What systems were you looking at? We have none of these problems.
Really? I'd like to see you plug an IP phone in a 1500' cable and make it work. We just got through contracting a VOIP cable job in a huge warehouse and were amazed at the number of hubs and fiber required to build the backbone.
The good old Vodavi XTS would have just required a simple cable plant without thousands of dollars invested in fiber runs and switches all over the place. You tell me why in the world a warehouse dock phone needs to be IP? I think this customer spent as much on the cable plant and switches as a complete digital phone system would have cost.
I'm sorry but something's wildly out of whack on some of these installs. I understand a few customers can really utilize VOIP but spending a small fortune on this stuff for warehouse phones???
I believe a lot of customers are buying this because of buzzwords, not merits. In all honesty the vast majority of customers I see after 6 months can make and receive calls, most of them still know how to page, a few can do station to station intercom and none of them can speed dial. These same customers need VOIP? Generally we try to sell 30 button phones and put everything on a button. We tell the customer to just push the button versus them having to remember codes. Works well for the small guys.
As far as call quality maybe you have no problems but 4 different manufacturers of equipment had issues on call quality when I talked to them. Maybe your definition of good call quality differs from mine. I consider breaking up, echos, stuttering, etc. to be poor quality. If this is the new standard of acceptability then I definitely need to get out of this business.
We're looking at an IP system and the company has been very good to deal with so far. We'll see how it goes but the more we look into VOIP systems the less I see any reason for them for the vast majority of small businesses. We're getting a number of call from people with say three lines and five phones wanting a VOIP system. You tell me why a transmission shop needs a VOIP system?
PS: I have (had) a pile of 3Com, Cisco, Allworx and some home brew IP systems we've pulled out in our warehouse. The customer's complaints were always exactly the same, too difficult to use and poor call quality. I'm finding few takers from the refurb houses or Ebay to dump this stuff. By the way, not a single box had a page port or MOH port on it, basic phone system interfaces.
