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 Review by Niarlan 
UPDATED: 4 days ago
member for 5.7 years, 1776 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Manville,Somerset,NJ
 $16 per month
 about 7 days
 "Features Features and More Features, plus great sound quality"
 "None now that they have E911"
 "Great for the money with lots of features"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Update: System wants me to update my review  well 3.3 years later and still going great!
Update: Still great reliable service, very rare to have an outage and the feature set is the best. Highly recomandable to anyone who can get it
Update: A year later and still rock solid...great service
Update: Just an update on my review, the service has been rock solid for months now and wanted to reflect that in my review.
Nia
Ordered service in Oct 04, recieved the ATA within a week. Setup was quick and easy. Had some initial line problems that Techsupport was quick to help. There was the switch upgrades that made the service spotty around Thanksgiving but since then it's been rock solid.
Only have had one outage since then that was due to one of their routing partners.
I initially set this up in conjuntion to a land line, after a few weeks I ordered call forwarding on the land line and forwared it to VP. In Jan with the service showing itself to be nice and solid I started an LNP from Verizon to VP. It only took 2 weeks before the nunber was ported over and the old service was disconnected.
Nobody noticed the change in service besides the voice quality being better, my phone bills have become a nice predictable low amount. If I could get my wife to use the internet BigYellow for directory assistance my bills would be the same each month.
I went from about 60 dollars a month to under 20 a month, my wifes sister lives in the next town over from us, to Verizon that is a toll call, go figure, but with the larger area code coverage with VP people that are about 100 miles away can be local to me.
I'm very happy with the service and would recomend it to anyone.
I also have set up and told the folks in the family that in an emergancy to dial 91# for the local police or to use their cell phones, since we have 5 phones in the family that have E911 it's not a concern not to have it with VP.
Niarlan
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Review by Vitanic
UPDATED: 15 days ago
member for 1.8 years, 20 visits, last login: 15 days ago
Rockville Centre,Nassau,NY
$14 per month
"Great that I'm not with Voicepulse"
"website, billing, ordering; a bad first impression"
"Be vigilant when ordering & canceling"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
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I had originally begun the ordering process on July 3rd - say about 6pm. I had already purchased a Linksys PAP2T, so I was bringing my own device (BYOD). I filled everything out in the web pages.... and then at the last step, the order summary, it errored out saying (something like) "this is usually due to the session timing out." Maybe I was slow, I didn't time myself. I tried again. Much faster. Same error. So I came back later and tried a different web browser. I'm on Mac OS X & using the latest Safari 3.12.
Using Camino I was able to complete the order process. So apparently it wasn't the session timing out, but a browser problem. The order went through on July 4th at 12:42 am. I got an email of the order right after that and in it the 2nd line is:
"We will begin processing your order right away and you will receive another email when your order has been processed."
I got no further emails from them. But I'm patient - its a holiday weekend. On Wednesday, July 9th in the afternoon I notice that Voicepulse had managed to successfully charge my credit card. I still had no service. What exactly were they charging 14.99 for? I had zero incoming/outgoing minutes; I had no config info; I didn't have service.
So now I'm thinking that if they can't even get me set up, and can't send me any further info (but can manage to bill me for phantom service), I don't want any form of service from this company - I want to cancel. So I get onto their website to get their email address. On the bottom it says "Email us" - which doesn't lead to an email address. So I call them up. A CSR (Steven) canceled the account (and I assume a refund would be issued).
So I then get an email (the 2nd) telling me:
----
"Hello,
This email is to confirm the cancellation of [DID number] on device [serial number].
Since this device has no more active lines, it must be returned WITHIN 14 DAYS in order to cancel your account and issue a refund.
IMPORTANT: The device must be returned within 14 days to fully cancel your account. Failure to do so may result in action by a credit collection agency and reflect negatively on your credit.
Please return the device to the address below using a trackable form of shipment:"
-------
But this was a BYOD account. Pretty sad that so many things went wrong. Here's hoping the refund actually occurs.... but I won't be surprised if it vanishes.
CSR Steven was helpful. That's about the only positive thing I have to say about Voicepulse.
[edit: corrected time from 12:32 to 12:42]
Followup comments:  
swintec
Premium
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME |  ????
