vonage growing pains

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jul 10, 2004 Posts: 28

I've had to call Vonage tech support more often than I'd like. I prefer to solve my own computer related problems.

Vonage could reduce the volume of tech support calls by improving the self service online support.

The first thing they could do is have a web based ping or connection tester that prospective customers could use to see if their connection is adequate and for existing customers to use for the same purpose. The best Vonage offers for this right now is to download a shareware ping plotter, collect data and send that to Vonage tech support. Why not put the ping plotter at the Vonage end, have it ping the adapter directly and let a computer program provide a layer of interpretation for the user to look at?

I have a persistent problem where my outgoing audio is interrupted for about 10 seconds then always comes back. I don't know if this is a Vonage issue, a comcast issue or something else. Friends and family are used to the problem and wait it out. Others often hang up on me. When I talk to tech support about this they have no suggestions. It's unlikely I'm the only Vonage customer whose reported this problem. I would be helpful if I had better resources for trouble shooting this problem.

Anyone seen this problem and found a cause?

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 8:46 am Post subject:

sounds like a comcast/backbone/internet problem. many people have complained of the same thing. have you searched? what modem do you have and how is your network setup?
pingplotter is a great tool, you should use it for a day or so and post your results. testyourvoip.com, boston server, detailed results is also a good test, and much quicker while you're waiting on pingplotter. post those results too.

Posts: 23 · Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 9:03 am Post subject:

charliep3 wrote:

I have a persistent problem where my outgoing audio is interrupted for about 10 seconds then always comes back. I don't know if this is a Vonage issue, a comcast issue or something else. Friends and family are used to the problem and wait it out. Others often hang up on me. When I talk to tech support about this they have no suggestions. It's unlikely I'm the only Vonage customer whose reported this problem. I would be helpful if I had better resources for trouble shooting this problem.

Anyone seen this problem and found a cause?

This actually was my issue as well, but my outgoing audio would die out within the first 30 seconds of the call. I had the internet connection professionally checked, and it checked out fine [and it was COMCAST.] It went on for nearly 4 months while we went through 4 different DTA units, even going back to the old MTAs they originally used, to no avail. Waiting for tech support got on my nerves, so I cancelled service. They even tried to offer me 3 months free service, to which I replied, "...would be great if the service actually worked."
Two weeks after cancelling, I switched services. Haven't had a single problem yet. [This was back in February.]

Yes, they need to offer more tech suport help ONLINE for those who have a general understanding and don't want to sit and wait for hours on a phone. The service they offer [when it works] is great. They have this opportunity to really run ahead of the pack in this race, if it weren't for their lack of enough/qualified tech support service.

Best of luck.

-Andrew

Posts: 12 · Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 11:26 am Post subject:

Quote:

i was affected by the comments about "the indians not knowing anything much and not knowing how to speak english". it's true that there's indeed a language barrier but these people are trying their best to help you and provide you with good service and i believe that instead of being "ridiculed" they should be appreciated. let's not generalize here. you may have had a bad experience with one or two of them but are they all that bad? every race has its flaws, no one is perfect. let's keep in mind that these people are also human beings though sometimes they may appear as just a "voice" to you.

Ok, that just made me laugh. I have had the same problem as the other folks here when calling customer service. I'm not a racist or a bigot but if you are going to provide customer service to English speaking customers, you may want to hire people who speak and understand English. Last night alone, I was hung up on 6 times. Every single person I spoke with had an accent and was hard to understand. My sister in law is Asian and has a heavy accent. I have no problem understanding her. One of my best friends is Columbian. I have no problems understanding her. As for keeping it in mind that they are human beings, how about you train your people to treat your customers like human beings. I'd get better treatment in jail than I get from most of your service workers. Bottom line, it has nothing to do w/race/creed/color...it has everything to do w/competent workers. Vonage is in short supply of them.

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jul 10, 2004 Posts: 28

WDA1,

Thanks for the feedback about your outgoing audio problem.

Several different routers did not make a difference for me. Interrupted outgoing audio has been a problem from the beginning but was rare when I started the service last June with a motorola adapter and has happened more and more often even with a change to the linksys adapter. The problem also persisted through both 2.4 Ghz and 900 Mhz cordless phones.

I have a hunch that a very short inturruption of some fraction of a second turns into the 10 second interruption because of the way the phone adapter and Vonage server interact with each other.

