8x8 DTA-310 IP Video Phone

Pros: Cheap Rates, Good Customer Service, satisfied with quality of phone service.
Cons: if my cable connection goes down so does my phone

After using Vonage for over a year I had no choice but to disconnect this service if I actually wanted to complete a call, without the party I was talking to said what did you say? You are breaking up that I had gotten so tired of repeating myself. ...

Pros: Price, easy to use, works with a router, lots of local numbers
Cons: Audio quality can sometimes be below par, but not often.

My wife and I tried Vonage, then Lingo, and are hoping that the third time's a charm with Packet8. I have had Packet8 service for a little under a year now, and overall, I am pleased. There have been a few glitches along the way, nothing really major, ...

Pros: Great callquality, easy installation, GREAT features, unlimited long distance, many call plans.
Cons: May not be as reliable as land based phone service.

I got to the point where I dreaded opening my Bellsouth bill every month. First of all, the $49 unlimited long distance was NEVER $49. Add service fees, taxes, other useless charges and it wound up being more like $89! They just nickle and dime you ...

Pros: cheep, transferred our number quickly
Cons: horrible customer service, they try and trap you in, frequent outages

My sob story begins in August 2007 when my beloved Sunrocket phone company went out of business unexpectedly. Sunrocket introduced my family to the world of VOIP and changed the way we communicated. Left with no phone service upon their sudden ...

Pros: All things about this service are good, except for one thing.
Cons: Their pre-recorded automated voice menus break up and need to be re-recorded.

As a former Vonage customer (for a year-and-a-half), I must say that I am mightily impressed with the service I now receive from Packet8. As soon as I received my Adapter 410 device from Amazon.com, I opened the box, read the short instruction card, and ...

Pros: there weren't any
Cons: everything, particularly call quality and "customer service"

I have used three VOIP services. This one is the worst by far. (I used Sunrocket for about two and a half years, before they went under, and have been using Callcentric for a few weeks, since replacing SR with Packet8 failed miserably.) Packet8 has ...

Pros: Cheap price, easy setup, free first month.
Cons: bad service, technical problems that do not happen with regular phone service.

Anyone who wishes venture into VOIP world, you need to understand this is still a new technology. Although it has been around for a few years, the reliability and quality will be far behind the 100 year old regular phone service. It is really a matter ...

Pros: Cheap. -But you get what you paid for in spades!!!
Cons: HORRIBLE telephone service, INSUFFERABLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!

Had service for 6 months now. First 2 months were "free" but we did NOT have a local telephone number the first 60 days. There is a trial period to start off and the voice quality was much better during the time we could cancel w/o a penalty. Since ...

Pros: Service works well, cost savings are great, no problems with voice mail features
Cons: None

I do not have a fast connection to the Internet - only a nominal 512K DSL connection that seems to test out at 200K-300K most of the time. Despite that, the Packet8 service works well. There are a few drop outs at the beginning of some calls, but ...

Pros: Sales department is readily available and eager to take your money and sign you up.
Cons: Below average customer service, Misrepresentation of system requirements, Slow shipment processing, Unacceptable phone wait time.

We just had a horrible experience with Packet8. I don't know who wrote the positive reviews I read before I signed up but if I ever meet them I will check their sanity. We have never dealt with a company that was so awful before this one. The phone ...

Pros: Cost
Cons: Poor service, rude salespeople, bad interface, long phone activation time. Scammers.

After researching lines for VoIP and wanting to upgrade to services that Vonage does not provide, I had to hit the web and do some research. I kept running into Packet8 for various home and business solutions that I needed. The main one was VoIP for the ...

Pros: Absolutely NOTHING. The company is horrible in every way.
Cons: $60 cancellation fee! Horrible company in every way.

I had this phone service... well, at least I PAID for service... for about 8 months. Everything worked great for a month. Then, every call got dropped after a minute or two. I called customer service about a dozen times since then and spoke with ...

Pros: Good production value on set up video
Cons: Ridiculous customer service waiting time.

I am a former Sun rocket customer. Will the pain ever go away? I really needed inexpensive service and boy did I get it with 8x8. I signed up in August. I will most likely be looking for a new carrier within the year. The customer service call waiting ...

Pros: phone number portablitiy
Cons: Quaility of service customer service techincal service

I tried Packet 8 for two months, porting the phone number went smooth but the quality was not so good. Went on there website and tried there recommendations, nothing worked. Being schooled in Cisco networking I realized it was my modem they sent me, it ...

Pros: 20 bucks a month
Cons: they stink!

