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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: a few hours ago
(review was emailed from domain HORIZONONLINE.COM)
 Mesa,Maricopa,AZ
 Contract price not specified.
 "None that I can think of"
 "Callous Disregard for Customer Service"
 "If you ever need help from their Customer Service, you can forget it because it will never happen in this lifetime !"
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I was sent a Vonage phone I never ordered from an unknown address. I
called
Vonage on 11/12/2009 to report it. They determined the phone was ordered
under fraudulent terms by someone else, using an entirely different
person's credit card. I asked them to stop any further activity
involving my name address and phone number, and told them to close this
account that was opened under fraudulent terms. They told me I would
have to wait 10 days for their fraud dept. to get back to me.
On 11/13/2009 my home phone number was taken ( ported ) by Vonage with
out my consent, and my service provider ( Qwest ) also gave it to them
without my consent. Have been fighting Vonage for 9 days, with multiple
phone calls to multiple people, including supervisors, managers, etc to
give my home phone number back to Qwest, as Qwest can't do anything
until the number is given back by Vonage.
I did not order this service.
It was ordered with someone else's credit card I do not know.
It was ordered with a fraudulent e-mail address.
How can Vonage just take my home phone number without first, confirming
it with the owner of that phone number?
How can Qwest give my phone number I have had for 30 years to another
company without first verifying it with the primary account holder?
These business practices should be illegal!
Vonage needs to do the "right thing" and fix this issue, NOW !
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Review by tpower 
Posted: 7 days ago
member for 8.6 years, 118 visits, last login: 4 days ago
Snellville,Gwinnett,GA
$59 per month (24 month contract)
"It was great a few years ago"
"2 Year Hidden Term, Fees keep creeping up. $39.99 Cancelation fee per line"
"Ok if you are still using pots, but watch out for all the fees and hidden terms."
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I have been with Vonage for 22 months. I purchased the vonage adapter at full Retail with no
Rebates.
When I started with Vonage I had One Primary line with unlimited long distance and a second line with 500 minutes. The total bill 2 years ago was $38 including all the fees. Now in two years the bill has crept up to $59 and change for the same service. They must of hired someone from one of the MA bell companies as they keep adding fees. I'm sorry, a regulatory recovery fee is not paid to anyone else it is just a way to increase dollars going to Vonage.
Comcast had a deal with triple play and Comcast Voice and the bundle was cheaper than staying with Vonage. Actually now getting Comcast Voice (2 lines), HBo, Showtime, HD DVR etc and saving myself $50 per month.
So I go to cancel, and I am told, even though I paid full retail for the Vonage box with no rebates there was a 24 month term and it is $39.99 per line to cancel. "Hidden" in their terms and conditions I am told. So close to $80 just to cancel.
I was a big Vonage fan, but not anymore!
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Review by Yikes2000
UPDATED: 26 days ago
member for 8.2 years, 2508 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Irvine,Orange,CA
$30 per month (24 month contract)
"Offered Discounts After Complaining"
"Hidden Fees and TOS Traps"
"Cheaper than AT&T, but more expensive than other VoIP's"
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I have Vonage for a year now. During the first 4 months, the V-Portal device would disconnect from the Vonage server for no apparent reason. After numerous reboots and complains, it was fixed -- more or less. Occasionally, incoming phone calls still get forwarded to the backup phone line even though the V-Portal device shows no sign of a problem, and I can pick up the Vonage line for a dial tone.
The biggest problem though, is the hidden fees and TOS traps. For the $24.99 plan, they added nearly $5 of fees. In June/July 2009, they increased it by $0.50 via shuffling -- decrease one fee by $0.50, but increase two other fees by $0.50 each. I called and complained. They offered me a discount of $14.95/mo for 6 months.
I have a 2-year contract, during which I will pay $40 early termination charge if I cancel. However, if Vonage raise their prices or make "material change" to their TOS, then I may cancel without paying the $40 termination charge. There is a few problems with that. First, they don't have to email me about TOS change or price increase. Second, E911 or other feature add-on are exempt. Third, it takes 10 business days to port a phone number to another company. In summary, Vonage could raise their fees or charge new fees for a feature, and I have only 16-17 days to notice it in TOS and initiate termination, otherwise I'd be stuck paying the price increase or $40 termination fees (or both).
