Any Reason Not to Switch to Vonage?
 

I'm sick of my local provider, Verizon. They just have a fee or extra tax for every-f**king-thing. I also hate their business department. My bank made a mistake one time on my checking account, so being a decade-long-plus excellent customer and prompt payer, what does f**king Verizon, do? Tell me my checks are no good, and that I have to pay with a card via the phone line or mail them a money order or some other bulls**t. So much for their recognizing or rewarding loyalty, and this on a mistake I didn't even make! (I switched banks already. The last one can kiss my ass.)

So I'm seriously considering going to Vonage as VOIP looks like the only real alternative. Anything bad about them? Any major complaints? Looks like they're pretty sweet and on top of everything else, I could lower my monthly bill by a good third or quarter if I switch over.

I've been with Vonage for a couple of years and they have been excellent. I can't complain at all.

Going on 2 years with Vonage never had a problem here :2 cents:

With vonage you cna only have one phone hooked up, isnt that right?

For legal reasons I have to be carefull what I say....


As a live media streaming company we noticed a few sound/audio quality issues on some of our live shows so we tested some major cable companies that we are connected to ..in the hope to fix this problem.


The result was very surprising... they had built into thier software/cable connection a complex program to reduce the quality of audio from companies such as skype .,vonage etc ..not cool huh?

When we contacted these cable operators they said it was to protect the bandwidth useage of customers to keep it stable........go figure.....

So if you experience problems with the new range of low cost operators...you know its the big boys protecting the big profits they make....
:(

works great on DSL but like shit on cable

I saw on MSNBC's money market report a couple of months ago that Vonage is a sinking ship because it's a poorly run company. Sad, because I've heard pretty decent things about them.

BTW I I have Vonage and Broadvoice and I like Broadvoice better

I have had Vonage for about 2years and been totally satisfied with them, I wish other companies were as easy to deal with... :pimp

Try Packet8. Been using it for a couple years now, cheaper than vonage without all the legal issues.. One thing I really like in the answering machine, which you can setup to send the messages as sound clips to your email...

It will run every jack in your house, up to about 5 or so.

Switched about a year ago. It was one of the smartest decisions I ever made.

Works great on DSL and Cable.

Too bad Verizon treated you like a lemming. I use them for my phone, and I pay "message rate" service (have to ask for it or they'll jam you on some "plan" designed to get your bucks).

Total bill about $21 per month if there's no long distance, which is rarely more than a few minutes a month if anything for me.

Kinda need it though as I dont have or want cell phone, and dont want to rely on my cable and power being on just for phone use.

Just use a small $100 UPS to keep it running through the longest blackouts.

I have been using vonage since they opened for business

If you need Multi phones do what I did I bought a Base phone with a few cordless add ons


as far as quality I have only had issues with it once or twice. nothing major

I've had it with cable for a couple of years now and haven't had a problem.

Their customer service isn't the greatest however and there are certain toll free numbers I'm unable to dial. Other than that, the savings are well worth it imho. :2 cents:

Does vonage have a plan for unlimited calls for under $21 a month? Still dont see a need for it.. but Verizon is annoying.

Curious also, for someone on the $24.99 a month vonage plan, whats your bill actually come to with taxes and crappola?

Last 2 months my bill was $30.70 per month. Overall, I'm happy with Vonage, though am considering to just going cell only.

I've heard that their customer support department lacks when you try to speak to a person over there...

But never having needed to call customer service in the 2 years I've used them now, I wouldn't know that facet of the way things are or not.

The one reason I know of to seriously not switch to vonage is because they make it harder than hell to cancel.

Cool, good info thanks.

I am surprised that they still dont have an unlimited local plan for less than the phone company. But it's an alternative, and only $10 more a month.

Yes, there is a very good reason to not dispose of your standard landline. Reliability.

It comes down to this, no matter what the natural disaster is, you can be without electricity, cable, gas and water, but your telephone will always be the first public utility that is restored.

You should also insure that you have at least one telephone that does not require electricity to work.

You?re not lying. It works great on my 384K/384K DSL line and does not work on my 1.5Mbs/5Mbs cable connection. Sounds like the cable company is up to something. I guess they want to make their digital phone service look better.

Great info folks!

Looked over at Vonage, and saw yet another reason to switch. Right now I have two phone lines (with Verizon). The second is for a rarely used fax machine. If I were to keep Verizon, I'd have to cut out the second line (it's so little used and costs so much) and then play games with the phone cords and plug the fax in only when I need it.

However, I see Vonage has a dedicated FAX line feature you can add in for about 10 bucks a month. Sounds sweet. (Anyone use that btw?)

As for having another phone, I agree it's always good to have a backup. I figure my cell is good for that.

