New VM email notification not working anymore

Having trouble placing or receiving calls or using your voicemail system on Ooma Telo VoIP Phones? Post your questions here.
dkrauss
Posts:1
Joined:Fri Mar 11, 2011 7:17 pm
Re: New VM email notification not working anymore

Post by dkrauss » Fri Mar 11, 2011 7:29 pm

The same thing happened to me. I was encouraged to renew my Basic service for a year and extend my warranty and was told my services would remain the same. SMS notification, however, disappeared.

Can an OOMA rep do something for those 'few basic users' who got taken by this oversight? I think paying $4.99-$10/month for a service I had already (as one of your phone reps just quoted me) could be remedied by a fair "grandfather clause" for those of us who have been caught in the system mistake. I have had my system over a year and always understood that the SMS notifications were part of what I paid for.

I'm not asking for anything that I wasn't told I already had and am not looking for anything free. Just really relied on the SMS feature.

Thank you!

worksong
Posts:22
Joined:Tue Dec 08, 2009 2:09 pm

Re: New VM email notification not working anymore

Post by worksong » Fri Mar 11, 2011 9:09 pm

To darin_n and dkrauss: thanks for sharing your experience. I was certain others were in the same boat.

To Bobby B: I reject your attempt to explain this as a “bug.” Your assumptions about the service I actually had on my two Telo accounts are as wrong as were those of lbmofo.


I don’t have lots of time to loiter on this board, or to continue to wait for Ooma customer service to respond.

Instead, I’ve purchased the domain OOMAFAIL.COM.

I’ll post there the specific promises made by Ooma, together with detail on how they were broken.

Anyone wishing to share their similar experiences can send details to info@oomafail.com; I’ll go live & periodically update as time allows.


As we’re now on p. 3 of this thread, a quick recap:

Before I bought my 1st Telo, I was told I could choose between included “vanilla” notifications by email, & Premiere notifications that would include the attached voice file, along with other enhancements. I let Premiere expire & stayed with the basic notifications. When I bought my 2nd Telo, I opted to downgrade from Premiere immediately. With both systems, I then enjoyed basic voicemail notifications for over a year, until 2 weeks ago...when they stopped without warning.

Ooma revisionists now tell me I wasn’t really looking—without Premiere service—at the screens that let me program & direct these notifications, & that the notifications were just “inadvertently continued.” They’re wrong.

Incidentally, one of the people I discussed this choice with was Rich Buchanan—then Chief Marketing Officer. He had called to thank me for my observations & input regarding Ooma’s initial DTMF problems, & we ended up talking about his plan to unbundle some of the Premiere services, with one offering being a la carte advanced voicemail. I told him that sounded great...but until it was in place, the “vanilla” email notifications I was getting with my standard service would suffice. He replied he understood, & would try to improve the upgrade value for more users.

The more Ooma claims that I imagined this conversation, or didn’t really have this service, the more determined I’ll be to caution others that “lifetime” features they’ve purchased could similarly disappear.

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lbmofo
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Re: New VM email notification not working anymore

Post by lbmofo » Sat Mar 12, 2011 2:54 am

Okay guys, let me try this one more time.

Ooma provides 2 types of base services and a Premier service (we don't want to consider exceptions like "Basic Plus" or "Ehanced Voicemail" add-on here).

The 2 kinds of base services, which are free, are relevant to our topic.

If you are not a Premier customer, the type of base service you get is entirely up to the hardware you initially activated your Ooma account on.

You get the Core base service if you activated your account on the Ooma Core (Hub+Scout combo).
You get the Basic base service if you activated your account on any other device (Telo or standalone Hub).

These are the features you get with Core but don't with Basic:
  • Caller-ID Name (Hub only customers will also get this until Contacts lookup works for Hub)
  • Voicemail Notifications
  • Anonymous call blocking
That's it. It is as simple as above.

