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Review by qalam 
UPDATED: 4.6 years ago
member for 4.6 years, 16 visits, last login: 4.5 years ago
 Urbana,Champaign,IL
 $19 per month
 "Online features: follow me, conect calls, free virtual number"
 "Poor customer service, canceling service without notice due to usage, Misleading advertising of Unlimited service"
 "IF I had to do it over again, I would pay the $29.99 SBC domestic Long distance +4.99 UNLIMITED Canada Plus plan."
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[edit/update review- I felt I should update my review becuase when I wrote it, I used some really harsh and maybe incorrect terms]
[And Everyone Must know about the Terms Of Service TOS so I am quoting from it here at the beginning:]
TOS quote:
"B: Customer-Only Traffic. [cut]. In the case of residential service usage is limited to those persons residing within the dwelling as listed with Broadvox, or visitors of the dwelling. Any attempt to resell or otherwise distribute the services delivered under this agreement will result in immediate cancellation of services. In addition Broadvox may bill subscriber for individual service lines, per minute usage; including domestic calls exceeding 3,000 minutes in a given 30 days cycle, at the highest published rate over the preceding 90 days. "
I signed up for Broadvox 3 months ago when they were offering the service for 19.99. Seemed like a good deal with a ton of features.
Quality: I barely had any problems with it. Occasionaly there were dropped calls and occasional voice quality was affected but no big deal. I would just reconnect and I am not a business user to worry about customers.
[cut] Here is where the interesting part comes. My service suddenly stopped working. I called customer service and they informed me that becuase the last month I had Abused my plan [according to Terms of Service usage of over 3000 minutes and pattern of usage maybe deemed commericial and automaticaly cut off without explanation].
The whole reason I got VOIP is so I didnt have to pay over $29.99 to SBC to have unlimited domestic long distance including a canada plan for $5 more.
OK if you are stil reading, this is how my encounter went with them:
I called and talked to a CSR lady. My call got answered in less than 5 minutes.
The lady said let me check the ticket you have openned. After a few minutes she returned my call and said the system has locked you out and your account has been cancelled. You will need to return the adaptor back to us within 14 days or you will be charged a fee.
I asked, but whats the reason. She said it seems you have abused your service. I was confused and I inquired further what they meant by abuse. She said you have used xx number of hours per month which is automaticaly considered abuse by our system. After further inquiry and looking at the TOS (much later) I found out that the magic number is 3000 minutes.
I really needed the phone becuase I knew how much it had cost me in the past with calling cards and with SBC and 19.99 is unbeatable (except now with Sunrocket).
I said ok well I didnt know about this since you had advertised UNLIMITED service. Just re-instate my account and I will stay under 3000 minutes. I guess I have to reduce my calls to my wife in canada.
She said unfortunately there is NOTHING she could do. I could sign up again once I have returned the adaptor. I said, wait a minute, why go through this whole hastle of me sending the adaptor and then you sending it back to me. She said thats the only way to do it. Then I said, well now its 29.99, it seems you signed me up at 19.99 and now you are forcing me to switch to 29.99. Not only that but you want me to resign and pay set up fees, shipping and all that.
At this point I was upset but I have dealt with worse CSR;s of other companies such as Dell, Cingular, T mobile, so I asked for a manager to clarify this ludicrous idea of canceling and re-signing. The manager, Denis Diller, the name I was given, said the same thing over and over and over again. Very inflexible until the end when he transfered me.
Please Note that I expected more from the manager of Broadvox so my frustration grew as time went on. And at no where in the conversation did he offer to help me out or explain that it maybe the TYPE or Pattern of Usage that may also be involved. I learned about the Pattern of usage issue much later when I actualy joined this forum.
I said to him well this is fraud to advertise Unlimited residential service but you really offer 3000 minutes. He said it is in our Terms Of Use. I said where on your website is that, please show me. He said he doesnt have time to navigate everyone in their website. But he said thats what you agree to when you sign up. So I said ok, thats the only way I will be finding your terms of use is to go through the sign up process. Your advertising on your website is completely a a fraud. Unlimited means no Limits in every dictionary I own.
He just sounded like a machine repeating the whole thing over and over. I was getting no where.
