Reader reviews Vonage and Voip.com
Thursday, December 21, 2006Reader Kevin Deitrick wrote me to share his recent experience with Voip.com and how it contrasts to his previous VoIP service provider, Vonage:
I have used vonage for just over a yr and with 100% satisfaction I set up a virtual number and it was working in 48hrs the customer service was great I had a problem with the router well with one side of the phone hook up and there tech support walked me through troubleshooting it and switched it over in under 20 mins. I regret having to leave the company when I moved into an area that they did not cover. Unlimited usage real was unlimited my family lives in Michigan and my children call back there a lot I use aprox 3500 mins a month and with no complaints from vonage.Kevin also included a list of his first seven monthly bills with Voip.com that ranged anywhere from $21.45 to $55.03 and he says he received no explanation as to why there was such a difference each month. In addition, there were four extra charges of $40, $50, $40 and $50 that all happened within the span of one month, which he contests as explained in his review.
I switched to voip.com in june of this year and have had nothing but problems with there billing service and support. They billed me my normal monthly bill for 2 months then the next 2 months they billed me 50-40 plus my monthly bill and my bill is different every month. It took them over a month to setup my virtual numbers then because of my usage they threaten to switch my unlimited monthly usage to a small business and of course a month later they did. There prices are great but there only suggestions this is what I have been billed since June. There customer support is ok there respond times can be days sometimes sooner but not on average. I have lost many phone conversations while using there service even though my internet connection was still working good. When I inquired about the extra 90.00 a month charge they told me it was for the cost of setup and the router but now that I am going to cancel they still are requiring that I return the router or they will charge me for it again. I hope that you can warn you viewers of this policy of there’s before they make the mistake of following your advise as I did and tried this company and expecting the same service I got from vonage.
I welcome any official response from a Voip.com representative, either by e-mail or through the comments section, that clarifies this dispute and/or gives the other side of the story. A smart VoIP provider knows that in order to thrive in this business, it has to please its customers, knowing that word of mouth works both ways. I'm sure this case can be settled in an amicable fashion for both parties and I hope that I will have a more pleasant follow-up to post soon.
Disclaimer: The opinion expressed in the above quote is a 3rd party review and not necessarily the view of The VoIP Service Blog, which is an affiliate of Voip.com.
Have you had an experience with a VoIP service that you'd like to share? Leave a comment or e-mail me at voip_telephony [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll publish your review or directly link to the review on your website.
Categories:
Permalink
|
Digg
|
Del.icio.us
|
30 Comments:
I disagree with your reader. I use Vonage for long period and never the billing good. When I use Voip.com my bill is good and always paid on the same day of the month. I asked them for change of billing day and they did for me this service and it was done for me right away. I think reader lies.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
voip.com is trying to screw me for $65.00 because they sail there device I sent them was damaged but it was not. I advise people not to go to voip.com
I also disagree. I've been using voip.com for over 5 months now and the service (including billing) is by far better than Vonage, which I had for 2 months last year. Voip.com has been good to me so far.
Something else. I just checked their new promo offers and their prices went down. Strange thing is that these offers are not on their site, you need to google it.
I'm a new VOIP.com customer due to the bankruptcy of Sunrocket. Transfer of phone number was fairly quick but since then, service has been terrible. I have trouble both receiving and making calls. Calling support for help results in holds of 60 min. or more. Voicemail set up is very cumbersome as is voicemail retrieval. I still don't have mine set up properly. Also it took 5 days for support to respond to my email asking for help to set up voicemail. Their response was for me to call tech support!
I may be cancelling them soon.
I also had SunRocket for almost a year and never had any problems while they were in business. I never had to wait long when calling for support. I as well switched to voip.com and have had nothing but problems. Like the previous post I have had problems calling out to any land line (only connect to other voip users) and most of my incoming calls don't make it. There help line will tell you your caller number (ex.) 27 with a 24 min. wait. Then the wait time goes up as your number goes down. Takes over an hour to get someone and then all your tolds is that they are working on it and will send you an e-mail when it's fixed. Got tired of waiting so I posted a ticket online and it hasn't been addressed for over three days. If this company could handle all the new customers then they should not take any more, to take peoples money and not give them the service they are paying for is a dissevice. Good to hear the last post got their number ported over because I am still waiting.
