ckeilah wrote:"If the product is 'free' then YOU are the product!"


Read for yourselves:
http://www.ooma.com/legal/privacy-policy

They use advertising to fund the service, and they use tracking cookies and other technology to "sell" YOU to advertisers. Paying for the "Premium" services does not seem to relieve you from these burdens.

This may worry some people. e.g. "Some Ooma Products and Services are offered to Customers and Visitors in conjunction with a third-party vendor To provide these products and services, the vendor may need to collect and maintain your Personal Information."

"Accordingly, we will not sell, trade, or share your Customer Specific Network Information, including your calling records outside of Ooma or with anyone not authorized to offer our Products and/or Services, or to perform functions on our behalf except as authorized by you or required by law. Generally, we can use your Customer Specific Network Information to offer additional Services to you, and for billing and collections purposes. We can also disclose your Customer Specific Information for legal or regulatory reasons, including in response to subpoenas and court orders. We can also use Customer Specific Network Information to investigate fraud and to prevent violation of our End User Agreement and monitor potentially unlawful use of our network, Services, and abuse of other customers."

So, no. They track website use just like every other site, and request the right to use that for advertising. Back in ye olde general store, they tracked what you bought and tried to advertise to you as well.

I swear, the other things I bought from Woot! must be spying on me. I've been trying to cut services from Time Warner since, well, I recv'd a Roku for Christmas. Sadly, the Roku2 doesn't have enough ports to fit my slightly older setup in the living room, and foom! they sell the Roku with all the ports.

I've been thinking of dropping T/W's phone service as well, and going back to a third party VoIP, and foom! the very device I was looking at is on sale.

I wonder what else I should look into buying soon.. Hummm...

actually , you dont "cut" the wires in the phone companies box , you simply unplug the wire , , if you cant find that info on ooma's site , you can on the vonage site

caton3 wrote:?? Forgive me if this is covered later (one kid is waking up whining - argh) but does this mean this won't work if the power is out? (It seems the answer would be a big yes, but hoping it's no) thnx

Unless you have a UPS connected to your modem, router, and Ooma device, if power goes out, no phone service. Or if your ISP is having problems in your area, no phone service even if you have power. Or you have UPS connected to modem, router, and Ooma but have Ooma connected to a big corded phone that requires its own power source and power goes out, no phone service.

It's probably worth it to invest in a UPS ($50 or so) and have the modem, router and Ooma plugged into it. Together, those devices draw relatively little juice that you'll have phone and internet service during most power outages not lasting several hours.

srockgibson wrote:I bought one of these from Best Buy about 6 mos ago. I had to return it.

I was super excited about getting rid of my land line. I spent an entire day trying to get this work with AT&T DSL to no avail.

The most common AT&T DSL setup across the country is the 2Wire 2701HG-B combination modem/router/wireless gateway (the one sold at Best Buy when you sign up for AT&T DSL service).

Anyway, it turns out, that both the Ooma device and the 2wire device both need primary access to incoming DSL signal. Ooma tech support was not helpful at all. Confusing automated phone tree. Long wait. Very poor English speaking technical skills. They can only follow a set decision tree of "help steps." They didn't even seem to understand the concept of a combination modem/router/wireless gateway.

Finally, I found several internet "self help" forums, and discovered that other people had tried Ooma with this AT&T modem with poor/no success. I suggest you google "Ooma" + "your modem/router" before you purchase.

This is absolutely the best deal I have seen on an ooma. I have the 2-Wire 2701HG-B modem/wireless router and my Ooma works perfectly on it. I have the wifi adapter plugged into the ooma, and not one problem. I left the 2wire router setting options at their default setting (did not turn on stealth mode, or the anti ping...or whatever its called mode). I have had the ooma for 6 months, and absolutely love it. I can only guess woot has a bunch of refurbs because people get confused by how to set them up, or realize if the power goes out, so does their phone.

calebmitchell wrote:It's 2012. Do people still use landlines? This seems like a waste of money (maybe that's why Woot keeps selling them? Nobody buys them?)

