Vonage....?

Question

Anyone have it? How does it compare to your old phone service? I have phone service through my cable provider, but its pretty expensive..:( Should i switch?

Answer 1

Vongae is VOIP (Voice Over Inter Protical) i had it 6 months ago and is without a doubt the worst phone service ever created, i had on goingissues all they ever said was "yes we have a problem but we have no idea what it is or where it is" i cancelledand went back to my local service, the other issue with it is you do not have tradition 911 and have to sign a disclaimer that if you VOIP moden goes down and can't reach 911 for any emergecny they assume no liabitity ofri, if you do not sign the disclaimed they will not istall it, you have to sign it before they begin the install

Answer 2

Yes, you should switch only if you have a good high speed internet connection. The quality is outstanding. It is no different than traditional land lines but you have more features more free and the the price is reasonable. Other VoIPs might have cheaper prices, but this one is the best.

Answer 3

no..

Answer 4

Unfortunately, the problems people have with Vonage are not necessarily unique to Vonage, or necessarily their fault (other than perhaps poor customer service... which is a plague everywhere... not just Vonage).

Yes, Vonage uses VoIP technology.  And, VoIP is still a new evolving technology.  It is still all "one big experiment"... and we are all the guinni pigs.... in other words... Beta Testers.  The technology is not yet mature enough to be considered as reliable as the old PSTN (public switched telephone network), or POTS (plain old telephone service).

If you want 100% (or 99.999%) reliability for 911, then stay with your PSTN/POTS phone service.

There is only one reason in this world for anyone to want to use VoIP..... to save money.  That's it!  That's the only reason!

If you want 100% reliability....stay with POTS.

But, if you want to experiment with new technology and all it "potentially" has to offer, then go for it.   With a "home phone replacement" VoIP service you usually get all the bells and whistles with 10 times the features at substantially reduced cost over standard POTS service.

But, those savings come at the risk of the headachs of technical problems with Internet Modems, Routers, ATA phone adapters, configuration issues, etc....

Vonage doesn't hold the patent on VoIP reliability issues and problems (actually, I don't know if they actually have any patents of their own... :)

Fact is most problems people have with VoIP has little to do with the service provider.  Most issues are with VoIP equipment and equipment configuration issues/problems.  And, unfortunately, most VoIP providers just can't fix all these problems over the phone talking to CS (expecially when it isn't working...)

That said, I currently use VoIP 100% for all my phone calling.  I use both PC VoIP and ATA adapters without a PC with various VoIP services.  But, I have technical background and like troubleshooting solving technical problems.  

But, unfortunately, most people want phone service that.... just works and don't want to have to fix it themselves (I certanly can't blame them.... I want the same too....).

But, if you are going to use VoIP, it helps to learn as much about it as you can...... because sometimes the service provider can't always fix the problem for your.... they just send you new equipment... and if that doesn't work.... you curse some more and find another VoIP service that eventually does work..... Why... who knows... sometimes it's just luck of the draw.