 ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16 Stratford, CT | another bombing voIP co ??? Or........ go back to having a reliable landline  | |
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 |  Fisamo Premium join:2004-02-20 Apex, NC
·AT&T CallVantage
| Re: another bombing voIP co ??? said by ITALIAN926 :Or........ go back to having a reliable landline While that option may be the best for some, one should realize the SR never had a good business model. If you take the time to read the uber-thread in the SR forum, you'll find some interesting tidbits about how much SR planned on paying per subscriber in acquisition costs. Hint: It was well over the $200 they collected for a year or two of unlimited domestic service.
It is quite unfair to classify all VOIP providers as unreliable (which you may not have directly said, but the implication was certainly there) based on the poor business model and blatant crony-ism under which SR operated.
Contrast outfits like VoicePulse, which has had its doors open to those fleeing POTS lines (and other VoIPs, of course) for well over three years now and, while small, consistently gets extremely high praise from their user base. Unless regulated out of existence and/or until wireless communication solutions take over the voice communication market, VoIP will certainly maintain a solid market, IMO.
BTW, as a satisfied ATTCV customer, I'd also commend CallVantage in the class of reliable VoIP providers, but they're not an independent company like VoicePulse... | |
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 chemaupr
join:2005-06-06 Alexandria, VA
·SUNROCKET
·AT&T CallVantage
| This executives are a bunch of idiots. Non of the remaining executive should land a job in any service related corporation. I understand the secrecy of the situation while trying to sell the company, but now they OWE, at a minimum, to their customers a "you have X days to find someone else".
The lack of consideration towards their customers is, at least for me, unprecedented.
I would not hire any of them and will probably (if I have an option) terminate services with whomever hire this idiots. | |
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 |  NY Tel Premium join:2004-04-09 Smithtown, NY
·VOIPo
·Verizon FIOS
| Re: This executives are a bunch of idiots. said by chemaupr :Non of the remaining executive should land a job in any service related corporation. I would not hire any of them and will probably (if I have an option) terminate services with whomever hire this idiots. While I agree with you, I have seen it over and over and over again. They slash and burn and still manage to get employed. Cronies, Good old boy/girl network where you appoint someone based on their friendship. Think of what would happen to the medical profession if there were not licensing requirements..... | |
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 |   N3OGH They both suck, we're so screwed Premium join:2003-11-11 Philly burbs
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Looks like it is now official - news services say SR is done Tried to call a friend I know has Sunrocket, and I got the dreaded "fast busy".
Sunrocket is as dead as Judas Iscariot...
I know it was said earlier, but:
Everyone has different calling and service needs, so a land line isn't for everyone.
But, I can't remember the last time I picked up my POTS phone and didn't hear a dial tone. -- Welcome to cat noise Wednsday!! | |
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 |  |   TK Junk Mail Go ahead, make my day Premium join:2002-03-03 Margate City, NJ clubs:
·Comcast
| Re: Looks like it is now official - news services say SR is done said by N3OGH :Tried to call a friend I know has Sunrocket, and I got the dreaded "fast busy". But, I can't remember the last time I picked up my POTS phone and didn't hear a dial tone. A local online newspaper in California lost dialtone on all their phones. »www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.c···?ID=5701
Weve finally figured out what happened to the dial tones on our phones in the newsroom theyve flown the coop along with the rest of the SunRocket VoIP phone service.
But on Monday afternoon, odd things began happening with our phones unable to dial out but could get incoming calls.
Calls and e-mails to the company failed to provide any answers. And yet Sunrocket's web page is still up and without any notice of ceasing operations. The mgt of Sunrocket are all probably just a step ahead of the process servers on their way in to hiding. -- -- Internet News My BLOG My Web Page | |
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 |  |  |   N3OGH They both suck, we're so screwed Premium join:2003-11-11 Philly burbs | Re: Looks like it is now official - news services say SR is done WOW, was that a bump in the number of people booking flights to the Cayman Islands with bulging money sacks?!?  -- Welcome to cat noise Wednsday!! | |
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  jgkolt Premium join:2004-02-21 Lakewood, OH clubs:
| why Well if the service is mostly still running then I think they don't have to say anything until they know D day or when they could be sold. With all this publicity they can limp along until someone buys them up.
