Review of BroadVoiceAll reviews of |
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NOTE: inbound calls, touch-tones don't seem to work well; we tried to retrieve a fax from our fax machine and couldn't do it. We were able to get the touch tones to send inbound on our VoicePulse line, but the VoicePulse line didn't handle the fax transmission at all. Followup comments:
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For us it's great as a secondary solution and to have when the babysitter is over, but I just couldn't use it for a primary line. They do provide all the 'extra's' like voicemail, callerid, call forward, call waiting, all that fun stuff, so for under $12 I don't complain. Followup comments:
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Even though this ticket is open, I get a form email from customer support asking me for my network arrangement. That is as clean as it can get. The SPA2K is direct connected to my router and is in the dmz. All other devices are connected to the router on a different port. Unfortunately, tech support doesnt have a clue. Jan 26, 2005 In my investigation of how to improve quality of my calls, I started monitoring packet loss to Broadvoice proxies. Today (Jan 26) it appears that there is a packet loss problem getting to the DCA proxy. These three hops, the last ones before the proxy server are showing 10-12% packet loss from my location. unknown.Level3.net [63.210.59.238] border1.pc2-bbnet2.wdc002.pnap.net [216.52.127.82] broadvoice-1.border1.wdc002.pnap.net [216.52.127.234] Perhaps it is PNet is the root cause of quality issues for Broadvoice. I was in the middle of poor quality from Jan to March, but I have a great number. BV is not a CLEC or LEC so it is not required to port numbers. I held on and the quality and reliability is back to the pre-November 2005 days. Followup comments:
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Just couldn't take the intermittent troubles, any more. Tried working with tech support some number of times. Never could square away the issue(s) at the handoff between call setup / initiation and call connected / voice. Just too frustrating. Wish tech support had the tools to monitor / identify / fix the issue. :( Deeply disappointed and very surprised technical bugs never fixed. Update: We did have trouble with dropouts / disconnections / one side dead. Tech support had me do some fairly obvious double checks / tweaks -DMZ, port forwarding, ... (all at the router, if I remember). All to no avail. Then, Comcast upgraded us from 3M / 256K to 4M / 384K. Not a single problem, since then, AFAIK. Knock on wood. Do wish tech support had more analysis tools / ability to watch / log issues. Emailed to CEO Epstein. No response. Seems small and growing. If everything works, for you - fantastic service / features / cost performance. If not, guess yer' outta' luck, w/BV, at this time. Original post / review: I read all the other reviews, so far - "it's all true". My neighbor had Vonage with our Comcast 3M/256K broadband. When I shopped / surfed, I discovered this newcomer - BV. With only part of 1 day's service, everything looks good. And, as with everybody else, expecting / hoping for continued maturation. Other than the caveats prominently mentioned, A++++++ . Unlimited in-state means www.OneSuite.com can be used for 2.5¢ / min. out-of-state, rather than BV's 3.9¢ / min. And, here in Mass., we call call the Springfield or Duxbury access number and get 1¢ / min. (International!) with www.RNKTel.com calling card. Followup comments:
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Before I signed up I called and asked if they supported & allowed the device I was told, Yes, Yes & yes I was told by Mr. salesman, but I have to sign up then call back for tech support, ok. I sign up, I call, I am greeted with a hello.... I ask is this Broadvoice tech support? yes is the response, with an attitude like I was calling him at home at 4am, on his birthday and he just went to sleep. I say I have a Grandstream 486, I just signed up & need to configure it. he says in monotone "We don't support that device." Wow. I explain I validated that I could use it before signing up, that I was assured it was supported, that they show it on their site and ask for the information I need, he responds that I need to give him my email address, that he will email me a file which I will need to upload to the unit and to do that I need to install and run a server program on my computer. I had already been through this with ifreedom, already had the software on my machine and already knew I would not be able to upload to it as it (and four others I have) do not accept updates.I tell him this and ask for the server addresses they use, the settings they use and for whatever is needed to set it up manually, he literally refused. I asked for his superior and was told that I needed to email customer service and he hung up.(I was hung up on alot by their reps) Out of over 100 calls I can safely say I had 2 unsurly experiences. That call recurred over three months a minimum of 50 times, (different issues) Finally after finding the corporate office I had a similar experience with a woman I know only as "surly office manager" (I added the surly) I eventually got emails from a Chris someone who was equally obnoxious and also eventually ended up with a man named Les Berry who was much nicer, apologized and for a while helped, but eventually stopped returning my calls. At one point I was so frustrated and after I got their Sipura device as they blamed all on the Grandstream, I said in my only email to customer service, "make it work or go away" Thair response was to turn my service off, at 10pm on Friday night and charge me 49.99 for "early termination" It took over an hour to get it back on. Needless to say as soon as I could I changed companies and am now much more happily with Sunrocket. In summary I have to say Broadvoice offers no service, no support, no compassion, and they have no clue. I strongly suggest avoiding this company at all costs. Followup comments:
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I didn't even know there was a problem with the service until the people I call asked me to use my cell phone because they couldn't understand me on BroadVoice. Multiple emails and Calls to CS went unanswered or with useless suggestions that I tried and tried again. During the 3 months I have had the service, I have experienced 3 total outages and 2 one way outages. Followup comments:
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I did have a lot of voice quality problems, though. BroadVoice have several servers, and it is up to the customer (me) to find which server has acceptable quality on a particular day. So, I have to annoy a few friends while trying different servers. So, my wife was begging to go back to Ma Bell. There are a lot of very useful features and very good web interface, but if I can't talk - it's all useless. Additionally, it took up to 40 minutes to get to the customer support. On several occasions the call to tech support got disconnected after 20-30 minutes, so I had to start again. Once I got to the techs they were very knowledgeable and were able to troubleshoot the problems very quickly (which usually was "your server is congested today; why won't you try the other one. But there were more complex issues as well.) So, all in all - if they fix the voice quality problems, they could be an awesome VoIP provider. Until then - and to save my marriage - I had to switch. To compare BroadVoice Unlimited In-State with VoicePulse Local + 200 for my calling pattern is about the same. Calling pattern: mostly local calls (within Los Angeles) with 50 mins out of state and 100 mins to San Diego and San Francisco. BroadVoice Price: $12.80 + $1.95 (for out of state calls) = $14.75 VoicePulse Price: $14.95 (full price). Obviously, YMMV and both providers have other plans as well. But you shouldn't expect the cranking voice of mid-90 cell phones... Followup comments:
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have been using bv more than one year, 25$ plan + around 5 dolloars for international wireless phone call and sometime phone card when the voice is not good enough. overall. it is ok, but no local number for my area. they are not working on that as said the price was the reason when I subscribed, but no seems more and more providers are giving simiar deals. such as italkbb, vbuzzer BTW, we used a lot of minutes, but have not got the "faked unlimited minute" problem. maybe, we are already paying 30$/month. July12 update I was happy with BV, not any more ==================================== March 27th 05: (1) good price, no other provider can beat this. save us a lot, my wife makes a lot of international phone calls. (2) good voice quality, I am in PA, using their dca proxy, very good voice. in the first week, my friend complained the voice volume at their end was a little bit low, later, I figured out the problem was caused my old cheap phone, after I connected to another phone, get back to normal overall, pretty good deal for me, price and voice quality. installation is easy. not satified with (0) calling some international cellphone is not free. (1) they are not working on providing more local phone number, I 'd like to have a local number (2) like other VOIP, no 911 support, don't know when they will get there. doesn't support fax yet. (3) no deal for router, (via broadvox, you can get one month free and waive actativation fee, but the device costs $90). you have to return their router when cancel the service.to get back cancellation fee. don't like this. (4) 40 activitation fee, too high. (5) $15 shipping fee. (6) tech. supports are not knowledgeable. they told me their support team trippled recently. see, their good price is attracting many customers. the router mailed to me has some configuration problem, cause the router reboot every 20 or 2-3 hours, they gave me some suggestions, but none of these worked for me. finally, i fixed the problem by myself by searching the posts here. basically, Followup comments:
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I'm going to buy expensive yellow page ads that have the phone number on them. so luckily, I tested out the lines for a couple weeks before ordering the ads. My plan was to just forward the BV lines including the alternate and toll free lines to my landline so that I could work from home. After about a week, I tried calling my alternate lines...and heard tons of static! The static was so bad that I couldn't hear anything on the call. On top of that the toll free line just gave me a busy signal. I know that the issue was unrelated to my internet connection since I was simply forwarding the BV line. I called BV support and they were not able to help me. They escallated the ticket to the second level support. I waited 2 weeks before there was any resolution on the toll free line. Obviously they are not ready for prime time. Had I advertised a BV number in the yellow pages, it would have been a disaster as my customers wouldn't have been able to get a hold of me. It's a shame becuase the BV features are great. I checked AT&T Call Vantage and Vonage and neither provides the features I need. It's going to be back to Ma Bell for me. Followup comments:
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BroadVoice
(11)
Staten Island,Richmond,NY
$24 per month
about 5 days
"It is the best price for unlimited I've found"
"Contacting support = being on hold"
"Worth it for VoIP"
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