Anyone have Vonage phone?

[JenBKR]

If you do, do you like it? They keep advertising something like $24.95/month, which includes voicemail, caller id, and call waiting. Sounds almost too good to be true. We pay $35-40/month I think with Verizon. Just wanted to see if anyone else had anything to say about Vonage. Thanks!

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

You might want to read this before signing up, especially if you've had your phone number for awhile and want to keep it.

In my opinion, VoIP technology is still up and coming. I would not use it right now because from everything I've read, you will have to make at least one phone call to tech support before everything is working correctly - and I'm sick of dealing with big corporate employees.

My advice is to wait on this technology. They may promise savings, but there's a good chance it will only end up costing you money in the long run.

Also, with a lot of VoIP services, 911 does not work correctly if at all.

Also, catnapper brought up a good point in her post - if the power goes out, so does your computer, so does your phone.

****EDIT****forgot to add the link. You might want to read this
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,126160,00.asp

[catnapper]

LOL... Debbie, you beat me to it. I don't have Vonage, but one very similar.

So far, the differences I noticed:
~ no phone when poower goes out, DESPITE their wonderful claim the modem has a 8 hour battery. The lights went out and the phone went with them. Sure, the modem's lights were on but they weren't doing anything other than providing a pale green light in an otherwise black room.
~For whatever reason, I can NOT fax to people with Verizon phone lines. I can fax to anyone with digital phone lines, and anyone on Bell Tel, but not Verizon. Kinda stinks when a lot of people have Verizon.
~ I often get a digitalized sound. Instead of people breaking up and sounding crackly, they sound digitized. Its can be rather annoying.
~ the incoming caller ID only shows the new caller's name as it rings. Otherwise, It doesn't show at all. VERY annoying when you are talking to someone and pull the phone away from your ear to peek at who it is, only to miss the name. Then you wait til the next blip and they hang up before the caller ID shows up. On Verizon, we had the callers name displayed the whole time (at least thats how it worked on my phone, everyone else's might be different)

The digital phone lines just came to this area this year. I wanted to wait til all the bugs were out, but hubby was eager to get things switched over. :rolleyes: I hear Verizon will be coming out with their own version of this some time in the next year or so. I will sign up with them again. I had no problems with Verizon. I thought my bill was a little high because of DSL and all the long distance I had so we switched saving about $50 a month for a similar plan. So far, I don't see any improvement in service.

[lute]

we use Vonage. we love it! we've not had any problems with it.

[sparks19]

We are getting the stuff to set up Vonage tomorrow. Hopefully my hubbys' computer experience will be enough that we won't need to call tech support.

We got vonage because of the long distance savings. My family lives in ONtario Canada and hubbys parents live in Florida. Lots of long distance calling lol. Plus a digitized sound is better than when my cell phones cuts off my call every ten minutes. GRRRR lol

i will give my review once I get to use it :D

[ILoveReptiles]

Don't do it. They're AWFUL! I am a Computer Engineer, I have a lot of experience with networking, I build my own computers...

The first router they sent was defective. I spent 5+ hours on the phone with tech support, which seems to be based in India. I could barely understand a thing the idiot was saying on the other end of the line, and he kept giving me the run around, accusing me of not setting it up properly.

Eventually they relented and sent me a new router, it worked, but service was spotty for about two months. Then that one went bad. I spent hours upon hours trying to figure out what the heck was going on. We essentially went 3 weeks without any phone other than our cell phones, and I finally gave up. I hooked my old router back up, called SNET, and cancelled Vonage. Or so I thought.

The next month, I found they were STILL charging my card, even though I had called and cancelled. I called again and DEMANDED my money back, and again told them I wanted to cancel. They assured me it was all taken care of. But I found out different the very next month, when yet another charge from Vonage showed up on my credit card.

By this time I was pretty irate, so I called them up, fuming, threatening to sue, and demanded to speak to a manager. They tried to pass it off as a "fee" which was BS and I knew it. I called them on it, and again demanded the $ back. They finally relented. I said this time you better cancel my service, or you'll be hearing from my lawyer!

I watched my credit card statement, and as soon as I saw the credit refund, I reported the card stolen, cancelled it and had a new one issued.

Don't even get involved with Vonage. They're a NIGHTMARE.

[DrKym]

We have charter here and bought the back up battery no issues at all! LOVE it, pay less than 100 for 3 lines with all the bells and whistles, including unlimited LD.

[sparks19]

My husband is a network engineer :D so I will keep you two away from each other hehe j/k

A friend of mine has Vonage and he loves it. Says it's the best phone service he's ever had. Anything must be better than my T-Mobile cell phone that doesn't work half the time lol.

Basically it's the long distance that we are looking at. We have A LOT of long distance calls to be made lol. Since almost no one we know lives locally haha.

