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Review by gbh2o 
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 8.9 years, 2593 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Longs,Horry,SC
 $33 per month (month by month)
 about 7 days
 "Good orginal base price for unlimited service"
 "Virtual Numbers are costly especially with the deceptive"
 "They provided solid service for me from Aug '03 until Jan '05... then went down the tubes"
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Update January 13, 2008: Never did get a refund of the overcharges by Packet8. It's only been 2 1/2 years of waiting so far. Certainly would _never_ do business with them again.
I joined Packet8 in august of 2003 and was very satisfied with their service for almost one and one half. Packet8 originally provided solid, reliable service for me, including operational virtual numbers. Then they decided to get fancy, and in January 2005 tried to implement several new features. They failed miserably, apparently not having tested their new product before shoving it down their customer's throat. Very bad planning putting insufficiently tested software in a production environment!
I stayed with them, despite their inability to 'fix' the damage they did to their system in relation to forwarding of inbound calls from virtual numbers. I canceled my virtual numbers in May 2005, and to my knowledge, my trouble ticket was never successfully closed due to lingering problems. So beware of inconsistent behavior should you wish to use virtual numbers with Packet8. And don't forget to include that nasty per number fee when you consider the price of virtual numbers.
Due to some "internal problem" only a portion of their customer base received notification of their implementation of the "Regulatory Recovery Fee($1.50 per DID)" which was nothing less than a very deceptive defacto price hike. Some customer service representatives even tried to tell me it was a government tax, at first. The 'fee' quickly caused P8 prices to become unreasonable for me, particularly when they were applied to virtual numbers that do not work as advertised.
Their attempts to fix the problem failed, and resulted in additional charges to my credit card that have never been fully recovered. Even though I had a sizable credit balance, my credit card was still charged additional amounts for their "Regulatory Recovery Fee($1.50 per DID)". I am closing my account and _hope_ to someday get the remainder of what they owe me from their mistakes refunded to me. I must also mention that on-line monthly invoices have been retroactively changed, as far back as three months, to reflect different balances and charges... I just happened to have printed before and after versions. How do they account for their revenue? Be forewarned, check your credit card statements _very_carefully, and print out each months invoice... they may change without warning!
I closed my account on June 29th, 2005. To date, despite calls resulting in _another_ ticket being opened, and promises of review and contact, I have not received a refund of the overcharges, nor any Packet8 initiated correspondence. I must check if this consitutes THEFT at this point.
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Review by solariswiz
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 4.8 years, 78 visits, last login: 115 days ago
Morgantown,Monongalia,WV
$20 per month
about 14 days
"Easily installation, very few problems"
"None So Far"
"Cheap and effective long distance calling"
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Got the Patcket8 DTA back in June of 2004. So far have not had any major problems, (until January 24, 2005 around 8:00 PM, service has been out for about 40 minutes). The service has been good, and the call quality has also been good. Only a couple times have I had it break up or the "echoing" happen. Have used it as the primary phone since June and most people can not tell the difference between it and the Verizon land line I have. I would recommend packet 8 to people looking for a cheap VOIP solution. They seem to be in most of the States (unlike Vonage was when I looked at them). I have also talked some other people in to looking at packet8 as a solution for their long distance calling needs.
It only took about 14 days from the time I ordered it till the time I had it in the house and running. The dta is behind my firewall which splits a connection to Verizon DSL and Adelphia Cable Modem. I have only dealt with tech support once and that was on a routing issue, but they where able to provide me with the information I needed.
Recently I ported my verizon line over to packet8.. It was completed with in a couple of days of requesting it and sending the info to Packet8.
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Review by wombough
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 8.2 years, 334 visits, last login: 6 days ago
Beaufort,Beaufort,SC
Contract price not specified. (12 month contract)
about 4 days
"Paid $190 for a year"
"Taxes are not included in that!"
"Great service"
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4 days to get it to Japan. It regulates latency better then vonage did. Have no complaints and they ported my number in 1 day. Vonage then gave my number to another person and I got a call from vonage asking if this was my number and if I ported. I said now I know why I left you guys lol!
12/31/07:
I was having major echo and delay issues with them. No luck in getting them to fix it either.
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Review by tcstone
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 7.7 years, 465 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Glendale,Los Angeles,CA
$22 per month
"Reliable, unlimited US long distance, voice mail arrives in my email..."
"Occasionally calls don't go through on the first, or second, try."
"Reliable VoIP for a great price"
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I keep forgetting that I have never submitted a review of Packet8! They have been my primary phone line for over 3 years now and I really have no reservations about them. I'm very glad I chose them over Vonage. They have grown up nicely since I ordered service in April 2004.
