| Someone Please Slap Me - Signed Up With Vonage Again! Sometime in 2008 or 2009 I dropped Vonage after having them for over a year. The price of the plan AFTER taxes and junk fees was my biggest complaint with them. Plus, when we switched to Sprint for cell phone, we found we had more than enough voice minutes and felt we didn't need a landline at all. Fast forward two years, and our needs have changed. We had an emergency at the house, and found that a landline would have provided much better service in that situation. Plus, I don't want to give everyone our cell phone numbers to reach us wherever we are. Not to mention, I have documents I need to be able to fax, and it's much easier to do so with a landline.
The special with Vonage was too good to pass up. No sign up fee, free adapter, and no cancellation fees were all very attractive. Well, I was a bit skeptical of all that, but now I took the plunge. One thing I noticed is that the 11.99 plan for 300 minutes was offered at sign-up, but I accepted the unlimited plan at 9.99 for the first 3 months. Now it appears that 11.99 plan is not offered. Is this something you have to call for, and they try to discourage you from taking advantage of it, or is it actually only offered at sign-up? This is the type of bait-and-switch I remember from Vonage.
Otherwise, how has Vonage changed over the past few years? |
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PX EliezerPremium
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River
kudos:12 Reviews:
 ·voip.ms
·callwithus
·Callcentric
·Vitelity VOIP
·Optimum Voice
·Gizmo5
| It's still offered.
»www.vonage.com/us-canada-calling···ada-300/
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But you can do lots better.
Just as one example:
»www.voipo.com/voip.php
(VOIPo including taxes and fees is $ 185 for 24 months, including adapter, thus $ 7.71 a month. That's for a few thousand minutes, not just 300 minutes!) |
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| said by PX Eliezer:But you can do lots better.
Just as one example:
»www.voipo.com/voip.php
(VOIPo including taxes and fees is $ 185 for 24 months, including adapter, thus $ 7.71 a month. That's for a few thousand minutes, not just 300 minutes!)
Does VoipO slap you with a bunch of fees? Right now I can't afford the $100 or $150 initial outlay, but maybe in a month or two. |
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PX EliezerPremium
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River
kudos:12 Reviews:
·voip.ms
·callwithus
·Callcentric
·Vitelity VOIP
·Optimum Voice
·Gizmo5
| said by jhacker:Does VoipO slap you with a bunch of fees? Right now I can't afford the $100 or $150 initial outlay, but maybe in a month or two.
24 month plan: 149 plus taxes/fees 36, total 185
12 month plan: 99 plus taxes/fees 36, total 135
Including adapter.
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If you are a small volume user, you can save by going with a BYOD company like Voip.MS or CallCentric. Note that with a BYOD company you choose outbound and inbound plans separately. Many people choose PAYG outbound and flat-rate inbound.
You can get a basic ATA like a Grandstream Handytone 286 for less than $ 30 including shipping.
»www.telephonydepot.com/Grandstre···86-HT286
(Please don't buy ATA's on eBay especially if you are not experienced with ATA's!) |
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| So,
In other words, yes, they do slap taxes and fees on you.
I had VoipO for 1 month. Sucked green donkey d**k!!
I'm perfectly happy with my 750 minute Vonage plan.
--
The Firefox alternative.
»www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/ |
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Reviews:
 ·T-Mobile US
·Vonage
 ·Comcast
| reply to jhacker
said by jhacker:Otherwise, how has Vonage changed over the past few years?
Well, I've had Vonage for the past NINE years, and gladly, nothing's changed. I'm still saving much more than I would if I had Verizon. My Vonage has only gone down once during those nine years (the great Northeast Power Outage, Summer of '04) and the calls were re-routed to my cell phone. Wouldn't use anything else...
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1/20/09 = The final day of our Retarded Cowboy President! |
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 N9MDPremium
join:2005-10-08
Boca Raton, FL
kudos:5
·VOIPo
·voip.ms
·Callcentric
·PHONE POWER
| said by mahermusic:...Wouldn't use anything else...
I'm not looking to start World War III ... but have you Vonage folks done due diligence regarding choices of VoIP providers. We've got some knowledgeable people in the VoIP Forums (especially in the Voip Tech Chat forum) ... people who have used a wide variety of providers.
Admittedly, Vonage has lots of features and offers much in the way of long distance dialing ... when compared with Verizon, Qwest, ATT and other Plain Old Telephone Services (POTS).
However, in spite of some naysayers who have had bad experiences with the "reasonably" priced VoIP providers, why not check out the actual ratings for these services ... and research the truly full feature sets that go beyond Vonage's capabilities ... for pricing well below Vonage's high fees.
Again, I'm just offering this information to those who may not be aware of the options out there.
