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Review by osoamazin See Profile

  • Location: Powder Springs, Cobb, GA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Seem to have nice features
Never got to try any features because of non-working equipment and the HORRIBLE tech support.
These guys are RIP-OFF ARTISANS! Avoid them like the plague!!
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

For starters, the service was supposed to be $199 a year. Keep that in mind.

I ordered the service and was able to log into the website and partially view my account information. My account status showed activated. However, I was not able to change my password. I sent two messages to tech support about that issue and did not get a response in 3 (count em, THREE) weeks. I finally called the number and was told by the system that I was caller #47 in the queue. Screw that! I don't have time to wait for that.

A few days later, I get an email that my account is 7 days PAST DUE for the amount of $2.50. This charge is for E911 service and some other bogus fee. The VERY NEXT DAY I get another email that my account is 10 days PAST DUE for the amount of $2.50 and that my account will be cancelled if I don't make a payment. Okay, I'm not a math wiz but 7+1 does not equal 10!!! Mind you, I still have not received any equipment so I have not been able to use the service. At this point, a month has passed and I still have not gotten a response to my inquiry about not being able to change my password. So I decide to try to talk to someone. I call tech support again and find that I am #21 in the queue. I wait and go from #21 to #20 to #19 to #20 to #21 to #19.........Still I wait...for an hour and 20 minutes. Finally, I get to talk to someone to inquire about my account password and this charge. I am told that my account just went active in the system TODAY (What a coincidence!!) and that my equipment is shipping out TODAY!! (What a coincidence!!) So I hang up and wait for my equipment, which arrived two days later. Yippee!! Right? Wrong!

I connect the equipment and it doesn't work. So I call tech support AGAIN. Another 1 hour wait to speak to a human and he tells me there is something wrong with my network but the equipment is new! WTF?!?! Oh., and the $2.50 charge had to be paid or my service would be disconnected. I tried to explain that I had not used the service and should not be charged but the tech was adamant that I had to pay the fees. Everybody had to pay the fees.

At this point I told him to cancel my account and I would send his equipment back to him. He told me that they needed to update my credit card info so they could put a $50 hold on it in case I didn't return the equipment! Can you believe these people??? There was no way in hell I was giving them a credit card number after getting screwed out of $60+ and no value. He threatened to send my account to a collection agency so I told him to do it! At that point, I hund up the phone and lamented once more about the failure of my dear Sunrocket service.

Incidentally, I got an email two days later that my number had been successfully ported to their system. How's that for customer service???

Do yourself a favor, stay away from these guys unless you just really want to give away $40. If that is the case, send me an email and I will let you know where to send the check and you can save yourself the hassle of waiting over an hour to talk to someone about where your money went!

member for 16.5 years, 5 visits, last login: 16.4 years ago
lodged 16.5 years ago


Review by reflexcomp See Profile

  • Location: Pasadena, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Cost: $19 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 7 days
Inexpensive
Poor quality & horrible hold times...
I guess you always get what you pay for...
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I bought Viatalk VoIP service in September of 06. At the time, the promotion they were running was "buy one year and get 2nd year for free." So I bought two lines and was charged $229.00 per line (if divided-up over 24 months, not a bad deal).

Well, my 2nd year is due to start on September 21st and I've already been emailed a bill notification from ViaTalk stating that my account is now due for payment. When I responded to them (last week) stating the facts of my promotion, I did not hear back from their customer service. Well, this morning I received an email from "support@viatalk.com" telling me my account was successfully charged for $229.00. Obviously, I responded with a huge complaint and a demand to refund my money. I followed the email up with a phone call (8:45am pst) and now are in queue. When I first was put in queue, I was caller #21, I then went down to caller #16 and bounced back-up to caller #22! That's got to be a first. How in the hell do you get bumped in queue?

