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 Review by Eat Me 
UPDATED: 236 days ago
member for 7.1 years, 1003 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Sussex,Sussex,NJ
 $18 per month
 about 7 days
 "Excellent customer support"
 "They're a DISCO company who doesn't like routers"
 "Great for people who aren't really tech savvy"
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Update 3/16/09: I sent them back their ATA, and after 3 weeks they hadn't refunded my account, so I contacted them. They said it wasn't checked in. I had to give them the tracking number for them to find the ATA. Unbelievable. Well, at least I got my account refunded.
Original review:
Disclaimer: I can't really give a full review of them since I never got them to work properly.
Got the service ordered at the end of January. Linksys PAP2T device arrived a week later. I had really no choice in the matter. That's what they sent. They were sending out grandstream devices with built in NAT routers before, but I guess they ran out.
Set it up initially, made a test call, worked fine. I put it behind my pfSense BSD firewall.
However, a day after is when I started having no audio on incoming calls (outgoing were fine). The registration also disappeared. Connected to the cable modem directly it seemed to work sometimes. It may seem like a problem with my firewall but I am not sure.
The plus is that support did try to work it out with me. I give them an A for effort.
The minus is that I never got it working properly.
Not really their fault, and the CEO who posts in DSLR VoIP forums did say that they aren't really router friendly and that they'd prefer to use their devices as the router where they are inline. Not an acceptable solution for me because I have devices on my network such as slingbox which need to be accessible from outside. I also prefer to run my own router.
I switched to callcentric with my old Sunrocket gizmo (Telco systems AC-211) and it's been fine. Vonage with my Cisco ATA186 also had no problems up until I canceled.
I can only guess that they have some sort of config that will cause problems with pfSense or other BSD based routers. Best to either stay away if you have one of those, or prepare to use the device inline.
The good part is that you get 30 days money back so if you want to try the service you can without worrying whether you lose money if it works or not.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of VOIPo |
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Review by druber
UPDATED: 236 days ago
member for 9.6 years, 2978 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
Marlborough,Middlesex,MA
Contract price not specified.
"Call quality and reliability has been great"
"Nothing at this point"
"Recommended"
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I ported my verizon landline over about 1 year ago. Occasional glitches and/or disruptions due to architectural changes. Not surprising or a big deal due to the offering being in beta during the review period.
Update: I haven't been affected by the recent issues with ATA firmware and such, since I am a BYOD customer.
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 Review by NY Tel
UPDATED: 236 days ago
member for 5.6 years, 3340 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Smithtown,Suffolk,NY
$16 per month (12 month contract)
about 4 days
"It just works!"
"Have not found any yet"
"This one is a winner"
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April 6th UPDATE:
I am very pleased with the value, service and quality of what Voipo is providing.
I have had very little downtime and any issues that did crop up, were taken care of with adequate follow-through, and in a timely manner.
If speed to resolution is important, Voipo seems to have a good handle on following through on problem resolution and is very proactive in doing so.
So I am still happy.
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Original review:
I currently use many VOIP services, some as a tester and some as a real end user.
There have been many companies that have come and gone but VOIPO will definitely not be one of those.
I continue to be impressed with the unparalleled commitment to service and performance as VOIPO. Taking cues from some other less than successful companies, VOIPO has been able to take all of the information it gathers and actually put it into a viable business plan.
The novel part about them is that they actually listen to the customer, take suggestions (good and bad criticism) and adjust their product and service offering to help them meet the needs of the Voice over IP market.
Let's face it, most VOIP users want inexpensive, excellent, reliable phone service.
VOIPO is the closest thing to filling that tall order.
It is worth your while to investigate them as soon as they make the service available in "wide release".
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Review by FrankD1
UPDATED: 237 days ago
member for 6.8 years, 1234 visits, last login: 4 days ago
San Carlos,San Mateo,CA
$12 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
"Customer-centered business model, top notch voice quality"
"Service currently going through shake-down, encountering unexpected problems and points of failure"
"Great choice for techies, should be great choice for general public once shake-down progresses"
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Was previously AT&T CV user for 2 years prior. Very satisfied with CV, but APPARENT sunsetting of CV platform prompted me to start looking at alternatives.