Why are they going belly up anyways? -- www.LakeSemaJ.com | |
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 |   caddyroger Premium join:2001-06-11 Graham, WA
·Comcast
| Re: why said by jgkolt :Well if the service is mostly still running then I think they don't have to say anything until they know D day or when they could be sold. With all this publicity they can limp along until someone buys them up. Why are they going belly up anyways? They did tried selling the company but no one would buy them. They gave away a lot of thing free when they sighed people and spent more then they received. And they all so had billing problems -- Caddy | |
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 |  |   jgkolt Premium join:2004-02-21 Lakewood, OH clubs: | Re: why How far in debt are they? I wonder if they can sell thier customers without passing the debt onto the buyer. -- www.LakeSemaJ.com | |
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 |  |  |  |   jgkolt Premium join:2004-02-21 Lakewood, OH clubs:
| Re: why very true i overlooked that. then viatalk is doing the best it can and trying to grab the customers without buying the debt. SO it looks like no one will be able to buy them or want to. Too bad for their employees. How can viatalk have the same deal and be in business with less customers where sunroickets is 2x as big and going under? -- www.LakeSemaJ.com | |
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 |  |  |  |  |   davoice
join:2000-08-12 Saxapahaw, NC
·RoadRunner Cable
edit: July 17th, @12:48PM
| Re: why said by jgkolt :How can viatalk have the same deal and be in business with less customers where sunroickets is 2x as big and going under? Simple...
1) V/T isn't paying asininely high salaries to executives that can't deliver.
2) They work pretty hard to limit and lower their operations costs - i.e. not using stupidly expensive hardware.
3) And they're not paying $75-100+ out on the backside for every customer acquisition. SunRocket was paying out it's hinee to affiliates and such who were pumping their products. You can see that in the mega thread about people who were making multiple thousands each month signing people up and now complaining about getting stiffed for recent payments. Those are the same people who are now complaining that it's "nearly impossible to make money with Viatalk's program".
To which I say... well duh! There's not a crapload of profit in $200 for a year's worth of phone service. Get a grip! It takes fiscal discipline to run a sustainable business on that kind of model. And part of that discipline involves not paying out 1/2 of what you got from a customer to someone else.
Edit: I personally have 4 VoIP lines. 1 from each of: ViaTalk, Vonage, Covad and Skype.
}Davoice | |
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 |  mozillafans Premium join:2003-12-07 82020 | Re: A shameless shilling of ViaTalk not so sure.... seems like they are trying to cash in on people fleeing sunrocket....
they even removed their buy one get one free plan....
what do you make of that....
hey how is packet8 now...
are they stable..... | |
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 |  |  |  mozillafans Premium join:2003-12-07 82020 | Re: A shameless shilling of ViaTalk what do you make of it... seems fishy to me.... trying to cash in on misfortune of sun rocket users | |
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 |  |  |  |   ColorBASIC 8-bit Fun Premium join:2006-12-29 Corona, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·Covad Wireless
edit: July 17th, @06:21PM
| Re: A shameless shilling of ViaTalk Again, they start and stop sales ALL THE TIME including the 2 years for 1 plan.
They're currently running yet ANOTHER sale, unlimited calling (their idea of unlimited is apparently 5100min/mo) plus up to 6 month contract buyout for $17/mo ($200/yr prepaid) or $22.95/mo no prepay. It also includes two incoming lines using the same number so that you can accept two calls to the same number at the same time without call waiting. It's an odd feature but handy for someone else at home to take a call to the same number while you're still on the phone.
How that is "cashing in" on the misfortune of Sunrocket users, I'm not sure. It looks like a pretty good deal to me. | |
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 |  |  |  |  |   sunrocket _cya
@cox.net
| Re: A shameless shilling of ViaTalk ViaTalk offer is down to 3mo contract buyout (from 6mo yesterday and 1 year free last week it sounds like from this board). Also, there was a free equip shipping coupon that has also expired. Unfortunately, now that my SunRocket service is really dead, I didn't bite in time to get the better ViaTalk deal
Still a better deal than the one Vonage is offering former SunRocket customers (2mo free) and ViaTalk's pricing is same as SunRocket and feature set looks better than SunRocket's or Vonage's.
