Signed up with Vonage to test out for a couple months.

Constantly broke up when I called out. Long distance to Australia broke out too, but was better than cheap calling cards.

But the real kicker is when I tried to cancel.

1. They answered quickly, but upon hearing it was a cancellation request, put me on hold for 20 minutes.
2. Tried to convince me that my cell phone that was replacing their bad service was not reliable enough. Right.. T-Mobile been up 100% for me, their service pretty unusable because of poor quality.
3. They charge a $40 cancellation fee if you cancel within one year. I'll repeat this. They charge a $40 cancellation fee.
4. They threaten to charge more if you don't return their router within 14 days. I never requested it since I signed up for Softphone which is the only thing I used. I'm not in the same STATE as the router currently is and they made no mention of this until I was abot to hang up, so if they try charging me for it they can expect a nice chargeback coming their way.

In summary, don't use Vonage. Quality of service may be hit or miss for you, but they'll definitely try to make it as painful as possible to leave. Not the type of company I want to deal with.

I've had nothing but a great experience with vonage (so long as I'm not dling crap).

I've never really had to deal with their customer service, but the actual service has been great. No connection drops (again, so long as I'm not dling).

I have Cable 5mbs/384

Again, this post isn't about quality of service. Like I said, YMMV with quality. But they sure try to stick it to you if you want to leave. They sat there arguing with me that I shouldn't cancel when I asked to...

V: Why do you want to cancel?
M: Replaced with cell phone
V: What if your cell phone goes out? You won't have a phone then
M: Just cancel my account
V: Okay, but is there anything we can do
M: Yes, just cancel my account, I have a different phone already
V: Alright, I understand, but is there anything we can do right now
M: Yes, cancel my account
V: Okay, I'm just saying if theres anything we can do
M: YES THERE IS CANCEL MY ACCOUNT
V: Okay, I'll need to put you on hold
...
...
...
V: Ok, done. I sent you info on how you need to send back your router. You have 14 days or we'll charge you.

Although we now use Packet8 at our office, we used to have Vonage and the quality was pretty decent when we had it. Of course, we were connected to a 100 Mbit pipe fed from the datacenter upstairs, so there was plenty of bandwidth!

The only issues we had with Voanage was they nickel and dime you for chaging your account, such as selecting a new phone number. In addition, they don't let you pick from available choices of numbers, so if you end up with one you don't like, you have to pay a "change fee" everytime you want them to look up a new one for you.

Packet8 on the other hand does not do this, and in fact, they will give you many choices of available numbers in a particular city to pick from. They don't charge for it. Also, I find that Packet 8's customer service is a bit more knowlegable, friendly, and flexible than Vonage's.

VOIP is still reletively new, so providers are going through growing pains. There are always going to be some issues, no matter who you're with. If you don't like your current provider, there's plenty of competition in this market.

Good luck.

I just read packet8s terms and they are even worse!

DISCONNECTION FEES. Subsequent to the expiration of the Trial Period, if an End User terminates Voice Service within twelve (12) months of the initial purchase of the Services, 8x8 shall charge a Disconnection Fee of fifty-nine dollars ($59.00) for voice plan subscribers and if an End User terminates Video Service within twenty four (24) months of the initial purchase of the Services, 8x8 shall charge a Disconnection Fee of two hundred and ninety nine dollars ($299.00). The Disconnection Fee shall be waived after End User completes twelve (12) months of consecutive service for voice service only plans or twenty four (24) months of consecutive service for video service plans. Disconnection Fees shall be billed to End User's Credit Card when End User notifies 8x8 of the cancellation of the Services.

Be glad you hadn't gone with them!!!!

I think the disconnection fees are to cover the cost of the hardware adapter they give you if you cancel within 12 months for voice plans. They would be out a lot of money if people just kept their equipment after bailing early.

People can't keep the equipment, they require you return it, or they charge you FOR it.

Therefore, they charge you BOTH a CANCELLATION FEE and an EQUIPMENT FEE if you don't send it back to them. Either way, you leave before 1 year and you are paying for it.... sucks!

And to make a long story short - read what you're signing up for and what happens when you cancel, this ain't rocket science people, it's reading comprehension, sure we all click right past the annoying agreements but then we just wanna bitch and moan when someone actually expects us to abide by them later.

And to make a long story short, don't warn each other about hidden charges and poor support.

These weren't hidden charges, it was clearly stated in their tos when you signed up and told them that you read each and every line of the agreement. If you lied and said you did when you really didn't then that is your fault. Hidden charges... no...did support seem bad...not really.

mkc,

Ignore Jeff and Dixie, I appreciate your post . I found it very helpful, and I hope you will continue to alert us of such things in the future.

mkc. If I were the customer rep I would put you on hold too. sounds like the rep was trying to be helpful and doing their job to which you responded - "just cancel my account".

I can't stand when people think because they spend a few bucks with a company they have the right to be abrupt and rude with a poor customer service rep. Theres a human being on the other side of the phone that had nothing to do with the alleged poor service. Its just bad form and it sounds like the rep decided to meet you according to the attitude. More power to em.

