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Review by vilerage 
Posted: 2.3 years ago
member for 5 years, 64 visits, last login: 2.2 years ago
 Delaware,Delaware,OH
 $26 per month
 about 5 days
 "When it worked, it was GREAT"
 "Went out of buisiness, without telling us."
 "Well, if you can go with them, at this point, Do it! :) (Good luck!)"
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Well, I had SR for about 2 years, after getting fed up with Packet8.
I rather liked it. I never had to think about the phone!  So long as there was money on my credit card, service worked!
Fast forward 2 years....
One day, service didn't work... Odd...
Figured I'd call, and see what was up. got the # off SR's website (no warnings at that time...), and, got "Sunrocket! The no Gotcha phone company! Sorry, we are not taking sales or customer service calls at this time".... I thought it odd, but, I didn't learn the truth until I googled the situation, and, the NY times finally showed me what was REALLY going on....
I was pretty irritated, that they couldn't have bothered to tell us.
Even worse, I was to find out, that they handed us over to 'Teleblend', whom as far as I can tell, promptly locked my privately-owned gizmo to their service, without my consent. I know, I know, they say they can't access our gizmos, or whatever. Sure, whatever. Bill Clinton also once said: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman"... We all know how true that turned out to be. Don't spit on my cupcake and tell me it's frosting! How the heck else would they turn service on???
Anyhow, the whole thing sucks, but, oh well.
Ratings reflect post-closure.
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 Review by KayakinMike
UPDATED: 2.3 years ago
member for 3.7 years, 834 visits, last login: 40 days ago
Alameda,Alameda,CA
$17 per month
about 9 days
"Received equipment fast; works great."
"Shut down operations without warning or refund."
"Great price; full of features."
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I really liked SunRocket, until they decided to shut down operations with no warning!
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Review by rjl2
UPDATED: 2.3 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 782 visits, last login: 15 days ago
Atlanta,Fulton,GA
$16 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"Price, Sound Quality, Signature Number, Comes with 2 Free Phones."
"Went out of business with NO warning..."
"It was great while it lasted..."
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I signed up for SunRocket VoIP service on May 4, 2005. The package arrived on May 10, 2005. After hooking everything up placed a few test calls and everything worked perfectly (I placed the Gizmo between the modem and my router. I may move it in the future, but for now I'm not messing with it since it works well in this configuration). Incoming calls were active immediately.
So far voice quality has been great. I ask everyone I call how it sounds, if there is any delay, etc. No one has noticed any significant difference from my Bellsouth line.
As for reliability, I haven't noticed any outages yet. I mainly use the service on evenings and weekends when I am home, and so far I have received every call (only a few people have the number so far) and have been able to make every call I needed to.
To date I haven't had any problems, nor have I had to contact tech support for anything. When and if I do, I'll be sure to post my experience.
I have not ported my number from Bellsouth yet (wanted to make sure it worked as advertised first), but I plan on doing so soon. I'll do a follow up and let everyone know how that experience goes.
Basically for $199 per year you get unlimited calling in the US and Canada plus $3 worth of international per month. On top of that you get two free phones when you sign up. Compared to paying $60+ per month for Bellsouth (to get the same calling features), it seems like a no brainer.
Based on my experience so far, I would definitely recommend this service.
6/7/05
Started the porting process for my number from Bellsouth to SunRocket. Have my Bellsouth number forwarded to VoIP so its all I am using at this point. We'll see if it goes smoothly and how long it takes (hopefully not the 60 days they now have advertised). Also, I'm glad they finally got the caller ID working.
6/30/05
Porting process is complete and calls are coming in normally. Had to call SunRocket to cancel the second signature number created due to the porting, but only took a few minutes, so no big deal.
The only strange thing I have noticed is one time this evening when the phone rang, even though the call went to voice mail, it just kept on ringing, and ringing, and ringing, until I attempted to answer it (and then hung up b/c no one was there). There was a voice mail though. Haven't researched this issue, and maybe it was just a freak thing, we'll see.
Other than that things continue to be great.
