SunRocket VoIP *Everybody is reporting that this is DEAD!* (Free phones, extra number, etc.)

[imported_Daylate]

They still doing two yrs for 199 ?

Thanks

 

[Suture]

My experience with SunRocket did not go so well. I use my mobile phone a lot, and don't have a land line at my house. I have been spending a lot of time on travel for work for the past 6 years, and figured now since I'm home usually, I would try SunRocket so I could at least have fax send/receive capability, and maybe take some minutes off my cell phone.

My dealings with SunRocket Customer Service were absolutely absurd. I have over a dozen e-mails, but will provide cliffs instead:

10/31 - Ordered SunRocket "$199/2 years Special"
11/03 - Received e-mail from SunRocket - Package has shipped! But my tracking number is AB&C MISCELLANEOUS. I send an e-mail asking for the correct tracking number.
11/04 - SunRocket e-mails me a real tracking number. It doesn't work. I send another e-mail asking if there has been a mistake.
11/05 - SunRocket sends me the same tracking number. I respond, asking if my order was fully completed.
11/05 - SunRocket sends me an e-mail indicating my item has been shipped, but no tracking number is available.
11/06 - SunRocket sends me the same tracking number for the third time, which still doesn't work. I call them on the phone, and am given the same tracking number.
11/07 - SunRocket sends me an e-mail stating if my order is not received by 11/06, to call Customer Service. Is that 11/06/07? Because 11/06 was yesterday...
11/07 - SunRocket e-mails me again, apologizing, and saying if I don't have my kit by 11/10, to contact them.
11/07 - I receive an e-mail from SunRocket asking me to fill out a survey regarding Customer Service. Best laugh in a while.
*** At this point I'm laughing actually. I don't particularly NEED the service, just thought it would be nice to have, so I didn't press aggressively.***
11/14 - I e-mail SunRocket, to make sure they are still an active company.
11/14 - SunRocket e-mails me: there is an error in their system that does not allow them to give the correct tracking number to ANYONE.
11/14 - SunRocket e-mails me saying the welcome kits are actually on backorder, and if I don't receive my kit by the 17th to call them. I call them and cancel my order.
11/15 - SunRocket just billed me for another $208.63... is this a termination fee?
11/15 - SunRocket e-mails me, indicating my kit has shipped next day air. The tracking number does not work, of course. But I just canned this order yesterday! I call them and make sure my order has been cancelled. They verify, and then tell me THE KIT NEVER SHIPPED. I get home from work and there's the kit on the steps. I kick it.
11/22 - I have been refunded $208.63 of the $417.26 I was charged.
11/27 - Refunded the remaining half. Still determining if I want to send their box back now, or wait a few weeks and give them fake tracking numbers before I send it off.

 

[Jlensbo]

I really like SunRocket, and am a repeat customer, but conversing with them via email is like clapping with one hand. The responses from them leave me wondering if they were computer generated or are the responses from a Special Olympics dropout (no offense to the SE!). I have to read their responses three or four times to figure out if they've really addressed my question.

I think I got a call the other day from the Village. They wanted SR's phone number because their IDIOT was missing.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: Suture
My experience with SunRocket did not go so well...
11/27 - Refunded the remaining half. Still determining if I want to send their box back now, or wait a few weeks and give them fake tracking numbers before I send it off.

Revenge is a dish best served cold! (Who said that)
I approve of the two week wait

Your litany of troubles is proof that any good concept can be ruined, given enough time and money.

 

[Dealbuyer]

THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP & UPDATES ABOUT SUNROCKET.

I THINK I BETTER TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT VONAGE...

 

[Kelemvor]

Wow, saw a SR commercial on TV yesterday. Looks like they're making a push to be more mainstream and take on Vonage. I think it was the $199 for 12 months + 3 free months.

 

[Pulsar]

I am still using it and I'm very happy. For the price I got far more than I expected.

Is it perfect? No. I'd say not. I get echos a bit worse than viatalk (which I tried for a week to check quality), but it's rare. One complaint I do have is that Sunrocket drops the first 3-4 seconds of the phone call. So if my answering machine answers, many times people miss the "Please leave a message". I need to turn on the voicemail.

 

[stockjock]

My renewal is up any day now and I've been waiting for the 2 yr deal...doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon

 

[dchakrab]

I've been troublefree for a while now, just renewed (3 free months).

Today, I get a busy signal when I try to make outbound calls...no matter who I call. Thought it was the phone being busy, of course, but then I tried to call my own cell phone and got the same signal, and the phone never rang So, in other words, SR's found a new way of having an outtage that isn't all that obvious...

I'm getting the same signal when I call their service number, of course

 

[dchakrab]

Oh, god...if people call my SR number, they hear "The subscriber you have called is not in service"...in other words, my work line now looks like I forgot to pay the cell phone bill. Unacceptable (and ridiculous) ...I think I'm going to ask for a refund.

 

[iamme]

down for me too, here in Michigan.

 

[dchakrab]

28 minutes on hold with customer support before the line disconnected...so should I waste more cell minutes, or send them hate mail?

 

[Lucifer Lost]

Down for me in Maryland, too. This sounds like a MAJOR outage.