Voice quality has improved esp. in the latency department. Occasionally when speaking to someone on a cell phone it will feel like the conversation is not clear enough, but most of the time I forget it's not a hard copper line.
When someone leaves voicemail, that audio message is sent to me as an attachment to an email message.
Also, International calling rates are about the best one can get. Sometimes call quality does suffer on Asian calls during holiday periods.
I'd only recommend VoIP technology to people who have a very solid Internet connection, and perhaps the tech know-how to implement QoS for VoIP (though some newer Packet8 terminal adapters include that in their router). Also, I still maintain a copper fax line that my house alarm, fax machine, and DSL ride on, and that's the line I'd pick up to call 911.
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Review by vndiktv
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 8.5 years, 3336 visits, last login: 27 days ago
Greenville,Pitt,NC
$26 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
"Unlimited Calls in the US and Canada 24/7"
"None at the moment"
"Best Bang For Your Buck"
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I have had Packet 8 for over 3 years and honestly cannot say anything bad about my service. I had my Embarq phone number LNP'ed in less than 2 weeks.There were some quirks 2 years ago when they were upgrading the service and we had multiple outages but none that lasted more than an hour or so. I have more features now than I know what to do with. 
And the best part is my Father and Step-Mom split their time between here and Canada, and having Packet 8 allows me to talk to them whenever I want and not worry about a whopper of a phone bill. But all in all I have been very pleased with my service and would not think of going back to a POTS line $37.00 + Long Distance for the same features I have with Packet 8 nor going with Suddenlink Telephone $39.95 and Unlimited Calls in US only. And with all the shakeups in the VOIP world I will not go with any other VOIP company unless of course Packet 8 sells out or is bought out.
I would strongly recommend Packet 8 to anyone looking for a less expensive alternative to a POTs line without giving up quality and service.
Feel free to message me if you have any questions about the service.
Attachments:
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Review by vndiktv
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 8.5 years, 3336 visits, last login: 27 days ago
Greenville,Pitt,NC
$26 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
"Inexpensive and Quality Alternative To Embarq or Suddenlink"
"None at the moment"
"More bang for your buck and little to no difference in quality"
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I have had packet8 for over 3 years now. I find it to be a very reliable alternative to local Telco Embarq and Suddenlink VOIP. My local phone service w/Embarq was costing me $37.00 not including long distance, w/Packet8 I have unlimited calls incoming and outgoing to all of the USA and Canada not to leave out all the amenities of call waiting, call fowarding, caller id, 3-way calling, Dual Ring and all included in 1 low price. Call quality has been outstanding 99.9% of the time. Very impressive product. I would highly recommend Packet 8 to anyone looking for an inexpensive alternative.
Please feel free to PM me for any questions about the service.
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Review by cbrain
UPDATED: 2 years ago
member for 9.5 years, 3548 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Silver Spring,Montgomery,MD
$22 per month (month by month)
about 8 days
"Low bandwidth, easy install, network friendly, nice ATA, improvements in 2004."
"Latency/conversation lag – tech support, customer service, accountability"
"Slothful company, reliable since 6-04, falling behind competition in 2005"
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***update-8-17-2005***
It is now over 2.5 months since my number ported. My number can be called from the entire world except Packet8’s network. The problem has been assigned to an upper level P8 engineer. I make contact 2 times per week. Packet8 declared it fixed 2 times but both were in error. This is a simple matter of updating a routing table and Packet8 could fix it in far less time then they spend communicating with me. They tell me it is a know issue and I’m not the only one. I take comfort in that. My other experience with P8 support was in September through November 2003 when they accomplished nothing. They are consistent. I remain hopeful.
***update-6-14-2005***
This week Packet8 re-assigned my number to a new Packet8 customer. The same number they ported to SunRocket 2 weeks ago. If you dial this number from Verizon, SunRocket or most carriers, it rings my new SunRocket line. This same number dialed from Packet8 rings the new P8 customer.
same number, 2 customers »[Packet8] Ported to SR and re-assigned the same number
***update-6-5-2005***
I terminated my Packet8 service as of 5-31 and ported my number to SunRocket. The porting took 34 days and I did not hear of any lost calls. P8 gave consistent information throughout and handled the cancellation well. There were several service outages this past month but the overall reliability for the past year was good. I tested Packet8 and SunRocket side by side on the same multi line phones. SunRocket quality was unquestionably better in every way. Calls completed faster and there was no conversation lag. SunRocket does use about 3 times the bandwidth.