--
Usenet Accounts | |
| Vitanic
join:2006-10-06
Rockville Centre, NY | re: ???? I don't recall the ability to abstain from grading that aspect. Are you suggesting I give them something other than the absolute lowest mark? | |
| llast08
join:2004-08-05
Boise, ID | Did you even read the 1st email you got? The activation email they send lists out exactly what you got charged for -- the $14.99 is for the Local Unlimited + 200 plan that you signed up for. | |
| | Vitanic
join:2006-10-06
Rockville Centre, NY
 ·VoicePulse
 ·Verizon FIOS
| Re: I never got an activation email; only order summary Here is what I got - Its a regurgitation of the info I used to order the service on the website.
------------
Thank you for ordering VoicePulse's award-winning broadband phone service!
We will begin processing your order right away and you will receive another email when your order has been processed.
ORDER SUMMARY:
Order Number: xxx
Order Date: 7/4/2008 12:41:39 AM GMT
CUSTOMER INFORMATION:
Email: xxx
Phone: xxx
PAYMENT INFORMATION:
Credit Card: xxx
BILLING INFORMATION:
Name: xxx
Address 1: xxx
Address 2:
Address 3:
City: Rockville Centre
State: NY
Zip: 11570
Phone: xxx
SHIPPING INFORMATION:
Name: xxx
Address 1: xxx
Address 2:
Address 3:
City: ROCKVILLE CENTRE
State: NY
Zip: 11570
Phone: xxx
Shipping Method:
ORDER DETAILS:
Name: Activation
Desc: Activation
Qty: 1.0000
Unit Cost: $0.00
Item Subtotal: $0.00
Name: Linksys PAP2T-NA
Desc: Linksys PAP2T-NA (BYO - xxx MAC:xxx)
Qty: 1.0000
Unit Cost: $0.00
Item Subtotal: $0.00
Name: Local Unlimited + 200 Calling Plan
Desc: Local Unlimited + 200 Calling Plan
Qty: 1.0000
Unit Cost: $14.99
Item Subtotal: $14.99
Name: Primary Phone Number
Desc: NY/516/NASSAUZN05/xxx
Qty: 1.0000
Unit Cost: $0.00
Item Subtotal: $0.00
---------
If the email had said "here is a webpage where you can fill in the info for the PAP2T and when you can make outgoing calls - you have service", that's alright, I can figure it out. That's *NOT* what the email I got said. It says I will get another email when service is active and that email will contain some password because some order webpage said so.
So I have reread the (riveting) email. You tell me how I misinterpreted sentence #2. | |
| | | kwest
join:2003-05-15
Dallas, GA
| Re: I never got an activation email; only order summary What other email with passwords? your number is active as soon as you complete the order, you would have received a second notice if they were going to loan/ship you an adaptor.
Since you had your own adaptor, all you would do next is the following and it will auto provision and you would have had phone service in about 3 min.
This can right from the website under B.Y.O.D
Question
How do I configure my own adapter or a Voxilla purchased adapter for VoicePulse service?
Answer
Below are the steps to activate your VoicePulse-Ready SPA:
1) Make sure you have any 2.0 version firmware for your phone adapter. You can check your current version by picking up the phone and dialing ****150#. Sipura hosts the latest firmware upgrades with installation instructions here:
»www.sipura.com/support/index.htm
2) After you have upgraded to the latest firmware, reset your SPA by picking up the phone and dialing ****73738# followed by 1 to confirm
3) Get the IP address of your SPA by picking up the phone and dialing ****110#
4) Browse to the following address where a.b.c.d is the IP address of your SPA:
»sipura-profiles.voicepulse.com/migrate.xml" >a.b.c.d/admin/resync?»sipu···rate.xml
5) Wait 2 minutes for the STATUS light to stop blinking. The unit may reboot during this time and start blinking again. Please wait the full 2 minutes.
6) Pick up the phone and listen for a dial tone
7) Your account should now be ready to make/receive phone calls
Now as far as the email you got about charging for the adaptor, that's the standard auto generated email sent to anyone who cancels, 99% barrows an adaptor so they just want it back if they sent you one. | |
| | | | Vitanic
join:2006-10-06
Rockville Centre, NY
·VoicePulse
·Verizon FIOS
| Re: I never got an activation email; only order summary said by kwest :What other email with passwords? your number is active as soon as you complete the order, you would have received a second notice if they were going to loan/ship you an adaptor. Since you had your own adaptor, all you would do next is the following and it will auto provision and you would have had phone service in about 3 min. And where in the world does it say that? In the order process? In the email? Am I supposed to go to a psychic to divine this info? I can follow directions, but when none are given...
