My experience... STAY AWAY!!!!!

Problems using My Ooma? Ideas on how we can make it better? You’ve come to the right place.
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bnt417
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Joined:Sun Oct 10, 2010 3:48 pm
My experience... STAY AWAY!!!!!

Post by bnt417 » Fri Dec 10, 2010 8:42 am

My Experience: NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS WITH OOMA! Support is TERRIBLE.

WayneDsr
Posts:3790
Joined:Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:28 pm
Location:Northern Indiana

Re: My experience... STAY AWAY!!!!!

Post by WayneDsr » Fri Dec 10, 2010 9:07 am

Wow, that's pretty harsh! I agree that tier one support is a bit "iffy" (as in most tier one support sadly) but I have 2 Ooma products, the old hub and the new Telo.

I use the hub constantly all day and never give it a second thought, it is as dependable as my old landline. My wife, who was very doubtfull about ooma when I first purchased it, won't give up her Ooma hub.

The telo has had it's growing pains, but you can't beat the quality of the call.

If you have little experience with VOIP, it can be a little challenging to understand sometimes. But if you have a good grasp of computers and internet connections (they don't always play fair) you can figure out Ooma.

I did notice that you've only been a member of the forum since October and all of your posts have been negative.
Sorry you weren't happy, but so many of us are!

Wayne
ooma customer since January 2009
ooma hardware: core (hub/scout) and Telo
Lifetime Premier Member

huggybear
Posts:46
Joined:Thu Apr 15, 2010 7:46 am

Re: My experience... STAY AWAY!!!!!

Post by huggybear » Fri Dec 10, 2010 9:53 am

I totally agree this is pretty harsh. We, however are now looking into going back to AT&T. The first couple months with Ooma was great, but the past couple months has given us many dropped calls, many outgoing calls ringing twice, then dead air. Took 4 calls from me in about 2 minutes to finally reach our local bank yesterday. Call with my critically ill brother in FL dropped 3 times in 20 minutes. Just problem after problem. The Forum is super & I have to say Ooma email support has been good as well. Thing is, we are Not computer literate as "Waynedsr" mentions. We cannot access the ooma setup website & have no understanding many times what it is that Ooma support is asking us to do even if we could get to the site. I cannot spend hours on the computer trying to learn all this stuff, simply don't have the time. Had we known you had to work at getting dependable phone service with Ooma, we would never had spent the money to buy the Telo. (Something else we need to find a home for as no one we know wants it due to the many difficulties we have had.) We found we are using our cellphone if the call is important. With my disabled husband, I want & need to pick up my home phone & use it, period.

We're not angry, just very sad as there are features with Ooma we love, such as the Call Logs, the Forum & of course the cost, but we have to be able to use our phone every time we need to use it. I don't know when this is going to take place yet as family & the holidays seem to overwhelm us all right now, but it will happen & I'm truly sorry for that.

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lbmofo
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Re: My experience... STAY AWAY!!!!!

Post by lbmofo » Fri Dec 10, 2010 10:20 am

huggybear, it is fine if you don't want to get into all the technical details. If I were you, before I give up, I'd simply swap out my modem to see if the service improves; I think there is a high probability it is your modem/internet service. That is simple enough to try I think and maybe worth your while.

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lbmofo
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Re: My experience... STAY AWAY!!!!!

Post by lbmofo » Fri Dec 10, 2010 10:24 am

bnt417 wrote:My Experience: NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS WITH OOMA! Support is TERRIBLE.
Would you like to let the forum know what kind of trouble you are having?

WayneDsr
Posts:3790
Joined:Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:28 pm
Location:Northern Indiana

Re: My experience... STAY AWAY!!!!!

Post by WayneDsr » Fri Dec 10, 2010 12:27 pm

lbmofo wrote:huggybear, it is fine if you don't want to get into all the technical details. If I were you, before I give up, I'd simply swap out my modem to see if the service improves; I think there is a high probability it is your modem/internet service. That is simple enough to try I think and maybe worth your while.
Just to add to this -
My Ooma phone is there every time I need it and I have not had to do very much work to make that happen.

The suggestion made by lbmofo about switching out your modem is a very good one. This year I was having internet problems, once in awhile my internet would drop out for a few seconds. Sometimes long enough to disconnect Ooma. I was blaming my internet provider.
I swapped out my modem as a last resort and presto! not only did my internet not drop out any longer, my general speed and quality improved! And of course Ooma didn't disconnect any longer. This could be an idea before spending $$ on land line.

I wish you all the best either way!

Wayne
ooma customer since January 2009
ooma hardware: core (hub/scout) and Telo
Lifetime Premier Member

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EricJRW
Posts:254
Joined:Tue Nov 23, 2010 2:00 pm
Location:Texas

Re: My experience... STAY AWAY!!!!!

Post by EricJRW » Fri Dec 10, 2010 1:54 pm

It's been a long time since I hung out at DSLreports.com (I think it's officially broadbandreports.com now), but in the hay-day of "fast" Internet access at home, DSLR provided tools to monitor your Internet connection. I wonder if a) these tools still exist, and b) if the tools are still out there, if monitoring your connection would offer insight into intermittent or creeping problems?

I am a new ooma user, and so far, I am very please with the performance. Initially I had no plans to subscribe to premier, but after experiencing a few weeks off ooma, I am re-thinking this. First, I particularly like the black list feature, second I'm smitten with caller ID (never could stand the idea of paying $10 a month just for this service, and now for $10 a month I could have all of premier) and third, I just like the idea of supporting the company.

