 
newview
Ex .. Ex .. Exactly
Premium
join:2001-10-01
Parsonsburg, MD
 ·Vonage
| Sheesh . . . just give us what we WANT quote:
To turn things around, he says Vonage this year plans to spend $20 million to beef up training for customer-service reps...
Vonage customers have been asking for SPECIFIC number call blocking for over three years, yet Vonage STILL does not offer that service.
You think this issue MIGHT be one of the reasons customers are leaving? I KNOW it's the reason I'll be leaving.
Vonage ignores customers. Period.
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The Rules of Spam | Maryland's Newest Anti-Spam Law
Where are we going? And what's with the hand basket? | |
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Noah Vail
Serial Thread Killer
Premium
join:2004-12-10
Lorton, VA | I'm Sorry. This topic has a Giant Walmart Smiley Face attached to it.
I'm afraid I won't be able to post here.
NV
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Abortion: A Republican Plot to Thin the Liberal Herd. | |
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Dr Demento
I Vant Blud
join:2002-01-02
Denville, NJ
 ·Optimum Online
| Re: I'm Sorry. And if you can only relate the iconic symbol that has been around for over 40 years to a giant department store just because they have it bouncing around their advertisements and they want to copyright despite it shouldn't because of the prior art.
I'm afraid I won't be able to reply here, but I did.  | |
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| myokitis
join:2004-06-19
Alexandria, VA
| Re: Sheesh . . . just give us what we WANT said by newview  : Vonage customers have been asking for SPECIFIC number call blocking for over three years, yet Vonage STILL does not offer that service. . .You think this issue MIGHT be one of the reasons customers are leaving? Overall, no.
Although this might be important to you, features are NOT important to the broader OTT VoIP market. It's a price game, pure and simple. As much as OTT VoIP providers would LOVE to get some more revenue selling features the market has not responed to that. In the end they are just cheap telco replacements. Experience has shown that few people want to pay extra for fancy web portals, SimRing, voice mail via email, etc. | |
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| kaila
join:2000-10-11
Lincolnshire, IL
clubs:  | I was one of their early customers and that's exactly why I left for the much greener pastures of asterisk more almost three years ago. | |
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| | myokitis
join:2004-06-19
Alexandria, VA
| VoIP Features & Mass Market I understand and respect that. However, Asterisk doesn't strike me as being particularly mass-market. I'm not aware that you can walk into a Best-Buy and buy a turnkey Asterisk device, and configure it with minimal technical ability.
The regular Joe who responds to Vonage TV commercials just isn't moved by features. They want cheap.
That's why all of the OTT VoIP companies have pricing down in the dirt and can get little if any value-added revenues from features. For the most part, it's a price game. | |
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| | | battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000
| Re: VoIP Features & Mass Market The consumer does not have to mess with the asterisk side unless they want to. Any SIP device will talk to an Asterisk box. You pretty much have to put the username/password/server address into it and it will usually work. I've never used Vonage before but I am guessing their router/voip box help to defer the support calls related to firewall/router issues. | |
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visio
join:2001-08-29
Clifton, NJ
| Re: VoIP Features & Mass Market true, but then the consumer needs to find a voip provider and deal with the hassle. dont get me wrong, ive an asterisk box and voip provider that ive setup and have been using since 05, but im a technical user. your average user just wants to have this all done for them. in fact, they dont even have a clue what has to be done behind the scenes | |
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packetscan
Premium
join:2004-10-19
Bridgeport, CT
clubs:
·Optimum Online
| Are they well Some people look at the stock price when looking into the health of a company. The Voip stocks haven't been seeing the respect they deserve because they are still new, and people are scared. Vonage has a good model that will become profitable. Once the Fear that has driven down the stock price subsides.
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Reach out and Tap someone! | |
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TK Junk Mail
Go ahead, make my day
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Margate City, NJ
clubs:
·Comcast
edit:
January 29th, @12:39PM
| Re: Are they well said by packetscan :Some people look at the stock price when looking into the health of a company. The Voip stocks haven't been seeing the respect they deserve because they are still new, and people are scared. Vonage has a good model that will become profitable. Once the Fear that has driven down the stock price subsides. Unfortunately for Vonage, the stock price is not the only indicator of a company in trouble. The monthly churn rate is a big one. And so is the fact that they keep losing money hand over fist. Take a look at their overall financials and you will see a company hanging on by their fingernails.
»finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=VG
Income statement:
Annual »finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=VG&annual
Quarterly »finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=VG
And especially cash flow from operations, which has always been negative: »finance.yahoo.com/q/cf?s=VG&annual
And that is a REAL killer. It is one thing to have negative cash flow after you lay out for capital costs. Many startups have that problem. But to have negative cash flow for 4 years from operations says this company is in trouble.
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Internet News
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
 ·Speakeasy
| Re: Are they well Yep - Vonage, along with a lot of other VoiP's are in serious trouble unless they stop losing customers and increase the price without losing more customers. They are offering a service priced below their cost to provide it - not a sound business plan in the end. | |
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| jester121
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL | Feeling a bit long today?  | |
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Gts
Hi
join:2000-10-27
Astoria, NY | End of the year I'd give them to the end of the year, before someone buys them. | |
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Baghdad Bob
@charter.com
| Re: Iraqi Information Minister Who could forget "Baghdad Bob?" I loved that guy! Prolly 'cause most of what comes out of my mouth isn't even remotely connected to reality either.
I was actually quite surprised that some American firm (esp. the Feds) didn't give him a new 'do, ditch the "child molester" glasses, and employ him as a spokesreptile.
Thanks ever so much for mentioning him. You've really made my evening! [gush! gush!] | |
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Lets Go
join:2005-03-05
Homer, NY
| Reliablilty I was with Vonage for about a year. I didn't leave because of the lack of features or the lack of a real 911 solution. I left because it is a phone, you should be able to pick it up and make a call. It was not a reliable phone. Vonage did not live up to the hype. Time after time if the family wanted to use "the phone" I had to reset the router, modem ect.
It is a fun toy but it pretty much stops there, for me anyway.
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knightmb
join:2003-12-01
Franklin, TN
·Comcast
·Vonage
·Speakeasy
| Re: Reliablilty said by Lets Go :I was with Vonage for about a year. I didn't leave because of the lack of features or the lack of a real 911 solution. I left because it is a phone, you should be able to pick it up and make a call. It was not a reliable phone. Vonage did not live up to the hype. Time after time if the family wanted to use "the phone" I had to reset the router, modem ect. It is a fun toy but it pretty much stops there, for me anyway. Without much detail about your setup, you might as well blame the moon for bad phone service. The problem I see with any VoIP is that customers don't really understand how it works and that it depends on the stability and setup of your network. I've made my living doing setups in with customers that use Vonage (or whatever their favorite VoIP) have been happy for years simply because I understand the difference between QoS, Traffic Shaping, and bad ISP service. Given that, I have no issues setting up rock solid VoIP service for any area around me, plus I make sure the customers understand how the service works, it aids in troubleshooting any problems that might occur.
Customers understand that if a tree falls on your telephone line, service will go down. What they don't understand is bad ISP (terrible service), managing your network traffic (traffic shaping) and giving the VoIP priority (QoS) on your network so that your BitTorrent downloads don't screw up your VoIP calls.
I think the only problem Vonage has is trying to over simplify how VoIP works. It's good from a marketing stand point, but not from a technical standpoint. I haven't met a person that I couldn't get good VoIP service going for them provided they had the right network setup.
It's no different than a ISP bringing a T1 connection to your house. If you don't understand how a T1 works, would you expect your local ISP to just dump all the T1 equipment at your doorstep to leave you to figure out the difference between high and low bits, SN, and power settings to setup the T1 by yourself? I think not, I see VoIP as the same thing. They almost have it right, at least some equipment that's all in one, sorta plug 'n pray setup. But it goes beyond that for most people that I've encountered, most being business customers that need rock solid service and working Internet at the same time.
Just my $0.02 from someone with over a decade of experience with this. | |
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| | Lets Go
join:2005-03-05
Homer, NY | Re: Reliablilty
This is my point. Their marketing overly simplifies the technology. Most people think this is "plug and play". It is far from this at this point.
