bgraham
join:2001-03-15
Smithtown, NY | Why such a high churn rate?
Why do they have such a high churn rate? I don't use them for my VOIP but most of the reports that I read here are fairly favorable. |
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Jeffrey
too dark too early
Premium
join:2002-12-24
Dix Hills,NY
clubs:
 ·Optimum Online
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Vonage
·magicjack.com
| said by bgraham  :Why do they have such a high churn rate? I don't use them for my VOIP but most of the reports that I read here are fairly favorable. I'm not 100% sure. I've had 3 Vonage lines for about 4 years now, with very, very little to complain about.
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And so castles made of sand, slip into the sea, eventually.
I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing. |
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Matt
Gone playing Dragon Age Origins
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
 ·North State Commun..
| reply to bgraham
said by bgraham :Why do they have such a high churn rate? I don't use them for my VOIP but most of the reports that I read here are fairly favorable. Because most people who have bargain basement broadband, with only 128k to 512k up have trouble with Vonage when they try to do anything else with their connection. |
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battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000 | reply to bgraham
Because they market as CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! The kind of customer you attract is the kind that jumps ship over a buck. I don't think it's so much the service as it is the type of customer they market to. |
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NetFixer
Freedom is NOT Free
Premium
join:2004-06-24
Murfreesboro, TN
·Vonage
 ·Cingular Wireless
·AT&T CallVantage
·AT&T Southeast
| reply to bgraham
In my case, it was being shafted after trying to expand my service to include one of their USB V-Phones.
Almost immediately after receiving the USB V-Phone dongle, I discovered that it was not compatible with my notebook's security software and policies, and Vonage's tier three support agreed that the V-Phone dongle could not be made to operate on my notebook.
Vonage marketing and billing however refused to honor the terms of the MONEY BACK GUARANTEE as published in their Terms of Service agreement. Their argument was that the MONEY BACK GUARANTEE was only intended for new customers, not for loyal existing customers who were expanding their service. That failed experiment cost me $75.00 for the unusable USB dongle + $35.00 for the unusable first month's service.
I was so pissed with their treachery that I ported my other existing Vonage numbers to AT&T CallVantage, and terminated the service on the existing Vonage accounts.
Way to go Vonage Customer Non-Service, turn an otherwise satisfied customer who was attempting to give you more business, into a churn statistic. 
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We can never have enough of nature.
We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
Test your firewall. |
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tglea
join:2007-08-13
Mexico
·Vonage
·Cox HSI
| reply to bgraham
Because they took their service to mainstream. Not only did they waste a lot of money on advertising, they got people to sign up that should have just stuck with pots. I think it is still their problem to this day. I've rarely had problems in 2 plus years that were the fault of Vonage. But when when captain no brain, who doesn't know a modem from monitor, has no dial tone, he automatically gets pissed at Vonage. I think the people that don't have problems are the ones with a little computer/networking knowledge. I actively answer posts in a Vonage support forum and it is absolutely amazing the questions and comments that come about. It amazes me that these people can even turn on their computer, connect to the internet and post a question. It is those people who account for the high churn. I know it's the objective of every company to acquire customers but I think Vonage makes their service look a bit to easy to use. |
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Supervisor
Premium
join:2006-03-26
Lebanon, PA | reply to bgraham
30% annual churn is the same as 2.75% monthly churn. Perfectly normal for an ISP, probably normal for a VoIP provider too. |
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kiddo1985
join:2008-02-21
Beverly Hills, CA | reply to battleop
Not really coz' Vonage customer's are not the kind of customer that jumps ship over a buck. These are customers that are smart enought to think about their money |
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rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO
·Charter Pipeline
| reply to bgraham
I think the real challenge with VOIP is the fact that consumer broadband is a best effort service. I don't think Vonage requires an extraordinary connection, but let's face it. Some broadband connections aren't very good. If you're trying to use a connection that has capacity problems or packet loss, ANY VOIP experience will be poor.
I also believe that it's very difficult to diagnose VOIP problems because consumer broadband is a best-effort service. This means there are no guarantees from moment to moment whether or not that stream of RDP packets making up your VOIP audio will continue.
I recently almost transferred my number from Vonage to the local cable company because we kept having random 1 second audio dropouts. This went on for months despite getting a new cable modem and trying several new wireless routers (took them all back because they didn't solve the problem and they weren't as good as the one I had). As a last ditch effort I went downstairs to the patch panel and plugged a wired handset directly into the Vonage telephone adapter. I made a call to my work voice mail system and recorded a song on the radio as a message. Then I kept repeatedly playing the voice mail to detect sound dropouts. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that my switch uplink light went out when one of the audio dropouts occurred so I started watching it more closely. Then I noticed that every audio dropout was tied to the switch uplink light going out. I plugged the Vonage telephone adapter directly into the router and the problem vanished.
The problem here is I'm in the IT profession and I was just about ready to give up but I finally found the problem. How can the average consumer be expected to diagnose such a problem? The other fact of the matter is that the periodic switch uplink doesn't bother any of the computers hooked up to it in terms of Internet access and file/print. But that random uplink drop was murder for a RDP audio stream.
I've had a couple other call-quality problems with Vonage that were related to my cable connection or Internet "weather". Once the technician told me to go to testyourvoip.com. I received a green 4.0 rating but he said there was some "jitter" and that this was likely the problem. What a load of B.S. The problem cleared on it's own the next day (usually does) and I have run that test many times since then and the "jitter" is always there.
VOIP is a great technology but until someone puts more intelligence in the devices to provide more troubleshooting help, it's a fringe technology. VOIP companies cannot expect the average consumer to know how to fix these problems and there's no way customer service can diagnose the problems without a lot more information coming from the telephone adapter.
But even if they can accurately diagnose the problem, if it's tied to a bad broadband connection and your provider isn't capable of fixing it, VOIP service will be bad. |
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linicx
Caveat Emptor
Premium
join:2002-12-03
United State
·CenturyLink
| reply to kiddo1985
Because the help desk is dreadful and not helpful. I wasted four months trying to convince the folks in New Jersey their equipment was dead. It took two days and something like 13 hours to finally kill the expired contract. Only then they were willing to replace the defective device -- and they kept me on the cell phone for 45 minutes trying to keep the customer.
The irony is, IF they had replaced the defective unit, I would still be a Vonage customer. AS it is, I not only would not touch them with a 10 foot pole, I certainly would not recommend their service. Vonage PR sucks; they do NOT value customers.
After I tired pf fooling with Vonage non-tech support and non-help desk, I contacted FCC, and I got back the money I was forced to spend to wait out the gd contract until it expired. This is what you get if you do not live in a large city. And I had two lines.
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Mac: No windows, No gates, Apple inside |
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