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Review by louband See Profile

  • Location: Murrells Inlet, Horry, SC, USA
  • Cost: $15 per month
  • Install: about 3 days
Call quality is excellent
Customer support
Voice Pulse Customer support is non-existent.
Web-site:
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Call Quality:
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Value for money:

On October 11, 2006, I called VoicePulse Customer Support to report a problem dialing Ireland. As of today November 11, 2006, the dialing problem has not been resolved .They have not responded to the status of my problem except for the automatically generated email indicating they received my message. On 10/17/2006 they requested my patience. One month has passed since the problem was reported. I still have no service to Ireland. They refuse to answer to my status requests. I have begun to lose my patience.

member for 18.4 years, 16 visits, last login: 15.4 years ago
updated 17.3 years ago

louband
join:2005-10-25
Fort Mill, SC

louband

Member

a problem dialing Ireland

Voice Pulse Customer support is non-existent."

On October 11, 2006, I called VoicePulse Customer Support to report a problem dialing Ireland. As of today November 11, 2006, the dialing problem has not been resolved. They have not responded to the status of my problem except for the automatically generated email indicating they received my message. On 10/17/2006 they requested my patience. One month has passed since the problem was reported. I still have no service to Ireland. They refuse to answer to my status requests. I have begun to lose my patience.

Review by Davesrave6 See Profile

  • Location: Westport, Bristol, MA, USA
  • Cost: $15 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 5 days
Ease of installation. Good tech support.
No 64K CODEC Support
Satisfied overall
Web-site:
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UPDATE - Received an email response from Voicepulse asking me to essentially try again. I did without success. Called tech support and they pushed a refresh to my Sipura and Voila! 64K CODEC is working. I can't say enough about how good VoicePulse tech support is. Thanks Chris!

Order/install went without a hitch. Kept my POTS until recently. Voicepulse website indicates LNP not available in my area. I called and told them that I was thinking about switching to Voicewing because they did offer LNP. Was emailed forms to fill out, and my number was switched within days of my faxing my request in.

I was looking over my Sipura 2000 settings recently and noticed that it was locked at the high setting, G726-40 (40K bandwidth), vs the highest setting I was setting at the Voicepulse website, G711u (64K bandwidth). I called Voicepulse today and could not believe the answer I got. Tech support told me that they lock the CODEC at the "high" setting (G726-40), and that there is no higher setting allowed under any circumstances. I asked what I could do and they said, "nothing". I asked if writing to the president of the company was my next recourse, and the tech said, "you can, but I doubt that would work". I called from work, never gave my name or phone number, so this is not just unique to my situation. Anyone else hear of this?

BTW, I learned how to access my Sipura configuration by reading an article linked to the Voicepulse web site. I don't have access to it here at work, but, it tells you how to enter a code into your phone. A voice reads back the IP address. You enter that address into your browser and the Sipura configuration comes up.

member for 17.4 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 17.4 years ago

Davesrave6
join:2006-10-16
Westport, MA

Davesrave6

Member

UPDATE

UPDATE - Received an email response from Voicepulse asking me to essentially try again. I did without success. Called tech support and they pushed a refresh to my Sipura and Voila! 64K CODEC is working. I can't say enough about how good VoicePulse tech support is. Thanks Chris!

Review by XeenFalcon See Profile

  • Location: Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, UT, USA
  • Cost: $14 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
Great Service
Dont bother porting your current phone #, It takes up to 8 weeks
14.99/mo for local serervice cant be beat.
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I started Voice Pulse in early June and have never regretted it. The voice quality is good and there are tons of features. Voice Pulse is the only VOIP provider I know of that offers a local plan for those who don’t have a need for long distance. Porting your phone number is always a pain no matter who the provider is. Your local phone company that you are porting the number from will drag the process out for as long as possible, by the time you have given your temp number out to every one you are better off to keep using it.

member for 17.5 years, 250 visits, last login: 8.4 years ago
lodged 17.5 years ago


ga2522
join:2005-08-18
Ravena, NY

1 edit

ga2522

Member

How long it takes to port your number differs for everyone

I disagree that it is not worth porting your number. While it took you 8 weeks it may not be that long for others, in fact mine took only 2 weeks! It's highly subjective according to who the person's previous provider was so it's not going to be the same for everyone. It's also a personal decision based on how important your old number is to you.