VOIPo had/has a very loyal following due to their exceptional customer service, and that has 100% been my experience as well.
Installation had some minor glitches- VOIPo ran out of HS-502s right when I signed up (distributor closed for Chinese New Year), so I was in first batch to receive non-BYOD PAP2T. Wasn't plug and play; provisioning server was not pre-populated in ATA, but quick call to tech support had it running in minutes. Also had weird ring pattern for a few weeks. Eventual push of new wave-form file resolved the issue.
Overall, voice quality has been spectacular. CV had set high expectations for me, but gratefully VOIPo voice quality was just as good as people were raving... exceeding CV IMO. One voice quality item though, and might be "audible illusion" rather than real issue: first few weeks of service with VOIPo, and voice quality was close to perfect- reminded me of extension to extension calls on quality PBX. Over time, I started noticing occasional slight echoes, and digital "fuzz" in voice reproduction. Still great quality overall, but not what I remembered from first weeks. In the past week, I noticed a posting on an unrelated problem for another customer, and Tim offering to move customer's RTP proxying from Level3 gateways to VOIPo facilities. I asked Tim if I could try this as well. After getting confirmation email that config was changed and I rebooted the ATA, the echoes and fuzz were gone. It's only been about 5 days since the reconfigure, but call quality has remained virtually perfect for those 5 days, so you might want to request this option.
There have been some system glitches in the 2 months I've been with them. They're always quick to fix the problem, but I think they're inevitable problems that any company with any new system encounters, especially when systems and vendors don't perform/behave as spec'd (I know they had a two year BETA, but some problems statistically will only show up as the customer/call volume increases). I'm not being apologetic for VOIPo, and I'm not comfortable recommending VOIPo to my non-techie friends and family right now. But as long as they can maintain their current commitment to customer service, which appears to be one of their bedrock principles, I'm pretty confident they'll have most of the issues shaken out quickly, and it will be a true plug and play service I could recommend to my folks.
I'll update this in the near future to recap the shakedown.
UPDATE: 4/5/09
Still very happy with VOIPo in general, even though they are still undergoing "shakedown". To their credit, they are fixing problems quickly... it's just that as customer and call volume is increasing, they are encountering new problems that they were relatively immune to in their ealier days. But, their customer/tech service is still top notch, and they're putting good fixes (not band-aids) on these new problems, so I'm hopeful they'll soon be "over the hump" and the problems will taper off. Just to be clear, calls have been 99.5% reliable and clear for me. The only problems I've been encountering lately is VM glitches, but they're quick to fix them, and from what's been announced, the VM glitches are a side affect of network redesign/migration to more secure and robust facilities (they've been encountering some DDOS-like attacks, so they're becoming more of a target for the miscreants with too much time on their hands). So, at this time, still a great product for techies, should be great product for the masses soon. More updates to follow in a few weeks.
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Review by wagnerb
UPDATED: 238 days ago
member for 1.2 years, 12 visits, last login: 17 days ago
Alexandria,Fairfax,VA
$8 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
"Alternative to over-priced POTS"
"Lack of user manual for account management application"
"All around excellent service"
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I was one of the VoiceWing users that was summarily dropped back in January 2009. After looking for another VOIP provider, I stumbled across VOIPO. Did some preliminary research using reviews and decided to go with VOIPO.
Signed up in January 2009 and about a week later, got a LinkSys phone adapter. The porting process wasn't clear when signing up since the application process suggested it was automatic. However, after looking at the FAQs on the Web site, there was more to it and after contacting support, I indeed had to submit port request and copy of VW bill.
On day service was activated, I plugged up the adapter and could not make calls. I tried dialing in with cell phone and it rang through, but when answering could not hear caller, but caller could hear. A call to support resolved the issue.
The adapter is behind a LinkSys BEFSR41 v4.3 router that is in default configuration. This configuration (behind a router) has posed no problems for me.
The service has been consistent, sound quality is near or at POTS, and service disruption has been negligible, if any disruption at all. The account management application takes some getting used to since there is no user manual and a limited FAQ. I'm assuming this is forthcoming given it's coming out of beta testing.
