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Review by Nightfall See Profile

  • Location: Grand Rapids, Kent, MI, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
  • Install: about 5 days
Fast setup, fast number port, excellent call quality
Premier is $10 a month with many features that make it a requirement for me. Wish it was cheaper
A solid VOIP provider that works very well for me.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I was on Callcentric for a few years prior to Ooma. Callcentric was my first VOIP provider and I had no plans to move away from them. I was paying about $15 a month after taxes to Callcentric, and I had plans to get a second line and increase my minutes. After seeing that my price would jump to $20 a month or so, I decided to look elsewhere.

My cousin has Ooma and sent me a referral. After reading through the reviews here, I snagged a Ooma Telo off of Amazon for $100 while it was on sale. I kicked in a $20 gift card I got for my birthday to bring the cost down to $80. I plugged the Ooma in, and after reading the quick start guide, I was up and running within minutes. Looking online, I saw I could get Ooma Premier for $120 a year and I get a free number port. After reading some comments online, I found out I could save a bit more if I called and ordered them both. I did this and got Ooma Premier with the number port for $100 this year. Add that into the free 60 days of Premier that I got when I got Ooma Telo and I won't have to worry about renewing Premier until September next year.

The number port went through very smoothly. I really liked the website that kept me advised of my port from start to finish. It took about 6 days to get that situated. This was a definite improvement over my last number port which took about a week as well but I didn't have any status updates on it through Callcentric. I had to open a few tickets about it while I waited. Working with Ooma on this was a nice improvement.

There are a lot of people who wonder if Premier is worth it. There are many features such as the second line, call blocking, and so on that are very nice to have. At $10 a month, many people shy away from it. The best advice I can give here is for you to snag it and give it a try when you get your Telo. I love the features of Premier so I intend to hold onto it.

The Ooma Telo unit is very nice. I purchased an Ooma Linx box for my fax machine that ran me $40 on sale, but pairing that with my Ooma Telo was very easy to do. The faxing capability works very well to boot.

The only negative I had through this whole process of installation was that my second line didn't work at the time of install. I did a live support chat with Ooma and they gave me a new second number which did work after testing. Took me 5 minutes to accomplish this, so if that was the worst I could expect, then I am happy.

Overall, I recommend Ooma, and I will be updating this review as time goes on with my experiences.

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Update 9/19/13 - It has been about a month since I updated this, but so far things are going very well. The premier features are very nice to have. Faxing over the ooma connection is flawless. The call quality is amazing. I love the blacklisting and call blocking features that come with premier a lot. My next review won't happen for a while, but so far, I am very happy.

Update 11/22/13 - In October, I had an issue where if I called my number, I was getting a "number not available" message. It really was a weird problem. After rebooting, I called Ooma and they looked into it. A day later, they said that a telecom company slammed me and tried to transfer my number over to them. With a little investigation, I determined it was some small company that I have never heard of. Probably they intended to jack my rates up after they got my number. Ooma ported it back, but I was without my main number for about three weeks while this was going on. They credited me 2 months of premier for the inconvenience. So while I am upset at the tech support, I cannot be too upset with them. I downgraded them from a 4 to a 3 for customer support because I feel this could have been fixed a lot faster. Still loving Ooma though. Glad I went with them. We have two phone numbers and the premier package.

Update 4/9/15 - Wow, it has been a while since I updated this. Ooma has been rock solid since I put it in. We still have Ooma Premier with the fax line and everything works like a champ. I really like the Premier benefits, and even with the premier I am spending less than I was with Callcentric. What a great service!

Update 12/11/15 - Ooma service rocks. Still have it, and still paying for premier. I have promised myself I am going to look at other alternatives for next year. I am paying about $175 for a year of service with premier so its about time to really look at alternatives next year. For now, I am really enjoying the uptime, call quality, and service.

member for 22.6 years, 7519 visits, last login: 289 days ago
updated 8.2 years ago


slyphoxj
join:2002-06-23
united state

slyphoxj

Member

Re: Your latest update (11/22/13)

Wow, that's scary that the other rogue company somehow managed to have gotten hold of the info they would have needed to port steal your number... hopefully this isn't too common of an occurrence in the VOIP world.

