What is the explanation for the website being down?

Posts: 63

We're all having problems with the site, but is there any Vonage tech on here that can tell us what the heck is going on? This is a serious issue and no information from the company as to what is going on. Are they doing an upgrade? Is it a server problem? What is Vonage doing to correct this issue so that it dosen't happen anymore? These are questions that never seem to get answered.

And I'm sick of these Vonage apologists on here who say "what do you expect for the price you are paying." What people expect is to get what they are paying for. If Vonage is undercharging for their service, then raise your prices. This is exactly like the CLECs back when DSL first got going...nice low price, great service when it works, horrible customer support - eventual bankruptcy.

Any Vonage tech guys out there that can clue us in as to what is going on?

Posts: 83 · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:34 pm Post subject:

"what do you expect for the price you are paying."
Exactly what I was told to expect.....phone sevice,dashboard,tech support,unlimited calling,etc.....
And if they cannot deliver on what is promised then they should LOWER their prices...not raise them....I vote for a credit to everyones account for such outages.....

Let them feel the frustration...

Posts: 21 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 25, 2005 Posts: 21

I love the fact that everyone on here actually thinks Vonage gives a damn about their "customers". . . .

Warms my heart to think that YOU think they actually give a damn.

Get it thru your heads . . .THEY DON'T!

rdstoll wrote:

We're all having problems with the site, but is there any Vonage tech on here that can tell us what the heck is going on? This is a serious issue and no information from the company as to what is going on. Are they doing an upgrade? Is it a server problem? What is Vonage doing to correct this issue so that it dosen't happen anymore? These are questions that never seem to get answered.

Posts: 2257

rdstoll wrote:

And I'm sick of these Vonage apologists on here who say "what do you expect for the price you are paying."

I *do* wish Vonage would start putting outages, explanations, and ETA's (where available) on the service status pages. They are terrible at communicating issues, and the term "lack of full disclosure" doesn't begin to cover it. And I understand how frustrating it is to buy a low-cost service that has been marketed as a full-fledged service. Vonage's marketing department needs a healthy dose of reality, and needs to stop promising the moon and stars to new customers who sign up and realize it's paper cutouts on a light-bright board. Smile

I'd say their downtime has been, overall, acceptable since I joined in July. Recently, of course, it's been terrible, but I hope that's a temporary situation as they get their rears in gear after their move and after a probable influx of customers. If not, then as customers leave they'll no doubt find their servers work better without the load, though their profit margin won't work so well...

But, what you see is what you get. The service will probably improve shortly, since I doubt they are going to risk mass exodus of their customer base, and until lately they've been pretty good about keeping their web site up and running, and CS working and populated enough to prevent truly ridiculous hold times (and frequently, instant response).

Their communication and disclosure of their issues probably never will. They seem to have a culture of secrecy and sometimes even denial about problems, with a knee-jerk reaction to blaming things on customer equipment. That's not all that unusual in a technology company, nor is it all that unusual in a telecommuncations company. Combine the two with the complexity of both, and you see how transparent the "no geeks required" fallacy really is, unless you have a really good connection and are very lucky.

So, there's Vonage. Good phone, great features when they work, which most of them do most of the time, barely adequate customer service (despite the heroic efforts of a number of their support people, some of whom even post here). Many more promises than reality, but still a good deal at the end of the day, at least IMHO.

Given that many of us have been saying the same things for a long time, it's not very likely to change now. So, without apology, that's what you will get for your $25 a month. If you need more, then your local telco will gladly separate you from $60-75 a month for an equivalent service, and depending on your telco it'll probably be a good bit closer to 100% reliable. You get what you pay for. Caveat Emptor.

Of course, before leaping to another Voip company, or even another telco, you might want to visit the discussion boards run by their fans to see if they have the same problems... My experiences with both cell and landline have both had issues, too, and Voip is new enough that the rough edges haven't been ground out yet. www.broadbandreports.com has an excellent set of discussion boards and allow discussion of various Voip and traditional telco providers.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:50 pm Post subject:

PS: For comparison, here is a chart, based on user reviews, from DSLReports/BroadBandReports.

http://www.dslreports.com/gbu

Vonage doesn't fare too badly at its price point.

Posts: 63

soundsys4u wrote:

I love the fact that everyone on here actually thinks Vonage gives a damn about their "customers". . . .

Warms my heart to think that YOU think they actually give a damn.

Dickhead, this is a forum where people can get answers. We don't need twerps like you sitting in the peanut gallery shouting insults at us. Get a f-ing life, cocksmoker.

Now where are the Vonage techs that are supposed to be trolling here? When is the site going to be up? Why is it happening? What is being done to correct it?

Posts: 21 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 25, 2005 Posts: 21

Once again. . it just warms my heart to think that YOU actually think there are Vonage techs "trolling" this site and giving a damn about what you say. . .

Stupd bastard. . . the only way people here get answers is from other users. . . .and they've gotten answers by trial and error. . .

So. . (and it's MR Dickhead to YOU schmuckboy). . .if you think they give a damn. . .

THEY STILL DON'T. . .ASSWIPE

rdstoll wrote:

soundsys4u wrote:

I love the fact that everyone on here actually thinks Vonage gives a damn about their "customers". . . .

Warms my heart to think that YOU think they actually give a damn.

Dickhead, this is a forum where people can get answers. We don't need twerps like you sitting in the peanut gallery shouting insults at us. Get a f-ing life, cocksmoker.

Now where are the Vonage techs that are supposed to be trolling here? When is the site going to be up? Why is it happening? What is being done to correct it?

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 2:38 pm Post subject:

Ahh, yes... Nothing like than an internet forum to bring out the intellectual prowess of people. If you had bothered to search around of the forums, you would learn that 1) Vonage doesn't own/sponsor/manage/do anything with these forums. The forums are operated by a private individual who is unconnected to the company with the exception of being a Vonage customer. 2) There are indeed Vonage techs who do browse the forum from time to time. It's not part of their official job; they do it because they want to help and are in a position to do so. If you searched around, you would probably recognize who some of them are, but I sense you're not here because you want answers, you just want to belittle each other, which is fine, go take it somewhere else and save the rest of us time.

Posts: 2251 · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 2:42 pm Post subject:

I am not sure this can make it back on topic.

Locked,

Sad