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Review by brianb50  UPDATED: 79 days ago member for 5.3 years, 242 visits, last login: 79 days ago
Syosset,Nassau,NY
Contract price not specified.
about 2 days
"Cost very low"
"None right now"
"Great product for what you pay for..."
| Web-site: Ease of Installation: Call Quality: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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Sept 15: Ordered Friday Sept 11th came today Tuesday Sept 15th, from Dell now thats fast. I picked up ooma from Dell Business plus a coupon for $180 something with tax. I wanted to get this to test to see If I will be able to get rid of regular phone line. I have Fios right now which ROCKS, I am hoping can get Double Play with Internet and TV. I'm not sure if they offer it. If I cant then I guess I have a cheap 2nd line. It wont cost much for what I paid, as log as ooma stays in business.
Let me just say this was the easiest piece of equipment to hook up anybody can hook this up. Right now I am very happy with what I have paid for, I want to do a lot of testing with faxing and the small issues you read about service.
Not for nothing why is there only 16 reviews on this product. It should be a lot more maybe people dont know about it ,I mentioned it to people at work and they never heard of it. Once this catches on I think it going to be a great hit.
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Review by pdxbuysell3  Posted: 128 days ago member for 3.6 years, 21 visits, last login: 128 days ago
Wilsonville,Clackamas,OR
Contract price not specified.
"Easy setup...excellent call quality....very reliable....can't beat the price."
"None!"
"If the company doesn't go under, this is the next best thing since sliced bread"
| Web-site: Ease of Installation: Call Quality: Reliability: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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Got this for $199 from Costco. Installation and activation too 5 minutes. I had Viatalk for 3-4 years before this. Call quality was never great. Part of the problem was that viatalk adapted was hooked up after my router and call quality was at the mercy of Router QOS setting. For example, running torrents would freeze up Viatalk and I had to reboot the device. A couple of times year, they would change some setting and service would go down. None of those problems with OOMA til now. Device sits between the modem and router. So call quality has been excellent. Admitted that I have been using this for less than a month. But no reliability problems whatsoever till now.
Works well with my multiphone system with base hooked to OOMA hub and other hnadsets working wirelessly.
Excellent product!!
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Review by CloaknDagr  UPDATED: 134 days ago member for 6.1 years, 88 visits, last login: 124 days ago
San Pedro,Los Angeles,CA
$8 per month (12 month contract)
about 1 days
"Full control of my own telephone system, very economical."
"It's VOIP, took a little tweaking to get my firewall set up for max. performance."
"Excellent, excellent, excellent."
| Web-site: Ease of Installation: Call Quality: Reliability: Tech Support: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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I've been using my Ooma for about 3 months or a little more as I write this. I love my Ooma. I was paying AT&T about $70 a month for my previous single line business connection. Ooma charges for premier service only, you can get the basic one line service and use your own answering machine and if you do, then Ooma is free after the initial purchase of the core system which is around $200. They let you have the premier service free for 60 days and at the end of that I decided I wanted to keep it. That's $100 for 12 months or about $8.33 a month if paid annually, which I opted for.
This gives me a private line and my business line which I ported over from AT&T. I have a two line phone at my desk and it's great having my own telephone system. I can put the business line on "do not disturb" during my non-working hours but I can still make phone calls from it at any time. I gave my private number out to friends and family which makes me reachable at any time, though if you wanted you could put that line to 'sleep' too.
I'm not using a home router, I'm using an actual firewall appliance on my network. The Ooma devices are behind this firewall. It took a bit of tweaking and a few calls and emails to tech support both for the Ooma and the firewall to get it all dialed in for maximum performance but it was well worth it. I'm an IT consultant and a reseller for this particular firewall brand so it's great advertising for both Ooma and the firewall when I tell clients what exactly I'm talking to them on. Several of my clients are small businesses that could benefit greatly from the savings and security of this configuration.
I guess the point I'm trying to make above is that this can be made to work even in a very secure environment. Had I known a little more about the engineering of the Ooma it would have been easier still. My only real complaint to date is that the literature and manuals are all sort of dumbed-down making it difficult to acquire in-depth technical information. While this is a negative on my part it's a serious positive for most users as setup is very simple and anyone could be talking within a few minutes of plugging this in. Even with input from tech support I ended up doing some trial and error. no big deal but I did bug my sister a lot with phone calls of the "how does this sound now" nature.
