Packet 8 Hosted PBX Review - Review on Packet 8's Hosted PBX service

Reviewer: Melissa Bergeron

Pros:

None listed.

Cons:

Warning for anyone considering Packet8: My first experience with VOIP was with SunRocket and it was great. It was feature rich and the price was exactly as they said it was, $199.00 per year and no HIDDEN charges. More about the hidden charges later. Unfortunately SunRocket went out of business. In the process of discontinuing service SR made several recommendations relative to other VOIP providers, Packet8 being one of them. Their price seemed reasonable albeit higher than SR though they didn’t have the robust features of SR. I went ahead and ordered their service. About a week later I received my equipment, which I installed with ease (most VOIP shouldn’t be any more complicated than installing an additional telephone on an existing line). From the get-go the sound quality was terrible, something I never experienced with SR or my current VOIP system. I called customer service, which I found to be a nightmare to work with. They hardly can say the word English let alone speak it. According to them all my problems were the fault of my ISP (Internet Service Provider), which happens to be, Verizon’s FIOS (Fiber Optic Service/System) and it is excellent. The sound quality issues were, listening to myself (echo), jitter, clipping and poor fidelity. These problems were evident on at least 30% of my calls except for fidelity problems, which were on 100% of the calls. Another problem was calls not going through when dialed requiring a redial. Dropped packets, jitter, echo and poor fidelity are features P8 provides as part of their lousy service. I finally corrected the lousy service by switching to T-Mobile’s Talk Forever From Home. This happens to be the best of the three VOIP systems I have had, though it is not as feature rich as SunRocket was but it’s only $10.00 per month. About the P8 HIDDEN charges: Once I was on with P8 I noticed three additional monthly charges from P8 each and every month on my credit card statement. I called about these fees and found that they were charging all kinds of “taxes and fees”, some of which were “per minute” that were never disclosed in the original agreement. Needless to say my phone bill more than doubled. Just before I dumped P8 I received an Email from them informing me that they were going to levy additional sales taxes, which would have tripled my phone bill. Finally I had enough of the lousy service and deceptive charges so I started looking around and found the T- Mobile VOIP plan. Their plan requires that you have a qualifying ($39.99 / month minimum) cell phone plan. I went to the local T-Mobile store after having reviewed their Web Site. I switched my cell service and VOIP to their system. There was no waiting for the equipment as they gave me everything I needed on the spot. Took it home, plugged it in and the system worked. The call quality is the best VOIP I have had and is on par with the Verizon FIOS phone service, which happens to be excellent. T-Mobile handled switching my phone numbers to their system; I didn’t have to do anything. P8 took their good old time releasing my number to T-Mobile; it took about two weeks before they released it. My cell number was switched within two HOURS. The long and short of it is be careful of which provider you sign with. One of the things that makes T-Mobile’s VOIP so good is their router gives voice packets priority over data, which eliminates lost/dropped packets, jitter and echo.