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Review by jmpum 
UPDATED: 2.3 years ago
member for 2.3 years, 5 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
 Fayetteville,Fayette,WV
 $20 per month (6 month contract)
 about 5 days
 "Very easy install. Great voice quality. Great value."
 "lingo router may need reset on short power bump"
 "This is so good I discontinued my verizon service."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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July 26, 2007
I have had Verizon for 17 years at my current residence. I always had a hum on the line of varying degrees and after many visits by telco I just made this voip jump on July 5, 2007. I did not port my number, i just dumped verizon completely. Lingo has a Beckley exchange so I kept my 304 area code and am in the local calling circle for verizon customers.
After about 3 weeks service I can't believe I waited this long. I was leary at first from reading BBR reviews, but this was a smooth install and NO HUM, just clear calls. I have noticed a faint echo on very few calls, mostly cell phones, so it's hard to say what caused it. Ok, so here are the particulars.
ISP = suddenlink cable 6mbs down 256kbs up (recent upgrade from 3mbs)
Location = Fayetteville, WV 25840
VOIP provider = Lingo
service = Chatterbox $17.95mo. for 3 mos. then $21.95 3mos ( 6 mo. contract.)
Lingo equipment = primus ian-02ex voip router.
The install was easy and well documented, I have not used Lingo's tech support. (just haven't needed to). There are many features online, but I don't use many. There website is straight forward and easy to use. The lingo router goes between your cable modem and you computer, or in my case a di-604 router, 4 computers and a zytel wap. I have had no decrease in bandwidth, even while placing or receiving phone calls.
I was pleasantly surprised to find my fax machine works just like normal without adding Lingo's fax service.
OK, so now you are saying this guy works for Lingo. Not true. Here is my only glitch. After a short power bump, the lingo router did not recover and my wife spent half a day without phone and internet service. She is technically challenged, and will just never understand anything technical after the light bulb.
I came home from work, unplugged the lingo router for 5sec. then all services were recovered in less than a minute. I have since purchased a small ups for the routers and cable modem. i have seen 2 power bumps since (t-storms) with no interruption in any service.
I will gladly give anyone a referral, (It's worth $25 to you, oh yea and me lol) i wish i would have gotten one. contact jmpum@yahoo.com
I will update with any other events as they occur.
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Review by Erinys
Posted: 2.3 years ago
member for 2.3 years, 1 visits, last login: 2.3 years ago
Terre Haute,Vigo,IN
$19 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"Excellent service & features at a great price!"
"Occasional lag/choppy sound quality."
"Far less hassle than Verizon for a lot less money. I don't plan on switching anytime soon. =)"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I've been a Lingo customer for about three years now. When I originally signed up the unlimited package was $19.95/mo. plus taxes. The first month of service was free but I had to buy their adapter. It seemed a fair enough deal and I was desperate to get away from Verizon's landline service. Lingo was a refreshing change.
The unlimited package is now $21.95/mo. plus taxes (Averages just under $27/mo.). It's nice to have a consistent bill instead of getting surprised by Verizon's obnoxiously high rates and additional fees. If your current phone service provider is stressing you out then I highly recommend that you consider Lingo.
Before signing up with Lingo, I looked into Time Warner's Digital Phone. It was the only other service available in our area at the time. It's considerably more expensive and I've yet to be able to find a list of calling features that are included with TW Digital Phone service. Lingo seemed the obvious choice, so I placed the order. They shipped the equipment out promptly and it was extremely simple to install.
There is occasional lag/choppy sound quality. It usually only happens if I'm downloading/uploading huge amounts of data. The obvious fix is to stop (or limit) the data transfer until I'm not using the phone. There have been a few rare occasions when I had to call tech support because calls weren't coming through or the sound quality didn't sort itself when I reduced the amount of data that I was transferring. Their tech support reps have always been courteous and helpful. They've always sorted any issues in a timely manner.
I've not looked into all of the VoIP services that are available now, but in comparison to the ones that I have seen, Lingo offers a wider range of services and more features than the others. They're the only service I've seen that offers free International calls to Canada, Puerto Rico, and 21 Countries. They've added a few countries to their list over the time that I've been a customer. Continuing to add to the list tells me that they're still working to improve the services they offer. It's nice to see a company that keeps working to offer more to their customers without outrageous price increases.
They have some calling features that I had never heard of before. Do Not Disturb, Universal Number, and Simultaneous Ring were all new to me. I love the Simultaneous Ring feature. I have it set so that when someone calls our Lingo number it also rings my cell phone. My son has a health condition and it's a comfort to know that I won't miss any important calls that could be critical just because I wasn't home. It also rings the other number(s) while your house phone is in use. No more missed calls because my teenager is talking to his girlfriend for hours. It's a great feature!
My son hasn't decided where he's going to college yet, but the Universal Number feature might come in handy if he decides on a school that's not in our local calling area. We can select a phone number from over 220 area codes in the US and add it to our line for an additional $4.95/mo. By adding a Universal Number to our line that makes calling home a local call for him he'll be able to call home anytime he wants and I won't have to worry about outrageous fees for collect calls or calling card calls. By being able to choose the area code you want no matter where you live, it makes it possible for loved ones to stay in touch without adding to anyone's financial stresses.
