I think the article is right on. I'm probably out $100 in paid ahead dues. The only notice I had was first losing long distance, then local, then everything yesterday.

Still no voicemail, but at least the phone returned this morning.

The company really has no guidance if I should expect another company to pick up my transfer of service/phone number or should I do it on my own? WTF?

A useful guide that details steps the customers should take http://www.recipedelights.com/sunrocket.htm

I just bought Majic Jack after discovering that SunRocket had dooped me. This might be just another scam; however, for $39 for the first year, I'll bite. Guess once a victim, always a victim...

Like your friend, my first indication of trouble was my voicemail shut down. Now, people are having trouble making calls through to my house; the phone holds for the longest time before ringing through. I'm one of the lucky ones, though; I had only one month before renewal on my year's contract.

I should have seen trouble coming, but the low price kept me at SunRocket. From the beginning there were problems, such as not informing me all phone service would go down for about 24 hours during the transition to Voip. Later, they decided one of my numbers had not had enough activity and so deleted it without telling me; that number was my little side business number, and I had just sent out a massive mailing to drum up business... I wonder how many potential customers called that?

Except for the inconvenience, I'm not greviously harmed, but I think there has to be some recourse for someone who signed up, say a week ago for a year's plan.

I just go my "new" service through Nuvio, they said they can port my number. I so glad because I have had that number for 11 years.

The principles presented by Paul and Joyce in the Customer Bill of Rights inspired the company in its early days. Many people worked hard to build, launch and run the service. The most recent management and, notably, the Board or Directors are responsible for the sudden, unannounced demise of SunRocket.

Please keep that in mind when you apply the "Jerk Company of the Month" label.

I enjoyed the ride and got a full year - luckily - from Sunrocket. But wonder how much cash the top brass took with them in their pockets. The SECOND year free offer could have killed their cash flow if they sold too many of these BOGO plans last summer.

I just want to keep the great phone numbers Sunrocket offered. Vonage or inphonex - here I come. Even ATT CallVantage is a good plan.

The solution to computer problems:
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSEIC74877020070717

I had just paid my next years fees on June 29th. I have a feeling they knew their demise before the debitted my visa account. I think the technology is good. Also, I think part of the blame lies with the cable companies that seem to be pushing the little guys out. At any case, the way the closure was handled was totally unacceptable and unbusinesslike.

Replace SunRocket with Packet8
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Packet8 Internet phone service was introduced in 2002 by publicly traded 8x8, Inc. (Nasdaq: EGHT), a 20 year old
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I solved my temporary phone issues by going to the SunRocket website and forwarding all calls to my home phone number to my cell phone. So while I'm searching for a new VOIP provider I can at least get calls.

We were 3.5 months into a 24month agreement. The phone's working every now and then but who knows for how long? I'm trying to port this all over to a more reliable company...

I know that I won't be paying in advance for services ever again.

I found a great company VIATALK They offer a plan $199 a year for unlimited calling, just like sunrocket and they will give you in addition to the plan they offer you, up to 6 months free service , only if you were a sunrocket customer.

for example , if you sign up for their service for $199 a year and had been a customer of sunrocket and you had 4 months left on your sunrocket plan.. they will give you 4 months free

here is the link.. copy and paste this link in your browser

http://affiliatecenter.viatalk.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=5099

I found a great company VIATALK They offer a plan $199 a year for unlimited calling, just like sunrocket and they will give you in addition to the plan they offer you, up to 6 months free service , only if you were a sunrocket customer.

for example , if you sign up for their service for $199 a year and had been a customer of sunrocket and you had 4 months left on your sunrocket plan.. they will give you 4 months free

here is the link.. copy and paste this link in your browser

http://affiliatecenter.viatalk.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=5099

I found a great company VIATALK They offer a plan $199 a year for unlimited calling, just like sunrocket and they will give you in addition to the plan they offer you, up to 6 months free service , only if you were a sunrocket customer.

for example , if you sign up for their service for $199 a year and had been a customer of sunrocket and you had 4 months left on your sunrocket plan.. they will give you 4 months free

here is the link.. copy and paste this link in your browser

http://affiliatecenter.viatalk.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=5099

I found a great company VIATALK They offer a plan $199 a year for unlimited calling, just like sunrocket and they will give you in addition to the plan they offer you, up to 6 months free service , only if you were a sunrocket customer.

for example , if you sign up for their service for $199 a year and had been a customer of sunrocket and you had 4 months left on your sunrocket plan.. they will give you 4 months free

here is the link.. copy and paste this link in your browser

http://affiliatecenter.viatalk.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=5099

Just a note on voicemail.