Jen
nycityny
Premium Member
join:2005-08-09
New York, NY

nycityny

Premium Member

Porting number

My port to VoicePulse took only 13 days.

Review by chrismck See Profile

  • Location: Mansfield, Tarrant, TX, USA
  • Cost: $24 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
great features, great sound, A plus customer service
none
the best VOIP service
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I spent a great deal of time reading reviews before selecting Voice Pulse as my VOIP provider. They are a little known company when compared to Vonage and others, but I would never use anyone else. Whenever I had a problem (question about moving main and secondary numbers) they answered the call within 15 seconds...no on hold time. Their customer service actually is located in America and staffed by Americans (sorry, but this is a huge issue for me...I hate outsourced customer service to foreign countries). The number of features were staggering....if you want to block a certain number from calling you during certain hours of the day you can. If you want to only allow specific numbers to call you after 10pm you can....the features offered were fantastic and they were all included in the $24.99 !!!!!



member for 17.5 years, 1 visits, last login: 17.5 years ago
lodged 17.5 years ago


danny9
Go Ahead, Make My Day
Premium Member
join:2002-07-14
Clinton Township, MI

danny9

Premium Member

You're Right!

The feature list is amazing and the service has been Great!
I have no complaints for the 2 yrs. I have used their service.
Wish you the Same!!

Review by byronleonard9 See Profile

  • Location: Carlsbad, San Diego, CA, USA
  • Cost: $15 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
low cost; good up time
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Good VOIP Provider

member for 23 years, 16 visits, last login: 17.5 years ago
updated 17.5 years ago

jfinlayson
join:2003-10-20
Winnetka, IL

jfinlayson

Member

complicated but powerful

Web site with features: very poor interface; very difficult to configure features such as call hunt etc
I agree that configuration is more complicated and confusing that it has to be, and I've raised that issue with customer support, offering to suggest ways it could be made more intuitive and useful. They didn't take me up on that offer, but I can't take it personally. As far as I can tell, they haven't made any substantive changes to their feature set or UI in the entire 2+ years we've been with them.

As I understand it, that's actually been the business plan. They've been open about their intention to leave the feature set alone for a year or so and focus on expanding their geographic market. They could afford to do that because they had a big lead in features over the competition (»www.roffe.net/voip/). As far as I can tell, they still do in spite of standing still for the past 2+ years.

One reason why the UI is so complicated and intuitive is that they chose to make a lot of things configurable. But that's not the whole reason. With more time and attention given to design, the UI could have been made a lot easier without losing all that great flexibility.

The call hunt example you raise is a good one. To configure call hunting, you have to manage settings that appear in multiple pages. It took me a lot of time, tweaking, and head-scratching to figure out how to make it work. On the other hand, once I did, I appreciated how I could make it do things other phone companies can't come close to doing. You can set up any combination of sequential or simultaneous ring, controlling how long it rings at each number (and thereby control which phone's voice mail ultimately picks it up). And you can control hunting behaviour by group.

By way of comparison, Sunrocket's call hunt feature is easy to configure, but it is extremely limited. My VoicePulse phone configuration takes advantage of each of the features I just described -- it needs them all. And Sunrocket can't do a single one of them.






Review by jfinlayson See Profile

  • Location: Winnetka, Cook, IL, USA
  • Cost: $15 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 5 days
Low cost, easy installation, many features
Dropouts, large voicemail attachments
Don't commit to long-term contract until you're sure it works for you
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We switched two months ago from POTS to VP. We previously had POTS from SBC and digital telephone from Comcast (which isn't VoIP). Both performed flawlessly, but cost nearly 3 times as much as VP, so a direct comparison on the perfomance merits is hardly fair. Be that as it may, VP doesn't work nearly as well as the other two did for us, though it apparently does for many others.

The first hint of technical limitations came when I called customer support from my office (POTS) a few minutes after signing up. The phone tree prompts were choppy to the point of being impossible to follow. So we were relieved when the adapter arrived, installed easily in 5 minutes, and worked almost flawlessly for a month. We couldn't tell the difference.

