Switched to Sideline. Never looked back!
I run my own small business from home and used a desk phone. But I found more and more of my clients wanted to text me so I ended up giving them my personal number anyway. Then over time, my desk phone just started ringing less and less. I researched services that text-enable landlines but they seemed complicated and expensive. So I got Sideline so I could have a work number that could text. And I was delighted to find out how much cheaper it was that the landline I had on my desk. I still have some older clients who contact my personal number but I just started responding from my Sideline number instead and just move the conversation there. Great app.
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Great service.
A colleague told me about Sideline. Frankly, I was skeptical since I’ve used VoIP calling services in the past (Skype, Grasshopper, RingCentral, etc). With VoIP I always found call quality got iffy away from the wifi router. Since I’m constantly working from the car, I love that Sideline works with my carrier network instead. So far it’s worked exceptionally well and I haven’t had any issues. Sometimes I do forget and call or text customers from my personal line. But as my kids tell me, “that’s a user error.” It just took me a while to get used to opening Sideline for business. But I’m old school.
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This App Has the Best Features
I had this app before it was paid. Loved the features that most apps don’t have, so it operates just like a business line, plus you can choice a special ring tone, change your voice mail greeting, often & more. My issue became serious a few days ago when my new clients were not reaching me because my phone rang once & for them the same BUT it cut them off without access to voice mail. This have cost me great embarrassment and PLUS when I contacted customer service and followed the normal steps. Reinstall the app each time it got worst. I permanently deleted this app & cancelled my subscription and went to Burner app of which is a down grade because I can not access the voice mail, no special ring feature, but I’m grateful to have a working app. I’m disappointed because I still believe sideline is one of the best low cost apps with multi-features I like & appreciated. I guest I will have to upgrade to Grasshopper because I must have a custom voicemail & Burner already has a glitch which prevents me from accessing voice mail. Sideline thanks for years of great service. But when my customer are compromised, that’s just unacceptable. Perhaps this is just what happens in the app world. It’s challenging because all my business cards & social media has the number. Cheers to fixing your challenges as well!
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Response from developer
Hi there, we're so sorry to hear that your calls were cut off, and that it compromised relations with your customers. This is never what we want for our users, and if you can send us one more email at reviews@sideline.com, we can look deeper into what's going on and get your issue resolved.
Meh
My business started growing and so I thought I’d transfer the Google Voice number that I use for business and port it to something more substantial. Picked Sideline but am regretting it. I’m moving before the subscription bills me again.
I have no complaints with the app itself. Texting works fine as far as I can tell. But I have problems with calls through Sideline. First of all, the call quality is terrible. Which is funny because the very first thing that Sideline’s video on the App Store promotes is superior call quality. Pshh. Yeah right! I feel like like I’m talking to my clients on a cell phone from the late 90s. The audio on calls sound fuzzy and slightly muffled.
If it were just that, I would’ve been okay with it.
But the nail in the coffin was that there is a SERIOUS delay on phone calls when you speak. It doesn’t seem to relay to the other end or vice versa very quickly. The result is that you and the person on the other end are constantly talking over each other and then you both do that awkward pause because you think you’re being interrupted. I absolutely cannot have that when I’m trying to close deals. It’s unacceptable.
I have no complaints with the app itself. Texting works fine as far as I can tell. But I have problems with calls through Sideline. First of all, the call quality is terrible. Which is funny because the very first thing that Sideline’s video on the App Store promotes is superior call quality. Pshh. Yeah right! I feel like like I’m talking to my clients on a cell phone from the late 90s. The audio on calls sound fuzzy and slightly muffled.
If it were just that, I would’ve been okay with it.
But the nail in the coffin was that there is a SERIOUS delay on phone calls when you speak. It doesn’t seem to relay to the other end or vice versa very quickly. The result is that you and the person on the other end are constantly talking over each other and then you both do that awkward pause because you think you’re being interrupted. I absolutely cannot have that when I’m trying to close deals. It’s unacceptable.
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Stuck with it
I gave 2 stars because I actually use it. But only because I have to. A few years ago I signed up when it was still free. Things were fine for a little while and then had to pay to keep it. Not long after that I started having the issues. But I paid and the number is on my business card. So I’m stuck. I’ve talked with multiple customer service reps regarding the issues. I’ve un-installed and re-installed it which caused me to lose 2 years of worth of data. But the problem stays the same. When I open the app, I have to wait at least 5 minutes (yes I have timed it) for it to un-freeze so I can use it. If I get annoyed and close it out to the re-open it, it’ll short out and close out on me anywhere from 5-20 times before it’ll finally pull up and then I wait another 5 minutes minimum for it to unfreeze. The only way to have it instantly work is by doing a soft reset on my phone. Then that first time of opening it usually goes faster until I close out of it, because once I close out of it and then re -open I’m starting over. I used to think it was just sideline but recently I downloaded a couple others and they do it too. Not anywhere near as bad but they do. But my cards have this number so I’m stuck. Unless anyone can recommend something. But I waste a TON of time waiting to be able to use it.
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Response from developer
Hey there, we are so sorry to hear that the app has given you so much trouble in the past, and that our support wasn't able to help you out. Though, we want to be able to solve this for you. If you can send us an email at reviews@sideline.com, we'd be happy to help you out.