I told him I could report him to the FTC, our local district attorney for false advertising. Other companies like blockbuster [advertised no late fees but actualy charged them somehow] and compusa [I believe issues with rebates] have been busted. He calmly replied that they have a team of lawyers and they can defend themselves.
Then I said, in addition to that, I will make sure every forum online knows about this. At this point, he softened up--maybe got scared?--or felt sorry for me--whatever it was, he said let me switch you to our COMPLIANCE department. I am thinking, what the heck is that? [Is this a good thing or a bad thing.]
I was ready to fight it all the way. And it wasnt about the extra $10 I was going to save. Heck I would give them $10 in charity every month from now on. It was fact that I was accused of abusing it and not given even a chance to remedy it. Nothing was worth the headache I got and the time I put into it and pain and suffering I felt afterwards...not even 10,000 dollars.
A guy answers and I just repeat the whole thing to him and how it is a scam they are running. He said, if you say SCAM one more time, he will hang up. So I agreed not to say 'scam' anymore. lol Fair enough!
He was very very professional. I was surprised that they are finaly reviewing my case rather than just denying
He checked my calls and asked me about almost every phone number I have called or called in and said that they have reasons to believe that I may have commercial activity going on. I said there is no such thing. Most of my calls, 90% are to a couple of numbers, my cell phone, my wife's cell phone and her/home/work. We use follow me, click to call and forwarding options, you can check it out in my online profile.
After another 10-15 minutes, he said that he has restored my account and I can continue using it.
I was thinking to myself why am I even dealing with this company. But then I wanted an open line to canada until I switched to another company. So I said, thank you for restoring my service.
In closing I asked, Can you please confirm that I should use only 3000 minutes a month? He said, no it is really unlimited.... He said that their computers are set to detect 3000 minutes. But you should be fine [since we have noted your account]. At this point I didnt know if he was just getting rid of me or what.
But one thing I had to ask him. So I went ahead and asked, What is up with this cancelling and then telling me to resign at 29.99. He said that you would not have been able to sign up again. YOu would have been shut out.
[He contridicted the other two people I had spoken to including the MANAGER. ]
At this point I was furious that not only did the 3 different people I talked to contridicted each other but clearly had an agenda of bait and switch at the begining. Or possibly they just told me that I could re-sign but then would block me once I tried since "i was not a profitable customer". [These were thoughts running through my head but of course may not be true]
Oh and the interesting thing was that earlier when I checked my email, I had recieved their cancellation email and guess what it said?!
"per your request, we are canceling your service, please return your adaptor..."
Per your request??????????
Anyways, my service is stil active but only becuase I need to call canada. And I am looking for other options.. other voip. But now I am generally skeptical about all of them. They all seem to be running some kind of campaign to acquire as many customers as possible with sweet features, low prices and then screw them up later on!
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 Review by ogar
UPDATED: 4.7 years ago
member for 8 years, 2309 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
Coatesville,Chester,PA
$19 per month
 about 3 days
"Dialtone 99.99% of the time"
"Phone Tech support is sub par, Poor Website design, few options"
"Great quality, great price, 99.99% online"
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I started with Packet 8 which I canceled after a few months due to no dialtone and
droped calls. Switched to Broadvox Direct about 6 months ago and the service was deff. a major upgrade in quality. I currently have the DTA setup to comcast at 6meg/786k connection.
The first and best thing is the dialtone is rock solid. Only 2 time did I not have a dialtone and a reboot of the DTA solved this. Voice quality is very hit or miss. Some phone calls are perfect and others are static filled. Sometimes I also have the phone call dropped in the middle of the call. The voice quality is above average when compaired to Packet 8 and vonage. I only seem to have 1 issue with calls and that is when talking to people on Tmobile service, the call volume is very low. The Website is not very user friendly. I can use it without much of a problem but anyone not very techy will be clueless.
Tech support use to be a huge + but in the past 4 to 6 months they are useless. They do everything by email and ussually take over a week to respond and rarely ever fix any of your problems.