Update: Although I'm not thrilled about ridiculous hold times, after 1:45 on hold, I managed to get through to their customer service and explained my situation. They put me on hold to research my account and after 2-3 minutes of being on hold, they came back on and said it was a mistake on their behalf and I will be credited in a couple of days. At this point, I won't praise them until I get my credit and even then, I'm not jumping up and down as this problem should've never occurred in the first place.



member for 19.8 years, 28 visits, last login: 12.8 years ago
updated 16.5 years ago


Review by Boomer38 See Profile

  • Location: Hershey, Dauphin, PA, USA
  • Cost: $27 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 7 days
Call quality "Fair"
Tech Support , Misleading ad, extra charges $$$
$199 service is really $27.47 mo....Read on!
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
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Tech Support:
Value for money:

OK, SunRocket dumped me and many others!

I shopped a little and came across "ViaTalk", big mistake... I don't want to address their Customer Service because I don't have the time. Let me just say that it is non-existent until you pay for "Priority Service" and that's just the beginning!

Lets take a look at ViaTalk Price & Sales Promotion:

Now, ViaTalk says, Hey former SR customers, Come here for same flat fee that you paid SunRocket "$199.00 year" and we will give you "2" Lines and "3" months FREE service!

Well, $199 is really $228.95 according to my invoice! OK, so I paid for shipping and for a "RUSH" service because I was desperate. It turned out to be a good decision to pay the Ransom for what everyone most people consider normal service, a little over a week to receive service. I checked in the Forum and fond others waited much much longer...

Other Monthly Fees: $2.50 for 911 etc. fee (SR FREE), $3.95 for Virtual number (SR Free), $1.95 to talk to service rep(SR FREE)

Let's see $228.95 / 12 = $19.07 + $3.95 + $2.50 + $1.95 = 27.47 mo.

OK, That is better than a lot of other services, Verizon, etc. but I feel that they are very misleading at best and dishonest is another word that comes to mind. I'm well into my senior years and I can't comprehend someone "Giving" TWO lines but only including One phone number! Very deceptive I think!

I paid the $228.95 ($199++) as an annual fee...Now I'm done paying for a year, right?? Wrong, I get monthly invoices for $2.50, $3.95, & $1.95...Why aren't all these extra charges explained UP-Front on their web page with the $199 promotion? I'm sure that if you dig enough and read the misleading text that they have there butts covered somewhere, somehow, but I for one am not amused by there methods and procedures.

It has taken a little over a month to see the whole billing procedure and VT only has a 15 day trial so I guess I'm stuck for a year. Hopefully this will prevent at least a few of you from falling into the same trap.

Thanks and Good luck to all....

member for 16.5 years, 13 visits, last login: 14 years ago
lodged 16.5 years ago


ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

ptrowski

Premium Member

Now you see why....

Giving away everything FREE causes you to find a new provider when your previous provider left you in the cold.
taylor2767
join:2007-07-12
Columbus, OH

taylor2767

Member

Re: Now you see why....

He needs to really check his math. how can you included a one time shipping fee as a monthly cost. not to point out he agreed to the rush shipping fee.
boober321
join:2003-07-15
Milwaukee, WI

boober321

Member

Re: Now you see why....

He took the total and divided by months. That is his monthly charge overall. He did agree to the extra shipping, but I can see why he's annoyed at all the extra tacked on fees.
The cell phone bill really should be expanded to all communications companies for this reason alone. Fees are a loop hole for corporations to extort money. They should be offered upfront and spelled out implicitly.

I did not reaile the second line doesn't get a phone number. What is the point of having it if there is no phone number?

Review by pab770 See Profile

  • Location: Whitestone, Queens, NY, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
  • Install: about 5 days
It was good at one point, Not anymore
Call un-reliabilty, Customer service wait time are too much.
Avoid them.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
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Value for money:

8/31/07: Well I cancelled my service with them. I seems they cannot get there act together ever since the demise of Sunrocket. Too bad though because they were a completely reliable company at one point. I feel I gave them enough time to straighten the ship but it just didn't happen.

7/31/07: Things have been going steadily down hill. It seems that they cannot handle the influx of ex-SunRocketeers. Call quality has really deteriorated as of late. I get frequent bouts of inbound call silence. I also get random calls going to my backup telephone number for no apparent reason. Hopefully, all will get worked out soon.

I signed up for the $229 a year plan and get a year free. You can't go wrong with that. Good!

Call quality is great aside from a bit of an echo problem. A call to the courteous and knowledgeable tech support took care of that. Good!

Number ported from Verizon in 8 days. Good!

