So I talked to a customer service rep....

Posts: 148 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 148

Only took 37 minutes to get through, so that was a surprise. I told the tech about my problems with choppy audio and disconnects that seem to happen mostly in the afternoon, and he said he was going to change the packet size from 30 to 10. I told him I had already tried all the quality settings and it didn't make a difference, but he said he wasn't changing that. Will test it out tomorrow afternoon and see what happens, then report back here....

Posts: 156 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 30, 2005 Posts: 156

Good Luck...I hope that works for you!!

Posts: 148 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 148

Talking to the wife over Vonage right now, sounds slightly more digitized, but the choppyness is gone (could just be time of day too). One strange anomaly- her voice slowed down once, that was weird.... like someone putting a tape player on a slower speed.

Will try to up the call quality later tonight or tomorrow and see if that affects it (currently at 50kbps).

Posts: 148 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 148

Well, I logged into Vonage, and wouldn't you know it, the rep lowered my call quality settings from 50 to 30. Is that all he did? Is there a seperate packet size setting on the router that only Vonage has access to? I told him that changing the bandwidth saver setting didn't make any difference in the afternoon when the phone was unusable because of dropped audio. Did he not listen to me at all, or did he change both the BS and packet size?

Posts: 148 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 148

Apparently the idiot rep that I talked to completely blew off everything I was telling him. I DID NOT want them to change my quality settings, as at the 30 setting the problem is worse in the afternoon than at the 50 setting. He told me he was changing the packet size. I asked him if that meant he was changing the bandwidth saver settings, and he said no. But he changed them, and apparently that is all he changed. I switched it back to the 50 setting and the choppyness is back.

I would leave it at the 30 setting and even be happy, but that won't solve the problem. At 30, I still cannot understand anything the other person is saying in the middle of the day. It gets better toward evening and is perfect after midnight. This is obviously a traffic congestion problem. I think Vonage is growing much too fast to be reliable right now.

What I would really like, just once, is for a customer service rep to actually listen to me. I know what I am talking about, and I know what I have tried and did not work. Worst of all, don't freaking lie to me and tell me you are not doing something when that is exactly what you are doing.

Posts: 318 · Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 8:35 pm Post subject:

Sandman333 wrote:

I would leave it at the 30 setting and even be happy, but that won't solve the problem. At 30, I still cannot understand anything the other person is saying in the middle of the day. It gets better toward evening and is perfect after midnight. This is obviously a traffic congestion problem. I think Vonage is growing much too fast to be reliable right now.

If this were a congestion problem on Vonage's end, then others (like myself) would be having this same problem. I am not.

My call quality has been crystal clear, 24 hours a day. I make a number of phone calls. If it is congestion (the time of day makes it sound like congestion could be the cause) then it is at your ISP or some gateway between your ISP and Vonage.

Posts: 148 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 148

If you call CS, and push 2 5 2 at the respective prompts, you get the tech section dealing with choppy audio. Then, they tell you this can be corrected by changing you settings on the BS option (how poetic). Then the automated voice tells you that if you have already tried that, to press 1. This gets you to an actual rep.

So, if I have already tried that fix, why would the rep try that again? It obviously isn't going to work! HELLO????

Now I have been trying to get back through for 20 minutes and always get a busy signal.

It is becoming more and more apparent that Vonage does not have near the capacity (in humans and trasmission capability) for their growth rate. I'm about to dump them...

Posts: 148 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 148

otaku wrote:

Sandman333 wrote:

I would leave it at the 30 setting and even be happy, but that won't solve the problem. At 30, I still cannot understand anything the other person is saying in the middle of the day. It gets better toward evening and is perfect after midnight. This is obviously a traffic congestion problem. I think Vonage is growing much too fast to be reliable right now.

If this were a congestion problem on Vonage's end, then others (like myself) would be having this same problem. I am not.

My call quality has been crystal clear, 24 hours a day. I make a number of phone calls. If it is congestion (the time of day makes it sound like congestion could be the cause) then it is at your ISP or some gateway between your ISP and Vonage.

That is a possibility. However, I still wish the rep would actually listen to the customer. I might as well have not said anything. They knew why I was calling by the prompts I pushed to get there.

I am located in central IL, which means I am likely on different trunks (or whatever they are called) than you are in FL- so the problem could be up here.

Will try taking the Vonage box to a friend's house. He has DSL on a different ISP than mine. If it works there, then I know it is my ISP. If it doesn't, it is Vonage.

Posts: 318 · Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 8:48 pm Post subject:

Sandman333 wrote:

It is becoming more and more apparent that Vonage does not have near the capacity (in humans and trasmission capability) for their growth rate. I'm about to dump them...

To defend Vonage: Their transmission capacity is fine. If it weren't, there would be more than a handful of people here complaining about this particular problem.

But I agree about the lack of humans. As does Vonage. And I guess they are doing the best they can. It's tough to find and hire competent individuals with good customer service skills. Personally, I think Vonage should start considering (the dreaded) outsourcing solution. Either to a company like Convergys or to an offshore company. At least temporarily until they are able to hire enough of their own people to handle this heightened demand. They are stabbing themselves in the feet here...

Posts: 148 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 148

There are a lot of complaints about inability to make and receive calls, dropped calls, etc...

Those could be related.