Ahead of IPO, Vonage Faces User Complaints 212
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Internet phone-service provider Vonage (whose planned IPO was mentioned on Slashdot last week) is confronting complaints of poor sound quality, dropped calls and other glitches, the Wall Street Journal reports. From the article: 'Customers who try to leave are complaining of bureaucratic hassles and snafus, particularly when they seek to switch services and take their numbers with them. Ironically, Vonage has long complained that local phone giants drag their feet in releasing the phone numbers of customers who want to leave.'"
Left Vonage after a short trial (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Left Vonage after a short trial (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Left Vonage after a short trial (Score:2)
Funny, I had the same problem with DHL & Apple (Score:2)
Paul B.
Did you plug your fax into the right port? (Score:3, Interesting)
You need a second line to send faxes, and
Re:Did you plug your fax into the right port? (Score:4, Informative)
Same here... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Did you plug your fax into the right port? (Score:2)
Not only that, but I can get my DirecTivo unit to dial out with its internal modem. You have to bump up the bandwidth used by your Vonage service, and dial back the speed at which the Tivo connects, but it can be done.
Re:Did you plug your fax into the right port? (Score:2)
mostly faxes go through, but occasionally some done. fax is old tech and lots of shoddy faxes out there my wife has come up against...
i been on vonage about a year and the quality is no where near a standard phone line. but the cost is so much lower is not even funny. with her family across the US now, I am saving a TON of money. Mostly the ca
Re:Did you plug your fax into the right port? (Score:2)
If Vonage uses the same principle for their cancellation svcs, I may just cancel my Vonage acct tomorrow. (not really, SBC/ATT is the phone service here, and they can go to hell if they think I'll ever go back)
cheers.
Re:Did you plug your fax into the right port? (Score:2)
Rich
When were FAX invented ? (Score:2)
First generation (pre-ISDN) FAX used modem. The modem will convert the binary data to waves. Waves that can be conveyed as sound over the very same copper wire. You can't call an analog phone conversation as lossless.
The problem doesn't come from the lossiness of the VoIP lines. It comes from the fact that the modem is optimized for a specific kind of lossiness that is characteristic of analog lines (transmi
Re:Did you plug your fax into the right port? (Score:2)
Sure, you can. It's not the compression, it's the level of compression. If you're running your fax machine at 14.4kbps, and the codec you're using for VoIP is 6-8kbps, you can't expect to see great results. Use a higher bitrate codec such as G.711, or lower you fax'
Slow Voicemail? (Score:2)
My *BIG* problem with Vonage is that after looking at their absolutely dismal financials, I'm left wondering, IPO or not, whether they're going to be around much longer.
Re:Left Vonage after a short trial (Score:2)
Re:Left Vonage after a short trial (Score:2)
It's Horrible Leaving (Score:5, Informative)
par for the course...for most VOIP services (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It's Horrible Leaving (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:It's Horrible Leaving (Score:2)
This is consistent with my experience with Vonage. I signed up because they told me I could keep my old number. This turned out not to be the case. They told me they would return my sign-up fee when I returned their hardware, which I did. Not only have they never returned my sign-up fee, they tried to charge me a cancellation fee, although their customer service m
no complaints here.. (Score:3, Informative)
did have a call quality problem initially, but that ended up being the connection it was using; 128k upstream was too slow, even though it's only supposed to need ~90k or less. upgraded the dsl to 256k upload and everything is perfect (aside the fact from our telephone number being based in a city on the other side of the state).
Different B/W options (Score:2)
You can test your connection to see how it will behave http://testyourvoip.com/ [testyourvoip.com] and you can try different codecs to see what the difference is. Try it a few times throughout the day to try to characterize your line better.
-ben
On the other hand... (Score:2)
But when you listen to their commercials, you might get the impression that VOIP and Vonage were the next best thing after sliced bread!
Re:On the other hand... (Score:2)
Re:On the other hand... (Score:2)
Re:On the other hand... (Score:2)
Who listens to their comercials? I'm too busy watching the lobster or that guy do a Beavis and Butthead dance in the background.
Several problems with Vonage (Score:4, Informative)
Of the 3 problems, the first was by far the biggest. The quality just wasn't professional some of the time, and it repeatedly emabarrassed me with customers (I'm a software contractor). Also, when the audio was breaking up, I could never tell. The person I was talking to had to inform me. At a minimum, Vonage should make some sound happen on the your handset to let you know something's not right.
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:2)
QoS comes into play when you're uploading. So it's only going to make your voice sound less choppy to the person you're talking to, not the other way around. This is because y
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:2)
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:2)
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:2)
Here [theknack.net] is my bandwidth shaping script for linux. It does work, but I admit I still get a little bit of choppiness when running p2p. (Maybe a smaller MTU would help?)
