how-to block ads
|
»next review in page
Review by mglunt 
UPDATED: 2.7 years ago
member for 8.2 years, 1070 visits, last login: 12 days ago
 Fredericksburg,Spotsylvania,VA
 $26 per month
 about 3 days
 "Cheap, lots of features, excellant quality"
 "None so far"
 "Get it"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I have had VoicePulse for a couple weeks now, and just initiated the process to port my number over from Verizon. I ordered it to replace the Verizon Freedom package which was just increased $5 to around $58 a month after taxes / fees.
Call quality is very good, and reliability has not been an issue either. So far I am very happy with the service. All the features I have used have worked as advertised. The Call Waiting Caller ID that never worked with Verizon POTS, works with VoicePulse. Pretty much everything about the service is either equal to or better than the old land line.
Install was a breeze. They sent me the Linksys PAP2T-NA box. I literally took it out of the box, plugged it into my router, phone, and power, and made a phone call immediately. No configuration of the Linksys device or my FIOS provided Actiontec router was needed. Time from order to live was just the amount of time it took UPS to deliver the package - they had it shipped the day after I ordered.
Tech support has not been needed other than to begin the porting of my phone number, but I did call once and received a message that phone support was not available at that time. The porting was handled through email.
UPDATE (3/9/07) - My phone number has been ported to VoicePulse as of today. I began that process on 2/15, so it took about 3 weeks. Everything went smoothly, and I received a phone call and email from VoicePulse when it was complete.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of VoicePulse |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
Review by chalzr
Posted: 2.7 years ago
member for 2.8 years, 11 visits, last login: 2.3 years ago
Gainesville,Alachua,FL
$15 per month
about 5 days
"Cheap, easy, great customer service"
"A good value"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I'm still minutely troubled by the idea of "power out, phone out", since the phone lines around here are almost all completely buried. But I have a prepaid cell phone, so who cares?
BellSouth had me by the short and curlies - only phone operator in town, and $56/mo after fees and taxes for local calling, voice mail, caller ID, etc - NO long distance! I also had dialup at the time, so of course, I needed the phone line.
Once Cox HSI speeds went up and prices came down (was $50/mo for 3Mbps down!), I ran to them for cable service (now $42/mo for 7Mbps down). That, of course, opened up the world of VoIP to me.
VoicePulse took a little longer than light-speed to get me set up, because of the 911 address verification issue. However, my customer support rep at VoicePulse - yes, you get your OWN rep, who handles all your issues! Not a call center in another country! - was with me the whole way. A couple times, I got phone calls after sending in emails, to explain what's going on, see if I had any other questions, and so on. Heck, I even got an email response on a Sunday afternoon, before I was signed up. How cool is that? So I didn't chew my nails in worry over the address issue.
Set up was too easy. Cable modem, router, phone adapter, telephone... ring ring, Hi, I'm on my new VoIP line, how are you? So long as you don't use USB to connect to your router, you don't even need to run any software at all during the whole setup. I'm borrowing the phone adapter from VoicePulse, a Linksys PAP2T, which was a $30 one-time fee. It was that, or buy my own for $70-80. I can live with sending it back when I'm done.
If you want to keep your old phone number, you have to get it ported, and that - I'm told - will take at a bare minimum 30 days, so start the port ASAP. This isn't anything specific to VoicePulse, though. They'll send you a PDF that you print out, fill in, and fax to them with a portion of your regular phone service's bill - so don't cancel your landline yet, if you want to save the number!
I've got 200 minutes of free long distance every month, with each minute extra at $0.039, a steal compared to Cox's digital telephone - $30+ for 100 minutes, $0.12/min after. Fun and cool features come with VoicePulse, too. Within just minutes of opening up the digital phone adapter, I was making and receiving calls, with EXCELLENT voice quality. I'm loving it!
Oh, and did I mention you get a personal support rep who handles all your issues? Sweet.
Followup comments:  chalzr
join:2007-02-02
Gainesville, FL
| Update on VP So far, so good. VP is working fine, though my mother says she sometimes hears sounds, as if I were pressing buttons on the phone, though I'm not... Going to have to check this with other phones besides hers, maybe ditch this old cordless...
LNP started on Feb 12, and was finished on Mar 6. I blame BellSouth more than VP, based on what I've heard from other customers. But hey, I'm free of BS -- err, BellSouth.
Sorry, not BellSouth anymore, it's The New AT&T - aka Zombie Bell: Ma Bell risen from the dead!