Here's the BBR review page that might be eye-opening ... where you can look at other folk's experiences and impressions: »/gbu. |
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nonymousPremium
join:2003-09-08
Glendale, AZ | reply to jhacker
Qwest is now Centurylink. 
Ma bell died years ago when US West was born. |
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Reviews:
·T-Mobile US
·Vonage
·Comcast
| reply to N9MD
said by N9MD: ... but have you Vonage folks done due diligence regarding choices of VoIP providers.
Can't speak for others... but I look to check out the "offerings" every once-in-a-while, and never find anything equal to the total package that Vonage offers. YMMV.
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1/20/09 = The final day of our Retarded Cowboy President! |
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 dellsweigExtreme AerobaticsPremium,MVM
join:2003-12-10
Campbell Hall, NY
kudos:1
·Vonage
| said by mahermusic:said by N9MD: ... but have you Vonage folks done due diligence regarding choices of VoIP providers.
Can't speak for others... but I look to check out the "offerings" every once-in-a-while, and never find anything equal to the total package that Vonage offers. YMMV. I agree completely. I have been with Vonage 9 years as well....
I look often at other offerings as well as follow those offerings in the various forums.
For the couple dollars a month I MIGHT save on other VOIP products - not a single one has the long term track record of Vonage in both stability, quality and price..
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Nothin' left to do but smile smile smile  |
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| reply to PX Eliezer
said by PX Eliezer:24 month plan: 149 plus taxes/fees 36, total 185
12 month plan: 99 plus taxes/fees 36, total 135
Including adapter.
That's not bad, considering Vonage charges almost 50% of your bill again in taxes and junk fees. I may have to look into it in a few months. |
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WA 425
join:2006-08-19
Lynnwood, WA | reply to jhacker
Vonage isn't really that expensive. But if you want super cheap, go with a different provider. Of course, you will sacrifice quality and reliability.
Go to the VoIP forum and read all the problems that people have with the cheaper VoIP providers, even though all of them combined probably don't have as many customers as Vonage. |
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PX EliezerPremium
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River
kudos:12 | You have to differentiate companies.
With VOIPo (a full-service provider like Vonage) or CallCentric (an excellent BYOD provider) you'll see a very low complaint volume. |
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Reviews:
·AT&T Wireless Br..
| reply to jhacker
I like voipo alot and I resell voipo and I also have vonage and vonage is almost sucking me dry because it would be like 35 dollars a month so I called into vonage and got my plan turned down to 12.50 a month for 6 months for the unlimited plan which it comes out to 20 dollars a month after crap load of taxes.
I am thinking about switching my vonage number to my reseller account since I dont even make 500 mins a month. So 500 mins would only cost me 5 plus 1 dollar for did and 1 dollar for E911 that is only 7 dollars so you compare which one is cheaper. |
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Reviews:
·voip.ms
| reply to jhacker
While I found Vonage's technical support and voice quaility good, its feature set and cost didn't fit my needs. I have two locations that I work from on a regular basis (a primary residence and vacation home), and Vonage's "free" solution to provide one number for both locations was to equip both with ATAs (expected, and acceptable), then have me "move" the number from device to device whenever I traveled to the other location. Since it can take up to 30 minutes for the switch to occur (unexpected, and not acceptable), forgetting to initiate it prior to departure caused a very annoying delay in obtaining phone service upon arrival. And since I actually have two numbers that would need to be moved (home/personal and work), there's twice as much effort when my family comes with me.
I recently purchased a couple of PAP2Ts, switched to voip.ms, ported my numbers, and now have "ring groups" configured that allow phones in both locations to ring and be usable for outgoing calls with no manual intervention.
Since most of my outgoing traffic is conference calls through 8xx numbers (free with voip.ms' value routing), I expect my service for both personal and work phone lines to be a fraction of what a single line would cost through Vonage.
PS. Vonage's handling of port-outs is one aspect of their service that makes me extremely reluctant to return to them if for some reason voip.ms doesn't work out. They simply dropped the numbers, never providing a FOC date to my new carrier. That left me without home/personal phone service over a weekend . . . not a catastrophe, but very annoying.
PS. For those of you that inferred from the above that we have a potential e911 issue, you're right. For the moment I'm simply relying on my cell phone for emergency calls should it become necessary. |
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garys_2kPremium
join:2004-05-07
Farmington, MI Reviews:
·Callcentric
·Future Nine Corp..
| reply to WA 425
said by WA 425:Vonage isn't really that expensive. But if you want super cheap, go with a different provider. Of course, you will sacrifice quality and reliability.
Go to the VoIP forum and read all the problems that people have with the cheaper VoIP providers, even though all of them combined probably don't have as many customers as Vonage.
