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Review by arturse 
member for 8.3 years, 9 visits, last login: 5.1 years ago
lodged 7.1 years ago
 Rosemount,Dakota,MN
 $20 per month about 7 days "free calling to Western Europe, advanced features" "terrible service and quality" "not worth the trouble, you have to be crazy to stay with this provider"
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The cheaper monthly price than Vonage and the inclusion of Western Europe in the calling plan were the driving features to get this service. I have been a customer for almost two years and it's time to dump Lingo.
Pros:
-US, CA, Western Europe free calling area
-lots of features (some don't work)
-universal numbers in other countries
Cons
-'cheap' ATA
-very unreliable
-call quality often choppy, with echo
-lots of dropped calls
-not open SIP
-no softphone support
-impossible to send faxes and even after going through, they are corrupted
-no name on the caller id
I have submitted probably 50 trouble tickets in the last two years. The customer support 'resolves' them but in the end the problem remains the same. Calling Western Europe was of high quality, in fact, higher than calling across the street. But I have had enough. Don't even bother using this service for business - spare the embarassment.
If you need to call internationally, try internetcalls.com - 51 countries for free after putting 12$ into your account and they are open SIP so attach any device you want. Also, see broadvoice.com with 35 countries on the plan, sunrocket or viatalk. DO NOT GET LINGO!
My co-worker is also dumping them. We both have had enoujgh of these losers (the recent one was that our caller id number was another random invalid number).
I truly hope Lingo goes bankrupt, the sooner the better.
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Review by missionary2000
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 7.4 years ago
- Norcross,Gwinnett,GA
- $23 per month
- (16 month contract)
- "Service in other countries"
- "The WORST Company to torture the customer"
- "BAD service provider"
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I have been using the Lingo for more than 16 months. These are my
experiences with Lingo.
1. I was told my number will be ported from Vonage to Lingo with in
two months. But they didn't do it until 5 months. They even didn't
inform me that Vonage is not letting them to do it.
2. I referred my friend to get Lingo service and I am sure my email id
/ Lingo phone # was mentioned as " referred by " and they didnt give
me $25 for referral fee.
3. When I found a better service from Broad Voice, I wanted to
disconnect this Lingo service and the customer service representative
requested me to stay back with Lingo to complete one year to own my
Lingo adaptor. I continued to stay with them and wanted to disconnect
it after a month, they said they are going to charge me for the next
month 'cuz my billing cycle started already.
4. Again I called on Dec. 29, 2005 and I told Eddy to put it in the
system to cancel it on Jan. 20, 2006 before the billing cycle starts
and I didn't cancel on that day but continued with them.
4. Now after three weeks, when I called them and asked them to disconnect
before the billing cycle, Samantha said they can't quarantee stop
charging me. The previous customer service (Eddy) representative told
me I need to call them before 5 days, but today the customer
representative (Samantha) and the supervisor (Mark) say that I need to
call them before 10 days. I agreed to do the cancellation today
positive with out any delay. The customer service representative
(Samantha) in the cancellation department told me I don't need to send the
Lingo adaptor and I won't be charged any disconnection fee 'cuz I
have been with Lingo for more than one year.
5. Once I cancelled my account, they sent me an email afer 10 minutes saying that
This is confirmation of your request to cancel your Lingo service. This request was processed on 01/23/2006. We recently changed our policy and you can now avoid the cancellation fee if you return the Lingo adapter. Please return the adapter and power cord in good condition within 30 days. If we do not receive the adapter within 30 days or it is damaged or missing parts, you will be charged a $39.95 cancellation fee.
We recommend you receive a tracking number or delivery confirmation for the return package. Please write the cancellation number on the outside of the box and return the adapter to:
Lingo Returns
7901 Jones Branch Drive, 9th Floor
McLean, VA 22102
Cancellation #:
We want to take this opportunity to thank you for trying Lingo and hope to have you as a customer in the future. If you have any questions, please contact us at customercare@lingo.com or 1-888-Lingo99 (546-4699).
