Good VOIP phone service, but support has turned to garbage and apps are laggy

Sadly, after many years of use, I can't recommend it anymore due to the problems described above with support and their poorly-written apps. Their core technology is good though and it would be possible to return to good service and bring in some good talent to fix these issues, but who knows if that will happen. Why don't companies learn how much customers HATE the terrible off-shore support experiences that they have to deal with in so many industries these days?

Pros

We use desktop VOIP phones, the mobile app, and the desktop app. They offer a "call park" feature that other system don't, allowing a parked call to be picked up from any other phone in the office, as opposed to other systems where you only put a call on hold and can then only pick up from the same line. The call quality is good, regardless of which access method used.

Cons

TERRIBLE support. Years ago, support was US-based, fast answer, easy to understand (native English), and always had the right answer. Reps used and knew the system. In the past years it has all shifted to Singapore where they are hard to understand, hardly understand your question, and don't seem to know the answer to anything without putting you on hold and going somewhere to look it up. Obviously a cheap off-shore call center.

I tried their support chat last time and it was worse - on hold forever and huge delay between replies while they obviously worked other chats.

The desktop app is pretty poor. They gave it a facelift, but its super slow to open and use - not sure what language they wrote it in. Half the time I use it to try to play back a voicemail, I have to hit the play button multiple times as it's unresponsive. The "new message" indicator never seems to clear.

I use their web interface to play back call recordings for training. Most of the time they won't play through their antiquated web interface, giving only a spinning "wait" cursor. Instead, I have to select a batch to download as a ZIP file and play them locally. Even when the web interface does work, there's no area for taking notes or anything to attach to the recording for future reference.

A colleague with a Mac can't even use the client anymore because it won't work on newer versions of macOS. Their support was unable to solve. He gave up.

I can no longer recommend 8x8.

Why Broadband Phones for Offices?

Why do I like this company? Not only do I like this company I have a great relationship with working from my office phones and using this wonderful broadband phone company. Now wait, no landlines in my office. No landlines. I was able to work with this team and duplicate my office phones and place them in my home as well. I do a lot of cloud technology for our Dental office and it is important to have a phone system that can pull the load. I love the fact that I have an automated attendant that can play any message I record on it. I can custom fit it to our office and place any message I want our patients to hear. Now lets get down to the flexibility of this phone system. Ready? I can answer calls from a phone, on the computer, on an app on my cell phone anywhere. This company has the ability to track any call that comes in. If a patient does not leave a message I can still get in touch with them to help them out. New people calling in also can get a call back even if they do not leave a message. Now you say if you had a big staff you would not need to have to call them back you would answer the phone. True, but I save on staff salary, and possible lack of staff motivation this way. I roll the money back into the practice. If I am doing office work in another location and it is after hours I am still able to monitor the calls and call them right back. If it is an emergency they can get scheduled very quickly. The team at 8x8.com can customize your phone needs for any size office. They were able to help me out when I needed a fax machine very quickly lets, say in the next two hours. I still remember that day that I called my sales rep out in the West Coast about 6:30 am and he went far and beyond to help our company set up a broadband fax machine. He grabbed his coffee and within 2 hours my fax machine was up and running. This helped our patient with keeping an appointment that they need to go to and not have to reschedule. The office that sprang the surprise on us was quick to note how fast our team came threw. 8X8.com is part of our team because I feel that we are on the same team. You will not get a better team working for you when it comes to your phone needs. This team is BAA compliant for medical and dental offices. Also not just medical and dental but for insurance companies, accountants and many other offices that fit into HIPPA compliance. Love working with their technology team when I need to change anything on my phone system. These guys are great to work with and I guess that is why we have been going strong with them now since 2014.

Pros

The 8x8 team is the best. Great technology and great customer support!

Cons

Our office has been with 8x8 from February of 2014 and has had no reason to change to another company.

I Recommend 8x8 All the Time!

