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Linksys PAP2 Phone Adapter for Vonage Internet Phone Service
By: Linksys Average Rating: 3.0 Total Reviews: 100
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 On: 2008-06-19
Do not accept positive reviews on this product unless they are more than a year old.
I dont care which router you buy from Vonage, you will certainly regret it. I have had Vonage for about 4 years now and once a year no matter what, your router will go bad and you will have to get on the phone with these people. The customer service could no be any worse. My router stopped working again for about the 5th time since i started the service. Today I was on the phone for more than an hour and the rep told me that if I had any more problems that they would not be able to replace my router again. Please keep in mind that they have never replaced a router for free since the very first year. I have never, never been so frustrated in my life with any other customer service. Not to mention the fact that my phone will be down for about 7 days while I wait for my new equipment. The service is so bad, that the last time this happened I didnt even bother calling customer service until I know I had about 1.5 hrs free to deal with them. Trust me, it is not worth it in my opinion. As soon as I get this new eqipment, i will throw it on ebay and go back to my old hardline service. Even if you see good reviews on here, I can assure you that those people are new to the service and have not had to deal with them on the phone yet. Buyer beware, buy at your own risk.
 On: 2008-03-17
Weve had this Linksys since Nov 2005 and have traveled quite a bit with it outside of the United States. Its worked perfectly up until this morning when for whatever reason it stopped working. Im ordering another to replace it since we had no issues with this one. Would have given 5 stars but then again I am replacing it because it broke thats the only reason I gave it 4 stars.
 On: 2008-02-26
Maybe its me.. but I have had lousy luck with Linksys and long term reliability. This unit worked well out of the box, but stopped working after only 6 months. I had a similar issue with a Linksys Wirelss Router.. and Linksys tech support was of little help. My recommendation, stay away from Linksys.
On: 2008-02-02
When I terminated Vonage service, they charged the disconnection fee of around $30.00; however, they never advertise this anywhere. I was not aware of the hidden fees by vonage. I am outraged by this.
It took me almost 20 minutes to tell them I want to disconnect the service, but the operator would not accept this and wasted lots of my time, and I had to tell them again and again that I just want to disconnect the service, finally they did.
Now that I dont have vongage anymore, they have bombarded my mailbox with specials, and they need to stop this as well.
I am not recommending Vonage to anyone, especially because of bad support.
 On: 2008-01-08
THIS PRODUCT IS SMALL, COMPACT, AND EFFICIENT. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A ROUTER AVAILABLE BEFORE USING THIS ITEM.
 On: 2007-11-25
I have three of these adapters and theyve all done fine in my network. Simple, easy to install, what else could you ask for.
On: 2007-11-21
In terms of size, it has a lot more benefit than the previous models. in terms of functioning, I dont see any impressive improvement. make sure you call Vonage to register this adapter before you use it (give them the serial number).
On: 2007-11-14
I bought this to replace my three year old Vonage phone adapter. I was having voice quality issues. Installation was quick and easy. As soon as the Linksys adapter was installed, I stopped having voice quality problems. However, now my caller ID works only occasionally. And my voicemail waiting indicator light (on the telephone) works sporadically at best.
Linksys got the important stuff right - I can make clear calls again. But they need to sweat the details a bit more.
On: 2007-11-13
I bought this to replace my three year old Vonage phone adapter. I was having voice quality issues. Installation was quick and easy. As soon as the Linksys adapter was installed, I stopped having voice quality problems. However, now my caller ID works only occasionally. And my voicemail waiting indicator light (on the telephone) works sporadically at best.
Linksys got the important stuff right - I can make clear calls again. But they need to sweat the details a bit more.
On: 2007-08-10
And Vonage will not give you a new one, no matter how long you have been a customer. To make it worse, these VOIP routers are a ripoff compared to the price of a decent, unlocked router. I had one of these for a couple years and it drops packets constantly now. It cant even route.
On: 2007-08-09
And Vonage will not give you a new one, no matter how long you have been a customer. To make it worse, these VOIP routers are a ripoff compared to the price of a decent, unlocked router. I had one of these for a couple years and it drops packets constantly now. It cant even route.
On: 2007-06-15
I got this adapter about a week ago and so far absolutely no problems using this device and the Vonage service from Trinidad, which is in the Caribbean. Setup was a breeze and audio quality is crystal clear despite opting to use the lowest bandwidth option of the Vonage bandwidth saver feature.
I havent awarded 5 stars because of the shortness of the evaluation period.
Important setup tip:
Make sure your firewalls (ISP and/or LAN) are configured to allow connection to the Vonage server.
Karl W.
by: healthathand On: 2007-05-12
I just arrived in Colombia. Bought this before I left so I can call back home. Its compact and perfect. I plugged it in to the router and brought a telephone which I plugged in. Immediate dial tone. Im thinking Ill maybe carry it back and forth to work so I can have a phone all day.
by: ccollins119 On: 2007-05-04
Im amazed at the sound quality and features of this device. At first I was skeptical but after calling London, the Bahamas, New York, Grand Cayman Island, Seattle, and various U.S. stations, Im convinced that Cisco / Linksys knows what the heck they are doing. Vonage has a pretty clear voice quality on their network. Im not going to knock anybody here. If you dont like Vonage then use another service. Hey! Its a free country. Nobody forces you to use Vonage. We are not under Taliban rule yet... Heeeeeee!
by: Anonymous On: 2007-03-22
Be aware that the device is locked and is possible to use only the Vonage Service. Since the device has 2 ports, I was planning to buy Vonage (since I like the idea) and use it on one port. On the other port, I planned to use another service, which I have available in my country of origin (just so that relatives and parents could easily call me with a local phone number) and it is cheaper than the Vonage solution. I cant do it. Vonage locked the device, both ports. Thats a bit too much, an infringement of my freedom. Also because in principle you could buy the item without asking for Vonage service!
I was so upset that I was about to cancel my brand new Vonage subscription. I dont wanna have anything to do with people that undermine my freedom for their commercial purposes. At the end, I just bought another cheap device to use with my overseas number and Ill probably keep (but hate) the Vonage. Ill have what I wanted, but I had to spend more, and I will remain with some clutter on my desk and a potential future paperweight dsl adapter. What a deal!!
by: larry_haas On: 2007-03-20
I have had this adapter and Vonage for a year, I decided to go to SunRocket due to price and reviews I have seen. I knew that I had a 1 year contract with Vonage so I called them 2 days prior to the end of my contract to tell them I did not wish to renew, they said that they could not do it for me then, that I would have to wait until my 1 year was up. This was Friday, 1-year up was Sunday...Only open Monday thru Friday to deactivate. If I was to do it on Friday I would have a $39.99 deactivation charge, so call back on Monday and we will cancel then and waive the service you will not be using. I called first thing on Monday, 5 Min after they were open, talked with no less than 5 people. Long story short, No refund for just billed month, poorest customer service I have ever experienced. Vonage admitted that there was no way to avoid 13 month charge (Now it is 24 month or $40). Save yourself the headache, AVOID Vonage.
Since I have changed to a new provider I have less echo, and less delay when the landline answers. This could have been caused by many factors that were out of Vonages control, but I will never put myself through dealing with them again.
On: 2007-03-19
I have had this adapter and Vonage for a year, I decided to go to SunRocket due to price and reviews I have seen. I knew that I had a 1 year contract with Vonage so I called them 2 days prior to the end of my contract to tell them I did not wish to renew, they said that they could not do it for me then, that I would have to wait until my 1 year was up. This was Friday, 1-year up was Sunday...Only open Monday thru Friday to deactivate. If I was to do it on Friday I would have a $39.99 deactivation charge, so call back on Monday and we will cancel then and waive the service you will not be using. I called first thing on Monday, 5 Min after they were open, talked with no less than 5 people. Long story short, No refund for just billed month, poorest customer service I have ever experienced. Vonage admitted that there was no way to avoid 13 month charge (Now it is 24 month or $40). Save yourself the headache, AVOID Vonage.
Since I have changed to a new provider I have less echo, and less delay when the landline answers. This could have been caused by many factors that were out of Vonages control, but I will never put myself through dealing with them again.
by: redwolfe3 On: 2007-03-09
Works as advertised...but item could not be sent to an APO address.
On: 2007-01-05
1.5 years now. I am still happy about switching now as i was than.
Yes, it toke about a month to switch my land line over; I also found out that those delays were Ma Bells issues, they were wure to charge me for the weeks it toke.
As far as connection and usage issues. Iv read alot ot the pro and con reviews and this is what i figured out.
1) If you are network savy, you are probably goin to find this product great. By savy I mean, knowing how to use hubs/switches/routers and/or gettin you whole house wired to this device.
2) If you are not and have some issue ... You wil have a hard time getting this product going right if you have slow or a poor ISP, have packet collision which can be resolved by installing a switch like device, if you hate service calls routed to India. I recommend having a network award friend around to hook it up for you.
Recommendtions: Buy a UPS, Run you home network using a hub and a switch. Have 2BPS+ ISP service.
BTW .. i just ordered a second line for my FAX/Network Printer
On: 2007-01-04
1.5 years now. I am still happy about switching now as i was than.
Yes, it toke about a month to switch my land line over; I also found out that those delays were Ma Bells issues, they were wure to charge me for the weeks it toke.
As far as connection and usage issues. Iv read alot ot the pro and con reviews and this is what i figured out.
1) If you are network savy, you are probably goin to find this product great. By savy I mean, knowing how to use hubs/switches/routers and/or gettin you whole house wired to this device.
2) If you are not and have some issue ... You wil have a hard time getting this product going right if you have slow or a poor ISP, have packet collision which can be resolved by installing a switch like device, if you hate service calls routed to India. I recommend having a network award friend around to hook it up for you.
Recommendtions: Buy a UPS, Run you home network using a hub and a switch. Have 2BPS+ ISP service.
BTW .. i just ordered a second line for my FAX/Network Printer
On: 2006-12-29
Hello,
I have been a happy vonage customer for the past two years. Eventually, I ordered a new Vonage line and put it overseas (In Jordan) at my parents house. My parents have this router and I have older version of Vonage routers. I love the call forwarding feature and free calling anywhere I want in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
The sound quality is excellent and the features are one of the best. Everytime I go overseas and call my boss he gets puzzled I am calling him from Jordan using a local U.S. number.
