Ooma - Reviews and experiences

I used to really like Ooma, but over the years my trust slowly eroded. I’m glad I tried it, and I’m glad I stuck with it long enough to see the good and the bad, but at this point I’d say be careful and pay attention to billing and odd technical glitches. Now the longer story — I’m jumping back into it from the middle because that’s how I remember it best.
I first came across Ooma on a tech radio host’s recommendation years ago — remember when those shows actually made stuff sound exciting and trustworthy? That’s how I started, and I told a bunch of friends about it too. For a long time it was fine. I have the Premier account and for many years the call quality and price were perfectly acceptable. It saved me money compared to traditional phone plans and I was happy enough to recommend it.
But then the patterns began. Every year the account auto-billed around $136, and every year I had to call to haggle a $40 credit — yes, really. Eventually they’d apply it, sometimes after saying “this is the one time” or “we won’t do this again.” That back-and-forth got old, but I kept at it because the net cost was still reasonable. I also referred friends and was supposed to get referral credits. Getting those credits turned into a nightmare around 2022 — it took persistence, and a lot of patience, to get what was promised. I didn’t give up and eventually the credits showed up, but the whole process left a bad taste.
Then the technical gremlins appeared. Picture this: I dial someone from my Ooma phone, from my end nothing seems to happen — no ring, no busy tone, nada — but the person I’m calling hears the phone ring and sees my name on caller ID. They pick up and there’s nobody there. Sometimes calling again fixes it, sometimes not. It’s inconsistent and maddening because the person on the other end gets annoyed — especially if it’s a business or someone I don’t know well. I warned my friends about it, which is awkward because some of them were on Ooma thanks to my referral. They got the same symptoms. I’m a licensed engineer, so I did a bit of troubleshooting; everything on my side checked out. After a week dealing with support, moving between reps, and getting repeated “it’s your phone” messages, I’m convinced the problem lives somewhere in Ooma’s network. It’s not constant, it’s random, but it’s disruptive.
What worries me more than the dropped-call weirdness is the billing side. There are a lot of reviews out there from people who say they were billed after canceling service — months later, even. Reading those stories over the years made my stomach turn. It’s one thing to have a tech hiccup; it’s another to worry that cancelling will turn into a fight over money you don’t owe. If you decide to leave, watch your statements closely, talk to your bank if something weird happens, and file complaints if you must. That’s not a thrilling way to end a subscription.
Despite all this I don’t want to come off as purely negative — Ooma gave me years of cheap, decent VOIP service, and when things worked it worked well. The customer experience just feels inconsistent now: good price sometimes, good calls sometimes, but unreliable support and billing headaches make it hard to wholeheartedly recommend them these days. My advice: if you try them, monitor everything, push for credits when promised, and be persistent with support. And if you care about long-term peace of mind, have a backup plan in mind — I’m looking into other VOIP providers myself, but I haven’t pulled the trigger yet.
Emotionally? It’s frustrating. I feel a little guilty for having recommended Ooma to friends only to have them deal with the same quirks. I also feel oddly grateful for the steady savings in the early years — this whole thing is one of those “it was good, then complicated” stories. Learn from my experience: enjoy the savings, but keep an eye on the little things.

don’t expect a quick swap if your device dies. I use this cordless phone for day-to-day business stuff — taking orders, checking in with clients, coordinating staff — and when it stops ringing, everything slows down. So when it started having “bad days” (wouldn’t ring, wouldn’t make calls) I thought the maintenance plan would kick in and I’d get a replacement. Nope. Instead I spent hours on the phone rebooting the unit (a dozen times?), updating the phone OS three times, and following step-by-step instructions. I even dug up the MAC/serial like they asked. That part seemed promising — at first they said a replacement would be sent once I confirmed the serial. Later someone else told me, sorry, you need to troubleshoot and update the firmware again before we’ll send anything. It felt like being stalled. The reps I dealt with were polite, actually friendly — that surprised me — but somewhere above them the policy seems to be: make it as hard as possible to hand out replacements. The result for my small business was ugly: more than 20 missed calls over one weekend. Customers annoyed, staff scrambling to call people back, lost time, and me trying to explain why we weren’t answering. I will say this: the plan’s features and the pricing are pretty competitive, and some individual agents tried to help. That was the unexpected positive. Still, when a promise in a sales pitch says “device replacement,” you expect that to be true without jumping through extra hoops every time. I’m cancelling the service because I don’t want to risk being unreachable again, and I’m already bracing for a fight at cancellation time (based on other reviews). If you mostly want the features and a good price, fine — but if you rely on quick hardware swaps to keep your business running, be prepared to push, push, and then push some more. It’s wearisome and not how maintenance should work.

So, I had to order a new Ooma device 'cause my old one conked out after 11 years. Generally, I've had a good run with Ooma. But when it was time to swap out my device, I hit a snag. Managed to get the new device with overnight delivery, which was handy. But I struggled to set it up under my existing account without calling in during weekday hours. So, I was left without a phone all weekend, even though I had the new device right there. Kinda sucked that there wasn't 24-hour customer service. The website should also have clear instructions for DIY installation.

Oh my goodness, this thing has been such a lifesaver for my family's small business! When the pandemic hit back in 2020, we had to transition to working from home and this internet phone really saved the day. We were able to continue answering calls and supporting our clients while staying safe. It's truly the greatest solution for small healthcare businesses like ours. We even recommended it to our friends who were in a similar situation!

