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VoIP Provider SunRocket Shuts Down

gigaom.com — What is going to happen to 200,000 odd customers who signed up with SunRocket, a VoIP service provider that shut down today.

Bury
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  • radtravis, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3Wow. What about reward points? Anybody know if those can still be redeemed?
    • AlienHairball, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Reward points?! I'll be happy just to get reimbursed for the remainder of my contract! Man, I'm glad I only did a 1-year instead of going for 2 on my last renewal.

      The question for all us SunRocket people now is when will they actually pull the plug on our service? :( It's still working right now @ 2:45pm MST, but hearing the "we're no longer taking customer service or sales calls..." when you try to call them doesn't leave me with much confidence that service will be around for long.
      • AlienHairball, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Follow up: service went down for me about an hour after I posted the above comment. :-( At this point I have dial tone, but can't actually place calls. The phone rings periodically and even shows caller ID, but there's only dead air if I try to answer. I've logged into my account on their website and set my number to forward to my cell phone, but no luck there. Calls to my home number either ring, ring, ring... disconnect or I get a cannot be completed recording.

        I've got a couple of co-workers that already jumped to ViaTalk. They couldn't afford to have their numbers down so had to do something fast. I'm not in as much of a rush so I may hold out another couple days and continue doing my research on VOIP options. I hope the rest of my fellow Sunrocket survivors end up with reasonable solutions and my sympathy goes out to the Sunrocket employees that got really the worst of all this.

        He's dead, Jim. Time to move on.
    • bob12321, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1My outgoing calls are working but incoming aren't @10:36 AM PST
  • FlyboyP, on 10/11/2007, -0/+18CRAP!!!! And here I explained to my wife 9 months ago what a great idea this was to save money. She's gonna roll her eyes to the ceiling and ask how our children who are away at camp are supposed to reach us when they get snakebit.

    Just signed up for ViaTalk in a hurry, hopefully they've got it together. I'm not giving up on VoIP yet.
  • flair1, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11we all got screwed. no notice. no nothing. sucks.
    • Darklighter, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Is your comment based on being an *employee* or a subscriber?
    • redlemon, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4mine actually went out yesterday evening, I'M going to get ***** because i talked my father in to signing up.
  • dugiehowsa, on 10/11/2007, -0/+23And I was wondering why the Run button was flashing red but the VOIP light was green. That explains it. Ditto on the wife being pissed about this. I'm going to give her some wine and break the news.
    • AndrewDB, on 01/10/2008, -3/+1You make it out like you guys are bearing child or something. If women really are this bad, I'm glad I've not taken the commitment step yet.. *laughing*
      • synapseattack, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6Spoken like a true digg user that has not seen the form of a naked woman.
        • Maddjonesy, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2I concur, witness a woman in all her naked glory (in person! not on those dodgy websites you most likely use) and you would take the commitment (...to regular sex sessions) ;p
  • dugiehowsa, on 10/11/2007, -12/+2And I was wondering why the Run button was flashing red but the VOIP light was green. That explains it. Ditto on the wife being pissed about this. I'm going to give her some wine and break the news.
  • FordFrank, on 10/11/2007, -3/+5Just checked and my Sunrocket line is dead.

    So they bail out and leave everybody in the lurch with no notice. Anybody know offhand the names of the sleazeballs involved? I want to make a point of never again having anything to do with any company they're connected to.
  • phatch, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2Whew! Just redeemed a reward!
    Crap! Just signed up for Sunrocket three months ago!
  • Darklighter, on 10/11/2007, -5/+3Sounds to me like the biggest story is how they *screwed* all of their employees by not giving them notice and I've heard they did not get severance either! Along with the comments of this story, I also found this other link that talks about severance.
  • Darklighter, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12Sounds to me like the biggest story is how they *screwed* all of their employees by not giving them notice and I've heard they did not get severance either: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18660180~days=9999
  • acmephoto, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1I still have a dialtone on my SR number, but for now long. Perfect timing however, I'm just comming off of a year and will . would have been month to month. IS there any FAQ on what to do now to not loose your number or port it elsewhere?
    • Jook, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Just tell your new provider the number you want ported, plus the company name and your account #. Usually takes from 1-7 days. I have seen it as fast as 4 hours or as long as 2 weeks.
  • FlyboyP, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6Local news report about the sudden layoffs at the call center in Kentucky: http://www.ky3.com/news/8534842.html