Until I talked to VoicePulse and told them which phone number I wanted to keep, I technically had 2 numbers. It was just my luck that the billing cycle struck on that exact day, so I got charged an extra $4.99 for the second number. I called them up, though, and Martin took care of it, crediting my account for next month. No run-around, no hassles. Yay!
Here's to hoping I can keep having cable wherever I go, so I can keep VoicePulse! | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of VoicePulse |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by Broad22
Posted: 2.7 years ago
member for 2.8 years, 0 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago
undisclosed location
$24 per month
"Fast support response"
"Slippery support response; Atrocious interface for managing features; Terrible Hunting"
"Use Call Hunting at your own risk; Expect slippery support responses."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
The fast Vocepulse support response is too often more flash than substance, but it is impressively fast. Too often when I have reported malfunctions in the operation of their features, the response has been to parrot the company line stating what the feature is supposed to do but stated as a representation of factual performance, and to ignore my report that it is not working as claimed/advertised.
The HUNT ME feature is completely unreliable in January 2007. Inconsistent, erratic FindMe performance was my experience, so bad as to make it completely unpredictable and altogether unreliable. They are happy that they are reporting false busy signals -- no joke -- when no one picks up on the numbers I listed for the hunt/find me effort. They claim that voicemail works with call hunting, but my experience says that claim is inaccurate. Their most recent instruction to me was to set the voicemail delay to 60 seconds, so the call hunting would have a 40 second head start. I have not tried that yet.
Absurdly, their user interface requires perhaps 40 clicks to check configuration of the ON-OFF status for all of the features. To simply toggle a feature on or off requires 4-5 clicks for each feature, without even counting whether or not you have to click more times to configure the feature beyond turning it on or off. And their instruction about the 40 second lead time makes it plain to me that countdown timing for the features can create conflicts so you need to click over and over and over and over and over and over again to check each feature's settings to compare and contrast in order to avoid conflicting timing or other conflicts. There user interface is terrible. If other providers' interfaces are worse, that might be an explanation for the generally high rating which others are giving to VVP's web site. Or it may be that prospective customers are getting too much to say -- they can't see the feature management interface yet.
They are very fast in calling you back, but if you are unavailable for their phone call, then their written email responses frequently are cursory and ignore issues raised by your original query. The VP customer support emails are designed very inefficiently, and customers are forced to open each one and scroll down deep into the interior of the email message (past the happy talk Thanks For Writing stuff) to get anything out of it.
Their support personnel appear to be trained to NEVER acknowledge that there is anything wrong with the way a feature is operating -- like the false busy signals when call hunting reaches no one. They also seem unable to acknowledge that they have just received a message about a malfunction. Instead, the are trained to speak about referring reports of malfunction to the people who worry about "future upgrades" to the service. That is invariably how their "incident reports" refer to their resolution of malfunctioning services.
For now, I can only say that you should test call hunting several times before you try to implement it for real. Test with someone answering. Test including lines with voicemail routinely operational. Test with no one answering. Test with varying numbers of delay rings before hunting starts. Run numerous tests of each configuration. My experience is that performance was radically different in later tests than in earlier tests over the course of perhaps three days of testing.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of VoicePulse |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by fourbear6
Posted: 2.8 years ago
member for 4.1 years, 15 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago
Okeechobee,Okeechobee,FL
Contract price not specified.
"Price, Features"
"Tech Support, Reliability"
"Value is not good with poor Reliability and support"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
|
VoicePulse
How can this company stay in business?
After one year of service I started having problems and my phone would not work. Voicepulse said there was a problem with my router and wanted me to contact Linksys. So I called Linksys and they said my router was working fine. Then voicepulse wanted me to contact Sipura about the adapter, so I did and Sipura said they thought the adapter was bad and for me to contact voicepulse. Now voicepulse still says it my router so I buy a new router and still the phone does not work. Now voicepulse says maybe it is the adapter and wants me to pay for a new one. This is two weeks later with no service and I was not willing to spend any more time and money on voicepulse so I requested them to cancel my service. They still charged me for the month of October while I had no service.
Today I get a call from voicepulse saying I owe them over 100 dollars because my service is still active and also I have to pay for the broken adapter. Well you can guess what I told them!
Oh and I have signed up with a new VOIP and you know what both old and new routers work fine.
Don’t Use VoicePulse!