Thank you,
Lingo Customer Care
REF: CAN_PPEN052605
What a cruel act!
Does any one still want to use Lingo service? Even if I pay all they
want, will there be an end of the problem?
I can't let them torture me any more!!!!!!
PROBLEMS from Lingo continue even after we pay all they want!!!!
The WORST VoIP compnay is LINGO
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Review by pbspt
member for 7.8 years, 8 visits, last login: 7.5 years ago
lodged 7.5 years ago
- Wichita Falls,Wichita,TX
- $20 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 5 days
- "Cheap"
- "Poor service, fair call quality, dropped calls"
- "Cheap, but WEAK service. I wouldn't do it again!"
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I have had Lingo for about 3 months. I have RR cable, which is very fast. Lingo set up was a breeze. My caller ID is off by 6 hours and all of the settings that I can change online are correct. I have requested for repair 4 times and still have no results from them. In fact, the first time I requested help the service personell said "That's an easy fix" I was then disconnected (dropped call) and they could not get me back up and working (at all) for 5 days. The rep apparently accidentlly corrupted my profile and no one knew how or had the authority to fix it.
The call quality is horrible. My girl friend will not let me call her from my home phone because the quality is so poor. The connection enhancer made no improvement at all.
I changed to save some $$ and now, I have to pay $59 to get out of the service in less than a years time. I waited past my initial opt out time, one month, thinking they could fix my issues. So far, they have either made it worse or ignored my service requests. I have attempted to speak with a VP or CEO, but they are too sheilded, hidden or busy. What a shame, it could be good if they could fix things.
Don't count on Lingo as your only phone.
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Review by CoderJ
member for 9.5 years, 307 visits, last login: 2.5 years ago
lodged 7.6 years ago
- Oakdale,New London,CT
- $22 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 7 days
- "Cheap alternative to the recent POTS mega-mergers"
- "Horrible phone tech support, non-existant online support, poor call quality, horrid equipment, bad install directions"
- "Stay far away!"
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I first got Lingo about a year and a half ago, thinking maybe the technology and market were finally mature enough to go primetime and were ready for Joe and Jill User. Lingo proved to me that while the technology is getting there, running a business off of it is tricky at best.
I ordered my service online, being at the time in a very bitter dispute with SNET (later SBC, then AT&T) and having no POTS at all. $22.09, after all was said and done, was a great deal per month for basically unlimited call service to the continental US (I have relatives everywhere). Within a week, my ATA arrived... and the confusion began.
To start with, I was using a multiple PC setup that was behind a router, then hit into my modem. The install instructions I got told me to put my ATA between my router and the modem, which I did like a good little boy. Everything lit up, I assumed success and calls sounded like an old cell phone, oh well, only $22/month. But then I realized I was getting poor data speeds on the other side of my ATA, making the internet almost unusable (worse than dial-up). Some experimenting and two months later, the ATA was behind my router in the DMZ, something I was assured by tech support was undoable at the time and would not work. Even now, they swear this is the cause of half my ills.
During the year or so I spent with Lingo, I had a variety of problems, ranging from the ATA somehow seizing up my router so it wouldn't respond and have to be manually reset to calls only partially or even never ringing through. Tech support was a joke, swearing nothing could be done through e-mail and then informing me all my ills were from my setup... despite that for whatever reason my ATA could no longer provision an IP using DHCP and in turn it's own DHCP server function failed to work at all so I couldn't put my PCs behind it without manually changing the IP on everything.
The nail in the coffin happened recently. For whatever reason, my ATA can no longer connect to the Lingo VoIP network. It turns on, recognizes the network, and then sits there. It tries to connect, but it won't. Lingo tech support is still useless, swearing it's my ISP blocking ports (um... no, verified by my ISP and through tests by me), my ISP blocking their domain (umm... no, verified again by my ISP and myself), and finally accusing me of not knowing what I was doing. The final straw. Having once been the phone weenie, the guy in the hot, buzzing, dark closet with pretty green (and red) LEDS, and the guy who had to dress nice to go see the paying customers, I was real offended. Lingo is getting canceled, especially in light that technically they have not provided me ANY service in the last month. I can only hope to make appends with SBC and get my POTS back, and maybe get my number back from Lingo, but that's a slim hope judging from the trouble other people are having.
