Does anyone here use Vonage?

[GB]

What do you think? It is as good as traditional phone companies. Is it better? Worse? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

I keep seeing the commercials and it looks like I can cut my phone bill in half if I switch. The one thing that looks like it is keeping me from doing it is that I would need another piece of hardware that would hook into my cable modem and that is what the phones hook into. I have phones in many different rooms and on different floors so I do not know how that would work unless I wanted to do a lot of work and run wires through the walls which I really do not feel like doing. Do I have this right or am I missing something?

 

[Andy M.]

I'm not sure how it works, GB. The ideal situation is to put that box near the phone box and feed throughut the house via existing lines.

I cut back my basic phone service to the cheapest possible rate for my area and we use our cell phones for all outgoing calls. Since we have the cells anyway and the minutes are adequate, that's the cheapest route for us.

One caution. I live in a townhouse condo complex. Residents who sign up for cable phone (via Comcast) cause a problem because the cable company will not run wires inside the walls. They run the cables up the outside of the building! Then they have to have them removed when they get caught.

 

[stinemates]

GB, I use the same idea as vonage, Skype. I have a Skype-In phone number and I have Skype running on 3 PC's throughout my house, so I can answer whenever needed.

While I don't have a regular 'phone' it does ring, and the latency relies solely on how fast your internet connection is. I really like it!

As for vonage, I have no direct experience. You may want to search the web for other people's thoughts.

 

[GB]

Thanks Andy and stinesmates.

I do have a friend who has it and she really likes it, but she lives in a small apt in NYC so she only has one phone. Where I have a two story house with lines in most rooms my situation is a bit different than hers. I just called Vonage, but the woman I spoke with was less than trustworthy. I would ask her a question and she would tell me one thing. Then I would say that I saw something different on the website and she would say that what I saw was right. I never know which response was the right one.

 

[stinemates]

I think it works well for a main phone household, but for multiple phones it could/would be rather tough.

The only way around it I could see would be if they had wireless 'extra' phones, maybe you could ask them about it?

 

[GB]

What she told me (but I am not sure if I believe her yet) is that as long as it is one phone number then I just need to plug their adapter in between the internet connection and one phone jack. Then all the other phones in the house can use the existing jacks. I am going to call back and talk to someone else to make sure before I do anything.

 

[stinemates]

Hmmmmmmm,

I can see how that would work with DSL, but certainly not Cable connection (from a technology perspective) Hopefully the next rep will be more credible.

 

[GB]

I sure hope so. So far they are not filling me with confidence.

 

[jennyema]

The Globe (I think) did a story on Vonage recently and they have a lot of unhappy customers apparantly. Also, their customer service is said to be very bad. But that's just waht I read and have heard.

Make sure you get regular 911 emergency service. Not sure if you recall the woman last year in MA who died because her internet phone service did not have 911.

 

[GB]

Yeah I have read a lot about the 911 problems. Those have been taken care of (from what I have read). You just need to fill out a form when you sign up otherwise 911 won't work. It also depends on where you live, but I know that in my area I would be able to use the E911 system otherwise I would never even think about considering a switch.

That does not surprise me about their customers service Jenny. From just my one phone call, I was quite underwhelmed. Chances are i will be sticking with what I have now, but saving 50% is still what is keeping me from ruling it out completly.

 

[urmaniac13]

I never heard of Vonage, but we do use Skype regularly, actually for Cris, an essential tool for work. It is much more economical and convenient than a regular telephone, especially you tend to spend much of the day in front of the computer.

 

[RedBedHead]

I have Vonage and love it. My husband is the tech guy in our house so I can only tell you what I know not how it works.
We have 4 cordless phones all plugged into the wall. 911 works fine (don't ask me how I know that, I just do). It rarely goes out and if it does it forwards straight to my cell. Very occasionally there is static in the line. But, I'm saving alot of money each month and if I knew anyone in London, I could talk for free

 

[GB]

Thanks RedBedHead. So when you say the phones are plugged into the wall, I am assuming you mean that they are in the normal phone jack, not some special Vonage thing right?

Have you had any problems with their customer service?

 

[PA Baker]

GB, we considered switching to Vonage awhile ago but didn't for a couple reasons. First, the 911 issue made me nervous. I know they've straightened it out in a lot of places, but from what I've read there are still gaps. Also, since we have DSL and satellite TV, we'd have to end up paying for a cable hookup to be able to get internet. That charge would wipe out any savings we'd see from switching to Vonage.

DH's work is setting up a small DC office that will only be used when someone travels down there. They wanted ot have phone service that could be answered in Harrisburg so they're looking into setting up a Vonage account. The last I knew he was responsible for getting it all established so I'll ask him what he thinks so far.

 

[TATTRAT]

I'm in the Skype camp. I have never had issues with it and like it quite a bit. I was considering Vonage, but like you GB, too many questions and not enough answers...

cell phone is my cheapest line.

 

[Raven]

Isn't it funny that we used to use our phone lines to connect to the internet.
Now we're using the internet to replace phone lines.

~ Raven ~

 

[RedBedHead]

Thanks RedBedHead. So when you say the phones are plugged into the wall, I am assuming you mean that they are in the normal phone jack, not some special Vonage thing right?

Have you had any problems with their customer service?

GB, we have the 4 set of phones with one central base and 3 that plug straight into an electrical outlet. So, I'm assuming that the base is hooked into the Vonage somehow.
I've had no problems at all with customer service.

 

[jennyema]

Luckily I've never had to call 911 but things like this make me nervous

 

[Aurora]

I've had Vonage for about 1 month at both my home office and my restaurant and so far the voice lines have been very satisfactory. I, like others, have attached a 4 phone wireless 5.8 mhz digital phone to the voice line at the home office and have also attached it to my IBM 4 line phone. The fax line is rather problematic making connections and often backs down to 2400 to 4800 baud to make a fax connection. About 25% of the transfers are unsuccessful and have to be repeated. I have my fax line connected directly to my PC server and use an internal USR modem.

The restaurant lines have both worked just fine. I have a simple 2 line phone in the Manager's office for voice and an HP multifunction printer/fax for facsimile. We continue to use a separate telco line for backup credit card/ATM transaction processing. Even Vonage does not suggest using the Vonage lines for credit card/ATM processing or modem to modem transfers.

The cost savings has been well worth the minor facsimile inconvenience. I am very pleased with the voice lines and love the ability to fetch my messages via email.

 

[XeniA]

Don't know Vonage, but moved through Skype and on to Jajah. Nothing to download, no headphones or special equipment, uses regular telephones and land lines, and now for up to an hour a day ("fair use") I'm talking to my sister in the U.S. and to a number of European friends as well ... all for FREE!

It's free between Jajah-registered users within the U.S. and within Europe (and between the two as well) and ridiculously cheap as well. Even though Skype technically allowed you to talk from computer to regular phone, I never got that to work well for me, and even computer-to-computer calls on Skype had greatly varying quality. Jajah quality is amazing and truly, it couldn't be easier. Why mess with anything else?