I work with a lot of different companies and help them choose a variety of software and technology vendors. Normally when we are replacing phone systems I look at 8x8 as one of my top three choices for each client. So far we have only had one client where it wasn't a fit due to the large number of lines they needed 8x8 to manage and the cost associated with that. Overall every client I have connected with 8x8 has ended up loving them. The service is excellent as long as you have stable Internet and their customer service is outstanding.

Pros

- Feature rich VoIP system for low monthly cost per line
- Get discounts the more lines you add
- Offers virtual soft phones for no additional cost
- Solid variety of physical office phones to choose from; phones come pre-programmed just plug them in and they work
- Call management and users can be edited from the portal easily
- Very reliable servers and service
- Offers free testing tool to see how well your Internet and network would handle their service
- Port your existing numbers and add new ones

Cons

- Completely dependent on your Internet connection; if you have bad or spotty Internet your phone call quality will be poor
- If you have a lot of numbers to port over (more than 100 or 1000 for a call center) their per number port fees are higher than other providers even at the discounts

Quickly improving to be a solid calling tool

Pros

8x8 checks all the basic boxes. It's easy to use for people who don't want to spend a lot of time getting to know the bells and whistles, but powerful enough to meet the needs to super users. Cross-platform functionality is good and the experience between desktop/mobile has recently been brought into alignment with updates 8x8 has made. The company clearly cares about it's customers too as they are happy to come onsite for training and driving user adoption.

Cons

While the applications have drastically improved, a few small and large things annoy users. First, some of the interface screens still have not been updated to a high-definition visual, resulting in certain screens (like the login screen) leaving the application feeling out-dated and slightly disjointed. Second, and perhaps the biggest concern, is call quality can sometimes suffer, even with an excellent internet connection. If users experience a call breaking up, they are inclined to default back to personal phone lines and bypass 8x8 to ensure a solid call experience. This quickly erodes confidence that 8x8 can deliver a seamless call. To be fair, the call quality has been improving drastically and this issue plagues the mobile app less and less.

Simple to use phone system management

The biggest benefit gained is simple incoming and outgoing call management. I have over 70 clients who could call at any given time and it is important to be able to easily view any missed calls/voicemails/text messages so that I can return the calls. I've found 8x8's service to be more than satisfactory, especially considering the price point.

Pros

The visual layout of this application is intuitive and easy to use. It is easy to mange incoming and outgoing phone calls from my desktop. I also appreciate how easy it is to add contacts as they call in. The application provides handy desktop notifications which allow me to stay on top of any missed calls/voicemails/text messages I missed while I am away from my business phone.

Cons

This application can be a bit of a resource hog. My computer is a few years old already and runs it just fine but anything older would cause me concern. If you do not restart your computer periodically, the application can start to have issues showing notifications. I've begun restarting my computer every 3-4 days (for reasons including 8x8 software and more) and have not seen the issue since.

8x8 is especially useful when employees are working from home and need to be accessible to clients.

Pros

Without this software - particularly, its mobile app - it would not be possible for me to work from home ever. With the app, I am able to keep in touch with clients by phone, without them ever having access to my personal cell phone number or even knowing that I'm not actually in the office. The call quality is sometimes even better than that of my Verizon cell phone quality, which says a lot. I am continuously surprised and pleased by how clear and loud each call is, even when clients are calling from a mobile line.

Cons

The desktop app and website could use a refresh. They're both easy enough to navigate, but are a bit dated in appearance. In terms of functionality, I find that the mobile app will sometimes "time out" when I start using another program, and I realize once I'm back in the office that I've missed a call or two. I've had that happen on two different cell phones, so I'm certain it's 8x8 and not anything I'm doing. That's obviously a major con for the software, so a bug like that needs to not happen ever.

Best Communication Software

small UI mistakes make it look bad, But overall a good product.

