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Review by jasahl See Profile

  • Location: Egg Harbor City, Atlantic, NJ, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Inexpensive - had decent call quality & okay reliability for a year
In the past 3 weeks, could not receive incoming calls, then lost all service
When things went bad, I got nothing from tech support - refund policy is bad.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Package arrived w/i a week, & setup was pretty straightforward.

Everything went fine for the first year. After my first year was of service was up I took advantage of an offer to get a year for $150. About a week later, we were unable to receive incoming calls. Phone would ring, but the line was dead when we answered. Outgoing calls were fine.

I opened my first ever trouble ticket, & got one response asking me to describe my setup - even though I had included that information in the initial trouble ticket. Another week went by with no answer - making it two weeks since I had re-upped.

I finally called tech support & they had me reboot everything (even though I tried all that before even calling). After the third attempted reboot (while on line w/ customer service), the adapter would no longer register an IP address or communicate with the phone. I couldn't even enter any of the codes that the adapter is supposed to accept.

After going through all the steps, the rep insisted that since none of the steps worked, the problem had to be with my router (even though every other computer & device on my network has no trouble connecting. I asked for a replacement ATA, but they wouldn't send it to me without taking the step of connecting the ATA directly to the modem & bypassing the router. I explained that I have a WCG200 combo modem/router & that there is no way to do this.

Since they wouldn't send me a replacement, I had to cancel service since I couldn't get a dial tone - and since it was now 14 days after I shelled out the $150 (thanks to their less than timely response to my trouble ticket), I'm out half of my unused balance.

member for 19.2 years, 27 visits, last login: 15.9 years ago
lodged 16.4 years ago


Review by abaldish See Profile

  • Location: Johnstown, Cambria, PA, USA
  • Cost: $16 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 2 days
great features, great prices
Support is not upto par, Service problems off and on, Now getting Worse
You get what you pay for!
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I was with Vonage, then tried Sunrocket out for about a week, then tried ViaTalk, I actually have ViaTalk and Vonage both while I port my home telephone number to ViaTalk. I have had Vonage for 3 years and like it but it was the features of ViaTalk that peaked my interest now if Vonage had all these features, and with the web interface ViaTalk has. I would have stayed with them. Setting with ViaTalk was as simple as I had my own BYOD adapter. I am on the one year plan for $179.

Also I have not had any popping sounds or noise on the line with Viatalk like I was with Vonage.

I am impressed with the sound quality of VT, I am in the middle of the process of porting my number from vonage to VT, and at this point I did receive conformation that they did receive my request for my number porting. Will have to see what the turnaround time is for this part.

Updated April 20, 2007

Started my porting of my number in the April 10th, Called VT today and was told that it is scheduled for the 25th.

Updated April 30, 2007

Port went as planed on the 25th of April, Only one snag i ran into, Someone configured my account wrong after the number port was done. Placed a call into tech support that day and it was fixed in about 5 minutes while i was on the phone with them.

So far i am pleased with ViaTalk i never use the tickets for support as i will just call in if there is a problem, As with some other providers they seem not to keep up with support tickets. So i am used to just making that phone call into support.

Updated August 28, 2007

Well after a few months of testing and being a BYOD there support is not that great at all, if you are a BYOD and run into a problem where you know everything is fine on your end, they really don't even want to help you.

Some of the support people try to get you to get there adapter which is about the same as the one i have as a BYOD made by linksys.

Calls to support as of today hold times can be upto 3+ hrs depending on the time of day. if you are a paid support user as of today hold times about about 1 to 3 mins.

As of this posting at 11:15pm EST there website is down, phone line is not working very good at all since this afternoon when i did speak with support this afternoon they stated there where no problems, tried calling into support via a cell and it says to check the number and try again.

Updated: September 6, 2007 10:37pm.

Well it is time for me to dump ViaTalk as there support has gone way downhill, the hold times for support are nuts, If you want to move ahead in the support you have to pay a priority support fee if 1.95 per month, Also the call quality has really gone down hill, Outages more than I even care to see. A lot of complaints all over the net on them now.

I was ok before the rush they blame on SR users coming over, but if you call into other providers seem strange that you can get someone on the phone within a few minutes, not hours like ViaTalk has going on. So my number is in the process as of today of moving to a better and more stable provider that I have been testing out over the last 2 days with no problems at all. and they support T.38 Fax Protocol so now my security system works 100%, Dish Network Receivers 100%, and testing with my fax machine using 6 pages per fax only failed so far 1 time out of about 5 times of sending to the same number. Good numbers for me!

