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Review by alancats 
member for 12.6 years, 49 visits, last login: 66 days ago
updated 66 days ago
 Washington,District Of Columbia,DC
 $11 per month- (24 month contract)
 about 1 days "Reliable call-making; Feature-rich Website; Excellent Call-Blocking Features" "None That I've Encountered" "Reliable VOIP Service if You Have a Decent ISP Connection"
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Updated 3/17/13
I just thought it was time to update my original review to reflect an interstate move, to DC. Viatalk's service is still working well for me, and I heartily recommend it. When I reconnected my Linksys VOIP box after the move, an issue popped up with my wireless router's firewall blocking outgoing calls, but that was quickly resolved by helpful instructions provided from Viatalk's tech support team.
What I love about Viatalk is the wealth of privacy/call-blocking options. As soon as I see that weird con artists from out of state or phone solicitors have made calls when I check my call log on the Viatalk website, I either block that number specifically, or the entire area code. Being able to check voicemails online remains a nice and useful feature. The Viatalk team seems to perptually adding functionality to the service, which is always appreciated. The monthly taxes and fees for DC are a miniscule $3.25 a month, and the $189 charge for 24 months of service makes this the most reasonably priced phone service out there.
----------------
I've been with Viatalk for over three years, and I'm still very satisfied with their product. I'm one of the refugees from defunct VOIP company Sunrocket, who had to migrate to another VOIP provider when that company died in August, 2007. I switched to ViaTalk in 2007 and have been very happy since.
The best thing about Viatalk service is the feature-rich website, which allows you to listen to voicemail messages, view call logs of incoming and outgoing calls and take advantage of some very cool call-blocking features. For example, you can block all anonymous calls, block specific numbers, block numbers that begin with a certain prefix, block numbers by Caller ID words, or block numbers from an entire area code. Viatalk also just added the ability to block those weird con artist calls featuring non-standard phone numbers often beginning in "0." Very useful and much appreciated by me, as I have been harassed by these calls in the past.
Viatalk is based in upstate New York. The few times I've called customer service, I've managed to get a customer service rep fairly quickly, who A) spoke flawless English; B) was an American citizen (I assume); and C) was actually helpful. When I call my ISP customer service, I get routed to a call center halfway around the world and a barely intelligible rep of dubious helpfulness, so I do like the fact that one can still get customer service based on American soil, a rarity these days. That is not xenophobia speaking; merely my personal preference.
My experience is that, generally speaking, the quality of VOIP service largely depends on the speed of one's internet connection. I have a fairly mediocre download speed from my cable ISP of roughly 4.5 mb/s and .75 mb/s upload, and despite this, call quality has been consistently good. I do notice some slight deterioration in voice quality when I'm downloading a file, but it's not too bad, and I generally avoid downloading if I'm on a long call anyway.
One thing to be aware of -- if you sign up for a long-term contract, Viatalk does assess monthly E-911 and other charges. These are as follows for NY State: E-911 ($1.00); Regulatory Recovery Fee ($1.97); and E911 Cost Recovery Fee (48 cents), for a total of $3.45 monthly. I personally don't have an issue with this, because I'm satisfied with the service and even taking these fees into account, it is still a far better deal than paying for POTS phone service from Verizon or RCN. I am paying for an 18-month contract (not offered any longer) and my total monthly cost comes out to $13.95. Not bad at all in my book. The new package costs are slightly higher, as prices for service have risen across the VOIP industry, but I still think Viatalk is a great deal.
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 Review by unknvoip
member for 6.8 years, 3167 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 85 days ago
- Rochester,Monroe,NY
- $12 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 10 days
- "Features & Price"
- "None"
- "Reliable service, great features and a great price ."
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2/25/13 - I just renewed for two more years. For me service has been rock solid. No issues during Sandy. No issues during Irene last year. No issues during Nemo. No issues any other time. Not a lot of new features, but the filter on incoming calls are so flexible that I almost never get telemarketer calls. If one slips through, they never do again. They don't have an Android app, but the mobile browser site works nicely. I am actually upping my Web-site rating. It works well, but is a little cluttered. I would give it a 9/10. I am marking it up from 75% because that is too low and my true evaluation is closer to the 5/5.
------------ Original review with older updates appended to end below -------------------------
Have had several months of flawless service, while a few on the forums here have had other experiences. As things stand right now, will probably stay with the service when my current term is up next spring. My favorite feature is custom call routing. Love to forward telemarketers to my cell so I yell at them a few times before forwarding them to the 'Blacklisted' list.
Customer Service can be hit or miss on their helpfulness as some reps are much more capable than others. Some who answer my tickets on-line are completely clueless - sometimes giving me answers that could not remotely apply to my issue.
On the up side, I have only had very few occasional outages for short periods of time.
-- Update history --
Update 10/3/06 - Server upgrades are done and my intermittent outages have ended. Network Down Forward worked great when my cable modem froze up last week. Becoming more satisfied again.