You can think that is user-error, but you are casting your experience to the hard, concrete info in the web order pages & emails. And going from "Click to submit order" to having service isn't spelled out *ANYWHERE* for BYOD. I guess I have to take that back if you say that that Supira info will work on the PAP2T - that info was not provided to me. I suppose you could say that "It's the customer's job to hunt down the steps required to activate service". An alternate theory is that a company that buries info will reap what it sows.
I'll go with callcentric. Hopefully they will have worked on their front ends a little more. Maybe a better handle on the english language as well. I'm all done with Voicepulse & their generic emails that cause more problems. I already see a handly little PAP2 here:
»www.callcentric.com/support/
Now THAT I can handle. | |
| | | | | |
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Review by nooner
UPDATED: 23 days ago
member for 7.1 years, 387 visits, last login: 23 days ago
Roswell,Fulton,GA
$16 per month (month by month)
about 3 days
"Low price; 1-minute installation; initial call quality very good"
"None yet"
"VoicePulse made a good first impression"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I ordered the unlimited local plus 200 minutes long distance plan for $14.99/month. I placed the order online late at night on Monday 4/18 and received the Sipura SPA-2000 today. VoicePlus communicated well during the ordering process, emailing order confirmation and later UPS tracking info.
Setup was very simple - it took longer to unpack the box than to connect cables, get the SPA-2000 synched, and place the first test call. Sound quality is good (better than cellular) and the basics such as voicemail were easy to setup on the website.
I rarely use fax anymore, but I was able to both send and receive faxes using my PC's modem. I didn't change any modem settings.
I use a cable modem for internet access with Charter. I have a 2Wire gateway device acting as router/dhcp server/firewall/bridge with a 10/100/1000 switch to connect to the SPA-2000 and other ethernet devices on the LAN.
So far, so good. We have multiple mobile phones within the household, so I'll seriously consider porting our phone number from Bellsouth and dropping Bellsouth entirely - if I'm still happy with VoicePlus during the next several weeks.
UPDATE July 02, 2008:
Shortly after posting my initial review, I ported our home number from BellSouth (now AT&T) to VoicePulse. After 3 years I'm still extremely pleased with VoicePulse - call quality, price, billing and customer service - all are excellent. I've come to really appreciate the web tools for call management. Any call quality problems have been due to Charter's mediocre ISP performance. We have family and friends overseas, and the international rates are as cheap as I've seen anywhere.
All in all, VoicePulse has given us good technical service and a great value. I would recommend them to anyone looking at similar VoIP plans.
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Review by Lenagainster
UPDATED: 45 days ago
member for 3.5 years, 890 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Silver Spring,Montgomery,MD
$16 per month (month by month)
about 7 days
"Total Control over your phone"
"none so far"
"Best value for the buck"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Update 6/10/08 Still reliable. Wondering why there are so few recent reviews of VoicePulse; is it because few have anything to complain about? Are users so satisfied, they wouldn't even consider anything else? Why has VP lost it's gold star award on the BBR chart, yet is still one of the top VoIP providers? Insufficient recent reviews? Perhaps this bump will help. I look at all the other providers all the time, especially the top rated ones, to see why some are praised so lavishly, and IMHO, none of them provide the outstanding set of features for the price that VoicePulse does.
Update 3/24/08 Coming up on 15 months with VoicePulse and nothing to complain about. Service has been absolutely reliable and we rarely think about this being a VoIP and not a landline. Hardly ever get a sales call, because whenever a telemarketer call comes in, a filter is created for that number telling the caller that our number is not in service. No mis-dialed calls waking us up in the middle of the night with the scheduled Do Not Disturb in effect. No more guessing who is calling from a cell phone that does not transmit the Caller Name; our VoicePulse Contacts list provides the name as we have programmed it. We hardly ever have to dial a complete number, with our 99 speed dials from VP. And the bill for this fantastic service is still under $16 per month. Can't be more pleased.
