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Review by sinboo50 
Posted: 361 days ago
member for 361 days, 2 visits, last login: 354 days ago
 Littleton,Jefferson,CO
 Contract price not specified.
 "Decent Service"
 "Wants copy of Credit Card & Passport"
 "Forget it!"
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A bit of a rant, but others considering BV need to know this...
I signed up for Broadvoice a week ago and have generally been very pleased with the service. I signed the Service Authorization after I signed up and sent it in only to get repeated emails that they did not get the form... I resent it 4 times as a PDF attachment and also faxed it.
I woke up this morning to suspended service and was informed they actually got the form but required a copy (front & back) of my credit card and a copy of a photo ID such as Passport.
Are you kidding me? This was after AMEX had happily authorized all of charges over a week ago. I called AMEX being a 30 year customer in good standing and explained what BV wanted me to do. They advised me strongly to never send that kind of information via hardcopy to anyone and questioned why it was needed since they approved all charges a week ago.
AMEX then reversed all charges back to BV and will be in touch with them regarding this practice.
Too bad since they seem to have decent service. Someone making policy in their billing department needs to join us in the 21st century common billing practices.
Be advised.
B
Followup comments:  megahurts
join:2009-01-06
| Broadvoice's Deceptive Business Practices You're absolutely correct. Broadvoice's actions are deceptive and deplorable. Initially the sign up appears normal but after the sign-up they will demand the customer complete their "credit card authorization" form which includes photocopies of one's driver's license and/or passport. Even if the customer refuses to deliver the information Broadvoice will charge the customer's credit card for activation fees and first month's service. They will wait about 4 days and if the customer doesn't comply they will suspend your VOIP account. They will block your ability to make outbound calls which could even include making an emergency 911 call.
Be aware that it is a violation of the Visa Merchant Agrement to demand state issued identification as a condition of a Visa card transaction. Moreover in some states it is also illegal for a merchant to record personal identification information in assocation with a credit card transaction. This practice is illegal because delivering this information makes the card holder vulnerable to identify theft which can result in serious long-term financial harm to the card holder.
Broadvoice's response to complaints on their actions is to first sell you on the reason they want the information, then to suspend your new VOIP service, then to ignore you.
If you haven't done business with this company consider yourself fortunate. | |
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Review by rocku24_7
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 5.4 years, 788 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Pompano Beach,Broward,FL
$13 per month
"the installation was easy as abc"
"wait time to speak to a rep. is toooo long"
"just as good with feautre & service as vonage without the higher cost"
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Well after two years with VOIP, I must say its being a real benefit. I was introduced to the technology through Vonage (unlimited US, CAN) and couldn’t believe that a call through the internet could be so good. Back then the term SIP (session initiated protocol) had no meaning to me, but after a 7 month spree with Vonage and techno mind at heart. I quickly learn the business (for detail see Vonage review). After learning the technical stuff I when looking for better prices I found Lingo for 19.95 down from 24.95 ( at one point it was $30 with Vonage). I also got a basic backup from Bellsouth for $22 month (yes back to POT after month of VOIP). I still have this line because I am in a hurricane zone, and the bells get things up and running quicker that any internet or voip provider. I had lingo 19.95 + bell 22, FWD, stantaphone.com, ipkall.com, voipbuster.com, and sipdiscount.com for 13 months (I will write a review for lingo at a later time but to sum it up “not worth the trouble but there were the cheapest thing to Vonage). But like I said price rule in voip world so I got me a sipura 3000 (no voip house should go without one) I learnt more playing with my sipura in 2 months than the 19 before then. I use my sipura to subscribe to a little not so know provider call Linefire because they are still the only voip I knew that offered unlimited plan to the US, CAN, Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean @34.95. Cool and the where reliable as say lingo which I continue to have because there had a # I ported from the Bell, I even had a second # @ that price. Four month into Linefire, I dump lingo I couldn’t take there India rep. (no offence to the great country of India. ‘The miss told me to add that, you see her is Indian and a fine one at that.) whom at this point, I knew more than.
Then as fate may have it Linefire, my primary provider merge with ITP.com who cancelled all Linefire plans. So with no competitive advantage to offers I was left with few choices, go back to low tech lingo or try Broadvoice which bring us to why I am here. BV with there BYOD plan play perfect for my sipura setup with gateway functionality. They also priced well for 19.95 you get US, Can and 21 international country (no of which is JA or Caribbean for that matter), they also have the best web management portal second only to Vonage. But like I said there don’t answer the phone, but when they do they know there stuff. You may notice that Vonage is the benchmark by which all other VOIP is measured, this is by no means a testament to there superiority instead it is only because there were my first.
