Vontage or other VOIP services

[SteveSmith]

Do any of you have any good, bad or ugly stories regarding using Vontage or other VOIP services?

We are seriously considering switching over to this type of phone service, but I am still a bit hesitant... any experienced comments would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve Smith

 

[Guest]

My step dad has Vonage for his consulting business. He loves it. He said that during a thunderstrom there was an echo on the phone lines for a couple of minutes but no other troubles.

 

[joey895]

I have vonage and I like it. It's only as reliable as your internet service though. The main feature I like about it is the ability to set it up to ring to multiple phones at the same time. For example it rings my office phone and my cell phone simultaneously.

 

[Bruce Humphrey]

Didn't Kevin Bunce sell something like that, just remember seeing it in his signature. Havent seen him post in awhile.

 

[Chris Muetterties]

Steve,

In our area they have a reputation for going out routinely, not long periods but very frustrating.

 

[Brian R]

I have decided today that I will port my business number to a sprint phone...I have a sprint cell already. They are reliable and you can take your business phone with you without having to forward it. Back in the day I wouldn't consider this but times are a changin.
One bill of 95 bucks a month with sprint and it is unlimited everything. GPS, text, web and all the others. My land line was over that with long distance.

I don't know why anyone would have a land line anymore unless you have or need more than one line in an office.
The new law stating that you can take your phone number anywhere rocks.
If I move from this house to another and keep it a landline I wouldn't be able to take the number with me though.

 

[Walrus Gumboot]

I switched to Vonage about a year ago and absolutely love it. No problems at all.
Biggest plus is that you can move anywhere in the U.S. and keep the same local phone # without any long distance charges.
That's the reason I switched to begin with. Plus,it's only like $60 per month for my business line including taxes and fees etc.
That also includes a seperate fax #.

 

[Steve in Omaha]

Product: Jack Magic
Cost: 40 bucks per year
area code: pick any

Bought it just to try it for a year. A couple of people said it was hard to hear me, however I think the phone is messed up, need to buy a new phone and give it the acid test. Price is sure right.

 

[The Great Oz]

Was on a conference call using Vonage a couple weeks ago that had poor sound quality and echo. First time this has happened using this service, but it was maddening. Often Vonage calls are clear and perfect, sometimes delays and clicks remind you that somebody's saving a buck. I'd use it for personal calls but not willing to take a chance on business calls seeming bush league.

 

[Ed]

We've used vonage for a few years. Never any problems until recently. We have several phone #'s and we were getting people telling us they had been trying to contact us for weeks and were getting a busy signal. After a few people were telling us this, we did some testing and it was only calls coming from a hand full of #'s. One of these customers actually got us through another # and we did testing with him on the phone. He dialed our main # and it was busy for him. We called from our cell phones and no problems. We had my Wife's Mother call and no problem. We confronted Vonage about this and found out we had a whole hodgepodge of things wrong with out account. Other people's #'s coming to our #, 800 # that was de-activated a couple years ago still partially live. We switched to Packet 8, what a joke. Anyway, we switched to ATT VOIP. Jury is still out and this is our last stop on the VOIP train. Although VOIP saves us hundreds of $$ per montho on phone bills, in the Disaster Restoration business, it's not worth the gamble. If you are an owner operator or have only 2 numbers, then it's a great way to go. The savings are large. Maybe one day a company will come out with a VOIP service developed specifically for the business customer......and it ain't packet 8.

 

[Brian R]

What about Comcast Digital Voice? Anyone.
They have a business package. I already have internet and tv and it has rarely if never given me problems.
I was wanting to switch but haven't heard enough about them so as I stated earlier, I will just port my landline to a sprint phone for now and see how that goes. When my company gets huge, I will have to have some sort of landline.

The porting process from a landline to a sprint phone is proving to be a PITA...but hopefully worth it. I just hope the final transition is smooth. Don't want to lose custy's and now is kinda a bad time for that because of my new direct mail marketing campaign.