Issues
Has anyone else had this issue? I have had the app for over 2 yrs w no issue then all of a sudden not working correctly, I have not changed any settings or updated my iPhone to the very last version which should not have much to do w that anyway. I keep up w all sidelines updates and installed. When I am not on WiFi I pull down the screen to re fresh and the wheel keeps spinning when I try to send a text it says something went wrong and have a red explanation! Next to it or when I sometimes turn on WiFi I will see my most latest calls. There is no live phone support and only support via email or live chat and still can’t fix the issue. I have zero issue making and receive text or calls w my phone carrier.
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Very solid second line
I use this as the number folks call for IT Support and LOVE the auto text answer where I can remind people of the after hours call flow automatically.
I wish Sideline had a business hours setting on this so that I could change the voicemail greeting and the auto team text reply to trigger during closed hours and disable the auto text reply and change voicemail greeting during open hours.
This is a great app. It doesn’t crash or do anything funky. Just...SOLID. Everyone rates differently and I feel 5 stars is walk on water territory. What would make this app walk on water for me would be the hours setting so I don’t have to manually set the greetings.
I wish Sideline had a business hours setting on this so that I could change the voicemail greeting and the auto team text reply to trigger during closed hours and disable the auto text reply and change voicemail greeting during open hours.
This is a great app. It doesn’t crash or do anything funky. Just...SOLID. Everyone rates differently and I feel 5 stars is walk on water territory. What would make this app walk on water for me would be the hours setting so I don’t have to manually set the greetings.
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Still charges after you cancel your subscription
Not only is the service and customer support horrible, I'm still being charged monthly payments for services that I've discontinued... Not cool at all... Never again will I EVER do auto pay.🤦🏽♀️
Update:9/July/2019
🤨 Sad to say, this further shows the incompetence of this company. Not only are they just now responding to my complain, their not taking the time to be responsible for having charged me repeatedly by blame shifting & stating that it was in fact all Google's fault🙄🤦🏾♀️ If I could give you you all 🙅🏾♀️no ⭐️'s, trust... I so would... And to think... You actually USE to be a descent company...
Update:11/July/2019
It would appear you seem to have a plethora of excuse with reasons as to WHY you continued to charge my account after I'd discontinued services with you. And ALL of them are sadly a form of BLAME SHIFTING. I have NEVER heard of a company NOT allowing someone to be given a refund when they've CLEARLY been wronged. And every step you'd spoken of, 🤷🏽♀️ I'd sadly already done it. I'd already thoroughly read your instructions and disclaimers TWICE before having chosen the whole discontinuation process. I'm a retired vet. We are taught to do our research, homework, and to ALWAYS have a paper trail. Please do not contact me with you mess anymore or I will sadly be forced to take legal actions. As you are seriously ok m the wrong. I'd let it go months ago🤦🏽♀️ YOU SHOULD TOO
Update:9/July/2019
🤨 Sad to say, this further shows the incompetence of this company. Not only are they just now responding to my complain, their not taking the time to be responsible for having charged me repeatedly by blame shifting & stating that it was in fact all Google's fault🙄🤦🏾♀️ If I could give you you all 🙅🏾♀️no ⭐️'s, trust... I so would... And to think... You actually USE to be a descent company...
Update:11/July/2019
It would appear you seem to have a plethora of excuse with reasons as to WHY you continued to charge my account after I'd discontinued services with you. And ALL of them are sadly a form of BLAME SHIFTING. I have NEVER heard of a company NOT allowing someone to be given a refund when they've CLEARLY been wronged. And every step you'd spoken of, 🤷🏽♀️ I'd sadly already done it. I'd already thoroughly read your instructions and disclaimers TWICE before having chosen the whole discontinuation process. I'm a retired vet. We are taught to do our research, homework, and to ALWAYS have a paper trail. Please do not contact me with you mess anymore or I will sadly be forced to take legal actions. As you are seriously ok m the wrong. I'd let it go months ago🤦🏽♀️ YOU SHOULD TOO
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Response from developer
Hey Enya, we're sorry to hear that you've still had trouble with charges to your account. If you have deleted the app but not unsubscribed in your iPhone settings, charges will still continue until the subscription itself is discontinued. As for a refund, unfortunately Apple does not give us the power to offer them, and we recommend reaching out to them for a refund. Though, if you have any issues cancelling your subscription, please let us know at reviews@sideline.com.
Inbox(1)
Ok so at first there were drop call and heating issue but the quality got better and I have less drop calls. Now it’s the irritating text inbox (1) message but I don’t have a message to review!!! How can I get rid of this? This is so annoying and to constantly see the number 1 red dot circle on my phone and can’t clear it out makes we want to get rid of everything all together and I pay a yearly subscription. I’ve went over every text message since 2017 and it still didn’t clear anything. I would erase every message however I use this line for business and I may need to refer back to a text in the future. Any help with this would be great! I rated you a 3/5 because of this constant annoyance but hopefully I will be able to rate you a 5/5 if this is fixed.
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One additional feature
The app has been useful over the past couple of years. However, I feel like you guys update it every month and yet the changes you make actually never appear. Lately it's been ridiculous. It constantly shows I have a missed call or message. I have to delete a text one by one instead of just clicking on multiple threads. ONE GREAT FEATURE would be to have a search option. I have so many unnamed contacts on the list so it'd be great to just type a key word in the searchbox and it would show results based on that. $10 a month can at least get us that. I have about 43 sidelines accounts for my employees that I cover and I might just start looking somewhere else. I'm sure there are lots of businesses operating here and having an easy app with all the conveniences is crucial.
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