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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 353 days ago
(review was emailed in)
 Round Hill,Loudoun,VA
 $29 per month (12 month contract)
 about 3 days
 "Not much"
 "Deceptive business practices. Excessive Hidden fees and impossible to contact them via email"
 "Stay away from Lingo"
| Web-site:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
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Lingo's advertise price is not what you will pay. There is 30% to 40$ in taxes and fees that get added on to your bill.
Lingo's support email does not work. I have sent them emails from my business, personal and Google webmail and they will all bounce.
Their phone features such as simultaneous ring does not work.
To add insult to injury, they recently retroactively updated termination fee for all new and also existing customers to be $99 and lengthened the minimum service duration from 12 month to 24 month.
Followup comments:  nitzan
Premium,VIP
join:2008-02-27
 ·ViaTalk
 ·Comcast
| ETFs are pure greed. To add insult to injury, they recently retroactively updated termination fee for all new and also existing customers to be $99 and lengthened the minimum service duration from 12 month to 24 month. They can't legally do that. Although that won't stop them from trying... your best bet is to cancel and replace the credit card they have on file for you so they can't charge you the termination fee - and tell them to go to hell.
Another option is to dispute the charges with your credit card company - but that is not guaranteed to get you your money back.
--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation | |
| helpdeskdan
join:2009-02-28
·LINGO
| Not much you can do Sure they can do it, if you've already paid for a year. They did it to me and the was not a darn thing I could do about it.
How can you stop them when they've already got your money? BBB? They are based in India somewhere, do you think they care? File a credit claim? For a payment you made 6 months ago - good luck. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of LINGO |
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 Review by KDaver 
UPDATED: 359 days ago
member for 9.3 years, 3372 visits, last login: 2 days ago
New Haven,New Haven,CT
$19 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Great Price"
"Tech. Support, and quality of Documentation"
"Great for what you pay for"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Well It took me about an hour of playing with how to connect, and waiting for things to boot.
But it finally came up. and there are no problems.
Didnt have to call tech support. but the person that took the information on the phone. A complete fool.
Could not even type my name right. Even after Spelling it for him. and him re-reading it back. Put a F everywhere a S was suppose to be.
EDIT: Has been great for a very long time..
Has not dropped or glitched in over a year. (Watch tomorrow I will be posting it has crashed. because of this review.)
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 Review by veloct
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 6.8 years, 2268 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Uncasville,New London,CT
$20 per month
about 5 days
"None"
"Tech support is horrible, new kid in town=growing pains,"
"They suck"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
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Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
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When I moved to Uncasville from New London I had already decided to ditch SBC altogether since I've gone to Myeastern.com. So far, aside some minor issues (didn't have phone number and how to setup voice mail - my spam rules are too god =D ), it's been good. The sound quality is pretty good, sometimes you get the echo from digital lines but it's tolerable. The price is right and as long as they keep improving I don't see any reason to go elsewhere. So far so good, I'm happy with it.
Update (8/18): Reliability is not very good and the tech support people (in some freaking far eastern place) are just about the most useless example of tech support ever. I am cancelling them tomorrow. Simple as that, they have potencial but they also got a long way to go.
Update (12/31): After switching back to SBC for over 3 months with the same number I had through Lingo which SBC told me I could keep, now Lingo has issued my number to someone else. These people don't know their ***hole from a whole in the ground. I'm glad I don't use this service anymore. I wouldn't recommend them to people I don't like. They suck.
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Review by scordo17
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 4.7 years, 936 visits, last login: 26 days ago
Cromwell,Middlesex,CT
$25 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Pretty inexpensive for what you get, good features"
"Price has gone up, box resets more than I would like"
"Overall good for the money-Vonage customers should check out"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
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(ratings match consensus)
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Update - 8/20/2008
Service has been pretty good since my last review. Despite what others have said, I had a good experience with tech support. Over the last couple months, I was experiencing background noise that sounded like a high pitched tone. I was intermittent at first, but then it became more consistent and annoying. I don't think callers could hear it-it was only in my ear. I replaced my phone, but that confirmed that it was definitely the service.
