said by georgepan:If SR didn't exist I probably would choose Voicepulse.
I know they're considered one of the better VoIP services; however, I had some MAJOR issues with VP and how they conduct(ed) business:
1) I signed up for VP's $25/month plan (back when there was an annual contract). At the time that I signed up, they advertised a 30 day trial period claiming that you could USE THE SERVICE FOR 30 DAYS. However, (without adveristing it) they started that 30 day period from the moment I signed up, not the ~1 week later when I received my ATA. That is not only false advertising, had I kept the service, I would have ended up paying for that 1 week of service while my ATA was in transit! (I believe they have since modified their 30 day trial period to state that it starts from the moment you SIGN UP. This IMO is still a bogus 30 day trial period, and it still charges customers for a week's worth of service they cannot use).
2) In the first week or so I had superb voice quality, but all of a sudden OUTBOUND calling quality went to h*ll. Anybody I called said my voice quality was horrible. I called myself on my cell phone to hear the quality, and it was beyond awful (garbled and vortex like sound). VP initially responded saying the issue was my ISP and then did not respond to my numerous additional requests for help until I finally sent in my service cancellation request (on the 29th day after having received my ATA).
3) VP denied my money back guarantee (i.e. insisted I was under a 1 year contract) claiming I had made my reqyest after after 30 days. Based on my SIGN UP DATE, I was indeed past 30 days (by about 5 days); however, based on my RECEIPT DATE of my ATA, I was only at the 29th day. I ended up disputing the VP charges through my CC issuer; however, it was a hard fought battle. Ravia Sakaria, President of VP, personally responded in writing to his CC merchant that the VP TOS stated that the 30 days began from the moment a customer signed up. I followed up with detailed documentation from VP's web-site showing their advertised 30 day trial period (where at the time they said you could USE THE SERVICE for 30 days), a copy of my fedex shipment tracking (showing when I received the ATA), etc. I ultimately won the dispute, but because of that ordeal, I wouldn't go near VP again (and would never encourage anybody else to do so as well). I don't go so far as to tell people not to use VP; however, I don't recommend that company.
4) I have since learned that VP's US MAILING ADDRESS is nothing more than a UPS Store. See for yourself:
»
www.voicepulse.com/corpo ··· tUs.aspxVoicePulse Inc.
2227 US Highway One #224
North Brunswick, NJ 08902
»
www.theupsstore.com/loca ··· =MBE0888The UPS Store #0888
2227 US HWY 1
NORTH BRUNSWICK, NJ 08902-4402
When you've got the President of a company personally responding to CC disputes, and when that company is running its business out of a UPS Store, I don't consider such a company to be "big." Of course that's just my opinion, and I know there are many satisfied VP customers here @ BBR.
Rizzo
P.S. Before sending my ATA (Sipura SPA-2000) back to VP, I finally figured out what condition would cause my ATA to go bad and how to cure it. I was using VP at a hotel w/ broadband internet access (where every few days there was an ISP outage). Upon internet connectivity restoration, the ATA would get hosed (for OUTBOUND sound). Powering down the ATA for an hour and then powering it back up would cure the problem. I don't know if I really needed to wait a full hour; however, a quick power cycle (i.e. 5 minutes or less) did NOT cure the problem. My co-worker on Packet8 (at the same hotel) did not suffer similar issues w/ his DTA-310. (Thus, I considered this to be a VP issue).
