Don't get Vonage!

[Chip]

After a week of getting two routers, finally hiring a computer expert @ $50 an hour, I get a dial tone. The connection is worse than a really bad cell phone. You have to wait 45 minutes to get someone in India who doesn't understand English and they can't help you. This is the biggest goose chase. I am going to send all this stuff back to them and stop payment on my credit card so they stop charging all these fees.

[jim0352]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I've had Vonage for over a year now without any problems. For the price, it's tough to beat. Who do you have as your internet provider? If you don't have a good connection to the internet, your Vonage service will suffer.

Jim

[Chip]

I have a broadband. You can't get customer support for hours and once you do, they have Indian (On the other side of the planet India) accents. Nothing against the Indian people but they don't understand English very well. If they can't understand you they hang up.

I am going to yank all this stuff off. I understand it works well for some people, but not for me. It's not a good company. Don't use them. I am going to contest all the charges with my bank. This is the worst technical wild goose chase I have ever been on.

[Chip]

Also when you use the vonage control panel for your account it sticks a spy ware cookie on your hard drive.

[blooddrive]

I use SunRocket at home. Costs $200 per a full year, includes taxes, everything no hidden charges, no set-up fee, no additional fees, and include the gizmo for free. They give you two phone numbers, unlimited US / Canada calling, all your standard phone features (including voicemail), and a couple bucks monthly allowance for international calls. They will also include a free uniden cordless phone set (w/ 2 handsets) if you sign up as a referral. (Just enter 4804221678 as a referrer reference.)

Never had a problem running it against Cox. It was out once for a couple of days, but they fessed up, admitted they were having problems and promptly fixed it.

[jeepsonly]

IP Phones have been touted as the "new phone system" with some believing POTS (plain old telephone service) will go away. I hope not. Although my 8x8 (packet8.net) service works most of the time, it often has delays, echoes and cutouts just like an analog cell phone. I also am using Cox. Plus it's funky when I'm uploading/downloading a big file. Kinda cool because of the lower cost and free long distance but it hasn't replaced my regular phone system, which I use for important calls.

[Special K]

Another thing to consider is that most internet phone systems are not compatible with the E-911 system (the one that tells the 911 operator where you are calling from when your house is on fire). If you have some type of emergency and you forget to give them your address you could be out of luck.

[blooddrive]

Another thing to consider is that most internet phone systems are not compatible with the E-911 system (the one that tells the 911 operator where you are calling from when your house is on fire). If you have some type of emergency and you forget to give them your address you could be out of luck.

This isn't true, most internet phone services, or at least the larger ones like Vonage and SunRocket, do support E-911, there are federal regulations that require them to support it. However, you would want to keep a second means of contacting 911, because it will never be as reliable as a POTS line.

[Chip]

Well it didn't work on my computer. Their customer service is terrible. they sent me two boxes and when we finally got that to work is was like a bad cell phone connection no matter what I was doing on the internet. Plus they socked me with a $50 cancellation fee, which I am contesting with the bank. I am trying to figure out a way to get their router off my system without disconnecting my internet, so I can return it. No luck so far with that.

Where I live in Tucson there is really no cell service because I am too close to the mountains. I am stuck with an expensive land line. I won't try another internet phone, this was just a wild goose chase.

[Jostaman]

what? cox not out there yet? we be trying