But with the potential of Packet8 taking over and I have 9mo left on my SunRocket contract I might wait till the end of this week to see what else pops up and rely on cell phones for awhile. | |
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  jgkolt Premium join:2004-02-21 Lakewood, OH clubs:
edit: July 17th, @10:10AM
| Sad It is sad to see them go even though i don't plan to switch to them. I know people around here have switched a while ago from sunrocket to viatalk. I saw this in one of the links above.
"ViaTalk, a rival to SunRocket based in Clifton Park, New York, issued a statement offering a contract buyout to SunRocket customers.
The company added it was offering a coupon for free shipping of ViaTalk phone equipment to customers looking to switch services, although it did not lay out the what the overall cost to SunRocket customers would be.
ViaTalk offers a similar $199 per year calling deal. ViaTalk was founded in 2005 and is an offshoot of a Web hosting company, HostRocket.com. Spokesman Tom Nardacci said the company had between 50,000 and 100,000 customers."
»www.canada.com/topics/technology···&k=63285
»www.viatalk.com/internet_phone_special.htm
-- www.LakeSemaJ.com | |
|
  Transmaster Onward Through The Fog
join:2001-06-20 Cheyenne, WY
| Well for you former SunRocket Employees..... Check out here.... »www.usajobs.opm.gov/
I was looking throught the jobs available and there are a bunch of good tech' jobs open, good luck  -- Remember safe sex does not prevent crabs. | |
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 |   elios
join:2005-11-15 Springfield, MO | Re: Well for you former SunRocket Employees..... most of them were collage kids here in Springfield MO not alot you can do
cant really relocate | |
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 |  |   Transmaster Onward Through The Fog
join:2001-06-20 Cheyenne, WY | Re: Well for you former SunRocket Employees..... Well for college students the goverment has real cool and good paying summer work. In the National Park service, BLM, Forest Service, etc. -- Remember safe sex does not prevent crabs. | |
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 Techie714
join:2005-08-02 Anaheim, CA | Sun Rocket Charged me 199 on 7/16
Even though all this is going down Sun Rocket charged my credit card the 199.99 annual fee just last night! I'm calling my CC company to dispute it.
BTW: I signed with Viatalk wish me luck. | |
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 |   N3OGH They both suck, we're so screwed Premium join:2003-11-11 Philly burbs
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Sun Rocket Charged me 199 on 7/16 said by Techie714 :Even though all this is going down Sun Rocket charged my credit card the 199.99 annual fee just last night! I'm calling my CC company to dispute it. BTW: I signed with Viatalk wish me luck. Dude, that makes my ass THROB, and I'm not the one that lost the money.
I sure as HELL would dispute that one. What a crock! -- Welcome to cat noise Wednsday!! | |
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 |  |  |
 Techie714
join:2005-08-02 Anaheim, CA
·ViaTalk
| Impressive Credit Card Encounter
This maybe a little off topic but I called my CC company to dispute the 200.00 charge that Sun Rocket made. It was WAY less painful that I expected. The lady was super nice & I explained my story to her & what happened. She said "No problem sir I'm going to credit you back right now & Citi Bank will take care of the rest". She gave me a case number & said have a nice day. I was expecting this to go one for weeks with phone calls & faxes/E-mails trying to prove my case. Those of you with Citi bank should have no issue getting your charges back. =) | |
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 |   MPScan Premium join:2001-08-24 Boston, MA
| Re: Impressive Credit Card Encounter Credit card disputes are typically always easy. The burden of proof is with the company that charged the credit card .. since there is nobody left at SunRocket to prove the charges, credit card companies will simply reverse the charge and issue a chargeback to the merchant that SunRocket used to process the transaction... if there are enough, expect the merchant to sue SunRocket.  | |
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 Techie714
join:2005-08-02 Anaheim, CA | Account Statements Gone!
