International Problems

Posts: 85 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 30, 2005 Posts: 85

Tried to make calls to Finland (2 different #'s) and both times, the phones
rang then stopped ringing...then nothing. Customer service told me they are having an international problem and left it at that. She wasn't very helpful...Anyone know about this?

Posts: 85 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 30, 2005 Posts: 85

Nobody, HUH?

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 22, 2005 Posts: 4

Been having the exact same problems with mobile numbers in the Czech Republic. Haven't been able to place a successful call after trying multiple times every day since Friday (March 11, 2005). Thank goodness we still have the Sam's Club calling card that we used before getting Vonage - every call that we've attempted using this card connects first time.

Called Vonage support on Saturday and gave up after more than 45 minutes on hold. Sent an e-mail from their site and got nothing but an automated reply. Called on Sunday and got through after a 35 minute wait on hold. Even though I was in the tech support queue - I was only able to report my problem to the CSR and was told that I'd get a call back. 24 hours later, no call back.

My wife called on Monday and spent over an hour on hold before she got through to someone. They told her that they had no record of our problem. She got tough with them and got transferred to level two support - other than have her unplug and reconnect the phone adapter (even though she was making the support call on our Vonage line) the only thing that they did was provide her with an incident number and a promise that they'd look into it and we should expect an e-mail when the problem was fixed. So far nothing except a request for the numbers that we have been unable to reach - no response to other e-mails requesting an update on their progress.

I understand the technical problems, what I don't understand is the lack of customer service. Why does it take an hour to get through? Why do they offer e-mail based support if they disregard it. Why do they even bother to take information (after almost an hour on hold) about a problem if there's no record of it the very next day.

For us, the only reason to keep a Voip or land line is for international calls to mobile numbers. If Vonage can't reassure me the problem will be fixed in a reasonable amount of time then there's no need to keep their service.

Posts: 435 · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 3:34 pm Post subject:

Not to be light on the subject. Vonage is a Voip company and not a e-mail ISP type company.

Can it be expected to handle both? Handle Voip and e-mail?

Just a thought

Posts: 482 · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 4:34 pm Post subject:

What kind of logic is that? Vonage isn't a financial institution either, but somehow they manage to process our payments every month.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 22, 2005 Posts: 4

First the good news, I called to follow up on the problem that we've been having and was able to get transferred to someone in Tech Support. He told me that he would go make test calls to the three numbers we had been unable to reach. A few minutes later he came back and told me that he was able to reach two of the numbers. So it looks like the problem is solved and I would have been happy if the call ended at that point.

But now it gets weird - he tells me that the third number gave him a message that indicated that this number can never be reached by Vonage or a normal PSTN line and that he verified this be receiving the same message when dialing it from a PSTN line. I explained we'd called and gotten through to the number at least 100 times using Vonage in the past, we'd never gotten a message during the time that we've been having the problem - just ringing until a fast busy, that it was the same mobile carrier as the one of the other numbers and that we called it yesterday using a calling card.

He then had to tell me that using a calling card wasn't a valid test because while Vonage and PSTN lines reach a number the same way, calling cards bypass this entire process - so the only valid comparison when Vonage can't reach a number is to use a PSTN line and see if it can. He also said that something must have changed recently and we'll not be able to call that number in the future - we should keep the calling card for that number.

After finishing with the support call, I had my wife call the numbers to test. First, she tried to reach her mother's phone - the "unreachable number" and did indeed receive the mysterious message. Which said in English (first) and then Czech that the phone was off the network. Because they don't have voicemail accounts on their phones this is the standard message that we get when the phone is off or out of range. The other calls went through fine and her dad confirmed that her mom's phone was being recharged and was turned off. An hour later her phone was charged and she was able to speak with her Mom on the number that would never work with Vonage.

Again, I think that Vonage prices are great and when it works, it works fine. My complaint is with the customer service side. This tech took a winning situation and by his passing the blame to everyone else, inane fabrications and argumentative attitude has me shaking my head.

Just as a test, I was able to reach a Packet8 technical support rep in less than three minutes on hold. If they can port my Vonage number over, I'll take a hard look at paying 4 cents more per minute for my international calls through them. I wanna love Vonage, but they make it so difficult every time I've ever had to deal with one of their employees.