I called tech support and they tried to re-configure some things on their end, including switching from the Phone 1 jack to Phone 2. Unfortunately, this made the problem worse and made the phone unusable. After talking with support again, and then with a supervisor, they determined that my box was faulty (one of the old Lingo branded boxes) and decided to send me a new one. I received a new Linksys box via UPS overnight. After a 2 minute setup, I was up and running and the quality has been outstanding. I can't be happier with the service again now that the audio quality is back. The features and quality for the price are fantastic, and while I know there have been some bad reviews, I would definitely recommend them-especially if you make a lot of calls to Europe.
________________________________________________________-
Have had Lingo service since August 2004. Pretty easy install. Had some major problems with service around September and October of 2004. After badgering customer service for weeks, I finally got a new box and all has been good since then. Moved in Jan 2006 and got a new local number and had no problems with that.
Price is good for all the features. I especially like the free western europe calls. I don't have to think twice about calling co-workers in the UK and the connection is great. The price has gone up since I first started the service. It was $19.95 (without fees) for unlimited minutes. The starting passing on the fees in early 2005, and then raised the price to $21.95. Overall, I think it's still a good value.
The service his been pretty reliable since my issues in 2004. I'd say 1 out of 50 calls dialed doesn't go through on the first try. Also, I do get an echo at time, but it's usually just me. The person on the other end can't hear it.
I'm curious to see what effect the Vonage/Verizon patent decision will have on the other small VOIP providers like Lingo. I hope it won't extend to Lingo, but I have a funny feeling that it will. I'm surprised they don't have more users, but they don't do much advertising other than banner ads online.
Overall I would recommend them for people looking to replace a landline or people looking for an alternative to Vonage.
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Review by champion
UPDATED: 1.4 years ago
member for 2.8 years, 12 visits, last login: 1 year ago
Westerville,Franklin,OH
$19 per month
about 3 days
"Excellent Plan - Unlimited Calling to Western Europe"
"None actually except that the modem requires to be reset once in two months or so"
"Decent service for residential use"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
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(ratings match consensus)
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I signed up with Lingo in July 2005 in spite of mixed reviews.
>> Reasons I Chose Lingo:
- Excellent plan for 19.95 (now 21.95) for unlimited calls within US and Western Europe (I have friends in Europe)
- Free Modem (D-Link had a mail-in rebate offer for model DVG-1402S)
- My friend's experience with Vonage (not regarding call quality) when he cancelled the service. Though they advertised "free modem" the modem had to be returned if the service was cancelled within 12 months.
>> Installation:
I ordered the modem from D-Link and signed up for Lingo service online. The modem arrived in 3 days and the phone was up and running in a few minutes. The only problem I had was that the phone was not ringing for my chosen number and when I placed a call to my cell phone it showed some different number. Called the tech support and after a modem reset on my end I was all set with my new home phone.
>> Modem Connection:
Connected the ISP modem to a router. My computer and the phone modem connect independently to the router.
>> Call Quality Issues:
Call quality is not great but decent. Once in a while I hear echoes when I call home from my cell phone. Until now I never had to disconnect and call again due to call quality. Nobody who calls me on my Lingo number ever complained.
>> Connectivity Issues:
In the last 16 months I never had serious issues with connectivity. Once in a while the modem had to be reset. There were phases (about three times) in between where we had to reset the modem frequently for two or three days. The problem might have also been due to the ISP.
I had an exasperating experience once before my wife got her cell phone. I was trying to call my wife and there was a modem outage and I could not get to her until she realized and reset the modem.
>> Tech Support:
I called the Tech Support only twice and both the times they resolved my issues. They were minor issues so I do not know how (in)capable they are as other reviewers seem to say.
>> Other Comments:
I have used this service in Detroit suburbs, MI with Comcast for nearly an year and am currently using the service in Columbus, OH with Road Runner cable for the last 8 months WITHOUT any issues.
I don't have a fax.
Over all - I am very happy and I would recommend Lingo for a normal residential use. Excellent plan and decent call quality.
All the best!
Update: June 12, 2008
My Lingo service continues to be the same. I don't have any issues. In the last few months I did not have to reset the modem due to connectivity issues.
Followup comments: 
Bumski
@charter.com
| I would not use Lingo, the company ripped me off! 
