RingCentral Business VoIP Review
RingCentral Business VoIP Review
Introduction to RingCentral Business VoIP
RingCentral is a publicly traded VoIP telephone company based in Belmont California, which was incorporated in 2013. RingCentral has grown substantially since then. According to their website, RingCentral is currently serving 350,000 clients worldwide. The company's focus is Business Voice Over IP (hosted PBX) service and teleconferencing. The company's full featured services sold for a monthly payment of 74.99 for one user (when paid monthly). It also offers a limited plan called essential, which has a monthly price of 44.99 a month for a single user when paid monthly.
RingCentral Business Pros
- Above average voice quality (untested; as per web comments)
- Offers Secure Audio Communications using SRTP/TLS
- Supports desktop VoIP devices
- Allows Bring Your Own Device BYOD
- Conferencing and call screening feature
- Text messaging supported
- Mobile app is included
RingCentral Business Cons
- Overpriced
- Very complicated and non-transparent pricing
- Does not offer Secure Audio Communications ZRTP
- Internet fax is offered with the $54.99 a month plan and higher
- Auto attendant is offered with the $54.99 a month plan or higher
- Call logs report is offered with the $54.99 a month plan or higher
- Most differentiating features are only included in $59.99 a month and higher
- High upfront hardware costs
- Does not accept PayPal
- Not fully prepaid
- No dedicated account manager
- Non-existent or limited donations to community-based organizations
RingCentral Business Pricing
The starting price for RingCentral’s business VoIP Service is 44.99 Canadian dollars when paying monthly and for one user. It has an unclear an multi tier pricing, and the $44.99 does not come with automated attendant an online fax.
In our opinion, it is much over the market average for what is provided. The pricing is also very confusing. For example, by just taking a quick look at their pricing page, consumers may notice that their pricing is lower than what we have wrote here. The reason is that the pricing chart automatically gives us a pricing for 2 or more users and add a discount that is only available when 12 months is prepaid.
RingCentral Business Billing
Nowadays, most providers do not accept PayPal. However, in our opinion PayPal gives more power to the consumer by allowing an option to cancel their service at anytime and without worrying about future charges. Of course, and as you may already know, most service providers do not like this idea when they have cancellation charges and other fees. PayPal additionally offers credit card protection, so consumers will not have to worry that their credit card information being accessed and used illegally. Not to mention you do not need to own a credit card to use PayPal. Sadly, RingCentral is one of those companies which doesn't take payment via PayPal and thus requires you to pay using a credit card. Moreover, the company does not accept cheques, which can make it difficult for some business owners.
The fact that RingCentral is not a fully prepaid service means that may end up with hidden charges as per outside the plan usage such as making International calls. Especially, when looking into RingCentral's International Calling Rates, we can see that they are not very competitive, so caution is advised.
RingCentral Business Terms
Terms of the service is highly important because it prepares you for the worst-case scenario, and protects the providers from potential losses, unfair competition and fraud. Providers have the right to charge you the fees and fines written in their terms and conditions, or simply disconnect/suspend your service. They can also waive those fees allowing them to provide a better customer service when appropriate. How strict a service provider is going to be in exercising these terms depends on many factors. In short, always familiarize yourself with the terms and policies of your potential service provider. However you should never let it be the only factor in making your decision.
Money Back Guarantee
RingCentral offers a free trial and they have a 30-day money back guarantee period for phones. To be eligible for a refund and cancellation of your service, you must return their phones within 21 days of trial cancellation. You'll also need to pay for the return shipping. In the event that you do not return their VoIP phones in 21 days, you'll not receive a refund, as the sales become final according to their website. Keep in mind that the money back guarantee applies to 2 desktop phones and 5 users.
Cancellation Policy
If you decide to cancel your account after the first 30 days, your phone purchase price will not be refunded according to their website, but we did not find any sign of cancellation or disconnection fee. While RingCentral indicates on their Terms of Service that they will even make a pro-rata refund of any prepaid and unused fees, we strongly suggest double checking with them before signing up.
Fair Usage Policy and Limitation
RingCentral’s unlimited calling is not limited to a specific number of minutes according to their Acceptable Use Policy rather, it warns about excessive use, which leaves the minutes it to their discretion. We were not able to find out if they limit calls to the Northern Territories and Yukon, so you may wish to check with them.
Warranty on Hardware
According to RingCentral’s or its partner Westcon Group, Inc.'s Terms of Service, the company is not liable to repair or replace your device should it become defective. The phones warranty is limited to manufacturer warranty, but RingCentral may issue a shipping label and handle the logistics. It is not mentioned whether the shipping fee will be reflected into customers’ bill or not.
