See larger image Ooma Core VoIP Phone System (Electronics) List Price: $249.99 USD New From: $189.99 In Stock Used from: $155.00 In Stock I am very happy after a year.  Still 3 lines (really only need 2).  1 for home and 1 for business, the other I never use.  It has been so nice, especially for business.  When my customers leave messages, I never hesitate to call them back, because it doesn’t cost me a thing.  My long distance bill when I was with [...]]]> I have been getting emails from people to ask me if I am still happy with Ooma, so I thought I would leave an updated post.

See larger image Ooma Core VoIP Phone System (Electronics) List Price: $249.99 USD New From: $189.99 In Stock Used from: $155.00 In Stock

I am very happy after a year.  Still 3 lines (really only need 2).  1 for home and 1 for business, the other I never use.  It has been so nice, especially for business.  When my customers leave messages, I never hesitate to call them back, because it doesn’t cost me a thing.  My long distance bill when I was with AT&T was always between $200 and $300 a month.  What a savings. What really impresses my customers though, is when they leave an email and I call them direct.  I never used to do that with my old phone company.

Now, I will say though, when calling local, there is one number that I call that I almost always get an echo.  Doesn’t bother me because it is my ex-wife’s phone number and I don’t call that often .  I do have a cable modem though, and that can be a problem.  Every now and then, my throughput drops to almost nothing and people have a hard time hearing me.  Now this is not Ooma’s fault though.  When this happens I can’t stream for Netflix or Stream Hulu to my PlayStation either.  If I went DSL I would never have this problem.

If you want to see more comments on Ooma from other actual users, click on the Amazon link at the top of this article.

This will probably be my last post regarding Ooma.  Actually, I am only posting this due to the fact that I have gotten so many hits.  It’s not that I am unhappy with Ooma, but the fact that I still have a bad taste from good ‘ol AT&T.

There was a time that I had 6 lines with AT&T.  My home line and 5 business lines.  Well, I paid all of the bills, promptly, on all of my lines.  I didn’t realize that I wasn’t actually paying for one of my lines for more [...]]]> 60 days into Ooma, here is my biased decision.

This will probably be my last post regarding Ooma.  Actually, I am only posting this due to the fact that I have gotten so many hits.  It’s not that I am unhappy with Ooma, but the fact that I still have a bad taste from good ‘ol AT&T.

There was a time that I had 6 lines with AT&T.  My home line and 5 business lines.  Well, I paid all of the bills, promptly, on all of my lines.  I didn’t realize that I wasn’t actually paying for one of my lines for more than a year, because AT&T wasn’t billing me.

Well, after a year, AT&T finally billed me, $12,000 dollars.  Well, I was shocked.  I called them and they said I was paying around $0.65 a minute on that line, while the other lines I was being charged like $0.07 a minute (long distance).  I got the bill 2 weeks before Christmas.  When I finally got a hold of a supervisor, they said since it hadn’t been billed for over a year, they automatically charged the max they could charge.

To make a long story short, I finally got the bill reduced to $500 for the year. It took 2 months and 5 long phone calls, along with 5 hours on the phone and the time it took me to go through all my annual phone bills. I stayed with AT&T for the next 2 years since I was convinced that their service was the best, since I had been burned by 2 other companies before AT&T.

I finally decided to test out Vonage for my business.  I was so happy with the fact that I didn’t have to deal with AT&T, when I got divorced, and moved, I canceled my home number and used Vonage for all my personal and business calls (my divorce had nothing to do with my phone service.. another story ).

OK… Now Ooma.  I have no regrets leaving Vonage.  I have no regrets leaving AT&T.  I am probably different then most.  I have a cell phone with Verizon.  I only pay for a 500 minute service, since i work out of the house, and don’t get many personal calls.  When I am home, I forward my Verizon phone to my Ooma phone number.  The main reason for this is Ooma doesn’t have any local phone numbers in my area.  I live in Redding, CA.  My Ooma line is a Lake Tahoe phone number. That is long distance for local Redding friends and family.  But forwarding them my cell phone number keeps them from paying long distance charges.  i figure that if I start going over my minutes, I will just call them back on Ooma, since it doesn’t cost anything to call them, whether they are in town, or Alaska.

OK.  Now that you know my situation, let me tell you both my pros and cons concerning Ooma now that I have had it for more than 2 months.

