how-to block ads
|
next review in page
 Review by Traal 
member for 11.3 years, 910 visits, last login: 34 days ago
updated 34 days ago
 La Jolla,San Diego,CA
 $25 per month "Cheap, perfect call quality" "No official fax support" "Good service at a great price"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
I chose BroadVoice for the price (their $10 unlimited in-state plan) and because they got good reviews. Now I'm on the Unlimited World plan, with unlimited calls to the entire U.S. and Canada and a number of other countries.
So far, I haven't been disappointed. The call quality is great, it sounds just like a normal phone line. It works just like a regular phone service, only much cheaper, especially if you use the extra features.
I just added a second number with distinctive ring to my service for my fax machine. BroadVoice doesn't officially support faxing yet, but if you setup your fax machine just right, it will often work. Sometimes I'll have to resend a page or two, but my fax tells me when this happens.
I've had my BroadVoice service for about a year. I don't use my BroadVoice line all that much, but I've never had any trouble with it--no dropped calls, no missed calls, and no trouble hearing the other party. It has been 100% reliable.
Update 2008-04-19: I recently added a second number to my line. The account portal says the ring pattern is short-short-long, when in fact it rings as long-long. I sent BroadVoice support an e-mail 10 days ago notifying them of the issue, but they haven't responded, so I'm lowering my rating for Tech Support a couple of notches.
Update 2012-01-08: Two months ago, I opened a support ticket because callers to my VoIP line are getting an echo. So far, BroadVoice has made no progress on this issue.
Comments:
 | | Echo Try lowering the volume of your handset. | |
|
| |
 | next review in page (previous review)
Review by whocares256
member for 9.9 years, 114 visits, last login: 34 days ago
lodged 1 year ago
- Plano,Collin,TX
- $28 per month
- (12 month contract)
 about 5 days- "BYOB providor."
- "Slow website with long delays."
- "Works with Asterisk"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
Switched from Vonage to Broad voice as they were cheaper and had different plans for incoming and outgoing calls and they were BYOB. I had issues with their website and them asking to fax copy of CC every time I changed it. The regulatory charges if you have international is in addition and is a hidden fee not a tax I was paying 7.50 in addition to my monthly plan and decided to switch to Callcentric. in November of 2010. Never had any issues with the service itself but I loved the call treatments on broad voice.com account portal. You could define your own dial plans and I was able to block invalid NYYNXX numbers. The call treatments were topnotch but the website was slow.
Comments:
| next review in page (previous review)
 Review by Napsterbater
member for 9.1 years, 3312 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 1 year ago
- Milledgeville,Baldwin,GA
- $26 per month
- "Price, They allow BYOD, Rural area number selection, Only one problem wich was fixed quickly."
- "None"
- "Iv been very pleased, They where one of the only providers that offered local numbers in my area 478-387-xxxx."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
Update 01-16-11: Rocking strong with no issues at all.
Update 05-23-09: Nothing really to report service is still great.
We got Broadvoice to ditch our $40 Local/Long phone service (which was pay per min. long distance) form our phone co. and couldn't be happier. $26 per month includes unlimited local/long distance (US) and a second number for a different area code. They provide E911 and allow BYOD.
I'm using 3CX's windows based PBX with a Linksys SPA-3102.
Comments:
| next review in page (previous review)
 Review by veloslave
member for 8.5 years, 2429 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 1.3 years ago
- Pleasant Hill,Contra Costa,CA
- $22 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 1 days
- "Softphone with no restrictions or ATA, my choice!!!"
- "Service and support were VERY unpredictable"
- "wasn't too impressed after time... moved on to PhonePower and the same situation :("
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
EDIT: After a very long time of poor service concerning dropped calls and echos I have given them the boot and I am glad as this problem showed their true colors when it comes to service.
After months of banging my head against the wall while on hold for Vonage (lack of) tech support I have finally found a company that does business the way I do. CUSTOMER SERVICE with a SMILE!
These guys get it... the support actually shows that they care and they work with you until it is right. I had echo problems for my callers and they worked hard to figure it out and I am impressed. The issue was partly my headset and partly the softphone and to Eyepmedia's credit they are working on it with out fail also.
Bottom line is this
VOIP is still new and can have some bumps in the road just like any other emerging technology.... it is how the bumps are handled that counts and Broadvoice has got it right. On top of that their features and prices are the best so it is no coincidence that they are rated a "Gold" by BBR.
I will be coming back to revise my "4" on call quality as soon as the echo is completely gone (as long as I remember) and then it will be a straight "5's" review.