The Do Not Disturb feature sends all incoming calls directly to voicemail. It's easy to turn on or off through the online account management. For people who work nights or that are just sick of phone solicitors constantly calling, it offers some peace and quiet.
I'm a loyal Lingo customer. Excellent phone service without all the hassle and hidden extra charges was an extremely welcome change. Yay for less stress! =)
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Review by NGOwner
UPDATED: 2.4 years ago
member for 9 years, 2709 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Leawood,Johnson,KS
$26 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
"Inexpensive, all you can eat plans include Europe, smooth porting"
"Used to be two items, now they're eliminated. No Downside!"
"Ready for Prime Time"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Update 06/29/07:
Now Lingo doesn't even make the GBU list here. Oh well. We're still sailing along happily with Lingo. It is so cool to take the gizmo with us on vacation and have our number with us while we're on vacation. And being able to stay in touch with the inlaws overseas without having to pay LD charges is just awesome.
Our bill nowadays is $26.43. The earliest bill I can see online is from January 14, 2006, or about 18 months ago. That was $22.09. That's a 20% increase over 18 months, half of that increase can be attributable to the increase in rate from $19.95 to $21.95.
Interestingly enough, "Taxes" now represent 20% of my total bill. Universal Services $1.50; Regulatory Recovery Fee $1.99; and Emergency Services Fee $0.99; Total taxes are $4.48 per month.
In the final analysis though, at $26.43 per month Lingo is still the least expensive phone service around for our usage profile.
Update 09/19/06:
I am at a loss to explain why Lingo is the bottom of the barrel here at DSLReports. I'm flummoxed, flabbergasted even. I am wondering if I am the exception, or the rule. I can't speak highly enough of Lingo. There's no one out there that offers the features calling plans and price that Lingo does. At least not for me.
I've called Lingo twice recently.
The first time was when I changed my billing credit card. This new card dings me with a foreign service fee when used with Lingo because Lingo bills out of the UK. I was on hold for no more than five minutes. Got the credit for the fee applied my account immediately. Three times now. Now I don't even call up. I just send an email to support, and they take care of it within a few days. AWESOME!
The second time was to talk with a support rep about CallerID with Name. Waited about five minutes that time, too. He told me they were working on it and would put me on a list of priority recipients. Several days later, I received an email referencing that priority list, and that I should look for activation within a few days. Well a week did go by, then I got my CallerID with Name. How awesome is that!?!?
As far as everything else is concerned:
Call quality has been great.
Uptime has been phenomenal. Intermittant gizmo lockup seems to be resolved.
Cost savings have been significant.
Customer service has been responsive and available/accessible (see above).
Technical Support has been responsive and available/accessible (see above).
What more do you guys want?
[NG]Owner
Update 04/03/06:
Well it happened. Lingo went down for a bit last month. And it wasn't my gizmo, it was Lingo. And 30 minutes later it was back up. No big deal. Fell back to PCS for calls we needed to make.
The only other thing I've noticed is that the gizmo will lock up on me taking phone service down with it. Oddly, the Internet seems to work fine during those time (I've got the gizmo acting as my network's DHCP server, no extra router). Phone gets dial tone, but we can't call out (just dead air after dialing) and incoming calls just get ringing (no bounce to VM). A cold boot of the gizmo solves things. Happens maybe once every three weeks to once a month.
So if Lingo can solve that, and the no CallerID with name (which should be out in Q3/4 this year if I can believe CS) I'll have absolutely nothing to complain about. I'm still tickled about the service. And I'm so glad I got in before they shut Kansas down due to e911 regulations. I'm grandfathered!
[NG]Owner
Update: 11/10/05:
The experience with Lingo just continues to improve. It's been several weeks since the initial review, below.
The Universal Number turned out to be a non-issue. It was removed much sooner than indicated below.
Call quality has improved to excellent. Our family really no longer has the concern that the call will be garbled when we make a call or pick one up. And drops seem to be a thing of the past. They just don't occur anymore.
Flat rate dialing is a welcome improvement, and makes budgeting that much easier. Never have to worry about a $50 swing in phone costs. The max swing I've seen is about $3, and that's only if we have to call cell phones abroad.
I've increased the Value for Money rating because I just don't see any other alternative out there that compares.
I'm just tickled. Can't say it any other way.
[NG]Owner
===========
Original Review: 09/23/05
My family and I did the VoIP thing in baby steps. Initially we had SBC for our Local Service and Sprint for our LD. In January of 2005 we ordered Lingo. Box arrived and was installed within 10 days. No issues with setup. Originally we used Lingo exclusively for LD and International (Germany) calls. No inbound at all. A dedicated phone was hooked up to the adapter, and that phone was used for all such calls. Phone call quality was acceptable. Occasional dropouts, and/or garbled voice did occur, but they were by far the exception, not the rule.
