said by TeleBlendBL :

Ok guys, valid questions there. I've collected them all and will either post to the board or if they are customers specific I'll PM that poster shortly.

said by bigjohn :

While the 'relationship' between TB and Sherwood and SR may be suspect, bringing in tort lawyers and government regulation to VOIP is only going to cost EVERYONE a ton of money, and stifle the inovation that we've been enjoying all these years. The lawyers will collect the fees, the govenrment will "solve the problem" with a ton of regulation that will make VoIP cost more than POTS...

Government and their whores, Umm, I mean Lawyers ;) are never the answer. They've never 'fixed' anything...

We took a gamble on something that probably sounded 'too good to be true' to a lot of us. now we have to live with it, accept responsibility that we took a little gamble, and move on to the next...

said by bigjohn :

@dmolavi --
Boy, are you a lawyer? You're beating this horse pretty hard.

said by Waitwatch :

Also paid for service over 2 weeks ago, except we haven't had a dial tone for incoming or outgoing for 2 weeks and the CSR says Teleblend doesn't have an engineer that knows how to fix the current problem, or even to swap out another box we have here at the house.

said by NumberStruck :

Here's a question for SunRocketBL that requires "only basic info":

I was in the middle of my SR annual plan. In order to keep my numbers, I paid TB for the first month of service. So, I have now paid TWICE for the same numbers.

When will I be able to receive incoming calls on either number?

said by NumberStruck :

Here's a question for SunRocketBL that requires "only basic info":

I was in the middle of my SR annual plan. In order to keep my numbers, I paid TB for the first month of service. So, I have now paid TWICE for the same numbers.

When will I be able to receive incoming calls on either number?

said by TeleBlendBL :

If you feel that there are some outstanding questions that require only basic info and should be responded to, let me know what those are and I'll track them down.

said by B :

It occurs to me that, in fairness, perhaps I should be cutting Teleblend the same slack I'm cutting Viatalk (the latter is swamped with new subscribers and its tech support has taken a nose dive). Both are overwhelmed with new business. But somehow it doesn't seem like the same thing (for one, Teleblend, in swallowing an existing architecture, has had to do almost nothing to date except pay some bills and charge some credit cards)...

-- B

said by gatorkram :

Question:

Will we at some point be able to get free or discounted equipment to replace our current sunrocket branded equipment?

It is my understanding, if these devices are factory reset, we are SOL as far as working in the future with the TB service.

said by B :

The new 8/5 cut-off is quickly approaching and Teleblend has told us exactly nothing. Where the hell are they? Similarly they have accomplished for their paying customers what appears to be exactly nothing.

I was perhaps the last optimist in this regard, but that's over now. Teleblend is for suckers. Nothing personal, SRBL; I know that you tried.

said by RockyBB :

Nevertheless, the adapters were never the property of the user, when SR was alive the users never thought they were their property

said by swanboy :

You are nothing but a scam, bullsh*t company. Whether the CEO is posting on here or not, I will not be silenced when I see people being screwed.

I'm not a hostile guy, in fact I am very quick post about positive experiences rather than complain, but not with this issue. Something is wrong, and I know it.
Frankly, unless you are going to answer real questions, with real answers, get out of here. It's a waste of everyones time, including TB to post these crap responses.

said by TeleblendBF :

The TeleBlend offering was developed with enhancements specifically for former SunRocket customers

said by Anon :

SRBL - I have several questions:
Why do a people who have joined TB still have no service but their accounts are charged? How can you charge customers before the service is provided?

When do you expect to get everyone's service up and running? Do people who do not have service get higher priority over other issues so that they can have access to 911?

I have written at least 5 tickets. I got one phone call back who told me that a new Gizmo will be shipped but we have not received it. Calling again we are told that no gizmo's are being shipped. So what is the truth? When I connect the Gizmo it simply switches on and off.

Thanks

Ticket # 368133

1) What happened to SR customers was indefensible, and many providers have been working hard to transition customers as best they can. The situation left by SR was messy, and I think all the providers are doing the best they can under the circumstances.

The interview will continue at some point though I tried to make clear before the interview this was an effort to start the dialogue, not intended to cram every single question into one session. I was trying to look through all the questions as fast as I could and pass them on to Bill. If he didn't get to some of them it wasn't because he was skipping them it was because I was trying to pass them along quickly so there would not be huge lapses between his posts. I think some folks gave him a chance, others did not. One poster I think even criticized how he introduced himself. {Unfortunately that was me, B, but I quickly corrected and apologized in the thread.} Posters here are smart folks and I will leave it to each of them individually to come to their own conclusions about the session and TeleBlend.

The most important point of clarification that has been stressed and re-stressed is as follows:

Rather than fire off a quick answer now, I will collect what info I can and get back to you. I won't be able to answer everything, but for information that can be made public, I will do my best to communicate it to customers.

...

I certainly want folks to know that the conversation will continue. You know me, when I reach out here it isn't just for show.

said by B :

SunrocketBL and Mr. Fogg, are you guys coming back?