I contacted Lingo to sign up for their service. They took my credit card info and signed me up for an account. I never received their product to connect up to their network. They have been charging my credit card since 2004 until Jan 2007. I could not use their service because I had no means to connect to it: they had to provide the box, they never did. I escalated my complaint the the executive level, they cited their contract that said billing starts 3 weeks after signing up. A company that bills it's customers, does not provide the product required to use their service, and then will not do ANYTHING to compensate is not a company that I would want to do business with. My email is posted (john.govern@gmail.com) and I will be happy to forward my email correspondence to anyone to prove what I am saying is true. I cannot comment on their service because I was NEVER able to use it. My question to you is: Is this the kind of company that you want to do business with? I cannot recommend anyone else because I have never used their services, I just know that Lingo ripped me off. | |
| | champion
join:2007-01-28
Westerville, OH | Re: I would not use Lingo, the company ripped me off! Did you say you let them charge your credit card for three years when they never even sent you the modem? | |
| | | Cogdis
join:2007-03-26
Floral Park, NY |  Re: I would not use Lingo, the company ripped me off!
 | |
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Review by webpc
UPDATED: 1.4 years ago
member for 8.4 years, 501 visits, last login: 83 days ago
Bridgewater,Somerset,NJ
$24 per month
"International Numbers and International Call Quality"
"Customer support and 1st tier tech support terrible"
"Great if everything works and there are no problems"
| Web-site:
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(ratings below consensus)
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Update 2008
Well after using the service for 3+ years we moved the US business lines to Vonage (who we have been using since 2001). We picked up an Australian number through an Australian provider.
Our home number? Well we are now using Skype we have tested it for 6 months now and it has been rock steady. its also HEAPs cheaper
The reason we left Lingo? The last straw was when the lines stopped recognising DTMF tones and Lingo said they NEVER did, which isn't correct because the Lingo business lines had been hooked up to a PABX and except for the last couple of months you could navigate the system via DTMF. Lingo support were definite they never supported up. We also had ongoing issues with the Lingo ATA locking up when it was behind a NAT router and the time it took to troubleshoot just got out of hand.
The one redeeming feature for Lingo was the voice quality.
Original
To get going it took 2 ata's and 3 weeks of talking to tech support. Luckily 2nd tier know something and are helpful, 1st tier appear to know nothing and just follow scripts that definitely require reworking.
Customer support are great for providing disinformation. We took advantage of getting an Australian phone number, Initially as our primary number and was told by CS rep that all calls we made to other Australian numbers would be treated as local. Also was told by rep that the deal (3 months free) at the time applied to all plans. Have found out since that calls to Australia are charged at international rates, you cannot have an International number as your primary number, and the deal didn't apply to the basic plan!!
Have been trying to resolve the above for nearly a month have only received 1 email stating the position about the deal. Replied to the email asking about the wrong info provided by the CS rep and about not having the service for nearly a month, received no reply followed up still no reply. It appears silence is the name of the game!
when trying to get a copy of an invoice from the web site we just receive a message saying it's not available, when reporting outage to support we just get told its for our plan and calls (obviously!!). No details and no reply to emails asking when system will be back up and running. Also no opportunity to check the calls, especially as the charge is over $10 more than plan price and our Long Distance/ International calls over the past few years has averaged less than $3per month using Lingo's parent Primus.
The good side... the call quality is on par to Vonage (who we have used for last 2 years) for calls within the US but is much better Internationally (at least to Australia and UK). Call quality has also been steady since the connection problems were resolved.
End result get everything in writing and do not rely on what you are told by a CS rep and hope you do not need to interact with customer support. If you get technical issues get your case escalated to tier 2 support ASAP .
