 Review by SliderNC 
UPDATED: 2.1 years ago
member for 6.9 years, 2536 visits, last login: 36 days ago
 Cornelius,Mecklenburg,NC
 $8 per month (24 month contract)
 about 15 days
 "Quality Service, Great Features, Helpful Tech Support"
 "Tech Support Slow to Answer Online"
 "Great service, good price. Sound quality is excellent."
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(ratings match consensus)
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I signed up for Viatalk on the 2 years for $199 plan. There was a backlog of orders and it took them quite awhile to fulfill mine as I was probably one of the last few people to signup.
I received my adapter and set it up in about 5 minutes behind my router.
After reading a few threads here about forwarding ports and having tech support adjust the provisioning on their end, I called their tech group. I waited about 5 minutes and they helped me out getting it all setup.
10 digit dialing was slow, as was 7 digit. I received the admin password for the adapter and turned off provisioning and changed the dial plan again after reading some threads here. 10 and 7 digit dialing are now quick.
Overall, the service works well and is almost as good as my old POTS line. I'm currently a Sunrocket customer, but I couldn't pass up this deal when it came around. So far, I'm happy with Viatalk's customer service, just wish they would respond to online tickets faster.
Update 6/6/06: I put in an LNP request on May 17th to have my SR number ported over to VT. I received an email stating that my port would be completed on June 12th. I'm pretty happy to hear this as I will be moving around June 22nd into our new house.
The past few days the service has been great. I've made calls and had calls from all over and people were telling me I sounded great in terms of clarity and there was no static or echo. I'm really impressed.
Update 6/19/06: On 6/12/06 my number was ported from SR to VT successfully. I had a slight issue though. After rebooting the PAP2, it was not reaching out to the VT servers, or anything to that matter. I called VT support and was helped quite a bit, going through the usual laundry list of issues it could be. We came to the conclusion that something must have changed after I rebooted it. Using the IVR menu by pressing **** four times, I was able to adjust the settings and get it back on my network. I called VT back up and had them turn off DHCP again, verified my IP settings and after that, we were all set.
I received a followup email from support later that evening to make sure everything was working correctly.
I've updated my review to indicate a 4 for support, seeing how well they performed and took the time to followup on my issues. Email support is pretty quick now as well.
1/4/2007: After 7 months with Viatalk, I am very pleased with the quality of the phone service, the options and addons that they have made in that time, as well as the quality of the customer service people.
This is company is fantastic in what they offer and supporting it.
I have not had any outages or any sorts and any issues that I have had were resolved quickly and promptly by support (less than 48 hours turn around for minor issues).
Brandon and his team do an excellent job.
Update 10/17/2007:
After almost a year and half with Viatalk, my issues have been limited in terms of quality of service and performance. When I need to make a call, I have a dialtone.
My issues now are with the operation of the company as a whole and the smoke and mirror tactics that they are using.
Previously, I signed up for a BOGO free offer, where I purchased a year of service and was to receive a year of service for free. This was in April 2006. In October 2006, they instituted "mandatory fees" for E-911 and an FCC charge, neither are which are mandatory for the consumer, just mandatory that the company pay them. I had thought that these would have been figured into the price. When the fees came up, Brandon Brader, CEO, stated in the forums that those with current contracts would not be charged the fees.
As of yesterday, my CC on file was charged $2.50 cents. Then another post/email was sent out about who is getting charged and who isn't. The fact of the matter is that I signed a deal for 2 years for $199 and no other fees should have been added to that, whether it is in the free year period or during the first year of service. This is a material change and breaks the TOS/Contract that I signed. This is also a bad business practice overall. It makes this company look like they are just hungry for money. It was also wrong to just start charging the fee without and previous notice about it.
In recent months with the implosion of Sunrocket, customer service has taken a big hit. I have had to call in once before for a technical issue which I could not fix and waited over an hour on hold to talk to someone. Email tickets seem to just sit idle and never get answered.
I've updated my review of this company based on this update of my review here.
When my service is up in April 2008, I will not be renewing nor will I be giving referrals for their services anymore.
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