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Review by Davesworld See Profile

  • Location: Everett, Snohomish, WA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
  • Install: about 1 days
Very polished website, True incoming CNAM, load balanced servers.
Can't really think of anything
You can't go wrong with CallCentric.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Update October 2013:

Still as reliable as ever with good quality.

I recently flew into the face of danger and got the updated Snom M9r. Callcentric not only has a working config posted for this device but Callcentric works well on this hardware, the best I have seen so far as matter of fact if you include MWI and mailbox dialing. VM shows on the lower right of a M9r handset screen when there is a message, clicking the button goes straight to voicemail, no dialing anything. I believe this is due to a proper mailbox matching your user name.

Almost a year ago Callcentric was hit with DDOS followed by the worst natural disaster in decades. I didn't want to make a kneejerk decision based on this so stood fast. Things returned to normal and now they've added subaccounts. Also the registration status now shows what device and firmware you are connected with. Other useful features is the ability to use another CID that belongs to you such as your cellphone number for those who only know you by your cell and would not answer otherwise.

Now I just need a good dial plan to reduce the number of digits needing to be dialed and someone to talk to on g.722.

Original:
I have been using CallCentric since early this year 2010. I decided to port my main DID I have had since 2007 into CallCentric from Ooma. We succeeded despite many obstacles from Ooma.

I use an Audiocodes MP-118 FXS as a gateway and the call quality is as good as I have ever heard within the 4khz boundary of conventional telephony. HD is possible with both the gateway and CallCentric should I ever want to use it. Since this device can become very complicated depending on how many providers you use on one gateway, it's not surprising that no ITSP has a setup guide for this equipment including CallCentric.

The order process was very uncomplicated, the install process is only as complicated as the equipment YOU provide and how well you know that equipment, the sip credentials were easily available immediately.

CallCentric DOES require 11 digit dialing and there actually are a few ATA's that won't map a workaround so you can do 7 and 10 digit dialing. Keep this in mind if you can't fathom the idea of dialing 11 digits always because your equipment won't do a dial plan or other digit mapping.

Any issues I have had were handled easily by opening a trouble ticket and in a much more efficient manner than would be if you were calling customer support for other ITSP's and getting a script reader. Some criticize Callcentric for having no phone support but I think what they have is better and they are responsive 24/7/365.

CallCentric supports t.38 for fax and it is reported to be working as of now.

Call Treatments have been extremely helpful in thwarting off pesky robodialers at times.

The dashboard feature when you log in gives you everything important at a glance such as registration status of your gateway/sip client, messages and the most recent incoming and outgoing call history, incoming and outgoing plans as well as account balance.

I didn't give a monthly cost because I'm on pay per minute and it various from next to nothing to several dollars depending on activity. I've only had to add funds very infrequently.


member for 16.4 years, 2335 visits, last login: 33 days ago
updated 10.4 years ago


Review by gredzok See Profile

  • Location: Topeka, Shawnee, KS, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Nice, mostly reliable service
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

What I like about cc is that it is a nice, steady, mostly reliable service.

But for what you get the prices are a little high at least if you are using pay-as-you-go. I miss most an IVR. If they put that in as they say they are going to, I will have a higher opinion of the company.

Like other users I cant forget the hurricane disaster with them going down because their servers are all sitting together in some building in New York without even electrical backup. There are no plans to fix that gaping hole as far as I know from reading here.

member for 10.5 years, 4 visits, last login: 10.1 years ago
lodged 10.4 years ago

PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

All we need to know....

The fact that you gave them crap scores on "Ease of Installation" and on "Website" tell us that this is just a Saturday drive-by trashing....

Especially when you paired it with a review giving full 100's to Voip.MS.

And considering that no BYOD service has easier installation than CallCentric.

-----

They [had] multiple backup measures in place with Hurricane Sandy. All of them failed, but that was far from the only failure that dark day.

And they are putting more backups in place. Guess that news hasn't reached you yet in Kansas, or should I say Montreal?

CallCentric had [one] big failure. Voip.MS has had a [hundred] smaller ones and actually has to post a log of their ongoing issues.

Freedom of choice.
Iscream
Premium Member
join:2009-02-17
New York, NY

10 recommendations

Iscream

Premium Member

Why do some people have more judjing rights than other?

Thank you for detailed and objective review.

For what it worth - "their" servers are not "in some building in New York", but rather their servers WERE strategically installed (12 years ago!) in their own data-center in one of the most developed telecom buildings in New York, in one of so called "Telecom Hotel" buildings in the heart of the telecom and data-com World's triangle formed by 25 Broadway--75 Broad--60 Hudson.

They are directly interconnected with most national and international carriers via their own lines - this is a primary reason of WHY their service is so reliable and voice quality is SO HIGH and why there is virtually NO latency to most places of the world!

Their datacenter is based on $20M investment into best brands of carrier grade equipment and underlying infrastructure.

Their datacenter is strategically connected to 3 (three!) different electrical grids in the city - the one feeding NYSE and NASDAQ, another is a residential grid of lower Manhattan and the third one is a composite network of the building itself.

Their datacenter has its own (in addition to building's) dual redundant air-conditioning system.

Each their 40U rack of equipment has a dual AC feed whereas each feed is supported by its own UPS. Each server within each rack has dual power supplies whereas each power supply is connected to its power feed.

All major system components consist of dual clustered servers where each server in a cluster is placed in different rack and connected to different pair of electrical feeds.

All telecom (TDM) lines are connected to dual OC12 rings to interconnect with other carriers and all tandem switches in New York while the network core is based by Alcatel-Lucent Plexus 9000 switches, communicating via SS7 signaling network with the rest of telecom world. Callcentric divisions are fully licensed Long Distance (IXC), local (CLEC) and Toll Free (RespOrg) providers by FCC and NY state and unlike of many other providers - Callcentric divisions pays all related telecom charges and taxes while NOT charging their customers.

An Internet is provided via multigigabit fiber network core formed by a cluster of Cisco 6500 switches connected to multiple Internet backbones via BGP-4 peering. Callcentric is self served ARIN licensed ISP operating its own IP networks.

No single, and in many cases multiple, equipment or power network line failure may cause a critical failure or disruption of Callcentric services and operations. And this has been proven by 12 years of steady service record.

Now, after saying the above - in October 2012 Callcentric has been attacked by a multimillion zombie computer "conglomerate" with only one goal - to remove it from the surface of Earth. The distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) lasted with varying power during 24 continuous days while several different service destroying protocols and techniques were used against Callcentric. This attack itself as well as most of techniques were filed and documented with FBI and FCC.

The attack had been suppressed by having a huge available IP bandwidth, by investing into and installing a set of 12 new and replacing 8 old session border controllers and by purchasing and installing a totally new peripheral "weapon" as an add-on module to the IP router - automated protocol analyzer and malicious packet dropping device. The total cost of one time investment to mitigate and suppress the attack exceeded $300K and had an adverse effect on Callcentric's budget.

I must (and I want it again to) express a "Big thank you" and a credit to the only competing provider who contacted us back then and who offered their help - PhonePower (while some other providers were taking an advantage of the situation by offering "discounted move-out" price to Callcentric customers). Speaking of helping us - many regular people contacted us and offered their knowledge of protocols as well as proposed some solutions and ideas as well as NY University's Internet Defense Force Group have greatly helped us. A very good ideas and monitoring help was proposed and provided by ACME Packet engineers. Thank you all!

Well, it's been exactly 12 months today (since October 5, 2012), a 1st anniversary date since that "very black" day in Callcentric history. During past few weeks some people again reverted back here and came once again to beat the same dead horse over and over as it were not enough made during several months after the DDoS and the hurricane Sandy. Some people still come and leave their "reviews" while saying "AVOID" as if it were not enough harm caused to Callcentric who tries hard to bring more choice to telephone arena.

A one day after the finally being able to "breathe" normally after the DDoS attack - the hurricane Sandy has covered the New York City while having its center exactly _ABOVE_ the area where Callcentric is located. Virtually everything in this area went out of order - subway lines and stations, tunnels (Battery Tunnel wasn't operating next 3 weeks after the hurricane), electrical networks and telecommunication lines. On top of the above - the Lower Manhattan Power Station has been blown up too. Almost all sewage lines were overfilled thus causing waters to run by roads and curbs penetrating all buildings' basements were most electrical switches and air conditioning equipment installed.

Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-mo and cable networks were NOT operational in this area during next 3 to 6 months. Some building there are still closed. NASDAQ was not working 3 days.

In all these conditions Callcentric was able to bring up electrical network, air-conditioning, restore IP and TDM interconnections and restore its service just within 53 hours after the failure.

*** Yes, that still was a 53 hour long outage. ***

But this outage has been mitigated while MOST other [Tier-1, multi-billion dollar] carriers and suppliers were still NOT operational.

NO single Verizon or cable telephone line (and most cellular network were down too) was working at that time in Lower Manhattan while Callcentric was already providing its service to customers.
Btw... elevators were not operating too... Most buildings' employes as well as Callcentric's were walking up and down just by their legs...

Well, some/many people blame on Callcentric the fault of not having a power generator. So NASDAQ _DID_ have a generator - so what? Did it help it to avoid the outage? Even if that happened and Callcentric power would be intact -
*** ALL OTHER NETWORK CARRIERS WERE STILL DOWN AT THAT TIME! ***
Some of those [Tier-1] carriers were down much longer than Callcentric was.

On top of that - it was technically and financially almost impossible (for a small company like Callcentric) to have a generator in private use for its datacenter while the building itself had its own one, which also failed to start as a result of being flooded and the whole internal building's power network was wet during next two days.