During one call to SunRocket about voicemail (I didn't like the interface) the rep told me they farmed out their vm service to another company and it would be better when they eventually took care of it themselves. So, whoever the voicemail provider was obviously pulled the plug as soon as they realised they were not going to be paid and hence it was the first service to be noticed as not working by ExSunRocket customers like me.

If you paid via credit card, I advise you to dispute the charge with your card company, given that you'll receive nothing for the remainder of your payment. A reputable credit card company should prorate back to you the remainder of any payment.

I'm switching over to Verizon's voicewing VOIP service, which runs about $27 a month (taxes included) -- as much as I hate helping make the giants even bigger. I just don't trust any of the other startups after being burned by Sunrocket. A smart move for Packet8 and the others would be to swoop in and pick up sunrockets remains and make sure customers can port than numbers and get at least some free time to compensate for what they lost. That way they'll restore at least some trust in these small-time operations.

Grrr. I am so upset with SunRocket! And I can do nothing but appreciate the irony of them being the "No Gotcha" company.

I'm out approximately $100.00, I have no working phone, and I not even the courtesy of an informal email notice.

I haven't decided what my next step will be. I would like to save my great old Sunrocket phone number, but I don't know if I am willing to take a chance w/ another startup company.

Caution about the "great company VIATALK" ... they issued a false press releasing stating they are "offering a contract buyout." There is no true contract buyout. They want you to sign up for one year and pay $199. They will add 15 months free. I already got burnt by prepaying $199 for 24 months...why should I trust ViaTalk? I could lose another $199! They are just trying to capitalize on the failure of SunRocket. I would rather be more cautious and go to established companies like my cable company.

Current status
Outbound calls: Dead (though worked fine at 8 AM this morning. Maybe it will come back?)
Voicemail: Dead
Incoming calls: Seems to be working
Call forwarding: Definitely working. I forwarded to SkypeIn, which works surprisingly well for $18 for 3 months or $60 for the year including voicemail.

For humor, I opened a support ticket yesterday at 8:26 AM stating "voicemail down". I got a nice response of "Thank you for contacting SunRocket Member Services. We value your business and your feedback. An agent will be contacting you within 48
hours." So its not just the web site they didn't update before turning out the lights ;)

Communication from SunRocket about the status of the company: None. That lack of communications is why "Jerk Company of the Month" applies.

I can deal with the fact that I lost out on some money. What I really want is to be able to keep my number. I've called around that yesterday and everyone said that I couldn't port it because it wasn't active anymore. I don't think they were understanding the Sunrocket fall yet. Last night Vontage told be I could continue to use it but I'll believe it when I get another outside call from a friend.

Like all other SunRocket subscribers, my voice-mail died Monday evening, now making/receiving calls is a crapshoot: some will, some won't go through. Forwarding my calls to my cell phone also isn't working.

BUT: God bless Chase! I am being reimbursed for unused balance of year's prepayment made in May on my Marriott Visa card.

I have one problem I haven't been able to solve-a place to park my Sunrocket signature number.

I use this number for voice mail for my business. I'd like to port this to an online voicemail/call management service (e.g., grandcentral, ringcentral, privatephone), but none of them seem to support porting numbers. Is anyone aware of a voicemail service that will port your number? Best option I've come up with so far is to start a tmobile to go account and port the number there.

Apparently, SunRocket customers aren't the only disgruntled ones; employees are none too happy either.

