Vonage Internet Phone Service - Comments Page 1

We have been customers of Vonage for a little over 5 years and have found the service to be remarkably stable. We have had less outages than we had with the landline. The only problem I have experienced has been with customer service as I tried to figure out how they are determining the amount of monthly bill. The service that we subscribed to was touted as 24.99 a month. The bill is always between $33.00 and $34.00 and never are two months the same amount. I send messages to Vonage, but never get a reply. Nonetheless, the service is less than half of what I was paying Ma Bell. I highly recommend it.

Been a customer since its inception, and after adjusting the bandwidth when dropped calls became an issue, its been smooth sailing ever since.

I have not used vonage, but from talking to people who have, it's not that great. I have used Skype in the past, but they are too difficult to deal with. Now I use a lesser-known voip provider that costs me $13/quarter and gives me 300 minutes per week - good enough for my domestic and overseas calls. The setup requires a fair amount of techie skills to set up SIP account and such and two of my routers wouldn't work at all (netgear was the best).

I highly recommend magicjack for non-techies who have an "always on" computer. Now I'd like to see them come out with a device you can directly connect to the router and I'd probably use them as well!

DO NOT GET VONAGE !!! There aren't supposed to be any cancellation fees, try explaining the $241.56 additional charge for services that I never received. Service is NON-EXISTANT. Try and find a mail address to send their junk back to them.The lowest bill that I could get was $33.95 per month. A total and complete waste of time and money. Ask them about the idiot that charged my credit card over fifteen times in one day!!

It sure didn't make sense for me considering that phone service was included with the DSL line - provided by my local phone company. The phone company would not provide internet service without the phone service and I do not make international calls either. I would have been paying extra for the service from Vonage duplicating what the phone co. provided!
Perhaps if we could've gotten our internet service from a cable provider it might have made sense.

I had a terrible experience with Vonage a few years ago. They promised I could keep my own phone number, but after 6 months of dealing with a number that was not even in my own area code, Vonage finally admitted that my area code was not even available. I called support numerous times, and received a totally different answer with each call. When I cancelled, they insisted I had to purchase their modem...which amounted to a $40 penalty for canceling. This 'rule' was nowhere in the contract. Their customer support may have improved since then, but I won't give them another chance.

Had Vonage for a while, and it worked fine. With local taxes, etc, it ran me closer to $34. Eventually, I dropped it for a bundled service, because it was cheaper, but I had no problems with it.

I went to Vonage very early - October, 2004. We had a long list of problems on a regular basis, and getting some one who knew what to do was a real headache.

I don't have Fios available, but BrightHouse has their version. Land lines here are Verizon, but I don't have any. I have 3 business lines, and BH can't offer that, and no room to grow. I do have 5 cell phones on Verizon.

For business purposes, I make several overseas calls a month, and Vonage rates are MUCH better than Verizon cell or land line, depending on country.

Vonage's service and reliability has improved dramatically the last couple of years (Since they tried to go public), and the costs are very comparable to what I paid when I first started with them.

And thanks for Bob Rankin and what he does here ! ! !

As a retired Telephone Repairman, I would have argued vehemently against any form of VOIP for basic service just 5 years ago.

Things have changed though, and I reluctantly have to admit the overall quality has improved on VOIP. Add to that, the simple indisputable fact that the traditional landline is slated for the same fate that befell the dinosaur. Now the question seems not to be if you should consider VOIP, but rather which one merits selection.

For my money, Vonage is overpriced for what it delivers. VOIP isn't rocket-science, and a traditional phone company is not a requirement. There are many ways of achieving VOIP, but two of the more affordable ones that come to mind are Magic Jack and Oooma. Magic Jack installs on a USB Port, while Ooma installs on the customer side of the router. Both suffer from the same weakness as any other VOIP, including Vonage. On any VOIP, a power failure means your phone service is down as well. In addition, the occasional quality problems which might be traced to lack of bandwidth. 911 service has largely been addressed, at least in my area. You might want to check that in your own.

If you use your electricity, then no broadband, no voip. Your regular phone has it's own power source, so no electricity is not a problem.
I have Vonage. The main advantage for me is calling Italy, which is free, and not so with some others.

In addition to Vonage, I would recommend you look at Ooma (ooma.com). it is a stand alone unit with the same virtues as Vonage, but without the monthly fee. International calls are charged at a very low rate. I have used the Ooma system for about a year now and have had no difficulties. I am now at the point where the unit has paid for itself, based on my previous phone bills.