But the great-grandparent above was correct that you can't do much if your upstream truly varies moment to moment. In that case you'll get queueing within your cable modem, which you cannot prioritize.
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:2)
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:2)
Qualtiy of Service (QoS) is prioritization of data packets based on how they're flagged. For QoS to work, it needs to be implemented end-to-end - every routing device between the two parties needs to be able to prioritize traffic, or else you lose QoS and you take your chances with your
This goes both ways, back and forth. I was around for an internal VoIP installation for a company on a leased-line LAN. The company had to upgrad
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:5, Insightful)
- Lack of e911 features also can't be pinned on Vonage. Despite FCC mandates, many LECs *still* don't allow other companies access to PSAPs [wikipedia.org]. VoIP companies have been fighting an uphill battle when it comes to this. Complain to your state representatives or public utilities commission, not Vonage.
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:3, Insightful)
It matters if you're assigning blame, but if the service sucks I'm not going to use it. I wouldn't go "oh, well, Vonage gets an A for effort" and use it anyway, I'd change to something that works.
Another player (Score:2)
Just like my anlog phone. Everyone I've tipped to this company has had the same experience.
VOIP can be done right. SR is also cheaper than Vonage ($199/year full service - $10/month limited service)
Two numbers, web configuration, all the bells and whistles.
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:2)
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:2)
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:3, Informative)
$39.95 for Time Warner VoIP with no price break on my static IP line is better than the $24.99 I'm paying Vonage? Yeah, I know TW offers QoS, but that only is guaranteed within the TW network, and they already has enough problems providing me with uninterrupted connectivity. Using their own online calculator, I find that their VoIP serv
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:2)
I have my ATA NAT'd behind a Netopia 3381 router with a fairly healthy set of rules, which in turn g
Re:Several problems with Vonage (Score:2)
Yes, it is called QoS (quality of service) and it is built into IPv6 and it is one of the ways the telecoms are using to provide preferred bandwidth to companies that pay them money while arbitrarily increasing latency to companies that don't pay them their blood money. It seems like a good thing for the reason you stated, but it ends up as just a way to squeez more money out of customers,
Re:Traffic shaping in linux (Score:2)
You can still shape your download traffic from the customer side but it is not as effective as shaping your upload traffic. While it can not prevent bursts of incoming packets from filling the queue, it still has the effect of activating TCP flow control which serves to keep the incoming queue empty and latency low during continuous transfers.
I have not played with it yet but ALTQ has provisions for manipulating TCP flow contro
Re:911 (Score:2)
I'm pretty happy with vonage (Score:3, Informative)
However I've had some odd experences. For instance a friend of mine had it, then canceled it. When he had vonage, he setup call fowarding to his parents cell phone (they all lived in the same house). Well, they canceled for a bunch of reasons (mostly quality). Now when I call their house the call gets automaticly fowarded to the cell phone, since I'm a vonage customer. They've called them about the problem several times and there's "nothing they can do".
Poor Vonage (Score:5, Interesting)
The fact of the matter is Vonage is too hard for most people. All the things that can go wrong with a regular cable/DSL Internet connection now suddenly affect their phone service.
I work for a VoIP phone company. We get people calling in because after they unplug their modems to move them downstairs, they have no phone service. They're angry and mad and just don't understand how that would cause them not to have a dial tone. This is only one example, I'm sure you can think of others. Their old Bell South phone service 'just worked', and now they are having to reset routers and make sure the MTA is plugged into a phone jack/NIU. It's really complicated for the average person.
To make it worse, some Cable/DSL ISPs throttle their own VoIP traffic above all other traffic, and it's my beleif they have a way of changing the priority of other carrier's VoIP traffic to boost the quality of their own service (in comparison). Even if they don't admit to it or not, I wouldn't put it past them.
Add all this to Vonage's off-shore support who are at times hard to understand for the average 60 year old customer and you have some very miffed people. They feel the phone service is at fault, when they actually need to reboot their modem.
I'm sure Vonage has even more problems than I do, because we happen to be both the ISP and VoIP provider. I can only imagine what unknown variables they have to deal with, which are 100% required to deliver a quality, stable service.
Re:Poor Vonage (Score:2)
The need to reboot the Vonage box is the single biggest complaint I have. (I call it the "Vonage" box rather than the "SIP" box because it is locked down to Vongage and useless for general VOIP usage, which is my second biggest complaint. I should be able to make Internet to Internet calls having nothing to do with Vonage, which is just a VOIP to POTS bridge service after all.)
