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….