SplaTT's Blog

I wish my expereince with Engin was as good as yours.

Waiting on hold to get through to Customer Service for 20 minutes at a time is bad enough - but some of the international call rates are a rip off.

Why can Skype and Astratel phone Moscow for less then 6 cents a minute and Engin charge 29 cents a minute.
Forget about trying to call Cyprus as well.
If Engin want to grow thier subscribers as fast as they have been promising their shareholders - then they need to get serious on international call rates.

All the Voip providers are doing 10 cent National Calls now and it is not the knockout punch for Engin that it used to be.

If you look at engins rates and compare them to telstra or optus you are way infront, just look at the flag fall for starters!

I must also praise Engin for their phone quality BUT, their customer service is absolutely woeful. 20 min waits have been the norm for me too & they double dipped my credit card on the last monthly bill. I've been trying to get a $50 cashback from them for the past 6 months. They really need to address these issues.

In your last reply you only mentioned the comparative flag rates to Telstra & Optus without any input to the lack of sevice quality issue that was raised in the same comment?

Kevin

The rare times i have had to call Engin customer service (maybe twice in nearly two years) i have had a pretty good experience. I'm sure the team over at Engin would love to get your feedback directly.

Hi there
I'm interested in setting up a VoIP system but have no idea how to go about it. I can't get broadband here and have contacted wireFree to find out how there system works. Anyone with any suggestions?

I joined Engin on 11/01/05.
I had issues of poor reception which took Customer Service a week to sort BUT they were prompt in both action and replies. Better than Telstra!
I use both National and International facilities and call local as well.
I have found Engin exceptionally good and have saved heaps on phone calls!

Hi, I have had the worst experience with engin you can think off.Iordered a netcom Modem Router Voip,cost 299.00.I got it in 2days,that was o.k.
It did not work (D.O.A)Iwas asked to return it.
They then sent me another one,a rehashed used one
I rang them again to complain,having paid for a new one,Iwanted a new one.A person called James told me he was very sorry about that and send out another Unit.
This how ever never happened.After about a week
i rang them again demanding a refund as i thought
it unwise to proceed with a Firm that would deliberately Dud you with used gear.I was promised a Full Refund by a fellow called Shamus
However no such refund was made.The most amazing
Thing,even for a comeon company like that,was a
Demand for payment of rental for a device that was never activated as we never had one.Ihave taken Legal action against engin and am trying to warn all future people thinking of doing
business with engin to think before they buy as
Their slogan to make Refunds is just a slogan.

Im a bit amazed by experiences with engin I'm into my second week with them and the service of the system is great no drop outs no complaints from anyone I call using engine I took the 14:95 per month deal no costs on local and national calls. The way I see it now is 19:95 a month to telstra for landline rental 14:95 for engine, $34:90, big savings for me as my monthly Telstra bill was min 120 - 160 per month. I have 3 mobiles and use these for the free call service they offer so only pay 29 per month and use up the $120 per month of 3 calls by calling the mobile to mobile, I dont need engin for the mobile service or overseas calls. Guess not everyone can be accomadated by Engin but for our family we are starting to save heaps. Landline is only used for incoming calls. I thank engin and yes the service can be crappy waiting for up to 30 min on hopld but this will get better they have assured me in writing so I believe them as they are recruiting for call staff.

I've had this system for only two weeks. It is the most inefficient useless bloody system I have ever encounted, and the customer service stinks!! I had a hell of a job setting it up even with the help of an ex telecom technition. Finally got it activated after 12 hours. Since then more than 50% of the time I try to use it it fails.

This morning I tried for an hour to make calls to doctors and hospitals, and finally had to revert to my land line,I couldn't even call engin's number with their phone. So much for saving money. I have sat on the landline for 28 minutes and got no one.

The first account is due on 31st Mar, and I can assure you that the money will NOT be in my account, and I fully intend to take it up with the Ombudsman. I should have just downloaded Skype, my neighbour is on it and has no trouble at all.

The month of March 2007 seems to be a busy month for people posting to this Engin post...wonder whats going on?? My system has been up and running since Jan 2005 and has worked fine all along the way even when i took it into the US...strange...