It has been a long time since I can remember having an outage, so I'm not going to flip-out over this. But they really should have an outage page with updates on the reason and estimated downtime. Stuff happens, though it's not hard to give customers some piece of mind.

 

[Lucifer Lost]

Originally posted by: dchakrab
28 minutes on hold with customer support before the line disconnected...so should I waste more cell minutes, or send them hate mail?

You should just wait until they resolve the problem.

It's not just local to you.

 

[dchakrab]

Oh, wow...nationwide. Hmmm, that would explain the hold times.

So I guess the question of the week is: Does this happen with all VOIP? I mean, is this a "get what you pay for" quirk of SR, or will going up in price to Viatalk, Vonage, or Lingo have the same issues? I don't remember having this many outages with Lingo, though I only used the service for a couple of months.

Thoughts?

Dave.

 

[Lucifer Lost]

The Alert I'm seeing when I log into my account is:

"SunRocket is currently experiencing some temporary disruptions in calling. SunRocket engineers are actively working to fix this problem. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and will update you shortly."

Not particularly useful, and I wouldn't call complete lack of service a "disruption in calling", but I suppose it would keep me off their tech support line if I saw it. Todays tech savvy customers could use some more specifics and an ETA of service return.

My experience with Sunrocket downtime has been pretty good. Probably a little better than my Internet/Cable service. I think this would be the second sustained (more than an hour) outage I've had in around 16 months of service. And there has been a few shorter outages that weren't all that bothersome. The internet is the internet.


EDIT:

Spoke too soon on the return of service. My dial-tone came back after about 90 minutes, but still can't connect to people.

 

[KoolAidKid]

Originally posted by: dchakrab
Oh, wow...nationwide. Hmmm, that would explain the hold times.

So I guess the question of the week is: Does this happen with all VOIP? I mean, is this a "get what you pay for" quirk of SR, or will going up in price to Viatalk, Vonage, or Lingo have the same issues? I don't remember having this many outages with Lingo, though I only used the service for a couple of months.

Thoughts?

Dave.

I'm sure that other people have had other experiences, but my experience of nearly a year with Vonage has been great. I have had their $15 for 500 minutes plan for the past 10 months.

If I didn't know that I had VOIP I would have never been able to tell the difference between a land line and Vonage. The only time my Vonage service hasn't worked exactly as advertised was when our internet service went out. I honestly don't understand why many of the people in this thread continue to take all of the crap that SR keeps dishing at them.

 

[Kelemvor]

Best place to go when you think there might be an outage is http://www.sunrocketforums.com

There was one tonight but not sure how long it lasted. I just wish they'd have something so that when there was an outage, calls would go to voice mail instead of limbo land, fast busy, etc.

 

[Lucifer Lost]

Originally posted by: KoolAidKid
I'm sure that other people have had other experiences, but my experience of nearly a year with Vonage has been great. I have had their $15 for 500 minutes plan for the past 10 months.

If I didn't know that I had VOIP I would have never been able to tell the difference between a land line and Vonage. The only time my Vonage service hasn't worked exactly as advertised was when our internet service went out. I honestly don't understand why many of the people in this thread continue to take all of the crap that SR keeps dishing at them.

Well, speaking for myself, for $9 a month with unlimited calling I'm willing to be a little flexible with having a short outage every 6-12 months. I find it hard to believe that Vonage never has outages, but if it doesn't, I'm glad that you're getting a little better service for the, comparatively, "expensive" price you pay for limited service. Tonight's outage ended up being about 90 minutes for me, and I'd call that very unusual.

My VOIP line is really there to help me cut back on cellphone usage. That said, if it wasn't for Sunrocket being so cheap, I probably wouldn't even have a wired connection.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: Lucifer Lost
Well, speaking for myself, for $9 a month with unlimited calling I'm willing to be a little flexible with having a short outage every 6-12 months. I find it hard to believe that Vonage never has outages, but if it doesn't, I'm glad that you're getting a little better service for the, comparatively, "expensive" price you pay for limited service. Tonight's outage ended up being about 90 minutes for me, and I'd call that very unusual.

My VOIP line is really there to help me cut back on cellphone usage. That said, if it wasn't for Sunrocket being so cheap, I probably wouldn't even have a wired connection.

Amen to that!

 

[Kelemvor]

Anyone know of any specials coming up? Maybe for St Patty's day? I need to renew I think and want to get a nice good deal. Don't need any more phones though which is the standard deal.

 

[iamme]

Originally posted by: Kelemvor
Best place to go when you think there might be an outage is http://www.sunrocketforums.com

There was one tonight but not sure how long it lasted. I just wish they'd have something so that when there was an outage, calls would go to voice mail instead of limbo land, fast busy, etc.

dslreports is another place to check out for outages.

 

[Ariae]

bah just got off the phone with them. they wouldn't renew me on the 199 per 2 years deal.

 

[Kelemvor]

I got the craptastic $199 for 1 year plus the credited me for 2 extra months credit that I can use next time I renew.

Can't complain since it's still only like $16/mo for phone. Oh well.

 

[GTFan]

Originally posted by: Ariae
bah just got off the phone with them. they wouldn't renew me on the 199 per 2 years deal.

Me either, so I switched to Viatalk where you can still get that deal. I'm in the process of having my number ported over.