Vonage → I'm leaving after 11 years.

I'm leaving Vonage after 11 years. I was a very early adopter-but it's now way too expensive. Here's my last bill:

Vonage World Plan for 1-(310)-xxx-xxxx (25/Oct-24/Nov) $24.99
Virtual Phone Number for 1-(212)-xxx-xxxx (25/Oct-24/Nov) $4.99
Virtual Phone Number for 1-(610)-xxx-xxxx (25/Oct-24/Nov) $4.99
Regulatory, Compliance and Intellectual Property Fee $5.97
Emergency 911 and Information Services Fee $1.99
Taxes & Fees
Federal Program Fee $3.31
Sales Tax $2.77
State E911 Fee $1.00
Total Amount $50.01

I got rid of the NYC number today (reluctantly-you can't get 212 numbers any more)-but that will only lower my bill about 6 dollars a month. I was given an Ooma to review-and keep-and it appears to be one of the older 'free' ones in that when I activated it I didn't have to provide any form of payment, nor did it mention any payment(s). That takes care of my local (610 number), and I also signed up for Anveo's basic forwarding plan at 99 cents a month. They charge 15 dollars to port - a bargain compared to the 40 dollars Ooma charges.

This will lower my bill by about 44 dollars a month-528 dollars a year-and every bit helps in these times.

Goodbye Vonage. It was nice, but you simply got too expensive.

From another post you got an old ooma with no fees so far. New oomas have fees.

I know you can always get a better deal shopping around for VoIP stuff now a days, but even at $50 for all you had, it is better than Frontier was soaking me for JUST phone even with nary a long distance call on it!!

Just that fact makes me happy to be paying $27.90 total for the 750 minutes plan and no other frills. After a couple months of checking my minutes usage, I probably will find I can drop down to the 350 minute plan and REALLY save!

Good luck on your new stuff!!

Well you are spending too much in terms of taxes. I am getting unlimited calls from Axvoice in $14 per month only. I never have to pay a single penny besides this amount.

bye

I am only paying 19 dollars a month for unlimited world plan.

I'm paying within 2-3 dollars of that for 4 outbound lines across 2 ATAs in separate locations, 2 inbound DIDs, soft phone access from a variety of SIP clients, and a whole bunch of other stuff I haven't had time to play with yet. So far, no regrets for leaving Vonage.

Well I was planing to sign up with Vonage guys thanks to u guys for saving me. I know almost all the other VoIP phone service providers are offering very low prices.

Consider going with one of the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) vendors like CallCentric or VoIP.ms. Configuring the device of your choice is likely well documented, and you have the freedom to jump ship for another provider if things don't work out.

That's exactly what I did. I got a PAP2T (actually, received it as a gift) and can take it to any BYOD provider I want to. It took all of five minutes to follow the setup instructions and I was good to go. Plus, having access to the dial plan setup can make some nice features available that otherwise wouldn't be.

For example, around here you can call (on POTS) 811 to contact the utility locating service. It was a breeze to set that up on my phone lines here, too.

I'm on the verge of switching to NetTalk on their $120/Year world calling plan if I don't find any catches.

I have just gone through what you're about to go through. I cancelled Vonage after 6½ years. A main number, a virtual number, and an 800 number added up to $50/month.

I tried VOIP.ms from all the great reviews that I found here. They are the best value that I can find, but their configuration takes more time to to figure out. I was trying to setup a client of mine on VOIP.ms, but their billing was not convenient for my client (who needs 3 lines.)

Pro's
* $1.99/line/month
* $0.015 for premium
* 6-second billing
* no cost voicemail

Con's
* billing only via PayPal
* chat only support
* does not support G.722
* not sure if it is an IP PBX service or not
* extensions cannot overlap with other sub-accounts

I found OnSIP.com and will be using their service for a while and setting up my client, too.

Pro's
* supports G.722
* friendly, knowledgeable, live support techs
* per minute billing
* IP PBX service
* web-based online presence/chat feature
* extend to mobile phones
* for multiple, contiguous phone numbers contact them directly.
* $2/month/number
* easy to configure extensions
* credit card on file billing

Con's
* $2/month/voicemail
* $0.029 cents per minute
* 11-number dialing (must use the 1-)
* Porting first number is $50

I'm sure there's quite a few more differences, but that's all I can think of for now.

