Entered CNET Catalog: 04/27/2005
SKU: CNETSUNROCKET
Manufacturer: SunRocket, Inc.
Product summary
The good: Dirt cheap; service includes two phone numbers, dual-handset phone system, and E911 support; live tech support available online.
The bad: Significant variations in voice quality between users; only two free directory-assistance calls per month; no fax capability; doesn't support Firefox for voicemail playback.
The bottom line: If you're thinking about ditching your landline, SunRocket is a potential contender. A low price and lots of features are attractive, but the voice quality of your calls may vary.
Average user rating: from 119 users
2.5 stars
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 09/12/2005
From the moment we signed up online to the time our equipment arrived about a week later, working with SunRocket was a painless experience. We picked our two phone numbers from a list of about 30 choices, then set up the hardware. Our informal tests took place in a home outfitted with multiple PCs, a wireless router, and a cable modem.
Setup was a snap, thanks to SunRocket's illustrated quick-start guide. After connecting the proprietary AC-211-SR Gizmo telephone adapter to our modem and router and plugging in the phone, we had our dial tone in a matter of minutes. From there it took all of 30 seconds to activate voicemail, a Web-based process that requires you to choose a PIN and select the number of rings before calls get diverted. Recording your greeting and retrieving messages works much the same way as with your cell phone: you just dial in and follow the recorded prompts.
SunRocket's online portal provides complete access to your account information, voicemail, calling features, and a personal phone book. (Alas, you can't import names and numbers into the latter, but the company plans to add this capability in the future.) Everything is logically organized, easy to navigate, and effortless to configure.
SunRocket's portal gives you quick access to your voicemail accounts, call logs, and calling features, along with a feedback box for queries to the company.
In describing SunRocket's features, the phrase "embarrassment of riches" comes to mind. On top of unlimited local and long-distance calling, the service provides call blocking, call forwarding, call waiting, caller ID, three-way calling, and voicemail. You also get two phone numbers, one of which can have a different area code and a distinctive ring. The do-not-disturb feature automatically routes incoming calls to voicemail, while the Find Me option redirects calls to up to three other numbers.
SunRocket's voicemail is so cool, you'll wish for lots of missed calls. You can retrieve messages from your VoIP phone, an outside line, or the Web. When you have new messages waiting, the service alerts you in three different ways: the phone's LCD, which shows the number of new messages; a flashing red LED on top of the phone; and a distinctive stuttering dial tone. SunRocket also offers a wealth of remote notification options: e-mail, instant message, page, and phone call. In fact, you can opt to receive e-mail that contains the actual message as an attachment. The only wrinkle was that our IM aggregator, Trillian, wouldn't relay notifications. But they arrived fine when we used individual chat clients, such as MSN Messenger.
If you choose to listen to voicemail online, you'll have to use Firefox. Curiously, when we retrieved messages by phone, they sounded fine, but the streaming and downloaded versions contained static and sounded flat--most likely due to the compression used to keep the files small.
SunRocket's voicemail log shows the sender, the date, and the length of a message, and it lets you listen to your messages online.
Other Web-based features include call logs (for incoming, outgoing, and missed calls) and Click To Call, which lets you dial any number from your logs or online phone book. After you click the Click To Call icon, your phone rings. When you answer it, SunRocket places the call. Cool.
SunRocket's call logs show you both incoming and outgoing calls, the caller/call recipient, the phone numbers, the time and date of the call, and the duration of a call. You can also click to call directly from the call log.
The Gizmo telephone adapter is compatible with expandable wireless phone systems (the kind with one base and multiple stations). If you already have one, just plug it into the Gizmo. If not, SunRocket supplies the excellent 2.4GHz Uniden DCT 646-2 system (currently being offered as a sign-on bonus at SunRocket's Web site), which includes two handsets and supports the addition of two more. (Note: You need a promo code to get the phones. If you don't have one, just click the picture of the phone on the company's home page. It's the one with the big yellow bird perched on it.) Our only complaint with the phone is its slightly smallish dial pad.
Already ahead of the FCC's mandate for 911 services, SunRocket supports Enhanced 911, which routes your name and address to the operator in case you're unable to do so verbally. At press time, E911 wasn't available in all areas (though Basic 911 is), so check with the company before ordering. If you decide to keep your regular landline service, you can plug a phone cord from your wall jack to the Gizmo's Life Line jack and use your phone to call local 911.
SunRocket's only real shortcoming in features is its lack of support for faxing--a common limitation among VoIP services. According to a company rep, some fax machines may work with the Gizmo (which does have a second jack, so you needn't disconnect your phone), but you'll get no promise of consistent faxing.
It's worth noting that the $199 annual fee represents your sole out-of-pocket expense. SunRocket doesn't charge for activation or anything else--even shipping is free. The only time you'll pay extra is if you call directory assistance more than twice per month (additional calls cost 79 cents each) or you exceed your monthly international-call credit of $3. Calls within the United States and from the United States to Canada are free; the cost from the States to most other countries ranges from 3 to 16 cents per minute. Just as impressive, SunRocket imposes no fees if you cancel the service and will even refund your balance.
The SunRocket Internet Phone Service was tested formally by CNET Labs (following the Labs' VoIP testing methodology) and informally by our author. In our Labs' tests, the SunRocket VoIP service demonstrated nearly landline quality under baseline conditions (when nothing else was moving over the network). During uploads and downloads, however, our Labs tester found that the voice quality degraded significantly on the non-SunRocket side of the call, more so during data uploads. VoIP services differ widely in voice quality during downloads, because they implement quality of service (giving priority to voice packets over data packets) differently--some don't suffer degradation at all, while others result in distortion. During uploads, almost all VoIP services show some degradation, because most home and small-business broadband connections don't provide enough upstream bandwidth to support both voice and data transmission simultaneously.On the other hand, our reviewer was not able to reproduce the voice-quality degradations that our Labs found, even after weeks of heavy use. Like the Labs, he reported nearly landline voice quality under baseline conditions; he did notice a sound echo when the network was engaged in bandwidth-intensive tasks, such as streaming music, but no dropped calls or audio drop-outs.
In addition to toll-free phone support, SunRocket offers real-time chat via its Web site. We asked an online technician about a problem, and while he quickly identified the problem, he was unable to resolve it. Instead, he instructed us to call SunRocket's support department. It's a toll-free call, and both phone-line and chat-room help is available daily from 8 a.m. to midnight ET--generous hours, but obviously, we'd prefer 24/7 support. We e-mailed our question to SunRocket during the hours when chat and phone support were unavailable, and to the company's credit, a helpful reply arrived within an hour.User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Company went out of business
Pros: Good service, until they went bankrupt.
Cons: They went bankrupt, lost rest of yearly dues.
Review: Forget it. They went bankrupt.
User Rating:
3.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Sunrocket is Out of business
Pros: service was @ 97%
Cons: No longer in business
Review: If anyone has this Provider, call your credit card company dispute dept and explain the problem to them asap.
User Rating:
2.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
you better have a backup
Pros: cheap. lot of features, account web page is well done
Cons: a lot of disruptions. costumer service impossible to contact
Review: If you don't have a cell phone backup you better get it. system goes down often and phones become a paper weight for hours or days. $15 a month is hard to beat if you can deal with the outages.
User Rating:
1.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Too Many problems
Pros: cheap; not much more...
Cons: lots of problems; that should b self explanitory
Review: At first it was working fine...but after a couple months i started having problems. Over the coarse of time the problems grew in amount and when i tried calling customer service they said ... "We are no longer taking customer service or sales calls. goodbye!"..... they should at least try helping people....i would never go back even if it was free! Overall it was very bad and disappointing....most of the time i was trying to fix SunRocket problems instead of calling people!
User Rating:
1.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Sunrocket over charges your credit card acct. and will not refund your acct. they keep it.
Pros: Cheap, only for yearly sevice.
Cons: BAD SERVICE, THEY WILL NOT EVER REFUND YOU.
Review: Sunrocket is a total junk service. The service quality is poor and they will not do one thing about it. I was with them for 14, hoping it would improve.There billing is PLAIN STEALING, believe me, YOU WILL NOT GET ANY REFUNDS,when you leave them,and you better watch it when its time to renew, because they will debit your acct and you will not ever see that money again. THEY STEAL YOUR MONEY, AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO. HUNT
Updated
BEWARE Sunrocket will over debit your credit card account and you will not get it back. YOU BETTER QUIT THE SERVICE AND CUT YOUR LOSES. It has now cost me 114.67,that customer service approved and BILLING DENIED. HUNT
BEWARE Sunrocket will over debit your credit card account and you will not get it back. YOU BETTER QUIT THE SERVICE AND CUT YOUR LOSES. It has now cost me 114.67,that customer service approved and BILLING DENIED. HUNT
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Works well
Pros: Cost, features, International service
Cons: some outages
Review: I have two Sunrocket lines, one for about 18 months, the other for about 3. The first line had a lot of issues early on, but the service has improved tremendously in the last year. Sunrocket now uses a LinkSys VOIP adaptor, much much better than the original Gizmo. I transferred existing numbers for both lines, and each line has an extra private number with unique ring as well. The voice mail and forwarding features are very good. I love the international rates, 3 cents or less to most of the countries I call, and no extra charge for international service. Can't beat it for international.
I've used both Optimum Online and FiOS for broadband, Sunrocket worked very well with both as long as I connected the VOIP adaptor downstream of my access router. Don't use it in-line with fast Internet.
The majority of outages in the last year were created on my end, usually because of router issues. Sunrocket does go down once in a while, usually for an hour or two maximum. It's annoying but happens much less frequently than a year ago (if you only consider the Sunrocket outages I'd guess it's been about 3 or 4 hours in the past 12 months).
Sound quality is generally good. Not as good as a POTS line but close. The LinkSys is better than the Gizmo. I had an Optimum Voice line as well, voice quality was better with Optimum, as was reliability. But Opmtimum service was twice as expensive, they didn't offer the option of more than one line, and an International plan was $17 per month.
All in all I recomend SunRocket, especially if, like my family, you have half a dozen cell phones as well. It's cheap enough to get extra lines for the kids, and the international calling plan is great.
I've used both Optimum Online and FiOS for broadband, Sunrocket worked very well with both as long as I connected the VOIP adaptor downstream of my access router. Don't use it in-line with fast Internet.
The majority of outages in the last year were created on my end, usually because of router issues. Sunrocket does go down once in a while, usually for an hour or two maximum. It's annoying but happens much less frequently than a year ago (if you only consider the Sunrocket outages I'd guess it's been about 3 or 4 hours in the past 12 months).
Sound quality is generally good. Not as good as a POTS line but close. The LinkSys is better than the Gizmo. I had an Optimum Voice line as well, voice quality was better with Optimum, as was reliability. But Opmtimum service was twice as expensive, they didn't offer the option of more than one line, and an International plan was $17 per month.
All in all I recomend SunRocket, especially if, like my family, you have half a dozen cell phones as well. It's cheap enough to get extra lines for the kids, and the international calling plan is great.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
great! As good as the land lines
Pros: cheap! Lots of features for little money.
Cons: goes down if power out
Review: The editor note is wrong. You can check voice mail using firefox. I had trouble at first, but realized I had interference with my phone from another power source in the house. Moved the phone and it now works great.
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Poor service, disorganized customer service
Pros: dirt cheap
Cons: you get what you pay for
Review: Our phones didn't work and it took almost 2 months of back and forth to resolve the issue with Sunrocket technicians (partly because they repeatedly called us back at the wrong number). When the issue was resolved, I asked for our account to be prorated for the two months for which we received no service. This request was okayed at the time but a year later, customer services representatives claimed to have no record of the credit. They refused to adjust my account even though I had email records and ticket numbers proving the issues I'd experienced. Moreover, the entire time we've used the service, the voice quality has been poor and the 'gizmo' causes our Internet service to cut out frequently, sometimes in the middle of a phone call. We stuck it out for a year but Sunrocket's refusal to respect the promised credit to our account was the last straw.
User Rating:
2.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Cheap, but not worth it
Pros: Pricing seems very reasonable
Cons: Poor tech support, so-so voice quality
Review: I just cancelled my Sunrocket account after my one year expired. Mind you, it was supposed to be a 15 month contract, or so the sales rep promised me when I signed up last year, but Sunrocket claims that this wasn't their understanding of the deal.
Voice quality: spotty, at best. Occasionally, I got very good quality calls - never quite land line quality, but pretty good. Other times, I couldn't hear the other caller, or they couldn't hear me. Echos, delays in transmission, garbled speach were all symptoms of the Sunrocket experience. Most of my office staff refused to call me on my Sunrocket number because they got sick of trying to have a conversation with me on that line.
Website tools - very cool. I have to admit I'll miss that about Sunrocket. I could go on line and pick up my voice mail, or change my call forwarding features from any web browser anywhere.
Tech support - like the voice quality, spotty. There were some excellent technicians at Sunrocket, but most of them started by repeating back to me everything I stated, then denying that their equipment was at fault, then telling me that they would check and get back to me. Days would go by before issues were resolved. At one point, dialing any toll free number produced a no ring effect. The darned number simply wouldn't connect. Sunrocket said they weren't hearing this from anyone else, but a couple of days later, admitted that something had broken and they fixed it.
In the end, while I could put up with the crummy quality for most of my calls, the last straw was when they wigged out on the free three months I had been given when I signed up. They pretty much told me that they didn't believe me, so I cancelled my contract. Life is too short to drink cheap wine, wear cheap shoes or deal with unethical cheap VOIP providers.
Voice quality: spotty, at best. Occasionally, I got very good quality calls - never quite land line quality, but pretty good. Other times, I couldn't hear the other caller, or they couldn't hear me. Echos, delays in transmission, garbled speach were all symptoms of the Sunrocket experience. Most of my office staff refused to call me on my Sunrocket number because they got sick of trying to have a conversation with me on that line.
Website tools - very cool. I have to admit I'll miss that about Sunrocket. I could go on line and pick up my voice mail, or change my call forwarding features from any web browser anywhere.
Tech support - like the voice quality, spotty. There were some excellent technicians at Sunrocket, but most of them started by repeating back to me everything I stated, then denying that their equipment was at fault, then telling me that they would check and get back to me. Days would go by before issues were resolved. At one point, dialing any toll free number produced a no ring effect. The darned number simply wouldn't connect. Sunrocket said they weren't hearing this from anyone else, but a couple of days later, admitted that something had broken and they fixed it.
In the end, while I could put up with the crummy quality for most of my calls, the last straw was when they wigged out on the free three months I had been given when I signed up. They pretty much told me that they didn't believe me, so I cancelled my contract. Life is too short to drink cheap wine, wear cheap shoes or deal with unethical cheap VOIP providers.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Sunrocket Rocks and is Rock Solid Service
Pros: One low fee for unlimited long distance, absolute quality sound, 99.99% up time and a very friendly customer service
Cons: Nun really but I would say they keep changing there deals too many times
Review: I have been using sunrocket for the past one year and have recommended it to my in-laws. They have used it for about a year without much trouble at all. I have two different lines of service with them. I just want to say that my experience with them has been more than satisfying. One low fee for unlimited long distance, absolute quality sound, 99.99% up time and a very friendly customer service are but a few highlights of this company. They seem very honest in their business transaction. They stick to their “No Gotcha!” statement very well. Good work sunrocket keep it up. I feel the editors should review their ratings again.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
SunRocket is the Bomb!!
Pros: SunRocket service works perfect for me. I've had no down time and only 1 burp when I had to recall a friend.
Cons: None!! I'm very pleased with the service.
Review: SunRocket is a great VoIP phone service. I highly recommend them. You can't beat the price and the features they offer. I'm getting all my friends and family that use broadband to switch to SunRocket.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Competitive price and quality service
Pros: Linksys equipment provided is great
Cons: Has to follow boot procedure
Review: The quality of phone service is very good.
The price is very affordable for unlimited US and Canada and is indeed quite a bargain. I had a little problem with initial boot up. I have to shut off everything. Turn on the comcast cable modem first and wait until it is ready. Next turn on my router and wait until it is ready. Then turn on the Sunrocket to boot up and become ready. Everything is ready . It just works great ...
The price is very affordable for unlimited US and Canada and is indeed quite a bargain. I had a little problem with initial boot up. I have to shut off everything. Turn on the comcast cable modem first and wait until it is ready. Next turn on my router and wait until it is ready. Then turn on the Sunrocket to boot up and become ready. Everything is ready . It just works great ...
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
I felt Cheated; Beware
Pros: Tout low cost as carrot; No Pros
Cons: Extremely poor Cust service; Questionable business practice
Review: I wish I reviewed all comments here and on other complaint sites before I signed up for SunRocket.
I faced exaclty the same problems that other customers faced.
1. Very poor levels of customer service
2. Number transfer takes forever. I ended up paying for two service providers for months. SunRocket cared little
3. I tried cancelling their service and I did call them up to cancel. The CS confirmed they cancelled the service. after one month I realized my account is still active (they never credited my CC)
4. I had to pay pro-rata cancellation charge
The bottom line is SunRocket made money and I lost BIG time
The customer account creation took a long time and gizmo took weeks to arrive. I never got to use their service and yet ended up paying.
I realize this is bad mouthing. But if this helps potential customers from signing up for SunRocket, this post is worth it.
I faced exaclty the same problems that other customers faced.
1. Very poor levels of customer service
2. Number transfer takes forever. I ended up paying for two service providers for months. SunRocket cared little
3. I tried cancelling their service and I did call them up to cancel. The CS confirmed they cancelled the service. after one month I realized my account is still active (they never credited my CC)
4. I had to pay pro-rata cancellation charge
The bottom line is SunRocket made money and I lost BIG time
The customer account creation took a long time and gizmo took weeks to arrive. I never got to use their service and yet ended up paying.
I realize this is bad mouthing. But if this helps potential customers from signing up for SunRocket, this post is worth it.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
New user, flawless so far
Pros: Great sound quality. Super cheap price.
Cons: None so far.
Review: I signed up for SunRocket's VOIP service on Jan 25th and on the 28th I received their Gizmo and had full phone service: I could both make calls and receive calls. Their Linksys "Gizmo" device is really small (a positive). SunRocket's overall look and feel seems like they studied Apple in terms of simplicity with great design: their website is very clear and easy to use, their packaging (the "Gizmo" and supporting documents all have a consistency to them...they really put a great deal of effort in making it easy to use). They even included a fun little "Dummies" booklet they created called "Maxmizing Your Internet Phone Service." I hooked up the Gizmo and it worked immediately. Verizon raised their rates on me: over $50/month an a stripped-down plan, so today I transferred my number to SunRocket. Goodbye, Verizon!
User Rating:
2.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Good one but there are better free alternatives
Pros: good service & cheap calls
Cons: not FREE calls
Review: skype was my favorite VOIP provider till the stopped all US/Canada free calls. The i started looking out for free alternatives to make calls to US/Canada. I stumbled upon this cool blog dedicated to VOIP Free Calls. This blog lists down all free calls service providers for making free PC to Phone calls and PC to Pc calls. Its a must visit if you are looking for a skype alternative.
http://voipguides.blogspot.com
http://voipguides.blogspot.com
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Recurrent service outtages
Pros: Cheap, easy to install
Cons: Poor reliability, intermittent sound quality
Review: I don't have much to add as it seems that everyone that has had the service for more than 3 months appears to run into the same reliability problems. The service will go out randomly, and on many occasions, I have been without service for multiple days. I am just waiting for the 1-yr period to be over to change to a more reliable provider such as Vonage.