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of VoicePulse |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by nyount
Posted: 2.8 years ago
member for 6.4 years, 153 visits, last login: 2.1 years ago
Lexington,Lexington,SC
$21 per month
about 5 days
"Great local calling package, responsive support"
"Recent frequent outages and call quality issues"
"Still waiting to see if quality improves"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
We have the VoicePulse Local Unlimited + 200 plan ($14.99/month), which gives us unlimited calling in our local area, plus 200 minutes of outbound calls per month outside of that area. The local calling area is defined as our entire local area code, plus the adjacent area codes in our state. This effectively covers the entire state for us, which is fantastic. We also have a virtual number ($4.99/month) that is local to our families in another state, allowing them to call us for free as well. All of that for $21 per month (including tax) with no long-term commitment seems like a great deal to me.
We've had the service since early December, and for the first month or so, everything was great. Unfortunately, we've been experiencing a lot of intermittent call quality issues and partial or complete outages over the past few weeks. Those have included being unable to hear the calling party on incoming calls, static or even loud roaring on some calls, and periods in which either incoming calls or both incoming and outgoing calls could not be completed. The most recent outage was yesterday afternoon, and lasted for about 4 hours. That one was blamed on a problem with an upstream provider.
They really do seem to be trying to troubleshoot and figure out the quality issues, and I'm still holding out hope that they will, because I really like the calling package and features. A just-completed call today was crystal clear, so they certainly are capable of POTS quality or better. I just need it to be more consistent in order to stay with them for the long term.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of VoicePulse |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by lbvt
Posted: 2.8 years ago
member for 2.8 years, 9 visits, last login: 252 days ago
Essex Junction,Chittenden,VT
$25 per month
"Good call quality; Human Tech Support; Cheap!"
"User to User minutes not recognized"
"Great service if you don't care about free user to user calls"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I've had Voicepulse for about a year now and I've been mostly pleased with the service. I was a Vonage refugee and VoicePulse is a major departure from that poor product.
Their website isn't flashy and needs to be updated to remain competitive.
The install process went smoothly and simply, though it took a long time for my adapter to ship.
Call quality has been excellent and the offered features are great. I have not personally ported over a land line number to VP, but relatives have from BellSouth with success.
One feature that has never worked for me is free User to User calls. Calls show up as long distance minutes, forcing you to either call support every month for a credit or to get the unlimited LD plan. This supposedly will be fixed in early 2007.
Tech support is mixed. The best feature is that you get to speak with a helpful person at their New Jersey headquarters every time you call. However, issues (like the above) sometimes never get resolved fully even after multiple requests over months.
Overall, I've had a good experience with their service. However, I cannot fully recommend it until all advertised features are operational.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of VoicePulse |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by najames
UPDATED: 2.9 years ago
member for 4.9 years, 5 visits, last login: 2.4 years ago
Boca Raton,Palm Beach,FL
$14 per month (month by month)
about 5 days
"Easy install, large local area, 200 minutes L.D., inexpensive, works well"
"minor echo on first call - only I could hear it"
"Thumbs up"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
We want to replace Bellsouth. They charge almost $50 per month and calls to the west side of town are considered long distance in a city of 26,000 people. I complained to Bellsouth about the extremely limited area and got no response.
We received the "kit" from Voicepulse in about 5 days UPS. It consisted of a Sipura 2000 box (2 phone ports, one ethernet port, electronic plug in). Instructions are on one page with your phone number voice mail etc.
Voicepulse local unlimited calling area is basically the southeastern 1/4 of Florida, Orlando to Key West. :>))
I spent about 10 minutes connecting, checked wireless router for DHCP address provided to the Sipura, checked dial tone, and called a buddy in KC. EASY. This maiden call had a little echo that only I could hear. Not bad, but slightly distracting. My wife then made call to Iowa. I also talked in the conversation and there was absolutely no echo, clarity greater than or equal to standard phone line. I have not set up any of the additional features of this service yet.
We don't make a lot of long distance calls. This $14.95 service should be perfect for us. If we go over the limit, it's 3.9 cents per minute as I recall. I can deal with that. I hope the Voicepulse service continues this well. I have not yet tried calling card calls overseas with this service yet either. I will report back.
Update -
So far I am very pleased with the service. The calls have been perfect only a slight echo on the first call. ALL others crystal clear. Updated call quality rating based on use.
I tested it with a "local call" to Key West and it worked fine, just dialed the number with area code, verified it was billed as a local call. No confusion how to dial locals, I just used the area code plus number and it worked fine.