I got this telecommunication system not too long ago and man, it was a total nightmare dealing with the company. The customer service was useless and I felt like I was paying way too much for what I was getting. I was constantly dealing with technical problems and had a hard time cancelling my subscription. Long story short, I wouldn't suggest this company to anyone.

So I bought phones from this company, right? But guess what, turns out I don't really own them if I decide to switch providers. Their terms say that even if you bring your own phones, they can only work with their system. That's pretty sketchy if you ask me. They don't make it clear to customers that they won't really own their phones. Just a heads up if you're thinking about using their service.

I gotta tell ya, dealing with their phone customer service was a real nightmare. The person I talked to seemed like they had no idea what was going on and couldn't even understand a word I was saying. It was so frustrating and a total waste of my time. I'd probably have more luck talking to a wall, to be honest.

So I wanted to switch my number to a different provider, eh? But Ooma kept charging me even though I wasn't getting their service anymore. I tried talking to their customer service a bunch of times, but they just said that's their policy. It really rubbed me the wrong way, you know? I'd recommend staying away from Ooma, their billing isn't up to par, eh.

My recent purchase from Ooma has been pretty disappointing, eh. The service keeps cutting out on me, which is super frustrating 'cause I need it for communicating. The voice quality on greetings and messages on the device is really bad, and that's not cool, ya know. The only good thing is that it works decently on my computer, but that doesn't make up for all the problems with the service. I like being able to check messages on my computer, but it doesn't make up for all the issues I have with Ooma, eh.

I just got a VoIP phone service and it was a bit of a bummer dealing with the company. Everything was fine at first, they charged me the agreed price for the first three months. But then, out of nowhere, they bumped up my rate without telling me. I never got an email about the change and I couldn't switch back online. I had to call and talk to someone who said they switched me back, but I never got a confirmation email. And when I checked my account, the rate was still not changed.

I gotta say, I've been really happy with the VoIP service I got. From start to finish, the whole experience has been top-notch. It's been three months now and I haven't run into any problems with it. When I did need to reach out to customer service that one time, it was super easy and they fixed my issue right away. My coworkers have shared some horror stories about their VoIP systems, but so far Ooma has been great for me. The email notifications for each message are a super handy feature for my everyday communication needs.

I was actually happy with the service at first because they said I wouldn't have to sign a contract and could cancel whenever I wanted. But when I tried cancelling after a year and a half because of internet problems, they surprised me with a $599 fee for renting their equipment. I was not impressed by this extra charge and felt like it was sneaky and not fair to me as a customer. I had to pay the fee before they would cancel my service, which didn't sit right with me.

The service I got when buying 4 phones for my business was just terrible. Calls kept getting cut off, and it was so annoying. When I tried to cancel because of the bad quality, it was even worse. The whole no-contract thing was a joke, 'cause I couldn't cancel without crazy fees. Trying to talk to the higher-ups was a nightmare, with so many disconnections and hours wasted on the phone.

Ooma has been my top choice for nearly ten years now, and I can confidently say they have provided outstanding service over the years. I've hardly encountered any issues with their services, and any problems that did arise were quickly and effectively addressed. There was a small hiccup with the forwarding feature once, but it was fixed right away. The find me/follow me service that my business relies on has always been dependable and consistent. I really like the app's functionality, which lets me make outbound calls on my cellphone easily. Plus, using an analog adapter allows me to keep using my old rotary phone, adding a nice touch of nostalgia to my office. And the pricing is way lower than what I used to pay with my previous VoIP provider, Speakeasy. Overall, I've been more than happy with my experience with Ooma.

I really dislike this phone company. They told us one thing and did the complete opposite. We ended up getting billed a ton of money for phones we've had for ages. They said they would refund us, but that never happened. It's not cool at all!

We've been using a small business phone system for our company for over ten years now. It's been a dependable service that has really worked well for us. This system is great for businesses on a tight phone budget, just like ours. But it might not be the best choice for call centers or businesses that need lots of phone lines and fancy call features.

I signed up for the Pro service with 2 lines, thinking I would only have to pay $49.90 per month, like they said. But when I got my first bill, I was shocked to see all these extra charges for taxes and fees, adding up to $21.99. They never mentioned these extra costs to me before, which I think is kinda sneaky. On top of that, their service was just not up to par. They claim to be the best VOiP service around, but I find it fishy that my 1-star review never showed up, no matter how many times I tried. It looks like they only want to show the good reviews to keep up their reputation.

The Ooma account I got for free from my mobile provider turned out to be a total disaster. When I wanted to send back the gear after I canceled my account because of problems with the provider, the customer service person wouldn't give me a label to send it back. I had to pay almost twenty five dollars to ship the unopened box of gear. It's not cool to treat customers like that - totally not okay.

I had a really bad experience with the phone service - super low quality - so I decided to cancel after only 2 months. But then, to make matters worse, even after we cancelled, they kept charging my 92-year-old grandma for another three years without her permission. And when we asked for her money back, they said no way. Totally not cool.

I decided to switch because the customer service was terrible. They were rude and threatening when I tried to cancel, didn't send me receipts like they said they would, and it was hard to talk to a supervisor. I was put on hold for a long time and got disconnected a few times. They even tried to cancel my service before the switch was finished and wouldn't give me the terms and conditions.