1/21/07
Had the service for almost two years now and I can count on one hand the number of times I have had to use an alternate phone due to an outage. That isn't to say there haven't been numerous outages, which there were early on, but none of late that I can think of, but rather that they haven't affected me personally.
A lot of people have very strong opinions about Sunrocket, both positive and negative. Personally, I've never had to call tech support so I can't comment on their level of skill, but the sevice is cheap, and it works when I need it to work. Is it perfect: no, but it does the job, and did I mention it's cheap.
Anyway, as others have stated if you have some technical ability, and don't mind a little frustration every now and again then I would still (and do) recommend the service.
08/01/07
Starting mid-July rumors abound that SunRocket is going out of business. Immediately signed up for ViaTalk. Finally up and running today. Will write a review of ViaTalk after I get to use the service a little more.
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 Review by dsl_boy
UPDATED: 2.3 years ago
member for 9 years, 1431 visits, last login: 19 days ago
undisclosed location
$17 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"I'm too bitter to remember good points"
"Shutting down the network without prior notice"
"Thanks for the memories --- painful though they are"
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Well, I liked it -- until they dumped me without notice. Anyway, for posterity, here was my former review.
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Sunrocket is a remarkable VOIP service. I'd like to compare it to my previous service, Packet 8 (the comparison below is valid as of December 2005, when I discontinued my Packet 8 service (after using it for more than one year.) I've used Sunrocket intensively for about one month.
COST
Sunrocket is a mere $200 for unlimited calling in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. This price include free cordless phones currently on sale for $40 at target.com. In contrast, Packet 8 included extra fees bringing its price up to about $25/month for "unlimited calling" (which does not include Puerto Rico -- calls to PR are rather expensive). In December 2005, Packet 8 reported that they were going to add another $2/month fee to all programs to support E-911 service.
EQUIPMENT
Sunrocket includes free converter equipment (called a Gizmo) with the order price. Packet 8 sells equipment through third party vendors and afterwards one can apply for a rebate (with all the extra paperwork) for a refund of most of the price (but not shipping). Packet 8 requires manual updating of converters, Sunrocket updates software on their devices automatically.
CALL QUALITY
Both Sunrocket and Packet 8 have good call quality in the US, although I would give a slight nod to Sunrocket which seems to have slightly better quality.
INTERNATIONAL CALLS
Sunrocket and Packet 8 both have low prices for international calls. Sunrocket costs $0.03/minute to most common places. Sunrocket also provides a free allowance of $3/month of international calls. Packet 8 has low prices (but not quite as low in many instances) and no allowance. However, Sunrocket international call quality is far better than Packet 8. Packet 8 calls to Asia Pacific include over a second of latency which causes major problems when talking on the phone. Sunrocket has superior quality and low latency.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Technical support for Sunrocket is simply horrible ... they use an inferior call center in India. Just cross your fingers that you don't have any problems.
RELIABILITY
Both Sunrocket and Packet 8 have good reliability, although Packet 8's has suffered recently as they have been "upgrading their network".
EXTRA PHONE LINES & PHONE NUMBERS
Sunrocket includes a free extra phone line; one must pay at Packet 8 for an extra phone line. The Sunrocket extra phone line has a distinct ring, if Packet 8 has a similar feature, I am unaware of it. Sunrocket allows one to choose his or her own phone number; Packet 8 just assigns a phone number in the assigned area.
E-911
After two weeks of struggling, I never got E-911 working properly with Packet 8. It worked properly with Sunrocket.
VOICEMAIL
Packet 8 requires one to dial 012-0555 to access voicemail. No web access to voice mail is allowed, although if one (a) first stores it in the archive; and then (b) requests to have it sent by e-mail; the voicemail is forwarded to e-mail.
Sunrocket allows access to voicemail by dialing 00, through the web, and has an elaborate system for processing voicemail including an option to have phone calls automatically forwarded to an e-mail address.
FEATURES
Packet 8 has limited features. It doesn't even have seven digit dialing and international dialing is tricky
Sunrocket has a huge set of features including full support for Caller ID (including names, not offered by Packet 8) and processing of different numbers differently (including automatic forwarding of certain numbers to voicemail, etc.)
