Vonage just "dropped the ball"

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 10, 2009 Posts: 5

Not sure how many of you used it, but I got a very disturbing voicemail from Vonage earlier today concerning Vonage Talk. Basically what it amounts to, Vonage used it's ALL of it's customers to test this thing and is now only going to offer it people who have the "more expensive" plans. I really don't like the idea of them using me and thousands of other customers as guinea pigs then telling us we have to pay more to use it.

Posts: 830 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 830

I am not very happy with Vonage in discontinuing Vonage Talk, alpha product or not.

Vonage just moved a little closer to being a replaceable widget.

It may be time to review any differences between Vonage and my cable company that I really care about and see what kind of deal I can cut with my cable company for a bundle.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 12, 2008 Posts: 1

I too am not happy about this. I am seriously thinking of finding other alternative to Vonage. They are starting to be more just like the traditional phone companies. Vonage are users. We should at least be grandfathered into service since we were testers. I have been with Vonage since 2004 and they only continue to get worse.

Posts: 63 · Full Forum Member Joined: Nov 02, 2007 Posts: 63

I guess I feel lucky in that Vonage didn't force me to try Vonage talk, thus making me feel used right now.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 10, 2009 Posts: 5

sethook wrote:

I guess I feel lucky in that Vonage didn't force me to try Vonage talk, thus making me feel used right now.

No, Vonage didn't "force" anyone to use Vonage Talk. But, they did make it available to ALL of it's users for testing purposes. It was a useful tool that they indeed "used" the folks who utilized for their own testing purposes then yanked it out from under a majority of the folks that did the testing for them.

Nice way of saying "thank you for helping us" i guess.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 10, 2009 Posts: 5

chinaboy wrote:

I too am not happy about this. I am seriously thinking of finding other alternative to Vonage. They are starting to be more just like the traditional phone companies. Vonage are users. We should at least be grandfathered into service since we were testers. I have been with Vonage since 2004 and they only continue to get worse.

Amen to that. There are a few other Voip companies available to me and I am looking into switching to one of them. I am, however, going to give Vonage the opportunity to "fix" this first.

Posts: 168 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Apr 09, 2007 Posts: 168

Vonage Talk has been around for a while. While many people state they are "testing" the app, they aren't. They are just using it to make free calls from a PC. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with that but most people are not testing it and providing feedback to Vonage.

If Vonage Talk was removed, it most likely means that something is in the works and that something will be the cmpanion client and it just makes sense it will become part of the Vonage World plan.

Just my 2 cents.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 10, 2009 Posts: 5

whatumean wrote:

Vonage Talk has been around for a while. While many people state they are "testing" the app, they aren't. They are just using it to make free calls from a PC. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with that but most people are not testing it and providing feedback to Vonage.

If Vonage Talk was removed, it most likely means that something is in the works and that something will be the cmpanion client and it just makes sense it will become part of the Vonage World plan.

Just my 2 cents.

Well I MIGHT be able to buy that except when I addressed this issue with Vonage directly, they sent me an email back thanking me for assisting them with the testing process. My issue is not that they are taking Vonage Talk out and replacing it with Vonage Companion. My issue is that they are going to charge folks to use it who are not on the Vonage Pro plan.

Vonage Talk DID NOT allow people who don't have Vonage service to make "free" calls. You had to use your Vonage account ID and password for it to connect.

The point is, I am certain a majority of the people using this thing were/are on the same plan I am and quite frankly, they are flat out wrong for charging ANY of their customers any additional fees to use it.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 10, 2009 Posts: 5

cms659 wrote:

whatumean wrote:

Vonage Talk has been around for a while. While many people state they are "testing" the app, they aren't. They are just using it to make free calls from a PC. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with that but most people are not testing it and providing feedback to Vonage.

If Vonage Talk was removed, it most likely means that something is in the works and that something will be the cmpanion client and it just makes sense it will become part of the Vonage World plan.

Just my 2 cents.

Well I MIGHT be able to buy that except when I addressed this issue with Vonage directly, they sent me an email back thanking me for assisting them with the testing process. My issue is not that they are taking Vonage Talk out and replacing it with Vonage Companion. My issue is that they are going to charge folks to use it who are not on the Vonage Pro plan.

Vonage Talk DID NOT allow people who don't have Vonage service to make "free" calls. You had to use your Vonage account ID and password for it to connect.

The point is, I am certain a majority of the people using this thing were/are on the same plan I am and quite frankly, they are flat out wrong for charging ANY of their customers any additional fees to use it.

Correction - I stated they were going to charge folks not on the Pro plan - I mispoke. At this point the ONLY plan Vonage Companion is available at all on is the Vonage Pro plan. Their email to me stated that they MIGHT offer it to other Vonage plans at a reduced rate in the furture. Thought I better clarify that.