Insider scuttlebutt has it that Hook (the new CEO appointed last year) managed to alienate most of the existing staff, and then completely misled the staff about the extent of the financial problems: two weeks ago they laid off 40+ folks but told everyone that things were fine and they were getting rid of dead weight; then, last Friday they abruptly laid off everyone but 25 folks, and then on Monday those 25 folks showed up to find out that all but 4 of them were also laid off.

As one ex-employee on a mailing list that I'm on put it: "There's bad blood. A LOT of bad blood. In fact, I can't think of any former employees who have anything good to say about the company. And they've come out of the woodwork to say ill. Now, I don't think that has really contributed to the downfall of the company, but when things went down, SunRocket hasn't had very many defenders."

Understand that the same people who pushed forward on the stick to nosedive AOL came in and did the same at SunRocket... "how'd we not see that coming?"

At any rate, you have been had by a bunch of class A jerks from AOL. Nothing could describe the company better than the fitting title of the article.

[someone who was kicked out of the door of the rocket on its way down. fortunately, I had a chute.]

Well... I'm also a victim as of today. The funny & weird thing is that I'm getting this anonymous calls from sunrocket, I detected this when I set my call forwarding to my cell phone and I got 3 calls, fortunatelly my cell provider could tell me the caller id # and I immediately dialed it back and for my surprise it's sunrocket CS # and the greeting we are now very familiar with. I wonder why they are calling me? on the 2nd & 3rd calls I requested to answer me back but only silence from the person on the other side.... this sucks...

These fools are refusing to release number to other carriers for porting. At least they won't give one up to Cox Communications here in Orange County, CA.

SunRocket's gotcha of their 200,000 customers was reprehensible and unethical. To not even warn their customers of the end of their service is at best deceitful, at worst unlawful. And, their web site still has no mention of their demise and is still soliciting new customers/victims. I and 200,000 other customers assumed for hours that there was a technical problem with their service. I made numerous unsuccessful attempts to call my 94 year old father Monday evening. Not until I used a neighbor's phone Tuesday morning to call SunRocket and heard their harsh message and then immediately googled SunRocket news, did I realize what had happened. Of course, I, like probably close to 200,000 other victims, are owed monies by SunRocket for the remainder of their one year contract. Talk about breach of contract!

If there is a class action law suit against SunRocket, I will be the first to join. I hope the senior executives (not the innocent "willing workers", as one employee made the distinction) are sued for everything except the underclothes they are wearing!

The sick irony of all this is they call themselves the "No Gotcha Company". Well, they gotcha'ed (read screwed) all their loyal customers. They transformed their 200,000 customers into victims.

Does anyone know a good lawyer??

So the VCs are supposed to send out an email letting everyone know that service is gone, thereby losing the only thing of any value to them? Not likely. They sunk $80 million into the company, and they'll do everything they can to keep the customers around so they can sell the base to someone else.

And they haven't updated the website because there's no one around to update the website.

Has anyone had their old number successfully ported to another company yet?

I too found out today that the lack of phone service was not one of the "usual glitches" in their service. I'm used to my phone service randomly going out with Sunrocket, but once I listened to the customer service message I knew I was in trouble. Good think I have a lot of cell phone minutes! My SimRing setting is no longer working, so calls aren't even being forwarded to my cell anymore. I immediately called my cable company, and they are able to port my number over and give me a great deal. I'm aggravated, but glad to be rid of the shoddy service once and for all! I too will be first in line for any class action suits - there was no reason for the lack of notice given to paid customers. They could have at least updated their website.

Once a reputation is lost, there is no forgiveness. I and a friend have already switched providers and I'm looking into getting the credit card to reverse the charge on the unused portion of the balance of the $200 paid ahead.

Watch out who you switch to!!! Viatalk is offering a "Great Deal for $200 for 1 yr", but of course we skeptics (being burned by Sunrocket) can ask the question - will they be around in a year? Who knows...

I was doing some research and thought ALLO was an interesting alternative ($200 for two years). I went on the "Live Chat" with their Customer Service rep and ranted a little about SunRocket and hoped to be reassured that they will be around in 2 yrs. But, instead I discovered they are NOT taking new customers right now as they are trying to resolve technical difficulties. They said to check back in a week. Yeah, when I sell them the Brooklyn Bridge! So, I stress again...be careful who you choose because SunRocket when it was working was way better than most of these other crap companies that provide VOIP. Steer clear of Vonage (read the reviews, esp. since the Verizon lawsuit), and read up and check out the reviews.

