Phone Power

This was a great company. I've had them for several years and we could not have been happier. They were great to deal with, the service was good, and the pricing outstanding. But over the last 5 months, forget it. Tech Support is rude, reliability is bad, and the billing/customer service team truly is the gang that couldn't shoot straight. Tough problem, just cancel! See if we care!

For now, I'd strongly urge you to consider other providers.

What a shame!

When a company acquires another company, you might think that good things are about to happen, innovation, new features, great customer service, etc.
Well did not happen when PhonePower acquired Broadvoice which I had for 7 years and not intention of going anywhere. However in the past several months Phonepower is making me so angry!! The service now constantly fails, when I call to fix it they always take your number for the Tier 2 to call you back, as if you are always going to be next to the phone when they call. I happened to be out twice when they called and they could not do anything. Every other week the service disrupts, now after messing with my account for 1:32 minutes, they had to call me back. No call for 3 days, not even to say we did not forgot about you. As I called them back, guess what? I’ll have to take your number so tier 2 can call you back.
Pathetic phonepower! Pathetic!
As to recommendation, I’d suggest you to go with those that have been established for a while at least until PhonePower get their things straight ( or shut down )

Our Phone Power VOIP phone service has not worked in a year-and-a-half after we logged 50 hours of customer service and technical support calls trying to get it to work. Phone Power refused to let us out of our contract even though they could not deliver on the product we paid to receive. Their customer service policy seems to be "The Customer is Always Wrong" and "Our Company is Always Right." There appears to be no limit to how far they will make the customer go to prove their product is not inferior.

We became PhonePower customers in 2009 with a pre-paid 2-year contract of $15 per month. Be aware the fee goes up to $20-30 per month after your contract expires unless you call the month prior to the contract expiring and set up another pre-paid, lower-priced contract. However, this additional extension of the contract proved a mistake for our family. Here is our experience:

Initial set-up of Phone Power VOIP service took 35 hours. Yes, you read that correctly -- 35 hours. Most of those hours were spent online or on the phone with their technical support department. Tech reps continually jimmied this and that and ultimately got it working, but only because I had the time to spend at night on the phone with their technical support team. You may be wondering to yourself: Why on earth would anyone spend that much time on the phone trying to get their VOIP service to work? The answer is simple: Because the company would not let us out of our pre-paid contract. No exceptions. No common sense. No limit to how many hours the company expects you can spend on the phone with their technical support team. It seems that even if the company does NOT provide the service you have paid to receive, you are still on the hook for the full cost of the contract (whether you prepaid the contract or whether you are month-to-month on contracted service their policy is the same.) They are perfectly willing to have a customer spend 35 hours of their time trying to get their product to work rather than to let you out of their contract -- or, shall we note, to take their claws off your money. Their phone service works about 70% of the time, some days it did not work at all.

The nightmare truly began when we moved and brought the Phone Power VOIP service with us. For some inexplicable reason, it did not work in the new apartment, even though we brought all the cords up without disconnecting them and we did the "plug and play" route of the same set-up that had previously worked. We spent 15 hours on the phone with Phone Power trying to get it set up, eventually asking to be let out of the contract and again being told that we just needed to spend more time on the phone with customer service and there was no way for us to be let out of our contract (I have since learned there is an early termination fee option, and I advise customers to take it rather than try and deal with this company). Our Phone Power VOIP service has not worked for the past year and a half, and when I called today to again ask for a refund or to be let out of their contract, the supervisor Jessica again told me the company would do nothing and I was stuck. This is their modus operandi. When I asked where I could lodge a complaint about her customer service, I was told in a very snotty tone that "No one is on the floor but me. There is no one else for you to complain to," as though their company has no president or CEO.

It appears the technical support team keeps lousy call records, so be sure and keep your own account. Our account record apparently never showed the hours of phone calls we logged trying to set up the service, or the fact that we requested repeatedly to be let out of the contract. I listened in disbelief as the supervisor "Jessica" told me that our technical call record indicated that our troubles were "all resolved" and that "customer was pleased." This was a total fallacy. The technical support team did actually shine today (a rarity) and got my phone service working in just 2.5 hours -- it appears that split wall jacks can severely disable the service, which no one had ever mentioned before this call. At least the remainder of our contract commitment will not be a total waste of money since we will actually have the phone service to use. However, even during these last "successful" 2.5 hours, I had to make three separate tech support calls, and one representative simply hung up on me. When I called back, the tech support record said it was a "dropped call." Yeah, right.

