Adios SunRocket…

This past week has been a real nightmare.  It all started when our Water Heater blew up last week, and then one by one more and more bad things started to happen. My wallet is empty and the vacuum cleaner that so voraciously cleaned it out still wants more…

The coup de grace was the news today that my VoIP phone provider (SunRocket) that I have so loved for the past three years (and encouraged about 6 friends and co-workers to switch to) closed their doors and went out of business. Now I am in a sea of 200,000 people that are having to find a new provider.

There is a Packet8 announcement – oddly enough on their site – that says that they are preferred by SunRocket to absorb their customers and that only THEY can switch over customers. But none of this information is on SunRocket’s site. Right now I am being very suspicious of any information because there is a lot of it out there right now in the aftermath if this mess…

But today I found a new provided on my own: Nuvio. I have already spoke with them on the phone about switching and they have a very similar plan to SunRocket, good switching options and will even use the existing hardware. Here is the better news: THEY ARE PROFITABLE.  The reason for this is because their primary business is not VoIP it is PBX installation, so they have more business customers. Since they are more diversified than Vonage and the others out there – like SunRocket – I think they are a better choice and I am planning on switching real soon. A co-worker of mine that I helped convert to SunRocket is already a Nuvio customer, so I am waiting to see how his switch goes before I make go full bore.

Oh, and if you are finding my blog in response to this debacle you are probably concerned about how to get your money back. SunRocket – or those now representing the company – need to give us refunds. For now, you need to call your credit card company and demand they contest the charges. I called mine today and they removed them (at least for 60 days) from my obligation – and hopefully we will get a refund from the liquidation that is planned to happen.  Oh, and while the web site is still active, I strongly suggest you print everything you can access in the customer center. One to verify you have rights to the phone number in question and all the billing information you can pull from the site to have documentation for a refund.

Anyway, this is the fun I have had over the last week and hopefully I can get some reprieve for the next few days as I set things back in order. As for gadget-land – well, I have things I am working on, but as you might expect, recent events put a terrible strain on my time.