In its infancy, there were only a few providers and household names in the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) industry. VoIP was introduced in 1995 with a company called VocalTec and their product...
iCore Networks vs FluentStream Technologies
Compare iCore Networks vs FluentStream Technologies. Find out whether iCore Networks or FluentStream Technologies is better for your VoIP business or home needs. The experts at VoipReview have analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of iCore Networks and FluentStream Technologies and detailed analysis of the comparison can be found below.
User Ratings & Reviews
- 32 Reviews
- 26 Reviews
Overview:
iCore Networks is dedicated to providing their clients with business VoIP telecommunication systems that do more than traditional systems and cost much less. Targeting small and medium sized companies, iCore Networks brings your company the same...
FluentStream Technologies offers a fully hosted business VoIP phone solution designed to help businesses work smarter and simpler. Their phone solutions come with over 90 features plus business app integrations to help organizations connect...
Provider Info
- Website:
- Headquarters Country:
- Founder Year: 2004
- Website: www.fluentstream.com/
- Headquarters Country: United States
- Founder Year: 2007
Plans Available*
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Users Average Rating
Recent User Reviews
Where do I start - The sales representatives are taught well. They will manipulate you into thinking their product is great and will give you no issues, but that's far from the truth. I heard their sales representative present their product and while all seems to be on the leading edge of technology, it really isn't. The company takes no responsibility for any of their network issues, from outages or no service on your phones. Not only will your phones only work 50% of the time (if that) but when submitting a ticket for support, you have to go through their help desk first and getting a response from someone on their technical side is a never ending cat and mouse chase. That is, if you get someone to reply to you. Outages happen every three or so weeks, sometimes less, causing your phones to go out every so often. So if you like paying for terrible service from tech reps who sound like they hate their jobs and never actually having your phones or circuits work, iCore/Vonage is great for you. Please do yourself a favor and stay far away from this atrocious company.
Customer service completely SUCKS, both technical support and account management in response time and in solving the issues. The quickest I have had a "high priority" ticket fixed is 6 hours, and right now there is one that it has been 3 days and it is still not fixed. And I have had multiple techs working on the same ticket because I call in to get an update and they try and walk me through the same troubleshooting steps the tech before them had be do because they don't manage their ticket system well or the employees are just too lazy to enter in what they already had me try.<br /> The phone system they gave us (Polycom VX500) has had issue after issue rising after 6 months of use. One major issue happened that it was proven it was the phones before 1 year warranty expired, but they procrastinated getting new phone and then after the one year tried to give the excuse they weren't under warranty anymore. Horrid reviews of the phones were found online after this. Our network partially discounts at least once a week for at least 1 employee's workstation, and again they take forever to get it fixed.
Our needs weren't particularly easy. Two small companies at one location operating separately and answering the phones with 2 business names (with shared personnel), using an old phone system in a small office, in an industry that doesn't always welcome technology changes! Going to VOIP from Analog was the challenge of trying to make something newer - look more like the older system in order to minimize the technology pushback. We purchased Cisco SPA508G phones (not password protected), all with Attendant Sidecars (maybe not ideal since programming options can be more advanced), but they work well for us, were affordable, and we mostly use the basics anyway. We also have a warehouse speaker paging system. I'm not a phone guy - but decent with technology. We got by with only me doing the change out and with a little help from our contract IT guy to prioritize call quality and make sure our firewall ports were set correctly. FluentStream and more specifically Kaitlin, not only did an outstanding job of working with us to get where we needed to be - but they also cut our monthly bill by about 2/3. Are there cons... sure - very minor ones. I'm pretty sure they aren't (yet), a technology giant with unlimited funds - but - every need we had and that mattered - they met with a GREAT attitude and with AMERICAN customer service that was easy to understand. Actually, my view is that their setup options for he $ spent are VERY advanced. We tried two others before deciding - one of the LARGEST Voip companies out there, and one very small 2-3 person company. NO COMPARISON - even from the large company. They had no flexibility and hard-to-communicate with overseas people for support. Those we work with at FluentStream take time to listen and solve issues that are important to us. What is that worth? Every penny that we saved - and every $200. - $300. monthly that I feel we overpaid CenturyLink and 2 other companies over the last 6 years - for below average, often grouchy time-taking customer service. If you are like us, you will save thousands per year and for small businesses, and more importantly for large businesses, that can be significant. I really can't believe how much we are saving and how adaptable their system has been for us. We would definitely do this again and again and again!
I have been a FluentStream customer for a little over a year now and am completely 100% satisfied. The features we now have make our small business seem much larger to our customers and enables us to provide a much better service as well. The customer support has been outstanding and the questions I have had have been answered and explained and support has been available non-stop. Extremely cost efficient! I highly recommend!!