Review by pdivi 
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 2.1 years, 3 visits, last login: 310 days ago
 Raleigh,Wake,NC
 $22 per month (month by month)
 about 4 days
 "Ease of installation, low price"
 "Slow/no response to trouble tickets, live testing beta upgrades, reliability a joke"
 "The hassles aren't worth the savings"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Update 8/2: Took call quality from 4 to 2. I've had my new AT&T Callvantage service hooked up for two weeks and the difference is night and day. No more delay, no more stutter, no more unexplained inbound busy signal / "all circuits are busy" / etc. I regret all the time I wasted using VT's inferior service while believing the story that the problems were due to my ISP.
Update 7/23: Took tech support from 2 to 1 and value from 3 to 2. Tech support -- almost literally -- does not exist currently. If you have a problem, expect a 1-2 hour hold or no response on an email ticket. Can you afford to hang out on the phone for two hours? I can't. VT might be fine in the steady state, but as soon as anything outside of the predictable happens, it all breaks loose. There's no contingency plan. Anyone remember last summer's software update? Just not a great option if you need dependability, IMO.
Update 7/5/07: Took reliability down to 1 from 2. Reliability is a complete joke. Service will work great for months, then it'll hit a period of near constant trouble for weeks at a time. Everything is constant to my end -- ISP, hardware, etc. Currently in a very bad patch. Coincidentally (or not?) the worst patches (July 06 and July 07) coincided with the 2 yrs. for $199 offers. I use VT as a backup to another VOIP provider, and I wouldn't even recommend them for that purpose.
Signed up for month-to-month plan. Adapter arrived within a few days. Service worked perfectly upon installation.
No real problems for first couple of months. No extended outages, very sporadic call quality issues, but nothing abnormal. In fact, call quality overall was slightly better than the other VoIP provider that I use.
Then, ViaTalk rolled out its new failover feature and everything changed. Connection dropped multiple times daily. Attempted to resolve through tech support. Submitted numerous trouble tickets that either received no response, or only received a response after several days of waiting. Called tech support on numerous occasions at different times of the day, and never found a call queue of under 45 minutes. From a practical standpoint, unless you have a lot of spare time to sit on hold and can afford to go without phone service for days on end, ViaTalk just doesn't have adequate tech support.
After 5 weeks of daily outages and dead ends with tech support, I finally gave up and switched to a different provider.
Followup comments:  hummer49
join:2006-02-01
Saint George, UT
| Viatalk reliability I have been with VT for almost 2 years. Prior to that I was with Vonage twice, Packet 8 twice, Lingo & SunRocket.
Hands down ViaTalk is the best Voip carrier in terms of reliability, quality and support. It's not even fair to compare the others.....this is from someone who's had all the big name competitors!
While ViaTalk has had issues at various times when they are running one of their $199 for 2 year specials, those hiccups have been temporary, and I have found them to be very responsive when speaking to a support person "live."
I am not fond of submitting a support ticket when I have the option of speaking with someone live. All of VT's support is done in the good 'ol USA...and while the waits are sometimes intolerably long( you can pay extra for priority support ), I know when I get them on the line they will understand my problem and attempt to fix it without the language barrier. I have also found, without exception, the support personnel to be courteous and conscientious.
To the gentleman who had issues with the failover system, you should check to make sure you are on the right server to begin with. When VT instituted this program I had severe latency issues, so I called and found out they had me on the wrong server. We corrected that immediately and no issues since. My ping is now between 25 - 29ms.
I am very happy with ViaTalk.....and I live in a remote area of the US. | |
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