ooma Core VoIP Phone System with No Monthly Phone Service Bills
by ooma
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List Price: Our Price: $234.99 You Save: $15.00 (6%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $230.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of ooma Core VoIP Phone System with No Monthly Phone Service Bills
Customer Review: Comcast cable, but the call quality varies, sometimes horrible
Summary: 3 Stars
We've been using Ooma for 3 weeks+, and in the process of porting the number. We have comcast cable, with upload speeds steady at 3-5 MB/s, but the call quality varies, sometimes clear, sometimes so bad you can hardly understand anything. I hooked it up directly to the modem, as recommended. Did not try to call a customer support, but read all through the "Configuring Quality of Service" article on Ooma website, and updated the upstream value. Customer Review: Ooma setup suggestions
Summary: 5 Stars
The good news: Very easy to set up. Works perfectly. Two things to keep in mind: First, if your intent is to save money by eliminating your landline be aware that after you activate your Ooma and pay the $40 to have your present phone number "ported" through the Ooma, there will be a delay of 3 to 4 weeks for this process to be completed. When you sign up to get your present phone number ported, Ooma will offer you a temporary number. This seems pointless. Are you going to cancel your land line immediately and then call everyone you know, give them your temporary number and then repeat the process once the original number has been ported? No way. It's much simpler to keep the land line for a month and discontinue it AFTER the number has been ported. Meantime the Ooma, if hooked up, can make outgoing calls while other phones in your home, not connected to the Ooma function normally through your service provider.
A second point worth remembering is that if you are installing the Ooma between your cable modem and a router, as I did, be sure to follow the directions carefully. The order in which things are switched on is important. Shut down your computer, modem, and router. Connect everything and power up the Ooma. Then restore power to the modem and router. Wait a brief time and then turn on the computer. If you fail to do things in this order you may (as I did) have problems connecting the computer to the internet.
Connecting other phones is a snap. Plug a Scout into any phone jack and connect it's power supply. Connect the phone to the Scout and you're in business. Couldn't be easier!
Bottom line: Very easy setup. Excellent ease of use. Excellent voice quality. Based on my $60 a month Verizon phone bill (basic service plus taxes and assorted fees) I'll reach the break even point in no time!
The bad news: Sorry, there isn't any.
Customer Review: Great Alternative to the Telcos For the Budget Conscious Consumers
Summary: 4 Stars
Before I bought the Ooma Core/Scout System I was paying AT&T well over $70 a month for their so-called call advantage plan. Even when I downgraded to their basic local service without long distance I was still paying over $31 a month. Now, I rarely use my home phone since I am hardly home. Frustrated I went online to research about available VoIP Phone System and stumbled on Ooma. I read their Amazon product detail description with a few user reviews and ordered it.
Setup was a no-brainer; I followed the setup guide provided and activated the device online as directed. In fact I am one of the few guys who would look at product User Guide only when I am stumped but chose to follow the simple setup guide included with the product in this case. I connected the base to my AT&T 2Wire Wireless Gateway, then connected my Panasonic DECT 6.0 3-Handset Expandable Digital Cordless Phone with Answering System and ChoiceMail (KX-TG7433B)(Black) and started making calls right away.
Note that I was unable to activate the first unit sent to me by Amazon as Ooma activation System claimed the unit was already activated, perhaps a returned unit? No biggie: Amazon promptly sent me a replacement which I activated and installed without a hitch.
I do not have premier service at the moment as I do not have any need for it but think it has lots of great features especially the "Instant Second Line" if you have spouse or teenagers at home. And you really do not need the Scout to use the "Instant Second Line": if you have a DECT 6.0 Cordless phone, just press the talk button twice and you can place a second call while a spouse or teen is already 'jabbering' away on the other line. However, if you like to use the Second Line as a dedicated line then you need an activated and assigned Scout for it to work.
Be careful when entering the Mac address of the Hub or the Scout during the activation process as it is easy to confuse the letter "O" and the digit "0".
What kind of High Speed Internet Service do I use with my Ooma System? I have AT&T Direct (Dry Line) Basic plan which is 768 Kbps download and 384 Kbps upload and the voice quality has been great so far. Nevertheless, if you have family and or intend to use it for your home based business I will suggest AT&T "Elite Plan" or the "Pro plan" at minimum or better still use a Cable or FIOS service.
It has been over a year and three weeks now and I have not had any serious issue with my Ooma System. I get occational echo, static or dropped calls but nothing major considering that I pay zero monthly bills for this phone service after my initial $202.58 equipment purchase. When I first activated my Ooma Hub I noticed that my outgoing caller ID was showing "Ooma Inc". I emailed OOma customer service but did not receive any response. I then called the customer support line and was put on hold for about 20 minutes (no biggie here too) before I reached live person who conducted a few tests and opened a support ticket. Subsequently the issue was fixed and I have not had any reason to call customer support ever since.
Now Ooma has a new version of this unit called "Ooma Telo" ooma Telo Free Home Phone Service which may be used with an optional proprietary Dect 6.0 Handset ooma Telo DECT 6.0 Cordless Handset (100-0200-200). Even though the Telo has received good reviews I will stick with my Ooma Hub Core System until it breaks. As other reviewers have pointed out the Telo buyers will pay an FCC mandated $11.75 annual tax after their first year of service. This fee is nothing compared to the dubious fees padded into regular Telco monthly phone bills. The new Hub buyers may pay this new nominal annual FCC tax too. Again this fee is not a big deal as far as I am concerned.
Overall my experience with Ooma Hub has been great and I will recommend it to any person or family looking to cut expenses while staying in touch. I believe that most setups headaches would be avoided or greatly reduced if people would follow the included setup guide.
Customer Review: Ooma rocks!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had this system for about two months now and it has been flawless. Porting the number from Cox was relatively fast and easy and I was lucky to find a great deal from Amazon with a free 8GB Ipod shuffle...The system will pay for itself in three months compared to Cox phone service I had in my home. Having the scout was a must for em as I have a 6,000 sq. ft. house and the telephone/router/modem is in the basement storage room where all of the network, electrical and telephone equipments are. The hub sits in the basement and the scount is used to retrieve messages from the kitchen. I have Dect phones everywhere so cheap alternative if you do not want to use multiple lines. Anyway, the call quality is perfect, can't tell the difference between Ooma and Cox, but the features like call waiting, internet access and forwarding of voicemail to my iphone e-mail is great. I never had these features with Cox. You will not be disappointed with the system and it will pay for itself in months in case they go out of business. I wish the international calling rates were lower but they are comparable to other phone companies. Customer Review: The worst customer service in the world!
Summary: 1 Stars
After reading so many glowing reviews on Ooma, I decided to ditch Vonage. My unit arrived with a defective Scout. It "looked" like it was working as the Ooma light was a solid blue as the instructions said it should be. But calls to and from the Scout did not work at all.
After calling their (overseas outsourced) support, I hung up on the first operator as I obviously knew more about this than she did and she was just reading from a script. The second was not much better. After a week of cooling off, I called again and the third was actually friendly and helpful. She called me back twice after doing some research. Then nothing. There was suddenly no one there by that name and she never called back. I waited 2 days.
The 4th tech listened and at least did not make me go through the same exact steps again for the 4th time, but listened to what I had already done. He put me on hold for a few minutes and then came back and took all kinds of information from me and for the first time I was offered a case number! He said a 3rd level tech would be calling within 24-48 hours. That was over a week ago.
I am now going to request a refund from Amazon and stick with Vonage. At least it works!
If you order this, just pray it works the way it is supposed to and you do not need any support, because there isn't any!