PROS

1. No more phone  bills.  No more fighting billing problems. No more AT&T.
2. No more surprising phone bills.  I know I don’t have them.
3. Ability to make fun of both my friends and family when they tell me how much they pay for their phone service.  Honestly, i think this is the best reason to own an Ooma system.
4. The fact that Costo is now selling Ooma.  What have you ever bought from Costco that hasn’t been great, or should I say that you couldn’t return.  Costco must have confidence in Ooma also.

CONS

1. Fax reception, both sending and receiving works about 50% of the time.  A service like EFax might be an alternative for some that need to send/receive faxes.
2. Currently, you can not have multiple Ooma phone lines ring at the same time.  I like this for my business.  Sometimes I would like my home line to ring with my home business line.  While Ooma will ring other lines, they won’t ring their own lines.
3. If you live in a  realitively small town, you might not be able to get a local number.  While my numbers are in my area code, they are long distance for people to call.  For me, not a problem, since I forward my cells.  For others, you might not be able to port your number and might want to keep a local number with a local carrier.  Although, this was the same with Vonage.  Vonage now offers a number that is not in my town, but not long distance.  It is a matter of time until Ooma is the same.

Bottom line.  Buy Ooma. You can’t go wrong, unless you wait, as you will continue to spend money that you could spend on other things.. like an ASUS 1000ha netbook, my next post….

Many say the company won’t be around.  Well, I have saved $50.00 over Vonage this month alone.  So, by the end of February, the system will have paid for itself.  And, in the meantime, I get clearer reception then Vonage.

I [...]]]> OK.  It’s been over two weeks now and I still love my Ooma.  I have been keeping an eye on the blogs out there and of course leaving my two cents worth.  There have been many blog posts that have put down Ooma.  Now, these are not Ooma owners, but just people commenting about a product that they have never even tried.

Many say the company won’t be around.  Well, I have saved $50.00 over Vonage this month alone.  So, by the end of February, the system will have paid for itself.  And, in the meantime, I get clearer reception then Vonage.

I personally don’t believe the company is going anywhere.  I have agreed on other blog posts that I will put money on Ooma.  One blogger said it wouldn’t be around in a year, that he would ‘bet on it’.  I took him up on the bet but I never heard back. Needless to say, I am calling Ooma today to port over my old Vonage lines.  I will let you know how that goes.

The only problem I am currently having with the phone is the outgoing callerid on my second line.  It still says Ooma.inc for the name.  I have been told by Ooma that it takes up to 10 days for this to go into effect.  Well, it has been 17 days, and still, I am Ooma.inc.  I am sure it will be resolved as I have not really seen other people having the same problem.

Click here for pricing

If you are thinking about it, do it.  Free shipping, no sales tax (for me in California anyhow) and free shipping back if you don’t like it.  You can’t loose, and believe me, you won’t return it.

It’s hard to believe that I [...]]]> Check out the price Amazon.com has for the Ooma.  I thought they were going to be raising their prices back up to $249.00 after the 4th of the month, and they did for a while.  In fact, they sold out.  But, they are back and Amazon priced them down to $202.58. At least right now.

Click here for pricing

If you are thinking about it, do it.  Free shipping, no sales tax (for me in California anyhow) and free shipping back if you don’t like it.  You can’t loose, and believe me, you won’t return it.

It’s hard to believe that I am already telling my friends and family about Ooma.  This has to be one of the more exciting products I have purchased in a long time.  Yeah, yeah… I realize its a phone (or phone service), but let me tell you.  I am so tired of buying electronics the day they are released and having them not live up to my expectations, or not work at all.  This is a no brainer.  If you are looking to save money, or you just hate your phone company (like me, AT&T), buy it now while the price is low.  Might as well save a little more money.

OK, I have made many electronic purchases in my life. I probably have one of the largest universal remote collections around.  I hate being the first on the block to own new technology, but I can’t stand to be the second. It is just one of my personality disorders.

Well, is Ooma a new device.  Yes and No.  Ooma has been around for over a year now, but their company has already gone through many changes.  As far as I am concerned, all for the better.

I didn’t purchase Ooma to have ‘Free phone calls for life’, although that is how it is [...]]]>

OK, I have made many electronic purchases in my life. I probably have one of the largest universal remote collections around.  I hate being the first on the block to own new technology, but I can’t stand to be the second. It is just one of my personality disorders.

Well, is Ooma a new device.  Yes and No.  Ooma has been around for over a year now, but their company has already gone through many changes.  As far as I am concerned, all for the better.