Update 7/16/07 Six months with VoicePulse and the service has been stellar. Not even a problem when the credit card I use for my VP billing was reported lost and I forgot to change to the new card number on my VP account. Just got a friendly email from VP that the charge wouldn't go through. Changed the information in my account, called VP, and the bill was reprocessed and went through. I'm even bumping my rating of the website up a notch, because of its simplicity, it loads fast and I have learned to navigate around quickly. The filters are doing the job of blocking unwanted callers and we never get disturbed by late evening callers and wrong numbers with the Do Not Disturb feature. The local plus 200 plan has proved adequate for us, as we have never approached the 200 free minutes for Long Distance. VoicePulse is a keeper.
Update 4/15/07 I realize that this review is entirely too long, especially for those who are trying to get an idea of the quality of VoicePulse from many reviews. So let me state that after three months, the service has been exceptional and we couldn't be happier. In the lengthy review, I mentioned that there was a problem with the volume on one of the cordless phones in the house, and the VP techs helped me adjust the volume settings in the TA to compensate. I have since found that by replacing the mishmash of different types of wiring to the phone jacks in the house (TV flat lead, twisted pairs, zip cord) with all standard phone wiring, the volume issue disappeared and I have reset the volume settings in the TA to 0 in and 0 out. And finally, I would like to mention that the nemesis of telemarketers has virtually disappeared. During the past three months, whenever I got a telemarketer, I would block the number with the "Not In Service" tone and message. In recent weeks, I have not received any calls or attempted calls from telemarketers. This service is fantastic!
Original Review:
Note: originally I had planned to wait about six months before writing a review of VoicePulse, so that I had time to test out all the features extensively, and get a good feel for the long term reliability of the service. However, due to a recent rash of rants that have skewed the rankings of the various VoIPs, I felt compelled to write this review after only one full month of using VoicePulse. I still intend to rate VoicePulse as honestly and objectively as possible, and will update this review as necessary.
Without telling my age, I had phone service when we still had to pick up the receiver and tell the operator what number we wanted to call. It was a relief to get a rotary dial phone and be able to make local calls without going through an operator. Long distance was another story, and we rarely made those expensive calls. Enter touch tone dialing, but I still don't understand why they put the numbers on the dial pad opposite from the way they are on a calculator. Finally, we could own our phones and not rent each one forever. Ahh! Cordless phones with a 12 inch antenna. But keep a corded phone plugged in at all times, Ma Bell warned, so you don't miss a call. Answering machines with 8 minutes of tape. Caller ID and no more kids calling with phone pranks. Caller ID with Name! A smörgåsbord whereby Ma Bell was milking us dry. The privacy conflict resolved with the ability to block our phone number and the ability to block anonymous calls. The Do Not Call list and all the incessant telemarketing that we endured before it was enacted.
And all this time, I wished I had the ability to control my phone, the service I pay for, the way I wanted and not the way Ma Bell or Bell Atlantic or Verizon saw fit. I pay for the service, the taxes, the fees. I buy my own phones. I don't want my line open for anyone in the world to ring my phones any time they feel like it. I had begun to wonder if there was some way I could create a computer program that could filter calls much the way that programs filter spam out of emails. Could I create a “pass” filter that would only allow numbers on a call list to ring my phone, and send all the others to the answering machine? Could I just permanently block some numbers? I'm sick of my phone ringing in the middle of dinner from a telemarketer.
Then I found VoicePulse. The founders, Ravi Sakaria and Ketan Patel, must have been reading my mind. They created a phone service that allows the USER to control their phone, not the phone company. By providing such features as unlimited filtering, call blocking, telemarketer blocking, anonymous call rejection, Do Not Disturb and incoming Caller ID customization, I now have control over who can call me and when they are allowed to call. These feature, IMO, make VoicePulse stand significantly ahead of the many VoIPs there are to choose from.
