how-to block ads
|
Review by Bob859  - Location: Elk River,Sherburne,MN
- Cost Contract price not specified.
- Install: about 1 days
Good "very reliable, saves me money, excellent call quality"
Bad "I can't think of anything"
Overall "It is rare that I am this happy with any product or service."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Update: I have now been using my Ooma for over four years. My opinion is the same. It is an excellent product that has saved me hundreds of dollars. I highly recommend Ooma. I love it.
It was three years ago today when I installed my ooma. I am still a happy customer. I have had no problems. It still works great, I am a happy buyer and I continue to save money each month.
Update: I have now been using the ooma for over two years and my opinion of it is the same. It is reliable and I am very happy with the service that I enjoy with my ooma.
My wife and I got rid of our landline in 2005. We used cell phones only, until we bought the ooma. The ooma has enabled us to greatly reduce our cell phone usage, hence, it is a money saver. (We were able to replace our AT&T postpaid phones with PagePlus prepaid phones).
We have been using the ooma since August, 2009. I have had no complaints. It has worked flawlessly.
We have no need for the Premier features, so there is no monthly or annual cost. My net cost for the device was $176. I have had no other expenses with the ooma.
I have found the ooma website, and especially the customer forums, to be very helpful.
member for 4 years, 79 visits, last login: 16 days ago
updated 16 days ago
Comments:
| Review by Nightfall - Location: Grand Rapids,Kent,MI
- Cost Contract price not specified.
- Install: about 5 days
Good "Fast setup, fast number port, excellent call quality"
Bad "Premier is $10 a month with many features that make it a requirement for me. Wish it was cheaper"
Overall "A solid VOIP provider that works very well for me."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I was on Callcentric for a few years prior to Ooma. Callcentric was my first VOIP provider and I had no plans to move away from them. I was paying about $15 a month after taxes to Callcentric, and I had plans to get a second line and increase my minutes. After seeing that my price would jump to $20 a month or so, I decided to look elsewhere.
My cousin has Ooma and sent me a referral. After reading through the reviews here, I snagged a Ooma Telo off of Amazon for $100 while it was on sale. I kicked in a $20 gift card I got for my birthday to bring the cost down to $80. I plugged the Ooma in, and after reading the quick start guide, I was up and running within minutes. Looking online, I saw I could get Ooma Premier for $120 a year and I get a free number port. After reading some comments online, I found out I could save a bit more if I called and ordered them both. I did this and got Ooma Premier with the number port for $100 this year. Add that into the free 60 days of Premier that I got when I got Ooma Telo and I won't have to worry about renewing Premier until September next year.
The number port went through very smoothly. I really liked the website that kept me advised of my port from start to finish. It took about 6 days to get that situated. This was a definite improvement over my last number port which took about a week as well but I didn't have any status updates on it through Callcentric. I had to open a few tickets about it while I waited. Working with Ooma on this was a nice improvement.
There are a lot of people who wonder if Premier is worth it. There are many features such as the second line, call blocking, and so on that are very nice to have. At $10 a month, many people shy away from it. The best advice I can give here is for you to snag it and give it a try when you get your Telo. I love the features of Premier so I intend to hold onto it.
The Ooma Telo unit is very nice. I purchased an Ooma Linx box for my fax machine that ran me $40 on sale, but pairing that with my Ooma Telo was very easy to do. The faxing capability works very well to boot.
The only negative I had through this whole process of installation was that my second line didn't work at the time of install. I did a live support chat with Ooma and they gave me a new second number which did work after testing. Took me 5 minutes to accomplish this, so if that was the worst I could expect, then I am happy.
Overall, I recommend Ooma, and I will be updating this review as time goes on with my experiences.
---
Update 9/19/13 - It has been about a month since I updated this, but so far things are going very well. The premier features are very nice to have. Faxing over the ooma connection is flawless. The call quality is amazing. I love the blacklisting and call blocking features that come with premier a lot. My next review won't happen for a while, but so far, I am very happy.
member for 12.1 years, 5433 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 16 days ago
Comments:
| Review by HenryA - Location: undisclosed location
- Cost: $4 per month
- Install: about 2 days
| |
Probably like you, I got fed up with Bell (Canada) screwing me over for a home phone. I've had the same number since 1988, and wanted to keep the land line, but was tired of paying $29.99 a month for the service. The final straw came when Bell ripped me off for an additional 12 dollars in fees when I made a long distance call. I didn't have a "plan" with them, so they punished me by charging for the call, added on a fee for not having a plan, and another fee for calling during business hours. Add the cost of the unpublished number, 9-11, and having a touch tone line, I was paying over $30 a month.