I didn’t purchase Ooma to have ‘Free phone calls for life’, although that is how it is billed.  I have (for the time being) two Vonage lines costing me about $50 per month.  They give me unlimited calls around the US and Canada, and cheap overseas calls.  They offer many, many features that would cost me a fortune if I was using my local/long distance carrier (but I only use a few). But now, while its only been a week with Ooma, I have to say, I will be saying Goodbye to Vonage if things keep going this smoothly.

To make the comparison’s between the two services, I decided to setup Ooma with 2 phone numbers.  The first one is ‘free’, the second I am using their premium service ($100 year / $8.33 month / free for the 1st 60 days).  That is a $43.64 savings over Vonage.  Sure, they don’t have all the features of Vonage, but both lines have CallerID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding and Multi Ring capabilities, Voicemail forwarding to email and cell phone text messages and some pretty slick hardware that looks pretty cool sitting on my desk.

Line #1I use for my home line.  I have my cordless phone hooked to it with 5 extensions.  This gives me 5 phones all running on line one.  Just had to plug in the base unit into my main Ooma hub.  This line also serves my Fax with a really cool device I bought on Amazon for sharing my phone with my fax.  I could get a 3rd line for $4.99 per month for a dedicated fax line, but I really don’t send or receive too many faxes now a days.

If I would have gone with a 3rd line, my multi function printer (which I can’t say enough about) recognizes distinctive ring tones.  I did get a 3rd line from Ooma for testing, just to see if my printer / fax would pick up when the special ring pattern came in, and it worked flawlessly.  But the fax switch is paid for and doesn’t require any monthly fee’s.  I also like the fact that the fax switch doesn’t ring any of my phones if it is a fax call.  Pretty cool.

My second line is for my business.  I work out of my home as often as I can, so a separate line is really a must. Ooma made this so easy by including a scout with the basic package.  Just plugged it in, plugged in the phone cable into the back of the Ooma hub (not the standard installation, but works for me since both are in the same room) and I have a separate phone number and voice mail for the my business.  I setup my AT&T cordless phone system up on that line so I could continue to use my bluetooth headset. For testing, I just forwarded my Vonage lines to my new lines.  I will later, if all continues to go well, port both my Vonage numbers over to Ooma and use those numbers instead of the numbers assigned by Ooma.

Overall, I am very impressed.  The call quality is fantastic compared to Vonage, and I am saving about $43 per month.  Works well with my fax (although any VOIP service won’t guarantee it, but it works for me).  I like the fact that I can pickup line #1 calls also on my line #2 phone.  This way when I am working I can continue using my bluetooth headset even for home calls. Couldn’t do this with Vonage. And I thought having a hardware answering machine would be a waste, but it also is really cool.  While it is an internet based voicemail system, you can screen your calls as messages come in and pickup if you want.  Couldn’t do that with Vonage.

I am still waiting for the ‘oh, that is the problem’ with this system, but I have yet to find it.  If you haven’t bought one yet do it.  Click on the Ooma picture above and place your order now.  Amazon normally doesn’t charge for shipping when you purchase, or even when you do a return.  And for me (I live in California) no sales tax.  It really is risk free! If you are thinking about doing it, leave me a comment and I can refer you.  You’ll get some free international call minutes (and so will I).

Until next week…

OK. Well, I got the unit from Amazon and I couldn’t be more pleased.

First, Amazon got the package here in 3 days.  Not bad.  Ordered on Black Friday night and it was here Tuesday. Because it was one of the busiest shipping days of the year, I was a little shocked to see my package so soon. Upon opening it, I was really surprised.  What great packaging.  It reminded me of an Apple product.

Opening it up, there were stickers all over the device saying before I install it I need to register the product. I figured, this is it, this [...]]]>

OK. Well, I got the unit from Amazon and I couldn’t be more pleased.

First, Amazon got the package here in 3 days.  Not bad.  Ordered on Black Friday night and it was here Tuesday. Because it was one of the busiest shipping days of the year, I was a little shocked to see my package so soon. Upon opening it, I was really surprised.  What great packaging.  It reminded me of an Apple product.

Opening it up, there were stickers all over the device saying before I install it I need to register the product. I figured, this is it, this is where they get me.  I live in Redding California and I knew that I couldn’t get a local phone number.  I knew they had phone numbers though in my area code, but not local.  That wasn’t a problem for me, since I am currently hooked up with Vonage and I went through the long distance local phone number stuff with them 3 years ago.  But I figured, here is where they get me, telling me I wouldn’t be able to sign up because they wouldn’t be able to support a 911 call for me.

