Hosted PBX Providers - Support Concern with VoIP.ms

Business IT/MSP Talk
1

Hello fellow MSPs and Lawrence Systems folks,

So I’m concerned. There’s a race to the bottom for Hosted PBX. The basics are:

  • Hosted PBX (may) pay a residual monthly commission, that is MRC.
  • Hosted PBX (may) pay a one time upfront SPIF, or 1X-10X MRC one time payment for the contract.
  • Hosted PBX is all over the place beyond that.

So we’re looking to resell Hosted PBX like we have in the past, but we’re looking for the best provider too. It’s great that they’ll offer eleventy times MRC up front, but if the service is ish, my customer is going to leave me. I’m looking for a service that charges between $16-$20/seat, with a new phone, and with a 4X-6X SPIF. Is that so hard? Lol. Apparently. I invite your recommendations.

So I know that LS has been a proponent of VoIP.ms, and jumping in with both feet has given me some pause.

So, the most concerning item is that they only have chat support. I asked about this on the live stream today, and I think with all the distractions, maybe my question wasn’t totally conveyed. Tom replied that “if you want support, it’s going to cost more, because you have to pay for support.” (in not so many words.)

I get that. I’m looking for a good mix. Supporting UniFi is one thing, it either works or it doesn’t. When a client’s phones are down, and you have to reply with “I’m on chat support!”, well, that might not be enough. I’m sure VoIP.ms is amazing, they seem to have something special… but as Tom says in his videos, “Head over to the forums”, so here I am.

Does anyone share this concern with me? I appreciate any and all opinions. Who are you using today that meets the criteria of (any) phone support, $16-$20/seat w/ a new phone, and… doesn’t suck?

Thanks,
-John

2

Support is an expensive part of the tech industry, I have not had any issues with VoipMS but my team knows how to configure these systems and we buy support for higher level PBX work from Chris at Crosstalk Solutions. I am sure there are other providers out there that offer phone support, but we have been using VoipMS for over a year without any issues or a need to call anyone.

3

Thanks Tom. I guess I’m just paralyzed by the fear that something I recommend or put my name on fails, and damages the client relationship. I can control internet connectivity with SD-WAN or failover/cellular stuff, so the impact there will be minimal. If the SIP provider drops for 12 hours, that’s a problem.

4

What I’m trying to figure out is all the services that voip.ms offers as a “reseller.” They don’t have a video or webinar to demonstrate what a reseller can do and their staff isn’t very responsive. From what I can tell with the few minutes I’ve looked at it you can brand your own hosted pbx using them as the backbone. Can anyone confirm this? I’m looking for a hosted to serve those 1-4 phones but I intend on doing freepbx for long term cost savings. If anyone is a voip.ms reseller can you chime in on your experience?

5

Great convo guys following this Now : )

6

I’ve used voip.ms and I’m not a fan of the lack of automatic billing.

If you want a good SIP provider I’ve been using callcentric.com for over a decade.

They had some issues early on without redundancy and went down for 3 days during a major storm in New York. Since then they’ve never had an outage and they have great tools and reseller/agent programs.