8x8 is About 80% Great
January 23, 2021
8x8 is About 80% Great
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with 8x8 X Series (Formerly Virtual Office)
We use 8x8 X Series across about half of our chain of car dealerships and associated businesses. We intend to gradually extend it to the whole organization as pbx systems age out. We chose 8x8 because it seemed to be a solid middle-ground between the most expensive options in the market and some of the smaller operations. After a bad experience with a PRI outage, we were looking for something VOIP so that we weren't dependent on a single carrier's circuit into our building. It was intended as a business continuity play in case of major outage or facility disruption such as a fire. We began implementation early in 2020, and it turned out to be a great pandemic solution. As people were sent to work-from-home they could take their voice communications with them. When facilities had to be closed for disinfection, people could take their communication with them. When people had to quarantine due to COVID exposure, they could still be seamlessly connected to the business.
- The 8x8 Mobile app works great for us. It allows people to remain in touch off-site or while working outdoors.
- Programming is fairly easy. It's not too hard to figure out how to customize 8x8 to meet our needs.
- A few people have found the messaging capability very helpful, and the addition of rich messaging in late 2020 was great.
- The ability to fax has been helpful in specific circumstances.
- 8x8 really struggles with ring groups. Usually they work, but too often they exhibit odd behavior that support is unable to resolve.
- Support is mediocre at best. Opening a ticket is straightforward, but response time is unacceptable (usually about 24 hours). Response is often from someone with poor English who clearly hasn't read and understood the ticket. Often they don't have a solution anyway and suggest deleting and recreating the object. It's 50/50 whether that resolves an issue.
- Do you need a few extra numbers to accommodate future growth? They are ridiculously priced at $1/month each. Most carriers charge a few bucks for 20.
- Programming some functionality that should be straightforward has to be done with goofy work-arounds.
- Mobility very helpful in dealing with the pandemic.
- We don't measure ROI, but up front costs are much less than traditional pbx.
- Not a true SaaS solution - you can buy more licenses, but you can't reduce licenses during contract period. Very disappointing.
8x8 seemed to be a more established business platform than Vonage, which seemed to still be a little stuck in its consumer roots. We also checked out RingCentral which was pricier and we didn't particularly like the fact that it would have a virtual answer instead of just ringing for the caller.
Do you think 8x8 Work delivers good value for the price?
Not sure
Are you happy with 8x8 Work's feature set?
Yes
Did 8x8 Work live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of 8x8 Work go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy 8x8 Work again?
Yes