Contrary to the experiences / assumpti
Re:Poor Vonage (Score:2)
I was having a problem at work where the phone adapters would crash and then not receive calls. Turning them on and off settled the problem, but it kept coming back. Of course, nobody would have a clue phones were down until trying to make a call. Pretty unacceptable. I solved that issue by buying a timer people use for christmas lights and such. I set the timer to turn off at 3:00 am and back on 3:01 am. Haven't had a problem
Re:Poor Vonage (Score:3, Insightful)
When was the last time you rebooted a POTS phone? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think that mass market home VoIP service is doomed, at least in it's present form. People have been conditioned to expect to be able to pick up their home telephone handset and hear dialtone, they don't need a phone system that has to be rebooted on occasion to make it work. When the power goes out with VoIP, the entire telephone line goes down unless you have battery backup for the modem and the router. I have had to remind several family members with POTS that they need to have at least one regular non-wireless telephone in the house for when the power goes out. I understand that many VoIP routers have backup batteries and broadband providers provide battery backup for the customer prem VoIP telephone equipment that they provide. How long do those batteries last?
How long does a broadband connection last when the power goes out?
Recently there was a large storm that caused the power in my neighborhood to go out for almost two days. If I had Vonage, it would have only lasted for as long as the cable TV broadband lasted. My cable TV service and broadband connectivity lasted just a few hours after the power went out. The batteried in my UPS, which powers the cable modem and router lasted for much longer than the broadband service did. My cell phone went to analog roam after 8 to 10 hours (and that signal was essentially unusable). My wired POTS phone worked fine the whole time. I had neighbors who were surprised that my phone still worked because their (cordless) phones were dead. The same neighbors were later grateful that I could stop the beeping noise that was coming from their cordless handsets -- they also didn't know how to put the batteries back in after the power came back.
Happy Vonage Customer so Far (Score:3, Interesting)
I haven't noticed any quality issues, however this may just be because my ISP isn't a telco. I wouldn't have bothered posting to the forum except that I am interested to know how many people are unhappy with Vonage and if those people's ISP's are all telcos.
This is probably the biggest network neutrality battle that there is today and I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that the majority of people with complaints have all had their service screwed with by those telco based ISP's.
John the Kiwi
Hard to cancel, hidden fees involved (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Hard to cancel, hidden fees involved (Score:2)
What free box? (Score:2)
Sent the rebate in, making sure to copy all of my forms.
A few months later I get a letter saying I forgot to write the MAC address on the form.
Send in a photo copy of my copies, along with a letter giving them the details.
No $50.
I was debating buying into the IPO, but I guess since I'm not a happy customer I'm not sure I trust them.
Re:Hard to cancel, hidden fees involved (Score:2)
The cancellation fee is on top of what they nick you for hardware. I returned everything, and didn't get the hardware fee back despite promises to the contrary. They also charged me the cancellation fee, which I fought through my credit card company and won, like the OP.
I have never heard of a Vonage customer who cancelled the service and didn't get nailed with both fees for hardware that was correctly and completely returned, and a cancellation fee on top of that. They are just not a good company to deal
Does Vonage do anything? (Score:2)
Re:Does Vonage do anything? (Score:2)
Re:Does Vonage do anything? (Score:2)
At home I have Vonage AND Skype Incoming/Outgoing on a Comcast 6mb down/512k up connection. Vonage so far has acheived all around higher quality than Skype.
Cheers.
Re:Does Vonage do anything? (Score:2)
Also, is Vonage's call quality really "light years better than Skype"? Can you broadcast a live concert over Vonage now? Considering that I'm calling someone's rented bakelite telephone that's so big you could kill an attacking puma with it*, Skype's call quality is Good Eno
Network Topology Is A Big Factor (Score:2, Informative)
I ordered a 2nd IP from my ISP and separated my data network from the voice. In other words, I stuck a switch behind the cable modem wit
Re:Network Topology Is A Big Factor (Score:2)
I've got the linksys RT31P2 - three downstream ethernet and 2 phone jacks. Never had any issues.
Re:Network Topology Is A Big Factor (Score:2)
Really? I have my Vonage box behind a Linksys WRT54G and with the QoS prioritized to the Vonage box, the quality is excellent, even when I'm hammering the downloads. Even without the QoS configured, the voice dropouts are very minor.
Re:Network Topology Is A Big Factor (Score:2)
i cant believe all this (Score:2)
I absolutely love my Vonage service. I've been a customer for almost a year.
* It works quite well (I have my internet service via a cable modem with Charter)
* I love that I can control forwarding, voicemail functions, etc onlin
more than just bad phone service (Score:2)
20 days to get a number from them (Score:4, Informative)
We are happy to port numbers from other providers... the "normal" is 7 business days to get the number from Verizon.
It takes TWENTY business days to port a number from Vonage. That's a full calendar MONTH.
And they have the balls to bitch about telcos dragging their feet??
At least they don't do what Frontier (smaller local telco in upstate NY) does; Give/Sell your number to telemarketers before porting it! Nothing like a little "fuck you!" as you leave them...
Ugh... (Score:2)
As serious a question as it comes, I'm afraid.
