ooma Premium cancellation
1So... I got one of the ooma and realized that I had been paying for Premium (I thought it said it would cancel after the trial.) I attempted to cancel... Oh you have to call... ok... So I called... CLOSED... So on my lunch Break I called... I said cancel premium, I want to keep my phone but not the premium... he looked and said you've had it for 4-5 months... You've had it long enough to get a free device... want the phone? Nope I have a wireless phone... How about the wireless phone jack (BINGO! I wanted to buy one of them...) OK... So They are sending one...
Not sure if they cancelled my Premium, likely it wasn't cancelled as they are sending me something "free" but ya know what... If it doesn't cancel I'll try again in a month or so... I'd pay $20 for the wireless phone jack (then I can move the MFU/fax machine... yes We got one for my wife's work at home.)
Has anyone else tried cancelling the premium? Get anything free?
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I too got billed for Premium, but noticed it after the first month. This was 5 years ago, so I'm not certain their policies are the same still, but they both cancelled it and refunded the one charge for the service.
I got a returned Ooma in one of my Fukus (Thanks Meh!). I had to call to cancel Premium after the trial ended as well. They put up a small fight, trying to offer me a discounted rate on Premium, but I wasn't really using it at this point (old handset batteries died instantly and had terrible reception), so I declined it.
I finally bought a better phone set (some ROI for Meh) and got it hooked up and am now very happy with just the basic Ooma service.
I realize everybody's use case is different, but why o why would I want to cancel the wonderful Premier package? ;-)
...Well, OK, now that you've shared your nice little trick, after several years of Premier I'll be having a conversation with Ooma to see what happens... (Works with the Internet companies, why not here as well?) Thanks @sohmageek!
@RedOak With the internet companies where there is competition... I know when I call Comcast I get about a 50% chance of them saying ok... you have 30 days to return equipment (cable card)
@sohmageek there's plenty of competition for Ooma as well, from people abandoning landlines (mobile phones), other Independent VoIP providers to those Internet companies throwing in phone as part of the package.
As a result it is a low margin business and the last thing Ooma wants is to lose a hard-earned existing customer.
@sohmageek @RedOak Ooma doesn't make any profit from customers unless they subscribe to their premier service. For someone like me, they only charge the actual tax amount which I assume they are giving to the government. After billing and providing the service, they are probably taking a loss on customers like me.
@cengland0 while it is likely true the Premier package is very profitable for Ooma, their business model certainly profits to some extent even if you do not subscribe to Premier.
That $60-130 Ooma box likely did not cost Ooma much more than $10-15 to manufacture. So they set aside the large % profit on that initial box to cover future service and profit.
Clearly their business model performs a lot better if they both grow and sell a lot of Premier packages. The accessories help a bit as well.
Other than that, they hope your box doesn't last forever. But judging by the number if folks in forums boasting about their original boxes (with legacy tax-free status), boxes appear to be pretty durable.
@RedOak The distribution chain makes a difference on profitability. If you buy direct from Ooma and pay full retail, you obviously increase their profits for the immediate term.
If a company like Meh sells the Ooma, then they sell it at a wholesale price and their profits are significantly reduced.
Remember that they do have costs associated with billing, staff, website, and the actual cost of providing the service. So the little bit that they get from selling the product is probably not enough to compensate them for those costs beyond a couple months. They need customers to pay for Premier service to stay in business. (Or use their business class service.)
I tried to cancel it and they said they'd cut the price. I said thanks, but I still wanted to cancel it, because it wasn't in the budget for me at the time and they cut it again. I think in the end I paid half a year's price in advance for a full year's service?
@KristiLis thanks for further ammo.
I just cancelled my pre-meh woot ooma, and it was a pain in the butt. No online way to cancel ‘for security purposes’, only via phone where the customer support person wants to know what service you’re using instead, and then passes you to a ‘cancellation specialist’ (that is, a retention specialist who tries to upsell you to premiere.)
Nice device, shady company.