Again, the service has been great. Support, when used, has responded in a reasonable time and resolved any issue presented.
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Review by brodster
UPDATED: 238 days ago
member for 312 days, 108 visits, last login: 5 days ago
Lake Worth,Palm Beach,FL
$13 per month (12 month contract)
about 4 days
"Price, features, voice quality."
"First adapter was faulty."
"After rocky start, smooth sailing!"
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Update, 4/4/09
Service has been rock-solid reliable for months now. I'm very pleased with the level of service... so much so, that I've prepaid for another year of service, extending into 2011! I've also talked my parents into porting their landline over to VOIPo. As an added benefit, I discovered by accident that VOIPo now has numbers in Crystal River FL (where my mother-in-law lives), so I was able to move my virtual number to there for no charge! As they say "If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy". I'm very glad to say that momma's very happy! 
_________________________________________________________________
Background
First, let me begin by saying that I’m not your average dslreports VOIP user. My family shares one landline, one cellular phone, and we get our TV via an antenna on the roof. Our one luxury has been DSL from Bellsouth, now ATT. We’re all about saving money, as we’re a single income family, and look to cut corners financially wherever possible.
I’ve often toyed with the idea of using VOIP – my brother has been a Vonage customer for years, and has had nothing but good things to say about it. Since my basic phone line ran in the neighborhood of $26/ month, even the most expensive VOIP services would be the same, or cheaper, with included long distance and all the bells and whistles. The holdup, for a while, was that DSL was not offered without voice. Once that was rolled out in my area, I began to look into it seriously. Still, ATT charges an extra $5/ month for the privilege of a dry line, but the VOIP savings would (hopefully) make up the difference.
Taking the first step
So, I set the process in motion. I ordered a new dry DSL line installed on the second copper pair leading to my house, and then turned to choosing a VOIP provider. Since my brother highly recommended Vonage, that was the natural choice for me as well. In fact, I probably would’ve signed up with them (they offer service credits for referring a friend), if it wasn’t for their rate hike. I was all set to sign up for the $15.00 500 min./ month plan, until when I went back to the site to do the deed, it was then $18! So, I began to see what else is out there, which led me to dslreports.com. The highest rated service was for a company with the strange name of VOIPo. As I looked into it, it seemed almost too good to be true - $99 for a year of unlimited service, ATA provided free, 2 lines included, free virtual number, 30 day guarantee, and the list went on. I discovered VOIPo and signed up that same evening. (I had to break it to my brother that he won’t be getting a free month with Vonage!)
Excitement…then frustration
I could hardly wait for my phone adapter to arrive. Luckily, it came only 2-3 days later, and I immediately hooked it up to my network, and made my first VOIP call! How cool is that… I’m talking over the internet! (I’m easily impressed…) I set up a separate phone in the house to test the line, encouraging my wife to use it for long distance to see how it works. Unfortunately, I started having intermittent problems right away – here’s the list:
1. incoming calls not ringing through
2. calls sounding horribly garbled and static
3. no dialtone
4. hanging up phone after call, and phone rings with no-one there.
5. fast busy signals incoming and outgoing
I had lots of tickets open to correct these problems, and each fix seemed to last for a short while, then problems would crop up again. God bless them, the techs at VOIPo seemed to try everything; different servers, proxies, STUN, and I tried numerous different network configurations on my side. All changes seemed to work for a while, then, not. Then it dawned on me – could it be a bad ATA? After each fix, I would do a power cycle, which would fix the problem, for a few hours, or even a day. I mentioned this to them, and they gladly agreed to overnight me a new adapter to try. Meanwhile, I had applied to port our current landline to VOIPo, and I knew it would go through any day. It just so happened that our port happened on a Thursday, and the new adapter arrived the same day. I plugged it in, hopeful, and waited. No dialtone. Unplug. Wait. Plug back in. No dialtone. Fool with DMZ/ port forwarding settings on my modem. No dice. It was after hours for tech support, so I submitted a ticket, and went to bed, disgusted.