It's after 12 PM Eastern the day after the first (and so far last) appearance by Mr. Fogg. Some of us still have hope of getting more detailed and accurate answers to our nagging questions.

said by Fisamo :


In any case, TB has nothing to gain by locking the adapters of former SR customers who elect to NOT join TB. In fact, they stand much to lose, at least in the PR war. I hope this issue does not end up in the courtroom. If it does, the customers might get their devices unlocked, but not for a few years, after which they won't be of much use, anyway (assuming maturing technology and the user's desire to have working service with a different device well before any case is settled).

said by SteveH07 :

I own the gizmo since I paid for two years of SR service and got only one year. If TB won't in good faith unlock the boxes, I will explore what legal options I have. I am not much or legal force but it might be time to explore a class action law suit. I have a Lawyer friend who might have an interest....

said by TeleblendBF :

Do we have billing info for customers?
We do not have access to billing information for the SunRocket customer base. The only information we access is if a customer signs up with TeleBlend, and then we would only access the information needed to ensure we are not assigning a duplicate phone number to customers.

said by TheTony :

I assume you mean Teleblend. :D

said by TeleblendBF :

Is there a SunRocket affiliate program? Not at this time but we are targeting Fall 2007 to get that going.

said by TeleBlendBL :

Undef, I don't know what to tell you. I looked through all of the questions and really tried to get to them all. If he would have taken time to expound about the long-term vision of the company I would guess most of you would have said "that's nice, but answer my question."

So we tried to directly respond to individual questions. I leave it to each of you to ascertain the value, but hopefully you will work with us to provide your valuable feedback and keep in mind that this was an initial effort, we will build on it moving forward.

I can tell you this: the tens of thousands of customers that haven't transitioned to another provider still have service right now as they consider their next move. Their goal is to keep the line active for folks transitioning from SunRocket. Once they have successfully transitioned customers to TeleBlend, they will be focusing on extending the offering to non-SunRocket customers.

said by B :

Looks like zack has started an appropriate thread at »Feedback on the answers by Teleblend CEO Bill Fogg

I suggest we take all our "man that was lame" comments to that thread, in the hope that Bill Fogg comes back to thisthread with a lot more substance.

-- B

said by B :

Conversely, if Teleblend "does not have access" to the gizmos, how do they expect to keep customers properly attached?

said by xtof :

You must be kidding, right?

How can TB operate the network without having access to the gizmos???

My understanding is that right now everybody (SR or TB users) is running on the SR network, until they shut down everything. Then what will happen? No more service for TB users either?

said by TeleBlendBL :

Locked equipment: Again, TeleBlend had nothing to do with the locking of any equipment. That said, if something was done by SR or I don't even know what other possibilities will be I can tell you that I'll try to see if I can make hay out of who locked the gizmos and why, but again, TeleBlend does not have access to that equipment.

said by TeleBlendBL :

TeleBlend does not have access to that equipment.

said by voodooevil :

Can you ball park a date for international calling and voice mail. The answer you gave earlier could mean years.

said by "B" :

Bill, first of all you haven't yet actually introduced yourself, though SRBL said it was you.

said by B :

Bill, first of all you haven't yet actually introduced yourself, though SRBL said it was you.

said by TeleblendBF :

Do we have billing info for customers?
We do not have access to billing information for the SunRocket customer base. The only information we access is if a customer signs up with TeleBlend, and then we would only access the information needed to ensure we are not assigning a duplicate phone number to customers.

What is TeleBlend’s stance on BYOD?
Right now, all of our efforts are focused on transitioning SR customers so that they have consistent dial tone. We at this point are not supporting a BYOD. We will communicate if that changes.

Is this a last-minute operation?
Let me say that USA Telephone has been around since 1999 and we know the phone service space. We are ramping up the TeleBlend offering but we are not going anywhere and hope to set up long term relationships with our customer base.

Is there an upper-limit on minute usage for the “unlimited” plan?
At this point no, but we do ask that folks adhere to fair use and if that doesn’t happen going forward we will communicate to customers if that policy changes.

said by burris :

How is it possible to pay network operators to keep the service running? What does that mean? Who are network operators? If you are implying that the original SR service is running all by itself with no input from anyone and simply sending provisioning to the adapters, I find this almost impossible.

said by TJ_in_IL :

Then who is in control, and who has these passwords? Somebody is locking them, if not TeleBlend.

said by TeleblendBF :

We don’t have access to your passwords or information that would enable unlocking.

said by undef :

Not to be a pain, but if we actually get meaningful answers, this thread will likely be read by tens of thousands over the next few weeks. Could we try to keep the chatter to a minimum, beyond asking questions, to facilitate easy access to the answers for all those who end up coming here over the next few days / weeks?

said by undef :

Not to be a pain, but if we actually get meaningful answers, this thread will likely be read by tens of thousands over the next few weeks. Could we try to keep the chatter to a minimum, beyond asking questions, to facilitate easy access to the answers for all those who end up coming here over the next few days / weeks?

said by mack1951 :

To me the main question is what do you know and when did you know it? Did you have prior knowledge of SunRockets demise?

said by NH Rocketeer :

With all the turmoil during this conversion period, are you considering any type of credit for those of us who signed up right away? We have not had our features and those SR customers who did not sign up received the same service.

Perhaps reset the next billing date to August 31st for all existing customers.