VOIP etc > Voice Over IP - VOIP > ViaTalk > [Equipment] Old, scratched, scribbled Linksys box shipped for ne

[Equipment] Old, scratched, scribbled Linksys box shipped for ne

Re: [Equipment] Old, scratched, scribbled Linksys box shipped fo

Thanks for reply. Called customer service, pretty much same story. they will ship "refurbished" ones to some customers. Not sure how they define "refurbish", even have some tape attached, probably from previous owner.

If I knew this earlier, I would have bought a brand new one from online, which cost less than what was charged by viatalk (29.95 activation fee + 10.95 shipping).

And this is a lease of equipment.

Did the website say anything about lease/refurbished? It was quite misleading when they say PAP2 is "FREE".

Very bad expereience being a viatalk customer on first day

My guess is that any adapter that has been in a customers home is a 'refurbished' unit. If you were to BYOD, wouldn't you still have an activation fee?

The bottom line is that the adapter works and gives you satisfactory phone service. I don't think it is unreasonable that a company that sends you their equipment to use will recycle devices that have been in other customer's homes previously.

Thanks dmolavi for the info. When I signed up over 3 years ago, they were doing no shipping/activation fee.

So I guess now the advantage to having their adapter over one of your own is like what happened to me last year. A lightning strike in the neighborhood took out one port of my (then) router and my ATA. VT will replace a failed unit, so after a phone call, I had a 'new to me' adapter in 3 days at no cost. Had I been BYOD, I would have been self-insured, that is, I would have been on my own for a replacement or had to pay activation and shipping to get a 'new' VT unit.

Come to think of it, maybe a refurbished unit would be like my old one - repaired after a failure of some sort.

It was clear from new user sign up web page that both activation and shipping fee will be waived for BOYD customer. Customer service also confirmed this via phone.

The main thing I do not feel happy about is about expectation. It was claimed that this "refurbished" gateway is widely accepted by this industry and a leased device. I might have failed to catch this caveats, but I was not aware of that, and still am not sure if that's the case. At least I was expecting a higher standard of "refurbish" with some sort of documentation, or plastic wrap something, and at least a clean device. Esp. I paid more than what a brand new one might have cost.

Anyway, another caveat is that the replacement is one per year. While I can understand the reason why VT is doing this, in order to reduce the cost, I certainly hope with > $40, this shabby equipment can last longer than 8 months by average. This can cover the 2 years' contract.

I believe the PAP2 and PAP2T devices to be rather robust. Other than extreme circumstances like the lightning strike in my neighborhood, I don't know of any occurrences of them failing, off hand.

I absolutely agree that you should have received a clean device, but not necessarily a new one. A few scratches are fine, but not dirt and tape stuck to the unit!

I am not sure where you would buy a new PAP2T for less than the activation/shipping cost VT charges. The lowest price I see for a retail device is $44 and that has a $10 shipping fee. I believe it to be generally accepted here that a new PAP2 costs around $50.

reply to xkey
My unit has been working for 3+ years now. No issues. Unless you get some knock off unit you should be fine providing you don't expose the unit to say fire lighting water or nuclear blast. But then with a nuclear blast I don't think you will need to worry about the replacement.

I keep it on a UPS to help protect it.

reply to unknvoip
A simple search of new PAP2T at ebay with "buy it now" yields lowest price of $35 + $5.15, with 8% bing cashback (at this time), it comes to $37.35.

If every one agrees this lasts more than 3 years, the annual cost is $12, while it is $20 from VT if stay for 2 years.

Anyway, a few bucks really does not make much difference, all I am complaining about is their hidden "refurbished" term.

Isn't it on Ebay that people are getting the cheap knock off ATAs that die in a few weeks if they last that long.

reply to xkey
There are many posts on this forum (actually, the main Voip forum) dealing with the problems of buying ATA's on ebay.

I would NOT do it.

Too many counterfeits and/or duds.

I might have a spare PAP2T-NA laying aound. If I can find it I might be able to part with it just for the shipping costs.