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Vonage Well, to be fair, the author didn't try to say that anyone was eating their lunch
Well, to be fair, the author didn't try to say that anyone was eating their lunch *today*, he said they are going to in the future. I posted the article link without any comments myself, and am interested in the discussion it generates, both pro and con here. I tend to agree with at least some of what the author says though, and additionally, I've come to believe that there's another HUGE reason that they'll likely eat Vonage's lunch in the future, and that's because Vonage's customer service is *so* completely abysmal, that it appears they have nothing but contempt for their existing customer base.
Over the last 6-9 months, I've gone (quite reluctantly) from a huge (and enthusiastic) Vonage supporter, to lukewarm, to the point I'm at today - which is I'd never recommend Vonage to another friend or family member, and as soon as there is a viable, reliable alternative there who cares about the customer and actually has REAL customer service, I'll likely be gone from Vonage, never to return. I'm sure my experience is far from unique, and I'm afraid that's a huge reason why there's a very good chance Vonage will fail, at least in my opinion.
I started having a significant problem with my Vonage lines about 2 months ago, and its not fixed today. In the meantime I've spent at least 20 hours on the phone with Vonage, of which at least 50% is hold time. They NEVER follow through on commitments to call me back, have openly lied to me at least a couple times during the process, have continued to charge my account for things they promised not to charge it for, etc etc etc.
*IF* your Vonage service is working flawlessly, then life is good. God forbid you ever have a problem though, because if you do, you're basically screwed. Customer service is atrocious, and the attitude that comes across clearly is that corporately, they just don't care!
The more that word gets out about the atrocious service, the worse shape they'll be in. Its much more difficult to repair an awful reputation than it is to acquire one in the first place. ISP (or other) competitors don't have to match or beat Vonage's price to begin to eat their customer base. They only have to provide a superior product at a price not too much above Vonage, and still a lot cheaper than the POTS lines they're replacing. To me, spending an extra $10/month for my personal line would be a no-brainer decision for reliable service with good support. $10/month isn't a *huge* deal for many, particularly in tradeoff for much better service levels, but to a VoIP provider, that would provide a revenue stream per client fully 40% greater than Vonage gets, which would be huge. $120 extra per year for my line, divided by the 20 hours I currently have had to spend on this current problem (and its NOT solved yet!) works out to $6/hr, and trust me, my time is worth a WHOLE lot more than that.
there is nothing in their technology that larger providers can't already do, and do more cheaply
Stephen, with all due respect, I strongly disagree with your statement that its ignorant of the author and negates anything he says. First, MY ISP is a cable provider, and has NO legacy POTS network. Second, even for the incumbent phone company, a VoIP service is a new service offering, very likely a totally new P&L center, and will stand or fail on its own, regardless of what costs are involved with a completely different P&L - the legacy POTS offering. Besides, unless you're trying to argue that the existing carriers are actually at or near the point of running their existing POTS infrastructure at a (current cash flow) loss, then those operations are an asset to help fund new offerings like VoIP. Will VoIP offerings eat into their POTS base? Sure, just like Vonage eats into their POTS base. But there's a saying I've heard many times over decades in the business world, and its a statement that good companies don't forget - its MUCH better to obsolete your own product than to wait and let someone else do it for you.
Read The Full Thread: Analysis: ISPs Are Going To Eat Vonage''s Lunch
• http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1981807,00.asp
• Thats very interesting! My cable company (Insight Communications) is coming
• How can a Voip provider leach off a high speed access that I paid for.
It is a
• maryjane what does your cable companys VoIP bandwidth use? Does it have a bandwidth
• I don't use it so I don't know.
• The cable co's VoIP usually uses a different data channel on the integrated modem/VoIP
• Well, same cable but different RF channel so the data traffic is separate, not
• A comment on the subject of this thread. ISPs don't have a huge price advantage
• This statement alone negates any valid points the author makes. It is ignorant
DallasFlier posted "Well, to be fair, the author didn't try to say that anyone was eating their lunch" on 06/28/2006 |
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