line cut no parts

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 13, 2008 Posts: 6

A friend just signed up for your service – bad move!
Your parts did NOT arrive on time!
Her phone line was cut on Friday!
With two small kids in the home and NO PHONE!
NO WAY TO CALL 911!
And today is Saturday with Sunday to go with NO PHONE!
And no way to call you if the install fails!

Why not change your procedure to call and insure that the parts are there?
To walk a person though the set up procedure!
To check that the system works and that they can talk to YOU even if you don’t let them talk to any one else – yet
THEN CUT THEIR PHONE LINE - AFTER THEY AND YOU KNOW THAT THINGS WORK

Like I said – leaving a family with no phone over a weekend is a criminal act!
(and who knows when your equipment will show up – a lot of trucks were totally destroyed this week in FL in the fog and smoke – was this shipment on one of those trucks?)

I told them to call the OLD PHONE Company and demand being re connected NOW
I told them to call you and cancel until your two month free trial is dual phones – you and the old phone company at the same time
I told them to call the credit card company and block the sale.

Have a nice day

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 9:14 pm Post subject:

Ummm, if you read the top of the web page:

"This Site is exclusively owned & operated by 4Sight Media LLC & is no way endorsed, sponsored, provided, owned or otherwise controlled by Vonage. For official information on Vonage Services please proceed to the Vonage website at: www.vonage.com"

I sympathize with your situation, but there's nothing anyone on this site can do to help you - this is an independent site, not owned, monitored, or controlled by Vonage.

PS: Vonage would also not "cut" the old phone line. If you used LNP, the transfer would normally take several weeks and the equipment should have arrived long before then. If your friend called the telco and canceled their own line, please understand that Vonage specifically states on their LNP site that you should not do that or risk losing your number (since the telco will release the number immediately).

Vonage normally issues a temporary number with the equipment until the LNP request takes place, meaning your friend would have had to maintain the old telco line until the transfer is complete, at which point the telco line would die when the LNP was completed, and calls to that number would start ringing to the Vonage line. In other words, your friend SHOULD have had BOTH lines during the LNP transition period, unless they called the telco and canceled the line themselves.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 13, 2008 Posts: 6

[quote="NateHoy"]Ummm, if you read the top of the web page:

"This Site is exclusively owned & operated by 4Sight Media LLC & is no way endorsed, sponsored, provided, owned or otherwise controlled by Vonage. For official information on Vonage Services please proceed to the Vonage website at: www.vonage.com"
>>>> fine

I sympathize with your situation, but there's nothing anyone on this site can do to help you - this is an independent site, not owned, monitored, or controlled by Vonage.
>>>> you can share the PAIN

PS: Vonage would also not "cut" the old phone line.
>>>> THEY did cut the service with no parts arrived

If your friend called the telco and canceled their own line,
>>>> called old telco to see why no service - told that THEY were the ones that cut it [THEY === Vonage]

Vonage normally issues a temporary number with the equipment
>>>> told my friend that they could not have a temp number

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 11:12 pm Post subject:

The only way your old telco cut the service at Vonage's request is if your friend's telco completed the LNP faster than Vonage could ship the gear.

Vonage cannot actually cut phone service, but if the LNP request completes, the telco would cut service. This is a standard part of the LNP process, but it usually takes at least a couple of weeks.

How long a gap are we talking about? When did your friend order service from Vonage and start the LNP process? How long between that and the time the telco cut the service? You said your friend "just signed up" - if the telco managed to transfer the number before Vonage could even ship the equipment, I can see how that would happen, but telcos usually take a long time to complete the LNP process and transfer a number, and they don't cut service until that is complete.

I do find it odd that Vonage told your friend that no temporary number was available. The number could have been anywhere in the US, since it was a temporary number that was going to die as soon as the LNP transfer completed. Not that it really matters, I guess, if the telco completed the LNP in a couple of days the temporary number would die long before it was even activated. But they usually do issue one all the same.

Remember, your friend is dealing with two companies. Vonage has no control over exactly when the LNP happens and since it usually takes weeks, they request it immediately. Your friend's telco should only drop the line when the LNP is complete, and if they dropped it early, or did the LNP more quickly than any other telco has managed it in the history of beauracratic telcos, then there's not a lot Vonage can do.

Obviously, waiting until the equipment arrives and is tested is a prudent step, and your point is well made there. But LNP usually takes so incredibly long that most users have both lines for weeks. I have yet to hear of one happening so fast - though I have heard stories of local telcos cutting the line prematurely out of spite....

If your friend successfully backs out of this deal and decides to give it another go, I'd suggest buying the equipment retail - that way your friend can plug it in and test the line long before the LNP could possibly happen.

In fact, people can and have signed up for accounts then done the LNP later, after they've verified it works for them. It does cost a bit more that way - there's usually a $10-20 fee to change numbers like that as far as I know, but means that you have the ability to test it out before you commit your number to it.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 11:19 pm Post subject:

Update - in reading some of the other threads, sounds like some of the telcos out there are becoming a lot faster at LNP. Which is bad news for anyone who has Vonage gear ground-shipped to them from New Jersey.

Retail sounds like the way to go, especially if you are doing a number port. That way, you have the gear BEFORE you start the LNP process, and you can make sure that at least the lights all light up before even starting to activate it, and you should have a couple of days between signup and LNP (or more) where both lines are active.

sorry, I know this advice is too late for your friend, and I hope they get their gear soon and either like it or are successful in getting the telco to reassert their number.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 13, 2008 Posts: 6

sorry, I know this advice is too late for your friend, and I hope they get their gear soon and either like it or are successful in getting the telco to reassert their number.[/quote]

>> BUT not too late for someone else's friend

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 13, 2008 Posts: 6

[quote="zerr0992"]A friend just signed up for your service – bad move!
Your parts did NOT arrive on time!
Her phone line was cut on Friday!
With two small kids in the home and NO PHONE!
NO WAY TO CALL 911!
And today is Saturday with Sunday to go with NO PHONE!
And no way to call you if the install fails!

UPDATE - all turned out OK
Parts arrived on Monday - in middle of 1 foot snow storm
They had used the USP port so we had to get a USP to ethernet adaptor
shut every thing down - per the instructions
waited 10 minutes - per the instructions
followed instructions exactly
Waited for the lights to stop blinking between steps

Dial tone on first pickup
Real BAD voice on first call
waited 5 minutes and tried again
All OK - very good voice on both call in and call out to people that how they sounded was known to the family

Unless something else goes wrong this chain is closed

having read other chains - Vonage is getting faster in moving your old phone number - maybe to the point of being too fast

Thank you for your time and comments