Experience after 30 days - bye bye Verizon

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: May 14, 2004 Posts: 1

I'd looked at Vonage and a couple of their competitors a while back. The service looked to be very competitive, and the features offered on par with what I was currently buying. My monthly phone bill from Verizon (local and regional calls only + taxes/fees) was generally around $60/month. Vonage service would include those calls plus 500 long distance minutes ($.039 per minute past that - less than I was paying Primus). I initially signed up for Vonage service over their web site after learning that they had established service for numbers in my area code, and that I could transfer my current home phone number to their service. I didn't get a confirmation screen back once I'd gone through the process and ended up calling their 800-number. I found out my order had not gone through, but the CSR went ahead and took my information over the phone. The process took about 15 minutes and required me to fill out a phone number transfer form and fax it (along with a copy of my phone bill) to their offices.

The phone adapter arrived about 4 business days later. Although the number transfer takes 3-4 weeks, Vonage provides a temporary phone number that you can use for calling right away. I planned on forwarding our existing number to the new number once the service was running while I was waiting for the transfer to complete. I hooked the phone adapter to the incoming cable line and within a couple minutes had a dial tone. I made a couple test calls and it seemed to be working for both inbound and outbound calls. I'll mention that the phone, network, and coax (video) lines are home run to a central wiring closet. This is getting more common in new homes (30-50% of homes built in the last 3-5 years), but otherwise has to be retrofitted. I did this at our house because I knew I wanted some centralized capabilities. This makes connecting all the phones to the broadband connection much easier, but is not required for service. Vonage has other operating paradigms that will work, though some will require buying new phones (generally wireless handsets that run off a common base unit).

While this made hooking up the service easy for me, the other tidbits I had installed made it much more difficult. My home network includes a network switch that interconnects all the Ethernet/PC connections, a wireless hub, and a hardware firewall (sonicwall). I run a couple web sites off of one of the PC's that require network access and so have access configured to allow that but prevent other unwanted visitors from causing problems. Vonage included installation instructions for networks similar to mine in their printed material, but a better match was found on their web site. The extended instructions were fairly basic; explicit for what needed to be done with one very common type of router (linksys) that was easily transferable to my situation. The majority of people would not have to go through the 'advanced' steps, and I expect that those who have this type of equipment have some idea of how to maintain it.

After testing and connecting the wiring in different configurations to see what worked best I seemed to have it going. Test calls in and out went through and I was seeing them in the call log on Vonage's web site. However, one call dropped its connection after ringing one time, and I was unable to make calls, or even get a dial tone after that. A call to technical support told me what I'd configured wouldn't work (couldn't explain how I'd made the test calls), and recommended I connect a computer directly to the phone adapter and change its IP address. I did this, and the box still didn't respond (no dial tone). Another call to technical support told me I never should have changed the IP address since the box was now not accessible at all, and could not be reset. Vonage pretty much said that I'd messed it up, and would need to get a new phone adapter, which he ordered for me. Through talking to 3 different support reps during this process, nobody was willing to say that the phone adapter just wasn't working, though the first CSR said that she thought they had problems with about 10% of the boxes they sent out (I later found out an earlier model was very problematic). Total time spent testing/debugging/installing - 4 hours … about an hour of which was me stubbornly trying to regain access to the inaccessible adapter).

A week later the replacement adapter showed up. I removed the old adapter and put the new one in its place. I made one change to the firewall configuration to assign the new adapter's identifier, and turned everything on. I had dial tone right away, and the box has been functioning since. So, the problem WAS failed hardware after all.

I had to return the other phone adapter to Vonage. They had put me on a delayed bill ($99) for the 2nd adapter which was to be removed if I returned the 1st adapter within 14 days. Their billing somehow got messed up and I was charged the $99 immediately. I called Vonage customer service and they apologized that the fee had been charged, and promised to reverse the charges to my credit card as soon as the other adapter was received. The CSR offered a free month of service for the inconvenience, which I thought was reasonable. I was also given a 1-week credit (about $6) for the week when I didn't have service because of the bad box. Though the CSR had to check on a couple things (Policies? Supervisor?), he was very courteous, helpful, and I felt did the right thing for his customer. My $99 was credited back a few days later.

