Posts Tagged ‘ooma’

How Ooma’s Terms & Conditions Affect Current, New Ooma Customers

October 2nd, 2009 @ 4:45 pm

Let me start with my apologies. It’s obvious that we weren’t clear enough about the changes we are implementing at Ooma and what the impact may be on you. So I’m going to try and break down each case for you and what the relevant changes are that may impact you.

Ooma Hub/Scout Combination Products (Includes all Costco.com purchases)

  1. Current Ooma Core Users
    a. No changes to your current feature set including voice mail.
    b. No annual regulatory recovery fee will be charged.
  2.  

  3. Current Ooma Premier Users
    a. No changes to your current feature set.
    b. No annual regulatory recovery fee will be charged.
    c. If you are paying monthly for Premier, your monthly price will change to $9.99 from $12.99.
    d. If you wish to buy an additional year of Premier at $99.99, you have until 12/31/09.
  4.  

  5. Current Ooma Premier Trial Users
    a. No changes to your current feature set.
    b. No annual regulatory recovery fee will be charged.
    c. If you want to purchase an annual Ooma Premier subscription, you can do so until 12/31/09 at $99.99, after that the price will go up by $20 to $119.99.
  6.  

  7. New or Unactivated Ooma Hub/Scout Combinations
    a. No changes to your promised feature set, includes voicemail and a 60 day Premier Trial.
    b. If you want to purchase an annual Ooma Premier subscription, you can do so until 12/31/09 at $99.99, after that the price will go up by $20 to $119.99
    c. No regulatory recovery fee will be charged

 

Ooma Hub Only Product at Costco Stores

  1. Current Ooma Core Users
    a. No changes to your current feature set including voice mail.
  2.  

  3. Current Ooma Premier Users
    a. No changes to your current feature set.
  4.  

  5. Current Ooma Premier Trial Users
    a. No changes to your current feature set.
    b. The regulatory recovery fee applies per the original terms and conditions.
  6.  

  7. New or Unactivated Hub Only Prodcut
    a. Basic voice mail is now included in Ooma Core.
    b. Enhanced voice mail is available as a standalone option for $49.99 per year if you don’t want to purchase all the Premier features. Enhanced voicemail includes:

 

  • One touch access to voicemail, call screening
  • Remote access to messages through any web browser or telephone
  • Voicemail notifications to your mobile phone
  • Voicemail mp3 audio file attachment sent to your email
  • Send-to-Voicemail
  • Do Not Disturb

c. If you want to purchase an annual Ooma Premier subscription, you can do so at $99.99.
d. The annual regulatory recovery fee applies per the original terms and conditions

 

Ooma Telo Product

  1. Newly Purchased Telo’s
    a. Includes US domestic calling, a free phone number, call waiting, caller ID and 911 service. Basic voice mail now included in the base service of the unit.
    b. Telo’s come with a free 60 day trial of Ooma Premier, which costs $9.99/mo or $119.99/yr.
    c. Enhanced voicemail is available as a standalone option for $49.99/yr if you don’t want to purchase all the Premier features. Enhanced voicemail includes:

    • One-touch access to voicemail, Call screening
    • Remote access to messages through any web browser or telephone
    • Voicemail notifications to your mobile phone
    • Voicemail mp3 audio file attachments sent to your email
    • Send-to-Voicemail
    • Do Not Disturb

    d. Telo’s come with an annual regulatory recovery fee of $11.75 beginning the second year of service.

  2. Previous Ooma Hub Owners
    a. Previous Ooma hub owners (Core or Premier), can move their accounts, phone numbers, and features to the new Telo service including voicemail, and will not be subject to the annual regulatory recovery fee.
    b. The used Ooma Hub may be resold but will require a $59.99 reactivation fee to assign a new number and owner. When activated, the new account will be subject to the $11.75 annual regulatory recovery fee.