September 21, 2007 1:18pm EST

Number ported to new provider this morning about 8AM EST.

I did more over to Net2Phone Service.

Just got off the phone with ViaTalk to cancel there service out, also did the cancel online after finishing with the call into them.

Received the cancellation via email from the phone call into them, now lets see how long it takes for them to issue a refund.

About 10 minutes later I decided to call back into the billing department, and the girl I spoke with there said I would get a refund of about 58.32 and she was going to process that.

So let’s see how long it takes for it to show on the card.

Updated: October 24, 2007 10:42pm

Well to this date still no refund of what was due back, Called into the billing department and was told since my card had expired that it could take upto 90 days for a refund check, Posted a message in the forums and VTBrendan Stated this in the forums:

This is a limitation of the merchant services interface that we use on the back end. Refund checks are cut monthly, so you should see it come back to you within that timeframe.

-Brendan

Well 30 days as gone by and still no refund.



member for 21.6 years, 380 visits, last login: 11 years ago
updated 16.4 years ago

hosea
join:2007-09-07

hosea

Member

VIATALK Beeping beeps

I agree with you. Anyone I call from my VIATALK phone always complains of pauses, and I have experienced them when I call my home from work.... ITs more like that Cingular AD..with fewer dropped calls kind...
Thier VOICE quality is terrible...i can't even compare it to any other service I have used.

Thier support absolutely is the worst possible....virtually...err... even physically non-existent. AFter a harrowing nightmare... I finally lost half my money cancelling the service with them....and the customer service rep had the audacity to tell me that, I should have read the agreement before I signed UP, i hate that attitude...DUDE...if your service did not S**K, then I wouldn't have had to cancel...is he trying to say that just 'cause of thier STUPID agreement, I have to put up with their terrible service......SUNROCKET.. for as long as it lasted, had the best customer support and service available.

My personal opinion.... DON'T Even think about going with VIATALK....ALL HYPE and no service.... The way their company works is totally opposite to what thier CEO claims in a letter on his website.

Review by hoolahoous See Profile

  • Location: Red Valley, Apache, AZ, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Cheap
Cheap
Not good as primary line
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Bottom line,
1) they have several voip servers which keep going up and down. If you are byod user, you are in for a ride of your life. Every couple of weeks you need to switch the server since old server doesn't work.
2) Customer support is horrible. I think they decided to put money over customer support. One thing which was really bad was, when SR went down they said that because of SR deluge their customer service is swamped.. but after few months they had BOGO year deal !!
if they were swamped how could they give out BOGO deal to get more customers ? CSR are so eager to get off the hook that they will say anything. Tickets I opened 4 months back are still open.

You get what you paid for.

member for 19.6 years, 3881 visits, last login: 2 years ago
updated 16.4 years ago


Review by pdxbuysell3 See Profile

  • Location: Wilsonville, Clackamas, OR, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Cheap
Awful customer service, unreliable service lately
Stay Away!!!
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I have been with Viatalk for more than a year now. It was pretty good initially. Some initial hiccups but was smooth sailing after that.

Lately connection reliability and call quality has been going down the drain. They keep messing around with their servers and I keep loosing connection every week or so. Customer service is one of the most pathetic ones I have ever run into.

The straw that finally broke the camels back and made me write this negative review is them starting to charge a sneaky monthly fee from prepaid customers. The response from their CEO was "If you are not happy with the fee, call support (where you are put on hold for hours) and complain and we might cancel the fee"

I am done with Viatalk after my prepaid period ends in 3 months.

Stay away from Vitalk if you are thinking of signing up.

member for 17.9 years, 21 visits, last login: 14.6 years ago
updated 16.4 years ago


Review by Flatus See Profile

  • Location: Columbia, Richland, SC, USA
  • Cost: $16 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 2 days
Speedy shipment of product. Excellent feature set for many users.
Moving target so far as actual cost per month and fees are concerned. Doesn't support DirecTV, Dish Network.
A reasonably good product, but business practices are suspect.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I've been with VT for close to a year and a half. Twice during that period they've tried to sneak increases in my monthly (prepaid) charges by way of billing my credit card company additional monthly amounts for E911 and Regulatory Recovery fees.

I had accepted an offer for an all inclusive product at a fixed price. Their repeated attempts to extract more money from me, and other customers who prepaid during the same time period, is shabby at best.

