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Review by sheltonzz See Profile

  • Location: San Antonio, Bexar, TX, USA
  • Cost: $14 per month
  • Install: about 4 days
low cost ease of use
no caller iD going out some echo from time to time
worth every penny
Web-site:
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I have had VoicePulse for several months and have not experienced a single problem. It was easy to set up and worked from the time it was plugged in. I have several remote hand extensions placed around the house so that the phone can be answered from anywhere. Caller ID coming in is fine but your caller ID does not go out just your number. May be a problem for some and okay for others. My only concern is that VoicePulse stay in business becasue they are by far the best value and service. I reaseachered all of VOIPs before settling on VoicePUlse based on reviews like this one. The others had many complaints but VoicePulse did not. I dumped by ATT land line and ported over my old number with ease. Took just a few days. I took the cheapest plan because both my wife and I have wireless long distance included in our plans so do not need more then 200 minutes from Voicepulse. I use it at highest bandwidth because I have plenty to spare. I have RoadRunner at apprx 7,000 download and 600 up load. I di have to install the router they sent so seperate compoter from phone but was snap also. My fax works thru my computer also fine.

member for 19.2 years, 32 visits, last login: 16.8 years ago
lodged 17.5 years ago


Puckzilla12
join:2006-08-01
Clifton Park, NY

Puckzilla12

Member

uhh...

You realize that you reviewed ViaTalk? You kept mentioning VoicePulse... Who do you have?

Review by bwolen See Profile

  • Location: Saratoga, Santa Clara, CA, USA
  • Cost: $8 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 2 days
Cheap, nice features and good quality
Worth the switch, but beware of minor problems/bugs
Web-site:
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9/1/2006 (2+ weeks of usage)

A short list of pluses and minuses

Pluses:
+ Order to live is fast and painless

+ many nice features such as do-not-disturb and call-hunt

+ phone quality is better than my previous landline. (some minor problems documented later)

+ after pointing out the call logs showed calls from that number's previous owner, viatalk was very responsive in fixing the problem (call log maintenance within 2 days of filing the ticket. The maintenance lasted 2-3 days)

+ reasonably cheap international rates (a bit more expensive than Skype and good phone cards, but hassle free)

+ originally missed the $200/2years deal for a couple days. They ran a special again within my first week and the billing folks was very nice and let me switch to the new $200/2year.

+ Tech support is generally very nice, though without priority support, looks like email response time is on the order of 2-4 days, depending on the complexity of the question. This makes multiple rounds trips rather diffulct. Sign up with priority support if you can't afford to wait.

+ willing to give out phone adopter admin password: ask for it. It may save you time later on

+ Number port completes on the day I requested (the number was running DSL and hence need some coordination to ensure minimum network/phone outtage)

Some negatives:

- have static on two occasions

- voice mail indicator on the phone does not go away for 3-4min even after I deleted all the voice mails

- on one occasion, outgoing calls hangs where neither *123 nor any 7-digit dialing. (didn't try 11-digit dialing). This lasted about 4-5 minutes.

- had ringer problem on a new cordless phone that has 4 handsets. On incoming call, the base unit rings fine (and loud), but none of the cordless handsets would ring. This is rather confusing as base should be able to tell the handsets to ring, but changing the Linksys phone adopter's ringer wavefrom to trapezoidal fixed the problem. It would have been nice had Viatalk configured the phone adopter to be the same spec as the phone company's landline.

- fax doesn't work right off the bat. Need to adjust fax machine to 9600 bauds.

- time zones: time zone is broken in many places.
--- caller id (fixed quickly with a ticket to tech support)
--- call log time zone (not yet fixed)
--- do-not-disturb's time zone does not work except for EST (didn't realized this till I started getting messages without phone ringing 3 hours early)
--- IIRC, phone adopter also come configured for the wrong time zone.
It would have been nice if they can just set the timezone based on billing address' zip code.