Pros

Best softphone services with multiple changeable numbers, Its the best virtual office with multiple features when compared to its competitors. It also provides visual voicemails, phone directory, corporate directory, instant messaging, presence, video calling, fax, call recording, web conferencing and many more.

Cons

There aren't many cons I faced. The con that I feel is with instant messaging.
When you and your colleague are using virtual office and there is a new update and if your colleague updates the software and if you didn't then neither of your would be able to communicate, until you both are on the same version of the software.
When you add a new unknown number to chat and didn't send any kind of text to that number and you suddenly switched to another chat, BOOM then you won't be able to find that number, you need to add that number again. (Only in New updated UI version)

These are some of the minor Cons I faced in my everyday usage

Best VoIP

We have started a landscape and hardscape business in Houston recently. Just a small family owned organization with big dreams. In researching a phone option, I found 8X8 to be the exact match that we were looking for. The cost was low and keeps us going, but the features are the best. In the world of cellular phones, I have a personalized 8X8 auto-attendant message answering calls, and with a press of one button, customers and vendors get connected to the person or department that they need. No more answering and hanging around the phone at the office. Voice mail messages are emailed to me. I can listen and forward the voice mail to whom I need to handle the situation. They don't have to dial in or anything. The message is an attachment. Also, I get to set business hours, set messages, and control the phone system from an app and the website. The app also allows me to answer the lines and monitor things from anywhere with internet service or cellular internet. A great option and system for my company and I.

Pros

Ease of use, and I can adapt it to my needs whenever I want. The list is long: Record your voice mail message for different situations. Set your auto attendant to direct calls to your employees. Voice mail messages emailed to you. Forward voice mail through email. Make changes through the app or online. Answer your phone thorough the app...You don't have to be in the office to answer the office phone. We have bus, ness cards with one number and let the auto attendant direct the call. Best cost I found for office systems. And you can expand it.

Cons

I have found none. The system works great and gives me access to things like voice mail messages emailed to me. So, I can listen to voice mail right then and there. No need to call in and punch numbers to get a voice mail message.

I'm a big fan of Virtual Office and here's why

Pros

Virtual office provides so much value for my company. At first, I thought it may be out of my price range but once I started it up and tried it out, I realized it's a steal for everything they offer.
Not only does the Virtual Contact Center work as a medium between the customer and whoever can get to the phones at that time, it frees up so much of the middle-man work and the cost I would be spending on someone to be a greeter can go to more lucrative programs.
The Contact Center sure is valuable, but the real value comes from the Virtual meetings office software. I say this because my team does a lot of off-site work as well as hiring freelancers for shorter jobs. Being able to meet with a whole room of people in any country and time-zone is so valuable for my business!

Cons

Like I described in the top paragraph, I initially had doubts about the cost. These doubts were crushed when I saw all of the value that this product adds, however it could always be cheaper.
The only other qualm I have is that it definitely seems to be more positioned to larger companies. I have a smaller business with fluctuating team sizes so Virtual Office isn't quite as agile as my team.

A perfect 10

I've had the pleasure of interacting more with 8x8 over the last year, after submitting my story for last year's contest. I have to say that I do not have a vendor that accepts and gives as much feedback as this one does. I run a team of account managers who are given company laptops and cell phones to be available after hours. Thanks to the 8x8 software and app, we are able to keep up with all communications, even when we're not in the office. This ability is absolutely invaluable to us. On top of this, as a manager I use the 8x8 reporting tools to show my leadership team how productive my agents are. Being able to show value in my department's work is invaluable to me as a leader. All in all, I am neither highly technical nor IT; but as an end user, I can truthfully say that I truly appreciate this company and its product. I and my team would not be able to do our jobs without it.

Pros

Ease of use; ease of access; remote access

Cons

I have honestly not found anything I dislike about this app

Easy to set up and easy to use VOIP phone system

Modernized our 8-year-old phone systems. Easy to use for the young crowd.