Wow! Where do i begin with the problems this company has? Before you go forward reading the very lengthy list of problems we encountered with this company, let me just say, no matter what they tell you and no matter how enticing the offer DO NOT sign up with this company.
Now lets begin...
At first everything presented sounded great, we asked questions about any known issues or network problems, and the reply was "none".
So we get our phone on Friday and try to go through their support pages to provision the phone to no avail, why you ask? Well because their support pages provide wrong passwords and wrong setup information. Then to top that off when we called in at 6pm ET we get a message their support hours are until 7pm and then get forwarded to a voicemail system. After calling a dozen times pushing a million different buttons to get to someone we finally did. And the setup information they gave us was all incorrect again. Because by that time it was 6:45 the rep said well i cant help you anymore you have to call back on Monday, So now our business without phone service for the entire weekend, you try telling that to your customers.
Monday comes we speak to a rep and he tells us oh sorry about that our support pages have not been updated you were given the wrong information.
So we go through the setup with him. Changing around our router configuration and other setting on the phone itself. Then because the rep could provision the phone over the Internet which is required, he goes forward blaming our Router that it is blocking access to the phone from the Internet. Ok no problem so removed the router out of the equation entirely (mind you which is what you should NOT need to do) and the phone connected to their network and we provisioned the phone. (I should also mention this phone call was for over 3 hours) Mind you again we paid them a $100 setup fee for wrong information and to be thrown off the phone, ha what a joke!
While in use the coming weeks the service was so horrible constantly calls being dropped, Voice clarity choppy at best. Constant echos. Mind you we should also mention we pay our ISP over $400 a moth for the type of connection we have that should give you an idea of the reliability we have with our ISP. And We have had Vonage before switching and as bad as Vonage and expensive they are their reliability was so much better.
SO we called their Vocalocity tech support again and were told this time around that its because of our Modem AND our ISP. Hmmm funny how we never had this type of issue for the past 6 years of service with this ISP and Vonage. So we were also told that there is a "known issue" with the type of modem we have, which was not mentioned in the initial conversations when asked to the rep. So the rep said she will be sending us a known list of compatible modems that will work with their service. Fine we'll buy what we need to make it work. Of course we did not get the list. When we called back asking for the list another rep said there is no known list that doesnt exist, you have to have a modem thats directly connected without the VOIP capability. Ok so we call our ISP and asked them to send us the best of the best modem without a VOIP connection. Which they did within 2 hours, yes 2 hours, because we are that type of account.
So we installed this modem which is a Motorola Business calss, which as everyone in the world know when it comes to this stuff there is a reason why ISP's use Motorola, they are known to be the best of class.
So we get the rep back on the phone and tell them we got your modem issue fixed. Now they come back and say its your ISP because of a trace route issue. Mind you this 3 weeks into this whole ordeal. So after going back and forth between our ISP and Vocalocity, we ask the vocalocity rep if we can connect them to our Business class tech support with our ISP and they said "No we dont do that its your responsibility to contact your own ISP because we know the issue is with them and not us" funny how our ISP tech rep had no problem with doing a conference call but yet they did. And i can tell you why because they know their service stinks and have no way of correcting.
Here is some more issues
Network constantly drops calls. And thats IF the service even works in the first place.
Cant make outgoing calls.
We have to constantly restart the phone, and loose all our contacts on the phone, in order to reconnect to their network if it does connect. Then their networks drops the line entirely and doesn't even allow us to make or receive calls.
For over 1 month now their service drops every day and is out of service for at least 1- 2 hours throughout the day.
Their reps all they do is blame you or your equipment and even worse tell you to go read their support page documents which are wrong anyway. And leave you on hold for 30 minutes at a time.
We received a survey from them to fill out asking about the service here was our response below.
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1- your tech support loves to put the blame on my ISP for voice clarity issues, Drop calls, dropped network, or phone not service not working at all.
Let me just say this, i have never had the issues i am having with your service versus Vonage before i switched to your service.
Your company claims to not receive emails, and they consistently refer me to your support pages which are of no help whatsoever.
2- this is not to mention that in the beginning your support pages to setup the service is incorrectly written, password was wrong and other setup information. Took your company 3 days to get my service setup.
3- Then before even starting service with your company i specifically asked are there any known issues with my ISP and the answer was no. Great so i signed up. Later to find out that all your tech support reps is blame my ISP for clarity issues then also blame my modem claiming it has known issues with your service. Well that should have been taught to your sales reps, i think your tech support reps should take the place of your sale reps or get them together once a week for a meeting informing your sales team of "known issues" with certain equipment or ISP's.
I have dealt with some really bad support from HP, Dell, D-Link and others, however they at least tried to help with problems and not blame my equipment or others for their own issues.
Listen i understand VOIP is still somewhat a new technology and there are some glitches here and there but not as much as this.
Jared and Adam have sent me something called a trace route showing hiccups on servers to my location. I contacted my ISP and sat on the phone with them for 2 hours running tests and even tried pinging your IP which resulted with a zero response all together. Then you come back to me and tell me you have nothing to do with it and its my ISP blocking out certain ports. Well to tell you the ports that are blocked are common ports that are blocked for security as standard industry does with any ISP. My service is top notch and the voice clarity, dropped calls, AND dropped network are all form your end.
I offered you guys to explain your issues directly to my ISP but your answers were, "sorry we dont do that" or the only way Adam said he would is if he is given a direct line to contact some there in a higher status position than tier 1 reps. Excuse me you but no one tech rep at my ISP has a direct line. The tech reps i speak to at my ISP are all Business class reps with much higher knowledge than any tier 1 support, as they do not have tiers they are high tier support. But it seems i keep going in circles with your company. I do not know the technical terms to discuss any of the issues, your company claims are the problems, with my isp since day one. This why if we get your guys on the phone with my isp we can get this taken care of and explained properly instead causing a huge inconvenience to me, me business problems and headaches.
FYI your service dropped 3 phone calls yesterday and every day for the past 3 days the entire network is getting dropped where it allows incoming calls but does not allow outgoing. The only way to get to work again is to unplug the phone and plug it back in again, which caused all my contacts and speed dials to be lost, for to work again for a short while till i have to do it again.
I have tried to ping your IP and get no response so there is a problem somewhere and im not the only one on the internet with your company that have the same exact issues as mine.
My bandwidth is ridiculous and have never had an issue with it for over 2 years. I invested in a $350 phone just to use with your service not to mention the investment in what you guys call "setup fees" which is absolutely bogus. If you call the setup i received a valid setup and charging me $100 for it your wrong, its really a rip off.
But im stuck with your service till i find someone else...
If you really want to help you can contact me and i have a rep at my ISP waiting to talk to you guys. And you two can explain all your technical jargon to each other and figure out a way to fix this. If not then fine too ill consider you a loss and a waste of money till i fond another provider.
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After sending this email on May 2nd 2008 we received a call from a rep on May 6th saying she will help and get things fixed for us. Well guess what happened today for 2 hours their entire network was down, and when i say entire i mean it. You could not even call them to their main tech support line, we couldn't make or receive calls. When someone dialed our number all they would get is a dropped call and it wouldn't even ring. And when we tried to make a call all we would get is a ringing and then the call would drop.
Basically, if you like your sanity stay away from this company they are horrible to say the least. I wish the FCC would tax these companies so we can force them to take responsibility and provide a service.
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