Update 8/10/07 - In the midst of all the Sunrocket users coming over and bogging down Customer Service with install/port/technical issues, the service has been fine for me.
Update 10/16/07 - Very upset over changing the rules of E911 charges after public statement they would not charge for those on pre-paid plans until after renewal. CS rep said they would honor that, but only after my insistence. There needs to be a category for Integrity for the ranking. I would give them a 2/5 on that right now! Lowered other ratings over this issue. This is just plan wrong - what will they do next????
Update 11/28/07 - They have reversed the 911 charges for those prepaid before 10/06 if they contact VT. Better than not honoring prior statements. They seem to have stabilized from the SR debacle. Made a positive change to their TOS to make cancellation less painful. Current thought is to go month-to-month when pre-paid terms are up in 04/09.
Updated 6/23/08 - Working so well for me last few months, forgot to come back and update my review. Happy customer at the moment.
Update 7/29/08 - Recently had my VT supplied adapter blow out in an electrical storm. VT was good and sent out a replacement the next day. Only problem was they did not set up my provisioning of the new adapter to match the old one. I have not been able to get them to respond to tickets to update my provisioning file or to the ones to fix the things that don't work properly because of it (Time and VMWI, specifically). Other than that, service for me has been VERY reliable.
Update 1/23/09 - Through migration to new infrastructure all has been well. No problems ever on calls. CS has become more responsive to my tickets. Others seem to have some issues, but I don't experience any of those things. Added a beta area of CP for new features and feedback. Contacts working better than when first implemented. Ratings increased as a result.
Update 3/10/09 - Made it through the DST change just fine. That had been an issue with my service in the past. While mine was fine, I know some other DSL users had some issues. Insist support sets correct time zone and applies the right DST rule to you adapter and you should be fine.
Update 11/12/09 - It has been a smooth summer for my service. Just works. Call logs have been improved and a few other features have been upgraded in recent months. Decided to renew in Sept. I would still like to see the Contacts section of the CP improved. Overall a very good value for me, so I choose not to pursue switching to a competing service. I have a lot of configuration set to filter calls that I did not want to reproduce and I did not want to risk having to go through the tweaks sometimes necessary with a new provider.
Update 3/30/10 - They continue to develop and enhance features and I recently noticed and issue with how DND feature handled time periods that wrapped the day boundary. Issue was resolved within a couple days and I was provided with a work-around until the fix was implemented. To me, Tech Support now seems that it is where it should be. Very satisfied at the moment.
Update 10/27/10 - Just learned that pre-pay is gone. Now the plans are $17/mo, take it or leave it. I guess I will be looking for another lower cost, but still quality provider that matches my low volume calling needs.
11/8/10 - Pre-pay is gone, but now they have added a light usage plan. $10.95 + tax/fees for 2000 minutes outgoing a month. It takes me 2 years for 2000 outgoing. This will be a great deal for me and keep me from having to uproot and move on. I have adjusted my ratings back appropriately to reflect an improved value for the money.
2/22/11 - last week pulled trigger on the BOGO @ $189. Good with VT for two more years. Been with them almost 5 now. Still working well for me, although I would love to see that Android app come out.
8/3/11 - It just works. Worst thing that happened to me is I noticed my DND settings did not adjust with DST. Submitted a ticket and CS cheerfully moved them all for me. Also let me know they are working on having that be automatic. The best compliment I can give them is: they save me money and I seldom have to think about them.
12/12/11 - Same thing with the switch to standard time. Servers have been solid for me and twice yearly adjustment of my DND settings is not a big deal.
6/13/12 - I just got my 6-month nag from DSLReports to update my review. Not much has changed. Very rare cases of one-way audio from time to time, but otherwise very reliable service. Passed my 6 year anniversary in April.
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 Review by dcurrey
member for 8.9 years, 3343 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 140 days ago
- Mason,Warren,OH
- $13 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 10 days
- "Very reliable low cost service."
- "Have to keep an eye out for renewal specials."
- "Blows POTS service out of water."
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01-02-13
Recently was offered the $189 for 2 years deal. Looks like I am good until 2015.
Nothing else new to report.
05-02-11
April 25th was my 5 year point service continues to perform excellently.
12-31-10
Just recently renewed for another 2 years for $189 BOGO sale.
Nothing else really new to report everything just works.
Total monthly cost now shows included taxes.
10-29-09
Service continues to run smoothly.
Viatalk keeps adding new features such as Callerid Name block. The ability to set forwards, DND, simultaneous ring, etc directly from the phone without having to log into the Control Panel. Outgoing number routing. Now have international plans! The list goes on and on!
Went ahead and upped the value for money. I am done complaining about bogus fees since this is now becoming the norm with voip. Its still not right but what can you do?
02-16-09
Not much has changed since last review.
Service for me is still stable. Tech support is responsive if I do have a trouble ticket issued. Usually 2 a year when time changes. Once in awhile something odd may come up.
Billing is still crazy. Prepay is not truly prepay, prices are not locked in for term, you get almost random taxes and fees billed monthly. Taxes varies greatly depending on location, time of day, phase of moon, weather, mood of CEO, who knows what else they take into account.