UPDATE: Quite a while later, been meaning to update this. Canceling was insanely hard, finally had to resort to threatening legal action to get the service canceled and getting a refund back to the date the service stopped working for me.
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Review by moe1971
member for 7.7 years, 9 visits, last login: 4 years ago
lodged 7.7 years ago
- Toledo,Lucas,OH
- $20 per month
- about 17 days
- "Nothing! I've had the service for 4 months"
- "every thing about this company sucks!"
- "If you value your sanity, stay the hell away!"
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I ordered the service back on 5/19/2005! I took them tree weeks to deliver my box! I plugged in and it was really awful! Dropped calls, people can hardly hear us on the other side, static and it takes 20-40 seconds to actually connect to the other side! I called them few times and all they can do is reset the device!! Then they made me put the adapter behind the modem and they assured me that this will fix the problem, it did not!
2 weeks ago my adapter started acting up! It would intermittently shut down, yes totally shuts off and I have to unplug it and let it cool down and then plug it in to get it to work again! Also, the Ethernet output from the adapter to my PC is only at a speed of 180Kbps-220Kbps!!! Yes, 180Kbps and I am paying my ISP $60 to get the high speed and broadband! I called the esteemed people at lingo and I really don’t have the time or the nerve to tell you the whole story but it is painful, believe me!
The first thing as usual is to reset the device and that will take care of everything! I said OK, why not! That did not work so I called the next day, my good man there said that I should but the adapter behind the router and that way I don’t need it to act as a router! I told him when I first got the service you insisted that the adapter sets directly behind the modem!! And furthermore, I don’t have the router anymore! I did not need it so I sold it! AND this dummy there asked me, do you really need more that 200kbps?!? I said, what? I wanted to make sure I heard him right! Believe me, he said it again! So, I am paying all this money to get broadband but I should live with 200Kbps so I can keep using Lingo!
So, I said forget about this problem, what about the adapter shutting down every few hours? Of course, they had me go through all these tests again and he finally said that he will create a new account for me and that will take care of the problem! You dumb shit, it is a hardware problem and no resetting or creating new accounts will fix it. I had to hang up and call the next day if that did not fix it! You guessed it, that did not fix it!! So, I called and asked to talk to a supervisor on 4 different occasions and no success so far!!!
My big problem right now is to get my number back so I can cancel this shitty service. I called Verizon and they looked into it but they told me that Shitty lingo is not releasing the number back to them! That should be illegal! I am lost and I have no clue what the hell to do! By the way, the adapter is shutting down almost every 2 hours and I have to let it cool off for about 30 minutes before I can use it again and these fuckers still resetting it and hoping to the devil that it will work!!!
Believe me, I am extremely tired and in poor health and the only reason I am writing this is to let you know about this sorry ass company! STAY AWAY FROM THEM!!! If you value your sanity, your health and your well-being…stay away from these AH!!!
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Review by aqatsha
member for 10.3 years, 5 visits, last login: 7.8 years ago
updated 7.8 years ago
- Roswell,Fulton,GA
- $28 per month
- about 25 days
- "Low cost. Unlimited calls in specified international calling area"
- "Call quality, constant reliability issues, Tech support"
- "Good when it works properly which is about 35% of the time"
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I signed on with Lingo in August of 2004. At first the quality of my phone calls was terrible. The constant delay on all calls was infuriating. Approximately 75% of calls made or received had one or more of the following characteristics:
Delay
Echo
Static
Dropped to dead air
Dropped to fast busy signal
Dead air/no connection
After numerous reboots and time spent on the phone with (so-called) customer support and their many assurances of making changes in my profile the service has gotten marginally better. The above mentioned issues happen only about 50% of the time now. Similar to another reviewer in this Forum I have experienced interminable wait times and standard "reboot your modem" answers whenever I call. The answer du jour at Lingo support is that since I use a router I will now need to obtain a static IP from my ISP in order to ensure high quality calls. They are very explicit that in order for their service to work correctly the Lingo/Primus VoIP modem needs to be the first device the broadband connection touches.
