FreedomVoice Review
Editor’s Rating:
Avg. User Rating:
| Overall |   |
FreedomVoice Review Summary
FreedomVoice Pros
- WebLINK Internet Control Panel
- Ability to Easily Customize features
FreedomVoice Cons
- Limited Customer Support/Poor response times
- Plans/Features options not readily available
- Many features incur additional monthly fees
- $10/mo for a local line
Bottomline
FreedomVoice offers their customers the ability to customize features to meet their needs, this ability gives customers the flexibility that other Virtual PBX’s simply don’t have. FreedomVoice can build intelligent and elegant solutions to meet thier customers’ most specific needs. Be aware that these customizations will come at an added cost however, so if you have very specific needs that other Virtual PBX’s can’t meet, and are willing to pay to get them, then FreedomVoice may be a good fit for you.
FreedomVoice Features/Benefits
FreedomVoice was established in 1996 and was one of the first providers of toll free virtual office solutions in the Unites States. Today, FreedomVoice provides businesses with communications tools and cutting-edge features to enhance their professional image, improve their connectivity, create flexibility, and increase efficiency.
| Pricing: | Start: $9.95/mo Edge: $39.95/mo Suite: $79.95/mo |
| Setup/Installation Fee: | No |
| Disconnect/Cancellation Fee: | No |
| Free Trial: |
Yes, Get a 15 Day FreedomVoice Free Trial! |
| Customer Service: | Monday-Friday 6:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. PST |
| Included Minutes: | Start: 100/mo Edge: 1,000/mo Suite: 2,500/mo |
| Incoming Lines: | 1 toll free included $10/month/each to add local lines $5/month/each to add toll free lines |
| Extensions: | Start: 5 Edge: 25 Suite: 100 |
| Local & 800 Transfer Fee: | $30 – one time |
| 800 Vanity Number Fee: | $30 – one time |
| True 800 Number Setup Fee: | $15 – one time |
Likes
24/7 Free Teleconferencing. FreedomVOICE is now offering this feature FREE for one year. After that, it’s only $5 a month plus minute usage to continue the service. This reservation-less service gives you a permanent toll-free number that is available 24/7 for your conferences.
No More 2-Leg Billing: We give FreedomVoice credit for discontinuing their practice of 2-leg billing within the U.S. What 2-Leg billing means, is that a provider charges for the incoming call to the pbx and then again to connect from the pbx to your number. There is one exception with FreedomVoice to this however, and that is Canada, in which calls from Canada to a Canadian number are charged 6.9 cents on the incoming leg and an additional 4.4 for the connected leg.
WebLINK Internet Control Panel. WebLINK is an online control panel that lets you manage your FreedomVOICE Virtual Office from anywhere, if you have Internet access. WebLINK allows you to check your voice and fax messages from any computer. It also allows you to make changes to your virtual office settings in real-time, offering the tools and reports you need to fit your virtual PBX to your changing business needs. Turn your voice system into a virtual PBX through the WebLINK web access system.
Customization of Features: FreedomVoice offers a number of customizations that add to the flexibility of their toll free systems. If you have specific needs for your business, FreedomVoice can create customized systems to fulfill your specific business request.
Dislikes
Incomplete List of Features: If you visit the website of FreedomVoice, you will not have quick access to the list of its available features or plans and pricing. It does not have a features tab readily apparent. You would have to act like you are signing up, without actually completing it, to get the prices and features. And once you have finally seen the list, you will notice that only a few features are included. One would think that those are all the features that they actually offer. So we have included the complete list of features in this review to inform all readers:
Complete list of features:
Dedicated Toll Free, Voicemail, Unlimited Voicemail Storage, Email Delivery, Integrated Fax (Send and Receive), Auto Attendant, Access by Phone, Follow Me Forwarding, Call Announce, Call Hold, Call Screening, Call Transfer, ACD Queuing, Hold Music, Random Hold Music, Non-Blockable Caller ID (toll-free number only), Web interface, Cardless Calling Card, Call Reports, Return Calls, Call Block, Pager Alert, Fax On Demand, Voice On Demand, SMS Notifications, Simultaneous call forwarding, Dial by name, Dial by extension, Hunt Groups, Questionnaires.
Additional Monthly Charges for Local Lines: With Freedom Voice, unlike all of our other providers, having a local line will get you a $10 a month additional charge. This seems a bit steep, since none of the other providers we review charge a monthly fee for a local line if you select a local number as one of the included lines in the plan you select.
Many "Standard" features Incur Additional Fees: With FreedomVoice Expect to be charged additional monthly fees for many features that are standard with other providers. *** UPDATE: we were given wrong information *** There is no additional charge for answering rules or queing. And they do offer a click-to-call feature at no additiona charge. However, after 1 year Call Conferencing will cost you $5/mo, and if you want Call Recording which is a standard feature with Phone.com, it will set you back a stunning $69.95/month. Their pricing with regards to everything from addional lines to which features are included versus are a paid service, can be difficult to determine and grasp. This may be due the the fact that they will customize any feature that a client asks for, so this makes a full list of features and pricing difficult to determine.