11-20-07
As far a reliability goes for the past couple months things have been running very smoothly.
They did update the TOS. VT now has a $49.95 early termination fee. This is an improvement over the %50 early termination fee.
They also from time to time offer current users special 1 year deals. Not as good as the Buy One Get One deal for $199+ but not bad for another years service if you want to risk it.
Due to the massive complaints and bad PR about the fees being added to contracts that have already been paid for the company has been crediting the accounts if you complain about it. And only if you complain about it.
10-16-07
It appears the CEO (VTBrendan) has lied to us. He promised after the bogus fees where added to new accounts that all existing contracts will be honored. (Original thread.»[ViaTalk] ViaTalk TOS Change October 4 2006) We find out today that is not so. They are now only waiving the fees for 1 year.
10-6-06
Viatalk recently added extra fees to cover the cost of doing business expenses.
We already had e-911 as a standard feature. Now we need to pay extra per month for it.
Also added the Regulatory Recover Fee. A total BS fee so they can make more profit and still advertise a lower rate.
People on prepay still have to keep a credit card on file so Viatalk can bill you monthly for the additional fees. This also gives them the ability to raise the rates mid term. Since you are locked in for the term you have no options unless you want to pay a 50% early termination fee.
Its an interesting concept don't you think? A prepay plan that is not prepaid nor locked in.
09-15-06
Signed up on April 25, 2006 during one of the $199 buy 1 year get 1 year free deals. Took longer than usual to get the adapter but once it arrived it was plug and play.
Service for the most part has been pretty good. Sound quality is excellent. Some interruptions when they tried to get server fallover working correctly. For the most part we seem past that, I hope.
Viatalk will give you the admin password for the furnished pap2 if you ask. Great for testing different settings, and general troubleshooting. When you get them they way you like simple submit a trouble ticket and they make the changes permanent. At most trouble tickets have only taken a couple hours. (As far as remember anyway.)
Never had to call customer service so no comment on that. The CEO does post in the voip forum that is a big plus.
They seem interested on what customers have to say. Implement new features all the time. Sometimes without adequately testing them it seems.
Website Control Panel. Layout is a little clumsy. Some feature sets should be combined into single area. Custom Callerid, Call Routing, and Whitelist to name a few.
I will continue to update as needed.
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Review by thefoxbox
member for 8.6 years, 53 visits, last login: 140 days ago
updated 140 days ago
- Irving,Dallas,TX
- $9 per month
- about 14 days
- "It's cheap... $199 for two years (promo rate for 2lines plus $3 a month for federal charges)... Quality is good, when it works."
- "Blinking VM light on Uniden phones and SUPER LONG DELAY before connection unless you dial 1"
- "It works when it works, and it works well. Tech support is a massive joke."
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Updated 1/1/2013: The home phone still uses ViaTalk. Their pricing has been competitive every year. The service is more reliable and more feature-packed than when we first signed up. Viatalk truly makes VoIP service ... sorta fun. (OK, so I get a kick out of sending rude telemarketers to the "blacklisted" message...)
Anyway, their pricing is great and we've been able to renew and get 18 to 24 months instead of just 12 for the same price and we've been with them since late 2007. I'd recommend them... Great unlimited service, although their international charges aren't nearly as competitive as they used to be...
UPDATED 2/24/2009: There may be a sudden influx of renewed 'satisfaction' with ViaTalk over the coming days. They just sent out a nice, long e-mail about how they have upgraded their networks, and wow! The response time is sick (as in amazingly good) in relation to response time over the phone (the time it takes for the other person to hear you and vice-versa). It used to lag and I used to be extremely hesitant to use the home phone. Now it's no problem. Also, the remarks about their customer service still holds reasonably true. If your bill is even one day past due (when my mother had her credit card info stolen and had to be issued a replacement that hadn't yet arrived), they cut off our service. The girl answering the phone didn't really give a crap. I guess that's what you get for $12 a month on average.
Main disadvantage: If you don't dial "1" before a number, be prepared to wait for 10-15 seconds before it even starts ringing... This is a severe annoyance since day one. They explained it to me a while back and it's ridiculous that no other company has this horrid delay, but the price is amazing.
Tech support (avg hold time) is supposedly now three minutes. I wouldn't hold my breath... Maybe 5-10. It's certainly a lot shorter as of late 2009 vs. late 2008.
Amazing price, though. Huge abundance of features... way more than the other three providers I've been with, including Vonage. They also have "labs" features similar to Google that you can sign up for and participate in. They also actively take suggestions from current customers.
Their web site has silly pics/names of the staff, but that's probably my biggest complaint.
-----------Previous Review-----------
These guy's tech support is as bad as Verizon's... but they aren't nearly as massive.
I have had this service since 3Q 2007.
The service is all right. I searched and have had at least three other companies, but this one was the best value. You get two phone lines for the price of one. That's pretty amazing in my book, considering that some companies charge the full price for another line even if you are already a customer.