CONCLUSION
Except for customer service (Sunrocket's greatest weakness) Sunrocket is superior to Packet 8. Both companies face uncertain futures; Sunrocket just received $34 million in second round financing but only has 50,000 customers. Packet 8 on the other hand has 93,000 and is selling $15 million in additional stock. Packet 8 had a net loss of $5.6 million last quarter. Both services face uncertain futures.
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 Review by LeeOpines
Posted: 2.3 years ago
member for 2.3 years, 63 visits, last login: 146 days ago
Crestview,Okaloosa,FL
$17 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
"I loved it while I had it – before they left me"
"I am having to try to recover my money"
"Good while it lasted"
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I switch from Packet8 to Cox Digital and from Cox Digital to SunRocket. For my area the call quality was as good as Cox Digital and much better than Packet8. When I called a cell number the call was not as good as from a land line to land line.
Now that SunRocket is gone, I will see how my next carrier works out.
The way SunRocket shutdown was bad – I found out about their shutdown from coworkers and then there was no service.
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Review by dlindsay17
UPDATED: 2.3 years ago
member for 7.3 years, 151 visits, last login: 64 days ago
Sherman Oaks,Los Angeles,CA
$8 per month (24 month contract)
about 12 days
"Very affordable, clear calls when using Internet lightly"
"QOS a bit funky/requires good routing to ensure VOIP and IP packets play nice"
"not bad for the deal"
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Got in on the 2yr/$200 April 1st promotion. Gizmo arrived the other day and finally got around to setting it up. I've got an Airport Extreme base station as my gateway/router. Initially I had the Gizmo between the DSL modem and the Airport but I ran some speed tests and they were horrible. Moved the Gizmo behind the router and had to configure Airport to treat it as DMZ. VOIP light clicked on and I've made a few calls. Looks to me like I'm in business, but I'll probably update this after a few days of use. Hope it goes well, this was a heck of a deal! DSL Extreme is my DSL provider.
Update 4/20:
After a week of use, I can comment a bit on call quality. For the most part, it is VERY good. People on the other end even comment on the quality for an internet voice service. Light browsing during the call is OK. It seems at certain intervals I hear clicks or popping. Perhaps there's little spikes in the transmission. I can live with it. If I'm doing a heavy transfer, either uploading or downloading, I need to cancel it because either the person on the other end can't hear me, or I can't hear them clearly. It cuts in and out. My router (Airport Extreme) doesn't do QOS and I have my Gizmo behind the router because when it was in front, it severely throttled my bandwidth. Perhaps I'll play around with the config more, but for $8/month I'm not complaining.
Update 6/28:
Downgraded their rating. Been having trouble lately placing a call -- numbers will dial, but it's just dead air. Other party will report their phone rang, but nothing connected. Sometimes I will get a slow busy signal upon attempting to place a call. Also, the "Run" light on my Gizmo has been blinking red consistently. Resetting the box does not alleviate this.
Update July 2007
Bye bye Sunrocket. You were good while you lasted and I do mean that.
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Review by jab_7_9
UPDATED: 2.3 years ago
member for 2.4 years, 2 visits, last login: 2.3 years ago
Oneonta,Otsego,NY
$9 per month
about 1 days
"The price is very good!"
"Echos, dead air, fast busy signal when calling in, 10-15 minutes to reach a tech, 1-2 hours on phone with tech, 2-7 days to fix"
"don't get it"
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At first I thought Sunrocket was great... inexpensive, good phone quality, great features. Now they are constantly having phone issues. Phone quality has gone down hill in the 6 months I've had the service. Every month I have a problem and it takes anywhere between 2 - 7 days before the problem is finally fixed. However, it keeps happening every month.
