Virginia phone service provider SunRocket suddenly closes

[2Design]

Source: virginia pilot

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Virginia-based Internet phone service provider SunRocket, which had as many as 200,000 customers nationwide, ceased operations without warning Monday.

The move by SunRocket, which offered service via voice-over-Internet protocol, or VoIP, was first reported on The New York Times Web site.

It was confirmed by Martin Pinchinson, a spokesman for Sherwood Partners LLC of Palo Alto, Calif., who said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the financial consulting company was handling SunRocket's liquidation.

A message left at SunRocket's Vienna, Va., headquarters was not immediately returned. The privately held company's Web site was still up Monday night. But SunRocket's customer service line offered callers a brief recording: "We are no longer taking customer service or sales calls. Goodbye."

SunRocket laid off almost 200 employees at its Springfield, Mo., call center Monday, The Springfield News-Leader reported. <snip>


Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DC_SUNROCKET_CLOSES_VAOL-?SITE=VANOV&SECTION=STATE

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What does anyone know about this? I have sunrocket and just paid my yearly fee in March. The phone appears to still work right now. What does this mean as far as phone numbers and when will it stop? And how do I get money back? and now what? This is my only phone service. This really sucks.

[MADem]

1. WTF is up with that voicemail!! You are the weakest link--GOODBYE!!!

I'd go get yourself a TRACPHONE just in case you run out of service.

[qanda]

2. That really stinks!

I hope you can get your money back.

[Eurobabe]

3. Thanks VERIZON!

You and your stupid patent BS, probably claimed another victim. You've already got the screws to my VoIP company, Vonage. :mad:

[liberal N proud]

5. They have done the same thing to Vonage

Vonage is still hanging on but I do not know the condition of the business.

As we use Vonage, I hope they can remain in business, it sure beats the local companies that we have dealt with.

[liberal N proud]

6. They have done the same thing to Vonage

Vonage is still hanging on but I do not know the condition of the business.

As we use Vonage, I hope they can remain in business, it sure beats the local companies that we have dealt with.

[geomon666]

4. Ah you gotta love that caring business mentality.

"We are no longer taking customer service or sales calls. Goodbye."

We closed without telling you because we care.

[lynnertic]

7. *ahem* skype has always worked and its still free.

The drag is having to turn on a computer to receive calls (computer hooks to regular phone).

I have a skype phone, which works without a computer, over any WiFi connection that is either open or that I have a pw to...

there are many more open wifi spots in california than on the east coast, by the way.

[Dirty Hippie]

8. Sunrocket sucked

The VOIP connection I had was worse than a crappy cell phone. I tried for months to get real assistance from the company but none of their "fixes" ever helped. I finally gave up in frustration and just forwarded my phone number to my cell.

I suspect they did not have the infrastructure to handle their call volume. When I pressed a Sunrocket engineer on the issue he would neither confirm or deny.

I need to look into Skype!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

9. Skype works...

like a charm. On windows and Linux. Not sure about Mac.

[clixtox]

10. Skype Does Work...

With Macs. They upgrade the Mac application often and, not surprisingly, it works like a charm. Living in Vietnam and having a Skype account makes it a breeze to stay in touch with friends everywhere and do biz when Email isn't practical.

[underpants]

13. ...

Your sig line :rofl:

[Delphinus]

11. Holy crap!

I was looking into Sunrocket for my VOIP - went with ViaTalk instead. Hope this does not portend bad things on my end too.

I hope you're able to get your money back and find a good solution to this. Makes no sense that they can just stop service.

[2Design]

12. update - called cc Chase and they are giving me prorated amt back

Found this forum using dogpile search http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sunrocket

chase seems to be the easiest cc to get the funds back - the rest you seem to have to do copies and mailings and a bunch of extra stuff

So I am glad I had it on chase card - it was a March charge

Right now I still have phone service and need to pick something else - really do not want to go back to anything to do with regular phone companies because they charge so much

I have enjoyed having the two numbers and now will be investigating other companies

[Kokopelli420]

14. You gotta be kidding me!

As if I wasn't having a shitty month already, now my phone's gonna die any minute. I seem to still have a dial tone, but no voice mail.

For the record, my phone service with Sun Rocket was usually good. The only problem I had with call quality was when I was downloading files at the same time. That's probably more the cable company's fault than it was SunRocket's, as I don't believe they have ever given me the full 8 megabits/second or whatever it is they're claiming now in their commercials.

[2Design]

15. Sunrocket member for 18 months and no real problems until this

My phone is sill working too - I had seen this late last night on virginia pilot other than that it is not in the news
From doing a search I found the forum - We have until Friday when they do a recycle/reload of servers
some have already lost service and others are running

I called Chase and they pro rated me a refund for unpaid amount on my 15 months

I am not comtemplating who to go with next
although some say skype is free - I see a lot of extra charges for incoming, how many , what features are nickel and dimed

I liked my two numbers in sunrocket.

It is too bad they died

[DotGone]

16. So nice of them NOT to notify their customers

Now I have to scramble to port my number to another service before it gets shoveled back to the CLEC.