So I too will add the "I'm sorry to hear about your troubles." line, but from my time in the forums many problems are solved in the home by either tweaking or replacing various bits of one's home network.
ooma hub with one scout (looking to add at least one more)
Premier Service (I was not expecting to do this, but I love the Premier features)
Panasonic KX-TG4024 (w/ 4 handsets)
Customer since November 2010
Internet access: FiOS 15/5

bnt417
Posts:5
Joined:Sun Oct 10, 2010 3:48 pm

Re: My experience... STAY AWAY!!!!!

Post by bnt417 » Fri Dec 10, 2010 4:05 pm

I agree that WHEN Ooma works, it is great. I am on my third telo box and have replaced all three of my handsets once. Bottom line, the Ooma system should be in beta not sold as a solid working product.

Handsets: Expensive, poorly designed, poor call quality. I have three hooked up as well as a Panasonic DECT 6. NO COMPARISON!!! Panasonic handsets are 10/10, Ooma is a 1/10. Panasonic also cost half of the Ooma!

Support: I do not even want to get started on this sore subject. Suffice it to say the "support" is terrible if you have any problem greater than what could be answered on their website. Even level two support is VERY WEAK.

Bottom line: Great concept - very poor execution on the part of Ooma.

My prediction is that they will fade away as so many hundreds of mediocre tech companies before them.

By the way, I am an electrical engineer with over 30 years computer/electronics experience.

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lbmofo
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Re: My experience... STAY AWAY!!!!!

Post by lbmofo » Fri Dec 10, 2010 4:34 pm

bnt417 wrote:I agree that WHEN Ooma works, it is great. I am on my third telo box and have replaced all three of my handsets once. Bottom line, the Ooma system should be in beta not sold as a solid working product.

Handsets: Expensive, poorly designed, poor call quality. I have three hooked up as well as a Panasonic DECT 6. NO COMPARISON!!! Panasonic handsets are 10/10, Ooma is a 1/10. Panasonic also cost half of the Ooma!

Support: I do not even want to get started on this sore subject. Suffice it to say the "support" is terrible if you have any problem greater than what could be answered on their website. Even level two support is VERY WEAK.

Bottom line: Great concept - very poor execution on the part of Ooma.

My prediction is that they will fade away as so many hundreds of mediocre tech companies before them.

By the way, I am an electrical engineer with over 30 years computer/electronics experience.
bnt417, in 2 months time, you've gone through 3 Telos, all 3 of your handsets once and you never bothered to post your problem on this forum to seek help?

Either you made up your mind that this isn't gonna work for you from day 1 or you are planted here by some Ooma competitor.

I think SouthSound said it best when he posted this to you:
southsound wrote:You have such a positive attitude! I'll bet everyone who knows you says, "That bnt417 - I love being around them. Nothing but positive vibes. I think I'll name my lovechild bnt417 as a sign of my everlasting gratitude!

ps: If you are having problems, we'd love to help. If you just want a forum to complain, then you have already succeeded!

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Davesworld
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Re: My experience... STAY AWAY!!!!!

Post by Davesworld » Fri Dec 10, 2010 4:57 pm

I am down to one number on one hub now which I keep around for the time being. I ported out both telo numbers and deactivated it last week.

I hear claims of unbeatable call quality and wonder how this assertion is arrived at, unbeatable is relative. Even before six months ago when people began having problems with excessive lag, choppiness and so forth, the sound quality was comparable to that of pots (not a good comparison as ISDN is what voice quality should be compared to, not pots) it was at least consistent and very usable.

It was disseminated months ago that the Ooma ATAs have built in algorithms that choose call routing based on the cheapest call route of the day which is NOT something I would want to depend on. Cheapest is almost always grey routing. Ooma has to pay their provider for each and every call you make. It's impossible economically for them to give you everything at premium grade indefinitely at a fixed up front cost.

I've gone on to a Carrier Grade ATA and multiple accounts with three different providers as this has turned into a hobby now so I outgrew Ooma even before voice quality suffered and did not expect it to be where it is now. Two of my accounts allow you to choose grey white or premium routes to overeas. The third is premium throughout and does not bother the user with choice, they run their own TDM equipment and have a fat pipe as well as multiple load balanced servers. Even though they are in New York and I am in Everett, WA, the voice lag round trip is never over 200ms. One of the two that allow you to choose one of the three routes for international calls also allows you to choose premium domestic routing and even premium routing for toll free calls at a penny a minute, otherwise free if you do not choose this. The latter also allows you to choose which server incoming calls to you are routed through. The provider with their own TDM equipment I have my main number with has supported g.722 for ages now and my ATA also supports this but 99% of calls route over the PSTN so it's not something I can really take advantage of.

It only takes a quick check here http://myspeed.visualware.com/indexvoip.php to see really how your connection does. You can choose the codec and even a city where your server might be to get a better understanding of what you can expect. Connection quality issues should be the exception for most VOIP users and not the likely culprit. I too measured excessive delay and other issues on both my Telo and Hub before I deactivated the Telo last week and I'm only 50ms away from where Ooma's servers are. My MOS on my connection is 4.2 which is extremely good for a consumer grade internet connection. Would rather have a carrier grade connection but I can't pay hundreds of dollars a month for it, not rich yet.

Oh, I should mention that I have call quality comparable to ISDN, not POTS.

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