You got what you asked for. Amazingly you are so in to the attitude that you actually posted the conversation that indicates your abruptness. I guess its part of that tired cliched attitude that the customer has the right to be a bore because they are the customer. We are part of the rare breed that will stand for those who work for and with us if they have done nothing wrong and are just being abused by another human being who thinks dollars give them the right..

I've had very good service with Vonage. There are a number of issues that can affect your calls and even more if you use the softphone only as you said. The softphone has to be added to a regular account so of course they sent you a router. The router being in another state is no fault of theirs. That said some people have had a problem but for the most part they are pretty solid.

Nothing about the cancellation fees are a surprise. To be fair they are pretty upfront about it. You just need to read what you are buying. Same as anything. VOIP is not perfect yet and anyone who commits to using it should be aware of that.

as for RSayer telling people to ignore a community guides viewpoint. Kind of rude. I think Dixie should be given more respect than that but the whole idea of respect is in question isn't it?

I'm not going to argue with you demostorm, or Dixiesys, as I'm not interested in getting my account disabled because I told this guy that I valued his post. I told him to ignore her comment, because to me, it comes off as a rude and unprovoked attack.

The guy who received nasty service from Vonage, has the right to complain about them publically, this is America, welcome to our country. The customer service rep, does not care that he just wanted to "cance his account" and repeated it four times, the rep is paid to try and keep them with the service at all costs, and if they made it surprisingly easy to cancel your service, they would probably lose their job.

From your post demostorm, you make it sound like I am leading a revolt against WebHostingTalk Community Guides and that I don't show them any respect. Sure I do. However:
Originally posted by Dixiesys
And to make a long story short - read what you're signing up for and what happens when you cancel, this ain't rocket science people, it's reading comprehension, sure we all click right past the annoying agreements but then we just wanna bitch and moan when someone actually expects us to abide by them later.
Doesn't seem like such a respectful comment to say to a guy who came here to warn us of a cancellation fee in their terms of service, that half of us would probably miss when signing up. I know I'd probably miss it.

Am I foolish for not reading the terms of service entirely? Partially. However, I put trust into the fact that Vonage is a big company, and that a big company, wouldn't try and screw me over. I've cancelled service with big companies before, AOL, NetZero, and they've never charged a cancellation fee - so I can see very well why the TS was upset. I am very happy that he posted here, and am rather surprised the reaction he received from our Community Guide.

Originally posted by RSayer
Doesn't seem like such a respectful comment to say to a guy who came here to warn us of a cancellation fee in their terms of service, that half of us would probably miss when signing up. I know I'd probably miss it.

Am I foolish for not reading the terms of service entirely? Partially. However, I put trust into the fact that Vonage is a big company, and that a big company, wouldn't try and screw me over. I've cancelled service with big companies before, AOL, NetZero, and they've never charged a cancellation fee - so I can see very well why the TS was upset. I am very happy that he posted here, and am rather surprised the reaction he received from our Community Guide.

At the rates Vonage charges, I -expect- a cancellation fee, and I remember seeing something about a cancellation fee while signing up and I didn't read the big long EULA you can bet on that (who does?).

The guy says it didn't work good for him, you reckon it might have been a problem on HIS end? I mean Vonage has how many customers? You think bad service is normal? I doubt it, as a Vonage user myself I'm quite happy with it and it works fine on my connection.

And if you go around "trusting" large companies you are entirely too naive and need to wise up, "large companies" will bend you over and take advantage of you faster and more often than a smaller company will.

I'm sorry if you didn't "like" my comments, but the fact is if you don't know what you're signing ... don't sign, and when it bites you on the *** later, it's not really THEIR fault ya know?

Here let's revisit the original post in it's entirety point by point.

1. They answered quickly, but upon hearing it was a cancellation request, put me on hold for 20 minutes.

Typical, 20 minute hold time? Aww try calling AOL sometimes, it'll take 20 minutes to navigate the voice mail, then you'll probably be on hold longer than your cordless phone can handle.

2. Tried to convince me that my cell phone that was replacing their bad service was not reliable enough. Right.. T-Mobile been up 100% for me, their service pretty unusable because of poor quality.

That's funny I have T-Mobile and I remember about 3 months ago their network was down for nearly 2 weeks and all I could do was place voice calls, no internet, no email, no AIM on my phone. And you're surprised they tried to keep you as a customer? SHAME ON THEM FOR THAT, SHAME SHAME

3. They charge a $40 cancellation fee if you cancel within one year. I'll repeat this. They charge a $40 cancellation fee.

I canceled my boat slip rental yesterday, they charged me an additional month to cancel, try cancelling that T-Mobile cell phone you like so much before your 1 (or 2!!!!!!!) year contract is up, $40 will be jack compared to what they slap you with for cancelling.

4. They threaten to charge more if you don't return their router within 14 days. I never requested it since I signed up for Softphone which is the only thing I used. I'm not in the same STATE as the router currently is and they made no mention of this until I was abot to hang up, so if they try charging me for it they can expect a nice chargeback coming their way.