Moved to a new home in May of this year, took both our POTS line and our Lingo with us. In July we made the decision to port our POTS number (which we’ve had for over 8 years) to the Lingo service. Port went very smoothly, and was completed in about 10 days also. Rewired the adapter into the distribution block and disconnected the POTS line at the NID outside the house. Canceled the Universal Number from Lingo within days of the port. Also took the cable router out of the picture, and connected the adapter directly behind the cable modem, e.g., the adapter is now handling all routing and DHCP functions in our house (two computers, one laptop, wireless G access point, Xbox, Tivo).
We’ve now been living with Lingo as our primary telecommunications provider for two months. These are the things we’ve noticed:
1) Lingo takes several months to stop billing for their universal number once canceled. It’s only $5 a month, but it’s annoying.
2) There have been several instances of “We can hear them, but they can’t hear us” since we’ve switched. We do not recall this having been an issue earlier.
3) Voicemail and calling features are awesome. We didn’t even know that two of our phones had message waiting indicator lights. And the Lingo service makes use of them!
4) Call quality is generally quite good, though it “seems” that the first five seconds of the call is sub par. This may have to do with the next point.
5) With POTS, we became very accustomed to knowing who was calling before we picked up. CallerID with Name was wonderful in that regard. Now those we call and those who call us are only prefaced with a number, no name. We wonder if Lingo will ever get CallerID with Name for inbound calls. We truly miss that feature.
6) There is now always the thought in the back of our minds (sometimes large, sometimes muted) when calling or being called … Will there be a problem with this call? Will we get disconnected? Will they hear us? Will our voices be garbled? Will they know we’re using VoIP? Never had that problem with POTS. It always worked.
At the present moment, the additional feautures, plus the monthly cost savings (anywhere from $16 - $90 per month combined Local/LD, depending on our calling pattern that month) outweigh the glitches.
[NG]Owner
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Review by ghhsu
UPDATED: 2.8 years ago
member for 7.4 years, 11 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago
Derwood,Montgomery,MD
$25 per month
about 6 days
"Easy installation, good voice quality (so far)"
"Nothing I can think of."
"It plugs in and work right the way. The calling plan works well if your call destination is Western Europe."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
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Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Update Jan 5, 2007
Contrary to what Sweepy1 and what the previous opinion said, the fax actually worked. I personally would prefer not to use fax either (especially if it is stinky  ). But some people we do business with still prefer to use fax. I use eFax to receive but I rather use my own computer to send fax.
Back to call quality review:
All that it worked well and we were happy with it for a while. Sometime in Nov or early Dec 2006, we started to have call quality issues with our phone. After much work with Comcast and Lingo support, I decided that it was Comcast's problem. But I ended up deciding to switch from Lingo to a iTalkBB. It is really not Lingo's fault, but during the trouble with Comcast, we tested iTalkBB and their plan works better for us. We call mostly East Asia, while Lingo's plan is better for people who call Western Europe.
BTW, I tweaked my network setting and ended up improving my ISP performance by following what was described in
»Tweaking FAQ
and ended up improving my ISP performance and call quality for both IP phone services as well. If you are interested in more details of this tweak process, you can see my post on this subject:
»Tweak test REALLY WORKS!
(Original Review)
After reading all the reviews, I finally got online and placed the order for Lingo service. I want Lingo primarily because of they have an international plan that allows us to make unlimited calls to Asia.
-- July 1: I placed the order online. Received confirmation email right the way.
-- July 5: I got an email telling me the order is shipped.
-- July 6: When I get home yesterday on July 6, the box is there.
I plug in the box as the installation recommended. First my Cable Modem, then Lingo ATA and then my Netgear Router. It worked right the way. There is no issue of transferring phone number as I still keep my land line from Verizon for now. I was able to call my mother (locally), my sisters (one in Seattle, and one in Taiwan). All of them said they can hear me so well as if I am calling locally. There was a little bit of delay or voice blurs occassionally on my end. Overall quality is quite good. I just had it for a day and still excited about it.
BTW, I have Comcast High Speed Internet. It is generally reliable but expensive. It costs me $60 a month.
Next thing is to try sending and receiving faxes from it. I'll update the progress the status of my Lingo service after we use it for a while.