UPDATE 10/22/2009:
Vonage changed their TOS on 9/2/2009. Althoughthey didn't raise prices, the new TOS gave them more ways to raise prices while keeping me locked into my 2-year contract. So I cancelled my service for "material change" in the TOS.
(TOS) Section 15 gives me 30 days to cancel without the $40 termination charge when there is a "material change" to the TOS, but it took ***22 DAYS*** for Vonage to port my telephone number to another company. By the time it was done, the 30 days has expired. I don't think that's a coincident.
To get around this, I called within the original 30 days and asked how long it takes to port my phone number out. Then I asked if I should cancel before the porting is completed. Of course they said no. I requested the agent to document my phone call and give me a confirmation #. After the number is ported, I immediately called back to cancel service and request a waiver for the $40 disconnection fee citing my previous phone call. At this point the agent cannot help me with the waiver because it's past the 30 days, but she documented my request and gave me a second confirmation #. Next I filed a dispute via email (see TOS for address). When someone from Vonage Corporate office called back, I explained everything from the beginning and asked for the $40 waiver. She gave it to me.
Cost was the primary reason that I cancelled Vonage. Although they advertise $25/mo, it's close to $30/mo with all the hidden fees and taxes. If you complain enough, then the agent on the phone might offer you $12.50/mo (add $5 for fees) for 12 months. That is still more expensive than other VoIP's.
Vonage is a good replacement for AT&T and other traditional phone companies. The initial setup was easy and I saved 50% per month over my previous AT&T phone bill. Now I am ready to try a cheaper VoIP.
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 Review by John_W
Posted: 43 days ago
member for 9.5 years, 3514 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Worcester,Worcester,MA
$24 per month
 about 7 days
"Good sound quality, nice website interface, Nice features"
"Very expensive, no call blocking"
"Good, but there are better choices out there."
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I originally signed up for Vonage back in 2003. My reason for choosing the service was specifically on price. I ordered the 500 minute package for $14.99 plus $1.50 in fees. The package including an ATA arrived in 2 days and I was up and running in 7.
The call quality was excellent and they had few outages. Most of the outages were the fault of my local cable company as VOIP is only as good as your internet connection.
Their website and service offers extensive features including simu-ring, my favorite, which will ring two numbers at the same time. I chose my home and cell phone numbers. The control panel is very detail oriented showing all calls made and received and for how long. Voice mails can also be listened to online or just viewed. They used to offer emailed voice mail mp3's, but have since ended that, and now charge a fee for that service. They now offer world wide calling included in the base price of the $24.99 plan. Which is a nice feature now.
Some of the negatives. There is no call blocking of specific numbers. Something that users have been requesting for a long time. They are very expensive now. When I originally ordered, I got my 500 minute plan for about $16.50 a month. That has ballooned to a whopping $24.94 a month with the $3/mo increase in price and added fake fees. That is too expensive for what you get. I could get the unlimited plan for $32/mo, but why. I make only 60 minutes worth of calls a month. I have left Vonage for that specific reason. They jacked the price up too high too fast and it drove me away.
Vonage is nice and cheaper than a POTS line through the telco's but, it is expensive when compared to similar VOIP products. Why pay $25 a month when I can pay $9/mo for the same thing.
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Review by scasmflop
Posted: 44 days ago
member for 44 days, 2 visits, last login: 42 days ago
Bakersfield,Kern,CA
 Business customer
$22 per month
"Service was ok after some time spent optimizing everything"
"Hidden fees = rates much higher than quoted. Inexplicably charged me $120 to cancel!"
"Service was ok although I did notice drops when it was competing with other broadband activity. Cancellation = Scam Company"
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I had ok service with vonage but wasn't overly impressed as my service was spotty when it had to compete with other broadband activity. I'm sure I could have optimized even further to give it more priority through my router but my telephone service wasn't a priority to me and cable broadband should have been enough anyway.
