My thoughts about Vonage.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 23, 2006 Posts: 1

Just wanted to post my thoughts about Vonage.

First I started to use Skype I even bought a Linksys handset device, I started to make calls and it was patchy and I didn’t like the fact it was pay as you go. I was also really disappointed when I found out they were effectively stealing some of my upload speed just for leaving Skype open. I wanted a landline replacement and the fact 999 calls didn’t work was also disappointing.

I saw a Vonage add on the London Underground Central line and rang up a while ago and spoke to a lovely Indian sounding gentleman who couldn’t do enough to help me and tell me all about Vonage, he said if I called back then I would get the set up for free and receive my service at a discount for 6 months.

I left it two weeks and rang back to place my order, this time I spoke to an Indian sounding lady who had a bit of trouble understanding me due to the patchiness of the call (I was using Skype) we both hung in there and after 30 mins I had an account all set up.

The lady I spoke to told me to wait a bit until logging into the account but being the eager beaver I am I tried it as soon as I hung up, it worked! I had a look around at all the controls and was most impressed.

That night I got an email saying my Dlink device had been dispatched the next day at about 10.30 there was a citylink delivery man asking me to sign for my parcel.

I unwrapped my new toy and plugged it into my router, I was expecting to have to do a bit of manual work on it but as soon as I plugged it in the power adapter did its 1 flash 2 flash etc and then there was a dial tone.

I tried to call the number and it worked first time. I called my girlfriends landline and she didn’t even notice I was on VoIP.

This line was for my parents and since then I have ordered my own line everything went as smoothly apart from one problem, the sound on my line was apparently really quite for the people I was calling.

I rang up Vonage tech support and after a 2 min wait in line I spoke to man named Jason he couldn’t do enough to help me. He even offered to call me back twice to make sure it was all working!

He fixed my problem in no time at all and was extremely friendly

I am so impressed with Vonage and would recommend it to anyone Very Happy

I hope I posted this in the right place
Smile

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 07, 2006 Posts: 6

I'm also new to Vonage and I have found it to be a superb service and packed with great features.

And I can prove this by a good comparison with my former provider BT?

I spent last 5 days last week with BT Broadband voice - What a disaster!

First Problem; The numbers they give you don't resemble anything like a local dialling code.
Solution - Pick your own local dialling code at Vonage

Second Problem; I couldn't recieve incoming calls from anyone on the Orange network therfore excluding 3 million people from the service
Solution - no problem with the Vonage numbers

Problem three ; BT Answer - what a joke!
Solution - Fantastic personalised and controlled system

Problem four : No remote control and few personalised control options
Solution - I have almost total control of the service.

Problem five : 46 minutes waiting for Technical Support (I put the phone down after that)
Solution - Super quick technical support.

Day 5 cancelled BT - Day 6 signed up with Vonage Job Done!!

I cannot believe how smoothly the Vonage set up has been.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 23, 2006 Posts: 3

I like the service, the ONLY disadvantage is not being able to use it when my isp goes down or my modem isn't working properly and if the power goes out.

Though I was unhappy about not being able to use my 2 house phones on the one adapter. Upon reading the specs on the DLink VTA, I thought that I would be able to use both my phones, but I cannot. Though it is cheap to get a 2nd line.

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 30, 2006 Posts: 8

Well I respect your opinions however my opinion is totally different. I guess you haven't had the pleasure fo Customer Services yet?

I was a former freetalk customer who wasn't really given too much of a choice as to what to do with my service and since that date vonage does not match up in any way shape of form with the old freetalk service.

I received an email telling me of the changeover and that I moved to vonage or got left with nothing! I RELUCTANTLY decided that I would move to Vonage as I wanted some sort of service. I am based in both the UK and Malta so being able to have a UK number no matter where I was is a real plus.

I was an annual customer and my first concern was that all annual customers where not getting the free month that all month by month customers where getting. After much arguing and heated debate they finally reluctantly offered me an extra month.

I was in Malta when the enforced change happened and I was told I needed a new box which I wouldn't be able to have shipped here so I missed one month of service which they didn't really care about.

Now to add insult to injury they have charged to my account for this month as the credit hasn't been applied. Talking to customer care is like talking to yoiurself as they really don't care. I asked for the supervisor who I was rude to be he was even more rude back. Now i don't condone my rudeness to him but the customer is always right. They have given me a credit to my account meaning that I have to stay with the jokers another month to get this back!!!!!!

I asked to speak to the supervisors manager but no one is there as all their offices are in America and are shut until 1.30pm gmt which I find astounding as how can they operate within the UK this way????

I then asked if I could cancel my account and I can't even do that until after 1.30pm.

I would personally recommend everyone to stay away from this quite frankly poor service as it isn't worth the hassle and couple that with the fact that I have to pay more when my 12 months runs out per month than I had to with freetalk and I wonder why I didn't just let my other months go........

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 07, 2006 Posts: 1

Vonage UK charges 23.99 if you disconnect your VPhone serviec during the Guaranteed money back period as a caution deposit. I would not deal with them. It is against Advertising Standards and Terms and conditions of service. Lousy customer care and service

Posts: 30 · Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:18 am Post subject: Re: Me too

Aerynsage wrote:

I like the service, the ONLY disadvantage is not being able to use it when my isp goes down or my modem isn't working properly and if the power goes out.

Though I was unhappy about not being able to use my 2 house phones on the one adapter. Upon reading the specs on the DLink VTA, I thought that I would be able to use both my phones, but I cannot. Though it is cheap to get a 2nd line.

Just a suggestion: How about using a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) device? You can plug the modem and the vonage device to the UPS... even if the UPS is good only for a short period of time (really short), at least if it's just power fluctuations, your internet (and your phone) connection's continuous.

For the phone problem: How about getting a wireless phone with multiple handsets: base pluged into the phone adapter, then the other phones can rest anywhere in the house... also, you can get a splitter so that the number can branch off to two-three phones in the house.

Posts: 81 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 81

Quote:

Aerynsage wrote:
I like the service, the ONLY disadvantage is not being able to use it when my isp goes down or my modem isn't working properly and if the power goes out.

Though I was unhappy about not being able to use my 2 house phones on the one adapter. Upon reading the specs on the DLink VTA, I thought that I would be able to use both my phones, but I cannot. Though it is cheap to get a 2nd line.

Just a suggestion: How about using a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) device? You can plug the modem and the vonage device to the UPS... even if the UPS is good only for a short period of time (really short), at least if it's just power fluctuations, your internet (and your phone) connection's continuous.

For the phone problem: How about getting a wireless phone with multiple handsets: base pluged into the phone adapter, then the other phones can rest anywhere in the house... also, you can get a splitter so that the number can branch off to two-three phones in the house.

I have a UPS for my cable modem and both my Vonage adapters (I have 3 lines.) I have also hooked the base to my multi handset cordless (Uniden 2 line) to the UPS. This past summer we had a 40 minute power outage during a bad storm and my service remained up and available. But we had another outage this fall that was wider spread and this time took down the power to a cable node so my cable modem was down dispite my having backup power.

Legacy telco's have backup power in their nodes, most cable TV companies do not.