Success – at last!
The next day, I got home from work, and got on the phone with tech support, determined to get phone service restored to our home. Finally, after an hour of work, the tech discovered that the new Linksys ATA had a bad auto-provisioning script. Once corrected, it hooked right up, and I was in business. I have now been trouble free for about two weeks now, and let me tell you, it is a beautiful thing. I love Caller ID! I love getting my phone messages via email! I love not getting a busy signal when I call my wife and she’s talking to a friend! (I know what you’re thinking, call waiting has been around since the 80’s, right?) Like I said, it doesn’t take much to impress me.
Getting the most out of VOIP
OK, so you know that I’m a bit of a noob when it comes to this VOIP thing, but I’m also a tinker-er; I like to mess with things to see what happens. So, my first question was “how can I make the most of the two lines VOIPo offers?” It makes sense to have an extra phone lying around so that two different phone conversations can take place at once, since we have that capability. I have a feeling that this will become increasingly more important as my children (ages 7, 5, 2, and 9 months) get older and discover the joys of talking on the phone. So, I found an inexpensive two line phone on Ebay to play with. My question was, how will a two line phone react to VOIP service? When a call comes in, both lines ring simultaneously, so I wondered how a two line phone would deal with that. As it turns out, it’s perfect – when a call comes in, both lines light up, but (this phone at least) selects line 1 automatically, and all is good. It’s also very easy to get to line 2 if someone else is already on, (the line buttons light up when in use by an extension) or to conference two calls together! I know that this can be done with the flash button, but it ain’t so easy.
Another “trick” that I haven’t seen anyone mention is how to have a “quasi” dedicated fax line. I have my fax machine plugged in to line two, and set to answer at 5 rings. My “main” number is set to go to voicemail after 4 rings, but I disabled voicemail on the virtual number, so it keeps right on ringing. So, faxes can be sent to my virtual number, and picked up by the fax. Granted, this only works if no-one picks up the phone first, but I don’t get faxes very often anyway, so it works just fine for me.
I’m sure I’ll find new things to love about VOIPo, but for right now, I’m having a Renaissance with the telephone – it’s all new to me again!
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 Review by burris
UPDATED: 238 days ago
member for 9.2 years, 3275 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Miami,Miami-Dade,FL
$8 per month (12 month contract)
"Solid-clear quality"
"None"
"Never had it so good. Reliable...excellent quality talk & and listen."
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4-4-09
I just realized that I haven't updated my review for quite a while.
Only change was to update the ATAs from GS502 to Linksys PAP2T. I think this was a great idea. Far more solid connectivity.
I'm still in love with the service as its quality is excellent. Actually getting better in many respects.
Support is by far some of the best anywhere.
No problems for me.
================================================================
I have been on their beta for quite a while and the service has been excellent.
I, as well as a number of others are patiently waiting for the launch.
I think that this will be the VOIP service that sets the standard.
I have been on VOIP for about 3 years and this new company has been an exciting experience.
I will update my review after the launch..
================
Since the launch is happening, I can only hope for all the new users, the same quality of service and support I have experienced during the beta.
The attitudes of the support personnel is not to be believed in this day and age.
They not only respond quickly, but respond with meaningful information and have no problem answering any questions.
I can only hope it remains as it has been, and I'm sure it will..
Many thanks to the entire crew at VOIPo...It has been and I'm sure it will remain a wonderful experience in the world of VOIP....
===========
Nov 4 2008.....Time for an update..
Still going strong...in fact the service is so stable and the quality is so good(just ask my wife), that I recently ordered a second line.
The few minor questions or issues that crop up from time to time, are answered via a ticket almost before you can get back to your e-mail screen.
I had no idea I would ever be able to virtually sit back and spend my time fooling with my 5 PCs, rather than having a full time job programming and tweaking my ATA and looking for servers around the country that might work.
I hope and do think that this is the real benchmark for VOIP services.
Thanks again Tim and your entire staff..
burris
December 27 2008
I IMAGINE IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER UPDATE..
Since the last review, the special price came up..
In addition, VOIPo turned up a cloned line feature that gives you two functioning in and out lines using the same primary number. What a treat..