OH MY GOD they sent you equipment at NO CHARGE and then they <GASP THE HOROR> expect you to send it back or they'll charge you for what they gave you for free oh god what bastards, yes you should never use them.

Again I'm sorry if the voice of common sense and reason is one that offends you.

I have had a good experience with Vonage too, hopefully I dont cancel any time soon so I dont get into those problems. I have spotted some other companies though.

As far as AOL's wait : "just because other companies do it- that doesn't make it OK"

As for the equipment he has to send back : How about I sent you a couple hundred pounds of bricks Dixie, and demand you send them back or I'll charge you for not returning my bricks?

Granted, he can't expect to KEEP the equipment. However, for them to send him something that he doesn't need, and then expect him to pay to return it is ridiculous. They should reimburse him for that.

As far as the cancellation fee - no one is saying they shouldn't have one. We're saying we didn't expect it, and clearly it doesn't jump out and kick you in the face like when signing up with a cell phone, when everyone KNOWS you'll get burned if you cancel within a year. HE's saying that it didn't notify him in big bold letters like he, you, and I, would have hoped for.

Therefore, I'm grateful he let us know about the cancellation fee.

Vonage's service is great . . . when its working. I have great bandwidth at 4mbs and the call quality sucks. I have been trying to see if they can send me a new phone adapter of if I can buy one from bestbuy and use it. I have with Vonage for almost three years, I am pretty sure that was when they started, so I have the ancient Cisco phone adapter.

That leads to the more important part about Vonage. There Customer Support is terrible. They say they have email support but they refuse to EVER answer it. And the one time I called I got some guy in India reading out of a binder. After that I REFUSE to call in. It is a complete waste of my time to sit on hold only for absolutely no legitimate answers to my questions.

Recently I signed up for a new service called ViaTalk from HostRocket. I am using it while still using Vonage. After two months I will decide who I am going to keep, but I am leaning towards ViaTalk and let me tell you why.

1) THEY HAVE GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE. You can submit a ticket and they will respond within 24 hours if not sooner.

2) Their prices are better than Vonage.

Right now they are waiving setup and hardware costs, so I would recommend everyone giving ViaTalk a try.

After suffering through being ignored by Vonage, except on my billing date, ViaTalk was a needed breath of fresh air. It's nice to be with a company that cares about its customers.

I didn't say it was "right" I said it's just normal, I call a big company I just expect to sit on hold, maybe I'm just jaded and have finally gotten used to being abused by the companies I deal with, but I just expect it.

Send all the bricks you want, I need some, see I don't have a signed contract with YOU and YOU don't have my credit card, good luck in that, when you decide to take it to the next level (actually reporting my non payment to the credit bureaus) I'll just dispute the negative report then you have to prove I was responsible for those bricks, again good luck with that, and I do need bricks so send away! haha :D

If he absolutely didn't need the router he should have sent it back immediately, not kept it. This is just sour grapes in my opinion.

And again, maybe I'm too jaded and used to the fine print, I expect cancellation fees anytime I sign up for a monthly contract with anyone, maybe too many years of dealing with cell phone providers has made me just expect to be abuse so that it doesn't bother me as much anymore. And I do remember seeing a cancellation fee mentioned and it wasn't in the fine print (because I don't read that just like everyone else don't).

It's not him telling us about it, that's cool "hey just so you know Vonage has a cancellation fee and they were gonna bill me even more if I didn't send that router back" but don't get too bent outta shape, you just come across as griping to gripe instead of griping to inform (or something like that).

Originally posted by RSayer
As far as AOL's wait : "just because other companies do it- that doesn't make it OK"

As for the equipment he has to send back : How about I sent you a couple hundred pounds of bricks Dixie, and demand you send them back or I'll charge you for not returning my bricks?

Granted, he can't expect to KEEP the equipment. However, for them to send him something that he doesn't need, and then expect him to pay to return it is ridiculous. They should reimburse him for that.

As far as the cancellation fee - no one is saying they shouldn't have one. We're saying we didn't expect it, and clearly it doesn't jump out and kick you in the face like when signing up with a cell phone, when everyone KNOWS you'll get burned if you cancel within a year. HE's saying that it didn't notify him in big bold letters like he, you, and I, would have hoped for.

Therefore, I'm grateful he let us know about the cancellation fee.

The guy who received nasty service from Vonage, has the right to complain about them publically, this is America, welcome to our country.

What is that suppose to mean? You assume because I believe being mean to people is unfair I am not an american. Thats a wee bit arrogant. You want my passport or Birth certificate both of which say I am? Or come down and visit me in Sunny Florida (well not so sunny today) to look over my credentials as a US citizen?

No you do not have the right to be nasty to people who have nothing to do with giving you bad service and if you do the human on the other side of the phone has the right to put you on hold or disconnect you entirely. Which was my point. Welcome to my America.


Am I foolish for not reading the terms of service entirely?

Yep. and that was what Dixie pointed out and had every right to point out. As a community guide Dixie deserves much more to be respected than you do. Not saying you have to agree but that right has been earned. You haven't earned anything yet.

i got viatalk and i think it is fantastic viatalk.com

I have had excellent service with Vonage most of the time.&nbsp; Since it does run over the public Internet, there can be issues but that affects all VoIP solutions.

