8x8

2. I can never reach a live person. I expected to have some glitches in the beginning but couldn't believe how horrible customer service is. They want you to submit "cases" online and then wait for a response. Unfortunately that response can often come days or weeks later. That's not acceptable when my phones are not working. My business is dead without phones.

3. Each time I call I get the same recording "We're experiencing high call volumes." If that's the case all the time, then the company needs to invest in more people answering phones - or offer a service that works so customers don't need help. I NEVER got a problem solved in less than an hour!!! I cannot run my business if it takes an hour each time something needs adjusting.

4. The "deployment specialist" (Jacqueline) they assigned to me must have been new at her job. She couldn't answer most of my questions. And she never gave her phone number. The only way I could reach her was via email. I had to schedule a phone conversation at least a week in advance. I'm sorry but problems don't occur on a schedule.

5. NOT plug and play - I am a small business owner with 3 employees. I do not have IT staff or phone staff on site. The day the phones "went live," I had to pay my IT person $350 to be on site and help troubleshoot. Their system may work great for folks who are very tech savvy or have IT staff, but not for me. 6. The initial device they sent to allow VOIP to communicate with my traditional fax didn't work. But we couldn't test it ahead of "go live" so we were without traditional fax for a week - until they shipped a new device to me. My low tech office did not do well with eFax, sorry.

7. Cancellation - when I tried to cancel, they tried to charge me thousands of dollars in cancellation fees because I was outside their 30 day window. I submitted my request within the first 30 days of using their service but since the contract was signed 30 days before that, they said it was outside the 30 day window. I sent in 37 pages of emails going back and forth showing how much trouble I had with their service, how many times I'd had to call in, etc. After 4 phone calls, I finally got it canceled and they waived the fees. But it went 2 days into the next monthly billing cycle and they don't pro-rate. So I had to pay for an additional month of service I didn't use. I will never, never, ever use this company again and I recommend you stay far away unless you have many hours to devote to getting the service set up correctly. And then pray you have no issues.

My other problems? Here goes. My phone kept on getting disconnected from their server. I can't use a soft phone on my computer so that was my only option. It would take over 20 minutes to get tech support over the phone. They would tell me I need to talk to an IT person. I'm an older gentleman who is virtually technologically illiterate working out of a home office. Where am I supposed to get an IT guy? They told me to talk to my service provider? About what? I'm technologically illiterate. If I need to go back and forth it's going to be great waiting on hold over 20 min to talk to support about something I don't even understand and they were unwilling to get on the phone in a 3 way call with my service provider. They are my IT if they want my business.

To make it worse, I had a girl try to take control of the conversation by talking over me. Definitely not a good idea to try with me. Listen and address what I say. Since she wouldn't stop talking over me I got pissed and started yelling at her. She put me on hold. This was a problem I'd had almost from the beginning with them that lasted several days. it wasn't unusual to spend about 4 hrs a day to try and get help resolving the problem. finally, I did get someone who could help and didn't try to pass me off to an IT guy or the service provider. Most of their tech support is not well trained. It took about 5 days to find this one tech who could help me.

Moving on, you'll note they are always pushing their High Def Conferencing. The problem is getting good help to learn how to use it properly which someone tech illiterate needs. Their prepared materials were ridiculous. Those materials extolled the features and benefits but that's selling me on something I already bought. What I needed was teaching materials which they don't have. ** joke. Most of their support had to keep looking through their resources to tell me how to use it. So they weren't well enough trained and wasted both of our time. And since I don't have resources to refer back to, I have to keep calling back for lessons where I have to wait over 20 min on hold to get to talk to anyone.

So do you want to work with a company that makes unapproved charges to your cards? Do you want a company where they avoid talking to you about billing issues and resolving them? They really don't want to give you your money back when they take it and shouldn't have. Not very honest or reputable, at all. Do you want a company that can't teach you how to properly use their features? Do you want to constantly be on hold 20 min or more when you're trying to get help or resolve issues?

Do you want to work with a company that can't fix issues and keeps trying to pass the buck to non-existent IT guys or your service provider? Do you want techs who try to force control by talking over you rather than listening and addressing the issue at hand? Do you want a company you can't speak with a manager when you need to? One time instead of the manager I finally got to speak to my salesperson. This was fun. I'd demanded a call back.