This last time, I can't call in or out. The technician won't even talk to me unless I'm at home next to my computer to go over the problem. Well, the problem is I CAN'T CALL TECHNICAL SUPPORT WHEN I'M HOME CAUSE THE PHONE DOESN'T WORK!!! Even after I've told them I don't get cell service. They told me to try to use a neighbors cordless phone. I told them I would if THEY WERE CLOSER THAN 2000 FEET AWAY. I asked him to reset the gizmo. He said he can't do that. I told him the previous tech just did it, because it was going straight to my voice mail, now it doesn't work at all except a fast busy signal when I try calling home. He literally said, "I won't do that. You need to do it when you get home." I asked him to transfer me. He said he would not transfer me to anyone else, because he is capable of taking care of the problem. I told him to take care of the problem. He said he won't if I'm not at my home computer. I asked how I can do that if I can't call out of my phone. He said it wasn't his problem.... I slammed the phone down. I called back to complain, but they transferred me back to the same idiot. I hung up on him again and called back again. They disconnected me intentionally. I called customer service asked her to find a manager. She said she was looking, but I was on hold for over 1/2 an hour... so I hung up. Do you think they would call back? No... no call nothing. So, I'm looking to switch to someone else, but can't seem to find anyone at the moment. I asked my daughter to recycle the gizmo when she got home from work.
THIS IS AN ONGOING PROBLEM FOR 6 MONTHS AND STILL NO PERMANENT RESOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM!!!! DON'T GET SUNROCKET!!! THEY SUCK... AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THEIR RATINGS!
UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AS ALL SUNROCKET CUSTOMERS MAY BE AWARE, SUNROCKET IS CLOSING OPERATIONS. THEY WILL BE COMPLETELY DISSOLVED AS OF AUGUST 5TH, 2007....
MY SUGGESTION TO ALL OF THOSE THAT PAID IN ADVANCE. DISPUTE ALL CHARGES SUNROCKET EVER MADE TO YOUR CREDIT CARD. I AM IN THE PROCESS OF THE DISPUTE. I PROVIDED UMPTEEN PAGES OF DOCUMENTATION PROVING I PAID FOR 1 YEAR WITH 1 YEAR FREE ALONG WITH AN EXTRA MONTH DUE TO SUNROCKETS MESSED UP! I AM DUE A REFUND OF $170, BUT NO WAY TO REACH SUNROCKET. THEY WON'T EVEN RESPOND TO THEIR EMAILS.
MY CREDIT CARD COMPANY STATED THAT IF I CAN PROVIDE PROOF, WHICH I CAN AND DID, I WILL MOST LIKELY PREVAIL AND DISPUTE BE APPROVED. I SENT EMAIL OF SUNROCKETS GOING OUT OF BUSINESS, ALONG WITH PROOF OF MY SERVICE AND THE COST OF THE SERVICE.... IT'S A GOOD THING I PRINTED OUT ALL THIS INFORMATION WHEN I SIGNED UP WITH SUNROCKET AND EVERY PROBLEM I HAD WITH THEM. I'VE LEARNED MANY YEARS AGO.. ALWAYS KEEP DOCUMENTED PROOF OF ALL TRANSACTIONS!
I ALSO SENT EMAILS AS PROOF OF CONSTANT SERVICE PROBLEMS ALONG WITH NEWS CLIPPINGS OF THEIR DISSOLUTION. I WENT AS FAR AS TO FAX INFO ABOUT SIGNING UP WITH OTHER SERVICES RECOMMENDED BY SUNROCKET, BUT I'M STILL OUT WHAT I PAID SUNROCKET AS I HAVE NOT RECEIVED ANY RESPONSE THAT THEY WILL REFUND ME. I ALSO FAXED THEM THE ONLY TELEPHONE NUMBER THAT SUNROCKET ALLOWS THEIR CUSTOMERS TO HAVE. HOWEVER, I TRIED CALLING TECHNICAL SUPPORT ON THE 5 DIFFERENT LINES THAT THEY CALLED ME ON AND THOSE HAVE ALL BEEN DISCONNECTED A MONTH AGO. I REALIZED BACK THEN THAT SOMETHING WASN'T RIGHT!
I WAS REFUSED SERVICE BY A SUNROCKET TECHNICIAN THE WEEK BEFORE SUNROCKET ANNOUNCED THEIR SHUTDOWN. ERIC AT SUNROCKET FLAT OUT SAID THERE WAS NOT A PROBLEM WITH MY PHONE AND THEIR WAS NOTHING HE COULD DO. I SEE WHY HE CAN'T DO ANYTHING NOW!
