SunRocket disappears

STOCKTON
July 17, 2007 10:28am

We’ve finally figured out what happened to the dial tones on our phones in the newsroom – they’ve flown the coop along with the rest of the SunRocket VoIP phone service.

Bizgnus Inc., parent company of centralvalleybusinersstimes.com, has been a reasonably happy SunRocket customer for more than a year.

But on Monday afternoon, odd things began happening with our phones – unable to dial out but could get incoming calls, for example. Plus an annoying blinking red light on the SunRocket modem.

Calls and e-mails to the company failed to provide any answers.

Turns out, according to Reuters and the New York Times, the company has apparently shutdown without any warning to its 200,000-plus subscribers.

“Why the heck didn't they notify their customers? I wonder how many haven't heard the news and are wondering … [what] is going on?” asks a Colorado subscriber in an e-mail to CVBT.

Privately held SunRocket, with its cocky parrot logo, was the second-largest Voice over Internet Protocol phone company after Vonage.

We are switching to another provider, but until that happens, please use (209) 470-3400 to reach us. If you have a SunRocket story, we'd like a chance to talk with you about it.

Come to think about, perhaps an e-mail might reach us faster.

Comments on this story

Chris 7/17/07 12:18 PM (c.pommier@yahoo.com)
Yup, I'm a Sunrocket customer, too. Not only do they appear to be gone, but they just debited my credit card for the annual $200 fee and then, not more than a few days later ... disappeared. Now, how do I find important messages that are on their voicemail service? Can I port my number? Can I get my money back?

Jim 7/17/07 1:40 PM
I too am a Sunrocket customer who until today was very satisfied. I re-uped several months ago. Yesterday we had a lightning strike nearby and (now coincidentally) I thought it took out our voip box because it took out one computer. I hadn't had time to call Sunrocket about the voip thinking I could get it to work. This is a total and disturbing surprise to me.

Michael A 7/17/07 3:23 PM
The writing has been on the wall for this company in various forums throughout the web. Not much can be said for the largets voip provider as well, Vonage. Spending more to gain new customers. Time to look for alternatives like Packey8, ViaTalk or Zingotel. Make sure the new provider can port numbers over and if you're a SunRocket customer, get started right away

DN 7/17/07 9:21 PM (xindao@gmail.com)
Yes... I too am a SR customers... for like 4 months... but my phone still working, so does other features... I wonder how long it will last...

Matt 7/18/07 11:56 AM (matt@sunrocket.com)
Why did you use SunRocket in the first place? The service agreement said it's for residential communications.....

Leo B. 7/19/07 9:27 AM
"Why did you use SunRocket in the first place? The service agreement said it's for residential communications..... " Bingo! Matt's right on the money. I too used SunRocket til late last year (after 2 uneventful years) and only switched to Broadvoice due to my need of lower cost (read: unlimited) calls to overseas. Relying on a company that clearly (as far as their service agreement is concerned) for your business line is, sad to say, foolish.