Keep up the good work Broadvoice!!!
Had service problems... this is a very late review. Bailed due to crappy service and service attitude... too bad because I had some good experiences but the bottom line was they didn't make good for me.
Bailed to PhonePower
About the same experience LOL
Comments:
| next review in page (previous review)
Review by dustman81
member for 9.7 years, 2019 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 1.3 years ago
- Akron,Summit,OH
- $12 per month
- about 5 days
- "Cheap in-state calling, extremely easy setup"
- "Had trouble calling out at first, but it resolved itself"
- "Cheap VoIP service"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Value for money:
|
4/25/05 - Decided to get a local number and found Broadvoice. Ordered the VoIP adapter and it was shipped via FedEx. It just arrived today. Installation was extremely simple. Plugged the Sipura adapter into my router, the phone cable into my phone and the adapter got sync. At first, I was able to receive calls, but not make them. I waited a 1/2 hour and was able to place calls then. Most people says it sounds like a regular phone.
Good cheap VoIP plan, which is what I was looking for.
6/19/05 - After getting a new phone (5.8 Ghz, my previous was a 2.4 Ghz which was interferring with my router) and updating the firmware in my Sipura 1001 to 3.1.3, sound quality was much improved. Sounds just like a POTS line, just for a lot less. And as a bonus, my 1001 now, thanks to the 3.1.3 upgrade can have 2 seperate VoIP accounts.
2009 - Since I got Google Voice, I no longer needed Broadvoice. They canceled without any issues and let me keep the Sipura.
Comments:
| next review in page (previous review)
Review by Atomsplash
member for 1.3 years, 39 visits, last login: 92 days ago
lodged 1.3 years ago
- Nevada
 Business customer- $20 per month
- "Have only had to call tech support twice in 2 years, both times were helpful (first time was problem with my router)"
- "I get random drops/reboots on my phone, using their CFG, an SPA941 - but it may just be the phone."
- "Good price for good service, and no contract."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
I pay $20/month, have had few issues, and am not stuck in a contract (Vonage made me pay a cancellation fee, apparently I was in a 2 year contract with them).
Comments:
| next review in page (previous review)
Review by yungster
member for 1.5 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.5 years ago
updated 1.5 years ago
- Santa Clara,Santa Clara,CA
- Contract price not specified.
- "shipping was quick... too quick"
- "Website can be confusing - customer reps unhelpful"
- "Do not cancel existing orders to resubmit - make them modify the existing order"
| Web-site:
|
I originally submitted an order for their one state calling plan. I had read on the wbsite that if I committed for 12 months that the activation fee and delivery fees for modem would be waived. While completing the order, I saw nowhere to select this commitment. I kept expecting to be asked about a commitment but when the order was complete... no mention. Called customer service within 5 minutes of the order and they suggested that I should cancel the previous order and start a new one. I guess modifying the existing order was too hard.
So cancelled previous order and went through a new order again... still no mention of commitment. Called customer service again before entering credit card info (so no order placed yet). This time agent told me that commitment wasn't available on the one state plan and only on the national plans... wished website had mentioned that. But I decided that the low monthly on the one state plan was still worth it without commitment so I went ahead and completed that order.
Now, I'm playing around on the website and looking at various account settings. I'm trying to figure out how to set the one state that I can call for free... I had assumed that the plan allowed me to call one state for free and others would be charged at 5 cents/min. Called customer service to ask about how to set the free state. (This is about 30 minutes after order was placed). Agent tells me that I misunderstood the plan and the you can only call the same state where your number is located for free and not select a different state. Oh... well then I tell the agent that I'd like to change my order to go national with commitment (to waive activation and delivery charges). Agent tells me that it is easier to cancel this order and go with a new order...
So I get transferred to cancellation department and cancel the second order.
I'm a little wary now and hold off on placing the third order until I know for sure what I'm getting. I go off and read more reviews on dslreports.
A little while later, I get two emails stating that my devices are being shipped and given tracking numbers... I thought that was kind of strange as I had already cancelled the orders but I figured I'd just refuse the packages when they got here (which I later did). After doing more research, I decide to wait a little longer before going voip.
I notice on my credit card statement that I'd been billed by broadvoice twice for $60.32. I assumed it would be refunded once the account cancellation was processed (agent told me 48 hours).
Two days later, fedex arrives and I refuse the packages.
Another two days later, get two emails from broadvoice for refunds of $45.37. Lower by $14.95 for each order... the shipping costs.
