[popbop]

Today is our last day with BV. BV support sucks. They cannot support business critical telephony with their current staff and and response times. Today about 3:45pm, for reasons unknown to BV, my main business phone number started telling inbound callers that it's:

DISCONNECTED

A prospective employee who I just interviewed alerted me to this horrifying situation through email after she tried to call back for a 2nd interview.

The next 8 hours have gone something like this:
* 6 calls to support (using the same BV account that's reporting disconnected); results = over an hour total hold time, 3 hang ups (reps claimed they couldn't hear me over the BV line), two reports of tier-2 escalation (whatever that may be). 5 Hours later, I finally got an trouble ticket and ETA out of the last phone rep: 24-48 HOURS FOR A RESPONSE. Note the word response and not solution.
* 6 urgent emails to support@broadvoice.com. None were answered, as the phone rep said they would be.

It's now 1:00am est roughly 9 hours after the problem was reported, along with all the funny symptoms and the fact that my account works, my alternate numbers work, but my main number tell callers that my business is DISCONNECTED.

So, I need to ask if anyone can suggest another VoIP provider ASAP. If I'm going be without a business phone for 24-48 hours, I'm willing to start the process to port a number over to another carrier. BV has already screwed us beyond repair unless they miraculously get someone to work on our issue overnight (we aren't holding our breath here) and have us up and running by 8:00am tomorrow morning.

We need a provider with Service Level Agreements (SLA's) if possible, who understand the critical nature of business communications as opposed to the meeting the needs of VoIP hobbyists, as BV support is more suited for.

Suggestions are greatly appreciated. However, we'd really love to hear from people who've had BV and switched to another provider, if for no other reason than the quality of support.

Thanks.

JR

[rizsher]

I wouldn't run a businees on VoIP, specially with a company like Broadvoice, specially after the woes of last year. "Works most of the time" isn't something a business should rely on.

Recommendations on an alternate provider would really depend on what your needs are, do you only call within the USA, specific international destinations?.

If I were to setup a business, I would retain the PSTN lines (probably atleast 1 is needed ANYWAY for Faxing), switch to a VoIP provider for Outgoing Calls that allows you to set your outgoing CallerID, and have it set to your main PSTN number. That way, you use VoIP to make outgoing calls (and hence reap the savings that VoIP brings), and receive all the calls on PSTN, which gives you the 99.9999% reliability.

If you really must have the advanced features VoIP brings for incoming, setup an Asterisk server, or have someone set it up for you.... you'll get digital receptionist, voicemail to email, time conditions etc etc etc...

Bottomline, some providers are better than others, but, generally, a business shouldn't rely on VoIP to contact the world.

My 2 cents.

[Cybertoy]

I've been using broadvoice at home for the last 2 years and the reason you list is the reason I wouldn't use them for business. Whenever support is needed they suck.

As for running a business on VoIP I wouldn't generally say that it can't be done but you will have to look at all the SLA's that are involved. I.E. not just your VoIP provider but also your ISP for your internet connection.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of a VoIP provider that can provide a SLA.

[Cybertoy]

... almost forgot: If you're porting your number out of broadvoice I think we'd be interested in hearing the result.

Also: have you previously ported your number into broadvoice or are you using a broadvoice number they gave you? I think if it's the later you might run into problems trying to port it out.

[popbop]

UPDATE: After more than 24 hours, my phone number was "reconnected." Or course, I had to discover this on my own. I never did receive an email from support letting me know what the problem was or when it was resolved. That's just the kind of service I've come to expect from BV. Oh by the way, the one thing they did for us is force us into their business plan for this account--another $15 a month for the same lousy service and support!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the replies.

You folks are 100% correct. BV is not up to the challenge of critical business service. The suggestion of maintaining a PSTN line makes a lot of sense,at least for your main in-bound line, with VoIP lines for outgoing calls. We're 100% Internet fax, so we don't need a PSTN for fax. BTW, we tried BV with a Sipura ATA for fax and never did get it to send a work successfully.

We could conclude that VoIP in general isn't ready for business prime time. But I still remember when the web wasn't ready to serve up static business content reliably. Now look at what can be done over the web. Someone's got to blaze a new trail with this technology and live on the bleeding edge a bit. We are one of those companies. We can live with the occasional hiccups as long as we have great support.

Our main number was ported in to BV from Sprint (Embarq), and I don't expect that BV will block the request to port the number out. As far as the other numbers we obtained from BV, they can have them all back.

The primary area code for the Orlando area is 407. BV never did offer 407 prefix numbers, only 321 prefixes that are local to the coastal areas. I haven't had any problem obtaining 407 prefix numbers from other "consumer-level" VoIP providers.