I no longer recommend doing business with this company.

My original review was:

I ordered this product to replace an almost 3-year-old Vonage installation. (I replaced Vonage because of their uncertain future following their IPO.)

I submitted my order over the Web--it was painless although I didn't get the price I expected; my bad because I didn't verify the price by phone. In any case, the price I did get is acceptable and quite competitive.

I didn't see anyway that the actual installation could have been made easier.

The porting of my number from Vonage went without a hitch--took two weeks. I had absolutely no problem cancelling my Vonage account after verifying that the porting was indeed successful. Took less than 20-minutes of phone time with no hassles and no unexpected charges. Good on Vonage!

I'm still trying to get ViaTalk to be friendly for my useage. As an example, a couple of institutions I make phone transactions with use the #-sign in their menu structure. Like, "press the pound sign when you're done." Unfortunately, the #-sign is intrepreted by ViaTalk as part of _its_ command structure. For instance, if you want to transfer a call, you press ##. This needs sorting out because I think it will potentially cause problems for many users.

I have half-a-dozen satellite receivers that want to make internal modem calls back to their accounting offices. While my Vonage account was able to allow these connections, ViaTalk's can't. Tech Support was less than helpful in finding a solution for this difficulty. I suppose it's codec/bit-rate related. In any case I can hear the two modems trying to negotiate a connection, but ultimately fail. For me this is a big deal. And, I think it is a major shortcoming of ViaTalk's provisioning. After all, aren't people who are wanting to abandon traditional technologies, such as wired telcos and cable TV, the same people who will move to a VoIP provider? Have to make all their toys work together if customers are going to be happy.

I appreciate that ViaTalk is a new entrepreneurial effort and that it is still in the learning process. I want them to overcome the shortcomings I've found because I have invested both time and money in their product.

member for 19.3 years, 358 visits, last login: 13.2 years ago
updated 16.4 years ago


Review by SliderNC See Profile

  • Location: Cornelius, Mecklenburg, NC, USA
  • Cost: $8 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 15 days
Quality Service, Great Features, Helpful Tech Support
Tech Support Slow to Answer Online
Great service, good price. Sound quality is excellent.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I signed up for Viatalk on the 2 years for $199 plan. There was a backlog of orders and it took them quite awhile to fulfill mine as I was probably one of the last few people to signup.
I received my adapter and set it up in about 5 minutes behind my router.

After reading a few threads here about forwarding ports and having tech support adjust the provisioning on their end, I called their tech group. I waited about 5 minutes and they helped me out getting it all setup.

10 digit dialing was slow, as was 7 digit. I received the admin password for the adapter and turned off provisioning and changed the dial plan again after reading some threads here. 10 and 7 digit dialing are now quick.

Overall, the service works well and is almost as good as my old POTS line. I'm currently a Sunrocket customer, but I couldn't pass up this deal when it came around. So far, I'm happy with Viatalk's customer service, just wish they would respond to online tickets faster.

Update 6/6/06: I put in an LNP request on May 17th to have my SR number ported over to VT. I received an email stating that my port would be completed on June 12th. I'm pretty happy to hear this as I will be moving around June 22nd into our new house.

The past few days the service has been great. I've made calls and had calls from all over and people were telling me I sounded great in terms of clarity and there was no static or echo. I'm really impressed.

Update 6/19/06: On 6/12/06 my number was ported from SR to VT successfully. I had a slight issue though. After rebooting the PAP2, it was not reaching out to the VT servers, or anything to that matter. I called VT support and was helped quite a bit, going through the usual laundry list of issues it could be. We came to the conclusion that something must have changed after I rebooted it. Using the IVR menu by pressing **** four times, I was able to adjust the settings and get it back on my network. I called VT back up and had them turn off DHCP again, verified my IP settings and after that, we were all set.

I received a followup email from support later that evening to make sure everything was working correctly.

I've updated my review to indicate a 4 for support, seeing how well they performed and took the time to followup on my issues. Email support is pretty quick now as well.

1/4/2007: After 7 months with Viatalk, I am very pleased with the quality of the phone service, the options and addons that they have made in that time, as well as the quality of the customer service people.

This is company is fantastic in what they offer and supporting it.

I have not had any outages or any sorts and any issues that I have had were resolved quickly and promptly by support (less than 48 hours turn around for minor issues).

Brandon and his team do an excellent job.

Update 10/17/2007:
After almost a year and half with Viatalk, my issues have been limited in terms of quality of service and performance. When I need to make a call, I have a dialtone.