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Review by schultzy
UPDATED: 2.3 years ago
member for 4.6 years, 648 visits, last login: 41 days ago
Annapolis,Anne Arundel,MD
$16 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
"CHEEP! Good sound quality,"
"Went under with no notice"
"Great value! until they went dark..."
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Update 07.24.07 - Well, it was nice while it lasted. Sunrocket went down in flames last week leaving it's customers in the dark and owing me a few months of service that I'll probably never get my money back on. Switched to Vonage. My port is supposed to be done by July 30th. I realize that there were cheaper and/or safer options out there, but I have friends that have used Vonage for years without issues and with 2 million + users, I'm hopeful that they won't just turn the lights out like SR. Best of luck to all you SR ex-parrotheads!
Update 02.05.06 - Just renewed for another year. No problems, very reliable, it just plain works! I couldn't ask for much more....
Easy to set up. Just plugged it into my router, and outgoing calls could go immediately. Incoming calls took 10 business days before they started working. Sound quality is excellent, as is their customer service. Although I recommend calling in instead of using the online chat. The one time I tried the online chat, the CSR was a little less than attentive. In fact, she stopped responding altogether. So I called and the CSR that answered, was the one that I had been chatting with. I'm so pleased with the service, I submitted the paperwork to port my Verizon number over on March 9th.
Highly recommended!
UPDATE: LNP completed 03/26!!! Recieved an email that it would be ported on 3/25 by 17:00. After 17:00, incoming calls to the number would either recieve a busy signal, or a message that the number was out of service. Called SR, and they said that sometimes porting can take up to 48 hours and to call back the next day. The following morning, awoke to no dial tone on the land line, but incoming calls still busy signal or out of service message. Called SR and they told me that I wasn't in the LNP log and I needed to resubmit my paperwork. I asked to speak to someone else and ended up getting a supervisor(?) that was very helpful. He did some research and found that I had been ported, but the number hadn't been transferred to my account. He made the transfer, and I power cycled the gizmo and voila! My number was ported over! (Thank you, Brandon!)
Although I did have to spend a little time on the phone to get it done, it was well worth it. No more sending $50+ to Verizon every month for a featureless phone line!
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 Review by DaEnigma
UPDATED: 2.3 years ago
member for 4.9 years, 1713 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Portland,Multnomah,OR
$19 per month
about 10 days
"Call quality"
"Lack of any service at all, and not being notified of the pending shutdown..."
"Stay away from the recomended providers they are pushing..."
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I have now had SR for about a year and have experienced only one outage which may be due to being in class most of the day. The outage I was a victim of only lasted for about one day with no other noticed outage of service. Recently I did have trouble making outgoing calls which lasted for about three weeks the trouble started out minor but increased to near outage conditions although in my opinion it was not an outright outage. The trouble was finally found to be a network issue and was fixed when a larger number of customers had the trouble.
Other than the above issues I have not had any complaints with the quality of the product and I have and would recommend this service to friends and family. I currently am still on the permanent monthly discount rate of $19.95 with the normal rate being $24.95, but one can also save a bundle and go yearly for $199 which is about 16.50 per month. This includes an incredible amount of features and the best part was the free second number which one can have at any location which SR services so I now have my relatives call me via that local number which saves them on LD charges also.
Well it worked well most of the time...
They then decided to take the $$ and run, and without letting a single customer know of the pending doom. I personally would not sign up with any of the companies they now recommend more that 10 days after I lost service.
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 Review by neumannu47
UPDATED: 2.3 years ago
member for 7.2 years, 341 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Cary,Wake,NC
$8 per month (24 month contract)
about 7 days
"None"
"All"
"What a racket."
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My original comment: I was able to take advantage of a one-day offer -- $199 for two years' service. Hopefully they're not going to go out of business now! What is strange is that you can actually talk to a person at customer service.
My new comment: They were scamming customers to raise money. If it seems too good to be true...
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