On: 2006-12-09
Most of the comments and ratings under this adapter are about Vonage service itself and have nothing to do with, and often dont even mention, the Linksys PAP2.
I do not own this product, but am in need of such a device. By posting off-topic rantings and providing ratings on anything other than this product, you make finding such a device more difficult and time consuming.
As far as I can tell, the vast majority of the comments about the adapter have been very positive. The only exception seems to be from those who wanted to use this adapter for another service and were unable to unlock it. Well, it does say "for Vonage" in the title...
AMAZON: please remove all the off-topic reviews (including this one), youd sell more of these units, and I could find what Im looking for.
On: 2006-11-07
We have had our Linksys PAP2 Vonage phone adapter for over a year and never have had a problem with it. Its too bad people are reviewing Vonages "service" vs Linksys "product" in these reviews. Ive never done anything but plug the adapter in and it works like a charm! Good job Linksys!
On: 2006-11-06
We have had our Linksys PAP2 Vonage phone adapter for over a year and never have had a problem with it. Its too bad people are reviewing Vonages "service" vs Linksys "product" in these reviews. Ive never done anything but plug the adapter in and it works like a charm! Good job Linksys!
On: 2006-11-05
I already had a WiFi router and the combo, co-branded Linksys / Vonage routers have had some awful reviews. Ive had this for about eight months and it works fine. Simple, plug-in set up, plays well with my router and network. Never given me any problems of significance; I had to reset it once after a power outage, thats the worse thing.
My only real complaint is the blue LED lights on the front are REALLY REALLY BRIGHT. You definitely want to put it somewhere where you dont sleep, or conceal it, or, as I did, put some black gaf tape over the lights.
Great device for someone looking something simple and straight forward.
On: 2006-11-04
I already had a WiFi router and the combo, co-branded Linksys / Vonage routers have had some awful reviews. Ive had this for about eight months and it works fine. Simple, plug-in set up, plays well with my router and network. Never given me any problems of significance; I had to reset it once after a power outage, thats the worse thing.
My only real complaint is the blue LED lights on the front are REALLY REALLY BRIGHT. You definitely want to put it somewhere where you dont sleep, or conceal it, or, as I did, put some black gaf tape over the lights.
Great device for someone looking something simple and straight forward.
by: wludford On: 2006-10-14
I had Vonage since April, 2006. I finally switched back to Qwest after unending problems and hours and hours on the phone (my cell phone, as my Vonage line didnt work) with tech support. Here is my experience:
1) It took about 2 months and about 2 hours on the phone for them to switch my existing phone # over to Vonage. Dont be too excited about getting the first month free- if your moving an existing number it will take about that long to get it switched over.
2) After my number was finally switched over, outgoing calls were constantly being dropped after about 20-30 seconds. Incoming calls would also be dropped occasionally after about a minute. This resulted in having to call the person back, saying "sorry the call was dropped- we switched to this cheaper phone service and have been having problems...."
This is with the highest speed cable internet service available (8mbps download, 600kbps upload) and a wireless g system which has provided top notch internet service consistently while I had Vonage problems. I spent no less than 4 - 5 calls and over 5 hours on the phone with tech support trying to fix the problem. After talking with tech support, sometimes the problem would be fixed temporarily- while I was on the phone with them- but return shortly thereafter.
3) As a result of the problems I had, I asked to be credited for the months in which my phone service was not working. Be warned, they are very hard-nosed about providing any credits for poor or no service. I spoke to a tech support person about getting a credit for a month of no service, and he told me to wait until the problem had been fixed so they could determine how much credit should be given. After the problem had been fixed (temporarily), I called back and they told me they could only provide credit for the current month, not previous months of no or poor service. THEY ARE NOT CUSTOMER FRIENDLY ABOUT PROVIDING REFUNDS FOR POOR OR NO SERVICE.
4) Finally, in September, still with dropped calls from Vonage, I switched back to Qwest to get reliable phone service. I found customer service there has improved and is much better than Vonage. And they gave me 3 months free promotion for coming back.
In the end, I am happy to pay the extra $10/month (after the first 3 months free) to get phone service that works. I notice that $5 of the extra cost is for fees, etc. that the phone company has to charge but Vonage does not, which is unfortunate. In any case, I guess you get what you pay for.
One last thing: Vonage has never made a profit and many business analysts say with their current business plan, they never will. This means eventually they will either go out of business, or have to raise rates.
Save yourself the problems I had- pay the extra $ to get phone service that works.
On: 2006-10-13
I had Vonage since April, 2006. I finally switched back to Qwest after unending problems and hours and hours on the phone (my cell phone, as my Vonage line didnt work) with tech support. Here is my experience:
1) It took about 2 months and about 2 hours on the phone for them to switch my existing phone # over to Vonage. Dont be too excited about getting the first month free- if your moving an existing number it will take about that long to get it switched over.
2) After my number was finally switched over, outgoing calls were constantly being dropped after about 20-30 seconds. Incoming calls would also be dropped occasionally after about a minute. This resulted in having to call the person back, saying "sorry the call was dropped- we switched to this cheaper phone service and have been having problems...."
This is with the highest speed cable internet service available (8mbps download, 600kbps upload) and a wireless g system which has provided top notch internet service consistently while I had Vonage problems. I spent no less than 4 - 5 calls and over 5 hours on the phone with tech support trying to fix the problem. After talking with tech support, sometimes the problem would be fixed temporarily- while I was on the phone with them- but return shortly thereafter.
3) As a result of the problems I had, I asked to be credited for the months in which my phone service was not working. Be warned, they are very hard-nosed about providing any credits for poor or no service. I spoke to a tech support person about getting a credit for a month of no service, and he told me to wait until the problem had been fixed so they could determine how much credit should be given. After the problem had been fixed (temporarily), I called back and they told me they could only provide credit for the current month, not previous months of no or poor service. THEY ARE NOT CUSTOMER FRIENDLY ABOUT PROVIDING REFUNDS FOR POOR OR NO SERVICE.
4) Finally, in September, still with dropped calls from Vonage, I switched back to Qwest to get reliable phone service. I found customer service there has improved and is much better than Vonage. And they gave me 3 months free promotion for coming back.
In the end, I am happy to pay the extra $10/month (after the first 3 months free) to get phone service that works. I notice that $5 of the extra cost is for fees, etc. that the phone company has to charge but Vonage does not, which is unfortunate. In any case, I guess you get what you pay for.
One last thing: Vonage has never made a profit and many business analysts say with their current business plan, they never will. This means eventually they will either go out of business, or have to raise rates.
Save yourself the problems I had- pay the extra $ to get phone service that works.
On: 2006-09-12
We started using Vonage in Feb. 2006 and we could never get it to work, their tech support would always tell us to unplug the box and we neede a faster internet connection, finally after 4 months of fighting it we went back to our local provider...then every month we were still getting charged for our Vonage service. Vonage would tell us that they never received the cancellation calls and that we were still using the service(which was disconnected from our computer) They lie through their teeth and we still havent resolved the issue. Do a search on Vonage complaints and youll see we arent the only ones.
On: 2006-08-18
It takes 6 weeks to transfer your old # to connect this same # to the vonage line. (yes, you need to wait 6 weeks to be able to use your old #. in the meantime, you get a temporary #, which doesnt make sense giving out to people coz its gonna change again in 6 weeks - but if you dont give it to them, how are they going to be able to call you? ... but why would you give them a temporary # in the first place??? grrrr ...) Then theres customer service people that speak with a heavy accent that i couldnt understand, which makes everything about vonage incomprehensible. (This should have been a flag for me, but I believe Im an educated consumer, and what they couldnt give me over the phone, I did my own research.) And if its not on the net, they give you incorrect information (be sure to call at least 6 times if you want to cancel your account; otherwise they will keep charging you). Follow through with everything they say because what is on their records could be inaccurate, like what happened to me. Do not contact them through their email system. Its a miracle if you DONT get an automated response. And even when you do, be sure to call them still, and make sure that what they emailed to you is the same as what is staring at the reps face. Also, equipment is very UNuser friendly. dont use it if you want to keep it simple, and that you just want to press a button to check your messages. You have to go through more than 3 people to ask your questions from setup to billing. Unfair and unlawful, thats what they will do to you. If I could rate this 0, thats what it would get. It doesnt even deserve one star.
On: 2006-08-16
There are dozens of service providers out there with different options but the PAP2 is locked to Vonage. You cant use any other provider unless you can get the unlock password from Vonage (which they wont give you) and reprogram your PAP2. Buy the PAP2-NA instead which isnt locked.
On: 2006-08-15
There are dozens of service providers out there with different options but the PAP2 is locked to Vonage. You cant use any other provider unless you can get the unlock password from Vonage (which they wont give you) and reprogram your PAP2. Buy the PAP2-NA instead which isnt locked.
On: 2006-08-13
I am going to strictly comment on the Linksys PAP2. A lot of the reviews on here have been for the Vonage service. The Linksys PAP2 is NOT THE Vonage service, but one of many adapters you can use.
I am extreamly satisfied with my Linksys PAP2. It is small, light weight, and perfect for those who need to travel. The voice quality is excellent and people say I do not sound like I am talking over VOIP. There is no line noise, static, popping, etc.
I am giving this product 4 stars. Why? Because there is only ONE ethernet port. If you have a router, just connect the PAP2 to one of your available ethernet ports and you are good to go. If you do not have a router, consider getting another Vonage phone adapter with built in 4-port router. There are several.
On: 2006-07-19
I read the other reviews and dont understand where they are coming from UNLESS they are all by AT&T or BELL employees. Ive had Vonage for 3 years and have nothing but good things to say about it. I have local numbers for Seattle, Salt Lake City, Boston and San Francisco so my friends can stay in touch. These numbers only cost me $4.99/each a month. Customer service is excellent. They stay right on the phone with you until everything works perfectly. This is especially nice after they added 911 service.
On: 2006-07-11
I just want to say Ive have had Vonage for more then two years and had my phone number transferred to them. My Vonage service has been excellent with very few problems.
