Once again, I’m looking at Vonage and the other VoIP phone options. (Time Warner, etc.) Do you use Vonage? Do you like it? Have you been happy with it? Would you recommend switching to it? Feel free to share your thoughts! I would really appreciate it!
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Your Opinion, Please….
16 replies on “Your Opinion, Please….”
I don’t currently, but I like the idea of it. We have a couple of cell phones so the need isn’t really there for us, but I like the idea of this land-line alternative. I say, go for it!
-H
We don’t, for three reasons.
1: It doesn’t work if the power is out or the network is down.
2: We need a land-line for the DSL
3: The ones we were looking at didn’t have access to 911
If these aren’t problems, then it’s not bad. We use VoIP at the office and it’s pretty good there.
got vonage a month ago — LOVE IT! great customer service thus far, great account management online, it even SOUNDS better than our land line did. it also costs a third as much as our land line did and includes all the extra services i had cancelled months ago due to cost.
we honestly don’t use our home phone that much, but our cell service is sketchy in the house. (the ONLY place it is sketchy. grrr.) so we wanted to keep a line in the house.
the 911 issues are being addressed. currently, if i call 911, it will go to my local 911 center, but they will not automatically have my home address location. congress has ordered the voip’s to have that issue fixed by october or november.
so anyway, i dig vonage. we’re believers. feel free to email me if you have any other questions! 🙂
My neighbor and good friend uses vonage and the only problem she’s had with it is her TiVo. I guess the machine needs to ‘dial in’ every few days and the TiVo receiver does not like Vonage for some odd reason. I guess she found some $10 piece of somethingorother that fixed the trick. Sorry so vague!
The only other thing I’ve heard about Vonage is that you have to request that 911 be activated or something like that.
Geez, I’m vague!
I love it!!! You should not have a problem with 911 living where you do. I live in the middle of nowhere and am Ok.
It is really worth the savings!
(If you need a referral, let me know… I would love some credit!!!)
I hadn’t thought about the power being out issue – but if I had an emergency there would be a cell phone handy. I knew about 911, but again – the cell phone, a neighbor, whatever. I haven’t used 911 in the past 25 years, so I’m not too stressed about that one. I did think about the DSL issue when I discussed it with my Mom, because she uses DSL – so Vonage would be an issue for her. However, we use RoadRunner, so it’s not a problem for us.
I need to think about the power issue. If there is a storm, technically you shouldn’t be on the phone anyways. But if a hurricane came through and we were without power for days on end, that could be a problem.
I use vonage. It did take about 2 months to get switched over, but that was the fault of Verizon not Vonage. But they gave us credits for the months when it hadn’t switched so it’s all good. It sounds good, and being able to check your voice mail from any computer is nice too. 🙂 I have it set to ring my mobile if the power is out, which is a wicked nice feature.
Here’s my thought. I’m with Michael. In an emergency (say a hurricane) and the electricity is out, a normal land line will still work, but a vonage or TWC phone won’t. It’s the reason I still have a corded regular old phone in my house.
In 20 years, I’ve only been in that situation once. If I had a crisis, I could go next door. For a savings of $30+ a month, it’s worth the inconvenience.
In Allison, I actually couldn’t get through on a landline – I used my cell phone while dealing with the fact that my car was flooded.
I heartily recomment Vonage. The sound quality is great. The only problem I’m having is transferring my landline number over to Vonage. Gotta’ go call BellSouth…
My wife and I got Vonage a while ago. While it won’t work if the power or internet goes down, Vonage offers you the ability to forward to another number (including cell phones), so you won’t miss a call.
I’d say if you have cable internet, go for it. My wife and I save at least $40 bucks a month using Vonage versus a land line with the same options that Vonage provides.
we have vonage, and LOVE IT. we have it set up so that it forwards to my husband’s cell if something goes out (which is a decent amount here…) but it doesn’t matter because all the calls are for him anyways! it gives you lots of other forwarding options (my husband has it ring his cell phone and the regular line during certain hours…), and you can take it with you when you go places, like when we go up for weeks at a time to visit the in-laws. that part confuses the hell out of people, but it works for us!
I have Vonage and (don’t hit me) I never use it. It works great and sounds great (we have a super fast cable connection), but the wife is super touchy about changing our phone number – and won’t let me convert the other over to Vonage. So…..I’m paying for both. It works great – it’s super worth it. Go, go, gadget Vonage.
Re: the power thing – I always giggle when my neighbor mentions it, since she only has cordless phones. Hello?! With the battery backup or UPS @ Frys (~$30) you can run a cable modem & router for about eight hours.
I hate that we haven’t switched full time, but you know how wives are. 😉
A few weeks ago I would have said, yes, get it Christine! Nope, not any longer. We are having our number switched back to Verizon.
We have Tivo and it won’t work with it. We don’t have Tivo 2, which is supposed to work with Vonage.
I don’t like the static on our phones, cordless or otherwise.
I don’t like the echoing thing that makes me feel like I’m talking on the radio or on a microphone.
I don’t like the customer service at Vonage…they are young and inexperienced. At least the 5 that I have called and spoken with since switching the middle of June.
I’m getting our money back, hopefully though.
Our Tivos update through wifi, so the phone thing isn’t an issue there. However, the static or echo wouldn’t be a good thing. Hmmmmm…
Kevin, some wives actually push for this change – like me! And it’s not like a ton of people have our phone number, so a change would be ok. We have a cool number though, so I would transfer it. 😉
It took 20 business days=30 days (1 MONTH) for our phone number to be ported to Vonage. We were using our cable provider, so really the only difference for us was the money, so we thought. They gave us a virtual number and we used that with a phone to see how it worked, but we didn’t really use that line as much as our main line. Once it was switched over the virtual number was supposed to disappear after a week, it never did and I had to call and ask about it. Then, it finally disappeared.
I wish we had never switched. Now we are going to Verizon and it’ only 9 calendar days for our number to be ported from Vonage. While I was on the phone with Verizon, a horrible “click-clack” thing started on the line. I had to finally get the rep. to call me back. Maybe it’s just our area or something.
On a totally different note, I cannot wait to get TiVo 2 for Christmas. 🙂 I have a 70 hr. TiVo and we are always running out of room…so bigger would be nice too!