Instead I got an email that did not properly represent the issue. On one attempt to speak with a Manager I got my salesperson who said he couldn't speak to me and hung up on me. All they had to do to avoid this review was return the money to me. I should have never been charged under a free trial. Instead they went to these lengths to avoid me. This is what they get. Again, I started the free trial 8/23. It's now 9/4 and all this has happened in this short time. Do you really want to do business with this company.

Update: you’ll all love this. Now billing is trying to say that charge was for taxes. Their quote for the entire month of taxes when I was first talking to them was $10 and change. So how do they come up with over $12? First problem with their lie. Next problem, I’d already paid the taxes for the free trial. No taxes were due. Lastly, I hadn’t agreed to continue with them past the free trial so any charges whatsoever for any future services were unauthorized and inappropriate. These people are liars and thieves that will say anything only for a few bucks. The company must be on financial very thin ice. That means they could go under at any time. That means your service could be interrupted permanently without any warning. Why else fight me so hard on money they hadn’t earned yet. Oh, I also filed a complaint with the FCC. Isn’t it stupid to risk an investigation over so little and keep fighting?

The conversation continued. This supervisor was going to reach out to the salesman and his manager to see if he could get the approval to refund the money stolen. I asked to be able to speak with that manager and was told I could not. It takes his approval for me to get my money back and I can’t give him my side of the story? Furthermore, if he gets an approval to refund me the money, it will take 30 days to process the refund. So they reach into my bank account, steal my money and say if they’ll give it back I can’t have it for another 30 days. You know what, 3-5 days many, 30? It only further supports my belief this is a company in financial trouble. Again, that means, if I’m right, service could end at any time permanently.

Is that what you want to sign up for? A company with an unreliable product, support that takes over 20 min to reach and most are poorly trained, no training on their features, steals your money, fights you tooth and nail to keep from refunding it to you, support that keeps trying to speak over you, a salesman who because I have a dispute about my bill says he can’t speak to me and hangs up on me rather than passing me on to his manager and if they should be so generous as to decide to give me the money they stole from me back that it will take 30 days? Is this a company you want to deal with? And this is all since 8/23 through 9/5/18. Not much time for so much to go wrong. This is why you should always get a full and free trial before you commit to these companies.

Update- Even a free trial doesn’t help. Found they billed me for something else along the way. I’ve tried leaving but the first problem was they changed the password on my phone so I could not reprovision it with the new VoIP provider I was going to. That wasted 2 days figuring out what the problem was and getting that fixed. Essentially, that was 8x8 stealing my phone by denying me use of it. If you’re bringing your own phones, don’t do biz with 8x8 for this and the following reason.

The next reason is harassment. Evidently their system is still trying to keep in touch with my phone even after I asked them to end my service with them. The way my phone reads their contact is as a telephone call with a 4 digit extension. It just rings and rings non-stop. My phone shows 24 calls from them all at once. I can’t talk to anyone else on my phone with that incessant ringing. They have to know this is happening. They say they have to scrub my number completely from their system but the dept that does that is closed for the weekend. Others at 8x8 have no clue about this. They seem desperate not to let a customer get away by making it impossible for a person to use their phone anywhere but 8x8. And the trouble getting money back from them? Again, I was told it would take upwards of 30 days. I’ve never had a debit card refund take more than 3-5 days from anyone else.

I forgot to mention that they originally told me with the video conferencing I could have 25 participants. Then it dropped to 15, now they tell me it’s only 5. And they can’t even teach me how to use it. I thought Ring Central was the worst. It took them years to get me this upset. 8x8 has done it in about a month. Stay away. Service terrible. Tech support a couple of good ones, the rest are jokes. Customer service has no clue what’s going on and unwilling to address problems. Billing when they shouldn’t be, repeatedly. If you try them, it’s at your own risk. These guys really have to be in trouble if they make it so hard to leave and get your money back. Who knows, maybe they won’t be around in a week and there will be a lot of surprised customer service who lost their service unexpectedly with no chance it will come back.

9/25/18 and I’m still having trouble with 8x8. I still don’t have the unapproved charges to my card refunded. My phone is still ringing incessantly. I had one of their techs confess it was their computers contacting my phone and my phone interpreting it as calls. They have made my phone unusable, they’ve ruined it. They are refusing to replace it along with refusing to release my service to the new VoIP provider. WTF is that about. I cancelled, flip a switch and let me go. They say it’s being processed. They say they require 30 day notice of cancellation. On a 30 day free trial? Am I supposed to tell them the first day I have their service I don’t want it anymore? Their processes need to be fixed. Stay away from 8x8. It’s always one thing after another. This is my own phone and they won’t let it go. They won’t let me go. I’m losing money because of them, Time for a lawsuit?