All in all I am happy with the service esp. for the 19.99 a month I am currently paying. For the current price for new user at 29.99 I would say maybe check with callvantage otherwise this is a great phone service. BVD would be a good deal for knowledgable customers but I would not suggest it to the common person.
Also on the tech support side I have sent about 10 emails telling tech support my outbound Caller ID is not working . The least they could do is apologize and tell me there are problems instead of ignoring my emails
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Review by kpop501
Posted: 4.7 years ago
member for 4.7 years, 0 visits, last login: 4.7 years ago
Milpitas,Santa Clara,CA
$19 per month
about 10 days
"none"
"everything else"
"Rip off! Don't deal with this company. Read the Fine line!"
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I've had this service for several months now and the service has been horrible. The call quality is always poor, with constant statics, echos, and frequent dropped calls. Their user portal is ridiculous. I cannot configure any features. I've issued many service tickets, but all I ever get is basically "we are working on it" type of response. Their tech support is essentially non-existent. Their promised call waiting feature never worked for me. When I called several times about this, their last response was that their system showed everything was working fine, so it must be my phone. So I went out and bought a new phone, but same thing. I never get any chirping sounds and the incoming calls go to my cell phone message (figure that one out!).
I've checked into other VOIP services, but it looks like everybody else is having similar problems. So, I think I'll just wait until I find a better company to switch over.
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Review by kmewtwo
Posted: 4.7 years ago
member for 4.7 years, 0 visits, last login: 4.7 years ago
Ripon,San Joaquin,CA
$19 per month
about 8 days
"cheap"
"everything else"
"you get what you pay for."
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Had Broadvox direct for about 6 months. The call quality was never very good. A lot of echos and static most of the time. I put up with it up until now, only because it was so cheap. Heck, I was paying $60/month with Verizon Freedom Package before. Their user portal is a joke. I tried a number of features they offer, but never could get it to work. Their tech support is also a joke. Never got any decent helpful responses from them.
Last week, I finally decided to terminate the service after Broadvox kept dropping calls. I could put up with echos and statics, but when your conversations get dropped, that was my last draw.
Called Broadvox last Friday and spoke to a customer rep. Got no hassle about termination since there was no contract. She said she would e-mail me the instructions on returning the adaptor. She never did. I called back on Monday-->she claims she sent it. Waited about 4 hours and checked my email, but still nothing. Called her again. The same person answers the call every time. I think they only have one CSR working or something. She claims there is something wrong with my mail account. Gave me the instructions over the phone. Here is the killer--
She says I have to return the adapter in the original box, or else they will charge me $10. I mean, who keeps an empty cardboard box around for 6 freaking months or more. It's not like I'm cancelling the service after 2 weeks. She also said that if I don't return the adapter within 14 days to Cleveland Ohio, I get charged $89. I've already lost 3 days waiting for the stupid email (which still hasn't arrived).
I learned my lessons. You get what you pay for. And you pay the price when you jump into new technology that hasn't proved itself. Back to Verizon Freedom Package for now.
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 Review by Dunga Bee
Posted: 4.7 years ago
member for 5.3 years, 1765 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Pittsburgh,Allegheny,PA
$20 per month
about 8 days
"When working, call quality is good. Consistent dial tone."
"Tech support is terrible. Very slow and generally unresponsive."
"I would NOT recommend Broadvox based on my experience."
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Well, today I reordered my POTS line
I've had Broadvox for around 6 months or so. In the beginning they were excellent. Dial tone was always there and people could always call me. Call quality was very good. Equal to or better than my POTS line.
In the last month to 2 months that has all changed, as many here @ DSLR have noticed. Recently I've had huge issues with calls being dropped always around the 8-10 minute mark. If I catch it in time and hit the 'flash' button I can somehow bring the connection back to life before the call is totally dropped.
I've also had ALOT of people complaining to me that they can not get through to us. They either go right to voicemail or get a message that all circuits are busy or they just get nothing and need to redial.
And, of course there is the fact that my outgoing caller ID has NEVER been right since I signed up.
All this has finally added up enough that I am just sick and tired of calling and updating tickets.
