I was excited to read about the Ooma bluetooth adapter for the Telo allowing cel phone calls to be taken on the Ooma system. My excitement quickly fizzled when I read that an Ooma premier subscription was required to use it. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the Ooma bluetooth adapter simply turns the Ooma Telo into a glorified bluetooth headset allowing calls made to ones cell phone to be answered on the Home Phone, or Telo Device. Other than being a ploy to suck that extra $10 a month out of regular Ooma users I don't see how this should have anything to do with premier. This is not a service and should have no "monetary value". It's simply a function of the Telo Device itself, an appliance that should start and stop at the purchase price of $30 (Current Retail value).
Insomnia wrote:This is not a service and should have no "monetary value". It's simply a function of the Telo Device itself, an appliance that should start and stop at the purchase price of $30 (Current Retail value).
Actually, it is how the business world seems to work. As an example - I was on a special plan for the first 15 months of having Qwest DSL. It required me to have the Home Choice package that included voicemail and 2 other features. I dropped it as soon as I was able to according to my contract. One feature I missed with basic service was CID. Now every modern central office switch has CID available. They don't need to add any equipment, it does not use extra power, and since the feature is part of the package the Telco gets when they buy the switch, it is free to the Telco. So why do they feel they can charge me $9 a month for it? Probably for the same reason that ooma feels they can require Premier for a whole package of nice features - things like a second number, the ability to screen calls that go to voicemail, CID with name, a free port (if you are on an annual Premier contract), and now Bluetooth (after purchasing the appropriate adapter). If you consider it carefully, I think most people would agree that you get a whole lot of value for the low cost of Premier.