8x8.com
Reviews and Complaints

On Aug 23, 2018 I started with 8x8 with a one month free trial. There were plenty of problems with the service and support but I'll get to that later. What's really bothering me at the moment is that this was only a free trial to see if the service worked for me and it's only been a bit over a week. I found a charge to my bank debit card yesterday? Why? They told me it was a pro rata charge for to complete September so my billing would be at the beginning of the month. So even tho I haven't determined to continue with them I'm getting a charge already. Again, this was a free trial. With the other problems I'd had with them it was already in question if I'd continue with them. I have a feeling this is not a financially stable company that will do anything to get a few bucks and to avoid giving it back.

My other problems? Here goes. My phone kept on getting disconnected from their server. I can't use a soft phone on my computer so that was my only option. It would take over 20 minutes to get tech support over the phone. They would tell me I need to talk to an IT person. I'm an older gentleman who is virtually technologically illiterate working out of a home office. Where am I supposed to get an IT guy? They told me to talk to my service provider? About what? I'm technologically illiterate. If I need to go back and forth its going to be great waiting on hold over 20 min to talk to support about something I don't even understand and they were unwilling to get on the phone in a 3 way call with my service provider. They are my IT if they want my business.

To make it worse, I had a girl try to take control of the conversation by talking over me. Definitely not a good idea to try with me. Listen and address what I say. Since she wouldn't stop talking over me I got pissed and started yelling at her. She put me on hold. This was a problem I'd had almost from the beginning with them that lasted several days. it wasn't unusual to spend about 4 hrs a day to try and get help resolving the problem. finally, I did get someone who could help and didn't try to pass me off to an IT guy or the service provider. most of their tech support is not well trained. It took about 5 days to find this one tech who could help me.

Moving on, you'll note they are always pushing their High Def Conferencing. The problem is getting good help to learn how to use it properly which someone tech illiterate needs. Their prepared materials were ridiculous. Those materials extolled the features and benefits but that's selling me on something I already bought. What i needed was teaching materials which they don't have. f____ing joke. Most of their support had to keep looking through their resources to tell me how to use it. So they weren't well enough trained and wasted both of our time. and since I don't have resources to refer back to, I have to keep calling back for lessons where I have to wait over 20 min on hold to get to talk to anyone.

So do you want to work with a company that makes unapproved charges to your cards? Do you want a company where they avoid talking to you about billing issues and resolving them? They really don't want to give you your money back when they take it and shouldn't have. Not very honest or reputable, at all. Do you want a company that can't teach you how to properly use their features? Do you want to constantly be on hold 20 min or more when you're trying to get help or resolve issues? Do you want to work with a company that can't fix issues and keeps trying to pass the buck to non-existent IT guys or your service provider? Do you want techs who try to force control by talking over you rather than listening and addressing the issue at hand? Do you want a company you can't speak with a manager when you need to? One time instead of the manager I finally got to speak to my sales person. This was fun. I'd demanded a call back. Instead i got an email that did not properly represent the issue. On one attempt to speak with a Manager I got my sales person who said he couldn't speak to me and hung up on me.