Any lawyers out there want this suit? It would be a PR nightmare for them. Was just on the phone with support trying to get this resolved. They put me on hold for 40 min before hanging up on me. This is the second time they’ve done this to me. Each time I was asking to speak with a manager which they will never allow. Also just learned when I called back and spoke with another tech support and he was reading back my prior ticket. I found tech support lies to cover themselves from management on their reports of the calls.

When we did have a problem, we were referred to tier 3 when our issue could not be resolved which guaranteed a call within 24 hours. Over the next 2.5 weeks I would call in every other day and be told my the rep that they would deliver a note and send an email saying no one was ever getting back to me. When someone final did, they accused me on not buying the phone from them which wasn't true and had nothing to do with the issue.

Finally we had to cancel service and were transferred everywhere trying to cancel. When we finally reached what was supposed to be the right department, we were put on hold and disconnected. This happened multiple times spending hours of our time. Ultimately we got an email asking if we really wanted to transfer the numbers as they were ported out so we responded that we tried to cancel multiple times... The lines were no longer with them and to cancel. WE received another bill and got transferred around and finally spoke to Kevin. Even though we forwarded email from month ago we sent to 8x8 saying that we wanted to cancel and the lines were not with them anymore and the fact he know lines were not used in over a month... We had to pay for that month of non-use along with another month. That is over 2 months of paying for a bill when the lines were not even with them. They have become crooks.

They finally agreed to cancel our account. BUT, took all of our prepaid services with no refund in lieu of a cancellation fee. So essentially, they got all our money and "allowed" us to cancel early. Beware - switched to RingCentral and have had no issues. Do your research before choosing them. If you have time for dropped calls, unreliable meetings and hours with tech support, they will be a great solution for you. If not - better look elsewhere.

When we did have a problem, we were referred to tier 3 when our issue could not be resolved which guaranteed a call within 24 hours. Over the next 2.5 weeks I would call in every other day and be told by the rep that they would deliver a note and send an email saying no one was ever getting back to me. When someone finally did, they accused me on not buying the phone from them which wasn't true and had nothing to do with the issue.

Finally we had to cancel service and were transferred everywhere trying to cancel. When we finally reached what was supposed to be the right department, we were put on hold and disconnected. This happened multiple times spending hours of our time. Ultimately we got an email asking if we really wanted to transfer the numbers as they were ported out so we responded that we tried to cancel multiple times... the lines were not longer with them and to cancel. We received another bill and got transferred around and finally spoke to Kevin. Even though we forwarded email from month ago we sent to 8x8 saying that we wanted to cancel and the lines were not with them anymore and the fact he know lines were not used in over a month... we had to pay for that month of non-use along with another month. That is over 2 months of paying for a bill when the lines were not even with them. They have become very corrupt.

Updated on 08/09/2018: I wrote a previous review and got a nice response from the folks at 8x8. I was excited that a resolution would be forthcoming. Instead, on my ninth day without working service on my app, I went on to check the status of my case with the company and it had been deleted. The sales rep that I have tried to contact will not answer his phone and his voicemail box is full. Unbelievable. Please do not try to do business with 8x8.

The support people are very nice but I spent about 100 hours on the phone and by email, trying to figure out the system and to find out whether it does what I need. Sometimes I felt like I was going insane. After I insisted, they said they will refund me for one month and let me out of the contract if I choose to leave in a month.

They do offer a decent flat rate for international calls and they do have good service to Dubai, where I call often, and where Skype and WhatsApp are not well supported. And it appears that they offer unlimited call recording, which I sometimes need. So I may stay with them because I need those two services and I want to move away from relying on Skype (Microsoft) and WhatsApp (Facebook). But I need to preserve my sanity and with this company that is questionable. I suggest you only use them if you need what they offer and can't get it anywhere else. And I hope they will actually refund me the one month and let me out of contract if I decide to leave in a month. Basically, the company is a mess. I feel badly for all the nice people who work there.