Even now, after the city had simplified some codes related to installing industrial power generators - it's almost impossible and/or financially not feasible to get one for Callcentric's own operations. This past spring Callcentric had obtained building's permit to install the generator, but city's administrative personnel and power engineering company have evaluated an approximate cost of installing a generator to be within budgetary $350K to $550K with a planned approximate development and installation time frame between 2 to 3 years (!).

For those who're interested - Callcentric has 10 x 40U racks of equipment, 6 x 40 Ton AC units while consuming around 300KW of 3 phase electrical power. To make this "simple" task more entertaining - please consider that Callcentric can NOT install the generator onto its own floor because it's _not_allowed_ by NY city code. Per city's code the generator may be installed only on _open_air_, not close than some certain distance from walls and windows and having exhaust pipes leading gases to a roof of building. The natural gas supply lines may NOT be installed _above_ 2nd floor of industrial building (Callcentric's datacenter is on 10th floor of 24 stories building).

Callcentric is still pursuing in this direction.

Some residents of these boards have visited Callcentric in past (hey - time to revisit us again, many things changed, some new systems were installed since ) and I may _again_ extend our invitation to anyone who wants to visit us, who wants to see a real, live telecom service operator and engineering solutions used - you're welcome; just send a PM to me or contact Callcentric via e-mail. Hey - competitors are invited too.

Some other people blame on Callcentric that it might have a distributed network in different cities... Well - it definitely could, but then it would be a different company with a different service offerings and price structure. Some competitors use this approach and their customers have been bragging a lot about its excellence... I'm not saying that it's impossible - moreover, during last 12 months, Callcentric has done a lot in order to utilize distributed nature of the Internet and has implemented many technical changes and improvements, but certain qualities, features and price ranges are possible only within certain constructional limits.

Moreover, I must say that those competitors who utilize so called "distributed" multi-point-of-presence concept - have their own number of [daily] problems and related issues. That's right - they were keeping up during the catastrophic night of hurricane Sandy... but they have their own known troubles many times discussed on these very boards. I leave for other members to refer to, analyze and discuss those issues.

At the conclusion I may say that Callcentric is still a _small_ independent, fully US based and engineered company committed and striving to provide an excellent service and quality of voice and numerous advanced features while it must operate within heavily constrained budget, high risks of Internet fraud, very low margins, pay all related telecom taxes and operate in very dense competition; at that same time - it's one of the oldest (or the oldest one? among living now VoIP businesses whose names I remember since those early days when we first opened our doors to retail customers - to my memory comes only CallWithUs; I'm apologizing if I missed some other competitor - I'm getting older ), pioneering companies who made it known to wide consumer audience the whole new world - the world of BYOD or Bring Your Own Device, who keeps its network fully open for anyone who wants to get most out of their devices, software, functions or/and features available via SIP protocol.

Today Callcentric is the ONLY company who provides a TOTALLY FREE FULL telephone SERVICE to anyone in the world - Free New York phone numbers, Free multiple Voice Mail boxes per account, Free multiple incoming Fax to e-mail and Fax to WEB boxes, Free Caller-ID with Free Caller NAME, free multiple telephone extensions, free SIP to SIP communication with other networks, free INUM numbers, free support for SIP Broker with 1000s incoming numbers in many countries/cities to support SIP Broker's operations, Free Toll Free number termination via SIP Broker and probably many other features which I simply forgot to mention.

And all the above is topped up with a totally FREE technical support via automated trouble-ticketing system (also an invention and in-house implementation of Callcentric). To my best knowledge - no other SIP provider has fully functioning, real service accounts for FREE with a free unlimited support.

Thank you.

Review by filostrato See Profile

  • Location: Sacramento, Sacramento, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Avoid
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Sep 29
I have Callcentric as a second line, using it occasionally for
outgoing calls to use up the few dollars I have in it.

Their servers are in one place, and a problem with that, which they found
out about during the hurricane, is that if they lose power or
have some other disaster, their entire company is offline.

Not forgotten either was their spokesman's insistence that their
single server location, and no generator backup, was perfectly ok
and people had no business complaining about it. I feel uncomfortable
relying on such a company.

Another potential problem for them, at least from what I read here,
is that it is difficult to accommodate the equipment they use to
useful new features or to making their servers geographically
redundant.

They need to mature in terms of equipment allowing them to be more
flexible - and in their attitude.

In a word: if you can find something equivalent or better (and it
is easy to do that), avoid Callcentric until they have grown up a
bit.

member for 11.3 years, 4 visits, last login: 10.4 years ago
updated 10.5 years ago


XANAVirus
Premium Member
join:2012-03-03
Lavalette, WV

XANAVirus

Premium Member

Technically...

All those natural things you listed that could happen to Callcentric (burst water pipes, fire, power problems), they could still happen to a provider even if they have geographically diverse servers.

Sure, the chance is much much lower, but you can't say for *sure* that nothing could go wrong at all those data centers owned by the same company.

Different disasters at all those data centers could come together to bring down a diversely-hosted provider (fires at one center, burst water pipe at another, etc.).
Not to mention just general overload of the servers and random glitches that can happen sometimes.

It doesn't matter how many differently-located data centers you've got, you would know that nothing is fool-proof and everything fails eventually. You would not be saying you're immune to being taken offline, because the Universe loves a challenge.

This is just another of those posts decrying Callcentric for being hosted in one place, which I'm sure you would have noticed before since you are obviously concerned about them going down.
nitzan
Premium Member
join:2008-02-27

1 recommendation

nitzan

Premium Member

Re: Technically...

said by XANAVirus:

Different disasters at all those data centers could come together to bring down a diversely-hosted provider (fires at one center, burst water pipe at another, etc.).

The chance of a disaster bringing down two completely different data centers at two completely different geographic locations at the same time is almost none.
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

1 recommendation

PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

Beating a dead horse....

Oh, me, oh, my.

Yet another "paired" review in which one person posts a very positive review of Voip.MS and a very negative review of CallCentric, as though those are the only two companies out there.

Actually, over the past year, CallCentric has been rock-solid, whereas it is Voip.MS that has had to reinvigorate much of its basic underpinnings.

Regarding Hurricane Sandy, that's beating such a dead horse, how multiple backup measures failed in that superstorm.

But since you bring it up again, be advised that CallCentric [is] enhancing its offsite backup and its onsite power supply even further:
»www.myvoipnews.com/4/pos ··· ion.html

As far as features, CallCentric is quite good there, having added subaccounts this year. Final development proceeds on IVR as well.

The lack of credibility of the review is shown by the low scores for website, ease of installation, call quality, etc. That shows to longtime readers of this site what this "review" is all about, because the reviewer did not even otherwise comment on those areas (and indeed cannot without looking silly).

Some Voip.MS enthusiasts like to post gratuitously negative reviews of CallCentric.

CallCentric enthusiasts are courteous enough to refrain from trashing Voip.MS, thus far.

Arne Bolen
User of Anveo Direct, 3CX and Qubes OS.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-21
Utopia

Arne Bolen

Premium Member

Re: Beating a dead horse....

said by PX Eliezer1:

Actually, over the past year, CallCentric has been rock-solid, whereas it is Voip.MS that has had to reinvigorate much of its basic underpinnings.

+1
said by PX Eliezer1:

Regarding Hurricane Sandy, that's beating such a dead horse, how multiple backup measures failed in that superstorm.

It's amazing that Hurricane Sandy still is used to bash Callcentric. My ISP was offline for less than a couple of days due to Hurricane Sandy and I see no reason to complain about that. Same with Callcentric, being offline for less than a couple of days during the hurricane is no reason for complaining.

cb14
join:2013-02-04
Miami Beach, FL

cb14

Member

Re: Beating a dead horse....

said by Arne Bolen See Profile. Same with Callcentric, being offline for less than a couple of days during the hurricane is no reason for complaining.
[/bquote :

DDOS + "hurricane" = 1 month off line no e911 here.

cb14

cb14 to PX Eliezer1

Member

to PX Eliezer1
I actually agree on the redundancy issue that's why I am giving them 50% on reliability too for the time being but the rest of the rating is completely out of line and an obvious attempt to tear down a competitor.

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

Nightfall

MVM

Another misleading review

If there is anything that needs to be fixed when it comes to ISP reviews, it is misleading or bad reviews. This one is a clear case in point. While I do agree about the redundant data centers and Hurricane Sandy (I was affected by this), the rest of the scores are not indicative of the service that CallCentric provides.

For example, when it comes to customer service and support, I consider them one of the best in the VOIP business. I always got top notch support when I had them. Their website is very informative as well and has instructions on how to configure every device. Installation is a breeze. The only thing I would take points off for is reliability and that may be at 3 out of 5.

If you want to be considered to be an honest and up front reviewer, then at least look at the whole package.

cb14
join:2013-02-04
Miami Beach, FL

cb14

Member

Re: Another misleading review

said by Nightfall:

If there is anything that needs to be fixed when it comes to ISP reviews, it is misleading or bad reviews.

There is also a very significant number of misleading positive reviews. Unfortunately, that's a problem not confined just to this web site.

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

Nightfall

MVM

Re: Another misleading review

said by cb14:

said by Nightfall:

If there is anything that needs to be fixed when it comes to ISP reviews, it is misleading or bad reviews.

There is also a very significant number of misleading positive reviews. Unfortunately, that's a problem not confined just to this web site.

Two wrongs don't make a right. In most cases, the misleading positive reviews are trashed. Just like reviews like this should be trashed. I guess it takes talent to write an informative review.