 

Some of you have asked what the regulatory recovery fee is for, so let me explain why we have implemented it. If you have ever looked at your mobile or landline phone bill, you regularly see fees and taxes applied that are typically 15-20% of the monthly bill. In other words, these fees can be quite significant. Here at Ooma we, like every other phone service provider in the US, have to charge a fee to cover taxes, regulatory recovery fees, and other costs related to our providing phone service to your local service address but to our knowledge our charge is significantly lower than what others typically charge. We’ve tried to maintain this cost as low as possible and it is less than $1 per month. While this is not a huge cost to provide you phone service, we realize we did not ask any of our current customers to bear this fee at the time they initiated service, so we’re not asking out current subscriber base to pay this regulatory recovery fee.

Thank you,
Rich Buchanan

Hello, Ooma Telo

September 30th, 2009 @ 10:36 pm

Dear Ooma Customer,

It’s been a busy several months for us here at Ooma, but we wanted to stop and say “thank you” for being part of the Ooma family. Your support and guidance is what has made us successful so far, and we hope we can count on your help in the future too.

We have been listening to your comments and suggestions and have a number of new things cooking in the Ooma Labs that will roll out over the next several months. Our “top ten” list of the many new Ooma Premier features and hardware that will be released over the next few months include:

  1. The Ooma Telo – Ooma’s second generation product featuring DECT 6.0 connectivity (released today!)
  2. The Ooma Telo Handset – DECT 6.0 handset with digital connectivity and unsurpassed audio quality (releasing in early November)
  3. The Ooma Telo Bluetooth Sync – Bluetooth connection for address book synchronization and cell phone calls through the Ooma Telo
  4. Ooma Google Voice Extensions – Extended Google Voice to your home phone too
  5. Unlimited International Calling Plans – Call international destinations all you want for as low as $9.99/mo
  6. iPhone and BlackBerry Clients – Offload your cell phone minutes and enjoy Ooma’s low international rates when calling from a Wi-Fi connected smartphone
  7. HD Voice – Experience the future of telephony now with double the audio resolution of conventional telephones
  8. MP3 Ringtones – Musical ringtones are not just for your cell phone anymore
  9. SIP Registration – Use business desk phones built around the SIP standard with your Ooma service
  10. Click-to-Call – Click a number in your contact list, cell phone or call log to have the call dialed and connected automatically

We are also making some changes to our Terms and Conditions and to our pricing. For all our existing Ooma Core customers, these changes are limited. Here is what applies to you:

  • We’ve increased your minutes of residential, domestic calling to 5,000 minutes per month
  • We’ve reduced the monthly subscription price for Ooma Premier to $9.99 (from $12.99)
  • We’ve grandfathered existing Ooma Premier annual subscribers at the previous rate of$99.99. New annual subscriptions will be priced at $119.99
  • We’ve implemented billing for 411 (directory assistance) at $0.99 per call (800-GOOG-411 or 800-FREE-411 are free options). This charge will be deducted from your Ooma prepaid calling account

For new Ooma customers, here are highlights of our new Terms and Conditions:

  • 5,000 total minutes per month of residential domestic calling
  • Ooma Premier monthly subscriptions are $9.99/month
  • Ooma Premier annual subscriptions are $119.99/year. This now includes either one freenumber port ($39.99 value) or a free Ooma Telo Handset ($49.99 value)
  • $11.75/year Regulatory Recovery Fee in Years 2 and beyond to cover taxes, regulatory fees and other costs
  • Voicemail is now bundled with Ooma Premier
  • 60-days of free Ooma Care telephone support. Thereafter, non-Premier customers receive free email support and may purchase OomaCare telephone support for $39.99/year

As you can see, we have improved the terms for you, our current customers. We have maintained our commitments to you while improving our residential service and reducing the monthly charge for Ooma Premier. We have made slight changes for new customers to reflect our latest business activities and to be more in-line with current market conditions. If you have any questions about the new terms and conditions or the new pricing, please comment below or send us an email.

UPDATE: 10/2/09
Comments to this thread have been closed. Your questions and comments are addressed in an updated post – found here

Thank you again for being an Ooma customer.

Until later,

Team Ooma