My issues now are with the operation of the company as a whole and the smoke and mirror tactics that they are using.

Previously, I signed up for a BOGO free offer, where I purchased a year of service and was to receive a year of service for free. This was in April 2006. In October 2006, they instituted "mandatory fees" for E-911 and an FCC charge, neither are which are mandatory for the consumer, just mandatory that the company pay them. I had thought that these would have been figured into the price. When the fees came up, Brandon Brader, CEO, stated in the forums that those with current contracts would not be charged the fees.

As of yesterday, my CC on file was charged $2.50 cents. Then another post/email was sent out about who is getting charged and who isn't. The fact of the matter is that I signed a deal for 2 years for $199 and no other fees should have been added to that, whether it is in the free year period or during the first year of service. This is a material change and breaks the TOS/Contract that I signed. This is also a bad business practice overall. It makes this company look like they are just hungry for money. It was also wrong to just start charging the fee without and previous notice about it.

In recent months with the implosion of Sunrocket, customer service has taken a big hit. I have had to call in once before for a technical issue which I could not fix and waited over an hour on hold to talk to someone. Email tickets seem to just sit idle and never get answered.

I've updated my review of this company based on this update of my review here.

When my service is up in April 2008, I will not be renewing nor will I be giving referrals for their services anymore.

member for 21.3 years, 2628 visits, last login: 3 years ago
updated 16.4 years ago


redshift6
Premium Member
join:2004-03-23
Beverly Hills, CA

redshift6

Premium Member

What was the difference?

What was the difference in terms of quality between Sunrocket and Viatalk?
myvoiplife
join:2006-05-25
San Diego, CA

myvoiplife

Member

Re: What was the difference?

Just thought I would respond to you since I tried both services. Sunrocket had higher quality audio as far as I was concerned with one exception. I had occasional pops and clicks which some other users have reported. The exact cause of these pops and clicks was never determined. There has been a lot of speculation that it has to do with 2.4Ghz phones/Wireless hubs, which I could not eliminate from my configuration. It also could have been that I received a bad "Gizmo". Sunrocket also had a GREAT 1 month no hassle trial policy. They even paid return shipping on their "Gizmo" when I canceled. I definitely don't regret trying them and would recommend you give them a shot first to see if they work for you. (I had area specific callerid problems that they could not resolve, which was a deal killer for me.)
bsp0238
join:2004-12-25
Rowlett, TX

bsp0238

Member

PAP2 Admin

How do you get the admin password? I'm having the same trouble with it taking a long time for a call to go through. Thanks!

Review by Rokair4 See Profile

  • Location: Louisville, Jefferson, KY, USA
  • Cost: $15 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 5 days
Phone Usually Worked
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
Degrading Service and Not Honoring Prices
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Additional Update: After the below story I tried to call back twice. The first time the phone was disconnected after 20 minutes. The second time it was disconnected after 30 minutes. So, now I have submitted a ticket (but I doubt that it gets answered given their current level of support). I sure hope I don't have to file suit with my Credit Card company.

If you haven't already signed up for service I would take some advise and steer clear of this company. They really used to be pretty good but something has happened. It might be like one of the other posters stated that is seems similar to the behavior other companies have shown right before they went out of business. I would hate to see anyone loose a lot of money signing up for one of their deals that sound almost too good to be true and then they tank.

I just had one of the worst phone calls to a support department in my life. After noticing that ViaTalk charged my credit card for and extra $2.50 while in the middle of a pre-paid contract and without any prior notice to a change of service terms I made this call.

Customer service and trust are very important to me so I decided to cancel the service. After waiting on hold for way too long I finally was able to talk to a person who would not work with me on the cancellation policy even though they did not live up to their end of the deal. For this reason I asked to speak to a customer server manager and was told that it would not be possible that they were all busy (gee I wonder why) and they could only put me in their voice mail. I said that this would not work that I would hold as I had already been on the line for too long to leave a message and wait for a call back (that I am sure I will never get).

This person asked me to hold on for another couple minutes and then without a word transferred me to a voice mail box that didn't even give a name but rather just a mail box number.

For this reason I will not do business with this company any longer and would ask all considering service to be careful as ViaTalk does not honor their advertised prices. They will charge you extra in the middle of a contract and not do what is necessary to make it right.

