Can't wait to bail on Vonage, shabby service...

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 14, 2009 Posts: 3

REALLY shabby support!

This is a cut/paste of a message that I wrote at an "I hate Vonage" website:

I had pretty much flawless performance from Vonage until I moved cross-town.

I set up the EXACT SAME EQUIPMENT that I had in the first place.
I also consider myself pretty advanced as far as a tech-issues and I tend to understand most if not all of what's being thrown at me...this tends to make things even more frustrating when you are dealing with an IT guy who is clearly reading from a prepared set of instructions...ie; "Sir, please unplug your modem...".

I was experiencing dropped calls after 3-5 minutes of phone conversation every time.

Anyway I won't bore you with the gist of the first conversation with a tech that actually resulted in some progress and he determined that the problem was not in my setup or equipment but upon running a trace-route he said it was a Vonage server and that it would take between 1-3 days to reroute and fix.

OK fine...

After the 1-3 day time period I got an email from them saying to try my service, I did and it was exactly the same.

I called back and was bumped-up to an "advanced tech" and he began by trying to get me to start doing the same standard set routine for trouble shooting that they do with everyone. I told him that it was determined that it was not me (by their support guy), but he insisted that I do these things. I told him over and over that it wasn't me...I should say that this last tech that I spoke(?) with was an absolute CAVEMAN! He was actually a mouth-breather. All I could hear over the phone was heavy breathing like a prank perv call! When I would say "Hello, hello, can you hear me?" He would leave me hanging for a minute or two before mumbling, "Yea, I hear you". I'm paying for this? RUDE...needs phone manner training 4-sure.

Long story short in their follow up email they feel that it is my modem that will not support Voip (even though it did for 3 years, with Vonage!), and that I should replace it and call them back.

I took the Vonage router and tossed it

I would never have dealings with Vonage again...I'm only sorry I paid for the full year. I don't even want to bother trying to get a refund. From what I've read all over it wouldn't be worth the frustration and time for the $50 i'd get back after the penalties and whatever other hidden fees those idiots would hit me with.

I've since gone with a full time cell through Boost and now I've got the best of both worlds, loving it!

I'm just forwarding all my Vonage calls to my cell at this point.

Really bad experience!

Probably worth absolutely nothing because like every other large phone company I've had dealings with they seem to always be right but I plan on copy/pasting this message in an email to Vonage...who knows, maybe the right person will read it...

Um, yea, right.

Posts: 350 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 350

If you post the information in the message "What to post when having technical trouble with Vonage...." someone here might be able to help you out.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 14, 2009 Posts: 3

Thanks I appreciate the reply but I already have found help with Vonage...

and that is to never use Vonage again!

What garbage.

I just posted to air things out and put it to rest for myself and never think of Vonage again after. LOL!

Have a great weekend and thanks for the reply.

Posts: 183 · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 1:44 pm Post subject:

What is the point of your post? Are you simply venting or flaming? If your Vonage worked flawless until you moved... I'd tell you to hold the phone. Maybe you should work with your ISP and not Vonage since Vonage doesn't control the quality of your connection... ultimately you and your ISP do.

I seriously cannot take people that complain about how awful Vonage is when they do all the wrongs things to resolve the issue. The only thing I'll give you is that the first level Vonage tech support should've picked up on the environmental change and pointed you towards your ISP.

If you've already prepaid for a year, why not try to troubleshoot your issue and get your money's worth?

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 14, 2009 Posts: 3

Yup, just venting.

The first tech that I was on the phone with for 2+ hours (great tech BTW...), said after he ran a trace route that "THE PROBLEM IS DEFINITELY ON OUR END, IT IS ONE OF OUR SERVERS WHERE YOUR CALLS ARE BEING ROUTED".

So I seriously can't take people that complain about people that complain seriously WHEN THEY CLEARLY DON'T READ THE WHOLE POST AND SEE THE PART WHERE THE Vonage TECH SAYS ITS OUR EQUIPMENT"!!!

Posts: 656 · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 7:46 pm Post subject:

Quote:

"THE PROBLEM IS DEFINITELY ON OUR END, IT IS ONE OF OUR SERVERS WHERE YOUR CALLS ARE BEING ROUTED".

Level 1 and Level 2 Tech support agents are NOT qualified to make those statements. They are NOT Network Engineers. They cannot fix problems. They are only used to answer the most basic questions and help customers plug the blue wire into the blue port and the yellow wire into the yellow ports. As I have said many times before, the Vonage border routers will drop ICMP since it has the lowest possible priority in order or protocols.

So anyone running a traceroute or ping who does not know their a$$ from their elbow will see high latency and assume they see a problem. Only a true Systems or Network engineer who understands the purpose of border routers and ICMP, TCP/ IP, UDP, RTP, and BGP protocols could say there is a problem with Vonage server.

The fact that there are 2.7 million customers which could possibly route through the same border routers or the same Media Relays would mean that ALL 2.7 million customers would be experiencing the same problem.

It is even more evident that your current provider has you on an over saturated node which is why if you had the same provider on the other side of town, you didn't have a problem. The problem only started after your location change as you stated. Assuming your using the same cable modem and ISP, the issue would definitely point to an overcrowded node.

Posts: 38 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jan 24, 2009 Posts: 38

I am at a lost with respect to all the telecommunication taxes we pay on our bill (7.00$) roughly and the position of this company is they are not an ISP but rather a telephone co "that is what I have been told by" some of the fine NJ executive response team this week.

One would think since they are paying these type of taxs "that normal phone co charge" they would be able to help resolve network issues either directly or indirectly by communicating the nature of the problem to the ISP in question. Sadly this is not the case "at least from my recent experience" and this leaves me with serious reservation to setting up business lines or even keeping the Vonage service.

Up until this year I have had no problems with sevice but when they did arise resolution became very complicated.

IMO