We are switching to the AT&T CallVantage, which is more pricy, because it's with a more reputable company than these other fly-by-night companies.

I was able to port my number by calling my local telephone company (Qwest). The phone company forwarded me to an FCC verification company, which basically just asks you to verify that you are transferring such-and-such number to your new service carrier. I'm not sure if it actually worked yet, but it's worth a try. I'm not going to go with another online provider either considering Vonage isn't looking so hot in its financial statements.

Well, I'm another burned customer, but at least I got 14 months out of 24 months (bogo offer)... so I'm not as upset about that as I am the way they handled this. It is absolutely unnaceptable and unprofessional of a company to behave this way. I will be very careful about trusting any company as it relates to pay in advance discounts again. And I will happily sign onto any class action suits and such.

Something to keep in mind... from what I can tell from my own SR line and what others are saying, incoming still works, but outgoing LD doesn't. From what I understand of the phone system, this is not just coincidence. Unless I'm wrong, they PAY connection fees for outgoing, but GET connection fees for incoming.

Complete jerks running this company. I know its not the worker bees. It's the jerks at the very top.

Hi, i'm in KY and my service keeps going in and out. call forwarding (to my cell ) is working, and i have been able to make some outgoing calls.

I pened service with ATTcallvantage yesterday but don't know if i'll be able to port my number.

they have a deal where you get $5 off per month if you are a current ATT wireless (cingular) customer. I may lose my number (hope not) but I'd rather go with a company where I won't lose my service again (vonage and viatalk just seem risky).

Class Action - Yes, that is the solution. Some filthy rich lawyer getting some more money and I get a $5 off coupon for a new contract somewhere else. Lets face it, we learned a lesson, that cost us max. $199. Meanwhile I have been talking with Europe for almost nothing... Enjoyed it while it lasted. To the ex Sunrocket employees, I dont blame you for not turning of the web page. No paycheck, no work.

I liked having two phone numbers with two separate voicemails; that's mostly what I used Sunrocket's service for. Anyone know of a low-priced way to maintain my two telephone numbers and have them hook up to voicemail service? Thanks.

I liked having two phone numbers with two separate voicemails; that's mostly what I used Sunrocket's service for. Anyone know of a low-priced way to maintain my two telephone numbers and have them hook up to voicemail service? Thanks.

It was a surprise for their service to end so abruptly, and unannounced. So, in that regard, I'm disappointed with the people who decided that's how they wanted to close shop. That said, everytime I had a technical difficulty with their service, which didn't happen very often, I received AMAZING customer service. Perhaps that's why they failed in the end. Providing good customer service is too costly in the "rude as hell" telecom industry.

I think a key issue that has been missed is the sudden disappearance of all but the last invoice. It seems somebody is working - to cover up proof of payment. I managed to get mine into pdf files before they "disappeared." could this be criminal? I think I read it somewhere in the Post a few years back: "follow the money." www.danmosqueda.blogspot.com

The newest invoice is from the new billing system. The older invoices are from the old billing system which seems to no longer be functioning. There is no cover up.

V had ABSOLUTELY NO warning...infact v thought it might fix itself and foolishly waited till wednessday...then we found out they high-tailed it out w/o informing us....

It would appear that President/CEO Lisa Hook successfully implemented the Enron business model during her tenure at SunRocket. I wonder if other members of her management posse were involved? Would that make it a conspiracy?

My service was out for several hours on Tuesday, but seems to be back to "normal" for now. Am not hanging around to see what happens, started new service with Vonage (I think they can successfully battle Verizon). For former sunrocket customers, they are offering two months free service and no additonal signup fees...

Gents with affiliate links postings to hook subscribers for Viatalk and other VOIP providers, please mention it in your post that you're taking PROFIT with the posted links.
I find it cheap to be posting these profit taking links in your posts, when you should be posting comments on the article and venting like most of us are doing.

