Ooma Core VoIP Phone System
by ooma
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List Price: Our Price: $170.00 You Save: $79.99 (32%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days 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
Customer Review: New to ooma
Summary: 5 Stars
I finally pulled the trigger and bought the ooma device. I opted for the ooma core, hub thingy with the scout. I did this for a reason. The older unit, comes with the earlier guarantee (when ooma was really new) printed on the box. This applies to that purchase, and I found it on their website:
New or Unactivated Ooma Hub/Scout Combinations
1. No changes to your promised feature set, includes voicemail and a 60 day Premier Trial.
2. If you want to purchase an annual Ooma Premier subscription, you can do so until 12/31/09 at $99.99, after that the price will go up by $20 to $119.99.
3. No annual regulatory recovery fee will be charged.
#1 & #3 where the important parts for me. Includes voicemail, (The newer devices charge for that service) and I don't want to see the regulatory fee. Ever.
As opposed to:
The NEW Ooma Telo Product
Newly Purchased Telo's
1. Includes US domestic calling, a free phone number, call waiting, caller ID, and 911 service.
Voice mail is no longer included in the base service of the unit.
Copy and paste this link in your location bar: [...] To read this notice in it's entirety. It would seem the best offer, is to grab the Ooma Hub/Scout Combination, before their all gone.
I hooked up the unit(s) and it works beautifully. I have not had the pleasure of calling customer service. So I know nothing of that area. However, so far, all of my questions have been answered by reading/following along in the manual, and using the website, and the feedback here on Amazon. It should be noted that there seems to be a big rift with current customers and something called Google Voice Extensions. I know nothing of this, and plan on using the system, as is was described to me. A replacement for my residential service. (I dumped Vonage for this option) To view the discontent, and the happy customer reviews on the Ooma Blog, Copy and paste this link in your location bar:[...]
All in all, it seems to be a toss up. Many people love it (as I do, but I have had it for a day, and will post updates when I can) and others are mad at ooma for poor customer service, as well as a perceived miss communication among customers and the company. I found this link to be very enlightening, and it gave me a sense that the purchase I made would to be a good one. Copy and paste this link in your location bar:[...] It was posted by: Rich Buchanan Chief Marketing Officer Ooma, Inc. and made clear to me, that this system is for residential service. Not necessarily as a business phone service. (Although, I cannot see where it would not work for a small home based business!) If you exceed 5000 minutes per month, they may charge you a fee, I guess. But really 5000 minutes! that's like 6 hours a day, everyday! Not likely to happen with your home phone. Even with teenagers.
I hope this early review helps with your decision. I know I found things after I made the purchase, that would have helped me make the purchase much sooner. I think I have included most of that information here.
Update 2/28/10
Note: It would seem that Amazon has edited out the links I provided in the above review for further information. Take the time to visit ooma dot com. You can find what I tried to post here. So far so good. I love the device, and the scout. Also, unless you want the ability to use the features of the scout at each location that you have a telephone in your home, you don't really need one at each of those locations. I bought a splitter, and split the line coming from the scout (labeled 'Phone') to provide service throughout the rest of the house. This will work coming from the main unit as well (The core/hub). I have nothing but nice things to say as of this posting, and am really happy that I decided to go with this service. I am looking forward to years of no monthly phone bills. I figure if the device doesn't fail for at least 5 years, I will have really taken advantage of this technology, and will have saved approx $1800 over that time period. That's minus the $231.99 I paid for it! What the heck? $1800 is a good chunk of change in my book. I would include that I really like the ability to personalize things that apply to my service on their website. SO far, this has been a great purchase, for me personally. Hope this helps with your decision!
Customer Review: The best investment you will ever make
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned this system for about six months now and aside from some initial setup issues it has been the greatest product I have ever used. Quite simply, there are no catches, no hassles, no fine print, etc. Your phone calls sound great and they really, truly are free!
Calls are perfect, period. I have no trouble connecting to anyone and the phone calls are just as good as regular phone service and even better than VOIP. I have yet to hear the echo and occasional glitches in sound that would occasionally occur when I was using Vonage or a cable phone service. As long as you have a stable internet connection, you will have great phone service and no phone bills. It was so good, in fact, that I decided to pay extra for the optional premium service so I could have a second phone line and a unique second phone number.