I'm a little bit peeved at them because I feel like charging the shipping costs to me was unwarranted. If the agents had reminded me that I would still have to pay shipping on a cancelled order, I would have not cancelled the existing orders and instead modified them to what I really wanted. Instead, I was told that it's easier to cancel and resubmit... each time dinging me $15 for shipping.
I also wonder why the devices were shipped after I had already cancelled the order. The first order was cancelled with 5 minutes. The second with 30 minutes. Suppose I had placed a third order... would they then have shipped a total of 3 devices at $15 each?
I sent all this in an email to broadvoice two days ago and they haven't responded to me.
Comments:
| next review in page (previous review)
Review by chex383
member for 8.9 years, 955 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 1.5 years ago
- Boston,Suffolk,MA
- $11 per month
- (month by month)
- about 2 days
- "Has all features I need"
- "web-site features not available yet *coming soon* ; we'll see"
- "awesome deal, everything works. best VoIP provider I have had yet"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
These guys are great. I did a BYOD with with my Voicepulse SPA-2000, setting up BV on Line2. Tech support over the phone walked me thru the SPA setup, and I was up and running. I have unlimited calls to all of Mass. and am using them to access RNK-Tel's 1 cent/minute calling-card access number in Springfield, Mass for cheap long-distance and international calling. (RNK's Duxbury, Mass. access number is often busy..) ( My long-distance calling is sporadic at best, and a unlimited plan doesn't make sense for me, money-wise. Paying 1 cent/min is cheaper for me. )
This is the perfect solution for me.
Still waiting for some smaller features I need (mostly web-site features) , they are promised to be fixed soon. But overall, this is great.
Thanks, Broadvoice!!
-- Stefan
UpDate Fri 5-Jun-2004:
So I have been using BroadVoice for a few weeks now, and I am mostly impressed. I am having one glaring issue with them that is not entirely thier fault, that Voicepulse had. They do NOT have a outside POTS gateway phone number to access VoiceMail. This is a major problem for me as I use Simil. Ring to my CellPhone, and its hard to get my BV line to bounce to VM when my cell phone is making the call. P8,Vonage,VP all had outside VM access numbers, i dont see why this should be so hard. They say they are not planning on implementing the feature soon. I really need it!
Also, the Voicemail seems to have become overloaded in the past couple of weeks. Often, when accessing my messages, whn the system goes to play the message, there will be a long delay, and then 'Please Wait ... Please wait... ' and sometimes it will eventually play the message, or just timeout completely and tell you to 'try again later'. uhhh, no, I need to hear my Voicemail. NOW. again, not a huge deal for me, as I can check my VoiceMail from my email, but this is a problem if I am out and not near a computer.
Website portal needs to be updated. Call detail would be really nice. Credit Card update pages.
Things like that.
I love being able to call support nights+weekends and getting a live person. I didn't realize how much i'd missed that with VoicePulse.
Overall, I'd give them a 8/10, and for the price I am paying, 9/10 !
-- Stefan
UpDate 5/20/2005
Wow, what a difference a few months can make. These guys went right into the toilet, as far as I'm concerned. The most glaring issue for me was DTMF, and general outgoing reliabilty. Also, lack of an outside Voicemail access number was another killer for me.
I gave up after putting up with weeks of DTMF problems, and never being able to get a response from support.
I switched back to Voicepulse, and am in the process of trying to port my number over.
Cheapest is defineitly too cheap for me. Its nice that there is choice in the market now, and a tier for which I am willing to pay. Broadvoice is below this tier, IMO.
-- Chex
Comments:
PX EliezerPremium
join:2008-08-09
HuttRiver US
kudos:11 | Huh? You gave them an awful numerical rating of 2.6 yet your summary statement (prominently flashed in the main Voip forum) says "awesome deal, everything works. best VoIP provider I have had yet"....
Something is not right. | |
| | | | | | | Re: Huh? said by chex383:Well, when I first signed up, things seemed fine, but the more I used them, and after a couple of major outages , as well, I grew fed up with them, and finally dumped them for (better) VP. This was a REALLY long time ago, and really don\\\\\\\'t think my review would be relevant for how they could be today. You might want to change the summary comment in your review, the one that says: awesome deal, everything works. best VoIP provider I have had yet
That shows up featured on the main voip page and people get the idea you really like Broadvoice. You could change it to something like \\\\\\\"Wow, did they go downhill\\\\\\\", and people seeing that would know for sure you are giving a negative review.
