I have been a Vonage customer since June 2003. Something happened to
them between January 2005 and April 2005. They grew too much for
their britches. Their customer service is beyond pathetic. Their
hold times for help commonly exceed 30 minutes. Their staff gives
Microsoft-esque answers to problems... when you do reach one of
them. Their executive response time is NON-responsive. Their
corporate executives are also NON-responsive. Go to
www.vonage-forum.com and read about all the people that are leaving
Vonage and note that this is all in the past 90 days.
Ordering is fairly easy - you jut sign up, and they mail the
equipment. Installation was easy for me, but may not be for some
people who are not technically proficient - this is particularly
true for those that use routers. Features are limited - Vonage needs
to offer anonymous caller rejection, an option to default to caller
ID off, and a wakeup/reminder feature would also be nice. Sound
quality is generally good, although I have experienced breakup of
incoming audio occasionally on a very high speed connection,
suggesting packet loss. Customer service is the major weakness: hold
time is abominable (typically > 30 minutes), and the tech support
person you get may or may not have any idea what he is doing.
Charges are submitted almost instantly - refunds may take weeks. The
strong point is value - this is an excellent service at a very
reasonable price.
Bought the adapter at a retail store and saved on the activation fee
and postage that would normally would be charged by Vonage. (Plus I
got same day hook up) I ported my line from Qwest Seattle WA and 15
business days later my "Vonage Line" had my "Qwest" number working
on it! As with all VOIP companies the quality of service is VERY
dependant upon your broadband connection. Besure to run tests on
your line if you have any doubts about your broadband connection. My
Comcast Cable handles the VOIP very well and I can use my computer
and talk on the phone at the same time.
Vonage does not yet have E911 in Seattle (coming soon I hear), but
this is not an issue for me. I would recommend Vonage to anyone that
wants to save money. My monthly bill went from $55.00 to $17.00! It
was a simple change at the TELCO box and I now have Vonage dial tone
through out the house telco jacks. I don't think I would ever go
back to POTS lines unless Comcast starts blocking VOIP packets in
favor of their own VOIP service coming out soon.
Customer service is awful. 30 - 40 minutes to speak with a CSR. They
do not answer thier emails. Voice quality ranges from acceptable to
excellent (better than POTS sometimes. I am dumping Vonage for WOW
Phone this month. WOW Phone is every bit as good as POTS and is an
acceptable replacement.
I've had several VoIP providers in the past, and all of them either
had issues at the time and were not performing well. I understand
maintenance and things of that nature need to get done, but not at
the expense of affecting current users of the service. The
technology is out there to update/change and manipulate services
without interrupting active users. The previous VoIp provders
obviously did not take advantage of this. Anyway, my phone works all
the time (you know, like it should) and I haven't had any issues at
all with Vonage. I do recommend them.
I was very excited to sign up with Vonage. I must say that I am
disappointed with the service. The customer service is absolutely
horrific. I have had to call their customer service 4 times, and
each time, I waited at least 35 minutes before I was able to speak
to a live person. That is completely unacceptable. The service is
very unreliable. We have service outages frequently, and the cable
is working just fine. Also, half the time, our caller ID doesn't
register the information for our incoming calls.
I've used Vonage for a couple of years and have one of my employees
who works out of her home set up on it as well. There were some
sound quality issues when I first got the service. I called tech
support and they "moved me to another server" which seemed to cure
the problem. It resurfaced several months later for a week or so but
then went away by itself. I've also had trouble faxing through the
system. I believe there is a workaround, some number prefix, but I
couldn't remember what it was and couldn't find it on the website so
I ultimately sent my faxes a different way.
I am extremely happy with the sound quality, my mother who lives in
Germany always used to ask me to speak louder when I was on a POTS
line, when I switched to Vonage, she wondered if I had moved next
door.
I would love to see some of the features Vonage's competitors have,
such as call filtering (I believe Lingo or Broadvoice has this) and
I don't really understand why they haven't been implemented given
the competition out there. However it's not important enough to me
to switch providers.
I'm saving money vs. my Pots line and since I do make international
calls, I save more there as well.. what's not to like. I wish Vonage
well and am happy with the service I am receiving.
Decided to pick what i considered to be the most reputable service
available at the time. Ran Vonage in parallel to my POTS line for 2
months before I came comfortable to port my number over. The service
itself has worked flawlessly with no interruptions. I use a UPS for
modem router and adapter so I have experienced no phone outages even
during power outages. I also maintain a virtual number in London for
friends and family which is great, rings just like a domestic UK
number. Customer service is really really really bad! When I was
porting my number over, they 'lost' the transfer forms so the
transfer took almost 2 months to complete. That being said they gave
me a months service credit to compensate. But it must have taken me
at least 3 hours on hold and/or no answer with the customer service
center to get it resolved.
Since I got Vonage, I have never looked back. I do not even notice a
difference from my old POTS line (which is now totally gone!). Not
one person even knows that I am not on a traditional phone line. I
live in NJ so the total monthly unlimited bill comes to 28.74 a
month, down from my 67.00 from Verizon!
I completely switched from SBC to Vonage 9 months ago and will never
look back. For $28 per month including all taxes with all of the
features (with more added along the way), you cannot beat the value.
Number porting and customer service is the main problem that Vonage
has, my number port took 60 days and I had to ride them all along
the way. Customer service can be difficult to get in contact with,
but is generally helpful. VoIP is still not for the faint of heart
or the technically inept, VoIP is still taking the most reliable
utility you have and making it more prone to failure and needs more
involvement by the end customer. But for me, the cost savings are
more that worth it.