I looked at several options, and Ooma was the best. Luckily, I was right. The service is in a word, fantastic. It's crystal clear, I ported my home number and it comes with extra options like the ability to call across Canada for free.
If you're thinking about switching to Ooma, then do it. How do you compare $30 to $3.95? You can't.
member for 2.3 years, 208 visits, last login: 2 days ago
updated 16 days ago
Comments:
| Review by sloe - Location: San Antonio,Bexar,TX
- Cost: $4 per month
Good "It's dirt cheap, and sounds like a POTS line."
Bad "They've dropped my number porting three times, and can't give me a reason that isn't on the script."
Overall "If you're not porting a number from Time Warner, I say go for it."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Got the Telo from Costco for less than Ooma was selling it on sale. Got it activated and installed in less than 15 minutes. PAid them $40 to port my old number which they are having severe difficulties completing for some reason.
My monthly bill is $3.51 here in San Antonio, TX. Once my wife gets her phone number back, all will be well in paradise. Until then, I'm getting hounded every day that Ooma drops the ball.
member for 5.9 years, 104 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
lodged 16 days ago
Comments:
 nitzanPremium,VIP
join:2008-02-27
kudos:2 | Possible solution. Obviously the best solution would be to have Ooma complete the port - but if they absolutely can't complete it and you'd still like to use them anyway one thing you might consider is porting your number to another provider and forwarding it to your Ooma number. If usage is low then it shouldn't cost more than a few bucks a month, and there's plenty of quality providers to choose from.
Not ideal- but it's a way to keep your number alive and convenient.
--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation
--
Compare VoIP Provider Rates | |
| |  sloe
join:2007-11-09
San Antonio, TX | Re: Possible solution. That's my current plan. I'm porting it to Google Voice and being done with it. | |
|
| |
| Review by blohner - Location: Cortlandt Manor,Westchester,NY
- Cost: $3 per month
- Install: about 5 days
Good "Except for initial investment extremly cheap. Reliable enough"
Bad "High Call Latency"
Overall "Good value for the money"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Update Sept 2013:
Ooma remains main 'backup' call line - and at the same time has turned into my primary fax line (no issues sending/receiving faxes - they all go through)....
Update June 2011:
High latency remains - still not using ooma as my primary until it's resolved...
Signed up for ooma to replace Vonage as my usage is very light and my Vonage bill no longer justified (after almost 9 years). So this was a high bar to meet.
I am not 100% happy with Ooma: Main gripe is high call latency - I can't come to terms with this but given the low usage I have for a phone these days it's 'good enough'. Second gripe: No email notification for VM unless you are on Premier (I don't need the VM attached but notification would be nice). Third grip: iLBC instead of G.711 - why anyone doesn't use G.711 in these days I don't know... Compression never sounds as good (even so this sounds as good as it get's for compressed).
Overall a keeper...
member for 11.2 years, 5732 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 19 days ago
Comments:
| Review by RonV - Location: Hoffman Estates,Cook,IL
- Cost: $15 per month (12 month contract)
- Install: about 8 days
Good "Easy to setup, fast number port, great sound quality"
Bad "Free number port only available when you sign up for Ooma Premier, still pay monthy taxes and fees"
Overall "Great for replacing land line and reducing phone costs"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I have given up on running my own Asterisk PBX. It was fun having a great business type phone service in the home and allowing remote family members to be part of my telephone solution. Keeping a fall back phone line was costing $40 a month with AT&T.
The last time I looked at standalone VoIP service there were a lot of players in the market but now there are very few. AT&T U-verse is billing like a local land line service, Vonage used a low then high approach, Comcast bundled with hidden fees. A few of my friends were jumping on Ooma or NetTalk. Based on my experience with MagicJack and their lack of support I decided to give Ooma a shot. With a refurbished Telo for $99 directly from Ooma.
When I received my Ooma the unit looked like new out of the box. It had a footprint about the size of a modern home router and blue LED lighting on the top cover. The setup process took about 20 minutes. Created my account, plugged the Ooma into my router and powered up. It took about 10 minutes and what looked like two reboots before I had dial tone. Ooma does assign you a local number. I used the assigned number to make a few calls and the quality was great.
After a couple of days using the Ooma I decided to port my land line number. This is where the first fee came from. If you sign up for the Premier service they offer a bunch of free things to chose from one which is waving the $39 number port. I decided with Premier for $99 annually and started the number port on a Sunday. My number was ported from AT&T to Ooma by Wednesday. I found out this year that Premier's price was raised to $119.99 annually.
