I Got an Ooma
Like many people, I am trying to lower the cost of my cable and Internet service. Since I moved, I decided this was the time. I needed a replacement for my phone (cell won’t do for business calls) and so I went with Ooma.
Installation
I had trouble with installation. Not because Ooma is hard to install, quite the contrary, but because like many other services, Ooma had trouble with my new address. When you set up Ooma, you need to provide an accurate address for purposes of 911. The issue is that my address includes two directionals in it. Unfortunately, this put me in some kind of never ending circle of:
- Bad address, fix it
- I slightly changed the address and got a message stating, Ooma found an alternative, use that, I said yes
- Which brought me back to bad address (despite Ooma making the suggestion)
Chat
I could not sign up for the service so I contacted customer service via chat on Ooma’s website. The person in chat told me I would have to call because of the address issues. She was very apologetic. I understood since everyone else has had issues with my address.
Phone
I called and ended up with a pretty rude guy. I explained the problem was with my address and the chat person said to call and have them do the set up. I read him the error code, which clearly showed the problem was the address itself. This guy refused to listen to me, he:
- Insisted I change browsers (from Chrome to Internet Explorer)
- Insisted I go through the set up again
- When that failed, made me sit on hold for quite a while
- Returned and told me they were updating their database and to try again in an hour
All of this was the wrong way to go. My problem was clear and there was no way anything he insisted I do was going to work. Ooma needed to deal with the address issue. Period. I ended up solving the problem by using my old address to sign up and then changing it to my new address after I completed the process.
How it Works
Now that Ooma is actually set up, I can tell you I am pleased with the service. The sound quality is excellent on both sides. The additional services are very useful and I will likely sign up for the $9.99/month premier service. This is still substantially less than what I paid Verizon for the phone service.
Final Thoughts
I am happy enough with Ooma now that it is working, but I am worried that if something goes wrong, I will find the customer service unhelpful. I am happy to recommend Ooma for the quality of the service. I just will have to hope that nothing goes wrong, or, if it does, that I will have a better customer service experience.
Update – May 18, 2021 – I Got Rid of My Ooma
In January of 2021, I started having issues with my Ooma phone service. Calls weren’t ringing through properly. Next, I started to hear constant beeping. The problem was that I knew Ooma had terrible customer service (at least that was my experience when I signed up). I had been considering switching to a new product and decided that this was the time to do so. As a result, I dumped the Ooma and purchased an Obihai Obi200. Now, I am using the Obi200 with Google Voice for entirely free phone service at home. If you are interested in learning more, check out my post on the Obi.