Anyway, again, great stuff, folks! Appreciate the detailed info. :)

You can use the xlite softphone (SIP) with a Vonage account to get call recording.

We use www.aptela.com It is an online PBX. A little expensive in comparison, but works for us.

Very good statement.

Vonage charges 24.95 per month plus tax and it comes to about $28

The major problem is 911. If you have to call 911 in a natural disaster or when your dsl and calble are out of commission then you have a problem.

Other than that i have been using them for a long time and it works well :thumbsup

No. Its just like any other phone.

You hook the cord from the modem into your house phoneline instaid of directly to a phone. This will make all of the jacks in your house work as if it was a normal phone line.

Actually it's illegal for the cable companies to do that. They are breaking the law. The first person that dies because a 9-11 call from VoIP couldn't get thru because some cable company downgraded service that cable compnay will be out of business.

You could always do vonage + prepaid cell.

Also, my bill is $16.94 a month, thats the total with taxes and everything.

This is for a business line with a dedicated fax line. So 2 phone numbers for that price. I got some deal they had going years and years ago though not sure if you can still get it at that price.

You could always try vonage + prepaid cell phone.

I've been using them for over 2 years now and no complaints

I don't have Vonage so I can't say from first hand experience, but I've heard from people that it works great until it goes down. Then they have a hell of a time getting it restored because they don't have enought people to fix it or something like that. Dude who was telling me said he was without phone service for over a month.

i think alot of people are having concerns over voip providers right now, just a little bit ago verizon sued vonage and they couldnt accept any new customers...but the biggest shit drama that happened in that market and industry just happened. sunrocket, only 2nd to vonage closed doors overnight, literally...all phones just stopped working business and personal. all customers were sol - including ones who prepaid in advance, their homepage posted a notice that they are going out of business and can't refund any money. they did however say that they have someone people can switch too...not affiliated to them but you can use the same equipment and the support line is like identical but one number off lol

they pulled the plug on 300,000 users overnight which is scary and are protected as they have to pay creditors first. if its not an important line then sure voip is cool but i wouldnt pay in advance, actually am porting my voip numbers to cells now. good alternatives are skype and aimphoneline which is like 14 a month no contracts and you just need a headset

My connection dropped every so often and trying to contact their customer service department and trying to understand them made me drop Vonage.

I am currently using the Comcast phone service and have been very happy.

Ok that Sunrocket 2nd to Vonage was funny. Sunrocket was always a POS service. I've had Packet 8 service. Company has been around for years. No lawsuit pending. Has more than the 25 employees Sunrocket had at it's height.

I have had vonage for 3 yrs now and like it. Only thing I do not like is they do not have numbers in the 775 area code so I still have my San Jose number.

If I signup how do they determine my area code? Can I choose one or am I stuck my my location for life?

The phone quality sucks, but then again so does my cell phone half the time.

GatorB...

Is your head in the sand???? do you not know of any company that has done anything illegal???Shall I name a few huge ones?.

Big business protect their markets and profits..sorry to have to point that out..


Major telephone and cable operators are doing what I said to the voip providers and thats the way it is.

Regarding emergency calls etc....,Im saying when we did tests using voip etc it showed that they lowered and general reduced the quality of calls.....AND they admitted it...They commented we have to provide a balanced bandwidth for all our customers etc....and make sure we offer a good overall stable service .bullshit excuse....
But I know that that excuse would be good enough in court and thats why no one is making legal issues of it...and of course the voip providers dont wanna scream our service is a little shit because of the cable/telephone operators.

I myself have normal telephone lines and also cells..and voip etc .a mix..so Im not supporting one or the other ..just pointing out proven tech facts...that cable and telephone operators are fucking with voip providers.

:pimp

Their service always cracked on me. Every minute I would get 2 seconds of dead air on a clean in/out line.

Didn't like that at all.

Until the battery dies.

How many cellphones do you think were working a week after Katrina?

I had the worst experience with Vonage. I could not recommend them.

I have VoIP through a different company, I have trouble getting incoming calls with it.

I've had it for 2 years and its been great - no quality issues as long as I'm not running bit torrent.

Im afraid they are gonna get hosed with the patent lawsuit and go out of business and leave me hanging.

Before you sign up . . . you may want to check to see which airline is offering bonus miles to go with a Vonage sign-up. When I first got Earthlink VoIP last sumer, I got 7,000 Delta miles. Then after the 90 days, I switched to Vonage and signed up under a United bonus. 7,500 for that.:thumbsup

You pick your area code and if you move you can change it to a local one if they have local ones available which for most areas they do. Just no 775 numbers which is where I am. :(

I love my vonage. $30 a month and I call all over North America and hours and hours of calls to the the UK every month. Perfect.

Thats when the carphone charger comes in handy :2 cents: