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Review by jopfef See Profile

  • Location: Saint Louis, Saint Louis, MO, USA
  • Cost: $29 per month (3 month contract)
  • Install: about 2 days
Follow the directions to install, sound excellent, website good.
Sales rep lied; special price only good for 3 months.
Very pleased with Vonage, except for the uptick in price. I will probably use it again in the future, now that I have the box.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

11-14-2016: No change in status here. Still have my BlackBerry phone, but it's now a BlackBerry Passport; love the big screen! My BlackBerry is my only phone, so I won't be posting any more reviews for Vonage, since I have opted out of having a home phone.

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2-15-2016: No change in status here. Still have my BlackBerry Q10 on AT&T as my only phone service. I won't be posting any more reviews for Vonage, since I have opted out of having a home phone.

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8-8-2015: No change in status, no phone service here. I still have my BlackBerry Q10, and that's my only phone service. No plans to change that any time soon.

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2-3-2015: No change in status, no phone service here. I still have my BlackBerry Q10, and that's my only phone service. No plans to change that any time soon, as I'm retired and living on a fixed income now, and it's a lot more important to me to have a phone I can keep on me. Can't afford any extraneous charges these days.

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5-1-14: I previously listed the situation with Vonage, and then switching over to BasicTalk. I have since cancelled BasicTalk, as I found myself never using the house phone and it was a waste of money to continue to pay for it. I have a BlackBerry Q10 from AT&T, and that is my only phone; I've been an avid BlackBerry phone user for many years now, and depend on it completely. Having a house phone just isn't necessary for me here, so no more Vonage or BasicTalk for me.

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9-20-2013: I was at Walmart a few months ago, and a Vonage sales rep was there too; he told me that the Vonage service was $9.99 a month "forever". After talking with him, I decided to give Vonage another shot. Besides the new Vonage box, I also received, free of charge, a set of Motorola (Model L603M) cordless phones with 3 handsets, running DECT 6.0. That alone was worth it, since my very old cordless phones run at the same frequency as my wireless. It was a paininnabutt to get the service working; you actually have to follow the directions for setup, to get it working. DUH!!! Once it was up and running, service was excellent; the call quality, particularly after using a MagicJack a few years ago (what a piece of junk...), was beyond compare. Then I went online to set up everything, and hit the roof when I discovered that the $9.99 was a 3-month special, and the price would go up to $29.99/month after the special was over; that sales rep lied to me! Needless to say, I was really PO'd about this. When I was getting close to the end of the 3-month special, I called Vonage and cancelled the service. I had already looked into BasicTalk from Walmart, and had ordered it and set it up. It works every bit as well as the Vonage service did, and I got a REALLY big surprise when I went out to the website to set up voicemail, etc. Walmart's BasicTalk website is identical to the Vonage website, except for the difference in names. So, I still have the same quality of service as I did with Vonage, except for a little bit smaller box that I have mounted on the wall (to keep it away from my dogs). When I cancelled the Vonage service, I asked about returning the Vonage box; I was told to keep it! It also acts as a router, so I have an emergency spare if needed. If BasicTalk takes a header for some reason, I can switch back to Vonage; their service when you already have a box, is just $9.99/month with no contract. In the meantime, I have the little BasicTalk box here, it's up and running, and I still have the same excellent call quality that I had with Vonage. I suspect that Walmart is running their service on top of Vonage, and that's not a problem for me!

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9-23-2007: No change in status, no phone service here. I have an AT&T cell phone, and that's my only phone service. As a Charter employee, I opted out of their phone service to save on money; just use the cell phone now.

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9-12-2007: My little Vonage box is living a happy life in New York now. My living circumstances changed, and rather than cancel my Vonage account, I transferred it to a friend of mine in New York. I had been hassling her for a couple of years to get Vonage, and this gave me the perfect excuse to dump it in her lap! *evil grin* She is no longer shelling out $200+ a month for phone bills, I'm no longer bitching at her to get Vonage because I'm tired of hearing her gripe about her huge phone bills, and my Vonage box got to hop on a plane and take a trip to a new home, where it is happily helping to rescue Greyhounds now -- LOL!!!

Seriously, there is a Vonage setup here (new digs), but it doesn't belong to me. I miss having my Vonage, but will sign up for it again when things settle down in my life. One of the things that I did do was to grab a couple of Vonage modems for almost nothing, when CompUSA was having their "going out of business" sales here. So I'm ready with the hardware when my situation changes again, and will look forward to having Vonage back in my life again!

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I've had Vonage for a year now, and have been very pleased with it. Having a high level of broadband is a must for good sound quality! (A friend is on a "bronze package" with Charter, has Vonage, and his sound quality is less than desirable; he has to log his systems offline to use his Vonage.)

I did find the Vonage installation instructions a little strange; they could have been better written. Being a geek, it was easier to just figure out what went where, and set it up with minimal help from the directions. Once the Vonage line came up, it was good to go! My only downtime has been when Charter was down during a huge power outage earlier this year.

FCC needs to get the 911 situation finalized and worked out permanently. It's been delayed for the last several months, and it's ridiculous to have this dragged out this long.

Overall, I'm a very happy Vonage user! I have no problems with continuing to recommend Vonage to friends.

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member for 22.9 years, 10030 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 7.3 years ago

OCFRDlt
join:2004-12-29
Apopka, FL

OCFRDlt

Member

"Lower Level" broadband

Good and fair review! Not sure about your friends broadband issues however. The other day I had some serious cable issues (191 K down - usually 6000K and 42 up - usually 700K) Anyway, Vonage worked! I talked to Brighthouse Network about the issue using Vonage. While there was clicking and some(little) distortion, I was able to hear and be heard. What sort of speeds is your friend getting???

anon name
@spcsdns.net

anon name

Anon

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Your Charles Manson look a like in commercial's has made it hard if not impossible to choose your services
twinclouds
join:2010-06-12
San Diego, CA

1 recommendation

twinclouds

Member

Overpriced/Bad International call

I don't think I will pay for about $30 for VOIP service. I am even not sure if the $30 price tag contain tax or not.
I have to cancel my contract after one one week because even they claim it is $9.99 per month, the actual charge is over $16. Moreover, the international calls are really bad compare to others that I used. From my limited experience with Vonage, I feel it is overpriced. I just don't think it worth the cost.