Anyone using Vonage phone service?

[Robert Starling SOC]

I'm thinking about trying Vonage; anyone else using it and are you happy with it.

 

Thanks!

[Chris Konash]

I use it, it's great. You can get an 800 number or whatever you wan't. Mine # is for my business and forwards right to my cell phone, in case I'm not around which I never am. Best part is if you ever move, just take the box with you and plug it in, no need to have your number ported to your new address. The only thing with Vonage you should to do is register your address with there 911 service, very easy, done on there website. So they will know your location if you use that phone to call 911.

 

Other than that it's a great service. I was worried about the Voice over IP and that it may sound very compressed and robot'ish, but it doesn't.

 

Good luck, nice talking to you again.

 

Chris Konash

[Charles Papert]

I wouldn't recommend porting your home phone to it--I had a total nightmare experience with that. Just days before the transfer was due to go through, I started to wonder how I was going to keep my DSL service if my landline was going to be severed--they cheerfully told me that I could get a second line with basic phone service, which would have chewed up all of the savings. Plus I discovered around the same time that my alarm monitoring service would also not work with them. So I cancelled, but then two days later the phone went dead and my phone number was suddenly floating around in the ether, up for grabs for anyone signing on to new service. It took days for the phone company to be able to lock it back down, weeks for them to restore voice service and THEN the DSL part got disconnected and I was without that (far more debilitating than the phone!) for another week or 10 days.

 

Other than that, it was great.

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

If you use DSL then Charles has a very good point. I use a cable modem so Vonage has been fine. The quality is usually great, but on occasion I'll have to recall someone because of bad sound (this used to happen once in awhile on my land line too - but I'd say it happens a little more with Vonage). Power outs mean no phone service (both my wife and I have mobile phones so no real big deal there). Vonage does offer a bundle of options ranging from call forwarding to checking your voicemails online, etc. Most of these features are now offered by normal phone lines too.

 

Really, for me the biggest reason to do it was that Vonage is not subject to the same ridiculous New York taxes as a regular land line. I used to pay $50 a month for unlimited calls to anywhere in the country along with a bundle of goodies on my land line. After taxes, my bill was over $75 each month! Vonage gives me the same calling plan and options for $25/month which comes to $27 after taxes. That pays for my cable modem.

[Robert Starling SOC]

Ugh... Charles... that sounds like a nightmare scenario!

 

I'm just wanting to set up an 818 area code number to forward to my cell phone If I understand it correctly I'll never have to have a physical phone there, just what they refer to as a soft phone. The basic $15 service is probably all I need until at some point Paris Hilton tosses you and Ron out and lets me move in.

 

Thanks gents!