More money is my pocket. Very Good!

All in all.... VERY GOOD!!!!

member for 20.3 years, 2441 visits, last login: 1 year ago
updated 16.5 years ago

smprather
join:2007-08-31
Austin, TX

smprather

Member

ViaTalk no good

I too just canceled my service. I just couldn't get them to respond to any of my correspondence. In fact, they're so unresponsive, I had to call my credit card company and dispute the charge. I have no idea what the status of my number transfer was since they simply would not talk to me. Dead air. Where should I go to now???

--Myles

Review by gsmitchell See Profile

  • Location: Raleigh, Wake, NC, USA
  • Cost: $16 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 18 days
NONE!
Terrible support.
So bad, I am looking for a new provider after 2 months.
Web-site:
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Value for money:

I have had ViaTalk for a couple of months now. I moved from SR. I put in my order to move through the web form, and had to call 2 weeks later to get things moving. After I called, they told me they have troulble sending emails to Yahoo! accounts. Hmmm...okay. After I called, they got my 3 months free done immediately (while I was on the phone with them in fact), and started the port process. They said about 20 days, happened in 4 (kudos!). Since the initial setup, I have had bad service and quality. Choppy audio quality, ZERO tech support unless you call them (I opened 3 tickets with them, closed them all after 1 month with no response at all.), two 3 hour on hold calls to tech support (first time they dropped me at 3 hour mark). Today, I am calling because the calls are getting worse, and no one outside my 919 area code can call me! (huh??) Weird. We will see how this goes. I am caller 33 in line, and figure I will be on hold 1 hour.

===============================

UPDATE - Same Day

Well, time to switch. Called ViaTalk at 3:48pm, I was CALLER 33!! Not 3000, just 33. SPENT THREE HOURS, yes, THREE HOURS ON HOLD. So, after all that waiting how was the tech support? I don't know. THEIR #$*^$#(@()* SYSTEM HUNG UP ON ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!.

Thanks for listening, I am better. And I need to look for another provider. These guys stink.

member for 19.5 years, 63 visits, last login: 13.4 years ago
updated 16.6 years ago


Review by tsytsma See Profile

  • Location: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
  • Cost: $25 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 1 days
Great Call Routing Features, decent call quality
No virtual number distinctive ding, No virtual number forwarding, No auto login for voicemail from home phone
Good service if you don't rely on your virtual numbers.
Web-site:
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Value for money:

I was a former SunRocket customer testing the waters. I ordered the VT_unlimited monthly package for $22.95/month and then they billed me a few days later for an additional $2.50 (to cover 'fees, taxes, e911)

They instantaneously billed me, then about 2h later I received my BYOD account setting info. The information was incomplete as far as I was concerned because they gave nothing more than server names, user name and password. They didn't give any potential settings that users would need to install.

I had no actual good experiences and the only negative experiences are ... their failure to respond to a support ticket after 9 days, their failure to refund my money after canceling for 3 days now, and their non-answer to direct posts.

member for 21.8 years, 20 visits, last login: 15.7 years ago
updated 16.6 years ago


Review by mbowling See Profile

  • Location: Bend, Deschutes, OR, USA
  • Cost: $15 per month (12 month contract)
Lots of features
Reliability
Had to leave ViaTalk because the service was not reliable
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I was with Viatalk for 14 months. The first year was great. Then they started adding ex-Sunrocket customers. Too many ex-Sunrocket customers! The service deteriorated and became unreliable. People would try to call me and get a busy signal. I switched to AT&T CallVantage.

member for 17.7 years, 478 visits, last login: 14.8 years ago
lodged 16.6 years ago







Review by jampot See Profile

  • Location: Mission Viejo, Orange, CA, USA
  • Cost: $12 per month (24 month contract)
LATENCY 0, INSTALLATION,
TECH SUPPORT,REORDERS ON CALLS, CONNECTIONS,REDIALS
I'M TICKED, NO RESPONSE TO PROBLEM TICKET IN 4 DAYS
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I WAS QUED NO. 58 AND 53 ON TWO DIFFERENT OCCASIONS AND AFTER 20 MINUTES HUNG UP. THEY ARE NOT TAKING ORDERS BY PHONE WHICH, I ASSUME MEANS THEY ARE ADDING MORE CUSTOMERS THAN THEIR NETWORK CAN RELIABLY SUPPORT. (THEY ONLY TAKE ORDERS FOR SERVICE ON THE INTERNET CURRENTLY) WHILE THERE SI NOTHING WRONG WITH INCREASING THEIR BUSINESS, THEY NEED THE INFRASTRUCTURE TO HANDLE THE LOAD.