Bill from Gaithersburg, MD
I too am a SunRocket former customer, and I thought I had it bad there - the occasional call that would not connect! With voip.com, my service is nothing more than an absolute nightmare! I've already filed a complaint with the BBB in FL, and am hoping voip.com goes under as a result of the "F" rating, and 37 open complaits against them at this time.
I have had so many problems with voip.com I don't even know where to begin. From the time it took them to send me a crappy GrandStream adapter (which doesn't even work, and the company's representatives said to go to RadioShack to buy a switch for it!)to the time it took them to port my # from SunRocket.
I have nothing but ABSOLUTE bad will toward the company at this time, and hope to be able to get 100% of my money back ASAP.
Although satisfied customers are certainly harder to find in these comments sections, I just want to ask:
Is there a post-Sunrocket customer here who has found a good alternative to recommend? Is Packet 8 (8x8) or Lingo any good? VoIP Your Life?
I just googled "voip.com customer complaints" because I wanted to see where to go to voice my complaints about Voip.com.
I too was a former sunrocket customer. Service with them was a bit spotty for the first few weeks but otherwise it was basically a good experience for 14 months (I should have had 15 months as they gave me 3 extra free months plus a free phone - great deal).
...words cannot express my frustration and anger with Voip.com. Their phone support people seem nice enough, but they are worthless. Phone wait times of well over an hour only to be disconnected when I'm next in line. This morning I had little wait time for the first three calls, but during each one, I was disconnected. I know of no way to keep a complaint thread going; I can only start all over again. I'm within my 30 days apparently, and tomorrow I'm pulling the plug. I only hope I can get my money back (I pre-paid $200 for a year).
I find it impossible to imagine that anyone has had a positive experience with this company. I'm next going to the BBB website. By the way, the specific reasons I was calling customer service was that I recorded my personal greeting but it never is heard by my callers and my phone never notifies me when I get new messages.
But the customer service is the biggest reason I'm leaving. It's simply a joke.
SunRocket has shut down their service without refunding their prepay customer like me. I signed up with their yearly plan at the end of Jan, 2007 but didn’t receive their complete service so far. I am so much worried and confused about the refund and signing up with a new VoIP provider. I think it is best to hook up with the Primus backed Lingo. I hope they won’t disappear easily from the VoIP market.
to my sunrocket brethren: I too am experiencing similar problems with VOIP. Billing from the moment I registered even though the gizmo didn't arrive for a week, dropped calls, 33 days today and counting for my rocket number to port over, long hold times followed by the inability to answer my questions, support tickets created and referrals back to the phone help, or back to the crummy online help, which doesn't answer the questions, voicemail messages that can not be activated, poor navigation on their site, and lack of answers to basic questions. I wasn't crazy about the rocket because of dropped calls but everything else except the bankruptcy thing was fine.
I also am a post sun rocket customer consigned to the hell that is Voip.com. What a mistake! Terrible customer service, no one knowing what is going on and constant disconnects in customer service when they transfer me to another person. I am tired of hearing them complain about how it is because of the new business they have received.
Anyone contemplating a class action suit?
I disagree. I switched to voip.com (ex Vonage) a little over 2 months ago. The number transfer was relatively fast but they gave me a temp number. Call quality is perfect and I haven't had any problems with them.
I called customer service only once and I was glad to hear that their support people are actually here in the U.S. Vonage has everybody in India.
OK... I could tell you story after story after story (ALL DOCUMENTED TOO by the way)of how HORRIBLE this company has been. Customer service is ESPECIALLY HORRIBLE. Quality of the phone service itself is HORRIBLE. If you want details, ask me and i could go on and on with specific, documented examples. I'm STILL trying to get my promised refund from this company after THREE MONTHS... Don't know if I'll EVER see my money again...not counting on it at this point. But I am at least trying to keep others from falling into the same trap. I know it sounds appealing: "cheap phone service". But with voip.com I've found you don't even get what you pay for! Listen: I'm on hold RIGHT NOW trying to talk to customer service and I keep getting the pleasant sounding recorded voice saying: "You're estimated wait time is 64 minutes." Did you catch that??? SIXTY FOUR MINUTES!!! And this is TYPICAL of almost every time I've called... more than FIFTEEN CALLS!!!!!!!! C'mon!!! Are you kidding me???? PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do yourself a favor... save the aggrivation... DO NOT USE VOIP.COM. Period. Thank you.
