Comments on: Vonage customers bolting for the exit. Try Skype next time

VOIP stinks, unless you stop paying and use Skype.

[BOSCO44]

I have been using Vonage for 2 years. 2 lines. not sure what you dont like - it works great. sound quality is fine. and no, i never have to reset my modem......

[AXG]

I think it was 3 years ago when Vonage caused me to lose my phone number. I got Vonage service and they could not get my local number ported over in 8 months. Finally, I decided to get rid of their service. After I had called to cancel the service, they initiated the local number port. Since I had canceled Vonage service and local number port caused my Verizon service to be canceled, I lost my phone number. Vonage had worst customer service even at that time. They kept lying to me. However, every user forum was going crazy over how good Vonage was. Since I had already lost my number, I changed to Lingo. It has been two years and I haven't had a problem. Service is great. They do not advertise much. My wife is an avid user of the phone (several hours a day) and she has never complained.

[jharrisofkansas]

Why would AT&T cut their own throat on their Callvantage VOIP service? I have had service from AT&T and now Vonage....Vonage has been much better and the only problem has been with Suddenlink or Suddenlynolink as I like to call it

[kfiawo]

I've have Vonage for about four years and never had any problems until Time Warner swapped territories with Comcast in Houston.

[Yeller989]

"Vonage two months ago and will never go back. Its service was terrible"

Funny... I'd say having my router crash several times a day is worse than any voice quality problems. Sounds like your ISP sucks and you blame Vonage.

[robertastewart]

I have been a Vonage customer for a long time 2+ years... I have been VERY VERY HAPPY with the service. I find the internet web access to voicemail, call forwarding, etc very useful. Plus - unless something has changed, Comcast doesn't allow me to travel with their service, correct? I use my Vonage router mostly from Mexico. If I were living in the US and not traveling much - perhaps that would be a solution for me, but not with my current needs.

[rfrancia]

I've have vonage for 3 yrs now using Time Warner Cable and now with Verizon Fios as internet providers. It has worked as promised. I've had a couple of issues regarding the quality of the call but other than that, the service has been great for $15 / month.

[belmosan]

I've had Vonage for 3 years...no problems...excellent voice quality...good web features. Perhaps people are leaving because of the other providers 'Triple Play' offers - Voice-TV-Internet. Vonage is the reason this technology is advancing...they were the first to offer a good product at the best price....hats off to Vona.ge

[highlander2000]

Matt, I too have had quite a headache with Comcast digital voice. My father is experiencing the same spasmodic router resets at various times of day. Actually, their stupid 2-in-1 modem to handle voice and internet would not work with his previous router (Belkin) at all. He had to purchase a new Netgear router ($45), which now has the spasmodic router issues.

On top of that, Comcast totally ruined his billing. He was somehow signed up for business class internet ($85/mo), his cable tv service was cancelled and then restarted, and he now has a completely new billing cycle. Add that to the $25 installation fee and the $6 worth of monthly fees just for the phone service, and Comcast digital voice is an entirely bad deal. It is easily one of the worst decisions my father has made.

And why did he change? He felt so upset (as elderly individuals do) that he was paying our phone company $45/mo for local and long distance service (with caller ID, voicemail, etc) that never had a single problem over the decades he's had it. He is now paying ~$40/mo for the service with OK call quality that causes him hassle on a daily basis (router) and caused him major heartache at signup (billing).

I agree that Skype has to be a better choice than these two goons, Vonage and Comcast. Or, just stay with your regional telco. OR, just go all cell with free long distance, unlimited nights and weekends, and a big mass of minutes.

[jedialan]

I agree. Vonage is simply terrible. Very poor sound quality and technology.

[Tolemak]

Vontage works great. In my case it was Comcast cable that caused the problem. I was experiencing a lot of clipping, dropped or lost calls and calls going straight to voicemail. Working with Vontage technical support they could find nothing wrong with there end. After a very frustrating month I started noticing that my online games would will link dead every six minutes. It took numerous calls to Comcast and a 3 1/2 hour visit by their technician. Who spent the last 45 minutes on the phone with their network hub in Denver to get my account on the list of non-filtered/delayed IP traffic. My Vontage phone and online games have worked great ever since. It was Comcast filtering and controlling the IP traffic that caused the problems with my Vontage phone.