member for 16.9 years, 5 visits, last login: 16.6 years ago
updated 16.6 years ago


koam
Pink Pecker
Premium Member
join:2000-08-16
East Puddle

koam

Premium Member

4 days

They basically aren't going to or replying tickets unless you call to show them the ticket. At least that's been my experience with every ticket since I signed up in mid-July.

ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

ptrowski

Premium Member

What is the problem?

Maybe we can help in the VT forums?






Review by jampot See Profile

  • Location: Mission Viejo, Orange, CA, USA
  • Cost: $12 per month (24 month contract)
LATENCY 0, INSTALLATION,
TECH SUPPORT,REORDERS ON CALLS, CONNECTIONS,REDIALS
I'M TICKED, NO RESPONSE TO PROBLEM TICKET IN 4 DAYS
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I WAS QUED NO. 58 AND 53 ON TWO DIFFERENT OCCASIONS AND AFTER 20 MINUTES HUNG UP. THEY ARE NOT TAKING ORDERS BY PHONE WHICH, I ASSUME MEANS THEY ARE ADDING MORE CUSTOMERS THAN THEIR NETWORK CAN RELIABLY SUPPORT. (THEY ONLY TAKE ORDERS FOR SERVICE ON THE INTERNET CURRENTLY) WHILE THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH INCREASING THEIR BUSINESS, THEY NEED THE INFRASTRUCTURE TO HANDLE THE LOAD.

member for 16.9 years, 5 visits, last login: 16.6 years ago
lodged 16.6 years ago







Review by localt See Profile

  • Location: Sarasota, Sarasota, FL, USA
  • Cost: $9 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 7 days
Cheap, Many features
Installation is complex. LOA processing. Incoming calls, Support is fast but not helpful if you have a problem.
Not reliable, no support, quality is dropping daily.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I'm still on the stage of setting up and testing everything, so I'll update this review as time progresses.

I've signed up with ViaTalk on 01/25. It took them a little while to get the order processed because of their recent deal of 2nd year free. Not a problem, I still have service on my other line. Once they have processed it, I was able to run few tests with a soft phone and it all looked promising.

After a few days I've received my adapter and connected it. Now I've actually started to make real configuration like the 911, server locations, passwords and so on. Once this was done, I've continue to sound and calling tests. Found out that my voicemail indicator is not working at all. Contacted the support team and in no-time I had the voicemail indicator working. The problem now was when I did not had messages I've received 'MSG WAITING OFF' on the screen and could not dial for 20 seconds, then 10 seconds it was working and again the 'MSG WAITING OFF'. I've found other people that had the same problem and the solution for it. Support fixed that again in no time.

Then I've noticed that the firmware on the device is old. I've downloaded the new firmware, but it asked me for my password. I've asked the support for the password and they first made sure that I'm the owner of the account by verify few personal information. This was good, as I don't want other people to be able to get that information and play with the device. Upgraded the device went smoothly.

Then I had one major issue. Incoming calls made with Jajah did not cause my phone to ring at all, and did not went to voicemail. I've discovered that when I've looked at my incoming call log. The support team said they are not configured to work with that type of service (dialers or internet services as pass through as well as calling cards). This is a big issue, as no-one can control people who call him. ViaTalk support/routing departments are working on trying to trace the problem now. Hopefully this will get resolved fast, as many people are using dialers and internet based services to call me.

I've also noticed a delay when dialing with a 10 digits numbers. It seems like an issue with the call plan. Now this is a configuration you have to make to you device! This is not a big deal when you know how to work with computers and networking devices, but I wouldn't recommend a newbie to touch that. I think the support team can with guide through or fix it for you, but you'd need to know what to ask for.

