Level 2 Tech Support is Totally Inept on VT-1005 Issue!

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 13, 2004 Posts: 15

My Motorola VT-1005 (on the outside - 1000 on the inside) got hammered by the latest firmware update. I have been without service from the first minute the update went out. So the second I realized that I had no service I did due diligence as a user for the first step in troubleshooting. After that failed I called Tech Support, immediately I bypassed Level 1 (India - they have no clue, more later) support and requested Level 2 American support. I was transferred and got a really great helpful rep. But he could not help me after 1 hour, 47 minutes. He then informed me of the update that has caused a lot of the VT-1005's to fail and that it was only a matter of time before "the problem on their end" was resolved and the unit would grab the update and all would be fine. Trusting what he said, I sat back and waited. Then yesterday, after no apparent resolution, I called again (57 minutes) to see what the status was and was told that they were still down and all I could do was wait. . . Until this morning after I received an eMail from Tech Support with step by step instructions (which I had already done many times and in many different ways with the two previous techs) on how to fix my MTA since the "the problem on their end" was resolved. I tried what they suggested and it didn't work. The last step was to call Tech Support if this failed. So I did. . .

This time I got a rep that had been on vacation and hadn't heard of the outage. What company does not post this type of thing for their support personnel? Any way, 74 minutes later after not being able to get into the UI on the MTA, we both decided that is was a moot point until the unit got the up date. He then said that he had just received an update and they were still down and it was only a matter of time. So again I waited. . . Until a little while ago (9:45 pm MDT), I started to get “upset” about this and jumped in. I figured it out and afterwards I came here to this forum to see what others had or were doing, the level of success, and to see if people were getting compensation for the downtime. What I list below may have already been posted but I could not find anything and usually when you do the instructions are limited. So . . .

Here's what I did:

Vonage

http://192.168.102.1.

After a couple of minutes and it does take 2-5 minutes for the download. The light went out then back to the 1-2-3-4, then ON. I HAVE SERVICE! So they were back up and no one knew. I have wasted many hours on my own and with them, when they should know what to do. I could have been up and running days ago.

Upon this wonderful occasion I called Tech Support to get a refund for the time down and to ask why none of the 4 plus people that I spoke with knew how to do this? I got a rep that treated my call as if I just had a regular outage. When I informed him that this was part of the FW update, he said that there was no such thing. I thought I was going to puke. I told him to read my TS log and then we’d talk. He did and said, "Oh I heard something about that". I asked if there was a fix yet and he said yes. So I asked what it was. He professed to know what to do, but couldn't tell me. He asked me what I did. At that point I mentioned that in fact he didn't know, there was no published (on their end) fix, and was going to learn from me. I asked why none of the techs knew. He said that I had only ever gotten to Level 1 support in India and they don't know what to do. I said why have them? No answer. I told him that I had bypassed India by asking for US Tech Support and if he would check the names of the previous reps he'd see that I was in the US Level 2 support system. I then asked for refund for the time that I was down. This was after I read in this forum of people getting refunds and new gear. He said that that would not be possible because and then mumbled something I couldn’t understand. I asked him to speak up and he did the same. I then asked to speak to a supervisor. He said he was one. Oh great. He said that I was not eligible for a refund under these circumstances. WHAT?! I told him that I had read that people were getting them and in some cases new gear. He said he’d check and be right back. Well it sounds like he went nowhere, no typing, no talking (he left his headset on), no nothing. Upon his “return” he gave me a phone number for the Account Management group and said to talk to them.

There is something seriously wrong here. Level 2 techs not knowing there is a network wide problem, and then not knowing the gear well enough to trouble shoot it. Me having to do my own troubleshooting, and having to come up with a fix on my own because it’s obvious that if I hadn’t done what I did, I’d still be waiting. So it’s not that there is a snag on there end anymore, it’s that the initial snag caused a problem on the user end that no one there knows how to handle.