I was considering purchasing this item, but have decided against is because of the reviews. The reason I posted this review is because people are knocking Vonage because of there experience with their service using this product. I do agree if this product is so bad Vonage should stop marketing this device and they are responsible.
It sounds like the issue is this equipment. I am using the Motorola Vonage Adapter with no issues.
On: 2006-07-08
Stay away from vonage! I have had it for several months, and have been trying to cancel it. I have been put on hold a MINUMUM of 45 minutes to and HOUR each time, and then transferred to someone ELSE who then does the bait and switch AGAIN. When you go to their web site, the only thing you can get is their custumer service number, which takes you RIGHT BACK to the same old nonsense. I need to cancel because of a military deployment, and all Im getting is a run around...the same thing happened with AOL, but this is EVEN WORSE. There are tons of blogs out now about how VONAGE SUCKS...check them out. Its no wonder this company is tanking, their customer service is the absolute WORST!!!!!!!! I hope they read this.... they really need to change!!!
On: 2006-07-07
Stay away from vonage! I have had it for several months, and have been trying to cancel it. I have been put on hold a MINUMUM of 45 minutes to and HOUR each time, and then transferred to someone ELSE who then does the bait and switch AGAIN. When you go to their web site, the only thing you can get is their custumer service number, which takes you RIGHT BACK to the same old nonsense. I need to cancel because of a military deployment, and all Im getting is a run around...the same thing happened with AOL, but this is EVEN WORSE. There are tons of blogs out now about how VONAGE SUCKS...check them out. Its no wonder this company is tanking, their customer service is the absolute WORST!!!!!!!! I hope they read this.... they really need to change!!!
On: 2006-06-27
I have been using Vonage for my small business for the last year and unfortunately will be switching back to regular phone service soon. Vonage is certainly much cheaper than regular phone service. Unfortunately the service just is not there yet. We have had regular outages (read weekly) that are not related to our internet service provider. This afternoon, our customers simply could not reach us by phone. If you called our number it just rang and rang. The system has a failsafe designed to route calls to voicemail in the event of an outage. Unfortunately, it doesnt work. Calls to tech support are greeted by 5 minutes of holding followed by a recording that says no one is available and hangs up on you. This service may be fine for dorm rooms but it just doesnt cut it for business customers.
On: 2006-06-26
I have been using Vonage for my small business for the last year and unfortunately will be switching back to regular phone service soon. Vonage is certainly much cheaper than regular phone service. Unfortunately the service just is not there yet. We have had regular outages (read weekly) that are not related to our internet service provider. This afternoon, our customers simply could not reach us by phone. If you called our number it just rang and rang. The system has a failsafe designed to route calls to voicemail in the event of an outage. Unfortunately, it doesnt work. Calls to tech support are greeted by 5 minutes of holding followed by a recording that says no one is available and hangs up on you. This service may be fine for dorm rooms but it just doesnt cut it for business customers.
On: 2006-06-15
Signed up for Vonage in May. Its now August, and they still cannot get phone number transferred. Called to cancel service, and the operator tried everything possible to argue against. Then threatened to charge $39 for disconnection fee, even though reason for disconnection is Vonages own disability to do phone number transfer. Most serious service providers would recognize their own deficiency and treat their customers better. I might have decided to try their service in the future, but after this experience that is no longer in my plans.
On: 2006-06-02
I have read many of the other reviews and understand their complaints regarding Indian tech support, but you will have the same experience calling any companys support line INCLUDING AMAZON.COM. It seems a necessary evil, at least for the time being however I find it amazing that they cant find the same quality or better tech support here in the USA.
The quality of the phone service itself is great. Those people that have had problems with it could have just as easily blamed their internet service provider for the quality of their connection. Your Vonage connection will only be as good as your internet connection. Seeing how I have had excellent service from Vonage during the same time that many of these people have had horrible service Id say that their internet connection is to blame. Cable modems are bad, you are on a passive ring with the rest of the cable customers in you immediate area. If a cable service comes out to connect or disconnect one of your neighbors, there is a very real chance that you will get dropped calls. Contrary to what you see in the cable commercials you stand a better chance of getting a better quality connection with the same or better speed for about the same cost using DSL over cable modems.
Id give them 4 stars, the quality of the service is 5 stars but using poorly trained support people in India is ZERO stars. I have only had one problem so I am not docking more than one point because of their poor support.
On: 2006-05-25
I have been a vonage customer for 2 1/2 years. I have had a number of lines with them and I have found their features and ease of changing things on the web to be invaluable at times. Also, the rates are very good compared to the Bells rates.
With that said, Vonage has been like a monkey on my back. My wife will not stop complaining about dropped calls, etc. We have finally decided that we have to drop Vonage and, luckily, through the competition vonage has provided, the rates at ATT are not so bad any more. I still wish that they would make the features as easy to use as Vonage via internet, but Ill take a crystal clear call over great features any day.
Our biggest quality problem has been latency on the line. When you call someone, you typically do not hear their first word after answering. I uesd it for business for a time, and I had to have my receptionist count to 1 before saying hello. I probably spent 3 hours on the phone with their people about this (2 hours of which were on hold, probably) and no one ever could solve it. I finally decided its a known problem they just are not able to deal with. We tried every possible configuration of the box/router/cable modem, and the latency exists even when the calls are forwarded with no box at all attached.
Equipment - you have to buy the equipment now. One of our boxes died and they charged us $99 for a new one. Thats egregious. At least ma bell doesnt make you buy their computers.
The other problem is service. I just wrote this while on hold for their people so I could cancel the first of the 4 lines I will be canceling over the next few weeks. They answered after 33 minutes. The guy was nice, but PLEASE!
Vonage is a company that was designed to be taken public and sold to the highest bidder within 5 years of founding it. The CEO is a serial entrepreneur (nothing wrong with that, mind you), and he knows how to get as much as possible for his efforts. The policies of the company, especially its focus on growth while just trying to placate existing customers is refleictive of this. Having spent two years and about $3,000 in charges as part of their growth strategy, I am in a position to give this advice - DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, SWITCH TO VONAGE AS YOUR MAIN PHONE SERVICE. IT IS A NOVELTY AND NOVELTIES WEAR OFF.
On: 2006-05-10
Believe me, you do not want Vonage service. You will curse your luck that you ever signed up for it. I bought this unit few months ago. The vonage service worked for few days and then unit started giving trouble. It would not work half the time. Then one fine day it stopped working. I still have my land line so I wanted to cancel the Vonage account. I called the account dept several times but nobody would pick up the phone. I waited a total of 7 hours trying to get hold of somebody who would take my call. The only live person I could get to were from technical support who were of no use. On top of all this I was told that there is cancellation fee of $40. I still cannot figure out how to cancel my account. Looks like I will have take the vonage account to my grave.
SO DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT
On: 2006-05-03
I called on March 30th to sign up for service. I received my VOIP router a couple of days later and set it up. I was able to make outgoing calls about 1 out of 8 tries. I called up technical support and spoke with several people in India and to say they were poorly trained is being very kind. One technician had me power down my wireless router (wait 2 minutes), power down the Vonage router (wait 2 more minutes) and then power down my cable modem (wait another 2 minutes). This did not fix the problem but succeeded in raising my blood pressure a few points. I believe it was third or fourth call to tech support that I was finally forwarded to advanced technical support. This technician was not any better. His solution was to record the time and date of the outgoing calls that did not go through and then to call back. I have managed technical support departments in a previous career and this was not my idea of support. I was transferred to a supervisor (I believe his name was Darren) and I asked to terminate service. He talked me into giving Vonage another chance (BIG MISTAKE!). Another router was sent out (I had to pay to ship the original one back) and I set it up. Honestly, it did not work right out of the box. I looked in the manual and went through the router setup (I am not sure if I made any significant changes) and it started to work.
I used the service for about 10 days and it worked OK but did have an issue with a few calls where only one party could hear the other. After my first 2 plus hour experience with the tech support department, I decided to go back to Comcast phone service. I wouldnt wish talking to their support people on my worst enemy.
Comcast told me to wait as long as possible to cancel the service, so that I would not lose my phone number in the transfer. The last day of my 30 day trial was Saturday April 29th. I logged onto the website, where I can do anything but cancel my service, to get the phone number to call. Well guess what, you cant speak to the account management department on the weekend.
I called on Monday May 1st and spent more than an hour on the phone trying to cancel my service. I was told that I was out of luck on the 30 day trial and then found out that even though the service rep (Damian) said my service was cancelled, it actually wasnt. I called back and spoke to Seth and he said I would have to talk to the Account Management Dept. which had another 25+ minute wait. I decided to call back on Tuesday, May 1st.
After sitting on hold for 40 minutes, I spoke with Darren. I believe this was actually the supervisor who convinced me to give Vonage another chance on or about April 6th. He told me once again that nothing could be done because I had used up the 30 day trial.
I will contact American Express tomorrow to try to contest this bill, which I am unsure if I will win. I have been with AMEX for 17 years because they actually service the customer. So I have spent the following for approximately 150 minutes of phone usage:
Initial shipping $14.99
Shipping of bad router $ 8.00
1 Months service $28.21
Termination Fee $99.98
Total: $151.58
Try at your own risk!!!
On: 2006-05-02
I called on March 30th to sign up for service. I received my VOIP router a couple of days later and set it up. I was able to make outgoing calls about 1 out of 8 tries. I called up technical support and spoke with several people in India and to say they were poorly trained is being very kind. One technician had me power down my wireless router (wait 2 minutes), power down the Vonage router (wait 2 more minutes) and then power down my cable modem (wait another 2 minutes). This did not fix the problem but succeeded in raising my blood pressure a few points. I believe it was third or fourth call to tech support that I was finally forwarded to advanced technical support. This technician was not any better. His solution was to record the time and date of the outgoing calls that did not go through and then to call back. I have managed technical support departments in a previous career and this was not my idea of support. I was transferred to a supervisor (I believe his name was Darren) and I asked to terminate service. He talked me into giving Vonage another chance (BIG MISTAKE!). Another router was sent out (I had to pay to ship the original one back) and I set it up. Honestly, it did not work right out of the box. I looked in the manual and went through the router setup (I am not sure if I made any significant changes) and it started to work.