Please be warned...



member for 18 years, 6 visits, last login: 16.4 years ago
updated 16.4 years ago

Hilbe
join:2002-12-13
Fishers, IN

Hilbe

Member

Coupon

You could use coupon DSLREPORTS to get $35 off. Way better than you $25 off referral.
Rokair4
join:2006-03-05
Louisville, KY

1 edit

Rokair4

Member

Re: Coupon

My bad... I didn't even know that this code existed. Wish I had before I signed up.

Anyway, if it doesn't work for you then consider the one I posted above.

Review by guppy_fish See Profile

  • Location: Lakeland, Polk, FL, USA
  • Cost: $8 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 4 days
None any more
its a "Maybe" phone, you never know what to expect when you try and use it
Stick with POTS if you want a phone you can count on, I'm back on POTS now
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Update Oct 16th 2007

Well Viatalk just decided that my remaining free time should now cost 2.50 month, same for all of the old BBR members that took the risk with this company and signed up for the 2 for 1 deals ... my service was to be thru 04/2008 .. now they want more even though I don' even use the service!. I'm updating this so anyone concidering the service will know not to trust this company as they flat out LIE

Update August 31st 2007

Today I ordered Verizon POTS, 38 bucks a month unlimited with 5 features I use. I had 7 outages in the month of August, mostly because the ViaTalk servers are just hopeless and intermitiant

I'll Keep my Pap2 for the remainer of my Free year, but will NOT be renewing and Not be trying indie VOIP in my future.

ViaTalk is just empty promises ... if you like a maybe phone then they are for YOU!

Update August 10th, 2007

I have lowered all my ratings to the lowest possible. Today, no incomming service, but called using the Viatlak line to get support, has a 4-5 hour wait ( caller #107 ) to get thru. Its time to give up on this little company, best wishes to those who feel otherwise ..

Update June 1st, 2007

Well VT still is hit or miss. The phone is worthless if its something that you need when YOU need it. I have had outages, delay in connects when you pickup the phone ( hello, hello thing) , random time it rings, pickup the handset and it still goes to call forward. I had calls just simply disconnect without reason, other times works just fine.

My broadband is near flawless on any test I run .. VOIP is for geeks and when you compare to a discounted POTS line vs broadband AND VOIP ... there is no incentive to have a "maybe phone"

Thats my take and no amount for forum "fanboys" will change my mind!

UPDATE: August 25th, 2006

Viatalk has been focusing on adding features that have caused as near breakdown of the platforms that provide the VOIP service. It's becomming clear, while they may have hearts of gold, they are just a young and inexperianced group that lack the knowledge of what it takes to implement and service a reliable VOIP platform. I've lowered my rating accordingly and I would no longer recommend ViaTalk to anyone unless they only go with the month to month billing, otherwise you are risking more than you should on this VOIP service

I've ordered and installed ViaTalk in March 2006 and I have used the service for 3 months now.

The Service has been trouble free, works as it should and I have unlimited calling for about 8 bucks a month as I added on 2 years on the 99/year promotion to an active account.

The only issue I have had is the PAP2 is a noisy adapter when compared to the VT1005 I had with Vonage. I did some reseach and found if one shorts on the red/green on the second phone port, it almost elminates the noise. Now bear in mind this noise really can't be heard with a phone, but with a headset, which I use its VERY noticable. I noticed it on the very first call and I called ViaTalk, got a US based rep within 2 rings and they sent me a New PAP2 the next day ... but the new one had the same issue and thats when I looked online and found out its a known issue ithe the PAP2s ... I took a old phone cord, stripped the wires and shorted the red/green and stuck it into the unused phone 2 port. Since this time no issues and no noise ( Thanks LinkSys for a crappy VOIP adapter )

In the 3 months I have had one issue, I was on a call is was getting poor sound quality, I did a test and forund out my INTERNET connection had tanked (Roadrunner) and it was a local issue with timewarner that was fixed the next day. This is NOT a Viatlak issue but I'm adding it to this review so show folks VOIP is NOT POTS. You have your ISP , the Adapter quailty that can make the serivce not work well. ViaTalk has been flawless and helpful , but I'm very advanced in my technical knowledge, this is NOT something you should get for your parents unless you wan't to be tech support!!

