NON-WORKING SERVICE AND BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!

[scbysnx]

thank you sales department! wu hu! finally working

[ethernet]

There was a service announcement today about "intermittent inability to make and receive calls". My SIP device did in fact loose registration twice today, but all of my calls were going through as normal.

However this is the first time I ever see an actual "service announcement". I had no problems whatsoever except for initial difficulties with setting up hardware. All owing to the problems on my end. Since that was out of the way, there was no interruptions, no dropped calls, no sound quality issues, nothing. And I am on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia, where copper lines are almost 50 years old, rarely if ever serviced and weather is pretty tough on any underground communications. On top of this, my local exchange was built in 1961 and DID NOT CHANGE EQUIPMENT ever since! the only thing new is the DLAM that provides my underpowered 220/80 Kbs ADSL connection.

Despite all this, I enjoy a 140 ms ping to proxy.dca.broadvoice, no detectable latency and overall a wonderful sound clarity, whether I'm in-network to another BV customer in Japan, in-state, or international.

I even use calling cards with local California access numbers to call, check this, other cities in Russia (imagine what kind of a loop is that, halfway around the globe and back+whatever regulation-avoiding routing scheme the cheap shady calling card operator uses) and people I call still can't tell it's not a local call.

So
1. posting a problem on this forum
before getting into a fight with BV would help

2. broadvoice does perform well for many,
many of us including under pretty extreme conditions

3. nice Mexican food analogy from jperry!

[craig]

My BV service seems to have been up and running the entire time. But then again, I'm just experimenting and not using it as my main line and therefore may just not have noticed. Before I make any serious committment to VoIP I wanted to try it for a while and see how it stacks up, particularly since it's a fairly new technology.

So far, the service is great for cheap calls and has been generally stable, but still fallible with enormous room for improvement and growth. I will definately be keeping my BV line and enjoy the great features (particularly having a local number in the US for family while living abroad). No, it's not perfect, but it is getting better and so far has gotten the job done!

[nhs510]

Cannot receive calls in Oregon on BV.. :x The wife and her mother are driving me f$*#ing crazy!! I hope they resolve this VERY soon!!

[datarax]

Lost Simultaneous ring at about 6pm. I use it to ring my business phone and my cell phone for important calls. Well, all my clients didn't feel too important this week when they tried to call me and it just rang and rang. No messages on the cell phone. The worst part is that one of those clients, a meat processor in NJ was going to go with voip and had so much trouble contacting me this week that he decided to put it off. Now if I had just used a reliable carrier the voip world would be a bit bigger and some of you out there might be paying a little bit less for their sausage. :wink:

[ethernet]

Strangely, I'm starting to get the impression that the BV outage fest was most felt on the West Coast. People on the East Coast losts simultaneous ring while people in Oregon lost service completely; whereas I had only two counts total of SIP registration loss, being on the other side of the Atlantic. And users in Japan reportedly had no problems at all.

As if everything that's between west of Boston and the International Date Line went out (Central and Western US) and everyone between east of Boston and the Intl. Date Line (Europe, Eastern Europe and the Far East) was up and running almost normally.

On the other hand, probably close to 95 percent of BV customer base is in the United States, so there are too few users from other countries in relation to the number of US users to give us the details.

[mberlant]

Originally Posted by ibcp99

I subscribed to BroadVoice VoIP service on March 7, 2005. Since the ATA device provided was installed, I did not receive over 80% of my incoming calls!

You registered on the Voxilla forum two days later. Did you ever consider asking for advice while you were experiencing your problems, instead of waiting until you had abandoned the service?

Originally Posted by ibcp99

I operate a home-based business, and I am certain to have lost revenue due to this service problem.

It is unfortunate, but even subscribing to BroadVoice's Unlimited Business Plan does not exempt you from Section 4 of the Terms of Service, wherein you agreed that BroadVoice cannot be held liable for any such losses. In fact, there is not a single VoIP provider who has agreed to assume such liability.

Originally Posted by ibcp99

After 8 attempts to resolve the problem with BroadVoice technical support (waiting over 30 minutes each call), no resolution was ever found.

There is an abundance of knowledge here in the forums, just waiting for the problem to be posed. Had you posted your problem while you were experiencing it, instead of complaining about your failure once you gave up, you might actually have had this problem resolved.

Originally Posted by ibcp99

I terminated the service on April 6, 2005, in order to maintain my 30-day warranty period in which all charges would supposedly be refunded, and asked that I have my BroadVoice number ported to my new provider.

As you knew from Section 1.10 of the Terms of Service (which you certainly read before clicking your agreement upon signup), BroadVoice will only port out a phone number that was ported in to them. There are several technical, logistical and legal reasons for this that are discussed in other threads on this forum.

Originally Posted by ibcp99

Not only did they NOT refund the total purchase price (they said that I did not have the original box that the ATA device was shipped in), but they refused to port my number and even threatened legal action if I tried to move the number!

One of the things you apparently discarded with the box was the notice of your responsibility to retain all of the packing materials for the ATA's eventual return to BroadVoice. The entire package was lent to you in support of the service - not just the electronic bits tucked inside.

Originally Posted by ibcp99

I explained that I put my trust in them to provide working service, and had new business stationery printed with the number as well as posting the number on various Internet sites with whom I advertise my business. They would not even consider my request!

It is clearly stated many times in the Terms of Service (of every VoIP provider, not just BroadVoice) that VoIP service is not a substitute for traditional telephone service and that you should never rely upon VoIP service in that way. No VoIP provider can cover for a user ignoring this advice.

Originally Posted by ibcp99

I have had to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau to try to get restitution for re-printing my stationery - I could not place a value on my lost business

Which BBB office did you file with? I would like to assist them in understanding your complaint.

[datarax]

mberlant,

What kind of business offers an 800 number for incoming BUSINESS calls and expects us to not rely on it? Sign up for our business plan and 800 number but realize that those important sales calls will only get thru ah somethimes. What business can afford to miss sales calls on their 800 number. And as far as you statement that he should have posted on this forum for help. You took the time to defend broadvoice with a long post instead of answering a simultaneous ring I posted 1 1/2 hours ago. I guess that's what you get when the web site that you go for help on receives ad money from broadvoice. You bias towards bv makes dan rather sound objective. :!:

[slicemaster101]

Originally Posted by datarax

Lost Simultaneous ring at about 6pm. I use it to ring my business phone and my cell phone for important calls. Well, all my clients didn't feel too important this week when they tried to call me and it just rang and rang. No messages on the cell phone. The worst part is that one of those clients, a meat processor in NJ was going to go with voip and had so much trouble contacting me this week that he decided to put it off. Now if I had just used a reliable carrier the voip world would be a bit bigger and some of you out there might be paying a little bit less for their sausage. :wink:

Outages similar to BV

[datarax]

Well then I guess you imply BV does not have a reputation for reliability.