My wife has used it to make a calling card calls to Thailand and it worked fine also. No different than regular phone line.
Update 12/26/2007
We have had VoicePulse for a couple years now. Their service has been extremely good. The only failures we have incurred were (a) entended power outages from hurricanes (b) user error when knocking the power supply partially out of the power strip without realizing it (c) the splitter coming out of the SIP box had become unplugged somehow by the users. We make a fair amount of calls to the west coast, many to Thailand, and they always are clear. We have gone over the alloted 200 minutes a few times, the recent bill was $19.50 instead of the normal $14.99ish. Not a big deal though, auto billing has been ok.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of VoicePulse |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by rayethan
UPDATED: 2.9 years ago
member for 6.3 years, 36 visits, last login: 339 days ago
Rockford,Kent,MI
$15 per month
about 7 days
"Good quality, cheap, good support"
"none so far..."
"Definately give them consideration for VoIP"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
December 15, 2006 update.
Still very good service. We are pleased with VP. Some initial trouble with E911 service, but it is working now. I highly recommend you place a test call to 911. You have to identify that you are doing a test or call the non-emergency number first and ask them if it is ok for you to make the test 911 call.
I've got my Linksys adapter in a DMZ and it works fine.
Original review:
I ordered through the website and it was pretty easy. The online form could not verify my address for 911, but was processed a day or two later once my address was verified.
I got the unlimited local, 200 long distance plan. Can't beat 15 bucks a month.
Lots of features, I like having the voicemail emailed. You do get large files, but that's ok. Being able to listen to the voicemail through the website would be a nice feature.
I got the Linksys phone adapter and it setup fine. Just plugged it in.
The call quality has been good, so far. I was also able to port my local number so that was a nice touch. Nothing like calling ATT and telling them I don't need phone service.
I've found the customer support to be very helpful. Heck, they even call you. How's that for service.
Bottom line: I'm very happy with VP. They have lots of features that make it a very good value.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of VoicePulse |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by rosh400
UPDATED: 2.9 years ago
member for 5.8 years, 187 visits, last login: 1.8 years ago
Potomac,Montgomery,MD
$24 per month
about 30 days
"Great Call Quality, Great Features"
"Lack of 24/7 Tech Support"
"So far a great leap forward from QuantumVoice"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
12/12/06 Update
So far continued smooth sailing for the most part. The only problem I am having is if I am on the internet, there is a degradation of call quality at times. Still trying to troubleshoot that one. I am told that the best option is a router that has a quality of service feature on it to manage my bandwidth. I have FIOS internet with bandwidth to spare but my internet apps may be trying to hog all they can get.
The commenter right before me has had problems with incoming calls. I think it has to do with the number he was assigned. I have no problems because my number was ported over from my previous VOIP provider which was ported over from Verizon. So It's been my number for 6+ years.
12/1/06 Update
So far I am very impressed. The call quality is excellent and none of the problems I had with Quantumvoice. I like the distinctive ring option. Now I know when my mother is calling without even having to look at caller id. Also to clarify. 30 days was time from order to existing number port. I could have been live in 24 hours if I used the number assigned by Voicepulse.
Original Post
I've been a VOIP user for about a year and a half. Until yesterday my only experience was with Quantumvoice. Overall QV's service was okay but I did have some issues that would not go away and their switch to new ownership was lead to a major decline in customer service. My major complaints were occasional echoes in calls, unexplained failures to receive incoming calls, and random phone ringing when a voicemail was left. This last was most annoying. Orignally, QV's tech support was very personal and quite attentive, even if they could not solve the problem but under new ownership, that personal attention disappeared. Due to this, the ongoing problems, and the truly atrocious web portal, I decided to switch to a new provider. Checking this site's ratings, I first called ATT because they have a rich feature set and a really good web portal. But ATT could not port my phone number from another VOIP provider. I then read up about Voicepulse. They had the features I needed, a good price (less than QV), and good ratings. They could also port over my number.
I signed up a month ago and my number ported over yesterday. The delay was QV's fault. There database did not have my correct address (somehow they had it correct for billing). I swapped out the ata and everything worked fine. The call quality seems great and I really like the features such as distinctive ring so I know when my mother is calling without even having to look at caller id. The web portal is great but could use some improvements (click to dial, phone book, voicemail access and management on the web). Hope these features will be added but they are far from deal breakers.