Everything on my network is plugged into UPS's so the only thing that can take me out of service is an ISP failure of some sort. I'm on Cox so that's never been an issue for me at this location, they've never been down that I'm aware of in the 7+ years I've had the service.
I would highly recommend this to anyone provided that you are otherwise happy with your ISP. The 'multi-ring' feature simultaneously calls my cell phone when my business number rings so if for some reason I had an Internet outage I still have communications as I get good cell coverage here. Multi-ring is part of the premier package so that's another reason among many that I don't mind paying for the premier service. I just turn my cell phone off when I'm in my office.
I LOVE my Ooma!
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Review by Aveamantium  UPDATED: 141 days ago member for 3.1 years, 1278 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Loveland,Larimer,CO
Contract price not specified.
"Installed in Minutes and Land Line Voice Quality"
"Business model could be an issue?"
"It Works Very Well! Get It!"
| Web-site: Ease of Installation: Call Quality: Reliability: Tech Support: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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7/16/2009
Been using ooma for almost a month now and I'm still impressed! Last time I couldn't comment on reliability and tech support so today I'm updating these topics. Though it has only been a month, reliability has been perfect. I had to call tech support once to figure out a billing issue and received a call the next day saying all had been taken care of. When calling tech support, I got through instantly and the tech was courteous and helpful.
I decided to move the ooma hub in front of my router not because of quality issues but do to the conditional QOS available in the ooma hub. Though I'm running Tomato firmware on my router, which has great QOS abilities, it doesn't allow for conditional bandwidth allocation. By having the ooma hub in between my modem and router, bandwidth for the phone call is only reserved during the phone conversation meaning I get the full bandwidth (whatever it may be at that point in time as my speed varies greatly) whenever the phone is not in use.
I have had some slight static on the non-ooma side of the conversation when using the scout and have started the troubleshooting process with the folks at ooma. However, the hubs voice quality seems to be still comparable to a landline. I think it has something to do with the way the scout communicates with the hub (HPNA) but this has not been confirmed as of yet. Once the Telo comes out in a few months, this will be a non-issue as the hub will communicate with the Telo "scout" (which will now be a standalone cordless phone) using DECT 6 technology.
6/20/2009
Since I just got ooma today I can't comment on all the items above (i.e. Reliability and Tech Support). However I will update later to report if these become issues or not.
I can say that I plugged the Hub in behind my Linksys WRT54GL running Tomato and after doing the online registration I was off and running. I did install the Hub's Phone Port to my Line 1 house wiring (which powers most of my phones), and installed the Hub's Wall Port to my Line 2 house wiring (which powers the scout in the kitchen).
The web site seems to be fairly simple and set up well... They seem to be adding features, which is a good thing as long as the voice quality doesn't suffer in the process. The only thing that I got used to with Viatalk that ooma doesn't seem to have is the ability to block based on wild cards (e.g., block 800 numbers). Hence, I did knock one off for the web site.
I started out with Sunrocket but only had them a few months before switching to Viatalk. I was with Viatalk for three years and was fairly satisfied with them but wanted to look around for some better deals following the end of my contract. After doing some research I ended up purchasing an ooma. Now as long as the company stays in business you cant beat the price and after setting it up I can say that the voice quality seems to be superior to that of Viatalk.
After the 60 day trial of the Premier service I'll likely port my number over from Viatalk. At that point if we really like the "Premier" services I may even spring for the $100 annual Premier service!? Only time will tell...
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Review by dbwilson  UPDATED: 154 days ago member for 9.4 years, 2191 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Fayetteville,Fayette,GA
$8 per month (month by month)
about 1 days
"Easy setup, great call quality, prompt phone cust. support"
"None so far"
"Great value, time will tell if ooma's business model is sustainable"
| Web-site: Ease of Installation: Call Quality: Reliability: Tech Support: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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Equipment cost from Amazon was $214.17 which includes hub & scout, free basic service for life of the equipment, plus 2 month trial of premier service. I subscribed to an additional year of premier for $99.99 which includes cost of port, second line w/ second VM account, call screening, plus many other bells & whistles.
I called tech support with questions about QoS settings and spoke with US-based person with only about 10 sec. hold time. Once I had my QoS settings correct the call quality has been as good as POTS with no service interruptions since I signed up on May 14.
I ported my number from Comcast DV - completed in 19 days on the exact day that ooma notified me it would be.