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| | | shashinka
join:2000-09-16
West Boylston, MA | Re: Reliablilty Plug & Play problems? My 85 year old grandmother didn't complain but 2x in 2 years! not sure what you don't get about my post | |
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S_engineer
join:2007-05-16
Chicago, IL | Re: Reliablilty Geez...I love my POTS! | |
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| shashinka
join:2000-09-16
West Boylston, MA
·Verizon Online DSL
·Charter Pipeline
| i doubt it was vonage's fault. My 85 year old grandmother had vonage for a couple years. She moved in with my aunt who also has had it for 2 years or so. Another aunt has it in Maine and mass on comcast and another cable company. I have had it on charter (there network isn't so great). I think vonage is stable and a nice product. I am on voicestick now since I am saving about $16 a month including calls to Japan for my wife. I think vonage is a better service then voicestick but I like saving $$$ | |
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RadioDoc
Sortofadog
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
Chicago, IL
·AT&T Midwest
| Re: Reliablilty said by shashinka :I am on voicestick now since I am saving about $16 a month including calls to Japan for my wife. I think vonage is a better service then voicestick but I like saving $$$ Which pretty much illustrates that the mass market is more interested in bottom-barrel pricing than frilly features.
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Toolmaster of La Grange. | |
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| mazilo
From Mazilo
Premium
join:2002-05-30
Lilburn, GA
| said by Lets Go :It is a fun toy but it pretty much stops there, for me anyway. Sorry to hear your bad experience with Vonage. Anyway, what did you do with your unused Vonage adapter? If you want to donate that device away, please send it to me and I will use it for hacking purposes. let me know through PM. | |
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B
Premium,MVM
join:2000-10-28 | Well I'm Happy But only because of that ridiculously big smiley face.
Man, that's a big smiley.
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In a realm outside causality and function | |
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chisoxbull
join:2007-10-11
Scottsdale, AZ
|  Nothing but problems with Customer Service
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RARPSL
join:1999-12-08
Suffern, NY
| Re: Churn is not a problem said by NetFixer :Churn is not a problem for Vonage, they have found a way to prevent churn.  If you call to close an account, the CSR (assuming that you get one with sufficient English skills understand what you are saying) will tell you that (s)he is not authorized to close an account, but you will be transferred to someone who can help. You will then be placed into another hold queue, from which you will eventually be disconnected.  There is a effective method for that game. You just write a certified letter return receipt requested canceling your service. That provides the notification without them being able to ignore you. | |
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mb
join:2000-07-23
Washington, NJ | Happy Here I'll stick with them. The voice quality is excellent, the service is reliable, customer service is improving and above all they save me a hunk of change each month. | |
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hayabusa3303
Over 200 mph
Premium
join:2005-06-29
clubs: | Good choice there Karl In using the Walmart smile for a pic for vonage. Funny when you think about it. | |
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juanantoniod
join:2007-09-16
Los Angeles, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
| I'm happy but would like more features! I'm very, very, satisfied with my Vonage service. $28 monthly buys me MORE than AT&T (the competition) could for over $60 monthly. I know because I have both services.
However, I also wish for specific number call blocking, which doesn't seem like it would be that hard to implement. I would also like (and pay for) a PBX type of auto attendant feature that answered the call and transferred to my phone if I accepted the call. They have lots of room they could grow their "niche", but it takes pleasing "niche" customers such as myself and the other posters who want some of these services. | |
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VONAGE ROCKS
@comcast.net
| Love Vonage Rock on I has been a pleasure doing business, so affordable
and sounds like a call next door. Now I can call family and friends long distance for free!!!!!!!!!!!!
and much more free I like free it is working well in our household. One good money move as well. I knew they would do well. | |
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dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ | of course we're doing well When we pass all our problems as fees on to our subs | |
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beachbouy
join:2001-12-08
Nags Head, NC
| Improving Customer Servic I just dumped Nuvio VoIP after two years of suffering through the lousy product. I jumped ship to Vonage. The effort to improve customer service was obvious to me. The Vonage product is better than the Nuvio product I experienced, and the customer service has been good, so far. I'm not an easy customer to deal with, but CS at Vonage has impressed me. I haven't had to deal with tech support yet, however... | |
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| cgb1492
join:2007-06-17
Simpsonville, SC | Re: Improving Customer Servic What was the service problem with Nuvio? It could not have been too bad if you lasted 2 years before cancelling. Nuvio rarely loses a cusotmer based on voice quality. What type of internet connection were you using? | |
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Vonage CEO: 'Things Are Going Very Well'
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Nothing Has Apparently Changed