Review by guppy_fish 
UPDATED: 277 days ago
member for 4.6 years, 1918 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Lakeland,Polk,FL
 $8 per month (24 month contract)
 about 4 days
 "None any more"
 "its a "Maybe" phone, you never know what to expect when you try and use it"
 "Stick with POTS if you want a phone you can count on, I'm back on POTS now"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
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Update Oct 16th 2007
Well Viatalk just decided that my remaining free time should now cost 2.50 month, same for all of the old BBR members that took the risk with this company and signed up for the 2 for 1 deals ... my service was to be thru 04/2008 .. now they want more even though I don' even use the service!. I'm updating this so anyone concidering the service will know not to trust this company as they flat out LIE
Update August 31st 2007
Today I ordered Verizon POTS, 38 bucks a month unlimited with 5 features I use. I had 7 outages in the month of August, mostly because the ViaTalk servers are just hopeless and intermitiant
I'll Keep my Pap2 for the remainer of my Free year, but will NOT be renewing and Not be trying indie VOIP in my future.
ViaTalk is just empty promises ... if you like a maybe phone then they are for YOU!
Update August 10th, 2007
I have lowered all my ratings to the lowest possible. Today, no incomming service, but called using the Viatlak line to get support, has a 4-5 hour wait ( caller #107 ) to get thru. Its time to give up on this little company, best wishes to those who feel otherwise ..
Update June 1st, 2007
Well VT still is hit or miss. The phone is worthless if its something that you need when YOU need it. I have had outages, delay in connects when you pickup the phone ( hello, hello thing) , random time it rings, pickup the handset and it still goes to call forward. I had calls just simply disconnect without reason, other times works just fine.
My broadband is near flawless on any test I run .. VOIP is for geeks and when you compare to a discounted POTS line vs broadband AND VOIP ... there is no incentive to have a "maybe phone"
Thats my take and no amount for forum "fanboys" will change my mind!
UPDATE: August 25th, 2006
Viatalk has been focusing on adding features that have caused as near breakdown of the platforms that provide the VOIP service. It's becomming clear, while they may have hearts of gold, they are just a young and inexperianced group that lack the knowledge of what it takes to implement and service a reliable VOIP platform. I've lowered my rating accordingly and I would no longer recommend ViaTalk to anyone unless they only go with the month to month billing, otherwise you are risking more than you should on this VOIP service
I've ordered and installed ViaTalk in March 2006 and I have used the service for 3 months now.
The Service has been trouble free, works as it should and I have unlimited calling for about 8 bucks a month as I added on 2 years on the 99/year promotion to an active account.
The only issue I have had is the PAP2 is a noisy adapter when compared to the VT1005 I had with Vonage. I did some reseach and found if one shorts on the red/green on the second phone port, it almost elminates the noise. Now bear in mind this noise really can't be heard with a phone, but with a headset, which I use its VERY noticable. I noticed it on the very first call and I called ViaTalk, got a US based rep within 2 rings and they sent me a New PAP2 the next day ... but the new one had the same issue and thats when I looked online and found out its a known issue ithe the PAP2s ... I took a old phone cord, stripped the wires and shorted the red/green and stuck it into the unused phone 2 port. Since this time no issues and no noise ( Thanks LinkSys for a crappy VOIP adapter )
In the 3 months I have had one issue, I was on a call is was getting poor sound quality, I did a test and forund out my INTERNET connection had tanked (Roadrunner) and it was a local issue with timewarner that was fixed the next day. This is NOT a Viatlak issue but I'm adding it to this review so show folks VOIP is NOT POTS. You have your ISP , the Adapter quailty that can make the serivce not work well. ViaTalk has been flawless and helpful , but I'm very advanced in my technical knowledge, this is NOT something you should get for your parents unless you wan't to be tech support!!
So a 10 on a scale of 10 for ViaTalk, VOIP in general will never be a POTS replacement, just undertsand that and you will be happy with 8.00 month unlimited calling!
