George Graves
GBGood for Friends and Family I have used PhonePower for about 10 years in business and for home. I have recommended it colleagues and family. Everyone who has tried it has been successful after porting their phone numbers, which admittedly may have some bumps -- telcos don't like losing customers. It is a rock-solid service... and a bargain, even before considering all the features, which my service (VZ) adds fees, bogus taxes and fees for. All in all a five out of five star service.
The HOODLUM
GBExcellent service with reasonable… Excellent service with reasonable pricing options. The cloned line option works better than just having one line with call waiting as someone else can take the 2nd call on another phone or make a 2nd call on another phone while the other is in use. Setting up service is quick and easy. Another plus is that you can use your own device if you would like and they can provide the information you need to set your device yourself if you have experience. I highly recommend Phone Power!
Lyle Attfield
CAPhone Power has absolutely no interest… Phone Power has absolutely no interest in their soft phone quality. When a problem comes out it should be dealt with turn fixed right away not sure when the next update is due how much later. Unsatisfactory service.
MT
GB1 Spotty service lacking basic features 1. Quality of service has deteriorated significantly e.g. Softphone keeps on dropping calls regularly rendering the service useless. Sometimes answer yield a dead line, the software gets stuck with only alternative to close it (can't reject calls etc). 2. Service lacking basic features e.g. blocking unwanted numbers 3. C/S is highly ineffective and not customer friendly and tech support diverting from billing/accounting input. Tech support not customer friendly and not always effective (e.g. resolving issues with faxing, lengthening the time one is given to complete a call (impossible to dial unless one knows the number by heart) 4. Pricing is out of line with QoS. Given the existence of Google Voice, Viber and a myriad of other applications one would imaging that pricing of calls (e.g. overseas) would be closer. At least at current prices, one would expect premium service.
First timer
GBI've been a PhonePower customer since… I've been a PhonePower customer since 2009. In the beginning, support was fantastic and the service was high quality for a reasonable price. The cloned line feature allows you to have up to 2 lines/calls active at one time which is nice (your phone adapter must support it). However, it is now 2024. Over the years the website slowed down and sections of it (like the invoice and payments page) began to fail. It is an old website but still gives you the ability to manage the service. I usually use the website to delete old voicemails. Okay, the site being old technology is a nit. But let's move on to the BYOD. I selected a replacement device from the list of supported equipment (Grandstream replacing an old Linksys). During the provisioning process, the PhonePower setup process would only activate one of the 2 lines -- the clone line would not get setup correctly. I contacted support and got a live person -- awesome! And they knew what they were doing -- double awesome! However, it became apparent that the only way we were going to get both of my lines active was to do a manual configuration. And since every adapter is slightly different, the best they could do is provide me with a few basic settings. It was enough to get both lines working. But here's the catch: since it was manually configured, PhonePower won't provide support. That means that if you have problems with your adapter or your adapter stops working after PhonePower does periodic maintenance, you get zero help. I've tweaked the settings on the Grandstream several times, each time requesting help from PhonePower and sending in log information to help troubleshoot why my adapter stops taking and making calls after a PhonePower maintenance event -- no reply; no help. I have to restart my adapter to reconnect. So, support has gone downhill. I used to be able to get assistance, even with a manual configuration, but no more. Then in 2024, got another surprise. My service just renewed. I mentioned earlier that the payment and invoice section of their site doesn't work (at least not consistently). So, my annual service that is about $100 for the service suddenly was over $230. To be fair, my prior years with fees was around $180. When I asked the billing department why my service went up over 33% in 2 years, they replied that it was due to Federal fees. Really? Federal fees went up 33%? Nope. I managed to get a copy of my invoice. The largest fees were not the Federal fees, rather it was a combination of things -- a huge recovery fee, a PhonePower added fee for administrative cost recovery, and an error in sales tax calculation. I compared it to my mobile phone bill -- it had all but the administrative cost recovery fees, but at a fraction of what PhonePower was passing through. The billing department's response was that VOIP vs Mobile isn't a good comparison since the rules are slightly different. Sorry, but it is a perfect comparison. The fees are out of whack on how they are allocated. Oh, and that administrative cost recovery fee from PhonePower -- that was added to help PhonePower cover its various filings, general account servicing, and record maintenance. Um, what? You are tacking on a service fee to cover the costs that are a typical cost of business and should be covered under the service plan!?! So, to sum it up, support is a shadow of what it used to be, fees and taxes will more than double your quoted phone plan, they tack on extra charges to cover their typical expenses as though they were a co-op or a non-profit instead of a for profit business. I expect 2024 will be my last year with PhonePower.