I am just saying that the OP could have made this review a lot better. In fact this seems like a shill review if anything.

cb14
join:2013-02-04
Miami Beach, FL

cb14

Member

Re: Another misleading review

said by Nightfall:

. In fact this seems like a shill review if anything.

Maybe. It created a negative review in the oversight, so now CC also has a negative review.
But truly good negative shill reviews are smarter than this one, less extreme, less negative, more "informative", sticking it with the needle.

nonamesleft
join:2011-11-07
Manitowoc, WI

nonamesleft to Nightfall

Member

to Nightfall
Why isn't anyone allowed to give a true opinion about callcentric? I Remember when I did, I got messages that wanted me to change my ratings and comments and such. Don't forget about the issues before the hurricane thing.
Iscream
Premium Member
join:2009-02-17
New York, NY

1 recommendation

Iscream

Premium Member

Re: Another misleading review

Dear "nonamesleft" below is my highly emotional answer to your obviously good question.

Well, how about some details of OP's record:

The member "filostrato":
Joined: 2012-11-06
(1st year!)
email: Not public.
Membership: Regular
Location: Sacramento, CA
Reviews:
·Callcentric
·voip.ms
Posts: 2
Last seen: 2013-10-02 14:46:41
Visits: 4

Is it correct to say that the OP has joined the DSLRs, posted "perfect" review for Voip.MS (1st visit), then posted a trashing review about Callcentric (next day - 2nd visit), then 10 months later has again visited (3rd time) the DSLRs to leave (update) already perfect review for Voip.MS and then next day (4th visit) - came here again and trashed Callcentric again.
Anybody to say I'm wrong, am I?

Speaking of yourself - you've actually been a customer of Callcentric, you've not liked _what_ your experienced during last October's DDoS, well - you didn't want to recognize that sometimes some countries, lands as well as companies/businesses are at war and must protect themselves while being under heavy fire and pressure... Well - it's up to you.

BUT (and my BIG THANKs to YOU), you have had NO trashing or vendetta plans regarding your provider - you simply moved away while left a short message in place of your former review!

Another reason - Callcentric, as the company who provides public service during last 12 years is highly visible Internet target. And sure - during these years there were not only friends around it...

But being a small company with a very good reliability/service record prior Oct. 2012 and the same good record (just search those boards) after that, and knowing that there are LIVE people inside it, who love their job and who is committed to excellence in providing their service - is it a good idea to leave/support a review which says in BOLD letters "AVOID"? Huh?

Is it in general good, for your own sake, to have a choice when it comes to telephone service - to say "AVOID" about some one company while saying "BEST" regarding some other one?

There was a recently completed very serious investigation (and a related sentence) of a group of "PR" companies whose only business was to increase Google's ratings of some companies while trashing their competitors...

Thank you.

nonamesleft
join:2011-11-07
Manitowoc, WI

nonamesleft

Member

Re: Another misleading review

Good points made, can't argue with any of that.

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

Nightfall to nonamesleft

MVM

to nonamesleft
said by nonamesleft:

Why isn't anyone allowed to give a true opinion about callcentric? I Remember when I did, I got messages that wanted me to change my ratings and comments and such. Don't forget about the issues before the hurricane thing.

There is a difference between a true informed opinion and a shill review. If this were an unbiased review, it would have higher scores in certain categories while retaining lower scores in things like redundancy or uptime.

I will be honest that 75% of the reviews I read on this site are total shit. They are not very informative, scored incorrectly, and so on. So don't take it personally. I make a lot of comments on reviews that are just utter crap.

N9MD
Too busy to chat
Premium Member
join:2005-10-08
Boca Raton, FL

N9MD

Premium Member

Filostronzo

Take note ... those of you who arrived here seeking to learn something "bad" about CallCentric ... this is an ill-conceived, illogical review.

As of this date .. Dec. 27, 2013 .. this is the only negative review out of the 190+ reviews in the queue.

Review by fragonard See Profile

  • Location: Evansville, Vanderburgh, IN, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
All in all, a puffed up but still not bad voip provider.
Web-site:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Updated on 2013-08-25
To be fair to cc, it delivers good sound and has a kind of clumsy but workable interface that lets you forward calls, do this or that on certain days and hours, etc.

It has also been reliable except for occasional loss of registration (never happens with my other voip provider) and for the unfortunate hurricane problem last year, and I guess that remains in the back of my mind as I picture all those servers in their HQ in New York, and nowhere else.

2012 11 03
They got caught with their pants down when power in NYC went out. Redundancy that was not redundant. No effective disaster plan. They need to fix that but it sounds like they are satisfied with what they have.

It works ok but so do 50 other voip providers. It has little to distinguish it from cheaper alternatives, and for the same price, or even less, you can get a truly full-featured provider - see anveo, voip.ms, voipo to name three.



member for 11.7 years, 11 visits, last login: 10.5 years ago
updated 10.5 years ago

PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

1 edit

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

Well, I'm sure that....

Well, I'm sure that you'll call [me] a Fanboy. Yes, I use CC at home and at my office. Can't be a bigger fan than that.

But it's strange that whenever some people tell of their good experiences with CallCentric, the Haters appear.

And are you serious?

Voipo as a feature-rich provider? They barely support any BYOD, and by their own recent statement Voipo has a clunky website that they want to improve. Voipo also says that they will be re-doing their fee structure, to something more like CallCentric's it appears.

Voip.MS as a reliable provider? After their most important US server crashed 3 times in a few weeks, and increasing customer dissatisfaction?

Anveo has a lot of advanced features but has a long way to go in the usability side.

Have you actually experienced all those providers? I have, and several more besides.

BTW, CallCentric has outbound calling packages. Voip.MS does not. (Yes, Voip.MS is unbeatable in the Canadian market, but that's only 10 percent of the North American market.)

So:

Regarding cost:

CallCentric has [lots] of value opportunities.

Inbound:

a) Free inbound phone numbers available in many areas of NY.

b) Personal Unlimited residential at 5.95 is a good value because it is truly unlimited minutes---no numeric caps.

c) Same applies to Dirt Cheap Unlimited residential at 2.95 which are available in many states. Main restriction is that a number can't be ported in to this plan.

d) Office Unlimited is a great value at 8.95 because that's unlimited incoming service for Business use---3 channels included!

e) For small users, PAYG inbound is at 1.5 cents which is comparable to many other providers. (Monthly fee of 1.95 for the DID). But most folks would do even better to go with one of the choices above.

Outbound:

CallCentric has flat-rate outbound plans. Voip.MS and many others do NOT !

1) NorthAm 500 plan at 6.95 (US and Canada)---including the 911 cost. So about a penny a minute considering that.

2) NorthAm 1,000 plan at 12.95 including 911. So again, about a penny a minute.

3) NorthAm Residential at 19.95 including 911. Yeah, that's a number that one takes note of---BUT this plan has no numeric caps. Some people use this for [thousands] of minutes a month. If their needs are smaller, they can go with either (1) or (2).

4) PAYG outbound is at 1.98 cents with separate 911 fee. Yup, that's higher than many others, lower than a few. But now that CallCentric has introduced (1) and (2) as options [they already had (3)] relatively few customers will choose this option. It's becoming a moot point.

More to come, I gotta go poop.

BTW: Why the poor numbers for Call Quality, Reliability, etc? You do realize that this indicates where you are coming from?
Mango
Use DMZ and you get a kick in the dick.
Premium Member
join:2008-12-25
www.toao.net

1 recommendation

Mango

Premium Member

We'd love to help.

Hey,

I see you've rated Call Quality and Reliability at 50%. Are you having audio or uptime issues? If so please let us know what problems you are having and what equipment you use and we would be delighted to help you fix it.

m.
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

Well, I'm sure that.... (Part 2)

As far as CallCentric's service itself, here are some of the many positives:

Excellent customer support. Ticket system based, and almost always very quick even on evenings and weekends. Never a charge for service, even on free (IP Freedom) accounts.

Great reliability, consistent track record.

Free inbound CNAM, excellent voicemail with notification by both SMS and e-mail, advanced versions of Simulring, Find-Me Hunting, and more.

Excellent Call Treatments (such as Call Blocking) and PhoneBook features.

Unlike other providers, by going to the list of Received Calls on the dashboard, with one click you can create a Phonebook entry prepopulated with the number, or a Call Treatment prepopulated with the number.

Good billing system, very efficient and clear, with some unique fraud safeguards. I have used several providers and they have the best billing system that I've ever seen. And billing reminders are sent out several days before the month ends.

The FIRST provider to allow enabling/disabling of calls on a country-by-country basis.

Good peering capabilities and SipBroker and iNum support, and URI calling. This allows you to make and receive free calls from many other Voip networks. SipBroker support is the best around. Major sponsors of iNum and SipBroker.

911 address on file is always displayed on the dashboard. A unique feature, and important for those users who shift their location.

Unsurpassed reliability by operating their OWN secure and monitored data center, by being their own ISP, operating their own TDM/SS7 network. They don't rent remote servers from Frank's DesMoines Server Farm.

Their *67 outbound CID block is the most comprehensive around. It actually displays a different outbound number when you want to block your outbound CID. With other companies, *67 just appends a privacy tag which may or may not be honored by the phone provider of the person you are calling. This is especially true if you are calling a toll-free number: ONLY CallCentric's *67 will block your identity in that case.

Unsurpassed support for ATA's and IP phones. Extensive website documentation of all services and features.

They are just an excellent company overall. The main two things they don't have at present are IVR and subaccounts. If someone needs those, they would have to use a different provider. But aside from that, I don't think that any other single provider offers a better total experience.