People with kids need a land line for the house. It's good to have a base where you know you can make contact.

cbau934 wrote:i swallowed a bug

Were you running from reavers?

juicius wrote:It's not required but it's probably the easiest, non-techy way to ensure the best quality of service (QoS) for the Ooma device. But if you feel comfortable peeking inside your router, you'll see QoS config in most routers. There, you can set the priority for Ooma higher than everything else and you're good. My setup is cable modem => wifi router => wired connection to Ooma and it works fine.

It doesn't REPLACE your router, if you experience low quality calls, you need to put it in BEFORE the router. I have mine plugged into a router port (with FIOS, which is super fast) and haven't had any problems.

For example, if you have it plugged into your router and are downloading a large file, you may not have enough bandwidth for a clear call. If it was inline before the router, the device would give priority to the phone.

I said it the last time this was offered- BUY IT! After the initial outlay, you'll pay $3 and change per month! Add their premium service for another $10 or so per month if you want the cool features it offers! Cheaper than Vonage, cheaper than cable!

caton3 wrote:?? Forgive me if this is covered later (one kid is waking up whining - argh) but does this mean this won't work if the power is out? (It seems the answer would be a big yes, but hoping it's no) thnx

I have this and a my router connected to as UPS at my place. We had a couple of power outages due to snow storms and the big hurricane that ran up the east coast last year. Not once were we without phone service. The UPS can supply power to the devices for many hours (depending on the capacity and load you have on it).
We charged our laptops, and kept the phones going with plenty of battery left when the power came back on each time. The longest we were down was 8 hours.

sdc100 wrote:OOMA TELO vs MAGIC JACK PLUS

From what I've heard (no pun intended), Magic Jack's voice quality is not as good as Ooma. Consumer Reports gave Ooma its coveted top rating, although admittedly, the new Magic Jack was not yet available.

Ooma is free for life. Magic Jack charges an annual fee of $19.95. The free first year that came with the original MagicJack is gone. Then again, Ooma does have $4 in monthly regulatory fees (which goes to the government, not Ooma). If MagicJack Plus has no additional fees to the $19.95, then MJ ends up cheaper.

AND ... Magic Jack is no more than a dongle. All functions require a computer or phone keypad. Ooma is a multifunction unit. For example, it has answering machine functions so you can check messages without lifting your phone. More importantly, you can screen calls through the unit's speaker. I don't think there's any way to screen calls with a MagicJack (unless you attach an answering machine. But that means deactivating voicemail. If you deactivate voicemail, you won't get email notification or voicemail archiving).

AND ... the Telo can now operate wirelessly through WiFi with an optional dongle. MagicJack needs to be plugged into your router or a computer. A bonus feature of this dongle is that your Telo then becomes a wireless hub for other other things. For example, you can plug a printer or computer into the Telo.

I've had my Ooma for about 14 months now and love it for the most part. I just have to point out that the call screening option only applies when you are paying $10/mo for the Premier package, so the math comparing Ooma to MJ doesn't work assuming you want the screening option.

The only thing I don't like about the Ooma is the way they process audio--at times, particularly when talking with females, the Ooma thinks certain voice inflections mean the other party is pushing numbers on the keypad, and you hear touch tone noises in your ear. Vonage isn't immune to this phenomenon (I have Vonage for my home office line), but it doesn't happen nearly as frequently as with the Ooma.

TCayer wrote:It doesn't REPLACE your router, if you experience low quality calls, you need to put it in BEFORE the router. I have mine plugged into a router port (with FIOS, which is super fast) and haven't had any problems.

For example, if you have it plugged into your router and are downloading a large file, you may not have enough bandwidth for a clear call. If it was inline before the router, the device would give priority to the phone.

No one was saying the Ooma replaces the router. Certainly, placing the Ooma before the router is the easiest way to ensure proper bandwidth for phone calls, but without that, proper QoS settings on the router will prioritize Ooma traffic above other Internet traffic, avoiding the potential for PC usage to interfere with the phone.

I have seven phone instruments in the house, and with Ooma they all work just a land line does - that's why it is better than other VoIP systems. The quality in my house, at least is exactly the same as on a land line. I didn't bother with the fax....I use eFax instead for the few faxes per month that I deal with. I also didn't port over my old number - I use the Ooma number and no longer have unwanted sales calls (I give the OOma number out just to friends).

