What do REAL customers say about Vonage? Does it work as advertised? Should I sign up?

Question

I'd like to hear from REAL Vonage customers. I don't care about the stupid IPO, I think it's funny; but does the Vonage phone actually work well enough to really be worth the cost savings? How much did you actually save? Is it worth it? Thank you.

Answer 1

Vonage is great, but without some drawbacks.

Drawbacks.
1. Sometimes, a call goes dead. For the most part, this is fairly rare. If this happens once a month, I would be surprised.
2. You have to maintain the wires inside your building. So if you can do it yourself, or if you can call a local telephone guy, YOU ARE ALL SET. But remember, with the old fashoned phone company, you pay for maintanance anyway, and STILL get a bill for inside wiring fixes.

Advantages.
1. I have a Cell phone. Their SIMULRING feature is awesome. So when I do not want to miss a call, I ENABLE that feature.
2. All of the features that you can think of are included. I would never have paid for CALLER ID, but now that I have it, that is way cool.
3. Last summer, I went to Hong Kong for two weeks. I simply took my phone with me, and called the USA for free. It worked great. This summer, I am spending a week away, again, I am bringing my own phone with me.
4. Now, the UK, Ireland, Spain, France and Italy are included FREE with USA, Canada and Puerto Rico.
5. When you refer someone to Vonage, you get two months of service for free. My whole first year on Vonage was FREE, since I made several referrals. Unfortunately, one of my referrals had more dropped calls than he could stand, so he switched back after 6 months. He still saved a ton of dough by trying Vonage.

I added a UPS for my vonage adapter, Cable Modem and network router. SO my phone still works when the power goes out.

Answer 2

I have it and I'm saving $50 a month. I hooked vonage up to all the phone lines to my house and it worked fine at first, but after a few days, people couldn't call the house, i could hear the caller but they couldn't hear me cuz my voice was getting cut out or there was a lot of echoing, annoying stuff like that...after I did some trouble shooting and a week or two of trial and error, Vonage seems to be working fine now...I haven't heard anyone complain about the quality of the calls in a while and I've had it since April 1st. The absolute worse thing about Vonage is their Tech Support, no one and i mean NO ONE on the tech team speaks english well at all and it's unbelievably annoying...They did help with my last problem though and since then Vonage has worked fine...in the end Vonage isn't perfect, but it's worth the $50 a month or more I save

Answer 3

I don't have Vonage, but am using 1Touchtone.com, a competing carrier. The service has been outstanding over all and I've saved a ton of $$$ with it.

One advantage of 1Touchtone.com is that they have local numbers in many smaller cities and towns where Vonage don't have a presence. This way, friends and family in the local area can call you without dialing long distance.

You should keep a land line for 911 service. The so-called "Enhanced 911" service offered only by some VOIP providers is not reliable and may not connect you to the emergency services operator but to an admin number. When things are busy, this number may not be answered at all. You can get a stripped-down local line for well under $20.00 per month in most parts of the country. I also use mine for an incoming fax line. Very handy!

Answer 4

I don't use Vonage, but I do have Packet 8 which is an alternative provider of broadband phone service. I have been extremely happy with it.
My savings are substantial. It is cheaper by 30 - 40 month over normal phone fees I was paying, plus I do not pay for any long distance calls in the USA.
If you have additional questions feel free to email me.

Answer 5

I have had vonage for several months, I have had two issues, one, I had to change the bandwidth for incoming clarity. Two I had to call the company for a problem with voice mail notifier, both issues were fixed and I have not had any trouble since. I save about half on unlimited long distance. You have to have broadband in order to use it, I have DSL which requires one line and vonage is my second line. I think it is a great service and you not only get local and long distance for half but you also have the second phone line..

Answer 6

I have Sunrocket it is one of the other compete. It is fantastic for me . Sunrocket is approximately $16 per month no tax and you get all the features free too. They gave me2 free phones. They also gives you an additional number that you can give to some one from out of your area so they can call you locally. for instance my Mom lives in Florida and I live in Virginia when she call me it is like a local call and that would be for anyone in the 945 area in Florida.This is great for both me and my mother and my other family members who live in this area. I also did not have to pay for the "Gismo" to connect to the Internet. I know that Packet 8 company charges for that "gismo" thing. So far this works like a charm for me
PS.You must have high speed Internet to access this service

Answer 7

I have it and it works as advertised. The ONLY problem I have is, when I call someone and that person says "HELLO" right after picking it up, I do not hear it. Other than that, calls are clear and no dropped calls.

Answer 8

i am not really too familiar with it, but i havent heard n e thing bad, u know? so it cant be too bad, i hear alot of stuff
lol