Are you overall happy with vonage/?/

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 21, 2006 Posts: 5

I have the choice of going with either Charter or Vonage. Both will cost the same, I know with Charter I won't have call forwarding and will have to dial the area code for EVERY number I call. I don't like that.
I've read thru a lil of the forums here and see mixed reviews. I see problems, but you don't hear from the people that don't have a problem.
Thanks

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 1:06 pm Post subject:

I've been with Vonage for about a year now. I'm happy.

The good:

- Unlimited calling.
- Excellent voice quality if you have a good Internet connection and the available bandwidth.
- Gobs of neat features.
- Very little downtime on the phone line or important features.
- Extremely competitive price.
- (edit): Ability to take your router with you anywhere you go, even if you move.

The bad:

- Vonage-supplied routers are feeble as routers, if you have heavy demands on your network you'll need a real router.
- State-specific 800#'s and other "intrastate" numbers like 500 numbers do not work as they should with Vonage, all toll free calls go through New Jersey for some asinine reason.
- E911 is not universal.

The ugly:

- Tech support. Enough said.

Note: I added "ability to move your adapter with you." This is a major moneysaver if you tend to move frequently, like I used to.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 1:44 pm Post subject:

Been with Vonage since July '05 and have put some heavy "mileage" on it.

I agree with most of what NateHoy says. Vonage's uptime has been superior to my landlines (Verizon & Sprint/Embarq for land lines), is cheaper, and has better sound quality than some of my land lines. The two features I use most with Vonage is SimulRing and I also carry the Voip adapter with me all over the place. It's rather nice to have my regular phone line no matter which city/country I'm in. Because of this, people don't know where I am (say, on the beach for example) and think they're reaching me at my office. Smile

Vonage supports 7,10, and 11 digit dialing.

So, what don't I like? The Voip adapters Vonage provides and tech support. The Voip adapters are cheap, and Vonage won't let you provide your own (normally) so you're stuck with whatever they give you. I think every model they've shipped out has had major problems with it before they finally sent out enough firmware updates to fix the majority of the problems. I still have a few unresolved issues with the Vonage-supplied RTP300, but Vonage's tech support has given me a few workarounds and some rather nice concessions which make it worth my while.

Don't let what I posted discourage you, 'though. Just be aware that there *might* (not WILL) be some hiccups that need to be resolved. Like I said above, it's been far more reliable and better than my landline service.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 21, 2006 Posts: 4

I wrote this letter today to Vonage. It speaks for itself as to how one person's experience has gone so far....

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Re: Notice of Cancellation, request for Return Authorization, and request for fair charges for Account # *************

Dear Vonage,

I have been attempting to cancel my service with Vonage. Please accept this letter as further notification of cancellation. My new phone service provider, Time Warner Cable, informed me today that on 4/17/06, they notified you of cancellation. However, today I received my credit card statement and see I continue to be charged for service I do not utilize. I have been charged on 4/28/06 for $30.78 and on 5/27 for $29.67.

I request direction as to how to properly return the router equipment, request that Vonage does not charge me for early termination equipment charges, and credits my account for the last two charges to my credit card.

There is no question Vonage did not deliver a worthy service to me, and that I should not be incurring all of these costs. Here are just some of my experiences with Vonage:

1) We could only get one phone jack to work in my house, and quality was inconsistent and poor at best.
2) My 4 year old laptop was rendered obsolete and consequently I had no reasonable choice but to buy a new one (resultant from DOS prompts - ip release/config, etc.) I was directed to perform these actions by Vonage's tech support, which then prohibited my ability to connect to my office network. I paid 3 different computer tech firms, and none of them could successfully troubleshoot/fix the problem. I also had Vonage tech support trying to assist on the matter. Vonage tech support informed me there were notes on my account regarding this problem.
3) Under Vonage's direction, on my cell phone time, (while trying to get a Vonage dial tone when the number transfer occurred) I was standing in the freezing rain with a screwdriver in the Bell South phone electrical box on the side of my house (part of one day's 3.5 hours of phone calls). I asked the tech support person if I might get electrocuted, and he said "I don't think so, but you might get shocked". As I described to him the myriad of wires, he then informed me his 25 minutes of tech time "was up" and he needed to transfer me. I pleaded with him not to do so, describing my long-term efforts/futility/frustration with Vonage and he HUNG UP on me! Then I took digital pictures of the internal wiring of my phone box, called tech support for the umpteenth time, waited on hold for the usual 30 to 45 minutes, got transferred two more times, got an intelligent sounding person (Mike? from New Jersey), emailed him the pictures, and went through all kinds of troubleshooting with his direction. This effort did not help in any way.
4) For every phone contact attempt, I was constantly transferred, most every phone call, to people that were often extremely difficult, if not impossible to understand (poor English pronunciation)
5) Due to reason #4 above, I then turned to the Vonage web site for help. It does not provide a means (that I can find) by which to attempt to rectify any of my pertinent matters. The emails I sent were never returned, forwarded (to my knowledge) to the proper department/person, or acknowledged.
6) By mistake (I was told), early on, I was emailed that my account had been canceled.
7) My wife and I spent days and weeks, and eventually months trying to get our Vonage service working properly. It was clear Vonage could not provide phone service to more than one phone jack in my house, nor could that line be counted upon to provide clear reception/transmission. I was left with no choice, so I have since switched service successfully, but Vonage continues to charge my credit card. I hope I will not need to dispute charges, or take further action to bring any reasonable resolution to this matter.
Cool

Total estimated time and expense damage are in the thousands of $'s.
9) When I signed up with my new phone service provider, Time Warner Cable (digital), they instructed me that I need not contact Vonage; that they would do so. Due to my poor experience with Vonage customer service, I was relieved to hear that, perhaps naively so. They were incorrect, and although they notified Vonage on 4/17/06, I just received my credit card statement and Vonage continues to charge me monthly.

I respectfully ask that I can return your equipment, have you credit my credit card for the last two charges, and to not incur any more charges. I know there is a 30 day free trial, but I worked diligently with Vonage for far longer than that, and I should not be held to that timeline.

I can be reached on my cell phone at ********** (EST).

Respectfully,

Matthew Thompson

Posts: 114 · Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 3:29 pm Post subject:

Matthew,

Bummer for you.

I've had Vonage since Sept. '04, on all phone jacks in the house. No complaints, dirt cheap compared to landline. SimuRing is something we can't live without anymore. We rarely get an outage - if we do, it's usually a Comcast issue. It passed the WAT (Wife Acceptance Test) with flying colors.

Note that if you know nothing about computers or simple phone wiring, Vonage (or any Voip) may not be for you (yet). Oh, and don't stand outside, in the rain, with a metal screwdriver, next to house wiring.

-Craig

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 21, 2006 Posts: 4

Thanks for the reply Craig. I agree, Vonage is not for everybody.
I know it has worked well for many, but I also believe it is a possible crap-shoot and that the company's track record for customer service is suspect at best.

And so no one intimates I was partly to blame for this debacle - I do know a good bit about computers, and had no idea performing an ip release/, ip config/ would, in essence, permanently disable my ability to connect to my office's network. It befuddled many "experts" as well. And once I looked into that phone box and saw the wires, I was not about to do anything to arc. In an attempt to further illustrate my Vonage experience, I was wanting to point out that Vonage tech support put me in that potentially hazardous position.

Since my prior post, I was successful in getting through to customer support and canceling my account. I was informed my credit card would be charged a $39.95 early termination fee, and "sorry", but that they would not offer any credits for anything. So I have revised my letter and will be sending it to:
Customer Care Billing Dep't
Vonage America, Inc
2147 Route 27
Edison, NJ 08817
or to billing@vonage.com

(this is where the Terms of Service instructs one to go for billing disputes)

If this does not yield results, I will consider the BBB, Attorney General, additional posts on additional sites, consumer advocates, and perhaps a post on one or two of my well visited web sites. Trashing a computer, incurring $300 in tech fees, paying $1500 for a new laptop, dropping 5 months of jack for one jack of Vonage static, buying a new multi-unit phone system, disabling my security system while eating monitoring fees for months, and NOW I have to pay an early termination fee? That does not sit well with me. Does anyone think this is about $39.95 and a month of two of service charges?