Support and Training
Support
RingCentral has a well-prepared Customer Care Center from which you can find the answer to just about any question by performing a simple search. The company does provide 24/7 customer support via telephone and online chat to customers. They are reachable 24 hours a day on weekdays and weekends. However, it is our understanding that RingCentral does not connect its clients to their dedicated business account managers.
Training
You can find a vast amount of information on RingCentral's Knowledge Base and F.A.Q section as well as several video tutorials on how to use your account. Although we'd hardly call it a one on one training you will find their telephone support handy especially when you're unable to find the information needed on their website.
Essential Small Business Features
- e-911 ✓
- Number Portability ✓
- Call Display ✓
- Fax Line ✓ (some plans)
- Conference Line ✓ (some plans)
- Call forwarding ✓
- Call Waiting ✓
- Call Screening ✗
- Call Transfer ✓
- Call Block ✓
- Call Hold✓
- 3-way calling ✓
- Voicemail Transcription ✓
- Online Account ✓
- Bring Your Own Device ✓
Applications & Integrations
Applications: RingCentral has smart phone application for both iOS (Apple) and Android (Google) operating systems. The good news is that RingCentral does not charge extra for its mobile app and included in their plans.
Integrations: RingCentral integrates with third-party applications like Salesforce.com®, Zendesk® and Desk.com™
Reliability, Security, and Voice Quality
Reliability: A few hours of outage may not be consequential for a home phone user, however for a business user a Service Level Agreement is a necessity. Unfortunately, we could not find any information related to any compensation for outages or a percentage guarantee for service availability. We can only hope that such a large service provider like RingCentral has a dedicated outage and disaster recovery plan in place.
Security: RingCental provides lots of information on their website on how they protect clients’ data. What know currently (at the time we write this review) RingCental has implemented Secure RTP (SRTP) and TLS which means the communication via RingCental servers and its clients can be encrypted with the right hardware. There is no information on whether they use Virtual Private Servers (VPN) to secure the communication. We can say that RingCental is more secure than a traditional VoIP phone service. It is not clear whether RingCental uses Canadian servers or American servers for the Canadian market. Thus, it might become a problem for some businesses within health industry as well as law-firms who are required by Canadian law to protect their patient/client sensitive information. RingCental says that it does have some fraud detection systems in place to protect its clients from being overcharged for expensive destinations.
Voice Quality: We have not tested RingCentral’s voice quality; however, judging from the reviews we've read online, we can only conclude that most people using their service are happy with the voice quality.
Interaction with Clients
We found that the chat representatives are quite impolite and not well-trained or capable of providing basic information that are readily available on their website. When we contacted their Customer Service via telephone, the agent was more focused on making a sale rather than answering our question on what makes them different from other VoIP service providers and why we should choose RingCentral.
Corporate Culture, Social Responsibility & Contribution to Society
One of the most important issues we tend to look at closely in social responsibilities is the employees’ happiness. Employees’ happiness affects both customer service and the public. From what we read on Glassdoor, RingCentral pays a low salary, and there is a high pressure on employees. In contrast, there are many good reviews in regards to their corporate culture. RingCentral receives a 4.4 out of 5 from its Canadian Employees on Glassdoor.
We could not find evidence of donations to charity or records of community support for RingCentral in Canada and as such can only wonder whether the company hires Canadians suffering from some form of physical or mental challenges.
Mystery Shopping is a much costlier than just buying a service from the provider. We need to ensure that the provider cannot guess that the shopper is VoIP Canada otherwise they'll likely provide a better service than received by the average customer. If you wish to help us to perform a Mystery Shopping from RingCentral Business please consider a donation.
Mystery Shopper’s Happiness
Bottom Line
RingCentral is an overpriced VoIP company, and if you are looking for a simple and reliable VoIP service within a small-business budget, it might not be the best choice for you. There are other VoIP companies out there that can provide you with very similar features and for one-third of their price.
Be the first to leave a review.
Disclaimer: While we do our best to provide you with the most accurate information, we may have missed some information, made errors, or the provider may have simply updated its service, features, pricing, or terms and conditions. Unlike some review websites, we have no intention of blackmailing businesses with our media power or change reviews in exchange for advertising fees. All readers and providers are always welcome to correct us and keep us updated of any changes by contacting us. Our goal is to provide our readers with fair and honest VoIP Providers’ reviews, and your comments will help us to achieve this goal. You should not make your purchase decisions based on the information on this page, and you should always contact the providers directly.