I signed up online with VoicePulse on 1/09. Let me say that the signup form needs some work. I had 15 minutes to complete the application and could not fill out the five pages in the time allotted. (I was able to do it the second time around) I had problems filling out phone numbers in the format that VP wanted, and had to do it over several times. They showed me a list of phone numbers from which to choose a temporary one, and I spent too much time trying to find one that was easy to remember. And on the very last page, there was a statement to make sure my router supported DHCP addressing. I had absolutely no idea what that meant, and in the middle of a mad scramble to find my router's manual, I got bumped. Scared me a bit, because at that point, VP had my credit card information and I had no verification that I signed up. So I went through the process a second time and saw that the number I had chosen was still available, and figured my first attempt went nowhere. If I had to do it all over again, I think I would start the application until I got to the page where I had a list of numbers to choose from, write down the number I wanted, and then quit the application, and call VoicePulse, apply over the phone and ask for the number that was offered online. Some have commented that VoicePulse's website is rudimentary but I like it because it loads fast, is easy to navigate, and does not have a lot of extraneous clutter on the pages.
Seeing that VoicePulse's “local” calling area includes my entire state (MD), DC and northern VA, there was little need for an unlimited long distance plan, so I chose the $14.99 plan. The 200 minutes per month of free long distance is more than adequate for my needs. At 3.9 cents per minute for long distance calls over the 200 minute allotment, I figured I could use up to 456 minutes per month of long distance without paying more than the $24.99 unlimited LD plan. However, in the fine print, forwarded calls, even those that are forwarded to one's cell phone if the service or the ISP is down, cost 3.9 cpm with no allowance. If I start running my bill up to $25, I may switch to the unlimited LD plan just to take advantage of the call forwarding without worrying about cost.
My account was set up with the number I had chosen on my application, and the telephone adapter (Linksys) arrived four business days later. I plugged it in behind the router, and after less than a minute of blinking lights, it stabilized and I could get a dial tone and start making calls.
My first encounter with tech support came when I discovered that on one of the six phones in the house, callers could not hear me. The other phones worked fine. The rep showed me how to access the settings in the telephone adapter and change the outgoing volume setting so that all phones worked satisfactorily. Problem solved. Another problem was the result of user error, and a quick call to tech support got it straightened out. Was I just lucky or what? There was no waiting either time to talk to a VoicePulse rep.
Let me cover first the features that attracted me to VoicePulse. Anonymous Call Blocking. I enabled that feature immediately. Callers without Caller ID information do not get through. VP also offers Anonymous Call blocking with prompting. This will allow an anonymous caller a chance to enter a phone number and you can then accept or reject the call. I have not tried this feature because I am just too hard nosed and if you block your Caller ID, then don't bother me.
Telemarketer block. This feature allows one to put a tone on the line that indicates to automated dialing systems that the number is not in service. One can enable telemarketing block on just anonymous calls or on all calls. I do not use this feature. If the call is anonymous, my anonymous call blocker stops it from ringing my phone. I do not want to have everyone who calls me be subject to the obnoxious not-in-service tones. So the telemarketer get through the first time and then I block that number with a filter.
Filters. One can route calls in many different ways using filters, but my primary use is to block the number of every telemarketer from ever ringing my phone a second time. They get a not-in-service tone and cannot get through on that number again. One can use filters to send certain callers directly to voicemail, to always forward certain callers to one's cellphone, to allow certain callers to bypass Do Not Disturb, or to send them to a “humorous rejection hotline”. Filters are the best feature a phone ever had.
Do Not Disturb. One can set a scheduled Do Not Disturb for an uninterrupted night's sleep, or set it for a short time for a quiet dinner without phone calls. Once Do Not Disturb has been set up in the online account, it can be enabled or disabled from any phone in the house. In an emergency (or if they are just plain rude), callers can get through when Do Not Disturb is in effect by dialing a 3.
Many other of VoicePulse's features just make the deal sweeter. Of course, they have Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, and Voicemail. In addition to the stutter tone on the line when there is a voicemail message, one can opt to receive an email as a reminder. If a blocked caller attempts to call again, one can opt to receive an email to indicate the event. Blocked callers show up on the call log, but their calls do not go through.
One can customize what shows up on their Caller ID when someone on their contact list calls. If Harry calls from his home number, you can set the Caller ID to show Harry at Home, whereas if he calls from his cellphone, you could have your Caller ID show Harry on cell.
Speed dialing. In addition to allowing 7 digit (for same area code calls), 10 digit or 11 digit dialing, one can set up 99 speed dials. To call someone on the speed dial list, just hit one or two digits followed by the # sign. While there is a three second delay with 7 digit dialing (how else will the system know if you are calling a 7 digit number or a ten digit number?), speed dialing is, as its name implies, fast.