In case you are considering switching to packet8 broadband phone- DONT!! Kick in the extra 5 bucks & get vonage! OK- so on April 20th- we trotted out & bought the packet8 set up. We followed the set up step by step... and waited. And waited. It's ...

Pros: cheap- allows you to keep a given area code number when you move
Cons: poor quality unreliable service billing issues international rate increases of 666% with no warnings

I signed up for packet8 fourteen months ago. We lived in foreign country and we were able to have a US number, we lived in an hotel for 2 months and we kept our phone: that was great! I had multiple problems to set up but I finally got it to work. The ...

Pros: none
Cons: - totally not dependable - terrible support

I have had nothing but problems - BIG problems from packet8. Stay away from them! Here are the major lowlights of my time with packet8 September: Started Service Mid September: System went down. Called tech support to fix it. They took two days to ...

Pros: Great Cool Features
Cons: Does not work on slow upstream connections very well.

Now with the new features like follow me forwarding and name caller id packet 8 has finally got the feature line up of vonage and even better has always had local numbers in my area code (304) West Virginia. I have been using packet 8 going on 4 years ...

Pros: None
Cons: Scam, poor service, dishonest sales pitch, nonportability of existing phone number, poor quality reception

I was told when purchasing this that my existing telephone # could be transferred to this service. After I signed up, 2 months in I was told my telephone # was non-portable. Thus I had been paying 2 telephone bills waiting for Packet 8 to take over my ...

Pros: No Surprises on your phone bill. Great customer service
Cons: If you have a bad internet company if will effect your phone.

I loved the idea. A phone company with a flat rate. I was slammed years ago by AT&T so when they bought out SBC I went shopping. I first tried Vonage. They have to have the poorest customer service around. I was their customer for about 2 days. Packet 8 have great rates and customer service. I have had their service for 6 months. The only trouble I have had with my phone service was not their fault. I wanted to keep SBC high speed internet service but after I cancelled my long distance THE NEW AT&T cancelled me as a customer. I had to go to cable. When the cable goes down I don't have phone service. This has not happened often. Twice in 6 months. I didn't miss a call because one of the feachers will let your calls transfer to another number. I have mine go to my cell phone. I am very happy with this service. VOIP has caused the major phone companies to add VOIP to there product line BUT they can't compare customer service.

Pros: They answer the telephone.
Cons: Promises of call backs for updates and supervisors are nothing but untruths.

I cancelled my service after Packet8's LNP service was denied. After the service was cancelled,Packet8 ported the number, without notice and put my main business number out of operation. For over one year I was subscribed to Packet8 for a Business and Personal Accounts. After notifing Packet8 of this illegal and unauthorized action they promised to "snap back" my business number. Packet8 said it would take 24-48 hours. It is now 76 hours and counting. We are property managers and our tenants call our number and it is answered the line is out of operation. Packet8's support is very poor and there is never a supervisor available, if one exists. This action is well over the top and I caution any business to think twice dealing with these people. It has cost me greatly.

Pros: The ONLY pro would be the cost of the long distance.
Cons: Horrible Customer Service, Charged for services not received, Calls dropped daily

I have had nothing but problems with Packet8 service and the non-existent "Customer Service". I stayed with them for a year to avoid a $60 cancellation fee. I have a small home business and tried to provide a toll-free number to my customers. Although I was charged for this service for over a year, the number never worked properly even after numerous calls to their support department. With the regular service, calls were dropped daily, and there were times when calls were not able to be placed as well. You get what you pay for.

Pros: If it works it is not a bad service
Cons: Poor, incompetent customer service if you can get a hold of them.

It only took a week or so to port my number, that is transfer my telephone number that I had been using for all my contacts for 10 years to my new VOIP Packet8 Service.

The first month went well but I had to contact customer service a few times and the wait times were 30 minutes.

Anyway I got a second account and box for my daughter in college. I mailed it to her. She could not set it up nor had the time or patience to wait 40 minutes for customer service/tech support. So she returned it to me.

I called to cancel but it had been over 30 days (with no telephone calls) so I had to pay for the box. I cancelled the service, with a cancellation fee and they accidently or more accurately incompetently cancelled both accounts and I lost my ported number of ten years.

They also wanted to change me to re-sign up with a new number. Naturally I cancelled the service and am sure that they they will be out of business in a few years anyways.

Pros: Price
Cons: Voice Quality, Frequent Downtime, packet lose

The quality of the phone isn't that great, although it is decent. If want to save major money, and possibly have a local number while doing it...this is the way to go. If you have that extra 30$ to spend on regular phone, I would advise this. It does save money, and since I use my cell phone for most of my calls, I would choose this, although if I had to make frequent calls, I don't think I would.

