Voicemail stutter tone issues

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 08, 2005 Posts: 10

Yeah, why doesn't the dashboard mention this? I just spent 20 minutes on hold to talk to some idiot in India.

I'm having a problem where voicemail is waiting but there is no stutter tone. This is quite annoying.

No, this isn't enough for me to cancel my service, but it's one more straw on the camel's back. Dropped calls, voicemail indicators not working, DTMF beeping during phone conversations, it all adds up.

I do not need to call Puerto Rico or Canada. Going back to the local telephone company is looking more attractive all the time. Never once in five years did I have a problem with my phone.

Sure, I'll eventually come back to Vonage or some other Voip provider. Just give them a few years to come up with a reliable system. I just don't get that warm fuzzy feeling that it's there yet.

Posts: 30 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jan 28, 2005 Posts: 30

Just for the record, I tried turning off voicemail. That doesn't solve the issue either. Thanks.

Posts: 30 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jan 28, 2005 Posts: 30

Aghh .. just re-read through .. pretty "intersting" comments.

Basically voice mail is being used because my answering machine doesn't work with the Vonage system (busy signal after the message is over). Vonage knew it was an issue and told me to us the voicemail. I have the extended phone system (1 base, 3phones) so the voicemail indicator blinks everywhere no matter what.

At any rate, the idea was that it would help Vonage's customer service if they post known issues on the portal ... that's it.

Thanks for the interest and Merry Christmas.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 4:28 pm Post subject:

Magilla wrote:

At any rate, the idea was that it would help Vonage's customer service if they post known issues on the portal ... that's it.

For the record, I agree. My biggest complaint about Vonage has nothing to do with the intermittent problems - I know that for $25 a month, I don't get perfection, and it's still a good deal even with the flaws.

But, it IS frustrating to see so many problems aknowledged here, or quoted here, and NEVER see them on the Service Announcements page. Vonage is not doing themselves a service by withholding this information, since their customers then have to call CS and tie up a rep to read off something that could have just been released in the first place.

But I just couldn't resist the opportunity for humor. Apologies. Wink

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

NateHoy wrote:

But, it IS frustrating to see so many problems aknowledged here, or quoted here, and NEVER see them on the Service Announcements page. Vonage is not doing themselves a service by withholding this information, since their customers then have to call CS and tie up a rep to read off something that could have just been released in the first place.

There it is. A lot of the frustration could be avoided if Vonage would just step up and tell the customers that it's having a problem, and act as if they were a bit sorry about it. And a defensive attitude doesn't help. We see that even here in the forum.

Posts: 1389 · Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:51 pm Post subject:

Folks, we pay for a dialtone. If there is an issue with my voicemail light blinking, I look at my bank account and realize I am not spending an extra $70-80 a month to the regular phone company.

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

Trowski wrote:

Folks, we pay for a dialtone. If there is an issue with my voicemail light blinking, I look at my bank account and realize I am not spending an extra $70-80 a month to the regular phone company.

I think we all agree that we're saving a bundle. What's more, the little problems are not enough to negate that in my mind, but Vonage doesn't advertise that we're only paying for a dial tone. The real point, though, is the frustration factor. You see it in a lot of the posts here. Some of us aren't bothered by the little problems, but it's clear that some are. Vonage needs to recognize that and address it.

Posts: 30 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jan 28, 2005 Posts: 30

Hi all, the voice mail issue seems to be fixed (took a few days).

There was a temporary solution given by tech support (think i saw it on another post too).

1. call and leave a voice mail.
2. go onto the dashboard and delete it there
3. *123 and delete the voicemail again
4. make sure to press * when exiting

The solution didn't actually work for me, but thought i'd share.

Merry Christmas.

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

It doesn't always work. The * tries to force the BYE to the router. If it doesn't work you can try multiple times. But again, what can i say.

Posts: 277 · Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2005 1:26 pm Post subject:

Trowski wrote:

Folks, we pay for a dialtone.

Trowski, with all due respect, I enjoy most of your posts here, and have found information you've shared in the past to be of good use, but that statement is just plain silly, not to mention factually incorrect.

We pay Vonage for what they advertise their service to be when we sign up. Its pretty ridiculous to attempt to defend service outages by saying "well, we don't pay for that service to begin with, we only pay for a dialtone." Sorry, flat wrong.

For the record, I agree with Nate, Steve and others here. I can live with sporadic problems like the VMI problem, but it would help a whole lot if Vonage would own up to them, and admit them on the dashboard where they *claim* they'll post info about service issues.

On the other hand, that generally mirrors the entire Vonage experience in general. The service is generally very good, especially for the money. But Vonage's customer service absolutely s***s! For the record, that's not a slight aimed at the Vonage reps who frequent the forum here - they're helpful and I'm thankful for their presence. But its well known that Vonage virtually never answers or even acknowledges support emails, isn't honest about problems on the dashboard display, frequently drops your customer service calls, and makes you wait interminably long to even get through to customer support.

I think for most of us, we've adopted a strategy of using the service and appreciating the low price, but doing everything we can do to avoid having to deal with the abominable customer service. That doesn't mean, however, that Vonage deserves a "pass" on their lousy customer service.