So a 10 on a scale of 10 for ViaTalk, VOIP in general will never be a POTS replacement, just undertsand that and you will be happy with 8.00 month unlimited calling!

member for 20.3 years, 9839 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 16.4 years ago

thisisfutile
join:2006-03-11
Newcomerstown, OH

thisisfutile

Member

Thanks

Great review, thanks for honest input and not just ranting.
chas3
join:2004-12-03
Dallastown, PA

chas3

Member

router problems

I don't believe the worthless rating of viatalk is because of the viatalk side. Routers, their settings, make or break the experience. And some ISPs were reported to be messing with competing voip services. I went thru a bad router experience, bad settings. And at one time, signal levels from the internet provider which would cause random loss of internet, especially in hot weather. Understanding the technical aspects of voip, routers, modems can be helpful.
pdivi
join:2006-08-23

pdivi

Member

Re: router problems

Actually, I think "understanding the technical aspects" just muddies the water. Does the service work - yes or no? It really just comes down to that. Some providers get a very consistent "yes" (see Voicepulse, AT&T), others get a very consistent "no". If the provider wants to stay in business it is THEIR responsibility to understand/predict/troubleshoot snags related to ISP's, network equipment, settings, etc. Some companies understand this (see Voicepulse, AT&T), others simply try to shift the responsibility onto their customers (see ViaTalk). The market of customers who really have time to "understanding the technical aspects" is limited.

guppy_fish
Premium Member
join:2003-12-09
Palm Harbor, FL

guppy_fish to chas3

Premium Member

to chas3
said by chas3:

I don't believe the worthless rating of viatalk is because of the viatalk side. Routers, their settings, make or break the experience. And some ISPs were reported to be messing with competing voip services. I went thru a bad router experience, bad settings. And at one time, signal levels from the internet provider which would cause random loss of internet, especially in hot weather. Understanding the technical aspects of voip, routers, modems can be helpful.
I've been in digital design before PCs were around and understand exactly, at the lowest levels how all this stuff works. Your rating of 100% across the board makes no sense when just today, we had a complete failure of the service, part by a tech at ViaTalk pushing thru a script untested and reported by CEO as a level 3 problem which just "happened" to be at the same time.

ViaTalks failures are caused by:

All traffic has to go thru there servers ( added latency )

A Fail-over system that doesn't work, has no real engineering/validation to prove it works and ends up causing more issues than it prevents

No QA at all at the home office and things just get pushed into the active servers and things like today happen

All severs that traffic is forced to transition thru are at non-ViaTalk locations and are just generic servers and totally at the mercy of these third part hosting services that almost without fail over sell capacity

The service is better than the lowest rating I have assigned, I would give it a 60% ( D grade ) but in order to counter reviews like yours of 100% across the board so new BBR reader get a balanced report I have no choice but to give it the lowest possible rating
chas3
join:2004-12-03
Dallastown, PA

chas3

Member

Re: router problems

I started in electronics in 1974 and started hand assembling 6502 code in 1978. So, sound like we may both be on the tech side.

I have been using VT through out the day and have not noticed any issues today.

Sorry I can't verify the troubles you are having. Only times I haven't had phone service is.... a couple hours during the day my number ported, which I don't know who to blame there....and when I've had comcast trouble or router trouble. Obviously, I might not know if an outage happens when I'm not using the phone.

As for ratings, guess I could say I have to rate it at 100% to counteract those that underrate the service. But that's not it. When looking at the whole package, features, price, financial stability, over 11,600 minutes of great phone calls....I just can't rate it any other way. It's what I've experienced with the service.

Perhaps it is my location, only one state away from VT, who knows. Maybe some of the tweaking of settings. Checking ping times on every available VT server. Maybe getting comcast to put in a new underground feed and having them boost my signal levels. Just last night, we had a 3.5 hour power outage taking out 2500 homes in this area...during the outage, I made a dozen phone calls. Amazing that the cable amplifier in the neighbors yard had power.

Hope you can find resolution to your problems.
Blessings.

guppy_fish
Premium Member
join:2003-12-09
Palm Harbor, FL

guppy_fish

Premium Member

Re: router problems

If I had service like you, I'd rate it high as well.

The core issue is ViaTalk stands alone in pushing ALL the call traffic thru 3rd party servers ( mostly for call recording )and then onto the destination.

If your close to a server like you, your likely not to have the issues many of us experience. Almost everyone else ( VOIP providers ) just does the initiation of the call, the call it self goes to the closest PSTN termination point

Top this off with the never ending ping pong on the server failover, it becomes a random event on the phone quality.

Its not a question of my ISP, I have 4.4 on the VOIP tests, My Internet is 10/1 and speed tests show near this, for cable, Bright-house here in Central Florida is actually very good, thank to FIOS coming to town.

