I can not get Vonage to fix my dial tone.....

Posts: 423 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Oct 03, 2005 Posts: 423

Actually, a slow connection can explain it perfectly:

When you open a web page or read an email, that is momentary, TCP connection. You have sequencing, error correction and flow control. What this means is, if a packet of information is lost, it will be re-sent and the web page or email will eventually load correctly. ISP's will use this as an illustration that your internet connection is working properly, when in fact it took 20 attempts for your web browser to load the page, but you can't really tell that.

UDP packets, like that which Vonage uses, are not re-sent. there is no error correction on flow control. On a reliable network, this is actually faster, because there is less overhead. But If the packet gets dropped, or there is excessive latency, goodbye packet. This can result in choppy or dropped audio, calls being dropped, calls not even ringing in.

As far as the calls into Vonage being dropped, most likely it's because the Avaya phone setup here stinks and has been dropping calls like crazy. It's nothing the agents can control, they just tell us do your best. It is getting better though...

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 18, 2005 Posts: 11

Thank you for all the websites and CS queues. I am looking into them all.

Sorry for being frustrated, just hard to believe customer service when you need help. They were wonderful when signing up, but once a support issue comes up, nothing but problems.

Any time I have support issues I will email:dslreports@vonage.com

Fast response!

Posts: 605 · Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 8:50 pm Post subject:

How come I run that fancy BBR ping test and it says that my IP cannot be pinged? Sad

http://www.broadbandreports.com/quality/nil/1936512

Posts: 1389 · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 8:11 am Post subject:

I believe the adapter has to be set to receive annonymous requests before it can be pinged...

Posts: 143 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Dec 22, 2005 Posts: 143

geekgirl wrote:

Thank you for all the websites and CS queues. I am looking into them all.

Sorry for being frustrated, just hard to believe customer service when you need help. They were wonderful when signing up, but once a support issue comes up, nothing but problems.

Any time I have support issues I will email:dslreports@vonage.com

Fast response!

1 Let me tell you someting my friend. You must realize that we are in the middle of a move.

2. The dropped calls are being caused by the servers being moved over to the new location, and this will keep happening until all the servers are finally settled in.

3. We have over almost 800+ workers working during the day to give tech support, the que is always high with people calling.

4. The people I work with are probably the most helpful and most insightful people.

5. People need to learn to be patient and work with others. Especially agents who probably take upwards of an average 100 calls a day depending on fast they are.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 9:17 am Post subject:

Trinijoy wrote:

1 Let me tell you someting my friend. You must realize that we are in the middle of a move.

Welcome aboard. It's great to see another (presumed) Vonage rep here. The more, the merrier.

A suggestion on the whole "we're in the middle of a move" thing... You may want to suggest that this information be disclosed on the "Service Status" pages. A customer is not going to inherently know and understand that you are in the middle of a move (and, believe me, I understand your pain there).

Suggestion:
"Customers may experience delays in reaching Customer Service representatives due to the relocation of our call center, which is currently in progress. We are very sorry for the inconvenience. The move is exptected to be completed on (enter date here). We are also moving our voice mail servers, so voice mail may be intermittent from time to time. This move may also affect receipt of returned adapters, so if you are wrongly charged for an adapter, please call this special 800# for immediate handling of our mistake and a refund of the erroneous charge. Please have your tracking number handy."

The more you post on the "Service Status" page, the less your customers have to call you to find out stuff, and the lower your call volume will be. Plus, you won't have people calling CS and getting conflicting stories and posting them here, which simply generates MORE calls to CS due to the confusion.

I won't comment on the thought behind releasing a firmware update for so many adapters timed in the middle of a corporate move where support would be at minimal levels. The firmware update went extremely well, but it could have just as easily gone horribly wrong, as in the earlier 1.00.5x releases, causing a callstorm to hit you right in the middle of the move. I'm sure Vonage management had their good reasons for having to do the firmware release, and I'm sure it wasn't your decision... Smile

Posts: 143 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Dec 22, 2005 Posts: 143

Agents were releaseing the .58 firmware way too soon when it wasn't done, but there was an option too. Now the firmware .58 is being released globally and it's fixing the Caller ID problems.

IF you have ANY more ID problems it's caused by:

1. Too many phones on the line.(NO MORE THEN 5!!! Anymore then voltage signal will be too weak.) And don't ask us to increase it when you call, this will fry the phone port very easily.

2. Using a OUTLET TYPE wireless transmitter (you are sending TWO power signals one from the router and one from the OUTLET) this will cause a collision.

3. Home WIRING<---------ALWAYS TEST with a PHONE DIRECTLY ON NOTHING ELSE!!!! (To the device)

3A If you FORGOT to disconnect the HOME wiring from your your demarc point/NUI box outside, this will cause a voltage collision similar above. If it's been on the port too long you could of fried it.

AND ONLY ONE

Posts: 185 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 18, 2005 Posts: 185

Trinijoy wrote:

Agents were releaseing the .58 firmware way too soon when it wasn't done, but there was an option too. Now the firmware .58 is being released globally and it's fixing the Caller ID problems.

IF you have ANY more ID problems it's caused by:

1. Too many phones on the line.(NO MORE THEN 5!!! Anymore then voltage signal will be too weak.) And don't ask us to increase it when you call, this will fry the phone port very easily.

Not 5 phones, devices adding up to 5 REN (you can find the REN on the back of any phone). This includes answering machines and Caller ID units too. Your average phone requires 1REN, but some are more.

Trinijoy wrote:

1 Let me tell you someting my friend. You must realize that we are in the middle of a move.

Also, you could take it a little less personally when customers are stressed out about dealing with customer care, especially here. The public forums for anything are always going to be a b itching session. Customers can't possibly be expected to know about internal IT issues, and the ones who wind up here are the ones who at least have the motivation to go seeking answers for themselves, not the customers who need their hands held through the simple processes because they were too lazy to read the book, so cut them some slack. Also, its spelled "Queue."

That being said:

NateHoy wrote:

Suggestion:
"Customers may experience delays in reaching Customer Service representatives due to the relocation of our call center, which is currently in progress. We are very sorry for the inconvenience. The move is exptected to be completed on (enter date here). We are also moving our voice mail servers, so voice mail may be intermittent from time to time. This move may also affect receipt of returned adapters, so if you are wrongly charged for an adapter, please call this special 800# for immediate handling of our mistake and a refund of the erroneous charge. Please have your tracking number handy."

The more you post on the "Service Status" page, the less your customers have to call you to find out stuff, and the lower your call volume will be. Plus, you won't have people calling CS and getting conflicting stories and posting them here, which simply generates MORE calls to CS due to the confusion.

First, it wasn't the move that affected the return of adapters, it was adapters being sent to the wrong place, either by customers assuming that they should send adapters to one of the corporate addresses, or because of Care Agents telling them to, but if you send your adapter to anywhere other than DHL in Ohio, its going to delay the return process, and forget credit if you return it without an authorization number.

Second, if we can track it to one of our locations, we have no problem crediting if crediting is due if the device hasn't been checked in yet, however we need to wait 1 week from the date that we receive it, because credit is issued by an automated system on returns, and we are trying to avoid double crediting.

Third, the queues peak between 1030 AM and 3 (or so) PM (EST). if you don't want to be on hold, don't call between those hours. The care staff is all there now, however there may or may not still be equipment issues due to setup. We do get dropped calls and phone system crashes on a regular basis, so please be patient, its not the fault of the Agent on the other end of the phone.

Last, we're well aware of the spread of misinformation here on the forum and are warned about it, there's really not much we can do.