I hope others on this board with a similar experience will share it. May be someone who reads this board knows what causes the problem. Sooner or later I'll have to find a solution or find another provider.

Posts: 23 · Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 9:28 pm Post subject:

Quote:

Bottom line, it has nothing to do w/race/creed/color...it has everything to do w/competent workers. Vonage is in short supply of them.

Can I get an AMEN?

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 20, 2005 Posts: 7

BlahFrickinBlah wrote:

Quote:

i was affected by the comments about "the indians not knowing anything much and not knowing how to speak english". it's true that there's indeed a language barrier but these people are trying their best to help you and provide you with good service and i believe that instead of being "ridiculed" they should be appreciated. let's not generalize here. you may have had a bad experience with one or two of them but are they all that bad? every race has its flaws, no one is perfect. let's keep in mind that these people are also human beings though sometimes they may appear as just a "voice" to you.

Ok, that just made me laugh. I have had the same problem as the other folks here when calling customer service. I'm not a racist or a bigot but if you are going to provide customer service to English speaking customers, you may want to hire people who speak and understand English. Last night alone, I was hung up on 6 times. Every single person I spoke with had an accent and was hard to understand. My sister in law is Asian and has a heavy accent. I have no problem understanding her. One of my best friends is Columbian. I have no problems understanding her. As for keeping it in mind that they are human beings, how about you train your people to treat your customers like human beings. I'd get better treatment in jail than I get from most of your service workers. Bottom line, it has nothing to do w/race/creed/color...it has everything to do w/competent workers. Vonage is in short supply of them.

I understand your situation. When I wrote that comment before, I am merely stating that we must not be harsh in our judgment. Let's face it- there are reps who are rude but there are also customers who are rude. That is why I said that we are all human beings and none of us is perfect. My intention was for us to be able to see both sides of the situation. I am sorry to hear that your experience with our customer service has not been good and I do agree with you that the customers deserve to expect quality service from us.

Posts: 23 · Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 6:24 am Post subject:

-aShLeYdEiRdRe- wrote:

My intention was for us to be able to see both sides of the situation. I am sorry to hear that your experience with our customer service has not been good and I do agree with you that the customers deserve to expect quality service from us.

I don't thnk that the customers have a problem seeing both sides of the situiation. I think what's REALLY important is that Vonage sees both sides. They're not the ones paying for a shoddy product and poor customer service. Yeah, it may only be $25 bucks a month, but right now, for the customers, that's $25 which could be better spent on quality service and a better product. This is why customers like myself have left Vonage for other services.
Right now, Vonage reminds me of Veruca from 'Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.' They want it ALL and they WANT IT NOW, and they don't care how they get it [With 'it' being the Voip customers.] They're doing this HUGE TV/PRINT/BANNER AD campaign promising great service and quality tech support for EVERYONE, and they just cannot deliver with the limited tech support they have on hand.
It's very simple: If I'm paying my hard-earned money for a product or service, I expect it to work as it's advertised. If it doesn't, then I expect one of two things. Either the problem should be rectified in a QUICK manner [not days or weeks later,] or I should get a quick complete refund [again, not days or weeks later.] The fact that customer service emails and phone calls are sometimes not even replied to until sometimes several days or weeks later is simply BAD BUSINESS on the part of Vonage. If these problems were solved in a matter of a few minutes, I think you would notice that 99% of most customers would not be angry, and would not be rude to whomever finally took their calls or answered the emails.

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 09, 2005 Posts: 16

Glad to hear I'm not the only one with these issues. After sending a fifth e-mail for support in the last couple of weeks I got an automated reply yesterday! Woo Hoo! Never been so excited to see an automated reply. Now lets see how long it takes for someone to actually act on it, much less actually fix the problem! I would call, but I just can't wait on hold for over an hour with a 20% chance of getting something fixed.

I am a techno junkie and love the concept, but I am really starting to think I jumped in way too soon.

Posts: 91 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 08, 2005 Posts: 91

During a recent, desparate situation-- no details, but trust me, I was desparate, I emailed CS four times in that many days before I also got an automated response.

Yes, someone apologized for being tardy in answering the email. However, I got nothing regarding the tech support I needed. I had no phone service, and could not talk to anyone.

However, it was this forum that rescued me, giving me a solution.
Yours is another reason why I believe it is important to have a CS thread.

Legitimate problems, not racist rants can be efficiently solved there.

BTW When the service is going well, it rocks, but sometimes when you get in a bind as I did, the Tech support reeks.

Hang in there.