Hmmm doesn't inspire much confidence if names keep changing every few days! No reason given on the web page! Any comment from insiders would be appreciated..
Sorry, spoke a little too soon. They have an entry in their blog explaining the change.
Quote"Why Vestalink? Obihai Technology, Inc in Campbell, CA has asked us to change our name."
More information here http://www.vestalink.com/blog/
What this shows is that the people running this company don't have basic business sense. Any idiot checks out trademarks, copyrights, etc. before establishing company or product names, and then secures those rights. Seems like they didn't in this case, and OBi rightly complained. Amateurish.
A rose by any other name...
In my very first post I suspected this would be a problem. It still is the most customer focused company on the internet. As you can see they even fullfilled an obihai feature request!
I am a client, but I asked about the name when I first contacted them. I mean, who wouldn't see this coming? Maybe some good will come with the change. Maybe they needed to change their name before becoming an approved provider.
Yes. I am a happy customer too. The criticism about a little naivete or amateurishness in business decisions, although harsh, is justified. Also I believe Intelafone sounded better than VestaLink.
Maybe this was all part of the marketing strategy. After all, they got people looking at them.
I agree with AlanB, the publicity they got from the old name was tremendous. Just think of all the posts about them just here in Obitalk. Wouldn't have happened with the Vestalink name. Another happy subscriber to uh......Vestalink.
Quote from: AlanB on February 27, 2014, 09:36:34 AM
Maybe this was all part of the marketing strategy. After all, they got people looking at them.
Exactly.
Notice how Intelafone waited for Obihai to announce a vague upcoming offering and then pounced with re-branded Intelafone service with the Obivoice name.
Meanwhile, Obihai couldn't or wouldn't answer any questions about their proposed offering, and was pummeled in their own forum when the measly 250 minute plan was officially announced.
Who is the "amateur" now.
So what's next, sue Vestalink because they are using a redirect of obivoice.com to vestalink.com?
Vestalink? Um... should have used twitter and asked for people's opinion on a better naming choice. Why not OVoice? Might aswell change it to WanKenobiVoice.
Not thrilled by the name Vestalink either, but am thrilled with the service and price. As long as that continues, who cares what they call it? Another satisfied customer!
Quote from: riptcity00 on February 27, 2014, 10:26:59 AM
Not thrilled by the name Vestalink either, but am thrilled with the service and price. As long as that continues, who cares what they call it? Another satisfied customer!
+1
Quote from: et_phone_home on February 27, 2014, 10:09:34 AM
Vestalink? Um... should have used twitter and asked for people's opinion on a better naming choice. Why not OVoice? Might aswell change it to WanKenobiVoice.
Well let's do it here and now.
Well let's see whats out there. GVMate ( http://gvmate.com/ ) doesn't seem worried about Google sending them a cease and desist letter. They have been around for awhile. Maybe we can work that angle.
GValt (this one rolls off the tongue)
GVoip
Hangvoice
Outvoice
NOTobivoice
ibovoice
Can you do better? :D
Ve Stalin K gives a more european twist. ::)
Why couldn't they use Intelafone?
I wonder why they didn't keep the old logo. It's much nicer than the new one.
Innocent bumbling, or very deviously clever marketing tactic, it at least gave the company time to bootstrap its business with OBi customers. Given the closely concurrent timing of Obihai's own service announcement, it's pointless to "armchair quarterback" their actions. As amusing as this is, at least I have to hand it to the company for either having an excellent advertising and graphic service agency that can make fancy videos and make very fast changes, or somebody in house who is an ace at video production. Nice job! Now, you need to fix all your FAQs and support docs that still say "Obivoice".
I guess I am just overly ethical, but if I knew that Obihai was moving into an "approved provider" model, with cooperative marketing and integrated provisioning, I would have made every effort to be the first such partner. But you can't hold it against them for essentially being just another independent, pure-play SIP VoIP provider now. After all, it was Obihai's bizarre decision to create what the large corporations call "channel conflict": competing with your own value-added reseller network.
My personal hope is that Obihai goes all-out to convince as many ITSPs as possible to sign up for their approved provider program, which will make it easy for consumers to compare features, pick their favorite ITSP, based on their needs, and quickly provision their OBi ATA.
Quote from: AlanB on February 27, 2014, 06:02:08 PM
I wonder why they didn't keep the old logo. It's much nicer than the new one.
I wasn't paying attention to the old logo, but I actually like the new one.... it's a home, on a network diagram, enveloped by the "cloud" -- clean and modern design. OK, the cloud is a cliche, but hey, it's easy to understand.
Quote from: SteveInWA on February 27, 2014, 07:35:32 PM
Innocent bumbling, or very deviously clever marketing tactic....
...As amusing as this is, at least I have to hand it to the company for either having an excellent advertising and graphic service agency that can make fancy videos and make very fast changes, or somebody in house who is an ace at video production.
As far as marketing tactic goes, I don't believe anyone here has signed up thinking it was ObiHai's offering. So I would chalk it to bumbling..
I've wondered about the slick production values on their site. Almost turned me off initially as it seemed like a scam with no substance
Quote from: QBZappy on February 27, 2014, 11:41:35 AM
Well let's do it here and now.
Well let's see whats out there. GVMate ( http://gvmate.com/ ) doesn't seem worried about Google sending them a cease and desist letter. They have been around for awhile. Maybe we can work that angle.
GValt (this one rolls off the tongue)
GVoip
Hangvoice
Outvoice
NOTobivoice
ibovoice
Can you do better? :D
LOVE NOTobivoice! Made me laugh.
It figures that Obihai would complain. I am not sure why Intelaphone changed the name to include Obi as Obihai is the worst company I have ever seen. Broken software that they do not fix such as the Android app. A poor business model and lack of any truth at Obihai is why things will crash down on them. Oh, they still continue to advertise Google voice compatibility on there main page hoping they can get the few last purchases of there device before Google gives the Obi the boot off there network. I do not get the Obihai fan boys who stick up for them. They Suck.
Another Obihai tactic seems to be advertising there new great partnership. It gives all there users a forty dollar a year phone services, but when you go to sign up it is $40 for 250 mins outgoing. Intelefone threw these jerks a life raft to save there bad business model of using Google voice, but they continue to defy what people want.
FYI. Vestalink or whatever they want to call the company, is so far, a much better company to deal with. They actual listen to there customers. I wish them the best of luck.
Obihai = Ripoff :D
Obihai this is the first and last dime you will see of my money. You forget there is other options out there.
(http://www.animateit.net/data/media/159/babies6.gif) OBi quite, I'm trying to take a nap.
Please come to Boston, she said no.
Quote from: QBZappy on February 28, 2014, 01:37:17 PM
(http://www.animateit.net/data/media/159/babies6.gif) OBi quite, I'm trying to take a nap.
Funny!
Hey guys. I am signed up with Vestalink and for the price and service you can't beat it especially since GV is not going to be supported on obihai. I have a problem which I was wondering if any one else was getting. When I dial out I get the message" The service provider has rejected the number you dialed. Code 400". Some thing like that, I have tried various things but I still get the same message. I receive calls just fine, it's only the outgoing.
Could someone using an obihai110 or obihai100 on vestalink, send me their settings file to compare. Thanks.
Usually if I get that message I just try the call again and it goes through. There is also a support note on the Vestalink site with a suggestion for a fix:
https://intelafone.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1425037-fixing-the-obihai-adapter-%22error-400%22