Hey! I NEVER got my fax to work on Vonage!

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 30, 2006 Posts: 5

Since there wasn't a question in the initial post, it is safe to assume the poster doesn't want advice. He/she is just looking to rant about a difficulty he/she had.

So let's turn this into something constructive instead. For those folks running home based businesses: please consult a technical professional with firsthand experience in implementing Voip solutions for home based businesses before jumping on the new technology bandwagon. What you don't know *can* hurt you. Setting up new technology solutions is not like plugging in a toaster (would that it were, but it's not).

And advice from the frecklefaced kid at BestBuy does not constitute consulting a technical professional. He's making all of $10 an hour, if that much. He doesn't have a Vonage business package, doesn't rely on his fax machine to make a living, and probably hasn't any more of a clue how it works than the person he's selling it to.

Now, all that stated, I am having troubles with the Vonage fax service as well and I find it irritating that a technical firm is selling something with the posted advertisement that every fax machine they have tested it with works fine (how come they won't release a list of tested fax machines?) yet in reality it is not a turn-key solution and does not necessarily work with all fax systems (machines or modems -- take your pick). I don't rely heavily on faxing, but there are times when I need it and it is sad that something I am paying extra for isn't working reliably and probably never will.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 24, 2006 Posts: 2

velvet wrote:

Well Craig... how would you suggest we should have done that? Called the guy at Best Buy a liar to his face when we asked him specifically if the fax machine would work?? Maybe the people in tech support who stood by the fact that it would work up until the day we did call them liars finally??

Well said!
Before I signed up, every question I had was answered with a hearty "Yes that will work"
When I call and ask why something doesnt work Im told "I dont know why they told you that"

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 30, 2006 Posts: 5

I would hardly call that "well said." I just don't see how doing any of what he/she said is going to help him achieve his end goal of having reliable fax service. In answer to this person's question, "what was I supposed to do?" I'd say he/she should have contacted a technical professional with nothing to gain by the consumer's decision to purchase the Vonage service. And preferably someone who has first hand knowledge.

Personally, I asked everyone I knew who was using Vonage before I opted to sign up. And they all gave me their honest opinions of what was good and bad so I knew what to expect. The only point where I feel I made a mistake was that I didn't realize none of these folks were using the fax service and so would have no firsthand knowledge of that specific aspect of the service.

I'm not saying I think the Vonage people are right in providing poor service, but I also do believe we live too much in a society of people walking around crying "poor poor pitiful me" and where everyone seems to feel they have all these rights, but no one seems to have responsibilities.

Posts: 12 · Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2006 2:45 am Post subject:

I have a Brother MFC-3220C and it has sent faxes to US numbers and international numbers without any trouble for the past two years. I haven't tried receiving faxes with this since I'm out of ink and have no plans to get refills.

I got this fax machine because my internal fax/modem did not like to work with Vonage as other people have described.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 09, 2006 Posts: 2

After spending almost 6 hours with 4 people in tech support today I have a better understanding of what they do to try to get your fax machine to work.

First they make sure you have enough bandwidth as faxes take more the voice. Removed bad lines. Had me connect Vonage router directly into modem. Remove other phones etc.

I was then sent me to Level II support.
Repeated level one checks and then they went in remotely to my Vonage router and set the packet size to be more compatible with my particular fax machine. They also set the line quality.

I was then sent me to Level III support.
More settings in router. Reinitialized router. Changed to phone port 2. Also made changes in my fax machine.

Finally sent to level IV support that was back in the USA.
After studying the situation he was not happy with what the people in India did. We change back my fax machine. He was very straight forward and said my fax machine would not work with Vonage unless I went to Brother tech support and had them slow the fax machine down to 19,000 baud. He said that was the maximum speed that would work over the Internet. I bought that fax machine because it sends at 33,000 baud and I use it in business to send large faxes to corporate clients who can receive at that speed. If I must fax I can set the machine for International faxing which is 2400 baud. It will work but painfully slow.

So after 6 hours it is back to the phone company for my fax line. Not sure Vonage has saved me any money at all.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 11, 2006 Posts: 2

Unable to send fax using HP 4215 All-in-One. I received error 388 communication error.

Precede phone number with *99 and now it works fine

Let me know if this helps

Agape

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 09, 2006 Posts: 2

*99 will over ride the router setting to use more bandwidth for the phone line. It does not solve the inability of the Internet to carry high speed faxes.

What I have learned is I can send faxes to slower fax machines. It is only high speed efaxes and higher end machines that are the problem.

We just need another breakthrough in technology.

Carl

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

velvet wrote:

My intuitions are that this is a very dishonest company. I have filed complaints and would like to warn others thinking about getting Vonage.

No Contracts advertised, yet termination fees for non-promotional (no free hardware) accounts. Dishonest is being nice. I'm sure the PC brigade will object to my plain English, but I would call this Lying.

Posts: 113

I have two Vonage lines. I got two lines specifically so that I could use one for fax. I use my computer as my fax machine. It worked at first but it seems as though no matter what I do I cannot send faxes anymore.

I have set the modem for 7200 bps, disabled ecm, etc.

It just does not cut it.

I am going to disconnect one Vonage line and go back to digital phone through cable for my fax.

I simply cannot deal with the fax issues anymore. I must have my fax up and working.

It is embarrassing to tell people that our faxes our incompatible when it really is the line.

Vonage told me that they do not guarantee their lines for use with modem fax.

Posts: 64 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jun 24, 2006 Posts: 64

My experience with Vonage and a particular all-in-one for faxing….

I can tell you something that worked (at least for me), but that is not to excuse Vonage for poor support to a customer who had problems faxing using Vonage.

I have had no trouble receiving faxes, that is, no one has complained to me that a fax they tried to send failed.

I have had limited trouble sending faxes, but it was only to a particular fax number/machine (for example to a TX state gov’t agency, which required multiple attempts before it got through).

I have used Comcast, Cox, and SuddenLink as ISP with Vonage (due to moves or buyouts) over the past 3 years.

Cable > Motorola SB5120 > Motorola VT1005V > Netgear WGT624 v2 > HP OfficeJet 7310. Vonage is provisioned throughout the house with Telco cut off at the NIU.

I just left the default fax settings and everything worked fine. I’m a low volume fax user, though, only send receive and a few a week.