Customer Reviews

8x8 Packet8 Broadband Phone Service Adapter 510

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Before getting VOIP make sure your broadband connection is good enough to support quality calls. There are websites that do this.

With my last VOIP provider, calls would sometimes get choppy if I browsed the internet during the call. I'm using Packet8 with a cordless phone and the calls are as clear as with a regular landline and I can browse the internet at the same time. I've plugged in a corded phone to verify the call sounds like a regular line. Haven't had any service outages so far so no interaction with customer service.

It took about 5 working days to port my number from my old provider. With an annual unlimited plan, it works out to $16.86 per month for me including the tax. There's a cheaper plan with a 500 minute outgoing allowance (unlimited incoming) that I may switch to. Edit: Faxing used to work with Packet 8, but no longer does.

The unit itself requires just plugging everything in. You can adjust settings if necessary, but with most network connections you just plug it in and activate the account online. It's small, but I'd prefer if it were box shaped and smaller. But that's so that I could take it with me if I had to travel for an extended period. It's out of site stuck under my desk normally.

6/1/09 Update: The company was recently acquired or changed it's name to 8x8. That was fine, but they gave me 1 working day notice that the plan I was on was being discontinued and I'd be moved to a plan $10 higher. Literally, notice on 5/28 with only Friday to call them about it before it changed on Monday 6/1. The new plan is the same price as most other providers, yet most other providers have more features. I'm looking for a new provider.

I had this product for more than two years. since then was working perfect. I'm saving a lot of mony in my log distance calls. Delivery on time.

i have been a customer of packet8 for over 2 years & have been thrilled with the service. i initially obtained the service to save on long distance calls to europe but was so pleased with the service that i eventually got rid of my verizon land line in just a few months. over the years i've only had one technical glitch that the tech support was able to resolve instantly (luckily it wasnt a sunday as they r only open mon-sat). i cant imagine why anyone would opt to pay $5 a month more for vonage much less pay for a land line! the only other option w/ comparable service that i have tried (& like) is skype which is offering free domestic calling for the rest of the year.

People often only post reviews when there is something negative to say, and every customer service organization fails on occasion, so I thought I'd post my experience here.

I've been a Packet 8 subscriber since June 2005. I retained a landline but use the Packet 8 line for all calls. I have telecommuted for the past 7 years using the Packet 8 line constantly.

Back when my ISP was only 10 Mbps and I was trying to squeeze a lot down it, I did get the "underwater" effect on Packet 8 calls. It didn't deal well with ISP congestion. These days, with over double the bandwidth from my ISP, calls are crystal clear (better than our landline which is subject to a lot of radio interference).

Just recently, my DTA-310 failed after 6 years of flawless operation. Speaking with the tech support, they gave me a few things to try, none of which resolved it. They told me it would cost nearly $100 to replace it so I called back to close the account, as I can live without 2 lines for now. The customer service rep I spoke with saw I was a long-time subscriber, put me on hold and got authorization to replace the DTA for free.

Needless to say, I'm thrilled with their customer service and very glad to keep my Packet 8 line active.

Received the item brand new and it works perfectly. Because it has a built in router it saved me the cost of buying a standalone router for my configuration. The price was excellent, I saved lots of money.

I have been a customer for 3 years now and I was very glad I switched to Packet 8 for my telephone needs. It works as advertised and customer service is one of the best in the field.

during a power outage, I'm glad i can still receive incoming calls routed to my cellphone so everything works out fine.

Most rewarding are my free unlimited calls to Canada....aside from free unlimited calls to anywhere in the US.

Packet8, on the surface, appears to be a good choice for VoIP. WRONG! When I actually experienced their "service" I found first impressions can be deceiving. At first it was OK, but after a few months the voice quality became consistently unusable - voices were badly distorted and difficult to understand. Calls were intermittently dropped.

Calls to technical support resulted in immediate and repeated blame placed on everything outside their own company. I received pages of instructions telling me to change all the cords, change my router configuration, change my phone, change my network configuration, run network tests and on and on. They blamed available bandwidth on my cable line without testing it, told me that having another VoIP service provider on the same network connection would cause a problem because the IP addresses would be "confused." The one thing they did seem good at was finding someone else to blame. They were NOT good at resolving a problem that, in the end, was clearly their own.

I've moved to another provider and have found that Packet8 continued to cause problems because I was forwarding calls from Packet8 to the new provider. Packet8 simply drops all forwarded calls after 16 minutes, something they don't disclose anywhere I've found. Outside the Packet8 caused problems, the new service provider (VoipYourLife) works great.

Packet8 makes it very easy to sign up. They never mention a cancellation fee if you sign up over the phone and bury notice of the fee in a multi-page service agreement online. Discussions with their management made it clear that they didn't care if their service worked or not, they were going to charge their customers to cancel.

Stay away from this one.

Seems everybody submits reviews only when they have problems. I've been nothing but pleased so far with Packet8 for my home phone service. $25(taxes and fees included.) per month for unlimited long distance sure beats $75 per month charged by Verizon. I'll rate a couple of areas.

Call(line) quality - It's good. I won't kid you, it's not as good as a land line but theres nothing that is noticeable or that bothers me during conversation.

Customer Service - I had an issue when trying to activate. I was worried about how Packet8's customer service would respond. I was pleasantly surprised when I have a live human being on the line within one minute and had my problem solved within 5 minutes. No problems in customer service so far.

Cost - $19.95 per month for unlimited US long distance. I can't beat that.

The only negative I know is that during a power outage I have no phone service. But that would be the case with any VoIP solution. Great thing about Packet8 is that I can forward my calls to my mobile when there's an internet outage.

I have used the Packet8 service since August 2004. This is an unbelievable service at the best price. Since I have been a customer, they have improved quality dramatically to about the same as a regular phone service! Even more, they have steadily added features over the past few years. My favorite feature is the voicemail to email feature. I can get all my voicemails emailed to me and this is useful at work. Other features they have added are caller ID, and a feature that lets you call all your phones including your cell phone when someone calls your Packet8 phone number. That way, you can just pick up the closest phone to you. Everything is managed online. Plus you can forward your calls when you are on vacation or take the box with you to. Get this box/Packet8 and I promise you wont regret it. Nothing but big smiles for me!!!!! :))))))) They are also coming out with a softphone so you can use bluetooth/USB headsets from a laptop or whatever. Currently, you can use it but only in beta until a few more months.

It is awesome. This is the only Voip product I've used. On par with Verizon. Only negative is if your internet connection goes down, you have no phone service BUT in that case you have those calls forwarded to your cell phone. NEVER miss a call with features 8x8 offers.

Sound quality is excellent.