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Potentially good service degraded by HORRIBLE customer service and bad voice quality
Pros: Very cheap and good features on paper
Cons: Don't live to their promises and very very horrible customer service
Review: I got this service in August 2006 and before that I read the reviews on CNET and I saw that some people are complaining about the voice quality but I decided to go with it anyway. Things were good at first and I was enjoying the free calls to Europe (up to 3$/month) but after about a month, people strarted to complain about the outgoing call quality. The problem was that they could not hear my voice continuously and it wa disconnected. But everything was fine on my end so we continued. Afterall, the 200$/year is too cheap to ignore. In December 2006, things started to get really bad; the problem was that in most outgoing and incoming calls, the quality was very good on the receive end but the other party (who wa not using Sunrocket) always complained about discontinuous calls and they practically could not hear me at all. It got so bad that we had to use our cell phones in most occaions to call them back and we could not use the Sunrocket phone service in December at all.
Now let us talk about the customer service. I called them to complain about the problem and they immediately startred to blaim the cable company. The thing is that, before I called Sunrocket, I had checked with the cable company and I had asked them to come and inspect our home network to make sure that we have good internet speed and they had done that. We have cable internet access with excellent download ( > 5Mbps) and upload (>440 kbps) speed; So I told Sunrocket representative and RELUCTANTLY they started the troubleshooting process. The problem is that troubleshooting could not be done in one sesion and I had to do certain things and call them back. However, every time I called them back, I had to start and tell the whole story to a new peron and start from the beginning. After multiple calls and talking to numerous people, I receive an email and they mention that they have tranfered me to TIER2 engineers. I call them to talk to TIER2 engineers and they tell me that the TICKET is closed (what does that mean?) and we have to start over again and start with TIER1 troubleshooting. After many calls, I did not get any good answer and they keep telling me that they can fix it but at what cost? I have spent many hours on the phone and on hold and it has not been taken care of. It is so frustraiting that I just switched my service from Sunrocket about an hour ago. I am going to try Vonage and give Voice over IP another chance before I switch back to land line phone service. I have heard from my friends who have Vonage that it is a good service but I have to try that for myself....
Now let us talk about the customer service. I called them to complain about the problem and they immediately startred to blaim the cable company. The thing is that, before I called Sunrocket, I had checked with the cable company and I had asked them to come and inspect our home network to make sure that we have good internet speed and they had done that. We have cable internet access with excellent download ( > 5Mbps) and upload (>440 kbps) speed; So I told Sunrocket representative and RELUCTANTLY they started the troubleshooting process. The problem is that troubleshooting could not be done in one sesion and I had to do certain things and call them back. However, every time I called them back, I had to start and tell the whole story to a new peron and start from the beginning. After multiple calls and talking to numerous people, I receive an email and they mention that they have tranfered me to TIER2 engineers. I call them to talk to TIER2 engineers and they tell me that the TICKET is closed (what does that mean?) and we have to start over again and start with TIER1 troubleshooting. After many calls, I did not get any good answer and they keep telling me that they can fix it but at what cost? I have spent many hours on the phone and on hold and it has not been taken care of. It is so frustraiting that I just switched my service from Sunrocket about an hour ago. I am going to try Vonage and give Voice over IP another chance before I switch back to land line phone service. I have heard from my friends who have Vonage that it is a good service but I have to try that for myself....
User Rating:
3.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Not as good as I hoped
Pros: Low cost and lots of web-based features
Cons: Not as reliable as conventional telco service
Review: I signed up on January 1st, 2007. That process was quick and easy. In 5 days, I had my launch kit and had the phone hooked up with a dial tone and working line in 10 minutes. It was a snap. My first call to a family member was promptly dropped, as was the second call. I've been using the service on an experimental basis because my regular home phone number is in process of transfer to SR. In the past few days, the service has been fairly reliable, but can't match that of local incumbent AT&T. The other night I called a familiy member and several times there was 5 seconds of silence, then it was fine. Customer service is generally clueless and like many that have written on other internet review sites, the lack of knowledge, skill and general job qualifications is poor. Then again, that's the general trend in retail customer service these days. I wouldn't use this for a business phone line as it initially is indicating poor reliability. If you use your phone for occasional calls, this might be the way to go. Most have cell phones they can fall back on. Technology being what it is today, there's no valid reason why continuous quality VoIP service should be a problem.
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Poor service, terrible customer service and tech support
Pros: Cheap and good call quality when it works, easy to cancel.
Cons: Lots of dropped calls, tech support is a joke, networking problems, no faxing
Review: I had this service for about 7 months. I tried it out on DSL to start. When I first tried it out it seemed to work good. Cancelled DSL, because I was getting rid of my phone company, and went with cable. Now in the mean time, trying to port my number over was a nightmare, and then finally found out, 45 days later, that they wouldn't be able to port it over. Lots of time on the phone with customer service. (What a joke that is). Don't listen to the salesman when they say that it won't be a problem porting your old number over. Thats what I was told, and the result was they could not do it. So now I have to go through the hassle of giving out my new number to everyone. After switching to cable, I noticed the service wasn't as good. Lots of resetting the gizmo, and people calling on my cell saying, "where the hell are you"? and "how much a month is your new phone service"? In all fairness, there were weeks where it did work great. About 2 weeks ago, I called a family member, and they noticed that I had a new number for caller ID. I called SR up, and they said it was due to 911 issues, and that my old number would work, but not show up on peoples caller ID. 2 weeks goes by and that same family member again notices a different number. Call to SR, and 911 issues again, so now I don't even know what to tell people my phone# is anymore. Very confusing. After the 3rd#, for some reason, when I recieved a phone call, it would knock my network off line. After 3 hours on the phone, and 10 speed tests of my internet, which took time, a lady has me change 1 setting, and says that should do it. Give it 3 days, and call us back it there is still a problem. Well, my first phone call didn't come through, and knocked me offline. Called Bellsouth up to set up regular phone service, because I couldn't take it anymore. Called to cancel SR, and the guy asked why? I told him my problem, and he said that it sounded like my gizmo. (which is the phone box they send you that hooks to internet) He said this model is known to have some issues with cable internet, and he would send me the newer Linksys model out. I told him that I wished I had talked to him earlier, but didn't have the time to deal with tech support like this. Told him that they need some people who know what they are doing in tech support. Maybe stop outsourcing to another country so that people might be able to understand them also.
If it works right out of the box, then great. But if you need to call them for anything, plan on hearing a lot of "it shouldn't be doing that" and "call us back if it is still acting up" There tech support is such a joke, you will get a differen't answer with each differen't person you talk to, and none of them are even close to being right. If you do have a problem, just call to cancel, that guy sounded like he was from United States, and had heard about SunRocket before.
If it works right out of the box, then great. But if you need to call them for anything, plan on hearing a lot of "it shouldn't be doing that" and "call us back if it is still acting up" There tech support is such a joke, you will get a differen't answer with each differen't person you talk to, and none of them are even close to being right. If you do have a problem, just call to cancel, that guy sounded like he was from United States, and had heard about SunRocket before.
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Potentially good product done in by pathetic customer service
Pros: Easy installation, great pricing
Cons: Don't run into trouble, because you will never get out of it
Review: I was excited to get my first VOIP phone in August 2006 through Sunrocket. It all looked great on paper ... the product arrived, was easy to install, and the service looked great. Within 2-3 weeks, the trouble began. The phone service would inexplicably fail: outgoing calls would lead to busy signals, and all incoming calls would keep ringing and get redirected to phone mail even when we picked up the phone. At the writing of this comment in the end of Dec 2006, the issue remains unresolved. I have spent weeks EVERY MONTH without phone service as Sunrocket's customer service has gone through its regulation "troubleshooting". By the way, the troubleshooting involves repeatedly being asked the same questions by different people. I literally spent several hours every week trying to figure out what was wrong. All the time I kept asking them to send me a replacement gizmo, but they would refuse saying that it was against their troubleshooting policy.
After months of patience, I had to be quite blunt and candid with their customer service department. At that point (sometime in November) they decided to promote my case to Tier 2 technical support (it took Tier 1 three months to figure out that they did not have an answer to my problem). Tier 2 called, recommended a quick fix which gave way within 10 days.
When I called back, I was sent another troubleshooting questionnaire asking me questions that I had answered several times previously. On being very blunt once again, I was reluctantly transferred to the highly protected Tier 2 engineers once more. Finally the service engineer had to agree that the gizmo needed to be replaced, something that I had requested months before. A promise was made to ship it out the very same day.
It has been about 7-8 days since that conversation, and the new gizmo is nowhere in sight. Meanwhile, I have spent pretty much the whole of December without phone service. Once again.
I paid $199 for the yearly subscription. When I asked that I be compensated for the lack of service, I was very rudely told that I had signed a contract that obviated that possibility. Obviously, Sunrocket is being run by people who are riding high on their aggressive marketing strategy, while they do not realize that keeping customers satisfied is also an important part of keeping and expanding a market.
Sunrocket bears great promise, and if the gizmo works for you, then great. But God forbid you run into trouble - please do not expect resolution from what appears to be a red tape infested customer service department.
After months of patience, I had to be quite blunt and candid with their customer service department. At that point (sometime in November) they decided to promote my case to Tier 2 technical support (it took Tier 1 three months to figure out that they did not have an answer to my problem). Tier 2 called, recommended a quick fix which gave way within 10 days.
When I called back, I was sent another troubleshooting questionnaire asking me questions that I had answered several times previously. On being very blunt once again, I was reluctantly transferred to the highly protected Tier 2 engineers once more. Finally the service engineer had to agree that the gizmo needed to be replaced, something that I had requested months before. A promise was made to ship it out the very same day.
It has been about 7-8 days since that conversation, and the new gizmo is nowhere in sight. Meanwhile, I have spent pretty much the whole of December without phone service. Once again.
I paid $199 for the yearly subscription. When I asked that I be compensated for the lack of service, I was very rudely told that I had signed a contract that obviated that possibility. Obviously, Sunrocket is being run by people who are riding high on their aggressive marketing strategy, while they do not realize that keeping customers satisfied is also an important part of keeping and expanding a market.
Sunrocket bears great promise, and if the gizmo works for you, then great. But God forbid you run into trouble - please do not expect resolution from what appears to be a red tape infested customer service department.
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Poor voice quality, terrible customer service!
Pros: low price phone service
Cons: Very poor quality, non-existant customer service and tech support.
Review: I'm a network administrator and IT Manager, and have forgotton more about IP networks that Sunrocket tech support will ever know. The "Gizmo" device (VOIP interface) kept failing. I tried for 3 months to get Sunrocket to send me a new Gizmo...to no avail. I had to install a switch between my modem and the gizmo, and plug my WAP into the switch. (Because when plugged into the gizmo, it would be down 50% of the time). The service department actually told me via an email to call them on the phone. HELLO! Phone router isn't working - how can I call you? Requested escallation to a supervisor, requested them to call me at work, no reply. Hideous service and lack of respect for their customers. DO NOT PAY for a year in advance untill you've lived with it a while, because if you have a problem, you're on your own.
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Getting worse by the month
Pros: cheap (if you don't need a phone that works)
Cons: doesn't work 50% of the time
Review: When I started using Sunrocket in March 2006 I would have giving it a pretty decent rating because it worked 95% of the time. In recent months the quality of service has deteriorated to a point that I'm lucky if it works 50% of the time. No dial tone, overloaded lines are commonplace. When you try to call your home phone from the outside, you get an 'all circuits are busy' and it won't even get you into voice mail. At 95% uptime, it was marginally acceptable. At the current level of service, it's completely unacceptable. Look elsewhere for VOIP service. I have an excellent quality DSL connection (6 megabits down 768 kb up) so it's not a bad internet connection causing problems. The fact that incomming calls don't even get into voicemail is the real signal that the SunRocket infrastructure is completely broken.
User Rating:
2.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Poor Customer Service
Pros: Easy to Use, Cheap
Cons: Bad Customer Service
Review: I was excited about trying VIOP service and initially all was fine. Set up was easy. The service worked great for the first few month. Then we were unable to receive incomming calls. Unless it is a simple fix I found customer service useless. They told me they had to escilate my service call because they could determine why we couldn't receive calls. The people who they escilated it to never did contact me. I was told there was no way to speak to them. Even talking to a manager didn't help. No matter how many times I called customer service I got the same response. There was nothing they could do and it was sent to another department. At no time did anyone contact me on what they thought the problem may be or even if they were working on it. This went on for almost a month before I finally had to cancel my service.
When it worked it was great, but it is unacceptable to go without incoming calls for a month and expect that to be OK.
When it worked it was great, but it is unacceptable to go without incoming calls for a month and expect that to be OK.
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Sunrocket Billing is bizzare
Pros: Very Cheap .. and comes up with really attractive rate plans
Cons: Customer support is terrible
Review: I had switched to Sunrocket 3 in Sep 2006, seeing the reviews and prices with a 199 for 1 yr 2yr free. Till then after every invoice I have to call them and be on phone for atleast 1 hr to get the explanation of charges they made on my credit card.
Again several issues with number transfer, I transfered the previous number as part of the switch, the other company allocates that number to some one else, I have the same number, now it became a complete mess, call are being routed randomly, either to me or the other person. They haven't fixed it yet.
I moved to another home, and without even informing me they simply change my my primary number. It's a complete mess.
And MOST important, no one at their technical support knows how to configure the Gizmo to make it work without disturbances when connected after a router(You need to enable QOS on router and set the route to high priority). The voice quality is TERRIBLE (hey I'm using FIOS) if you use default configuration, connected behind the router.
I rated terrible based on the overall satisfaction after 3 months of usage.
Again several issues with number transfer, I transfered the previous number as part of the switch, the other company allocates that number to some one else, I have the same number, now it became a complete mess, call are being routed randomly, either to me or the other person. They haven't fixed it yet.
I moved to another home, and without even informing me they simply change my my primary number. It's a complete mess.
And MOST important, no one at their technical support knows how to configure the Gizmo to make it work without disturbances when connected after a router(You need to enable QOS on router and set the route to high priority). The voice quality is TERRIBLE (hey I'm using FIOS) if you use default configuration, connected behind the router.
I rated terrible based on the overall satisfaction after 3 months of usage.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Outstanding! Excellent!
Pros: Low price, excellent call quality, superior customer service.
Cons: Can't come up with anything significant.
Review: Superior service at a very attractive price. I especially appreciate not being locked in to a long-term contract, that should I ever become dissatisfied I can cancel without losing anything. I also appreciate bottom line price quote, i.e., no added fees or charges other than the FCC Universal Connectivity charge that they recently were required to bill. When I moved to a different state and connected through a different cable company, there were some issues with SunRocket's gizmo and the new cable company's modem fighting each other, but SunRocket was able to provide clear instructions for a quick and easy fix. The service is extremely reliable and since I've been running through Time Warner Cable the voice call quality has been indistinguishable from land line service. Since my move, I've established a local number in my new city and kept my old number for the convenience of friends in my old city and it works seamlessly and at no extra cost to me. I love SunRocket. Don't sign up with another company until you've taken a good look at SunRocket. I recommend them to all my friends and family.
User Rating:
1.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Customer service does not live up to standards
Pros: low cost, low service
Cons: billing department won't correct it's own errors
Review: This is not my first experience with VOIP, used a different provider for about 2 years without problems. Decided this was a better deal
Had a very hard time getting connected, and call quality was very spurratic, including dropped connections often.
However my biggest compliant is with the billing department. After about 6 months they decided to change my billing date with out reason or notice. I am of very low income and only get my check once a month so when I'm billed is important.
So 2 months ago I called and talked with a rep. I explained what the problem was and he said the issue was resolved. Last month they did the same thing to me.
They still haven't fixed the problem or given any reason why they can't .
I don't recommend this company at all.
Had a very hard time getting connected, and call quality was very spurratic, including dropped connections often.
However my biggest compliant is with the billing department. After about 6 months they decided to change my billing date with out reason or notice. I am of very low income and only get my check once a month so when I'm billed is important.
So 2 months ago I called and talked with a rep. I explained what the problem was and he said the issue was resolved. Last month they did the same thing to me.
They still haven't fixed the problem or given any reason why they can't .
I don't recommend this company at all.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Gambled with SunRocket
Pros: Features, Price, Sound Quality, Free Phone
Cons: It does not appear to have import feature from Outlook Contact
Review: I had no interest in switching to VoIP and had never heard of SunRocket when a friend recommended it to me. After reading all the reviews on this site and others, I decided to move to VoIP, but NOT with SunRocket due to its notoriously bad customer service ratings. I have a specific list of features that I NEED. I am currently paying $550/year with Cavalier on home line and $900/year with Verizon on business line. I needed a feature to combine these two services into one, transfer existing numbers and each number to have its own voice mail boxes with different ring tones so that I do NOT have to buy a 2-line telephone. After talking to non-SunRocket reps, it appeared that SunRocket was the only company providing all the feature that I need at a reasonable price and I decided to gamble with SunRocket. Well, the guy who took my order at SunRocket wasn’t a touchy-feely person like the lady at VoIP Your Life, but he did his job taking the order, and all was set in motion. I placed the order on 10/25 and received the SunRocket gizmo with a free 5.8GHz GE phone on 10/27 and the setup and the installation was a breeze.
SOUND QUALITY
When I talked to the rep in VoIP Your Life and another company in Florida, there was an underling humming/buzzing noise and they were using their own service. When I talked to the SunRocket rep, it did not have the buzzing noise, but they were NOT using their own service and I wondered why. To prepare for VoIP, my Internet connection was changed from Verizon DSL to FIOS, which increased the speed to 5MB down and 1.7MB up. I don’t know if this is the reason, but my SunRocket does NOT have any buzzing noise – actually it is whole lot clearer than my landline. I just had an hour-long tele-seminar, and I am ecstatic about the sound quality.
SO FAR
I have no complaints about SunRocket and I hope I will never have to talk to Customer Service. It has been 4 days since I installed VoIP and I have received 2 e-mail messages from SonRocket on the home number transfer status. I wanted to switch my home number first, then my business line to keep my livelihood going. I am so tickled about the quality of sound and long list of features in addition to the HUGE saving on my phone bills – about $1,200 per year. I will post updates on the quality of the phone number transfer service. BTW, it doesn’t seem to have a way to import my Outlook contact to SunRocket Contact List – bummer!
SOUND QUALITY
When I talked to the rep in VoIP Your Life and another company in Florida, there was an underling humming/buzzing noise and they were using their own service. When I talked to the SunRocket rep, it did not have the buzzing noise, but they were NOT using their own service and I wondered why. To prepare for VoIP, my Internet connection was changed from Verizon DSL to FIOS, which increased the speed to 5MB down and 1.7MB up. I don’t know if this is the reason, but my SunRocket does NOT have any buzzing noise – actually it is whole lot clearer than my landline. I just had an hour-long tele-seminar, and I am ecstatic about the sound quality.