- Not sure how to delete personal outgoing message and have it revert to the default

- Web interface have many links that breaks the browser's back button. e.g., visiting maintenance links or ticket areas and then hit the back button will require a new login.

- tech support does not seem to know the question is submitted after a user has logged in. I was asked to verify credit card info as a mean of authentication.

- would be nice to have a new comer's intro guide, rather than searching through various FAQs

member for 19.4 years, 6 visits, last login: 17.5 years ago
updated 17.5 years ago

mathfaster
join:2005-09-23
Upland, CA

2 edits

mathfaster

Member

Sometimes you have to question their customer support

I had the same problems with time zones and DND that you had and opened a ticket.

Problem ticket text:

" I had setup the DO NOT DISTURB feature for everyday of the week from 11 PM PST until 7 AM PST. Well my wife tries to call home at 9:03 PM PST (12:03 AM EST) and cannot get through. I checked the call logs the next day and sure enough her attempted calls home at 9:03 PM PST (12:03 AM EST) were logged. So it seems even though you can do the setup using PST, the system only blocks calls based on EST. The DND feature allows you to set the timezone but apparently call blocking uses only EST in determining whether to block a call no matter what time zone the call blocking is setup with."

Here was their response:

"The calls should show in your call log. But they shouldn't be long, depending
on how you have the DND setup to work - They should be long enough to play a DND
message, or record a voicemail.

Can you test this realtime and let us know if it doesn't work properly?"

What and my original problem wasn't "realtime"? Do they think I open tickets because I have a perceived problem? Or do they not have any way of testing time zone problems?

Review by ssdd8 See Profile

  • Location: Fort Collins, Larimer, CO, USA
  • Cost: $15 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 4 days
Very reliable as of yet. Very good quality which is better than POTS.
Long Tech Support call waiting
Very good
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I've had the service for about a month now and I haven’t had any regrets at all. My ISP is very reliable as well. All of the web options I've tried (Call blocking, Call Forwarding) seem to work fine. Even with my limited Upload speed I've had no problem with regular Internet use. The number porting has gone very well to.



The tech support put on hold waiting is a bit ridiculous. For example, when I was on hold as caller 7, I was jumped to caller 8. When I finally did get down to caller 1, no one answered. I think that was because support had closed shop late at night. Still, something automated should have told me that support was closed for the night.



member for 19.7 years, 5 visits, last login: 17.5 years ago
lodged 17.5 years ago


Review by Tom517 See Profile

  • Location: Blissfield, Lenawee, MI, USA
  • Cost: $8 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 7 days
low cost, excellent support, good quality, expanded feature set
mediocre website, lack of virtual number could be a deal-breaker
Superb value for the money. A VoIP force to be reckoned with.
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I signed up for service on August 1, 2006. The process went smoothly and equipment was shipped August 2nd and received August 4th. There was a problem with the adapter, so I called support (on a Friday) and recieved the replacement unit and shipping label on Monday, August 7th. A 10 minute wait for very helpful and understanding tech support and a week for the delivery and complete turnaround isn't bad.

Setup was painless and couldn't have been much easier unless someone from ViaTalk would have jumped out of the box and done it for me. Everything worked perfectly right out of the starting gate, and has ever since. To the best of my knowledge, I have not experienced any of the problems that I've read about in the tech forum, althgouh I have occasionally had a distorted word here and there. Even so, I can't criticize at this point since each VoIP user has his own expectations and will have his own unique experience.

I had Packet8 service from January of 2003 to January of 2004 and was constantly having problems. Exit Packet8. I switched to Vonage and dropped my POTS completely in December 2003 enjoying flawless service through my cancellation and switching to ViaTalk this month. My main reason for dropping Vonage for ViaTalk was becuase Vonage was not only beginning to act like a traditional phone company, but beginning to charge like one. WIth ViaTalk, I not only pay less, but get to have a certain degree of control over my service as well.

