[bk11]

Hi august10021.

The service is 5.95 a month or 4.95 if you pay a year in advance. To learn more go to www.pagoo.com

[Low-key]

i stumbled upon this site while searching for a emerson switchboard to purchase and i'm glad i did because you gusys just save me $49.95 + tax it's very unusaul to find so many people giving such negative review to a product i now have callwave and i'm very happy with it thanks again for having this forum and for saving me $s

Low-key

[spiritjoy196]

I just got my Emerson Switchboard yesterday, and I LOVE mine. You see, I have an online business which means I keep my phone line tied up pretty often. I also have an elderly mother not in good health who needs to be able to get me on the phone immediately if necessary. We used to have two phone lines, but with all the features we needed on them, it was costing us a lot of money. So we went to one phone line. All I need the Emerson to do is let me know when I am getting a call so I can disconnect and take the call. And that's what it does. Now I never miss a call. Some people in other parts of this thread have said, "Do you really want to be interrupted while you are online?" Well, my answer is YES, I need to be interrupted if my Mom needs to reach me. Someone else said that it would be just as cheap to get a second phone line, but that's not true. For the cost of the Emerson, I could pay for one month of another phone, but then I would have the recurring cost of that phone every month. With the Emerson, I have no monthly cost at all. It does exactly what I need it to do. I am very pleased and satisfied with this product.

[brendandonhu]

Its good that it works for you, but a lot of the time it doesnt work. Or it will terminate the internet connection for some people, or only give them 5 seconds to talk.

[spiritjoy196]

Disconnecting me from the internet is exactly what I WANT it to do, so I can take the calls that come through. Besides, reconnecting only takes a second, it is no inconvenience at all compared to the benefits I am getting. Remember, I bought it so that it would alert me that there were calls. That's all I need it to do, and that's what it does. I don't EXPECT it to stay connected while I talk, I never expected that. I just expected to be alerted when someone was trying to reach me. I tried Call Wave, it was a major inconvenience. It didn't work because I didn't have call forwarding busy. So anybody who wanted to get in touch with me had to leave a message or enter some long number so it would ring through. When my Mom is calling me, I need for her to be able to get through NOW, not leave me a message for later. This works just fine for me.

[august10021]

hi low key: I'm glad you saved your money by not buying that crap. if i had come to this site before, i wouldn't have had to go through all that hassle. however, i have to say that i returned the two units (remember i only ordered one) and i was credited for both, except for the fact that at the end i lost money because they only reimburse the cost of the unit but not the shipping cost which amounted to more than $15 and add that to the shipping costs i incurred to return them (remember again i only ordered one). For me, these people are very unprofessional.


spiritjoy: does the emerson work with a cordless phone? or do you use a regular corded phone?

[ulTRAX]

My US Robotics V92 was a joke. Options to take a call were bizarre... click here... and ya got 4 seconds to pick up.... etc.

All I wanted was a auto-disconnect when calls came in.

I found that in the Creative Modem Blaster V92.

It's also got a great user interface.... voice mail, fax etc.

[august10021]

hi ultrax: sounds ok; that's all i need. can u tell me a bit about it? like... how to instal it, how much is it, is it an external modem, a special feature from the phone company needed, etc., etc.? txs a lot for any info u can provide.

[ulTRAX]

It's a PCI card though I believe there's a outboard version costing more. You need to have call waiting for the modem to disconnect. Your ISP has to support V92 for all the features to work. At this point though MSN claims to support V92 it's not been evident with either my US Robotics or Creative V92 modem. I'm just happy to get a auto-disconnect. The cost at Best Buy and Circuit City it was $40.

Originally posted by august10021:
hi ultrax: sounds ok; that's all i need. can u tell me a bit about it? like... how to instal it, how much is it, is it an external modem, a special feature from the phone company needed, etc., etc.? txs a lot for any info u can provide.

[ulTRAX]

As it turns out MSN does NOT support V92 yet... which explains why most features... modem on hold, faster downloads and uploads have not worked. But I really don't care. While I'm pissed at MSN's usual incompetence.... I'm just happy to have phone calls getting though. Just remember.... the Creative Modem Blaster allows call though. The US Robotics did not. Also the US Robotics modem required some lengthly driver downloads off the web. This was not the case with Creative which had a disc plus some neat toys like PixAround and Oosic Player.

Originally posted by ulTRAX:
Your ISP has to support V92 for all the features to work. At this point though MSN claims to support V92 it's not been evident with either my US Robotics or Creative V92 modem.

[Susannah]

I have call wave. The problem is that they keep jacking the price up. It started free the first year, then went to about 35.00, and now they want about 45.00. What's up with that??? I've been considering the purchase of an Emerson Switchboard but you guys don't seem too keen on the product. With call wave you can't answer a call, but you do see the name of the caller on the screen and hear the message. Then you have the mess of backing out of your internet connection to return the call, of course. Just thought I'd throw this price gouging by Call Wave in for your information. If anyone has a better idea, I'd love to hear it. I, too, want to keep my costs down and don't really need the expense of a DSL line.
Sue

[Low-key]

Hi Susanah if i get this right you said that you were paying $35 to $45 for callwave ? i have callwave and my only cost is the $2.74 i'm paying the phone company(pacific Bell} for call forwarding on busy. otherwise the callwave service is free. They do offer a lot of other services such as caller ID et, which i don't have. As for the Emerson Swithboard save your money, one or two negative comment is OK, but when you start seeing that many it's a red flag.

[Susannah]

Thanks for the reply. It prompted me to check with my husband to see if he had unknowingly signed us up for an up-graded service from Call Wave. Sure enough, he accidently had done just that. Call Wave made it sound like he had no choice but to take caller Id. They don't exactly post their prices and service levels. You really have to search their site, then sign in, to get that pertinent information...But, thanks to all of you, we are now back to the basic free service at Call Wave. I'll skip the Emerson as advised. Thanks again!
Sue

[Jabba the Tu]

I used CallWave's free service for about six months. I had to get call forwarding on busy, which was the CallWave number for people to leave their messages. It worked great. I was out of town for a month and get back and CallWave locked up my computer or prevented me from connecting to the internet.

I uninstalled it and reinstalled it with fresh CallWave software at least 4 times.

I've just bought an Emerson Switchboard. I should've checked the comments on it first. I've only heard bad things. How can they continue to sell it, if it doesn't work. I assumed it would be the same to the Catch-a-Call, which has had positive and negative reviews.

Heck, I may end up just paying CallWave their monthly fee. I think they were trying to get rid of their free service users.

[Deke40]

Since starting this thread back in June my puter was down for 3 months. Got back up in November and my ISP has gone to pot since then. Hopefully going to end my problems tomorrow-switching to TCI Roadrunner. At least now my wife will get off my back about tying the phone line up.