About a week into service the phone stopped working. While a dial tone was provided, outbound calls wouldn't go through. Some calls also were being forwarded to Lisa's cell phone (backup in case power is out at home). I'd also noticed the day before that blocks of calls did not seem to be showing up on the web call log. I checked my internal configuration and didn't see any problems. The manual suggested rebooting everything if all else failed which I did. This recovered service. I called technical support to attempt to find out if this was going to be a regular occurrence (unacceptable) or was just a one-time glitch. I got a technical rep that told me that there had been a problem with the network that required the boxes to be rebooted so that they would download an updated version of their firmware. Having already done this, I was all set and should not experience any further problems.

Otherwise, phone service has been pretty reasonable after a couple weeks of service. We've had a couple calls that produced an echo on our end, and a couple times when a connection wasn't ever initiated (never rang) after dialing a number - hanging up and redialing again worked. On the day that our phone number was switched over we had someone say they could not get a call through. Call clarity has generally been fine - though spending a lot of time on cellular phones has undoubtedly warped my sense of a clear call. I've been proactive about calling Vonage customer service on any issue because I want to understand what issues exist with broadband telephone service for the masses vs. those that may be more of a function of my added electronics. If service stays at reasonable levels (generally as they have been not counting the outage) I would consider Vonage service a success from both a customer service and certainly a price standpoint. Again, we are paying Vonage less than half of what we were paying Verizon.

Why I hate Verizon

We moved to North Carolina about 18 months ago from Chicago. Completing a move that distance required that all our utility services be re-established. Even in August of 2002 I would have thought that a customer requiring a bundle of services would be welcomed in the downtrodden telecommunications industry. I needed to reestablish both local and long distance calling services for the new home, wanted broadband internet service, was interested in cable/video services, and was taking the opportunity to switch wireless carriers since AT&T wasn't showing me a lot of love (and I was going to move my number to a local area code anyway).

Though there was a choice of long distance carriers, Verizon was the only provider for local phone service. Broadband options were limited as well. Verizon was about the only service to my area (via DSL). Local, Long Distance, Wireless, and Broadband were all separate departments, and required separate calls to establish service. There were no service bundles available that would provide me a better price, though billing for broadband would be combined on my phone bill. I ended up going with Verizon for all these services since, even where I had a choice I expected more hassle than I thought it would be worth.

The phone service went in without any problems. The DSL line took a couple weeks since Verizon was unable to confirm that I could have service until I was physically in the house with the land line working, despite the fact that the prior owners purchased a DSL line from Verizon. I was a Dish Network customer in Chicago, and opted to take advantage of their 'Dish mover' program for video service. This committed me to a year of service, but provided a new dish and installation of all wiring and equipment at no cost to me. That installation went smoothly and without any problems.

Service Problems - After bagging AT&T and signing on with Verizon Wireless, I had problems almost immediately. First, one of the phones I purchased stopped working and had to be replaced (requiring a trip to the mall store where I got it, and spending over an hour while they attempted to determine if the phone was actually working or not). Then I found the credits I'd been promised for signing up had not been posted to my first bill. More phone calls to billing and customer service. Then the other phone stopped working … another trip to the phone store and another 90 minutes killed. The next bill came, problems again. The billing problems actually continued every month for the next six months. Each month required more time on the phone to resolve - either the issue that supposedly had been resolved earlier or something new. At one point I was given 500 anytime minutes for my trouble (were never ended up being used) but no other offers to make me happier about the trouble I was having. I repeatedly requested credits to my bill and was denied. One of the last of these cycles cut off phone service for a day because the bill had not been paid. I came to find out that although my account was on an auto-draft program (paid directly from my checking account), the system that pulled the draft didn't run over the New Years' holiday and so didn't draft payment funds until the account was 'late' - so it was automatically turned off. It took two more months to have the 'reconnect' fee credited back to my account.

