Has Anyone used their RT31P2 w/ a ROTARY phone?

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Apr 21, 2005 Posts: 34

Well this is very frustrating......I had called Vonage previously and told them my plans to purchase a used VT1005V on eBay. I asked if I could transfer the MAC address. They said that would be no problem. Well I received my VT1005V and now Vonage tells me they can't swap MAC addresses. Very annoying. I am going to try and call them back to see if I can make any other progress.

Any thoughts?

Posts: 90 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: May 05, 2005 Posts: 90

From what I can see, in 99% of the cases where people have "trouble" with Vonage, it is because they are trying to do something exotic or unusual or overly-tecchy.

The system is set up to do things a standard way. Follow that path, and you'll have better luck. When you disrupt the flow, expect trouble.

The price of the Vonage box is cheap enough. I cannot understand why you'd want to risk buying something on eBay (defective? returned? you never know) and then try to reconfigure it to work with your system.

Trying to do esoteric things and expecting Vonage to supply the tech support is unrealistic. This is not cost-effective for Vonage. Why should they provide support for this? I'm certainly not going to pay for it (in terms of higher monthly service costs) thank you.

I signed up for the regular residential service, took delivery of their Linksys box, plugged it into my network and phone system, and Voila - dial tone on the first try. Works like a charm.

As we used to say in the lab, if it works, don't try to "fix" it...

Sell the thing you bought back on eBay, and then follow the well-worn path. $68 for a Linksys box from Vonage is hardly breaking the bank.

Good Luck.

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Apr 21, 2005 Posts: 34

I hear what you're saying. I just wish they would have told me that it was not possible the first time and I would have figured out an alternative on my end.

Posts: 90 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: May 05, 2005 Posts: 90

What you are trying to do is like calling Dominos Pizza and then asking them to deliver escargot.

Yea, I suppose it is possible. But the guy answering the phone is going to go "huh?".

Stick with a medium pepperoni, you'll have better luck.

Vonage costs $25 a month simply because they keep costs low.

This means that customer service is in Bangalor India, not Bangor Maine.

It also means that they basically shrug off customers who have difficulty with installation, want to use exotic or non-standard equipment or whatever.

Let them go back to Telco. It ain't worth $100 to $500 in customer service calls to make a "conquest" sale from Ma Bell. Even in India, Customer service calls are not cheap, when you count the overhead, etc.

The telcos HAVE to take all the customers who sign up. Vonage can cherry-pick the low-maintenance customers and make good money at low prices.

Once you get beyond "the customer is always right" you can really start to save some serious money. It helps if you've run your own business - you'll understand what I mean.

In any business, if you can get rid of the 5% of customers who take up 95% of your time, you can really run an efficient and profitable operation. It is a pretty clever business model, if you think about it.

Fire you client! To many this sounds like an anathema. But it works in almost any business.

Wouldn't it be great if McDonalds could just shunt aside those time-wasters who order their Big Mac with no onions during the lunchtime rush? Probably the same folks who sue over hot coffee. I mean, it would make the world a better place for the rest of us who don't complain, whine, and moan and want to make themselves the exception to every rule.

If you really figured out what your time is worth, it ain't worth cutting corners on stuff like this to save a couple of bucks. Just fill in the forms, wait for the equipment, and plug it in. If it don't work, try another telco.

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Apr 21, 2005 Posts: 34

All is well in rotary dialing land. I picked up a Mitel Smart-1 PAV. Only $27. What this box does is listen to what the phone dials (DTMF or pulse) and then it translates it to DTMF and dials out. This only scratches the surface as this box does a million more things. Programming it can be tricky. I also tried the pulse to tone converter from http://www.sandman.com. But it didn't work. That piece was $47.

Posts: 42 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 20, 2005 Posts: 42

RobertPlattBell, excuse me if I am allergic to onions. Next time, I will order no onions, extra sauce, no grease, etc. Rolling Eyes