SO FAR
I have no complaints about SunRocket and I hope I will never have to talk to Customer Service. It has been 4 days since I installed VoIP and I have received 2 e-mail messages from SonRocket on the home number transfer status. I wanted to switch my home number first, then my business line to keep my livelihood going. I am so tickled about the quality of sound and long list of features in addition to the HUGE saving on my phone bills – about $1,200 per year. I will post updates on the quality of the phone number transfer service. BTW, it doesn’t seem to have a way to import my Outlook contact to SunRocket Contact List – bummer!
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Great price and competitive service, as far as VOIPs go
Pros: PRICE, features
Cons: None if you can handle some inconveniences
Review: I've had Lingo in the past which was ok. My neighbor had Vonage which he said was horrible. I've had Sunrocket for around six months and can't say I've second guessed my decision too many times. When compared to the standard telephone service that we've all enjoyed the past many years, you may be let down. There are your occasional dropped calls, times when it doesn't work for a few minutes, the "underwater" sound, and the famous 5-second delay not to mention the occasional poor customer service. I equate Sunrocket to cell phone service. If you can stand the minor and occasional inconveniences and love the savings that it gives you off of your phone bill (and cell bill!) then go for Sunrocket! If you want general perfection, then stay with the standard landline.
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
cheap, but full featured
Pros: cheap, plethora of features
Cons: no power=no phone, no fax support
Review: I personally love VOIP and SunRocket is a cheap, full-featured service. The voice quality is as good or better that a cellphone call. Occasionally the service does crap out, but I will gladly trade the 99.99999% up time of traditional landline for the more than 75% savings with more features. My only complaint is that some of the customer service reps seem to be based out of the country because I had a difficult time understanding one of them. If you already have broadband, get rid of your landline and go with Sunrocket and if you don't have broadband, get broadband and Sunrocket and the savings will make up for the extra cost of broadband over dial-up.
User Rating:
3.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Happy overall. Better than vonage. Faxing works. Still a few quirks, though...
Pros: Call quality. Simple, cheap plan. Support has been good.
Cons: Calls dropped occasionally. Still troubleshooting, but I'm confident.
Review: I'd like to correct the faxing statement in CNET's review: Faxing works if you disable Super G3 mode. For instance, my Brother 7820N has an overseas mode that when enabled, allows me to send faxes.
Over quality is excellent, and much better than vonage. The billing plan of 200 min for $10/month is great.
I had occasional dropped calls after chatting for 10-20 min, and resetting the cable modem restored service.
SunRocket's support has been good and helpful, and I'm confident that I've found the source of the problem. Oddly enough, enabling MAC ID cloning on the VOIP box seems to help, and I haven't had a problem since doing this.
I'm hoping that the dropped calls aren't due to my cable modem's variation in maximum delay. I'll know more after I measure it with my PC directly connected to the cable modem instead of going through the router.
They recommend this link: http://myspeed.visualware.com/voip
and if your max pause is consistently less than 100 ms (with your PC directly connected to your broadband modem), you're fine. (Actually, there are a few other criteria, but this is the only marginal one for me.)
Overall, I'm satisfied, and recommend SunRocket.
Over quality is excellent, and much better than vonage. The billing plan of 200 min for $10/month is great.
I had occasional dropped calls after chatting for 10-20 min, and resetting the cable modem restored service.
SunRocket's support has been good and helpful, and I'm confident that I've found the source of the problem. Oddly enough, enabling MAC ID cloning on the VOIP box seems to help, and I haven't had a problem since doing this.
I'm hoping that the dropped calls aren't due to my cable modem's variation in maximum delay. I'll know more after I measure it with my PC directly connected to the cable modem instead of going through the router.
They recommend this link: http://myspeed.visualware.com/voip
and if your max pause is consistently less than 100 ms (with your PC directly connected to your broadband modem), you're fine. (Actually, there are a few other criteria, but this is the only marginal one for me.)
Overall, I'm satisfied, and recommend SunRocket.
Updated
After following SunRocket's advice, I'm happy to report that it's working fine. My rating is now a 9 instead of a 7.
After following SunRocket's advice, I'm happy to report that it's working fine. My rating is now a 9 instead of a 7.
User Rating:
2.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Quality not what i expected.
Pros: Cheaper than land line
Cons: Quality concerns
Review: No problems with customer service when my first router died after 6 months. However, wife wants to move back to Verizon since recipient of our calls receive packet drops and don’t usually understand what we are saying. Obviously this would make the service useless. I don’t have a complete understanding of VoIP technology but I figured it was all the same and that the only difference between companies would be cust service. Not sure if this is the case or not. And in all fairness, I haven’t complained to Sun regarding this issue and probably should be doing so rather then writing this. Perhaps they can solve the problem and people I call will magically begin to hear me clearly.
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Horrible Customer Service; Low Reliability; Great Price
Pros: Great Price and Features
Cons: Horrible Customer Service; Low Reliability;Time Consuming When Issues Arise
Review: SunRocket sounds great. You get lots of features with free long distance for a very low price. The problem is their customer service and their reliability. My experience comes from about 6 months of being a SunRocket customer. I'll tell you of my experience with them and, as a result, you might think twice about using SunRocket.
Customer Service
The first line of customer service is horrible. Wait times are high (often over 15 minutes), and the first line of service does not have the ability to address technical issues -- a prevalent issue in my case. They often write you a trouble ticket which, I've learned from experience, means absolutely nothing. Nothing happens after the trouble ticket is written. If you can get transferred to the tech support department and/or the cancellation department, you'll get results fairly quickly.
I had an issue where SunRocket made a drastic mistake. My experience during the resolution of this mistake tells me that the company's operations are poorly managed. To make a long story short, SunRocket inadvertently ported one of my cell phone numbers (without my permission) and then lost the number! The result was that my cell phone service completely stopped and nobody could get in contact with me. I spent at least 8 hours of my time during a period of two weeks working with SunRocket and Sprint to get my number back. What a hassle! Let me say that working with Sprint was a breeze. They had the right person contact me and she took care of the case. SunRocket, on the other hand, couldn't get anybody to handle the case until I finally demanded to work with corporate.
A Number To Remember
Here's a number worth remembering if you have troubles: Lillian Hawthorne, Manager of Customer Service Operations (703) 394-4153 or (703) 636-2398. As far as I can tell, Lillian is in charge of customer service operations at SunRocket and has corporate ties. Please only use her number if you have a very pressing issue (like SunRocket losing your phone number). I posted it so you don't have to go through hours of red tape to finally speak to someone who has the power to help.
Billing issues
In March of this year (2006), I paid $199 for a year of service. Last month (August 2006) I was billed $133. I have no idea why when I paid for a full year of service. I have replied to customer service asking why I was billed. A trouble ticket was created but I still get no results. Now, a month later, they continue to send me the bill.
Reliability
People who talk to me while I'm on my SunRocket phone complain about jitter -- a VOIP term that signifies my voice cuts in an out repeatedly. In all fairness, my SunRocket phone service works more often than not. To sum up the reliability, my cell phone is more reliable than my SunRocket service and I get just one bar on my cell phone while I'm at home. I take my important calls on my cell phone.
Conclusion
Don't waste your time with SunRocket. They offer inexpensive services but, chances are, you'll pay the price in time. The phone service is relatively unreliable and the customer service is horrible. The only reason I stay with SunRocket is because I paid $199 up front and am afraid that I would never receive a fair refund if I cancel the service. Don't get stuck like I did.
Customer Service
The first line of customer service is horrible. Wait times are high (often over 15 minutes), and the first line of service does not have the ability to address technical issues -- a prevalent issue in my case. They often write you a trouble ticket which, I've learned from experience, means absolutely nothing. Nothing happens after the trouble ticket is written. If you can get transferred to the tech support department and/or the cancellation department, you'll get results fairly quickly.
I had an issue where SunRocket made a drastic mistake. My experience during the resolution of this mistake tells me that the company's operations are poorly managed. To make a long story short, SunRocket inadvertently ported one of my cell phone numbers (without my permission) and then lost the number! The result was that my cell phone service completely stopped and nobody could get in contact with me. I spent at least 8 hours of my time during a period of two weeks working with SunRocket and Sprint to get my number back. What a hassle! Let me say that working with Sprint was a breeze. They had the right person contact me and she took care of the case. SunRocket, on the other hand, couldn't get anybody to handle the case until I finally demanded to work with corporate.
A Number To Remember
Here's a number worth remembering if you have troubles: Lillian Hawthorne, Manager of Customer Service Operations (703) 394-4153 or (703) 636-2398. As far as I can tell, Lillian is in charge of customer service operations at SunRocket and has corporate ties. Please only use her number if you have a very pressing issue (like SunRocket losing your phone number). I posted it so you don't have to go through hours of red tape to finally speak to someone who has the power to help.
Billing issues
In March of this year (2006), I paid $199 for a year of service. Last month (August 2006) I was billed $133. I have no idea why when I paid for a full year of service. I have replied to customer service asking why I was billed. A trouble ticket was created but I still get no results. Now, a month later, they continue to send me the bill.
Reliability
People who talk to me while I'm on my SunRocket phone complain about jitter -- a VOIP term that signifies my voice cuts in an out repeatedly. In all fairness, my SunRocket phone service works more often than not. To sum up the reliability, my cell phone is more reliable than my SunRocket service and I get just one bar on my cell phone while I'm at home. I take my important calls on my cell phone.
Conclusion
Don't waste your time with SunRocket. They offer inexpensive services but, chances are, you'll pay the price in time. The phone service is relatively unreliable and the customer service is horrible. The only reason I stay with SunRocket is because I paid $199 up front and am afraid that I would never receive a fair refund if I cancel the service. Don't get stuck like I did.
User Rating:
1.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Horrible phone service unless you like echoes, gravelly conversations, and call waiting.
Pros: Dirt Cheap.
Cons: Echo, Can't turn off call waiting, Gravelly conversations.
Review: HORRIBLE DECISION. STICK WITH VONAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Abysmal doesn't come close
Pros: cheap, nice calling features
Cons: poor quality, terrible customer service
Review: I've had bad customer service experiences before but this one takes the cake. After three months of poor call quality I cancelled my service and returned Qwest (gasp!). However, someone at SunRocket messed up the porting process so not half of my calls get through and half get a message that my phone has been connected. While the folks at Qwest have been actively trying to solve the problem, SunRocket customer service still continues to give me the runaround and insist it's not their problem.
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Think twice before ditching your landline!
Pros: Price is great
Cons: Awful service quality and inept tech support
Review: I've had SunRocket service for 75 days and still have not been able to make a call that didn't have repeated gaps of 20 seconds or more each when neither party could hear the other.
This is after 25 emails and 9 calls to the tech support reps.
I'm cancelling my service today!
This is after 25 emails and 9 calls to the tech support reps.
I'm cancelling my service today!
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Dirt Cheap and works great
Pros: Everthing works as if you are hooked up to a regular phone line
Cons: Had some issues porting my old number over because of my area and 911. They took over a month to find out that I could not port the old number over
Review: I got the service back in May. The only problem was porting over my old number because my address is in one town, but that town is the next county over,(strange and would take to long to explain) so there would have been issues with 911. I have a samll business with that number,so I really neeeded to keep it. I was able to port the number to a cell phone, so the problem was solved. The porting Dept was slow at Sunrocket, in finding out an answer, which of course they blame Bell South, which could be true. Other than that, I love this service. Everything works just like a regular phone line. Had land line disconnected a week ago and decided to try and disconnect the line coming into the house and backfeed sunrocket to all the phone jacks in the house. Works great. Set up was simple, although I put the box after the router which the instructions say is the alternate hookup, but again it works great. To me it is a no brainer. I was paying over $100 a month for Phone and long distance from Bell South. (Dont forget to look at your taxes on your phone bill they, really do add up) I paid sunrocket the $199 up front, which included a free cordless handset system and equiptment. That works out to under $17 a month for phone service with unlimited long distance. You just can't beat that. Regular phone works fine with it also. Tivo works fine, and I can also fax with no problems. Also I have read complaints about not being able to recieve calls for a couple of weeks when you first set up service. I was receiving calls on my new number the day I set everything up, so maybe that does happen sometimes, but with me it didn't. Voice quality is great, no dropped calls, more features than my landline, easy setup, and best of all, if you try and don't like for some reason, from my understanding, you can cancel at any time and they will prorate the $199 that I paid upfront and refund the rest of my money. Like I said, its a no brainer....
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
It works for me!
Pros: Price and the features are great.
Cons: Support needs some significant improvement
Review: I have had Sunrocket for a little over a month now. I went into the relationship a bit of a skeptic. The exisiting reviews seemed very mixed. My experiences have generally been postiive. The set-up was easy and did not require any additional tech support to get up and running. The service worked on the first call. The voice quality was on par with most of the cell phone services I have had. I am willing to live with that quality of connection given the incredibly low price.
I have had a few issues with not being able to place outgoing calls, receiving a fast busy rather then a connection. That has only happened a couple of times.
My belief is that VOIP is very dependent on the ISP you have. If they do not provide you with a good connection then VOIP is not a good option. At the same time I installed Sunrocket I upgraded to Verizon FIOS. Call quality has been consistently good.
Do not get Sunrocket expecting support. They take several days to answer emails and I have never gotten anyone to return a call. So, my thoughts, if you are somehwat tech savy, want to role the dice, the experience can be very positie. If you think you may need support - shop elsewhere.
I have had a few issues with not being able to place outgoing calls, receiving a fast busy rather then a connection. That has only happened a couple of times.
My belief is that VOIP is very dependent on the ISP you have. If they do not provide you with a good connection then VOIP is not a good option. At the same time I installed Sunrocket I upgraded to Verizon FIOS. Call quality has been consistently good.
Do not get Sunrocket expecting support. They take several days to answer emails and I have never gotten anyone to return a call. So, my thoughts, if you are somehwat tech savy, want to role the dice, the experience can be very positie. If you think you may need support - shop elsewhere.
User Rating:
1.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
worst customer service.
Pros: inexpensive
Cons: reliability
Review: Well, the service fails randomly. It works now and after a few minutes it fails and no one has a clue why it went out.
Since this is my primary phone, I need to talk to customer service using my cell and wait a lot before I get connected.
When you try contacting the customer service by e-mail, the response time is couple of hours minimum.
All they say in customer service is 'reboot and try again', even if that does not work.
Bottomline, this should NOT be your primary phone.
Since this is my primary phone, I need to talk to customer service using my cell and wait a lot before I get connected.
When you try contacting the customer service by e-mail, the response time is couple of hours minimum.
All they say in customer service is 'reboot and try again', even if that does not work.
Bottomline, this should NOT be your primary phone.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
I think that SunRocket is great!
Pros: Great service, customer service and price.
Cons: Connection is not perfect 100% of the time.
Review: My experience with SunRicket has been great!
I signed up on-line, received the Gizmo in the mail, called customer service to help me get it working and I have had service with no problems since.
I think that the connection could be a little better sometimes, but for $199 a year it is worth it. I was paying 3 times that for Comcast and the service sucked and the connection was down at least once a week.
I would recommend this service to anyone - especially with the unlimited calling to the US and Canada, all of the phone options and the free phone!
I signed up on-line, received the Gizmo in the mail, called customer service to help me get it working and I have had service with no problems since.
I think that the connection could be a little better sometimes, but for $199 a year it is worth it. I was paying 3 times that for Comcast and the service sucked and the connection was down at least once a week.
I would recommend this service to anyone - especially with the unlimited calling to the US and Canada, all of the phone options and the free phone!
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Great deal!!!! $199 for 2 years!!!!!!!!
Pros: Best price, same features as other voip, free international min
Cons: none for this price!
Review: Got set up with $199 for 2 years. YOU CAN"T BEAT THAT PRICE!!! Called to ask a question and to get me to sign up on the spot they offered $199 for 2 years unlimitted. 2 lines with seperate ring tones. All the features. $3 a month in international calls free. 2 free directory calls monthly....Only thing is I did not get the free phone. Set up was easy even with my old windows 98 computer. Call quality excellent most times but have had a few crackles during a few calls. I have cable modem. Customer service was friendly and helpfull- although they did get my shipping address wrong (38 instead of 638) but got it corrected quickly- within a week got my gizmo.
Great deal for the price. Just make sure they repeat all your info to you so they don't mess up your shipping address. If you want cheap just tell them you are compairing VOIP services...They want to steal market share from Vonage.
Great deal for the price. Just make sure they repeat all your info to you so they don't mess up your shipping address. If you want cheap just tell them you are compairing VOIP services...They want to steal market share from Vonage.
User Rating:
3.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Cannot, or will not, support their service
Pros: Loads of usefull features and a very good price
Cons: If something goes wrong don't expect timely help, if any help, from Sunrocket "support".
Review: Sunrocket has a great set of features at a great price, but their support is abysmal.
I've had it for a year and find that my problems with should quality (mostly echoes, and some dropped calls) are likely due to the below par quality of my broadband connection (thanks to Comcast) rather than Sunrocket. However, the dial tone is lost about once a month, and I just spent over a week without service when their modem interface device (they call it a "Gizmo") died and they took over five days to return my call to verify that the device was the problem so they could send a new one.
Each time I needed to set up their interface device I had to call customer support because the device or the account was not properly configured by their staff.
I just tried to renew my annual account and find that, despite their "confirmation" message, they did not receive the renewal and so my account went to a more costly monthly billing cycle. The phone rep told me that the on-line system has a "glitch" and does not work properly -- yet they continue to direct customers to use it.
If they ever get their act together they will be a worthwhile system. Until then, I'm shopping for a new provider who can, and will, support their customers.
I've had it for a year and find that my problems with should quality (mostly echoes, and some dropped calls) are likely due to the below par quality of my broadband connection (thanks to Comcast) rather than Sunrocket. However, the dial tone is lost about once a month, and I just spent over a week without service when their modem interface device (they call it a "Gizmo") died and they took over five days to return my call to verify that the device was the problem so they could send a new one.
Each time I needed to set up their interface device I had to call customer support because the device or the account was not properly configured by their staff.
I just tried to renew my annual account and find that, despite their "confirmation" message, they did not receive the renewal and so my account went to a more costly monthly billing cycle. The phone rep told me that the on-line system has a "glitch" and does not work properly -- yet they continue to direct customers to use it.
If they ever get their act together they will be a worthwhile system. Until then, I'm shopping for a new provider who can, and will, support their customers.
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Sunrocket is terrible
Pros: there are none
Cons: everything
Review: I became a Sun Rocket customer in Feb. from the day it was installed I had problems. It started knocking off my internet which caused dropped calls. I often was told I sounded like I was underwater. After three months speaking with atleast 10 different people, emailing non stop my problem was not resolved i spoke to a “supervisor” who said that if I cancelled I would get a full refund. On Thursday July 6 2006 I called to cancel and was told full refund as of today I got an email stating they were not goin to honor a full refund because I had their service for more then 30 days. I tried for four months to give them a chance they sent me 4 Gizmos 3 different engineers called me to remedy the issues. I had Time Warner at my house for four days to see if it was them or SunRocket. So my warning DO NOT repeat DO NOT GET SUNROCKET PHONE SERVICE. YOU WILL ONLY GET HIGH BLOOD PRESURE AND A HEADACHE.
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
stay away from Sunrocket if price is not your only concern
Pros: cheap price
Cons: inconvinient set up, poor call quality, terrible reliability
Review: Set up: The manual came with the gizmo offers several ways to set up, however, only one worked for me.