It appears that you are now unable to view any account statements. Sun Rocket wants to make sure you don't have access to those statements for credit card disputes. If you have a chance to view your statement download it & save it. | |
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 |   vonage_new
@eds.net
| Re: Account Statements Gone! good news... vonage might price match via talk..... viatalk might be another sunrocket..... who knows.... sacred about companies who look to take advantage of stuff..
did u see viatalk removed the 1 year free..... man what do you make of those | |
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 |  |  Awwc
join:2004-02-17 Vancouver, WA | Re: Account Statements Gone! said by vonage_new :
did u see viatalk removed the 1 year free..... man what do you make of those Can you blame 'em?
/happy VT customer for almost a year now. | |
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 |  mozillafans Premium join:2003-12-07 82020 | any other alternatives other than viatalk... they seem fishy...... why not packet8 or vonage which is more stable... | |
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 |  |   ptrowski Got Helix? Premium join:2005-03-14 Putnam, CT clubs: | Re: Account Statements Gone! I make of it that they always change their sales... | |
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 qworster
join:2001-11-25 Los Angeles, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·Vonage
·DSL EXTREME
·EarthLink
edit: July 17th, @12:10PM
| Actually, their business model wasn't that bad.... The numbers I hear is that they lost about 40 million dollars. Forty Million divided by 200,000 (customers) works out to a back office cost of 200 dollars per customer. This is not unusually high. I think that they underpriced their service. A good price point for VOIP seems to be about $17-25 dollars a month or about 200 dollars per year (in advance).
Their commissions for associates were also WAY too high! 50% commissions are only normally used for big markup items such as extended warranties.
I would also think that a big share of their downfall sits in the lap of Lisa Hook. I'm not affiliated with Sunrocket, but based upon what I've heard here, it seems that she spent an awful lot of Sunrocket's free cash flow on things like trips and giving cronies' jobs. She also obviously had BIG plans for Sunrocket, building a 200 person call center. Only problem is, 200 CS employees for 200,000 customers is WAY too much! I see parallels with AOL all over the place.
The problem is that every time another Sunrocket dies, VOIP looks more and more Mickey Mouse. Tomatovine also died (withered?) a while back and I'm sure there there are (many) others that have met their demise in the past year or so.... | |
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 pflanigan
join:2007-07-17 | Sunrocket HELP!
I signed up for sunrocket a week ago and paid them $200 for the yearly membership. Now I hear they're going out of business? What can I do? How can I get my money back when I paid with my visa check card? | |
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 |  Techie714
join:2005-08-02 Anaheim, CA
·ViaTalk
| Re: Sunrocket HELP! said by pflanigan :I signed up for sunrocket a week ago and paid them $200 for the yearly membership. Now I hear they're going out of business? What can I do? How can I get my money back when I paid with my visa check card? Try & get your statement from your Sun Rocket account. Then call your credit card company & explain the situation to them. Tell them you want to file a formal dispute with Sun Rocket. If it's Citi bank you wont have any issues. Make sure you tell them that you E-mailed thm & called there 800 number. There 800 number is out of service by the way. Good luck! | |
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 |   Banker
@comcast.net
| said by pflanigan :I signed up for sunrocket a week ago and paid them $200 for the yearly membership. Now I hear they're going out of business? What can I do? How can I get my money back when I paid with my visa check card? Even if it was a debit card, if it carried with it a visa or mastercard logo you should still be entitled to the same protections as a regular credit card customer would. (sometimes however the period you have to dispute it is shorter than it would otherwise be with a credit card)
I would suggest you immediately contact your bank and dispute the charge.
Do so by first calling them, advising them via phone of this situation. Then, get an address and send in a written dispute. Include with that a statement / invoice along with information such as SR's phone # now not taking any calls.
