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 Review by mb 
UPDATED: 66 days ago
member for 9.3 years, 4677 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Washington,Warren,NJ
 $33 per month (24 month contract)
 "One of the largest and oldest VoIP providers"
 "More costly than others"
 "Recent call reliability issues"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Update 9/7/09 I have disconnected service with Vonage and ported my number over to CallCentric. The cancellation process went very smoothly and there were no disconnection fees. You get a lot of bang for the buck with Vonage, but recent call quality/reliability issues forced my hand.
Update 8/26/09 Over the past couple of months Vonage's quality/reliability has dropped. There have been several incidences of calls being dropped totally or complaints of not being heard. Several of these calls were of an important nature. My research suggests that it was not due to an ISP related issue. I have consequently dropped my ratings of call reliability and quality and I am pursuing service with provider.
Update 06/17/2008 I received a "phishing" type of call and contacted customer service in an attempt to identify the origination as the caller id info was obviously spoofed. The customer service number was quickly answered by an native agent in Holdmel NJ and after some brief research on his part, he quickly transfered me to an advanced tech support agent also in Holmdel. The Advanced Tech Support agent checked a variety of tools that he had available but was only able to determine that the call originated in Costa Rica. What a turn around in Customer Service quality. I'm impressed.
Update 01/16/2008 I needed to contact tech support several times this past week for issues involving voicemail waiting indicator light reliability, a subsequent audio issue, and then to have my device returned to default settings after a variety of changes by overseas support. A very long and arduos process. The tech support still stinks, with the Advanced Services Group being difficult to contact but effective.
Update 10/7/2007 Vonage continues to be rock a solid performer with high sound quality. I am aware of the legal issues they are facing, but I will stick with them until the end if it comes.
Update 5/30/2007 I have ported my number back to Vonage from Viatalk. In my opinion, although pricey, Vonage meets my needs best.
Update 5/18/2007 I have decided that for me, Vonage in fact supplies the highest quality service. I have decided to return as a customer and opened a new account. I have been pleasantly surprised in that the 4 telephone contacts that I have had have all been with support personnel here in New Jersey.
Update 5/2/2007 The port to ViaTalk was completed today and the Vonage account was canceled. The cancellation was handled by an efficient and pleasant customer service representative in Holmdel NJ. The $42 disconnect fee was charged as expected. My only issue with Vonage was uncertainty about their future and concern over retaining my long time telephone number.
Update 04/21/2007 I have been very satisfied with Vonage. Unfortunately, with all of the negative publicity and uncertainty surrounding their future, I have decided to port my number and use ViaTalk as my VOIP provider. I wish Vonage well in their battle with Verizon and may be back someday if things stabilize
Update 02/27/07 Voice quality went down the tubes yesterday. A call to a heavily accented and hard to understand tech support agent resulted in changes to my provisioning which did not help. Later in the evening, I noticed a thread here involving the issue suggesting it was widespread. I was able to make contact with a tech here in good old NJ later in the evening who returned my settings to their defaults and sound quality returned at once.
Initial review: I just moved my Verizon DSL service to a "dry loop" and decided to give VoIP phone service a try.
Comparing information about the various providers from the forums here at BroadbandReports.com did not provide me with a clear preference. I went to the local Circuit City and picked up a Linksys/Vonage PAPv2 telephone adapter. It came with 2 rebates that totalled $100. I returned home and signed up for service that included one free month, and then installed the device.
For the next 5 hours the power light on the adapter was blinking 3 times a second, an indication that it was obtaining it's configuration from Vonage. My first 3 calls to customer support over that period of time ended up overseas and proved fruitless. After the usual scripted exchanges, I was told that an outage in the Northeast US caused my issue and was told to power cycle the device. This didn't work. My last call ended up in the good old US of A and the tech explained that he could see the device and walked me through a hardware reset. Within 5 seconds I had service.
Service has been rock solid since with good sound quality. The web based features are quite impressive to someone who grew up using a rotary dial phone mounted to the kitchen wall.
Updates to follow
Followup comments:  Hackster3
join:2002-05-07
Richmond Hill, NY
| Vonage clarity. I like this here Vonage! I am an old Verizon subscriber for phone service. Even with unlimited local calling, my bills were still $130-$140 per month. Too much for me! So I switched over to Vonage. The only time I have trouble is on the weekends when everyone and their mother are using their computers or phones! I am breaking up, on the weekends that is. Everyone in the house has a cell plan with weekends free, so it works out just great! | |
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mat
| Re: Vonage - False Advertisement Although I understand your frustration all of the VOIP companies advertise Unlimited Calling but have a limit to check if its purely residential usage or Business usage. Most of the companies have high limit like 5000, while VOIPO has 3000 (1500 incoming and 1500 outgoing), although its a soft limit. According to their rep, the reason is because they have only seen 400 minutes of usage for a residential account. But at least they say that its a soft limit and they wont force you to upgrade the first time you cross that limit and all that.
I think the only way to keep up with these kind of limit is to keep checking your account usage. | |
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patelmay
@cargill.com
| Such advirtisements are always mis-leading but if oyu read terms and conditions carefully of any service provider, you will know that such details are always covered.
I just subscribed for Vonage and while going through terms and condition, I found this which is consistent with what you have mentioned.
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Inconsistent with Normal Use.
If you use the service or the device in a way that is inconsistent with the normal use for your service or plan, you will be required, at Vonage's sole discretion, to pay the rates for the service or plan that would apply to the way you used the service or device, or terminate the plan. For example, if you subscribe to one of our residential service plans, and your usage is inconsistent with normal residential use, you may thereafter be required to pay our applicable, higher rates for commercial service for all periods in which your use of our service or the device was inconsistent with normal residential use. Unlimited voice services are provided primarily for continuous live dialog between two individuals. Lack of continuous dialog activity, unusual call patterns, excessive numbers and/or consistent excessive usage (i.e., More than 5,000 minutes per line per month for unlimited residential calling and/or more than 10,000 minutes per line per month for unlimited small business calling), will be considered indicators that use may be inconsistent with normal use, or that impermissible use may be occurring and may trigger an account review by us. The creation or use of related multiple accounts or excessive residential lines to circumvent these levels shall also be considered indicators that use of the service may be inconsistent with normal use for the subscribed monthly plan(s) and may trigger an account review by Vonage. Failure to contact Vonage in response to its notifications and/or failure to promptly correct usage activity to conform to normal use will result, in Vonage's sole discretion, in immediate mandatory transfer to another appropriate plan, suspension or termination of service. You acknowledge that if your service is terminated under this provision, you are subject to all applicable disconnection and device or other rebate recovery charges. Vonage's right to terminate your account under Section 6.5(b) (with or no reason) is not limited by this provision. For a non-exhaustive list of examples of uses of our service inconsistent with normal residential use, click here.
Commercial, not-for profit, governmental use or other similar use
The use of the service at a multi-residential address for more than one single residence; or
The use of the service by others who do not reside in your personal residence primarily by reason of its unlimited feature
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Hope this helps. | |
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