ViaTalk is loaded with no-cost features (not meaning features that don't cost you anything to have, but features that don't cost them anything to implement.) In fact, it's almost top-heavy. I would much prefer a virtual number over many of the features offered. I think that true "bottom line pricing" and the virtual number that is offered by SunRocket, for many people, is the dealbreaker. I know that it was almost the deciding factor for me. If I were to suggest anything, it would be that ViaTalk look more closely at their competitor through the eyes of a potential customer instead of just saying "but look at all the other stuff you're getting instead." Shoppers don't look for "instead", they look for "in addition to."

Since my Vonage service really was rock solid and I was well beyond a year of having service, I had the luxury of being able to take several months to make the decision to go with VT over SR. Even though the free phones and bottom line cost of SR was enticing, I chose ViaTalk over SunRocket because of the discussions of each in the BBR forums. I also liked the fact that Brendan was reading and responding to what people were saying about VT without being overly defensive, condescending or overly-accomodating.

The ViaTalk website does leave a lot to be desired. Although it's visually appealing, its navagation is confusing, and the truly important information is buried quite well. I can fully understand why some people feel that it is misleading. Important information, including the "gotchas" should be easier to find, since not everyone wants to spend hours going over the site with a fine-toothed comb to find out what may or may not have changed. In addition, some things are not clearly spelled out and left to the interpretation of the reader.

ViaTalk's cancellation policy is somewhat rigid and leaves a little to be desired - there's no denying that - but if ViaTalk continues to deliver during their growth period, and clears up the mess that is there website, that particular policy becomes a moot point. As such, I believe they will remain a viable player in the VoIP field.

member for 17.7 years, 146 visits, last login: 17.2 years ago
lodged 17.5 years ago


Review by jfox57 See Profile

  • Location: Naperville, Du Page, IL, USA
  • Business customer Business customer
  • Cost: $30 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 1 days
These guys are soooo much better than Vonage it's amazing
Tech support lines aren't staffed 24x7 and the wait can be 30 mins+
The feature set, the quality, and the experienced techs make all the diff.
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I had Vonage for about a year and never could get it working. I'm a tech, so if I can't get something to work, the great majority are going to really struggle. My biggest complaint about Vonage is that their techs basically knew nothing. Plus, they actually don't work for Vonage. And then you have the escallation procedures. I did finally work with a very knowledgable guy named Chris B. (I'm not going to give you his name, sorry) who was totally on his game (he had me run tracerts and other tests), but even he couldn't get it working reliably. He finally concluded that Comcast was doing some very strange things that were blocking my service.

So, I changed to ViaTalk in Feb '06. And wow, what a difference. First, their techs (like Tanya) know what the heck they were talking about, I didn't have to get my calls escallated, they don't lock the PAP2's like Vonage does, so I could do my own tweaking and Qos setups, and the best part... it works like a charm. On top of that, they offer more features than Vonage does. Sure, there are normal voip annoyances all the time (remember, we're all on the bleeding edge with voip...it's not twisted pair tip & ring folks!). Yes, you do get an occasional echo here and there, but pound for pound, this company is very real and will give Vonage a run for their money. My only concern about ViaTalk is that by reading this, more people are going to switch and make my wait even longer when I need to talk with Tech Support. But, so be it. That's the cost of success I suppose.

Give them a try.

John Fox

Venture Marketing

member for 21.9 years, 2 visits, last login: 17.6 years ago
lodged 17.6 years ago


Review by sirsinger See Profile

  • Location: Laguna Hills, Orange, CA, USA
  • Cost: $14 per month (12 month contract)
Inexpensive service, great technical support, great sound quality
All features advertised are not working
Better support then Vonage
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A great value.. I signed up using BYOD (bring your own device).. I have a Grandstream Handytone HT-386 (2 port) phone adapter.. Had some initial issues with sound quality (would talk for about 3-5 minutes then just get silence).. Called their tech support, they let me know I was conflicting with my other VOIP provider and that they would give me a new port number to use, helped me reconfigure equipment and then tried a new test call and worked perfectly since. Time from order to complete operation: less then one minute. I originally signed up on the one month-500 minute plan and then moved to a one-year prepaid plan. I have been on the service for about 2 months.