Needless to say, we will not be re-upping our contract next time. We are a bit smarter after this horrid experience! Give Phone Power the BIG MISS if you do not want serious headaches with your phone service. There are undoubtedly honest VOIP providers on the market.

I was very impressed with PHONEPOWER.com. As I was browsing through their website (comparing them to other business providers), reviewing their features and services, I decided it was time to put them at the top of the list. However, when it came time for me to pull the trigger, they flopped miserably. I called and spoke to an inside sales person and she was lovely and informative. I asked her for a follow up call the following Tuesday indicating my interest in procuring services and never heard from anyone.

I spent the next week having my research assts study blogs and comparing their service satisfaction levels. A week later I sent two emails three days apart stating our strong desire to speak with someone. NO response on either email.

I called personally (rather agitated) and spoke to a nice young lady and asked for the VP of Sales. She acted as if he was the Chairman and a little too insulated to speak to potential business clients. She insisted that I send an email and they would track the email address of previous attempts (as they apparently keep track of them) and they would, this time, “most certainly” get back with me. That was over a week ago! I never heard from them again despite conducting myself professionally at all times as I really wanted to work with them.

Why a company would be so incompetent in taking on a business account worth nine phones to start (and perhaps hundreds of lines with a new start up in six months) is beyond my comprehension in this economic environment. If a company cannot take your money when you are throwing it at them, it gives me great pause and what kind of service level they have once your money is in their bank account, especially considering I am paying 100% for two year’s worth of services up front.

Their VP of sales should be terminated, simple as that. He/she is responsible for setting the tone of the company’s desire for new net-add revenue and there is NO excuse whatsoever. He got the message and he failed to delegate or take responsibility. I have now wasted 15 man hours getting there and have to start over.

Simply amazing. I wish them well in any case.

We switched our business to PhonePower about 7 months ago, and we've experienced poor sound quality along with two MAJOR outages.  Both times they have had outages, PhonePower has had no phones themselves, no website, and no message to clients about the situation.... nothing.

This seems to be a business run out of someone's garage with a single server and with very, very poor reliability.

I have used VOIP phones for years.  I used Sunpower until they went TU.  Then I got PhonePower.  I was using Quest phoneservice and dialup internet.  I switched to cable broadband and VOIP and saved cash -- better all the way around.  However, I've not found VOIP without it's problems.

It does require a 2 year pre-payment, which I lost part of to Sunpower's demise.  The phone quality isn't stellar by any stretch, but still serves as a phone though.  I'm uncertain to the 911 functions as we've never had to call -- knock on wood.  I wouldn't totally rely on it thoughy.

\When I switched to Phonepower they wouldn't change my caller ID name to my name, because they said I didn't have proof that I owned it, though it was our number for 2 years with Sunpower.  So when I call people they look at the caller ID and it says Mohamid Khan -- my real name is more like Dan T.  Oh well, it got to be a joke after awhile.

SO, if you like to get cheap, mediocre and somewhat undependable phone service under the wrong name -- Phonepower is the place for you.  HOWEVER, if you want to shoot more for something cheap, yet dependable -- keep on looking.  And post it when you find it and I'll go there two.

They charge you for things you don't want, add fees without cause and don't seem to have a real place of business.  Maybe that is so that they cannot be served!!

They add on charges, charge more than they quote and refuse to give a mailing address to send a payment.

STAY AWAY!!!

Your service works for approximately 50% of the time for calls and faxing 5% success rate. Reception is iffy-fading in and out. Technical Support does not follow through and fix problems they simply call and close the ticket after the call.

Using your phone while out of your home-forget it. I left for 3 months and had people trying to call in and never getting in. Finally I just used my cell phone as the primary as Phone Power was useless. Very bad if your doing business and expecting calls.

Resolving chronic problems in not Phone Powers subject of expertise. They get offended and simply close the ticket and call the problem solved. And then you go on having problems and they wonder why your still calling? and not cooperating??

Buyer Beware.

I recently changed providers and right before my number was ported I got billed another full month by Phone Power.  They will not refund any portion of the mostly unused month.  A company that is willing to take a customer's money while not providing the service for which they billed is dishonest in my opinion and not worth dealing with.

Watch out! Their 2-year contract continues at a much higher monthly rate unless you notify them in writing that you want to quit. I ported my phone number over to VOIPo 2 weeks before the end of the contract, thinking that constituted "notification". The next month I found a charge against my credit card. When I questioned it, they said porting the number wasn't "written notification" and refused to reverse the charge. Not only did I not use their service during that month, I couldn't have even if I'd wanted to since my number had been ported 2 weeks earlier!