Phone.com Review

Pricing

Phone.com offers a range of plans and packages to meet different phone and budgetary needs. We've compared the price per month and calculated the estimated annual fees which include taxes and regulatory surcharges so that you can see at a glance which plan is best for you.

It is worth noting that Phone.com's overage charges are among the highest of the best VoIP services. Still, the best value for Phone.com's business VoIP plans is the 300 minute plan, as you'll need to speak for over 2000 minutes in order to exceed the costs of the 600 minute or 1000 minute plans. The primary benefit of plans with 600 minutes or more is the ability to get two phone numbers while the 300 minute plan offers only one line. The 1000 and 2500 minute plans each come with 3 lines. As an alternative, if you want to enjoy unlimited minutes for a single VoIP business line, you can combine unlimited calling to a 300 minute plan for around $25 extra per month.

To enhance your business VoIP experience, Phone.com sells a range of VoIP office phones that cost between $99.95 and $229.95 per month. When using these phones, users will also be charged an additional $4.88 per month. In addition, Phone.com offers international calls for an additional fee (which is a standard offering of the top VoIP providers), and a plethora of other services that may enhance your user experience, especially if you're using your VoIP phone for a small business. These features include:

Features

Phone.com offers a wide range of extra features that rival (if not surpass) the features offered by other top VoIP companies. While most of these features aren't specifically critical, you may be surprised to find out how much you truly enjoying customizing your new VoIP phone.

Feature	Plan		Feature	Plan
	Virtual Office	Home Phone+		Virtual Office	Home Phone+
Address Book			Fax out capabilities
After Hours Greetings			Global Numbers
Analog Phone Adapter - Add-On			HD Voice (Hi Definition)
Area Code & Local Phone Selection			Hold Music - Bring Your Own
Block Surcharged Calls			Hold Music - Hold Music - Pre Recorded
Call Blocking			In-Call Features
Call Forwarding			International Call Blocking
Call Handling Rules (routing calls to different destinations)			Internet Voicemail Services
Call Logs			Internet Voicemail Services: Email & Internet Voicemail Delivery
Call Recording			Local Number Porting (Transferring)
Call Transfer			Menus (IVR)
Call Voice Tagging			Mobile Office
Call Waiting			Mobile VoIP
Caller ID			Online Account Management
Caller ID Block			Outbound Calls
Caller ID Routing			Take Your Phone.com Phone with You
Calling Cards			Professional Recording Services
Chatcalls			Schedules
Click to Call Buttons			SMS Send & Receive
Call Conferencing			Support 24x7
Personalized Recorded Greetings			Text to Greeting
Dial-by-Name Directory			Three Way Calling
Do Not Disturb			Toll Free Phone Numbers
E911 / 911 Dialing			Unlimited Calling
Multiple Extensions			Vanity Toll-Free Phone Numbers
Virtual Phone Attendant			Voicemail & Fax Notifications
Voicemail

Sound Quality

We tested Phone.com's service by calling other VoIP phones, landline phones and cell phones and by receiving calls from different sources as well. The sound quality was truly excellent, with no static, tinny voices or blurred sounds. We called five unsuspecting people, who ranked the service between 4 and 5 stars. Not surprisingly, the users listening on landline phones were the ones who gave the highest ranking, which may be an indication that our test subjects' VoIP lines were faulty, rather than our Phone.com VoIP service. Although there were instances in which call recipients claimed they could not hear us well, we had no problem hearing other people in all of our test calls - even when the speakerphone was used.

Customer Support

A quick look at Phone.com's customer service offerings can make consumers feel confident that they'll receive customer support any time they need it. For starters, Phone.com is one of the only residential VoIP providers that offers 24/7 phone support. It is also one of the only VoIP providers that offer chat support. Upon closer examination, however, we found that although the company offers 24/7 support, their representatives weren't always available. Multiple calls to Phone.com's customer support center during regular business hours were met with hold times of 10 minutes or more. In contrast, calls during off-peak hours were answered relatively quickly. Equally frustrating, Phone.com offers popup chat assistance - a feature which is particularly useful if you have questions while navigating the site. When this system worked, it was, in fact, extremely enjoyable. We were disturbed to find, however, that on several occasions we received an invitation to chat when the service was not available.

Email from Phone.com

Chat with Phone.com support

We were impressed to see that our test email to Phone.com received a response in less than 10 minutes, which was markedly faster than every other VoIP customer service team we tested. The FAQ sections and user guides were very helpful, but the company's forums were both outdated and largely irrelevant. Still, a scan of the forums indicated that Phone.com's staff members do take time to respond to inquiries posted there, as infrequent as they may be.

Perhaps most impressive was the thorough follow up we received from a customer support agent named Amber, who spent nearly 20 minutes chatting with us, then followed up with an unsolicited email. On our second day of Phone.com service, we heard no dial tone and chatted with Amber in an attempt to solve the problem. After Amber suggested several solutions, she suggested that we reboot our router, which would require us to disconnect the chat. We later discovered that the problem was a result of a broken phone wire, and was not connected to Phone.com in any way. The next day, we received an email from Amber, offering additional assistance. This follow-up was both surprising and remarkable, as it was obvious that Phone.com was truly devoted to ensuring that our VoIP system was working.

Follow up email from Phone.com

Ease of Use

Setting up a Phone.com account was somewhat straightforward, though once the ordering process was complete insufficient information was supplied about what to do next or how to proceed. The registration process included several security precautions which was simultaneously reassuring and time-consuming. The registration confirmation email asked us to confirm the shipping address. When we attempted to change it, we were surprised to see that we were blocked from doing so, and we had to call customer support for assistance. Another thing that was rather disconcerting was the fact that the email confirmation did not include the new Phone.com phone number, so we could not give out the number without first tracking it down.

The hardware arrived within 2 business days and it had instructions to visit a specific URL which provided step-by-step setup instructions. Installing the hardware was surprisingly easy and the system worked beautifully in 10 minutes as the instructions promised.

We also tested out several of Phone.com's features to evaluate how straightforward the system is. Our first task was to create a greeting, which we did extremely easily. The directions were easy-to-follow, the greeting sounded professional and it was uploaded quickly. We also attempted to request SMS messages to accompany each voicemail, and found the process equally intuitive. Overall, we were impressed by the clean user-interface of the Phone.com control panel and the simplicity with which we could customize our Phone.com VoIP phone line.

Creating a Greeting

Requesting SMS messages

Money Back Guarantee

If you choose to cancel your Phone.com service within 30 days, you will be eligible for their 30 day full money back guarantee, providing that you return the hardware. Phone.com will provide you with a FedEx envelope to use for your return, and they will likely pay for the return shipping, if you ask them to. If you cancel your plan after 30 days, you will receive a pro-rated refund for the time remaining on your plan. If you committed to the annual plan, you will also be charged a $54.95 cancellation fee.

Summary

• No free second line
• Account information not confirmed upon registration
• Exceptionally long hold times for support during business hours
• 24/7 phone support
• Excellent call quality
• Robust features included in all plans
• Easy setup