BTW, when you talk about [50] VoIP companies, I suspect that you really don't know the market that well.

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

1 recommendation

Nightfall

MVM

I am perplexed

I have tried about a dozen VOIP providers and yet I keep Callcentric because of its reliability and features. They aren't as cheap as the other providers, but I would rather pay $8-$10 a month for a feature rich phone provider that never has an issue over a $4-$5 a month provider that has less features and a service that goes down.

This review really is the definition of crap. Course, about half of the reviews on this site are crap because they don't take the time to really evaluate a service before they click the submit key. I guess it takes effort to really list out the benefits and drawbacks to a service. Its much easier to just type up a few sentences and call it good.
fragonard
join:2012-06-27

fragonard

Member

In reply:

.
It is not bad just overhyped.

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

Nightfall

MVM

Re: In reply:

said by fragonard:

.
It is not bad just overhyped.

Maybe you should adjust your review to reflect that. An honest review would take make call quality high and reliability as high. Your review really doesn't have much merit the way it is written now.

engineercarl
Premium Member
join:2003-02-24
Washington, DC

2 recommendations

engineercarl

Premium Member

It just works...

PX was very eloquent and verbose above extolling all of the swell features of Callcentric, but IMHO, he missed one:

It just freakin' works.

All the time I have played with CC, I've never had to jack with STUN servers, SIP ALG, NAT, DNS SRV or anything else that plagues other VSP's.

To be fair, I do hold active accounts with Voip.ms, Voipo, F9, & CWU as well. But I have never had a registration or connection problem with CC.

XANAVirus
Premium Member
join:2012-03-03
Lavalette, WV

1 recommendation

XANAVirus

Premium Member

Re: It just works...

Agreed.

This 'review' is in the same vein as the last one.

I hope no one takes this person on their word, and hopefully considers Callcentric at least as an option for VoIP.

The reviewer lost all credibility once they mentioned the word 'fanboy'.

There are so many other ways to word the review in a way that does not degrade yourself and yet they chose to word it that way?

I'm sorry, but keep the insults to other people out of the review - you're supposed to be reviewing your provider, not the users of DSLReports.
nitzan
Premium Member
join:2008-02-27

nitzan

Premium Member

What the hell.

This review is a deliberate attempt at lowering CallCentric's rating on the GBU. The ratings don't reflect the user's experience - he just lowered them on purpose. 50% for call quality and reliability yet he says it works - if it works then it's not 50%. Would not be surprised if this is a shill from another company.

Arne Bolen
User of Anveo Direct, 3CX and Qubes OS.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-21
Utopia

Arne Bolen

Premium Member

Re: What the hell.

said by nitzan:

Would not be surprised if this is a shill from another company.

I doubt that. No voip provider will gain anything from this kind of reviews.

Personally I believe this reviewer is a person enjoying the attention he gets from posting this kind of reviews. As long as he can post reviews without revealing his name he can continue to enjoy the attention. I wouldn't be surprised if this reviewer is the same person as the previous person with a bad review of Callcentric.

This is the price to pay for anonymity. You and I are using our real names and we can't do things like this reviewer, but anonymity allows for all kinds of shit.

Review by Rendering See Profile

  • Location: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
A mediocre effort
Behind the times
Clunks along, melting into the pack
Value for money:

2013 08 24
Callcentric continues to trudge along, offering good enough
sound and reliability. The thing is though, most of the residential
vosps here offer the same good sound and reliability.

Callcentric gets a lot of praise from its fans, but the truth is
that it is a pretty ordinary vosp and not worth the adulation. It
has little or nothing to separate it from the pack. It is more like
a boutique voip service than one you would think of as full-featured.

It will supposedly have an IVR some day. I have not heard
there are any plans to have additional servers that are not in its
building in New York, so users have to hope for the best in regard
to loss of power or a fire.

2013 04 20
Callcentric seems to be waking up with the addition of sub-accounts. It is good to see that they are no longer resting on their laurels. If they ever get around to adding SMS, an IVR, and setting up geographically dispersed servers, they could become an excellent outfit.

Initial Review
I love callcentric. It is reliable and sounds good.

But I have to give it tough love - no IVR means it is not a top-tier residential voip provider.

But - the cc rep has said they plan to add some kind of IVR - not an IVR exactly but something along those lines. Even that sounds like a big improvement, and I have upgraded their rating (the old review was deleted for some reason, so the original rating is gone, but is is upgraded from what it was).

I look forward to this IVR-like feature and hope it will become a real IVR.

member for 11.2 years, 24 visits, last login: 8.7 years ago
updated 10.6 years ago


VexorgTR
join:2012-08-27
Sheffield Lake, OH

VexorgTR

Member

IVR isn't all that common........

There's only a handful of Voip providers that DO have IVR... IVR was never really considered something for a residence.....

I can see that they may benefit from having it, but I'm glad that what their system DOES do, it does quite well.
Rendering
join:2013-01-12
Los Angeles, CA

Rendering

Member

Re: IVR isn't all that common........

said by VexorgTR:

There's only a handful of Voip providers that DO have IVR... IVR was never really considered something for a residence.....

I can see that they may benefit from having it, but I'm glad that what their system DOES do, it does quite well.

CC does a good job. If they added nothing to their existing setup,
they would deserve a high rating.

As you point out, like every other residential voip provider
except voip.ms and anveo (as far as I know) they did not consider,
it seems, that an IVR for residential service made any sense.

To me, that is a sad lack of vision.

That is from my perspective, and maybe most people don't care, but
I remember how, in my pre-voip days, I was irritated to no end by
the cranks and weirdos, and, in the last 10 years or so, by the
telemarketers.

I was lucky to stumble onto voip.ms, which has the most flexible
and easy to learn setup for ridding myself of the pests.

It is hard for me to understand how other voip outfits could not
have seen how useful an IVR would be, not only in pest-control but
in gracefully moving calls to the desired destination.

Maybe it is also difficult to implement, which, if that is the case,
is another feather in the cap of voip.ms.
Rendering

1 edit

Rendering

Member

Re: IVR

said by Gershom :

But taking your points to their logical conclusion, once CallCentric has their IVR up and running, then what reason will VoIP.MS have to stay in business?

I don't see how one follows from the other. Voip.ms is a top-notch outfit, and would have every reason to stay in business whether or not its competitors add IVRs.

Because you seem to be saying that the prime directive of VoIP is having an IVR, and that little else matters.

Like most people, I suppose, the most important things to me are reliability and good sound. After that, I want a flexible control of incoming calls. The IVR is necessary for that; otherwise, you have a clunky, limited sort of control.

For example, if I want relatives to be able to dial my number and get free calls to other relatives, I want them to hear a menu of choices: 1 for joe, 2 for mary, etc.

Or, as someone else mentioned, if you want a message to callers that says: enter 1 to ring through, enter 2 to go to voicemail, then you need an IVR.

How do you do those things without an IVR? You can not, as far as I can tell, or can only do it in a very kludgy sort of way. That is how powerful it is.

Yes, if you don't need it and can do with a simple callerid system, fine; but if I review a voip outfit, I will surely bear down heavily on their lack of an IVR.

If that makes me eccentric, other people can disregard my opinion.
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

Struck a nerve, I guess.

CallCentric must be pretty threatening to some of their competitors to engender this level of vituperation from someone who may not even be a current customer.

I've used many services including also Voip.MS, Vitelity, CWU, and others.

CallCentric is [way] ahead except for the IVR (and most others don't have that either). And that's coming.
Rendering
join:2013-01-12
Los Angeles, CA

Rendering

Member

Re: Struck a nerve, I guess.

CallCentric must be pretty threatening to some of their competitors to engender this level of vituperation

You are overly-sensitive to criticism, at least of Callcentric, if you think calling it 'mediocre' and 'ordinary' is vituperation.
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

Re: Struck a nerve, I guess.

I leave it to the community at large to decide who is more credible.

cb14
join:2013-02-04
Miami Beach, FL

cb14

Member

Re: Struck a nerve, I guess.

It seems to be a lot of proxy sparring between Voip.ms and Callcentric on this forum.
Good to be on the side line ...

Review by Nightfall See Profile

  • Location: Grand Rapids, Kent, MI, USA
  • Cost: $12 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
Superior call quality, uptime, web portal, and customer service.
A little expensive.
For my first VOIP provider, I think I chose the best one out there.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I was using a POTS line like every other basic home owner. The pain of it was that I was spending $46 a month for a landline + features + taxes. That was only for about 300 minutes outbound and 100 inbound per month, at the most. After hearing about VOIP, I decided to look into it further.

Overall, I wanted something that was going to be easy to use, very reliable, excellent customer service, and that had an excellent online presence. I am a self-starter kind of person, and I don't need a lot of hand holding. If the website has all the information, I will find it and do it myself. At the same time though, I want a customer service team on the other end that is fast to respond and eager to help.

At first, I investigated Viatalk but I was turned off by the monthly plan. I wanted something I could pay as you go (PAYG). I looked at a lot of VOIP providers but I just didn't know which one to try. After posting some questions in the VOIP forum here, I was contacted by a few people who said to try out CallCentric. I never heard of them before, but a visit to their website quickly answered all my questions.

I signed up for an account on CallCentric and hooked up my Linksys PAP2T. Within 5 minutes of reading the instructions, I was up and running. I was making outgoing calls and everything was working fine. The voice quality was awesome to say the least. Just as good as a landline, but I know a lot of that has to do with the quality of my ISP which is through Comcast. For those who haven't read my Comcast review, its a great ISP in my area.