The reason you've been getting VM notification until lately is because the system didn't downgrade you properly <-- a bug. The reason you were able to provision it even after Premier trial expiration (I wasn't aware people could) is because the GUI was wrong <-- a bug. I've seen "enable call screening" checkbox visible and provisionable for non Premier customers forever (rendered invisible just a few months ago) but that didn't mean that it worked or non Premier customers were entitled to that feature.

It doesn't matter what kind of promotional emails you got saying how Premier can take your VM notifications to the next level via mp3 attachments. Those emails don't translate to any Ooma promises. They mean nothing. If anything, those emails probably got to you by mistake because they were obviously talking to the Core customers.

It doesn't matter what kind of comments Rich made to you. Still don't translate to any Ooma promises. For all we know, he probably thought you were a Core customer.

The only thing Ooma promised when you got your 2 Telos is that you'd get basic VM with basic service which you are definitely getting.

Before you call folks "wrong," I suggest you present proof that Ooma promised you VM notification. What you heard, what you thought, what you assumed, and what others told you don't mean anything.

The Core customers get VM notifications because they were promised; example: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... No=4682276#

Core Features Ad.jpg
Core Features Ad.jpg (48.48KiB)Viewed 5909 times
[/size]

Your vendetta against Ooma has no legs to stand on. If anything, be glad that you've been getting VM notification for as long as you have.

oomaco
Posts:3
Joined:Sat Mar 12, 2011 3:36 pm

Re: New VM email notification not working anymore

Post by oomaco » Sat Mar 12, 2011 3:42 pm

There is a new iphone / ipad app that allows you to access your ooma voicemail messages from your device. It is called "Message Dashboard". It also allows you to send the ooma vm message via email. One time cost of $12. I found it here:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/message- ... 58452?mt=8

Squee
Posts:3
Joined:Fri Nov 05, 2010 12:41 pm

Re: New VM email notification not working anymore

Post by Squee » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:20 pm

I, too, have had the feature os SMS notification go away recently. This used to be included as part of the Basic service. No promise was made to me that this feature would continue on forever, but it was a reasonable expectation. I guess it is OK for Ooma to redefine what is included in the Basic service, but it is also OK for folks to complain that a feature got taken away. Maybe this feature was just too expensive for Ooma to continue with no recurring revenue from Basic users.

For me, I decided to upgrade to Premium, which is exactly what Ooma would want me to do. I get some more features (sending VM to email is great) and a second line. I'm not happy, but not extremely upset. For $119/year I get the equivalent service that would cost about $500 more with Vonage.

Ooma is sending various offers to upgrade to Premium for $99 or $60 in some cases. But these offers are only for specific accounts.

PS - there is a way to check voicemail in the Ooma iPhone app ($10), but they make it extremely inconvenient to locate. Go to the Settings button (upper right corner), the to My Ooma (bottom), and then the Inbox. Not certain why they make it so difficult to check VM on this app.

mnappi0606
Posts:6
Joined:Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:15 am

Re: New VM email notification not working anymore

Post by mnappi0606 » Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:22 am

I am livid with OOMA. I was their biggest fan...until now. Like all good companies, greed eventually gets the best of them.

To be clear, with an OOMA TELO BASIC SERVICE PLAN, they always advertized voicemail notification for FREE. The notification would not include a sound clip of the actual voicemail, but they would notify you of the fact that you received one. If you upgraded to PREMIER, they would then offer an attached sound clip including your voicemail message. So, that was the perk of going to premier service.

They suddenly CHANGED the offering with no notification to their basic customers. I missed 2 important phone calls from my doctor as a result.

I could not be more frustrated with Ooma. Frustration number 1: Altering a product I already paid for to force me and others to upgrade to premium. Frustration number 2: No notification of this change!

OOMAFAIL...I can't wait until that website is up.