The VM doesn't work right with Uniden phones and they are "aware" of this issue as of April 2008 (when I last spoke to them about it). [I believe this issue has been resolved since Q3 2009]. They were nice enough to give me the password to check the settings in the box that I got when I signed up to see if I could adjust the settings. It didn't really help. It is working better than before. It just seems that at times, the voice mail light will not turn off even after new messages have been deleted. Sometimes, it's delayed.
I'm glad I got this service, and the international rates are pretty low as well. (Update since Q3 2009: The rates to the only country my mom calls internationally, El Salvador, spontaneously doubled, so you may want to make sure you aren't paying twice as much a month for international calls). I wouldn't go back to POTS anyday, and the discount far outweighs the disadvantages of this service.
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 Review by DaveDude
member for 13.7 years, 4304 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 210 days ago
- New Jersey
- $24 per month
- about 15 days
- "Price is good, lots of features"
- "service went bad lately"
- "Good, but features sometimes dont work"
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Was great till about a month ago. Cant call 800s numbers, or other viatalk customers, Incoming calls going into dead air. Fast busy during calls.
-- 10/24/12-- i cancelled viatalk about 3 months ago, after repeated issues. I would not recommend.
Comments:
 unknvoipRIP goosePremium
join:2006-07-25
Rochester, NY
kudos:1 | Ticket Did you submit a ticket on your caller ID issue? Mine was flakey a long time back, but tweaking some settings and I has worked reliably for years. | |
| | DaveDudeNo Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey
kudos:1 | Re: Ticket yes and they fixed it in like 2 days. | |
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 Review by v35_pilot
member for 7.4 years, 2337 visits, last login: 55 days ago
updated 265 days ago
- Fayetteville,Onondaga,NY
- $20 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 4 days
- "Excellent and powerful phone features, cost of service, voice quality"
- "None as of this review period."
- "Quality and reliability quite high in my experience."
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----- Update, August 2012 --------
Another year and I am still a customer, which is now extending into my sixth year with Viatalk. I have grown to really love and depend on the much more powerful call features (when compared to cable's very weak digital phone offering). As long as service reliability remains as high as it has been this past year (again, about a 98% reliability factor), I will remain a happy customer.
Calling tech support is still a random exercise in "let's see how much unwarranted arrogance from a level 1 support rep I can tolerate in one session," but as long as there is no need to call I am fine.
----- Update, June 2011 --------
For the most part, my phone service through VT has not been at the forefront of my mind; that is because it has been reliable and call quality good. I would estimate that over the last two years reliability has been around 95%, with just very occasional hiccups. If I am not thinking about the phone every time I pick it up it is working as I expect. And for that I am appreciative.
----- Update, April 2009 --------
Please, oh please do not let my positive experience over these last few months be a curse!  My latest update is to share my happiness with ViaTalk's improvements to stability and overall reliability of the service. I have not had any VT-side complaints in at least three months now. Thank you, VT, for your hard work in improving the customer experience.
Like most customers, I also wish that VT would combine all of the piddly taxes and fees into one monthly invoice but that is just a minor issue.
----- Update, late June 2008 --------
Hey, wait a minute. I indicated in my previous update that I was jumping ship, so what happened? Am I still with VT? Yes, I am still with them. Why? Well, pretty much right after that update back in January a number of VT team members made a very public appearance into the VT forums and it seemed to me that the company recognized the importance of addressing some of their customer perception issues across all fronts. It appeared that there was a rebirth of sorts in customer service so I decided to stick around and see how that played out. For the most part it worked.
Over the last six months there was only one massive failure (service went down for at a day due, supposedly, to problems at an upstream provider) and at least two minor but annoying hiccups (inbound calls would disconnect within 5 seconds of answering). In the second case, the presence of the different VT team members in the forums was instrumental in getting a quick resolution.
Conclusion: I still see VT as a company with great potential. If only the problems could become even less frequent so that my confidence in my phone service could grow, I know I could remain a customer for a long time.
----- Update, late January 2008 --------
Well, it came down to continued poor reliability even after the barrage of similar complaints on DSLR and sharply declining VT ratings. One would think that the company would have instigated some type of PR damage control here in DSLR but to this day there has been no outward attempt to repair the declining reputation. It seems as if some are in a heavy state of denial.
To this day I still had issues calling specific local exchanges - dial tone, dial a number, then nothing. Party at other end admitted later that I was connected but I could never hear a thing and was forced to redial. Got more complaints from others about my voice still breaking up occasionally mid-call.
And frankly, I am concerned about this company's financial longevity. Signs abound regarding cash flow problems, especially in looking at continued affiliate payment issues posted to the VT forum here. Sunrocket's demise has elevated my sensitivity to other small companies' abilities to weather the challenges they face.
I still think VT has the basis for a good product and I will use the forum to watch them from a distance, but somewhere between the raw product and the execution there are faulty methods and procedures that have yet to be corrected.
