New Business start-up..Is vonage a smart reliable decision??

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 03, 2005 Posts: 1

I'm a newbie to VoIP. I know that Vonage is supposed to be the most reliable Co. around but I just so happened to hit this site when I'm seeing the postings discussing the problems with their website etc...
As a new business owner I need reliability. Is vonage reliable enough for business use?????? Honesty please.

Thanks much in advance!!!!
Mark

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 03, 2005 Posts: 4

seeing that they had a system wide outage today, no i would not recommend it for your business as the only phone.

Posts: 605 · Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 2:42 pm Post subject:

I have been with vonage since January and have not had any major issues. Although no major issues I would probley choose a landline for a business incomming line and Vonage for outbound calls and LD.

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Nov 10, 2004 Posts: 28

KDWycha wrote:

I have been with vonage since January and have not had any major issues. Although no major issues I would probley choose a landline for a business incomming line and Vonage for outbound calls and LD.

This is a good recommendation. Today I am using my cellphone exclusively as my Vonage line has been sporadically avaialble.

Something else to consider: Your $20/mo. or so in savings with Vonage will seem pointless when your customers can't reach you for an entire day. If you are after the FCC-mandated "99.999%" reliability, you'd better pick a company that's regulated by the FCC (i.e. a Bell company or the like).

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 5:44 pm Post subject:

Since when has a Bell been 99.999% reliable? I still have outages from my local carriers a couple times a year.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 03, 2005 Posts: 2

After my recent, and ongoing nightmare with Vonage, I'd definitely not use them for a business line. My number was supposed to be ported last Friday. My local carrier (Qwest) released the number and disconnected my business line. Vonage says they are trying to connect it but now I've been 5 days without a business line and Vonage still can't tell me when they will connect the number! I've had to call on my cell phone and try to head off problems with customers who are being told my line has been disconnected. Qwest was bad, but never like this.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 5

I started a new business a year and a half ago and we started using Vonage as I was working out of my home for the first several months and my partner was doing the same in another city.

Other than being economical, I regret my decision to initiate service with Vonage and use phone numbers assigned by them because I can not get anyone that is able to port them out.

We are now in office space and have about the best darn ISP service available with screaming speeds and no latency, however our vonage systems are very flakey and I get tired of the random nature of poor sound quality and hit or miss fax abilities depending on the amount of cloud cover.

I am in the process of having Verizon bring lines to our office and will have new numbers assigned by Verizon and will unfortunately have to reprint all new letterhead, business cards, brochures, etc.
I will be forwarding all inbound calls to my new verizon lines, however since we can not forward the fax line, I will be keeping Vonage online for at least several months to keep faxes from falling through the cracks.

Take my advice, do not allow Vonage to assign you a number from their system if you decide to use Vonage. At least if you start service with you local phone carrier and port to Vonage, you will be listed in the phone directory and if you get tired of the quality issues, you have a better chance of having the number pulled back to them.

And finally to answer your question, No. Vonage is not reliable enough for a business in my mind. I look at a missed call as a missed opportunity to speak with a potential client that is calling to give me a $20,000 contract. Not worth it. I still have some clients that can not call my Vonage number because their carrier does not have my number mapped intheir system. Not the fault of Vonage, I know, but as a business, it doesn't matter where the problem lies, it prevents me from communicating with my clients and it is embarassing.

I've had close to 14 days in the last year where Vonage was offline or unreliable for over an hour. While on copper lines from Verizon, 1 day. Can't count the hours on the phone with Vonage Support. I never have to call Verizon to figure out whey things don't work because it works.

Posts: 58 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jun 28, 2005 Posts: 58

VonageTPA wrote:

Since when has a Bell been 99.999% reliable? I still have outages from my local carriers a couple times a year.

LOL! Yes, I agree with this one. The entire reason I switched to Vonage from Sprint (North Carolina Local Carrier) was because when someone from the state highway crew cut the copper cables with a lawn mower, it took Sprint two days to come out and fix it. And that was after I personally walked up the road, found the cut, reported it, and STILL they didn't respond until another day. When I did talk to someone, he said "You are the only one with a problem!" I replied,
"Maybe because no one else has dial tone? ( I was calling from my cell phone.) When they finally showed up to resplice the lines, the repair
guys said they each had over 70 trouble tickets. Yet, the supervisor said I was the only one who called. Liars!

At least when Vonage is out, they are honest about it.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 30, 2005 Posts: 13

I use Vonage for my business without any issues at all, save the 800 number issue here in Canada. I've also set up 5 other companies to utilize the service. If your used to cell phones then Vonage is not going to cause any issues for you. If you have bad service, it is either your equipment or settings, easily fixed. I do recommend using cable over dsl, we had issues with both dsl attempts and quickly switched those customers to cable. It is new, but I'm old enough to remember when the internet was new. Seems to work pretty well these days.

For reference, as a business I save between $3500 and $5200 a year over what Bell Canada charged me. They refused to deal, they refused to give better service, so I took Vonage up on the offer. Love it. Even use it at home.

Enjoy.