Reliability: The line drops 2-3 times everyday and I have to manually restart the gizmo to get it back to work. Once a friend of mine called me and got the message that the number did not exist. I don't if this is the only time the outside caller got the messager.
Call Quality: Very poor quality, voices are broken. I cannot hear the other side of the line if we happen to talk at the same time. When I am on the line and there is another incoming call, I cannot hear the other side.
Service: Overcharged me for international calls. I wrote customer service an email addressing this problem. No response after one week. Called them, waiting online for about half an hour and finally got to a real person. He solved my problem. After all, it was not difficult to crack at all.
All in all, you get what you paid for, or even less if you are as unlucky as me.
Reliability: The line drops 2-3 times everyday and I have to manually restart the gizmo to get it back to work. Once a friend of mine called me and got the message that the number did not exist. I don't if this is the only time the outside caller got the messager.
Call Quality: Very poor quality, voices are broken. I cannot hear the other side of the line if we happen to talk at the same time. When I am on the line and there is another incoming call, I cannot hear the other side.
Service: Overcharged me for international calls. I wrote customer service an email addressing this problem. No response after one week. Called them, waiting online for about half an hour and finally got to a real person. He solved my problem. After all, it was not difficult to crack at all.
All in all, you get what you paid for, or even less if you are as unlucky as me.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
You Can't Beat it for the price
Pros: Price, Free Long Distance, No Strings Attached, Easy setup... it just works
Cons: voice quality
Review: You can't be sure in these forums how many reviews are valid; either posted by the company itself or the competition. I can only assure you, I am a satisfied customer, and in no other way affiliated with SunRocket. SunRocket offered a one day "Buy one year for $199, get a second free offer" and I took advantage of it. You can't beat that price (about $8.25 a month!). If you have a high speed connection, I'd say it's a good deal even at over $16 a month. The voice quality won't be that of a land line, and I get a recurring beeping sound on the line which is annoying. Free long distance is great since calling friends cell phones is always a long distance adventure - and an international credit is also attractive. Their no strings attached policy really sets them apart... no fine print and no asterisks when you sign up. They really deliver what they promise. As a college student that will be moving around a few times in the next few years, I can just take "the gizmo" with me to any future apartment and I have phone serveice. Easy.
User Rating:
5.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Verizon's and Vonage's worst nightmare!
Pros: Phone is as good as my old land line - and 1/6th the price
Cons: Can't get service in all areas - they still have a limited footprint
Review: Works great, UNLIMITED calling!!
No more watching the clock when talking to my family
I saved almost over $50 a month switching over from my land line.
I also like how they say the cost is $9.99, and your bill is $9.99 - what a great concept selling something for the price you advertised!! Wish all business were as upfront.
No more watching the clock when talking to my family
I saved almost over $50 a month switching over from my land line.I also like how they say the cost is $9.99, and your bill is $9.99 - what a great concept selling something for the price you advertised!! Wish all business were as upfront.
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Horrible Customer Service
Pros: easy to sign up
Cons: hard to cancel, horrible customer service
Review: I signed up for SunRocket service but canceled it before it was even connected, because Sunrocket's Chief Marketing Officer was rude and hung up on me. Sunrocket still billed me. My complaint was FINALLY sent to their escalations department. They said the charges would be taken off, but after a couple weeks, the charges remained. I had to file a BBB complaint and a complaint with my credit card company just to get the charges taken off.
They obviously have no customer service. Stay away from Sunrocket.
They obviously have no customer service. Stay away from Sunrocket.
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
BUYER BEWARE-VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE
Pros: good price, good sound quality
Cons: They don't follow through with customer in resolving problems.
Review: After reading many positive reviews, I decided to give SunRocket a try. The price was right,(199.00 for 15 months) and I would be able to transfer my landline phone number. I signed up in March and waited for my phone number to be transfered. They said it could take up to 30 days. After 60 days I called them and they blamed my present phone company, and said they would work to resolve the issue. I waited 30 more days and called them again. This time when I called, they still had no answers for me, in fact one of the representatives I spoke with actually was very rude. I have since cancelled this service and am hoping that they are faster at refunding my $199.00 than they were at transferring my number. I guess my biggest gripe is that they should have let me know if there was some kind of a problem. Instead, I had to be the one calling. If I hadn't contacted them I would still be waiting. I want to try another VOIP and hopefully they will be a little more customer friendly.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
excellent company
Pros: fax, good service
Cons: none so far
Review: have tried many voip's, this one is the best
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
As good as the competitors, with even more aggressive pricing...
Pros: Free virtual (additional) numbers, Free credits for intl. calling, Free credits for 411 Directory Assistance, Fast customer/technical service, & Great pricing/rates.
Cons: The usual for VoIP subscribers: occassional dropped calls & infrequent instances of QoS degradation. Irregularities in service can be expected with any VoIP subscribtions, including Vonage, Lingo, etc
Review: SunRocket has, so far, maintained a slightly more stable QoS than some of the other VoIP providers. Prior to switching to SunRocket, I was paying about $29.99 for unlimited local/long-distance (US/Canada only), in addition to unlimited hosting storage/bandwidth, through a company called :domatic. This (primarily) hosting firm contracted out VoIP subscriptions to a third-party company called Nuvio, which hasn't even been recognized or critiqued by CNET's reviewer(s). Their QoS was more than I had expected, and the additional hosting (as I had already known through previous accounts) was great; however, I decided to keep my hosting needs and telecom needs segregated... So far, SunRocket has provided slightly better-than-expected service (particularly for the money). Some of the same VoIP subscription issues (which I also experienced with Nuvio) are present. But subscribers should also put VoIP service in perspective: it's all one big beta test. Anyone willing to subscribe is a beta tester who should be prepared, as in the extensive testing of other prototypes, to encounter & experience technical difficulties or bugs.
However, I've been pleased with what I've experienced so far. They have some added bonuses (such as the additional virtual number, free intl. minutes, and free director assistance calls [2/month]) that I had not encountered with Nuvio. Though one reason I couldn't rate them with a 9.0 was that they're lacking an automated system to dial alternate numbers in the event of a service outtage. They have (manually specified) forwards, but Nuvio maintained a listing of alternate number(s) for regularity in the reception of calls. If you're up for testing it, certainly consider SunRocket for VoIP solution.
However, I've been pleased with what I've experienced so far. They have some added bonuses (such as the additional virtual number, free intl. minutes, and free director assistance calls [2/month]) that I had not encountered with Nuvio. Though one reason I couldn't rate them with a 9.0 was that they're lacking an automated system to dial alternate numbers in the event of a service outtage. They have (manually specified) forwards, but Nuvio maintained a listing of alternate number(s) for regularity in the reception of calls. If you're up for testing it, certainly consider SunRocket for VoIP solution.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Great value
Pros: Can't beat the price
Cons: As good as a cell phone but usually better.
Review: Installed the system a couple of months ago with absolutely no problems. I put in a UPS system (700ma hours) to keep the cable modem and VOIP adapter running for 2 hours plus if the power goes out. We've had the occasional dropped call and once in a while there is a little echo but overall its good. We are saving over $300 per year on the phone bill - local service only! Don't expect perfection from any VOIP. The US phone system is the best in the world and has been refined for many decades.
Updated
Once my Verizon hard wire phone number was transferred I hooked the VOIP system into the rest of the house in two easy steps.
First step: I disconnected the incoming phone line (two wires)at the junction panel in the basement. I labeled everything so that it'll be easy to reconnect. YOU MUST DISCONNECT THE INCOMING PHONE LINE FIRST OR YOU WILL DAMAGE THE VOIP PHONE ADAPTER.
Second step: I plugged a two outlet adapter into the Gizmo (VOIP phone adapter) line out. I then plugged the wireless phones into one side and then ran a conneting line from the other side to a phone outlet nearby. Now all the phones are connected.
The net result is a whole house fully operational on VOIP just like before. If you don't want to use the wireless phones, just plug the line into the adapter line out to the phone outlet.
Sunrocket says that not all phones may work on the system but all six of ours have.
Once my Verizon hard wire phone number was transferred I hooked the VOIP system into the rest of the house in two easy steps.
First step: I disconnected the incoming phone line (two wires)at the junction panel in the basement. I labeled everything so that it'll be easy to reconnect. YOU MUST DISCONNECT THE INCOMING PHONE LINE FIRST OR YOU WILL DAMAGE THE VOIP PHONE ADAPTER.
Second step: I plugged a two outlet adapter into the Gizmo (VOIP phone adapter) line out. I then plugged the wireless phones into one side and then ran a conneting line from the other side to a phone outlet nearby. Now all the phones are connected.
The net result is a whole house fully operational on VOIP just like before. If you don't want to use the wireless phones, just plug the line into the adapter line out to the phone outlet.
Sunrocket says that not all phones may work on the system but all six of ours have.
User Rating:
3.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Excellent Product for the money
Pros: very knowledgeable tech support
Cons: Consumes alot of bandwidth
Review: Call quality drops when downloading,have had service outages mainly during off peak times when not needed.I have been involved with computers for twenty years and was impressed with their knowledgeable tech staff.
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
DO NOT USE SUNROCKET
Pros: Cheap, free phones
Cons: Horrible customer service, difficult installation, phones won't work 50% of the time, interferes w/ internet service
Review: DO NOT waste your time with this company. I thought it would be a great deal, too. However, I spent so many HOURS on hold and on the phone with customer service trying to get phone to work that I ended up paying more on my cell phone bill b/c I went over my minutes! Customer service people do not understand english well, therefore making problems worse. If your time is valuable and you want a phone that actually has a dial tone when you pick it up, DO NOT USE SUNROCKET!!!! Try Sage Telecom for great rates....
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Great deals, clear calls, nothing can beat SunRocket
Pros: Great deals, Free phones, Very clear, good customer service
Cons: non that I am aware of
Review: SunRocket gives by far the best deal. Free phones, no signup fees, no catches, no strings attached. Just pay flat fee and you are good to go. Customer service is always available to answer questions by phone and online chat. Simply the best.
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Worst Phone Company on Earth
Pros: Cheap, Free Phones
Cons: Constant Interuptions, Poor Cust Service, bad equipment
Review: I have been with Sunrocket for over 1 year. During that time my phone service was interupted at least 20 times. One time for over 2 weeks. When their poor customer service techs could not help me (after I was on the phone with them for several hours) the refered me to their engineers. The eventually soved my probelem. They sent me antoher Gizmo (The sunrocket phone adapter). If this only happened once it would have been fine. But I am now on my 4th Gizmo. I can't even count the number of times that the voice light did not work on the Gizmo (The voice light must be on in order for the phone to work) Sometimes I heard was a crakling sound while talking to someone. Sometimes the person on the other end of the phone couldn't hear me at all.
I guess you get what you pay for It was a learning experience. Now I know to look for more reliable company with better Tech support.
BOTTOM LINE - Avoid Sunrocket if you want to make phone calls
I guess you get what you pay for It was a learning experience. Now I know to look for more reliable company with better Tech support.
BOTTOM LINE - Avoid Sunrocket if you want to make phone calls
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Least expensive reliable service
Pros: Inexpensive, great web tools
Cons: Varying quality, especially for international calls
Review: I've been a Sunrocket customer for two months and I'm very glad I chose them. I received free 2.4 ghz. phones which work fine, even with my home network. The phone call quality is generally very good - not quite up to landline service, but not far from it. You can tell that there is a very slight delay in your parties hearing your speech, but it isn't like the old days of long distance delays.
The price is fantastic. I paid $199 but received 15 months service plus the free phones. I don't make that many long distance calls and getting my spouse to pick up the Sunrocket phone when she calls her relatives hasn't been easy, but I'm a happy customer. I'm probably saving about $15-20 per month using Sunrocket vs. my previous carrier.
Calling internationally to Australia was easy... there was a slight delay in the conversation, but nothing extraordinary. Calling England was another story.... while I could hear perfectly, the chap I called said that he could hardly make out what I was saying through the static.
The webtools to manage my Sunrocket account are simple and impressive. I can check voice mail or missed calls from anywhere, and call forwarding is a snap. I work out of my home a couple of days a week and I can have my calls forwarded to my office phone, cell phone or blackberry.
Setting up Sunrocket took about 5 minutes. I've called Customer Service a couple of times... Sunrocket outsources it someplace overseas, India, I think, but the calls are answered rather promptly and issues are resolved quickly. The longest I have had to wait is about five minutes.
(I had read some horror stories about Sunrocket's CS woes months ago and it almost made me turn to someone else. It appears that they've beefed up their staff substantially.)
The price is fantastic. I paid $199 but received 15 months service plus the free phones. I don't make that many long distance calls and getting my spouse to pick up the Sunrocket phone when she calls her relatives hasn't been easy, but I'm a happy customer. I'm probably saving about $15-20 per month using Sunrocket vs. my previous carrier.
Calling internationally to Australia was easy... there was a slight delay in the conversation, but nothing extraordinary. Calling England was another story.... while I could hear perfectly, the chap I called said that he could hardly make out what I was saying through the static.
The webtools to manage my Sunrocket account are simple and impressive. I can check voice mail or missed calls from anywhere, and call forwarding is a snap. I work out of my home a couple of days a week and I can have my calls forwarded to my office phone, cell phone or blackberry.
Setting up Sunrocket took about 5 minutes. I've called Customer Service a couple of times... Sunrocket outsources it someplace overseas, India, I think, but the calls are answered rather promptly and issues are resolved quickly. The longest I have had to wait is about five minutes.
(I had read some horror stories about Sunrocket's CS woes months ago and it almost made me turn to someone else. It appears that they've beefed up their staff substantially.)
User Rating:
2.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
30 minutes for Tech Support Representaive
Pros: Cheap Price
Cons: No fax support,
Review: This company is good for those that is looking for a cheap service.
The connection to a cell phone in Brazil can take up to 1:15 to complete the connection, and the connection sometimes is good.
Their system doesn't support fax line.
If you call the tech support, bring the pop corn and soda, seat and relax, because they'll take least 30 minutes to answer your call.
If had to choose between this company and vonage I still choose this company.( I had vonage and I hated it).
The connection to a cell phone in Brazil can take up to 1:15 to complete the connection, and the connection sometimes is good.
Their system doesn't support fax line.
If you call the tech support, bring the pop corn and soda, seat and relax, because they'll take least 30 minutes to answer your call.
If had to choose between this company and vonage I still choose this company.( I had vonage and I hated it).
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Worth the change from VONAGE
Pros: VERY GOOD VOICE QUALITY, GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE
Cons: NONE SO FAR
Review: I am not being paid by sunrocket, this is thru experience. I switched from VONAGE which has a lot of discrepancies in billings and customer service.
Sunrockets customer service is great! They even log every call that you make so that when you call back there is history of your concerns. The voice quality is very good. I even tried using fax and it went thru. I disconnected the power source of the main line of my landline then I plugged the gizmo to my regular landline socket and every landline socket around the house is connected already. TOTALLY HAPPY!
Sunrockets customer service is great! They even log every call that you make so that when you call back there is history of your concerns. The voice quality is very good. I even tried using fax and it went thru. I disconnected the power source of the main line of my landline then I plugged the gizmo to my regular landline socket and every landline socket around the house is connected already. TOTALLY HAPPY!
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
$$$$ STAY AWAY FROM SUNROCKET $$$$$
Pros: dirt cheap
Cons: Poor hardware / World's worst technical support
Review: Dear Users,
I have been a happy vonage customer so far, till I got a Cinco De Mayo promotion which said that I can have two years of unlimited package for $199. I qyuickly signed up for that on May5th, 2006. I also requested them to take over the phone number which is presently with Vonage.
May 10th, I received an email that my gizmo has been shipped. When I received it, I followed the install instructions and still there was no dial tone on the phone1 port.
I contacted support on MAy17, 2006 and the lady asked me to perform several things and finally said that she is going to escalate this to a network engineer and he will call me between 3 to 6 days. I was pretty pissed off with this as with vonage, I had to deal with exactly 0 problems. I never had any single ticket with Vonage. SO, I waited ..and waited ..then I called again after 3-4 working days in the veening and found a gentleman on the phone. I spent not less than an hour with him doing several things, including hard reset by inserting the PIN into the Gizmo and nothing worked. VPIP light is solid on, I can browse the Internet by connecting my PC to the LAN port of GIzmo but still there is no dial tone on phone port1.
This is May26th, 2006 , and I did not yet receive any support call from sunrocket. There is no status on my phone number change yet. I had to pay one more month of vonage fees because of the delays of these incompetent persons on sunrocket.
Just my 2 cents, that saty away from SUnRocket as they are not just cheap , they are cheap and BAD.
I am also thinking of contactive some consumer forums to make them aware about these false promises on SUnRocket and how they are milking money from consumers like me,,,,upfront $200.
In Nut Shell....$$$$ STAY AWAY FROM SUNROCKET $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
I have been a happy vonage customer so far, till I got a Cinco De Mayo promotion which said that I can have two years of unlimited package for $199. I qyuickly signed up for that on May5th, 2006. I also requested them to take over the phone number which is presently with Vonage.
May 10th, I received an email that my gizmo has been shipped. When I received it, I followed the install instructions and still there was no dial tone on the phone1 port.
I contacted support on MAy17, 2006 and the lady asked me to perform several things and finally said that she is going to escalate this to a network engineer and he will call me between 3 to 6 days. I was pretty pissed off with this as with vonage, I had to deal with exactly 0 problems. I never had any single ticket with Vonage. SO, I waited ..and waited ..then I called again after 3-4 working days in the veening and found a gentleman on the phone. I spent not less than an hour with him doing several things, including hard reset by inserting the PIN into the Gizmo and nothing worked. VPIP light is solid on, I can browse the Internet by connecting my PC to the LAN port of GIzmo but still there is no dial tone on phone port1.
This is May26th, 2006 , and I did not yet receive any support call from sunrocket. There is no status on my phone number change yet. I had to pay one more month of vonage fees because of the delays of these incompetent persons on sunrocket.
Just my 2 cents, that saty away from SUnRocket as they are not just cheap , they are cheap and BAD.
I am also thinking of contactive some consumer forums to make them aware about these false promises on SUnRocket and how they are milking money from consumers like me,,,,upfront $200.
In Nut Shell....$$$$ STAY AWAY FROM SUNROCKET $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
User Rating:
2.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Unreliable service
Pros: Good price with many desirable features.
Cons: Unreliable service; Installation problem;
Review: Rock bottom pricing with many desirable features, but the service was not reliable enough. It takes some efforts to bring it back up after power cycle.
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
avoid sunrocket!!!!!
Pros: cheap (for crappy service)
Cons: EVERYTHING!!!!
