[KenM37]

I've been a Vonage customer for 1+ year and looking to switch to VoicePulse. I'm frankly tired of vonage locking my devices, not giving me my SIP credintials, and hitting me extra for using a soft phone.
If I move to VoicePulse and buy new equipment will they lock it down so I can't access it? Will I be able to take one of my lines and also use it on my laptop as a soft phone when I travel? Will I have my SIP info? Can I block my caller ID on a per line basis instead of by a per call basis? Lastly if I buy hardware from Voxilla is it truely unlocked?
Thanks for the information.

Ken

[ymhee_bcex]

I've been with VoicePulse for almost a year; and despite what I am going to say - I am a very happy customer. I've been with BroadVoice for 6 months before that, and moved to VoicePulse for much better reliability and voice quality.

Originally Posted by KenM37

I've been a Vonage customer for 1+ year and looking to switch to VoicePulse. I'm frankly tired of vonage locking my devices, not giving me my SIP credintials, and hitting me extra for using a soft phone.
If I move to VoicePulse and buy new equipment will they lock it down so I can't access it? Will I be able to take one of my lines and also use it on my laptop as a soft phone when I travel? Will I have my SIP info?

Normally, they will lock your device and hit you extra for using a soft phone. My understanding, that they charge $10/mo extra for "open access" plan where they give you sip credentials, and you can also use softphone with that plan. The other line (in two-line ATAs, e.g., SPA 2000) is unlocked; so I am using it for Betamax. However, you can't use it for the providers that require their domain information (e.g., VoicePulse).

Originally Posted by KenM37

Can I block my caller ID on a per line basis instead of by a per call basis?

You can permanently block your CallerID from being sent by turning on CallerID Block in the Account Center.

Originally Posted by KenM37

Lastly if I buy hardware from Voxilla is it truely unlocked?

As unlocked as it gets...

[fourbear]

I left Vonage to go to Voicepulse because of the extra features, now I am back with Vonage. I wish I had never swapped, Bad experiance with VoicePulse! Read post Click here

[DD]

Over the past week I have wasted an inordinate amount of time testing the Voicepulse Call Hunt feature and have found that it performs so erratically and inconsistently at this time as to be completely unreliable. A series of perhaps 40-50 test calls were placed to test about 5 different hunting configurations which were relatively uncomplicated, and the conclusion after all of that effort was that there was no way to predict what was going to happen with the hunting.

Whereas Voicepulse advertises that you can have their voicemail on and that it will pick up after the hunting if no one picks up the call, my experience is that if you have voicemail turned on then call hunting will not work at all. And when I reported this to them they simply ignored it and responded by telling me that it works as advertised. Happy Talk for pretense at customer service.

The worst aspect of their hunting as implemented right now is that they know and are satisfied to report that they are delivering false busy signals when no one picks up the call at any of the hunted numbers. When I complained that false busy signals were completely unacceptable (because they will encourage callers to waste time calling back again and again), they acted like that was no concern of theirs.

But the hunting activity was rarely carried out the same more than two times in a row. The timing of the calling sequences was unpredictable and unreliable.

[TagsSD]

Don't do it... Check out VoicePulse's Better Business Bureau rating site. That will tell it all. VoicePulse has a lot to learn about customer service.

I had them for something like a year and half. You can never get a hold of someone when you have a service problem. Their sound quality isn't very good. I decided to switch after a year and a half.

When I cancelled, I received a email from them threatening my credit if I didn't return the unit within 14 days (which was totally unwarranted. I was never late on a payment once).

Then they charged me a $39.99 cancellation fee to my credit card the day I cancelled. I sent the unit back to them the day after I cancelled. They wouldn't refund my cancellation fee because my until wasn't sent back with the original box and manuals and double-boxed during shipment.

Give me a break. Who keeps an original box and manual for a year and a half. And I shipped the unit back in a padded envelope and insured it against damage.

I will never give them business ever again, and advise anyone to beware and stay away!

[ymhee_bcex]

Just to make it clear I got ATA from Voxilla; so I wouldn't know much about TagsSD's problems with VoicePulse-provided adapter.