The majority of this complaint seems to be about the service cancellation procedure and fees. I have changed services with Vonage and never had any trouble with the reps allowing me to cancel a line, etc.

Since this post was in the "running a business" area, I'm surprised the poster isn't a little more sensitive to the business issues of a customer cancelling service.

When dealing with end-users/consumers, there can be many things that go wrong that have absolutely nothing to do with the service provider but coincidence and the inability to solve the issue quickly will usually have the consumer blaming the provider.

A well-trained customer service rep shouldn't just take a cancellation order.&nbsp; It doesn't help the consumer and it doesn't help the company.

Trying to find the "root cause" of the dissatisfaction is important - what if a customer cancels because their DSL line goes down too often? Why should the VoIP provider not try to understand whether their service has a problem or the DSL line?&nbsp; How can the provider improve service if they don't know why a customer is dissatisfied?&nbsp;&nbsp; The customer will continue to have the same problem (a bad DSL line) and possibly keep switching from one VoIP company to another getting more and more unhappy while never really solving the underlying problem.

The experience with their customer service rep&nbsp;might simply be the wording or training.&nbsp; I remember contacting American Express many years ago to cancel a Platinum card and I was treated very nicely, but they wouldn't just let me cancel. They wanted to know why I didn't want the card, what my needs were, and to see if perhaps a different card would be a better option for me.

What I liked is they removed the fear factor - the first thing the rep said was "Mr S., there will be no problem in cancelling your card as you have requested, but first I would like to ask for your cooperation to spend just a few more minutes on the phone with me helping us understand why you wish to cancel so we can improve our services for other clients or perhaps yourself when your needs change...."

Funny thing, sometimes clients do not know themselves why they are cancelling.&nbsp; I've personally fielded a few phone calls from clients that wanted to close their web hosting account for no apparent reason.

After using a similiar technique, I was shocked to discover the answers were often "because my web designer told me I had to" or "because I need to save money".

In each case I was able to explain why they did not have to cancel.&nbsp; In the first case I explained the differences between web hosting and web design and tactfully asked whether their designer was perhaps getting a kickback to try and switch him to another firm of unknown name and reputation.&nbsp; In the latter case, it was simply a matter of offering to switch them to a more cost-effective plan or adjust their plan by removing features they weren't using but were paying for, etc.

In each case, a customer calling up thinking they wanted to cancel ending up staying with us, being happier, and continuing with us for many additional years.

What i dont understand is why are you complaining about something you should have know about if you read the TOS.
As for the rep, it didnt take much. If you ever try calling Bt Yahoo reps you have to repeat every sentence, Yes if they do it other companies cant follow, But cmon give them a break. If you were calm about it you would have recieved a better service.
I must say there seems a slight bias in this post, As there are many users saying they have recieved a excellent service, maybe it is a problem with your location.

Actually when the rep asked about 'Is there anything they can do for you?', you should have said 'No, just cancel my account will do.' It's more of the case that you not reading the TOS when you signed up. I would say that most Mobile companies or ISPs will charge a cancellation fee if you terminates within the first year. It's not about right or wrong, it's just the way it is. We can bitch about it all day but it's still going to be the same.

I get tons of static with vonage, the quality seems really really bad...

We use vonage for business and home, their service has been very good. The customer service is excellent. We had a Lynksys VOIP router that died on us one day, Vonage customer service rep provided us with a free month service and cross-shipped replacement router in 3 days. In fact, I have convinced all my friends and relatives to drop their landlines, and signup with Vonage. I do not think I have paid my bill since November of last year because of all the referral credits they gave us.

Originally posted by GrindKore
We use vonage for business and home, their service has been very good. The customer service is excellent. We had a Lynksys VOIP router that died on us one day, Vonage customer service rep provided us with a free month service and cross-shipped replacement router in 3 days. In fact, I have convinced all my friends and relatives to drop their landlines, and signup with Vonage. I do not think I have paid my bill since November of last year because of all the referral credits they gave us.

What kind of connection do you run?

In the office T1 - 1.54Mbps, Home COX cable 4Mbps down 512Kbps up. Vonage streams don't take much bandwidth, it's latency and packet loss that cripples it. I bet if you do a trace route to the nearest Vonage POP, you will find your problem.

How can I find the nearest vonage POP?

Call them up and ask them to traceroute your VOIP box.

Will do, thanks for your help!

Vonage has always been great to us. Only once did we have a call break up, and later found somebody running an e-mule server =) some quick QoS adjustments and everything was fine again.

Vonage has treated us beautifully! Of course, I recommend to anyone using vonage to setup QoS on their router or networking equipment so that you are able to shape traffic to the voice device and not have some crazy usage. My vonage uses 90Kbps at its highest, full clarity and I love it. I had a few disconnects the other day with the same perosn, but only with him so I am not sure if it was his mobile phone or our vonage line..

It's true about Vonage making it very difficult to cancel service. I was hung up on twice while "transferring" the call to the appropriate department that handles cancellations. I was put on hold for 30+ minutes. However, they did waive the cancellation fee after all my problems.