I used the service for about 10 days and it worked OK but did have an issue with a few calls where only one party could hear the other. After my first 2 plus hour experience with the tech support department, I decided to go back to Comcast phone service. I wouldnt wish talking to their support people on my worst enemy.
Comcast told me to wait as long as possible to cancel the service, so that I would not lose my phone number in the transfer. The last day of my 30 day trial was Saturday April 29th. I logged onto the website, where I can do anything but cancel my service, to get the phone number to call. Well guess what, you cant speak to the account management department on the weekend.
I called on Monday May 1st and spent more than an hour on the phone trying to cancel my service. I was told that I was out of luck on the 30 day trial and then found out that even though the service rep (Damian) said my service was cancelled, it actually wasnt. I called back and spoke to Seth and he said I would have to talk to the Account Management Dept. which had another 25+ minute wait. I decided to call back on Tuesday, May 1st.
After sitting on hold for 40 minutes, I spoke with Darren. I believe this was actually the supervisor who convinced me to give Vonage another chance on or about April 6th. He told me once again that nothing could be done because I had used up the 30 day trial.
I will contact American Express tomorrow to try to contest this bill, which I am unsure if I will win. I have been with AMEX for 17 years because they actually service the customer. So I have spent the following for approximately 150 minutes of phone usage:
Initial shipping $14.99
Shipping of bad router $ 8.00
1 Months service $28.21
Termination Fee $99.98
Total: $151.58
Try at your own risk!!!
On: 2006-04-06
First, let me say the call center is in India and the customer service absolutely stinks! But, before you even talk to someone, its at least a 35-40 minute wait. And try cancelling your account. They make it practically impossible to do so.
I dont understand how a company with such poor customer service can even stay in business.
On: 2006-04-05
First, let me say the call center is in India and the customer service absolutely stinks! But, before you even talk to someone, its at least a 35-40 minute wait. And try cancelling your account. They make it practically impossible to do so.
I dont understand how a company with such poor customer service can even stay in business.
On: 2006-03-28
I switched from landline to Vonage July 2005. The first modem they sent me didnt work straight from the box so I had to pay to send that back and they sent me this modem. This modem just died, not even a year later. I had trouble with not receiving calls too. Vonage customer support is horrible. They hardly speak English and they had me try a few options to get the router to work then said sorry its dead, buy a new one. I like the cost and general vonage service, but I think this modem sucks and I think their tech support needs work.
On: 2006-03-27
I was very excited on switching to Vonage until I had to deal with the terrible VoIP quality that the phone provided and the awful Indian call support center.
Vonage will tell you it is easy to switch your current phone number to their service. All it takes is a couple of clicks. In reality it takes 3 months of waiting, several cryptic emails (when you call Vonage inquiring about the email they have no idea that you were even sent an email), and the WORST customer support I have ever encountered.
I believe that I could come up with a better solution by employing my dog to man customer support center and stretching a string with two tin cans for the service.
On: 2006-03-27
I was a happy customer of Vonage for 7 months. The service was great, their website was excellent and the features they provided to control your account online was excellent.
Note: That said, VOIP phones are not in anyway comparable to landline phones yet, in terms of quality. You get bad sound, echo, etc. When you are on a serious call (example attending an interview or facing a client), you get all sort of noises and static that sounds as if you are poor in quality. The person on the other end will wait to end the conversation rather than go ahead with it. Also if you are downloading or uploading something on your computer with the same broadband connection, the sound quality is too bad. So its best to stop any downloads/uploads on your computer before picking up the phone.
Now back to the Vonage story. On the 7th month, I had to disconnect my broadband service from Comcast as Comcast increased their prices to 65$ per month which is crazy to pay for an internet connection at home. Comcast is the only internet provider in my area and hence I no longer broadband connection. Hence the Vonage service became useless and I called to cancel service. My horrible experience with Vonage started here.
I had to wait 35 minutes to get a customer rep online. The rep asked me the reason why I am cancelling. When I explained the reason he made fun of me saying I must be crazy to cancel broadband and go for dialup which is history. Will his father pay the 65$ for the broadband? I wanted to ask but did not. To my horror, the rep said that I have to pay 40$ cancellation fee as I was not a customer for an year. This is crazy. When I revolted he said that it is mentioned in one of the fine-prints and offered me to send an URL to my email id. I finally ended up paying 40$ to cancel their service.
If a landline company charges cancellation fees it is understandable as they have done some manaul work to provide and disconnect service. But Vonage provides service on our existing internet connection and they have no right to charge cancellation fees. I will never again buy Vonage service.
On: 2006-03-26
I was very excited on switching to Vonage until I had to deal with the terrible VoIP quality that the phone provided and the awful Indian call support center.
Vonage will tell you it is easy to switch your current phone number to their service. All it takes is a couple of clicks. In reality it takes 3 months of waiting, several cryptic emails (when you call Vonage inquiring about the email they have no idea that you were even sent an email), and the WORST customer support I have ever encountered.
I believe that I could come up with a better solution by employing my dog to man customer support center and stretching a string with two tin cans for the service.
On: 2006-03-18
Ive had Vonage service for a few months and its been fine. I bought the PAP2, registered on the Vonage website, plugged it in behind my router and had a dial tone. After testing it for a few weeks, I was confident enough to port my home number over. The port process took about 2 weeks and now 100% of my land line service is through Vonage.
Reliability has been great - with the exception a voicemail problem that lasted a few hours the first weekend we had it, theres been no service issues at all. Voice quality is fine - indistinguishable from the POTS line it replaced. Call quality to the UK (Im in Texas) has been superb - better than the land line. Im using a cable broadband service that provides ~5mb down and 380k up, which has very good ping times and reliability.
Feature set is good, too. You get Voicemail with email notification (which is my favorite feature, by far), CallerID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, etc. There are lots of other features that I dont use - 3 way calling, call hunting, etc. E911 service is active in my area. The only feature thats missing is Name on outbound CallerID. This may not be a problem if you port an existing number to Vonage, but on new Vonage numbers, when calling others, their CallerID will not show your name - only your number. This is a gap Vonage needs to close - I dont usually answer calls without names on them, so I imagine people arent answering mine.
There are some shortcomings of Vonage and voip in general, though. First, it will -never- be as reliable as your old POTS service. If you expect it to be, youll be disappointed. POTS is probably the most stable consumer technology ever invented. Its built on a system of very expensive, redundant networks which are constantly monitored, and the providers are regulated to provide specific levels of up-time. VoIP has no regulation. Its dependent on your broadband connection - which is nowhere near as stable as a typical land line phone line, and it runs through cheap consumer level adaptors like the PAP2, which offer no redundancy or fail-over. Its dependent on your power being up and doesnt provide any backup power source (unless you provide it). There are many more points for failure on voip than on a standard POTS line, and it will be down more often than POTS due to that even if the voip provider is perfect. That doesnt mean that its down all the time - or even often - but if youre the type of person that freaks out anytime something doesnt work perfectly, stick with POTS.
Secondly, Vonage spends a lot of money advertising this stuff as requiring no intelligence to set up. Thats incorrect. The adaptor may be plug and play, but if you dont understand the technology, youll likely be disappointed. If your PC is full of spyware thats hogging your upload bandwidth, the service will perform poorly. If you have a mis-configured router, the service will perform poorly. If your broadband connection is poor, this service will perform poorly (voip doesnt consume a lot of bandwidth - ~90kb/sec up and down stream max - however, it does require a stable connection with low latency to work well. If you dont know how to test your latency, then you probably shouldnt get voip). If you have a very narrow broadband connection (ex: 128k up), you wont be able to use the internet and maintain good call quality.
Thirdly, 911 works differently. If you think youll be calling 911 a lot, you probably shouldnt be using voip.
Vonage gets a lot of knocks on outsourced customer service. I havent had to call in to talk to them, but responses to email questions have been handled well. This service is sold primarily on price, though - so I wouldnt expect stellar customer service. I can only hope I dont run into any issues that require me to call in.
Were on the 500 minute plan, which works perfectly for us. Inbound calls, calls to toll free numbers and calls to voicemail do not count against the 500 minutes. Vonage does tack on a few fees and taxes, increasing the price from the much advertised $14.99 to ~$17 a month. This is still substantially cheaper than I was paying for the POTS line it replaced. There are cheaper voip providers out there if you want even more savings.
All in all, Im pleased. It has exceeded my expectations so far, and the cost savings are nice. The only issue I have is the lack of Name on outbound callerID.
If you have a good broadband connection, a decent understanding of technology and are cognizant of the inherent differences between voip and POTS, youll likely be satisfied with this device and Vonages service.
On: 2006-03-17
Ive had Vonage service for a few months and its been fine. I bought the PAP2, registered on the Vonage website, plugged it in behind my router and had a dial tone. After testing it for a few weeks, I was confident enough to port my home number over. The port process took about 2 weeks and now 100% of my land line service is through Vonage.
Reliability has been great - with the exception a voicemail problem that lasted a few hours the first weekend we had it, theres been no service issues at all. Voice quality is fine - indistinguishable from the POTS line it replaced. Call quality to the UK (Im in Texas) has been superb - better than the land line. Im using a cable broadband service that provides ~5mb down and 380k up, which has very good ping times and reliability.
Feature set is good, too. You get Voicemail with email notification (which is my favorite feature, by far), CallerID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, etc. There are lots of other features that I dont use - 3 way calling, call hunting, etc. E911 service is active in my area. The only feature thats missing is Name on outbound CallerID. This may not be a problem if you port an existing number to Vonage, but on new Vonage numbers, when calling others, their CallerID will not show your name - only your number. This is a gap Vonage needs to close - I dont usually answer calls without names on them, so I imagine people arent answering mine.