Cancellation was the real eye-opener. Vonage is a complete scam. After 7 months of service I called to cancel (had already switch my number back to my old carrier), and they run me through 45 minutes of dodging and multiple offers to attempt to resign me despite my adament desire to just cancel and be done with them. Upon finally getting to the final cancellation step, they inform me that there will be $120 in charges for cancelling! I never signed any time-based contract with them and was always under the assumption that cancellation would not be an issue. They told me I had agreed to these charges in their TOS agreement when I first came on board with them (I remember being bombarded with tons of 911 workaround agreements, this TOS informing me that there could be $120 in fees for cancelling anytime wasn't anything I remember).
I would not recommend this service to anybody, they pass with QOS but are absolutely shady if you attempt to walk away even if you've never signed any time-based agreements.
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Review by Mr_A1
UPDATED: 44 days ago
member for 5.6 years, 2113 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Dickson,Dickson,TN
$25 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"3"
"7"
"You get what you pay for."
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Due to AT&T CallVantage service being discontinued, I decided to try Vonage as a value replacement. The changeover was easy and the equipment came fairly fast, but the call quality and features are not the same as AT&T for the same amount of money being paid per month. I will definitely be changing over the AT&T U-Verse Voice when I order their tv and internet services. Vonage still has a long way to go to provide better services like outgoing caller id along with other features now found on other carriers like a phone book, etc and really need to do something about improving their call quality.
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Review by rnikischer
UPDATED: 45 days ago
member for 6.9 years, 279 visits, last login: 43 days ago
Ottawa,La Salle,IL
$32 per month
about 5 days
"Excellent Call Quality"
"Sneaky Price Increases"
"Rock Solid Connection"
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August 12, 2009
I began shopping around for another company after Vonage's last price increase. I had no problem with their service for the many years I had them, however I was getting fed up with their price increases. I finally decided to switch over to VOIPO after having a conversation with Tim. I like the price and features they have to offer and I am not the least bit sorry I left Vonage. It was a good run but it was time to move on. I will give a review of VOIPO in the next few weeks after I have had their service for a few months.
April 20, 2009
Well despite all the doomsday prophecies regarding Vonage they are still providing me service and I haven't had a single issue with them. Top notch call quality and reliability. I haven't had to call them for any reason so I can't comment on their technical support. Historically it has been pretty bad but like I said I haven't had the need to call them so I don't know if that is still a problem. I am using cable 6/512 speed connection which I am sure helps keep the service running well. I did try to use their outbound fax service once, which is supposed to be a free feature, but it did not work. All I kept getting were error messages and the fax did not get sent. Don't know if it was a fluke or if it happens all the time. Other than this 1 issue I would suggest to anyone that they consider using them.
October 23, 2007
I have experienced no outages or problems with the system since my last review and while others have reported problems with their service I have had absolutely none. I decided to stick out the lawsuits and talk of Vonage going under and I am not the least bit sorry that I did. I am a bit aggravated that they increase the prices little by little under the guise of "recovery fees" and that other nonsense. When I started out with the service it was $34.95 per month with a small tax I believe it wound up costing around $36.50 per month. They had 2 price decreases of $5.00 each but then began charging these other fees over time. Some I believe are legitimate - others are not. So todays cost is around $32.50 per month. Still cheaper than when I started and mostly competitive with the other major players in VOIP.
Since I haven't had any problems I can't say if there has been any improvements to their tech support - but judging by the other reviewers here I tend to believe they still stink. The problems is - who the heck really has good tech support anymore?
I increased their website ratings because it has been greatly improved and their interface is very user friendly.
I hope to continue reviews of Vonage for another 4+ years.
12/23/2005
I've been with Vonage since March, 2003 so I guess that speaks for itself. A few hiccups here and there but since last year I have had no major outage whatsoever. They have dropped the price by $10.00 per month since I joined them to remain competitive - and that was a plus too. I use Vonage as a second line for most of my outbound calls but I have kept my POTS line after stripping it down to the bare bones and use it mostly as an inbound line and to keep 911 reliable and simple.