I proceeded to register the product on their site.  To my surprise, it took only a few minutes and I was done.  No problems so far.  So I followed the instructions to hook up the main hub.  I don’t have a wired landline (only Vonage) so I skipped that part of the installation (I didn’t plug in a phone line).  Hooked it into my cable modem and then into my hub.  Plugged it in and crossed my figures.  Two minutes later, the lights went from red to blue.  Hooked up a phone and there it was, my new free dialtone.

Called my new number and setup my voice mail message.  Logged onto their website and created another number for my scout (the second piece that comes with it, allowing you to setup another phone line). Now, I realize that the second line would not be free (you need to sign up for their premier service, about $8 if paid annually or $13 if paid monthly), but they offer this service for free for the first 90 days.  So I figured that I might as well try it out.  I have been sharing my business line with my home for a year now and it is sometimes a pain.

After I picked my next number, I hooked up my Scout and hooked my other phone to it.  Picked up the phone and walla, second dialtone.  Quality was as good as Vonage, actually a little better.  After reading some other posts around the web, I can even tweak that a bit.

So, now two lines, both right now free.  For the time being, I just forwarded my Vonage line to the Ooma line so I can test it out.  But if things continue on this smoothly (which I can’t say for Vonage), I will be porting my Vonage line over in a month.

Leave me comments if you have questions.  This is the coolest thing I have purchased in a long time. I briefly went over the installation, but I can get into detail about it with you if you have questions. Overall, I am really happy.

Consumer VoIP startup Ooma launched nearly a year ago and offered consumers free phone service for life, all you had to do was buy the hardware for $399.

Just one problem. The sticker shock of paying $399 up front for the hardware put a lot of users off. And there weren’t many places you could actually buy the Ooma.

A year later the company is still going. They added marketing executives Rich Buchanan to the team from Sling Media earlier this year – the guy that led the Sling marketing team to sell 100,000 units in its first six months of operations, and [...]]]>

Consumer VoIP startup Ooma launched nearly a year ago and offered consumers free phone service for life, all you had to do was buy the hardware for $399.

Just one problem. The sticker shock of paying $399 up front for the hardware put a lot of users off. And there weren’t many places you could actually buy the Ooma.

A year later the company is still going. They added marketing executives Rich Buchanan to the team from Sling Media earlier this year – the guy that led the Sling marketing team to sell 100,000 units in its first six months of operations, and 500,000 units as of mid 2008. Buchanan brought Tami Bhaumik with him from Sling as well, who is now Ooma’s VP Marketing.

Amazon started selling Oomas earlier this year, and customer reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Priced at $249.99, it was a much better deal then the original. They still offer the free service for a reduced price of $250, with optional additional features in a premier service add on for $13/month. The premier features include a second line, three-way calling, message screening and custom rings.

Well, I currently use Vonage.  I have been having problems with Vonage since I started using them 3 years ago, but even with the problems (bad phone connections, echos, voice mail problems) I was happy with their price over my local phone company and long distance carrier.  I used it primarily for my business, but then started also using a Vonage line for my home. I no longer have a traditional phone line. Is it time to move on to the ‘Free’ voip service?

Well, Amazon.com’s Black Friday was this weekend (well Friday). Amazon offered the basic Ooma module along with a scout (allowing a second phone number or extension) for $199.99, $50.00 off their new regular price.  I have been toying around with the idea for a year now and held off thinking the company would go under.  But they haven’t.  I spent the last year trying to find a headset that would give me a good connection on my phones, always blamming the phones for the connection problems.  Was it really my phones (I have returned 3 units so far this year), or my Vonage service?  Could all the reviews on Amazon be correct, or just reviews from its employee’s?

Well, I couldn’t resist.  I had to try for myself.  I had to find out if this was all just hype.  At $200, the system would pay for itself in 10 months (Vonage is $24.95 a month for one phone line).  If I go with the premium service ($100 per year or $13 per month) I could get a second phone line along with the other premium features.  For two lines at Vonage it would cost me $50 a month (until they realize one is for a business, then $60 per month). It won’t take but a few months to pay off the system, and then free phone service for life (or as long as Ooma is around).

Take a look at the reviews yourself and check out Ooma‘s website. You have until 12/3/08 to get the Black Friday deal at Amazon.  Is it worth it.  I’ll let you know.