----- Update, early January 2008 --------
First it was the poor response times and poor quality of customer service after the Sunrocket demise late last summer, but I could deal with that since I had no problems with my phone reliability and no real reason to contact customer support. But then service and call quality began to degrade.
It started with occasional loud distortion while talking. A bigger problem replaced that one when outgoing calls would not connect at all (dial tone, dial, then nothing). That problem segued into multiple problems with voicemail - could not dial VM from my VT phone (fast busy after dialing) and had to retrieve VM through the website - worse still, at least six voicemails were taken by the VT VM system one afternoon and then lost (could not be recovered by VT or retrieved by me).
The latest unresolved problems have to do with calls that drop in the middle and inbound calls that drop the second I answer the phone. It seems that this service is getting worse rather than better, despite the valiant efforts of the VT techs who reply in the VT board here on DSLreports. My ISP is Verizon FIOS and my VT-supplied ATA is in the DMZ so I KNOW the problems are not at my end. Furthermore, all of these problems have been reported by many others in the VT board here over the last few months.
The bottom line for me is that if I don't see improvement over the next month I will be forced by continued poor reliability to shop for another VoIP provider. Too bad, too, since this company has the foundation to provide excellent service.
-------- Original Review, October 2006 --------
As a newbie to VOIP, I signed up on Monday, 9/19/06, at 3:30 pm Eastern US time for a one month plan to compare the reliability and quality of this service side-by-side with my Verizon POTS phone. The favorable reviews here, combined with forum participation by ViaTalk’s CEO and a tech support member, were the reasons for my choice in VOIP providers.
My credit card was billed the following day, Tuesday, about 5:00 pm, or about 26 hours after signing up. Within a half an hour of being charged for the service, I received a second email with my new ViaTalk phone number and temporary password to access my account on the web site. When I accessed the website to see my order status, my equipment was shown as shipped and a tracking number provided.
I then signed into the ViaTalk control panel on their website and spent about an hour acquainting myself with all of the basic and advanced phone features available. ViaTalk has an extensive group of features that offer incredible control over one’s phone service.
The welcome package with the PAP2 adapter took three days from the time I was billed to arrive at my house. Installation of the PAP2 was a breeze and I was up with a dial tone mere seconds after removing the PAP2 device from the box and connecting it to my phone and existing router (Note: save the PAP2 box and all included instructions, just in case you need to return it to ViaTalk). I then placed a couple of calls to friends and family and noted a few issues with call quality. Intermittent audio and echoing plagued my calls, despite using Verizon FiOS and their plentiful 5 Mbps upload bandwidth as my ISP.
I called tech support, waited only a minute in the queue, and received excellent technical support. ViaTalk support made a quick change to the PAP2 so that it would use a different port, and also sent me an email with instructions on how to move the PAP2 into the router’s DMZ. After the port change and the modification to move the PAP2 into my router’s DMZ, call quality improved dramatically.
After using the service for one month, I decided that reliability and call quality were good enough (not perfect, however) to take the plunge by requesting the porting of my existing Verizon POTS phone number. Porting my phone number from Verizon to VT (all handled by VT) took 10 calendar days from the time I faxed my request to ViaTalk until the day I received an email announcing its completion. There was a three hour period during the day my number was ported where inbound callers received a “This number has been disconnected” message, but other than that the porting was painless.
At that point I also took advantage of a one year deal that ViaTalk started during that week, which effectively lowered my monthly bill to about $11.70/month (this included the one month I paid to test the service, the installation and setup fees, and the one year deal). My Verizon POTS service was about $60/month for unlimited calls in the US and Canada, but only included the caller ID and call waiting features.
With a bit over one month of call history now (about 2500 minutes), I have experienced approximately 97% service reliability. Problems occur in the order of one out of every 30 calls or so and range from major issues like no outbound audio or calls that don’t complete, to minor issues like occasional echo on either side of the call.
At this point I am happy with my service. My greatest satisfaction comes from having complete control over my phone calls, thanks to ViaTalk’s extensive list of features and web-based control panel. The "Do Not Disturb" feature combined with a White List (phone numbers I allow through the DND) allows me to turn off my phone (send calls to voicemail) in the evening and back on the next morning, meaning very limited interruptions during dinner and evening prime time.
One other recommendation I discovered is to sign up for VT's priority customer service at $1.95/month for a few months in the beginning. This allows any call to customer service to move up to the top position in the queue, if there is one. The few times I called customer service to date there were 11 to 15 others in line awaiting assistance. Being sent to the top of the queue resulted in much shorter waits on hold.
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 Review by dmolavi
member for 8.1 years, 1779 visits, last login: 5 days ago
updated 300 days ago
- Sewell,Gloucester,NJ
- $17 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 1 days
- "When it worked, it worked well."
- "Upgrades in March 2012 caused so many problems, I had to leave them."
- "Not as reliable as they once were."
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UPDATE 25 July 2012:
So ViaTalk decided to stick me with a $0.90 E911 fee the day after I cancelled, which caused my number to remain in their system. The port to my new provider completed, however, people on ViaTalk's network could not contact me. It was only after threatening an FCC complaint did the completely release the number.
