Stay Away from Vonage!

[randissimo]

As a result of Vonage's incredibly inept and dysfunctional network, my AT&T service was canceled and I lost my old number in the transfer over to Vonage. Now I have to ship the modem back to Vonage at my expense (ouch), and the cost to start a new land phone account with SBC-AT&T with a new phone number would be totally at my expense!

To make a long story short, they (Vonage) didn't bother to tell me when they set up my account, that their VOIP modem system is not compatible with AOL. They just went ahead and set everything up which included terminating my AT&T service and arranging the transfer of my old number which I now cannot get back and shipped me the incompatible modem .. After hooking up the voice modem Monday night, my brother and I spent 3 frustrating hours trying to get the system to work and decided to call the customer care number that came with the instructions. After 3 frustrating calls with at least 20 minutes of wait time each, and different techs each time who could barely speak english, I finally insisted that the third tech connect me to a supervisor who informed me that "Vonage would not work with AOL and that I should cancel AOL if I wanted the phone to work". So I canceled the account with Vonage and decided to cut my losses and canceled the reactivation of my land phone with AT&T-SBC and am going to go with my cell phone. Fortunately, ATT&T-SBC was kind enough to set up an automatic message refering my lost number to my cell phone number.

If you already have Vonage and haven't had a problem yet, GOOD LUCK..

If you are considering a broadband phone system .... PLEASE.....

DO NOT SELECT VONAGE!!

[Claude]

I understand your anger at Vonage, because they should have informed you about the incompatibility, but wouldn't it be easier now to switch to another ISP? What does AOL have what others cannot offer?

[randissimo]

I understand your anger at Vonage, because they should have informed you about the incompatibility, but wouldn't it be easier now to switch to another ISP? What does AOL have what others cannot offer?

I like aol ok and I guess I'm just used to it and don't want to have to dump a long time email address..

[Christiern]

I have not had any problems with Vonage (except that down/uploading can break up the signal), but AOL was always a pain in the ass, and I have a lot of problems communicating with AOL subscribers.

So, I urge people to stay far away from AOL. For one thing, they have a nasty habit of converting files to something the recipient cannot open. The Vonage problem is pesky, to be sure, but if I do any heavy internet file transfer, I just do it at night. It's a small inconvenience when one considers the low price.

[GregK]

I have had Vonage for 2 years and have never had a problem. Not even connection problems. There is the occasional echo, but that's been it. No billing problems, no problems when we moved and had to forward all calls to my wife's cell phone for a few days while we waited for Comcast (now they suck!!) to hook up our cable at the new place. So, I'm a Vonage supporter!

[Jazzmoose]

I've never used Vonage, so I have no opinion. Of course, I've never used AOHell, either, but that doesn't stop me...