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Review by ckny58
UPDATED: 3.1 years ago
member for 3.8 years, 1 visits, last login: 3.1 years ago
Whitehouse Station,Hunterdon,NJ
$22 per month
about 2 days
"Good Price, works well, fast delivery"
"type 2 install didn't work, they don't recommend any particular routers, UPDATE ON ROUTER"
"I just got it and I am sticking with it!!!"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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One thing I have to say is how quickly I got the ATA adapter. But in all fairness, the adapter was shipped from pennsylvania and I live in the west part of new jersey. So, I place the order on the 31st at around 2:00 p.m. and got it on the 1st around 12:30 p.m. I do have to say that I got the adapter extremely fast. One thing I most note is that the type II installation, the one they recommend, only worked for me halfway. They recommend to go from the cable modem to the ATA adapter and then to your router. I did that, and the call quality was excellent, but, my router wasn't getting the internet signal at all. So I called up tech support and they told me to switch it the other way, which would be from the cable modem to the router and then to the ATA adapter. This did the trick, now my internet and phone work simultaneously! But, I am disappointed on how they don't recommend any particular routers. Once I did it this way, I noticed right off the back that the call was a bit choppy. I know this is because of the router, I currently have a Linksys BEFSR41. I use to have vonage about over a year ago and it did the same thing. I remember calling up Vonage and they helped me set up the router so it wouldn't be as choppy. I really don't remember if the quality got any better, but the tech said it shouldn't be a problem now and similar in performance to other routers that are plug&play. At the time, they recommended Netgear routers which were plug&play and that definitely did the trick when I had vonage. Although my current Netgear !@#$ the bed and that is why I am using my Linksys currently because I haven't had a chance to get a new router. If I do get a router, I think it will be a netgear. I know their will be some tweaking involved just like some other guy mentioned here in one of the reviews, it's just going to take a little bit of time. If anyone out there has this service and can recommend a router that works PERFECTLY or knows the proper way to set up the linksys router BEFSR41 for this system, please let me know by responding to my review or emailing me here. I hope this was helpful for anyone reading. Would I get Lingo again? DEFINITELY! Most VOIP's are all the same. It really just depends on how good your cable connection is and your router! If you have a good combination of those two, you are set! Also, anyone who is reading this and found it helpful, do me a favor: If you are going to sign up for Lingo and want to be able to get the $25 credit for having a friend refer you, just use me as a referral! When you are signing up, they will ask you for the persons name who referred you and their email address, and I will have to give them yours. Then they send you one of those company emails stating all this. So if you your going to sign up, use me as a referral, email me at CKNY58@HOTMAIL.COM with your FULL NAME and EMAIL ADDRESS. That way we are both able to save $25 bucks on the service, can't go wrong.
UPDATE: I purchased a new wireless linksys router and couldn't be happier with the setup. I replugged everything and it worked perfectly. This service has been working perfectly for me and I don't have any complaints. This pretty much just depends on having a fast internet connection, as long as you have cable/dsl, you'll be fine. You can't go wrong with this service, and for the price, you can't beat it!
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Review by asianwolf
Posted: 3.2 years ago
member for 3.2 years, 0 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago
Brooklyn,Kings,NY
$19 per month
"Cost Effective Service with many features for low price"
"Customer Service Customer Service Customer Service and occasionally bad call quality and disconnects"
"If you are looking for a company that really listens to you then look elsewhere"
| |
9/02/2006
Ok where do I start? I have been a Lingo customer for over 16 months when the service was good. In the past, if there were issues with this service it was due to the configuration of the Lingo router to be able to use the Optimum Online bandwidth well. Every season seems like there are enough dropped calls and low call quality to warrant me calling customer service. Like many have said in the past that Level 1 is not really technical support but more like customer service reps. You need to talk with Tech2. I have taken calls during the day that I can only make out 10% of the voice with just the computer on with no jobs running in the background. On those days, the only thing that can improve call quality is shutting down the computer and leave the Lingo router to hog up the bandwidth.
Ok here is the latest venture:
8/30/2006 - I was talking on the phone when suddenly the Lingo router lost connection. I called and talked with Level 1 which told me various times to reboot or restart the device. No avail. I even hooked up the device directly to the modem - no go. After 1 hr of talking with the tech and "power cycling" this device I strongly suggested to send out a new router next day so it will get here tomorrow. He agreed. 1 hr later Tech 2 support guy calls me to "make sure it is necessary" to send a device. He asks me to power cycle and reboot the device using a phone reboot code. No avail. Waiting to receive the unit tomorrow.
8/31/2006 - No unit. Level 1 doesn't see it being sent and said Level 2 "requested" this. I said well what is the UPS code so I can track it. He says he doesn't know and doesn't know who to talk with to get it. The device wasn't even shipped yet. Ok now I am upset and I move to file a complaint.
9/1/2006 - No device. It was "sent" out today in which the unit was supposed to be sent today. Finally they have a UPS confirmation # when I asked for it yesterday. UPS tells me the item will be delivered on TUESDAY. Uh... WHAT? Due to the labor day holiday it will not be delivered on Monday and it will received next day, They could do Saturdays if if the sender requests it (it costs $12). I finally asked Level 1 to give me the UPS deliver code and file another complaint. The supervisor called me once and I wasn't home and never called again when I requested another complain on this. I am thinking that it is about 1PM so they can cancel the other shipment and send the item next day which would be Saturday. Noone can help me as most are in a meeting .
Questions:
- How come the replacement was not sent on Wednesday when the problem first appeared?
- Why did Level 2 send the item 2 days late and didn't send it via Saturday due to the importance of the decision?
It seems like Lingo is just being cheap to send a item. Still looking for resolution.
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Review by MikeVx
UPDATED: 3.2 years ago
member for 4.6 years, 369 visits, last login: 1 year ago
Southgate,Wayne,MI
$22 per month (12 month contract)
about 2 days
"HIgh call quality most of the time, low cost."
"Don't call customer service using a battery-powered phone. Fax doesn't work."
"A good deal if you need cheap voice."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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OK, here we go. Elsewhere I said that I had no problems with Lingo, it is more accurate to say that I had no severe problems. Let's get started.