After running with CallCentric for a few weeks using it for all my outgoing calls, I made the decision to port my landline number over for $25. I filed the request to port my number over, filled out all the forms, and in about 3 weeks my number came over. Customer care was filling me in on all the details through the porting process. They even got me a date when I could expect my port. After the port was completed, I updated the ticket because the number wasn't working properly on the CallCentric network. Within an hour of me updating the help desk ticket, they had everything working.

My only complaint is that I wish I could get a outbound calling plan that was a little cheaper. The PAYG option is the best for me for outgoing calls, but the next option up is a $20 a month unlimited plan. I would have to talk for about 1000 minutes at .0198 cents a minute to just break even on that kind of plan. I wish they would offer like $5 for 600 minutes or something. In the end though, I don't mind paying more for quality service which is why I assume that they don't make changes to their pricing structure. Their incoming plan is excellent. For $1.95 a month you can pay as you go at .015 cents per minute or you can get unlimited for $5.95 a month. With a difference of $4, you can take about 265 minutes of incoming calls through PAYG before it gets cheaper to just get the unlimited. If you don't have your own number you are porting over, look into their dirt cheap DID. Its $3 a month for unlimited with no setup fee if there is a number in your area.

Here I am a few days after the port is complete reporting in on a very happy converted customer. Before this whole process started, I was very hesitant about moving away from my landline. In the end though, I will be saving $30-$35 a month by using CallCentric PAYG and I will be getting more features than I had before.

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with the service and support.

---

EDIT 12/29/2009 - I have went the extra mile and added a bunch of numbers to my call treatments list. It seems that everyone that calls me from a 800, 888, 877, or 866 toll free number is a solicitor. So I set those up to go straight to voicemail. I also setup a few other numbers from companies that call us to go straight to voicemail. The phone doesn't even ring now when someone from those numbers call. I love it! I still have some work to do on this, but I anticipate that my new service will be better than the "AT&T Privacy Manager" in no time. AT&T Privacy Manager is a service that blocks telemarketer calls and did a good job of it, but the rates on it were rather expensive.

I have also started adding phone numbers to my phonebook so they come up automatically on the caller ID.

EDIT 10/21/2010 - I have now been on Callcentric for about 11 months. Quite simply, it is awesome. Yes, its not the cheapest, but I am willing to pay for some quality and Callcentric brings it. At $12 per month on average, its a heck of a lot better than my POTS line was priced and with more features. No down time, excellent support, excellent self-help guides, and crystal clear call quality are all reasons why I am still with Callcentric. Solicitors have fun hitting my voicemail without the phone even ringing. I love the call treatments that Callcentric has. Quite simply, if you don't mind paying a little more for quality and feature rich VOIP service, get Callcentric.

4/14/2011 - Callcentric continues to work like a champ. No downtime and the service is rock solid. New features are released a couple times a year, but so far I am just happy with what I got. The voicemail to email service is great. The call treatments stop telemarketer calls so they hit voice mail directly. Callcentric is getting my business for a long time to come.

11/30/2011 - I can't say enough great things about Callcentric. The service is always up and running. I haven't had to contact tech support in a long time. I pretty much have had my service setup with all the call treatments and I haven't had to touch it since. This is what hassle free VOIP service is all about. My phone bill has unlimited incoming and pay as you go outgoing. We pay about $10-$12 a month depending on the amount of calling we do. I have been tempted to go with Ooma and buy a core for $150 on sale, then I could save $7-$9 a month. At the same time though, Callcentric has features you can't get with the Ooma without paying for the "Premier" tier. I have no plans to move away from Callcentric anytime soon.

7/9/2012 - Callcentric is still rock solid for me. No problems with the service at all. Callcentric did listen to my request and add some lower tier price points for outgoing minutes. It still isn't worth it to me to get them yet. According to my reports, we have more calls coming in than going out. I am on the unlimited plan for incoming calls already. It just makes sense to pay as I go for outgoing calls. The total cost is still around $10-$11 a month on average, which is great for me. Could I spend less and go with another provider? Probably, but there comes a point when I could spend $6 a month and get a provider like VOIPO, and then have more issues. The money I spend with Callcentric is great because I get what I pay for, have ZERO issues, and superior customer service for all those questions I want to ask. Go Callcentric!

12/24/12 - Callcentric went through a very hard time in Q3 of 2012. They had a very serious DDOS attack put on them that really affected their service. Thankfully, I only have a home phone line with them so the effect on me was very minor. Still, there were periods of time where my service was not working. I have adjusted my review down a little bit on reliability as a result. While all these problems were really annoying, I can tell you that they stepped up to the plate to make things right with their customers. They offered credits for affected clients, which I applied to get. They also kept me informed during the whole ordeal. I can say that their customer service is probably the best I have seen from a VOIP provider. The only way they could improve is by offering some kind of reliability measure. Either another hot site so if a natural disaster tears up their facility again, then they can come up quickly or if someone DDOS' them again, then they can bring up the secondary site and keep on working.

8/24/12 - After a great run with Callcentric, I have decided to move to Ooma. For the same price I am paying Callcentric, I will get a 2nd phone number, unlimited minutes, and other capabilities with Ooma. Callcentric remains one of the best VOIP providers that I have used. I got a refund for the funds left in my account shortly after porting my number. Thanks again Callcentric, you guys have been great!

member for 22.6 years, 7519 visits, last login: 298 days ago
updated 10.6 years ago


crazyk4952
Premium Member
join:2002-02-04
united state

crazyk4952

Premium Member

Unlimited for $3.95?

Where are you seeing the unlimited incoming for $3.95?

They have their "dirt cheap DID" for $2.95 (this will not work for ported numbers), and their "personal unlimited" is $5.95.

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

1 edit

Nightfall

MVM

Re: Unlimited for $3.95?

said by crazyk4952:

Where are you seeing the unlimited incoming for $3.95?

They have their "dirt cheap DID" for $2.95 (this will not work for ported numbers), and their "personal unlimited" is $5.95.
I made a mistake there. I have edited my review to fix that and clarify the incoming PAYG charges in detail a little more.
dsl2u
join:2012-05-16
R3L3A1

dsl2u

Member

Why not use a free VOIP provider for outgoing calls?

Gmail, Freephoneline, Voxox and others allow free outgoing calling anywhere in North America. Why not use those? Voxox allows you to input whatever number you choose for the outgoing caller ID.

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

Nightfall

MVM

Re: Why not use a free VOIP provider for outgoing calls?

said by dsl2u:

Gmail, Freephoneline, Voxox and others allow free outgoing calling anywhere in North America. Why not use those? Voxox allows you to input whatever number you choose for the outgoing caller ID.

I prefer to use something that works and works well. Callcentric is truly as close to a landline as I can find. There are free alternatives, but I don't mind paying $10 a month for a line I am going to use. I also don't mind paying for quality. After trying VOIPO and looking to save a few bucks, I determined that it is better to spend $10 and get solid service than spend $6 for something that has hassles.

If Freephoneline and Voxox work great for you, then you should use them. I have not tried either of those services personally. My cousin swears by Ooma and I could save money by going that route as well. For now though, I am sticking with Callcentric.
dsl2u
join:2012-05-16
R3L3A1

dsl2u

Member

Re: Why not use a free VOIP provider for outgoing calls?

Well try Gmail and let us know how it compares in call quality compared to Callcentric. Gmail is free and doesn't show any of your information when calling.

Review by adibazz See Profile

  • Location: Jacksonville, Duval, FL, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Good Rates, Good Tech Support
Nothing that I came across
Value for money
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I've been using CC for almost three years now for all my calling needs. I used it on trial basis for few months first and then once satisfied I got my DID ported over to CC. The setup experience was a breeze and so was Line portability.

Initially, I had couple of issues with something related to configuration (that I don't remember now) with my PAP2T device but customer support was very quick and helpful resolving the issue through their online support system. After that there is no single issue with either call quality or service in any way except of course those DoS attacks and hurricane Sandy last year. IMO CC handled both the situation well but there is definitely a scope of improvement re:Sandy like situation and that's where I knocked off one star from reliability. Otherwise its rock solid. 5 star.

I've decided to go with CC three years back, based on this forum and now realized I didn't review the service until I came back to this forum to search for some help. That shows how good their service is.

Update - 08/09/2013

Used CallCentric service with SIP client on my iPhone throughout Europe without any issue. This was good compare to my experience few years back when at&t screwed me with international roaming.

member for 22.5 years, 281 visits, last login: 9.4 years ago
updated 10.6 years ago


VexorgTR
join:2012-08-27
Sheffield Lake, OH

VexorgTR

Member

Glad you're happy

Although not the least expensive carrier, the fact that CallCentric can port numbers that the other guys can't... combined with good support make CC a pretty good option. They are certainly one of my favorites, delivering good quality audio, and minimal technical issues.

Despite lower cost carriers, CC has delivered for me anyway.... a way better value than the Bell system, or the Cable Co.

Review by alvarezbjm See Profile

  • Location: costa rica
  • Cost: $5 per month
easy to setup
THEY scam customers
stay away from paid plans. Free plans are perfect.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

They LOOOOVE to block your account on adding funds for the first time in order to get sensible information from you (creditcard photo, ID photo, bank account, etc). Has happened to me twice (two fans, two strikes)

What can I say? they are fairly popular, that makes compatibility and installation easier. The call link is reliable, in my experience.

tech support is fast to reply (within 24 hours). Too bad I only had to contact them for their legendary "Fraud Prevention System"

I am never again considering giving a dollar to that company. EVER. An until-then-working-account might become blocked, as unreasonable as that sounds.