Even though they're a little more money, I think I will like the experience at OnSIP.com.

... and it is still far less than Vonage.

If you use a Linksys / Cisco ATA, this can be easily circumvented in the dial plan.

I think it's fair to point out that with VoIP.ms, you can fund your account in advance via credit card, and you will be notified via email when your balance reaches a predetermined limit (I have mine set to $10).

VoIP.ms also offers telephone, email, and online ticket-based support in addition to chat-based, although response times can vary depending on weekday and time of day. Response time has been very good for technical issues; account/process issues (such as number porting) generally aren't handled at all on weekends, though.

Can you clarify your last bullet point? Sub-accounts have a one-to-one relationship with extension numbers; if the feature you're looking for is to ring more than one phone at a time, the "Ring Group" feature handles that quite nicely. A sub-account can be placed in multiple ring groups, too.

@DoctorStinky - I understand that you can pre-fund your account (and that's what I do). However, my client didn't want to have manually login and fund the account. They wanted to put their credit card on file, and it automatically charged as needed.

re: VOIP.ms phone support. That's my lack of experience, I guess. When I've needed them right away, the chat seemed like my best option. I shouldn't have put that bullet point. I will try and edit my posting and remove it.

re: sub-accounts and extensions. As I understand it, from chatting with their tech support, if I have my main account, and need 3 extensions for my office, I have to create 3 sub-accounts. Once I've done that, I can assign the extensions (e.g. 101,102,103).

Now, if I have a client, and want to use the Reseller site, I have to create a sub-account for each extension that they will need, too. For that client, I cannot create extensions of 101, 102, or 103. They would need to start at 104.

@toro - I had a Cisco SPA2102 ATA, but went to a Gigaset C610A IP as it was supposed to have a full-duplex speakerphone, and it supports G.722.

I will continue to use VOIP.ms for my own phone, but if I have any clients that need anything, I will use OnSIP.com. The cost is a little higher, but far less than Vonage or the big carriers.

I do know that VoIP.ms has credit card auto-replenishment on their approved enhancements list, but it's not in active development/testing yet (at least it's detailed that way on their "Feature Requests" page).

I understand your concerns about sub-accounts and extensions with regard to the reseller portal. I'm not set up as a reseller, so I was unaware of that limitation. I don't see anything on their list of enhancement requests that addresses it, either.

nm

VOIP.ms wins over OnSIP.com (in this case)

After getting everything setup for my client on OnSIP.com, the "deal breaker" was that OnSIP could not configure the E911 service for my Canadian client. They can only configure it for US locations.

VOIP.ms works with both US and Canadian locations.

It forced me to learn how to configure all the confusing aspects of the VOIP.ms settings.

Just trying to understand how the sales tax is computed. Assuming that's 6% sales tax for PA, it looks like they add up all the other fees except the State E911 Fee first, then compute the sales tax for that:

($24.99 + $4.99 + $4.99 + $5.97 + $1.99 + $3.31) * 0.06 = $2.77

Is it legitimate to do that? NetTALK does the same thing with my bill, so it probably is, but it seems wrong.

Me too. It has become way too expensive and several problems with the service just aren't being addressed. I often use call forwarding to my cell when I am out, but for the last few months the caller ID doesn't get forwarded and what I get is "Unknown" on the cell. Vonage says that it is the local carrier that is at fault and that I must address the problem with them. Well, not being a customer of the local copper distributor I can't very well ask them to fix it. I have also wanted a caller block or reject feature. Something that many Vonage users have been asking for for years. I have been a Vonage customer since 2003, a less expensive VoIP alternative has been ordered. As soon as my number is ported, adios Vonage and the same to you snolsen .

I've been with Vonage for going on 10 years. I switched both my lines over to their $9.99 UNLIMITED plan, which they do not advertise. Comes to $16-17ish each all told... for an unlimited plan which includes all the features I need.

There's a whole thread on here about people calling in and switching to this very plan to save moolah.

I suspect that qworster is aware of that thread since it is his thread.