Only issue is that the company is having DTMF (touch tone) issues for some customers, they seem to been having these issues for about a month or so. They have turned off the call record and call transfer features during this time although have no posted anything regarding this on their website. Questions regarding these features have returned a "we are working on this.." with no ETA to feature operation.



member for 17.6 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 17.6 years ago


Review by sudheerdv See Profile

  • Location: Austin, Travis, TX, USA
  • Cost: $10 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 5 days
Lot of good features, cheap, good tech support
No free virtual phone number, UK calling is not free
High Quality for Low Cost
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I got my adapter with in 4 business days and I hooked it up immediately. All I had to do was swap cables from my earlier packet8 device. The whole process took only 3 minutes. I took longer time to open the box than to connect it.

Voice quality is clear and crisp. I enquired my friends to provide me feedback on my voice quality when talking to them and they said it was very good.

I had contacted tech support to give me the details for SOFT PHONE. she sent me email immediately with details and we went over the connection setup and tested it before she hungup. I had to wait for 20 minutes to talk to the customer service representative. The good thing that I liked was intemittently the sytem would tell me my position in the waiting queue.

Also I emailed tech support for admin password on my linksys device and they responded to me with in an hour. I was impressed with the tech supports SPEED and Enthusiasm.

I requested for porting my information on the day after I ordered viatalk. It took 6 business days ( include 2 weekends ) to finish my number port from packet 8.

I ordered the 2 year , 199$ deal, which comes to 240$ including shipping and activation. So it is around 10$ per month compared to my existing packet8 for 24 to 26$. I had no issues with packet8 it was also very good. I switched for the COST and the Features.

Also viatalk generally comes out with 199$ deal just around long weekend.

member for 17.6 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 17.6 years ago


Review by gladman9 See Profile

  • Location: Cape Coral, Lee, FL, USA
  • Cost: $16 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 8 days
Price, Reliability, Web Integration and Features, Great Tech Support
Infrequent latency, some minor static, problem connecting with directv updates
Highly Recommend
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After paying $59.99 per month for DSL and another $30 Per month for phone with no caller id, no call waiting or any other features except for voicemail it would cost me after state and local taxes about $99 per month prior to making any calls. Tack on local charges and long distance our phone bills were well over $125 for limited usage. I switched to cable broadband and Viatalk and have saved over 40% of the total cost on a monthly basis.

I have lost a connection once and in some cases there was minor latency and a little static. Overall the service has been impressive.

After signing up, viatalk provisioned us a number within a day and shipped the startup kit within a couple of days of entering the order. The porting of our number was a little confusing, but just because we didn't get any updates as to when it would be completed (with the exception of a general time frame of when it might be complete). After logging a support ticket on the viatalk websie we were quickly told about the status of the number porting and when it would be completed. By virtue of porting the number our phone service with sprint was automagically cancelled.

Installation was simple and amazingly worked about 30 seconds after we plugged in the adapter and the adapter to our phone. I subsequently disconnected the outside line from the house at the phone box, plugged a phone line from the voip phone adapter right into the jack on the wall in the bedroom and the whole house was activated, even the security system. One minor problem is that our directv tivo receiver cannot establish a connection when dialing out - I've read that this has happened in a few area codes.

Features include emailing voice mail message to us while we are away as well as some good web management tools. A lot of cool stuff that some people may be interested in. Tech support has been very helpful, but really didn't have a need to call them.