Overall this is a pretty good and cheap service. Once the no forwarded incoming calls issue will be solved it would turn into a very good service for me.... Not sure if I'll recommend it to everyone though....

UPDATE 03/07/2007:

My configuration is done. The only problem I still have is the incoming calls that are not reaching me. Had 2 conferences with 2nd level support team, still no news. They said their Engineers will look at that. Hoping this will be fixed soon.

My number hasn't been ported yet, and that's beyond the 20 days ViaTalk suggested it will take. Others had this done in 12 days. I'll check again with their support team this coming weekend.

Support has gone slower the past two weeks, originally blamed on the snow storm. I am not using it as much, but from posts on the forum it looks like this was not resolved yet.. Maybe backlog?

UPDATE 03/26/2007

My number has not yet ported. After almost 2 months ViaTalk remembered to let me know that there is a problem with the abbreviation of my address (Cir instead of Circle)... Wonder why it took them that long to let me know, it's easy enough to fix. I've fixed it, now I have to wait again...

The engineers "worked" on the problem of the incoming calls not reaching me when the caller is using a dialer - "This will not work with ViaTalk"... Good answer... Don't get to eager to help or fix it, will you... I don't think I'll actually last two years with those guys, probably switch again sometime in the future....

UPDATE 04/30/2007

On Friday, after 3 months, the porting was finally successful. After I got ViaTalk to call in to a conference with Vonage, we've sorted the problem with the LOA, had to use a different name and address (Vonage fault here). The reason I've kept the low support review as I asked for this conference for about a month until ViaTalk agreed to join in.

My other problem with calls not reaching me is still an issue.

Would not recommend this server to people who look for reliability with their phone service...

UPDATE 08/18/2007

The last few months have been really problematic. This got even worst since SunRocket closed out:

1) There is virtually no support. The wait time for support is between 3 and 5 HOURS. The e-mail support is not even getting any response.

2) Call quality went way down. I get clicks and wierd noises on the phone. I've heard countless number of people complaining about that as well. I don't think their equipment is build to handle the volume.

3) The phone service is not reliable at all any more. Forget about incoming calls not reaching (look at my earlier updates), now the phone service is going down for hours at a time.

STAY AWAY!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARN!

member for 18.4 years, 54 visits, last login: 14.1 years ago
updated 16.6 years ago


ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

ptrowski

Premium Member

Reliability....

So it is calls coming from Jahjah that do not get through?
localt
join:2005-10-02
Madison, NJ

localt

Member

Re: Reliability....

Yes. So far I can only find calls that are made in Jajah, but most of my family and friends are using that service. What I told them is to keep trying, eventually (could take an hour) it does come through. Some time they will send me a message and I'll call them.

Toadman
Hypnotoad
join:2001-11-28
Mystery

Toadman

Member

Interesting

I am not one to go to Viatalk's defense, but it seems that from the beginning you have tinkered with the viatalk phone adapter more than what you should. Why did you choose to install new firmware?
As for porting, why would it be Viatalks problem that Vonage didn't want to release the number. You are very lucky that Viatalk even wanted to participate, If I was a Viatalk manager, I would of told you that it was beyond our control, here is your phone number.

I have had Viatalk for one year now and I have had very minor issues, and the longest outage I could think of was a few hours (last fall). Changing my server to Chicago fixed it.

I love tinkering with computers, etc, but if something works that you need to depend on, like your viatalk adapter, leave it alone!
localt
join:2005-10-02
Madison, NJ

localt

Member

Re: Interesting

1) This problem started before the upgrade. I've upgraded to resolve other issues. In anycase, after I first reported this problem I was asked to upgrade the firmware.

2) Vonage pointed on ViaTalk for the problem, ViaTalk pointer back at Vonage. Vonage was willing to do a conference to get it resolved, but it took me 25 days to get ViaTalk rep to commit to the same thing. Vonage does not have any interest in porting my number out, ViaTalk do.

3) As you can see from my review, other then the first issue I have no farther issues. However, since most people outside of the US call me through JAJAH, I don't think I can rank their reliability high. How would you rank them if %60 of your calls are not ending up on your phone!? How would you rank a technical response "Don't have any one call you from Jajah", this is not a feasible solution!