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of LINGO |
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 Review by HomeLvr
UPDATED: 1.5 years ago
member for 7.9 years, 2057 visits, last login: 36 days ago
Atlanta,Fulton,GA
$21 per month
about 3 days
"Price, Call Quality, Reliability"
"Everything now, had problem with box, refused to replace"
"Should have took a second chance on VoIP sooner"
| Web-site:
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(ratings well below consensus)
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Hey,
Well lets see I dropped Vonage over a year ago because it was just horrible. Mostly because of my internet connection (Adelphia Cable), but those times when my connection was rock solid my connection overseas was not. Since then I dropped Vonage and Adelphia, got Bellsouth and Bellsouth DSL. Well I started to get sick of paying out the rear. My phone bills tripled (probably more). Then up pops the news that AT&T is now offering naked dsl. I said ok lets try VoIP again. I decided to go with my Long Distance provider, Primus' VoIP offering. Primus has been the only cheap international long distance I have never had troubles with in all the years one time or another of using POTS. Lingo has been excellent. I have used it all last night and today like crazy calling everyone. Better than my POTS line which is just amazing. And at last my overseas calls don't have issues as they did with Vonage! Lingo also offers a whole lot of free countries to call. If I use as much minutes as I have with POTS that right there will save me over a $100 by itself. Now that it's free I'll be using it even more! Im not going to budget my European calls.
Honestly Lingo I think is the best choice if you want POTS like service. It comes from a great company, Primus and hands down the best deal. Whenever I hear about free country calling I am worried, but I wasn't this time around since Primus has been around forever offering great international long distance. Quality free international calls to so many countries!
Thank You AT&T for naked DSL!
Thanks to you Lingo! for making the world a smaller place. I don't have to worry about calling internationally (all the ones I call are on the free country list!). Its now second nature to pick up the phone and call thousands of miles away! without a second thought.
One more thing, I rated the ease of installation a 3 because the box came before they registered it on the network. So I think. The way it seems was I hooked it up before their servers actually put my box online. I called tech support (5 minute wait or so) and they got me all setup real quick. Very Courteous. I know they were Indian, but his English and his control of the language was great. I could have sworn he was a car salesman at the local Mercedes Benz dealer.
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!!! :
Have had problem with Lingo Box, no service for a month. Gave them a month to try and repair it. Still wouldn't allow a new box to be sent out. Canceled my card, canceled service. Good thing I canceled the card too because they tried to charge the card next months service and now send me emails saying I need to pay and if I don't my service may be suspended (should already be! considering I canceled it)
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Review by bluediemond
UPDATED: 1.6 years ago
member for 1.6 years, 5 visits, last login: 66 days ago
Pensacola,Escambia,FL
$23 per month
about 4 days
"Great value and good quality service"
"horrible tech support and customer support"
"If you can do it yourself, this is the best value offered. Less than 1/2 the price of my ISP's (Cox) IP phone plan."
| |
Considered a few others but after reading reviews I narrowed it down to Vonage or Lingo. Vonage (at the time) did not offer a local phone number to my area, and they cost $5 a month more.
When I signed up the unlimited phone service was $19.95 a month. That has increased to $23.95 but I'm still very satisfied.
The adapter was not free but is now to new customers. No brand name on the adapter, just a Lingo logo.
Calling tech support was a miserable experience. When they ask you to reboot your computer (not adapter) which is not attached to the adapter in any way, they are obviously not familiar with their own product. Their tech support is obviously outsourced as well as every "tech" I've spoken to sounded like he was from India.
You will probably need to call tech support when you first establish service. I had horrible call clarity and simply calling any number may have resulted in no connection at all. Tech support routed my connection through a more local server in my area and I've had no problems since. (about 2 years)
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Review by pbp776
Posted: 1.7 years ago
member for 2.3 years, 495 visits, last login: 6 days ago
Piscataway,Middlesex,NJ
$22 per month (12 month contract)
about 210 days
"Good price, reliability, voice quality, features, International Rate, referral credit."
"Newly increase fees, needs more features like other VOIP has."
"Half the price of landline, cheper rate for international calls"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
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Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
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I was former Sunrocket user before I sing up for Lingo.
I did lots of research for other VOIP and compare their price and features.
I decided to sign up with Lingo for Talk 365 after Sunrocket when down the drain.
Cost:
Place order on 07/17/07 for $195+ $29.99 Activation Fee and $9.99 S&H fee and $12 other regulatory fee that is total of $247. I was like WOW $47 dollar more than Sunrocket. However, Lingo had a deal that if you stay for more than 90 days you get credit back of 29.99 and 9.99 S&H. I did get the credit back after 90 days.
I received the UTStarcom iAN-02EX ATA adapter in next day later. It was fast because it was shipped form VA and I live in NJ base on the Shipping location label.
Setup:
Optimum Online Modem Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router (with Tomato Firmware) UTStarcom iAN-02EX ATA.
Within a minute I was up with dial tone.
Lingo sends their ATA adapter preconfigured with G729 Codec. At first I didn’t change the Codec to G711 Codec for few days. I wanted to test the quality of the call and it was good like Sunrocket. However, after four days later I changed my codec to G711 because the bandwidth speeds I get from Optimum Online I rather use no compression call than compression.
Port Number:
I didn’t want to loose my number from Sunrocket so I send my LETTER OF AUTHORIZATION with the same day I got my ATA. It took Lingo at least 15 days for Lingo to port my number over to Lingo which I believe their normal process time.
Call Quality:
So far the call quality has been good to excellent. Calls to international cities has been excellent for my wife no problem or break up. There were few times I got echoes which I was able fix it by lowering my phone volume or ask the person on the other side to do the same if they have the option. When there was poor call quality and I have done test by ping the Lingo SIP address and trace the route to see if the latency where high. Some times poor quality can be by ISP routing and some time it can be related to VOIP servers.
Reliability:
I would say reliability of the service is 99% excellent. I don’t have people complaining that I don’t answer my phone or it goes to voicemail. The connection is always there. I don’t have to reboot the ATA, Router or Linksys every day. However, I always recycle my stuff at every 30 days from my Modem to PC. The other 1% you can figure it out nothing is perfect in this world.
Support Person:
I called their Tech Support three times. First time was regarding my port issue as I didn’t want to loose my number. Second time was my ATA would not register with their servers. Reboot didn’t fixed the problem so placed a called to the teach support he had to me move the ATA front of the router so he can remote control the box and he was able to resolved the issue. I moved it back behind the router while he was on the line to see if the problem would not persist and there was no glitch. Last time was when they had a few hours outage a month ago not sure what that outage for but all my incoming calls were breaking up on my side but when I place outgoing call to same number it was good. I place a called to their tech support and he was able fixed the issue. These called were for minor/ major issues but base on the teach support person and time frame I would say my problem were resolved in timely manner.
Referral Credit:
I refer my families and friends to Lingo. Two people signed up and they are happy with the service. Plus, I got both my referral credit. Lingo split the credit out base on your monthly bill instead of Credit back to your Credit card or check. Other members that I refer didn’t sign up with Lingo. I didn’t ask because everyone has their own choice.
There are many other VOIP companies. I would recommend Lingo to anyone who would like to save money and make lots of calls. This review is on my own experience with Lingo. Other may have issue with Lingo with Support, Call Quality and so on with their experiences. For me it has been smooth ride since Sunrocket went down. I had Sunrocket since the company started and it was a smooth ride as well.
Other VOIP I currently have account with:
AT&T CallVantage- I used mainly for Business Line.
VoiceStick – I used mainly for I2bridge feature and cheap rate for international rate.
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Review by ychampaneri
Posted: 1.7 years ago
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
Iselin,Middlesex,NJ
$26 per month (12 month contract)
"So far it has been good, voice quality good us and international calls"
"none so far"
"They give you free trial I think it is worth it .. if not sure don't port the number first try it"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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After reading so many negative and positve reviews on line about lingo I
figure I post my exp to the list.
My setup
Motorolla cable modem than
Trendnet router
than linksys voip adapter
After musch hesitation I ordered lingo on Sunday 02/10/08 adapter arrived
today 02/14/08 ( they charged $ 14.00 for ups ground which I know would have
been $10
hooked it up waited 10 min like it said in installation picked up the phone
and started calling and needless to say working fine call quality is good...
I will post more as I use my phone day to day.
02/17/08
so it is the weekend I wanted to test call quality to overseas india and uk over the weekend to see how it hold up .. and need less to say so far it is good can not tell diffreance between regualr phone line and lingo. I did not port my number yet just wanted to give lingo a try... I have changed my codec settings to use 60 kpbs for call quality ... keeps you posted
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of LINGO |
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(11)
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Question about occupied bandwidth
Lingo is still going strong ..signup through voiprebates.org
02/19/08