I got one last time. It works pretty well, I connected it to my three phone cordless system & just turned off the answering machine (from the old system). I really like the Prime features, like having messages sent to my cell, calls ringing on both phones at once. I ported my #, it only took a few days. My landline was costing us about $45/month, plus long distance calls of about another $5/month (coz we usually use our cell phones for those). I had looked into it years ago but didnt bite. Wish I had, I could've saved a bunch, even paying retail.

Reading the reviews from people on this one and the previous one, I am in for one. I currently have cable/internet/phone through my cable company for $150/mo and between this and my new Roku (that I still need to setup), I am thinking I can take my interwebz from 20Mb to 30Mb and spend the rest on a date night with my wife.

Now I just have to debate on if I want premium or not. Any trial of the premium service with the refurb? It doesn't seem like services I really need, but if I had a trial I might want them enough to pay the $120/yr for it.

If there is anyone with Vonage contemplating a switch to Ooma, all I can say is DO IT. Even if you pay for the Premier package, it ends up being half the cost.

I've lived in my house for just over 2 years, had Vonage the first year, then switched to Ooma.

Where Ooma Excels:
-Price
-Reliability (Vonage's forced automatic firmware updates routinely were buggy, causing my hardware to lock up, which meant I had to power cycle the Vonage unit almost every day to continue making phone calls. I have NEVER had to restart my Ooma Telo).

Vonage:
-Not as susceptible to interpreting voice inflections at DTMF touch tones as Ooma (which make it sound like the other person is pushing buttons on the keypad when they aren't)
-Customer service easily available by phone (although, in my book, NOT needing to ever call customer service is even better than having good customer service!)


But, of course, a word of warning to those porting their number over from Vonage. Even though once you initiate the switchover from Ooma, everything is supposed to be automatic, Vonage did the following to me:
1. Lied, saying the port never went through (even though it did), and charged me for another YEAR of service (which I had to fight them on and got all but $8 back).
2. Roughly 2 months after my port was completed, Vonage gave out my phone number to a new Vonage customer. When I started routinely receiving phone calls for a strange name, one caller mentioned the person they were trying to call recently got Vonage. I complained to Vonage, they (amazingly) fessed up, and said they would make their new customer pick a new phone number.

Once Vonage completely released my number, a quick email to Ooma support got my caller ID information reset, which they took care of promptly.

The first one I bought here had an issue with the play button, but they sent me a replacement with a return label for the broken one. Been loving it for the last two months. Would never go back to paying the cable company for phone service again.

I wanted VoIP to call home (Canada) while I'm in the USA. Looked at ooma but they charge 1.4 cents per min. magic Jack Plus or Nettalk Duo both plug into the router - no need to have your computer on . Both half this price. Both let you call Canada for free. Sorry ooma no thanks.

SumDuud wrote:Reading the reviews from people on this one and the previous one, I am in for one. I currently have cable/internet/phone through my cable company for $150/mo and between this and my new Roku (that I still need to setup), I am thinking I can take my interwebz from 20Mb to 30Mb and spend the rest on a date night with my wife.

Now I just have to debate on if I want premium or not. Any trial of the premium service with the refurb? It doesn't seem like services I really need, but if I had a trial I might want them enough to pay the $120/yr for it.

Yes, as long as you're a new customer, you'll get a 60 day trial of Premier--they want to dangle that carrot in front of you to make you want to pay for it!

I dropped Premier after the trial, and here are the things I miss (but am not willing to pay $10/mo to get them back):
-Caller NAME display (basic only shows the number, like cell phone caller ID)
-Call screening
-Getting voicemails emailed to me

I was tempted to spring for Premier when they did a special last month for $60/yr, but didn't. I just mention this so people know that they will run promos on Premier pricing from time to time, so if you can wait for it, you may be able to get it cheaper.

Each time Ooma is offered by woot!, I nearly buy it. Today was going to be the day until I thought about the value of buying it here. The refurb has just a six month warranty. Telo plus shipping plus 1 year warranty purchase= $168.If I also want the wireless adapter at $50, my outlay will be $218. No returns to woot!, right? I can buy a new Ooma, which comes with a one year warranty, with the wireless adapter included at my local Costco for $200 plus sales tax and can return it for any reason. This just isn't enough of a deal for me.