There is no performance clause in their 6 page Terms of Service, so it appears Vonage is within their rights to demand a cancellation fee.

By the way, I have seen where other people have been charged for equipment with an early cancellation, however there was no mention of this to me, nor is it in the Terms of Service I received with the equipment.

Anyone of the numerous problems I experienced could surely happen to others. Hopefully my posts will save others from experiencing some of them.

Posts: 114 · Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:22 pm Post subject:

Not to thread crap, but an ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew will not permanently disable connectivity to an office network. Assuming you're using a VPN to connect, all you need is a public IP address. If that IP address changed (due to your ISP), that's not in Vonage's control. Buying a $1500 laptop to remedy that situation is excessive.

Disconnecting wires from the phone box is a pretty simple process. Simply open the box, unscrew any wires that go into your house, wrap them up with electrical tape, and close the box. For me, about a month after cancelling Comcast phone service (not their Voip service), they came and physically removed the box from the house (without warning, freaked out the wife).

Plugging the Vonage router directly into a phone jack (after the above step) makes all the jacks in your house "live".

Buying a new multi-unit phone system appears also unnecessary (although we have one along with another separate phone).

By all means, if you feel cheated, contact all the agencies you listed. I'm not saying this is your fault, but I believe a lot of this could have been resolved here on this forum.

-Craig

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

I think part of the problem in a lot of cases is unreasonable expectations. If a new customer plugs a Vonage adapter/router into his internet service modem (cable, DSL, whatever) and it provides reliable phone service and a reliable LAN port for his computer, then Vonage has done what it has contracted to do. Expecting Vonage to troubleshoot problems with house wiring, advanced networking issues, and so forth is unreasonable. Mind you, Vonage should make that clear up front, but that's my take on it for what it's worth.

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 10, 2006 Posts: 9

What is the "but"?

I have been messing with computers and various forms of networks since 1973. 99% of problems, I can and do resolve myself. I do not use ANY Windows version, pure Linux on all 8 of my machines on my local LAN.

I have never had to "replace a laptop" for a DHCP/DNS resolution failure. Cables, yes. Ethernet cards/devices and routers, yes.

They saw you coming, dude.

Also, that is all software. NO hardware vendor warrantees software. If your HDD goes the way of Zip drives and dies, nobody is required to get your data back. Same with setting up your network. If you need it to connect to work, talk with your IT guys there.

Yes, Vonage customer care blows. But the most invaluable resource I have found is right here on this forum.

Now, to get to the main point of this thread:

The Vonage service, as pertaining to Voip, is excellent. My phones just plain work. If you were expecting the exact same thing as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS), you were way off.

Local #800, even #911 may not work. The system is in NJ, so the calls going out of there I would not expect to work. As far as #911 goes, as soon as my service started, I called. Luckily for me, it works. But I still have the local #'s posted on a sticker on my phones, plus a cell phone.

Cancelling service? I couldn't care less. I bought my PAP2 adaptor at Wal-mart. I will not return it. And I will cancel my card after sending notice to Vonage to cancel my service after a resonable amount of time (2 weeks seems good).

Cheap adaptors? Yes. Cheap routers? Yes. At least the ones Vonage provides. I like this little cheap $39USD PAP2. But it connects to my Cisco Gigabit Router. And is FIREWALLED. And I did all the wiring.

Well, good luck, all. Mine is fine. Learn about things first, then complain if it doesn't work right.

Posts: 174 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jun 12, 2006 Posts: 174

Steve48 wrote:

I think part of the problem in a lot of cases is unreasonable expectations.

Amen!