Wiring my apartment for Vonage - plus editorial on cust svc

Posts: 318

Hello,

I recently had enough with my phone provider, Sprint, and am waiting for my Vonage equipment to arrive (hopefully sometime early next week).

I do live in an apartment complex, but I believe I may be able to wire just my apartment for Vonage once I get my device working and switch over to cable Internet. Here is why:

My telephone network interface appears to be in my apartment, in fact it appears to be integrated as a part of one of my telephone jacks. It looks like a big telephone jack, but at the bottom there are two small RJ-11 wires. One is labelled "Line 1" the other "Line 2". If I unplug the jack from Line 1, all telephone service in my apartment is disrupted (including DSL service).

I am posting to see if anybody has any experience with a network device of this type. Would it be safe to disconnect the lines and then either plug Vonage into the "network-in" for Line 1 or into any other telephone jack in my apartment? (There is no second line installed in my apartment, so Line 2 is, I believe, there for any future upgrades.)

Thanks for the assistance.

On an editorial note: A lot of people have written complaining about Vonage's customer service. I admit I waited on hold a while when signing up for service, and was even passed through a few different people before one was able to open my account. But I believe Vonage will be able to offer service that is far superior to Sprint's.

What Sprint did to me:
* Signed up for DSL service, I asked and was told I would not be under contract...Sprint illegally put me on a contract anyway, without my knowledge or consent
* Bait-and-switched on my DSL service plan (I was quoted one rate, charged another)
* Bait-and-switched on my ability to change long distance providers without being charged extra
* Slamming me (changing my long distance provider to Sprint) and charging me the "casual" long distance rate, which was up to $2 per minute for US long distance calls.

I really think Vonage will offer me customer service that will be superior to Sprint Smile

And I don't believe anyone has accused them of slamming or overcharging, they seem to be very upfront with their unlimited plan, even quoting me the taxes I should expect to be charged.

Luckily, I also keep a pre-paid cell phone, just in case I lose service (as I did after each hurricane last year).

Posts: 35 · Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 3:17 pm Post subject:

Sounds like you are getting close. When you unplug the RJ11 cable and your Sprint phone service goes away, that is the first step - disconnecting from the phone company.

After you disconnect that cable you should be able to connect a cable from the Vonage box into the nearest wall phone outlet to provide dialtone to the other outlets.

Kevin

Posts: 22 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 27, 2005 Posts: 22

I don't see it in your post but I assume you switched to cable for broadband.

Posts: 318

otaku wrote:

I do live in an apartment complex, but I believe I may be able to wire just my apartment for Vonage once I get my device working and switch over to cable Internet. Here is why:

yes, of course! i want to TOTALLY get rid of sprint.

Posts: 492

This may help with the apt. wiring:
http://www.vonage.com/help_knowledgeBase_article.php?article=649&category=0

Thanks for a positive comment RE: customer service. Past complaints have beat the subject to death. It's nice to hear something positive.

How does your landlord feel about you playing with the telco interconnection box? I hope you asked first.

Sorry you caught up with Sprint. I'm sure you're planning to drop them at first opportunity. Cable modem is the best. I'll never give up mine.

Posts: 47

mbhn5204 wrote:

Thanks for a positive comment RE: customer service. Past complaints have beat the subject to death. It's nice to hear something positive.

Well, I think that speaks for itself - if there are SO many posts regarding the poor quality of customer service -doesn't that tell you something? Customer service MAKES the company. I don't think the rants about poor customer service should be swept under the rug. I love my Vonage service - but I dread ever having to contact customer service.

Posts: 318 · Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 12:59 am Post subject:

when people get good customer service, they seldom comment on it. i used to do a lot of customer service, and for every negative complaint you receive there are typically 10 others who also have a negative complaint and 20 others who had a positive experience. people typically won't comment if they get what they were expecting Smile

but when compared to traditional phone service providers, such as sprint or qwest or at&t, vonage's customer service has, in my experience, been far superior. and i really like how they are very clear on the upfront costs (unlike my experiences with Sprint...)

Posts: 47 · Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 7:33 pm Post subject:

I agree that many people don't acknowledge good customer support - but there are some people (like myself) who really make a point to call attention to good customer service. As I have said in other posts - I REALLy want Vonage to succeed and catch up with the demand - but right now their customer service lacks. I could call QWEST right now and get a live operator within 5 mins whereas with Vonage (so far) I have yet to talk to an actual human and wait times range between 30-90 mins. I'm still waiting for two responses from emails sent a couple weeks ago.

But - I'm hanging in there because I LOVE Vonage so far!! GO VONAGE!!

Posts: 20

Jerry@ wrote:

Well, I think that speaks for itself - if there are SO many posts regarding the poor quality of customer service -doesn't that tell you something?

Yes, it does tell us something. It tells us that there are some that have had bad experiences and that they all want to share them as loudly as possible. You can't infer anything other than that.

My understanding is that Vonage has several hundred thousand customers already. The ones that got treated badly and take it to the 'net are not a statistically valid sample of the entire customer base.

The same thing can be said about just about any product/service. When the whole iPod battery thing occurred, did a few people complaining about it mean that the vast majority of iPod owners were just quietly enjoying their little white boxes. The same thing applies to Rio's Karma - if you believe the naysayers on various fora, every one of those self-destructs with a bad hard drive if you so much as breathe on it (mine's been perfectly reliable).

What makes the pattern worse in this case is that every Vonage customer is guaranteed to have an internet connection, so they all have the ability to express their frustrations on the intarweb. That's what it's for, right? Very Happy

Posts: 47 · Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 8:14 pm Post subject:

You're talking more about the quality of a product where I'm talking about quality of a company being able to provide quality customer service. People who have had bad experiences have every right to post on these boards and Vonage should take note - which I don't doubt they are. There's a difference between when you buy a product and it doesn't work but are able to contact customer service - and when you buy a product (service in Vonage's case) that works well but has a big lack in customer service & support. If I had a problem with my iPod, I know I wouldn't have to wait 30mins to and hour to reach a cust. service agent at Apple. And I also know if I have a problem with my Vonage service that I will and have had to wait long periods of time to reach a semi-helpful cust. service rep. True - the postings on this forum by unhappy customers aren't statistically the majority - but my point is not to ignore them just because they are unhappy with the support they received or didn't receive.