forum on the GVE issue. What burns me is what I believe has been Ooma's misleading and deceptive marketing of GVE. Here are a few lines from the March 2009 news release:
Really? Do you really believe some people sat in a room and said to each other, "we need to deceive our customers but how to do it? I know let's tell them about something we have in development and pretend it will work on the Hub when in fact it absolutely won't." Yeah it probably went something like that.

http://www.ooma.com/media/press-release ... experience


I do PR for a living. The March 18, 2009, news release, in my opinion, is highly unethical and, for me, has called into question ooma's business practices. If they later learned GVE couldn't be supported by the Hub, then testing of GVE certainly wasn't far enough along to have made the March announcement in the first place. Why not come out with an official statement -- in these forums or elsewhere -- on the status of GVE, based on what they announced a year ago? Have I missed that?
In your professional opinion is a press release a binding contract, one which a consumer could predicate a purchase? In your professional opinion how far along in testing does one have to be to announce an upcoming product/feature?

What would you say if they canceled the project after finding it unfeasible? Or if the project where delayed another year? Or if they dropped a feature you wanted in favor of a different feature? Or if anything beyond their control, i.e. google decided to charge for GV or google decided not make GV available for GVE happened? Have you even read the terms and conditions of your ooma agreement? particularly the one about changing features at ooma's option?

I know, I know. Ooma has no right to make business decisions that you're unhappy with. But if you are wondering why people on this forum, "give ooma a pass" it's because no one seriously entertains the conspiracy theory that ooma intentionally misled people into buying something that they knew wouldn't work. I mean they're not Microsoft for god's sake.
Oh and by the way, GV is a beta service, and if you take one look at the help forums for GV you would know how beta it really is. Beta. No support. Nothing. Even if GVE is available for the Hub, you have no guarantee in terms of feature set or reliability.

kevinmcc
Posts:2
Joined:Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:00 am

Re: No Google Voice for original hub

Post by kevinmcc » Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:15 am

southsound wrote:
BlueHeeler wrote:I use GV all the time. The biggest feature I was looking for was stamping my caller ID with my GV number.
I wonder if Ooma might consider a work around for those hub users who really want to display their GV number on outgoing. The could set the system to send the GV number as outgoing CID. Technically, no problem at all. But I wonder if they would be able to control it so a person could not do something illegal with it? Maybe their partnership with Google that allows them to integrate with the extensions would be enough of a check against abuse?

This is very simply done, but Google would have to work with Ooma. Google would have to setup a way to request to use GV number as outgoing CID with a VoIP service. You could choose the service with your current VoIP number and provider. Google would send request to provider, then the provider would let you choose your original number or GV number. In case of line termination by Google, they'd have to contact VoIP provider and notify them you no longer have that number so they can restore your default CID.

Not sure what you could do illegally. All numbers would be traceable, since both companies should be maintaining logs.

lohertz
Posts:372
Joined:Fri Mar 06, 2009 8:42 pm
Location:Far West Burbs, Chicago

Re: No Google Voice for original hub

Post by lohertz » Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:03 am

kevinmcc wrote:[
This is very simply done, but Google would have to work with Ooma. Google would have to setup a way to request to use GV number as outgoing CID with a VoIP service. You could choose the service with your current VoIP number and provider. Google would send request to provider, then the provider would let you choose your original number or GV number. In case of line termination by Google, they'd have to contact VoIP provider and notify them you no longer have that number so they can restore your default CID.

Not sure what you could do illegally. All numbers would be traceable, since both companies should be maintaining logs.

Wrong. You can use your google voice as the outbound CID now!
Now there's a Google way and an application way.
First you can call your GV number press star, enter pin and press 2 and enter the number you wish to call.
Now I know thats a lot.
Secondly, you can have an application do all that for you. Now whether ooma creates an app and integrates that with its service is one thing. But other applications allow that now.

GVDialer for WinMo phones
Quick Reference Guide to GV

sgrunspan
Posts:27
Joined:Thu Dec 11, 2008 11:31 am

Re: No Google Voice for original hub

Post by sgrunspan » Thu Feb 11, 2010 4:24 pm

lohertz wrote:

Wrong. You can use your google voice as the outbound CID now!
Now there's a Google way and an application way.
First you can call your GV number press star, enter pin and press 2 and enter the number you wish to call.
Now I know thats a lot.
Secondly, you can have an application do all that for you. Now whether ooma creates an app and integrates that with its service is one thing. But other applications allow that now.
In fact if you understand 406 numbers and now 916 or whatever magic the web dialer on iphone/webos does you can create 'normal' numbers to direct dial your contacts from any GV registered phone and the CID will be your GV number. This means you have to run your whole address book through, not trivial. Remember this an undocumented, though well known, feature of a beta service so don't rely on it. A few months ago 406 numbers stopped working with no warning or explanation. Then a few days later they started to work again. Beta is the new alpha.

Derik
Posts:7
Joined:Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:02 am

Re: No Google Voice for original hub

Post by Derik » Wed Mar 17, 2010 6:46 am

Any new info on GVE and the hub or GVE at all?

rbloedon
Posts:1
Joined:Mon Jul 27, 2009 4:52 pm

Re: No Google Voice for original hub

Post by rbloedon » Wed Mar 17, 2010 1:27 pm

AMAZING - I will be VERY disappointed if GVE is not implemented on the original hub. That is the PRIME reason for me to re-subscribe to premier. No GVE, then no more Premier for me. :(

Derik
Posts:7
Joined:Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:02 am

Re: No Google Voice for original hub

Post by Derik » Sun Apr 11, 2010 6:11 pm

And no GVE for hub users. Thanks a lot guys.

In return, you won't be getting any money for premier from me.

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