I especially like what appears to be a new 'support' tactic of adding a blank note to the ticket. I remember jgwilliams talking about how the new ticketing system alerts people when there has been no activity on a ticket, so I must assume that these blank notes with absolutely no action must be designed to prevent those alerts while allowing the support person to do absolutely nothing. Very nice...
There was a day when I enthusiastically endorsed Broadvox but now I would DEFINITELY NOT recommend them to anyone. The service seems to not have any 'hard' down time, but when most of my calls drop and many people can not get through, it's not like I can really use it for a phone now either.
I have not used their voicemail systems much and have never needed to send or receive faxes. For me connections for my DirecTV boxes did work over the VoIP line. I was not able to port my number so I can not comment on that process personally, but from what I've read, I am glad I did not need to.
For now I am back on POTS mostly because my wife is simply not in the mood to try out another VoIP service based on this experience and I am not in the mood to try to explain how to save $10-15 / month it's worth the giant pain in the rear that Broadvox has turned in to.
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Review by priller
UPDATED: 4.7 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 3863 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Manassas,Prince William,VA
$19 per month
"Dial tone is always there."
"Complete breakdown in customer service and basic business processes and procedures."
"Can no longer recommend. My business has moved to SunRocket."
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BroadVox is not new to VoIP, but new to the residential market. I ordered service "pre-launch" back in December 2003. One of the driving factors was true E911, as of this writing (Aug 2004), it still has not been delivered, but is expected shortly ... really! In addition to signing up very early, I requested the upgrade from the Sipura to BVD's new DTA. As I expected, I encountered small technical problems. BVD has always been very responsive to customer service issues ... and that's what's important.
BVD needs to polish some of the ordering and customer service processes, but those issues are not reasons to not take a good look at this service.
As soon as E911 become functional and my Caller ID displays something other than "BRIVIA COMM", I plan to give it a good 60 day shake down. If all goes well, we will be making BVD our Verizon POTS replacement.
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Update 9/02/2004: Per a notice on the portal, the anticiapated E911 launch is now 11/15/2004. The outbound CID feature will be later in the year. Having CID display as "BRIVIA COMM" is a deal breaker. I'm "keeping the faith", but I grow weary.
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Update 10/18/2004: Opened a trouble ticket on 9/30 for the outbound CID issue. My CID is now blank instead of "BRIVIA COMM". This is an improvement. However, it is not displaying what I have set in the portal .... ticket still open.
DTA resets itself every 22 hours. This is a know problem and BVD is working with the vendor. Ticket open since 8/30/2004.
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Update 11/24/2004:
Outbound CID still broke.
No sign of E911.
New ticket system is fuctionally better, but almost unusable in Netscape/Mozilla .... portal is getting worse in reguards to being IE centric.
DTA resets not resolved.
Starting to wonder if BVD will be the right choice to replace POTS.
Call History broke for a couple of weeks.
International calls were not being billed. Reported the problem weeks ago with no action on BVD's part .... oh, well.
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UPDATE 01/02/2005:
Outboud CID name delivery still broke!
No sign of E911!!!
The have broken 3-way calling. This has been hosed for a couple of weeks after an upgrade on their border controllers.
Most * codes have been broken since they changed from the Sipura to the DTA.
I have signed up with SunRocket and will dump BVD, if they work as advertised.
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UPDATE 01//03/2005 - CANCELED SERVICE
BVD closed my ticket for outgoing CID not working without any resolution. My next ticket was to cancel service. My business now goes to SunRocket for residential and Vonage for business. This company is full speed in reverse.
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UPDATE 03/01/2005
Now I really hate these guys. I returned the DTA via FedEx on 01/04/2005. On 2/22, they hit my Amex for $89.95 for not returning the DTA. This was signed for on 01/06, by C.PATTERSON at BroadVox, but they can't account for it. Opened a ticket that has sat for a week with no action (typical BVD service). So, now I had to file a dispute with Amex to get it resolved.
BroadVox has had a complete breakdown in Customer Service and basic business processes and procedures.
Under no circumstance can I recommend BroadVox anymore.
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UPDATE 03/21/2005
American Express completed their investigation and got my $89.95 back from these morons. I'M FREE, FREE, FREE of BVD!
