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 Review by chaud 
UPDATED: 2 days ago
member for 4.9 years, 1651 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Anderson,Anderson,SC
 $33 per month (12 month contract)
 about 3 days
 "Great quality and features."
 "Expensive"
 "Great quality but expensive."
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My Experience:
I placed my order for the DTA from Amazon.com on a Friday, and it arrived Tuesday. Ordering from them gave two months free, and a $60 rebate, which will reduce the cost of my DTA to -$4.00. The DTA arrived in a well decorated box, that protected the DTA well.
Once the main box is opened, there is smaller box inside, with all of the components wrapped in bubble wrap.
The items in the box included the DTA, a phone cord, power cord, power adapter, ethernet cable, startup note, tips sheet, and an invoice.
After I took the DTA out of the box, and plugged in the power, the Power light immediately turned on. I next plugged the ethernet cable into a free port of my router, and the Link light tuned on .I then connected a phone, and picked up, to find a dial tone. When a number was dialed, a packet8 recording telling you the URL to activate your service was heard. I went to the web address supplied, which matched the instructions on the sheet, and was told to enter my MAC address that was found on the bottom of the DTA. When I entered my MAC address, it returned an error
I tried three times, and each time the same error came up. I then placed a call to packet8 support, who answered after a few rings. I had no hold time at all. They confirmed my MAC address, and changed something in their system. I then tried again, and was put through. The problem, so far as I can tell, was caused by me buying it through Amazon, and the DTA must not have been registered properly in their system. After I had filled out the required billing information, I paid an activation fee, and printed my account details. I then picked up the phone, and placed a long distance call with perfect quality. I felt that the quality was almost as good as my land line, if not better. I did not have to configure anything special on my router, the DTA was truly "plug and play". The Phone light turns on steady when the phone is in use, and flashes while it is ringing.
After making several calls over a few days, I am almost satisfied with the Packet8 service. There are however some issues. One day, I placed a long distance call, and suffered horrible quality, and lost the call. When I checked the call log, I had 12% packet loss. However this was not Packet8's fault, as it was my internet connection. After a quick reboot of modem and router, everything was working perfectly again. In normal calls, I lose about .2% packets, but this may or may not have something to do with Packet8. This does not cause any quality problems though. The voicemail works reasonably well, except for the timestamp is sometimes off. I do wish we had the name on the Caller-ID, as we currently only have the number. After I was satisfied with the service, I went outside and unplugged my land line from the box, and marked it clearly. Then I connected my DTA to the wall outlet, and all phones were powered. I am able to hear people clearly with four phones up, which is all I have use for at this time. As for the quality, long distance calls sound much better, and local calls are loud and clear, people say they notice an increase in quality.
My only real problems with the service, so far, is the fact that 911 will not work right, and if I lose power, or my internet breaks, I will not have phone service to call and have it fixed.
For $20.00 a month, with unlimited long distance, it makes a great replacement for a land line. I recommend it!
Just updating this review, Packet8 now working fine in SC with Charter. Thanks P8!
12-24-05 - Still has great uptime and reliability. No problems
11-29-06
Still going strong with little downtime, have a few price increases, but still the most bang for the buck.
8-1-07
Still working well, loaded unlocked firmware and switched to g711. Sounds even better. No real problems with downtime.
6-1-09
P8 has raised the price several times, and now the cost is over $32, so I switched to my ISPs phone service. The features, uptime, and quality were great, but the price is no longer!
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Review by choadchimmie
UPDATED: 4 days ago
member for 8.1 years, 105 visits, last login: 4 days ago
Sharpsburg,Coweta,GA
$26 per month
about 10 days
"Reliability"
"Changes in billing, poor support"
"Avoid"
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I was a packet8 customer for 6 years and have now left the company. I was happy with the service at first and convinced many of my family and friends to sign up. After the first year or two they started charging startup fees, fees to make changes your account, and of course all the federally mandated fees. What started out as straightforward 19.99 a month now equaled about 26.00 a month. I was never really dissatisfied with the actual service which was remained solid during the time that I had it. The few calls I made to tech support were handled slowly when i could manage to wait through the hold times. I believe packet8 is a good company that lost focus on its customers needs. There is plenty of competition in the voip market and packet8 gave me no reason to remain their customer.