That blanket statement isn't quite true, as some providers are almost never mentioned because they are so reliable. I had Vonage for quite a while and now am with Callcentric. I never had technical issues with either provider, both were reliable, clear and the calls just worked.
If I'd found that I'd sacrificed either quality or reliability I'd have gone back, but it's been 100% the same for those two atributes.
Another thing to consider: the feature set each provider offers. For me the Callcentric features worked better for my situation, so all in all it was a better fit. Not knocking Vonage, others may find they need those exact features, too. |
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Reviews:
·T-Mobile US
·Vonage
·Comcast
| reply to DoctorStinky
said by DoctorStinky:While I found Vonage's technical support and voice quaility good, its feature set and cost didn't fit my needs. I have two locations that I work from on a regular basis (a primary residence and vacation home), and Vonage's "free" solution to provide one number for both locations was to equip both with ATAs (expected, and acceptable), then have me "move" the number from device to device whenever I traveled to the other location. Since it can take up to 30 minutes for the switch to occur (unexpected, and not acceptable), forgetting to initiate it prior to departure caused a very annoying delay in obtaining phone service upon arrival. And since I actually have two numbers that would need to be moved (home/personal and work), there's twice as much effort when my family comes with me.
Why didn't you use Vonage's "call hunt" feature, found under the "features" panel of your Vonage control panel? This feature rings your numbers in whatever order you choose until someone picks up. Just needs to be set up once, and then that's it. I've used it before (don't currently need it at this moment), but works just fine, and is free!
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1/20/09 = The final day of our Retarded Cowboy President! |
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Reviews:
·voip.ms
| Because to use the "call hunt" feature, I'd have to obtain additional DIDs for the second property. VoIP.ms' ring group feature allows me to simply use my two DIDs with as many devices as I need.
And my projections to date appear to indicate that my cost will be significantly lower with VoIP.ms. |
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WA 425
join:2006-08-19
Lynnwood, WA | said by DoctorStinky:And my projections to date appear to indicate that my cost will be significantly lower with VoIP.ms. I don't think you're taking all costs into account. But good luck to you. |
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Reviews:
·voip.ms
1 edit | said by WA 425:said by DoctorStinky:And my projections to date appear to indicate that my cost will be significantly lower with VoIP.ms. I don't think you're taking all costs into account. But good luck to you. I don't think you understand my usage, WA 425. I have a primary residence and a coastal vacation property roughly an hour away. I spend a fair amount of time at both locations, both with and without my family. I work from home ("home" includes both locations) and have two DIDs; one for work, one for personal/family use. On my work line I have a ratio of 4:1 "toll free" 8xx conference calls as compared to direct dialed inbound/outbound, and somewhere between 2500-3000 minutes total per month. The home/personal line averages 500 minutes per month.
With Vonage, I would need 4 DIDs to service both locations "seamlessly," i.e. requiring no manual dinking with line reassignments as I move from location to location. Vonage would also require me to configure a hunt group (or call forwarding/simul-ring) so that individuals calling into my work DID can find me. With VoIP.ms, a ring group associates my work DID to as many devices as I need, with no requirement for additional DIDs to support a hunt group. I need only 2 DIDs and 2 ring groups with VoIP.ms to service the 4 lines across both residences. Just as importantly, all 4 VoIP.ms lines are active concurrently for outbound calls; with Vonage, a line reassignment to another Vonage box disables the port it was previously assigned to, so a 2-DID only scenario only supports 2 active ports across both locations/devices.
So let's do the math, assuming 700 outbound and 300 inbound minutes per month and seamless service at both locations (assuming the 8xx numbers called are not assessed as part of the Vonage 3000 minute cap, and are free on both services):
VoIP.ms
Up Front Costs
2 Linksys PAP2Ts, @ $50 ea, s/h included: $100
2 DIDs ported in @ $25 ea: $50
Monthly
2 DIDs at $1.49 ea: $3.98
700 Outbound minutes (Premium Routing) @ $0.0125: $8.75
300 Inbound minutes @ $0.0149: $4.47
Taxes, Fees, e911: $0.00
Total Monthly (Avg) Charges for both DIDs: $17.20
Vonage
Up Front Costs
2 Vonage devices, s/h included: $0
2 DIDs ported in @ $0 ea: $0
2 DIDs added @ $0 ea: $0
Monthly
4 DIDs; 2 US/CA 750 @ $19.99, 2 US/CA 300 @ $11.99: $68.96
Taxes, Fees, e911: $23.40 (Est.)
Total Monthly Charges for 4 DIDs: $92.36
Annual service through Vonage: $1,108.40
First year of service through VoIP.ms: $356.40
After year one, annual service through VoIP.ms: $206.40
So I'm curious as to why you think Vonage is competitive in this real-world scenario . . . |
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