If I were paranoid, I would suspect that VP downgraded my service as soon as the trial period expired, because after the first month we suddenly started getting dropouts, where we couldn't hear the other party or they couldn't hear us. These dropouts last anywhere from fractions of a second (choppiness) to 5 seconds. Tech support suggested trying bandwidth saver, but that didn't help. The problem is intermittent, generally affecting all calls to/from any number for an extended period (usually several hours), then disappearing for hours or even days. We're still working with tech support on it, and they announced some fixes on their web site two days ago for what may or may not be the same problem. If not, we'll be wishing we hadn't signed up for a 1-year contract.

The only other complaint I have is that the voicemail attachments are in WAV format, which run about 1.2 Mbytes per minute. A more compressed format (e.g., mp3, ogg, vqx, or wmv) would be welcome.

The unresolved dropout problem aside, my experience with customer support has generally been favorable. Support certainly hasn't been, for me, the nightmare described in earlier reviews, so I'm inclined to think that they've made some significant headway in that department. Perhaps the recent addition of phone support has reduced the burden on email support to the point where it is more responsive. Response times to my queries have ranged from minutes to 2 days (only once was it that long, and it came with an apology for the delay).

The recently upgraded web support site is well organized and apparently well staffed, as far as I can tell. For example, I noticed that the time stamp in the subject line of email voicemail notifications isn't adjusted for time zone. I searched the FAQs, didn't see an answer, entered a comment, and within 7 minutes one of their staffers (Charlie) not only replied, but posted a new FAQ addressing the issue. Impressive.

UPDATE (02 July 2005).

Ten months in, we've never solved the occasional dropout problems. VoicePulse had a look at a 24-hour ping plotter, and believes that the problem is with the Internet connection (Comcast). Comcast of course says there's nothing wrong with our line. Hmm. There's something to be said for having VoIP and Internet service from the same company.

I like VoicePulse. Customer support is good, features are great, and when it works, I couldn't be more pleased with it, but I wouldn't want it to be my only phone line.

UPDATE (23 August 2006).

Upon moving to a new house, the number of dropouts suddenly decreased, suggesting that the Internet connection was responsible for most of the call quality problems. I've upgraded my ratings accordingly.

We added a Sunrocket line a couple of months ago. Although we're satisfied with both, I find VoicePulse's feature set to be much more complete and flexible. That was a little unexpected, because in the two years we've been with VoicePulse, I haven't noticed any new features. They were that far ahead.

John

Sipura SPA-2000

Comcast 8000/256 MBps

member for 20.4 years, 38 visits, last login: 13.1 years ago
updated 17.6 years ago

terpdevil
join:2005-07-08
Hightstown, NJ

terpdevil

Member

VP and comcast

I also have choppy outgoing audio. I ran pingplotter and VP blamed comcast. I had a comcast tech here and he said latency was OK. Customer service is always helpful, and they follow up. However,after a month of poor service they cannot solve the problem.
mfisher74
join:2005-07-19
Northbrook, IL

mfisher74

Member

Re: VP and comcast

Choppy audio has got nothing to do with latency. It's the jitter or dropped packets that do. How much jitter or packet loss would affect voice quality depends on the codec used. Try different bandwidth settings and see if it makes difference. Sometimes it helps to lower MTU to say 567 (if you don't have QOS capable router) on your gateway router but if the packet loss and jitter is introduced outside of your network you'll need to talk to Comcast to resolve it(good luck).

Btw, your sipura displays incoming jitter during the call, so you might look there first. I'm on comcast and my VP calls sound good most of the time and jitter is less than 5ms (g711 codec).

mfisher74

swintec
Premium Member
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME

swintec

Premium Member

Good Job

"Upon moving to a new house, the number of dropouts suddenly decreased, suggesting that the Internet connection was responsible for most of the call quality problems. I've upgraded my ratings accordingly."

I'm glad you came back and updated that part. Many folks would simply let there original review stand and make it look like it was Voicepulses issue all along. They really are a top notch provider. Many issues, although it will look like Voicepulse, can be traced back to the ISP, no matter how much the person doesnt want to admit it.

