Thanks for sharing your experience!

-Bobby

I just purchased an ooma system at Best Buy here in Phoenix. Their website says they have them at all the stores in my area, but your website doesn’t list AZ as a market to buy them in. Also, like the other users said on this posting, the store employees had no idea what it was and it was even hard to find. I thought it would be near the other VoIP stuff, but this was hidden on a shelf below the cordless phones. If I didn’t know what the packaging looked like, they never would have found it for me. I only spotted it because I saw the image of the hub on the box. I couldn’t see the name “ooma” without bending down and really looking for it.

it’s a great product. I’m going to tell everyone i know about it. i just thought you might like to know about how it was displayed when i found it.

Thanks,

Kevin B
Gilbert, AZ

We don’t have any near-term plans to show off the hardware in store displays. We do plan on demoing the product at in-store events, however. Right now we have in-store Best Buy events planned in the LA and NY areas. We’ll be updating the new events page (linked off our homepage) with more details as they come.

Thanks!
Bobby

Any chance though that there can be actual display models of the ooma equipment put out in these stores? The hardware (hub and scout) actually look very nice with their industrial design (which fits in nicely with the aluminum macs by the way) with the exception of a missing ooma logo anywhere on the device.

First off, we really appreciate your detailed store feedback.

Like you found, we ran into a few bumps in our roll out to stores in several areas. As a result, we needed to delay our training programs in these expansion stores. We expect the merchandising problems you mentioned with the price tags and the in-store shelf display should be fixed within the next 1-2 weeks.

Also within a few weeks, we plan on rolling out training programs to all the Best Buy stores to drive product education and awareness. Our training teams will be sure to visit the stores in the DC/Baltimore areas.

–Bobby

I’ve actually purchased 2 ooma core systems at my local Best Buy (Owings Mills, MD)- first time, I was surprised to walk in and find the ooma retail boxes- they were not labeled with any price information or any other details on a shelf (to me it looked like a generic overstock area) as I was shopping for a new cordless phone.

I remembered reading about ooma from the white rabbit beta launch program and wound up researching the pricing on my iPhone from within the store to make the decision to purchase since the employees had no clue.

Just this past Monday, I returned to pick up another core system for a family member, and couldn’t find them anywhere on the shelves. None of the store employees had any idea what I was talking about after spending several moments having to spell out ooma several times, and describing what it was.

However, using the in-store kiosks I could see that there were 10 in-stock in that particular store, though even then the employees had no idea where to find them in the store so I wound up having to place an order via their website from the store for in-store pickup where someone was able to finally locate it in the back storage area to complete the sale.

Also sometime in the next one to two weeks employees at new store locations should receive information and training about the product.

-Bobby

thx.