My only issue with the setup was due to the fact I already owned a VOIP service through Vonage. If I was willing to obtain a brand new phone number, I could have easily connected my service without a phone call to OOMA for installation help. However, because I wanted to keep my existing number, I needed to contact customer service as the instructions were not sufficient in getting me connected to both Vonage and OOMA while I waited for my number to be transferred. I also ran into a problem that, in spite of multiple assurances to the contrary, I was charged for porting my number and the full amount of the premium service I elected. I knew I wanted my existing number so I paid to have my number transferred immediately. I was unsure whether I wanted to sign up for premium service and wanted to test out the premium service before deciding to pay for it. Once I decided to pay for premium service I was charged for a full year instead of a discounted amount reflecting what I already paid for having my number ported. This was not supposed to happen and I hope OOMA clears this up for customers in the future. They did credit me in a month after I called them.
Customer service is actually quite good, with only a few voicemail prompts to direct you to the correct department. There are the occasional exasperated employees who are annoying but most are friendly and helpful. The website works well (save the payment errors) and is intuitive enough that you can figure out how to change the various settings for voicemail, distinctive ring, blacklisting telemarketers who violate the Do Not Call list, and so on. The "do not disturb" button is a godsend if you hate getting interrupted during a nap, dinner, or a good movie. Because I have a second line, I sometimes run into a problem with call screening. Let's say some strange number calls and it goes to voicemail. The literature says you can just pick up the phone if you want to take the call. Actually, you need to press the large lit button representing the active line, then pick up the phone. If you don't you'll end up starting a second line instead of taking the phone call. Aside from this the features work as described.
I actually feel a small twinge of guilt for purchasing the Core OOMA system over the Telo because they end up paying for a small part of my phone service. Remember all the service charges at the end of your bill that almost double the price of standard phone service? While OOMA isn't obligated to pay all of those, they do end up eating some of the charges they are required by law to pay. This was the price they paid for offering 100% free service but I think it was a wise decision. What OOMA realized, which most companies fail to do, is that removing the fine print, the revised Terms of Service, and the gotchas actually increases your customer base significantly.
Just remember, it's your *upload* speed that is important in determining whether this service will work for you. Nearly all broadband services exceed your download requirements, but make sure you have at least 384Kbps upload speed so phone calls are clear both to and from your phone. If you don't know what it is, go to speedtest.net and test it out to be sure. The higher, the better so as long as you meet this minimum requirement, expect great phone calls. Also keep in mind that both Amazon and OOMA offer a 30-day money guarantee.
OOMA really does work just like they say it does and I give this company my highest recommendation.
Customer Review: All is well with my new ooma Hub
Summary: 5 Stars
After studying the reviews about ooma products here on Amazon, I decided to purchase the Hub/scout "Core" in mid-October 2010 for use with my existing Comcast high speed internet service. ( I went with the Core so that i would not have any monthly taxes to pay ).
Once the Hub arrived it was working so well that I signed up to have my landline telephone# ported. As soon as the porting was completed - it took 3 weeks, and went smoothly - I dropped my landline. By that time I was more than ready to save the $62/mo. which I had been paying for a landline with caller id. (I must say that after 40 years, dropping my landline was both irrationally scary and exhilarating. ) For most of the past month ooma has been my only home telephone service, and I have been fully satisfied with it... as another reviewer wrote, I only wish that I had done it sooner.
I came to be an ooma purchaser in a rather round about way. For years I have wanted an iPhone, and during my most recent recurrence of that fixation I noticed an article in the tech section of the New York Times which discussed a wireless calling supplement to iPhone's cellular plan. Several readers had shared their experiences and opinions at the end of the article, and some of them mentioned that they had ooma as their non-cellular home phone service. One thing led to another, and after I finished researching ooma, and several other options, I took a good hard look at the list of things I needed to do with my income this year, and I decided that I would feel better having no monthly telephone bill, instead of a larger one...at least for the next year (or, at least until it became clear what Apple and Verizon will do). And the rest is history.