UPDATE 17 July 2012:
Today was my last day of ViaTalk service, after almost 5 years of using them. Unfortunately, some upgrades they did this year rendered the service all but unusable for me. I hope that they can bring the reliability back, and if so, I will return as a customer, as I thought they were one of the best out there.
UPDATE 11 February 2010:
Recently got a new VT provisioned ATA as my BYOD from SunRocket finally went to the scrap pile in the sky. Service is still rock solid, and I have no plans on leaving anytime soon.
UPDATE: 6 May 2008 - All is well in VT-land. WAF is at an all time high, new CP seems to be working well, service has been very reliable.
What else can I say? I got stuck in the SR fallout, signed up on Monday night, had config info Tuesday afternoon, placed my first call shortly after that. Voice quality is better than SR, and the website is much more feature rich. I'll update shortly once they grab the 12 months on my SR contract and after I've had more experience w/ them.
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Review by mogulman
member for 10.7 years, 2074 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 1.1 years ago
- Parker,Douglas,CO
- $13 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 14 days
- "Tech Support US Based, Good. Ticket Tracking System. Web interface. Inexpensive. Pretty reliable VoIP service"
- "Tech support isn't 24/7"
- "Good Telephone service for the money. Lots of features. Mostly Reliable. Not for a newbie."
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Reliability:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Update 3/2012
Still working well. Better then my other line on another VoIP provider. I just renewed for 2 more years.
update: 11/2011
Service has been really good since last review. No real issues. I think MWI (Message Waiting) is still slow to get cleared, but otherwise service has been really good.
update: 9/2010
For the past year..everything was working great until a few weeks ago. MWI light and a few dialing problems. I called a support ticket and I think it has been fixed. I renewed my service.
I'm considering adding another line, but want to try some more next week and see if everything is resolved.
Update 7/2009
Haven't updated in a while so I thought I'd give it a go. I had some intermittent issues with Voicemail waiting indicators about 2 months ago. Otherwise, call quality and features have been good for me for the last 6+ months. Voicemail waiting indicator problem hasn't resurfaced either.
When the problem was happening with VMWI, I believe it was something with VT or with my ISP. I was never able to nail it down. I changed a bunch of settings and talked to tech support and magically things got fixed. Hopefully the issue won't come back. Either way it wasn't a major issue.
Features/quality for price is still great for Viatalk for me and my family. I still wish the service was more of a plug and play without needing to call support. If this was the case it would be more suited for non-techie people.
Update: 3/26/08
VT is still really good. I got moved to their new control panel. It is pretty nice after getting used to it. There are a couple of features I wish they would bring over from the old one.
Reliability has still been pretty good for me over the last few months. The main issue people seem to have is with certain servers, and then having to be switched to different servers. I haven't experienced this though.
I believe VT is still not the best for non-technical users.
I think if VT did the following:
-Increased their reliability/handling of Proxy Servers
-Made it easier for people to join with hardware that is pre-configured for what users want most (VMWI, Better Dialplan).
-Maybe provide an ATA that can sit in front of a home router...
-Made some minor tweaks to their control panel
They would be able to get more novice users onboard without as much problems.
Update: 2/11/08
Viatalk Customer Service has improved greatly. I've had great response lately. As good or better then any services I have (Internet, Phone, etc). Call quality is still very good. VT has made a very good effort at improving their image and quality. My service current 2 year term is expiring in April. I've signed up for an additional year.
Updated: 1/22/08
Service has been pretty reliable for me for that last 6 months. Support has been good too. My contract will be running out in about 3 months. I'm trying to decide if I want to renew or not.
The only issue is that now Viatalk is adding about $3.50 per line/month for fees. So this brings their price up a little higher. I really need to either pay a single yearly fee or pay monthly. I can't pay both. I'm considering trying other providers like Voicepulse.
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I've had Viatalk service for approximately a year. I had Vonage server for a few years before that. I have 2 lines with Viatalk.
When I first signed up for Viatalk the sign-up process was pretty easy. I signed up on the web. I got my account information and devices within a few weeks of signing up. I understand that this period is normally quicker, but I signed up when there was a big promotion going on, so they were extremely busy.
I received 2 Linksys PAP2 devices for my phone lines. One for each line. The service didn't work immediately with me just hooking up the devices. On Vonage, the devices worked out-of-the-box. I called Viatalk tech support and they helped me through some configuration changes and I was up and running. This took less then an hour. During my number porting, one line ported quickly and easily. The other line was stuck for a little while. I had to make numerous calls to Vonage to get the port to be finalized. Vonage hadn't completely released my line from their system so my 911 service was messed up on that line. This was a Vonage problem and not Viatalk.
For the first 3-4 months I had phone service with Viatalk, the service was a little flaky. I would say I ran about 85% of the time without any issues. The issues that I did have were not severe, most of the time. I did have a couple of times where call forwarding wasn't working correctly. I also lost some calls. To be honest, I was almost ready to ditch the service, except the price and tech support at Viatalk was really good. All the tech support people have been really good at Viatalk.
