Thinking about bailing on Vonage...

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Nov 27, 2004 Posts: 27

I am thinking about cancelling my Vonage Service to go with anouther provider

I have had no problems with Vonage, everything works great and my monthly Vonage bill is only about $18.... I am just getting nervous with their looming legal issues that I may be scrambling if they get shutdown or go belly up...

Any thoughts?

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 25, 2007 Posts: 1

im use Vonage in the uk ive already left for another Voip provider i just cant take the risk of not knowing whats going on from one day to the next.

i will say Vonage was a great service.

Posts: 30 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Dec 18, 2006 Posts: 30

I posted to this board right before this original post. Because I too am thinking of bailing because We have had nothing but issues with Vonage once thier problems starting becoming our problems.
I asked the difference between Vonage and Verizon and they deleted my post!

Simple and straight forward question. Apparently - the comparison is the same and they don't want you to think that though.

Posts: 208 · Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 10:19 am Post subject:

Caution, there's a ton of fees and installation costs for CDV. I recently brought one of my numbers over there for a family member to use, and they do the following:

Want to keep your number? Pay Comcast 29.99 each number.
Comcast DV Activation Fee: 29.99

Yuck. At least Vonage gives you a month for free and doesn't charge you for bringing a number in Smile

Posts: 48 · Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 12:59 pm Post subject:

Well, can't say bailing has not crossed my mind. But, I doubt that one day the service will go dark. Service may degrade over time but waking up one morning and finding no dial tone is, I think, very unlikely.

However, we have two cell phones in the household and one POTS landline so, we're covered no matter what. Frankly, I've thought about going strictly to cell phone anyway... I can't think why that's not a good idea even if Vonage goes on forever.

My Vonage service is excellent. I have no complaints whatsoever. Well, except for some really frustrating exchanges right after installation with what Vonage calls customer service. When I finally made contact with a New Jersey tech--and what a journey that was--the problem was solved instantly and service has been unfettered since then which is a year or more.

Bottom line: I seriously doubt Vonage will disappear one day without weeks or months of information that is not laced with rumor and speculation. So, I'm staying put.

I just wonder what the final buy price will be for Vonage's two million plus customers and if someday I will be able to say Verizon and keep my breakfast down. Cry

Posts: 1123 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: May 26, 2005 Posts: 1123

The bottom line, truly, to all of these discussions, is what do YOU feel comfortable with? If your service is either crucial to business or life, you have to do what you have to do to protect that. Don't stay just because of some so-called "allegiance" to a company. Do what's right for you and your family.

That said, if your phone service isn't as critical, and you can live with minor outages, since you're not on it much, then by all means, ride out the storm and see what happens.

Bottom line, again, is do what you have to do for yourself, family, or business to lessen the impact.

Posts: 48 · Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:35 pm Post subject:

navydavy2001 wrote:

The bottom line, truly, to all of these discussions, is what do YOU feel comfortable with?

That's a totally reasonable approach. I'd like to point out that many times in life we become frightened by something and react to it. In many cases such a reaction turns out to be the right thing to do. Note that the reaction to being frighted is not a rational response.

In the case of Vonage, we are being told many things, some of which is contradictory. There is some information that suggests Verizon is being predatory and is flashing its sword while masked behind a patent that may not survive a challenge. Other information suggests that Vonage may have a work-around and will never miss a beat assuming it can get a few months to implement it. There are many issues swirling around Voip and Vonage in particular, one of which is all of the taxing authorities that painfully see their dwindling income. And, should legal actions that thwart the implementation of new technologies be supported by the judicial system.

When you look at the entire picture, this is not a simple matter of "ship sinks, millions on rafts at sea."

When you know the ship is going down it may be time to jump... or it may already may be too late to jump.

When you suspect the ship is going down and jump because you feel it's the best course of action you may be a) the sole survivor or b) the only casualty.

I would offer this argument: By abandoning Vonage at this stage, you are condoning Verizon's actions in this matter. To understand this argument in perspective, you might mull over the answer to each of these questions:
- Did not Vonage illegally use Verizon's patent when Vonage had, say, 5, 000 or 10,000 or 100,000 subscribers?
- How and why did Verizon, as it claims, "loose" 600,000 subscribers to Vonage?

None of this is meant to pick an argument. I would only wish that any decisions you--and any of us--make in this regard be rational, not simply a reaction to the current press.

Posts: 1179 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1179

jfullam wrote:

I am thinking about cancelling my Vonage Service to go with anouther provider

I have had no problems with Vonage, everything works great and my monthly Vonage bill is only about $18.... I am just getting nervous with their looming legal issues that I may be scrambling if they get shutdown or go belly up...

Any thoughts?

I agree with a lot of what has been said in this post as well as the other posts begun bozicfg. Some things to consider.

Let's say for the sake of argument that Vonage is unable to get a more permanent stay or win the appeal to Verizon.

Do you think that a judge will actually shut down over 2 million customers? I really do not believe that would be the case. Either one of two things will happen.

a) Vonage will work out a workaround solution to the patents infringed or
b) Vonage will work out a license/royalty fee with Verizon so that they can continue to provide the service to which we have all become accustomed.

I suppose another option would be to join forces with another Voip company that already has a work around solution in place etc. You get the idea.

Suppose, Verizon wins everthing. We as customers of Vonage who were not involved in this lawsuit would be given plenty of time to transfer to another service.

All of the above scenarios are all predicated on the fact that Vonage loses everything, which has yet to be determined in the courts.

In other words, bailing now will only make you go through a great deal of hassle and headache along with having to learn to deal with another company or pay more in fees, etc.

I agree that for those who run a business or are on the phone all the time would need to seriously consider some options. However, these recent outages etc are not the result of the lawsuit and so they should not be considered together.

It is unfortunate that customers have to go to a forum like this to get technical assistance and it is unfortunate that Vonage has been encountering so many outages and issues lately. However, I do not believe that these major issues are related to the lawsuit in any way from what I can see.

Posts: 17 · Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 6:22 pm Post subject:

hmm... my voicemail light wont go out, and the dialtone blinks

if I reboot the router one call works,then the voicemail light comes on and the dialtone bilnks...

also if I make acall, the audio blinks like the dial tone

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 03, 2005 Posts: 10

jfullam wrote:

I am thinking about cancelling my Vonage Service to go with anouther provider

I have had no problems with Vonage, everything works great and my monthly Vonage bill is only about $18.... I am just getting nervous with their looming legal issues that I may be scrambling if they get shutdown or go belly up...

Any thoughts?

I've been using Vonage at home for 2 years, at my business for 1. Given that the business phones are pretty critical, I thought it might be prudent to switch carriers so I wouldn't wake up one morning to dead phones. So I made the switch to AT&T CallVantage service. BIG MISTAKE! Although they charge more for a 2-line "business" service, it's managed like a home service. You can't even do something as simple as a call hunt sequence, and their suggested work-around causes confusion to callers and lost calls. I'm going back to Vonage and will take my chances!