Engin stands no where compared to skype and other voip providers. Not only in terms of rates but also quality and service .don’t know where engin is heading too???? They need to improve in all aspects to beat the competitors like skype which are cheap compared to the services they provide

It has been two weeks since I made the awful decision to go with Engin.

First go; was sent a 121 unit. Disaster. couldn't activate. Time spent; 6 hours.

Second go; After returning the 121, their Customer Service Officer, upgraded me to a 221 at no extra cost. I tried activating it yesterday morning (Sat 12th May). This morning, after four hours of waiting on hold, phaffing around with settings (I think their last resort was to change the clock on my video) I lost it completely. Time spent 7 hours.

Normally a fairly tolerant sort of person, I can only say whilst the staff tried to be helpful, they had obviously no idea. True story; One helpful gentlemen suggested I ring Netgear in India to see "if the internet was down". Another one emailed me instal instructions which were different from the ones sent with the unit, which were different again from their website.

Stay away from Engin. The $$$ savings are just not worth the heartache.

I have an AG188 VOIP GATEWAY connected to Engin which seems to work fine with the exception that incoming calls show as CALLERID with no further detail on the phone screen. Can anyone throw some light on this? Is it an Engin problem or a problem with my device?

Best regards...Lamont

I had heaps of problems connecting to engin when I first joined with my own hardware. Conflicting setup solutions sent by helpdesk but finally got it sorted and savings terrific. Have now gone to 14.95 per month national plan. sounds great. Hope it will be. Engin tells me that their 1300 calls to them are free (not 28 cents as Mike says as these calls are Engin to Engin (always assuming that you have managed to get connected!!!!). My main gripe is that now new customers (but not existing 'bring your own hardware' customers) are being offered the voice box free. You need that to get all the extras such as caller ID.

I'm about to join up with engin via wirefire in conjunction with a group of neighbours as we don't get broadband. A lot of positive comments here but I note a few unhappy souls. Any advice, recommendations?

idea... dont use a telecom technician to install voip?

My experience with engin is terrible also. Set up was ok and the first few calls worked well then every call (or rather 95% of calls) cut off after abour 30 seconds.
Tried to phone Engine support - first time I waited 2 hours!!! the second time only 45 minutes but in both cases --- no reply.
Thought I would get clever so I phoned the Sales section at Engin (Sales people ALWAYS answer the phone) They answered my call after about 3 seconds!!! Amazing, but not surprising. However when I explained the problem he said he would have to refer it to the Customer Support Manager - but at least I spoke to a live Engin person and complained.
All I have to do now is sit back and wait to see if I get a call back to fix the problem.
That's my 2 bobs worth for the time being.
Good luck to you all. Guy

We got Engin about a month ago, and the service is terrible. Call's drop out after 30 seconds and call quality is woeful! Do you remember that echo and slight delay International calls used to have? Thats our service. Well, for 30 seconds, anyway...

Our Internet connection is ADSL2+, and we bought a brand new modem, but nothing has changed.

I'd suggest people forget about using it - it's just not worth the effort....

yet i've had nothing but a good service. i have had calls drop, but didn't bother, since their expensive domestic plan offers free international (to 8 countries) and domestic pots calls, i just call again.

It just isn't like a POTs line , just gotta except the differences if you want a cheaper calling rate.

We have an Engin phone on Optus cable, here at home for over 18 months now. I found it to be easy to install and it has worked faultlessly from day one. I have yet to try customer service as I have had no problems. The analogue line has been used only for incoming calls and now I am considering ditching it and adding an additional Engin number. I have used skype and found it fun but not a practical VoIP solution. Incidentally my wife and I both work for organizations that use VoIP, most large businesses do.

Alot of outdated comments here, hope ur problems have improved since then. Ive been connected for two months, poor quality at first, but was imformed to get a new handset, got one thru deals direst for $29.95, crystal clear reception, nothing better than telling telstra of my intentions!!! I think this is a young company going places.

I have been with engin for a year or so and have found it to be pretty good. However I have just changed from bigpond to netspace and now when I ring out on voip phone its drops out after 30 seconds but incoming calls don't drop out. Have tried ringing Engin and netspace and alcatel they have all been very helpful but still no solution to my problem.