If it's only been a week, you shouldn't have any problems getting this reversed. | |
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  NewUser
@mchsi.com | Criminal Case So can we get someone thrown in jail over this? per the numbers thrown around on here millions are missing. someone should be responsible. | |
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 |  See 7 replies to this post |
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  HowardP
@comcast.net | Visa Check Card Not sure since most debit cards do not afford the same protections that a credit card does. Call your debit card provider ask them, they may still have time to reverse the transaction, other that that you may be out of luck. | |
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 |   onsitede Hot Hot Hot
join:2000-11-24 Broad Brook, CT clubs: | Re: Visa Check Card I called my bank and file a dispute. I was told I had 60 days to file from the date of purchase. this was with a MasterMoney (Mastercard) debit card. | |
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 |  |   HowardP
@comcast.net
| Re: Visa Check Card That is why I said call the issuing party. I admit this was 2 years ago, my bank visa debit card did not provide me protection the same as my credit card, both from the same bank. I now use the debit card on purchases I am not worried about, credit card for all else, which is a battle with PayPal since they always want to charge my debit card. And yes I do understand why. | |
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  jgkolt Premium join:2004-02-21 Lakewood, OH clubs:
| vonage buyout. - service is still up!!! Would vonage be able to use sun rockets technology so that dont have to battle with verizon? or is it the same technology?
I would also like to note that sunrocket is still up and running with no disruptions in the northeast ohio area. -- www.LakeSemaJ.com | |
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 |  BANDITT9
join:2000-06-05 Cleveland, OH | Re: vonage buyout. - service is still up!!! Sunrocket is down for me in the Cleveland area....or at least for me. | |
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 |  |  oldswampdog
join:2007-07-05 Boca Raton, FL | Re: vonage buyout. - service is still up!!! My service just died here in Southeast FL, just signed on with VT. | |
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  KrK Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy Premium join:2000-01-17 Tulsa, OK | Set the controls for the heart of the Sun .... The Rocket is flying it's last flight.... | |
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 Techie714
join:2005-08-02 Anaheim, CA | So Cali Up! As of 9:00 AM PST Sun Rocket was working fine. In fact I used my phone to call the credit card company..hehe. | |
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 |   tannman Premium join:2002-09-12 Oxnard, CA clubs: | Re: So Cali Up! Not this part of So Ca (Oxnard) still blinking red | |
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  tannman Premium join:2002-09-12 Oxnard, CA clubs: | Question I am signing up with another VOIP. Do I need to formally cancel my SR service so they dont bill my CC for this month or just unplug the Gizmo?? | |
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 |  Techie714
join:2005-08-02 Anaheim, CA
·ViaTalk
| Re: Question said by tannman :I am signing up with another VOIP. Do I need to formally cancel my SR service so they dont bill my CC for this month or just unplug the Gizmo?? You can no longer "cancel service" because there is no way to contact SR. There phone lines are dead & there E-mail system just sends automated responses. Call your CC company & tell them to make sure there are no charges from SR allowed. | |
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 |  |   tannman Premium join:2002-09-12 Oxnard, CA clubs: | Re: Question ok ty | |
|
 lrowland
join:2005-05-22 Baltimore, MD
·Believe Wireless LLC
| Someone has to sue these guys My two year renewal occurred two months ago and now they just turn it off. Also, I can no longer get to my invoices online. I tied calling the credit card company but they said since the charges occurred two months ago they could not dispute them.
I'm really fuming over this. I was about to sign up my elderly friend for this to save her money - boy am I glad I did not since she would have been really in a mess.
If anyone decides to sue or if any Attorney Generals need witnesses to put these bastards in jail, let me know. | |
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 |  fiberguy My views are my own. Premium join:2005-05-20 | Re: Someone has to sue these guys What are you going to sue them for? | |
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 |  |   networkguru
join:2005-09-03 | Re: Someone has to sue these guys yahh.. what are we going to sue them for ?
I was able to dispute my charge on my Discover card. The charge was from back in february 07. Discover happily gave me temporary credit and said they will investigate. | |
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  jgkolt Premium join:2004-02-21 Lakewood, OH clubs: | working in wadsworth, ohio as of today | |
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 |  |   dontcallme
@comcast.net | Calling your credit card company Just called Amex they will check and try to see if they can give me a prorated amount back. It cost nothing to try at this point.
Good luck to you all | |
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