Vonage

Al · Aug 3, 2005

I signed up for Vinage and to make a long story short..the conversion failed to work bc of several issues but mostly router incompatability and the router they sent me cooked itself in the first minute of use. Icoujldn't get anywhere whth them partly bc of the language barrrier (Indian/Pakistan). I offer this advice for those who decide to sign up:

After the failure I had to decide whether I wanted just to puy another cell phone or get my land line back.
Well..I considered another cell phone and the family plan..But I have ATT and going to Singular is more expensive. So I went back with Sprint (I now have a new phone number) Total damages for this whole boondoggle about 110 bucks. Oh well, lesson learned. My advice is to get a phone adaptor and get the dial tone before ordering the Vonage contract. Also I would not get my home phone # ported (to Vonage) bc you'll never get it back if Vonage doesn't work out-and then you will be out your home phone-like me.. By getting a new phone # from Vonage..you are sure your Vonage phone works before you eject your house phone.

The other thing is learn to Speak Indian..bc that's all the heck you will get. That was half the problem right there. Also their service sucks. I know many peeps (including my son) like it. They wouldn't send me a new router even though I know it was defective. They are obviously over worked and under staffed. Oh yea..they screwed up my IP# and I couldn't get back on the internet.

So my advice:
Get your own equimpent-first (phone adaptor) and get dial tone.
Get a new number from Vonage
Learn to speak Indian.
Be prepared to take it up the butt

I rate Vonage a 4 out of 10.

kloppilt · Aug 3, 2005

My Vonage conversion was easy. I got the adapter from Best Buy, followed the instructions and everything has worked OK since then.

But their rebate program sucks. 5 months after I had submitted the original rebate form they rejected it. It's been 3 months since I resubmitted it and the status is still rejected when I check it online.

But it saves me a bundle compared to the 3 cell phone plans that it has replaced - my phone costs were $130 before, and are $28 now.

GROUCHO MARX · Aug 3, 2005

I stayed with the land line and IDT $60.00). I was worried that the power would go out and I'd have no phone. I have two cells at the moment, but when there's a power outage, my concern is traffic

Tom300M · Aug 3, 2005

I drive by the office building in which their headquarters are located every day. Its in also in Edison, which has to have the largest Indian population outside of India, so its no suprise you couldn't understand their tech people. At least it does appear they are always staffed becuase no matter what time or day I go by this place there are always lots of cars in front.

Al · Aug 3, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by Tom300M:
I drive by the office building in which their headquarters are located every day. Its in also in Edison, which has to have the largest Indian population outside of India, so its no suprise you couldn't understand their tech people. At least it does appear they are always staffed becuase no matter what time or day I go by this place there are always lots of cars in front.

Cool..keeping the dollars at home.

labman · Aug 3, 2005

I signed just over 2 years ago, dumping a pitiful excuse of an independent telephone company. At that time, I paid a $40 setup fee, and they supplied me with a Cisco adapter. Plugged it in, and hot the ground running and haven't stopped since. I very seldom contact them. I did have to get on them for double billing me one month. It was no worse than any other utility I have dealt with.

I think their web site sucks, because it tries to redirect to download Flash so they can blast me with crappy music.

$72/mo for local and unlimited long distance phone and cable internet. I think Road Runner's site sucks too. No bills, they email me they charged my card.

msparks · Aug 3, 2005

can't say much about vonage except I like the commercial. LOL.

Anyhow I have had Packet 8 for about 7 months now and it's working fine. It gets a little funky around 4:00 pm central to around 6:30 or 7:00 pm. It will click or echo or the person on the other line can't hear me for a sec then will start working again. I don't think it has anything to do with the phone, but more that the internets is getting clogged up.

Anyhow, I like the service, for $20 I get unlimted long distance and the works, and I use the heck out of it.

I make all my outgoing calls on it, only incoming is routed through my cell/toll free number. And I try not to stay on those calls long.

www.packet8.net

michaelc80 · Aug 3, 2005

I've had Vonage for about the last 6 months. I had one issue with the router that their tech support corrected quickly via email. Other than that I have had no issues and am happy with the service.

It's far superior to the regular telephone company in this area, and far less expensive.

kloppilt · Aug 3, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by michaelc80:
It's far superior to the regular telephone

Yes, I like their features as well. I dumped my answering machine in favor of using their voice mail.

I also like thei detailed call log on the website. It's quite interesting to know who called and when.

Willy_G · Aug 3, 2005

I've had Vonage for about 5 months. The main reason I got broadband was for Vonage...local (independant) phone company charges were over $60 plus LD!. Great application of technology!

