I'm considering Vonage and....

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 24, 2008 Posts: 6

Okay, I thought they were pretty good, except the QOS was questionable. My ISP offers Voip service themselves, so what was bad about those results?

I called my ISP to see if there was something they could do to better the results. For some reason, they're showing a significant amount of traffic on my cable modem -- which is puzzling since at the time I called, all of my PCs were off. I even unplugged them from the router and still had a lot of traffic.

Anyway, I did a lot of rebooting and now (in the middle of the day) I'm getting this:

Code:

Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 7434208 bps
Upload speed: 960704 bps
Quality of service: 58 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 53 ms
Average download pause: 3 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 47 ms
Average round trip time to server: 57 ms

Voip test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 3.2 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 8.2 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.0 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported Voip lines: 16
Estimated MOS score: 3.9

I'm still showing a lot of activity on the router and modem lights, but none of it is getting to my internal network and nothing is showing up on the router logs.

Posts: 323 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 323

These results do look better except for the QoS portion. I'm not sure how to improve QoS other than having a good QoS router and then giving Voip (or the device providing Voip) the highest priority. If you don't have a good router QoS setup your call quality will vary greatly depending on your current internet usage. If you look at this thread you'll see an explanation of how they calclulate QoS.

http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic2326.html

Also keep in mind that most cable internet systems get the best bandwidth during the day since most customers are at work. You want to test when you will have your worst internet connection which for me is in the evening after dinner until about 10pm.

In the previous post I thought the max. download pause (I think it was this) and the round-trip values weren't very good either. They weren't horrible, but not great.

I had spotty call quality in the past because I am a heavy internet user (lots of work from home over VPN, internet gaming, Slingbox, etc). I setup a Linksys WRT54GL with Tomato firmware on it to address my issues. Since then I have been fine.

Look, don't take this the wrong way, but your posts clearly indicate that customer service is very important to you. Why would you continue to consider Vonage after the so-so comments regarding cs?

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 24, 2008 Posts: 6

Right now I have the QoS functionallity disabled on my existing router. I'll have to play with that some more.

butterman wrote:

Look, don't take this the wrong way, but your posts clearly indicate that customer service is very important to you. Why would you continue to consider Vonage after the so-so comments regarding cs?

Because its about than half what I'm paying now for the same service. Plus I like the idea of the virtual number thing.

I wasn't going to touch them before they got all their patent issues straightened out, but now that they are, I thought I would give them a try.

There was a suggestion in another post about keeping the POTS line and forwarding the calls to the Vonage line during the 60-day trail and if it works out, then initiate the number transfer. So that's what I'm going to do.

Posts: 323 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 323

Sounds like a plan I guess.

I suppose I was confused by your previous statement that poor customer service would be a deal-breaker.

I think you need to think about it and figure out which one is more important, cost savings, or outstanding customer service. While both would be ideal, you need to choose which you are more willing to live without.

I probably sound like a jerk, and if I do I'm sorry, but I think based on your posts that you are someone that expects outstanding customer service from the companies that you deal with and will get very, very upset if you don't get it. (I'm recalling your plan to drive 12 hours to NJ to complain to someone).

Vonage is many things, a company with first rate customer service, they are not. Now they have been working on it and they are much better than they were a few years ago, but they have a long way to go before I would call it outstanding. I think it is an outstanding product, just not backed up (yet) by outstanding customer service.

I promise this is the last post where I'll try to convince you not to make the move.

If you end up having problems, post the issue here. This forum is a good set of people that really do try to help people with their issues.

Regards.

Posts: 323 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 323

Stackrat wrote:

Right now I have the QoS functionallity disabled on my existing router. I'll have to play with that some more.

There was a suggestion in another post about keeping the POTS line and forwarding the calls to the Vonage line during the 60-day trail and if it works out, then initiate the number transfer. So that's what I'm going to do.

I could be wrong, but I don't think you can do this. You could forward your Vonage calls to the POTS line, but I don't think you could forward your POTS line to Vonage (unless you have this funacionality from your existing phone company)

Also keep in mind with QoS that in order to get good phone service you should sacrifice some of your bandwidth. The Vonage router should get a higher priority than anything else on your network. Ideally you can setup these rules by MAC address. Quite a few people here use the Linksys WRT54GL with 3rd party firmware like Tomato or DD-WRT. I'm personally a big fan of Tomato and I've had a very reliable connection since I started using it.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 19, 2008 Posts: 7

The biggest hurdle everyone faces when trying Vonage is the condition of the cable connection or DSL connection. That's it. Make sure the connection is good. Your initial speed test looked very strange.

It's not unusual to have old defective wiring particularly in cities. I had horrendous issues with Time Warner in NYC and it turned out to be old defective wiring. In NJ, the landscaper weed-wacked the cable because Cablevision was too lazy to install a proper cover over the drop box.

My speed test here is now 14meg download and 1.7 meg upload. Yes you read it right. Cablevision is getting ready to defend themselves against Verizon FIOS.

As a result, my Vonage service was excellent for a year. But, when I tried to install additional service, the ensuing Customer Service nightmare was a horror show. Without getting into detail, my situation was a bit unique. And that is where the problem lies in customer service.

For normal issues you should do ok. And if you run into problems with the CSRs ask for a supervisor. Also don't call first thing in the morning, call in the afternoon. You may have a better chance of reaching Holmdel and not the Philipines. A big part of the problem is the outsourcing to the Philipines. To keep the costs down, management has had to make some tough decisions. I am sure they realize the mistakes they have made in Customer Service and will make some attempt to correct them.