I have already recommended the service to several friends and family in the area as we are very satisfied.



member for 17.6 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 17.6 years ago


Review by anicetoemma See Profile

  • Location: Chicago, Cook, IL, USA
  • Cost: $8 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 4 days
Quality is like POTS; Fail-safe; Price; Control over features; Voicemail
A few dropped calls; Most of the time, no ring on outgoing calls (kinda annoying) but manageable
You can't go wrong with Viatalk!
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The reason behind my decision of going the VOIP route was easy, it was cheaper than SBC/AT&T & it gave me ALL the features that you would normally have to pay for FREE. I initially ordered the 500 minute plan and kept my POTS service, so that I may further review ViaTalk's service.

The PAP2 device was delivered in 4 business days and was EXTREMELY easy to install. I used to be a pc tech, so my definition of easy may not be the same as yours. Either way this is easier than learning to ride a bike, or maybe close to that experience . I hooked it up to my router and didn't even have to configure it, it found a IP it could use and was immediately ready to use. I hooked up my wireless phone to it and called a few people. What amazed me was that no one could discern this service over a regular old POTS. I was immediately gratified that I had made this decision.

After a while I began to notice some of my calls being dropped. It occurred when I was downloading *something* and once when no one was using any bandwidth. It's not a big problem because it has been far and to few times that this has happened, and it has only occurred at the very beginning of the call, so it wasn't like I couldn't just call again.

Two of my favorite features are Simultaneous Ring & Network Unavailable Forward (Fail-safe). The first one allows you to have all incoming calls to ring up to two other phone numbers at the same time. So if you are out-and-about and you are expecting a phone call that you don't want to miss, you can still get that phone call, with the help of your trustee cell phone, by having your home number automatically ring you at the same time that it is ringing at home. You will never miss another call EVER. The next feature, to me, is THE best. If your internet modem, connection, or provider should for some reason have a outage, and hence no internet connection for your Viatalk device, you can have one phone number be the default fail-safe number that it will forward all incoming calls to.

Just recently, we had an electrical storm pass through and it fried my router, Comcast modem, and dvd player. I didn't think twice about whether or not I would be able to receive any incoming calls, since I had that last feature. It works, and it works great. This is one feature that SunRocket, ViaTalk's competition, does not have.

Other than that, all I can say is, try it before you fully divulge yourself. Some people will either love it or hate it. If you have a hard time with computers and networks, then this is definitely not for you.

member for 18.5 years, 906 visits, last login: 13.3 years ago
lodged 17.6 years ago


Review by sam9194 See Profile

  • Location: Lake Zurich, Lake, IL, USA
  • Cost: $15 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 3 days
price, features (esp e911 and outbound caller id w/name), sound quality
long term contracts for best prices, a few initial glitches
still way early for a verdict, but so-far, so-so (hope to change to so-good soon)
Web-site:
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UPDATE August 7, 2006

We had a few dropped calls this morning. Wow... it just keeps getting worse!

UPDATE - August 6, 2006

Here is a list of my problems with ViaTalk:

1) When calling out, I sometimes get the "the party you are calling is not answering" message followed by a disconnect and fast busy signal after just a few rings, and often ***after they have answered and we start talking!!!***

2) Calls inbound to the ViaTalk line from my T-Mobile cell often get a fast busy and don't go through

3) I don't always hear ringing on an outbound call... just silence until they answer. Of course at this point, if #1 doesn't happen, it's an improvement

4) Sometimes when answering an inbound call, my first few "hello's" are in vain. Then I suddenly hear the background audio from the other end and my 3rd or 4th "hello" is the first one the calling party hears.