Review: since day one i have had problems with sunrocket. they must have no quality control department at all.
every other time (or every 3rd time) i call to talk to customer or technical service departments, (whether i’m on my cell phone or using my home/sunrocket phone) i would get disconnected.
i can barely hear/understand the sunrocket representative (the voice quality of the service is terrible. sounds like a cell phone that is fading in and out). i have been transferred to so many departments and no one knows (even after looking at my trouble ticket) what department i’ve talked to, and who i need to talk to next.
i was told my fax machine would work with this service (for my home business) i was told my phone number would be able to transfer over for that fax line (even though i made it VERY CLEAR it was running on the same phone line as my home phone number). i found out later my fax machine would not work and my fax number could not transfer over.
i spent 8 hours! 8 HOURS on the phone with different technical support departments in one day, to get both gizmos working together (one for my home/office line and one for my business fax line). even with my husband’s help (he is a network administrator) on this end assigning IP addresses and all that technical stuff to this “gizmo” we never got it to work correctly.
i was supposed to hear back from technical support within 3 days and i went 4 business days without a call back (and even over the weekend). when i called about it, i was told to just wait longer. they said if they put in another request it would take another 3 days.
just EVERY SINGLE aspect of this service and quality has just been terrible. i strongly suggest you avoid them at all costs!!
now i’m in the process of transferring my phone numbers back to verizon, that’s a whole other chore! i have had my service up and running with sunrocket for 9 days and i called to cancel my service and transfer my number back to verizon. verizon says it’ll be 2 weeks to transfer those number back, and sunrocket wants to charge me for this time, even though they have a so called 31 day gaurentee where you get your money back and your phone number transferred back for free. this is a LIE!! again i’ve had this up and running for 9 days!!!! they start that gaurentee before you even have your service up and running!
what a horrible horrible experience!
every other time (or every 3rd time) i call to talk to customer or technical service departments, (whether i’m on my cell phone or using my home/sunrocket phone) i would get disconnected.
i can barely hear/understand the sunrocket representative (the voice quality of the service is terrible. sounds like a cell phone that is fading in and out). i have been transferred to so many departments and no one knows (even after looking at my trouble ticket) what department i’ve talked to, and who i need to talk to next.
i was told my fax machine would work with this service (for my home business) i was told my phone number would be able to transfer over for that fax line (even though i made it VERY CLEAR it was running on the same phone line as my home phone number). i found out later my fax machine would not work and my fax number could not transfer over.
i spent 8 hours! 8 HOURS on the phone with different technical support departments in one day, to get both gizmos working together (one for my home/office line and one for my business fax line). even with my husband’s help (he is a network administrator) on this end assigning IP addresses and all that technical stuff to this “gizmo” we never got it to work correctly.
i was supposed to hear back from technical support within 3 days and i went 4 business days without a call back (and even over the weekend). when i called about it, i was told to just wait longer. they said if they put in another request it would take another 3 days.
just EVERY SINGLE aspect of this service and quality has just been terrible. i strongly suggest you avoid them at all costs!!
now i’m in the process of transferring my phone numbers back to verizon, that’s a whole other chore! i have had my service up and running with sunrocket for 9 days and i called to cancel my service and transfer my number back to verizon. verizon says it’ll be 2 weeks to transfer those number back, and sunrocket wants to charge me for this time, even though they have a so called 31 day gaurentee where you get your money back and your phone number transferred back for free. this is a LIE!! again i’ve had this up and running for 9 days!!!! they start that gaurentee before you even have your service up and running!
what a horrible horrible experience!
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
very satisfied
Pros: price and features
Cons: not 100% reliable
Review: I really like this service, especially the price - $199 per year. I got 3 months free when I signed up, months 13-15. It's not completely reliable though. We have had some outages, but they have been rare, especially lately. Since we also have cell phones, it hasn't been a problem. I wouldn't get it without a backup though. I have had it for 6 months. Delivery on the deice was very fast. I ordered on a Sunday and it arrived Tuesday. I was using the phone through their service within 5 minutes after opening the package. I ported my old number over without problem. It took a little under 3 weeks.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Don't believe the nay-sayers!
Pros: Price, sound quality, features
Cons: None as of yet!!!!
Review: I read ALL of the reviews before getting SunRocket and must admit I was nervous about service issues and number transfer issues. I've waited until I've had experience with both to comment. First of all, for the price and features one CANNOT beat SunRocket! My number was transferred within the 30 day time limit that they mention. It happened in more like 15 days. I do expereince a faint echo now and again but it is not that annoying and certainly better than the scratchy land line I had with SBC/AT&T. One is given 2 numbers to use while waiting for a number transfer and then one has the option of keeping all 3 (for a fee of $3/mo. for the third #)or keeping just 2. As soon as I was notified that my number had been transferred I e-mailed Member Services to get rid of the 3rd number. This was on a Sunday, morning or afternoon. Within hours the third number had been deleted and I received a message notifying me of the cancellation. So, number transfer happened sooner than expected and my one need for Member Services went over spectacularly! Not to mention I signed on when SunRocket had a promotional 3 months for free when signing up for the yearly rate. I am getting unlimited long distance, caller ID, call waiting, ability to check my voice mail via Internet, and all the other features for: you do the math $199/15 mo. Well, there is the broadband cost to figure in as well but I would have that anyway!
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Lower Price And Features
Pros: Has to be the price..No Contract or Additional Fees
Cons: None really ...
Review: I was paying 82.00 a month for unlimited long distance ..Now i pay 199.00 for the full year..i have had no problems with sunrocket.Set up was a breeze and within 15 min i was on the phone and making and receiving calls ..And 2 free phones in addition to the 199.00 for a full year...I can fax fine with no problems ..I see other complain about customwer service well i have no had any such problems .. you cannot rate a service totally on the person who answers there phone support....phone support is a hit and miss in most all places i call .Caller id with name and number and E911 are all a big plus for me .. I can even block callers who try and call me by blocking there number ..I have had no calls problems ...If u wait in the last 2 months i have seen sunrocket run specials of 2 years for 199.00 ..You need ot check site regularily to get this special...
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Love it, Exceed my Expectations
Pros: Price, value, good tech support, voice quality
Cons: Can't record a personalized vmail msg
Review: Have no problems with this service--great sound quality. Can even fax with it--haven't had an issue with faxing. Can't beat the price. So, if you want to get around the 2-limit on 411 calls, just call free 411 service at 1-800-373-3411
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Good so far!
Pros: Easy set up!
Cons: Voice quality a little less than land line.
Review: Signup was easy and received the package in the mail in about 6 days. Setup was done in about 10-15 mins. Called my wife on her cell and voice quality was a little off that from a land line, but not significant. I Liked the price ($199 a year) with two free phones. Will have to wait and see if it is as reliable as a land line.
Updated
This is an update. After a year of Sunrocket I terminated it. I transferred my home phone number I had for years. No problem. Then a few months later they gave my number away to some girl with a verizon cell phone. I found out after people kept getting her. I called and emailed Sunrocket and they said they would get my number back. It didn't happen. After awhile they said they were sorry they coulndn't get my number back. This coupled with not so good sound quality I decided to cancel. Don't get me wrong I liked the price, but not the service.
This is an update. After a year of Sunrocket I terminated it. I transferred my home phone number I had for years. No problem. Then a few months later they gave my number away to some girl with a verizon cell phone. I found out after people kept getting her. I called and emailed Sunrocket and they said they would get my number back. It didn't happen. After awhile they said they were sorry they coulndn't get my number back. This coupled with not so good sound quality I decided to cancel. Don't get me wrong I liked the price, but not the service.
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Poor voice quality and customer service
Pros: Cheap 1-year plan
Cons: Poor voice quality and customer service
Review: After I purchased the product and set it up, I found that the uplink voice was broken up. Not usable at all. They said it must be my ISP's problem, but I used skype under the same setup without any problem.
I returned the equipment and requested for a refund. The customer service representative didn't take a NO for answer. After email back and forth 5 times, she finally said you need call in to cancel. After calling in, I was told that my account would be cancelled and I would get a refund--I even got an email confirmation saying my account had been cancelled. But after two weeks, nothing happened. I called in again, and was told there was no record showing I requested a refund. What a joke!
I returned the equipment and requested for a refund. The customer service representative didn't take a NO for answer. After email back and forth 5 times, she finally said you need call in to cancel. After calling in, I was told that my account would be cancelled and I would get a refund--I even got an email confirmation saying my account had been cancelled. But after two weeks, nothing happened. I called in again, and was told there was no record showing I requested a refund. What a joke!
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
incompetent company with questionable business ethics and dishonest practice
Pros: flashy commercial, free phone offer, cheap monthly rate
Cons: technologically incompetent, dishonest business practice
Review: I've switched to VOIP in early 2004. I first used Packet 8 and then switched to SunRocket in early 2005 after signing up for a year service ($199) at SunRocket kiosk in a local mall. The phone service was OK initially for a few months. Then technical problem started. The phone service became irratic and unreliable to a point that I was without a phone service for more than a week! During this outbreak of their service, SunRocket technical support pretended that it was caused by my internet service. Then after the major outbreak, they sent an e-mail attributing their technical problems for the outbreak. However, SunRocket fail to issue credit for their service interruptions for more than 8 months despite repeated phone calls and service tickets issued by their reps.
Another problen occurred with SunRocket's phone number transfer. Initially SunRocket took more than a month for the transfer with specific instruction not to cancel the previous service by me - they were supposed to cancel the previous service after the phone number transfer. However, they did not cancel the previous service and failed to inform me their failure. I was willing to pay for both services during the transfer process. However, I was charged for additional three months of service from the previous service provider after the completion of the transfer process. I found out SunRocket’s error and had to cancel the previous service. Again, SunRocket failed to reimburse the double charge for more than 8 months despite repeated calls to SunRocket and many service tickets issued by SunRocket reps. Moreover, they changed the phone number transfer instruction retroactively and tried to blame me, their customer, for SunRocket's mistake.
After months of unreliable phone service and failure to receive the reimbursements, I cancelled SunRocket service after a little more than 6 months. After properly terminating SunRocket service by calling them and receiving yet another service ticket number, I promptly returned SunRocket box as instructed. Again, SunRocket failed to issue the refund of unused portion of the yearly fee which was in the contract. Many phone calls to SunRocket customer service reps, e-mails to "builditbetter@sunrocket.com" and service ticket numbers issued by their reps fail to resolve the issue for more than 6 months.
I worked with local BBB for more than 6 month, which exhausted all possible remediation efforts and then had to resort to arbitration process; SunRocket finally issued the credit back to me this month (April 2006).
Bottom line: please be careful before making a decision to do business with SunRocket. SunRocket which has demonstrated dishonest business ethics and fraudulent advertising practice (e.g. "We are out to build a better phone company", "No gotcha", etc.) The time and effort that were wasted in the whole process was extremely excessive and painful. I only went through the long arduous process for the principle and to point out that SunRocket's incompetent and dishonest business practice is not acceptable.
As a reference, now I've been a content customer of Vonage, of which service has been reliable and steady for last 6+ months. Vonage's charge may seem higher than SunRocket's; however, its reliable service is more than worth it. I would never do business with SunRocket no matter how cheap their rate is.
Another problen occurred with SunRocket's phone number transfer. Initially SunRocket took more than a month for the transfer with specific instruction not to cancel the previous service by me - they were supposed to cancel the previous service after the phone number transfer. However, they did not cancel the previous service and failed to inform me their failure. I was willing to pay for both services during the transfer process. However, I was charged for additional three months of service from the previous service provider after the completion of the transfer process. I found out SunRocket’s error and had to cancel the previous service. Again, SunRocket failed to reimburse the double charge for more than 8 months despite repeated calls to SunRocket and many service tickets issued by SunRocket reps. Moreover, they changed the phone number transfer instruction retroactively and tried to blame me, their customer, for SunRocket's mistake.
After months of unreliable phone service and failure to receive the reimbursements, I cancelled SunRocket service after a little more than 6 months. After properly terminating SunRocket service by calling them and receiving yet another service ticket number, I promptly returned SunRocket box as instructed. Again, SunRocket failed to issue the refund of unused portion of the yearly fee which was in the contract. Many phone calls to SunRocket customer service reps, e-mails to "builditbetter@sunrocket.com" and service ticket numbers issued by their reps fail to resolve the issue for more than 6 months.
I worked with local BBB for more than 6 month, which exhausted all possible remediation efforts and then had to resort to arbitration process; SunRocket finally issued the credit back to me this month (April 2006).
Bottom line: please be careful before making a decision to do business with SunRocket. SunRocket which has demonstrated dishonest business ethics and fraudulent advertising practice (e.g. "We are out to build a better phone company", "No gotcha", etc.) The time and effort that were wasted in the whole process was extremely excessive and painful. I only went through the long arduous process for the principle and to point out that SunRocket's incompetent and dishonest business practice is not acceptable.
As a reference, now I've been a content customer of Vonage, of which service has been reliable and steady for last 6+ months. Vonage's charge may seem higher than SunRocket's; however, its reliable service is more than worth it. I would never do business with SunRocket no matter how cheap their rate is.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Great service... Wife is happy!
Pros: Cheap, simple billing. Easy in / out (if you want to cancel)
Cons: None. Haven't had to use tech support
Review: I've been looking for an alternative to Sprint for years. The difficult to read billing, the constant sales calls and all the taxes made me sick. My wife and I have cell phones but with limited minutes. She needed a phone with unlimited minutes. I read reviews on SunRocket. With the zero start up fees and the “cancel anytime” policy made the decision easy. I ordered and it took about 2 weeks for my equipment to arrive.
With their router (called the Gizmo) connected as recommended, installation was easy and voice quality was good only when NOT downloading on the Internet. If you are on the Internet while talking, inbound voice is fine but outbound voice is degraded, sometimes seriously. The Gizmo has a QoS (Quality of service) feature that is supposed improve this. I tried it and it did fix the problem but basically, while talking, made my 4mb cable connection perform like a dialup connection. They need to tweak the QoS feature to fix this. By the time you read this, it may have already been done. Anyway, by having the Gizmo installed as they recommend, they can also push firmware updates to Gizmo, to improve performance (assuming the update doesn’t cause other problems).
What I did was place the Gizmo behind my router. I had to configure my router to forward a series of ports in order to get things working well. I also enabled QoS on my router. For voice calls, 90kps down/up is needed. Most hi speed connections have a faster download than upload. For example, my cable is 4000kbps down and 512kbps up. If you use one of the lower cost (value) packages it may only be like 256kbps down/up, which may affect browsing/download speed while talking. It could also affect voice quality, but I’m not sure on this. I plan to test my setup at my sister’s place… she has the Cox cable value tier Internet service (256kbps Down/Up).
I ‘m using all of my existing phones at their original locations and simply disconnected Sprint at the demarc location at the side of my house (I just removed the phone plug from the socket). The Gizmo is now the interface into your house. It's plugged into the phone jack so all phones can access it. You can only have one or the other. Make sure no one plugs it back in while on your Gizmo is connect in this way or the 48v Sprint phone line will fry your Gizmo. You can ensure this doesn’t happen by disconnecting the outline from the phone jack in your house.
One drawback with the Gizmo located behind my router is that SunRocket can no longer push firmware updates to it. Also, the Gizmo’s QoS feature will not work, so make sure your router’s QoS feature can be directed to the port that your Gizmo is plugged into. Not all routers have QoS.
Because I have my own phones, I opted for the free 3 months vs. the cell phones they offer, so my 199.00 / 15 month subscription averages 13.77 a month. Oh but wait, there is no monthly bill…. Sweeet!!!
I work in IT and I’m on the phone all day, so I seldom talk on my home phone. Because my wife is the primary user of the phone, I agreed with her that she would decide whether or not to keep it. She’s somewhat picky about voice quality and after asking all of her contacts how the connection is (remember outbound call data quality is usually what’s affected) she’s decided this is a good deal. We’ve had it for 2 months now.
My limited testing with Faxing shows that sending is fine but receiving is spotty. I read that installing a DSL line filter between the fax and the wall may correct this so I’ll pick one up from BestBuy or Walmart.
I'll report lateron how the well SunRocket works with the lower speed connections soon.
With their router (called the Gizmo) connected as recommended, installation was easy and voice quality was good only when NOT downloading on the Internet. If you are on the Internet while talking, inbound voice is fine but outbound voice is degraded, sometimes seriously. The Gizmo has a QoS (Quality of service) feature that is supposed improve this. I tried it and it did fix the problem but basically, while talking, made my 4mb cable connection perform like a dialup connection. They need to tweak the QoS feature to fix this. By the time you read this, it may have already been done. Anyway, by having the Gizmo installed as they recommend, they can also push firmware updates to Gizmo, to improve performance (assuming the update doesn’t cause other problems).
What I did was place the Gizmo behind my router. I had to configure my router to forward a series of ports in order to get things working well. I also enabled QoS on my router. For voice calls, 90kps down/up is needed. Most hi speed connections have a faster download than upload. For example, my cable is 4000kbps down and 512kbps up. If you use one of the lower cost (value) packages it may only be like 256kbps down/up, which may affect browsing/download speed while talking. It could also affect voice quality, but I’m not sure on this. I plan to test my setup at my sister’s place… she has the Cox cable value tier Internet service (256kbps Down/Up).
I ‘m using all of my existing phones at their original locations and simply disconnected Sprint at the demarc location at the side of my house (I just removed the phone plug from the socket). The Gizmo is now the interface into your house. It's plugged into the phone jack so all phones can access it. You can only have one or the other. Make sure no one plugs it back in while on your Gizmo is connect in this way or the 48v Sprint phone line will fry your Gizmo. You can ensure this doesn’t happen by disconnecting the outline from the phone jack in your house.
One drawback with the Gizmo located behind my router is that SunRocket can no longer push firmware updates to it. Also, the Gizmo’s QoS feature will not work, so make sure your router’s QoS feature can be directed to the port that your Gizmo is plugged into. Not all routers have QoS.
Because I have my own phones, I opted for the free 3 months vs. the cell phones they offer, so my 199.00 / 15 month subscription averages 13.77 a month. Oh but wait, there is no monthly bill…. Sweeet!!!
I work in IT and I’m on the phone all day, so I seldom talk on my home phone. Because my wife is the primary user of the phone, I agreed with her that she would decide whether or not to keep it. She’s somewhat picky about voice quality and after asking all of her contacts how the connection is (remember outbound call data quality is usually what’s affected) she’s decided this is a good deal. We’ve had it for 2 months now.
My limited testing with Faxing shows that sending is fine but receiving is spotty. I read that installing a DSL line filter between the fax and the wall may correct this so I’ll pick one up from BestBuy or Walmart.
I'll report lateron how the well SunRocket works with the lower speed connections soon.
User Rating:
3.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Worth trying
Pros: Lowest cost
Cons: Sound quality, but could have been Comcast's fault
Review: Although I had some technical difficulties, customer service was excellent and it was worth trying. I experienced some sound quality issues that were not resolved, but the problem may have been Comcast's cable modem service in my neighborhood. Nevertheless, technical support and customer service were accessible, responsive and very courteous. A few days after they received their equipment back, I received a refund on my credit card account.
The $199/year plan is incredibly price competitive, so I would recommend giving them a chance to prove themselves.
The $199/year plan is incredibly price competitive, so I would recommend giving them a chance to prove themselves.
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Unknowledgable Billing and Phone Number transfer
Pros: This company has none.
Cons: Poor tech support, billing support, and willingness to back up their promises.
Review: I search long and hard to consider VOiP and was sorely dissapointed with SunRocket. I chose them on a recommendation from Money Magazine. However, their web-based sign up did not include questions about the phone hookups and its inability to work with home wiring. Therefore, once I cancelled the service, SunRocket would not release my original phonenumber without reactivating the account. It has been three weeks and they still have not released it. Evidently, none of their billing department talks with anyone in their phone number transfer department. Several hours on the phone and I was still unable to talk with someone who actually releases the phone numbers.