I just received an eMail informing me that my problem was being escalated to Level 2 and that I should hear from them within 24 hours. Unlike the previous two, it is a “no-reply”. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry because this is so pathetic. Another sad thing is that I have referred 5 people to Vonage and they all within three months dump the service because it was nothing but trouble. I have had relatively no problems, until now, with an overall service of 7-8 on a 0-10 scale. But all these people had the new Linksys Wireless gear. Also with their failed IPO and a 2% loss of clientele per month, I’d say dark days are ahead.

So there it is. I hope this helps.

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

First off, all you did was "Reboot" your machine. That is the first thing that any TS person would have told you to do. Maybe you could not understand what they wanted you to do. I have a VT-1005 and the only issue that I have had in the last couple of days is that I have lost my CID time/date. I called Vonage and had the problem fixed within 15 mins of picking up the phone (and that was with teir 1 support). Well, the good news is that you now know that if you are having problems you should move your Vonage Box infront of your router before rebooting it.

Posts: 11

After being out since 1010hrs last Friday, numerous calls to levels 1 through 3 with no success, I tried FarmerBob's suggestion step by step around 1400hrs today. Holy Crap !! IT WORKED !!! I now hear the coveted sound of the dial tone. All three lines work. Howcum the techs at ANY level couldn't get into the User Interface of my MTA's? They didn't know HOW (neither did I, but I do now). No one told me to disconnect from the network, in fact, I was instructed to remain connected. That's why the UI couldn't be accessed.

Their last contact with me (other than a bunch of emails and shipping notices today) was:
8/27/06 - Terry came on 1655hrs (NJ) LEVEL 3 TECH - sounds like Chinese guy - had me plug into computer again 192.168.102.1 - no luck on either unit. Told me to unplug D-link & mta's again - after 1 minute, plug in router. Then plug in mta's. doesn't work "both mta's need to be replaced" per Terry as he expressed his frustration at not being able to access the mta's.
Terry can only ship replacements via 2-day. Should get Wednesday, just plug in - they should work - shouldn't have to call Vonage w/new MAC addresses.

I'm no fan of Verizon - but their FiOS is great.
Maybe their phone service (and tech support) is, too.

Ray Kipping
rkipping@aol.com

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 13, 2004 Posts: 15

Yes, you are right, all I did was "reboot" my MTA and I fully understood what I was being asked to do. I did it so many times, I can do it in my sleep now. It was all boiler plate troubleshooting protocol. None of it addressed nor did they understand this particular issue.

But what you fail to realize and is the point of my initial post, is that the problem that some/I was/are/were having and TS is/did not address is that some of the MTA's lock up when connected to the Internet and are in the 4 blink stage making it so you can not get into the UI. My resolution was to address the inaccessibility while in the 4 blink stage by disconnecting from the Internet, not moving the unit to the other side of a router. The point is to make the unit stall at 1 blink. Thus allowing access to the UI and the only way was to isolate the MTA from the Internet. Not everybody had this problem. Matter of fact some had no problems at all and the update when unnoticed on their end. But some of us were not that lucky and that was due to the failure of the servers that were needing to be contacted for the update. It their system didn't fail we would not be conversing now.

Up until this update I have had no connection issues by having the unit on the back side of the router. Matter of fact the MTA was causing so much interference that my ISP requested that I move it behind the router. All is well now.

From your post, it sounds like you were one of the lucky ones and that TS could fix your minor resulting malady. You did not have full blown failure as I did. Count your blessings.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 02, 2006 Posts: 1

Greetings,

Following up on this thread and to save some of the folks having problems with the VT1005....

If the green led is DIM... is very unlikely that the instructions that you see above will work, so you might as well call Vonage support... have them take you through the steps... and then get your under-warranty $0.00 replacement.

I just went through that exercise, it is somewhat tedious but it seems that level-1 support in India finally picked up on it.

I just got the DHL confirmation for 2-day shipment, so I am happy considering that I screwed up by unplugging the router while the light was continously blinking (thought it was a connection problem as it usually is) causing the firmware upgrade to get interruped and kill the device. (See the VT1005 user guide big warning)

Regards and good luck...

P.S. Tried to get a different device but they are sending same.. no option since it is warranty replacement. Would be nice to hear if somebody got away with a freebie upgrade...