    "All of a sudden the calls went away and it was dead air and all of our phones were dead and several hundred people are standing up in the building saying, ‘What's going on?’” said Amy Oldfield, another former employee.
    • FlyboyP, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Correction: Springfield, Missouri, not Kentucky.
  • RoyHobbs, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11SH*T I just renewed another year 2 weeks ago. Damn that CEO Lisa Hook!!
    • firelord24, on 10/11/2007, -0/+22 weeks ago you can dispute it when it hits your credit card.
  • drjekelmrhyde, on 10/11/2007, -6/+12Vonage is next
  • hdtvdeals, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1I signed up with ViaTalk... as they have good deal as of know I think... Check this.....

    http://enjoydeals.blogspot.com/2007/07/sunrocket-customers-get-27-months.html
    • Flyer00, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I'm a little leery of signing up for a year now at $199 since this bit me in the ass with SunRocket. Maybe a cheap month-to-month plan is the better route. ViaTalk seems a little expensive on monthly plans.
  • wonderworm, on 10/11/2007, -1/+20What a great business plan based on fraud. Go door to door and sign people up for a prepaid lawn mowing business for a great price. Then pull a Sunrocket and just close operations without any warning and skip town!???

    Am I the only guy here who thinks Sunrocket's actions are basically criminal in nature and deserve charges???
  • Surefoot, on 10/11/2007, -3/+6No surprise here. SunRocket was as shady as they come.
  • cgomez, on 10/11/2007, -3/+5This is a look into the future of Vonage.

    Heh.
  • OBKenobi, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I use Earthlink's Truevoice VoIP. It works great. YMMV depending on your broadband provider.
  • rmetzger, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1damn right ... the problems were obvious when I worked with them last year ... glad i knew when to get re-hired!
  • stisev, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11Holy *****.

    My number is with SR.

    ***** took my $100 an ran off.
    • crazydiode, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I have 2 lines with them. *****... one of them is a month-month.. the other is what i am worried about. the damn "gizmo" in in India... ***** ***** *****.
  • Ryzir, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5My Sunrocket is still working, but the service has been very bad today (ie. dialing a number 10x before it connects).
  • DogDog, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3If you paid them in the last 60 days by credit card dispute the charge!
    If you don't want to lose your number switch quickly!
  • rkuchiki, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5Now for those with the old Sunrocket AC-211 box, you can unlock it and do as you please with it:
    http://sunrocket.zefie.com/

    It is great for asterisk as well.
    • MASTERPL, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Please tell me more, I have one left over after I dumped SR over a year ago. What can this little box do on custom firmwares etc?
      • rkuchiki, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Anything you want it to. You can connect it to an asterisk server and the possibilities are limitless
    • noisey, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Looks like its time to do some reading!
  • rkuchiki, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4Also, glad I didn't fall for this little trick they sent out May 17th:
    http://www.sunrocket.com/shared/epsilon/winback/images/winback-half.gif
  • rkuchiki, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7Oh, and one more thing regarding Sunrocket.
    If you were a customer, you should be happy they are closing.

    http://sunrocket.zefie.com/insecure.jpg
  • lodleader, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I live in springfield, mo and they just shut to doors and told people to GTFO. And then LP guys were checking their personal items to see if they were stealing any sunrocket equipment as they left. Around 200 people with no jobs with zero notice. I call BS.
  • flowaus, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Meh. Nothing in life is free/cheap. Stuff costs. ...and you wonder why your telco charges "sustainable" prices.

