Customer Reviews

Vonage DigitalVoice Service

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(43)

 

 

I have been using Vonage as my primary phone service for several months now. I also have a strong background in VoIP when I had worked as an Engineer at Nortel Networks on their Carrier and Enterprise VoIP and VoATM solutions. Here is my review so far:

Pros:
1) Low cost long distance, regional, AND international rates. Their rates/overall cost is extremely hard to beat from what I have seen.
2) Gives the customer an additional reason to pay the expense of a broadband connection.
3) Access to voicemail and service features online.

Cons:
1) POOR support of their service. I have had multiple occasions (more than 10 in 2 months) where calls were able to be established (the signaling portion or path of the call was created) however you could not hear anything (the voice path was not established).
2) A power outage can prevent you from making calls.
3) Internet or ISP bandwidth congestion can affect a call (distorted/choppy voice, loss of connection, delay and echoing while talking).
4) Often times when the above problems occur, you must reset all the equipment in order to re-establish a good connection. When this doesn't work, you have to rely on support. I have gone days without service. When the service came back, it didn't appear to be related to Vonage Support fixing anything. In other words, they never checked back to confirm service was restored after any changes/or troubleshooting they performed. They also lacked any useful suggestions on how to prevent similar outages, etc.
5) You should maintain a secondary land line separate from Vonage. This service is not reliable enough to use as your only home phone service. 911 services ARE now available, however if something happens during a power outage, you won't have any phone service to make that 911 call.

Vonage provides a means of using your broadband modem as a standard phone. The sound quality is not as great as POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) but through their website, you can change the settings to allow the amount of bandwidth that you want to use which can increase the quality. Do take note that it depends on the speed of your modem. Think in percentages, not speed, when adjusting these settings. Knowing your average upload and download speeds first before you make changes will give you a good idea of what to expect for performance and there are a few sites that will give you a bandwidth test for free.

The instructions included in the manual are very simple and the equipment is easy to set up, however, users with static IP addresses need to take note that you may have some difficulty with P2P and possibly other online services because your computer is assigned a local IP address by the Vonage voice box but your modem still has the IP assigned to you by your broadband company. Also, for those of us that write server side software and web applications where the components rely on communication with each other across a network, it can be a real hassle. Also, I have had call drops and fast busy signals at times. Other erratic behavior from the service includes "tin can" sound quality, even at the highest setting, forwarding not working properly, and voicemail not working properly.

Do not bother contacting Vonage by phone. The hold times are usually in the 20 - 30 minute range and sometimes longer. One time I was on hold for 45 minutes before I got an automated message telling me that they were closed. I think they closed while I was on hold. The email support is not much better. I was having a problem with how the Vonage box was distributing IP addresses and they were not able to help with that. They usually just repeat the instructions that were in your manual. One time I got an email from a "Level II" tech support representative. I don't know if this was supposed to be a more knowledgeable representative, but he only had rudimentary networking skills such as checking the TCP/IP properties, etc. I got so fed up with the equipment that I finally just sat down one night and wrote my own piece of networking software in C++ to fix my IP dilemma. I will say that my system is quite unique and that most users will probably not have this type of difficulty, but it is important to point out that if you do have difficulty other than basic setup issues, you are on your own. Also, their website has problems occasionally that prevent you from getting into your account information. This can be big trouble when you want to check your voicemail online, change an account setting, or forward a number. Their website is slow and hangs often or sometimes just simply returns a "This page cannot be displayed" browser message. This has caused me the most frustration.

In conclusion, Vonage is a company with a very professional image, but a very amateur staff. The idea of broadband voice communication is a boon in times when landline services are drastically increasing prices but if a company wants to pioneer this type of idea to a large client base, they need to beef up their knowledge of system diversity and get their staff some more advanced technical training.

It is one thing to have technology as a supplement to daily life; however, if a company wants to replace a life necessity such as landline phones with a voice over broadband service then they need to have a solid service, reliable backup plan, and knowledgeable staff. I recommend that anyone who decides to use Vonage, HAVE A CELL PHONE AS A BACKUP FOR EMERGENCIES!!! I feel that Vonage has gotten in slightly over their heads in an effort to become an overnight success. They have overlooked the finer details that make modern communication what it is and for that I must give them two stars.

First - let me tell you it is a great service, if you can live with the following:
1. You need to keep Cable / DSL modem, a router and a Vonage equipment (ATA) always ON.. so count on some electricity bill.
2. When you call someone, the receipient's caller ID will show "Unkown".
3. You will not be listed in Phone Book / 411.
4. NO 911 service.
5. You always need electricity and your internet connection should always be working.
6. If you have only 128 kbps DSL connection, then while talking on Vonage phone, you are left with only 128-90 = 38 kbps connection for web surfing.. so you cannot do both at the same time.
7. THERE IS A DISCONNECT FEE OF 39.99 WHENEVER YOU DISCONNECT THIS PHONE SERVICE.