Not happy about those affiliate-linked posts either. However, they are at least talking about the same issue as everybody else here--unlike the random, context-devoid spam that pops up here from time to time, which I delete as soon as I find.

- RP

I just found about it now. and my phone was still working well tilll last night. I am shocked at it. I just renewed my plan 3 months ago. They gott me for $200. Is therew way to recover this anyhow from a dead company?

Screw this. Although my phone still works, my voicemail and invoices online are gone! I've already called to set up service with VoiceWing and to port my number over. I've already opened up a dispute with my credit card company to get part of my money back (I had to the 2 years for 199 deal).

Lisa Hook should be banned from ever running a company ever again. This is complete corporate irresponsibility. Although most people call on my cell, I do use my home phone for business one day a week. That one day of not receiving calls may have cost me business. It's too early to tell. I welcome a class-action suit to jail these corporate scumbags.

This is really strange, as my SunRocket phone number is STILL working. I just called my home number a few minutes ago and it was still taking phone calls.

I've read the story in the Washington Post that people started to lose service on Monday night. I wonder why mine is still running. I didn't get an email from Sunrocket saying the service was being shutdown. To avoid any downtime, I setup an account on Packet8 to have my number ported.

It is unacceptable to handle bankruptcy like this. The leagal system should have CEO and other top executives of SR to be punished.

sunrocket sucks!! i guess that's what you get for going with the underdog...i've signed up w/ vonage just because they have brand recognition and seem to be the largest voip provider...though they are about double the price of sunrocket.

my phone's still working but not all numbers...

I would not go with Vonage either.

I tried their service for 30 days, I have never had customer support so bad. I decided to go with Sunrocket and it was awesome customer support. I was very surprised they went under, I suppose it was too good to be true. But no way would I go to Vonage, I would stick with Sunrocket even though they are out of business!

As a current Vonage customer who was eyeballing SunRocket as a possible exit strategy, I feel your pain somewhat. A word of caution, though, for those of you who think your LEC's (Qwest, Verizon) or friendly neighborhood cable company is "more reputable". It's the same people, in a very competitive market that refuses to let go of the idea that it has a right to milk the customers, much like the recording industry. We went to Vonage expressly for the opportunity to finally fire Qwest for their years of "service" and overpriced packages. Only wish I could fire Comcast as well, since the $29.95 cable internet we originally bought is now about $55. And once you get past introductory offers, their VoIP service is $40/month. Any bets on how long before that also goes up 80-100%, especially if Vonage loses their suit and craters as well? The only bright spot I have seen lately is Verizon finally bringing FTTH (fiber to the home) to market in some places- but you still end up with one player monopolizing that "last mile", so real competition and customer value remain mythical and elusive. Don't think you can trust the telcos or the cable company any farther than you can kick them, no matter how much more they allow you to pay...

I'm in Staples today (store 1560 in Forestville, MD) and the still have the Sunrocket kits on the shelves for sale!?!?!?! Unreal. I'm hoping a store manager just missed a memo and this isn't wide spread.

Thanks levi for the link to viatalk, i just signed up with them and they are grea, they gave me my 5 months I left on my sunrocket plan for free.

customer service is great too.
here is the link.

http://affiliatecenter.viatalk.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=5099

I just signed up last week and got NOTHING for what I paid 12 months plus 3 free months for! My service was supposed to start Monday and of course it didn't. So it is back to AT&T...they aren't going under anytime soon I'm sure.

I'm out of 200 bucks and my credit card company won't refund since it's more than 60 days. Those big shots in charge at Sunrocket should go to jail. I'm so pi**ed.

I feel for the Sunrocket customers. I have to change VOIP services as well (different reason) and it looks like my number can't be ported. (AT&T Callvantage won't work with my Verizon FIOS router). Am test driving ViaTalk and NiteVOIP. Both seem very good. Waiting to see if NiteVOIP can port my number (ViaTalk can't). If so, they win. If not, it's ViaTalk. Their customer service has been a little more responsive than NiteVOIP.