I would NOT recommend Lingo for anyone using a router. I cannot comment on the service under any other configuration.
-------------UPDATE----------------
I switched my service to Vonage and have been MONUMENTALLY SATISFIED with them. The setup was very easy and I have only had one issue with the service which lasted for about 4 hours after a bad thunderstorm.
I called Lingo requesting that I not be required to pay a fee for leaving their service before a 12-month period. I also asked that they prorate my last month so I only paid for the time I was actually with them (I left Lingo for Vonage in the middle of the month). I was told by the CSR that he did not have the authority to do that but he gave me an address to which I could mail (!) a letter. I did so outlining my case. I received a letter in return stating that my last month would be prorated and that if I returned my equipment they would not charge me an early termination fee.
Interestingly, at least in my case, Lingo got something right as I was leaving them as a customer.
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Review by myronbilliot
member for 7.9 years, 1 visits, last login: 7.8 years ago
lodged 7.9 years ago
- Lockport,Lafourche,LA
- $19 per month
- about 120 days
- "Fast delivery"
- "Tech support cannot seem to get things right"
- "Would highly not recomend"
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The service worked on and off for a couple of months. Every 2 to 3 days I would have to unplug and plug back in the Lingo device for it to work properly. After tropical storm Cindy, we lost power for a couple of days and the Lingo device never connected back to the server. My internet connection is working fine but tech support keeps telling me to contact my ISP which I did and everything is still the same on my account. Then they tell me I have to call them to get a new Lingo device. What a laugh, my service does not work and I have to call them. Needless to say, I am shopping for a new service.
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 Review by deheza
member for 9 years, 3955 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 7.9 years ago
- Allen,Collin,TX
- $20 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 15 days
- "Easy installation and ATA supplied QOS"
- "Customer service slow. Received no follow-up phone calls."
- "Incoming calls half the time unusably chopped up. Have to back on cell phone."
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Ordered on 10Jun2004 received 18Jul2004. The problem of the router & computer not working through the ATA was resolved on 27June2004. I heard the ATA clicking on it's own late one evening and it started working properly the next day. The ATA's software status shows the latest revision. I received an e-mail from customer service on the 29th of June stating that if the problem wasn't corrected, contact them again. The service has worked well for us since the 27th of June. The quality of international calls is great! Local calls are fair to good; I believe the US POTS companies are less than cooperative with VOIP. I believe the first 3 months free is to compensate for the birthing pains of a new service. We back up LINGO with cellphones. I would like to see the cost or rate of each call on the web site eventually. The ATA is connected to Comcast Cable which has been reliable and glitch free.
31Mar05 The actual level of phone service has stayed up at a fairly good level. Customer service response time and their execution of requests to clear problems has been poor.
1. After my SBC number was ported, they started billing me for my primary ported number, my optional incoming number and my old temporary number that I used before my SBC number was ported. During the call to get the old temporary number number removed from my account, I gave them the exact number, they deleted my ported number! After a lot of scrambling and consultation they recovered my ported number and left the old temporary number hanging in limbo somewhere in my account - it still worked for about 6 weeks but wasn't billed for it.
2. I discovered a few weeks later that during the above escapade my account was corrupted and my Emergency Calling information disappeared and in their infinite wisdom they had removed the Edit button from the account edit web page so no customer can now edit their emergency information. I called and e-mailed to get this information re-instated over about two weeks, finally one of the CS agents helped them get it almost correct. The Emergency calling information must be in all capital letters, the CS agent understood this and so noted in his instructions to ?higher authority. The only things that they capitalized were DR for Drive in my street address and the state abbreviation. Lingo's working conditions seem to be a cross between a circus and a zoo.
