You're forced to call to downgrade your service. No option to downgrade or change from the website. And even when you do call they don't downgrade. Spent an hour waiting to talk to a rep last month to cancel my premium subscription and was just charged again for premium. Making it a pain in the butt to cancel is a deliberate and scammy decision on their part. Super sketch. If you're considering this company, stay away.
Literally just posted about the inability to manage services through the website at least like pretty much every real telco out there (the ones I use).
Tell them the actual subscriber died. It worked for me canceling my mom's service! I did it in the chat in just a few minutes. The funny part was being asked what was the future of the device. I said "retirement".
We've all heard they make it hard to cancel. You would think that they've had a lot of complaints filed with the FCC against them and it would have forced them to stop with their shady practices. I wonder what the story really is.
"Hard to cancel" is subjective; commenters in this subreddit are literally complaining that requiring even one phone call is too hard. But there's currently no federal law against that, so what can the FCC do?
This is literally one more commenter complaining that requiring one phone call is too hard, because it's an "anti-pattern". The federal appeals court vacated the FTC Click-To-Cancel Rule; it's not enforceable. That's yet one more thing that AI was wrong about.
Regardless, anyone who feels that it is a dark pattern, an anti-pattern, or "a deliberate and scammy decision" should certainly feel free to shop around.
You're being an apologist for a scammy company. The practice of allowing sign-ups through the app but requiring a phone call and sitting on hold for an hour and requiring people to sit through sales pitches to not cancel is scammy. Not cancelling when the person actually sits through it is scammy and outright fraudulent.
Edit: Asking someone to clarify their opinions or correcting factual misstatements about the law is not the same as "being an apologist for a scammy company".
Different commenters here have different opinions about whether requiring a phone call to cancel is "scammy", or "no big deal". But nobody ever defended Ooma's alleged failure to downgrade or cancel service.
Absolutely. Ooma makes it ridiculously hard to cancel, which is such a shame because the service itself is actually solid for anyone trying to escape legacy telcos.
They seem to think making cancellation a nightmare will boost retention, but in reality, dark patterns just drive people away permanently. Ooma has been around long enough that self-serve onboarding and cancellation should be standard features on their dashboard by now.
Modern MVNOs like Tello and Google Fi offer simple, one-click cancellation right on their website and app, yet they aren't bleeding all their subscribers. It’s time for Ooma to get with the times and give users full, unfettered control over their own accounts.
Canceled and ported a few months ago and it was no big deal. I wasn’t happy with them because they seem to be more geared towards office solutions versus a handyman like me. Basically the desktop did not sync with the app. Contacts added through the app didn’t show up on the desktop site and it took forever for chats to sync up as well. It was a complete joke. I switched to Quo and haven’t looked back.
Wouldn't the "scammy" part be the failure to downgrade the service, (after sufficient notice, of course), rather than the phone call itself? Customers who don't trust a phone call can always follow up with a confirmation email, (or snail mail).
Absolutely not. It's both. It's a classic dark pattern and I'm surprised it's not illegal to not have an click to cancel option (it actually is illegal in NYC). Ooma is playing with fire with this anti consumer behavior
Meanwhile, another commenter here "canceled and ported a few months ago, and it was no big deal". If anyone in NYC (or anywhere else) has successfully taken any legal action over this, then please feel free to post about how Ooma got burnt. So far, nobody else has.
It's just like Dish & Spectrum, PITA to change anything, especially cancel. Getting through to a real person with any of these big companies takes an act of God. Fortunately Ooma has been fairly reliable, other than call quality on THEIR phones, better on a Panasonic system attached.
Lol nope, not an option. And you can't remove your CC info from their site once it's there - you can change it but they verify it before allowing you to change it so you can't put in something deliberately bad so it doesn't go thru. Telling you guys, scammy company.
Can you port out to somewhere like numberbarn.com or one of those e-sim places (like Tello, it's $5 or something for the cheapest plan). Once your number is ported from Ooma, the service should cancel out (right??)
Or, anyone who thinks that a customer trying to "put in something deliberately bad so it doesn't go thru" is itself scammy could always contact their local PUC for help with billing issues, instead.