This just witnessed at the sunrocket site: Took 4 days and a lot of criticism

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING SUNROCKET

After significant effort by the Company to avoid this result, SunRocket is in the process of discontinuing its operations as you know it. Therefore SunRocket will no longer be able to provide its customers with the phone service that its customers have been accustomed to.

However, two service providers are assisting and offering to provide SunRocket customers the opportunity to sign up for their services. Both providers have agreed to become preferred providers with special pricing for the SunRocket customers to enable them to migrate their telephone service. Of course, there are other providers and each individual customer can make their own decision as to which carrier they wish to transition to.

Emails to the SunRocket customers are currently being sent with more detailed information on how to sign up with the two service providers. The email address of the SunRocket customers that is on record is the address being used to send emails to the customers.

We realize this is a very difficult and uncertain period for the SunRocket customers. With these two preferred providers, the customers will have the opportunity to transfer telephone services.

An affiliate of Sherwood Partners, LLC is managing the process as the Assignee for the benefit of creditors.

Creditors to SunRocket will receive a notice within the next 30 days in regards to the general assignment and for the filing of claims in the liquidation process of SunRocket.

Caveat Emptor my friends stop crying in your milk.

You knew it was risky from day one: New Technology - Untested Legal Grounds

I went back to Bell over a year ago because of QoS issues.

So buck up....

It seems like the customers, management, creditors and VCs would have done better in an orderly sale of the company, but it must have little or no value, based on the way it has been handled. Management seems to have left the company prior to the lights being turned off. Isn't the captain supposed to go down with the ship in corporations?

I got my service back after 4 days. I have asked all my state and federal elected representatives, attorney generals, the FBI, BBB, and consumeraffairs.com to do a criminal investigation for fraud for solicting money then bailing out before service provided. I estimate over $20 million in pre-paids. Seems CEO Hook was in San Francisco partying it up at a telecom gathering earlier in the week then "resigned" on Friday? How is that all the top execs also got out early? ENRON????? This needs investigated to find out who knew what, when.

I called Packet8 and ordered service. My ATA arrived Friday and I got it setup and running in short order. I also contacted my credit card company to dispute the yearly SunRocket subscription I paid in March and was told that I would receive credit for 9 months on my credit card statement in 4-6 weeks.

Overall, I like Packet8 better... people I talk to on the phone say the voice quality is better. I've also noticed that Packet8 requires less bandwidth (~7 KBytes/sec = ~49 kbps/sec and bursts to ~15KBytes/sec =~122 kbps vs. ~22 Kbytes/sec =~180 kbps with SunRocket). In the past I had read that Packet8 was less bandwidth intensive than many VOIP providers and now I believe it!

So now I pay ~$22/month for a yearly VOIP subscription - it is still much more cost effective than Verizon at $40+/month for a phone line.

I've just started the process of transferring my SunRocket account to Verizon's VoiceWing ($24.95/month). I'm not taking any chances with another Internet-only company that might fold, plus I'm hoping that when my neighborhood gets Fios my phone might get bundled. VoiceWing has been professional and very easy to work with so far. I have to wait for my phone number to transfer but I've got a temporary phone number right now that I can use when my equipment arrives. My SunRocket hasn't been affected during this whole mess but who knows how long that will last.

To sign up with the most reliable VoIP company is the next big problem faced by the burnt SunRocket customers. Among the various VoIP companies, I feel Lingo could be better option for them. Backed by telecom giant Primus, they will not disappear from the market very easily. Moreover, they offer some flexible and unlimited-minute calling plans to make hassle free calls in Western European countries.

SunRocket is no more in the list of VoIP providers. I am recommending Lingo to SunRocket customers. In my opinion, Lingo offers comparatively better services to VoIP users. At present, they have good promo offers for SunRocket customers such as monthly $21.95 promotional calling plan and annual $195 calling plan plus one month free, free shipping, free second phone line, free office assistant, free activation, free equipment and 30 day money back guarantee. I think this could be a better option for SunRocket customers.

I have decided to sign up with Lingo VoIP service, solely based on its increasing popularity and their Primus connection.