I've been using the Vonage service and my normal phone to make calls and have been very impressed with phone call quality. I have seen others complain about the delay, but I don't think it really affects the quality of most phonec calls. Yes there is a delay. No, most people won't notice the delay in a normal conversation.

A bigger issue, however, is Vonage support. I have had no Vonage dial tone for two days. Calls to their support # have ended in a "we are too busy to take your call, please leave a message." These messages, as well as three emails, have gone unanswered. The result is that I have no phone service and no way to speak to anyone to fix the problem. This, I believe, is Vonage's critical flaw.

When support is fixed and the service becomes reliable, this will be a great product. Until then, stay away.

What this product does is digitize your voice, put the digitized voice into TCP/IP packets and ship them over the Internet to a VOIP gateway at the destination, where it is connected to the traditional telphone system so that you can make calls to everyone else in the world. The problem with this approach is delay. For ADSL, there is significant delay in the ADSL connection due to interleaving of the packets, and then lots of variable delay (and some packet loss) in the Internet itself. For cable modems, there's delay in the upstream path - the modem has to bid for use of the upstream channel and be granted access. If you ever have the opportunity to talk over a VOIP link, ask the person you're talking to to count with you. You say "one" and they reply "two" as soon as they hear your "one". You can quickly get a feeling for the amount of delay. People learn to tolerate delay so if you talk to the same people all the time, you'll all quickly learn to work with the delay - almost like using a CB radio. But new users, accustom to the regular phone system, will have problems.

If you can tolerate the delay (which can lead to double talking and talkover), AND you do a lot of long distance calling, this product may be of some value to you. However, you can find traditional long distance telephone service at very low cost, especially if you're willing to use a prepaid calling card.

Others have pointed out some of the additional problems of loss of service during power failure, lack of 911 (because the VOIP people really don't know where you are) and a few others. Lack of 911 can be life threatening - if you take this service please make sure you have an alternate way to get help, either another land line or a cell phone.

This lack of location information *can* be an advantage (as a second line). You could establish a "presence" in Atlanta (for example) even though you live in Phoenix. That is, you could have an Atlanta phone number, area code and all, without a physical presence in Atlanta. This is of value if your family lives in Atlanta and calls you all the time - they can do so without long distance charges.

But if your motivation is that you dislike your telephone service provider, I suggest you get a cellular phone with free long distance and use that, rather than VOIP (at this stage of its development).

First I would like to say that if you would like to save money each month on your phone bill and if you have high speed cable internet access, then you just might want to switch. But please be aware of the disadvantage of this service.

But before I state some disadvantage and problems, I want to write about the positve things about Vonage.

The Good

I have cut my phone bill by more than %50. Not to mention, I get 500 hundred minutes of long distance included along with all the other common features (such as caller Id, call waiting, voicemail). I get all this for only $ a month! I love to save money and I am sick and tired of throwing money away to these traditional phone companies! Vonage simply gives me a much better value.

Another great thing about Vonage is the online account management where you can check your messages, make changes to your service, and see instantly what charges and calls are posted to your account. I love this becuase I am not suprised by a huge long distance bill every month.

The Not so Good

The greatest disadvantage to using Vonage is that there currently is no 911 service. Although, they are working to get the added and I am being told that this will be available by the end of March 2003. Vonage should have had this service from the beginning.

Another disadvantage of Vonage is that there is no name display for the caller ID. This is something else that should have been available from the beginning. However this is also being added although no estimated date was given.

In regard to phone quality, Vonage is not as good as a traditional phone line but better than the other internet phone services that I've tried. I have had a few complaints that people are getting feedback on their phone. Also, while surfing the web, very brief hesitations and minor voice problems are common. This can be irratating so I just mainly surf when I am not talking on the phone.

One last thing: Know that you will be sharing your net connection with your phone service. This does make a noticeable diiference in speed. Users can select the bandwidth saver feature but the voice quality will be greatly decreased.

When you sign up for Vonage, make sure you realize that it will take at least one month (they say 15 to 20 business days) from the time you fax the authorization letter and your latest phone bill to actually begin receiving service. In the interim, they are charging you for monthly service when you aren't actually receiving service.

In my case, it has taken nearly two months, so I am supposed to pay for two months of service BEFORE I ACTUALLY RECEIVE SERVICE. I haven't even had a chance to evaluate their actual service yet because it hasn't started, but I've paid nearly $100 just for the privilege of waiting. I find these sort of shenanigans to be unacceptable and the sign of a company that does not think very highly of its own customers, and as a result one that does not deserve my business.

