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Review by strange_69 
UPDATED: 31 days ago
member for 8.3 years, 1468 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Ridgecrest,Kern,CA
 $37 per month
 about 5 days
 "Low price, good service, good support. Easy to set-up."
 "No selective call blocking."
 "Vonage rocks."
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Vonage is a good, cheap alternative to POTS. I was able to hook up my Vonage box and start using it in less than half an hour. I am using a virtual number so my parents and sister can call me without paying for long distance. I have been a customer for over five years now and the outages that I remember have been due to my ISP going down. It works great. I highly recommend Vonage.
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 Review by ExitWound
UPDATED: 36 days ago
member for 7.9 years, 3612 visits, last login: a few hours ago
State College,Centre,PA
$19 per month
"Can't beat the price! Sound quality excellent!"
"Price slowly increasing. Fees & taxes growing."
"Worth the pennies if you have a decent ISP."
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Been with Vonage for years now and it's never been better!
I spent a good portion of a year attempting to figure out why Vonage was dropping calls. I kept power level logs on the cable modem, did long-term pinging to look for dropped packets, changed out switches/hubs in the network. I attributed it to the Linksys router Vonage had sent me upon signing up. The RT31P2 would constantly freeze up, reboot itself in the middle of whenever it felt like it, and ran extremely hot. Since replacing it, via a Vonage helpdesk representative on this site, the situation has resolved itself and has never been better! I haven't had a dropped call since the switch to a RTP300RB in Jan 2007.
Installation is quite simple. Hook it up to the modem, connect the phone line and that's it. Anyone can do it.
I subscribe to the 500 minutes plan at $14.99/month, but the final bill ends up being nearly 25% higher (due to fees, despite their current advertising campaign against Verizon) at $19.92/month. I don't nearly come to using them all. Even at $29/month for the unlimited calling plan, it's a good deal compared to what you'd be paying on a cell.
The website hangs now and then, but serves up the voicemail as .wavs which is nice. All services, including adding new lines or features, are offered on the website with no phone calls required. Anonymous calling, the BEST feature offered, is now just a click away on the Dashboard. It's worked for me many times, blocking telemarketers, Presidential Campaigners, and probably someone offering me Ginsu Knives at a reduced rate.
If you don't need portability and are looking for a good, solid service for the home, consider Vonage. It's rock solid as long as you receive hardware that doesn't routinely freeze up on you. If your cable and/or power is out, or Vonage isn't working, contacting someone to fix it is troublesome.
Update: 500 minute plan is now $17.99. Total after fees is $25.xx though. Still, much cheaper than any other landline in town and having a cell.
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 Review by dellsweig
UPDATED: 40 days ago
member for 5.9 years, 2736 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Campbell Hall,Orange,NY
$24 per month
about 1 days
"Features, Price, Service, Price, VoIp Experience"
"Great"
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Price - cheaper than the cable VoiP offerings with more features. Not as cheap as a couple of the bargin outfits there but the features and reliability outwiegh the price on these.
reliable - I have been a Vonage customer (2 lines) for over 6 years now - over that time I can only think of one outage. VERY few issues over the years with Vonage specifically - I can say the majority of issues are ISP related or home router (QoS) related.
Features - unlimited calling to US, Canada, PR and 60 coutries for 24$ HOW CAN YOU BEAT THAT.
iPhone - I can call to my ENTIRE vonage world from my iPhone WITHOUT using any carrier minutes using the free Vonage iPhone app - all included in my 24$ Vonage plan. I have an app for my iPhone that lets me setup simulring from my home number to my iPhone at the touch of a button. My vonage number is in my ATT calling circle so there is no charge on my cell for these calls.
Service: I have never had a problem with service. When my old Cisco ATA's (origional Vonage adapter) seemed to be getting old - I was upgraded at no charge, seamlessly to newer technology. The few times I have had to call support I had positive experience with support
Note: for those who continually complain about the taxes and fees charged by vonage - look at your cell bill or cable bill or electric bill
One more note: My entire cost for Vonage for a year is only a little more than ONE months cell bill - think about that!!!
Vonage is worth EVERY penny
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Review by Yikes2000
UPDATED: 40 days ago
member for 8.3 years, 2526 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Irvine,Orange,CA
$30 per month (24 month contract)
"Offered Discounts After Complaining"
"Hidden Fees and TOS Traps"
"Cheaper than AT&T, but more expensive than other VoIP's"
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I have Vonage for a year now. During the first 4 months, the V-Portal device would disconnect from the Vonage server for no apparent reason. After numerous reboots and complains, it was fixed -- more or less. Occasionally, incoming phone calls still get forwarded to the backup phone line even though the V-Portal device shows no sign of a problem, and I can pick up the Vonage line for a dial tone.
The biggest problem though, is the hidden fees and TOS traps. For the $24.99 plan, they added nearly $5 of fees. In June/July 2009, they increased it by $0.50 via shuffling -- decrease one fee by $0.50, but increase two other fees by $0.50 each. I called and complained. They offered me a discount of $14.95/mo for 6 months.
