[TheCLAENSER]

Any one else here use talkit.ca (formerly Cantalk9000). $60 Bucks for the year gets you unlimited talk time and canadien long distance. They port your old number and give you voicemail and call display and call waiting. Ive been using for a year now with no problems - (well there were some initial setup problems, but I got through them) The grand stream device they send you really doesnt like routers and insists that it be first infront of every thing - from what i hear they have sent out new devices to any new customers that now require a router to work properly, guess they were just having to many set up problems (as well as poor costomer support) with the original devices. Took me almost 2 weeks to get mine going after it was shipped to me. It was well worth it in the end.
I left primus and their $20 per month bill plus long distance and tax's for my new $5 per mnth bill and unlimited long distance and its great. (actually 60 bucks up front for the year + tax)

 

[Ljose1627]

Talkit.ca

I have problems for the renew service!!!
I pay untill fev 2012 and still the 23 of fev 2011 they cut my line
(this telephone is locked) I call them many times since that and 5 days afther still the line locked!!

Always the promis they will fix in 24h or wat ever
promis they will camlme back in 1 or 2 h wat ever to get me out of the line!!!

And 5 days lather only promes and "escuses) NO SOLUTION!!!

 

[hugh]

Took me almost 2 weeks to get mine going after it was shipped to me

Wow, that is brutal. While you may be happy with the price, two weeks without a landline is simply unacceptable. How much was the ATA? Is it locked?

 

[cambo]

If it's 2 weeks for the number porting, that's completely normal. There's a process of request/release from your old->new provider.

 

[hugh]

He's saying the problem was with the Grandstream device.

 

[TheCLAENSER]

Yes 2 weeks to get it going,
Their tech support at the time appeared to me to consist of students of some sort because all the replies I got were late at night and I would get the same answers from different people. After the first week I gave up and sent it back but instead of getting a full refund I asked them to send me a new Grandstream ( The ATA ) - A friend of mine had been using it for mnths and I know it can work so I was determined to get mine working. Any how the new grandstream came and I simply plugged it in and it worked perfectly from day one.
See CANTALK9000 (now talkit.ca) got a lot of bad rap in the beggining which is why I'm assuming they changed the name. But they have made big effort in improving their tech support. Aslo when I first hooked mine up it would not go through a router- HAD to be in this order- modem, Grandstream and then what ever else had to be behind it. Appearently the one i sent back needed to be wiped clean and new firmware loaded onto it- which they could have done remotely but for some reason there was communication failure between us. Now from what I'm told by a few friends who have since ordered it, it specifically states you must have a router for the grandstream to plug into. That prolly eliminated 99 percent of their problem right off the bat.

My one years renewal is is fast approaching (early april )- hopefully it goes smoothly unlike unlike the description Ljose1627 gives in his post. I will post what ever happens when it happens.

Its 60 bucks for the ATA (grandstream) I have no idea wether or not its locked .It was 175 bucks for every thing - 1 year service including the device and shipping and handling - its only 60 +tax to renew the service again for one year.

If your still interested but skeptical, just order the service and you get a new number included with the price - hook it up make sure it all works and then port your number- (porting is 20 buck or some thing like that) Rememebr they do offer a full money back garantee. Ill never go back to a reg phone line again - wouldnt even pay 20 a mnth for any other viop service like was with primus.

 

[CrazyKanuk]

Did you renew? I am looking at getting this service to replace bell. I's looking to see how good TalkIt is.

How is the service reliability? How hard is it to the internet usage (not sure how to say it, I have a Maximum d/l and u/l) I don't know how VOIP is to usage of data limits.

TIA

 

[cambo]

VoIP uses very little bandwidth. You'll barely notice a difference.

 

[hugh]

CrazyKanuk, There are some great low cost alternatives used by many of our members that are proven reliable so I'm curious why are you looking at this service.

Have you reviewed this forum to see what others are using?

 

[TheCLAENSER]

Low cost alternatives?? 60 Bucks for the year is too high for you Hugh? And yes I did get it renewed and it works fine with no problems. I would definately recomend Talkit.ca. And Hugh is correct it doesnt affect your usage much if u have a braod band connection. I suppose it would if you were on it 24/7 - from what Ive read its about 3-7 kbps.
Go for it is what i say - screw these phone companys and there 30-50 bucks a mnth.

 

[hugh]

Skype and MagicJack are likely even cheaper if all you want is VoIP. MagicJack is $40 for year one and $20 each year after that so a lot cheaper than Talkit. Search on Magicjack for details.

Regardless, I question CrazyKanuck about his/her choice since its hardly a one for one substitute for POTS service and I would caution using such a service without understanding the difference. Also need to understand that much depends on the quality of internet connection so it's difficult to compare without knowing the users provider/package etc.

Understanding why the poster is considering something is important in order to offer advice.