In terms of quality, what can I say. I get a dial tone every time-the calls on both ends are loud and clear---and most important, I haven't heard a negative utterance from my wife since signing on with VOIPo.
Keep up the good work, Tim..
Followup comments:  erikthebean
join:2007-06-25
Manchester, NH | Launch Date?? Do you have any idea when VoipO will actually launch??? Im curious about the service. | |
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Review by rickyphar
UPDATED: 246 days ago
member for 261 days, 1 visits, last login: 246 days ago
Nampa,Canyon,ID
$13 per month (12 month contract)
about 1 days
"Customer Service, Value"
"VOIP Panel"
"Excellent service for the price"
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These are my initial impressions of my VOIPO service.
Signing up was simple and I had a soft phone working within an hour, great start. I received my adapter (Linksys) within a few days and it come right up and worked fine. I installed the adapters in one of the ports on my switch and had no problems. I did have a reconnect issue, but after opening a trouble ticket the firmware has been upgraded on the Linksys and I haven’t had any other connect problems.
I had several questions when first starting the service and the customer support was excellent, in fact I have not seen this level of customer service for many years. I like the value and the features that I get, however I did find the VOIP panel a little awkward at first.
Call quality so far has been pretty good, doesn’t work well when you are downloading large files, but that is understandable. I love being able to have two lines, and the DND with the white list is great. I wish that there was a way to turn the DND on and off based on the time. I would also like to be able to turn some features such as DND via a touch tone phone after entering my voice mail password.
Overall I am very happy with this service; it is a great value and will definitely be recommending it to my friends.
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Review by Studly
UPDATED: 247 days ago
member for 2.9 years, 35 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Lakeville,Dakota,MN
$14 per month
about 21 days
"Great tech support, no long holding times to get through to them"
"Unreliable, plus had some echo and latency problems"
"They seem to be experiencing growing pains"
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My Other Reviews ·ooma
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Like everyone else says, they have great support and I don't ever remember being on hold, waiting to get into support. They take your concerns seriously and try hard to help you. In my case, though, it didn't work out despite their best efforts.
Hope they make it, though. Once they get through these growing pains, maybe they'll be worth trying again.
Also, I found their website to be lacking in documentation for setup and how to use the various calling features. That could be improved, too.
Followup comments: VOIPoTim
VOIPo.com
Premium,VIP
join:2006-06-06
Houston, TX
| Grandstreams Unfortunately, we eventually stopped using the Grandstream ATAs entirely because of these issues.
We now only ship the Linksys devices and they're pretty much problem-free. We've replaced the Grandstreams for existing customers having issues as well.
I think your experience would have been different without the Grandstream device, but I understand that you don't have a router so unfortunately the Linksys device wouldn't work for you.
Thansks for the feedback and good luck with your future provider. Just let us know if you'd like to try things again at some point. | |
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Review by hootch
UPDATED: 254 days ago
member for 2.1 years, 323 visits, last login: 158 days ago
Vancouver,Clark,WA
Contract price not specified.
"Best customer service I have ever experienced"
"Some limited hiccups, but see good point"
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I went from Sunrocket, to Viatalk, and now to Voipo. Started out with a GS502 behind my router, but it lost registration. Called support and had the PAP2T within a couple of days. Just plugged it into my router and did nothing else. Certain calls I noticed were not of great quality, so on a Sunday afternoon, emailed support with my issues and within an hour had a reply that they made some changes to my PAP2T and to forward certain ports in my router and use QoS if possible. Did those changes and the call quality has been excellent...even to numbers in which I had experienced some issues earlier.
Overall, great quality. I do not recall ever having many issues with SR, with Viatalk I had to switch servers all the time, with Voipo, other than the initial port forwarding, etc. it has been plug and play.
BUT...I do not recall ever having dealt with a company with as good of customer service as Voipo. Not just voip companies, but any company. They take responsibility and admit if they made an error and work to resolve it fast. The owner of the company often personally responds to support tickets to make sure everything was taken care of satisfactorily. I would highly recommend Voipo to anybody I know.
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