Sum M.

First, I appreciate that TextNow provides a way to get a low cost or even free additional number. And having tried MANY other comparable services, I have to admit the horrible audio quality is standard. In more than 10 years, I have yet to use a decent VOIP phone service no matter what part of the US I've lived in or who the provider is (large cable companies or small apps).

But what make TextNow especially frustrating are two things: 1) There's no way to BULK DELETE messages. So you sit there getting rid of one junk message after another. And every single call that comes into your number is stored as a call. I think TextNow subscribers get so many junk calls because the numbers are so frequently recycled. See problem #2:2) For some reason I can't find yet, I get DOZENS of spam calls every single day. It's so bad I have to keep my device OFF because otherwise I get calls from junk callers all day long at work. Now you understand why problem #1 is so bad. To use TextNow, you have to constantly scroll to, select, delete, then--an added waste of time--CONFIRM DELETE every. Single. Junk. Call.

Oh, and the service is unreliable, to boot. I've missed multiple calls due to tech issues with the service. And callers tell me the voice mail system doesn't work. They'll call, try to leave a message, but either they're disconnected or the message won't get delivered to me.

Although free (I wouldn't buy one of those outdated, glitchy phones they sell for a paid subscription), TextNow just isn't worth it. Even if you were willing to put up with the massive waste of time fielding and deleting junk calls, your other parties can never hear you on the other end. Getting messages isn't reliable. And the constantly recirculated pool of numbers sets you up for oceans of junk calls. I give the app 2-stars instead of 1-star because, unlike many of its competitors, it at least does work on my phone. So it's a decent emergency texting service when you need to send confirmations... but don't want to use your real mobile number.

For years now whenever I try to comment favorably on a concept increasingly disliked by liberal media, I get a generic Disqus error message. But when my comment is in line with the general media sentiments, I can comment just fine. It happens far too consistently to be due to chance. I'm confident Disqus is just another social media site engaging in social engineering. Of course it fails. You can't stop people from holding the values they do or having the perceptions they have simply by silencing them on your platform.

Shame on any media site that censors polite, legal, respectful comments JUST because the theses don't give with those of the site and its supporters.

I always had problems with ExpressVPN. From the very start it would disconnect randomly every few minutes. You can see the icon in the service tray go back and forth between connected/trying to connect. And I have to disconnect whenever I'm doing something important, ironically, just so I can use the Internet at normal speeds. I've also always had trouble with ExpressVPN on my Iphone. I'll be out in public sitting in a waiting room (my dentist, my mechanic) and I won't be able to use the internet AT ALL. It doesn't matter if I try wifi or use my cellular data. And turning off ExpressVPN doesn't help. The only way I get back online is to REMOVE the ExpressVPN app from my phone. Then the internet works normally. Definitely a problem with ExpressVPN. Oh, and yes I reached out to their customer support for help. They just kept telling me the same thing over and over again. Never once were they any real help. I just had to suffer through poor connection.

But what's been happening over the last month has been the straw that's broken the camel's back. I'm with Frontier who promise no-throttling. But ever since the beginning of April 2018, whenever I use NO VPN I get around 50 MBPS. As soon as I connect ExpressVPN, the speeds always drop to between 2 MBPS and 6 MBPS. It's so bad that while I'm waiting for a single webpage to load I can get up and make myself a cup of coffee. It's so bad now that I'm not using ExpressVPN at all anymore. And I won't waste my time reaching out to them because it'll be the same crappy advice: try a different port. Or, uninstall the program and reinstall it with this code.

ExpressVPN was always bad for me, even during my trial period. But I was stupid and trusting. I thought I could find a solution with their help. But THE DAY AFTER my trial ended I contacted them and said, "I know I'm out of trial so you won't refund my money, but I've been trying unsuccessfully to solve these frequent disconnect problems." You know the ExpressVPN customer support response in the chat? "Yup." So he basically told me there's nothing I could do now that the trial was over.

I don't know if all VPNs are this bad. We had Private Internet Access a couple years ago and we also had troubles with them. I think the technology (VPNs) is just not there yet. It's not reliable. Worse, now that net neutrality is dead, I'm sure ISPs are targetting VPNs to throttle that traffic, no matter what they say. And yes, I've kept a 42-day speed test comparison log of my traffic with and without ExpressVPN. It clearly shows an unacceptable speed drop as soon as I connect to ExpressVPN. And no, it doesn't matter which server I used. I've bounced around all of the US and other outside-US servers. Same results.

Worst part is I gave this company my money and my trust and as soon as they were able to, they essentially told me to get lost.

Everyone's trying to get in on cryptocurrencies now, but this creates a fertile space for scams and even "official" company irresponsibility, poor service, and downright unethical conduct. I sent this company funds yesterday for the purchase of a currency not available on most of the other exchanges. I waited until the transfer was "confirmed" 6/6 times on blockcypher AND had logged 55 confirmations on the blockchain. My wallet has and still says the funds were sent. I've checked and checked again their address (which I copy and pasted) to which I sent the funds & it is the address (and exact amount) Changelly asked for the exchange. I nevertheless got a "failed transaction" message within minutes of my sending the funds to Changelly. I had to wait a day to hear back from them that my ticket has been sent on to their technical team for review. In the meantime, I've lost the use of my money that should be working for me. I will NEVER do business with this company again AND will be telling all my colleagues, friends, and family about how easy it is to lose your money with this unregulated exchange.

Many of us want to be out from under the absurdly controlling thumbs of the big banks, but NOT if it means these tiny companies can set up shop overnight with NO REGULATION and can make their own decisions about how--or IF--to address money loss problems.

Ever since importing WhatsApp to my new iPhone, I can't get in touch with any of my contacts. I granted WhatsApp access to my phone's contacts, and I can clearly see my contacts in my phone's contacts database, but WhatsApp doesn't see any of my contacts. I've troubleshooted and troubleshooted this. No go. So if someone asks to be contacted ONLY through WhatsApp, my only recourse is to send them a message via my iPhone that I'm TRYING to connect with them on WA.

An absolute nightmare trying to connect with others. If you have someone's #, why can't you JUST text the person directly through WhatsApp? Why all these hoops that frustrate the experience of... a simple messaging service? Google Voice & WeChat are FAAAAAAAR easier and more direct and more reliable.