oh look..t+3's being squeesed out, page-32

re: re:81% growth in dec lookout above. You mean something like this?--


Although I am experiencing technical problems, please do NOT assume that all other engin users out there are experiencing the same problems (I am in Sydney and people in other areas do not seem to have any problems).

I suspect they are signing up more people than they can handle and therefore the quality of service is deteriorating... which might be good news in the short run (more revenue, more subscribers) but bad news in the long run (damaged reputation and more people leaving the service). Scary but it reminds me a bit of the Unwired hype when the management underestimated the demand for wabbits and subscribers suffered from poor service quality.

I will keep you informed of the situation, but in any case, do not determine the quality of engin's service based solely on my opinion!

I am only one of many engin users... who just happens to be getting piXXed off!!

ENG have admitted that there were technical problems on their side, but they claimed they have been solved... Were they really? mmm...

PS As for other VOIP services, I just used softphones or Skype without analog telephone adaptor (ATA) so cannot really compare their services with engin's. Naturally I assumed BETTER quality/reliability when I purchased the engin-locked hardware...








Hi Tommy, don't worry mate not basing my impression of ENG solely on your experiences, but there seem to be a great number of other customers experiencing problems. When it comes to a new technology that people are uncertain about, hearing of these sorts of problems must be likely to turn them right off ENG to competitors or even make them avoid VoIP altogether, atleast until the problems are sorted out. An owner of a major tour coach company I know is very interested in saving the $$$ by using VoIP, but needs the service to be atleast as reliable as regular phone services, because missing the critical phone call of even one major client would wipe years of VoIP savings out in an instant. Hopefully ENG will gets its sh*t together soon.






Agree with you completely, I am not worried about geeks like me getting a bit upset about VOIP because we are aware of the pros/cons but the ordinary mums and pups who are not technically-savvy might just give VOIP a miss altogether if this kind of stuff happens frequently!

No business should rely solely on VOIP at this early stage... keep the phone line just in case so that if the VOIP connection fails, the connection can fall back on PSTN network to make/receive calls on the same number (which is what engin voicebox is designed to do, as a backup function in the event of failures). I use VOIP purely to make cheap outgoing local/international/mobile calls.

Oh, I just noticed the phone is working again... I have no idea what is going on with engin now.





Good bye engin

This time ENG didn't even bother responding to my complaint, and guess what, my phone isn't working AGAIN!! Reliability rate has gone down to less than 50% this week (wasn't like this a while ago), don't like disconnections while I'm talking to someone over the phone!

My upstream/download speed is fast and healthy as it could be, yet no dial tone. ENG can't blame my ISP or the hardware company (because it's not their fault), I suppose that's why they are not responding.

Gonna take my engin-locked hardware back to place of purchase to get a refund.






More serious problems experienced by other engin subscribers?!

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=457305

mmmm.......





I have terminated my engin account due to numerous problems regarding deterioration in service reliability, quality and customer service as previously stated... but I'm still holding on to engin shares with very tight stops, the reason being that many retailers (harris technology, harvey norman, etc.) are selling engin voice box at $49 (after $100 cash rebate). Cheap indeed!

While I see this as a great potential booster of subscriber numbers, I also regard it as a double-edged sword.

engin differentiates itself from other VOIP service providers based on its alleged superior service quality and customer service. Their pricing is HIGHER than rivals, so they need to sustain their superiority to justify the premium. In my case, the premium was not justifiable so I ended up dumping my account.

The $100 cash rebate is a great idea to boost subscriber numbers, but won't be so great if a lot of them end up taking back the hardware to the point of purchase. I wonder how many customers will be happy continuing the service after the one-month trial period?

I've been doing a bit of research on the engin situation over the weekend (limited to Sydney though, so take it with a pinch of salt): you might not believe this but on a few occasions I have been recommended by the tech floor staff of some electronic stores to buy the engin voice box at $49 but NOT to get the box locked to engin's service (they gave me a detailed explanation on how to undermine the locking system!) Clearly that is not good business for engin, when the purpose of selling the voice boxes cheap is to get people signing up to engin... not to its competitors.

Another concern is that engin's target market is non-tech-savvy customers. This requires reliable customer service in the event of trouble shooting. But that has been deteriorating (I am yet to receive any reply from engin regarding my complaints, despite me politely asking them to address the existing problems...) Tech knowledge of customer service varies significantly from staff to staff (reminded me a bit of telstra...dear me)

Having said all that, I still think engin IS and CAN be a leader of VOIP in Australia. They are experiencing MAJOR growing pains, so the management really needs to act quick before the competitive advantage is completely eroded. engin's status does not appear to be rock solid as it was a few months ago.

This is my humble opinion, please do your own research, but remember one thing: VOIP market is constantly and quickly changing so don't assume a long term position without carefully being updated of the changes in technology/market environment