I used Vonage for two years at their 24.99 price, when the contract expired last August, I went to their 9.95 plan 200 outgoing minutes, incoming are free, since I don't make many calls. I normally have my home "landline" phone rolled to my cell anyway. Vonage will also send a .wmv file with any messages to any email address you specify. I use it through Comcast and have never had any problem with call quality or lost any portion of a call. Much cheaper than Qwest or Comcast's voip for that matter. :^) gene

I was so glad to read the information on Vonage,it was just in time as I was going to change to Vonage.I have changed my mind and will keep the plan i have. Thank you, Thank you

I've been using Vonage's World Plan (24.99/month, US, Canada + 60 countries) for almost 2 years now. Service is trouble-free, once in a while the sound is so-so, hang up and dial again, problem solved. If it can be believed, 16 years ago my monthly AT&T long distance bill was between 400-600 dollars a month, now 25 dollars covers it all, and no time restrictions. Recommended.

I've had Packet8.com for about 5 years, chosen because they had a better call quality rating. I was very happy with the service. Cost about $35 a month including the taxes which were about $9 a month. (unlimited nationwide calls) I just recently switched to ooma.com cost $4 a month (unlimited nationwide calls). If I want some extra services like emailed voice messages or simultaneous ring to my cell phone I can pay an extra $10 a month.

Good article, held my intrest. other things that should be known, is that there are other VOIP services out there. I had Vonage for about 2 years, was paying $25 per month, but when you get the bill then you see the real price, when they add the taxes and fees. For me it was way to steep. We have 4 adults in the house, we never make calls to any foreign countries, but we can with our service, if we want too.
We went to a DSL Broadband ONLY from Qwest line, $46.99 bottom line per month.
We now have VOIPVOIP.com, that's not a misprint.
You need a PHONE ROUTER, but dod not have to buy it from them, you can or may already have a router, that will work, there are several compatiable routers, and you can see at their web site which ones are. I had an old SunRocket router. If you can't set it up you may have a friend that can.
After that, the price is $6.99 per month for access, and $.019 cents per minute for outgoing calls, free incoming calls. There are no additional taxes, fees, or anything else added.
You can port over your existing phone number, or have any area code that you want, if you don't port over.
Down side is that this is not a data line, so no faxes. Also, if you have anything else that needs a data line, it won't work. Ie. VA Health Buddy, phone connected to Direct TV to order movies, etc.
Seems like there is always a down side and an up side.
Up side to that is, there are free fax in and out sites you can sign up for, and send and receive faxes that way. But that's from a file, and for free is usually limited to two or three pages. I use efax and freefax, one is outgoing, and one is incoming.
You can set this up VOIPVOIP for autopay.Every month out goes $6.99. Don't even have to think about it, but I am notified by e-mail.
I also setup auto recharge, when that drops below $2.00 it recharges, or in other words adds another $10.
All I'M saying is that you should look at all the options.

Regards,

Don

Vonage is a great service. Cost around $35.00 a month.Used it for 2 years,then found a better product with better voice quality. Ooma VOIP cost from $199.00 to $249.00 for the Ooma device.
I purchased from Costco. Thats it no more phone bills.

Thanks
Fred

I switched to Vonage this past year. I love it! They have so many great features. I have all the bells and whistles for much less than I was paying. The original reason I switched is that I moved and it was extremely important to me to keep my phone number. I went thru a long process with both AT&T and Comcast, both telling me they could port the number for me, then weeks later, said they couldn't. Vonage said they could and they did. Now anywhere I move within the US, I can take Vonage and my number with me. I've been very happy with the voice quality and customer service is great. If I ever temporarily loose power or internet, I have a cell phone so that aspect doesn't really bother me.

There is both a cheaper and better quality sound solution only down side is you have to prepay. I originally obtained VIOPO via Hostgator.com. But by prepaying you get phone service for approx 1/4 of what Vonage charges.

For Phone Service VOIP, MagicJack is a good option. About forty dollars for the device and about another hundred for five years' service for Unlimited domestic calling. Although I've noticed recently calls to some rural areas like the hills of West Virginia or rural eastern Illinois don't connect especially if it's not covered by a big phone company (that may be a "contract" issue for MagicJack with the phone providers in those areas, we used to be able to reach West Virginia hills before).