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Review by rjbasye
UPDATED: 16 days ago
member for 9.1 years, 4203 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Dry Ridge,Grant,KY
$31 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"Reliable, Easy Install"
"Expensive, Raise Rates at short notice to customers"
"Avoid them since there are better providers at cheaper rates"
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June 2 2009 Update
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With only a 3 day notice notice given 8x8 formally Packet 8 raised its month rate from $21.99 to $24.99 with taxes and fees, it was over 30.00 a month. 8x8 also dropped its 500 minutes a month plan in favor of the more expensive $24.99 monthly plan. It seems 8x8 has no regard to its long time residential customers and is moving away from that market entirely. I am now porting my phone number away from them. Look elsewhere for a more honest VOIP company.
Update June 24/07
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I'm still with Packet 8 and after 2yrs I've experienced little down time and service, sound quality has been as reliable as POTS. They are now my primary phone service.
Update 4/18/05
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I decided to give Packet 8 another try after I had some problems with the local Telephone Co. I have to say that Packet 8 has improved since my first try with them over a year ago. I also upgraded my old router this time which seems to have improved call quality. Also, my cable provider has raised its upload and download speeds so this will improve reliability as well.
Packet 8 now ships the BPA 410 adapter which you can now run two phones simultaneously.
Packet 8 now offers true E911 service for an additional fee.
The bad thing is that there now is a $59 cancellation fee for 12 months so I hope I do not have problems after the 30 day trial.
Packet 8s website needs improvement as call features are a little hard to find.
Update July 22nd
After having used Packet 8 since April, I have only experienced a couple of outages. Service has been stable for the last month and a half and I'm very happy. Now if the can go to 7 digit dialing it would be just like POTS service. It's not a big issue for me as I programmed my phone to handle the 1+ Area Code. I still can recommend Packet 8 for VIOP.
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 Review by jmkraft
UPDATED: 29 days ago
member for 7.2 years, 3655 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Paris,Edgar,IL
$21 per month (12 month contract)
about 6 days
"Ease of installation, chordless device, website easy to navigate"
"Raised price by 60% with only one day notice."
"I cancelled my service."
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Review by Skywise
UPDATED: 30 days ago
member for 5.2 years, 218 visits, last login: 16 days ago
Portland,Washington,OR
$30 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Reliable"
"Unexpected subscription cost hike from 13.99 to 24.99!"
"Unprofessional business practices"
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I do advice against using 8x8, as they almost doubled my monthly service cost with just 1 week of warning. I had them for 4 1/2 years and they were reliable, those random changes are unacceptable from any company I deal with.
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 Review by txrocks
UPDATED: 30 days ago
member for 4.4 years, 1143 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Irving,Dallas,TX
$32 per month (month by month)
"revising soon!"
"Price increase to over 30 bucks..."
"Been good for over 4 years... not sure anymore...."
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Voicemail as email attachments "cool" - Internet connection limits service...
Update: still working good after 4 years
Update: provided free upgraded DTA when 4 yr old model died!
Update: New price increase without notice NOT GOOD!!!!!
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Review by scholztec
UPDATED: 102 days ago
member for 2.4 years, 56 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Scottsdale,Maricopa,AZ
$32 per month (month by month)
about 10 days
"Excellent call quality, easy setup"
"Not as cheap as others, no online voicemails, lousy CP"
"As good as the local telcos, but you'll pay for it"
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I switched to Packet8 after SunRocket imploded. I was looking between them and ViaTalk. Since 8x8 had been around for quite some time as a business VoIP provider, I went with them. Not wanting to commit to a contract, I opted to do monthly service at $24.99/mo. Fees bring this to $32.59. Packet8 does offer 1yr contracts for $199 (presumably not including the aforementioned fees).
Service setup and number porting were stupidly easy. The equipment showed up on time, pre-programmed, and worked out of the box. This is the type of setup your mom could do.