I bumped them up since my last review in reliability. I dropped down a notch for website since it has been getting slower and/or more difficult to login to my account online. Tech support in the past has been something I purposely have avoided and the other day I had a question I needed to ask so I made the mistake of trying to get through on a business day during business hours. After 10 minutes of listening to Vonage commercials on hold I gave up so I kept my tech support rating the same - I think they still need to improve it.
Overall the service is well worth the money. Good quality, high reliability provided you don't need tech support and your not in a hurry to get into their website I'd still recommend them. I don't plan to switch to anyone else.
One note: I use the service over 6mb down and 256k up cable connection which has also proven to be pretty stable so I'am sure my experience with Vonage has a lot to do with having a good connection and ISP as well.
08/23/04 UPDATE:
After my recent glowing review and over a year and a half of reliable service I have to give Vonage a ding for their recent outages and slow customer service reply to my email.
While still fairly sound, the recent outages and response to my email (over a week) leaves my agitated. As a result I have downgraded their reliability from a 5 to a 3 and their tech support goes down to a 2.
I also wrote them and suggested they have someone join in here at BBR and show their customers that they support them - but I haven't seen anything yet.
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 Review by UFO BOGIE 1
UPDATED: 74 days ago
member for 1.5 years, 15 visits, last login: 66 days ago
Wichita,Sedgwick,KS
$25 per month
"Fair Service, support Pretty Good ???"
"Over Priced"
"Dropped Vontage, went to a GO Phone"
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I had ATT. for about 6 years , got tired of them, always took to long to talk to a PERSON.. Time for a change . So I went with Vonage, Just have had the service about 60 days so far, & Very Happy I made the move so far,.. I like the cost, and the extras you get, a lot more for free, that you have to pay for with a land line , so far I really like the service, Tech support has been a lot better too. & there cheaper too.. Will let ya know how it goes in a few months. Update...7/2/08... Vonage..Rocks.. Very Happy with the service.... Glad I made the move to Voip. 2/1/09.. And Vonage is still giving me pretty good service.. Think I'll stick with them.. 8-25-09... Dropped Vonage..Thay are getting to expensive . so I got me a Go Phone & run on it & Magic Jack this is workin pretty good for me,, I'm not on the phone that much.. so now my phone bill is running about 120 bucks a year...(; Happy-Happy
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Review by mporter
UPDATED: 89 days ago
member for 89 days, 1 visits, last login: 83 days ago
New York,New York,NY
$18 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"fairly good voice quality"
"way too expensive"
"it's like having regular telco line but with far more issues"
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I had been with Vonage for over a year, and started to realize that for a VOIP line it's now way too expensive. Canceled 3 days ago, and see so many more attractive offers now.
Customer support BTW was almost impossible to reach, unless you have tons of free time and patience to wait on the line.
I like VOIP, it's affordable and feature reach, but not such VOIP - $18 for 500 min. US calling plan - that's crazy.
Followup comments:  mike21
join:2003-03-30
Allentown, PA | I Need VOIP--cheapest but reliable--Your advice please Are you really getting Vonage 500 min for $18 !!!???
They are charging ME $25+++. !!!!%&^%#^(*
What do I have to do? | |
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 Review by bender
UPDATED: 116 days ago
member for 4.6 years, 344 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Evanston,Cook,IL
$25 per month
about 1 days
"plethera of features come free, excellent coverage for area codes. you can keep your previous number when you setup your account"
"inability to block specific phone numbers from calling you. 911 not automatically setup."
"price with all these features kicks the crap out of the landline companies"
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Great service. wish they would've had my area code covered several years ago i would've switched a long long time ago. this makes moving so much easier. no transferring, waiting for a new line to be activated. very few fees to pay unlike the regular 'ma bell' telephone companies.
-update 12/01/2008-
service has been very good the last 4 years. sad to see that they are increasing the basic 500 price. means I will be dropping vonage sometime this spring.
-update 7/27/2009-
Dropped Vonage about 2 months ago. didn't use more than 100minutes a month and its saving me over $300/year now so yea. it was decent service though. too pricey
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