First I tried the web site, and found that I was severely limited in which areas I could get numbers in. Calling the sales number will not help with this. I selected a number in Detroit.
I was not prompted with a question about referral, I realized later that I should have referenced someone when asked where I'd heard about the service. Oh, well, live and learn. (I mentioned BBR.)
My new number was active in about 30 seconds from hanging up on the sales group. (It took me that long to log in to the web site and see what my number was.) I fiddled with web settings, recorded a voice mail greeting, then settled in to wait for the ATA to arrive. Two days later, it did.
I received a Mediatrix 2102 ATA. To save time: Do NOT attempt to use this behind a router. Call waiting and three-way calling will malfunction badly. I was unable to work out a fix. Also, the web interface is inaccessible if there is a router bewteen you and the Mediatrix.
After a few rounds of plug-and-boot, and a very long call (mostly on hold) to CS, I got it working, and that at least it has been doing fine since I gave up on putting it behind the router.
Voice quality is usually better that I had been getting on my regular line, there are occasional instances of white noise coming from the other end until someone speaks. This comes and goes, but is ignorable.
Calls to Canada worked fine, but I did find an interesting tendency for some toll-free numbers to complain about not being toll-free from outside the USA, I assume that Primus is dropping the calls on a Canadian switch somewhere. I'll ask about that. I've been able to side-step this so far by calling direct numbers.
I discovered the hard way that faxes cannot be sent through the ATA. But as I unexpectedly had to change how I did faxes for unrelated reasons, this problem went away, as I no longer need a phone line to fax with.
Other aspects of the experience: I made some calls and found that I held good call quality even when transferring files at around 130% of what my cable modem reports as my maximum speed. (I haven't figured that one out yet.)
A nice feature is that I can have e-mails sent to alert me to voice mail. I have these sent to my pager. This is a feature I got very attached to with my cell phone.
The message waiting indicator on my phone finally works. I was using a non-SBC reseller for phone service and they were not allowed this feature.
Another drawback is that I occasionally get a case of "they can't hear me" and I have to call back, but if they can hear me they never mention the quality of the sound. They do, however, mention the occasional touch-tone that appears on the line, and I have noticed that I get those from time to time also. It is always while someone is talking, so I think that we are "talking-over" a trigger frequency for some feature.
As you might guess, when Comcast recently had most if its network barf, I lost phone service. As I have a cell phone this is not the crisis it might be for someone else. The combination of a cell phone and voicemail-triggered pages means that a power failure or net outage is of little concern, as I can remain in full contact, allowing for phone tag.
I tested usage to the maximum of normal usage by forwarding my regular line into my Lingo line, so that people calling were transparently transfered over. It worked seamlessly. No one calling had a clue unless I told them.
A friend was curious about the service, so I carted my ATA over to his place. It needed about 30 seconds to get it together, then I was able to demonstrate the functionality using his not-so-broadband connection. (WOW at low gear.) The phone calls worked just as well as at home. He was sufficiently impressed that he signed up.
I have been sufficiently impressed that I am porting my number over. The few wrinkles are worth putting up with for a savings of about $30/month. The slightly  increased calling area is nice also. (I have friends in Canada.)
So, if you want cheap voice and don't mind not being able to fax, this should work for you. Having friends in Canada or western Europe might influence your decision.
If you plan to try Lingo, be sure to click on the mail icon by the user name of someone with a generally positive review in this forum. They can send you a referral and then, as long as you make sure that Lingo knows about it, you and your referrer can get the referral credit of $25 on your bill after 91 days. You can cancel in the first month (provided you don't expend more than 500 minutes in testing, use your on-line account manager to watch this) if you are unhappy, and the credit does not apply to either party. You may not be able to recover your set-up fees, I'm not going to find out. Yes, I will send referrals if you ask, but you may like someone elses review better.
If you call the sales number, make *VERY* sure that they spell your name right.
I will post updates on the porting process, hopefully I will not suffer all the problems that others have.
---Update 5/4/05---
[stunned silence]
My number ported over monday. *ONE WEEK* to the day from when I sent in my order. I had called to ask them why I hadn't heard from them about the port yet. The CS rep looked and was a bit confused because according to her screen, my line had ported over on monday. Sure enough, I plugged a phone into my land line and there was current, but no dial tone. Wow. Just one last bill to pay and I'm on low charges for phone service.
Next, I took the opportunity to ask about the messages from some toll-free numbers about not accepting calls from outside the USA as toll-free and that I would be charged if I held on for the call to complete. The CS rep said to ignore the message and call for credit if I actually get charged. The word is that the engineers are working on it.. To top it all off, I got a CS rep in under 5 minutes at 9:00PM Eastern time.
From what I've read in the rest of the reviews, this must be some kind of record.
---Update 5/18/05---
I was checking my on-line account manager, when I found the last charge on May 14 was $28 and change instead of the $22.09 I had been told to expect. I called customer service, got through to a rep immediately, (twice in a row, has *anyone* else had this happen?) and asked the obvious question.
The answer was that I was being billed a pro-rated partial month in addition to a regular month because my start of service was out of sync with thier billing month. Some quick mental math based on the stated date of the 10th for processing purposes came out about right. While I would have appreciated some warning on how this was going to be done, it seems that they are billing me correctly. I will wait for my next billing and see what the numbers say.