Review by slimborama See Profile

  • Location: Fullerton, Orange, CA, USA
  • Cost: $25 per month
Outgoing calls work just fine, great feature set, no commitment
Incoming calls work 10-20% of the time, the rest hit busy signal for no reason -- tech support is lollercakes
Califonia service needs to be improved, but seems like it'll get there given what people experience in the other areas
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I bought this service for my dad after much research into all the options. He wanted to go Vonage (because of their marketing), but I convinced him that VoicePulse was the way to go based on reviews and the fact that there was no commitment.

The service so far has been really good -- for outgoing calls. However, I'd say incoming calls have about 10-20% chance of actually going through. The rest hit a busy signal or this other weird tone. It's totally random too. If I just keep hammering on it from my cell phone, it will work eventually (there are no problems on my cell phone side).

It's all fine and good within the family and close friends who are willing to put up with the hammering, but we have no idea what other random calls we're missing.

Theoretically, Voice Pulse would be the best service, because the feature set is awesome. They have a ways to go in California though for reliability.

Also, before anyone jumps on the cable service we're on, I'm getting pretty good transfer rates from »www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/: ~2900 kb/sec download / ~ 310 kb/sec upload

member for 18.1 years, 3 visits, last login: 17.7 years ago
lodged 17.7 years ago


PCInTech
keeping art alive since 1953
Premium Member
join:2004-06-07
Massena, NY

PCInTech

Premium Member

Wrong end of the country

Well, you might be at the wrong end of the continent for VP to be stellar for you. Here on the East Coast, they're the best of the best. You might be better served by a California based service such as Packet8, which sucks here in the East, but is GREAT out West, maybe?

Review by rbrodkin See Profile

  • Location: La Palma, Orange, CA, USA
  • Cost: $11 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
GREAT voice quality and tech support was really helpful..never had to wait!
Their VoicePulse Connect service lacks a bit in doumentation and can be confusing to setup.
As long as you are using Connect, they are great.
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They have been really great to me. Not only have all their employees been really helpful, but I have never had to wait more than a minute or two to talk to them. Setup was initially confusing and I had to put in alot of work to get it going. That said, they have launched a new tool that will auto-configure Asterisk@Home to work properly with almost no work.

member for 21.8 years, 22 visits, last login: 17.8 years ago
lodged 17.8 years ago







Review by cj49735 See Profile

  • Location: Gaylord, Otsego, MI, USA
  • Cost: $14 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
Rock solid service, great audio quality
For the price, there are no bad points.
Great VoIP service -- What more can I say?
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I've been with VoicePulse now for just under three months. Their service has been stellar. I had enough of battling my former VoIP service with call drops, one-way audio loss, fast-busy incoming and outgoing, changing proxy servers multiple times per day trying to make the service work, no incoming caller-id name, etc. It was a headache to say the least.

VoicePulse has been completely hands-off. No tweaking, no proxy servers to change, just rock solid performance. My wife HATED VoIP after our previous experience, and wanted to go back to PSTN (Verizon). In the last nearly three months, VoicePulse has proven itself to her. She loves it now, and that says a LOT...

I couldn't be happier with VoicePulse. And to my delight, I'm actually paying the monthly price they advertise, since they don't tack on other additional charges like my previous providers did (tax, "regulatory fee"). They advertise $14.99 for my plan, and that's exactly what my credit card is billed each month.

VoicePulse's website isn't as great as some others, but with the service they're providing, I'm not going to complain at all about the fact that they could have made it "prettier" than it is.

member for 17.8 years, 10 visits, last login: 13.4 years ago
lodged 17.8 years ago


Review by jafu See Profile

  • Location: Sardis, Panola, MS, USA
  • Cost: $24 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 7 days
Good Call Quality, Low Price
None So Far
Great Service
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I've had the service for about 2 months now. The order process was quick and easy. Installation was a breeze. Had 1 or 2 very brief outages. The call quaility is on par with POTS. I've had a few dropped calls in the middle of my conversation, but i think that was due to my ISP. Have not had any major problems with this service. Overall, I am very happy.

Good call quality + 24.99/month = Great service.................So far

member for 22.9 years, 4751 visits, last login: 3 years ago
lodged 17.9 years ago