VoicePulse may not transmit your name, only your number, to the Caller ID of the person you are calling, if that person's phone company does not subscribe to the CID database that VP uses. My personal feeling is that I would prefer to have my name sent, but most of our friends can either recognize our number on their Caller ID, or have our number programmed into their phones, whereby the name under which our number is programmed shows up. As far as incoming calls are concerned, most of our contacts are programmed in to VoicePulse's system, and we see their name on our Caller ID as we have programmed it.
There are a lot more features, all included for free with VoicePulse, and are fully explained on their website. What I have tried to cover are those features that really give the subscriber full control over their service and make VoicePulse an exceptional value.
Perhaps the most important feature of all is voice quality, and if VoicePulse was not outstanding in that category, it would make all the other features meaningless. The sound is clear in both directions. No echo, no static, no cross coupling of conversations. Unless we tell them, callers are not aware that we are using VoIP and not on a landline.
One month into VoicePulse and I am extremely pleased. And my joy increases when I get that bill on my credit card and think of what I would have been paying for a bare minimum landline with no control over who can call me.
3/1/07 Updated to make a correction regarding bypassing Do Not Disturb (dial 3 to get through, not 1)
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Review by swintec
UPDATED: 84 days ago
member for 4.6 years, 1685 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Alfred,York,ME
$15 per month
about 3 days
"Tech Support, Call Quality and Features"
"Wish they had some new features..."
"This Company is THE VoIP company"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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UPDATE- 5-02-08- Service continues to be top notch, I now have two lines with them. Only thing I wish is that they rolled out at least ONE new feature...but I guess if thats the worse I can come up with, it really is a non-issue.
UPDATE- 7-05-06- Still have Voicepulse and I am right at my 1 year mark for service with them. They are still what a VoIP company should be. Have not had any real outages this year. The feature set has remained the same however since I signed on with them, I wish they would roll out at least one or two new features at some point. One good thing, I now have 911 service. All emergency calls get forwarded to my local dispatch center. I believe most of Voicepulses coverage area has 911 service now. Tech support is top notch with any questions you may have, THEY actually call YOU to make sure all issues and questions are addressed. When was the last time a company did that? Bottom line, they are the Cadillac of VoIP service. Once we ditched Verizon, we never looked back.
I looked over many VoIP companies over the course of a year as they started to pop up and none could offer me Line porting for my Maine number. Then low and behold back in June, voicepulse showed they could do it. So i signed up for there service ASAP. Sign up went smoothly online through there site and the forms to start the LNP were emailed quickly once I called and asked for them. Adapter arrived in about 3 days. Plugged in and away I went. Porting my number took about 3 weeks, not bad at all. The original adapter went bad so i had to deal with tech support quite a bit while they troubleshooted it over the phone and finally agreed to send a new one. Credit for the original took quite awhile but eventually happened. Now with new adapter I am cooking right along on there local unlimited plan. Don't let the word "local" make it sound like nothing, there local calling areas tend to be entire area codes, and I also get 200 minutes for anywhere else in the country. Plenty for this house. 911 is non existent as of now but i assume in time it will be implemented because of the FCC. This company also offers one of the better feature sets out there. The telemarketer block is priceless. Overall, you can not go wrong.
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Review by u475700
UPDATED: 87 days ago
member for 4.4 years, 1957 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Danbury,Fairfield,CT
$26 per month (month by month)
about 3 days
"Extensive array of features, ease of setup, great value"
"No 911 emergency service"
"Outstanding value for unlimited local and long distance"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Originally ordered VoicePulse service (America Unlimited promotion - unlimited local and long distance for $24.99 with no activation charge) online on a Saturday evening. Was notified via e-mail on Monday afternoon that the service had been activated and my Sipura SPA-2000 adapter had also been shipped (with the tracking number). Within minutes I was able to select the features and options online that I wanted. Although I didn't have the adapter yet, I forwarded all incoming calls to my existing land line as an initial test. The Sipura adapter, which arrived the next day, worked seamlessly right out of the box. Could it really be this easy?
I've used VoicePulse exclusively for more than four years now. Quality and reliability has been just as good as my landline from SBC ever was. Both their technical support and customer service are knowledgeable and responsive and even speak English that I can actually understand! Alerts when outages do occur are often posted on their website. Overall, the value especially compared to the cost for comparable landline service is outstanding. My only regret now is that I didn't switch to VoicePulse sooner!