Anyway... about 4 months into my service they added redundant servers into their system. This helped greatly with the uptime/quality of my service. They also added options and fixed some options on their site. For the last 8 months my service has been really great. I've had maybe 5 times over the last 8 months where I have had any type of downtime. They have all been for less then a few minutes.
Viatalk has listened to its users and added features. They have also modified existing features and made them better. There are tons of features with Viatalk service. The price is right. They also give you complete access (username/password) to your phone devices if you want it. I'm a geek so I enjoy looking at that stuff. Vonage would never give users access to their devices.
I'd say the best things about Viatalk right now:
1. Value
2. Tech Support - and the ability to track any tickets that you create
3. Call Quality/Reliability
4 Features
Things that could be improved on Viatalk (not much):
1. PAP2 devices are still provisioned and sent to users with pretty generic settings. Viatalk should come up with a better pre-set profile on their devices so users don't have to tweek as much. This includes timezone settings, Dialplans, and Ringer settings.
2. Some parts of the web-interface could use some improvement. Maybe a little extra speed in the web-interface and voicemail
My whole household uses the Viatalk service and my wife (non-geek) has been pretty happy with the service.
Comments:
| next review in page (previous review)
Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 1.3 years ago
- Wyckoff,Bergen,NJ
- $13 per month
- "voice quality, no contract"
- "startup technical issues"
- "Overall good value"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Been using ViaTalk for 4 weeks. So far, so good. Installation was easy
using the Linksys PAP2 adapter. Had some issues at first which required
calls to tech support. Voice quality was bad, was unable to connect to toll
free numbers. These problems were resolved quickly by ViaTalk support.
Since then I had some other minor issues but it seems everything is now
working as it should be. I have 2 lines hooked up to the inside wiring of
my home. Once everything was working properly I ported my phone number.
Number porting took 2 weeks. The features are very good. I have several
numbers blocked, telemarketers, robo calls, etc. Can also block by caller
ID name. Pricing is reasonable.
Comments:
| next page (previous review)
Review by poolek
member for 9.5 years, 2135 visits, last login: 20 days ago
updated 1.5 years ago
- Austin,Travis,TX
- $15 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 6 days
- "Lots of features, great price, responsive tech support"
- "None"
- "Great Service, Crappy referral rewards program"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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**10-31-2011**
Still working fine, though I have had a couple of occasions where the DTMF tones were not being recognized, prompting a ticket submission for resolution. The price is reasonable and I love the routing options.
**9-14-2010**
Still working fine. We're not heavy users, but I've noticed no down time and the feature set is more than comprehensive enough to cover my needs. Will be extending my service when my current plan is up.
**4-19-2009**
All continues to work well. No real complaints. The service is stable, the feature set is rich and the price is more than fair. I've been a VT customer for 3 years now and am quite pleased.
**9-21-2008**
Viatalk continues to work well for me. I'm not a big fan of the 'extra' charges that keep popping up, but can't complain about the service otherwise. We're back in the US now and the phone service continues to work well.
**2/4/2008**
Viatalk continues to work well. I took a long-term business assignment overseas, and took the adapter with me. It has worked perfectly and saved myself and my family tons on international long distance calls. Features like programmable Do-not-disturb allowed me to work around the time-zone differences to ensure my phone wasn't ringing at 2:00 am. I just recently added another year of service.
That said, I'm tempted to remove my review. Viatalk has had a 'Get Free Service' promo where you get a discount on service based on referring new customers. Only problem is, they won't let you use that discount on renewal offers - only on list-price stuff. So, the end result is that the thing is worthless. Since Viatalk doesn't value my recommendations, I figure I should delete my positive review. However, I like DSLReports and hopefully my content will be useful for them.
So, in short - good VOIP service, crappy referral rewards program.
**3/5/2007**
I've had Viatalk for over a year now, and it's as close to perfect as I can expect from voip. The phone works every time I pick it up, sound quality is great, they keep adding features and my bill is stupid cheap. I don't know what else to ask for. It's been one of the better purchase decisions I've made in the last year.
We had our first child last year and I decided to switch back to DSL with the mandatory basic landline for use as a 911 outlet for additional peace-of-mind whenever we have baby sitters. It makes me smile each time I recieve my ATT bill and see that I'm paying more each month for 20 local calls with zero features than I do for unlimited calls with more features than I can think of with Viatalk.
**7/25/2006**
I've had Viatalk for about 6 months now. The stability has been fine - I don't recall a time the phone didn't work. Viatalk has continued to add features and has addressed all of the 'rough edges' I'd mentioned in my first review - I can access VM by dialing my home number, the call logs have been reformatted, DTMF issues have been addressed, and they've added more and more new features. I almost miss the old voicemail lady now!
I have absolutely no complaints. The service has been stable, the feature set covers every need I have (and then some) and the price is 1/8th of what I was paying on average for POTS. Keep up the good work!