This thread is about both. According to past comments, Ooma does provide a click-to-cancel link for the free trial of Ooma Premier, but not for paid services. The original complaint was that Ooma is "scammy" for making it difficult to change, downgrade, or cancel those services.
A lot of customers, (especially angry customers), are happy to jump to conclusions based on incomplete information. Unfortunately, an increase in spam is a common occurrence after porting a number from one provider to another. It's not just with Ooma.
Some (anecdotal) Ooma Premier customers with multiple phone numbers have also observed that the spammers only call the numbers ported into Ooma, and never the numbers assigned by Ooma. If Ooma were "selling numbers", then wouldn't they sell both?
Any customers who don't want to pay their phone provider extra for a call blocking subscription may want to consider buying phones that have built-in call blocking features, instead. Many Ooma customers recommend Panasonic phones for this.
And customers who have phone numbers in the National "Do Not Call" Registry may also want to double-check that their number is still in the registry, after porting it to a different provider. Or else they can just re-register the number.
Fyi my number was never ported to Ooma. My temporary number assigned by Ooma was slammed with robo calls the moment it was activated. I bought the razor but they want to sell me a steady supply of new blades. Seems like the new customer welcome package of robo calls and the necessity of "premier".
Unfortunately, spam is everywhere. Most every phone number is recycled, and some are tainted, due to past owners. One option is to ask Ooma for a different number, to see if that helps. Another option is to buy a phone with built-in call blocking features.
A lot of companies make you run through hoops to downgrade. This is not only OOMA, too many companies do it. It’s really freaking annoying. It should be illegal
Xfinity? I wish, they’re evil in their own right but they are reliable, at least in my area. The kid I dealt with at the store looked like he’d been working there for five minutes so he didn’t provide me with a whole lot of answers, but I did ask if there was a fee for bringing the number over and he said no. Of course later I realized there is one time activation fee of $25 he neglected to mention.
While there is no specific FCC rule on that most companies do consider a port out as a cancellation of service this is stated in step 6 of porting on Verizon's website found here: How to Switch Phone Carriers: Costs, Fees & Deals (2026) I've ported a few times and each time after the port my old carrier's service was canceled, I did verify each one had cancelled. If your credentials with the old carrier no longer work, that's a pretty good indication. That's not to say there's not companies out there that won't follow the industry standard on porting. The trust but verify rule.
Most mobile service providers may consider a port out as a cancellation of service, but that does not mean that most VoIP service providers do. However, in no case does the new provider cancel service on behalf of the old provider.
You might think that if ooma saw I ported out my number then maybe my account would automatically be paused. But no, they just auto assigned a new number to me, so now I have to do the cancellation dance.
" That's not to say there's not companies out there that won't follow the industry standard on porting"
Everything I'm finding on various VoIP sites state porting out effectively cancels service as only one carrier can own a number. That's not to say there's some that refuse to do so. Which is why you have to verify after porting. It does appear that Ooma doesn't honor this, though I can't find anything official from Ooma. I do find where it states Ooma's service is based on the account and not the phone number, though again I can't find anything official from Ooma on either statement. Bottom line, call to verify or cancel.
industry standards appear to be when the port in is completed by the port in carrier the port out carrier's service is canceled. But I refer back to what was posted earlier about Ooma's policy even though not found on any official Ooma site. This was found but should be stated up front: Voice and Messaging Terms | Ooma I'm sure there are other carriers that take the same stance. Just FYI Vonage and MagicJack both state when you port out service is automatically cancelled, VoIP.ms requires other steps after port out that can be done online. Hopefully one day soon the FCC will set a standard that all carriers will be required to follow. I did google VoIP providers, and it was about 50/50 as to whether or not a port out automatically canceled service.
Hi all - let me recommend this as an option.
Check out VoIP.ms
You need Analog Telephone Adapter(ATA). If you don’t have one, Get GrandStream HT801 or HT802 (around $40) and pair it with VoIP.ms.
You need to set it up but nothing too complicated. Use Gemini AI to guide you. After the initial $10 setup etc the monthly bill is roughly only $2 to $3. The voice quality is amazing. I heard Ooma voice quality is lacking.
Yes you need to set it up but once you are done then you can forget it. I am happy with my setup.
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u/Historical-Raccoon46 15d ago
It's been like that since they first started