Vonage is real and ready for prime time. I've been using vonage for 2 months now and I couldn't be happier. The service has always worked like a charm and the cost savings are incredible. Setup was a breeze, I just plugged it into my cable modem router and viola! The box came preconfigured and I didn't touch a thing.

Vonage just hit 40,000 subscribers on 8/4/03. At the moment they're adding 1500+ subscribers per week! Speculation is that they'll have over 100k subs by year-end. The feature set offered from Vonage is very similar to that of your current phone provider and they're adding more all of the time, only cheaper.

The only voice features I see missing from the Vonage service over what could be purchased from my old provider (Qwest) are:
1) Name+Number CID (Vonage only offers number Caller ID)
2) Privacy+ (Your "We don't accept solicitations or unidentified callers...")

What Vonage already has that Qwest wouldn't give me at any price:

1) Call Transfer... You can't get that unless you have a business line and then it'll cost ya
2) Near-real-time call logging and account monitoring
3) Voicemail that will e-mail/page you
4) The ability to retrieve voicemail from a remote location without making a LD call
5) Caller ID embedded into the voicemail
6) Automatic Credit Card billing
7) Free credits for for signing up friends and family!
8) The ability to take my phone with me when I travel, all you need is a broadband connection!
9) Really cheap 8xx number for toll-free dialing
10) Free long distance
11) Having an unlisted/unpublished number for free (Qwest charges a monthly fee for unlisted/unpublished service)
12) Keeping my number. (I transfered my number from Qwest to Vonage and now I'll never lose my telephone number when I move.)

There are lots of other really cool features that Vonage offers that I could drone on about, but I only have 1000 words here!

I got rid of my land line in early Summer 2003 and have been using Vonage exclusively since then. Vonage customer service seems to be lacking as others have noted, but the Voice over IP technology works great. For us, Vonage has been working 100% of the time.

However, I just want to remind any prospective buyers that this service depends completely on your internet connection. That means that if you have a unreliable connection, any internet-based phone is going to be unreliable as well. You may not realize how unreliable your internet connection when browsing the web or downloading files because these processes can be temporarily interrupted. But if your IP-phone traffic gets interrupted even for a second, you and the other party will notice immediately with either a choppy signal or a dropped call. This is not a fault of Vonage, but a simple fact that most residential internet services are not designed to support continuous VoIP traffic.

My cable modem, which worked fine for browsing the web, turned out to not like transmitting traffic continously either. If you use Vonage and find that your connection gets dropped after 5 or more minutes, you may want to try a different cable modem. I switched to a Motorola Surfboard 5100 and that resolved my dropped calls problem.

I live in an area serviced by Comcast, and every time the IP phone had problems, it turned out to be a Comcast network/routing problem where traffic was sporadic.

And don't forget: In the event of a power failure, a traditional landline phone will work, but VoIP will not, unless you have backup power for your VoIP device AND your internet provider stays up too. During the "Blackout of 2003" this past summer, my VoIP phone service failed because Comcast ran out of backup power about 4 hours into the blackout and we lost the internet connection.

In summary, I believe Vonage has their technical end well implmented, but the whole system is only as good as the weakest link... and I suspect for most the weak link will be your cable/DSL provider. If I could replace my cable connection with a T1 line, I really believe this service would be rock solid.

Pros: Unique product that can fill special needs. Good voice quality, nice features.

Cons: Worst customer service response I have ever seen, it will make dealing with your local baby bell seem pleasant by comparison. Delay in voice leads to talk-over. Flaky service.

We purchased this because we are moving and wanted to take our old number with us to an area that would be long distance for many of our friends. If this service worked well, this would have been great. Unfortunately, there is a delay between when you talk and when the other person hears you. We found this too annoying to live with, so we decided to cancel the service and get a money-back guarantee (unfortunately we bought through the company, not Amazon, so no easy return). I've been trying for two days now to cancel, and have gotten no response to my e-mails.

I first tried to contact their customer service when the voice mail didn't work. After waiting on hold for nearly 1/2 hour, a message came through saying that their call center was too busy, and that I should try again later or send an e-mail. I've got better things to do than wait on hold for 25 minutes just to be told to call again. I sent them an e-mail, and no one responded (not even now, 1 week later). After several episodes of being on hold for 25 minutes, I finally got through (5 days later) they told me that this was a system-wide problem. It would have been nice if they could have said this on their web page, then I wouldn't have bothered trying to call them. Now I'm trying to contact customer service to cancel the service. I'm afraid that I may have to put a stop pay on my credit card to get my money back.

If you can live with the delays and flaky voice mail, it might be okay for you. The voice quality is quite good. I currently have a cable modem through Comcast (formerly AT&T) which is 256K upstream, 1.5 MB downstream. I have talked on the phone while doing other surfing, including watching live video, and haven't had any problem with quality.

I wanted to like Vonage, but the horrible customer service turned me off for good.