Re: Sunrocket is the way to go... (Score:2, Informative)
If it wasn't for Vonage giving me some credits recently, I would already have cancelled. My bill keeps going up as they raise their fees, and now they are charging me local taxes, too. If I wanted to pay unknown taxes and fees, I would have stayed with my telco.
But anyway, Sunrocket has been great. While their Customer Service is notably lame (but I expect nothing less), they have better features than Vonage, including E911. Plus, they give you some pre
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Ugh... (Score:2)
However completely unrelated to all that, personally you can take my POTS line from my cold, dead hands. I will never choose to use a VOIP product.
Re:Ugh... (Score:2)
Weird (Score:2)
That being said, I really don't think VoIP is quite ready for the average user. Hell, wireless networks aren't even for the average user. I can't tell you how much money I've made fixing botched up networks, both wired and wireless.
And lately I've been absolutely LOVING Skype. So much so that I think I'll part with the $38 and get my own SkypeIn number. Talk
They're no worse than their competitors (Score:2, Informative)
However, I tried out their competitor, Packet8, for a month because Vonage couldn't get me a local number and Packet8 could. Packet8's technology
Shrug (Score:2)
I can only imagine a network infested with spyware, zombie PC's, and of course every P2P app running trying to provide enough bandwidth for VOIP.
On a side note, I maintain a Cisco VOIP solution at work, and it's amazing.
Getting in was a pain in the ass too (Score:2)
I got Vonage 3 years ago. I decided to port my local number so people could still call me. Well, the FCC says this should take no more thn 3 days or so (I forget the exact number of days)
It took Vonage 2 months.
I called them repeatedly to check on the status. They had the fucking nerve to lie to me and say it was verizon's fault for not releasing the line. That was the initial response, but then as I pressed t
Re:Getting in was a pain in the ass too (Score:2)
I'm not saying that I think Vonage is perfect or anything. A couple of weeks ago, I had 3 or 4 days of outages. I'd still rather give them money than SBC.
where new Vonage users are coming from... (Score:2)
I hear their pleased. After all, what number do they have to port-over?
Is my experience NOT the norm?!? (Score:3, Informative)
I have a Vonage business account and use a fax line as well, and basically turning ECM off fixed all the problems I was having with it not wanting to talk to some fax machines.
Happy customer here. And no, I'm not buying into the IPO but I'm so happy with 'em I got my parents to switch to using them as well. VOIP is cheap now, take advantage of it while you can. And all the cool call routing features and voicemails in my Inbox are clutch.
Satisfied Customer (Score:2)
QOS (Score:2)
Re:Satisfied Customer (Score:2)
FileZilla [sourceforge.net]
Ah.... Vonage (Score:2)
A few weeks ago Vonage had a promotion in the U.S. where select individuals received a solicitation in the mail to sign up with Vonage, and giving them a special 1-800 number to do so.
Only one problem: it wasn't Vonage's 1-800 number.... It was mine.
I think my business received over 1000 calls. At some times, all three incoming lines were in use. Since my business sells IC design consulting and training services, callers were confused with our cal
I use Vonage to call from Europe (Score:2)
Quitting Vonage (Score:2)
If the government gets its finger out and stops allowing the p
vonage (Score:2)
the only switching problem i had was with MCI
Still better than the alternatives... (Score:2)
Regarding the power outage problems -
echo $COMPLAINTS + 1 (Score:2)
1. Computer downloading large file = VoIP quality at 25% (no way to carry on a conversation)
2. Computer engaged in a VPN session = VoIP quality at 50-75% (sometimes conversations are ok, but the chance of quality degradation increases exponenti
OK, how about the other side of the coin... (Score:2)
What about the hordes of people with o real problems? I've had Vonage for a while now, I know several others who've had it for differing lengths of time. Each of those experiences has been overwhelmingly positive.
1) The service is cheaper.
2) The service "just works" in my experience and the experience of everyone I personally k
We've used Vonage for two years... (Score:2)
That said, Vonage looks to me like a financial train wreck. The fact that they're making it hard for customers to leave seems to be indicative of a company that has lost sight of its true goals. (You m
A Success Story (Score:2)
Now, when I implemented I had a 600/128 ADSL connection from Speakeasy. Worked OK at first, but I was hit quickly by the fact that I host my own email and web server... so that every time I received an email or someone hit my website I was suddenly struck with breakin
Re:Unlock? (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic6794.html [vonage-forum.com]
Re:Unlock? (Score:2)
Re:No problems so far (Score:2)
Re:No problems so far (Score:2)
My favorite part,aside from saving a bucketload of money and getting ALL calling features thrown in, is the voicemail feature. Not only can I get an email that says I have a new voicemail, I can also choose to have the
(and why didn't *I* come up
Re:Vonage (Score:2)