At the same time, the DSL service was not much better. Though the billing was correct, service outages were rampant. Having no service at all for a day or two each month was common, and the DSL modem required rebooting almost daily. Calls to their service department resulted in various tests including one on-site visit, but no problems were ever identified/resolved that I knew about. Over time the service got better, but was never great.

Goodbye Verizon - As a result of all these problems and a characteristic lack of quality customer service from Verizon, I vowed to replace all services I was purchasing from them as soon as was reasonable. I found another long distance provider that gave better prices without having to dial extra numbers (Primus). Once my wireless phone contract was up and number portability was available in my area I moved wireless services. Of course I had to dispute with them that I had signed up for a one year contract and not two - which was finally resolved after 4 phone calls and about 2 hours of my time. We moved to a new house about a year later, and shortly after I found a cable modem deal that matched the price I was getting from Verizon. Verizon had actually cut their DSL rate from ~$50/month to about ~$35 the prior year which bought them a few more months with me. Though DSL service at the new house was fairly problem free, I wanted out. The cable modem service has very reliable. Verizon continued to bill us for the DSL line for the next 4 months - so more calls every month when the service was repeatedly 'really turned off' and more credits applied. Finally we were left with on last service - local calling - Enter Vonage. Goodbye Verizon.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 21, 2004 Posts: 13

I am starting my 4th month of service with Vonage, and I couldn't be more pleased. I find no difference in call quality, I've had no reports of people not being able to get a call through, I've never heard an echo or experienced a dropped call, the features are outstanding, and best of all the price is RIGHT.

My phone number transfer (from MCI) was painless and took about 28 days from receipt of LOA to Transfer Complete. I waited a month to initiate the transfer to make sure Vonage was right for me - wish I had made the switch immediately!

I recently purchased a new 5.8GHz phone (V-Tech) with multiple handsets that works beautifully. It does not have an answering machine, but it does have a "Message Waiting" feature which does work with the Vonage voicemail and alerts me to any messages.

I have had one instance where a call was forwarded to my cell phone (my power outage back-up). It came at a most inopportune time, because I was in Las Vegas and my cell rang at 6:30AM Vegas time (and I had just stumbled in at 5:00AM!) But this could have been a Comcast issue - not necessarily Vonage.

I also found that my caller-ID stopped working once, but by reading this forum, I learned that resetting the adaptor (read: UNPLUG the power cord for 30 seconds) solved it.

I have had the "4 blinks" happen on 3 occasions, but again, resetting the adaptor fixed it immediately.

Resetting the adaptor seems to solve everything! Very Happy

So Vonage does have it's kinks, but overall, I am one very satisfied customer! I can call my best friend in Canada any time I want at no additional charge, I can call my Swedish friends at .06 per minute, I have MORE features than I ever had with MCI, and my phone bill is under $20/month - compared to MCI's average $60.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE my new phone service? Cool

Cindy P

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Posts: 183 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: May 05, 2004 Posts: 183

My experience has been positive. Even with the fairly short outage yesterday the incoming calls were routed to our cell backup as instructed, so nothing was really lost. Anyway, quality is fantastic and yes, the price is right.

There was ONE feature, though, that I haven't seen on any other provider that sold me on Vonage: 911. I have kids and don't want to have them trying to find a cell phone if it hits the fan. Go to the phone and do what everyone says to do, hit 911. That sold me on Vonage.

Posts: 188 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Mar 07, 2004 Posts: 188

Life is good with Vonage and I look forward to it getting better. Dancing

I'm a Verizon hater too Chainsaw

My number ported in a timely manner. Customer Service has always been good to me and since I figured out how to get my DirecTivo to call out over Vonage everything is great. Of couse there are still some features that I would like to see but I am sure that they will be coming in the future (especialy since other Voips have them) Jaw Drop

Vonage has my biz.