Business Questions (Not Ready For Prime Time?)

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 08, 2005 Posts: 2

I just had a fairly bad experience trying to get information about using Vonage to replace SBC in my California and Illinois offices (about a dozen lines split between two sites).

What I want to know is the cost of installing and the monthly running cost for six voice lines and a fax line at each site. I'm also curious about PBX integration (which I was told by someone there that they don't do, if I understood her correctly - a lot of the bad experience came out of not one but two completely unintelligible women) or PBX-like features, like intercom, call transfers and conferencing.

Is there a recommended package for businesses? Do I simply get six "Small Business Unlimited" lines and leave it at that?

Is there a discount for multiple lines?

Can I have call transfers from my Chicago office to my California office if I want it?

Does call transferring work the same way as a PBX, where I can announce someone and then connect them and drop off the call?

What hardware do I need to put into each office and how much does it cost?

What kind of bandwidth load will this create when six people are all piping calls through the same DSL circuit? What happens when the circuit is saturated? Do I lose incoming calls?

I'm just starting to consider the possibility of making the switch, and while I know I need a lot of information, I feel like a Vonage "multi-line sales expert" should have been able to answer these questions. At one point, the woman was actually telling me that I'd need three 2-RJ11 Voip routers to accomodate seven lines in one office. I'm no expert, but six ports and seven lines seems like trouble.

I'm hoping someone here can direct me to a more knowledgeable resource. At a minimum, hopefully someone from Vonage will read this and put in a little more effort on polishing their business offering. Right now, I've lost a lot of confidence in choosing to place my business in their hands.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 12, 2005 Posts: 1

Given my experince with them on the personal line and support I would think twice before moving my business lines over to them.

Their email support takes 2 weeks to get back on simple questions and their voice support takes about 15 minutes on hold (if you are lucky) to get a qualified induvidual.

Posts: 423 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Oct 03, 2005 Posts: 423

Look before you leap, man. Look long and hard.
One question I can answer is for 6 concurrent Vonage lines to be on at once would require 540Kbps of upload speed, add in your computer network usage and you are well into dedicated T1 territory. Think you can get away with using a "consumer grade" Cable or DSL connection? See the jeering crowd on the left. Lol

PBX features? *buzzzzz* Not here.

If you wanted 7 lines at each site, you are talking 4 adapters at each one. If you wanted to do call hunt and ring list through your numbers they would all need to be on the same account even if the adapters were still not in the same location. As far as I know you can't transfer a call to an extension with the basic Vonage supplied hardware - although I believe there are stand alone systems that can do things like that. Conferencing you can do between 2 numbers, but not like I think you want to. You should go to Vonage.com and look at the features section, spend some time reading through this information and you will be more knowledgeable than most 1st level reps.

Posts: 1424

TechWeenie wrote:

I just had a fairly bad experience trying to get information about using Vonage to replace SBC in my California and Illinois offices (about a dozen lines split between two sites).

Getting information from whom? You should submit a Vonage VoIP Forum Business Account Information Request.

The forum has helped a few business users in the past but the primary expertise of most of the posters is residential service. Contrary to other posts in this thread there are specific devices that are used for business accounts that handle multiple lines and IP phone extensions.

Talk to a reseller, they are going to be able to answer the questions and if possible put together a system that meets your needs.

Posts: 423 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Oct 03, 2005 Posts: 423

dig it:

Multi Line Sales
866-243-4357 option 1, 2
Direct line: is 800-860-5470
Hours: Mon to Fri 8am to 9pm EST

You didn't get it from me.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 08, 2005 Posts: 2

Quote:

Getting information from whom? You should submit a Vonage Voip Forum Business Account Information Request.

I got my information from a "multi line" Vonage sales rep with a poor understanding of the business telecom environment, a slightly disgruntled phone presence and a very, very thick accent.

As to submitting a form, what I should be able to do is call an 800 number and speak briefly with a sales rep who understands the product. So far, not so much.

In this particular instance, I've gotten more useful feedback from this thread and some private message feedback than I got from Vonage. I've concluded that while Voip may merit consideration, we won't be implementing a business solution based on Vonage's offerings at this time. They're just too bad a feature fit for our needs, and their business customer service clearly needs to come a long way.

Still, we'll keep an eye on it. If not Vonage, perhaps in the future someone will design an inexpensive business package with all the features.

Posts: 1

Nearly a year ago, I decided to trial Voange as my service provider. The service has been so good, I converted 3 of my 4 telephone lines from Verizon to Vonage.

I use an Avaya PARTNER ACS key system at my home office. I have 2 of my Vonage lines "hunt" with each other. No problems whatsoever. Caller ID name and number are delivered with ease; using recall / flash to set up conference calls works effortlessly; the call transfer and milti-point ringing functions are fantastic; and the Voice Mail to E-Mail forwarding is very powerful.

Occasionally, I'll have issues making or receiving outgoing calls. However, all I have to re-boot the Vonage routers and/or my cable modem and I'm back in business.

So for those small business customers who are contemplating (or concerned about) using Vonage on their business switch; based on my experience; you should not have any issues.

If you have questions on how this is working with my system, reach out to me. I'll help in any way possible.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 03, 2006 Posts: 7

I don't want to get edited, so I won't list any names, but for what you are looking for I look at some different providers that specialize in providing PBX like services over Voip. Personally if you are technically inclined you could roll your own with Asterisk or the like. Check out http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/ for a lot of information including information on Vonage as well.

Posts: 2252 · Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 5:12 pm Post subject: Re: Look elsewhere

mtrickey wrote:

http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/

That is a very resourceful site which unlike many others, is free of spam.

They also just happen to syndicate our news.

Smile