The only issue I have had for the last year with Ooma was waking up one day and finding the Ooma logo on the device red. I had to power cycle it for it to work again. It may have been due to AT&T updating their residential gateway since I noticed that my router logs show the link was lost overnight with AT&T. Other than that the unit has been all hands off. I am able to receive my voice mail via email attachments, and manage do not call lists on their web site.
member for 9.8 years, 146 visits, last login: 2 days ago
lodged 41 days ago
Comments:
| Review by chaswin - Location: Sacramento,Sacramento,CA
- Cost: $4 per month
- Install: about 1 days
Good "Setup easy. Large selection of office codes (3 digits after the area code). Answering machine function."
Bad "Initial price. (offset however by low monthly charge)"
Overall "For my purposes (long distance only) it works great!"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
AT&T started charging me $5.00 ($2 + taxes and fees) a month for the "privilege" of having long distance access, plus 39 cents a minute usage. I don't do much LD and had gone to the 39 cents a minute plan with no monthly plan/fee a few years ago. I called them up and totally cancelled Long Distance and started using an MCI calling card. MCI killed the calling cards and I needed a solution.
Looked at Magic Jack, Vonage, and Ooma. Magic Jack was too small and looked fragile. My buddy's MJ number is in Timbuktu and is a long distance call for me. Vonage appeared to be more expensive overall. After spending an evening analyzing the VOIP solutions I decided to give the Ooma a try.
Bought an Ooma reconditioned at Fry's for a few bucks less than normal price. I figured if it didn't work good, I could easily take it back. (I love Fry's)
Looked at all the prefixes/office codes offered by Ooma. Went to a website and found one that was central to the Sacramento area for the largest coverage so all my friends could call me for free. Got that prefix from Ooma and set up the unit. Works Great! Since I only use it to make a half dozen Long Distance calls a month I only pay for "basic" service.
I like the box the Ooma is in. It is the size of a small answering machine. It has a big blue "Atom" (more or less) symbol on the face that changes to blinking red if there is voice mail present. You press the VM button and it plays out of the speaker just like a traditional answering machine.
Technical Stuff: I install PBX telephone switches and voice mail systems for a living. I have a full PBX in my house with a phone in every room including the bathroom and shed. I added the Ooma line as a second line in addition to my copper line to the switch primarily for Long Distance calling. I programmed the LCR (Least Cost Routing) tables to basically send any 10 digit phone number to the Ooma line and any 7 digit number to my copper line. So automatically a call from any phone in my house selects the proper (least cost) line to make the call. Also if one person is making a local call and a second person wants to make a call (either local or LD), it goes out on the Ooma line.
For my purposes this is the perfect solution. The cost is less than AT&T's Long Distance access charge even before making any AT&T LD calls. The voice quality is very good and I haven't noticed any Jitter (garbled audio).
Caveat:
I do have a 6Mb DSL line which gives me enough bandwidth to surf the net and talk at the same time. If you have a crappy internet connection, none of the VOIP solutions will work good for you. Stick with a copper line or a cell phone in that case.
member for 11.7 years, 62 visits, last login: 55 days ago
updated 55 days ago
Comments:
| Review by oCyberFreako - Location: Sarnia,ON
- Cost: $14 per month (12 month contract)
- Install: about 1 days
Good "Better phone quality than traditional services, and incredibly better prices."
Bad "$40 number portability fee, took time to finalize setups."
Overall "I was paying over $40 dollars with Bell, now it's ~$4 a month!"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Hi Everyone!
I'm a accounting graduate and decided to use some of my skills to plan for phone and internet service. Because budgeting was a bit of a concern I decided against using cell phone service, if you're from Canada I'm sure you might understand or agree with that statement.
Nevertheless, I decided VoIP was overall less expensive than traditional phone service.
My first thoughts were MagicJack, NetTalk. Because I used to work at tigerdirect.ca I decided against MagicJack. For other reasons I decided against NetTalk.
My analysis consisted of Axvoice and PhonePower; Yet I still ended up with Ooma.