On the actual service: So far so good. I am still getting the occasional they-can't-hear-me/choppy-call case, but calling back has fixed it so far. I can live with it as long as calling back reliably addresses the issue.
When I asked them to release the temporary Lingo number, it duly went away in a few days. I am now fully on my original number that I've had for 20 years (if you don't count an area code change as a change of number) and things are working well. The e-mail voice mail alert feature is wonderful. I get a page from the system and can address the message immediately.
Customer service seems to be improving dramatically. On this last call the going was a bit rough due to the CS rep having a thick indian accent, but he quickly looked up my account and explained the issue in an understandable way. At this rate, I'll have to boost my rating on tech support.
Stray technical point: Since getting the ATA working during first-time setup, I have not had to reboot it because of any kind of failure of the device to operate.
I'll post a follow-up when my next charge is processed.
---Update 6/28/05---
My next billing finally billed, and the answer is..........$22.09! Exactly as promised. Now that I think of it, this is just like any other service provider. Except for startup, service is billed in advance on the fixed part of things, and in arrears on variable things like out-of-plan calls. Therefore, is is important to remember that your first actual service bill will be higher than you expect, from a bit more to almost double dpending on where you hit in the billing cycle. (Partial first month billed in arrears + second full month billed in advance.) After that, things should be what you expected. I don't change services often and forgot this issue at first.
My service continues to work reliably when not subjected to extreme strangeness. I had a power blip a few days ago (and found out that my UPS needs new batteries) and the ATA got a case of the weirds for a bit. I got voice distortion on calls. I power-cycled the unit and all is well again. (Half-second power outages really upset some devices.)
---Update 9./1/05---
Several months in, I am finding things working smoothly for the most part. I no longer get error messages from 800 numbers about being charged for calling from outside the US. Ever since I upped the call data rate from the new feature on the Lingo web site I have not had the white-noise problem reported previously. The rate of touch-tone triggering has gone down also. I can't remember the last "they can't hear me" call, I haven't had one in so long.
Referrals have started crediting. Barring referring anyone else in, I won't have a bill until January.
While I was in Canada about a month back, I found that I could not reach my home number with my calling card. I called customer service, got a rep in about 3 minutes, and was told that they were having a network problem. As I was in no position to check (no affordable internet where I was, no point in taking the ATA) I don't know if it was general or a carrier interaction.
One day about two weeks ago I found that voice mail was inaccessible and customer service could not be reached. I could still get and make calls. After half an hour voice mail was back.
I expected some hitches, but on the whole I am quite pleased with the minimal problem level I have had. My uptime certainly seems to compare well with some of the other cerriers. (Prowl the forums for examples of VoIP failures.)
---Update 9/13/05---
Grrrr.......
While my service continues to work, I have been helping a friend with a problem he has been having. This has been a less-than-wonderful experience, such that I've reduced my tech support rating as low as it will go.
Two or three weeks back, my friend, who is not computer or non-wire-phone literate, started having malfunctions of his ATA. After fiddling with his setup, I found that when his phone service went down, his internet pass-though on the ATA failed. OK, no-brainer, the box is bad. Rebooting gets things going again, but it doesn't last.
Try to convince customer service that the box is bad. I'll give them that the firmware update was reasonable, once that failed, they should have had the replacement box out the door before I could hang up. They insisted on various settings changes, profile updates, and even moving his account from one server to another. Now they want us to insert a router between the cable modem and tha ATA. They want to eliminate the possibility of incompatiblity between the ATA and the cable modem that the ATA has been talking to for 3 or 4 months. It has taken 2 weeks to get this far. If I didn't have a spare router around I'd have chewed them a new one about that. Are people without routers expected to spend $50+ just to verify the ATA to cable connection?
The support script seems to require them not to admit that the box needs replacing until every imaginable option has been exhausted, despite the fact that the firmware update was the only thing to try. When the passthrough goes bad, that is not an issue of settings. The box has either failed or was badly designed.
I am going to install the router, and no one will be more surprised than me if this actually addresses the problem.
Be ready for a battle if your ATA malfunctions.
---Update 8/29/06---
I got seriously peeved at Lingo for a while, thus no follow-ups. My friend eventually got his replacement ATA, but it was a battle and a half. It got to the point where they were told to replace the box or lose the customer, at that point, they "discovered" a hitch in the logs of the device. I don't believe this, the ATA had been locking up, and that will never leave a trace in the logs as it will look exactly like a power loss and restart. While the service is good overall, they will go to insane extremes to avoid replacing the box, insisting that there must be evidence in the ATA logs for anything short of utter failure.
That aside, my service continues to work as well as Comcast is inclined to allow. Voice quality is good. Voice mail works. I can talk to my friends in Canada at length.
If you decide on Lingo, you should have a good experience as long as the ATA stays working.
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Review by RichieVega
UPDATED: 3.2 years ago
member for 4.5 years, 7 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago
New York,New York,NY
$22 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
"Excellent Price for the Service Range!"