    As others have said, Vonage is definitely next.
  • RickySan65, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5'amazingly' enough their signup page still works, so they're still ready to take your money, just don't expect anything in return
    • FlyboyP, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1It won't go thru to the end, it'll say "Sorry service is not available in your area."
  • drdom, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2This should not come as a surprise to anyone. I signed up for SunRocket not once, but twice. I cancelled the first time when I couldn’t get more than 3 days uptime in a row. They convinced me to try them again claiming they had fixed their technical issues, but with the same results. I moved to viatalk, and have had no problems whatsoever. Vonage was also solid, however was more costly and lacked some features. Long term, if you pre-pay, you take your chances. Unfortunately, I have to agree with the comments of many. The cable companies have the stability and lower cost of operation. But their pricing isn’t better in my market than traditional telco. So what’s the point of switching to VoIP?
  • chickenrob, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7My connection went down last night at about 10:00. My wife is also upset. I know I will get modded down for this, but, in sunrockets defense. I have apsolutly LOVED my sunrocket. It was hands down the best deal in full service voip. We have had great reliability for the last two years straight. Customer service was always friendly. My feeling was that many times the customer service was technically unable to do anything. For instance I had trouble with them for the first three months of service trying to port my number. Sunrocket seemed to be trying to do everything they could but the cable company (comcast) who I was switching from was dragging their feet and coming up with bogus reasons not to port the number. They claimed that I had mis spelled my address but when they read it back to me it was fine. I will always look back fondly on my sunrocket experience. I am sad to see them driven out of business by the industries stronhold. RIP sunrocket.
    • noisey, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1They went down for me at around 7PM in Los Angeles.
  • skidme, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2DAMMIT! Goddamn SunRocket! Our service was messed up all day yesterday!
  • flair1, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2i have vonage. if they go out i will just use cell phones. i don't make that many calls anyway.
  • Maddjonesy, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0It looks like this 'Lisa Hook' is a jinx. Her job at AOL was a bit of a disaster too...
    Check her pic here if you're curious.
    http://www.reed-elsevier.com/index.cfm?articleid=1724
    Come on diggin people, lets hear some of your best HOOK-BASHING!
  • redrock34, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1How could this happen to me?
    I've made my mistakes
    got nowhere to run
    The night goes on as I’m fading away
    I'm sick of this life
    I just wanna scream
    How could this happen to me?
  • tmanka, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I'm still getting sunrocket service....any bets on how long it will last??? Where are people switching to? Not sure if I want to pay up front again...I feel totally ripped off. :-(
  • Pixelante, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2Why do we care? We are nerds, we have nobody to call and nobody wants to talk to us. Can't we just meet on WoW where we can pretend to be, like... Less pathetic?
  • orlyfactor, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1What's going to happen? They are all going to BURST INTO ***** FLAMES! What a stupid description.
  • rkuchiki, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Suggestions for SunRocket Victims: http://digg.com/tech_news/Sunrocket_Customer_What_to_Do_during_the_blackout
  • AllLitUp, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_voice_over_IP_network_providers
  • delhokie, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Our sunrocket line still works, but am moving to Via Talk after reading posts several places- however, they must be getting slammed as the signup process hung, and now you can't get started signing up and the live chat window has been open for about 15 minutes with no response.
  • sparty1969, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2Something is wrong here. If you go to the Website you can still sign up for service?? How can this be??
    https://www.sunrocket.com/sign_up/register/chooseComposition.do
  • chance1376, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Well their new website design was a worth while investment.
  • billizm, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Wow, I was just about to switch to SunRocket from Vonage because Vonage customer care sucks and SunRocket had the best deal. Guess I'll be sticking with Vonage for a while.
    • shiftt, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Try ViaTalk or VoIP.com
      • steveju, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Try Fonelogic, they are great! And their customer service is so good. Anytime you want to talk to someone, there is barely any wait time. check em out www.fonelogic.com 800-560-7535. Good luck! P.S. Vonage sucks! Horrible service!
  • martoq, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1If I were an employee and just got this news I would be packing up my laptop, desktop, stapler, and any other office furniture I could get into the back of my truck. And I have a big truck...
    • nogami, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Which is why the rent-a-cops are checking everyone as they leave...
  • delhokie, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2If you sign up for ViaTalk, use SHIPFREE as a coupon code for free shipping- I found this AFTER signing up for service. http://vtinside.com/blog.html
    • steveju, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Sign up with Fonelogic, they are waiving any activation fee and shipping for SunRocket customers and there is no contract. They are a great company. www.fonelogic.com or 800-560-7535.
  • firelord24, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I had just switched away from Sunrocket because it would randomly give a horrible screeching noise when talking to a cell phone. I wonder how long they were running right against the threshold.
  • Sidnak, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1dang it. I switched right now to via talk. They have a deal that they will buy out 6 months of your current contract with another provider. I hope my number ports.
  • polo2883, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I just called my credit card company to dispute since they just billed me on 7/7/07 for automatic renewal.
  • photoguy11579, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Doesn't surprise me that they went dark - they had no money. I use Lingo cuz they're backed by Primus, who's some big billion dollar global telecom giant or whatever. My buddy at Lingo told me last night they're working on a big promotion for us former Sunrocket users. I don't see anything on their web site now, but you might want to check back later today. www.lingo.com
  • wilkcamaro98, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I just passed this one to two of my coworkers that were raving about the deal they got. They just switched, they were also asking me if there would be any reason why the couldn't set this up yesterday. Now i know why
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