On the 'Net since 1994
The bad things about Ooma…
OOMA's wireless feature doesn’t work with Apple’s Wi-Fi router, called TimeCapsule. Ooma has an optional Wireless Adapter dongle one can buy which is supposed to enable one to place the Ooma box someplace in the house, in a convenient place away from the computer. I bought that thing.
It’s not Apple’s fault that this doesn’t work: Apple’s TimeCapsule is a Wi-Fi router; it works simultaneously on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, allowing all the devices on the network to use the most efficient band automatically.
But Ooma would not connect wirelessly. I tried the Ooma setup repeatedly. At first I thought that Ooma’s Wi-Fi dongle gizmo was defective, so I ordered a new one. The new one didn’t work either.
I called Ooma support - (866)493-6662. The fellow who answered made me do the setup procedure again, and of course it still didn’t work. I told him what kind of equipment I have. After 20 minutes he escalated me to level-2 support -- Ooma support has levels.
I was connected with a woman in the Philippines -- she’s level-2. After about 45 minutes our conversation suffered a disconnection.
I called Ooma again and explained everything. This time a fellow helped me by making me do all the same things again, and he had me set up a special network for Ooma on my computer, but nothing worked.
After almost two hours of trying various things, I was transferred to level-3. The fellow there asked what kind of router I have and determined that the Apple dual band TimeCapsule is not supported on Ooma’s Wi-Fi system!
I said that if this fact had been stated in Ooma’s advertisement then I wouldn’t have bought the damn thing. He explained that Ooma had only recently discovered that its Wi-Fi dongle doesn’t work with the newer dual-band Wi-Fi.
I think that level-1 should have been informed by level-3 and I’d have saved many hours of futzing around with Ooma.Your email is welcome. Publisher's statement: Any inaccuracies will be corrected, if brought to publisher's attention.
Do these things suck? ~~ Unpleasant experiences.
Page updated 2013-11-03