******
12:40 2013-05-31: They refunded me in 12 hours. That definitely has importance, maybe I should reconsider retrying in some months. That doesnt change the fact that paying has caused problems.

member for 10.9 years, 8 visits, last login: 10.8 years ago
updated 10.8 years ago


cb14
join:2013-02-04
Miami Beach, FL

1 edit

cb14

Member

Hmmmm....

I made an entirely different experience with them, but I do not know what happened exactly in your case.
However, I would not rate a customer support who replied fast at 0%, I do no think that's fair.
Also, you recommend their free plan-which is great indeed, but put the value at 0%, that's not fair either.
IMHO people should not be emotional when doing ratings and not over rate or under rate companies.
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

By the way....

By the way, has it occurred to you that if you drive away their paid customers (your own words) then they won't be around to offer you those free services which you so highly praise?

-----

I am sorry if security issues inconvenienced you, but every VoIP company is hit with massive amounts of fraud and they have to try to protect themselves.

They do not enjoy having to potentially lose customers. That does not benefit them. But they and their competitors will do what they must to preserve their very existence.
alvarezbjm
join:2013-04-09
costa rica

alvarezbjm

Member

Re: By the way....

Gershom 1624, I am no sponsor of Callcentric in anyway I just post my appreciation: we fared pretty good until money was handed out. On the other hand, should their service stop, I will lose, too, as you mention. I want them not to disappear, but to improve, albeit I think in no case would my lying take them much further, and definitely it would take me (and the ones in my situation) nowhere.

I will most certainly come back at them sooner than later, next January seeming a very good candidate. Skype until then :/
alvarezbjm

alvarezbjm

Member

however...

For me, any customer service equals no customer service when the issue can't be solved or circumvented. When a problem appears, you lose time and/or money either way. If they solve it for you, the sooner the better; if not, what gives?

offtopic:
My last decade experience: In costa rica, CLARO ISP has very fast responses, and one service centers serves like 5000 inhabitants (as a result, they are, for the most part, deserted). However, their policy is just to defer our issues, not solving them. Most people, it happens, simply forget about it after some time, life goes on. The minority does quit the company, most customers in CR are prepaid, but that is cheaper than actually improving the system: sometimes the "issues" are intentional. In Nicaragua it is pretty much the same, except that one service center may attend 80,000 inhabitants (as a result, all of them are packed at any time of the day)

postscript:
CALLCENTRIC just refunded my money. That was 12 hrs from the initial claim to a satisfactory solution this time. This definitely has to update the C/S appreciation.

cb14
join:2013-02-04
Miami Beach, FL

cb14

Member

Re: however...

A good thing that you updated your ratings to reasonable levels.
What surprises me a bit is the 50% rating for call quality- Is it possible that your Costa Rican ISP sucks? Did you check any other VOIP providers with the same ISP ? If so, how was the call quality with them? Did you try myvoipspeed.visualware.com/ to check your broadband connection quality? Just my two cents....
Iscream
Premium Member
join:2009-02-17
New York, NY

Iscream

Premium Member

merely survival

Hello and thank you for adjusting your ratings.

Despite those matters have already many times been discussed - I'd like to explain them once again.

I clearly understand your frustration when you [from your own point of view - fully legitimate customer] fall a victim of automated computer system - my apologies. The same apologies have been brought to you by Callcentric personnel every time when Callcentric fraud-prevention system had in past blocked your account upon attempting to perform paid transaction.

I must tell upfront - there is no reason to wait for longer or shorter time hoping that a next time the system may behave differently - NO CHANCE. The system will behave the same way without a regard of whether you waited half a year, 3 years or 10 years.

Please be patient and bear with me - I'll explain myself.

Callcentric fraud-prevention system is in constant and active development during last 12+ years. It's not a dumb "bot-net" - it's a very complex instrumentation which prepares information for our security personnel on duty. It analyzes 1000s different parameters in real-time, uses standard business practices and services available for merchants in credit transaction industry and follows instructions and regulations imposed by government and banking institutions.

To your knowledge - anyone who opens a merchant account provides it's own personal information and guarantees to each credit processing network (Visa, MasterCard, AmEx, Discover, etc.) as well as to EACH bank which covers those transactions. That means - all Callcentric financial officers provided PERSONAL GUARANTEES for EACH dollar charged over credit networks (I'm using Callcentric's name as an example - all direct credit transaction merchants perform under the same regulations).

There is NO such thing as "SCAMMING" for a merchant - all gears, any possible protection is for BUYERS ONLY. No MERCY for merchants. Just to give you an example - it's enough only ONE call, by a buyer to his/her credit card issuing bank, to cancel and reverse ANY credit or Pay Pal transaction. NO questions asked!

As a matter of fact - banks are encouraging their customers to CANCEL and REVERSE their transaction because EACH and ANY canceled transaction is PENALIZED by ~$25 charge-back fee.

This [charge-back fee] is a huge PROFIT center for banks. The most lovely thing for banks - it's to reverse $1 charge followed by $25 charge-back fee - do you see how it works for banks?!

Most transactions performed by VoIP providers are a low volume transactions - averaging between $5 (in some cases - even $1.50 - when Callcentric charges only E911 service fee) to $25 per transaction.

Callcentric network receives over 1 million transaction attempts per month. More than _90%_ of those transactions - are attempted FRAUDULENTLY. Pure and NET FRAUD. *** 90% ***

It's "enough" ONLY a few days of "successful" fraudulent transactions to move any Internet merchant out of business! Again, don't forget - all providers' personnel related to merchant accounts is PERSONALLY LIABLE for EACH dollar charged.

Just to show you a simple math - one 1000 of "successfully" made fraudulent $5 transactions is going to cost to a provider this much:

- 1000 by $5 = $5000 in goods (minutes paid to provider's carriers) stolen from provider;
- same $5000 reversed by merchant banks;
- 1000 x $25 charge-back fees imposed by merchant banks;
Total - $35,000.00 (actually - even more, I've not calculated transaction processing fees - for simplicity of explanation).

Not everybody understands the fact that 1000 fraudulent transaction requires only a few minutes to complete? Then only a few [dozen] accounts are "used" to consume the entire amount by calling expensive destinations?!

On top of the above - credit transaction networks heavily monitor all merchants for number of transactions charged-back to merchants and the moment their reports show an increased level of charge-backs (while no-one even knows how they interpret their reports) results in weeks of blocked merchant accounts with lawyers who "work" with transaction networks to re-open those blocked merchant accounts. You do know that lawyers charge, on average, around $500 per hour? Lawyers LOVE cases like those because they "spend" countless hours "attempting" to re-open blocked merchant accounts!

How many weeks may an average VoIP operator survive without being able to access its [blocked] funds? A provider pays to its personnel, to carriers, utility providers, rental costs, etc, etc, etc.

It's a matter of survival or imminent death for a provider whose merchant account was blocked by networks/banks - NO ONE takes lightly a risk of having their transactions charge-back!

This is why Callcentric fraud-prevention system analyzes all possible data which are available about account, plus related (by multiple parameters) accounts, credit card origins, banks which issued that card, IP addresses used to login to account, IP addresses used to register devices, all histories of previous usage of those IP addresses, counties where transaction was originated from, corruptness (!) of government and/or telephone operators of countries of/or banks who issued credit cards and the same for countries where customer' address is from and a whole bunch of many other parameters returned by industrially available databases engaged in providing security clearance services for Internet merchants. There are so called open IP gateways (compromised or "zombie" PCs or servers) and VPNs often used for fraudulent transactions. And when a resulting risk score exceeds certain threshold - an alert to financial security personnel is issued for manual account/transaction evaluation. Any transaction is a subject of the above [I had to greatly simplify it for purpose of this explanation] procedure.

Some transactions are also several times re-verified for their risk even AFTER they were completed - on hourly and daily basis for several days and sometimes - even weeks. At any moment, when an increased risk is alerted the transaction is STOPPED (if not completed yet) and/or VOIDED (if not committed yet) or REFUNDED immediately for all completed transactions for which a post-transaction alert had been triggered.

Do you know that any credit transaction is charged to a merchant a fixed amount (within $0.40 to $0.80 - may vary greatly to smaller or larger amounts depending on merchant's status and volume of operations) plus a variable amount which is usually a XX per cent from transaction's amount? This amount is ALWAYS charged without regard of whether or not the transaction actually completed. It's a cost of requesting a credit transaction.
In order to REFUND a transaction - the same AMOUNT is charged again! Hence refunding back, just a $1 transaction, does cost a merchant sometimes more than 2 dollars (the refund is still much better than a charge-back fee of $25, isn't it?). Only VOIDING the transaction "leaves" a merchant with "only" ~$0.4 of a request fee lost if VOID was made not too late (within the same business day when transaction had been originated).

Well... saying the above, Callcentric has NEVER asked any customer about their BANK information [as you wrote in opening of your review]. Callcentric always asks the same, standard set of questions and always requests the same information whenever an increased risk alert is received about a requested transaction. You have been presented with this set of requirements.

Moreover - Callcentric ALWAYS tells that NO INFORMATION is demanded from a customer. But unless the information is provided - Callcentric will not be able to provide the customer with paid services. Part of that requested information allows our system and personnel to further assess a risk while some other part - protects the proceeds of said transaction by converting it from so called "electronic Internet transaction" (card/customer NOT present) to so called "card/customer present" type of transaction (not in 100% cases).