I tried Voip.com for 20 days. The service did not function and the technical support I received was useless. I cancelled I received a full refund. Then I was billed for the router which was not "received". According to the USPS it was received by them 23 days after my service began. They have indicated now - 2 months later that this may be refunded. Next I was charged a cancellation fee of $39.95 as I had "ported a number". This was not disclosed to me when I signed up but was when I cancelled. I was also charged $20.95 again to do with the "ported number". They have promised to send a report to the "highest level". Money back guarantees are not what they used to be. If VOIP.com resolve this properly I will update. For now I am waiting for Walmart to bring out a phone service which, no matter how good or bad, will have a genuine money back guarantee.
I signed up with Voip.com under their $199 annual plan with the promise of a $50 cash rebate. The service quality is spotty at best; customer service is terrible. Then instead of giving me a cash rebate they simply posted a $50 credit to my account. When I requested the $50 cash they told me their terms of service entitled them to change the rebate terms. I'm considering small claims court action. I've got a rock solid case; just wondering if my time is worth it just on principle.
With Vonage, I was not able to get my incoming phone messages in my email as attachments. Sometimes they would "pop up" hours after the call was made or not at all. Trying to terminate my service was a nightmare! There is no way to cancel on-line, and I was kept waiting (initially) for almost an hour on the phone! After 50 mins. of waiting, I tried to tell the person who finally answered that I was frustrated with the long wait (after being told it would only be five minutes), and he hung up on me! When I called back and waited again, when someone got back on, our line was disconnected. I called back (wait) and asked to talk to a supervisor (wait). He forwarded me again (waited for another 15 mins.). All in all, 120 mins. to cancel! There was also a cancellation fee I had not been made aware of and a router fee for a total of $120. with cancellation. (I am very concerned that they will continue to bill me after termination...and that I will have to call again for more drawn-out waiting). I would never recommend this service to anyone, ever. This is the one of the worst "services" I've ever paid for. Don't be duped!
Vonage sucks very bad. Service is horrible, customer service is horrible and rude, Tried to cancel and they told me I owe 39.99 and 49.99 for cancelling service so Im riding it out for 4.99 6 months. Do not go with vonage. I also contacted local news and BBB. The home office wants there bonus so dont try to get out of it. These people are scam artists. The local news is doing a story on the company how they trap you into paying extra when you cancel service. Also qwest is less than $30.00 a month with everything and taxes included. Good luck
VOIPcom is the WORST! THE WORST
I aam a former sunrocket customer, their service worked flawlessly, voip suck, my calls outgoing and incoming have huge delay.... they have no customer/technical support, they direct you always to their forum, which when i started to ask really technical questions, (computer science degree) they banned me from their forum. These cocksuckers now have my phone number and each time i call send me into a endless circle of service messages.... This is the WORST company i have ever dealt with. IF YOU WANT AYTHING THAT IS GOING TO WORK OR EVEN AT LEAST BE SUPPORTED DO NOT GO WITH VOIP.com
Voip.com will give you nothing but nightmare. I took money from my credit card multiple times the same month. Very bad voice quality. They charge one minute for overseas calls even if the call doesn't go through. They told me I have to since I dialed the number, it does not have to go through. Their customer service is almost non-existing and very rude. Call quality is very bad. Lately I'm getting calls from strangers saying that I made the calls. VOIP rep told me that they can't do anything about it. I am going to report the matter to BBB. Stay away from them.
I agree with Anonymous. My experience with Vonage was shocking, and their behavior criminal. When I signed up, they swore that it would not disrupt my ATT DSL. That was a lie; I didn't have broadband or even phone service again for 3 weeks. Worse, they charged me $39.99 to cancel because I was 2 weeks past the "money-back" window - when it was Vonage delays that made that happen in the first place - a total Catch-22. The customer service reps just read from a script, so are useless. Truly a despicable company that should be avoided at all costs. If there were a class action lawsuit I'd join in a heartbeat.
