Vonage - Better Than A Conventional Landline?

I’ve heard bad things about Vonage from other users, who had problems ranging from billing problems, to not getting their number switched over, ect…Plus their commercials are so bogus, when they talk about other phone companies always raising rates, they obviously haven’t heard of Qwest’s Price For Life Guarantee. Plus they say they have 25 calling features, but seriously, I cannot even think of 25 legitimate features.

Vonage has kicked up their advertising in recent months. Already having the service I don’t really pay attention to them. When I initially signed up, I was worried about loosing my old number in the transition. It took about 10 days but I got it. During the changeover I had a temporary number to use. I agree with you on the features. Far more than I can put to any practical use. After having the service for six months I can’t fault it. It gives me the phone service I need for an extrememy reasonable price.

I had vonage for ~8 months before canceling. What I found is that the line quality was ok unless I was running other high-bandwidth applications, such as web meetings which I do several times a week. So every time I wanted to work from home I had to disconnect my vonage and switch back to my local line. I’ve heard other people mention this in regard to video/music downloads … the phone instantly becomes unusable once a large download starts.

Vonage is great for the military too. My dad lives over seas, and through vonage, he is able to have a land line in the US, so calls to him do not involve international rates.

I never had that problem. I’ve streamed our radio streams (one-16kmp3 & one 64kmp3pro) as well as a web cam up to the server and used the phone at the same time. I use comcast and see around 10mb down and 1.6 gig up on a consistent bases.

It depends. Maybe for personal use Vonage is OK, but if you are using it for anything to do with high call volume, or getting more then one phone line, they absolutely stink. And don’t think your number transfer (porting) will go smoothly. It took them over 3 months to get my numbers ported. Customer Service? If you like speaking to someone who speaks english as a second language (India) reading from a customer service script. Every time I called vonage, it turned into at least a 30-45 ordeal. Considering the HUGE drop in traditional phone service with ma & pa bell, I’d stick with your land line. One good think about vonage is the portability. 1.5 thumbs down.

I’ve been a vonage customer for about 3 years and now I’m leaving them.
My husband is American, I’m Canadian so it’s imperative we have north america long distance calling unlimited for free or at least a decent price every month.
Normally, I never would have considered leaving vonage until I spoke to eastlink. They won me over with customer service and local agents, and it would save me an extra 30 dollars a month because I was bundling my services. It’s hard to argue with the almighty dollar. Not only that- all the features, and payment options were very enticing as well.
However, there are downsides to vonage. If you are thinking about calling toll free numbers- think again. There are only a few toll free numbers that work with vonage. Anytime you lose power- you lose your phone. You can only pay with a preauthorized credit card. The voice quality is mediocre and tempermental. Sometimes it’s clear other times… not so much. 911 is subpar. You absolutely must have internet access to have vonage.
There are advantages with portability. You absolutely can have a number from the US or Canada and you can basically take your service anywhere. I’ll admit, that’s pretty cool. You have access to some great phone numbers, if you’re looking for a sequence that’s easy to remember- vonage will have it. I’m still going to miss my vonage phone number but I won’t miss the lack of options they give you as a consumer.
If you are looking for a phone service and you’re in my generation in your 20’s right now and love technology. You most likely will enjoy vonage. It has everything our generation wants. You can view your whole account online anytime you want, voice mails are emailed to you, and well it’s a pretty sweet deal.
My opinion, give it a try if it suits your needs you’ll most likley stay, if it doesn’t you’ll move on but it’ll always be in the back of your mind.
Weigh the pros and cons- for me supporting my community is important and the pros for eastlink was just too high for me to ignore!