Enough reviews have mentioned equipment failure and compatibility issues for the warranty and return policy to weigh heavily on this one.

Well unfortunately for all of us YOU are not offering THIS service. If YOUR so worried about it DON'T buy it.

ckeilah wrote:I don't think you comprehend the potential for abuse. Ooma clearly states that they will share your PERSONAL INFORMATION with advertisers. They also note that they will track your calls, and that they will insert invisible tracking devices in the email they send to you. Personally, I WANT my voicemail emailed to me, but I DON'T want my telephone company, or their advertisers, tagging along for a free ride.

This MAY not be as onerous as it could be, but the fact that Ooma leaves the door open give me pause. If *I* were offering these services, I would clearly state that under no circumstances would I violate my customers' privacy (barring jack booted thugs with warrants banging down my door). But that is why I'm struggling to pay my phone bills, and the kids that I taught about the Internet commercialized it and made mints.

I guess I'll sleep on this one.

rbhamilton wrote:I wanted VoIP to call home (Canada) while I'm in the USA. Looked at ooma but they charge 1.4 cents per min. magic Jack Plus or Nettalk Duo both plug into the router - no need to have your computer on . Both half this price. Both let you call Canada for free. Sorry ooma no thanks.

I get free calls to Canada. They added it to my service for no additional charge a few months ago.

fxfuji wrote:So.... the primary difference between Ooma and other VoIP products (like MagicJack or Vonage) is there are no recurring costs/fees (other than taxes) for the Ooma?

Correct. Also, in my experience Ooma's technology is superior to MJ or Vonage.

sdc100 wrote:I have concerns about routing my calls though Google. When a service is free, there's a good chance that the provider is data mining. Witness Gmail. While they're [probably] not analyzing your spoken words like they do in Gmail, they're probably looking at your calling patterns, destinations, caller location (identifiable through your IP address), etc.

As for actually using voice recognition to analyze contents, I don't think present wiretapping laws cover Google voice. That means that voice screening is a possibility.

That's why you always encrypt your sensitive messages. Pretty easy and straigth forward in almost all email clients (non-web based) today.

I had Vongae for over 6 years and left them for Ooma (which I purhcased from woot). My phone bill has been $3.47 per month and I do not see any difference in quality.

JRuegg wrote:It's recommended that you plug your internet line into your OOMA and then from the OOMA into your router to give your calls priority. As mine is more of a back-up phone, I just plugged the OOMA into one of the ports on the router. It seems to be fine that way and probably is unless you're a constant torrenter.

If you have a good router with good QoS feature, you don't need to put OOMA as the first. In fact, I have removed OOMA as the first a long time back without QoS and it still works without issue.

i bought one about 8 months ago and couldn't be happier. its worth the premier access for the call blocking alone. my bill is about $14 bucks a month. the unit had a few episodes with interference, but i believe that was due to my DirecTV. when the unit has a problem, a reboot has solved it, and i have had to do this about 3 times over 8 months, so i cannot complain.
its a hassle saver(nuisance callers) and a money saver!

Question...Do you have to pay the porting fee even with Google Voice? Seems like it would just be a pass-through kind of thing, but not sure. I don't think you pay a porting fee on the Obi for Google Voice.

TCayer wrote:People with kids need a land line for the house. It's good to have a base where you know you can make contact.

I agree with that, but for us a cell signal is likely more stable than our cable internet, making a cell phone more stable than VOIP like Ooma for us!

That said, one of these may be ours as we did try out the Ooma recently. We liked it and it worked great (plugged into the router even) but with the initial price plus possibly $10/mo for the Premier features (like call blocking) plus the need to keep a cell since we knew Cable Internet would go out sometimes we felt it was better to just get a Virgin Mobile payLo plan. If needed, we can always pickup a Magic Jack & relegate VOIP to a backup.

So my only suggestion if you are leaving the true landline behind is to decide if you want to go cell or internet. If internet is more stable than cell where you are, this is a great deal, but if cell is just as or more stable, you may be better off with something else!