I am collecting names and phone numbers for a class action lawsuit against VOIP.com.
Please contact me at voip.com_class_action_suit@yahoo.com
I was a former Vonage customer who tried Voip.com and I can confirm that they awful. The router would reset for no reason causing the phone to ring once. I called numerous times to complain and ask them to replace the router and they wouldn't. Then when I canceled within the cancellation period I was told that I was something like 20 minutes over the 200 minute cap and was not entitled to a refund. I was so unhappy I told them they made Vonage look good so I responded to one of Vonage's "come back" offers. I did and they just couldn't get the service to consistently work. Calls would not go through. Calls would drop. I could hear the other party but they couldn't hear me. So after some more Googling I tried Lingo. I've been with them for roughly a year (give or take). I switched under an incentive program targeting Vonage customers. They offered a free month of service and they honored the request (I had to be a Lingo customer I think 3 months and the 4th month was free). So all in all not bad given what I had experienced. I too echo the sentiment of a previous poster and find myself hoping that viop.com goes under. If anyone deserves it, they do.
All I can say is that VOIP.COM=Very Bad Virus. Once you are in, your suffering begins. If you want to get out, they'll delay your number release for months. And then charge you cacellation fee and fees for equipments. very bad voice quality, if you get a dial tone. I missed tons of calls. I've been billed twice the same month. Customer service barely exists and you better be ready to wait for hours. The recording is very long and irritating. Please have them give you access to forum.voip.com and take a look. Once you see the forum your desire to join VOIP.COM will die forever. The worst possible company to deal with.
Stay away from voip.com. I purchased one year for $199 and the quality and service was so bad I found another carrier. I was unable to get any refund for my unused 6 months but the worst part is, after 2 months with my new carrier, voip.com re-ported my number (without 3rd party verification or my authorization) back to voip.com. I am still without phone service since they will only address this problem through their online fourm and not through phone. check BBB and you will see the complaints like this piling up!
I have also had the nightmare that is voip.com. I signed up for service about 5 months ago. Although the service wasn't perfect, I was going to live with it for the price. About 1 month ago I tried to sign up to use their 'make-a-call' feature. This feature allows one to setup a long distance connection using the website between two phones for a low rate. When I attempted to add this feature to my account I was required to receive SMS messages on a cellular phone. Since my cell phone does not accept SMS messages, I phone their tech-support to try to get a way arround this. That was a dance that I don't care to re-live. At any rate, it wouldn't work. When I next tried to sign into my account, I was notified that it was suspended. I again phoned tech support and was told there was nothing they could do, it had to be corrected through the website. Since I cannont access the web site, I find my self paying for service which I am denied. Do I need legal action? All I wanted was phone service. Why does it have to be so hard?
I too am a former Sunrocket customer and switched over to voip.com . Their system did not work with my new Dsl provider and was told it was working but not on my end. I recently ended my contract and sent them their equipment back only to get a $65 charge on my credit card. After a 30 minute wait I was told I sent back the wrong power supply and that the router was used ,DAH!! I am disputing the charge and am advising anyone looking for voip not to get stuck with these jokers.My cell phone will be my new voip, at least I don't have any trouble with it.
I too am a former Sunrocket customer and switched over to voip.com . Their system did not work with my new Dsl provider and was told it was working but not on my end. I recently ended my contract and sent them their equipment back only to get a $65 charge on my credit card. After a 30 minute wait I was told I sent back the wrong power supply and that the router was used ,DAH!! I am disputing the charge and am advising anyone looking for voip not to get stuck with these jokers.My cell phone will be my new voip, at least I don't have any trouble with it.
Vonage just doesn't play nice. We are an ISP and get continous complaints from Vonage customers, especially customers who are sold Vonage service even though they don't have Internet service, or have lost their DSL service because their DSL phone number was ported to Vonage.
All you need to learn about Voip.com can be seen by logging into their support forum. There are many many extremely frustrated customers with problems ranging from technical assistance (Voip.com tends to blame the user) to billing.
I used them for 14 months, although my phone only worked for 7 of those. Even then, it took nearly 6 weeks for me to get them to cancel my account.
I filed complaints with the Florida BBB.
Post a Comment
<< Home