The hub and scout have some unique features that combine the best of voice mail and answering machines, and the "Instant Second Line" feature is very convenient - these are the features that are unique to ooma. Other typical VoIP features are either included in the basic service or included in the extended features that come with premier.
Update- more on the "Instant Second Line": The more I use this feature, the more I like it. It does more than you would expect from just a second line. Ooma has separated the line from the number. This means that the lines can operate both inbound or outbound with either number. So you can have two simultaneous calls on the primary number, or on the secondary number, or one on each number.
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Review by rs1990  Posted: 180 days ago member for 5.5 years, 436 visits, last login: 68 days ago
Highland,Ulster,NY
Contract price not specified.
about 5 days
"Pay once, No monthly fees, Good call quality"
"Not quite as good call quality as my cable VOIP"
"Great deal, would recommend this to anyone"
| Web-site: Ease of Installation: Call Quality: Reliability: Tech Support: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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The first thing that I will say is that Ooma is such a great deal...I paid a one time $200 fee to buy the hardware and that is basically it (I say basically because I did pay $40 to port my old number over too, but I didn't have to do that). We don't use the home phone that often and the call quality is more than adequate, though not quite as good as it was with our cable company VOIP (though I believe they can achieve that just by setting their VOIP at a higher QOS than regular traffic, so it is kind of cheating).
I was so sick of paying $40 to my cable company for their VOIP service that I decided to try Ooma out for a few months. I figured that even if it was not good enough, $200 is 5 months of cable VOIP. So, as long as I used it that long, I was still even. I ordered Ooma from Amazon and received it in a few days. The setup was a breeze, I basically just plugged it in and it worked.
I only needed the main hub (we have a 4 handset cordless phone system), not the scout unit which would allow you to add another line upstairs for instance. After plugging the main hub into my network, I was up with a dial tone in under an hour.
The number porting takes a bit of time (I didn't immediately sign up to do it since I wanted to test it out before canceling my cable VOIP)...a few weeks if I remember correctly. I also think that $40 is a little steep to port a number, but as I said, I didn't need to do this, it was just more convenient.
All in all, this is a great product and I hope that their business model is good enough to allow them to stay in business. That is my biggest concern, that with no monthly fees, they will not be in business forever. I am crossing my fingers, because it is great.
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Review by soccerdad62  UPDATED: 195 days ago member for 4.6 years, 1097 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Saline,Washtenaw,MI
$16 per month
about 3 days
"Works well and took almost no time to set up."
"Thought it supported Google Voice, but it's my fault for not researching"
"Well worth the price...let's hope for sustainability"
| Web-site: Ease of Installation: Call Quality: Reliability: Tech Support: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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Currently have Comcast Digital Voice, Vonage and ViaTalk. The one-time purchase for Ooma was appealing and my ViaTalk is due to expire, so bought it to replace VT (VT is OK, but it ranked #3 of my current services).
I bought the Hub and Scout through Amazon for $209, which is a far cry from other prices, up to $250, that I saw elsewhere. Shipping took a couple of days.
Set up was just a matter of plugging the Ooma hub into my router and the cordless phone into the Ooma. They seem to make a big deal out of telling you to install in front of your router for QoS, but I chose to just put it behind and it works flawlessly...another option, anyway.
Voice quality is very good and I haven't experienced the delays others have reported. There's a Ooma tone before the dial tone that's kind of dopey, but it's benign.
The Ooma blog and press release seemed (to me) to imply that they have a Google Voice Extension (whatever that means) to allow integration with GV. I was incorrect and was disappointed in that little blip, but tech support was pleasant and got back to me quickly.
For anyone considering VOIP, this is worth the price without recurring charges.
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Review by pinhead3641  UPDATED: 208 days ago member for 5.5 years, 28 visits, last login: 128 days ago
Placentia,Orange,CA
Contract price not specified.
"No monthly fee"
"Will this company be solvent in five or ten years?"
"Goodbye, AT&T"
| Web-site: Ease of Installation: Call Quality: Reliability: Tech Support: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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Update 5/9/2009
Our ISP is TWC/RoadRunner, and for whatever reason, our "10Mb/sec down, 1Mb/sec up" Turbo connection has been running at 35-55% of the advertised speeds of late. Last night I was talking with a friend-- also a TWC/RoadRunner subscriber-- on the phone, me using Ooma and he using the TWC VOIP service that he pays them for. Around 9:00 p.m., the quality of the call was so bad that I could not hear him talking for several 2-10 second intervals. The line was silent on my end, even though the call was still in progress. I don't know who to blame here... Ooma, TWC, or both. Obviously the service could be better, but I still have to admit, even if I have to avoid calling during certain peak traffic times, it beats paying AT&T $75/month.