Update: I've had VoicePulse for almost five years now and the service is still outstanding!
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Review by innoman
UPDATED: 89 days ago
member for 6.2 years, 1520 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Charleston,Charleston,SC
$14 per month
about 3 days
"Great quality, tons of features, quick tech support"
"Given up on encryption...."
"I don't really have any actual issues"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
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I ordered my SPA2000 from voxilla and did second day. It shipped same day and it took voiceuplse about 18 hours to provision my account... Maybe less after signing up for it. You have to wait until you get your device to set your account on VP up. I am really happy with my decision to get service with VP, I only wish they had LNP. They told me it would be a couple months before they start, but they are going to offer it in the near future. And you can not beat the price!
UPDATE
LNP (Local Number Portability) is in progress for my old line. It is not officially being offered, but they are doing it for me. VoicePulse seems to be growing fairly rapidly. I rarely have any issues, and the ones I do are usually ISP related. (The cable signal is not the best at certain times of the day... They are supposed to be fixing that.) The price is so good that I hardly even notice paying for it every month. I would recommend this to anyone.
Another Update...
LNP took a little while but that was over a year ago... I am totally satisfied withthe service. There is 911 coverage but not E911 in my area I guess; my cellphone offers E911 anyway and we have a wired line (my roomies company pays for that). I would reccomend VP to anyone and actually have to several of my friends who are also satisfied. NO FAKE FEES/TAXES!!
Yet another... I never have any issues anymore, it is as reliable as VoIP can be. Which for me seems to be around 100%! It's cheap and has pretty much everything a person could think of.
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 Review by danny9
UPDATED: 132 days ago
member for 6 years, 2864 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Clinton Township,Macomb,MI
$14 per month (month by month)
about 3 days
"suburb call quality, excellent list of features"
"If there are any I have yet to find them."
"Great value for the money."
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I have had VoicePulse for 2 weeks now. Here's my run down:
1) Web site is not popcorn to the eyes but very well organized and extremely easy to use.
2) Installation was a peice of cake. Able to use within minutes. Because VP puts you in the system before the device even arrives you can configure the voicemail, speed dial, filters etc. ahead of time. I also changed the settings on my router that they recommended before the device arrived.
3) Call quality has been outstanding. Better then my pots line.
4) Reliabilty: No problems so far.
5) Haven't had a need for tech support so far but did send 2 emails with some basic questions which were answered very fast. They also have a tech support phone number now.
6) Can't beat it. Had Talk America local plan for 19.99 a month plus the numerous charges and my bill averaged about 38 a month. Now I pay $15 for unlimited local and regional calls plus 200 minutes of long distance. One of the big voip companies I checked had only 1 extra area code for their regional plan. I have 6.
Their features are great and I've checked them all out except 3 way calling and conference calls, and they all work. I get a kick out of the filters. If someone calls that you do not want you can set up the phone so they always get a busy signal, an out of service message or even a recording from the rejection hotline, everytime they try to call again. There's also a feature that will block every number that is hidden with private or unavailable from ringing your phone. The caller is given the option of entering their number to continue. Outstanding features and these all work
One thing they were not offering at this time was LNP. But I liked the number they gave me so much I'm keeping it.
The final word is excellent!
Update 8/30/04
It's been a month now and all is wonderful. Everything I said in my original review stands. No problems. Has been flawless.
update 03/31/05
Well I've been using VoicePulse for 8 months now and I have to say I like it more then I did since the last review.
The service has been excellent and extremely reliable. I forget that it's VOIP and not a pots line of which I cancelled 7 months ago.
All the features I use have worked flawlessly since day one.
Final word is still excellent and add outstanding!
update 09/04/05
Had VoicePulse for over a year now and as happy as ever with it.
A few minor burps over the year but nothing major. Has been flawless and just as reliable as the pots line when I had it.
Still recommend very highly.
update 06/21/06
On 7/29/06 It will be 2 years since I first began using VoicePulse. As I said before I still couldn't be any happier with this service.
For 2 yrs. it has been almost flawless. The Features are still Outstanding, the sound qualities are awesome.
VoicePulse has been Fantastic for me!
03/15/2008 Update:
Going on 4 years with VoicePulse now.
Still running and working perfectly.
