VoIP - Vocalocity, 8x8, Jive Ect...

[Tucker444]

My issue with Ringcentral has simply been choppy calls. Very bad. We have an office in Washington state, one in Colorado and then one where I am. All of us have had bad experience with the choppy moments during a call.

The other issue has been someone will call us and they can hear us but we can't hear them. We have to say we cannot hear you so please call us back.

This is just not acceptable for a business to have these issues.

So it has been my thought that it is simply VoIP that is the problem. But as I have investigated it seems some of the issues is the Company. Like TwiLight mentioned...I am hearing from others.

What really got me motivated to get a new company is Ringcentral has told me we must have a 10mb Upload! Which every person, including the cable company (provider for my internet) told me that R was insane. There was no possible way I needed that much Upload. Where I am at the most they could offer was 5mb. So we upgraded and it cost me over $100 a month more. But still the same issues.

My WA State employee upgraded her internet and is now getting nearly 12mb Upload...but it seems to have fixed her issues. But again she is paying a whole lot more for it.

I suspect that RC want's us to have such an extreme amount of Upload to help offset their lacking system.

 

[360]

Anyone have first hand experience with any of these or any others?

Switched from Nextiva to Vocalocity a year or so ago. Vocalocity has been great to work with and phone quality could not be better. They've also got a nice plug-in for Outlook and Sugar if you use either of those.

 

[Tucker444]

You are going to have Issues with all these vendors with quality. Mainly because VOIP is primarily using a server based PBX which Is overloaded.

Large companies, ours included, own their own systems and are able to control the loads on their servers. All of our agents have access to our systems and never had complaints of quality.

If you need a good one, we recommend and resell for Velocity Networks. www.vel.net or contact me and we can hook you up on our PBX system.

Yes this is what I am hearing as well. Vocalocity however says they do own their own system. He was the first guy to really explain what that means.

My research of 8x8 shows they seem to have a very good system. I actually am having a call with them today. He said he will explain how they work. I am just unsure about them.

Do you own phone.com? I have been looking at them.

The first and most important issue is quality os sound and reliability. I want to buy and be done. I hate spending time on phone issues.

But I do want features that help us. One such item is Intercom. Some company's are saying they have intercom or some call it push to talk.

While those who do not have this feature tell me it is impossible to have intercom.

For example Vocalocity doesn't have it but they do have group paging. If they can do paging then I don't understand why they couldn't have intercom.

For me I want to be able to hit one button and the other person's speaker auto picks up and we can talk. And when they need to talk to me the same thing. Saves time.

What has got me interested in 8x8 is they include webinar ability. That would be nice to drop webex.
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Switched from Nextiva to Vocalocity a year or so ago. Vocalocity has been great to work with and phone quality could not be better. They've also got a nice plug-in for Outlook and Sugar if you use either of those.

Vocalocity told me they were getting lots of folks switching from Nextiva.

I keep leaning towards Vocalocity. I just wish they had intercom.

One thing about them is all the videos they have showing you everything. They seem to do a very effective job making the argument why I should go with them.

I know more about their system by far than anyone else. And trust me I have spent hours and hours researching. Maybe that is why I lean to them because I feel comfortable with what I would be getting. Very effective by their marketing department.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

My research of 8x8 shows they seem to have a very good system. I actually am having a call with them today. He said he will explain how they work. I am just unsure about them.

FWIW, I've been using 8x8 for over six years now. Excellent, consistent call quality. Never a "service" issue.

 

[360]

Nextiva BLOWS. They ported my main office line away from me not once but twice! They are absolutely clueless.

 

[Tucker444]

If you need a good one, we recommend and resell for Velocity Networks. www.vel.net or contact me and we can hook you up on our PBX system.

Ok I had looked at this site last week. To me the site doesn't give me much info on pricing and the demo is not really a demo so I never looked at it further.

But since you brought it up I will look again. They show push to talk and also something else called Loud speaker paging which I have not seen before.

Do you use the push to talk? Does it work just like a intercom on a traditional pbx in house system?

Will it work the same with a person in WA state to soemone in another state?

 

[Tucker444]

FWIW, I've been using 8x8 for over six years now. Excellent, consistent call quality. Never a "service" issue.

Cool. Do you have intercom with them?

Last year they had a 3rd party evaluation done. Looks like it was something they hired them to do but they issued a 26 page report. They went in to great detail to hide who they were from the sales people so that they would be treated like any other customer. The results were very good. I have the entire 26 page report. That report is what brought me back to talking with them. The sales guy is going to help me on a Sunday because I am tired of spending my work day on this. Score points for him!
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I would say Jive, Vocalocity, and 8x8, are all really great options. Choosing one over the 3 companies really depends on your phone service needs,

- as in how big is your company
- how many phones lines do you need
- do you have your own equipment
- do you have more than one location

In my experience, I would say 8x8 or Jive might be the way to go for a larger business. Also Nextiva is a great option to consider

Good luck!

Cool. Thanks for the info. Since your name is Voip Master...do you know if intercom truely works? Jive has it and swears to me that it works just like traditional intercom.

We are small but do have remote workers. only 4 of us but we are in 3 states.
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sorry folks on my post. For some reason it say's I edited and merged some. So now some post have more than one reply to a thread.

I didn't edit anything or intend to do that.

Not sure what the deal is. But it sure makes it harder to read through.

 

[TwiLight]

Yes this is what I am hearing as well. Vocalocity however says they do own their own system. He was the first guy to really explain what that means.

I mentioned a different company, Velocity Velocity Networks - Business VoIP and Internet Service Provider. There is quite a big difference between the companies. Velocity pricing is simple $30 or $40 per extension or phone per month depending on what features you want. There network is solid and not overloaded.

The Overload problem is rampant with phone.com and quality is very poor. We were a referral partner until Jan of this year as the quality issues has not been resolved due to their huge growth.

Quality basically is, you get what you pay for, with the companies you had mentioned.

If you have 3 offices as you mentioned, you should look at having a dedicate server to handle your calls and own system. I can help you there with very low cost.

Send me a PM or email me.

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One important issue that everyone overlooks with VOIP phones is the Router and Switches used at your location. Upload is never an issue with cable internet. The Switch and router is the issue.

Using a $49 router is the first problem, it cannot handle the QOS needs of VOIP. I recommend an upgrade to an "EdgeMarc Router" or "Dell PowerConnect Switch" both when connected to a Cable modem will provide excellent quality. Also, do not expect WiFi connections to be perfect, because it will always invite choppy sound.

 

[Josh]

You could also go with the AirPort Extreme. They're awesome wireless routers that can keep up with just about (if not) anything. Not everyone wants to spend almost $200 on a router though.

 

[Tucker444]

You could also go with the AirPort Extreme. They're awesome wireless routers that can keep up with just about (if not) anything. Not everyone wants to spend almost $200 on a router though.

I will spend the money on a router. I did have someone tell me to buy a new one. Plus I have been using a wireless connection for my computer that I use Ringcentral on. So we are going to make mine a straight connection.

The router Jive suggested and quote me is Adtran NetVanta 3120.

It is nearly $300. ($275)