The long story: I was quoted $133.46 a month including all taxes and fees by salesperson Dedo ** in Febraury, began service February 22nd. I have this in writing via email. Received our first full bill on April 1st or 2nd for $164.84, attempted to contact Dedo via email and phone and gave some time for a response. First call to customer service on 4/12, was on the phone for at least 30 minutes, was told I would get a call back later that day or the next day. Never received a call back, called back on 4/16/18 was on the phone for 23 minutes just to be told I would definitely be called back this time.

No calls back, called back on 4/20/18 spending 44 minutes on the phone being told it was escalated to the sales managers Carl ** and Mark **, the phone operator told me she left 3 messages. No calls back by 4/24/18 so I called back requesting to speak to a manager, was put in touch with sales person Bill ** who stated that he would get in touch with Dedo and also emailed myself and Dedo stating that they would lower the bill $32 a month and credit us $32 for the bills already paid. That was at 10:51am and Dedo responded back via email on the same chain at 12:04pm the same day (April 24th): “Rob, I have opened another ticket to escalate the monthly cost discrepancy. This will be resolved shortly and you will be refunded the difference.” I was on the phone for 35 minutes that day.

Emailed Dedo and Bill and called on May 3rd. Spent some time on the phone as well that day at least 30 minutes. No answers or solutions. Emailed and left messages again on 5/7/18. No responses. Called customer service on 5/8/18, spent 57 minutes on the phone to be told by salesperson Dominic that manager Carl would call me back in 5-10 minutes, they would not let me hold. Dominic said he was literally looking at Carl who was 15 feet from him and Carl would absolutely call me back in 5 to 10 minutes, no call back.

On 5/10/18 called back, spent another 57 minutes on the phone. This time being told that this was being forwarded to “everyone” and the best they could do would be a one time $32 dollar credit, despite emailing the evidence that Dedo stated our bill would be $133.46 and we entered into the contract based on that number, therefore they were in breach of contract and we would be well within our means to exit the contract based on their breach. They stated that someone would get back to me “next week,” further explained that the response time is typically 48 hours, but with the weekend approaching it would likely be by Tuesday for some reason. To their credit, it ended up being a $64 dollar credit, so 2 months worth out of the 12 in the contract… Messaged on the support website Tuesday 5/15/18 around 1:30pm asking for an update. No answers at all.

Called on 5/17/18, a full week after the 5/10/18 call where I was told I would be called back within 48 hours, but because it was the weekend it would be Tuesday, so 4 business days, but I never received a call anyway. Waited to speak with someone for just under 30 minutes, spoke with Santiago who attempted to explain again to me that it was a mistake with the taxes and fees and I had to explain yet again that it was that we were quoted $133.46 including taxes and fees with no discussion at all that that amount could possibly be different. He spent about 20 minutes of bumbling around before finally telling me that he called and left a message for Carl the manager in sales and also provided me with Carl’s number to try myself if Carl did not get back to me on his own accord. I called at 5:38 and left a voicemail with a bit of an explanation and asking him to please call back. Left my number 2x on the voicemail.

Since then I have attempted to call Carl several times, once per day, each time leaving a voicemail with my name, a brief description of the issue and my number 2x. It is almost 2 months since the first contact and still no solution, still no contact from a manager. Our case is still open with no contact from the company. This is by far the worst customer experience I have ever had in any industry or with any product. It is a clear breach of contract (quoted one amount all inclusive and charging more).

Another 8 business day pass and no emails so I call customer support. Their customer service agents at 8X8 have no idea what department to send you to nor which department they even work in for that matter. It's a complete circus! Finally get to a tech support agent after 3 separate calls because of being placed on hold and then getting disconnected from them. He tells me he does not even see a porting ticket created and that it has not been done nor started, all this after almost an hour and a half on hold. That's all I could deal with so I moved on to the cancellation process.

Bottom line. It's been a full month and I have a phone sitting on my desk that's used as a paper weight. I've used my Ooma service throughout this complete disaster of a cloud phone service carrier. For any small or mid sized business owner your time is valuable and 8X8 has no regard for it whatsoever. They will run you around and around with excuses and reasons as to where the mishap has taken place but none of it being on them of course.

8X8 is completely unprofessional and disorganized and has no regard for your time as a consumer. They have also never heard the term customer service. I was more than patient with the time frames I was given and only to find out nothing was being done. Sale rep didn't return calls after the sale was made and her voicemail no longer says it's even her, always nice to know the direct contact for your business phone carrier may not be with the company next week. Do yourself a favor and RUN from this company!!! Your business phone service is far too important to be in the hands of this company and their complete inability to perform the services they offer.