Tax & Fees Increase

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kensmiles
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Joined:Sat Dec 17, 2011 12:06 pm
Re: Tax & Fees Increase

Post by kensmiles » Fri Feb 10, 2012 10:06 am

I don't really care whether Ooma is making money on this increase. It does not figure into my finances. We are all free to drop Ooma. Since Ooma is anxious to grow, they will naturally want to keep monthly fees pretty low to attract new users. (That's my thinking.)

Which brings me to what I do care about: Will my Telo (newly bought 2 months ago) last? And what will the replacement price be? Because with Ooma's pricing model, we have an investment to worry about. Also, will the quality remain good? If the hardware lasts for years and continues to work well, we will be fine.

Cyberchat
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Re: Tax & Fees Increase

Post by Cyberchat » Fri Feb 10, 2012 3:57 pm

kensmiles wrote:.......

Which brings me to what I do care about: Will my Telo (newly bought 2 months ago) last? And what will the replacement price be? Because with Ooma's pricing model, we have an investment to worry about. Also, will the quality remain good? If the hardware lasts for years and continues to work well, we will be fine.
In about nine and 1/2 months you might want to consider purchasing the extended warranty for your Telo at a current price of $39.99 per year.

I became an OOMA customer in March, 2010, and I purchased a two-year warranty extension in March, 2011, just before the first year's warranty expired. I did this because of reports in this forum that quite a few Telo devices were dying between 18 and 24 months. As it turned out, in December, 2011, my Telo device died. Thanks to the extended warranty, OOMA support shipped a new pre-registered Telo to me which arrived within two days and I was back in service at no additional expense.
First year: Modem-->OomaTelo-->Router
Now: Modem-->Router-->OomaTelo
Ooma Premier, two phone numbers
Ooma Handset
AT&T DECT-6.0 two-line base with four remotes & headset

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

Re: Tax & Fees Increase

Post by kensmiles » Sat Feb 11, 2012 6:52 am

Cyberchat wrote: In about nine and 1/2 months you might want to consider purchasing the extended warranty for your Telo at a current price of $39.99 per year.

I became an OOMA customer in March, 2010, and I purchased a two-year warranty extension in March, 2011, just before the first year's warranty expired. I did this because of reports in this forum that quite a few Telo devices were dying between 18 and 24 months. As it turned out, in December, 2011, my Telo device died. Thanks to the extended warranty, OOMA support shipped a new pre-registered Telo to me which arrived within two days and I was back in service at no additional expense.
Thanks for that advice. I bought my Telo at Costco. They supposedly have a lifetime return policy (although I never returned anything there after a year.) I'll probably roll the dice.

davidm
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Re: Tax & Fees Increase

Post by davidm » Sat Feb 11, 2012 8:45 am

That's one good thing I have to say. My Telo is over two years old now and still going strong. Generally you would reasonably expect 3 - 5 years out of such a device though unless there were quality issues.

ericjut
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Joined:Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:37 pm

Re: Tax & Fees Increase

Post by ericjut » Fri Feb 17, 2012 7:47 pm

Well... unfortunately, the last fee increases nudged me enough to start the process to cancel our Ooma account.

We originally were MagicJack users before I purchased our 1st-gen Ooma. I bought the Ooma unit at Costco mainly for two reasons:
1. The service was advertised as being completely free (which Ooma later changed their story retroactively if one purchased it from Costco [strike one]). There was so much confusion about it all that we didn't really know if we were grandfathered in or not until 12 months later, when we got billed, which confirmed we were not.
2. Unlike the original MagicJack, it was a standalone unit. That, by itself was a great incentive to us, making our setup a lot simpler.

Living in the US and having all the rest of our family in Canada, we were going to take the hit of having to pay for our long distance, but I thought that having the free yearly service was going to be worth it compared to the $20 / year MJ was costing us. And there was the fact that I didn't have to have a PC turned on to use my phone. :)

We actually kept my MJ unit because we pre-paid for 3 years, and had it setup so we could turn on a PC to do our long distance calls. Unfortunately, it wasn't convenient enough for the rest of my family and we ended up keeping a balance for international calls and just use Ooma for all our calls.

It was acceptable to us, until the new fees were added [strike two]. With the fees at around $30 / year for Ooma, including the $200 we paid for the original unit and the extra ~$30 / year of long distance to Canada, Ooma's service definitely didn't look as great of a deal compared to MJ anymore. But it had one redeeming factor: it was a standalone unit and MJ wasn't.

With the more recent fee hike, the yearly fee for us to use Ooma went up to over $50 + $30 of long distance per year [strike 3]. Coupled with the fact that MJ now offers their stand-alone unit at a fraction of the price of a Ooma unit and that they seem to have improved their quality over the last few years (for our region anyway), I couldn't really justify keeing the Ooma service for my family.

So while we've thoroughly enjoyed our few years of service with Ooma, we're saying goodbye.

Best of luck to all of you!

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lbmofo
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Re: Tax & Fees Increase

Post by lbmofo » Fri Feb 17, 2012 8:40 pm

ericjut, sorry to see you go.

But here is what I think....It's just a matter of time before those guys get in trouble; when the fat lady sings, I think they will fall hard: http://www.fierceenterprisecommunicatio ... 2011-01-18 No telling how hard the government will come down on them.

Also consider, Good Quality vs. Poor Quality
viewtopic.php?t=12612#p88300

If don't mind dialing extra digits, GV offers Canada calling for free: viewtopic.php?t=13383#p93077

pa7sy
Posts:5
Joined:Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:08 pm

Re: Tax & Fees Increase

Post by pa7sy » Sat Feb 18, 2012 11:36 am

Great discussion. Sort of related... I have a question regarding these fees. If someone knows the answer to this, I'd appreciate a posted reply.

I signed up for Ooma a month ago because I liked the idea of it being cheaper than my AT&T and that I could keep my AT&T phone number through Ooma's "porting" of my number. However, when I activated my Ooma unit, I had no choice but to choose a phone number from the list. I did that, then contacted Ooma and got my number ported after about 3 weeks.

OK, now I have 2 phone numbers associated with my Ooma account. My question is: Will I be billed the above discussed taxes and fees on BOTH phone numbers?????

Sincerely,
Curious in Michigan

2spirit
Posts:153
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Location:Maryland

Re: Tax & Fees Increase

Post by 2spirit » Sat Feb 18, 2012 12:02 pm

OK, now I have 2 phone numbers associated with my Ooma account. My question is: Will I be billed the above discussed taxes and fees on BOTH phone numbers?????

The taxes and fees are assessed on each account, not on each number.
Telo w/ 2 Ooma Handsets
Annual Premier Subscriber

jazzycat
Posts:21
Joined:Wed Feb 15, 2012 12:34 pm

Re: Tax & Fees Increase

Post by jazzycat » Fri Mar 02, 2012 10:26 am

I have two dedicated lines (2 distinct phone numbers) and I am only charged for one (fees and taxes). I did pay $100/yearly rate to have a second dedicated # (you must have the premiere service to have the second number dedicated). For me it's worth it.

I imagine that, once your number is ported, if you aren't paying for the premiere service, that second number you picked in order to sign up would go away. I don't work for ooma though, and I'm relatively new to the service, so I could be wrong about that.

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lbmofo
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Re: Tax & Fees Increase

Post by lbmofo » Fri Mar 02, 2012 10:52 am

jazzycat wrote:I imagine that, once your number is ported, if you aren't paying for the premiere service, that second number you picked in order to sign up would go away.
You are right.

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