Cisco hell, DO NOT BUY THEM

[gquigley]

Does anyone know how to actually set up a simple two phone Cisco phone network. Blueface have been no help so far, it takes a day to get a response each time you contact "support".

I purchased a 7960 for €450 off them, and another 7940 for €320 over the net. Blueface configured both phones, kindly doing the 7940 without a charge, however neither has worked satisfactorily.

When they sent the 7960 back in January they never sent the power supply, I should have taken this as a bad omen, it got worse for there on. It took a further FIVE weeks to convince the phone to work, in the end it was a case of simply opening ports on our firewall. You would think that Blueface would send a simple idiots guide to setting up VOIP, opening ports is not mentioned anywhere.

Eventually the phone started to work, intermitently though. This was after support suggested using X-Ten Lite softphone, you will remember they flogged me the 7960 for €450, with little practical support. So now we are in mid February, and finally our phone works after six weeks!!!

I then decided that the headaches were over, and splashed out on another Cisco paperweight, the 7940. Basically this is a two line version of the 7960, I plugged it in and viola, nothing.

I cantacted support again and they kindly agreed to program it for me, after it was realised the firmware needed updating. We got the phone back after a couple of days, but nothing happened.

After alittle banter with support we adjusted some settings and got the 7940 working. Guess what though, now the 7960 doesn't work. I contacted support on Friday last, and was promised a response latter, that was five days ago!!!!

So here I am trying to run my business with no phone, having had to set up the pbx to divert to my 7940 as a work around. At this point I am ready to kill somebody, my secretary is putting her feet up reading the latest copy of some brain melting drivel while I am answering the phone.....

I realise I could just swap the phones, but whats the point, they just seem to have a mind of thier own, one works the other doesn't etc....

The summary then:

CISCO = A complete waste of time and a potential nervous breakdown. Too difficult to set up, you need a dedicated engineer, which is pointless in an SME enviornment. We are finalising a deal to purchase some SNOM 360's, they have a softphone version of the physical phone. It is a dream to operate and configure.

Blueface support = Slow, meandering and too relaxed. They need to realise that if they are trying to sell abusiness package they must treat it as one. I was supposed to be the guinea pig trial office for several in my network, will I be recommending VOIP, not bloody likely, at least until my own is working.