Call quality is excellent. Only twice in 2 years of service have I had call quality issues, and they were solved by calling back. Packet8's business heritage shows. Their service costs more than their competitors, but it "just works".
The only issue I have with Packet8 is their control panel. It is very clearly oriented to business customers with multiple lines. Support for customer-owned VoIP devices or softphones appears to be non-existent. Also, they offer an option to have voicemails sent to an email, but VMs are not available online thru the control panel.
Cost is somewhat of an issue. I pay $32.59/mo, but I could do a 1yr for $199. I recently decided to audition ViaTalk (their svc is $199, but for 2 years). Not until VT was setup did I begin to appreciate how great Packet8 is. Call quality, device support, & tech support are practically non-existent with VT. My VT review is coming soon.
I suppose you could say that you do indeed get what you pay for. Packet8's service is 2x the cost of VT, but it is worlds better.
I have a feeling I'll be sticking with Packet8
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Review by GatorDevil
UPDATED: 110 days ago
member for 6.9 years, 1392 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Oviedo,Seminole,FL
$20 per month
about 5 days
"Unlimited calling, extremely easy to setup, good tech support."
"Occasionally some echo on calls for short periods"
"Excellent service and value."
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I've been a P8 subscriber since 08/03 and have been very pleased. I ordered the service when I was moving to a new area instead of ordering local phone service through Bellsouth(ugh!). I received my DTA about 4-5 days after my order and was up and running through my Linksys router in about 5-10 minutes. I've only had one real problem since I've been using the service and that was cleared up with their support personnel with a quick phone call on my cell phone. I don't call overseas often, but when I do call my relatives in Germany, it only costs me about .05/minute. Overall I've been quite happy and recommend their service to anyone.
01/03/05 Update -
Still going strong with P8. Have had no significant problems with the service since an initial setup problem. Would still like to see timestamping on voicemail as well as Caller ID with name, but those are small issues. Otherwise the service has been great. Was more reliable than my cell phone or my relatives POTS line during the 3 hurricanes this fall. Once I got power back, P8 came back with it. My cell phone was hampered by downed towers for weeks, and my relatives POTS line took 2 weeks to resolve. Good job overall P8!
10/05/08 Update -
Still have my P8 service. No problems in all the time that I've had the service. Highly recommend their service to anyone as long as your ISP is reliable.
03/15/09 Update -
Have gotten very sick of continuing problems with Packet 8 over the past 6 months. Almost every time I try to call my home from my cell phone or have people from the same or other cell carriers call me, the call never goes through. It seems like it rings forever from the caller's end, but the phone in my house never rings. I've contacted Packet 8 about it several times to complain and they always blame my cell carrier. Funny how it seems to happen with multiple carriers. Anyway I'm moving my number to another VOIP carrier and if I have the same problem, then I'm scrapping a home phone altogether.
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Review by andegold
UPDATED: 114 days ago
member for 6.9 years, 1812 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Plainsboro,Middlesex,NJ
$20 per month
about 5 days
"It just plain works! - Update at the End"
"None that matter"
"It's great for the home and I'm taking the plunge for my office too."
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I had originally ordered Vonage but after three weeks they couldn't even manage to find my request for LNP that been faxed (and confirmed received) to them three times. The Packet8 set up was extremely easy and quick. My house is new construction and in anticipation of VoIP the inside was never connected to the Verizon NID. After four or five months running over Comcast Verizon finally brought DSL to the neighborhood and I've been running over that connection for about two months now.
So, I have a Verizon land line for 911, the alarm, and scattered local calls when someone else is on the main line, and use the Packet8 line exclusively for everything else. I can listen to streaming audio, use a GoToMyPC connection and use the Packet8 phone with no noticeable degradation to any of them.
There is an occasional echo which is really annoying but it's never gotten in the way of a call.
There have been a few small outages but nothing serious.
Lack of 411 and even direct dialed 555-1212 service is annoying but I generally prefer SuperPages.com anyway.