[JenBKR]

Thanks for the responses guys! Still not totally sure what we are going to do, just looking to save a few bucks on some bills. Vonage is supposed to be cheaper than verizon, but I was kind of thinking there must be some kind of catch. Thank you!

[sparks19]

WEll our stuff gets here today sometime so I will let you know if the installation goes smoothly for starters :D

[JenBKR]

WEll our stuff gets here today sometime so I will let you know if the installation goes smoothly for starters :D

ok great - thanks for your help!

[Pembroke_Corgi]

I just wanted to add my experience- we had a vonage phone for Eric's work, and we found out they charge you a $40 disconnection fee to cancel service. Also, I did think the sound quality was bad, and overall I found it cheaper to go with Qwest...I guess I'm not a fan, sorry!

[sparks19]

Well we just installed it and the installation was easy as pie. The phones are charging so I haven't actually called anybody except myself lol.

[BitsyNaceyDog]

You might want to read this before signing up, especially if you've had your phone number for awhile and want to keep it.

You can keep your current number if you want, but it takes a little longer and cost a little more to sign up for that.

We've had vonage for awhile and we like it. One of our favorite features is that you can get your voicemail through your email. That has come in handy for us many times.

[sparks19]

Well it is all hooked up and it works great. We had no problems what so ever getting it set up. Took 5 minutes :D

So far I have only called my husband for about 2 minutes but it worked fine in that time and there was no sound distortion or anything.

So far I am happy with it.

[moosmom]

I have only one phone, a cellphone with T-Mobile. I get 1500 minutes a month with free nights and weekends for $59.99. I have never gone over my limit and can talk to all my friends and family for free.

When I was in Michigan, I signed up for something similar to Vonage (can't remember the name of the service). It ended up costing me more money so I said the heck with it. My brother was the one who asked me why I was paying for 2 phones (cell and home) and I didn't have an answer. So that's when I went to total cellphone service. I don't have to worry about an answering machine or caller ID because I have both on my cellphone. Plus, people can get ahold of me anytime, day or night.

[sparks19]

I have only one phone, a cellphone with T-Mobile. I get 1500 minutes a month with free nights and weekends for $59.99. I have never gone over my limit and can talk to all my friends and family for free.

When I was in Michigan, I signed up for something similar to Vonage (can't remember the name of the service). It ended up costing me more money so I said the heck with it. My brother was the one who asked me why I was paying for 2 phones (cell and home) and I didn't have an answer. So that's when I went to total cellphone service. I don't have to worry about an answering machine or caller ID because I have both on my cellphone. Plus, people can get ahold of me anytime, day or night.


I also have a T mobile cell phone. Thats why I have Vonage now lol. My service with T Mobile SUCKS. For one thing all my calls are long distance to Canada so that gets expensive (not the services fault) but while I am on the phone talking to my mom or whoever my call gets dropped every couple of minutes. To have a half hour conversation with my mother I have to call her back 3 or 4 times because my signal drops and there goes the call. Even if I don't move. I want to be free to move around my house and talk not sit pressed up against the window saying "what? what?" cause my cell cuts out lol.

I must live in a bad cell area lol. We have unlimited Vonage minutes and it is a flat rate to call to Canada at any time so that works much better for me than the cell phone.

[moosmom]

I had to laugh (HAH!!) at the Cingular Wireless billboard ads claiming they have the fewest dropped calls of any wireless carrier. I used to have Cingular and hated it because of the frequency of dropped calls. I love T-Mobile for that reason. I only have a dropped call MAYBE once a month because of "dead zones".

[sparks19]

I had to laugh (HAH!!) at the Cingular Wireless billboard ads claiming they have the fewest dropped calls of any wireless carrier. I used to have Cingular and hated it because of the frequency of dropped calls. I love T-Mobile for that reason. I only have a dropped call MAYBE once a month because of "dead zones".


I think I live in one BIG dead zone :D LOL I have never had another cell service here so I can't compare.

[sparks19]

Well I have had the phone for a couple days now. I love it. i called my friend in Canada and we talked for half an hour or so. Didn't cost me any long distance and the sound quality was fine to me. :D

[JenBKR]

Well I have had the phone for a couple days now. I love it. i called my friend in Canada and we talked for half an hour or so. Didn't cost me any long distance and the sound quality was fine to me. :D


Thanks for the update! Might have to consider it....

[king2005]

had it for 2yrs.. never had any issues with them.. Its always clear & I can call anywhere in canada & the usa for free 24/7.. I pay about 40.00/month for the unlimited.

All I can say is if the power went out & my phone was pluged into the wall, it wont work anyways.. it still needs power to run :P

I also have international calls blocked so I'm safe :)