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 Review by ifarrell 
UPDATED: 217 days ago
member for 8 years, 2178 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Willow Spring,Wake,NC
 $25 per month
 "Easy Install, Fast Start up."
 "Tech Support horrible. New taxes worrying."
 "Easy set up, fast phone number switching."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I have had this service less than a week and they've already upset me in a big way.
Yes, sure they have Tech Support 24/7, if you can get through and have the patients to wait over 30 minutes.
But what good is that when you've jumped through hoops to prove the problem is not your end and they don't reply to your e-mails except with an Automated Message.
Several times I have made phone calls and it's worse than talking on a Cell Phone in a poor area. Vonage tried to blame my ISP (Earthlink) saying they are causing packet looses.
I used Ping Plotter at the advice of one tech during the time I made calls.
50ms pings and two packet looses to yahoo and a phone call that was like talking on a flaky cell phone service.
I still have yet to receive a reply from Vonage and am now considering cancelling the service (if that's what you can call it) if I don't receive a response by tomorrow.
** UPDATE **
So after more than two years I am trying Vonage again. This time it's because my employer is cutting expenses and wants to try this as a Phone Service.
It looks like Vonage have learned some things in the last two years but judging by many reviews here one thing that still hasn't improved is their CS (I've yet to try that again).
I got the Linksys PAP2 from Best Buy. When I got home I signed up on their Web Site for the Unlimited (24.99/mth) plan and requested my phone number be switched to them. That was very easy. I got immediate emails about my orders. I filled out the required form for the Number Switching. Again, very easy. Once that was all completed, I unpacked the Linksys box, connected the adapter to my router, waited the 5 minutes they suggested and connected my phone and was able to use it straight away.
Wow, the Voice Quality has improved. I tested the service at a variety of times while my Weather Server was running and Bit Torrent was running on another computer. I only have 384K upload but I also now have a Hawking Broadband Booster and everything ran in harmony.
Also, today, only a day after connection, I got an e-mail stating the phone transfer had been approved by my current phone line provider and should switch no later than June 15th. That was quite surprising.
I've yet to dabble with some of the features they have but it's going to be interesting.
Although it's still early days again, I've had better luck second time around.
UPDATE (Sept 2006) : Now I've used Vonage again for a few months I'd say I'm mostly happy.
That's not to say there haven't been a few kinks such as dropping Outgoing Audio about a week ago caused by Vonage. As per usual I never got through to Tech Support (more than an hour on wait is excessive). Vonage never post Network Issues on their site. After all, that would be admitting they have problems once in a while (sigh!).
I also seem to have the odd issue (it's happened twice) where the Hawking Broadband Booster interferes with a call while testing Network Speed. I might have to give Hawking a call if it happens again. Obviously not a Vonage issue.
International calls (I've made qquite a few to the UK) are very good. Haven't had any echo issues or dropped calls.
Most of the time people can't tell that I'm calling from VoIP service and are quite surprised when I tell them.
The only thing that would concern me is if my ISP (Time Warner Cable/Earthlink) start doing QoS and making Vonage calls lower priority on their Network. TWC Digital Phone is quite expensive ($39.99 per month excluding taxes, etc) so I would probably not even consider that since it would be about the same as my regular land line used to be.
**UPDATE - JANUARY 2008**
Vonage is still running OK albeit with the odd hiccup. That's to say after a long time of no problems I am now getting the old choppy audio complaints. Any time of day any day of the week at random. Talking to Vonage's so-called tech support is, well, I might as well talk to my neighbor who is not tech oriented and knows more than the people 7000 miles or more away who just read off idiot boards.
I don't have time to troubleshoot my Network configuration and quite honestly why should I since it's exactly the same as when I didn't have trouble. Only thing I can think is my Router or ATA has an issue but nothing else is having problems, just Vonage.
I'll update this further if I find anything.
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