Comcast vonage dispute

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:40 am Post subject:

wburb:3.4 is a pretty low/marginal score on TestMyVoIP..... since that test site isn't run by Vonage, your problem lies with Comcast and you're going to have to go through them to get satisfactory results with Voip from any provider until you can get your connection up to 'snuff. Call up Comcast tech support (I know, the thought is painful) and tell them you're experiencing high latency and packet discards.

When Vonage says there isn't anything they can do to help you on this, sadly, they're right -- the problem is Comcast in this case.

UMP25: I wish I could get away with that excuse, but it's pretty much a monopoly in the area I use Comcrap. It's either Sprint's DSL package (1.5M/384kbps) for $42 or Comcrap for $45 and Comcrap knows it. I'll certainly give it a shot. Won't hurt to try.

Posts: 276 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Feb 09, 2006 Posts: 276

That wasn't my quote. Somebody else said that, not me.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:51 am Post subject:

VonageTPA wrote:

it's pretty much a monopoly in the area I use Comcrap. It's either Sprint's DSL package (1.5M/384kbps) for $42 or Comcrap for $45 and Comcrap knows it. I'll certainly give it a shot. Won't hurt to try.

This is a monopoly?

In my area, it's SusCom ($45 a month, 3mb down, 256k up), or dialup.

There's a WISP that is in the general area, but far enough away that I'd have to do some serious work with towers and homemade cantennas or an old sat dish to get a signal, and I doubt Vonage would work well over it with the kind of signal I'd be likely to get.

Fortunately, SusCom has been GREAT. 100% uptime since August when I had service installed, and an installer who insisted on running a separate line for the cable modem and spent an hour working out different filters to get the signal EXACTLY pegged in the middle of the "ideal" ranges.

Comcast is completing a buyout of them in a few more months. I only hope they can to half as well as SusCom.

Posts: 277 · Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:13 am Post subject:

NateHoy wrote:

Comcast is completing a buyout of them in a few more months. I only hope they can to half as well as SusCom.

Nate, take it for what its worth, but my guess is you'll be just fine after the Comcast buyout. Comcast is made up of lots of acquisitions over the last few years, and the performance & reliability, and therefore the opinions of them, seem to me to be very regionally different, and therefore my guess its a function of the infrastructure AND people they bought in each of the acquisitions. My experience with Comcast since they bought the AT&T broadband operation here in the Dallas area has been very similar to what you say yours is currently with SusCom. They've been VERY reliable and my speeds have gone from 1.5 to 3 to 4 to 6 Mb/sec over the last almost 4 years, and I'm still paying the same price - except when I call and talk them into a lower promo price for a few months!

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:29 am Post subject:

DallasFlier - That's encouraging. Thanks. Wink

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 15, 2006 Posts: 2

I live in W. Bloomfield, MI and have Vonage and Comcast. I'm having some really bad problems right now with outgoing calls. Comcast and Vonage tech support keep pointing the finger at each other and nothing has been take care of! I spend over $150 with Comcast and $30 with Vonage a month and the support is just pathetic from both. They should be ashamed of themselves!!!!

Posts: 7 · Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:53 pm Post subject:

I had the same issues, all starting last week.. No help calling either one.. UNTIL.. I called the Corp. Head offices of each. I had a person from each of their Exec. Support offices contact me and actually work with the problem. These people have a clue, and care (the Comcast person is doing a better job though)! I even had them on a conference call working together.. The issue is not resolved yet, but Comcast has been here with an outside line tech and inside installer Monday, Tues and they are on their way over here now.. We are hoping to have my issues resolved today!! Here are the numbers I called, you will probably get an Executive Secretary, just complain to them and they will get a ticket to the right people.. Best thing is that I now have a direct number and/or e-mail to these people and can get updated and offer suggestions w/o waiting in a "Q" and then talking to someone outside of the good old USA! Just about 2 weeks into it all I am on my way to a solution… Hopefully!

Comcast:

215-665-1700 Corp Offices

Vonage:

A VP’s assistant 732-528-2650
Exec. Support 888-580-4020

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 25, 2004 Posts: 15

Same problems here. Some calls are just fine, others break up to the point that I can't hear the other party.

I spent most of monday morning dealing with this, and an hour today. The Vonage reps are friendly but have no idea what is causing this.

I emailed them a bunch of traces to vonage.com showing a router somewhere in the line acting up. I've been with Vonage for almost 2 years now, but the past 2 weeks have sucked; first they messed up my account putting my MAC address on someone elses account, my CID was wrong, incoming calls vanished and I couldn't dial out, the problem was resolved but nobody at Vonage ever bothered to let me know it was fixed. And now this Sad

Not a happy camper at the moment.

Posts: 61 · Full Forum Member Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 61

Same issues here for about a week.

I tend to think this has something to do with it....

http://wwwj.comcast.net/memberservices/modules/wide/networkhealth.jsp?areaCode=651

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 4

etavadia wrote:

I live in W. Bloomfield, MI and have Vonage and Comcast. I'm having some really bad problems right now with outgoing calls. Comcast and Vonage tech support keep pointing the finger at each other and nothing has been take care of! I spend over $150 with Comcast and $30 with Vonage a month and the support is just pathetic from both. They should be ashamed of themselves!!!!

I live in W. Bloomfield too, and have been having the same problem for a couple months. You might be interested to know I figured out a workaround for my problem: http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic10776-0-asc-10.html

Just curious, what equipment are you using?