I have a 2-year contract, during which I will pay $40 early termination charge if I cancel. However, if Vonage raise their prices or make "material change" to their TOS, then I may cancel without paying the $40 termination charge. There is a few problems with that. First, they don't have to email me about TOS change or price increase. Second, E911 or other feature add-on are exempt. Third, it takes 10 business days to port a phone number to another company. In summary, Vonage could raise their fees or charge new fees for a feature, and I have only 16-17 days to notice it in TOS and initiate termination, otherwise I'd be stuck paying the price increase or $40 termination fees (or both).
UPDATE 10/22/2009:
Vonage changed their TOS on 9/2/2009. Althoughthey didn't raise prices, the new TOS gave them more ways to raise prices while keeping me locked into my 2-year contract. So I cancelled my service for "material change" in the TOS.
(TOS) Section 15 gives me 30 days to cancel without the $40 termination charge when there is a "material change" to the TOS, but it took ***22 DAYS*** for Vonage to port my telephone number to another company. By the time it was done, the 30 days has expired. I don't think that's a coincident.
To get around this, I called within the original 30 days and asked how long it takes to port my phone number out. Then I asked if I should cancel before the porting is completed. Of course they said no. I requested the agent to document my phone call and give me a confirmation #. After the number is ported, I immediately called back to cancel service and request a waiver for the $40 disconnection fee citing my previous phone call. At this point the agent cannot help me with the waiver because it's past the 30 days, but she documented my request and gave me a second confirmation #. Next I filed a dispute via email (see TOS for address). When someone from Vonage Corporate office called back, I explained everything from the beginning and asked for the $40 waiver. She gave it to me.
Cost was the primary reason that I cancelled Vonage. Although they advertise $25/mo, it's close to $30/mo with all the hidden fees and taxes. If you complain enough, then the agent on the phone might offer you $12.50/mo (add $5 for fees) for 12 months. That is still more expensive than other VoIP's.
Vonage is a good replacement for AT&T and other traditional phone companies. The initial setup was easy and I saved 50% per month over my previous AT&T phone bill. Now I am ready to try a cheaper VoIP.
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Review by Rob2647
UPDATED: 45 days ago
member for 1.3 years, 379 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Rochester,Oakland,MI
$23 per month
about 1 days
"Rock Solid Service at a Good Price and Call Quality"
"Don't care for the auto bill pay, and out sourced customer service."
"Works Great, good starter VOIP service."
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Initial review:
Had Vonage for little over 11 months now. The service has been solid, no outages to speak of due to Vonage itself. Unlike my cable internet provider. Setup and activation was easy. I bought a Linksys PAP2 device from my local electronics retailer. Within an hour later had the service up and running. Since signing up I'm on the Residential Unlimited plan for 25 bucks a month, with taxes and fees that comes out to $31 a month. Still cheaper than my ISP's digital voice offering with less features.
Call quality has been great, at 90k or 50k bandwidth usage on a router with no QOS. Vonage worked flawlessly with my hit or miss Comcast connection for nearly a year without any issues. And you can't beat all the features for the price Vonage offers. No Cable Companies bundled discounts can touch what Vonage offers. I would not hesitate to recommend Vonage to anyone.
A couple days after getting all setup and working, I got a courtesy call seeing how everything went and if I had any questions. I think that is the first time I had any company do that. I found quite nice.
9/11/08
Switched to AT&T U-verse this past weekend, so I figured it's time for an update. Vonage still working great. Still using the Linksys PAP2 v2 phone adapter hooked into the U-verse gateway just as I did on my old Linksys BEFSR41 Now with a better ISP I have less to worry about. 
9/30/08
Dropped the plan down from Unlimited Residential to the 500 minutes a month. Was not happy with being charged a activation fee of $9.99 when the service has been active for almost 14 months. I'm going to be canceling the service by the end of October. Just tired of paying for something we barely use. Also today had to deal with the annoying out sourced customer service and automated phone system. At this point I don't know if I'd consider going back.
11/4/08
I have been debating on canceling the service. I have not as of yet. I may not, and just ride this until Vonage possibly goes under at the end of the year. But 500 mins a month out going, and unlimited incoming for just under 20 bucks a month is not bad. Finally had 1 very brief service outage last week. Lasted a minute or two.
2/27/09
Received email today, stating the basic plan is raising to $17.99 a month starting in May. Thinking it will be time to dump it. Either for Uvoice or a AT&T POTS line. Other than the price increase, the service has been stable.
5/7/09
I've had the service about a year and a half. Funny thing is it's been more reliable than my old cable internet ever was. I only had one brief outage in that time. I've decided to keep the service. Still on the basic 500 minute plan. It's all we need, and for the price, POTS or Uverse voice can't compete.
10/19/09
Now after 26 months decided to cancel the service. Just was not being used to keep dishing out $24.xx a month. Was not too thrilled with how the customer service rep handled my call. Vonage is a good beginners VOIP service, but the price is getting too expensive for what we used it for.
