Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 175 days ago
 Bountiful,Davis,UT
 $200 per month- (24 month contract)
 "Phone Service worked about 70% of the time once installed" "Install took 35 hours. Customer Service would not let us out of contract though product did not work." "If your service does not work immediately, you are locked into contract and hours of tech support calls (we logged 50 hrs)"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
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Our Phone Power VOIP phone service has not worked in a year-and-a-half
after we logged 50 hours of customer service and technical support calls
trying to get it to work. Phone Power refused to let us out of our
contract even though they could not deliver on the product we paid to
receive. Their customer service policy seems to be "The Customer is Always
Wrong" and "Our Company is Always Right." There appears to be no limit to
how far they will make the customer go to prove their product is not
inferior.
We became PhonePower customers in 2009 with a pre-paid 2-year contract of
$15 per month. Be aware the fee goes up to $20-30 per month after your
contract expires unless you *call the month prior to the contract
expiring*and set up another pre-paid, lower-priced contract. However,
this
additional extension of the contract proved a mistake for our family. Here
is our experience:
Initial set-up of Phone Power VOIP service took *35 hours*. Yes, you read
that correctly -- 35 hours. Most of those hours were spent online or on
the phone with their technical support department. Tech reps continually
jimmied this and that and ultimately got it working, but only because I had
the time to spend at night on the phone with their technical support team.
You may be wondering to yourself: Why on earth would anyone spend that much
time on the phone trying to get their VOIP service to work? The answer is
simple: Because the company would not let us out of our pre-paid contract.
No exceptions. No common sense. No limit to how many hours the company
expects you can spend on the phone with their technical support team. It
seems that even if the company does NOT provide the service you have paid
to receive, you are still on the hook for the full cost of the contract
(whether you prepaid the contract or whether you are month-to-month on
contracted service their policy is the same.) They are perfectly willing
to have a customer spend 35 hours of their time trying to get their product
to work rather than to let you out of their contract -- or, shall we note,
to take their claws off your money.
The nightmare truly began when we moved and brought the Phone Power VOIP
service with us. For some inexplicable reason, it did not work in the new
apartment, even though we brought all the cords up without disconnecting
them and we did the "plug and play" route of the same set-up that had
previously worked. We spent 15 hours on the phone with Phone Power trying
to get it set up, eventually asking to be let out of the contract and again
being told that we just needed to spend more time on the phone with
customer service and there was no way for us to be let out of our contract
(I have since learned there is an early termination fee option, and I
advise customers to take it rather than try and deal with this company).
Our Phone Power VOIP service has not worked for the past year and a half,
and when I called today to again ask for a refund or to be let out of their
contract, the supervisor Jessica again told me the company would do nothing
and I was stuck. This is their *modus operandi*. When I asked where I
could lodge a complaint about her customer service, I was told in a very
snotty tone that "No one is on the floor but me. There is no one else for
you to complain to," as though their company has no president or CEO.
It appears the technical support team keeps lousy call records, so be sure
and keep your own account. Our account record apparently never showed the
hours of phone calls we logged trying to set up the service, or the fact
that we requested repeatedly to be let out of the contract. I listened in
disbelief as the supervisor "Jessica" told me that our technical call
record indicated that our troubles were "all resolved" and that "customer
was pleased." This was a total fallacy. The technical support team did
actually shine today (a rarity) and got my phone service working in just
2.5 hours -- it appears that split wall jacks can severely disable the
service, which no one had ever mentioned before this call. At least the
remainder of our contract commitment will not be a total waste of money
since we will actually have the phone service to use. However, even during
these last "successful" 2.5 hours, I had to make three separate tech
support calls, and one representative simply hung up on me. When I called
back, the tech support record said it was a "dropped call." Yeah, *right*.
Needless to say, we will not be re-upping our contract next time. We are a
bit smarter after this horrid experience! Give Phone Power the BIG MISS if
you do not want serious headaches with your phone service. There are
undoubtedly honest VOIP providers on the market. By the way, Phone Power
says they are a company out of California, but their actual physical
address for tax purposes is listed in Las Vegas. No surprise there!
Comments:
 | | huh? I am not a big fan of PhonePower... but what plan costs $200 a month?! | |
|  | | | Re: huh? Um, the plan cost $200 for our initial two-year contract. The review does not ever say it cost $200 per month, so I do not know where your information comes from on that point. | |
| | | PX EliezerPremium
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River
kudos:13 | Re: huh? Look at the top of your review:
Bountiful,Davis,UT
[Contract] $200 per month
(24 month contract)
| |
|
PX EliezerPremium
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River
kudos:13 Reviews:
 ·callwithus
·voip.ms
·Optimum Voice
·Vitelity VOIP
·Gizmo5
| Does not make sense.... 1) If your INITIAL installation took 35 hours (which is quite hard to believe---that's a full work week) then for gosh sakes why didn't you CANCEL as they do have a guarantee:
MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. PhonePower.com proudly stands behind our service with our 30 day satisfaction guarantee. Within the first 30 days of your activation you may upgrade or downgrade to any of our current promotional rates or cancel your plan with absolutely no hassle. If cancelling, simply contact customer service requesting cancellation, return the hardware to us and a full refund will be issued. Customer only bears the cost of return shipping and any usage-based calls (example: Operator or International calls). Money back guarantee is not applicable on unsupported internet services.
2) If for some reason they refused to honor that guarantee, you could have complained to your credit card company. You didn't.
3) Even after all that, when your original contract was up after 2 years, after all the aggravation, you could have easily switched to another company.
You didn't. You let it renew....
Way I see it, this is your fault 3 times, and that makes this review even harder to believe. | |
| | | | Re: Does not make sense.... Guarantee was not honored. And, YES, it was a full work-week to get it installed. | |
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| | | | Re: Incorporated in California.... Thank you. It appears my information was old on the point of incorporation, and I accept your correction. | |
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DSM Fan
join:2010-10-04
New Orleans, LA | Epic The OR is kind of fail. looks like another drive by flaming. | |
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