Thoughts on Ooma?

[evident]

Did some research and Ooma seems to be the perfect replacement for a landline for my parents. would save them a ton of cash off their verizon triple play package.

any personal experiences w/ this service- easy to set up and use? old people proof?
Both mom and dad already have cell phones, but they still use their land line.

Was close to getting them the obihai, but this looks much more complicated to set up. I might consider getting this for myself. We still utilize our home line a ton. For us though, the phone line from verizon is just an extra $10 a month, so i never bothered looking into this.

 

[vi edit]

Is just so they can use a regular phone handset? I set my parents and grandparents up with Panasonic bluetooth cordless phones that sync up with their cell phones. The pairing is almost flawless and works great for them.

FWIW - I used Ooma for a few years. Had no issues with it.

 

[evident]

Is just so they can use a regular phone handset? I set my parents and grandparents up with Panasonic bluetooth cordless phones that sync up with their cell phones. The pairing is almost flawless and works great for them.

FWIW - I used Ooma for a few years. Had no issues with it.

No, they still use their landline phone number, they just want to save money on the monthly charges as they dont use it that much.

 

[Gardener]

I've used it for a year, glad I switched.

I paid the additional one time fee of $40 for Ooma to transfer my landline phone number to the new account which takes about a month. You use a temporary number while the transfer is being processed, and must not cancel your landline until the transfer is complete.

 

[vi edit]

Be sure that you can port it. Not all lines are able to be ported.

 

[Viper GTS]

I'm over four years on ooma, have had no issues. It just works.

If you do the initial setup for them they probably won't ever notice the difference, it's essentially transparent.

Viper GTS

 

[ponyo]

I use grandfathered Ooma. It's probably one of the better tech purchases I made. But I'm surprised the company is still around. I expected them to go bankrupt years ago. They tried to get me to upgrade to newer units but there's no way I'm giving up my zero fee grandfathered unit.

Obihai is super easy to setup. I setup several for friends and family. Google Voice is free so I would go with Obihai over Ooma if I was buying one today. The only con with Obihai is it's now very difficult to port your existing home number. It used to be easier in the past. Ooma you just pay $40 so it's lot simpler.

 

[twinrider1]

<----happy obihai user. Paid for the box and that's it, no monthly fees. Easy to set up. But once every year or two I have to update some file online. It's easy, but they don't give you any notice.

 

[TXHokie]

I have the grandfathered Ooma as well and it was great for the 4 yrs I had it. It more than paid for itself many times over when it was bought to replace our land line and before mobile phone became primary. We moved to another state and the number followed us. I only use it for outgoing calls now but even then, don't see a need for it anymore. With cell phone now with unlimited minutes and uses wi-fi calls, that's all I use at home. The old Ooma is just a back up line but hasn't been touched in couple yrs.

 

[Imp]

Been using it just over a year... Okay, I haven't but I bought it for family. It works and is cheap, but there have been issues that I'm not sure if they are the service or just random anomalies. Some international calls don't work, sound cuts out on one end of a call occasionally, and one month the phone didn't receive calls until I rebooted the modem. It may be the wireless phone itself, it may not. For a 90% discount compared to a landline? I'll take it.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I've used it for almost 3 years - I've been very pleased.

 

[Nohr]

I've had mine for going on 2 years now and I'm happy with it. Had my number ported and as I recall they waived the $40 fee if you paid for a year of premier service. It's worth it to me just for the call blocking and blacklist features.

 

[Sonikku]

I use obihai with google voice for my Mother. She was paying a staggering $80 a month for a verizon phone line. Now she gets basic internet and unlimited phone for $15. (The Time Warner internet is $15, the obihai box that uses it makes the phone free)

 

[dr150]

Over 5 years here. NEVER an issue. Rock solid service that has saved me a boatload of cash!

 

[John Connor]

Heard good things with Ooma. I did read that Ooma has a cut off for the amount of minutes you can use at Amazon. But it's like 60 hours a month or some damn thing. Makes sense I guess. Wouldn't want anyone hogging the servers, etc. Since Ooma has multiring, be sure to sign up for Nomorobo. This will drastically cut down on then telemarketers and even bill collectors. I know they saved me from all the political calls. The phone will ring once and that is it.

 

[evident]

All these good things make me enthusiastic. I'm excited about saving my parents some cash.

I'm going to have to revisit this again for my own household too. I don't care about my home phone number, but we like to use the handsets we have in the house when we're making extended phone calls.

 

[Sonikku]

Thanks, Ooma.

 

[Cal166]

Got mine in 2012 just to have it as a backup. Never had an issue, grandfather in for NO monthly fees.

 

[Thump553]

Been on it for two years, like others said rock solid. BTW you essentially have to buy the premium level otherwise your parents will get swamped by spam calls. I'm guessing this is true for any VOIP system.

I just dropped premium a month ago (BTW that is a pain, you have to call them to prevent auto-renewal) and so far so good. No more caller ID but so far the spam hasn't come back. If it does I'll probably drop OOMA altogether-we barely use our landline as it is.

 

[nisryus]

I have switched from NetTalk to Ooma six months ago and very glad I did it. When I was on NetTalk the line nose was terrible and occasionally there would be bleeping sound followed by drop calls. No issue with Ooma itself what so ever.. except one time when TW had internet issue and the network was so slow Ooma had problem staying connected - which caused it to think my device was offline. But that was TW's fault.

 

[gamefreakgcb]

I had Ooma for home for 3 years. No complaints. Clear calls and very low monthly fee ($3.xx). Then I switched to ObiHai Google Talk as its essentially free after the cost of the box and one time port fee.

We do use the Ooma Office service for our work and its awesome there.

 

[dtgoodwin]

Been on Ooma for 4 years, and on Vonage for 6 before that. Ooma has been more reliable, and has very good call quality. I only keep it because I want a land line for emergencies and those I don't give my cell phone too.

 

[msi1337]

I have had Ooma for 1.5 years. Good service overall, the only issue I ran into was when my credit card linked to my account expired, I tried to fix it on their website and it didn't work so I had to call them a couple times to get it straightened out. Overall I am very happy with the service.

 

[Muadib]

I've been on Ooma for 5 years. I love it.