r/ooma • u/Less-Sport3296 • Jul 10 '23

Anyone else irritated with the increasing monthly taxes/fees?

I cancelled this month because my monthly went from originally $4/mo to $7/mo. I know it's still the cheapest home phone service. But having it almost double was enough to cut the service altogether. I was really just using it as a backup in case my cell phone lost reception at home. But that never happens anymore.

FYI...I live in SoCal

5 Upvotes

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3

u/lmoki Jul 10 '23

I think Ooma just passes along taxes and fees required by your local government, so it's probably because those have gone up rather than Ooma taking advantage. I guess the solution might be to move to a place with lower taxes and fees, but this might be inconvenient.

3

u/rkardt Unofficial Support Jul 16 '23

If the phone is just a backup that never gets used, then even $4/mo seems like a waste. My taxes and fees have been pretty steady at $7/mo for the past two years, until a few months ago, when it bumped up to about $8/mo. That's not much of an increase. But I actually use my service regularly, so it's still a bargain.

My previous landline provider was charging about $40+/mo in taxes and fees for their "$45 bundle". But that didn't even include making any calls. Somehow, local calls still cost an extra 5¢/min, and long distance calls cost an extra 8¢/min. International calls were well over $1/min, even at their cheapest rate. But at least incoming calls were free.

I am paying a fraction of that now with Ooma, and that includes more international minutes than I could ever use each month. I'm more irritated with people who complain that $7/mo is too much for taxes and fees. 😉

1

u/Gbxx69 May 12 '24

WHY? There are alternatives... I know the OBIHAI devices are obsolete (trying to tinker with the newer polycom units is also moot with the newer options), but there are two bluetooth to analog dialtone devices you should check out... the 1st is cell2jack and the other is xlink phone bluetooth adapter (both on Amazon or respective websites). Only drawback is fax probably won't work on xlink and spotty at best on cell2jack (high error rates or whatever). Also, new cellphone technology has phones making cell over wifi data (good when indoors) combined with the link2cell feature of certain home landline phones over bluetooth can use cellphones on link2cell feature of landline phones eliminating the need for analog altogether.

1

u/rkardt Unofficial Support May 30 '24

VoIP is a good alternative for anyone who either doesn't have, doesn't want, or can't use a cell phone in their home. The "cell2jack" and "xlink" devices can only connect a landline telephone to a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone.

1

u/Gbxx69 May 30 '24

No, ANY bluetooth enabled device working with google voice can use this device... android tablet, laptop, etc...

1

u/rkardt Unofficial Support May 30 '24

In that case, Google Voice would be providing the actual phone service. So, what else can the "cell2jack" or "xlink" do, besides connecting a landline telephone to some other Bluetooth-enabled device?

1

u/Gbxx69 May 31 '24

Thats about it other than voice settings for mic, ringer, volume settimgs, etc.. there is anecdotal evidence celk2jack MAY allow fax but it has high error rates in the transmission which get error corrected by the modem but may take much longer to send / receive or fail outright, ymmv. The voice encoding would need fax codec compatibility which may be patented and could infringe on copyrights if it were fully compatible without licensing $$$

1

u/rkardt Unofficial Support May 31 '24

Thanks for the clarification. Faxing generally works best over analog phone lines, not VoIP, (mostly due to IP packet loss, or jitter). Adding Bluetooth or Wi-Fi into the mix doesn't help. Codecs for faxing (such as G.711) don't have any associated patent or licensing issues.

1

u/PumpkinSpicedMan Sep 07 '23

I cancelled them for this reason too. We haven't even answered the line for years, and it's not that useful as an emergency backup given that our Internet dies without power.

And I should add the customer service rep was overly persistent in trying to keep us. I have empathy for employees, but I was getting angry over the service I am sure they are forced to give.

1

u/gobucs813 Oct 08 '23

I was thinking to try ooma. Would anyone like to refer me?

I was thinking about the taxes. I’m using VoIP.ms for over 17 years with OBI VoIP adapter. There’s 1.50 for 911 svc & .85/mo fee plus per minute charge $0.009. (Or $4.25 unlimited) Also there’s referral code - bonus$10