OOMA! Listen to your customers and do the right thing by restoring this service ASAP.

p.s You owe me a $25.00 missed doctor's appointment penalty fee... :( :( :( :( :(

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lbmofo
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Re: New VM email notification not working anymore

Post by lbmofo » Wed Mar 30, 2011 11:53 am

Is the below in French or something? :?
lbmofo wrote:Okay guys, let me try this one more time.

Ooma provides 2 types of base services and a Premier service (we don't want to consider exceptions like "Basic Plus" or "Ehanced Voicemail" add-on here).

The 2 kinds of base services, which are free, are relevant to our topic.

If you are not a Premier customer, the type of base service you get is entirely up to the hardware you initially activated your Ooma account on.

You get the Core base service if you activated your account on the Ooma Core (Hub+Scout combo).
You get the Basic base service if you activated your account on any other device (Telo or standalone Hub).

These are the features you get with Core but don't with Basic:
  • Caller-ID Name (Hub only customers will also get this until Contacts lookup works for Hub)
  • Voicemail Notifications
  • Anonymous call blocking
That's it. It is as simple as above.

The reason you've been getting VM notification until lately is because the system didn't downgrade you properly <-- a bug. The reason you were able to provision it even after Premier trial expiration (I wasn't aware people could) is because the GUI was wrong <-- a bug. I've seen "enable call screening" checkbox visible and provisionable for non Premier customers forever (rendered invisible just a few months ago) but that didn't mean that it worked or non Premier customers were entitled to that feature.

It doesn't matter what kind of promotional emails you got saying how Premier can take your VM notifications to the next level via mp3 attachments. Those emails don't translate to any Ooma promises. They mean nothing. If anything, those emails probably got to you by mistake because they were obviously talking to the Core customers.

It doesn't matter what kind of comments Rich made to you. Still don't translate to any Ooma promises. For all we know, he probably thought you were a Core customer.

The only thing Ooma promised when you got your 2 Telos is that you'd get basic VM with basic service which you are definitely getting.

Before you call folks "wrong," I suggest you present proof that Ooma promised you VM notification. What you heard, what you thought, what you assumed, and what others told you don't mean anything.

The Core customers get VM notifications because they were promised; example: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... No=4682276#

Image

Your vendetta against Ooma has no legs to stand on. If anything, be glad that you've been getting VM notification for as long as you have.

mnappi0606
Posts:6
Joined:Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:15 am

Re: New VM email notification not working anymore

Post by mnappi0606 » Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:39 pm

You are so dense. What myself and many others are saying is that you are mistaken or lieing. We all understand what the CURRENT offering is. Thank you for reiterating it 17 times. However, if this was a mysterious bug, why did voicemai attachments stop after my premier trial ended? According to your logic, I should have continued to receive the premier service which includes attachments.

It's much easier for you as an Ooma employee to say that this was a "bug" rather than saying the truth: This was a calculated choice by Ooma to pressure basic customers to pay for premier.

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southsound
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Re: New VM email notification not working anymore

Post by southsound » Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:56 pm

mnappi0606 wrote:It's much easier for you as an Ooma employee to say that this was a "bug" rather than saying the truth.
Sorry that you are disappointed in what you feel is happening - but regardless, lbmofo is NOT an ooma employee. Like myself, he is just a fellow user who tries to help other users. Not paid, not in anyone's pocket, just a nice person who tries to help. Now don't you feel just a little silly for taking out your anger on a nice person who is only trying to be helpful? :shock:
ooma customer since February 2009
VoIP hardware: 2 Telo w/3 handsets & Linx / ooma core
Total Lines: 8 / Numbers: 11 / Handsets: 20
Lifetime Premier Member
Friends don't remember what Landline Integration was or why we did it.

mnappi0606
Posts:6
Joined:Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:15 am

Re: New VM email notification not working anymore

Post by mnappi0606 » Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:57 pm

Oh, what a fool I am!!! Stupid, stupid, stupid!! I wish I could go back in time...PSYCHE

Ps: premier customers should not even be commenting on this thread since you are unaffected by this issue!

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