While we were shopping for a VoIP provider, we quickly passed over vonage - their packages operate like a cell phone, where you get charged by the minute. All fine and dandy, but, those allocated minutes include local calling - so, if you buy 1000 minute package, you get 1000 minutes, period. Long distance, local, etc...

Do some research on these guys and you will see that several people have been hit with phone bills in the 100's of dollars - and all for local calling.

Now, their website does say 1000 minutes - but most people assume long distance. Either way - we didnt like them, so we didnt choose them. I dont think cancellation fees, etc are that significant - $40 really isnt much - and a small price to pay to get out of a contract you're not happy with.

Also - if you dont like the wording around their hardware - go and buy a sipuro ata adapter - and use it with any voip service provider you like - they run around $100 - but, itll be yours to own.

They have a cheapskate plan which is $14.95 for 500 minutes, but you'd be crazy to get that.&nbsp; The best plan is $24.95 for unlimited local/long distance to US/Canada.

In comparison, our Verizon landline costs us $50 for a similiar package and $30 without any long-distance.

Vonage is configured for the MAC address of the ATA - I do not think they allow you to use your own ATA -- only the ones they provide or have partnered with.

If they do allow sipura or other ATA, that would be a welcome enhancement.

&nbsp;

Originally posted by CartikaHosting
While we were shopping for a VoIP provider, we quickly passed over vonage - their packages operate like a cell phone, where you get charged by the minute. All fine and dandy, but, those allocated minutes include local calling - so, if you buy 1000 minute package, you get 1000 minutes, period. Long distance, local, etc...

Do some research on these guys and you will see that several people have been hit with phone bills in the 100's of dollars - and all for local calling.

Now, their website does say 1000 minutes - but most people assume long distance. Either way - we didnt like them, so we didnt choose them. I dont think cancellation fees, etc are that significant - $40 really isnt much - and a small price to pay to get out of a contract you're not happy with.

Also - if you dont like the wording around their hardware - go and buy a sipuro ata adapter - and use it with any voip service provider you like - they run around $100 - but, itll be yours to own.

They have a cheapskate plan which is $14.95 for 500 minutes, but you'd be crazy to get that. The best plan is $24.95 for unlimited local/long distance to US/Canada.

In comparison, our Verizon landline costs us $50 for a similiar package and $30 without any long-distance.


Precisely why I dumped Verizon, to the tune of FIVE land lines... My phone bills have gone from over $300/month down to about $30/month. Yeah, I've got the 500 minute plan with Vonage ;) but for my use, it's all I need. The Vonage line is actually for a credit card machine. We do everything else on cells.

And to Verizon, "thanks for nothin'" :D LOL

:D Bailey

Originally posted by bithost(NET)
Precisely why I dumped Verizon, to the tune of FIVE land lines... My phone bills have gone from over $300/month down to about $30/month. Yeah, I've got the 500 minute plan with Vonage ;) but for my use, it's all I need. The Vonage line is actually for a credit card machine. We do everything else on cells.

And to Verizon, "thanks for nothin'" :D LOL

:D Bailey

I was wondering about this the other day, has anyone tried hooking their vonage line to a modem and using a 56K modem over the vonage line? Isn't a CC machine basically a modem?

Originally posted by spiv
They have a cheapskate plan which is $14.95 for 500 minutes, but you'd be crazy to get that.&nbsp; The best plan is $24.95 for unlimited local/long distance to US/Canada.

Isnt that "unlimited" North America plan for home users? Maybe this is a Canada thing, but, they charge $79.99 for "unlimited" North America calling for business accounts.

In comparison, our Verizon landline costs us $50 for a similiar package and $30 without any long-distance.

no doubt that VoIP represents cost savings potential over traditional land lines

Vonage is configured for the MAC address of the ATA - I do not think they allow you to use your own ATA -- only the ones they provide or have partnered with.

If they do allow sipura or other ATA, that would be a welcome enhancement.

Most VoIP providers operate off of a MAC ID on the ATA adapter - however, the "good" providers (good by our narrow definition :) ) allow you to configure your own ATA, or even attach your VoIP line to an IP PBX - Vonage doesnt easily allow for this as they dont like to provide their clients items like IP addresses, and server authentication UN's and PW's - which really makes their lines difficult to use for business use (call Q's, extensions, etc) - of course you can accomplish this with vonage - but the fees they charge really nagate any cost savings associated with utilizing VoIP in the first place. There are much better VoIP providers available then vonage for business use - at least in our opinion...

Originally posted by Dixiesys
I was wondering about this the other day, has anyone tried hooking their vonage line to a modem and using a 56K modem over the vonage line? Isn't a CC machine basically a modem?

My FAX machine is going through Vonage, no perceivable difference vs. POT.

We have used both multiple Vonage lines and also unlimited long distance plans on analog lines with our local phone company.

Generally speaking, Vonage has worked out very well especially for some of the remote staff that we have. There was no difference between it and a land line for most cases with the exception of one employee who had latency on the line.