In my frantic search for another service provider, I did find one with SLA's, believe it or not. I can't remember what provider it was now. Their SLA was predicated on having T1 access for VoIP. So, I believe it's out there if you want to spend the money. We don't do enough voice volume to need a T1--at least not yet. Our business allows us to use multiple accounts and phone numbers--decentralized and scalable.

My company is small enough to not need to install an Asterisk switch. We avoid complexity where we can, and the Asterisk layer would require more time and money to maintain then it would save us. It's a great solution for those who need it, and have the expertise in-house to configure and maintain it.

I still think VoIP is very acceptable for small business, and maybe even medium sized businesses with an Asterisk or other switch. To me, the issue really boils down to support. Any issue we've had with BV has boiled down to support. We try to figure out how to get things done as simply, efficiently and cheaply as possible because we want to provide viable solutions to other small businesses that are reliable, inexpensive, easy to implement and easy to maintain.

[pocketaa]

You should look into Packet8 Virtual Office. Good rates, very customizable.

[popbop]

I didn't consider Packet8 because it didn't seem the best choice to me when I originally made the leap to VoIP on Broadvoice.

For what I need, VoIPYourLife.com seems to work very well (albeit the very plain web management interface). It was relatively cheap, worked right out of the box and was easier to setup and configure with my softphone than BV. BV's web portal looks much better, but has been quirky and buggy at times. I had VYL up and running with my 407 prefix numbers not long after my first post. Once I get my main office number ported, I'm done with BV!

Another benefit was that I could pile on virtual numbers (very useful for tracking marketing responses) very easily and quickly for VY at no additional cost. BV charges $10 to setup + $1.99 per month.

Quality is just as good if not better. Voice mail setup and use is a bit quirky on VYL because it uses some non-standard keys and call flows that take some getting used to. But I didn't have issues with voice mail greeting recording--a constant issue with BV that they never did solve for me (or even follow up on the trouble ticket).

I'm just waiting to for important numbers to get ported, then I'm pulling the plug on BV once and for all!

[rizsher]

Originally Posted by popbop

We could conclude that VoIP in general isn't ready for business prime time. But I still remember when the web wasn't ready to serve up static business content reliably. Now look at what can be done over the web. Someone's got to blaze a new trail with this technology and live on the bleeding edge a bit. We are one of those companies. We can live with the occasional hiccups as long as we have great support.

Thats a business decision only you can take. Common sense would dictate these "occasional" hiccups would be even more detrimental to a small business which would always struggle for credibility against the big guns, customers not being able to get thru to you by phone would really not get a warm fuzzy feeling. Don't have to go too far, just look at your experience with Broadvoice. Nothing wrong with being on the bleeding edge, IF you're hawing something innovative, using a VoIP telephone system for business doesn't really qualify.

My company is small enough to not need to install an Asterisk switch. We avoid complexity where we can, and the Asterisk layer would require more time and money to maintain then it would save us. It's a great solution for those who need it, and have the expertise in-house to configure and maintain it.

Lets see, you already have the VoIP phones/ATAs... for your limited call volume, setting up an Asterisk server would cost you in the region of 200-300 US$ (YES..REALLY!!!)... once you get it running, and it took me about a week from being a total Asterisk noob to know enough to set a basic system up, there is hardly any maintenance as it is always recommended to leave a production/working system alone. There are all inclusive free packages like Trixbox (and Asterisk@Home prior to that) which install almost un-attended in about 1 hour. a read thru sites like nerdvittles.com, Voxilla, and Trixbox.org should give you enough know how to be up and running in short order. Its less difficult that at first glance.

[pocketaa]

VoipYourLife, I will look into them. Competitive pricing too. Virtual numbers are most definitly a good way to track marketing. Does VoipYourLife offer ring groups? That too is a great way to track campaigns.

some standard Packet8 features:

auto attendent
customer ipbx interface, complete access to ones ipx
follow me find me
music on hold
9 ring groups


stability:

20 yea old company
Publicly Traded
68 Government Patens for a Hosted IPBX Solution.



Just food for thought.

[kieranmullen2]

VoipYourLife? I would stay away from them. i have not heard good things about them except for their spammy posts on other forums. From archive.org it looks like their site has been up since Jan 2006.

For the 1.5 years of service I had with Broadvoice there was never any issue. I even called at 1130 PM on new years eve and I chatted with the tech about asterisk. There have been times off onf on when support times were a little long on the phone, but nothing over a half hour.

A business should have backup lines.