As a side note, we have been trying out the Cobra PhoneLynx with good success so far in making the cell phone more like a home phone. It pairs up well with our cheap cell phone so we can use home phone lines and just leave it at home or when we all go somewhere as a family we can take our main phone number with us if we want!

How is this a bargain? I can get this at the local costco for the exact same price, without shipping and without the wait...

Sorry.. Woot Fail.

I looked at this 6 months ago but bought the new magic jack plus. Plugs directly into your router, only cost $68 and uses local 911. The Magic Jack plus has been excellent, $2.60/month.

andrewteg wrote:I agree with that, but for us a cell signal is likely more stable than our cable internet, making a cell phone more stable than VOIP like Ooma for us!

That said, one of these may be ours as we did try out the Ooma recently. We liked it and it worked great (plugged into the router even) but with the initial price plus possibly $10/mo for the Premier features (like call blocking) plus the need to keep a cell since we knew Cable Internet would go out sometimes we felt it was better to just get a Virgin Mobile payLo plan. If needed, we can always pickup a Magic Jack & relegate VOIP to a backup.

So my only suggestion if you are leaving the true landline behind is to decide if you want to go cell or internet. If internet is more stable than cell where you are, this is a great deal, but if cell is just as or more stable, you may be better off with something else!

As a side note, we have been trying out the Cobra PhoneLynx with good success so far in making the cell phone more like a home phone. It pairs up well with our cheap cell phone so we can use home phone lines and just leave it at home or when we all go somewhere as a family we can take our main phone number with us if we want!

I bought this package on a whim last fall during a Wootoff, and holy crap am I happy. If anyone is paying for Comcast digital voice (or any other voice), stop paying ~$130/month for your phone/cable/internet plan today, and replace your phone with this box.

I'm about to sign up for the one year premier service, which I swore I wouldn't do because the whole point was only spending $3/month on the phone. But getting my messages sent to my email, setting black lists online, and having a permanent caller ID accessible on log-in is amazing.

Anyone out there using any service but this needs to switch right now. And thank you Woot!, because I never would have heard of Ooma without you.

mrh829 wrote:
I dropped Premier after the trial, and here are the things I miss (but am not willing to pay $10/mo to get them back):
-Caller NAME display (basic only shows the number, like cell phone caller ID)

I was tempted to spring for Premier when they did a special last month for $60/yr, but didn't. I just mention this so people know that they will run promos on Premier pricing from time to time, so if you can wait for it, you may be able to get it cheaper.

Interesting I've read other posts where people say they get the name showing up on caller ID without premier. Either way, the number would be good enough for us. Also nice to know they might toss out a promo on the premier service.

corys78 wrote:I saw on their FAQ you have to dial *99, I am sure you've already seen it but just in case thought I'd mention - http://www.ooma.com/app/support/faxing-ooma

I have never used the *99 thing and have no problems faxing. I love my ooma!

cwfullerton21043 wrote:How is this a bargain? I can get this at the local costco for the exact same price, without shipping and without the wait...

Sorry.. Woot Fail.

The bargain is NOT having to pay $55 for a costco membership to then drive 45 minutes to get to the nearest one to me. Shipping will be fast enough and I don't have to drive an hour and half round trip or pay the membership fees to costco.

Sorry.. cwfullerton21043 Fail.

why do they put this stupid thing on here once a week no one wants this Potty Emergency

I've never found a number that ooma cannot connect to, but the surest way, of course, is to have someone with an ooma telo device (like me) call your folk's phone number and see if the call goes through. marty.brownateudoramail.com

cwfullerton21043 wrote:How is this a bargain? I can get this at the local costco for the exact same price, without shipping and without the wait...

Sorry.. Woot Fail.

Costco.com shows me $199 for this... where did you find it cheaper? Thx

dude. i have one of these and it rocks.
we don't own cell phones but it's got some neat routing features to go to you phone etc.
It routes voicemails to my email so in case there is an emergency people can still get in touch with me.

Had to call 911 for a car crash down the street, it worked fine.

they offer premium services for about $20 a month. 2nd line and other crazy advanced things.

for a small onetime fee you can keep your same phone number too.