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 Review by aaronfitz
Posted: 4.7 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 2044 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Saint Louis,Saint Louis City,MO
$19 per month
"Service provides a solid dialtone. New TA natively supports QoS"
"Contradictory information all over the website. Horrible customer service"
"Even with their quirks, Broadvox Direct has a decent service going here."
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I switched to Broadvox Direct when I was in my period of unrest with Packet8. If you want details on why I switched, feel free to check out my review of them. At the time, Broadvox Direct had the same monthly rate for signing up as Packet8 does, without the tax to fund some extinct war.
My LNP order was horribly botched. Losing one order is understandable, but if you do a search through the forum, it seems almost all of the LNP orders submitted in November (wow, I've been with these guys for that long already?) were lost. I ended up cancelling Packet8 and losing my number for good. I'd had that number since I originally got a POTS line, and was hoping to keep it for life. Guess that's not the case. Some stupid neighbor of mine kept dialing me instead of her brother, though. So maybe a screwed up LNP order isn't all that bad.
I love the G.711 voice codec. I'm legally deaf according to my health records, and it's now a rarity that I have to ask the person I'm on the phone with to repeat himself if I'm paying attention. Now comes the bug I'm talking about. I get DTMF tones every time my girlfriend squeals over the phone. She hears them too, actually. With my being the only one who's posted about this problem with the new TA on these forums, I'm assuming that the TA is not the problem. Personally, I think it's the telephone switch that happens to connect us whenever we talk, as I haven't experienced this with any other females. Any time her squealing gets too loud, the call is dropped, but only halfway. We'll both get silence. Sometimes my end of the line will know that it was disconnected, but most of the time it doesn't. In either case, my girlfriend's phone line is tied up for five minutes or so after this happens.
Outgoing caller ID name is still not working for me. The support people have supposedly reissued the orders to the cLEC three times, but I highly doubt that. I haven't gotten a phonebook, either. As it appears this is on the same order as a CNAM entry, there's probably a common problem. EVEN IF Broadvox is submitting the orders, the least they could do is pressure the cLEC for me to actually apply them.
Aside from the negatives outlined above, the service is just fine. I personally like the on-hold music and call transfer. Try to find those on a comparable residential plan!
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 Review by Optimized
Posted: 4.8 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 3697 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Wayne,Passaic,NJ
$19 per month
about 8 days
"Price, Call Quality, Free Virtual Number"
"Lacking E-911"
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I'll update this as time goes on, the first two months on the service has been good. Call quality is very good, the price is great for the Residential PLUS Unlimited Nationwide plan at $19.95 a month.
I had initial problems setting up my free virtual number and the original customer service rep I spoke to really had no clue. I asked to speak with a supervisor who was quickly able to identify that there was a table issue in the database which was preventing all new virtual number requests from being processed. Two hours later my virtual number was showing on the portal and active.
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Review by lifeinaday
Posted: 4.8 years ago
member for 4.8 years, 26 visits, last login: 3.3 years ago
Redondo Beach,Los Angeles,CA
Contract price not specified.
"Sound quality"
"Tech support"
"Not for now"
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The tech support is at least terrible.What is this thing with the open tickets?It's the same like sending letters by the post.Is this 2005 or what?They will be great as long as they will start having live tech support over the phone.
Sorry for being ironic but i am very dissapointed with the tech support of this company.That's why i changed.
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Review by ldmavin4
Posted: 4.8 years ago
member for 4.8 years, 0 visits, last login: 4.8 years ago
Lafayette Hill,Montgomery,PA
$19 per month (month by month)
about 5 days
"simple to set up, voice quality teriffic and all calls for information answered"
"Great deal with great service. Very impressed,may also use for my business"
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This is the second VOIP provider that I have used, the first one, Primus, had terrible voice quality. Broadvox quickly filled my order and as soon as I plugged it into my router and connected my portable telephone I had dial tone. What more could I ask for? When I called customer service to ask any questions my call was promptly answered by an American.
I understand the the special I signed up for $19.95/month is still available but only at this link »www.broadvoxdirect.com/affiliate···ndex.htm
until the end of February.
I have also carried the Voip box to friend's homes and plugged it in and it worked perfectly.
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Broadvox Direct
