No Dialtone!! Anybody else having this problem this morning?

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Sep 07, 2005 Posts: 34

jungleland wrote:

... Use your head...Pretty much every single vonage user is going to the website for info, that is overloading the servers...Make sense?

If so, then the responsible thing to do is to temporarily strip out all unnecessary graphics and advertisements from the home page to reduce the load on the servers. Then use the page to display information concerning the outage, and the progress of repairs.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 14, 2007 Posts: 7

Djinn wrote:

jungleland wrote:

... Use your head...Pretty much every single vonage user is going to the website for info, that is overloading the servers...Make sense?

If so, then the responsible thing to do is to temporarily strip out all unnecessary graphics and advertisements from the home page to reduce the load on the servers. Then use the page to display information concerning the outage, and the progress of repairs.

Absolutely...move to an all text version, or better yet, take down the entire site and just leave the home page up and the service announcement...of course vonage would not like that from a NEW business perspective as that would scare away potential customers, but at least it would be HONEST, which they have not been in the past, all the way up the line to their FELON EXECUTIVE TEAM

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 23, 2007 Posts: 12

What a bunch of friggin idiots. I called customer service and went to the "cancel service" option. Got a rep and asked about porting my number. She barely spoke english and didn't even ask why I was canceling. So near the end of the call, I asked her why the service was so bad. She said she didn't know and transferred me to an "advanced tech support" rep. He basically told me there is a known outage. No s*** Sherlock! I told him its atleast the 2nd known outage in a month and I work from home. Again, couldn't really care less, but at least he spoke English and I could understand him.

I'm calling Embarq today to get the process moving on local phone service.

Posts: 21 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 20, 2006 Posts: 21

jungleland wrote:

Djinn wrote:

jungleland wrote:

... Use your head...Pretty much every single vonage user is going to the website for info, that is overloading the servers...Make sense?

If so, then the responsible thing to do is to temporarily strip out all unnecessary graphics and advertisements from the home page to reduce the load on the servers. Then use the page to display information concerning the outage, and the progress of repairs.

Absolutely...move to an all text version, or better yet, take down the entire site and just leave the home page up and the service announcement...of course vonage would not like that from a NEW business perspective as that would scare away potential customers, but at least it would be HONEST, which they have not been in the past, all the way up the line to their FELON EXECUTIVE TEAM

Because any company does this. Hell when roadrunner goes out I have to spend 10 minutes looking through the website trying to find the service status link. Then you talk to the reps and they deny anything is wrong even though all my buddies are down too.

It makes no business sense to publicaly announce anything is wrong to non-customers. Don't forget that the websites for companies are marketing tools, nothing more.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 14, 2007 Posts: 7

Word is that they are migrating over to new telephone switches this week...Anyone know anything about this?

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Sep 07, 2005 Posts: 34

FatKao wrote:

... It makes no business sense to publicaly announce anything is wrong to non-customers. Don't forget that the websites for companies are marketing tools, nothing more.

Fair enough... Then they should do what can be done to reduce server load (i.e. removing graphics), and also leave the login controls intact. That way, the servers could handle the load, and only customers could view the repair updates.

Bear in mind this would GREATLY reduce the number of calls being made to their service lines. As such those who check the website will get information more quickly, and those who insist on calling in would receive quicker service due to the lightened call load.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:11 am Post subject:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...

Customer service/tech support is the ONLY contact Vonage users will have with Vonage, therefore it is imperative that these experiences be good. If they want to stand out from the other carriers, cust. service would be a great place to do it. Yes, it might cost more money, BUT, if other providers can charge $8/mo and still make a modest profit, Vonage should be able to hire competent state-side CS staff.

In times like this current outage, CS staff are key to keeping your customers happy. Yes, it is possible to have a satisfied customer who is currently without service. I'm not sure if any of you have ever dealt with high-end customer service (Ritz-Carlton, Bentley/Rolls-Royce), but they have a way of making sure the customer is satisfied even if things aren't what they had hoped for.

Lastly, where the hell is the redundancy and monitoring in this network? A large portion of my business is broadcast automation. I literally have a couple dozen TV & radio stations and other facilities around the state running by computer. Downtime is NOT an option for me. All processes are monitored 24/7; many of them are self-healing, with the others calling pagers & transferring to backup systems when the main systems are starting to show the slightest hint of trouble, long before it becomes an actual problem.

The 2004 & 2005 hurricanes did test and strain the networking between my sites, but I never had an outage because of it, and I can assure you that my budget for IT equipment is far less than Vonage's. To make matters even more interesting, some of the servers I run were 8-9 years old at the time of the hurricanes, well past their prime, but the systems still kept cranking away.

Lastly, the two aforementioned problems are both addressed through the same solution -- good advanced planning. There's a reason I can get away with using a server for 10 years before taking them out, and it's not because we blew a huge chunk of money at the time. If you plan for every possible screwup, you'll have very few surprises and happier clients. This does lead to a somewhat unwelcome side-effect of people being so used to everything working that when a glitch does come up, it seems like a major deal since it happens so infrequently. This is a side-effect I don't care for, but am more than happy to accept it. My thoughts on where Vonage needs to improve have been unchanged over the past 2-3 years I've had them. It would be nice if they took it to heart and did something about it. The VoIP market isn't THAT difficult to dominate in.

FWIW, 11:13am ET, still having Vonage issues. My other VoIP co trunks are working like champs.

Posts: 143 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Dec 22, 2005 Posts: 143

Nothing is perfect man. You need to also realize the reps are human beings and do make mistakes.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 23, 2007 Posts: 13

Trinijoy wrote:

Nothing is perfect man. You need to also realize the reps are human beings and do make mistakes.

FACT - Vonage has STILL yet to implement their HP OpenView solution properly... last I heard they had it but needed some real consulting services to get it implemented properly.

Guess they still haven't yet. Now we know why we have issues that go on and on.

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Sep 07, 2005 Posts: 34

Trinijoy wrote:

Nothing is perfect man. You need to also realize the reps are human beings and do make mistakes.

I'm not faulting Vonage for the outage... When the U.S. telephone network was in its infancy, I'm sure they had their share of problems. My issue is that Vonage has the means to easily provide all Internet-enabled customers with the information they deserve, and they've chosen instead to keep us in the dark.