Limited Trial Period: FreedomVoice only offers a 15 day trial period. This hardly provides an adequate amount of time to test out a system that is as crucial to your business as your phone system, let alone verify all of it’s potentially complex features and functionalities. 30 Days is more the industry standard, and we feel FreedomVoice needs to match that.
Limited Customer Support Times: Their customer support is available for very limited time-frame (Monday-Friday 6:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. PST) unlike the 24/7 customer support available to other virtual phone systems.
Where to Buy
Summary
FreedomVoice offers most of the same features available in a our other virtual phone system vendors, plus some added extras that we have not seen in other systems. We like how they offer their customers the ability to customize features to meet their specific needs – this gives them the flexibility that others simply don’t have. This flexibility will allow them to build intelligent and elegant solutions to the customers’ most specific needs.
However, the fact that they charge fees for some of what are considered standard features with most other providers, can get expensive depending upon your needs. Combine this with limited customer service availabllity and a very limited free trial period, and we just feel that there are better choices available at this time if you don’t need to heavily customize your features for specific needs.
This is a terrible company to deal with. As stated before, it is extremely difficult to cancel the 15 day “Free” trial. You’ll need to speak with a representative, then you will need to confirm your password over the phone, so make sure if you do use this company to not use a password that you would use anywhere else.
The support is OK, although you will often get a different answer each time you call, as if there is no communication internally.
I also used the hosted VOIP service which was terrible, with calls dropping, echos, and one way audio. They try to make you buy a $500 firewall that is “compatible” with their service.
I would advise that you stay away from this company and look elsewhere.
When you try to cancel your account there is no place to do online. If you send them an email they demand that you talk to them on the phone to cancel your account. They are a very shady company.
Regarding the below post. It is extremely easy to cancel with FreedomVOICE. All you have to do is call them at their toll free number: 1-800-477-1477 option 3. The representatives are very helpful and do not give you a hard time about canceling service.
It’s easy to sign up with these folks, but it’s impossible to cancel the service. There is NO way to cancel this service, other than to block the transaction through your bank. THEN, they try to keep billing you and sending nasty-grams daily.
The service was mediocre. Nothing special that anyone else doesn’t offer.
I would not recommend doing business with them. Sorry.
Save your time by getting involved with this company. We have had constant outages, poor customer service and fraud on the account that they refused to cover. We make a living by being on the phone and using freedom voice has been a bad business decision. In the market for a new, reliable provider that stand behind their products. Save your time and money and do not use this company.
Poor service, calls drop regulary, bad echoing on the line, message indicator light on phone doesnt flash for new messages and desk phone doesnt show new message. After support reboots our system, all messages from a week ago finally show up.As per support they know of the issue with the message indicator klight and no fix is in the works yet, that was from the first month, we are know inot the 6 month and still no fix. Our system has been rebooted over 13 times in the last 4 months with freedom. lost calls, customer complaints, employees complaining the phone system stinks.. we have been asking for a conferance call with the owenr and his VP for the last 5 weeks, no responses, no phone calls nothing,.,.seems they really dont care aobut the customers..
numerious issues since day one and still no fix. Do your homework before you buy from freedom.
This is a company that just can’t seem to get their act together. Everyone from the Owner down to the technical support reps and even the billing department has huge problems supporting customers, getting billing straight or even trying to rectify the situation when they have made blatant and re-occuring mistakes.
These guys are liars and cheats. I cancelled my account and they continued to bill me for 3 months. I refused to pay and next thing I know I had a collector after me.
Fa service sucks and never went through but they still billed you for it blaming VOIP on the recipients line.
HORRIBLE Phone service. My phones quit working about 3 – 4 times a day. We are CONSTANTLY missing calls. When we are on the phone calls are dropped or there is such a long delay you are constantly talking over each other. When you call Freedom Voice they say its a firewall issue – yet the internet and other people’s phones run fine. DO NOT go with Freedom Voice if you want to keep your business intact!!!
I’ve been with FreedomVoice for 2 years for several different at-home businesses, and can’t say I really have any complaints. I’ve tried other voicemail systems in the past and always had something go wrong. Lost documentation, overbilling, missing voicemails, the works. Not FreedomVoice.
Their WebLINK back office beats the pants off of any other online setup I’ve seen, and that’s what’s most important for me – how easy the thing is to use. I’ve also never had a problem calling support. They’ve always been really nice, and it’s a nice change to talk to a support team that isn’t outsourced to save a few pennies.
I’m in the market again for a new business, just to see what’s out there and try some free trials out, but I know most likely I’m going to end up back with FreedomVoice.