There are some shortcomings of Vonage and voip in general, though. First, it will -never- be as reliable as your old POTS service. If you expect it to be, youll be disappointed. POTS is probably the most stable consumer technology ever invented. Its built on a system of very expensive, redundant networks which are constantly monitored, and the providers are regulated to provide specific levels of up-time. VoIP has no regulation. Its dependent on your broadband connection - which is nowhere near as stable as a typical land line phone line, and it runs through cheap consumer level adaptors like the PAP2, which offer no redundancy or fail-over. Its dependent on your power being up and doesnt provide any backup power source (unless you provide it). There are many more points for failure on voip than on a standard POTS line, and it will be down more often than POTS due to that even if the voip provider is perfect. That doesnt mean that its down all the time - or even often - but if youre the type of person that freaks out anytime something doesnt work perfectly, stick with POTS.
Secondly, Vonage spends a lot of money advertising this stuff as requiring no intelligence to set up. Thats incorrect. The adaptor may be plug and play, but if you dont understand the technology, youll likely be disappointed. If your PC is full of spyware thats hogging your upload bandwidth, the service will perform poorly. If you have a mis-configured router, the service will perform poorly. If your broadband connection is poor, this service will perform poorly (voip doesnt consume a lot of bandwidth - ~90kb/sec up and down stream max - however, it does require a stable connection with low latency to work well. If you dont know how to test your latency, then you probably shouldnt get voip). If you have a very narrow broadband connection (ex: 128k up), you wont be able to use the internet and maintain good call quality.
Thirdly, 911 works differently. If you think youll be calling 911 a lot, you probably shouldnt be using voip.
Vonage gets a lot of knocks on outsourced customer service. I havent had to call in to talk to them, but responses to email questions have been handled well. This service is sold primarily on price, though - so I wouldnt expect stellar customer service. I can only hope I dont run into any issues that require me to call in.
Were on the 500 minute plan, which works perfectly for us. Inbound calls, calls to toll free numbers and calls to voicemail do not count against the 500 minutes. Vonage does tack on a few fees and taxes, increasing the price from the much advertised $14.99 to ~$17 a month. This is still substantially cheaper than I was paying for the POTS line it replaced. There are cheaper voip providers out there if you want even more savings.
All in all, Im pleased. It has exceeded my expectations so far, and the cost savings are nice. The only issue I have is the lack of Name on outbound callerID.
If you have a good broadband connection, a decent understanding of technology and are cognizant of the inherent differences between voip and POTS, youll likely be satisfied with this device and Vonages service.
On: 2006-03-15
Despite being an extremely happy ATT CallVantage customer for over a year, I switched to Vonage to save roughly $20 per month. The cost savings has not been worth the aggravation.
When I originally contacted Vonage two years ago, I was seeking a landline after being completely wireless for nearly a year and half. At that time, Vonage did not have 212 area code numbers, which I needed for business purposes. Even so, I asked them if they were using offshore tech support and I was told they were not. Things sure have changed. Their Indian tech support is the very worst I have experienced.
As I was not using my landline frequently in early 2006, I decided to opt for Vonages $14.95/month package with 500 minutes. My CallVantage service was running $36/month and I wasnt using it. HUGE MISTAKE. Not only has dealing with Vonages offshore tech support and customer service been a nightmare, but the call quality has been terrible. My phone has dropped several extremely important calls. Basically, I cant use it for business purposes as it is too unreliable. My cell service is far superior.
As an earlier adopter of VoIP technology, I was experimenting with purely web-based VoIP telephony since 1999 when Dialpad got started. My original motivation for getting CallVantage was to have a 212 number in Chicago a few months before I moved to NYC. I was completely happy with the call quality and feature set. In fact, I never had a dropped a call unless there was a clear problem with the Internet, which was rare. The same cant be said for Vonage.
What really astounds me about Vonage is that the call quality to their tech support and customer service is truly awful. A Vonage employee in the US agreed, once suggesting that he call me back directly (after I had been transferred from India to New Jersey). It is almost if they are trying to save money on transatlantic bandwidth. Even more interesting, it appears that Vonage is employing the very worst of Indian call centers. In the past, I have been forced to use Indian tech support for eFax, Citibank, and AT&T Wireless. As bad as they were, they still beat what Vonage is providing.
In short, VoIP is a great technology. Vonage is just cutting too many corners. Try better quality VoIP alternatives as the savings wont be worth the hassle.
On: 2006-03-09
I tired Vonage for my business phone system. I could not get calls or calls would drop. For 3 and a half weeks my business either did not have service or very limited service. I am a systems integrator. I work with phone, data, TV and security systems for a living and I could not get this to work correctly under any conditions. The tech support is in India and I was on hold forever. I spent 11 hours trying to get this to work correctly for my office and ended up canceling the service and going back to a land line. Vonage is a mess and difficult to deal with. Stay away from this service.
On: 2006-03-08
I tired Vonage for my business phone system. I could not get calls or calls would drop. For 3 and a half weeks my business either did not have service or very limited service. I am a systems integrator. I work with phone, data, TV and security systems for a living and I could not get this to work correctly under any conditions. The tech support is in India and I was on hold forever. I spent 11 hours trying to get this to work correctly for my office and ended up canceling the service and going back to a land line. Vonage is a mess and difficult to deal with. Stay away from this service.
On: 2006-03-02
This product works very well. But Vonage is the only company for this modem?
On: 2006-03-01
This product works very well. But Vonage is the only company for this modem?
On: 2006-02-25
I cannot hack the device because it has 3.1.8 version on it. It is actually cheaper and easier to buy linksys pap2 from Sams Club if you have membership. Plus, you can pretty much tell the version from the serial number which you can find from the box.
On: 2006-02-24
I cannot hack the device because it has 3.1.8 version on it. It is actually cheaper and easier to buy linksys pap2 from Sams Club if you have membership. Plus, you can pretty much tell the version from the serial number which you can find from the box.
On: 2006-02-10
My rating is for the Linksys PAP2 product and not for Vonage since I dont have experience with it. Ive read some worthy reviews here and interestingly would like to share my experience with the product.
Harmonde Digital, our company partners with Netvoice, the Philippines foremost Internet phone solutions provider. Netvoice is powered by PLDT (Philippine Long Distance Telephone company) and Net2Phone USA, the largest VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) company in the entire world. Harmonde offers the LINKSYS PAP2 Phone adapter units for this service and they work so well. Just make sure to do the easy to follow technical procedures in connecting. So far since its introduction many who bought the service are very satisfied with the product LINKSYS PAP2 and our cheap rates.
On: 2006-02-02
Since the Amazons rating system is limited to only one score, Ive decided to average it up. My evaluation approach was:
- 5 stars strictly for the adapters performance and the internet phone service; everything works fine.
- 1 star for the online customer service; very unreliable, inconsistent and lack of responses in timely manner.
- 4 stars for the phone customer service; when you finally get to talk to them, they may help you out if you are persistent enough in presenting and explaining your case.
I have been using Vonage since August 2005. Here are my experiences with them and observations:
1. Signing up for the service and the installation was simple. But I still managed to make a mistake by choosing the wrong price plan when signing up. Even though I realized that right after completing the process and attempted to correct it online the same day, I was facing now a $9.99 New Rate Plan Activation Charge. So, I called the Customer Service right away and explained the situation. To my satisfaction, I was issued one-time Customer Satisfaction credit towards next billing period.
2. You have 30 days for testing the service. That lets you avoid incurring the cancellation fee when you decide not to keep it. For that reason I chose later (instead optional during the sign up process) to authorize the transfer of my main phone number to Vonage (featured from within your account) and to my surprise I was about to face a $9.99 as a New Number Activation Charge. I had to dispute that charge with the Customer Service representative since the web site clearly stated that such a transfer was free. So again, I was granted a credit towards the next bill. To avoid misunderstandings in the future I was advised to contact them before making any changes online by myself (?). But the feature is there...
3. If you experience (frequent) dropped calls, the problem is more likely related to the over all traffic fluctuations on your IP network rather then the adapter itself. Troubleshooting recommends resetting the adapter. After a while that may become really annoying and/but unnecessary. In other words, Vonage is as good as the quality of your internet service. Try decreasing the default bandwidth from 90 Kbps to 50 Kbps in the Bandwidth Saver section of your account. It worked for me. They say it may decrease the sound quality but I havent noticed any difference after making those adjustments and the dropped calls are a history now.
4. You dont need to buy a dedicated fax line from Vonage, if you want to send or receive a fax occasionally. Of course, you cant talk and fax at the same time because the line is then shared.
5. Getting the Rebate (when offered) takes couple of months even if everything goes right. Such are the terms and conditions. I have experienced additional delay because they havent received my original claim form. After several weeks of follow-up calls and conversations with the Rebate Center reps (not Vonage) I was finally instructed to resubmit the copies of the documents. The check finally arrived in mid December 2005.
On: 2006-01-30
Very good modem and service but should shop around for best deal
On: 2006-01-27
We have been using Vonage for eight months now. I cant recommend it highly enough. I switched our household over from Verizon ($89.99 per month) and now spend $24.99 per month. It took about ten minutes for me to read through the instructions and hook things up.
In reading other reviews you will find that it is KEY to have good internet service in order to experience good quality phone connections. Dont even attempt this if you dont have a reliable internet provider that delivers the speeds that they promise! We have Atlantic Broadband as our cable internet provider here in Central PA.
Twice weve been without internet services and the phone calls that we receive to our vonage phone were forwarded to our CELL PHONE (part of the settings in your vonage account). So, we didnt miss a beat. I have even used the call forwarding to our cell phone while away so we dont miss the important call.
Vonages website is simple to navigate. Your account information, air time used, voice mail etc. are all convinient and easy to access. I LOVE the voicemail. I receive emails when I have voicemail. You can even access the voicemail and listen to it online.
One service they offer that Ive been tempted to add: another phone number with a different area code so my family in Washington State can call me without incurring long distance fees.
I would be happy to send you a referral coupon if you would like to receive a free month worth of service.
Feel free to email with any questions you may have:
tradmom2@atlanticbb.net
On: 2006-01-22
It baffles me that all VoIP adapters are locked to the service providers! Search Amazon for "VoIP adapter". If I wanted to sign up for service (Vonage, 8x8, or whoever else rocks my boat) - Id get the adapter from service provider. I *do* get equipment from my cable company (cable modem) or cell company - but why VoIP? I am going to Amazon to find a device that I can try with different providers and choose the one I prefer based on sound quality, features, and price. There are resellers that sell unlocked devices (only two online in US that I know of and no brick-and-mortar).