I tried the port forwarding/DMZ trick and even (reluctantly) unplugged my (rock-solid) VP Sipura adaptor, and have rebooted the VT device, and my modem and router repeatedly, but none of that has really seemed to help.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Initial Post

I signed up for the 500min plan with just the monthly term to try ViaTalk (VT) out. I've had VoicePulse (VP) for almost 2 years with my only complaint being an echo heard by callers when background noise is high in our house. Being an electrical engineer with a strong digital signal processing background, I understand that this is exactly when echo cancellation is needed, so this scenario pushes the system and reveals the weaknesses. Anyway, back to VT... I decided to switch to VT mainly for e911 (VP is dragging their feet on getting this going in my area, only saying they plan on having it by the end of the year). I also like having our name on the outbound caller id, which it seems the other VoIP guys (including VP, Vonage, etc.) don't do. So far I had an initial problem with my Linksys adapter not ringing my Uniden cordless phones (although you could answer while the line was silently ringing) yet it would ring a corded desk phone. I suspected it had to do with the load, or lack thereof, the cordless base puts on the adapter vs. that from a desk phone. A very helpful tech support person confirmed that and changed the configuration for me to solve that problem. I also had a problem calling or receiving calls to/from my T-Mobile cell phone. I would get a fast busy signal after a few rings. The tech rep. said that T-Mobile has started trying to block VoIP calls, but that she'd ask Level 2 support to try to "fix it" and opened a ticket about that. It's been a few days and now it seems like the T-Mobile problem is gone, although I didn't see any updates to my ticket. And finally I sometimes get a message saying "the number you are calling is not answering..." (or something like that) after just 2-4 rings. It happened today just as someone was answering during the 2nd ring! I opened a ticket for that this morning, but no word on that yet.

VT's pricing is competitive on a monthly basis, and gets better with longer contracts. And here is my main gripe: I guess it's my own fault for not reading the fine print, but I was under the impression that I'd be able to take advantage of any special deals that came along if I decided to keep the service. Since I'd be on a monthly plan, I was hoping I could switch to a longer term plan and get the free months, etc. Some posts on here seemed to imply that's what a bunch of people have done ($99/year, or $199 for a year + a free year, etc.) When on the line with the rep about the problems I mentioned above, I asked her about that, and she said that in the case of the $199 deal, that it was absolutely not offered to existing customers. I checked the fine print, and low and behold, it said "offer valid for new customers only". Being up and running for 12 whole hours at that point, I asked if I could upgrade to the $199 deal (which started running the day before) since I was so new... she said they never made an exception to that policy. That bummed me out... it seems that at least during the trial period, when you can bail with no strings anyway, they should allow you to sign up for whatever long term deal they are offering!

I would really like to hear from any VT users on here about this. Has anyone been able to sign up for specials as an existing customer?

More updates to come.



member for 18.6 years, 37 visits, last login: 14.6 years ago
lodged 17.6 years ago

Fisamo
Premium Member
join:2004-02-20
Apex, NC

Fisamo

Premium Member

Promotions for existing customers

Historically, VT has allowed existing customers to extend whatever plan they're on for $99/yr when they're offering their $199/yr + 1 free year deal. Several people in the forum have taken advantage of that offer for existing customers. As a matter of fact, for the late night sale, VTBrendan See Profile has confirmed that existing customers can buy a 1-year extension of their term for $99; perhaps a review of his posts (click on the icon next to his username in this reply, and click on "recent posts" on the screen that shows) will find that confirmed for you. I have not yet taken advantage of this sale, because I'm very happy with AT&T CallVantage (wanted to try VT out and have likewise been impressed), and CallVantage still offers a few features (that I use) not yet offered by VT. I suspect, though, if VT continues on its current path and rolls out the features I'd like, a change is certainly possible in my future.
sam9194
join:2005-08-16
Lake Zurich, IL

sam9194

Member

Re: Promotions for existing customers

Yep... A reply to my ticket confirms that current customers can typically (he didn't say "always") extend their *existing plan* for a year for $99 when the sales run. It's important to point out that it's your *existing* plan that is extended, which in my case is the 500min one. I fully intended to go with the unlimited given our usage, but signed up with the cheapest (500min) one while evaluating their service. My bad. So, I just switched to the unlimited, on a monthly basis, and, assuming I decide to stick with VT, will watch for the next sale.