Overall, SunRocket is ill-prepared to provide what they advertise. Use this company if you want poor technical support, poor billing support, and an unwillingness to accept responsibility for their inadequacies.
Overall, SunRocket is ill-prepared to provide what they advertise. Use this company if you want poor technical support, poor billing support, and an unwillingness to accept responsibility for their inadequacies.
User Rating:
1.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Great when it works but unreliable and support is awful
Pros: Great call quality, price, free phones
Cons: Unreliable, tech support is awful
Review: I have called Sunrocket's outsourced support twice to try and resolve a problem and the support has been awful. On the first call made Mar 30th at about 10.30pm CST I could not heard the tech as his colleagues were celebrating a birthday party in the call center. It didn't make any difference as he was not very knowledgeable.
On a second call at 8am CST on March 31st the support person said I should run a speed test and she would email me instructions. She never did.
I have looked online and did my own speed test which showed everything was fine. I am going to try a new ethernet cable to replace the one sunrocket gave to me. I am reduced to fixing this problem myself through internet forums and support groups!
Anyone else suffering might find help at the following links.
http://ej.typepad.com/tech/2005/07/sunrocket_seems.html
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,14812903
This switch over has been a big mistake for me. I am very disappointed.
On a second call at 8am CST on March 31st the support person said I should run a speed test and she would email me instructions. She never did.
I have looked online and did my own speed test which showed everything was fine. I am going to try a new ethernet cable to replace the one sunrocket gave to me. I am reduced to fixing this problem myself through internet forums and support groups!
Anyone else suffering might find help at the following links.
http://ej.typepad.com/tech/2005/07/sunrocket_seems.html
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,14812903
This switch over has been a big mistake for me. I am very disappointed.
Updated
Got a call from the guys in VA who were very helpful and sympathetic towards my woes with the Manilla support staff. A 30 second call fixed my problem. Loving the phone and the price. Still have 15 days to cancel if I don't like. We'll see
Got a call from the guys in VA who were very helpful and sympathetic towards my woes with the Manilla support staff. A 30 second call fixed my problem. Loving the phone and the price. Still have 15 days to cancel if I don't like. We'll see
Updated
Going on a month now and the service has been very reliable, call quality has been great and this includes calls to land lines and cell phones in Ireland. I love the additional features such as email and call notification when I get a vm and the fact that I can forward this phone. It is light years ahead of the landline providers for a fraction of the price. 8 out of 10
Going on a month now and the service has been very reliable, call quality has been great and this includes calls to land lines and cell phones in Ireland. I love the additional features such as email and call notification when I get a vm and the fact that I can forward this phone. It is light years ahead of the landline providers for a fraction of the price. 8 out of 10
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Waste: Cust serv 45min hold, no tech help, dead call
Pros: its cheap the cheaper
Cons: its really cheap :(
Review: Waste: Cust serv 45min hold, no tech help, dead call, power goes off by itself...if u will go for a brand name...this serv will cost u a fight in house or an missed interview call!!!
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
I will never go back to Verizon... EVER again.
Pros: The Price is GREAT, no hidden fees, No Dropped Calls
Cons: 1 out of 20 outbound calls has to be redialed, call quality is not as good as landline
Review: I had Vonage and was always dropping calls... every call that lasted over two minutes was dropped. SunRocket has worked perfectly for over 5 months now and NO DROPPED CALLS!
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
inept company that can't even communicate with itself
Pros: price is good ($200/YEAR)
Cons: service bad to non-existant
Review: When people call us from caller id-blocked phones, our phone rings, but call fails to go thru, or even go to voice mail. Have lost thousands of dollars in business. Have been complaining for nearly a month, only to be told "we have a unique problem". Tonight we called again only to be told that engineering is aware of the problem. Costumer service says it has no way to communicate with engineering (perhaps thay also have SunRocket...)Repairs will take as long as necessary to give the best service possible, and they will let us know when it is fixed!!!!! When asked what about the business I am losing, they said we could talk to billing for an adjustment!!!(Sure, $20 off to compensate for thousands in lost business) They should answer their phones "This is SunRocket, can you help us?"
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Don't get it if you want to transfer your number!
Pros: Cheap compared to other land-lines and VOIP
Cons: Bad call quality, customer service needs shorter wait time
Review: After using Comcast's VOIP service for a couple of months I decided to switch to SunRocket since the cost was significantly less. We wanted to transfer our old number and all of the documentation I read through made it seem simple. After my number was "transferred", I found out that I would not be able to receive incoming calls for a week! After waiting in the queue for over 15 minutes, the tech suggested I give out the SunRocket number for the week. That was a ridiculous suggestion! I said I wanted to close my account and was transferred to billing. I was on hold for over 30 (!!) minutes before got to me. I never want to change my phone service again!!
User Rating:
1.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Love the price, unforgiving customer service program
Pros: Features, price, savings in taxes and fees on regular phone line, promotion of long distance credit or free phones
Cons: Beware customer service program, minor echo on line, no online customer service, except by email and dead air when dialing out occasionally, hang up and try again, then works okay
Review: Activated service 26 Jan 06. Received Gizmo on 1 Feb, took 6 times to get gizmo working properly, trial and error, better than trying to contact customer service for this. Requested home phone number to be ported over on 2 Feb 06. Contract states 30 business days to complete the porting process.
Customer service is always pleasant, but system needs major upgrade. Ported phone number was shut off 21 Feb 06 with original phone company, but didn't work when others tried calling me. Called Sunrocket Customer Service, they called from their end, seems to work fine, they stated. I played recording from my cell phone when I called my own house number (number not in service).
Sunrocket customer service reply; forwarded work request to porting department. Received email response 2 days later. We have 30 business days to complete the process, your 30 business days is 14 Mar 06. Waited 2 weeks since 21 February 06, to have process complete, no working ported number.
Contacted original phone company, had home number reactivated luckily, since Sunrocket never sent final ported completion order to the phone company. Placed numerous calls to Sunrocket Customer Service, only escalates problem to next level by email, and would never transfer you to a live person in either the engineering or porting department.
If they would due this, I think this would make a great company, especially with 911 service, it works!!!. Plus excellent features for the price. No cancellation or extra charges if you make long calls or numerous back to back calls to family and friends. One company, if it appears as a business use, updates and changes your account to business use without notifying and back charges you even if you are not using it as business. I will update customer service portion and rating, once I resolve the above issue.
Again 16 Mar 06, my home ported number was not working with old phone company or Sunrocket, it is 2 days past 30 business days. Customer service again only escalated 2 work orders by email. I did find a media contact for Sunrocket on one of their pages. I called him for assistance approximately 2 weeks ago (promised email response from him but never happened) he has been kind. He did remember I called, when I called again 16 Mar 06. He did say he would try to research and fix the problem.
When calling out and getting dead air, the other partie hears you but you can't hear them. I hang up and try again and all works well. I get an occasional echo on some phone calls but minor inconvenience for the price with all the features.
Customer service is always pleasant, but system needs major upgrade. Ported phone number was shut off 21 Feb 06 with original phone company, but didn't work when others tried calling me. Called Sunrocket Customer Service, they called from their end, seems to work fine, they stated. I played recording from my cell phone when I called my own house number (number not in service).
Sunrocket customer service reply; forwarded work request to porting department. Received email response 2 days later. We have 30 business days to complete the process, your 30 business days is 14 Mar 06. Waited 2 weeks since 21 February 06, to have process complete, no working ported number.
Contacted original phone company, had home number reactivated luckily, since Sunrocket never sent final ported completion order to the phone company. Placed numerous calls to Sunrocket Customer Service, only escalates problem to next level by email, and would never transfer you to a live person in either the engineering or porting department.
If they would due this, I think this would make a great company, especially with 911 service, it works!!!. Plus excellent features for the price. No cancellation or extra charges if you make long calls or numerous back to back calls to family and friends. One company, if it appears as a business use, updates and changes your account to business use without notifying and back charges you even if you are not using it as business. I will update customer service portion and rating, once I resolve the above issue.
Again 16 Mar 06, my home ported number was not working with old phone company or Sunrocket, it is 2 days past 30 business days. Customer service again only escalated 2 work orders by email. I did find a media contact for Sunrocket on one of their pages. I called him for assistance approximately 2 weeks ago (promised email response from him but never happened) he has been kind. He did remember I called, when I called again 16 Mar 06. He did say he would try to research and fix the problem.
When calling out and getting dead air, the other partie hears you but you can't hear them. I hang up and try again and all works well. I get an occasional echo on some phone calls but minor inconvenience for the price with all the features.
User Rating:
1.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Horrible customer service
Pros: easy config
Cons: high latency in international call , calls die , one way calls, bad customer support , high wait time with customer support
Review: Very bad customer support , high wait times ( average 30 mins to get to some when calling cust support) . i had a billing issue , called 800 number waited 30 mins , the support "engineer" put me on hold quite a few times , then recoginized a blling error created a ticket and then concluded that this was the wrong dept and i had to send an email to another address detailing the prob , all this after wating nearly an hour. I think it is lame that he could do an internal transfer of the ticket. The quality on the ervice itself is inconsistent. Very very bad internation call quality ( that was the main reason i got this ). I see a lot of people have posted +ve reviews. i guess if you dont have to call customer service you are exempt from dealing with a highly inefficient part of this company. I would suggest going with another established company if you can.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Not a bad service
Pros: CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP and a lot FEATURES
Cons: Sometimes not the best voice quality
Review: This is a great deal! The quality is great some of the time, good most of the time and bad infrequently. The features are great and the voicemail works very nice. I switched my landline number and have been using Sunrocket for about four months. I paid the $199.00 for a year and do not regret doing it.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Excellent considering the price
Pros: Very inexpensive, free phone, generous referral program
Cons: Still growing
Review: I signed up for SunRocket service in December 2005. The phone number that I was able to choose myself when signing up was available to receive voice mail immediately. I signed up to have my Qwest phone number tranferred, and that took only about 3 weeks (probably to Qwest's credit). I've had no trouble with the service -- and the free duel handset cordless phone system works great. Once in awhile (maybe twice a month) when I make a call the other party can't hear me. When this has happens I hang up and call back and all is fine. I've talked to Vonage users who have experienced the same problem.
For $15.68 per month (if you do their annual plan), it's an amazing service. I've seen no voice quality issues. My guess is that those who have voice quality issues are those who have lower bandwidth. My cable modem bandwidth is 6MB down / 385Kb up (as tested at DSLREPORTS). I also connected the VoIP box they sent me to the inside wiring of my house so that all my phone outlets work. Don't do this unless you have physically disconnected the outside wiring (phone company's wires) from your inside wiring. This is easy to do at the box on the side of your house (do a search to find out how). The voltage that the phone company sends your wiring will fry your box if you don't disconnect it. I'm very happy with SunRocket. -Tom (Littleton, Colorado).
For $15.68 per month (if you do their annual plan), it's an amazing service. I've seen no voice quality issues. My guess is that those who have voice quality issues are those who have lower bandwidth. My cable modem bandwidth is 6MB down / 385Kb up (as tested at DSLREPORTS). I also connected the VoIP box they sent me to the inside wiring of my house so that all my phone outlets work. Don't do this unless you have physically disconnected the outside wiring (phone company's wires) from your inside wiring. This is easy to do at the box on the side of your house (do a search to find out how). The voltage that the phone company sends your wiring will fry your box if you don't disconnect it. I'm very happy with SunRocket. -Tom (Littleton, Colorado).
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Very satisfied
Pros: Easy hook up, clear phone communications
Cons: A bit of trouble wanting to retain old number
Review: Over all my experience with Sunrocket has been great. I had no problems hooking it up and was able to make phone calls immediately
The best thing of all is that I don't have to pay the ridiculous monthly phone bills to MCI.
I tried to retain my old number but gave up because it was taking too long.
The best thing of all is that I don't have to pay the ridiculous monthly phone bills to MCI.
I tried to retain my old number but gave up because it was taking too long.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Cheap, easy install
Pros: Voice Quality, Price, Quick and Easy setup
Cons: none to speak of yet
Review: First off, I have had the service for a total of 2 hours now. I will update this as I use it more.
Ordered the Service 2/21/2006 recieved the equipment on 2/24/2006.
I opened the box, took out the "Gizmo", unplugged my router and cable modem.. Wired the "Gizmo" between the cable modem and router.. Plugged it back in as per the instructions. 5 minutes later I made my first call on Sunrocket! Tested the incoming calls and outgoing calls and everything works great.
I did not have a home phone number to port, so my sunrocket supplied phone number worked imediately.
I also have Roadrunner cable which regularly gives me speeds anywhere from 1.9Mbps to 2.5Mbps.
The online interface is fantastic, It makes it easy to set up voice mail and other settings.
So far Sunrocket is a winner... Stay tuned.
Ordered the Service 2/21/2006 recieved the equipment on 2/24/2006.
I opened the box, took out the "Gizmo", unplugged my router and cable modem.. Wired the "Gizmo" between the cable modem and router.. Plugged it back in as per the instructions. 5 minutes later I made my first call on Sunrocket! Tested the incoming calls and outgoing calls and everything works great.
I did not have a home phone number to port, so my sunrocket supplied phone number worked imediately.
I also have Roadrunner cable which regularly gives me speeds anywhere from 1.9Mbps to 2.5Mbps.
The online interface is fantastic, It makes it easy to set up voice mail and other settings.
So far Sunrocket is a winner... Stay tuned.
Updated
Have had the service for over 1 month now and still no problems. I make many outgoing calls per day because I mainly work out of the house. I got sunrocket to lighten my cell phone bill. This is working out great so far. I have not actually called Tech support for anything, but I have had a few questions I have asked through email. I have had a response to 3 emails on 3 different occasions all with answers in less than 24 hours. And all were answered in a very professional manner.
The quality of calls seems to be as good as a cell phone, but for 17 bucks a month for free long distance, I can deal with a slight decrease in quality of the calls.. and the quality is good enough to not complain about.
Overall I am extremely happy with this service.
Have had the service for over 1 month now and still no problems. I make many outgoing calls per day because I mainly work out of the house. I got sunrocket to lighten my cell phone bill. This is working out great so far. I have not actually called Tech support for anything, but I have had a few questions I have asked through email. I have had a response to 3 emails on 3 different occasions all with answers in less than 24 hours. And all were answered in a very professional manner.
The quality of calls seems to be as good as a cell phone, but for 17 bucks a month for free long distance, I can deal with a slight decrease in quality of the calls.. and the quality is good enough to not complain about.
Overall I am extremely happy with this service.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Absolutely Love it!!
Pros: Price, Features, Quality
Cons: none as of now
Review: I've had Sunrocket for almost a year now, and I must say, I LOVE IT!! I've even got 5 of my friends to switch over. Joining was easy, and setup was even easier. No problems, and most people don't even know I'm using a VOIP. One feature I always get complements on when I put a caller on hold for call waiting, they hear music while they're waiting.
One thing that is a hit or miss, and that cnet says can't do is faxing. I fax all the time with my Sunrocket service. I just put a splitter into my gizmo, and it faxes just fine. Not one problem.
And one other thing. If you have high speed internet in your home, I'm assuming one of your phones is right by a computer. Do you really need Directory Assistance?
One thing that is a hit or miss, and that cnet says can't do is faxing. I fax all the time with my Sunrocket service. I just put a splitter into my gizmo, and it faxes just fine. Not one problem.
And one other thing. If you have high speed internet in your home, I'm assuming one of your phones is right by a computer. Do you really need Directory Assistance?
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Goodbye Copper Lines, Hello Broadband
Pros: Price, Voice Quality, Free Phones, Calling Features
Cons: Broadband browsing is a little slowed, no dial-up capability, say goodbye to TIVO (can't do it)
Review: I love Sunrocket. It took me like 5 minutes to set up, but initially it didn't work. I called Customer Support and within 5 minutes all was fixed. But other than that this is the best home telephone I've ever had.
I guess the only disappointing thing for me was I had to give up my TIVO because Sunrocket doesn't have support for dial up connections. So my house alarm, TIVO, and Fax Machine I've had to find alternatives for. My house alarm (ADT) is wired through a Bosch broadband router, and I got a cell phone back up ($12/month), my TIVO I switched for Dish Network and they bypass the dial up connection and send the channel updates via satelite for $5 extra each month. So yeah it does cost me an extra $17 a month, but that's still only $33.50/month. With Vonage to get the second phone number, and a fax line so that you don't have to do the work arounds like I did, it will cost you $60/ month plus tax. I think Sunrocket's quality, service, and features far outweigh anyone else out there. Now I just wish they would add the Western European countries like Lingo has. Then Sunrocket would be perfect. Then I could talk to my family in Sweden and Norway.
Buy Sunrocket, they have improved and you aren't going to get a better deal.
I guess the only disappointing thing for me was I had to give up my TIVO because Sunrocket doesn't have support for dial up connections. So my house alarm, TIVO, and Fax Machine I've had to find alternatives for. My house alarm (ADT) is wired through a Bosch broadband router, and I got a cell phone back up ($12/month), my TIVO I switched for Dish Network and they bypass the dial up connection and send the channel updates via satelite for $5 extra each month. So yeah it does cost me an extra $17 a month, but that's still only $33.50/month. With Vonage to get the second phone number, and a fax line so that you don't have to do the work arounds like I did, it will cost you $60/ month plus tax. I think Sunrocket's quality, service, and features far outweigh anyone else out there. Now I just wish they would add the Western European countries like Lingo has. Then Sunrocket would be perfect. Then I could talk to my family in Sweden and Norway.
Buy Sunrocket, they have improved and you aren't going to get a better deal.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Best one I have tried
Pros: Not Available
Cons: Not Available
Review: Had echo problems with Vonage and WOW. A little interferrance at times but nothing bad with sunrocket. Had to use alternative setup with my wireless router but then it worked right away. Considering their package, I am keeping it. Good deal!
Updated
Originally gave very good review but after two weeks the system fell apart. Trying to communicate with the off shore service was a nightmare and getting them to do anything took weeks. Horrible service!
Originally gave very good review but after two weeks the system fell apart. Trying to communicate with the off shore service was a nightmare and getting them to do anything took weeks. Horrible service!
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Very satisfied
Pros: Cheap, great savings, good call quality, easy to use
Cons: used to have occassional service interruptions
Review: I've had SunRocket for a little over a year now and am very satisfied with their service. I saved over $500 last year on their annual plan, and am about to renew for another year. The call quality is just as good, if not better, than my old landline. I would reccomend SunRocket to anyone interested in trying out VoIP, especially b/c they have no activation or cancellation fees. So, giving it a shot is pretty much risk free.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Highly recommend SunRocket
Pros: Great phone service and quality, low price.
Cons: Difficulty with initial set up- required lots of time with customer service.
Review: SunRocket provides great quality at a low price. I have not had any problems with the service since I got connected. My initial set up took about a week after I got the gizmo. I have fiber DSL (no modem in house) and it took several calls back and forth to SunRocket to find the solution to make the gizmo work. Ended up needing a network router to get my connection working. Customer service techs were pleasant and helpful but couldn't put me in touch with higher level techs- always had to get a call back.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Excellent service - no dropped calls (DON'T MIX 2.4GHZ ROUTER AND 2.4GHZ PHONES THEY SENT)
Pros: Clarity, reliability,price
Cons: DROPPED CALLS CAUSE BY MIXING 2.4 GHZ ROUTER AND 2.4GHZ PHONES
Review: The service really is great. I refused to use the phones they sent me. They are running at 2.4Ghz.
