Success story... for a change.

Posts: 81 · Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 9:31 pm Post subject: Success story... for a change.

I've been reading these forums for the last week or so now, and have seen quite a few horror stories. I ordered Vonage on Friday afternoon and was getting kinda worried if I would be another "victim" or what. Well, I'm happy to report just the opposite.

I received my linksys RT31P2 this afternoon... and within 5 or 10 minutes I was making and receiving calls Very Happy

Just thought I'd share in case some of you are a little freaked out about trying out the service. I had an existing linksys wireless b router (BEFW11S4) and cable internet with Cox Communications here in Vegas. I have 1 computer wired to the router, 1 computer in another room using a wireless USB adapter, and a laptop using a built in wireless adapter. I'm also using a Uniden TRU8885 cordless phone system with 3 handsets. I followed the very simple instructions on Vonage's help site

http://www.vonage.com/help_knowledgeBase_article.php?category=45&article=61

and it couldn't have been easier. Followed the instructions to the letter and everything worked perfectly with no problems. I do have a slight hissing noise that I was able to solve by plugging in a land line phone to port 2 on the phone adapter and leaving it off the hook. But apart from that, no problems whatsoever.

Posts: 222 · Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 9:36 pm Post subject:

Congrats.

Like you, from reading the posts here I was getting nervous before I received my adapter. I had taken pages of notes from this forum about things that might go wrong or settings I might need to make or adjust. But when the unit came, I just plugged it into my existing router, and it worked instantly!

Reading the problems on this forum is probably scaring off a lot of potential Vonage users. It's good to see some posts like yours about positive experiences too.

Fletcher

Posts: 336 · Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 11:03 pm Post subject:

I have read about the notorious hissing noise heard on the LinkSys voice adapters. At the time that I ordered my service from Vonage they were distributing Motorola adapters, and I'm happy to say that mine is extremely clear. There is never any hissing. There are no noises.

I wonder why Vonage would have switched to a voice terminal that appears to have noise problems?!? Eek

Posts: 52 · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 8:20 am Post subject:

I have had Vonage for a week and a half now and have not experienced any problems. I purchased the PAP2 from a local store for its 1 year warranty. I was happy to find my signup fees were only the first month, plus recovery fees, $27.24. I do have to send rebates in, but that's life these days.

I am using WOW! Internet and Cable (www.wowway.com) which has VERY reliable bandwidth and service. I think most of the problems people have is with their ISP. My service has been flawless. My experience has been so positive, a friend signed up last night and called me on his new Vonage phone.

My one call to Customer Service with a question not addressed in a FAQ took about 10 minutes on hold on a Sunday, which I think is acceptable at this point.

Posts: 605 · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 11:10 am Post subject:

Im going on my second week with vonage with the Linksys RT31P2 router/phone adapter and have had no major issues. The first few days the name on the caller id didnt work but it was noted on the status page that 813 area code was having problems with that. After 2 days it was fixed and everything is working great. Now im going to have the landline ported over to vonage and am just waiting for that to complete. I think alot of people have problems because their internet connection isnt up to speed. I have RoadRunner in Tampa with 5000/384 and have no problems at all. Now to get a UPS for my router/cablemodem so I dont loose phone service during afternoon thunderstorms in Tampa Smile

Power goes out almost every other day for a few mins.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 31, 2005 Posts: 7

I received my Vonage equipment on Monday 1/31 and I was up and running in less than 5 minutes. Everything is working fine. I also got my 911 service confirmation email on the same day. I have had no issues with my Linksys router, either.
I have started recommending it to my friends and family and am planning on pulling the plug on my Verizon local phone service very soon.

The only pitfalls were the inability to port my old number and the lack of availability of a local number.

Posts: 54 · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 3:09 pm Post subject: Positivity is good!

Understandably, people do tend to rant on this forum about negative experiences with Vonage. I have been a Vonage customer since June of 2003, at which time outages were somewhat common, and a lot of the features were not really well published. I got a Cisco ATA186 in a white box, with virtually NO documentation from Vonage whatsoever. Just a manual written by Cisco about the adapter, which was really useless considering the thing was pre-programmed from the factory, I plugged it in, and it worked.

I went into Vonage knowing that it was a new technology, and I was willing to accept that fact. I now work in the telecom industry, and I KNOW that VoIP is where the future is. I came from a situation where my telephone company, Qwest, had been taking advantage of me in several different ways for about 5 years. Their own mistakes were literally costing ME money. I happily switched to Vonage when I learned that I had a choice other than Qwest - here in Denver, our choices are VERY limited.

You know, a couple of weeks ago, I called Vonage for tech support. I waited on hold for 55 minutes. A rep answered the phone, and told me she was NOT tech support, she was just customer service, the call was routed to her because tech support was swamped. I was highly irritated. But when I remember what Qwest was doing to me, I'm willing to bear with Vonage as they grow. I may be unreasonably patient, but I enjoy the services and features that Vonage provides, and frankly, I very rarely need to call them for help.

They're now advertising on TV, and all over the internet. They're growing because people are realizing they have a choice now. The technology isn't as refined as our plain old telephone systems, which have been in existance now, in one form or another, for what, 50, 60 years?

The customer service could be better. But come on people, they ARE a phone company. The way I look at it, everyone will have customer service issues with WHOEVER is their phone provider. Personally, I would rather have customer service issues with Vonage, than with Qwest.

Vonage definitely isn't for everybody. It's helpful if you have some technical aptitude, networking experience, etc. But generally speaking, the services I get from Vonage are SO much better than what I had to put up with Qwest, I just overlook the irritations. Again, they ARE a phone company.

Just my two cents. Well, maybe 3 considering I kinda went on...

Smile

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 02, 2005 Posts: 2

I take it none of you have fax machines that are now 90% useless, have a Dish Network DVR that REQUIRES a phone connection to be able to use the guide that no longer functions, or home security systems that will go flaky.

Vonage was great for voice only, I've had it for a long time for my studio, and have been fairly happy with it considering the low price. However, after spending lots of money adding a fax line, adding a new voice line for the house, and cancelling my POTS phone service, it looks like I'm going to have to pull the plug on it and go crawling back to the phone company. I'll probably keep my studio's voice line and 1-800 number, unless the phone company can get close to the price.

I even asked Vonage if I could forward my fax line to a free eFax account for incoming faxes, but never got a response from them. Forwarding a fax line is not an option in the control panel.

It's fine if it doesn't work for data/fax connections, but they shouldn't tell you it works for all fax machines to get you to sign up and pay the setup fees. They should also tell you up front that your dish TV recorder will probably not work either. I'm sure it must have been in the fine print somewhere.

Posts: 336 · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 6:24 pm Post subject:

I think it is good to complain about the flaws and problems. If nobody complains, the service will never improve. It's the best way for a company to know how well they are doing, and it gives them extremely valuable information on how to make things better. It's also being given to them for free! It's fine to say people complaining is negative, but not complaining can have a very negative affect on a company. It keeps them in line. It's the people who don't complain, but just pull the plug on the services that you really have to watch out for. Although it is the people who do complain who get all of the heat from people who feel nobody has the right to complain. It's a no-win battle!

I have been with Vonage for almost a year now and I love them. They do have their problems, but so far I have not experienced anything devastating.

I have also used my line to transmit data and it worked fine. Faxes work, and my alarm system works. I think this all depends on the quality of your ISP. If your bandwidth is low, then yes you will have problems. There are websites that allow you to test your bandwidth to see if your ISP is a good one for VoIP. This may at least give you some answers. If you see that your internet connection speeds are very low, then of course there will be telephone problems because you are transmitting through the internet.

Posts: 7 · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 6:52 pm Post subject:

DarKev;

Are you saying you are able to send data (analog modem) over your connection? I haven't been able to do that. My wife works for the govt. and has to connect her laptop to an 800 number several times a week. The called modem answers, but they can't communicate. I scheduled my local service to be disconnected in a few weeks, but now I may have to keep it, unless (1) I can make the modem work over Vonage, or (2) Uncle Sam will allow her to connect directly through the Internet.

Vonage speed tests typically show download around 1.22 Mbps, upload around 350-380 Mbps.

I e-mailed Vonage to see if their $10/month fax line will also work with an analog modem, but am still waiting for a reply.