And I never tried call hunting - so I can't say how I would feel if this feature were important to me and if it wouldn't work.

I *did* try to contact their support staff once - and I found them quite knowledgeable (it was almost a year ago... don't quite remember the details). They did some troubleshooting and pinpointed the router as bottleneck - and indeed it was doing something weird (but since all the computers connected to the Internet OK I didn't realize that). That was the only time that I had a *need* to contact customer service.

I think fourbear's "How can this company stay in business?" is too harsh. I am sure they have plenty happy customers to offset unhappy ones.

I am not salivating over their service - I wish they had fax support; I wish they give credentials and allow me to have simple Asterisk environment; and their IVR interface to VoiceMail is pathetic - but overall, I am quite happy.

[fourbear]

Were you ever given the impression that after your 1 year obligation is completed...

• If your service does not work for months you might be given a credit.
• The plan switches to a month to month service so you can cancel at any time.
• In the event that you did want to cancel service, you own the phone adapter so there is no hardware to return to VoicePulse.
• Your Sipura SPA-2000 will be unlocked and will be available for future use.

None of the above happened, in fact they threatened me with contacting collections for the adapter fees and the months of service I did not get. When I told them they could have there adapter back and asked where to send it, the guy told me I could look it up on there web site.

ymhee_bcex... I can handle a malfunction with an electrical device, these kinds of things happen. What I am most unhappy with is the support staff and the way they handle there business.
You may say I am being harsh, but you didn’t have to deal with the incompetence that I had to. I am not new to VOIP services and the way voicepulse treated me was just plain wrong.
All Company’s will have there unhappy customers but "Plenty of happy customers to offset unhappy ones" if this is what you are looking for in a business... well I hope you continue to have a good situation with voicepulse.

I stand behind TagsSD "Stay Away" from Voicepulse!

[Lena]

Originally Posted by TagsSD

...Check out VoicePulse's Better Business Bureau rating site. That will tell it all. !

I checked it out. The complaints are as follows:
Service issues 5; resolved 5
Product complaints 1; unresolved 1
Contract complaints 1; unresolved 1
Billing complaints 1; resolved 1

So the BBB has a total of 8 complaints against VoicePulse, with 6 resolved and 2 unresolved.

Are you one of the two unhappy customers?

Lena

[Lena]

Originally Posted by KenM37

I've been a Vonage customer for 1+ year and looking to switch to VoicePulse.
Ken

You, and many others may be considering making a switch from Vonage in light of a recent suit brought against Vonage and won by Verizon for "patent infringement", requiring a hefty payment and a 5.5% per customer per month charge.

A few threadbashers have chimed in and bemoan problems they might have had with VoicePulse. If you have found this thread as a result of a Google search, you would do yourself a favor by checking out a more active forum such as dslreports<dot>com (Broadband Reports) where you would get a clearer picture of how many are really happy with VoicePulse.

[kieranmullen2]

I cant comment on voicepulse.com residential service. However I cam comment on their asterisk service. 4 months ago I had to start an account by depositing $100 Of which I have to pay $11 a month (which includes taxes) for 4 incomming channelrs phones lines for asterisk. The service and support have been great. They also didnt charge me a number transfer fee either.

Vonage has many more complaints. I had them 5 years ago before I woke up and went to sunrocket.com for my home phone. Vonage is in the process of screwing with my credit. Basically I canceled my acocunt after 5 years my dad also had it for 2-3 years. Then he canceled his service becuase he liked the sunrocket.com service after the trial period but couldnt transfer his number. I called vonage.com to reactivate the numebr becuase I was told we could do it within 30 days without a penalty. So I arranged things and then I called back, and was told the only way I could get the acocunt reactivated with the same numebr was by signing up for a new account. Ah! But after I did that I forgot that I was under a new 1 year contract, never mind I had the service before. I learned about this AFTER I signed up. I thought I would be exempt since I had them for 5 years! I sent them back the ata, but no deal, they are still on me with credit letters.

This is how they treat loyal customers?

Forget vonage.

If they go under... good riddance.