24 July 2005
Cancelled Lingo the 21st of July 2005 due to too many chopped up incoming calls. I've called several times about this and the problem keeps coming back. I have done several hard reboots, connected the ATA directly to the cable modem, opened the ports they requested when it was behing my WRT54G router. The codec has been set to g711 for many months. Bottom line - my wife can't stand it. When I terminated the service the CS rep told me that since I had signed up in June of 04 it wouldn't be necessary to return the ATA. The next morning I received an e-mail requesting the ATA be returned or I would be charged $39.00.
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Review by garland1955
member for 7.9 years, 0 visits, last login: 7.9 years ago
lodged 7.9 years ago
- Morrisville,Wake,NC
- $22 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 15 days
- "Cannot Find Any"
- "Too many to put in this small box"
- "Do not waste your time"
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First off, Let me start by saying that Lingo is technically challenged. I do not understand why you cannot hire English speaking people if you are targeting an English speaking customer base.
It too 14 days from ordering to get up and working because the 1st ATA they sent was bad.
After all the troubleshooting and multiple hours on the phone waiting in queue.
Call quality is the worse as well as custome service is a joke....suggest another provider
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Review by sweepy17
member for 8.9 years, 476 visits, last login: 7.2 years ago
updated 7.9 years ago
- Apex,Wake,NC
- $19 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 4 days
- "Cannot Find any good points"
- "Level 2 Support. No way to escalate a problem or speak with a manager"
- "Excellent cost but tech support sucks...HELP !"
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Ordered my Lingo service and recieved my equipment 4 days later. Connected it to my router and was up and talking within 10 minutes after the UPS man left. Voice quality is the same as my Bell line but the costs are so much lower . My wife called her mother in Cali Colombia last night and I must say the the voice quality is much better than my MCI service. I requested that my number be ported ane was told that it would take 4-5 weeks...oh well. Only $ 39.95 to get me started and the first 3 months free. would recommend this service to anyone...
12/14/2004
I hate to air my dirty laundry in public but since I understand that Lingo employees monitor this board I thought it was worth a shot. I opened a trouble ticket with them 6 days ago and they have sent it to their 2nd level folks in Va. and no body has even looked at it yet and it is critical that I get this resolved. My tkt number is 68570.
At issue is that I cannot dial several 1-800 numbers on the Lingo phone and I can on my cell with no problem. The second and most important is the voice quality. It seems like I have a bad delay in the line causing confussion and talk over each others words. I work from home and need this but Lingo reps in Canada said their is nothing more that they can do. Looks like I will be going to Vonage in a couple days if this keeps up. I doubt if Lingo cares, what is one customer to the likes of them.....
12/17/2004
Tried to escalate the issue yesterday but eveybody I speak with told me they have no way to escalate a problem..I had to reboot 3 time yesterday and voice quality is so bad I just use my cell phone...I suggest that anyone reading this review try someone else. If you ever need tech support ( and you will ) Lingo is not for you. A waste of good money
3/7/2005
My trouble ticket I open in December has not even been looked at according to the CSR I just spoke with. I also just got off the phone with Vonage, they have a phone special not seen on therir website. Just call them and for only 9.95 in shipping I get the Router and 1st month free. Guess where I am switching away from.......LINGO SUCKS
4/24/2005 Been gone from Lingo since 3/8 and they are still try to charge my Credit card even though I have terminated my accout almost 2 months ago. Heh heh....I knew these SOB's would try and pull something like that so 2 days before I canceled my account I changed credit cards in my profile with one that I was terminating the next day.....but now they keep sending letters saying that they cannot charge my card.........this company does not have a clue as to what they are doing in any way.....Die Lingo Die !
7/17/2005 I cannot imagine why it is that people are wasting their hard earned money with Lingo. Pluse you are supporting the Indian call centers which put Americans out of work, I suggest a good service that employs Americans
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