The ease of setup, number porting, and price are all nice. The voice quality, frequent downtimes, and packet lose are not good.

Pros: Service works
Cons: Horrible customer support

Hi

I had to update my credit card and when i did packet8 charged me twice..It took six calls and insufferable telephone support to get it straightened out..I was told that i hadn't paid my bill since september...

they said there computer said it so they couldn't be wrong..i literally had to email them my online bank statement which didn't work.. after a whole day with them they found THEIR error and promised to refund my money..we'll see...The tip off is if you go to www.bbb.org you'll find they have an unsatisfactory record with the BBB.I'm locked in with their service till next year or i get a 59.95 dis-connect fee...they had 214 complaints to the BBB in 36 months, Vonage had none..Pass on this dud.

Pros: cheap
Cons: they won't let you cancel

To be fair this service is comparable to Vonage and other VOIP providers, which basically means it is ok most of the time, but you will have problems.

However, I have tried to cancel this service since May of this year and they simply do not do it. I'm sure this is part of how they make money. If they can continue to bilk $24 a month out of people who no longer require their service I'm sure it adds up pretty quickly.

I strongly advise against doing business with this company.

Pros: cheap , but doesnt work
Cons: not reliable..stuck with 1 yr contract

I have been using packet8 since Mid march over a Comcast Highspeed cable connection.
I found it is a very poor quality service.
1) Calls getting droped is very common
2) Most of time I call some one , i had to try multiple times to get connected
3) Lot of times , I had to drop the call and call other party from my cell phone because the other side couldnt hear any thing i speak
tried to attend an interview on this line yesterday and it droped the call 3 times in 45 mins. Many times voice was getting interrupted and both party couldnt hear any thing.
I got really frustrated and called them to cancel it today. Now they showing me a small section in "terms & conditions" saying i have a 12 months contract and need to pay $59 to disconnect! No where in the order page or during signup it displays this contract info. Very crooked bussiness practice.. stay away from packet 8
Comcast internet connection is really good and stable. never had a problem with it..

Pros: Cheapish
Cons: You get even less that what you pay for: poor service.

This is a quickie review to warn people that if you need a dependable service then Packet8 is not for you. We have had Packet8 now for about 6 months and from day one it has frequently required multiple attempts in order to make a call. When it can't connect you are presented with a busy tone, which is confusing. Audio quality is pretty poor from the other end too.

UPDATE: After a couple of extended outages I decided to cancel the service. The rep told me that because I didn't phone in and report the problem (during the outage!!) I would be charged a $59 termination fee. This is a company that deserves to go under very soon.

BTW I have switched to Vonage and am having all sorts of problems with them too. VOIP has a lot of growing up to do, so if you need a dependable phone line, I advise you to stay away from all VOIP providers.

Pros: None
Cons: Too many to mention - Stay Away

I signed up with a promise of a number port (make sure you understand that they do not guarantee ANYTHING) I requested my port and waited and waited. They said it would take some undetermined amount of time. After several months I called and asked them what was going on and they had done NOTHING. Seems they lost my request then they had the gall to ask me why I did not constantly bother them. So I told them to cancel the service that I have not even used yet and they would not waive the cancellation fee even though they lied to me and I have used their service for all of 20 seconds all the time paying for it.

Pros: Very clear voice quality and a great value.
Cons: Support doesn't respond well to email.

I've had Packet 8 service for both my business and residential lines for over 3 months and have been very pleased. I've had to deal with tech support and sales a number of times when I was setting up my business lines (primary & toll free) and they've always answered quickly and have been helpful each time (make sure you call and not email, though). The service has saved me a lot of money and that's why most of us have gone to VoIP. Others reviewers have really badmouthed this company and it's service, which is their right, but it's my belief that some either have ulterior motives or they have had local technical issues beyond the scope of any VoIP provider. No, P8 isn't perfect and has struggled with implementing some new features due to the Federal mandate to provide e911 service but overall Packet8 gets my recommendation and I've had no problem recommending it to friends and family.

Pros: Cheap Free long distance
Cons: poor voice quality unreliable service billing issues poor customer service

I signed up for packet8 last November. The price was good, and, initially, quality was, well, acceptable for the price. However, I did not have E911 service although they promised that I could get it. Quality began to degrade in the Feb-Mar timeframe. Significant echoes, conversation crashes (worse than a cell phone), and significant reliability issues began to surface. Additionally, I found that E911 had been available, but that they wouldn't respond to my requests to hook it up for me. Finally, in May, I'd had enough. I asked them to disconnect, and, even though poor quality and service caused me to disconnect, and even after them saying that they wouldn't charge a disconnect fee, we've gotten 2 "monthly" bills, plus the disconnect fee in less than 2 weeks. Let's see, billing issues, unresponsive to customers, and poor quality. I can't recommend them.