==========================
Update: 4/13/2009: Ooma had a major outage today, and our VOIP phone was down from sometime in the morning-- we noticed it around 11:00 a.m.-- until approximately 4:15 p.m. PDT.
In fairness to Ooma, this is the first outage we've noticed. Everything has worked well since we subscribed, with the exception of this outage today. We still have our cell phones, so it was at best a minor inconvenience.
Our number port was completed on schedule (it took 34 days from the day we activated our hub), and Ooma kept us updated throughout the process.
I'm going to keep on using Ooma as long as they are in business. I'm even getting my non-tech-saavy parents to switch.
==========================
A tech-saavy coworker tried another better-known VOIP provider-- one that spends a lot of money on TV commercials-- and said his experience couldn't have been worse. This was a few years ago, though, but it is relevant because it made me very reluctant to abandon my AT&T landline for VOIP technology.
Recently, I read some very detailed and positive reviews of the Ooma service on one or two blogs, on Amazon.com, and also on the warehouse store Web site, and these convinced me to give it a try. I dropped just under $250 to get the Ooma hardware-- one of their hub units and a scout unit, in a bundle pack-- shipped to me. I don't know why it took Big Warehouse Store two weeks to ship it to me, as they are usually more timely, but once I had the hardware, I went through the activation steps, paid $40 to have my current number transferred from AT&T to Ooma, and another $50 for international minutes, plugged in the hardware, and was making calls in about 30 minutes.
I was motivated to try this because we were spending $57/month on the cable modem, another $60-$65/month for satellite TV, $75/month on AT&T, and about $80/month for our cell phone service. I found myself thinking that it is simply stupid to spend around $300/month for "connectivity," or whatever you want to call it. So I started looking for some way to consolidate/bundle/cut expenses. I considered the various possibilities, and when I saw this Ooma hardware in the Big Warehouse Store monthly mailer, I thought it would be worth a try. I was on the verge of trying my ISP's VOIP service anyway, for which I believe they charge about $25/month, but I figured at that rate I'd break even with the Ooma hardware in 10-12 months, provided Ooma stays solvent.
So even though this is just the second day that the Ooma hardware has been installed, we've been making and receiving calls (even overseas calls), and it seems everything that was promised is true... so far. We still need to wait for our number to be ported over-- supposedly it takes 3-4 weeks-- and until then we need to keep our AT&T account alive and paid up, but if everything goes smoothly, I have just one more $75/month AT&T bill to pay.
I'll try to remember to update this review after three or four months.
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Review by joeinspirit  UPDATED: 216 days ago member for 6.4 years, 42 visits, last login: 131 days ago
Pasadena,Los Angeles,CA
Contract price not specified.
about 1 days
"Effortless Install, Right Price, Great Quality"
"None yet."
"It just works."
| Web-site: Ease of Installation: Call Quality: Reliability: Tech Support: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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I can think of few pieces of electronics that install so effortlessly. Ooma just works. It is as easy to install as a game console.
So, after reading many reviews, and a attempt at using a skype converter box (it was crap), and looking into Vonage (which I think is a good service) I decided on Ooma.
Today I went to frys bought ooma and installed it. The install was easy. I didn't follow directions or read the quick start guide, I just took it out, plugged it into my router, and plugged the phone in. The hub has a giant "you must activate first" sticker on it, which I did, and it started working. I do not have conventional telephone wiring here so I just plugged the "scout" device directly into the HuB, using a pigtail, so that I could attach the base of my wireless handsets in addition to my desk phone, it works just fine.
Only thing that slightly slowed me up was that the brightness control on the ooma was turned down either by me or at the factory, so I couldn't tell it was on until I picked up the handset.
I am actually going to need and use the premium features so will pay the $99 a year for it. I hope to try to run my business phone system off of this, after I do some beta testing, if I get the chance I will add to my review with my experience using it for business phone. If it works, I will break even on my phone bill in about 4 months, even with the premium services fee. I bought the ooma for $199. I also just tested having my 1-800 number set to forward to my ooma, and it is working fine.
My first impression is that this is a great service, it just works, sound quality is great, no glitches yet. Now if the company can just keep afloat financially, and not have outages.