I explained to Sunrocket that they are causing their own dropped calls by not realizing the most wireless routers for VOIP are in fact using 2.4Ghz as well. These two devices interfere with each other.
I honestly believe that's what is causing everyone's dropped call problems. Just call them and tell them you have a router at 2.4Ghz and that you are using the 2.4GHZ phones they sent. In my opinion, they should ask you as part of the sale of the service what wireless router you have before they send you any phones so they can send a non-interfering set.
I explained to Sunrocket that they are causing their own dropped calls by not realizing the most wireless routers for VOIP are in fact using 2.4Ghz as well. These two devices interfere with each other.
I honestly believe that's what is causing everyone's dropped call problems. Just call them and tell them you have a router at 2.4Ghz and that you are using the 2.4GHZ phones they sent. In my opinion, they should ask you as part of the sale of the service what wireless router you have before they send you any phones so they can send a non-interfering set.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Perfect for my needs
Pros: Good service, low cost, free phones, voicemail via email and E911
Cons: Unexpected outages
Review: SR has been good to me...saving huge bucks over tradtional service and they seem to have gotten past infrastructure issues.
If you have broadband, you need to stop using traditional service. Free phones and easy installation make it worth the switch.
If you have broadband, you need to stop using traditional service. Free phones and easy installation make it worth the switch.
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Pathetic service
Pros: Nothing good I have found
Cons: Pathetic Customer service
Review: am pretty much irritated and frustrated with this company. I have ordered this service on nov 25. I got the sun rocket gizmo on NOV 30 by UPS. I cancelled the service with in 2 days as I was not satisfied with sunrockets voice quality. To my surprise instead of refunding my money customer service representative charged me extra $199. I payed $388 for 2 days. when contacted cutomer support they issued me a ticket number on Dec 3 which stands still unresolved (on DEC 28) . I contacted them many times on mail and phone only to get a pathetic reply saying...i got this reply more than 3 times till now We would like to apologize for the delayed reply due to the sudden surge of e-mails, both from new and current SunRocket subscribers. We are hoping for your kind understanding regarding this matter. We are also reaffirming our commitment to you for better service and timely response as we are firm believers of good customer service. Regarding your issue, I have updated your Ticket which is in queue with the Billing Department. When it is your turn in the queue, an agent will contact you ASAP by phone or email for resolution. If you have additional questions, please contact SunRocket Member Services at 1-800-786-0132 or send an e-mail to memberservices@sunrocket.com. You can also chat with us online. Service hours are am to Midnight (ET), 7 days a week. Thank you choosing SunRocket. Sincerely, Edgar Maddela SunRocket Member Services SO BER VERY CAREFULL IF YOU ARE ORDERING SUNROCKET...I RATE THIS PRODUCT 2 OUT OF 10
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Ditched Qwest, lowered cell minutes and am saving $65mo.
Pros: NO hidden fees, no setup fees, no cancel fees. You gotta at least try it for free!
Cons: Hard to find any IMHO. Maybe the on-hold music for call waiting and the v-mail prompter voice is cheesy.
Review: I think they have great customer service. I contacted customer service 3 times and all talked to a human fast. i've recommended it to family and friends
Ditch the local carrier, lower your cell minutes and save money. I probably save about $65 as month easy between killing my home service thus having no long-distance bill and , lowering cell phone minute plan.
I work at home and have 1 home number, 1 business number and have a third fax number with dinstrive rings. Use a phone switch and its like you have 3 numbers. Faxes and conference calls are perfect. Yes FAXING WORKS GREAT. I ditched Qwest home service and use VoiIP 100% even dropping my cell phone minutes plan saving more on long distance.
I love the email and pager notification when I get a voice mail. It'll email me a sound file of the message! Forwarding my calls to my when i'm on vacation. At least for home-business, using this makes me look bigger than I am.
I couldn't pass up the offer. turns out to be like $17 a month. ALL equipment (free cordless phones too!) was included, no setup, shipping or hidden charges. setup was literally 2 minutes and I was going.
One "down time" was that voice mail was out for one 3 hour span in the last 6 months.
Only 2 gripes: 1. There's cheezy "hold" music for people holding on call-waiting. They said they can't turn it off for technical reasons. 2. Friends say the voice mail prompt "voice" sounds like some lady from a 900-service. Oh well, it serves up laughter and people think I have a big IT "department" when they reach my business voice mail.
Here's a TIP if you use Voip for home service and ditch the local company like me: Go out to where the phone company connects to your house, usually outside, and disconnect the live line from the house. You can then plug the "Gizmo" into any phone jack in your house and have VoIP dialtone in ALL your existing outlets. Yes, the Voip box can light up all your old jacks. Use any phone, corded or not.
Ditch the local carrier, lower your cell minutes and save money. I probably save about $65 as month easy between killing my home service thus having no long-distance bill and , lowering cell phone minute plan.
I work at home and have 1 home number, 1 business number and have a third fax number with dinstrive rings. Use a phone switch and its like you have 3 numbers. Faxes and conference calls are perfect. Yes FAXING WORKS GREAT. I ditched Qwest home service and use VoiIP 100% even dropping my cell phone minutes plan saving more on long distance.
I love the email and pager notification when I get a voice mail. It'll email me a sound file of the message! Forwarding my calls to my when i'm on vacation. At least for home-business, using this makes me look bigger than I am.
I couldn't pass up the offer. turns out to be like $17 a month. ALL equipment (free cordless phones too!) was included, no setup, shipping or hidden charges. setup was literally 2 minutes and I was going.
One "down time" was that voice mail was out for one 3 hour span in the last 6 months.
Only 2 gripes: 1. There's cheezy "hold" music for people holding on call-waiting. They said they can't turn it off for technical reasons. 2. Friends say the voice mail prompt "voice" sounds like some lady from a 900-service. Oh well, it serves up laughter and people think I have a big IT "department" when they reach my business voice mail.
Here's a TIP if you use Voip for home service and ditch the local company like me: Go out to where the phone company connects to your house, usually outside, and disconnect the live line from the house. You can then plug the "Gizmo" into any phone jack in your house and have VoIP dialtone in ALL your existing outlets. Yes, the Voip box can light up all your old jacks. Use any phone, corded or not.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
SunRocket shoots into space
Pros: Easy setup and nice sound quality, plus free phones!
Cons: Phone customer service
Review: First, I used the online chat customer service prior to receiving my package to confirm it was coming to the right location and found the customer service agent to be knowledgable and helpful. I then received my "gizmo" and free phones yesterday after having ordered 3 days beforehand. I was a little leery based on the reviews that I read on the website here. I pulled out the "gizmo" (essentially the router for the phone) and instructions and followed them for the most part, but plugged in my phone anyway (not the one they sent since theirs required me to charge the wireless phone battery for 15-20 hours before using). I checked the phone for a dial tone and there it was! I placed a phone call and couldn't tell any difference in phone quality from my local phone service! I highly recommend SunRocket and look forward to when my cell phone contract runs out next year so that I can cut our contract down to the cheapest basic plan just for emergency coverage.
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
i was hoping it would work
Pros: good features when service works
Cons: Unreliable Service
Review: Honestly its so frustrating that you never know when your phone will work. Sometimes i can call my cell number but not my neighbor. I email them only to have the server refuse the message stating that its a invalid address. Dont believe me, try it and send a email to memberservices@sunrocket.com see if your email goes through or gets rejected. Its gotten so bad that that i am planning on trying one more time with another voip provider. If that doesnt work then back to Verizon(ouch$$). And if you talk while downloading a file it you cant understand what theyre saying it gets broken up. If you are wondering what servie i use its Cablevision Optimum Online so my speed is not the problem.
Updated
People do yourself a favor and do alot of research before disconnecting your landline phone. Read all of the reviews on all of the websites before jumping into voip. Its a great idea but all of the companies need alot more time to develop it before customers should jump in. I only signed on with Sunrocket because they have no penalty if you want to cancel .Always read the terms of services before committing. Always read the fine print before you click "submit". And always ask a sample question by email to find out how quickly and what kind of response you get. Send an email to memberservices@SunRocket.com and see if it goes through. It gets bounced back in my Outlook Express and Yahoo email. I've had enough of Sunrockets terrible serivce and lousy customer service and fianlly decided to go back to Verizon plan 39.99 Unlimited Plan but now Sunrocket is palying games with Verizon and not releasing my number back to them. So for 2 weeks now Verizon and I have been waiting and waiting and finally i called Sunrocket cusotmer service 800-876-0132 and asked what the deal was and as expected the smuck couldnt give me an answer. But i will tell you this, for the extra 15.00 (it kills me) for the Verizon plan, its nice to know when i want to make a call it will actually go through. We called our doctors office one day the baby was sick and asked for a callback and 3-4 times he kept calling back the wife could hear him but he couldnt hear her and he kept hanging up. Finally the wife charged the cell phone and called the doctors office to explain and apologize for the situation and he laughed and said "thankyou for the warning". That was proof enough for him that he wasnt jumping anytime soon to voip.
People do yourself a favor and do alot of research before disconnecting your landline phone. Read all of the reviews on all of the websites before jumping into voip. Its a great idea but all of the companies need alot more time to develop it before customers should jump in. I only signed on with Sunrocket because they have no penalty if you want to cancel .Always read the terms of services before committing. Always read the fine print before you click "submit". And always ask a sample question by email to find out how quickly and what kind of response you get. Send an email to memberservices@SunRocket.com and see if it goes through. It gets bounced back in my Outlook Express and Yahoo email. I've had enough of Sunrockets terrible serivce and lousy customer service and fianlly decided to go back to Verizon plan 39.99 Unlimited Plan but now Sunrocket is palying games with Verizon and not releasing my number back to them. So for 2 weeks now Verizon and I have been waiting and waiting and finally i called Sunrocket cusotmer service 800-876-0132 and asked what the deal was and as expected the smuck couldnt give me an answer. But i will tell you this, for the extra 15.00 (it kills me) for the Verizon plan, its nice to know when i want to make a call it will actually go through. We called our doctors office one day the baby was sick and asked for a callback and 3-4 times he kept calling back the wife could hear him but he couldnt hear her and he kept hanging up. Finally the wife charged the cell phone and called the doctors office to explain and apologize for the situation and he laughed and said "thankyou for the warning". That was proof enough for him that he wasnt jumping anytime soon to voip.
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Overall thumbs up
Pros: Low Price, Feature Rich
Cons: Noticeably lower quality when internet connection is busy
Review: Overall, we are happy with our selection of SunRocket. Support is always helpful and install was quick.
I overcame a sound quality issue by plugging in a regular high quality phone instead of using the included cordless phone.
I overcame a sound quality issue by plugging in a regular high quality phone instead of using the included cordless phone.
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Do yourself a favor. Do not get this service
Pros: Non to report
Cons: Far from a well oiled machine
Review: I was so disgusted about this company that I cant believe I am using my time to write this review. First they sent the so-called 'gizmo' device without the free ip phones so blatantly advertised on the website--that is, after I called to confirm that it would actually be sent. I called and was assured the ip phones would be sent overnight. One week later--no phones. During the same period,I checked my bank account and noticed that I had been billed TWICE by Sunrocket. I called and they said the second charge on my account was just an 'authorization' --in that case then, what was the first charge for?
And regarding the phones, ahem --- they said they were 'lost' by UPS. I had actually been bragging to friends about VOIP and they were all waiting for my review -- well, here it is -there is nothing remotely sunny about sunrocket-save your time and money.
And regarding the phones, ahem --- they said they were 'lost' by UPS. I had actually been bragging to friends about VOIP and they were all waiting for my review -- well, here it is -there is nothing remotely sunny about sunrocket-save your time and money.
User Rating:
2.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Cannot compare to line lines yet.
Pros: Very low cost. Great for calling kids in Ca.
Cons: Can use only two phones in whole house
Review: Great tech assistence, two outages since beginning of service. Voice quality can be distorted. Seems to have improved these last few weeks. Web site can be trying at times.
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Glad I swiched to SunRocket
Pros: Great value, 98+% perfect calls, great features
Cons: Power or internet outage stops the phone
Review: I don't think you can beat the sunrocket package. Occasionally there is a little static or echo but most calls are perfect. If you get a noisy connection a redail fixes it. It has every feature you can think of included at a great price. Customer service has been excellent. I have used email to communicate and gotten accurate helpful responses in a few hours. Customer service on the phone has also been enthusiastic and responsive. I have had the service 2 months. 911 rings my Police department. They weren't too happy with my test call.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Excellent Service!!
Pros: Reliable, Great Call Quality, Every Imaginable Feature
Cons: No ability to call form second line
Review: Have had service from Sunrocket for about 60 days now and couldn't be happier with my choice to switch. With Sunrocket you get every imaginable feature and excellect sound quality. I am connected via 1.5/768k DSL and am able to use the PC while talking and not notice any loss of call quality. Also, i am able to use Xbox Live and get calls at same time with no noticable lag. The only adjustment i had to make was to change the MTU settings in the Sunrocket Gizmo from 1500 to 1492. After making this adjustment everything worked perfectly, and continues to work perfectly. I would estimate my Sunrocket service to be 99% reliable as far as getting a dial-tone when needed and 100% for call quality and features. thanks sunrocket for the excellent service!
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Best VOIP provider
Pros: Great features, excellent price, superb voice quality
Cons: Down time frequency and customer service language barrier
Review: I originally was using Packet8 and quickly turned over to SunRocket and never looked back. SunRocket offers great features -- namely having two (2) seperate phone numbers. I have a local number and I have a local number for family and friends from a different state to which I live in. In addition, SunRocket provided a cool set of Uniden phones along with a $199 flat fee. Can't be that with a stick. The voice quality is awesome -- much better than cell phone quality but not as good a the traditional phone line. The only downfall that I must state is the frequency of SunRocket downtime. Yep, it seems the past couple of months SunRocket has gone through some loop holes. Plus, when calling their Customer Service there seems to be some language barrier. From what I had been told, SunRocket is changing call centers and will be using maining US call centers. I am still going to wait it out -- after all, with the amount of features, cost savings and benefits it does outweigh the cons. Nothing is perfect... SunRocket is pretty damn close to it though.
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
great price bad phone
Pros: Good price, good internatioal rates ($3 free/mth)
Cons: free phone is not good
Review: I got this service about a month ago. I realy liked the free phones that I got with the promotion I sighned up for which was $199 for a year service. Thats less than $17/mth. I almost canceled my account with them after the first 3 days. I was getting people telling me they could not here me and to call back on my cell phone. Before I sent it back I decided to try hooking up my old phone and all the complaints stopped. I think the service is great but do not count on the free phone they send to sound good.
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Unreliable Phone Service
Pros: Cost, Free Phones
Cons: Not Reliable, Long wait time for customer support
Review: If you are looking for deal on your phone servove this is not it, yea you get a couple of cordless phones for free but if you can't use them cause phone won't dial out or receive phone calls then they are just a couple of paper weights. Bottom line they need to fix the problems before they offer their services. They having been upgrading their "gizmo's" now for two weeks, yea sure I got some seafront property in arizona also for sale if anyone is interested
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Growing company with good customer service
Pros: clear sound, same service all the time not depend on your online activity
Cons: not all features change available online
Review: I was a Vonage customer for 1.5 year and always had problems with their service. Then I moved to new location and to add another number I have to pay $5. Sunrocket gives you 2 numbers for free.
* Great Customer Service
* Pay options: $24.99/mo or $199/year
* Free equpment and shipping (Vonage charges me $40 + shipping $10)
* Free $3 international calls every month
* Good service quiality which is not depended on your online activities (I am working from home and for me it is really important)
* Great Customer Service
* Pay options: $24.99/mo or $199/year
* Free equpment and shipping (Vonage charges me $40 + shipping $10)
* Free $3 international calls every month
* Good service quiality which is not depended on your online activities (I am working from home and for me it is really important)
User Rating:
3.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Good, cheap alternative to regular phone service
Pros: Cheap, internet features such as call logs and voice mail retreival
Cons: Slight echo, not totally full duplex - similar to cell phone conversation
Review: It took two weeks to receive my kit when it was supposed to arrive in 5-7 days, but other than than I have been satisfied with the service in the first three days of use. I rarely use my home phone so SunRocket should be a good way to maintain a home service for a very low cost.
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Very pleased, so far ....
Pros: Simple to install, works well for local, LD and international calls. Easy to use web interface.
Cons: None so far (6 days)
Review: With 3 lines, a SOHO network and a (usually very stable) 3mb cable modem service, I thought it worth experimenting with a VOIP service.
The SunRocket sign up was painless, and the two line feature for $200 per annum was of particular interest to me.
Equipment arrived as predicted, and was a snap to install. The free Uniden handsets provided as part of the deal hooked up in no time (although any handset would have worked). Since that time, the phones have been used for all business calls, and a lot of international calls to the UK. The call quality is as good as my current provider (AT&T landline), although occasional echo's can be detected ('though not enough to worry about).
Now the service seems to work well, I'm using the two-line feature to, hopefully, achieve some real savings now I've tested the basic concept. I'm now taking the next step and having my home number tranferred to SunRocket (the online process was pretty slick). Once transferred, I anticipate distributing that number through the house (by disconnecting the "company" line at the demarc). If this goes smoothly, I expect to save about $25 per month. I'll add a rider once complete!
The SunRocket sign up was painless, and the two line feature for $200 per annum was of particular interest to me.
Equipment arrived as predicted, and was a snap to install. The free Uniden handsets provided as part of the deal hooked up in no time (although any handset would have worked). Since that time, the phones have been used for all business calls, and a lot of international calls to the UK. The call quality is as good as my current provider (AT&T landline), although occasional echo's can be detected ('though not enough to worry about).
Now the service seems to work well, I'm using the two-line feature to, hopefully, achieve some real savings now I've tested the basic concept. I'm now taking the next step and having my home number tranferred to SunRocket (the online process was pretty slick). Once transferred, I anticipate distributing that number through the house (by disconnecting the "company" line at the demarc). If this goes smoothly, I expect to save about $25 per month. I'll add a rider once complete!
Updated
I did promise an update once Sunrocket tranfered our main home phone number. The SunRocket transfer pages made the process very easy (and given that we had three lines, that meant that the second line had to be made into the "new" main number with AT&T). I received an email that advised the time it would take, with followup emails describing the progress. The final email gave the date of the transfer .. and it went just as planned. The calls to the main number are now correctly routed to SunRocket. The second line is now the main AT&T number, and all without so much as a glitch!
The disconnecting of the wiring at the phone company box so I could runall the house phones via the Gizmo was a little problematic (dark, snowing, falling over the cat, crossing wires) but I eventually fathomed it out. Some guidance on that aspect would have been useful.
Overall, our experience with SunRocket has been excellent, and the call quality and reliability has been very good.