Pros: NOTHING!!!
Cons: EVERYTHING!!!

When you pay for a service from any company that is not provided, it is FRAUD! Packet8 charged me 29.95 for a router and set up fee. They then charged me monthly for 6 months at 19.95 with out ever having my service activated. After going through two lengthy trouble shooting sessions, nothing was resolved. The Techs said they would call me back but never did. They had told me to return my router for another one they said would be compatible with the Packet8 adapter, I did.($80.oo) I finally found out through my local cable company that Packet 8 support did not inform me AOL high speed does not work with this service.(but are happy to still charge you money) They charged another 59.95 cancellation fee for a service that was never activated. I did switch my service to a compatible one(RoadRunner). They would not waive or credit any fees. Bottom line, THIS COMPANY SUCKS BIG TIME! I will be reporting them to the Florida State Attorneys office for Unfair or Deceptive Acts & Practices.

Pros: Very easy to sign up.
Cons: Costly and time consuming to get out.

I only signed up with 8x8 because Sun Rocket went unexpectedly out of business. I should have KNOWN something was up just from their shark-like eagerness to get you to sign. BE VERY VERY SURE YOU READ THEIR TERMS OF SERVICE!!! They'll get you with an outrageous $60.00 termination fee. Overall, I would NOT recommend 8x8. To me, their business ethics aren't up to par. And their puny, heat producing router!

Pros: It's like the call of the siren...Looks good but not ready for the marketplace.
Cons: You can't hear, connect or be heard. It sucks.

I have a small business and I bought the Packet 8 system and it has been a complete nightmare.

STAY AWAY!!!!!

Call quality even locally is very unreliable and way worse than my cell phone.

I have clients and this system is a total disaster.

The Company claims it is high quality and I honestly have no idea how they keep any customers.

We made all the router, DSL provider changes they suggested and it still sucked.

Pros: customer service responds to emails quickly
Cons: customer "service" tries to convert 30 day return to less than 12 month cancellation

Packet 8 advertises 30 day trial, no risk return, does not honor return request then bills for cancellation. Instead they wait till after 30 days and then claim you are canceling 1 year agreement. I never even used service, still in box and they did not and will not send return authorization

Pros: Works well and easy to set up.
Cons: Only for Vonage and other phone companies

Almost sounds like a guerilla marketing smear by the competition. We've used Packet8 VoIP for almost 2 years. Their customer service is superb. No rush and excellent knowledge. Polite and efficient too.

As for the product? It works very well. We call all over the country daily. The user who left comments probably didn't follow software update instructions. I had a similar problem the first day, but a call to service and simple pushbutton software update...voila. It's fabulous. It's cheaper than Vonage and that probably is why certain people might try to smear it. Besides, no one else has video VoIP.

Pros: Convenience and very easy on the pocket!
Cons: (*69) does not provide the number of the last caller, it calls them back.

I signed up for service with Packet 8 after being referred to it by a few friends and getting fed up with the high cost of service with BellSouth!! I was paying over $90/month for phone service with BS (no cable or internet) for the same features that Packet 8 offers for less than $30/month. And I only talk on the phone 4-5 times per week!!

The "Do Not Disturb" feature is wonderful! No more running to all the telephones and turning off the ringer or taking the phone off the hook with the annoying buzzing.

I absolutely love the online phone management. If I end up leaving the house for longer than I planned, I can go to a computer and forward the calls anywhere without having to give out another phone number.

And who doesn't love the simultaneous ring?!! I never miss a phone call because I have my calls ring to my cell phone at the same time!

I just signed my sister up for service.

Thanks Packet 8.

Pros: none
Cons: 15 minute wait on Customer Service

RUN FORREST RUN!!

This company is in the business of scamming anyone who has issues. Their customer service is the pits as they are complete incompetents. This company was promoted by Jay Barker (former Alabama QB) so I thought it would be a good company. But obviously he was scammed too.

Pros: NONE
Cons: Too Numerous to list here

Solicited by company; ordered. Rec'd and charged for TWO units after a 'mysterious' second account was set up in my name ordering service just 13 MINUTES after I ordered from them on the phone. Numerous requests to cancel went ignored until AFTER the 30 day trial so they could hit me up with TWO $59.95 disconnect fees. BOTH for service accounts that were NEVER even activated! Packet8 never sent the code and I only ordered ONE device but am STILL being charged for TWO service contracts AND disconnections. Customer service is incompetent, rude, condescending and ignorant. This company has NO ethics to do what it is doing. Scamming people to sign up; not responding to cancellation requests and then CHARGING you for THEIR lack of response!! Completely unethical. I am surprised they are still here...am sure they wont be for long with their company ethics...or lack thereof!