**5/1/2006**
My number port went through a few days ago without any issue (22 calendar days after submitting the request), though porting numbers does require you to re-enter all of your settings (Voicemail prompts, Custom CallerID settings, ACR settings, etc), which is a pain.
Call quality continues to be pretty good. Possbly more inconsistent than Vonage, with a little more static - though I may just be listening for problems more attently now.
Viatalk added new regional servers recently. My ping times dropped by ~50%. I haven't noticed any change in call quality due to this, but it should help maintain quality in times of net congestion.
Customer Services seems overwhelmed right now. When my number ported, the configuration for VMWI got wiped from my adaptor. I submitted a TT to have the setting updated again and it's been open for 4 days now. I ended up chaging the setting myself and disabling provisioning to make it 'stick'. I'll re-enable provisioning when the ticket is finally closed. Not a big issue because the problem isn't a big deal - but I'd be upset if I were having real problems and had to wait 4 days for response.
Reliability seems ok. Calls continue work inbound and out. I've seen a few notices on BBR of Viatalk downtime, but either they've been on different servers, or were fixed prior to me testing the phone.
The 'Rough Edges' I mentioned in my prior review are still there, though the lady on the voicemail is starting to grow on me. Still wish I could access VM by dialing my home number. Still wish I could see how many minutes I've used against my 500 not counting outbound Toll Free.
Bottom line : It seems to work as well as Vonage, with all the features I need. The price is a bit cheaper, too. If they can get caught up on Customer Service issues, and maintain the level or reliability I've experienced, I'll be a happy customer.
**4/17/2006**
I'd used Vonage for a few months, but lack of name on outbound callerID became an issue, so I decided to search for a new provider. I ended up going with ViaTalk based on the price of their 500 minute plan, availability of the feature set I wanted and overall positive feedback I'd seen on this site.
I signed up for the 12 month 500 minute plan, got 2 months free and used the DSLREPORTS coupon. Add in the $10 shipping charge, and that comes to about $8.50 a month - about half of what I'm paying for a similar Vonage plan.
I ordered late on a Tuesday, had the account set up and number assigned on Friday and the adaptor was here on Monday. I plugged in the adaptor and had dial tone in less than a minute. Inbound and outbound calling worked just fine. I forwarded my Vonage number to the Viatalk account and spent a couple of weeks evaluating the service.
The Good Stuff:
Call Quality: Call quality is the same as Vonage - which means it's as good as or better than the POTS line it replaced. I've also never experienced any of the nagging little issues that I occasionally had on Vonage - such as not hearing the called party for the first couple of seconds of the call, voicemail indicator getting out of sync, etc. The service just works.
Features: Name on Outbound callerID works as it should. I notice more people answering my calls now. Custom CallerID is an excellent feature that I never thought I'd use. ACR falls into that category as well.
Tech Support: My VMWI light wasn't working when I first installed the adaptor. I submitted a ticket to Tech Support and the issue was fixed within an hour. They also provided me with the admin password for the PAP2. I don't really need it, but it is nice to have.
Presence on BBR: I love that Viatalk maintains an active presence on BBR to facilitate feedback on their product. It's also awesome to see that they actually take that feedback and improve their product based on it. I can only hope they can maintain such a 'grassroots' feel as they grow.
The Rough Edges :
Voicemail: It's completely functional, but seems a step behind Vonage and other VM systems I've used. The voice prompts are very computerized and mechanical, some prompts suggest actions that don't work (ex: pressing '#' when leaving a message does nothing, though the IVR instructs you to do that), and you can't access your VM by dialing your home number.
Web Site: Works well, but some things could be improved. Call logs are all based on EST time. If you're not on the east coast, everything will be off. Time used on outbound calls doesn't account for usage of toll free numbers not counting against your 500 minutes, so if you call toll-free often, the total time used feature isn't very useful. You log in using your phone number, so when you port a number, you have to set everything up again.
Features: I haven't been able to get Call Recording or Call Transfer to work. I don't use the features, so I haven't bothered to submit a trouble ticket to see if I can get them to work.
Still to be seen :
Reliability: So far the service seems pretty stable. I had one time where I tried to call and the call didn't seem to go through. I made the call using my Vonage account and everything worked. I tried again a few minutes later on Viatalk and it worked there too. May just be coincidence, but I have been spoiled by the stability of my Vonage account, so I'm sensitive to things not working. Otherwise, things have worked as expected and I've had no known downtime.
My Bottom Line:
I'm quite pleased. The things that I listed as 'Rough Edges' are relatively small issues to me and don't diminish from the usability of the service as a landline replacement (though I would like to see them addressed one day). Add in the additional features, strong tech support, willingness to improve service based on feedback and better price and I find Viatalk to be a better choice for me than Vonage - assuming the reliability is similar. Time will tell on that, but it looks promising so far. I’ll follow up in a couple of months.
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CARD
get a can and drill a hole at the bottom and stick a internet card in there and i did and i had 1 bar with out a can and when i put it on i got 5
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