"Have to make sure you set it up properly TO Router NOT BEFORE."
"I recomend it to anybody with CABLE High Speed Internet."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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UPDATE: 8-26-06:
Now have been with Lingo for well over a year, and have to say that I like the fact that they now have improved the time notation on their system and the capability of knowing / notifiying me if my ata becomes inoperative, such as has happened lately when I was turning off the house power for electrical work, Lingo sent me an email notifiying me that their was a problem with the connection and for me to contact them immediately to remedy the situation, and they have also updated the "time/day" on their billing/notification notices, which is great!
I continue to be a very happy customer .
FOR A FREE $25.00 CREDIT REFERRAL TO LINGO, EMAIL ME AT "VEGARICH@YAHOO.COM".
UPDATED: 5-17-06: EMAIL UPDATE...
Hi, just wanted to post that since my last update, various people who are interested in Lingo have actually written me for a $25.00 REFERRAL and I have heard nothing but good things from them.
FOR A FREE $25.00 CREDIT REFERRAL TO LINGO, EMAIL ME AT "VEGARICH@YAHOO.COM".
If you are having any questions, I will be more than happy to help you out if I can...after all I'm helping you get your $25.00 credit towards yoru phone bill.
Remember, these kind of services work best with a High Speed Cable Connection, as DSL connections tend to have a narrower bandwith. I myself use EarthLink.net.
If you would like a Referral to EarthLink, please contact me as well, as I will be more than happy to refer you as well.
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UPDATED: 4-25-06:
It has been almost a year since I got Lingo, and I have to admit that after setting it up corectly, ATA to the Router, rather than the Router to the ATA unit, and setting the Preference Speed to High, I have NOT had problems. It just sits there and does it's thing--providing phone service.
I do have a clean internet connection, Earthlink, the feed is excellent from my New York City Time Warner Cable Company, which now also provides me with HD Cable TV, with DVR.
Just make sure that you plug the ATA box to the Router as if it were another computer.
IF YOU WANT A $25.00 CREDIT REFERRAL, CONTACT ME AT:
"VegaRich@Yahoo.com"
and I will be more than happy to Refer you for Your $25.00 credit (free month)!
To help you get started!
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UPDATE: 1/13/06:
HAVE HAD LINGO NOW SINCE LAST SUMMER.
NO TECHINCAL PROBLEMS.
VERY VERY GOOD ALMOST BORDERING EXCELLENT VOICE QUALITY.
HAVE RECOMENDED IT TO MANY OTHER USERS, WHO HAVE SIGNED IN.
HAVE NOT HAD TO PAY FOR LINGO VOIP SINCE MY FIRST REFERRAL KICKED IN, HAVE RECEIVED A $25.00 EACH MONTH FOR REFERRING OTHERS WHO HAVE SIGNED UP AND CONTINUE TO USE LINGO.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT TO ANYBODY WITH A VERY STABLE CABLE (HIGH SPEED) INTERNET CONNECTION.
DO MAKE SURE TO CONNECT YOUR LINGO VOIP BOX TO THE ROUTER AS AN ADDITIONAL DEVICE TO GUARANTEE BEST FUNCTION, REDUCTION ON INTERNET CONNECTION SPEED AND VOICE QUALITY. LET THE ROUTER ROUTE THE INTERNET COMMUNICATION, NOT THE VOIP BOX.
IF YOU WANT A REFERRAL, CONTACT ME AT "VegaRich@Yahoo.com" and I will be more than happy to Refer you for Your $25.00 credit (free month)!
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After debating over which carrier service to switch to in order to save on my home phone service, I decided to (1) upgade from dialup internet access to Cable Internet Access via Time Warner's Earthlink offer of $29.99 for six months, then $39.99 for the next 6 months. That was more than I was paying for dialup, but then I decided to (2) switch to VOIP, particularly Lingo, eventhough there were so many negative reviews (I thought well, when things go right, nobody talks about it, but when the slightest thing goes wrong, man, everybody is a loud mouth), so I decided that there must be something good about this company and its service, that they are in business, so I decided to order it.
It took only a few days for me to get the VOIP box. Once at home, it literally took about 5 minutes to get it up and going. I took it out of the box, read the insert documentation (a page), connected it to the computer, then to the phone, then to the power jack, and that's all it took. It worked.
I then set it up with my Belkin wireless router (F5D7231-4), and had a few dropped calls, but called Lingo Customer Service and after a few phone calls, and a few setup tweaks, on my computer and the equipment, it works without any problem.
RECOMMENDATION. IF YOU HAVE A ROUTER, CONNECT THE EQUIPMENT AS FOLLOWS:
1. CONNECT YOUR MODEM TO THE CABLE SERVICE.
2. CONNECT THE MODEM TO YOUR ROUTER.
3. CONNECT THE LINGO BOX TO THE ROUTER AS AN ADDITIONAL CONNECTION (1, 2, 3, OR 4 OR WHATER YOUR #'S MAY BE).
4. POWERING UP IN THIS ORDER (USUALLY HELPS TO MAKE SURE IT WORKS PROPERLY): YOUR MODEM, ROUTER, LINGO. (This is to make sure that you have an Internet connection by the time the Lingo box is booting up.)