Axvoice: 1 Year Cost: $153, 2nd year: $153, 3rd year: $153 | With Taxes
Average cost over 3 years: $153/Year $12.75/month
Equipment (Grandstream HT-701): Free
1 Year: 99 or 8.25/month
Monthly: $10.99 (not used in calc)
PhonePower: 1 Year Cost: 273.81, 2nd year: $0, 3rd year: $203.04 | With Taxes & S&H
Average cost over 3 years: 158.95/year 13.25/month
Equipment: Free + 14.95 S&H
2 Year: 199.95/Year or 8.33/month
1 year PrePaid: 149.95
Monthly: $14.95
Ooma: 1 Year Cost $309.76, 2nd year: $47.4, 3rd year: $47.4 | With Taxes & Equipment fees
Average cost over 3 years: $134.85/year 11.24/month | 4years:$112.99/year $9.41/month
Equipment (Ooma Telo): $125.99 (Found on Sale via Best Buy/Futureshop) 149.99 normally
Basic Service: $3.95 (taxes & surcharges only)
Premier Service: $13.94 ($9.99 + taxes & surcharges)
---
I bought the service from Ooma, because even though start up costs were more overall than the first two, the subsequent years going forward are the lowest.
I also opted for the Premier service: 1) it included a 2nd line, 2) personal blacklist, 3) signing up for the year service includes either 1year extended warranty on equipment, or the Number Portability I opted for the latter as its normally for $40. It also included free US long distance and other features.
As I plan on moving and leaving this service to my retired father, he will most likely keep the basic service at 3.95 a month.
I bought both the equipment and the first year subscription. The taxes and surcharges are still monthly however. Since this service is mostly to replace my fathers he's still effectively getting phone service for $4 a month, still better than basic service with Bell.
Plus considering internet packages he'll still be effectively paying the same amount before for just the phone, but now he'll also get internet service.
Installation of services were fairly straight forward, though it did take some time as any/all updates needed to get downloaded and the modem to restart several times before use.
I had typed in Ooma and my router into Google to get some useful settings so that my phone service wouldn't be taken down if I'm downloading, watching videos, or gaming. the process was fairly simple, but it did take an additional ~10-20 minutes to setup these settings.
I don't mind doing this because its worth while, but some people may find it too much work.
In conclusion, the quality of phone service is better than what I've heard of others like MagicJack, the price is reasonable, setup was perhaps a little more advanced, but my goal was to ensure service stood strong especially if I might not remain in residence.
member for 72 days, 4 visits, last login: 63 days ago
lodged 69 days ago
Comments:
| Review by pandora - Location: Outland
- Cost: $1 per month (month by month)
- Install: about 1 days
Good "Easy setup, high quality voice, fax may be supported, no monthly fees for Ooma Core"
Bad "Business model potentially unstable"
Overall "A great easy to set up VOIP service with high quality sound"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
11th update: Ooma is still working at no monthly cost to me. 5 units, $0 per month.
10th Update: I need to update this review every 180 days to keep it current. Ooma is still working well for me. Still no fees, and very reliable service.
9th Update: Hard to believe it's been 180 days, but it's time for my 9th Ooma review. It's still working just fine, I have 6 units, and pay $0 per month. I still love Ooma.
8th Update: Ooma continues to charge me $0 per month and provide great service. So far so good.
7th Update: Ooma continues to be a fantastic service and I've never been forced to pay a penny after buying the ATA. Kudos Ooma.
6th Update: I'm doing an update every 6 months as I believe it's required for my review to count in the VOIP GBU. Ooma is still working great and as advertised. I'm still a very satisfied customer.
5th update: Ooma still provides me with free phone service that is of high quality and with no monthly fees. I'm still a happy customer after all these years. Thanks Ooma.
4th update: Well it's been a while with Ooma, I update about every 6 months. So far so good. No major problems, voice quality still great. I'm still a happy camper. My only concern is that Ooma could go out of business. Ooma has created a bunch of plans, newer Telo users will now pay $3-$4 per month. It isn't quite the great deal an Ooma Core system was. At least Ooma charging new customers for taxes and fees should help with corporate viability.
3rd Update: Ooma has changed their TOS for new Telo users. As an older Ooma Hub user I'm grandfathered in on the old terms. I have been using Ooma for some time now and am still a very satisfied customer.
2nd Update: I've now gone entirely off AT&T and to Ooma for landlines. The sound quality with Ooma is comparable to my old POTS lines. So far Ooma has delivered what it promised without any grief. I'm a 100% satisfied customer at this time. My only concern would be for the Ooma financial model. With 2 Ooma hubs, I currently have 3 lines supported by Ooma and have had no significant problems.
Update: It has been a few months since I installed Ooma and ported one of my phone numbers to it. Reliability has been great, and sound quality even better. When my internet connection was severely degraded, Ooma sound quality was first rate.
I mostly post about Ooma now on the Ooma forums. Support has improved. It used to take 15 or so minutes to get a live (American) at the Ooma support line, now it takes just a couple of minutes (or less). There is little need to call support as voice quality and reliability have been first rate.
