Do I stay or do I go

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 21, 2006 Posts: 1

I have had Vonage for less than a week and every communication with them has been unprofessional and somewhat irritating. I am wondering do I get out now while there is time or does this get better. I have been waiting for Vonage for awhile because my sister says it is so great and perhaps that is why I haven't cancelled yet

My first bad experience was the sales person whose headset was bouncing so bad that I could hardly hear her and her strong Philippines accent made it even more difficult. That call took an hour trying to communicate. She also gave me mis information. It was important to me that there was a wireless solution to be able to tap into my phone wiring as the closest phone jack was 30 ft away from where I could put the vonage phone adapter. I didn't want to run wire across my floor or up the walls. The sales agent repeated over and over that would not be a problem. She said I could go to any electronics store and purchase a $3 wireless adapter to make it work. I think she said this to not loose the deal especially since we had been into it for so long She was wrong the equipment cost $70 at Circuit city and I was not happy.

My second bad experience was when I called customer service to express my unhappiness with the situation is that the guy laughed at me and made light of the situation. When I insisted that I needed a resolution he said the only solutions were to go all cordless, buy the $70 item or have a new phone jack put in. Basically his attitude came across as -our service is so great that you should be willing to jump through hoops to use it.

My third bad experience, when I received my phone adapter shipped through DHL, there were two boxes. I opened the first and it was to some guy in OH. The second box was mine. I emailed Vonage of what they had done. Unbelievably the emailed me back and said that I needed to ship is back to them and they would reimburse me the cost. What kind of company operates this way. Every other company I have dealt with when they make an error they have the shipping company do a pick up and do not ask the consumer to ship it. For one thing, I am not going to wait 15-30 days to be reimbursed and I don't have time to run their stuff to a shipping office.

So here I sit with one phone plugged into the Vonage system. I have lousy cordless phones that constantly die (that will be rememdied soon) so I want to still use my corded phones in the bedrooms. But they are still on my current local carrier. I agreed with the second guy that it wouldn't hurt to give it a try for a couple of weeks just to see if the quality is that much better.

This company seems unconcerned with making the customer happy and very unprofessional. Is it worth it?

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 10:50 am Post subject:

Wireless phone jacks should cost you around $35 not $70, not $3 either though. That is unless you are trying to use the phone line for data (TiVo, Alarm System). They make more expensive wireless phone jacks for those purposes, they aren't going to help you much with a VoIP system.

The ones Circuit City sells online for $60 are available for $30 from eBay. The same seller offers other jacks for less.

As far as the shipping goes, I agree. I had a DSL company do something similar and I told them that when they sent me a return label I would be happy to set the unit on the porch. They never bothered.

Vonage service is not necessarily better. You need to look at how long it would take you to recoup the costs of the wireless jacks based on phone bill savings (for most people it would be a couple of months top) or if there are features that you can only get from Vonage that you really want.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 22, 2006 Posts: 2

I completely agree with you! I've had almost the exact same things happen to me...first the signing up process with an awful vonage rep that I could not understand. Then the reassurance that all the phone jacks in the house would work just fine once I set up the one line to the modem...although I only received one box with my equipment, I have attempted to contact customer service to get the simple answer to my question...received "form" letter replies that just irritate the hell out of me. With information that is really useless. THE QUESTION: Currently I still have existing boring old land line phone in my house, I don't dare turn it off until I know for a fact that vonage will work on all my existing phone jacks. If I only have one line to the house and if I turn off the existing phone companie's service, will Vonage work with all phone jacks in my house? 1. Do I need to physically disconnect the land line phone company wires outside the house to avoid any potential fires or equipment surges? 2. If the phone jacks do work with just the one connected to the modem, "spreading the signal" will it spread the signal far enough to reach, say 200ft to my garage phone?

Someone out there must have an idea about this. I can't decide if I want to keep my existing land line and include DSL in the package $85/month or cancel my roadrunner (cable internet--I don't want/have cabel tv) and vonage $75/month.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 11:37 am Post subject: Re: Should I stay or go, ditto!

You probably should have started your own thread (in the hardwiring forum), but here goes.

eaf wrote:

If I only have one line to the house and if I turn off the existing phone companie's service, will Vonage work with all phone jacks in my house?

Yes, for most people it does.

eaf wrote:

Do I need to physically disconnect the land line phone company wires outside the house to avoid any potential fires or equipment surges?

Yes.

eaf wrote:

If the phone jacks do work with just the one connected to the modem, "spreading the signal" will it spread the signal far enough to reach, say 200ft to my garage phone?

Most likely, it will depend on the quality of the wiring and the number of other phones (and the types of phones). But 200 ft is not all that far.

I would suggest that if that is a significant concern you temporarily disconnect your traditional phone service and test your garage phone with Vonage on the house wiring. Alternatively, if your wiring supports it, you can put Vonage on a second pair (typically yellow/black) while your traditional service remains on line 1. Then you can use some cheap L1/L2 splitters to select which line to use for calls.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 21, 2006 Posts: 7

If you need a tech support or customer service rep, the fastest way to do it is to call Sales Inbound 1-800-486-6590 and ask to be transfered to either Tech or Cust. Service. Just a tip!

Posts: 72 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 27, 2005 Posts: 72

Professional Installation is offered free from vonage in some areas, you can try contacting vonage to see if its available for your area.

Posts: 57 · Full Forum Member Joined: Sep 03, 2005 Posts: 57

I had an similar situation with the shipping issue. My phone was not working at all, and after so much frustration with Customer Service, they finally told me that my adaptor was dead. They decided to send me a new one. To my surprise, Vonage sent me two packages (two adaptors). I phone them right away and told them that I only opened one, since I only needed one. I asked them what I should do with the second one. They told me to send it back and JUST LIKE they told you, they said they would reimburse me the postage. So I sent it back with my own expense. They NEVER reimbursed me. I was going to call, but knowing that I had to go through all the frustration and hold with them, I decided it's not worth the $8.00.

I let Vonage get away with this. However, it left me a very bad taste in my mouth. The good thing is that my phone has worked great since then. However, if it ever goes down again, I would seriously consider Sun Rocket. it seems to be a lot cheaper.

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 15, 2006 Posts: 18

I'll chime in with similar situation (regarding worthless tech suport).

I eventually dumped Vonage in favor of Comcast because they couldnt offer me any tech support. Totally unprofessional.

If I were you I would dump it. Wait a year or two, perhaps Vonage will quit spending all their $ on advertising and start building a product thats actually worthwhile. Im still waiting for that day...

Paul
Atlanta, GA

Posts: 66 · Full Forum Member Joined: May 25, 2006 Posts: 66

Even cancelling is not made easy :-

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/vonage/cancelling-vonage-difficulties.asp

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

trillian wrote:

Even cancelling is not made easy :-

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/vonage/cancelling-vonage-difficulties.asp

I get so tired of all of the gripes about how hard it is to cancel Vonage. It's not -- just do what the terms of service tell you to do, which, by the way, the supposed great VOIP and Vonage expert writing the blog piece did not bother to do.

I've said it before and it is still true -- I have not heard of one person reporting a problem cancelling Vonage or a problem with inapproriate charges by Vonage at cancellation that A) Attempted to cancel as outlined in the terms of service and B) Accepted the charges outlined in the terms of service (which they previously agreed to) as valid. In other words, live by the terms of service (and that means you have to read them) and you have no problems!