Pros: They will most likely be out of business in a short amount of time.
Cons: Worst possible customer service you could possibly imagine.

I have been using this service for almost a year and I am here to tell ya that this is the WORST customer service you will EVER deal with! I have not had any service for almost a month, I have had off and on service for the last two months... now they want a $60 disconnect fee! they disconnected ME! So I open a "case" with them, they close my cases without any contact at all... best yet they close it with the "closed/resolved" stamp... so resolved I cant make a phone call.

Do NOT trust the incompetent people at Packet8, I have never been more disappointed with a company before.

Pros: Cheap
Cons: Cheap

I've had the service (if you can call it that) for 11 months, and I have to use my cell phone when I need to make important calls. I called customer service to exchange a bad adapter for a new one and they gave me a run-around. Even my call to customer service was interrupted by static interference and then was disconnected. I'm switching to someone else soon.

Pros: Great Service for unlimited calling.
Cons: VM is a little shaky. Could just be my phone.

I would like to say that i am totally happy with thee service. I have had Packet8 for over 10 months and the only problem i have ever had with it is due to my crapy router. Dont buy a netgear. I didn't have any problems with my linksys router.

Great service if you send one to another country and call the local number for unlimited mins a month. Who else can talk to Korea for $20 Month unlimited.

I have only had to call tech service once and they were pretty good, I had no issue with them. I had to call due to my router acually but they still helped me. All i had to do was reboot my router and the packet8 worked fine.

The only other slight problem i have had is the VM system doesn't alway reconize when i hit numbers to erase or move on the the next msg. I think it is my portable phone thu not packet 8....

Pros: Customer Service, features, e911
Cons: If you don't have high speed internet, go to www.voipconcierge.com/voip

I've tried a few of the VoIP provider services and a lot of them offer you some great benefits. However, the best benefits come with Packet8 and knowing that they have the BEST e911 system available on the market today, I know my family will always be safe.

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HOW?

When checking out on the Packet site, use the code "escape-482305" (without quotations) and update your cart...you should see the savings automatically.

Pros: inexpensive, great voice quality, many features of traditional PBX systems included
Cons: slow rolling out new services (emailing messages in voicemail to a email address and FAX).

I have had packet8 service for over two years and the service over the last 6 months ( following a spring upgrade which caused great problems) is very very good.

Pros: none
Cons: clunky online interface, apathetic customer service, hidden fees

From the start my experience was terrible: terrible online interface, no voicemail management, customer service impossible to get and incredibly unconcerned with customer's problems, hidden fees and generally the worst consumer experience I have ever had, ever. From the beginning to the final cancellation (for which they charged me a $60 disconnection fee even though I had a monthly contract and had been with them for 2 months), it was a horror and a heartache. Stay away.

Pros: Pros: Phone equipment arrived quickly, low start-up costs
Cons: Cons: Call waiting, hidden fees, customer service,

The quality on Packet 8 was sub-par. When another call came in, call waiting squealed and almost disconnected the original call. The squealing and strange noises was so awful that you could not hear your conversation.

Packet 8 advertises service of $19.95, but charges a mandatory 911 fee that other services providers add into their price. In addition, they added the 911 after I signed up for the service. When I tried to cancel my account, they told me it would be a $59.00 cancellation fee. Oddly, they claim to have no contracts. When I confronted them about this fact, they said they don't have contracts but it was a "terms of service fee"

I would stay away from Packet 8.

Pros: good sound quality
Cons: customer service never responds to anything

I have had two trouble tickets in for several weeks now that Packet 8 has never responded to and once again my service is down and more than 1/2 the numbers I have tried to call can not be completed. Packet 8 is fine as a back service but don't depend on for anything and don't expect customer service to respond to you problems. Trying to get through to customer service on the phone is impossible and they don't respond to trouble tickets. When the service is working the sound quality is good though.

Pros: Hard phone service worked well.
Cons: Soft phone didn't work.  Customer service was the worst I've ever experienced.

I just finished-off an extended trial period with them for 2.5 months.  They fraudulently charged more for my services than was quoted, claiming they had sent an email about pricing changes.  They hit me with a ridiculous $60 cancellation fee, saying that I extended my trial period enough to count.  They were very mean and unapologetic, not understanding at all.  They were accusatory, insensitive, unfair.  Please stay away!