Vonage users some help?

[CerridwenLorelei]

Dh and I were thinking about switching
Our local phone co who of course doesn't want to lose our business told me that every time you disconnect from a vonage phone call? That you have to disconnect their (the people we have lets call them S) DSL connection. And that it has to be reconnected every time.
Dh and I are pretty sure this is bunk.
We have a more $$ than normal phone line because we have to have a metro line for drs and his work. I know that S doesn't want to lose that extra $$

So how does your VOnage work ?

[Trishy]

You don't have to disconnect DSL. I have Vonage for a business line and I hate it. The conversation garbles a lot and I can frequently hear cross conversations. If I were paying for it I would cancel but I'm not so I won't. I would never consider it for our home telephone line though.

[brogansmomma]

I don't have it myself and have never used it but I have a friend who does and loves it. And he's the sort that has no patience for things that don't work the way he expects them too so that must be saying something for it. We're in Canada but I expect the system is the same. He has cable internet though so I have no clue about how DSL works with it.

[amydidit]

We have Vonage and I will never switch back. Is using DSL with Vonage new though? When I signed up you had to have cable internet (broadband), not DSL.

I've never had a problem with quality or connection at all. It's fabulous.

Oh, and you most definately do NOT have to disconnect and reconnect everytime... that's ridiculous!

[Snowdrift]

Look into SunRocket. Cheaper than Vonage. I too, love my VOIP. $200/year. 1/4th what we used to pay.

Although I have cable, I used to work for a computer store that sold Vonage and disconnecting DSL is not something I've ever heard of--not from Vonage nor from the people I sold Vonage to.

Some people have trouble with voice quality, some don't. I have had issues occasionally. It never distorted the conversation to the point where communication was impossible, and it has always been rectifed just by hanging up and redialing. To me, the savings and neat feature (I can check my voicemail from my computer--very handy since I don't have a cellphone, but at school I do have wireless) are totally worth the occasional echoey call.

[LEAW]

We have 2 VOIP lines in the house from 2 different companies, and the DSL from a non-phone source (but it comes in on the phone line).

we have both Vonage and Broadvoice. I've never had a problem with eitiher BUT you have to go set teh settings to maximize the phone signal when you are on the phone. Otherwise you get echo (which is when you think you hear someone else's conversations) or garble or pauses.

Think of it this way - your dsl is a sewer pipe. The computer traffic flows through there just fine, even big files, although it gets a little slower when you download big stuff. Then you get on the phone. The kind of signal the phone needs is bigger than big files. it takes a lot of space. And it shoves through with all those files and internet browsing, and more. The phone signal gets squished in with the data transfer, and you lose quality. So if you set your phone settings (vonage does this on their website) to prioritize phone signal over web surfing and files, it will make your internet connection a little slower but your phone quality better.

Dh uses his line for work, and he is on the phone a lot, and even if we are both on the phoen on different lines, the phones still sound good, but our web access does slow some. It's not a huge slow down, but it's not as fast as we are used to. And still way faster than dialup ever was!

[Red Sonja]

We've had Vonage for about 7 months now and have never had any problems with it. Our phones work just like regular phones, we have never had to do anything funky after making a call.

[jentilla]

I hate Vonage! We ordered the service in February, they sent us the wrong device, wanted to restart the whole process, cancel, etc. Then the customer service was HORRIBLE! It is completetly outsourced to non-english speaking countries and you have to wait 25 min to get anyone and then there is a connection issue if you get connected at all! It took us a month to get a refund for all the charges they placed on our account and we never had one bit of service, just hours on the phone. I MIGHT look into sunrocket at one ponit, but right now I signed up w/the local and my phone was working in 5 minutes. The extra expense is worth the ease. JMO

[Snowdrift]

Originally Posted by jentilla

Then the customer service was HORRIBLE! It is completetly outsourced to non-english speaking countries and you have to wait 25 min to get anyone and then there is a connection issue if you get connected at all!

Another plug for Sunrocket: We've found their customer service to be really good. I called to switch plans and got it done within a couple of minutes. I got an articulate, intelligent, personal e-mail from a tech who had trouble adding our line to the 911 database. The Vonage reps who trained me to sell Vonage never let on there were potentila 911 issues. Sunrocket not only told us wha tthe issues could be and how they would be resolved and what to do to avoid issues, but we got a tech who spent a couple of days getting our issue sorted out. (It was not their fault they had trouble adding us btw--it's bc we're ina trailer park and everything is weird).

sunrocket is much better than vonage ime

[Steady101]

WE have vonage and dsl and live overseas and have never had a problem with fuzzy phone calls or anything. The reception for us is always clear. If you decide to sign up and want to free months pm me.

[somanythings]

We have Vonage and it does disconnect our internet (ie someone can't be on the phone and on the web at the same time) but our house is all wireless interconnected so it may have something to do with the way dh has it set up, not Vonage itself. My only problem with Vonage is that our number is long distance for our city. Like if the neighbor wants to call me, it's long distance. I hate that, and if I'm stranded somewhere, I can't call using a pay phone with just .50 cents because it's LD. I would definitely look into that before you sign up.

[amydidit]

When I signed up for Vonage we got to choose our area code... we also live in an area where some in this area code is long distance and they let us choose if we wanted it to be long distance for Pueblo (where we live) or long distance for the other areas. I like that you can choose a completely different area code as well... like if I wanted my mom to be able to call us without LD charges we could've chosen a Houston area code.

I've never had a problem with their customer service either... they've always been really helpful and quick.

[Steady101]

Just wanted to add that all our internet is wireless and we can still be on the computer and the phone at the same time.