LNP & cancellation »LNP - Packet8 to SunRocket sucess
***update-4-26-2005***
Packet8 voice service has been reliable for the past 12 months. Quality is good except for the high latency or delay on conversations. This delay is barely noticeable on P8 to P8 or P8 to PSTN calls but uncomfortable on calls between cell phones or other high latency networks. Packet8 made real progress in the first 6 months 2004 but then nothing. The basic service works well, but several features don’t work. Features & improvements promised for over 18 months still have no estimated completion date. P8 recently got fax to work to about 50% of other machines (consistently works or fails to same machine) but TiVOs never establish a successful connection.
P8 seems to be falling behind the VoIP pack and has just announced the addition of a $1.50/number/month recovery fee starting May1.
***update-6-20-2004***
P8 is making consistent improvements and is now a viable alternative to the ILEC’s with a cell backup. P8 started monitoring their network 24/7 in June. Quality remains good and network reliability is much better. Only a few outages in June which were quickly fixed. I have not contacted support since my original review.
***update-4-7-2004***
Past 3 weeks call quality remains good but system has been very unreliable with several problems and long outages each week. Most outages include voicemail. These problems are all P8, my connection has been good & 100% uptime. While P8 price is good it can only be a secondary service.
***update-3-15-2004***
Service level remains good. If this keeps up P8 is a winner
***update-2-12-2004***
Packet8 service has substantially improved in the last 4 weeks.
----Original Review – service started August 2003 ------------
Online ordering was simple and the ATA arrived in just over a week. I plugged the ATA into my switch, the phone into the ATA and made several calls. Disconnected a wire pair from the PSTN and reconnected to the P8 ATA to enable service throughout the house. The service works well about 60% of the time, acceptable another 20% and unusable the rest. Support has never resolved a single incident and generally gives canned answers, often several days after the request. I am on a Comcast cable 3000/384 connection, Motorola Surfboard modem using a FreeBSD box as my router/firewall/DNS/QOS/traffic shaper. Shaping & QOS makes a large improvement, P8 packets get priority over all other network traffic. At P8’s request I sent several detailed tests & logs to support. P8 couldn’t find anything on my end causing the problems. I’m not sure they could even understand the reports I tried several ATA firmware upgrades with mixed results.
P8 shows promise and is an Interesting toy but is not ready to be your only phone service.
*MOnOwall is a major reason for my success with VoIP. If you don't love your router, try it. »m0n0.ch/wall/
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Review by rlcosentino
UPDATED: 2 years ago
member for 5.1 years, 90 visits, last login: 5 days ago
Red Bluff,Tehama,CA
$20 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"Easy installation & reliable"
"Customer portal needs to be brought into 20th century"
"Great overall value"
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November 1, 2007
Zero problems. Very satisfied with the service.
Just added a second voice line and a fax line.
Not the lowest cost provider, but well worth the money if you dont want a service you have to screw with.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
August 3, 2007
Still rock solid and going strong.
Have had no outages, or a reason to contact tech support.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
April 3, 2007
Rock solid, no issues or problems.
The revised website is a marginal improvement over the old one, but is still clunky compared to the competition.
Will be trying be trying a fax line soon.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
11/24/06
No problems, issues or concerns since the last report. The service has been available, reliable and solid.
On my 2007 wish list is the ability to use P8 for our fax, and a customer dashboard as good as our old Broadvoice account had.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
7/28/06
We experienced a fast busy in our 7 digit local calling area for part of a day a week ago. Called tech support and the tech was very helpful. He had me make some test calls and afterwards reported that we were experiencing a known issue with one of their partners and the problem will go away within 24 hours. It did.
I am increasing their website rating. P8 has revised their customer portal. It's not the best, but it's a lot better than what it replaced. Also increasing their tech support rating based on this experience.
In every other respect the service has been flawless. Now if they would only would support fax, there would be no reason for SBC to send me a bill.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
5/29/2006
So far, no problems, concerns, or issues to report. Everything works perfectly including the billing. This experience has been totally painless and seamless. The only times P8 has not worked is when the DSL line goes down, obviously that's out of P8's control, but when it does, the P8 failover feature works great.
The P8 website is still wretched, but I find there is no need to go there so it's easy to avoid.
Have bumped up the value rating to a 5. P8 may not be the cheapest, but for me, the absence of headaches, and the savings over my local telco makes for great value.
Will report when/if something goes wrong.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
5/15/2006
It's been two weeks since establishing service and there have been zero problems. Every feature has worked as represented and there has been no need to visit their website since set up. This is actually a good thing since the P8 website is about as elegant as a sharp rock and hurts about as much to use. So far so good.
Will continue to update.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Purchased P8 service off their website. The purchase process went smooth and uneventful. The ATA arrived via fedex 6 days later along with an activiation Email. The activation required a call to tech support to get the activation code which was supposed to be included on the Email, but was missing. Two minutes after getting the activation code, the service was up and running. So far, after a week of service all is going well with no problems to report. In all respects you would know it is not a traditional Bell supplied line.
