My Review of Vonage

As I mentioned in the last article, I’ve signed up for Vonage in the hopes that it will be good enough to be my main business line.

Depending on which reviews you read, you could think that Vonage was either the best thing since sliced bread, or the worst service ever launched.

Here’s my experience with Vonage:

Vonage is damn good.

• Call quality: great
• Cost: excellent
• Options and services: more than I need (no complaints)
• Reliability: fantastic
• Setup: a snap

A Few Gripes

When you call in to Vonage, whether it’s the first time, or to place an order, or get support you’re talking to someone in India. Nothing against India, but it’s friggin’ hard to understand them at times.

And then there’s the hard sell, as if you stepped onto the used car lot.

It’s almost humorous to hear a hard sell from someone overseas reading from a script. You just have to interrupt them and get them back on track. They’re very quick to apologize, over and over again. I think it’s a cultural thing.

The hard sell isn’t relentless. But they try to upsell you into extra phone lines with one time offers, etc etc. Just be firm and tell them all you want is what you want, or heck, listen to the pitch and decide if you need some extra phone lines.

Also, you have to hear a long winded disclaimer read to you about 911 service and how it’s not quite the same as regular 911. In short, Vonage runs through your high speed modem. If your internet connection is down, off, or incapacitated, you better have another way of calling 911.

Quick Tip For Saving Some Dough

First, if you contact me with your email address, I’ll send you a referral, and you’ll get some discounts and freebies right off the bat. I’ll also get a free month or two, but it’s no skin off your back… your cost is actually less.

And I’m going to tell you how to avoid some extra charges.

When the guy or gal in India is adding up your costs, they’ll tell you the first month is free but that there’s a “one time connection charge” of $30+ some odd dollars and “please confirm your shipping address” (assumptive sales close technique).

At that point I said something like, “Oh, I thought this first month was completely free. Hmm… I need to talk to my wife about this, let me call you back.”

Just like a car salesman knows you never let the prospect walk off the lot, the guy suddenly came up with a special offer where I wouldn’t have to pay that connection fee, so long as we could proceed with the order right now.

Fair enough, buddy. Free is free.

In a few days, I got my box from DHL. I’ll show you what came in the box in the next article and you’ll see how easy it was to setup.