Of late good deals on Ooma core systems have been harder to find, it seems to be a very popular product. I recommend Ooma to my friends.
Initial review: I read reviews on Amazon, and it seemed as if Ooma was providing a great service. When the price went from $219 to $200, I decided to give it a try. Amazon has a great 30 day return policy, if Ooma wasn't good, it would be easy to return.
Setup was easy, within 5 minutes it was unboxed and connected to my network (behind my router). Activation on the website was a breeze, and I had a functioning local telephone number within two minutes of completing the online form.
There was no credit card or social security number required to activate service. I did have to provide a street address for the E911 feature.
Within 2 minutes of completing the form, my Ooma went from having it's indicator tab glow red (meaning something is wrong) to blue (meaning it is ready to make a call). Since that time, my Ooma hub has been doing a wonderful job.
The Ooma core consists of a hub and scout. The hub does most of the work, the scout helps add support features which seem to mostly require the $99 per year premium service. I don't use the scout.
I've been able to send and receive faxes of up to 8 pages via my Ooma hub. There have been no fax problems.
Voice quality is exceptional for a VOIP service, it is almost as good as a land line.
The only drawback is there is no fallover to an alternate phone number in the event of an internet failure. Thus if my Ooma link goes down, there is no way to have Ooma call forward to my cell phone.
Ooma support has been helpful. They provide an 800 number, and Americans answer the phone. Wait time has varied between 6 and 15 minutes. Twice I've received a busy when calling support, and called later without a problem.
The business model of giving free domestic calling (up to 3,000 outgoing minutes per month) with no fee may not be stable. Time will tell. Until then, Ooma is a fantastic device and provides very good service.
Recently I added a second Ooma hub to my home network. It can make calls with no problem, both Ooma hubs work fine behind my router.
Each hub is assigned a static LAN IP via static DHCP, similarly they are assigned highest QOS priority via their MAC. So far, so good.
The second Ooma hub activated without any problem, it was as problem free as the first. Activation seems to take only 2-3 minutes.
Edited to add my recent experiences with Ooma support have been outstanding. I've increased my rating of Ooma.
member for 12.3 years, 5299 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 86 days ago
Comments:
| | you pay taxes and fees, so its not free. You pay TAXES and FEES every month on those 6 ooma's. so not really "free"..... | |
| | pandoraPremium
join:2001-06-01
Outland
kudos:1 Reviews:
 ·ooma
·Google Voice
 ·Comcast
·Future Nine Corp..
| Re: you pay taxes and fees, so its not free. said by compuguybna:You pay TAXES and FEES every month on those 6 ooma's. so not really "free".....
No, you may pay those fees, I don't. Older Ooma users pay absolutely nothing per month. On this forum, for well over two years I encouraged users to buy the service when there was no fee, and was told Ooma would be out of business in less than a year. I update my review of Ooma every 6 months (required to keep it current with DSLREPORTS so it counts in the Good, the bad and the ugly).
So for nearly 5 years, I've paid nothing for Ooma, not a cent, on 6 lines for myself, but nearly 40 lines for extended family and friends.
It's unfortunate you didn't order an Ooma when they had no monthly fees, if you had, you'd be grandfathered and be paying absolutely nothing.
In response to your statement, about me specifically, it is incorrect. I actually pay nothing, nada, zip, $0.
--
"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand." - Milton Friedman" | |
|
| |
| Review by tmc8080 - Location: Brooklyn,Kings,NY
- Cost: $3 per month
- Install: about 3 days
Good "Great to get away from telco & cableco voip!"
Bad "Fewer glitches since firmware updates. Rare downtime"
Overall "Phone service for $3.71 - $3.76 (varies basesd upon monthly use) a month. $10 more if you want premium features"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I paid $184 and got a $50 rebate, so net price was $144! Even with premier of $100 a year, I'm saving about $21 a month over FIOS voip and would have spent $16 more than Optimum Voice. Service went down once in the 4 months and not for long (1/2 hour). I have a cell phone as backup and that's all I need.
Why pay more with other telecoms or 3rd party voip companies?
Sure, you might get a better upfront deal with a MagicJack, but long-term, Ooma is the better value and reliable service. Ooma pays for itself in as little as 6-12 months. As of this review I've saved $85 on voip by cancelling Verizon Fios triple play and subscribing to Optimum Boost 50/8 for $44.90 a month (if I include video cancellation, it's a net savings of $40 a month)
The Ooma forum is very good first line support and circumvents the need for many customer service calls.
As long as my Ooma telo holds out... I'm a happy camper.
member for 9.4 years, 888 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 97 days ago
Comments:
|
|
·
·
·