Anyway, I just wanted to give my first impression which is very positive. I will try to remember and update in a month.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of VoicePulse |
| »next page (previous review)
Review by gpslouis
UPDATED: 2.9 years ago
member for 5 years, 169 visits, last login: 2 years ago
Olney,Montgomery,MD
$15 per month (12 month contract)
about 4 days
"Simple to set up if you read the simple instructions. Worked first time. Amazing list of features."
"Help desk closes at 7 PM EST/EDT. Problems can take days to resolve, if they are ever resolved."
"Great until recently, then went rapidly downhill. Stay away."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
|
SEE UPDATES AT BOTTOM OF REVIEW. STAY AWAY FROM VOICEPULSE.
_______________________________________________________________
I got VoicePulse about two weeks ago, and so far it's been a very easy ride.
I ordered the service on a Thursday afternoon via their web site, and the equipment (VOIP unit) arrived the following Monday.
I plugged the VIOP adapter into my router (WRT54G), waited about two minutes per the instructions, and I was making and receiving calls.
Right now my VOIP is flowing over my Cavtel / Phonom DSL link (512 KB down, about 256 KB up), but I'll be switching to FIOS in a few days. Sound quality is MUCH better than the Phonom VIOP, even though it's over the Phonom DSL connection.
For incoming calls, caller ID with name works correctly, but if you don't like the name that is displayed, you can set your own value for the name through the VoicePulse web site.
For outgoing calls, caller ID with name shows "out of area" on the recipients caller ID unit because Voicepulse does not register the name of the line owner with Telcos. Depending upon your point of view, this is either a good or bad thing.
The supplied Sipura VOIP box rings my 9 phones with no problem. (The total ringer equivalence is about 5 in my house.) However, it has trouble driving voice on more than one phone at a time. In other words, If two phones in my house are off-hook, the volume for all call participants drops to a very low level.
The customer support web site is very easy to use. There are endless features that can be quickly activated and configured via their web site. It's also very cool to be able to see the log of all outgoing and incoming calls. Just be careful about using any feature that does call forwarding if you bought the $15 / month plan, as there is apparently a per-minute charge for using call forwarding under that plan except when forwarding to a voicepulse number.
VoicePulse does not support 911 service yet, which happens to be contrary to FCC regulations. Based on the letter (see link below) from the CEO of Voicepulse to the FCC, it looks like they are pursuing activation of 911 service, but are significantly behind the January 2006 commitment that they made in the letter to the FCC.
»gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retr···18183606
I'll update again after a few weeks.
___________________________________________________________________
Update of March 19, 2006
My FIOS (5 MB / 2MB) circuit was installed last Friday so I moved my VoicePulse Sipura box over to the FIOS router (DI-624 supplied by Verizon). I didn't have to make any changes to the Sipura configuration, and the Voice Pulse service continued to work perfectly. The slight jitter that I experienced when using the Sipura on the Cavtel/Phonom circuit is gone on the FIOS circuit. Voice quality is absolutely perfect, as good as or better that POTS.
I'm not going to bother with a detailed FIOS review, as there are so many reviews already that I don't think that I have anything to add. I will mention, though, that the FIOS iInstallation was performed on the requested date by a very courteous installer who did a top notch, very neat installation job. I should add, though, that he had a relatively easy installation job, though, since all he had to do was mount the FIOS equipment on my networking equipment board and run the FIOS cables from the board to the outside interface.
____________________________________________________________________
Update of December 1, 2006:
Until the last few days, my VoicePulse service had been perfect. Then, two days ago, I could no longer receive calls. (Outbound calling still work fine.) I've called support 5 times over the past 24 hours, and although it's easy to reach a live person, all they'll tell me is that the problem is being caused by a provider downstream from them. They have no fix ETA and they won't give me any additional information. They won't even promise a fix within a week. I'm no longer very happy with VoicePulse.
___________________________________________________________________
Update of December 4, 2006:
Still no incoming calls and no indication of when the problem will be fixed. I spoke to Customer Service Manager Ryan Gibbs today (who reports directly to the owner of VoicePulse). His "I don't care" attitude and lack of ability to provide any information about the cause of the problem or an estimated fix date are causing me to recommend that this failing provider not be used. I have also submitted a written, online complaint about VoicePulse to the FCC.
__________________________________________________________________
Update of December 5, 2006
Still no incoming calls. No word from VP on when the problem will be fixed.
Attachments: retrieve.zip 82,438 bytes
(retrieve.pdf)
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of VoicePulse |
|
|
VoicePulse
(22)
·