ooma Telo VoIP Home Phone with 3x HD3 Handset, Black (TELO3HD3)

Bad choice made

My first Ooma just died. I had it for over 10 years though so I'm pretty ok with that. I'm a little disappointed because I thought this was the Telo Air - which is totally wireless. And it's not. It has to be plugged in to the router/modem. So, you're pretty limited on where this can be. Why aren't they ALL wireless at this point?Other than that though. I've been using Ooma for years and really like it. I think it's a little expensive at $100+ a year and then you also have to pay taxes - which in my case are like $13 a month.911 isn't great. Someone was breaking into my home years ago. I called 911. They didn't get there for 4 hours because Ooma had sent them somewhere else. Part of that is a bad 911 operator who didn't listen when I gave my address. He just looked at what the phone system was telling him - and ooma was telling them I was in another city. So, I had a smashed window, cuts on my arm and the guy got away. Thanks ooma. I noticed that when I bought this new ooma there was a big note as soon as you open the box specifically saying, and I'm paraphrasing "Listen, 911 is awful on our service. You need to do this this and this to make sure it's even kind of accurate and even then please be specific to the operator and tell them you have an internet phone and they may be seeing false information."Other than those complaints - and they may be big ones for some of you - I do like ooma. I really like the call blocking and black list service. I like these new hand sets too. Since they're made for the ooma telo devices they work much better than any other average phone (which will also work)My old set had an answering machine. So, I had an answering machine and ooma's voicemail. I never knew where my messages were going. Some would go to machine, others to voice mail. And that kind of stunk. Now that I've replaced my very old beat up phones, I just have the voice mail. The phones have nice color screens. Are easy to use. Can be used as intercoms. And each phone can be programmed to ring with a different phone number. So, if you call me/the house these 2 phones will ring - my daughter has her own line so if you call her JUST her phone will ring. It's very convenient.Ooma isn't perfect and it has its problems but the good outweighs the bad. In my opinion.

worked exactly as advertised

Works fine, as should be expected.

Update/edit: one move and new computer purchase (M2 silicon Macs) later, and the Ooma is STILL going strong, with little to no problems. We use our own uninterruptible power supply, which has been a godsend with the storms and iffy power lines around here, and it keeps the Ooma system & our Internet up and running with no issue (so far, long enough for the power company to get things back up and running again.)My *only* complaint was that Ooma blocks our pharmacy robo-calls for no reason -- we don't have their prime service, so no blocking ability, and it was only affecting the robo-calls. Ooma Customer Service made our settings were right, then escalated the matter up. It's only affected the "your meds are ready" notices, which is really odd: irritating, but not a big deal. Even weirder, all the useless flood of robo-calls from our health insurance get thru with no problem.Still, a small irritation is a tiny thing, compared to the :)))) for all the $$$ we're not giving ATT.Important details: we use an older (2018) Intel Macs on AtlanticBB/Breezeline.We've used an ATT landline for years & have never had a cell phone or Internet phone; we're probably the last GenXers in the US to even have a landline, & since we barely use the phone anyway, never felt the need to switch. However, ATT's worsening service, horrible customer care, and persistent issues with our line finally drove us to look for other options. Ooma was recommended to us by folks on the Reddit sub for our city (r/Columbus).I was a bit concerned over the bad reviews here, I admit, especially since health issues require us to have a reliable 911 ability. After going thru the entire setup process, I'm now puzzled; the biggest problem we had was entering our credit card info.So, this is the basic Telo unit with three wireless/wifi handsets. Telo plugs into your modem/router, handsets' bases need to be plugged into a power source & the bases connect over wifi to the Telo unit. We've currently got two of the handsets in use; third is being saved as a backup.The setup directions (booklet & app) were clear and easy to follow: set up the account, plugged the Telo unit into the ethernet port of our modem/router unit & waited for all the updates to finish. That part took over an hour, mostly because our ISP had sent us new equipment the day before and THAT was having fits. Two reboots, one reset & a call to Breezeline support later, our Internet finally stabilized & Ooma's Telo finished its updates. Plugged in the wifi handsets, waited for the handsets to download their updates, got the "welcome" call from Ooma, and much cheering commenced.Our ATT line has been filled with static for the last couple months, ruining several important calls & making it hard for callers to hear us, too. As our first test, we had my elderly mother-in-law call us on the new temp number, and we talked to her on a perfectly clear connection on those wireless handsets while we walked around the apartment to make sure the connection held.It's a small apartment, roughly 600 sq ft, and the connection was clear & strong all thru it. We're surrounded by tons of other Wifi points/home networks, but there's no interference. We're still getting used to all the options & menus on the handsets (old phone is just a simple handset attached to an answering machine), but the documentation & shortcut card have been easy to understand & follow so far, and our phone needs are pretty basic anyway.the only major issue was getting the billing information entered in. For some reason, Ooma's app, website, & automated phone customer-service refused to accept any credit card info from us. Bank showed no issue with the account, but didn't show any declines or auth attempts from Ooma, either. Took two calls to Ooma Customer Service to resolve -- first rep referred us to the automated phone line (no go); second call rep had to transfer us to an actual supervisor to manually enter the billing into our account.Our old phone number finished its porting yesterday -- took only a week & works great. I'm dreading the ATT cancellation call, but that's ATT's issue. I'll add to this review after a month or so, after we've settled into and used Ooma a while. But so far? Impressed.

Upgrading was extremely annoying and frustrating. You need to contact them to do an upgrade to a new device, which requires calling a 1-800 that takes forever to get through. When you finally speak to someone they need to escalate the request and advised I'd be emailed when it was ready to be plugged in. A week later, I contacted them back, and they said it had been ready for days.Upgrading a phone modem should not be this hard.