Comments on: Ooma Review [Free VOIP]

By: bn122

bn122 — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:09:50 +0000

Ooma Telo currently does NOT support inbound DTMF. In other words it cannot transmit the different tones when dialed from incoming calls. You cannot access your anwering machine remotely from an outside line or use a PBX system for different extensions in your home/office.

A big pitfall that I wish I knew before purchasing it. It has been mentioned in ooma tech support blogs that they “will be supporting DTMF” with the Telo but after talking to tech support, nobody at ooma seems to know anything about if or when it will be supported.

By: JoltinJoe

JoltinJoe — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:38:50 +0000

Unless Ooma is making money in other ways (e.g. advertising over the phone, etc), Ooma will have no choice but to begin finding ways to collect additional money from existing customers someday. Offering a perpetual service for a one-time up front fee is a pyramid scheme and will eventually fall apart if the user base doesn’t continue to grow at increasing rates.

By: Rich Buchanan

Rich Buchanan — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:33:53 +0000

Gigo.

You’ve got it very wrong my friend. If you’ll visit my blog posts at http://www.ooma.com/blog you will see that if you’re a current Ooma customer then nothing changes. No upgrades required, no regulatory fees charged.

If you are not yet a customer, then there may be some changes over the old plan that you will face. These are detailed on the new packaging and in the new terms of service you agree to before ever becomning a customer.

Please go read the details before jumping to these conclusions. As a current Ooma customer, exactly what you agreed to when you signed up is exactly what you are getting. No changes.

Rich Buchanan
Chief Marketing Officer
Ooma

By: Gigo

Gigo — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:43:58 +0000

An update to my previous post. As of today, 10-07-09 the Attorney’s General office in California is very interested in hearing from people about this. I called the office to explain and get an opinion and they were very interested in what I had to say and already knew what has taken place – so long story short, they are aware of what Oooma is attempting to do and would probably be thankful for more input from consumers whom have had dealings with this company. ag.ca.gov is the website along with contact numbers.

By: Gigo

Gigo — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:58:33 +0000

I can see a class action suit on the horizon for this. As people purchased the v.1 Ooma under a set of terms & conditions and are now getting set to lose services unless they “upgrade” and are also forced to pay a -/+$12 a year “fee”(after the second year of service) to cover “regulatory” BS. Ooma after the lawsuit I’m sure will have to change the “grandfathered” users back to the original terms under which it was purchased, as I too called to inquire and got the cold shoulder. It’s sad – very nice piece of equipment with room to grow and expand but with an impending class action I see investors turing the cold shoulder until they get thier act together on the “grandfathered” purchasers.

By: Troy

Troy — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:07:24 +0000

Can anyone tell me how ooma would differ from Viatalk? I do not like Viatalk but don’t want to make a change to ooma blindly.

By: Rich Buchanan

Rich Buchanan — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:56:13 +0000

Marcus,

It sounds like you may have gotten some bad information from us. If you purchased an Ooma Hub/Scout combo then you get VM as part of the basic service. You can see my blog post on ooma.com/blog for the specific details of the new T&C’s and the rate changes that are taking place.

Rich Buchanan
CMO
Ooma

By: marcus

marcus — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:14:23 +0000

Purchased an OoMa Hub with a second base called Scout. You get OoMa so you can use the internet to make calls instead of the monthly bill from the Phone Company. The OoMa’s Owner Manual lists basic services – connection to the internet, a simple answering machine and a “second line” all for $220 bucks. OoMa also offers a Premeire Service which costs an additional $100 paid annually. These features upgrade your service to link your voice messages with your eMail, call forwarding to a cell phone etc. etc. When I called in to ask a question the day after purchase, I was informed that the answering machine and the second line “features” NOW were no longer available as a basic service! NOW I had to pay the additional $100! These basic features are listed on the outside of the box and in the Owners Manual. Bait & Switch pure and simple – and they know it! I called the Customer Service Line which connects you to Manila or the Philippines and the “Script Readers” overseas which are completely USELESS! Their answers do not correspond to your questions! So I called OoMa’s HeadQuarters in Palo Alto ( 650-566-6600) and they did indeed say I was correct (on the above points) but too bad! Literally! Oh well take it or leave it was the response. My suggestion to you is leave it – it’s a con, bait & switch operation!

By: james

james — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:03:44 +0000

I’ve just configured OOMA to run behind my firewalled 802.11N router. The device has QOS enabled and I had to set the OOMA device to a DHCP client because my router is essentially the DHCP server. The device took a little while but finally came up and went live. I had to go into my ooma ‘lounge’ and turn off the little song and dance music they set by default when the call connects. Other than the little song that plays when you turn on the phone, everything is as stable and almost as clear as land-line. I read a few of the prior comments and must repeat that you do NOT have to put the OOMA device inline and can put it behind the router but you may need to know how to configure it properly if you have anything that functions beyond a “dumb” port hub. I’ve notice also that theres no way to turn off the answering feature so your all-in-one phone with answering built in will not be able to use that feature. Also, to everyone who wanted to know if you could use more than one phone -yes, but you will need a OOMA “scout” for each connection. I use a single base that has 3 channels serving remote cradles. I’m pretty happy so far.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:13:54 +0000

I,too, would like to know about using more than one phone and how to hook them up. I had Vonage and using more than two phones caused problems.

I also have to use a FAX machine. Yea, I know, but I have no choice. Will it work with a FAX and a PDA?

Thanks,

Mark