This week, I moved even further down the path. I decided to purchase ooma's Premiere features for the next year. I realized that I now have a vested interest in the future success and development of ooma as a company, and that it is in my own best interest to do my small part to support continued improvement of their product. I also realized that I had begun to appreciate certain capabilities of the Premiere add-ons (the ability to have the system be silent while at the same time taking messages for me at night when I want quiet time, for example), and I felt that the extra features were worth the money it would cost to have them on a long term basis.
Concurrently, I decided to purchase a iPod Touch for myself - it should arrive from Amazon tomorrow - so that I can have my ooma calls linked to the 'Touch through the wifi system which already exists throughout my home and property. In this way I will finally get to see what all those apps are about, and I will have enhanced communication capabilities in my home zone. I necessarily spend a lot of work time outdoors on my property, beyond the range of my cordless telephone, and although I don't spend much time on the phone, there are a few calls which I would prefer to receive when they come in. Ooma Mobile should have that capability, receiving wifi calls, sometime this year, according to their website (ooma Mobile involves a small one time charge for the app, but you must have Premier to make it work on the 'Touch/iPad/iPhone).
And so, I happily share my good experience with you, remembering that just over a month ago I had turned to this forum for unbiased (real user) information about ooma. If anything changes for me over the next few months, I will be sure to report back.
....
p.s. For you Tivo users, please know that I was able to hook up my Tivo2 box to the ooma Hub and have it dial out for programming. It took some research, and some tweaking, but it is doable.
And, for those of you who are curious, I found that my Panasonic answering machine and Dect 6 cordless phones work flawlessly with my Hub. It was a nice surprise to be able to just plug in and use a familiar system ( plug 'n play). My particular Panasonic model speaks out caller information, and for the moment I am continuing to use it, and not the ooma box, as my everyday answering device. Because of this I must shut off the Panasonic and let the ooma Premiere silence setting take over at night when I do not want to hear any ringing or caller id voices as a call comes in.
Customer Review: Wish I'd bought this sooner
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had this now for about 3 months. I'm VERY pleased and wish I'd gotten it a year or two ago so I could have started saving sooner. I shopped and researched quite a bit before deciding this would meet my needs. All 4 of us in the household have cell phones, but none have great reception at home, and mine (provided by work) is the worst - almost unuseable. So I needed something else, but hated paying so much for a landline. I also needed something my wife could use to call her family in Europe. And wanted something that would work when telecommuting. Ooma works great for almost everything. Read on for details.
Even though I could get free service, I opted for the Premier service at 120 a year. Having the second line works great when working from home, both for leaving a line free for the family, and for creating quick 3-way conference calls between both lines. And I set my mobile to forward all calls to my home line, and people at work then have a reliable way to reach me, and I don't have to run all over the house trying to find a spot with decent reception.
I also LOVE the blacklisting feature, which has just about eliminated telemarketing calls. And I really like the call screening ability, and the caller ID features.
Voice quality on domestic calls has been excellent. The only disappointment has been voice quality on international calls. I knew from research this could be iffy, so I was prepared. I did quite a few calls to hotels in various places to check the quality and found it to be passable to very good, but spotty (no worse than many local calls on my mobile). But my wife's elderly mother in Europe had some troubles with the calls (possibly due to her own phone), so we tried a calling card bought from the web and that solved the problem. It's more expensive than the Ooma international package would be, but at only about 7-8 bucks a month for all the calls to mom-in-law, it's not an issue. All told, my monthly bill has gone from about 70 to less than 20 (including the Premier service). So I'll be paying off the up front hardware investment after about 5 months. Won't be long now!
Installation was simple and quick, and didn't even require a credit card. Wow, that's how all free services should be. I used the free mode for a couple of weeks to be sure of the service, then made the upgrade to Premier. Porting my number from Verizon took about 3 weeks, and happened exactly as promised. Communications from Ooma throughout the process were prompt and clear. As some others have done, while waiting for porting, I physically disconnected the landline coming into my house, and set my Verizon account to forward all incoming calls to my temporary Ooma number. So there was no disruption for people calling me, and no conflicts between the landline and Ooma during the transition period.
