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VOiP provider search re SunRocket demise

I have spent considerable time on this issue, so I thought I would summarize my experience so far.

I had Packet 8 before SunRocket, I left Packet 8 because their customer support was unavailble via voice or email. Packet 8 support may have changed as that was over a year back. I lost a 5 year established telephone # during the transition from Packet 8 to SunRocket as Packet 8 refused to deal with SunRocket.

As I do not intend to go back to Packet 8, I searched the web and reviewed my options. My next choice was VOiP Your Life. They sent the router very quickly and the # porting process appeared to be in place. Once I installed their router I had issues, probably minor but I could not get a dial tone. I tried their customer service voice line 3 times, a total of 3 hours or more on hold and could not speak to a technician. My email request to cancel was quickly responded to and their router is being picked up for RMA today. Again, I suspect the issue of connectivity was minor, but they were not resolving the problem.

Next up, and also not recommended Cordia. I signed up and everything appeared normal, except there was no email confirmation. Today I called and after endless hold time I spoke to a CSR. My sign on was refused for "fraud", as I provided a good cc (see below) I do not understand the refused sign up. This company failed to notify that I was not signed up and their equipment was not being shipped. Not Recommended (also note telephone wait times).

Next up, one of SunRockets recommendations - teleblend. The rate for SunRocket ejects is great at $12.95/month, # porting appears seamless, but voice mail is not available yet. So I moved on without sign up.

My ISP is Suddenlink and they offer a telephone service. I thought the service was VOiP but apparently it's not (I haven't researched further). I had issues with the Cox to Suddenlink transfer so I was not ready to jump onto their phone service too quickly. A call to their telephone centre was answered in a few short minutes. The problem is their rate compared to VOiP. Their rate with voice answering service is $50/month and Canada calls are not free.

So back to teleblend. Sign on was seamless (same cc as refused by Cordia) and I have received my confirmation email. I will update my process in activating the SunRocket Gizmo for their svce. Also another look at their website appears to indicate their voice answering is in a rollout stage.

I would be interested in reading comments from other SunRocket ejects!

Reply to
hdtv?
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Not a customer but were the CC rejections due to processing on foreign soil?

Some VOIP companies may have offices here (USA) but with main corporate offices and processing in foreign lands.

In many instances CC companies will refuse CC processing from a non-US location unless you give them a heads up in advance.

When my wife recently travelled to Europe she called her CC companies to check on policy and found that her cal was necessary to get her card opened up.

Once opened up she was able to use them in Europe. Had she not done that her transactions would have been refused. It's a new and increasingly commonplace policy to prevent fraud.

In our case she gave a starting date and ending date for her travels, after which her cards returned to US processing only.

DMK

Reply to
D. Kirkpatrick

SunRocket was the perfect solution for me. I ponied up the $200 in Jan. and was happy with their service and support. I geuss it was too good to be true.

Once I got the bad news I started looking around and decided on Vonics. I paid for another year and then discovered they didn't offer speed dialing, a feature I need. So I cancelled the subscription. The money was returned promptly but three days later I got their device in the mail. Oh well...

Next I decided on Voip.com. They had all the features I need and things were looking good. It was after the 1st of Aug and I still had phone service! After the delivery date of the phone passed I contacted FedEx and they said Voip.com never shipped our device even though they provided a tracking #.

Now it's crunch time and whoever you call is blaming the slow down on 200,000 SunRocket customers (like it's our fault!) scrambling for service. Voip.com says in a cryptic way that they have no devices to send out and are trying to get more. This doesn't look good so I quickly sign up with Teleblend just to keep the phone.

Two days later I cannot receive calls, but I can make them. The next day all service is stopped and whatever I dial invokes a recording that says my SunRocket service has been disconnected - sign up with Teleblend! Their web site says I have an account and it's paid up. Credit card says they even double billed me.

Lots of time spent waiting on hold w/Teleblend. "Due to the demise of SunRocket we have an unusual call load....bla, bla, bla." I call the credit card company and cancel the payment to Teleblend since there is no way in hell I'm getting to speak with their billing dept.

Finally, early this week, a Voip.com device (Grandstream 286) arrives. I plug it in and voilla! I have a dial tone. Email from Voip.com says my number has been ported! Fantastic... no incoming calls. (Meanwhile I have been using Viop.com's Softphone software to keep my sanity). More waiting on hold. More filing trouble tickets that are seemingly ignored.

Then on Wed., 8/15 I get full phone services from Voip.com, but there is noticable packet loss. Need to port forward my router to the Grandstream. No documentation provided to do this so I download the manual from the Grandstream site. The default administrative password has been changed by Voip.com so I can't find out which ports to forward.

Two calls to Voip. Call #1 tells me I need an RJ45 splitter to make the Grandstream work. Huh? Why wasn't one provided? I get cut off before I can ask more questions.

Call #2 is better. No mention of the splitter. She sends me email detailing the port usage. She tells me Voip.com won't release the admin password, so all I can configure is DHCP/static and IP address. She says packet loss is because I just got my phone # ported the day before and it takes 72 for things to "settle down". (I did a speed test and the results were near perfect.) Maybe she isn't yanking my chain.

The good news is that support wait times have decreased significantly since the

1st of the month. Maybe email support will speed up soon too. I have a working phone with the features I need and we'll see how long this lasts.

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Reply to
geoff

the 1st of the

the features

Well, it was a nice honeymoon...

Two weeks to the day and VoIP.com has screwed me. All of a sudden I cannot get incoming calls. A neighbor actually had to come to my house to tell me this. I spent many hours on hold last night waiting to talk to a support tech and my call was dropped three times.

This morning I called "tech" support twice and they haven't figured out the problem yet. Still no incoming calls.

Oh, and they still have my start of service date set at the day I ordered service, not the day it actually began, which was one month later. This will screw me because there is no way I can cancel before my 30 day trial ends.

I'm looking for better service now.

Reply to
geoff

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