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 Review by Matt_31
Posted: 51 days ago
member for 6.7 years, 444 visits, last login: 15 days ago
Jasper,Dubois,IN
$35 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Excellent Voice clearlity, low price, features, support"
"couldnt trandfer number, had to get a new number"
"Well worth getting, excellent choice."
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Our cable company offers phone but not for our area and after three years of waiting we gave up, Vonage finally got numbers for our area. We orginally wanted to transfer the number but we were unable to so we had both lines our Verizon landline and Vonage. Using Vonage the first time was a huge upgrade alone with the same phone we used with verizon. I was shocked at how well it sounds, but now we have features verizon doesnt even offer like Call waiting ID and many others.
Ordering, we did online and it was simple and easy and was VERY clear about 911 and fee's even before we started so we knew what we we doing. it took a few days to get the portal box by ups and hooked it up and off we went with no problems. Very happy now after 2 weeks.
Verizon: Less features and much worse sound $78 a month
Vonage: all the features and clearlity $35 a month
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 Review by dunworkin
UPDATED: 55 days ago
member for 2.9 years, 1070 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Bellflower,Los Angeles,CA
$46 per month (24 month contract)
about 15 days
"Good cost alternative to POTS"
"No service during power outages"
"Great service for the price."
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I have 2 lines, one for voice and one for voice and fax. Both are the lower 500/month service. Install went real smooth. I'm using a Mortorola VT2442 router/adapter behind a Ambit U10C018 modem and Linksys WRT400N router.
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 Review by John_W
Posted: 56 days ago
member for 9.6 years, 3533 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Worcester,Worcester,MA
$24 per month
about 7 days
"Good sound quality, nice website interface, Nice features"
"Very expensive, no call blocking"
"Good, but there are better choices out there."
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I originally signed up for Vonage back in 2003. My reason for choosing the service was specifically on price. I ordered the 500 minute package for $14.99 plus $1.50 in fees. The package including an ATA arrived in 2 days and I was up and running in 7.
The call quality was excellent and they had few outages. Most of the outages were the fault of my local cable company as VOIP is only as good as your internet connection.
Their website and service offers extensive features including simu-ring, my favorite, which will ring two numbers at the same time. I chose my home and cell phone numbers. The control panel is very detail oriented showing all calls made and received and for how long. Voice mails can also be listened to online or just viewed. They used to offer emailed voice mail mp3's, but have since ended that, and now charge a fee for that service. They now offer world wide calling included in the base price of the $24.99 plan. Which is a nice feature now.
Some of the negatives. There is no call blocking of specific numbers. Something that users have been requesting for a long time. They are very expensive now. When I originally ordered, I got my 500 minute plan for about $16.50 a month. That has ballooned to a whopping $24.94 a month with the $3/mo increase in price and added fake fees. That is too expensive for what you get. I could get the unlimited plan for $32/mo, but why. I make only 60 minutes worth of calls a month. I have left Vonage for that specific reason. They jacked the price up too high too fast and it drove me away.
Vonage is nice and cheaper than a POTS line through the telco's but, it is expensive when compared to similar VOIP products. Why pay $25 a month when I can pay $9/mo for the same thing.
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Review by scasmflop
Posted: 58 days ago
member for 58 days, 2 visits, last login: 55 days ago
Bakersfield,Kern,CA
 Business customer
$22 per month
"Service was ok after some time spent optimizing everything"
"Hidden fees = rates much higher than quoted. Inexplicably charged me $120 to cancel!"
"Service was ok although I did notice drops when it was competing with other broadband activity. Cancellation = Scam Company"
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I had ok service with vonage but wasn't overly impressed as my service was spotty when it had to compete with other broadband activity. I'm sure I could have optimized even further to give it more priority through my router but my telephone service wasn't a priority to me and cable broadband should have been enough anyway.
Cancellation was the real eye-opener. Vonage is a complete scam. After 7 months of service I called to cancel (had already switch my number back to my old carrier), and they run me through 45 minutes of dodging and multiple offers to attempt to resign me despite my adament desire to just cancel and be done with them. Upon finally getting to the final cancellation step, they inform me that there will be $120 in charges for cancelling! I never signed any time-based contract with them and was always under the assumption that cancellation would not be an issue. They told me I had agreed to these charges in their TOS agreement when I first came on board with them (I remember being bombarded with tons of 911 workaround agreements, this TOS informing me that there could be $120 in fees for cancelling anytime wasn't anything I remember).
I would not recommend this service to anybody, they pass with QOS but are absolutely shady if you attempt to walk away even if you've never signed any time-based agreements.
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Review by Mr_A1
UPDATED: 58 days ago
member for 5.6 years, 2126 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Dickson,Dickson,TN
$25 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"3"
"7"
"You get what you pay for."
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Due to AT&T CallVantage service being discontinued, I decided to try Vonage as a value replacement. The changeover was easy and the equipment came fairly fast, but the call quality and features are not the same as AT&T for the same amount of money being paid per month. I will definitely be changing over the AT&T U-Verse Voice when I order their tv and internet services. Vonage still has a long way to go to provide better services like outgoing caller id along with other features now found on other carriers like a phone book, etc and really need to do something about improving their call quality.
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