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

Nightfall

MVM

Re: Your latest update (11/22/13)

said by slyphoxj:

Wow, that's scary that the other rogue company somehow managed to have gotten hold of the info they would have needed to port steal your number... hopefully this isn't too common of an occurrence in the VOIP world.

It is called telephone slamming and it has been around for a while.

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te ··· slamming

I have known about it and seen it happen, but never to me. The company that tried to take the number was some little bell company that loves to overcharge for service. Glad I got my number back, but it was still infuriating. My phone number was offline for 3 weeks. Ooma really did a decent job, but a 4 star or 5 star job would have been for them to be in touch with me during the process. I didn't hear from them that often and I had to ask more often than I wanted or expected to.

slyphoxj
join:2002-06-23
united state

slyphoxj

Member

Re: Your latest update (11/22/13)

said by Nightfall:

said by slyphoxj:

Wow, that's scary that the other rogue company somehow managed to have gotten hold of the info they would have needed to port steal your number... hopefully this isn't too common of an occurrence in the VOIP world.

It is called telephone slamming and it has been around for a while.

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te ··· slamming

I have known about it and seen it happen, but never to me. The company that tried to take the number was some little bell company that loves to overcharge for service. Glad I got my number back, but it was still infuriating. My phone number was offline for 3 weeks. Ooma really did a decent job, but a 4 star or 5 star job would have been for them to be in touch with me during the process. I didn't hear from them that often and I had to ask more often than I wanted or expected to.

I've always thought slamming happened mostly on regular POTS lines. I remember it used to be a big problem about 10-20 years ago when people had their long distance service switched ("slammed") without their consent. But I guess it also happens on cell phones too with people (or their kids) unwittingly signing up for Premium SMS services that incur extra monthly charges on postpaid cell bills.

And then there was (or is still) cramming, where third parties used to (and still do?) "cram" charges on the bill and you have to beg AT&T/Verizon/etc. to remove the charges and block third party billing... yet another thing I don't miss about POTS.

What's scary is that they actually succeeded in getting your number and knocked it out for a while. I'm wondering if there's a decent chance this could happen to me (I'm on Callcentric) and if there's anything I can do to prevent it?

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

Nightfall

MVM

Re: Your latest update (11/22/13)

said by slyphoxj:

said by Nightfall:

said by slyphoxj:

Wow, that's scary that the other rogue company somehow managed to have gotten hold of the info they would have needed to port steal your number... hopefully this isn't too common of an occurrence in the VOIP world.

It is called telephone slamming and it has been around for a while.

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te ··· slamming

I have known about it and seen it happen, but never to me. The company that tried to take the number was some little bell company that loves to overcharge for service. Glad I got my number back, but it was still infuriating. My phone number was offline for 3 weeks. Ooma really did a decent job, but a 4 star or 5 star job would have been for them to be in touch with me during the process. I didn't hear from them that often and I had to ask more often than I wanted or expected to.

I've always thought slamming happened mostly on regular POTS lines. I remember it used to be a big problem about 10-20 years ago when people had their long distance service switched ("slammed") without their consent. But I guess it also happens on cell phones too with people (or their kids) unwittingly signing up for Premium SMS services that incur extra monthly charges on postpaid cell bills.

And then there was (or is still) cramming, where third parties used to (and still do?) "cram" charges on the bill and you have to beg AT&T/Verizon/etc. to remove the charges and block third party billing... yet another thing I don't miss about POTS.

What's scary is that they actually succeeded in getting your number and knocked it out for a while. I'm wondering if there's a decent chance this could happen to me (I'm on Callcentric) and if there's anything I can do to prevent it?

Good question. All I can tell you is that it happened to me and I have no idea how to prevent it. Could it happen to others? Probably. It really was a mess.