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Highly recommend 8x8 as an IT consultant
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I am an IT consultant installing VoIP solutions for small businesses and home offices. After looking at all the big players (8x8, Ring Central, M5, Vonage, Comcast, etc.) I have settled on 8x8 and continue to recommend them.
I like their phone options, pricing, ability to get just one line of service at a reasonable price, their features, a web interface that works on both PC's and Mac's, their smartphone interface, US-based tech support and their referral program.
I am not being paid to put up this review. I just really like their service.
In light of the some of the bad reviews of 8x8, I would offer the following thoughts. No company is perfect,and far from it AT&T and other ILEC's out there. 8x8 has their faults, but nothing that can't be resolved.
With any VoIP solution, it is important to ensure that you have sufficient bandwidth and understand your needs vs. what a VoIP provider can and cannot do.
First is bandwidth. You need a cable connection or equivalent of 12Meg down and 2Meg up to be happy with VoIP solutions. Why? We take for granted we can do everything with our PC's, Mac's TV's, mobile devices, etc., but forget that these devices can cause poor quality audio calls. Yes, a VoIP connection only needs 64-80K of bandwidth per call, but when heavy streaming or downloading is taking place, unless you have enough capacity, your voice call can have jitter and poor call quality.
Next are phones and devices. In my opinion, stick with the Polycom IP335, IP550 or IP560 phones along with the high-end Cisco phones. You can also use telephone adapters to plug in your simple telephones, but problems will occur after 4-5 phones are attached. Negotiate with them. They will cut you amazing deals on phones if you haggle. On the IP335 and IP550 phones, you should not need to pay more than $99 per phone.
Get everything done within 30 days, including your port-in of phone numbers. 8x8 is very good about canceling and returning everything as long as you do it within 30 days. That's fair from my perspective. They ship phones and devices within one day of order as long as you approve the order electronically. Try out the phone service and configure the auto attendant before you port-in your phone numbers. You need to be convinced you are happy with the service before you commit to them.
If something does not work right, call toll-free Tech Support. Yes, there have been misconfigurations, but only one time they were not able to resolve right over the phone. The one time an auto attendant was screwed up it took 1 week to resolve it. yes, that was a little frustrating, but with persistence it will get resolved.
if you don't feel comfortable technically getting everything set up and installed, reach out to an IT consultant to get help. It might save you a lot of headaches if you can afford one or a few hours of consulting time.
I hope this helps when evaluating VoIP vendors.
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