If all else fails, call the Executive Response team. They do make a difference. Just make sure you have a real problem and explain it properly.

At the end of the day, what's the biggest reason to go with Vonage??

They are one of the few companies who can compete with Cablevision and Verizon. And we desperately need REAL competition. Right now Verizon(In NJ) is trying to deregulate local phone service with the argument the competition is there. They do this while they attempt to squash Vonage.

Give it a try....We all need your help

PS They are in Holmdel not Howell!!!!!!!!!!

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

Stackrat wrote:

Steve48 wrote:

On the issue of customer service, you may never need it. If you do need it, it may go very well.

True, I may never need customer service. But when I DO need it and its BAD, I know I'll have an uncontrollable urge to physically harm someone.

In that case, going back to the rest of my post, I'd say Vonage is not right for you.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 26, 2008 Posts: 2

I just spoke with a supervisor at Vonage's call center. Believe it or not, this company has no bricks and mortor address. They operate solely off of the internet and telephone, according the the call center supervisor. What company has no mailing address? Can anyone say totally ridiculous????

While I'm on my soapbox, I went to Vonage's website to register a complaint. I clicked on the "Contact Us" link. I tried numerous topics to email them about. Every single one I tried came back with an auto-reply stating they had not received the email, because the address I was emailing to does not accept emails. So, bascially, you can't contact them via the internet. Not only can they not provide quality service, but apparently they can't seem to hire IT people who know how to set up a web site with valid links. That, or my guess is, they would be so inundated with bad reviews, they figure the best way to deal with unhappy customers is to make it impossible to contact the company.

I will say, Vonage has the worst quality customer service and phone service of any carrier I've ever had the misfortune to deal with. The quality of the phone calls is dismal at best. It was like talking to someone with a bad cell phone connection, or they sounded like someone who'd had their voice electronically altered. Carrying on a conversation was next to impossible. This was with a high speed cable connection. We cancelled the service, and Vonage refused to release the phone number we've maintained for the last seven (7) years, but they sure didn't mind grabbing up that number when we signed up with them. My advice to anyone looking into signing up with Vonage is...RUN ...RUN FAR AND FAST. I currently have digital phone service with Roadrunner and have had the best service ever. Go with your cable company for Voip, stay far away from Vonage!!!

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 19, 2008 Posts: 7

Cat815 wrote:

I just spoke with a supervisor at Vonage's call center. Believe it or not, this company has no bricks and mortor address. They operate solely off of the internet and telephone, according the the call center supervisor. What company has no mailing address? Can anyone say totally ridiculous????

While I'm on my soapbox, I went to Vonage's website to register a complaint. I clicked on the "Contact Us" link. I tried numerous topics to email them about. Every single one I tried came back with an auto-reply stating they had not received the email, because the address I was emailing to does not accept emails. So, bascially, you can't contact them via the internet. Not only can they not provide quality service, but apparently they can't seem to hire IT people who know how to set up a web site with valid links. That, or my guess is, they would be so inundated with bad reviews, they figure the best way to deal with unhappy customers is to make it impossible to contact the company.

I will say, Vonage has the worst quality customer service and phone service of any carrier I've ever had the misfortune to deal with. The quality of the phone calls is dismal at best. It was like talking to someone with a bad cell phone connection, or they sounded like someone who'd had their voice electronically altered. Carrying on a conversation was next to impossible. This was with a high speed cable connection. We cancelled the service, and Vonage refused to release the phone number we've maintained for the last seven (7) years, but they sure didn't mind grabbing up that number when we signed up with them. My advice to anyone looking into signing up with Vonage is...RUN ...RUN FAR AND FAST. I currently have digital phone service with Roadrunner and have had the best service ever. Go with your cable company for Voip, stay far away from Vonage!!!

Going with your cable company is the worst mistake you can make. What will happen to prices if Cable and Verizon rule the world. I'm not one to defend Vonage. But, I will tell you I have had enormous problems with cable companies and Verizon. At the end of the day, many people have the same problems at all of the companies.

The robots in the call centers of the Phillipines may not know how to think.(Which is why you were told they don't have a brick and mortar address) But they certainly have great attitudes. This is a far cry from the attitudes of many Verizon CSRs in the states. They are often brainwashed with the company line...We can do no wrong.

The problem with number porting is an FCC issue. The bureaucracy the FCC put in place to prevent slamming has created a monster when it comes to transferring numbers. There is no way for Vonage to release your number. Your new carrier must request the number. And this is where the games get played by all. They all finger point and play games. File a complaint with the FCC!!!!!!

The fact that your service works great on RR and was lousy on Vonage. It could be something as simple as>> RR came in to do the install and discovered a problem with the cable connection. They fixed it and didn't tell you. I'm not saying that's what happened, I'm saying if you are in a high bandwidth area, it's more likely a problem with the cable company than a problem with the Voip Service.

The Email issue....who knows...maybe rr read the address and rejected it. Just kidding. Problems like that occur everywhere. Comcast is notorious for sending an auto reply rejecting the message when it really went thru.

The bottom line....Vonage is listening. I would agree they are not acting fast enough but they sure are listening. Without companies like Vonage,RR, Cablevision and Verizon will keep raising the rates.