Marco Arment

most of the time they're busy they don't have time to answer the phone and they don't take reservations anyway so there's not a lot of reasons people could be calling and doing something on the phone so the staff was like could we please have like one of those messages when you call saying you know hi thanks for calling we don't take reservations here's our hours you know then if you if you want to talk to somebody press one or something like that to just deflect a lot of the most common calls because literally almost every call comes in it's sorry we don't take reservations like it's almost every call

most of the time they're busy they don't have time to answer the phone and they don't take reservations anyway so there's not a lot of reasons people could be calling and doing something on the phone so the staff was like could we please have like one of those messages when you call saying you know hi thanks for calling we don't take reservations here's our hours you know then if you if you want to talk to somebody press one or something like that to just deflect a lot of the most common calls because literally almost every call comes in it's sorry we don't take reservations like it's almost every call

So I'm like, all right, I can do that. Like, there's a thousand services that offer, you know, that kind of thing these days. Well, the VoIP industry has grown a lot since Vonage in 2005-ish. So I looked around and I'm like, all right, well, and they have just like a regular wired phone behind the bar and then one in the back office. This is very, very simple needs. We don't need extensions.

So I'm like, all right, I can do that. Like, there's a thousand services that offer, you know, that kind of thing these days. Well, the VoIP industry has grown a lot since Vonage in 2005-ish. So I looked around and I'm like, all right, well, and they have just like a regular wired phone behind the bar and then one in the back office. This is very, very simple needs. We don't need extensions.

We don't need a big menu. We just need something that can pick up and give a pre-recorded message and then ring the phones. This should be very, very simple. So I ask my friend Chatty G to give me some VoIP recommendations.

We don't need a big menu. We just need something that can pick up and give a pre-recorded message and then ring the phones. This should be very, very simple. So I ask my friend Chatty G to give me some VoIP recommendations.

Well, and in this case, I asked for what are the big providers because I don't want to pick wrong. And this is an industry that I have not been following for the last 20 years. I don't know what's good and what's not. Frankly, I don't really care about most of the features that it would offer because if you're buying like a VoIP platform for either your home – or for an office full of people.

Well, and in this case, I asked for what are the big providers because I don't want to pick wrong. And this is an industry that I have not been following for the last 20 years. I don't know what's good and what's not. Frankly, I don't really care about most of the features that it would offer because if you're buying like a VoIP platform for either your home – or for an office full of people.

Those are going to be very different needs, and both of those are going to have needs and features that I don't have and possibly not cover needs that I do have. So I just did some strategy research, and I ended up with a service. I'm not going to name it because I don't want to slag them, but I ended up with one of the big services. So I sign up.

Those are going to be very different needs, and both of those are going to have needs and features that I don't have and possibly not cover needs that I do have. So I just did some strategy research, and I ended up with a service. I'm not going to name it because I don't want to slag them, but I ended up with one of the big services. So I sign up.

I buy the – because, again, there's already a phone there, and it's like an old-style phone. They want to keep it. So I'm like, all right. So I get one of those boxes that apparently is called an ATA, an analog telephone adapter, which is basically what a Vonage used to be. Just network in, phone jack out. And I got like a regular Cisco one of these. It's like the one everyone buys from Cisco.

I buy the – because, again, there's already a phone there, and it's like an old-style phone. They want to keep it. So I'm like, all right. So I get one of those boxes that apparently is called an ATA, an analog telephone adapter, which is basically what a Vonage used to be. Just network in, phone jack out. And I got like a regular Cisco one of these. It's like the one everyone buys from Cisco.

I think the 192, something like that. It's like the super common basic VoIP ATA box. And so I got that and I tried to set it up with the service, which officially supports this box. And it took me an entire night of just banging my head against the wall. Factory resets, reconfiguring, automatic configuration, manual configuration.

I think the 192, something like that. It's like the super common basic VoIP ATA box. And so I got that and I tried to set it up with the service, which officially supports this box. And it took me an entire night of just banging my head against the wall. Factory resets, reconfiguring, automatic configuration, manual configuration.

Nothing I did could possibly get this thing to work with the service. And it was so unbelievably complicated. And let me tell you, Cisco, oh my god. So one of the things I thought was, let me try making sure the Cisco thing has the latest firmware. To download firmware updates for a basic $100 device that Cisco sells, you have to sign up for a Cisco login. Okay, how hard could it be?

Nothing I did could possibly get this thing to work with the service. And it was so unbelievably complicated. And let me tell you, Cisco, oh my god. So one of the things I thought was, let me try making sure the Cisco thing has the latest firmware. To download firmware updates for a basic $100 device that Cisco sells, you have to sign up for a Cisco login. Okay, how hard could it be?

You have to give them everything. Your EIN, your address, everything. And I finally get through their stupid process, and then my account is blocked for a compliance hold. A brand new account. And I'm like, there is never a moment that I was more happy to be a Ubiquiti user than when I'm trying to get the most simple, stupid thing from Cisco...

You have to give them everything. Your EIN, your address, everything. And I finally get through their stupid process, and then my account is blocked for a compliance hold. A brand new account. And I'm like, there is never a moment that I was more happy to be a Ubiquiti user than when I'm trying to get the most simple, stupid thing from Cisco...

It took them like 24 hours to undo the compliance hold on my brand new account, which I used solely to try to download a stupid firmware update for their stupid VoIP ATA box.

It took them like 24 hours to undo the compliance hold on my brand new account, which I used solely to try to download a stupid firmware update for their stupid VoIP ATA box.