Only when Amazons and Best Buys start selling unlocked devices will Vonages of the world feel some competition and have an incentive to improve customer service. For now this all prevents VoIP from taking over telecommunication industry by storm (cute Vonage ads nonwithstanding)... How sad!
On: 2006-01-21
It baffles me that all VoIP adapters are locked to the service providers! Search Amazon for "VoIP adapter". If I wanted to sign up for service (Vonage, 8x8, or whoever else rocks my boat) - Id get the adapter from service provider. I *do* get equipment from my cable company (cable modem) or cell company - but why VoIP? I am going to Amazon to find a device that I can try with different providers and choose the one I prefer based on sound quality, features, and price. There are resellers that sell unlocked devices (only two online in US that I know of and no brick-and-mortar).
Only when Amazons and Best Buys start selling unlocked devices will Vonages of the world feel some competition and have an incentive to improve customer service. For now this all prevents VoIP from taking over telecommunication industry by storm (cute Vonage ads nonwithstanding)... How sad!
On: 2006-01-19
Dont waste your money on this adapter. Vonage customer service is horrible. I have spent a week now trying to cancel my service with them but they refuse to let me talk to their Account Management team because apparently they are too busy cancelling other accounts (seriously! this is the message I just received on the phone with their "Customer Care" department!!).
On: 2006-01-18
Dont waste your money on this adapter. Vonage customer service is horrible. I have spent a week now trying to cancel my service with them but they refuse to let me talk to their Account Management team because apparently they are too busy cancelling other accounts (seriously! this is the message I just received on the phone with their "Customer Care" department!!).
On: 2005-12-31
I had to cancel Vonage and throw away the adapter because it is locked and can only be used with Vonage. Linksys refuses to unlock it for you. Which didnt bother me too much because Ive never had a Linksys device that worked for more a year ... but that (after the suicide of 2 Linksys Cable Modems and 2 Linksys Routers) is another story.
As for Vonage phone service, it drops calls constantly. It is not an exaggeration that it was a 100% certainty that at some point in the middle of a conversation, Vonage service would simply go away. Id be cut off in mid=sentence. Perhaps thats is accpetable to somebody, but it sure isnt acceptable to me.
Other reviewers have already summarized quite nicely the realities of Vonages customer service ... in a nutshell, there is no customer service. The poor untrained underpaid blokes that answer Vonages support phones (after youve aged considerably, I might add) are more clueless than you are.
I switched to Broadvoice and I could not be happier. I have second thoughts about mentioning Broadvoice because their service and support or terrific. Id hate to that get destroyed by success. But then no one probably reads these reviews anyway.
On: 2005-12-30
Simply put, the item is fine. The product is stylish, functional when used with Vonages service, etc..
However, this is one of the worst cases of false advertising I have ever seen. This hardware is LOCKED to vonages service!
On: 2005-11-23
I bought 4 PAP2s to my company and after I received the 4 devices - Vonage told that they PAP2 are locked and I cannot use another provider.
Dont buy, buy anotother one, the pap2-NA.
I will try to return all to Amazon because I dont want to use Vonage.
Vonage can give the password and unlock it but vonage doesnt want to give it, Linksys doesnt help me at all.
DONT BUY IT !!!
On: 2005-10-29
unless you truly need help to get this thing working, in which case it aint so funny. Im talking about Vonage, not Linksys, but Vonage is who youll be dealing with. Heres my story:
-- Bought the Linksys adapter from Amazon.
-- Went to the Vonage website to activate new service. This requires that you go through a series of screens to select the phone plan you want, enter the MAC ID of the adapter, and enter your credit card and billing info. After completing the next-to-last screen with my credit card info, I hit continue and got an error message telling me I had to call their customer service number, which was listed in the error message. I tried backing up and re-entering the info several times, but it didnt work.
-- Called the number, navigated a long series of menus and after waiting on hold for about 15 minutes, got a service rep (or so I thought), who listened to my problem (or so I thought), then began collecting the same info Id already provided at the website. When she started telling me about the adapter they were going to send me, I interjected that I already had an adapter. I had told her this at the outset when I explained my problem registering online, but she either completely missed it or -- more likely -- ignored it. It was obvious that she was simply a sales rep and didnt have a clue about tech troubleshooting. She kept insisting that Id have to go online to register since I already had an adapter, despite the fact that I kept repeating that online failure was what had brought me to her in the first place. She was totally nonplussed, but eventually told me shed need to hand me off to a "customer care" rep (now theres joke if Ive ever heard one -- read on).
-- I waited on hold for another 15 minutes before a so-called tech rep picked up. When I explained my problem, he sounded more dazed and confused than the first person, rambling and muttering for awhile before telling me he had an alert saying that his techs were "workiing on the website" and that I should check back in a few hours. To say he didnt sound very sure of himself is to put it mildly. He said, "you got the error message on the last step, right?" I said, "no, I got it on the next-to-last step". That threw him, since it didnt jibe with his expectation. There was a very long silence while he apparently pondered what to do/say next, but he eventually decided the website tech thing was his story and he was sticking to it. Before I could he object, he thanked me for using Vonage and hung up. Despite the fact that I was pretty peeved at this point, I almost burst out laughing. These two lovelys were so grossly incompetent and comical that it was hard to be mad at them: neither had a clue what he/she was doing. This pair would have been perfect in an old Marx Brothers film or a Three Stooges episode.
I opened a different browser and tried going through the web process a fourth time. This time it worked. Within a few minutes I had the adapter set up and after a few technical glitches, I got the phone working (for some reason, it wanted the line 2 jack on the adapter rather than the more intuitively logical line 1 jack).
So, beware: if you anticipate needing any tech support at all, pick a different VOIP carrier, cuz youll get nowhere with these guys. One call to Vonage and youll think youre in a 3rd world country talking with Barney Fife.
On: 2005-10-26
Vonage did work well with a cable connection but at 512 DSL it stumbled. The worst part about Vonage is if you would like to conceal service (Which I did because I could not transfer my home number.) you will end up having to conceal the credit card you are having it billed to. I called customer service to cancel and the customer service person told me they will have a specialist call you to confirm a few things (I hope you get that call) mine came 3 days later and I missed it but had a nice voice mail telling me to call a number and ANYONE there can help. Called it and no one could help but they said they would have someone call me back and that never happened? So now I had to call my Credit card company to see what could be done and amazingly enough they have run into this before(with vonage)and suggested that I conceal the card and they would reissue me a new one. Also it took 5 months for the rebate to arrive.
On: 2005-10-01
I have had my VoIP service for a week now. I got Vonage as a replacement for my normal broadband service. I pay less now for a month of unlimited service with Vonage, than I did just to have a line with caller-id at my old provider. Thats saying something. Anyway, my issue with this product, and the reason is receives 2 stars from me is because the Phone Adapter is LOCKED to the Vonage service.
"Setup is simple: Just connect one end of the included Vonage-certified Linksys PAP2 phone adapter to your Ethernet router or gateway and the other end to your telephone. Then sign up for Vonage phone service." This is how Amazon describes it. A nice little endorsement for the tie-in product. The "Vonage-certified" wording makes it seem as if this device is a phone adaptor that work with other VoIP providers but is guaranteed to work on the Vonage network. A better choice of words would be Vonage-locked, or Vonage-only so that you know exactly what youre getting. I feel like Ive been tricked into buy this product. Nowhere on the packaging did I see that this was a Vonage only device. Why did I spend $50+s/h to buy this device when I can get a device directly from Vonage for less? At least if I got the adapter straight from Vonage I would get my money back when I returned it if I chose to cancel my service.
I thought I was buying a phone adapter that I could port to other services (Voicepulse, SunRocket, Lingo, Packet8 etc.) but instead I got an overpriced, locked piece of hardware that Vonage, itself, basically gives away for free. If you want a Phone Adapter that you can use with other services check out the Sipura 2000. The PAP2 and Sipura 2000 are identical internally(the PAP2 looks much cooler though), but the Sipura is not locked to a service. Im returning my PAP2 as soon as my Sipura 2k comes in.
On: 2005-09-30
I have had my VoIP service for a week now. I got Vonage as a replacement for my normal broadband service. I pay less now for a month of unlimited service with Vonage, than I did just to have a line with caller-id at my old provider. Thats saying something. Anyway, my issue with this product, and the reason is receives 2 stars from me is because the Phone Adapter is LOCKED to the Vonage service.
"Setup is simple: Just connect one end of the included Vonage-certified Linksys PAP2 phone adapter to your Ethernet router or gateway and the other end to your telephone. Then sign up for Vonage phone service." This is how Amazon describes it. A nice little endorsement for the tie-in product. The "Vonage-certified" wording makes it seem as if this device is a phone adaptor that work with other VoIP providers but is guaranteed to work on the Vonage network. A better choice of words would be Vonage-locked, or Vonage-only so that you know exactly what youre getting. I feel like Ive been tricked into buy this product. Nowhere on the packaging did I see that this was a Vonage only device. Why did I spend $50+s/h to buy this device when I can get a device directly from Vonage for less? At least if I got the adapter straight from Vonage I would get my money back when I returned it if I chose to cancel my service.
I thought I was buying a phone adapter that I could port to other services (Voicepulse, SunRocket, Lingo, Packet8 etc.) but instead I got an overpriced, locked piece of hardware that Vonage, itself, basically gives away for free. If you want a Phone Adapter that you can use with other services check out the Sipura 2000. The PAP2 and Sipura 2000 are identical internally(the PAP2 looks much cooler though), but the Sipura is not locked to a service. Im returning my PAP2 as soon as my Sipura 2k comes in.
On: 2005-09-11
When I ordered this product, I thought,I will be able to make it work with my Vonage broadband telephone. To my surprise, I discovered,that is not the case. You need to buy an additional router to make it work. On the other hand, if you order online thru Vonage, you get an instrument which acts as both router+adapter. So you avoid clutter and no need for any hassles of buying a router.Hope this helps.