However I think I got a bum router adapter. I got the combined unit, Lynksys WRT54GP2. It has line noise and the phone adapter locks-up/drops calls with no appartent issue with my broadband service.

I have heard that folks with a seperate router/adapter have less problems. Lynksys support is less than helpfull, so I might get different equipment under the wife's name so I get all the rebates.

Anyone else have toruble with the Lynksys WRT54GP2 ???

brianl703 · Aug 3, 2005

I was thinking about getting Vonage but (1) they lock their phone adaptors so they only work with their service and (2) I don't make enough calls for it to be worth it.

I decided to get an unlocked Linksys phone adaptor from Inphonex and I use their 2-cents-a-minute long distance which has no monthly fee.

I was using IDT but that bill was always $10 month because in-state calls were still 15 cents/minute. With Inphonex in-state calls are still only 2 cents/minute.

I kept my regular phone line--actually it has been handy on a couple of occasions to have two phone lines, and in fact I could have three if I configured the extra port on the Linksys for another Inphonex line.

Larry the Cable Guy · Aug 3, 2005

I have the RT31P2 and it works well. No complaints and customer service was great for a non hardware issue.

Al · Aug 4, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by brianl703:
I was thinking about getting Vonage but (1) they lock their phone adaptors so they only work with their service and (2) I don't make enough calls for it to be worth it.

I decided to get an unlocked Linksys phone adaptor from Inphonex and I use their 2-cents-a-minute long distance which has no monthly fee.

I was using IDT but that bill was always $10 month because in-state calls were still 15 cents/minute. With Inphonex in-state calls are still only 2 cents/minute.

I kept my regular phone line--actually it has been handy on a couple of occasions to have two phone lines, and in fact I could have three if I configured the extra port on the Linksys for another Inphonex line.

Good information..I'll check this out

obbop · Aug 4, 2005

How does it work with 9-1-1??

What if you dial 911 and pass out? Will the emergency service be able to trace the source of the call and send emergency services?

Traditional land lines aloow you to dial 911, leave the phone off the hook, and run and hide in the event evil doers are breaking into your home.

Sumpthin' to consider when thinking about alternatives to traditional land lines.

kloppilt · Aug 4, 2005

You have to set up the 911, basically assign a physical address to the phone number. Easch time you move, you have to remember to do that.

I periodically receive emails or snail mail reminding about the 911 setup. I think they got into problems because some cutomers had not set up their 911 service and their calls could not be traced to a location.

Al · Aug 4, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by Willy_G:
I have heard that folks with a seperate router/adapter have less problems. Lynksys support is less than helpfull, so I might get different equipment under the wife's name so I get all the rebates.

Anyone else have toruble with the Lynksys WRT54GP2 ???

I have (had)RT31P2. This thging was bad. Vonage could not acknowledge it and that's what caused me to eject their service. Perhaps some day they will become customer savy.

XS650 · Aug 4, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by Willy_G:
Lynksys support is less than helpfull, so I might get different equipment under the wife's name so I get all the rebates.

Anyone else have toruble with the Lynksys WRT54GP2 ???

I don't have the type of router but do have an older Lynksys wireless router. I was having intermittant problems with it a couple of years ago.

After many calls to Lynksys Tech support, what finally fixed it was ugrading to the latest firmware and doing a hard reset with the reset button on the back of the router. Or maybe it was in the reverse order.

Sometimes you just need to wipe the slate clean and start over. I don't know if this is applicable to your type of router, but it's worth checking into.

Al · Aug 4, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by obbop:
How does it work with 9-1-1??

What if you dial 911 and pass out? Will the emergency service be able to trace the source of the call and send emergency services?

As mentioned by kloppilt it exists through Vonage. You don't have to do it..Vonage takes care of it (You provide the information)

I may try the internet thing again in the future..but I do have a landline back. Sprint called twice to ask if I was satisfied and gave me a priority number to call if there were any problems.

I realize that I am paying dearly for the service, but its nice to see some service these days. Vonage had no-one who spoke the King's English and didn't seem to give a crap about my problems. Not a recipee to insure success.

Willy_G · Aug 4, 2005

E911 is coming.

Some east coast state already have E911 w/Vonage. The Fed's really let Vonage have it, regarding E911.

msparks · Aug 4, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by obbop:
How does it work with 9-1-1??

What if you dial 911 and pass out? Will the emergency service be able to trace the source of the call and send emergency services?

Yes there is a big stink about this. I had to sign an agreement, plus they sent me little stickers to put on my phone, like Ya right I'm going to do it.

What did we do before 9-1-1?

Actually they are getting ready to make it 9-1-1 capable soon, cause of some dummy down in Texas.

Vonage

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