 

[TheCLAENSER]

If your looking for a regular style phone that works all the time and are not into making phone calls in front of your computer with a head set on, talkit.ca is a good cheap alternative. Yes indeed majic jack is cheaper but your computer needs to be on all the time - Not so with talkit.ca it keeps on working so long as your modem is on.

 

[JohnnyBbad]

Good so far

I agree that magicjack is cheaper but your PC has to be on which is lame and you can't port over your existing number. I signed up for talkit.ca with a WagJag for $69 total including the device, tax and shipping included so can't go wrong! Works great behind a wireless router and the quality is better than I had with Rogers. The company seems really small but when I've contacted them they have seemed pretty honest and straight forward about things. Works great so far, if you're thinking about voip and don't want the silly limitations or high prices go for it!!

 

[TheCLAENSER]

What is a WagJag ?

 

[JohnnyBbad]

It' s a discount site like groupon...

 

[ozz]

Talkit - VoIP

Well I subscribed to this VoiP provider because I have Cogeco with 8Mb download and 800K up and according to them you need highspeed for their service and this met their needs.

I picked up the Grandstream adapter in Hamilton on Nebo road at the Talkit offices. The price was right and I took it home. They gave me a temp number to try for 30days and I installed the adapter behind my router and made a call.

Well this is where its hit and miss, first call I was speaking to someone and the conversation was interrupted, we started out ok but then they could not hear me but I could hear them. Made the call again and same thing happened.

Ok maybe a bad line, lets try another, next call was not great in terms of quality but at least it worked, subsequent calls are hit and miss.

I noticed the adapter has a web interface but will only allow you into the basic screen and denies you access into the advanced settings.

So I called support apparently in the Domican Rebublic, and then the nightmare started. On hold and 3rd in line with 2 mins for the call to be answered then 5th in line and 15 minutes to be answered. It kept increasing, what a joke!

I gave up for 2 days, I have a life.

I then contacted Grandstream the manufacturer and in a reply they said to change the NAT Transversal to "Keep Alive Timer" as that might help.

Ok great but I can`t get into the advanced settings to make this change!

Called support again and they said open up ports 5060-6061 so they can have a look, I said ok I will do this and call them back.

I did this and called again but on hold for hours with increasing call position and wait times! What the .............!

I finally got through to support and they answer, I explain my problem and then when I expect a reply I get nothing from him, I say hello, hello and they say yes!

I ask him to check the advanced settings as I hope he has the magic password and he says they don`t go into it, so I say well somebody does, he remains quiet.

I plan to call the executive offices tomorrow but I won`t hold my breath.

They have one last chance to redeem themselves if not I am dumping them and warning others.

I will post back when I hear.

 

[Jake]

Thanks for posting your experience here. Be sure to let us know if you were able to resolve your problem. There are some really good VOIP companies out there ... and some really poor ones.

If you search "keep alive" you will see some other posters having issues with loss of registration. That does not seem to be your issue though.

 

[bossbruin]

technical support is a joke

I signed up with Talkit using a Swarmjam offer and figured I couldn't go wrong. It took me over two weeks and I'm going to estimate 20+ hours of telephone time (mostly on hold) to get this thing working. The tech support team is absolutely incompetent and they send out the grandstream locked with their own password so I couldn't even access it to try and solve the problem myself. I finally got through to one guy whose english was tolerable and seemed to know what he was talking about. That being said I have not had any problems with the service since I finally got it to work... been two trouble free weeks so hopefully all is well. If you don't have extreme patience and good blood pressure be sure to stay clear of these guys though.

 

[ozz]

Talkit - No Luck Today

Sent an e-mail to Hamilton, Nebo road office, no reply from them so I called the CEO Tony Battaglia and left a message for call back and again no response today.

Unit is packed up, ready for a refund, unless a miracle happens from the CEO and Support.

 

[ozz]

Talkit is History

Well enough is enough! I am a patient guy and never expected this to work 100% when I got home, however I did expect support to help me out. Boy was I wrong!

As I understand it, the call center is in the Dominican Republic and if you are very very lucky to get through even though the wait times and queue position go up not down! Can't figure this one out? They know nothing or don't care. They know nothing about how to tweak the advanced settings and they say "we don't go into it" well then who does? I can't get in as its says Access Denied! Called the office and they don't know either.

I suspect this call center is a sweat shop and pay these workers peanuts to answer calls from all sorts of companies who don't want to invest in proper support for their products or services.

Maybe not the workers fault as the masters don't train them properly?

Anway took the device back to the office and got a refund, the staff at that location were fine. They said that support is something they are working on?

Do you think!

This post is my opinion and experience with Talkit, this endeavour has wasted 6 hours of my time plus gas money.

In case anyone is wondering who the CLEC is for Talkit it is Fibernetix in Toronto so I am told as Talkit is a marketing company according to their website.

My advice, run for the hills, STAY CLEAR of TalkIT