[vhallman]

I went from Vonage to MagicJack and so did all my friends. I even bought seperate lines for my kids. What a wondrful idea and GREAT technology. $20.00 a year for unlimited calling in North America.

[mirrordash]

You kidding me? Vonage has been great! I even use it over the Comcast network, with almost no problems. I have been a Vonage customer for years and I still love it. Can't remember the last time I had to call support. Not only that, but I rely on it heavily every day for business and we use multiple Vonage lines at the same time. They have a much better set of features than any of the other VOIP plans, including Comcast (which costs more). Not to mention the portability of Vonage is almost as good, as Skype. The only reason the other carriers have been suing the pants off of Vonage is because they are jealous and knew that Vonage will kick their butts if they didn't do something fast. I'll be very sad if Vonage ever goes out of business. Which might happen if people that obviously don't know what they are doing give them undeserved bad press.

[yaddamaster]

Let me get this straight. He complains about Vonage but he's got serious technical problems with Comcast? Vonage has customer service issues - has he ever tried to deal with a cable company??

I've used Vonage flawlessly for over four years. It's great and I wouldn't dream of switching - it's not broke - why fix it?

As far as Matt Asay is concerned, he should quit blaming Vonage for what is likely his ISP's issue.

Moron.

I've been a Vonage customer for almost 3 years now and I've had no problems with the service. I have a cable ISP (RCN) and I've never experienced any router resets with Vonage. However, I did have that problem with my previous VoIP service over a DSL connection (changed my wireless phone to 5.4ghz and the problem was resolved).

[jcliftonmeek]

I've had Vonage for about five years with multiple lines for both for my business and for personal use. I find it incredibly reliable, initially in the SF Bay Area and now in Montana. The services have been great, and continue to expand. The quality is highly dependent upon your broadband service; many people get 256k broadband, and then assume the problem is with their VoIP service. Get real broadband with symmetric 756k or better, then try the service. Note your minimum speed (upload) which with cable is often very low. As with most truly high tech services, marginal users will whine, while knowledgeable professionals will be amazed by what they get. My Qwest service had major dropped packets on their DSL; then I changed to a higher quality, lower cost symmetric DSL provider, and use two lines while sending major files AND browsing without a hiccup. In Montana.

[brainsalad11]

I have had Vonage for two years and except for a long and painful number transfer (Indian customer service SUCKS), service has been flawless. We use it over Comcast and have never had any problems. Sound quality is awesome, better than my previous land line. My Directv Tivo uses it and has never had a problem connecting. At $20 a month, I am extremely happy.

[jld44]

I have been with Vonage for over 2 years and have never had any problems with sound quality or drops, it has worked 100% of the time and never let me down, maybe you just live in an overly busy area, Im in the Orlando, Fl area whish is very busy, but wouldnt give Vonage up for anything.

[bderou2]

I am another happy Vonage customer and have been for years. I was one of the first Vonage customers in my area (with a last 4 digits of my phone number of 0000) and I've been very happy! in the beginning, I had to call customer service a few times and admittedly, it was frustrating. The other day, I had to call them for something, I don't even remember why, and I was very surprised at how very professional their customer service had become. It was a very nice experience.

As far as their quality of sound..It's been great! At the beginning, I had a Panasonic phone and I used to get a lot of echos. I talked to their cust sevice who suggesteed I get a different brand phone. I was suspicious of that, but did it. I was surprised when it did make a difference! To give you an idea of how happy I am, my business is moving to a new office and we're going to switch to Vonage!

[Cosmo822]

I believe that would be "Vonage Customer" not customers. Your headline makes it sound like Vonage customers are leaving in droves.
I use Vonage for my personal and business lines, I've had no problem with the service for several years now (unless the Comcast network goes down). I am amazed that you report those kinds of issues with Comcast and still claim it's better than Vonage.