All they had to do to avoid this review was return the money to me I should have never been charged under a free trial. Instead they went to these lengths to avoid me. This is what they get. Again, I started the free trial 8/23. it's now 9/4 and all this has happened in this short time. Do you really want to do business with this company.
Update: you'll all love this.
Now billing is trying to say that charge was for taxes. Their quote for the entire month of taxes when I was first talking to them was $10 and change. So how do they come up with over $12? First problem with their lie. Next problem, I'd already paid the taxes for the free trial. No taxes were due. Lastly, I hadn't agreed to continue with them past the free trial so any charges whatsoever for any future services were unauthorized and inappropriate.
These people are liars and thieves that will say anything only for a few bucks. The company must be on financial very thin ice. That means they could go under at any time. That means your service could be interrupted permanently without any warning.
Why else fight me so hard on money they hadn't earned yet. Oh, I also filed a complaint with the FCC. Isn't it stupid to risk an investigation over so little and keep fighting?
The conversation continued. This supervisor was going to reach out to the salesman and his manager to see if he could get the approval to refund the money stolen. I asked to be able to speak with that manager and was told I could not. It takes his approval for me to get my money back and I can't give him my side of the story? Furthermore, if he gets an approval to refund me the money, it will take 30 days to process the refund. So they reach into my bank account, steal my money and say if they'll give it back I can't have it for another 30 days. You know what, 3-5 days many, 30? It only further supports my belief this is a company in financial trouble. Again, that means, if I'm right, service could end at any time permanently. Is that what you want to sign up for? A company with an unreliable product, support that takes over 20 min to reach and most are poorly trained, no training on their features, steals your money, fights you tooth and nail to keep from refunding it to you, support that keeps trying to speak over you, a salesman who because I have a dispute about my bill says he can't speak to me and hangs up on me rather than passing me on to his manager and if they should be so generous as to decide to give me the money they stole from me back that it will take 30 days? Is this a company you want to deal with? And this is all since 8/23 through 9/5/18. Not much time for so much to go wrong.
This is why you should always get a full and free trial before you commit to these companies.
Update-
Even a free trial doesn't help. Found they billed me for something else along the way. I've tried leaving but the first problem was they changed the password on my phone so I could not reprovision it with the new voip provider I was going to. That wasted 2 days figuring out what the problem was and getting that fixed. Essentially, that was 8x8 stealing my phone by denying me use of it. If you're bringing your own phones, don't do biz with 8x8 for this and the following reason.
The next reason is harassment. Evidentally their system is still trying to keep in touch with my phone even after I asked them to end my service with them. The way my phone reads their contact is as a telephone call with a 4 digit extension. It just rings and rings non-stop. My phone shows 24 calls from them all at once. I can't talk to anyone else on my phone with that incessant ringing. They have to know this is happening. They say they have to scrub my number completely from their system but the dept that does that is closed for the weekend. Others at 8x8 have no clue about this. They seem desperate not to let a customer get away by making it impossible for a person to use their phone anywhere but 8x8. And the trouble getting money back from them? Again, I was told it would take upwards of 30 days. I've never had a debit card refund take more than 3-5 days from anyone else.
I forgot to mention that they originally told me with the video conferencing I could have 25 participants. Then it dropped to 15, now they tell me it's only 5. And they can't even teach me how to use it.
I thought Ring Central was the worst. It took them years to get me this upset. 8x8 has done it in about a month. Stay away. Service terrible. Tech support a couple of good ones, the rest are jokes. Customer service has no clue what's going on and unwilling to address problems. Billing when they shouldn't be, repeatedly. If you try them, it's at your own risk.
These guys really have to be in trouble if they make it so hard to leave and get your money back. Who knows, maybe they won't be around in a week and there will be a lot of surprised customer service who lost their service unexpectedly with no chance it will come back.
9/25/18 and I'm still having trouble with 8x8. I still don't have the unapproved charges to my card refunded. My phone is still ringing incessantly. I had one of their techs confess it was their computers contacting my phone and my phone interpreting it as calls. They have made my phone unusable, they've ruined it. They are refusing to replace it along with refusing to release my service to the new voip provider. WTF is that about. I cancelled, flip a switch and let me go. They say it's being processed. They say they require 30 day notice of cancellation. On a 30 day free trial? Am I supposed to tell them the first day I have their service I don't want it anymore? Their processes need to be fixed. Stay away from 8x8. It's always one thing after another. This is my own phone and they won't let it go. They won't let me go. I'm losing money because of them, Time for a law suit?
Any lawyers out there want this suit? It would be a PR nightmare for them.
Was just on the phone with support trying to get this resolved. They put me on hold for 40 min before hanging up on me. This is the second time they've done this to me. Each time I was asking to speak with a manager which they will never allow. Also just learned when I called back and spoke with another tech support and he was reading back my prior ticket. I found tech support lies to cover themselves from management on their reports of the calls.

Before dealing with customers your staff should be trained. They should know everything about your products, all characteristics, and features it has, about of the bugs, why it can be glitchy, why sometimes it doesn't work, because nothing is perfect, they should have options how to fix it and so on and on and on.
In reality, your customer service is clueless. I talked to 3 people and all of them are poorly aware of how to help, even though in my opinion the issue was simply, but couldn't be fixed without their help. Well, thanks for nothing ad good bye.

Beware of this company. After 8 years of using their service for our business, paying top dollar $400/month and never being late with payments they are requiring 30 days notice to cancel the service. What is the justification of this. They have no fixed costs and no equipment investment to recover. They say it is in the contract but after 8 years It is just greed and an attempt to lock you in to their service. Find a service provider that is more Customer focused.

Packet 8 provided the freedom annual plan for $199 and did automatically renew the subscription a year later with an increase in price to $240 - upon calling up packet 8, this renewal meant we cannot cancel the plan or get any refunds, the call quality has been very bad, I work from home a lot of days and it is almost unusable to make work calls, I have to switch over the using my mobile, wasting my minutes. This is one of the most unethical businesses and their practices (auto renewal of subscription plans, no refunds, not offering paper bills) are very questionable.

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Tony: I got packet 8 after sun rockets demise. The service was not good from the onset. Dial tones would not come on the calls would drop. I have 30 pages of email to their service dept. To top it off their equipment uniden 160p handset would hijack my internet connection. The I was told the problem was with my isp if I removed their equipment it worked fine. I spent hours on the phone hours resetting their equipment told it would continue happening unless I changed isp. I canceled credit card. I contacted fcc contacted florida attorney general. Finally they conceded and canceled every thing on 0923/2008 not over yet first of november I get another bill for service I have not had for now 5 months but billed for two months. I called then again. 20 minutes on the phone we got no where. No notes on update of case I resubmitted case to fcc and copied packet 8 stay way away from them.. It's a sad state of affairs when you pay for a service don't get it then told the problem is on your side and it will not go away. They cancel it then re instate it they should be investigated for fraud.
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