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 Review by wifi4milez
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 5.3 years, 2017 visits, last login: a few hours ago
New York,New York,NY
$25 per month
 about 1 days
"Super cheap calls, sounds good most of the time!"
"Sometimes I notice a little static on the line"
"If you want to try VoIP without spendng much, try Broadvoice"
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10/30/2008 UPDATE:
I still use Broadvoice as my main "home phone", and it still rarely costs me over $20 per month. I highly recommend it, as I have never once had to call their tech support in almost 3 years. PLEASE NOTE, I STILL DONT THINK ANYONE SHOULD USE VoIP AS THEIR PRIMARY VOICE SERVICE DUE TO 9/11 ISSUES.
Original Review from 2006:
I have a $5.95 per month BYOD (bring your own device) package. This allows me to use my laptop, cell phone, AND regular phone as extensions of my Broadvoice phone number. No matter where I go people can reach me and I can place calls using any internet connected device. I currently have a hacked Linksys PAP2 that I use with a traditional cordless phone so that when I am at home I have the convenience of a regular POTS line (in addition to the 2 Verizon POTS lines I have for backup!). The plan I am on gives me 100 minutes of outgoing calls to anywhere in the US and Canada, with an overage of only $0.039 cents per minute. By the time my extra minutes are compiled along with the fees I am close to about $25 per month. Between the BYOD interface and my PAP2 I have TONS of call options and features to play with. I would say the uptime is about 95%, which seems to be better than most.
!!!!!IMPORTANT NOTICE!!!!!!
It is my OPINION that NO VoIP (Voice over IP) telephone service provider is up to par with even the most basic POTS (plain old telephone service) you get from the local telephone company. Although I do like Broadvoice, please notice that I only give it a 90% to 95% uptime rating. This means that you SHOULD EXPECT approximately 1 in 10 calls to drop, cut off, or otherwise NOT be completed. You should also be aware that VoIP phone service DOES NOT SUPPORT 911! I have TWO backup Verizon analog lines in my house just for emergencies. If you have kids or feel that you may EVER need to dial 911, or if having a 100% reliable phone is important to you, DO NOT ORDER ANY VOIP SERVICE FROM ANY PROVIDER.
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Review by Technetium
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 1.7 years, 3 visits, last login: 91 days ago
Butler,Morris,NJ
$35 per month
about 2 days
"Reliability, Price"
"Outbound CID doesn't show name"
"Suits my needs well"
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I have a Vonage line for personal use, but wanted to avoid shelling out $50 monthly for my startup business so decided to try BV. I've been using them since Jan, 2008 now.
They promptly sent out a Linksys SPA2102-R, which has 1 ethernet port and 2 phone ports. It's small and lightweight, measuring 4"square and 1.5"thick, not taking up much desk space at all.
I don't make or receive a huge amount of calls, but inbound and outbound quality has always been good, and reliability has been 100% so far.
The feature list is pretty full, with simultaneous ring on several phones, call hold, call transfer, of course CID and call waiting, as well as a few phone number specific things. For example, I can block individual numbers from calling in, give numbers a distinctive ring, or have numbers be forwarded to different phones.
I haven't tested or used most of thee features, but it is a longer list than I have with V.
One BIG issue for me, as a business user, is that it doesn't show my company name (or any name) on outbound CID. The people I call just see the city and state I'm calling from, which is how many cell phones appear.
My business is a one man show, and I can't help feeling that it occasionally makes a bad impression that customers think I'm using a mobile phone as a business line.
I did call them to ask about this. They answered quickly, but basically told me that that's just the way it is, and there are no intentions to change it that they know of.
It cost me $90.42 to get started, that includes the first month of service.
The listed cost for the unlimited business plan is $29.99, then they add $5.47 in fees:
$2.50 Regulatory Recovery Fee
$1.00 Emergency 911 Cost Recovery Fee
$1.97 Universal Service Fee
I'm not crazy about fees, but Vonage charges me 17% more in extra fees than this on a personal line, so I can't complain.
I can also say that over 10 months of use, the price hasn't gone up at all yet.
Overall, definitely a good value. Do be aware that you won't have outbound CID name if you use them though.
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Review by trafael1
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 6.9 years, 227 visits, last login: 1 days ago
White Plains,Westchester,NY
$15 per month
"overall reliable"
"adds fictitious $5.5 junk fees to monthly bill, relatively high startup costs due to $40 activation junk fee"
"after growing pains, it is now quite reliable. If enough ppl complain about their bogus junk fees they may do away with them"
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I signed up with them in 2004.