That being said, I think that the poster on this thread has a very legitimate complaint about Vonage in terms of the way they handle cancellations - we had one remote Vonage line for an employee that we cancelled and even when we shipped them back the equipment, they didn't credit us based on some missing MAC # or another technicality.

My advice - see if your local phone company has an unlimited long distance plan and comparable service. If so, go with them. If not, we have been happy by and large with Vonage and I think it can be a good solution for a lot of folks.

Hopefully they will work out these growing pains and improve the cancellation part of their process. :)

Vonage has a "2nd line" option specifically for fax machines that works with the two-line ATA's.&nbsp; The basic monthly rate is very low and I think it includes a low-usage 500 minutes (suitable for faxing).

VoIP will recognize fax tones and make some adjustment for it so fax machines run well.&nbsp; Bear in mind the CCITT T.34 fax standard topped out at 14.4Kbps so packetizing it over IP is not too bad.

OTOH, running an actual data modem through a VoIP is problematic.&nbsp; I haven't tried it in quite a while, but at the higher data rates of 38.4 and 56K, even minor jitter can easily cause carrier drop or data errors and I wouldn't suggest relying on for anything other than experimentation.

Originally posted by Dixiesys
I was wondering about this the other day, has anyone tried hooking their vonage line to a modem and using a 56K modem over the vonage line? Isn't a CC machine basically a modem?

Originally posted by spiv

OTOH, running an actual data modem through a VoIP is problematic.&nbsp; I haven't tried it in quite a while, but at the higher data rates of 38.4 and 56K, even minor jitter can easily cause carrier drop or data errors and I wouldn't suggest relying on for anything other than experimentation.

Rather defeats the purpose of having broadband in the first place.
On the other hand, 9600 baud CC terminal or a FAX machine will work just fine.

You get what you pay for.

Vonage works extrememly well as long as the equipment is up to date and you pay your ISP bill each month. I've also noticed that if you are using a cordless phone that some models work better than others. Also a DSL connection seems to work better than a shared cable connection. Other than that, RSayer needs to read the TOS he agreed to.

i used lingo.com its been good and cheaper then vonage.

Vonage worked good for me.

Originally posted by shellcentral
i used lingo.com its been good and cheaper then vonage.

I have Lingo at home and I haven't been that impressed. There is echo quite often, and the volume of the conversation is way too soft.

I've used Vonage and Packet8, and Vonage was the best, by far. I'm not very impressed with Vonage's Activation Fees and Shipping Fees, otherwise I would consider going back.

We use Vongae ourselves at home with a cable connection. We have not had any problems with them. The large a company gets - it is a fact that they are going to have problems. There is no way around this unfortunately. You are not going to please everyone all the time.

Cancellation fees, equipment costs, etc - they are all expected. I expect them and I just try to find out what they might be.

Originally posted by QuickPacket
I have Lingo at home and I haven't been that impressed. There is echo quite often, and the volume of the conversation is way too soft.

I've used Vonage and Packet8, and Vonage was the best, by far. I'm not very impressed with Vonage's Activation Fees and Shipping Fees, otherwise I would consider going back.


You can by pass the shipping fees by buying the modem from any electronic store. Linksys sells the vonage adapter and you can buy it at like bestbuy. Sometiimes they have miail and rebates on it to which saves you a ton.

It all worth iy.

I use them myself and the very few times I have had to contact their customer service department, they have answered promptly and were very helpful. There have been no more issues with it than my old land line. A majority of those cases were actually with my ISP.

I've been a long time customer and will continue to be as long as their level of service continues.

I used them also, canceled the account, sent them the box, and never got the money back.

Vonage has had the best service and quality for me. I used to use Packet8 a year or two ago, but they were too new and unreliable. I am testing sunrocket.com. They have had a few major outages but you can't beat the price: $199/yr.

What happens when there is a big storm? Does your Vonage get all staticy/bad quality?

I haven't noticed anything ever affecting quality, but there are a number of possibilities (router, ISP, Internet, connection to Bells...).

The only thing that is noticeable is that sometimes the other person says hello before you are connected so you don't hear the hello, but you just have to realize that if they don't say hello right away, they probably already have.

Occasionally, I can hear an echo of my own voice, but that isn't too often. For $25/mo, it is well worth it. The great thing is that I am totally mobile, if I go on vacation for a month, as long as I have Internet I can be anywhere in the world and run my business.

I've had vonage for awhile now - it seemed kind of rough at first, I couldn't get a fax to go through to save my life but it seems to have gotten better..

We just ordered packet8 in our office, which should arrive any day now.. we needed more of a 'pbx' style system than vonage can offer.. but I still have a vonage phone at home for the unlimited long distance and the virtual phone #.. which is especially cool if a bunch of your wife's friends and relatives in another area code..

I've been with packet8 for over a year now and have had nothing but good experience with them. I'n the beginning it was rough when their network went out for a day but after that they've stayed on top of things. I rarely have to call customer service.

The "Unlimited" plan you are speaking of is also unlimited in Canadian Dollars... ;)

Originally posted by CartikaHosting
Isnt that "unlimited" North America plan for home users? Maybe this is a Canada thing, but, they charge $79.99 for "unlimited" North America calling for business accounts.