I realise, unless it happens to YOU, its meaningless ... doesn't mean its not real and not wider spread.

Review by phoneranger See Profile

  • Location: Greensboro, Guilford, NC, USA
  • Cost: $22 per month
  • Install: about 90 days
I don't know of any
Customer service, quality, reliability, Customer Service
Stay Away from these people
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I was a Sun Rocket refugee. I never had problems with SR until they went belly up. I fell for Viatalk's come-ons, which they have not honored. It took 3 months to finally port my number, after sending them the form twice to do so. Getting through to CS is impossible and on the rare occasions (2) that I did, issues were never resolved and I've not received ANY restitution. In the last conversation, I was told that they couldn't understand why I was having trouble getting help-that their wait time was done to "less than 30 minutes" and seemed proud of that fact. Never have received communication for trouble tickets. Collectively, I've been "on hold" with them over 6 hours, much of it on my cell phone minutes. My service is still NOT working reliably--never have gotten through to technical help and they never call back. I've been threatened with termination if I don't keep paying them. I only continue to pay because I've been waiting on my number I've had 20+ years to port. Now that it finally ported, I've already ordered from a new VOIP provider. I hope they are better and I hope Viatalk doesn't hold my number hostage, but it seems the whole industry is a crap shoot. I've blown nearly $100 with Viatalk for probably 12 phone calls and a whole lot of misery.

member for 16.4 years, driveby review (so far)
updated 16.4 years ago


Review by collegea See Profile

  • Location: Whitestone, Queens, NY, USA
  • Cost: $15 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 6 days
Glad I Got Out Before Viatalk Likely Goes Under
Service Has Deteriorated Tremendously Over the Last Five Weeks
Stay Away From Viatalk: Service is Very Poor
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

September 25, 2007

I am through with Viatalk. Since the SunRocket demise, Viatalk took on more customers than they could handle and telephone and customer service has suffered. About a month ago, when I picked up my phone, I no longer had a dial tone and could not make calls. The problem was that I could no longer log on to the server. Mind you, everything had worked beautifully for the past 8 months. When I called Tech Support, I waited over an hour to speak to someone. When I finally got through, I was told by Tom that the problem was my RoadRunner wireless Cable Modem (the router is inside the cable modem). Since this was a Roadrunner problem, according to tech support at Viatalk, I was advised to buy a cheap Router and swap my Roadrunner wireless cable modem for a regular cable modem. I remained calm and decided to get to the root of the problem. What I discovered was that this was a Viatalk network problem, a network that was extremely overloaded. I say this because I tested 2 other voip providers who use the same Linksys Pap2 adapter as Viatalk does and I had no problem making or receiving calls and logging on into their servers. Clearly, Viatalk expanded too fast and took on more customers than their network could handle.
To make a long story short, after I made a few more useless calls to tech support, Tom finally threw in the towel and sent me another Linksys Pap2T adapter to test. To my surprise, I did get a dial tone and was able to log on to their server. But unfortunately, more than half the phone calls I made were met with busy signals. I knew then that Viatalk's servers were just overloaded with more calls than they could handle. It was time to get out. And get out I did. Today, the 25th of September, I had my number transferred from Viatalk to Vonage. What a relief and tremendous improvement in telephone service and customer care! I thought I'd never say that.
I was just on the month to month 500 minute plan because I knew deep down that a breakdown like this could happen at any time. And if it happened to me after 8 beautiful months with Viatalk, it can happen to you too.


Update: 7/8/07

It has been 6 months since I switched from Verizon to ViaTalk and the experience has been very good. I have had no real issues to speak of so far. I have all my calls forwarded to my cell and have never missed a call. When Roadrunner went down for a few hours a couple of months ago (due to a bad storm), I still received my calls forwarded to my cell. That's a great feature (Network Down Forward Feature) ViaTalk has. That feature, along with custom call routing, are what made me try ViaTalk in the first place.

Nothing is perfect all the time, but ViaTalk comes close. The faster your Internet Connection, the better your experience with ViaTalk will be.

Update: 4/8/07

I have been with ViaTalk for over 3 months now and I have had no telephone issues. From day one, I just plugged in the small gadget they sent me into my Roadrunner Wireless modem and it has worked. The porting process was quick and went smooth. I'm not a heavy user. I basically use my cell phones to make calls since I am out of the house a good portion of the day. But I do have all my calls forwarded to my cell. I find the service so far 100% reliable and I especially like the fact that I can block spammers or whatever number I so desire. ViaTalk offers lots of good features in the control panel. If you have High Speed Online (Roadrunner), I highly recommend Viatalk.