Although still a subject to a possible charge-back (because nothing may EVER withstand a charge-back. NOTHING). But it gives more ammunition to Callcentric personnel when performing charge-back analysis with bank's personnel who reversed the transaction.

Also - for people who are paranoid about their security - usually those people don't even know how to protect their data, those people are subject to actual scamming techniques, subject of trojan/malware software which "shares" their data over whole Internet, BUT those people don't even understand that for those who actually does FRAUD or SCAM - it was already MORE than ENOUGH even a few seconds of having the credit card number which they entered into some credit card form... When they entered PIN code or security code - that is already enough for 100 or 1000s WEB available Warez sites to share their card's data for immediate charging... If/when they entered the billing phone number - that is literally fatal for their card - _unless_ they trust their merchant, it's better to simply call their bank and cancel the card!

Therefore when a real merchant like Callcentric or any other provider asks customers to provide a scan copy of their card - this fact doesn't represent ANY additional risk at all because the credit card details have ALREADY been transmitted anyway. Fraudsters do NOT need you scanned card copy. They need only card's number, security code and, in some cases, billing phone number!

When a merchant asks to provide a signed authorization form - it's only to verify signatures and to show a credit network that a merchant WAS in actual contact with a buyer thus (see above) giving a bit more chances to win a charge-back fee in case of transaction reversal. But as said above - the buyer is always RIGHT in eyes of a bank. If buyer asks to reverse the transaction it's ALWAYS reversed -100%, no exceptions.

I agree - asking a picture-ID is somehow risky... if it gets in wrong hands. Are you aware of any merchant who is in business of providing legitimate service during many years while, during those same years, SCAMMING their customers yet somehow keeping their good name in industry?! Plus the one who is KNOWN to provide a free service while having NO interest to provide a paid one?

As I've already explained above - a merchant cannot get an advantage of a picture-ID while it always risks a personal liability for any possible leaks...

No merchants do EVER store any personally identifiable information about transaction anywhere, EVER. This information is for "eyes" only - to compare, analyze and destroy. Such an information is immediately discarded after case's resolution - it's worse than keeping an open fire in one's house, etc.

What can I _personally_ do with someone's picture-ID? Just give me ideas, please? )

All merchants pass extremely rigid compliance procedures every year - it's called PCI compliance routine which is called for each credit network/bank once a year... I'm not aware of any merchant who would like to risk their operations by "willingly using" someone's credit information ) Yeah, sure - some criminals may infiltrate into virtually any organization... but this is a different story, for different authorities.

Well, I'm NOT "afraid" to provide the above details BECAUSE the only people for whom the above outlines information was a secret - were actual card-holders. Fraudsters KNOW it already.

I do hope that after reading my rumbling - some people may change their attitude toward those [often - small] merchants who try all their possible best to provide the service while still surviving in this age of Internet.

On slightly different note - I'm also hoping that Callcentric FREE services represent a good value versus _NO_MONEY_AT_ALL_ spent to get it... because wherever possible - Callcentric prefers to provide a FREE service versus having a real risk of fraud even (or especially) for small transactions.

And the last, but not least and very important (repeating from above) - unless ALL related accounts were released of increased credit risk alerts - no time matters to get another new account immediately blocked upon attempting a paid transaction (or even earlier - sometimes even upon creation - it depends on some preexisting conditions). This is WHY it's so important to clear a blocked account immediately instead of attempting to abandon it while creating more new accounts - won't help, but will cause stricter clearance checks.

Saying the above - I'd be glad to work with you on helping clear all your related accounts which were alerted and blocked by our system and/or personnel. Please send me a PM through this forum or use one of your accounts to open a ticket (or use already open one) while asking to escalate the ticket to "Iscream" (my nick on this forum). You may also send a message via "Contact us" form from Support page on WEB site while asking for the message to be forwarded to Iscream.

I believe that we'll be able to find out why your accounts were alerted originally (I hope - I'll be able to answer your concerns) and then with your help - to clear all those accounts while establishing a procedure for you when you'll be able to clear any other alerted account in future. I may assure you that we have paid customers who use "worst" ISPs from most fraudulent/risky countries. That wasn't piece of cake, but customers who like our service and who trusted us - were able to get through. I promise.

Thank you.

cb14
join:2013-02-04
Miami Beach, FL

cb14

Member

We have learned a few things here.

Maybe something like this should be posted on the company's web site- it would help customers to understand.
This ID thing : I would not hesitate for a second to send my scanned ID to Callcentric but I definitely would not do that to just any merchant. Scanned ID's can be re used for certain fraudulent activities as one supporting document( the most important one) . I would not want to have my FL driver's license number publicly accessible and for example in Germany ID/pasport numbers have the significance of SSN in the US.

Review by Trimline See Profile

  • Location: Orlando, Orange, FL, USA
  • Cost: $24 per month
  • Install: about -1 days
Easy setup, excellent sound quality, excellent support.
Nothing any longer.
Doing much better. Give them a try.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

28May2013 Update

Still humming along with CC. I really do like the new features introduced and will port in a number to them when a good porting deal is offered.

Their G722 is tops.

27Oct2012 Update

Things have calmed down and my connection is restored. There are many configuration changes, or I should say options, you can set to resume a normal call quality.

I would like to reiterate that CC has probably the best BYOD offering on the market. They do have HD which is why I prefer them, and did I say you can have fax line as well. Just let CS know you are running a line in fax mode and you'll be set.

Also, on some DID's, they can set the outbound CNAM. You just need to ask.

Cheers.

25Oct21012 Update

After 3 weeks of spotty service due to a DDOS attack, sorry CC.

12Nov10 Update
Still going strong, no issues. I have 3 lines now in the office; one now is the wife's line that is forwarded from at&t - she can't live without that copper. On the third ring, it forwards to the CC line that is connected to the Panasonic SIP wireless phone system. Also, the outbound CNAM is the same on the at&t line; just don't tell anyone, especially her.

I ordered CC on the pay as you go plan, not thinking I would be really using it very much. My plan was to use mainly for international dialing.

Quite the opposite happened; I am thrilled with the call quality and switched it over to the North American plan. I now use this as my primary phone and dropped all the "extras" on my AT&T line.

The service is outstanding, took no time to register and make calls. Plugged in my SPA-2000 and entered the required fields as found in their support section. Flawless service with no surprises.

A very satisfied customer.

member for 19.4 years, 7891 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago
updated 10.8 years ago

PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

1 edit

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

Welcome back to the fight/This time I know our side will win

Thanks for recommending CallCentric again.

They have worked very hard to overcome a brutal external attack, and now will become a better company than ever.

There may be challenges yet to come, but those will be met.

VexorgTR
join:2012-08-27
Sheffield Lake, OH

VexorgTR

Member

I hope the attacks are done.....

The new settings really did help keep us working in spite of the attacks.

Glad to have CallCentric back to health. I knew it would get right... just didn't think it would be under attack for WEEKS!

Welcome back.
Iscream
Premium Member
join:2009-02-17
New York, NY

Iscream

Premium Member

Outbound CNAM, on per DID basis, is now user configurable

Dear Trimline - thank you for being CC's valued customer, for staying with us during hard time of [2012] October's DDoS attacks and hurricane Sandy, for taking time to prepare and keeping updated your review!

Since last portal's update [May 20, 2013] you don't anymore need to ask CC's support for changing your outbound CNAM.

The CNAM, on per DID basis, is now manageable directly from user's portal.

The setting of outbound CNAM is available for both residential (first name, second name) and business (company name) content for ALL US and Canadian DID types.

More features to come soon; your request/advise about [lowering] the LNP fee is being considered at highest priority - you may begin "preparing" a DID you wish to port in )

B/w - during a year already, Callcentric performs Toll Free DID port-ins as well as Toll Free number vanity search for FREE. To my knowledge - no other provider [today] does it for free.

whocares256
''Hardware Junkie''
Premium Member
join:2002-03-10
Motorola MB8600
Netgear SRX5308
EnGenius EAP1750H

1 recommendation

whocares256

Premium Member

Callcentric

Does Callcentric have redundancy now? I left because Hurricane Sandy turned them off and I am in Texas and my phone didn't work. I still have a basic account that is not used though. I would consider coming back if they have a backup servers not in New York.

Review by riparian See Profile

  • Location: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Reliable, Sounds Good
Additions and Plans Bode Well
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Update May 18, 2013
CC has been reliable for me and generally sounds fine.

The addition of sub-accounts and the plans for other improvements
may mean they finally have their heads screwed on properly.

Update January 22, 2012

No changes. Still reliable, still poky. Good as a backup.

Maybe somebody more knowledgeable would like to comment, but I was
wondering what it is that we should consider as a full-featured
voip provider.

On the one hand, you have Callwithus and Future9, which will sell
you a DID and a connection incoming and outgoing, and that is about
it.

And that is plenty if you do not need more.

On the other hand, there are a bunch of full-featured providers
such as Anveo, Voipo, Voip.ms, Callcentric, Vonage, etc.

I have checked out the websites of Anveo and Voipo and have some
idea of what you can do with their service, but have never used
them.

I have used Voip.ms and Callcentric, and in comparing Callcentric
with Voip.ms and with my idea of what Anveo and Voipo offer, I do
not see Callcentric as 'full-featured', at least by today's
standards.

And by "today's standards" I include having an IVR, and having a
flexible way to route incoming calls. Callcentric does not have an
IVR and its callerid filtering is clunky.

And an IVR should include any number of greeting messages,
depending on the caller, the time of day, DID being called, etc.
That is true of voip.ms and I think of Anveo and Voipo.