Recently added time and date stamp to Voice Mail is long past overdue and it still doesn't work yet.
Interestingly, time and date stamping has always been available on their business class service as is seven digit dialing which is not currently available to residential customers.
I have just ordered a three station Virtual Office sysem for my business running over a Comcast Pro account. This could save several hundreds of dollars a year but would be better if it did not require a minimum of three stations. Two would be enough for me.
02/15/2005 Update - Still moving along well at home. Have been using Virtual Office at work for about a moth now. Have old Verizon line forwarded to P8 for incoming calls while LNP is pending. Occasionally get some quality issues but have only had one or two dropped calls. Nothing I can't live with. My biggest problem is getting used to being tied to my desk again after three years with a multi-line cordless system. Their plain business package probably would have worked with the old phones but I wanted some of the advanced features of the PBX.
So, after one month I'm still favorable and think it's a great solution fo any business that needs the features and more than three sets. For smaller operations that don't need to transfer calls or set up extensions and seperate voice mail boxes it's probably overkill.
08/10/2005 Update - Over one year later and still chugging along nicely at home. There are occasional very short outages and other glitches but they piss off the wife much more than they do me. 411 has been added and this is a very good thing as I do not like the changes that have been made to SuperPages.com over the past several months. The time and date stamp on voice mail now works. Actually, it works better than on Virtual Office in as much as the residential time and date stamp are announced before playing the message and the Virtual Office stamp is announced after the message. I usually delete the message before I realize I might have wanted to know when the message came in.
Also still very happy with VIrtual Office. Features are fantastic. Can't really comment on bandwidth as I rarely if ever have more than one extension in use at a time and other internet traffic in the office is generally low as well.
I received my 911 stickers for both accounts but no word yet on implementing 911 on my home phone which is a Verizon number that I ported in from a different CO.
Just about 18 months of service now. No outages in longer than I can remember. Sometimes there is delay and static but nothing worse than a cell phone. Call quality could be better but reliability is excellent. Still don't have 911 working but I do get updated E-mails from the tech working on it about once a month. They've credited me the 911 fees. 7-digit dialing is fantastic. Virtual office still working great at work.
UPDATE 01/23/2007 Over 24 months of service and still happy. Have cancelled residential account and had that number ported to Virtual Office. Currently running three VO lines over Verizon DSL. Downloads will affect quality of call but normal browsing does not. FiOS is on the way and will probably switch as soon as possible. Packet8 still can't resolve my address properly for E-911 but I have a landline for the DSL anyway. Added a T38 fax not too long ago but don't use it enough yet to really review it. I can't port my old fax line to it because they are limited as to which COs this equipment is in.
FINAL UPDATE 2/19/2009: I've been using the residential service now for four years and really still have no reliability problems or anything to complain about other than the price creeping up slowly over time. As a result of the price creep I am in the process of making the final changes and porting my number over to T-Mobile At Home. T-Mobile does not offer the same full feature set as Packet8 including, in particular, CallerID with Name. This was one of the biggest complaints about Packet8 in prior years until they finally added it about a year or two ago. Now I'm back to number only but am only paying $10/month for service instead of $30 and I only have to know one set of voice mail commands across my cell phone and home phone.
3/12/09 - T-Mobile does have CallerID with Name. They provide different CallerID services to their @home subscribers than to their mobile subscribers and my account wasn't coded properly. As of today my last Packet8 number (originally a Verizon Landline from the CO two towns over) was ported in to T-Mobile and all Packet8 accounts are closed.
I had a great experience with Packet8 and would absolutely still recommend Virtual Office but for my residential landline needs it just didn't make economic sense anymore.
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Review by iwnt14me
Posted: 121 days ago
member for 8.7 years, 1341 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Newport News,Newport News City,VA
$16 per month
about 10 days
"So Far So Good"
"None To This Point"
"Its Okay Will keep You Updated"
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I was a Verizon Voicewing customer who was dumped because the plan to start marketing the same service for more money to all customers C2C later this year. The Voicewing was horrible so we will see how Packet8 does will keep you updated.
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