Around 2005 they had major reliability problems. After a while these settled and in the past couple years I am happy to report that outages are rare. Most recently i got a few issues but it could have been the ISP and in the past week it's been solid again.
While the price quoted for the unlimited in-state calling plan is 10$, BV adds multiple junk fees:
Emergency 911 Cost Recovery 1.00
Universal Service Fund - 1.97
Regulatory Recovery Fee - 2.50
I considered leaving each time they added an additional fictitious fee, but ended up staying due to inertia and the lack of resolve on my part to find a reliable cheap alternative.
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Review by scott2020
Posted: 1.2 years ago
member for 1.3 years, 309 visits, last login: 1 days ago
El Dorado Springs,Cedar,MO
$24 per month
about 14 days
"Audio quality, close servers w/low ping times"
"HORRIBLE customer service, too much paperwork"
"Complicated, too much competition to stay with them"
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I run my own Asterisk box and set up a trunk with Broadvoice. I was assigned a user ID, password, and DID within minutes. Unfortunately a glitch in their system kept me from doing anything for over two days. During that time I spent several hours on hold, was treated rudely, hung up on a few times, and spoken to like I was an idiot. My registration kept getting locked out, so I had to call them a lot to get unlocked. Every call was a minimum of 10-20 minutes on hold, waiting for someone. If I did get someone, most of the time it was someone with a bad attitude. I did get 1 nice person who did manage to help fix my troubles. In the end I was so disgusted with the way I was treated I left them, because I won't give my money to any company who treats customers that way. There are hundreds of VOIP carriers, and too much competition out there for that. My story could go much longer than this, but I am getting ill just thinking about it again.
However, once you can get the service going, it works well. They have several proxy servers to choose from, although many just resolve and trace into Chicago. Call quality was good, and call completion was fast.
After all my trouble, my account was suspended one day because I didn't print off some paper form and fax it back to them. Just too much for me to handle, so I got a refund. I would seriously consider another provider first before trying these guys.
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Review by Tom867
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 5.5 years, 106 visits, last login: 238 days ago
Browns Mills,Burlington,NJ
$12 per month (month by month)
about 3 days
"Not to many good points anymore."
"Lots. Read review and you'll understand."
"Gave them months to get act together and things just get worse."
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A
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Review by btrautman
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 7.9 years, 4 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
Kyle,Hays,TX
$24 per month
"Can byob device and they can configure it"
"Signup fee I dont' really care for."
"Good product, excellent reliability"
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I have had many other voip accounts over the past two years, viatalk, lingo, callcentric, sunrocket and a few others I can't recall. BroadVoice has been the best thus far. Callcentric comes in a close second but I was having call reliability problems that got old.
I had my own grandstream device and once I pointed it to their server it configured automatically - same day I signed up.
I recommend you all try them. You stand an excellent chance of being satisfied......
Bob
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 Review by Traal
UPDATED: 1.6 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 909 visits, last login: 1.6 years ago
San Diego,San Diego,CA
$25 per month
"Cheap, perfect call quality"
"No official fax support"
"Good service at a great price"
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I chose BroadVoice for the price (their $10 unlimited in-state plan) and because they got good reviews. Now I'm on the Unlimited World plan, with unlimited calls to the entire U.S. and Canada and a number of other countries.
So far, I haven't been disappointed. The call quality is great, it sounds just like a normal phone line. It works just like a regular phone service, only much cheaper, especially if you use the extra features.
I just added a second number with distinctive ring to my service for my fax machine. BroadVoice doesn't officially support faxing yet, but if you setup your fax machine just right, it will often work. Sometimes I'll have to resend a page or two, but my fax tells me when this happens.
I've had my BroadVoice service for about a year. I don't use my BroadVoice line all that much, but I've never had any trouble with it--no dropped calls, no missed calls, and no trouble hearing the other party. It has been 100% reliable.
Update 2008-04-19: I recently added a second number to my line. The account portal says the ring pattern is short-short-long, when in fact it rings as long-long. I sent BroadVoice support an e-mail 10 days ago notifying them of the issue, but they haven't responded, so I'm lowering my rating for Tech Support a couple of notches.
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 Review by Yakup
UPDATED: 1.6 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 1369 visits, last login: 229 days ago
Folsom,Sacramento,CA
$6 per month (month by month)
about 1 days
"Nice Functions, Cheap (BYOD + International rates)"
"Tech Support is a bit slow"
"It works"
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install is snap I have trixbox configured with this line up and running in 10 minutes to order
oh By the way I am giving them another chance After 2 years
Last try was a disaster
So far minor issues. (All solved within days)
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