Some (minor) negatives about Vonage

I'm not sure if you have experienced this at all, but I've heard some horror stories about their customer service. I signed up with SunRocket because everyone I spoke to there was really friendly and helpful. I didn't get that feeling with the Vonage folks.

Reply to
ukcats4218016
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I poked around this NG when I was trying to decide to use VOIP/Vonage. I was specifically looking for the disadvantages of VOIP/Vonage. I didn't find enough to stop me, so I signed up for Vonage and have transferred my POTS number to it.

It is a terrific bargain and I don't regret doing it, but I have discovered a couple of things that I thought I'd pass along. They aren't big deals and wouldn't have changed my decision, but I thought others might find the info useful.

- you have to register for 911 and then those calls go to some operator, not directly to your local emergency service (NBD)

- 411 calls are $.99 each

- Caller id blocking is on a per-call basis only (you cannot do a permanent block) (NBD)

- you a=cannot make or receive collect calls (this might actually be an advantage)

Here is a tip: the 500 minutes you get with the basic service is a lot more than you might think. First, the minutes are only on outgoing calls, incoming are free, and calls to another Vonage number are free. Second, minutes beyond 500 are only $.04 each - this means that all use below 750 minutes is cheaper than the $25 unlimited service (750 = 500 +

250, 250 * $.04 = $10, $15 + $10 = $25). We are currently using about 7 minutes a day (210/mo). We are a retired couple - other domestic situations might have different usage.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

My experience of their customer service is that it doesn't exist any more, which is the main reason I recently switched to Lingo.

After nearly two years Vonage voice quality deteriorated to the point where more often than not I couldn't hear the other party, althogh they always said they could hear me fine. None of the self-help on the Vonage web site applies to me, and I was utterly unable to raise a live person by e-mail or phone.

Until then it was fine. If the voice quality hadn't collapsed, I'd probably still be using it.

Reply to
John R. Levine

Yeah, stories like that scared me away from them originally. I really did decide to go with SunRocket b/c of how helpful the people there were. I didn't know much about VoIP, and they really made me feel good about getting into it.

Reply to
ukcats4218016

Bob,

When you need to speak to a LIVE person at Vonage always call between

1:00AM and 6:00AM EST.

732-650-6699

You will get a LIVE person immediately between those times.

Sincerely,

Brad Reese BradReese.Com Cisco Repair Worldwide United Kingdom: 44-20-70784294 U.S. Toll Free: 877-549-2680 International: 828-277-7272 Fax: 775-254-3558 Website:

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Reply to
BradReeseCom

Nov. 2005 update: I am a new Vonage customer. I was advised by a "satisfied customer of over a year" to never expect any support by e-mail, but that phone support was OK.

One day after installation, I have to disagree.

I DO get a live person every time. These people DO speak English fairly well. However, their accents are just strong enough that when you mix them with the ABYSMAL quality of their help-desk phone service, they are very difficult to understand. Now I have heard that audio quality of Vonage is excellent. But their help desk people sound like they are using a five-dollar speaker phone with a defective interference cancel.

Also, it always takes several tries to persuade them that I am not using Windows. And even after that, they still use standard Windows troubleshooting techniques. (In other words, the first thing to try is to reboot the computer and the second is to cycle power on the entire network.)

And WHY am I calling the help desk? Because exactly one hour after booting the computer and getting an IP address from the Motorola VT1005V adapter, the adapter cuts off all IP (including a ping direct to its admin IP)

Reply to
Wes Groleau

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