I did promise an update once Sunrocket tranfered our main home phone number. The SunRocket transfer pages made the process very easy (and given that we had three lines, that meant that the second line had to be made into the "new" main number with AT&T). I received an email that advised the time it would take, with followup emails describing the progress. The final email gave the date of the transfer .. and it went just as planned. The calls to the main number are now correctly routed to SunRocket. The second line is now the main AT&T number, and all without so much as a glitch!
The disconnecting of the wiring at the phone company box so I could runall the house phones via the Gizmo was a little problematic (dark, snowing, falling over the cat, crossing wires) but I eventually fathomed it out. Some guidance on that aspect would have been useful.
Overall, our experience with SunRocket has been excellent, and the call quality and reliability has been very good.
User Rating:
1.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
So far, not very happy
Pros: Price, easy to set up
Cons: Poor customer service, bad reception
Review: I have only had the service a little over a week, but I am very unhappy with the customer service. I didn't receive my "gizmo" as they coyly call it until October, but I was billed for September. When I emailed to inquire, I got no response until I sent an email to their "quality control" people, or whoever it is. They gave me half a month off, which still wasn't correct. I was supposed to get a free phone, haven't gotten it yet. And people I call say my voice cuts out quite often. I can hear others ok, but there is sometimes an echo of my own voice. I was excited about this service, but now my opinion is negative, at least for this company.
User Rating:
1.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Unreliable Service, Horrible Customer Service, Sound quality not good
Pros: Its very cheap and the web features are good
Cons: Unreliable Service, Horrible Customer Service, Sound quality not good
Review: At first I was very excited to have this phone service. It is so cheap and the web features are great and 2 free phones.
But then after a month of using it the reliability has been a question mark. You never know when the phone service will stop working. Atleast once a week something is wrong with the phone lines. Either it will get disconnected or no dial tone or the call would not go thru etc etc. The worst thing is when I call home I sometimes get a message that the number does not exist anymore. The 1st time I heard that message I freaked out.
Customer service is a joke. Try emailing them and no one replies back. Try there online customer service and you will never get to chat with a CSR.
Sound quality is not good. I get an echo at times. Also at times the voice quality is not good and there is disturbance.
The good thing is the price. Its cheaper than any other VoIP service provider and installation was very simple and cool features on the uniden hand sets.
A backup phone service (i.e., cell phone) is a MUST if you still want to take this service.
But then after a month of using it the reliability has been a question mark. You never know when the phone service will stop working. Atleast once a week something is wrong with the phone lines. Either it will get disconnected or no dial tone or the call would not go thru etc etc. The worst thing is when I call home I sometimes get a message that the number does not exist anymore. The 1st time I heard that message I freaked out.
Customer service is a joke. Try emailing them and no one replies back. Try there online customer service and you will never get to chat with a CSR.
Sound quality is not good. I get an echo at times. Also at times the voice quality is not good and there is disturbance.
The good thing is the price. Its cheaper than any other VoIP service provider and installation was very simple and cool features on the uniden hand sets.
A backup phone service (i.e., cell phone) is a MUST if you still want to take this service.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
A+ so far...!!!
Pros: Sound quality, good customer service
Cons: Internet connection fails..? No phone service...!!!
Review: For an internet phone, this thing is "Super". Good sound quality, works just fine within a network set-up. If you are not a super picky person, SunRocket is for your. Remember: this is an internet depedent phone, so if there's a glitch within the net, you'll feel it... and that's the case for any of the intenet phone companies... If those small glitches do bug you, then keep your "baby bell" land-line. Overall, SunRocket provides great service for the money..!!!!!
User Rating:
1.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Buy a service that's been around longer and is more mature.
Pros: Cheap. Easy.
Cons: Cheap... Read the full opinion...
Review: Very Poor.
Growing Pains? Perhaps SunRocket is just not mature yet. All I know is that I have a new problem every week (like no service, or no incoming, or no outgoing, or no voicemail, or no outgoing caller ID - this means people won't pick up the phone when I call -, or dropped calls, the list can go on...). The point is that, at least once a week, I have trouble with SunRocket and spend at least 1/2 hour addressing it. It's not MY technical ability, I'm a programmer... Just buy a more robust service. It's worth the extra $5/month.
Growing Pains? Perhaps SunRocket is just not mature yet. All I know is that I have a new problem every week (like no service, or no incoming, or no outgoing, or no voicemail, or no outgoing caller ID - this means people won't pick up the phone when I call -, or dropped calls, the list can go on...). The point is that, at least once a week, I have trouble with SunRocket and spend at least 1/2 hour addressing it. It's not MY technical ability, I'm a programmer... Just buy a more robust service. It's worth the extra $5/month.
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Poor, poor reliability
Pros: Free equipment, Easy setup
Cons: Miserable reliability, both for inbound and outbound calls
Review: We signed up for SunRocket about a month ago (August 2005) based upon a recommendation from a co-worker. He had been a SunRocket customer for a year, and had no issues. For whatever reason, as soon as I signed up, service quality hit the floor. In the four weeks that we have had the service we have lost service for an entire weekend, and even when we have "had" service, many inbound phone calls get a fast busy or just silence. Outbound phone service has been better, but when you are expecting a call from family, and you don't hear from them, you get worried...
After waiting nearly an hour to speak to customer service they are comping one month to us.
After waiting nearly an hour to speak to customer service they are comping one month to us.
User Rating:
0.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Get what you pay for
Pros: Price, free phones
Cons: Bad tech support/customer service, outages, call quality
Review: I would run as far as I could from this company. Their tech support does not know anythind never calls back. Please look at their review here for other's warnings (not just mine) http://www.broadbandreports.com/reviews/2521
User Rating:
2.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
if you are not frequest long distance caller never think of going for it.
Pros: low cost. low international calling rate.
Cons: Horrble customer service. One can never be sure if their phone is working with out any problem at any moment.
Review: Horrible customer service. Frequent outages.
Once faced problem its really a nightmare to get back the service. Customer service only ask you to reboot everything once or twice obviously without any result. Then they transfer to level 2 customer service by taking alternate number telling you will get a call back. God only knows if they really exist. It took me about 10 days for my phone to work when I haved faced a problem.
Once faced problem its really a nightmare to get back the service. Customer service only ask you to reboot everything once or twice obviously without any result. Then they transfer to level 2 customer service by taking alternate number telling you will get a call back. God only knows if they really exist. It took me about 10 days for my phone to work when I haved faced a problem.
User Rating:
1.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Terrible Customer Service
Pros: Price is slightly less than other services
Cons: Terrible Customer Service, lack of availability
Review: First let me say I never do these on-line surveys. However I was so disappointed with my experience with SunRocket I wanted let other know. SunRocket allowed us to sign up with a phone exchange the same as what was 5 minutes from our house but then cancelled our service because they couldn't provide E911 service. This is despite the fact that they told us they did service our area. The most frustrating part was the lack of knowledge by their customer service agents. They claim to have excellent customer service but they certainly did not. Additionally after they falsely told us they had service in our area, they terminated our service and made us pay to return their router.
While many people may find the price to be a few dollars cheaper than other service providers, I would not recommend anyone use SunRocket. We have since gone with Packet8 and are happy with the service.
While many people may find the price to be a few dollars cheaper than other service providers, I would not recommend anyone use SunRocket. We have since gone with Packet8 and are happy with the service.
User Rating:
2.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Good Quality, but too many tech problems
Pros: Quality great, low price
Cons: Too many outages, tech support is not great
Review: I fortunately kept my landline. There's about two outages a month which would be too many if it was my only phone line. Tech support has different levels and they only provide a phone number to level one. Level 2 and 3 have to call you back and sometimes they don't. I will be switching.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Most Features and Highest Quality for Best Price
Pros: Good quality and reliability, full feature set, cheapest offer, and firendly/helpful support
Cons: Dependant on ISP
Review: Since I switched to Sunrocket in April of 2005, I have never looked back. Initially I liked the annual deal $199 ($16.58/month) and the very positive customer support reviews. Along with the deal they threw in another phone number and 2 free uniden cordless phones. So I thought I would give it a whirl, and I am happy I did. Granted the service is dependent on your ISP and so if it is down, Sunrocket is down as well, but that applies to all voip providers.
The real nice thing about Sunrocket is that they seem to care for their customers. I am not sure about the review below because I have always been answered within 1-2 rings when calling customer support and they have always helped me solve my problems or questions. But on top of all of that, I haven't had much to contact them about.
Setup is an easy 10 minutes with 4 wires, and then you are off and running. They supply all the major features including, voicemail, call waiting, 3-way calling, and caller id in addition to special voip features like call forwarding, find me features, e-mail voicemails, e911 and call logs all accessible through there online interface.
For those interested in VOIP, you must check them out. For those interested in an alternative to a landline, check them out and if you want take there trial offer to see if you like it (no activation or cancellation fee), I think you will be surprised how much it can save and how much more it gives.
The real nice thing about Sunrocket is that they seem to care for their customers. I am not sure about the review below because I have always been answered within 1-2 rings when calling customer support and they have always helped me solve my problems or questions. But on top of all of that, I haven't had much to contact them about.
Setup is an easy 10 minutes with 4 wires, and then you are off and running. They supply all the major features including, voicemail, call waiting, 3-way calling, and caller id in addition to special voip features like call forwarding, find me features, e-mail voicemails, e911 and call logs all accessible through there online interface.
For those interested in VOIP, you must check them out. For those interested in an alternative to a landline, check them out and if you want take there trial offer to see if you like it (no activation or cancellation fee), I think you will be surprised how much it can save and how much more it gives.
User Rating:
1.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
OK phone svc (sorta?) but awful customer service!
Pros: inexpensive, you get what you pay for!
Cons: See details in our message (history) below
Review: We bought the svc, it was easy to hook up but it was hard to complete the online admin items including no time zone for AZ, cannot change your service address online and God forbid you call, you'll wait for 20+ minutes and if you're not hung up on then you might get someone that promises the service address for 911 will be corrected and has seen the request sitting there for over 4 weeks and will do an expedite and after another week of waiting we call/ email some more and still no corrections - so, consider having you cell phone with you at all times if you have a break-in, need for ambulace, storm problems or whatever else. You'll get sent a post card with a sticker and this instructs you to have alternative ave's to contact 911 etc. so any logical or home business person might ask why have them and be unsure of service, live with the cell phone - they're not the only kids on the block and they don't do what they say or in the time frame (or ongoing now a month later), so if you only want cheap LD service and don't mind the echo feedback (even with Cox's 9 MB broadband or Verizons 3 mb speed) that cuts out about 10% of the time, then this is perfect, but if you need something reliable, consider someone else. Good luck!
User Rating:
3.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Works great but goes down often
Pros: Good call quality, plenty of features.
Cons: Goes down often, no 3-way calling.
Review: Quality of call is good, but problem is it goes down i.e. your phone line is dead, even if your internet connection is fine and gizmo working. You only hear dial tone, after dialing number you do not hear anything for say 2 minutes and then heard busy signal. Same when somebody calls you they hear a busy signal and their call doesn't even go to voice mail.
Updated
If you want a phone service for barely $17/mo with all most common features. AND can live with outages ranging from 10 minutes to an hour atleast twice a month (have your cell ready). It is a good service for the price but not dependable.
If you want a phone service for barely $17/mo with all most common features. AND can live with outages ranging from 10 minutes to an hour atleast twice a month (have your cell ready). It is a good service for the price but not dependable.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
They only phone you will need
Pros: Works Great ! Easy Setup ! Inexpensive ! Free Phones
Cons: Haven't found any cons yet.
Review: I hooked the gizmo up to a cable modem, plugged the cordless Uniden phones that came free powered it up exactly as the instructions indicate and WALA it worked perfectly with in seconds. Sunrocket says that it may take up to 10 minutes to get dial tone – it only took seconds. Also I got 2 phone numbers one of them was the same as my local exchange and the other was the same as mobile phone in my area. The local exchange number (which was my secondary number) worked for INCOMING call IMMEDIATELY. Wow that was a surprise because Sunrocket said that it could take up to 10-14 days. My primary number did take a few days to become active for inbound calls. I only have the service for 1 week so I will keep you posted…..
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
SunRocket is Out of This World!
Pros: Unbeatable deal. Great voice clarity. EASY INSTALL!
Cons: Time waiting to be able to get incoming calls.
Review: Signed up for SunRocket online on May 2, 2005. $199 for the year? Thought it might be too good to be true but with the 31 day free trial I figured I'd give a whirl. Received package on May 4,2005. Within 20 minutes I had my old phones up and running for outbound calls. (Had to wait for the new phones to charge so I just connected the old ones temporarily.) Made some calls to friends and they had no idea I was using VoIP phone. It took until May 17th to get my first inbound call, but that was only 9 business days. SunRocket originally told me between 10 and 14 business days to receive calls. I recommend you use a new SunRocket number and have your old phone company announce the new SunRocket number when people call the old phone number. It's free for one month from Verizon. You can transfer your old number but I've read some reviews stating there were problems. OF COURSE there were. MA BELL (Verizon) doesn't want to make it EASY for you to leave. The SunRocket system is up and running without problems and we are HEAVY phone users. You should have heard the Verizon rep practically begging me to keep their service. NO THANKYOU. If you have a reliable DSL or cable internet connection this is absolutely the way to go. Cell phone for backup just in case of power outage is also recommended. Use 2678954513 in the promotion code box to get your free Uniden cordless phones with your order at www.sunrocket.com and enjoy the savings! You won't be disappointed.
Updated
I forgot to mention that I have three computers networked. I placed the SunRocket gizmo after the cable modem and before the router and I have not had any problems whatsoever. Just thought I'd mention it. Not sure why the fella with the negative review had issues but I have not had a problem. Also, we are heavy internet gamers. If this is a concern don't let it be. Have had no problems gaming while phone was in operation.
I forgot to mention that I have three computers networked. I placed the SunRocket gizmo after the cable modem and before the router and I have not had any problems whatsoever. Just thought I'd mention it. Not sure why the fella with the negative review had issues but I have not had a problem. Also, we are heavy internet gamers. If this is a concern don't let it be. Have had no problems gaming while phone was in operation.
Updated
This service is a tremendous value. If you have a reliable broadband internet connection and maintain your PC with anti-virus and anti-spyware regularly, you will LOVE SunRocket cause it will work well for you. The install is easy. The free Uniden phones are great. There are no hidden fees or taxes. There's a money-back guarantee if you have problems, but I know you won't. Check out my SunRocket review page for my personal experience with SunRocket at:
http://home.comcast.net/~bseitzinger3/SunRocketPromotion.HTML
You will not be disappointed. Click on the link and sign up today!
This service is a tremendous value. If you have a reliable broadband internet connection and maintain your PC with anti-virus and anti-spyware regularly, you will LOVE SunRocket cause it will work well for you. The install is easy. The free Uniden phones are great. There are no hidden fees or taxes. There's a money-back guarantee if you have problems, but I know you won't. Check out my SunRocket review page for my personal experience with SunRocket at:
http://home.comcast.net/~bseitzinger3/SunRocketPromotion.HTML
You will not be disappointed. Click on the link and sign up today!
Updated
Just to update everyone interested in signing up for SunRocket internet phone service:
There was a bit of a rocky period in September of 2005 when subscribers in certain areas lost service for a couple days. However, since SunRocket upgraded their systems, there has not been one gliche. Whatever they did, it has cured the problems folks were having. I am in the Philadelphia area and have Comcast as my ISP. I only experienced a day or two in September when we lost service. Other than that, SunRocket has been fantastic. Go for it and start saving big money on your home phone bill. Go to:
http://home.comcast.net/~bseitzinger3/SunRocketPromotion.HTML
Click on a SunRocket banner and sign up today.
Just to update everyone interested in signing up for SunRocket internet phone service:
There was a bit of a rocky period in September of 2005 when subscribers in certain areas lost service for a couple days. However, since SunRocket upgraded their systems, there has not been one gliche. Whatever they did, it has cured the problems folks were having. I am in the Philadelphia area and have Comcast as my ISP. I only experienced a day or two in September when we lost service. Other than that, SunRocket has been fantastic. Go for it and start saving big money on your home phone bill. Go to:
http://home.comcast.net/~bseitzinger3/SunRocketPromotion.HTML
Click on a SunRocket banner and sign up today.
Updated
I'v ebeen with SunRocket for a while now. The features are great. The service is excellent. The voice quality is good too. For more on my experience go to:
http://home.comcast.net/~bseitzinger3/SunRocketPromotion.HTML
Click on a banner and sign up. You won't regret it.
I'v ebeen with SunRocket for a while now. The features are great. The service is excellent. The voice quality is good too. For more on my experience go to:
http://home.comcast.net/~bseitzinger3/SunRocketPromotion.HTML
Click on a banner and sign up. You won't regret it.
User Rating:
2.0 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Don't use with Home Network
Pros: Quality is generally good with cable connection
Cons: Requires ethernet card in computer to work
Review: Service outages occurred several times in months of early 2005, so dependability is an issue. I attempted to use switch to connect "gizmo" to my 2 home computers, but was told that it would not work with either switch nor router. I did get it to work sometimes but it apparently increased downtime over system downtimes that also occurred.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 119 user reviews
Goodbye Verizon!
Pros: Inexpensive, many features, and it works!
Cons: No name on caller id.
Review: I decided to try VOIP after seeing the Vonage commercials on TV early last year.
After many hours of research, I chose Sunrocket. Thirty day trail period.
No connect/disconnect fees. Yearly fee of $199 for unlimited calling in the U.S.
Overseas calling seemed reasonable, although I don’t use this service.
I received my “Gizmo” (router) three days after ordering. Hooked up in only a couple of minutes and I had a dial tone. Incoming calls worked a couple of days later as advertised.
The features I have used, caller ID, call forwarding, online phone management, all work well. The only complaint is that the caller ID gives only the number of the caller.
Voice quality is perfect, and people have no idea that they are talking on a VOIP line unless I tell them.
The service was down once because of an outage with the cable company.
I disconnected my old phone service, then physically unplugged the incoming wires from the customer access box outside the house. That allowed me to plug the phone line from the gizmo directly into an unused wall jack. It polarizes the signal through my existing wiring and I can use all of my old phones as before.
For $ 16.58 per month, and excellent quality, I highly recommend this service.
You will take great pleasure in kissing your old phone company goodbye!
After many hours of research, I chose Sunrocket. Thirty day trail period.
No connect/disconnect fees. Yearly fee of $199 for unlimited calling in the U.S.
Overseas calling seemed reasonable, although I don’t use this service.
I received my “Gizmo” (router) three days after ordering. Hooked up in only a couple of minutes and I had a dial tone. Incoming calls worked a couple of days later as advertised.
The features I have used, caller ID, call forwarding, online phone management, all work well. The only complaint is that the caller ID gives only the number of the caller.
Voice quality is perfect, and people have no idea that they are talking on a VOIP line unless I tell them.
The service was down once because of an outage with the cable company.
I disconnected my old phone service, then physically unplugged the incoming wires from the customer access box outside the house. That allowed me to plug the phone line from the gizmo directly into an unused wall jack. It polarizes the signal through my existing wiring and I can use all of my old phones as before.
For $ 16.58 per month, and excellent quality, I highly recommend this service.
You will take great pleasure in kissing your old phone company goodbye!
Updated
The caller ID now shows the name of the caller as well as the number. I continue to be pleased with this service.
The caller ID now shows the name of the caller as well as the number. I continue to be pleased with this service.