And maybe add a comment in your review. Something like \\\\\\\"Man is this a lousy outfit\\\\\\\", and make sure to date it with today\\\\\\\'s date. That way, people looking at the review can tell that the positive comment is old and that the negative comment is the latest one. | |
| | | | PX EliezerPremium
join:2008-08-09
HuttRiver US
kudos:11 | Re: Huh? Exactly! Thanks! | |
|
| |
| next review in page (previous review)
Review by cahiatt
member for 10.9 years, 1802 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 1.7 years ago
- Smyrna,Cobb,GA
- $13 per month
- about 5 days
- "Features"
- "Price no longer a leading factor for them and gettnig worse."
- "Other providers are now offering same features without the junk fees."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
May 2010 - Will probably be looking at an alternative. Rarely use the line any more and downgraded to a BYOD lite plan for $5.95 a month. Of course they manage to turn that $5.95 into about $13 after all the "un-fees" they stack on.
Update November 2009 - Call reliability has greatly improved and not noticed any downtime in the past year or so. Tech support has gotten better also. Have been using it in the UK to call home using SIP on my cell phone. Worked great for that also. If they would just ditch the $5 "unfee" and add $5 to the price of the plan I would gain some respect for them. Until they do, I will never recommend them to anyone.
Update 4/30/08 - Well Broadvoice is going the way of the telco now and hiding price increases as "fees".... Their international plans are going up $5 each by way of a international regulatory recovery fee or whatever the hell they want to call it. Not worth it as only 1 out of 3 calls I try to make to the UK actually connect and stay connected.
Update 4/8/08 - They apparently had an issue with their site in which they are load balancing two different sites from two different IP addresses. The two sites do not have the same info. One of them did not have the disclaimers about international calling on any of the pages. They are fixing the site and credited me for the calls. David in Tier2 support handled the issue in two minutes. Thanks!.... Tier1 and the billing script readers aren't as pleasing... They've redeemed themselves.
Update 4/4/08 - Well the call quality is still good and still pleased with the price and features. Have been using them for four years now. But I may have experienced their first hidden gotcha. Place a few calls to the UK under my "unlimited world plan" in which all calls to the UK are included. Well apparently all calls are NOT included. I was billed for some of the calls and an e-mail from Broadvoice indicated that calls to cell phones are not included. If this is the case, why do the not list this information on their website under the plan description and plan details? Billing and tech support won't answer the phone and is responding using blanket statements.... Are they even reading my message?
Update 7/21/07 - Service has still been great. I've had to call support once since my last update and they answered the phone in under a minute. Had resolution in about another minute.
Update 12/17/06 - Service has been real good for the past year. I still like their features best of the others I have used. Call quality has been good. Tech support is a LOT better. Overall I would recommend them.
9/12/05 update - Well I did order service with someone else but never cancelled my Broadvoice line. After their big outage a few months back they have been pretty solid. I've also been able to reach someone in tech support the last few times I've called which is a pleasant suprise. Overall not a bad service. They seemed to have improved and are worth taking another shot at. Pay attention to their LNP policy though. It can come back to bite you.
It's a shame really. I like the features broadvoice offers a LOT. Best price for multiple numbers and I love the simultaneous ring feature. It has generally been solid for the past five months up until three weeks ago. Since then call quality has hit bottom and I can't really expect to pick up the phone and place a call anymore without having to play with proxy settings, reboot the ATA or any other number of "fixes". You need to call for support? Good luck. They may answer in five minutes or it may be five hours (if at all). I can't ever seem to get an e-mail response either. I've gotten no e-mail response in three days and can't get them on the phone. I've ordered service with someone else and they will be getting cancelled.
I would have generally recommended BV but as of now I'd say look elsewhere.
Comments:
| next page (previous review)
 Review by CatScratch
member for 8.4 years, 3476 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 2.1 years ago
- West Jordan,Salt Lake,UT
- $12 per month
- "Low Cost"
- "Can be flakey"
- "Great for a backup to my cell, wouldn't want it for business"
| |
We started tracking the number of dropped calls and the trend seems to indicate after 15 minutes of being on the phone it goes dead. Most of our calls are under 15 minutes but sometimes they do exceed it and it's frustrating.
For us it's great as a secondary solution and to have when the babysitter is over, but I just couldn't use it for a primary line.
They do provide all the 'extra's' like voicemail, callerid, call forward, call waiting, all that fun stuff, so for under $12 I don't complain.
Comments:
|
|
·
·
·
·
·