I bought my device from futureshop, because I needed to get a "plain" phone when my cell bill was $300 CDN... Just no point when most of my calls were to family when I was home.

I have Vonage and it's great, except for their forwarding feature. If I set it to anything under 30 seconds calls seem to just forward to my cell phone right away. Other than that it's been great.

I tried opening up another line with Lingo. Nothing but problems. The phone wouldn't work, and when I called tech supprot, some dude with a heavy Indian accent tried to help with no avail. Then, to top it off, on test calls I made from my cell to the Lingo number, in their control panel it would log an outgoing call to some number in New York. WTF??

So I cancelled Lingo and bought another Vonage account.

Vonage was good. Then things started to get worse. They seem to be getting better, but their lack of customer support is terrible.

I have been using ViaTalk for a few weeks and it is pretty good. I've been with Vonage since they started, and it is going to be hard to leave them, but the lack of response is just insulting. With ViaTalk, they respond within 24 hours.

Vonage has shown me that all they care about is charging your credit card to get money. They don't care that my service has been suffering. They would blame it on my cable provider. Funny ViaTalk works fine off of the same connection . . . hmmm.

Right now is a good time to try ViaTalk, free setup, free hardware, and if you know a current ViaTalk subscriber you can get a $25 coupon - that gives you one free month of Unlimited service or a month and a half of the 500 minute plan. So really you have nothing to lose. Note: ViaTalk will charge your CC $10 to make sure that you are real and aren't just trying to steal their hardware, but that $10 gets credited to your account.

ViaTalk website shows they are still in beta.&nbsp; As Seinfeld used to say "not that there's anything wrong with that" but folks should be&nbsp;forewarned.

Is it obvious yet?&nbsp; We are in an explosion phase where every known and unknown company is jumping in to the VoIP business.&nbsp; It's just like the early days of dial-up and webhosting.

If you are using VoIP just as a cheap "second line" in your home or teen-agers line, then by all means, shop around and bottom feed for the best price.

If you are using VoIP for business or even just reliable personal phone service, be aware that if you shop only on price and don't consider the financial and market viability of the provider you choose, you could have trouble in the future.

The market cannot support all these companies - some are serious businesses such at AT&amp;T CallVantage, others are just agents or brokers for some 2nd tier or 3rd tier carrier services, and some are DIY startups actually deploying their own gateways in a hodepodge manner (buying wholesale minutes to fill in the gaps).

The endgame may be coming faster than many think -- with the recent FCC rulings only further accelerating the fact that the owners of the last mile (or first mile) continuing to have the upper hand.

Ultimately, we may all be buying VoIP from someone like Yahoo/SBC, AT&amp;T or Comcast. Vonage will either grow big fast (which is what they are trying to do with the $300M in VC money they have raised) or they will be acquired by some stodgy latecomer Cableco, CLEC, or IXC that wants "in").&nbsp; The rest, well, most likely they will be just a memory....

&nbsp;

Originally posted by MyNameSolutions
Vonage was good. Then things started to get worse. They seem to be getting better, but their lack of customer support is terrible.

I have been using ViaTalk for a few weeks and it is pretty good. I've been with Vonage since they started, and it is going to be hard to leave them, but the lack of response is just insulting. With ViaTalk, they respond within 24 hours.

Vonage has shown me that all they care about is charging your credit card to get money. They don't care that my service has been suffering. They would blame it on my cable provider. Funny ViaTalk works fine off of the same connection . . . hmmm.

Right now is a good time to try ViaTalk, free setup, free hardware, and if you know a current ViaTalk subscriber you can get a $25 coupon - that gives you one free month of Unlimited service or a month and a half of the 500 minute plan. So really you have nothing to lose. Note: ViaTalk will charge your CC $10 to make sure that you are real and aren't just trying to steal their hardware, but that $10 gets credited to your account.

I have had nothing but great service from Vonage. I have been with Vonage since January 2004, and the only outages I have ever had were due to my broadband connection going out. I am on a cable modem, and it even works great when I am downloading a lot of stuff. I would recommend Vonage to anyone. Since I have been with them, they have had 3 price drops as well. I don't think I have ever been with a company that dropped the price of my plan not only 1 time, but 3.

Just my 2cents! :-)

Ok looks like I spoke too soon about Vonage. I have 2 accounts and have been trying for over a week to transfer a virtual number from one account to another. After 2 unanswered web support tickets and 3 phone calls, each lasting more than 30 minutes at the least, they have now done this to me.

They've now removed my original virtual number from my first account and added some junk virtual number into my second account. My original virtual number is now GONE into limbo!

This is gross incompetence. If they don't fix this by Monday I'm switching to packet8.

SWITCH FROM VONAGE.

I recently left my debit card at an ATM and my back cancelled it and sent me a new one. So Vonage sent me an email saying you owe us money, please pay. I emailed them back saying my card was lost and I am awaiting a new one, how else can I pay because I don't have any more credit cards.