The P-8 account replaces Broadvoice service which went from flawless to horrible in the span of two months.
Will update regularly
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Followup comments:  
unhappy
@comcast.net
|  The Worst Experience!!!
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Outraged
@cox.net
| Packet 8 is HORRIBLE | |
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 Review by acadiel
UPDATED: 2 years ago
member for 7.4 years, 2699 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Schenectady,Schenectady,NY
Contract price not specified.
"Don't have it anymore"
"Don't have it anymore"
"Don't have it anymore"
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Don't have it anymore
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 Review by Brian Grif_n
UPDATED: 2.1 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 1427 visits, last login: 45 days ago
Reno,Washoe,NV
$24 per month
about 5 days
"Easy installation, reliable"
"Prices were raised several times without adding promised features"
"There are better alternatives"
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SEVERAL UPDATES NOTED BELOW:
AUGUST 2004: As I write this, I've had Packet8 for 8 days... After doing much research on BBR and reading other reviews I decided upon Packet8 - mainly on price and honesty about LNP. My other consideration was Lingo, but they implied to be able to port any number - but failed on their promises for another person on the forums who lives in my area. For that reason I called Packet8 beforehand, and they were honest about the chance of not being able to port my number. I just found out today via a "canned" e-mail response that they were unable to port my number - this was only 4 days after faxing my LNP request to them. I intend to follow up with them to see where the hang-up might have been - or if they just didn't try very hard.
Pre-Sales Support... I first called for pre-sales information about LNP and being able to get a local number at about 7:30am PDT. My call was answered within a few minutes by their answering service. The guy seemed knowlegable about Packet8, but could not answer my specific question. He took my name, number and e-mail address. Within 24 hours I received an e-mail with an answer to my question, showing that rate centers were available in my area. A follow-up question took a few days to answer. In the mean time I had called during normal business hours and my call was answered quickly, and my question was answered promptly.
Equipment arrival... I ordered the $70 DTA from CompUSA's website, which was offering a $60 rebate and 2 months free service. I received it in 3 business days since I asked for 2-day shipping. I read the flyer on equipment set-up and was instantly puzzled by a blinking red power light. The only thing documented in the instructions or the website was a solid light, on or off. I called tech support, and within a few minutes I was talking to a very helpful and knowlegable tech who told me the DTA was trying to obtain an IP address from my router. Since I don't use DHCP and I assign static IP's in my network, he was helpful in walking me through setting up DHCP temporarily so the DTA could get an IP, then assign a static IP to the UP, then switch DHCP back off agian.
After that I upgraded the firmware, which was very easy due to good instructions on their website. Activating the DTA and getting my phone number was easy.
Call quality has been very good, reliable and fairly consistent. The only issue was a single call my wife had to her grandmother where she said she heard her voice echo throughout the call. This was on the second day of service, but it's been fine ever since. Voice quality is not as good as POTS, but pretty close. Nothing to complain about for the price.
I've got SBC DSL with actual throughput at about 2500/350. I've got the DTA hooked up to one of the ports in my Linksys BEFSR41 router(f/w 1.39). No issues whatsoever being behind NAT, I don't even have to open any ports. I've been in a call and run speed tests and downloaded 8 simultaneous music files, and the voice quality hasn't been affected whatsoever.
After 8 days... very pleased.
UPDATE 2/24/06: After 18 months with Packet 8, I canceled and went to a provider with more features at a better price (SunRocket)...
From day one I was hoping Packet 8 would get numbers in my area code. Never happened. Many e-mails to support and sales went unanswered.
From day one Packet 8 kept advertising more features "coming soon". Finally about a month ago they introduced a few more features. Unfortunately I was already on a trial of SunRocket at the time.
The main reason I cancelled was due to multiple price increases without additional features. As soon as I got a postcard in the mail from a competitor that offered more features for less money and 2 phone numbers available in my area code - it was time to give the competitor a shot. After a month with the competitor (SunRocket), Packet 8 lost my business.
UPDATE 7/19/07: After SunRocket suddenly went out-of-business, I decided to switch back to Packet8. They may be a little more expensive but at least they were reliable in the time that I had them before.
So far my initial order information wasn't processed correctly since the rep didn't enter my correct e-mail address. He also entered my shipping address as my billing PO Box - which will get rejected by FedEx. However 2 other calls to CS were helpful and hopefully my ATA will be on it's way soon.
If all goes smoothly, before my 30-day trial is up I plan on switching to their $199 annual plan
UPDATE 8/16/2007: My second-time-around experience can be found in various posts in this thread »Porting # from SR to Packet8
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