On: 2005-09-01
Gee go figure, when you want to sign up, you can do it online. When you want to cancel, you have to call...and guess what? They either put you in a never ending phone trap, or they just pick up the phone and ignore you.
My vonage did not work from day one!!! When I tried to call customer service, I always seemed to end up getting someone with a horrible accent (If you want to fix a problem, it helps if you both speak and understand the same language)on the other end who had absolutely NO idea how to fix the problem. Their only solutions involved asking me to reset the router. When I said I did, they would sound dumbfounded, and then say "hmmm, try it again", or put me on hold until I had no choice but to hang up.
Please do yourself a favor. avoid using Vonage until that fateful day when competition forces them to improve their customer service.
On: 2005-08-15
Linksys PAP2 Phone Adapter for Vonage Internet Phone Service it is an efficient form to communicate, is easy to use.
On: 2005-08-10
I did not buy this specific product but since everyone else here seems to be reviewing vonage, I thought I would pipe in with a few details that have been touched on in some other reviews.
1. 911 through vonage is lame. Chances are good I would use my cell phone though for 911 anyway.
2. I have never had a bad quality or dropped call in the year and half that I have used vonage.
3. The features available from call forwarding, conference calling and sending voicemail as email attachments is amazing. I can get my voicemail at work so I do not miss a step. If I get a voicemail for my wife, I just forward the email to her. No more checking the voicemail and forgetting to mark it as new and telling her she has a message. Actually I never did that to begin with, I always forgot. So basically, no more getting in trouble for not telling her she has a message.
4. TIVO. I was worried, when I got my Tivo and I only had vonage as a phone line, that I would have to string a phone line to my non-techno-junky neighbor. Instead all I had to do is jack up what vonage calls "bandwidth saver" (on vonages website) to its highest level and the initialization with tivo worked great. After the initial setup I just put a wireless adapter into the USB port in the back of the Tivo and had it working wirelessly. If you have high speed internet and a Tivo, there is no reason why you should not have a wireless connection for your Tivo. Its clean, easy inexpensive and you can take advantage of all the new Tivo features like playing music and viewing pictures from your office computer on your living room tv.
Before I get too off track and start reviewing Tivo, all that is important is to say that what used to be a $60 bill for basic telephone line, call waiting, voicemail and some long distance has now turned into a little over a $16 bill per month. I have the basic 500 minute plan. Plus, I just got my sister to sign up for vonage for the same plan and ,just like most mobile phone companies do now, you get unlimitted vonage to vonage calls. So you save your family money and get unlimmited calls.
One last stumbling stone that I overcame was this: instead of just plugging one phone into the vonage box like the instructions said, I plugged the box into the wall which connects all my other phone jacks to vonage. I have 3 traditional phones in the house all working off the vonage line. IMPORTANT!!! If you do this, you must unplug the phone line coming into your phone box on the outside of your house. It was very simple in my case, it looks like a standard phone jack. The phone company supplies a voltage through that line and if you do not unplug it, you could fry your vonage box.
All in all very good product. I would rate it a 4.9 stars docking it only a mere 0.1 points for the 911 issue. Of course if I fall and break my back next to my land line while my cell phone is across the room, I may feel differently and give it a 4.8 instead.
On: 2005-08-03
Hi,
I used Vonage as my only telephone line for over a year. God quality , no problems what soever. Im in Brooklyn, NY and Time Warner Cable is my provider. But I switched over to (...)and they have almost the same quality but they are much cheaper. if you call Europe a lot, switch.
If you have a cell phone, thats fine as back up.
On: 2005-08-02
Hi,
I used Vonage as my only telephone line for over a year. God quality , no problems what soever. Im in Brooklyn, NY and Time Warner Cable is my provider. But I switched over to (...)and they have almost the same quality but they are much cheaper. if you call Europe a lot, switch.
If you have a cell phone, thats fine as back up.
On: 2005-07-31
I had to share this experience with others.
This review is not really for the router itself, but for Vonage.
Ive been using Vonage service for a couple of months now.
On July 11th, my router (the one they send you when you sign up) died and after 2 hours on the phone with their tech team, they were convinced the router was the problem.
A couple of days later, I shipped my problematic router to them, expecting that the replacement router would be arriving shortly.
A week later, after no router, not even an email from them, I called them and they said there was no order for a replacement router for me. The customer service rep then placed an order for me.
Another week later, guess what? No router, not even an email. I called again and surprise, surprise. No order for a replacement router.
I didnt have any problems with their service, but I refuse to spend my money on a company that will treat me as a clown.
Also, considering that there are several other companies in the same market, I see no reason of staying with Vonage. I am switching to BroadVoice monday.
On: 2005-07-22
Just set it up last week but Im very happy. Im using Comcast cable as my ISP and havent had any problems. I was concerned about how Vonage would affect my Tivo and alarm system but everything worked fine right out of the box. I wired a Linksys PAP2 in place of my main phone line and the whole house is now hard wired with the Vonage service. Without broadband saver I had a disconnect when uploading several large files while on the phone. I turned on the broadband saver to help minimize the problem but my Tivo couldnt dial out with it on. I set up Tivo to dial *99 before it dials out which turns off the broadband saver and now Tivo works fine. The sound quality is good. I only had one reason to call the service center but they picked up on the first ring and quickly answered my question. I expect to have problems from time to time but thats the deal with new technology. It may not work for everyone but it works for me and Id say its worth trying.
On: 2005-07-19
En el pasado ya habÃa utilizado servicios de VoIP pero ninguno como Vonage. El servicio es amistoso, fácil de configurar y además la calidad de la voz en las conversaciones es increible.
VoIP en México
Lástima que en México Prodigy limite el uso de VoIP restringiendo los puertos en sus servidores. Los contacté para pedir una explicación acerca del porqué y me mandaron a revisar el contrato de prestación de servicios que, efectivamente, dice que Telmex se reserva el derecho de restringir puertos para ciertas aplicaciones, como VoIP. Cuándo aprenderás Slim que en la vida lo importante es compartir y no comerte el pastel tu sólo. Mientras más ricos son más insensibles se vuelven.
Recomendación
Si quieres utilizar este servicio, mi recomendación es que consigas otra conexión rápida a Internet, por ejemplo cable, probar y si todo funciona bien, cancela tu cuenta Infinitum.
On: 2005-07-18
En el pasado ya habÃa utilizado servicios de VoIP pero ninguno como Vonage. El servicio es amistoso, fácil de configurar y además la calidad de la voz en las conversaciones es increible.
VoIP en México
Lástima que en México Prodigy limite el uso de VoIP restringiendo los puertos en sus servidores. Los contacté para pedir una explicación acerca del porqué y me mandaron a revisar el contrato de prestación de servicios que, efectivamente, dice que Telmex se reserva el derecho de restringir puertos para ciertas aplicaciones, como VoIP. Cuándo aprenderás Slim que en la vida lo importante es compartir y no comerte el pastel tu sólo. Mientras más ricos son más insensibles se vuelven.
Recomendación
Si quieres utilizar este servicio, mi recomendación es que consigas otra conexión rápida a Internet, por ejemplo cable, probar y si todo funciona bien, cancela tu cuenta Infinitum.
On: 2005-07-15
As far as customer service goes, Vonage has none in my opinion. We moved and needed to cancel service (as our new area, we werent able to get the high speed connection needed at a cost to make vonage worthwhile) After cancelling 4 days after we got billed for the month...I called Vonage to ask for a refund for the rest of the month. I was told that it was not possible to refund my money and it was their policy for customers to pay up front for the month and they could do nothing even though I cancelled 4 days into the month. I was stuck paying the full month fee for 4 days of usage. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was put on hold. Original employee came back, did offer a refund of 83 cents a day for unused days...as I still requested to speak to the supervisor re: additional issues...I was told that I could not. The supervisor was busy and would not take my call. I even offered to be on hold for the supervisor and was told it was not possible for him to take my call.
All in all, horrible customer service, the worst Ive ever experienced that I would not use or recommend vonage again. Theres a whole new crop of VOIP providers these days...find a real company to use!
On: 2005-07-14
As far as customer service goes, Vonage has none in my opinion. We moved and needed to cancel service (as our new area, we werent able to get the high speed connection needed at a cost to make vonage worthwhile) After cancelling 4 days after we got billed for the month...I called Vonage to ask for a refund for the rest of the month. I was told that it was not possible to refund my money and it was their policy for customers to pay up front for the month and they could do nothing even though I cancelled 4 days into the month. I was stuck paying the full month fee for 4 days of usage. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was put on hold. Original employee came back, did offer a refund of 83 cents a day for unused days...as I still requested to speak to the supervisor re: additional issues...I was told that I could not. The supervisor was busy and would not take my call. I even offered to be on hold for the supervisor and was told it was not possible for him to take my call.
All in all, horrible customer service, the worst Ive ever experienced that I would not use or recommend vonage again. Theres a whole new crop of VOIP providers these days...find a real company to use!
On: 2005-07-04
I have had Vonage for the last 4 months and it has worked far better than I had expected. In fact, Ive had 2 episodes in that period when my BellSouth phone line went dead (though I have to say they do respond quickly and effectively to online service outage reports). More interestingly, my Internet service provider is Charter Cable (they do not respond to any kind of service requests!) and when my cable TV went out last month after a bad thunderstorm, my Vonage kept working fine! Hmmm.
Anyway, my network is built around a Linksys WRT54GS router. I had no open ports on the router so I connected the Linksys PAP2 Phone Adapter for Vonage to a Linksys EZXS55W switch and installed the software. This took me to the Vonage webpage where ordering my service (2 lines, $24.99 for the unlimited line and another $10 for a fax line) took 5 minutes or less. The 2nd neon blue indicator light on the PAP2 (the one for Internet connection) stopped blinking in about 1 minute and my phone then instantly had a dial tone and my fax was working fine. Connections have been perfect and there is *absolutely* no difference in sound quality on either end of the connection between my POTS and my Vonage....none.
I have disconnected my BellSouth fax number (saving about $45 a month) and was able to get them to put a recording on that line that "the number you have dialed has been changed...the new number is.....". Pretty soon I will disconnect my old BellSouth regular number as well. The savings from that move will be more like $75 per month.