Update: 2/4/07

After the 2 week trial period, I decided to initiate the porting process from Verizon to Viatalk. I know I took a risk here, but I wanted out from Verizon and I really liked Viatalk's impressive phone service. The whole porting process took 5 business days to complete. When I saw that my Verizon landline was dead one afternoon. I called up Viatalk to let them know what was going on and they finally completed the transfer of my number in about an hour. That's how service is here (in a small enterprise) so get use to it. But these guys are good and they care. Just be a little patient with them. The main thing is that they have an excellent product with great features.

Reception has been crystal clear so far. I'm only on the 500 minute plan because I'm outside of my home a good portion of the day and I primarily use my cell phones. But I don't get spam anymore since I placed my phone service on "Authenticate" on the "Anonymous call block" in the control panel. I cannot comment on Viatalk's Voicemail since I use "call forwarding" (to my cell), which works fine. I also like the "Network Down Forward" feature, which allows me to receive calls to the number I designate if the system goes down.

I researched VOIP thoroughly before I went with Viatalk. The deciding factors for me were the "Network Down Forward" feature and the fact that I was hearing positive reviews on Viatalk from those using Roadrunner in the Borough of Queens, NYC. I use a Wireless Roadrunner Cable Modem (the wireless router is inside the cable modem: only $5 extra per month) from Time Warner Cable.

Set up was simple. I'm very pleased so far. It's hard to ask for more except for a continuation of this great phone service.



Update: 1/20/07

I got one of those threatening Emails from Viatalk too stating that they would "discontinue" my service unless I paid my $2.50 E 911 fee. The Email said my invoice was 5 days old! I promptly called Viatalk's billing department and said "I gave you my credit card so what's the problem here." The customer service rep. said "it was a glitch in the system." LOL.

I'm still in the 2 week trial phase with Viatalk. The phone service is excellent. Reception is very good. Installation took less than a minute and I'm not mechanical at all. Viatalk offers a lot of great features, like anonymous call blocking, individual custom call routing, etc. You have to experience it to believe it. They also provide detailed set up instructions for soft phone access on a few different platforms. These guys are obviously very geeky.

Hey Viatalk, let's try no more threatening emails, just bill my credit card every month, with no hassles. I even recommended a couple of my friends to your service. I can recommend a lot more if you keep up the great phone service and get your electronic act together on the billing side.

Web-site surfing (via Viatalks control panel) has improved a bit.

Update: 1/12/07

The website is a little clunky and slow. Once in a while I get an error message when I click on main menu in the control panel. I'm using the Firefox browser. But it works the second time I go back and click so it's no big deal. Other than that the phone features work well. I set up call forwarding (which works well) and network down forward. I have no interest in voicemail since I'm into call forwarding . I'll probably be porting over my number from Verizon soon.

Without priority support, I never waited more than 10 minutes to speak to a customer service rep.

Reception is good. Installation was simple. I highly recommend Viatalk.



The people at Viatalk are very nice, professional and hard working. I called up tech support a couple of times to ask questions before I placed my order. They were very courteous, knowledgeable and patient. Once I placed the order, it took 6 days to get the equipment. Viatalk is running a promotion and they told me they program each adapter to suit your modem so it takes a while. They sound like a local Mom and Pop Operation. They gave me a local NYC number, which I liked.

I received the equipment today and honestly it took me less than a minute to set it up. I just followed the simple instructions. Reception is excellent. Incoming and Outgoing calls are very clear. I hope I'm not jinxing myself here since everything has worked out beautifully so far. I had an old touch-tone phone that I connected to the Linksys PAP2T Phone Adapter. I have a Wireless Roadrunner Cable Modem and I'm located in Whitestone, Queens, NY.

I haven't even gone on the site yet to set up voicemail or configure the other settings. All I can say is that I get an instant dial tone and calls are very clear, incoming and outgoing. There is No lag time at all and the people I've spoken to on the other end say I'm very clear.

I was extremely sceptical as to whether this would work out. I just hope it continues so I can port my number over from Verizon.

I only gave Viatalk a 3 on the web site because I haven't gone on their web site yet.

I'll probably update this review in the future.


member for 17.2 years, 119 visits, last login: 13.2 years ago
updated 16.5 years ago