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 Review by Sashok 
member for 11.8 years, 210 visits, last login: 3.4 years ago
lodged 8.9 years ago
 West Bloomfield,Oakland,MI
 $12 per month- (month by month)
 about 3 days "Cheap...that's it." "Unreliable, many features don't work, unfulfilled promises, terrible tech support." "You get what you pay for; actually you get less!"
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Hello,
I have had this service for about 2 months, and I am beginning to get very angry with it. Initially the service seemed okay. For about $12.00 a month I was getting unlimited local calling. I was able make phone calls and receive them. Then I noticed that many of the features that they advertise do not work, so I called and they said everything would be fixed within a couple of weeks (that was probably about 7 weeks ago). So I decided to give them some time to fix everything.
Well, nothing has been properly fixed! Caller ID with name was supposedly fixed, but most of the time it still shows "Unknown Name." The website is also messed up. They have excellent instructions on how to view your online bill, but there is no way to get there because they are still updating the website (I was told that this would be done within a couple of weeks, from the time I signed up). I also tried to have them transfer my landline phone number to the BroadVoice phone, that process was started about 5 weeks ago. I called them to see what the status was, and they told me that they have not begun to transfer numbers yet (umm, the website has instructions on what to do for the consumer to have the number transferred, and it says that they are doing it already).
But those aren't all my problems. I have actually begun to have calling problems. First of all, I sometimes cannot complete a call. I have concluded that when I call some numbers, I get an operator that says the call has not been completed and I should try again later. If I call that same number from my landline, it goes through okay. I have also found out that many of the calls don't get through to me. I recently got a call from my brother telling me that the BroadVoice phone is not working. So I called it for myself, and I got a message saying "all circuits are busy, call later." Now, what is that!? I couldn’t even reach the voicemail! I cannot even receive a call, yet alone voicemail!
So, to find out what is going on, I tried to call BroadVoice. I have tried a few times already, and each time an answering machine turns on (sometimes right away, and sometimes after numerous rings). Well, I have already left a message 3 days ago but have not gotten a call back. I bet that half the time nobody is actually at the office answering the phone. Plus, when I do get through to someone, on many instances I hear the noise of the person using AOL Instant Messenger (it is an unmistakable sound).
So, I have decided to cancel their service. I have had nothing but trouble. I have to continue paying for two phone lines, because they have been promising local number portability for so long. Plus none of their problems are being fixed or worked on. This company is going to go under fast if it does not get its act together.
Anyways, I think I will just give Vonage a try, after this horrid experience. I think I gave BroadVoice plenty of time to fix things. I won’t even get my activation fee back because 2 months have passed.
Just a heads up on BroadVoice service,
Alex
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Review by musial6
member for 9 years, 0 visits, last login: 9 years ago
lodged 9 years ago
- Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA
- $20 per month
- about 60 days
- "cheaper than vonage"
- "doesn't even compare to vonage"
- "Don't us Broadvoice"
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1) they have only a handful of customer reps (i know, i spoke to everyone and they all new me by first name)
2) they lied to me about the available bandwidth i would need to be successful
3) they returned calls in an untimely manner
4) offered me a free month service for my troubles and never gave it to me
5) said certain functionality would be fixed in a timely manner and never came online
The bottom line is that this is a new company (started a few months ago) that didn't plan their "go to market" strategy very well. I do not recommend this service to anyone. you are better off going to vonage. it has all the same functionality and better service.
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Review by mkwhyte
member for 9 years, 7 visits, last login: 7.8 years ago
updated 9 years ago
- Austin,Travis,TX
- $25 per month
- (month by month)
- about 7 days
- "Uses Sipura SPA-2000"
- "Seems cheaper at first, but not; charges for many features that others include free"
- "Not ready for primetime"
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I ordered BroadVoice and VoicePulse at the same time to do a side-by-side comparison before returning one of the units.
Installation:
VoicePulse was plug-and-play and included a very thorough user manual. BroadVoice included the President's business card and nothing else. After I sent many emails asking why it wasn't working when I plugged it in, I figured out that the unit was sent completely unconfigured and had to be walked through it.
Call Quality:
I have reported an echo to technical support but they haven't done anything to fix it yet.
Reliability:
I have had a couple of dropped calls with BroadVoice, but not a single one with VoicePulse so far. BroadVoice also has no incoming CallerID with name! I thought everyone had this by now.
Tech Support:
I have had to contact BroadVoice technical support numerous times and have received numerous emails from a David Epstein "The President" claiming that he gets CC'd on every email. Is that really the most efficient way to do things? As far as I can tell, they have one (*maybe* two) technical support people available. Now it seems like emails go unanswered but if you catch one of these two guys on the phone, you'll get a response. These guys are definitely a small shop with very few customers. If you have a problem, ask Dave for a refund, it seems to be their way of keeping customers quiet while working on a problem.
Value for Money:
At first glance, I saw that BroadVoice was only $20 -- yay! But by the time I added the advanced features to be able to do the same things I can do on VoicePulse (for free), it was costing me almost $26/month. Not a big deal, if I didn't have to ALSO pay a $40 signup fee (Voicepulse = $30) and three "Feature Signup Fees" of $9.95 each! (Voicepulse = all free) By the time I was setup, I was already $70 in the hole just for activation charges.
It looks like BroadVoice has a lot of positive reviews on here, mostly from people that converted from another provider. Hopefully they will keep it up as they get more customers, but I feel it's starting to slide already. My recommendation is to go with a more experienced provider until BroadVoice has proven itself for a few months of ups/downs, outages, response time, customer service, etc. However, if you have had a positive experience, good for you and enjoy VoIP!
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Update: June 13
Echo problem finally corrected after many emails. My incoming Caller ID was partially working but not consistent. I cancelled and decided to go with VoicePulse which has been working for me and has more features all for free.
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