Followup comments:  thisisfutile
join:2006-03-11
Newcomerstown, OH | Thanks Great review, thanks for honest input and not just ranting. | |
| chas3
join:2004-12-03
Dallastown, PA
 ·ViaTalk
 ·Comcast
| router problems I don't believe the worthless rating of viatalk is because of the viatalk side. Routers, their settings, make or break the experience. And some ISPs were reported to be messing with competing voip services. I went thru a bad router experience, bad settings. And at one time, signal levels from the internet provider which would cause random loss of internet, especially in hot weather. Understanding the technical aspects of voip, routers, modems can be helpful. | |
|  | pdivi
join:2006-08-23
·ViaTalk
| Re: router problems Actually, I think "understanding the technical aspects" just muddies the water. Does the service work - yes or no? It really just comes down to that. Some providers get a very consistent "yes" (see Voicepulse, AT&T), others get a very consistent "no". If the provider wants to stay in business it is THEIR responsibility to understand/predict/troubleshoot snags related to ISP's, network equipment, settings, etc. Some companies understand this (see Voicepulse, AT&T), others simply try to shift the responsibility onto their customers (see ViaTalk). The market of customers who really have time to "understanding the technical aspects" is limited. | |
| | guppy_fish
Premium
join:2003-12-09
Lakeland, FL
·ViaTalk
| said by chas3 :I don't believe the worthless rating of viatalk is because of the viatalk side. Routers, their settings, make or break the experience. And some ISPs were reported to be messing with competing voip services. I went thru a bad router experience, bad settings. And at one time, signal levels from the internet provider which would cause random loss of internet, especially in hot weather. Understanding the technical aspects of voip, routers, modems can be helpful. I've been in digital design before PCs were around and understand exactly, at the lowest levels how all this stuff works. Your rating of 100% across the board makes no sense when just today, we had a complete failure of the service, part by a tech at ViaTalk pushing thru a script untested and reported by CEO as a level 3 problem which just "happened" to be at the same time.
ViaTalks failures are caused by:
All traffic has to go thru there servers ( added latency )
A Fail-over system that doesn't work, has no real engineering/validation to prove it works and ends up causing more issues than it prevents
No QA at all at the home office and things just get pushed into the active servers and things like today happen
All severs that traffic is forced to transition thru are at non-ViaTalk locations and are just generic servers and totally at the mercy of these third part hosting services that almost without fail over sell capacity
The service is better than the lowest rating I have assigned, I would give it a 60% ( D grade ) but in order to counter reviews like yours of 100% across the board so new BBR reader get a balanced report I have no choice but to give it the lowest possible rating | |
| | | chas3
join:2004-12-03
Dallastown, PA
·ViaTalk
·Comcast
| Re: router problems I started in electronics in 1974 and started hand assembling 6502 code in 1978. So, sound like we may both be on the tech side.
I have been using VT through out the day and have not noticed any issues today.
Sorry I can't verify the troubles you are having. Only times I haven't had phone service is.... a couple hours during the day my number ported, which I don't know who to blame there....and when I've had comcast trouble or router trouble. Obviously, I might not know if an outage happens when I'm not using the phone.
As for ratings, guess I could say I have to rate it at 100% to counteract those that underrate the service. But that's not it. When looking at the whole package, features, price, financial stability, over 11,600 minutes of great phone calls....I just can't rate it any other way. It's what I've experienced with the service.
Perhaps it is my location, only one state away from VT, who knows. Maybe some of the tweaking of settings. Checking ping times on every available VT server. Maybe getting comcast to put in a new underground feed and having them boost my signal levels. Just last night, we had a 3.5 hour power outage taking out 2500 homes in this area...during the outage, I made a dozen phone calls. Amazing that the cable amplifier in the neighbors yard had power.
Hope you can find resolution to your problems.
Blessings. | |
| | | | guppy_fish
Premium
join:2003-12-09
Lakeland, FL
·ViaTalk
| Re: router problems If I had service like you, I'd rate it high as well.
The core issue is ViaTalk stands alone in pushing ALL the call traffic thru 3rd party servers ( mostly for call recording )and then onto the destination.
If your close to a server like you, your likely not to have the issues many of us experience. Almost everyone else ( VOIP providers ) just does the initiation of the call, the call it self goes to the closest PSTN termination point
Top this off with the never ending ping pong on the server failover, it becomes a random event on the phone quality.
Its not a question of my ISP, I have 4.4 on the VOIP tests, My Internet is 10/1 and speed tests show near this, for cable, Bright-house here in Central Florida is actually very good, thank to FIOS coming to town.
I realise, unless it happens to YOU, its meaningless ... doesn't mean its not real and not wider spread. | |
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