Have had better service and quality then I ever did with landline service.
Still a Keeper.
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Review by te100
Posted: 164 days ago
member for 3.6 years, 170 visits, last login: 24 days ago
Daleville,Dale,AL
$24 per month
about 7 days
"easy easy easy"
"none so far"
"great service"
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I've just switched from Packet8 to VoicePulse after reading reviews on dslreports. The final decision was that VoicePulse offered local numbers. The linksys adapter arrived and it took less than five minutes to hook it up and the phone worked immediately. It took longer to cancel my account with Packet8 than it did to setup VoicePulse.
I would not hesitate to recommend either voip provider.
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Review by nycityny
UPDATED: 165 days ago
member for 2.9 years, 1325 visits, last login: a few hours ago
New York,New York,NY
$27 per month (month by month)
about 4 days
"Sound quality, feature set, superb customer/tech support, reliability"
"High international rates, Canada not free. Technical glitches unresolved."
"Lots of good features for a fraction of the cost charged by baby bells"
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UPDATE - 2/11/08:
I am unhappily downgrading my VoicePulse ratings due to longtime problems that they are unable to resolve. While they continue to be responsive to trouble tickets by calling immediately, they are unable to fix the issues.
My biggest problem is that in most long conversations I will inevitably have a 5 second period of silence where I cannot hear the other person but they can hear me. I have learned to just let it go and hope I can pick up on what the other person is saying when the audio resumes. VP warmly hears my complaints and just keeps asking if the problem has gone away. It does not go away and I don't have the stamina to keep bugging them about it. They simply show concern but do not solve the problem.
I've also had an issue where my voicemail messages get cut off. The message gets sent to me via an e-mail where I am told that it is 30 seconds long, for example. The attached audio clip ends up being only 6 seconds with the message clearly truncated prematurely. The message I hear via the phone is also the truncated 6 second version.
The voicemail problem occurred a few months ago. VP researched it and asked if it happened again the following week. When it did not they closed the ticket. It happened again in January and the same process occurred with VP. They ask if it happens again and when it does not they close the ticket. They acknowledge that their engineers "look into it" but change nothing in the end.
VP service is certainly usable but not perfect with issues like these.
UPDATE - 2/26/07:
Updating the price again. VoicePulse added 6% to their prices on 1/1/07 to cover the cost of the Federal Universal Service Fund. The $24.99 plan is now $26.49. I'm not thrilled about the price increase but all of the VOIP companies are now adding the add-ons so one has to accept it.
The service remains stellar - I cannot remember the last time I dealt with customer support.
UPDATE - 6/5/06:
Simply updating my monthly cost to $25. I dropped the virtual number and so the cost went down.
UPDATE - 3/30/06:
Just an update to note that 911 is now working on my line. This service is now complete for me. I am still very happy with VoicePulse after 8 months of using it as a complete replacement for a POTS line. The reliability, voice quality, price, customer support and feature set are superb.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I have been using VoicePulse for over 4 months now and it has been wonderful. My callers and I cannot tell that I am using VOIP - the sound quality is excellent.
I ordered the service online on a Friday and the equipment arrived the following Tuesday (four days including the weekend). Set-up was a breeze and it was working within minutes. After a few days I decided to port over my landline number. While VoicePulse said the process would take a month, the number ported over in 13 days. I am using the Sipura SPA 2002 "borrowed" from VoicePulse. The device is small and I have not had to reboot it at all since installation - it just keeps on humming. I am using a cable modem broadband connection at 10 Mbps down and 800 Kbps up.
While I particularly wanted the great Anonymous Call Rejection feature that VoicePulse provides, I have found myself using the flexible and powerful Filters as well.
One of the best aspects of the company is the superb customer support. Phone support is only available on weekdays until 7pm. This is not a problem, however, because technicians respond very quickly to problem tickets initiated through the online support system. Any ticket receives BOTH a telephone call response as well as a follow-up e-mail. It is almost embarrassing to have a rep call me after mentioning a minor issue in online support, but call you is what they do. Problems are immediately addressed and resolved by interacting with just one individual - no need to switch departments or speak with "Level 3" as with other companies. Anybody who answers your call can and will help you.
My monthly cost is $29.98 which includes $4.99 for a virtual number. No taxes are added at all.
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Rate increase...at voice pulse