5. USE THE PHONE SERVICE.
Now, this is what I had to do, based on my discussions with the Lingo CS:
1. Set up the equipment as I did.
2. Log in to the Router (usually 192.168.2.1).
3. Make sure that the Internet setting were correct for my Service Provider (Dynamic in my case). It was.
4. Make sure my FireWall was active on the Router.
5. Make sure that I had my MAC (Media Access Controller) Address Filtering Active. (which included my Lingo box, the router automatically detect it and assigned it a MAC.)
6. NOW THIS IS KEY TO WORKING WITHOUT ANY DROPPED CALLS:
Once you have made the changes as above, APPLY ANY Settings onto the Router as it will control the in/out transmittions of your broadband connection.
7. Log in to your account in Lingo.com and make sure that you set the features for your phone preferences as you wish. Be careful with the "Forwarding" options as you may set your phone to forward at all times. I set mine to ring on both the home phone as well as on my cell phone, this way I never miss a call and have the option to not answer. It's great!
Like I said, I have had no REAL problems.
When I first signed up, I had requested that my existing phone number be transfered to Lingo, it was within 20 days. I received an email and it was active. I logged into Lingo.com, and turned off their originally assigned number and have continued using my old one. At that moment I contacted IDT.net and turned off my service with them, saving me $43.00 per month, which now go towards paying for High Speed Internet, hence saving me tons of money and getting more for my buck!
Do I recommend LINGO. YES I DO.
Be aware that you may have to be a bit patient as with all new things, you may need to tweak your sytem to the new system.
Even when up/downloading tons of files, I still have a very very good phone reception.
Oh, and last but NOT LEAST! LINGO NOW HAS REAL 911 IN NYC!!!!
MY EQUIPMENT:
*BELKIN WIRELESS ROUTER (F5D7231-4)
*RCA EXTERNAL CABLE MODEM
*EARTHLINK HIGH SPEED CABLE INTERNET SERVICE VIA TIME WARNER CABLE IN NYC (UPPER MANHATTAN).
Good Luck with your decisions.
By the way, if you would like to receive a REFERAL, so that you can save an additional $25.00 in your service, as I did with another person's referral, please feel free to contact me at VegaRich@Yahoo.com and I will provide you with a referral so that you may save an additional $25.00 on your Lingo service!!!
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Review by boundgrid
UPDATED: 3.2 years ago
member for 4.9 years, 91 visits, last login: 138 days ago
Brooklyn,Kings,NY
$23 per month (12 month contract)
about 4 days
"Good when it works which is not often"
"Call quality and reliability and wait time for tech support"
"Look somewhere else for VOIP if you are not a masochist"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
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Reliability:
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(ratings well below consensus)
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I've been a Lingo user for a year and I say enough is enough. The only reason why I remained with Lingo that long was their free calls to western europe. But what good is it if you cannot talk to people you call to. On top of that, you can not send faxes with this VoIP provider.
When you call for tech support, be prepared to wait at least 30 minutes.
Notes: It wasn't like that a year back. But I gotta give to these guys. The service has been gradually deteriorating and it has reached a level where it is not usable anymore.
I was on a $19.95 plan per month. And they have increased their monthly fees to US $21.95 + TAX
Good luck and patience if you want to give it a shot. You'll need a whole lot of them.
I'm gonna give a try to Vonage especially they have a free western europe plan and they say faxing with vonage line is no hassle.
*********
Finally I cancelled this lousy Lingo. I've been trying Vonage for a month now and I have all in good order what Linog has failed to offer me. However read my last word.
Last Word: If you have a land line, keep it. VOIP is still a baby who is still crawling and trying to stand up to learn to walk. Meanwhile he/s falls and get bumped around in the process and suffer a lot.. In our case, we the users who suffer from all of that.
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Review by jnjmorris
UPDATED: 3.2 years ago
member for 4.9 years, 73 visits, last login: 14 days ago
San Antonio,Bexar,TX
$21 per month
about 45 days
"Always have a line home to friends and family"
"Get dropped to often"
"For $21 dollars a month unlimited long distance to 50 states and 17 western Europen contries. I'm in it for the long haul."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I ordered this because I'm stationed overseas. My family and friends are all back in the states. I had my sister order it and had her send it to me. That is why it took so long from order to success.
Router that was ordered was setup in a matter of minutes. Works well with my telecom italia ADSL. Call quality is usually good. I would rate it 8 out of 10 for quality. I would rate quantity around 7 or so. I get dropped when on the phone a lot. I'm not going to complain too much, but it is a pain to have to reset the ATA/Router. It only takes a couple of seconds to do, but when your in a conversation and you just get dropped. That is a bit of a pain.
I have a state side phone number and I can forward it to any number that I want. How cool is that? I would recomend this service for anyone who likes the flexibility it gives.
PPPoE setup was a little difficult to figure out. I'm using with a 802.11g network.
Ok, it has been a long time since I've updated my post, but all things are going well with my lingo. Still the same issues with being dropped once in a while, but all and all I'm a happy camper. 11 Aug 06.
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