Routing calls should have an almost unlimited scope, and be simple
to do. That is also true of the three mentioned above.

Callcentric does have DISA and callback. Same for the other three.

Why should I pay Callcentric's prices - let us say they are about
the same as the other companies - while getting a poky service?

Compared to what else is out there, Callcentric does not have the
value.

#--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------
I use callcentric as a second, outgoing line, and was considering switching to it as a main vosp, getting a DID with them etc.

My use of the voip phone is to whitelist: block everything except what I let through. Then I took a closer look at the call treatments to see how I would go about it.

What a disappointment it was: If I wanted to allow someone to ring through monday - friday from 8am to 5pm, and send him to voicemail at other times - and this is a real-life scenario - in order to do that, I would have to create 5 call treatments for that single callerid, one for each day of the week. Completely unworkable.

And it does not even have an IVR. You can live without one, but it is like going from a starter motor to hand-cranking your car to get it started.

CC provides a nice service, but its call-handling is relatively primitive; and at the prices they charge, they should be able to buy smaller yachts and put the savings into programming.

member for 12.7 years, 27 visits, last login: 10.8 years ago
updated 10.8 years ago

PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

1 recommendation

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

Depends.

I would have to create 5 call treatments for that single callerid, one for each day of the week. Completely unworkable.

I'm going to fully agree that this is something I would like them to modify. However, I wouldn't call if "unworkable" because I've done it, and I set up several call treatments within a minute or two.

They allow 30 call treatments. If you do need to whitelist lots of numbers, and/or use an IVR, then Voip.MS may currently be a better fit.

....and at the prices they charge, they should be able to buy smaller yachts and put the savings into programming.

Yes, it's a regular feature of Manhattan life, watching the CallCentric yacht make it's daily trip on the East River.

But as to prices---I can argue that both ways.

For example:

Flat-rate inbound: CallCentric offers flat-rate inbound plans for both residential and business users. The residential plans are pretty comparable (CC vs. VMS). The business plan ("Office Unlimited") is not available on VMS.

Discounted inbound calling: CallCentric has "DirtCheap" numbers in many states (especially yours) at 2.95 a month for unlimited incoming residential calls, 2 channels.

Outbound calling (Light or Moderate users): Yes, I've said myself I'd like CC to be a little less on this. But lets look at numbers. The per-minute difference (CallCentric vs. VMS Premium) is $ 0.0073 so for 400 minutes a month the difference is $ 2.92. This is not yachtworthy.

Outbound calling (Heavy users): CallCentric has an unlimited outbound plan to US/Canada. Yes, at 19.95 it's only appropriate for heavy users, BUT unlike plans at other companies it has no numerical cap on minutes. VMS does not offer any flat-rate outbound plan at all.

So it all depends.

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

There's no doubt that all of the major quality VoIP providers have strengths and weaknesses. I think that we will see all of them innovate as needed for the marketplace.

StaticJitter
join:2010-04-14
Toronto, ON

StaticJitter

Member

Re: Depends.

The beauty of VOIP.MS is that it's very highly customizable and completely pay as you go, no fine print. It's unique. There is no other company like that. When CC is something like a generic voip provider out there, with it's "unlimited" monthly plans, housewife-friendly interface, 911 recovery bull**** and other "fees".

I don't want any plans, fees or other crap. That's why I am with VOIP.MS, they changed my life for better.
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

Re: Depends.

said by StaticJitter:

The beauty of VOIP.MS is that it's very highly customizable and completely pay as you go, no fine print. It's unique. There is no other company like that. When CC is something like a generic voip provider out there, with it's "unlimited" monthly plans, housewife-friendly interface, 911 recovery bull**** and other "fees".

I don't want any plans, fees or other crap. That's why I am with VOIP.MS, they changed my life for better.

Quite confused by your comments.

CC and VMS charge the same 911 fee. If VMS currently lets you skip 911, those days are numbered.

CC has no extra ongoing fees otherwise (nor does VMS) so I don't know what you are referring to.

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

Inbound:
CC offers PAYG or flat-rate.
VMS offers PAYG or flat-rate.

Outbound:
CC offers PAYG or flat-rate, most choose PAYG.
VMS offers PAYG only.

So I really don't see your point. I'm sorry if those options are confusing for you.

[I will say that for Canadian calls, VMS outbound PAYG rates are certainly a good value].
said by StaticJitter:

housewife-friendly interface

An interesting description.

Well, I view CC interface as crisp, elegant, and very user-friendly, and that's a GOOD thing for a company.

VMS is more difficult to muddle through.

I certainly respect VMS as a provider (and I use them).

By contrast, I don't know why VMS users feel the need to use words like "crap" and "bull****" to describe CC.

StaticJitter
join:2010-04-14
Toronto, ON

StaticJitter

Member

Re: Depends.

said by PX Eliezer704:

I don't know why VMS users feel the need to use words like "crap" and "bull****" to describe CC.

Because it's bull, AT&T style bull, just like paying for incoming SMS messages and per-minute billing. Rogers charges me 75 cents for 911, 50% less than CC. And that's Rogers, also known as Robbers. I think that if they absolutely HAVE to charge it, then include it in the price, not hidden in the fine print somewhere.

So I really don't see your point.

My point is that CC is overpriced, plan-centric company that wants to collect money from you every month no matter what. 1.95 for DID, 911 fee, taxes - that's like already almost 5 dollars right there. Plus their per-minute billing and more expensive rates.

If you like plans, then CC may be good for you, but for pay-go their product has little value for money.
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

Re: Depends.

said by StaticJitter:

My point is that CC is overpriced, plan-centric company that wants to collect money from you every month no matter what. 1.95 for DID, 911 fee, taxes - that's like already almost 5 dollars right there. Plus their per-minute billing and more expensive rates.

If you like plans, then CC may be good for you, but for pay-go their product has little value for money.

I remain quite puzzled.

1) Voip.MS has just introduced many new DID's in Ontario, and they are charging the exact same $ 1.95 that CC charges.

2) Also, those new Voip.MS DID's in Ontario have the exact same 1.5 cents PAYG per minute rate as CC.

3) Both companies charge the exact same 911 fee. (What you may pay Rogers Wireless for 911 is irrelevant.)

4) The current Voip.MS opting-out of 911 is not going to survive for much longer.

5) There are no other ongoing taxes or fees on CC other than NY State sales tax for NY State residents. For that matter, I understand that Voip.MS collects HST in some provinces.
said by StaticJitter:

My point is that CC is overpriced, plan-centric company that wants to collect money from you every month no matter what. 1.95 for DID, 911 fee, taxes - that's like already almost 5 dollars right there.

In my book, 1.95 plus 1.50 equals 3.45, not close to 5 dollars. In any event, if I get one of those new Ontario DID's from Voip.MS, it comes to the same.

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

Now, I certainly agree (as I have consistently said) that Voip.MS outbound rates are a bargain when calling Canadian numbers.
PX Eliezer704

1 edit

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

Still puzzled---

You have named several good companies that have many good features, not identical among the companies.

Voip.MS does have very good IVR, that is a great feature.

But I am still puzzled what you mean when you say that CallCentric is "poky". What does that mean? I use it at home and also for my main business line, and it works great.

That includes CallCentric's Call Treatments (caller ID filtering, forwards, and more) which in my view are very easy to use. In fact, on the main page of the dashboard, just by clicking on Calls Received, you can click on any recent call and instantly be taken to the appropriate Call Treatment page pre-populated with that number. That's very useful for CID filtering.

I am also a current customer of Voip.MS, VOIPo, and some other providers.

I often recommend VOIPo to people who do not want a BYOD option. VOIPo is fine. But I am puzzled again as to why you would say that VOIPo has better services than CallCentric when the opposite is true. And CallCentric's website is far easier to use than VOIPo's.

Likewise, Voip.MS is great with their IVR. But for basic tasks such as CID filtering, forwarding, etc., I find CallCentric's site to be much easier to use.

I'd estimate that I have extensively tried about 10 providers, and at least for me, CallCentric works the best, is reliable, and is the easiest to use. The only thing they lack is an IVR and if folks need that, then they should look elsewhere....

CallCentric by the way has some things that other companies sometimes don't, such as email or text notification of voicemail messages. And their inbound fax server works great at my business.
nitzan
Premium Member
join:2008-02-27

nitzan

Premium Member

?

On the one hand, you have Callwithus and Future9, which will sell you a DID and a connection incoming and outgoing, and that is about it.

I don't understand this comment. Future Nine IS a full-featured provider. We offer high-quality, reliable DIDs, with incoming CNAM included (we actually included it long before CallCentric did), voicemail included, LNP available, E911 available. Callwithus is just reselling didx.net.

We also offer global call forwarding, SIP forwarding, ringing multiple SIP devices, sequential "follow-me" up to 5 SIP or PSTN destinations, local and toll-free calling card gateways, SIPBroker integration, DID/CID/Web callback, etc. etc. etc.

Maybe we don't offer the features you want, but we do offer more features than most providers including some you've mentioned as full-featured.
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

Re: ?

I agree with Nitzan.

Future Nine offers great services at very attractive prices.
riparian
join:2011-06-15
Los Angeles, CA

riparian to nitzan

Member

to nitzan
Yes, sorry for still thinking of Future 9 as it was at the start, and overlooking all the things you have added over the past few years.

My own definition of full-featured would include an IVR, and inbound call handling as slick as Voip.Ms's (and, I am guessing, Voipo's and Anveo's). My rationale, such as it is, is that after 5 years? more? of voip being a real alternative to pots, standards have changed, and what was full-featured a few years ago isn't full-featured today.