Followup comments:  nitzan Premium,VIP join:2008-02-27
·ViaTalk
·Comcast
| Becareful if you use it for business... 5 Use of Equipment and Services
* (a) Residential Use: We provide the Equipment and Services to you solely for residential use. The use of the term "unlimited" in conjunction with ooma's service offering as it appears on ooma packaging, in sponsored advertising, on the ooma Web site, and in third party marketing materials, refers to normal residential phone usage as defined herein. You agree to use the Equipment only in a manner consistent with normal residential usage patterns. You are prohibited from using the Equipment or any Services for auto-dialing, continuous, or extensive call forwarding, telemarketing (including, without limitation, charitable or political solicitation or polling), voicemail broadcasting, or fax or voicemail blasting or with regular, consistent activity that could be considered commercial or for-profit in nature ("Prohibited Use"). You agree we have the right to terminate your service if we conclude you are using the service for a Prohibited Use. In addition you agree that any usage of more than 3,000 minutes for outbound calling per month will be deemed dispositive proof of Prohibited Use. In the event you engage in Prohibited Use, ooma reserves the right to terminate service without notice or, at ooma's sole discretion, to charge you at a rate of 1.9 cents/min for calls that exceed the 3,000-minute per month outbound calling limitation. This rate may be modified on our Web site from time to time. I bet the package on the box doesn't say "residential use only", does it?  | |
|  |  joeinspirit
join:2003-06-25 Pasadena, CA
·ooma
| Re: Becareful if you use it for business... I interpret the TOS to define "residential use" as residential use patterns relating to call volume and specific activities (auto-dialing, blasting, etc).
"[Or] with regular consistent activity that could be considered commercial or for-profit in nature" is ambiguous at best.
Nowhere does it say you cannot send and accept business calls using the line. | |
|  |  |  nitzan Premium,VIP join:2008-02-27
·ViaTalk
·Comcast
| Re: Becareful if you use it for business... "We provide the Equipment and Services to you solely for residential use" sounds pretty clear to me. 
They probably won't do anything if you make 500 minutes a month - but if you go 2000-3000 expect to be disconnected eventually. | |
|  |  |  |  |  |  joeinspirit
join:2003-06-25 Pasadena, CA
·ooma
| Thanks for the link pandora, interesting.
Nitzan,
I hear what you are saying, and in some sense, the sentence you quote is clear, on the other hand that sentence doesn't give us a definition of "residential use". What I'm saying is that when trying to dispositivly interpret the clause, the paragraph should be read as a whole. After that sentence they spend the rest of the paragraph arguably defining "residential use", and ultimately I would contend that it is defined as usage pasterns, stated in lay terms.
Much of Paragraph 5(a) focuses on use pasterns which would cause a high volume of outbound calling, especially those mentioned explicitly i.e. blasting, polling, auto-dialing, etc. Now this may be delving to much into contract law but I would argue that the clause would be interpreted as a whole, and strictly construed. A similar type of holding was recently found in Poseidon Dev., Inc. v Woodland Lane Estates, LLC (2007) 152 CA4th 1106. Following the reasoning in Poseidon if the user "agree[s] to use the Equipment only in a manner consistent with normal residential usage patterns." The user has in no way agreed to refrain from conduct business calls en blanc. The user has only agreed to the pastern restriction.
Just some thoughts. Anyway, at least in my case my office will fall below 3,000 minutes, so it should be a non-issue.
Regards,
Joe | |
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Review by lohertz  Posted: 231 days ago member for 233 days, 1 visits, last login: 231 days ago
Plano,Kendall,IL
Contract price not specified.
about 1 days
"Free Calling to Anywhere in the US"
"Company is in Early Stage of Growth,"
"Superior Value, Excellent Forum Community, Company will to work with customers"
| Web-site: Ease of Installation: Call Quality: Reliability: Tech Support: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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I've had Ooma for a couple of months now and couldn't be more pleased. The company is in early stages but vigorously work to correct problems and push out updates.
Did experience an outage this week, but came back online after a day. Not a complaint, but an inconvenience. A lot of ideas move through the forums and they actually get used by the company.
They actual listen to their customers, what a relief. Forum community is great and I am active in it.
Call quality has been excellent for me. I have AT&T DSL 1.5M/384K and it works well. My VoIP experience mainly comes from my working environment and Ooma is comparable to that. (Polycom and Cisco phones)
I didn't opt for premier, but may when the daughter gets older...LOL
Very, Very happy. Would Recommend
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