NO RESPONSE

So then they email me again saying you better pay or we will shut you off. So I emailed back the same explanation as above and then I added that I was having service troubles and no one at Vonage ever answers their support emails.

NO RESPONSE

So they can stick thier phone router up their respective butts. I am going to email them to quit the service. I am officially staying with ViaTalk and I hope Vonage goes down in flames.

I was a big Vonage fan and have been with them since they first came out. But it is terrible that the only time they care about me is when they can't charge my card.

I have been asking them to fix my caller ID since I moved back from Georgia two years ago. And still my Caller ID is still on Eastern Time.

Vonage sucks. Long live ViaTalk.

I know of several people who tried Vonage VoIP and then left. Now some are using Lingo and another is using sunrocket. If you know someone with Lingo, I've heard that if you use their promotion code they will give you $25 cash. If you know someone with Sunrocket and use their phone number, Sunrocket will give you 2 cordless phones worth $50 which sound very feature rich.

I'm actually thinking about signing up for VoIP at my house with Sunrocket as they are only $200 / year (translates to $17/mo).

~Jonathan

Also if you know someone with ViaTalk you can get a $25 coupon as well.

Update: I'm terminating both Vonage accounts and going with another provider. These clowns are complete MORONS. I called and was AGAIN put on hold for 30+ minutes. Had to be transferred twice. The tech didn't even know what was going on. He was clueless as hell, asking me what exactly I wanted to do with my virtual number, that if I wanted to keep the junk number they gave me.

I've been spending 30+ minutes almost every day all last week. I'm through with this junk of a company. You guys can sign up with them or vouch for them if you want. Just pray you never need their BS tech support.

That sums up Vonage - Terrible Support.

Give ViaTalk a try, I have been happy with them thus far and their support has been very responsive.

Glad to hear you've been happy with your ViaTalk service! Its great to see positive customer feedback, it means the hard work we're putting into this is paying off.

-Brendan

i have been using vonage it works great...

I used Vonage support once. Didn't have any issues with it.

They keep sending me emails saying they need to bill my CC but they REFUSE to answer my replies. Although I did get an auto-responder. Their email support is non-existant.

As far as their service quality, yeah it was great, but in the last 6-8 months it has sucked with alot of dropping in the calls. I asked Vonage for a new phone adapter since I have had mine since Vonage started out, but alas, they don't talk to me.

Another update on Vonage:

I was transferred to have my account cancelled because I was hopping mad they couldn't fix my problem for so long. Again was put on hold for 20+ minutes. Then I realized I really should try getting it to work one last time because it's a business number and I need that same number, since it's being used in customer credit card statements.

So I bear it out and spoke to the "customer retention" guy and told him to fix it TODAY and give me 2 months credit. The guy said ok and I guess my threat to cancel got to him, so the virtual number issue was fixed fixed and transferred the same day.

Can't believe it took all that just to get one simple thing done. :rolleyes:

Another update:

The virtual number shows up in my Vonage web control panel, so I thought all was fixed. Now I call the number and it's giving me a non-existent phone number error! OH MY F***** GOD!!!!!!!!!!

:angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

Another 30+ minutes with these clowns on the phone once more.

Try VIATALK

Originally posted by Skeptical

Can't believe it took all that just to get one simple thing done. :rolleyes:

I agree. It sounds like a big hassle. Unfortunately, that's far too common with many VoIP providers.

Tim, you are right.

And thus far, not with ViaTalk. The only snafu I had was with shipping and I know you guys have already put something in place to prevent it from happening again in the future.

I just can't wait until the call log is as close to real-time as possible and for the call log to have caller id.

I hope ViaTalks customer area gets a full featured as Vonage's because that was one thing I liked about Vonage. ViaTalk keeps adding features, so it should rival Vonage's online area in no time.

Originally posted by RSayer
Am I foolish for not reading the terms of service entirely? Partially. However, I put trust into the fact that Vonage is a big company, and that a big company, wouldn't try and screw me over. I've cancelled service with big companies before, AOL, NetZero, and they've never charged a cancellation fee - so I can see very well why the TS was upset. I am very happy that he posted here, and am rather surprised the reaction he received from our Community Guide.

So try to cancel your cell phone account that you just signed up before your contract is up. Bet you would be a bit surprised!

Ignorance is no excuse. It's in the terms, plain as day. I am a Vonage customer, too. And while I don;t like that I have to pay $40 to cancel, I know that's the way it is because I agreed to it when I signed up.

Get over it and move on.

Originally posted by MyNameSolutions
Tim, you are right.

And thus far, not with ViaTalk. The only snafu I had was with shipping and I know you guys have already put something in place to prevent it from happening again in the future.

I just can't wait until the call log is as close to real-time as possible and for the call log to have caller id.

I hope ViaTalks customer area gets a full featured as Vonage's because that was one thing I liked about Vonage. ViaTalk keeps adding features, so it should rival Vonage's online area in no time.

Great. As we've stated we take feedback very seriously and are constantly working to further enhance ViaTalk's service and overall offerings. Just let us know if you have any specific suggestions for the online account management area or anything in general.