Initially, I played with configuration quite a bit and ended up with what's probably an unusual setup, but it works great. First, as mentioned above, I disconnected the landline coming into my house at the network interconnect box. Then, I placed the Ooma Hub AND Scout on my home office desk. The line from the Ooma Hub "Wall" socket goes directly to the Scout, and I plug my desk phone into the Scout. Then, the line from the Ooma Hub "Phone" socket actually plugs into the regular phone jack in the wall. That allows all the regular jacks and phones throughout my house to work just like they did before, both wired and wireless. I set it up so that both lines are in shared configuration on the Ooma, so whenever I have an incoming call, all the phones ring, and we can answer any one. Then if another call comes while one is in progress, only the other line rings. And I've given distinct rings to the two lines, and only use the second number when forwarding calls from my mobile, which is almost exclusively work related. So I and the family know when it's calls coming from my work. It may sound complicated, but the bottom line is ultimate flexibility and function. I LOVE it.
One last aspect. I use comcast high speed internet, getting about 20M down, and 4M up. I placed the Ooma hub downstream from my router, and set my router to give that port priority. So far, so good.
Customer Review: Ooma works better than I expected
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, I am not someone who received an Ooma device for free through any kind of promotion. I paid for my Ooma and ordered it here on Amazon. I debated long and hard over whether or not to order an Ooma. I've read all the blogs online about how Ooma is supposed to fail as a business, etc. I decided to take a calculated risk and go with the company. Honestly, I'm glad I did. I hope they can stick around for a while. They seem like a good company. I think they are on the right track presently.
Let me outline my experience thus far with Ooma. I have been a VoIP subscriber for about 4 years now through another provider. While I've generally been pleased, the voice quality of my previous provider was starting to go downhill. I've read so many positive reviews from Ooma users, that I decided to give it a try. I've also tried skype over the phone, but find they often bill mysterious small amounts to my credit card and I don't like that they don't offer number porting or E911, both of which Ooma offers (to be fair, Skype is not in the home phone business).
The Ooma device is very well designed. It feels like purchasing something from Apple. It's clear there are some Apple fans at the Ooma headquarters. Even the packaging is very nice. Opening the Ooma packaging and finding well-written documentation that is easy to follow and has clear, concise illustrations is quite nice.
Hooking Ooma up was extremely easy. From the time I opened the box to the time I had a ringtone was about 15 minutes, and I was taking my time. The sign-up process was really simple and well thought-out. They provide you with forums, email addresses and a phone number to contact if you have any problems. I was just really impressed with the amount of polish they had put into the product. You even get an immediate message in your voicemail box welcoming you to the service.
I've noticed that voice quality is better than my old VoIP provider. With my old provider, you would constantly cut each other off when talking, almost as if two people couldn't talk at the same time. It has to do with the echo cancellation software, etc. I noticed however, with Ooma I can talk at the same time as the other person, without cutting each other off and causing the audio to get all choppy. It honestly sounds like a landline in this regard.
The audio quality isn't without occasional issues. There are time when I hear echo, but it usually resolves itself within a 15 seconds or so. There have also been a few phone calls where people have complained about my voice breaking up some, but to be fair this was while my kids were watching a streaming movie on Netflix over the Internet. Audio so far seems to be very good almost all of the time, with a few instances when it is a bit flakey. But usually, if you make a phone call immediately after the bad connection, the next one is great. I think it is probably more an issue with my ISP than it is with Ooma.
There have been lots of concerns over privacy with Ooma, since it can direct your phone calls through other people's phone lines. Ooma has done what they can to prevent wiretapping, etc. but for some people still worry about what the Ooma peer-to-peer based network means for privacy. After doing some research I discovered that if you pay for the Premium Ooma service, which is $99 per year, they will not direct your calls through other people's Ooma devices, and will not direct any other people's calls through your Ooma device. They will use more traditional termination methods, like what other VoIP providers use. So, this alleviates the privacy concerns for the most part.
Even after paying for the Premium service, I come out paying $30 per month for the first year of service, which is a few dollars less than I was paying before. The second year of using Ooma, I will only pay $99 to keep the premium service, or if I choose to, I can get free phone service without the premium offerings. It's a great savings for a service that actually outperforms what I was paying more for.
Ooma customer support has also been very friendly and responsive.
So to sum up, Ooma has designed a great device that works well and saves you money. I've really been pleased so far.