While having a backup makes sense, my cellphone will fill that need quite well. Meanwhile, I am a totally satisfied Vonage customer.
On: 2005-05-25
The Cons (which outweigh the pros):
* No manual included or published anywhere. It only comes with a quick start guide with no explanation on the configuration options. The Sipura 2000 manual may be a substitute, but its a lousy excuse for the failure of Linksys to provide one.
* No firmware upgrades offered.
* Linksys technical support refuses to support users, giving the blanket response that support issues are to be directed to the VOIP provider (this includes support questions unrelated to the VOIP providers role).
* Vonage and Linksys have teamed up to deceive customers, hiding the fact that the PAP2 model is locked. They are being sued for this. Read about it here: http://forum.sipphone.com/viewtopic.php?t=598
The Pros:
* The box is small, and has two analog ports.
* It uses a switching power supply - as opposed to a transformer / brick.
I will probably be returning this Linksys junk, and buying the Sipura 2000 instead (which is rumored to be the same hardware).
On: 2005-05-24
The Cons (which outweigh the pros):
* No manual included or published anywhere. It only comes with a quick start guide with no explanation on the configuration options. The Sipura 2000 manual may be a substitute, but its a lousy excuse for the failure of Linksys to provide one.
* No firmware upgrades offered.
* Linksys technical support refuses to support users, giving the blanket response that support issues are to be directed to the VOIP provider (this includes support questions unrelated to the VOIP providers role).
* Vonage and Linksys have teamed up to deceive customers, hiding the fact that the PAP2 model is locked. They are being sued for this. Read about it here: http://forum.sipphone.com/viewtopic.php?t=598
The Pros:
* The box is small, and has two analog ports.
* It uses a switching power supply - as opposed to a transformer / brick.
I will probably be returning this Linksys junk, and buying the Sipura 2000 instead (which is rumored to be the same hardware).
On: 2005-04-29
i tried vonage for 5 months and than gave up. vonage dropped many calls suddenly and it was not easy to get a dial tone when i wanted to make a call. i switched to packet8 and recommend packet8.com
On: 2005-04-27
My experience with Vonage has been pretty good! Im in the Chicago area. Occasionally on a phone call the other party will drop out for 2 seconds then come back. But that small annoyance isnt a big deal considering I pay such a small price for unlimited anywhere in the U.S. and Canada plus all the features I get. Customer service wait time is quite ridiculous right now....but what do you expect of a company thats growing tremendously fast! Im confident that the custmer service will get better. I have emailed customer service before. It took 3 days to get a response back which is too long, but im still happy.
On: 2005-04-21
Very disapointed that it is not clearly stated by Amazon that this product is to be used only by Vonage (very expensive compared to other providers like Inphonex which is now my provider). I bought two routers RT31P2 and two PAP2 phone adapters all with Phone ports hoping I would be able to connect all my family (spread around the world). I got a Huge surprise when I noticed that they are locked only for use with Vonage. It says there is a Mail in Rebate worth 50 bucks, anyway it will only last less than two months. Other providers dont even charge monthly fees.
I had already sent all the units to various countries and after finding out that they are to be used EXCLUSIVELY with Vonage I just had to let them die where they were sent. It is not worth the shipping to bring them back.
As disappointing as this, was that I supposed this was going to happen so I contacted customer support from Amazon and asked them (before buying) if they were a "with Vonage telephony system" or if they were a "exclusively for Vonage telephony system". They didnt know so I just assumed they wouldnt be so distracted to not mention this. Specially for starters like us it may have been the most important thing to advertise: EXCLUSIVELY FOR VONAGE
I have always been a fan of Linksys products, my house is full of their products and never had trouble with the hardware. For sure I will continue to buy Linksys products, for sure I will never use vonage (eventhough I am sure it provides excellent clear voice communication; dont get cofussed, there are others that will give you more for a lot less go to yahoo and spend 30 seconds making a quick search and you will see), and for sure I had to tell other people what they are doing so nobody else will loose the money I lost, and what is most valuable, my time.
Make sure that when you buy a PAP2 it says: Model PAP2-NA
Conclussion: I just lost 260 bucks plus shipping and handling (internationally)
On: 2005-04-20
Very disapointed that it is not clearly stated by Amazon that this product is to be used only by Vonage (very expensive compared to other providers like Inphonex which is now my provider). I bought two routers RT31P2 and two PAP2 phone adapters all with Phone ports hoping I would be able to connect all my family (spread around the world). I got a Huge surprise when I noticed that they are locked only for use with Vonage. It says there is a Mail in Rebate worth 50 bucks, anyway it will only last less than two months. Other providers dont even charge monthly fees.
I had already sent all the units to various countries and after finding out that they are to be used EXCLUSIVELY with Vonage I just had to let them die where they were sent. It is not worth the shipping to bring them back.
As disappointing as this, was that I supposed this was going to happen so I contacted customer support from Amazon and asked them (before buying) if they were a "with Vonage telephony system" or if they were a "exclusively for Vonage telephony system". They didnt know so I just assumed they wouldnt be so distracted to not mention this. Specially for starters like us it may have been the most important thing to advertise: EXCLUSIVELY FOR VONAGE
I have always been a fan of Linksys products, my house is full of their products and never had trouble with the hardware. For sure I will continue to buy Linksys products, for sure I will never use vonage (eventhough I am sure it provides excellent clear voice communication; dont get cofussed, there are others that will give you more for a lot less go to yahoo and spend 30 seconds making a quick search and you will see), and for sure I had to tell other people what they are doing so nobody else will loose the money I lost, and what is most valuable, my time.
Make sure that when you buy a PAP2 it says: Model PAP2-NA
Conclussion: I just lost 260 bucks plus shipping and handling (internationally)
On: 2005-04-17
We signed up for vonage servicve with number transfer from verizon. Within over 20 days phone number was not transferred. I faxed authorization form and verizon phone bill 3 times to Vonage. I believe, they purposely delay so trial period is over and then you have to pay cancellation fee if you want to cancel. I figured it out when I cancelled my service after 20 days, I was on hold for over 30 minutes though. I was charged $87.73 plus $1.29 plus $43.59 cancellation (even the equipment was shipped day after cancellation and I have proof USPS tracking they received it within 3 days) plus setup fee. Their office is in Edison NJ and I am in North Brunswick, NJ. I was on promotion for 1st month free but this trial for 20 days cost me about $140 even I did not use phone that much (1 or 2 local calls only for test purpose) so I cannot say anything about the quality of their phone service. I have been calling them and CS tranfer me to billing which automatically disconnects me after 8-10 minutes of waiting, it happend 4 times. No reply of any emails it has been over a month now.
Their equipment installation was easy and temp number was up as soon as I plugged it it after activation. So if you are not transferring a number, do not need their customer support and want to stay with then for a long time then it might be good for you.
After this horrible experience, I sgined up for AT&T Callvantage, though a little expensive but I am very happy. They tanferred my number within 10 days and excellant customer service.
On: 2005-04-13
I purchased this unit with some concern based on horror stories of support and months of difficulty in trying to keep ones existing phone number. None of my fears materialized. I received the unit and set it up. I was "VOIPing" in thirty seconds or less. Transfering my phone number was almost as easy...and I even had to fax the information twice since I left out some information. I received the unit on April 1, they received my transfer request on April 2...by April 12, my number is totally transitioned over and the unit if functioning seemlessly with my home. The features of Vonage are great and this product does a great job of giving my existing phone network acess to those features and great price. I have not worked with support via phone yet, but interactions via email have been quick (within a couple hours) and helpful. Thus far, I have no complaints with the quality of calls, the ease of use, the features, or the cost. Im sold...for now. If this changes, I will post a followup.
On: 2005-04-13
I have been a Vonage user (2nd line) for over 2 months now and have made quite a few calls. The sound quality is very good and the features are amazing for the price - I have a 500 minute plan for $14.99 with every option under the sun - voice mail, Caller ID, 3 way calling etc. However there are some things to watch out for:
1. A lot has already been written about 911 and power outages so theres no need to cover that - this affects any emergency or other use such as Tivo, alarm systems etc.
2. It takes an extra second or 2 sometimes to get a dial-tone
3. Even when everything is seemingly working, and you have a dial-tone, I have had many an instance when the call will not go through. You may have to hang up and redial upto 3 times to connect. Althought this does not happen every single time, its often enough to be annoying.
4. Customer service - I had emailed customer service about my bill once, they charged me for the first month even though it was meant to be free. I did not receive a reply at all.
Overall I am awarding 3 stars since this product is a compromise and does not completely match up to traditional Phone service in terms of reliability and satisfaction. I would highly recommend it for a second line, though.
On: 2005-04-12
I purchased this unit with some concern based on horror stories of support and months of difficulty in trying to keep ones existing phone number. None of my fears materialized. I received the unit and set it up. I was "VOIPing" in thirty seconds or less. Transfering my phone number was almost as easy...and I even had to fax the information twice since I left out some information. I received the unit on April 1, they received my transfer request on April 2...by April 12, my number is totally transitioned over and the unit if functioning seemlessly with my home. The features of Vonage are great and this product does a great job of giving my existing phone network acess to those features and great price. I have not worked with support via phone yet, but interactions via email have been quick (within a couple hours) and helpful. Thus far, I have no complaints with the quality of calls, the ease of use, the features, or the cost. Im sold...for now. If this changes, I will post a followup.
On: 2005-04-08
The unit and service is awesome. No problems. Just read and follow instructions and youll be fine. Im saving money now.
I have been using the service for four months and I had one question (needed to know if there would be any issues with setting up a second PAP2 on my home broadband/cable line for my office). I sent an email and received a reply within a day. Theyll reply - in the meantime - youll live so go and spend time with family or do other work.
On: 2005-04-06
Setup took less than 1/2 hour. Basically it worked out of the box. The only thing I had to do was turn off my modem and router to get it to work. Call quality is good - not quite as loud.
On: 2005-03-18
I couldnt be happier with Vonage.
Before : I was paying 36+ dollars a month for a POTS (landline) phoneline for local calls only w/callerID and Caller waiting.
Now : I pay 15.99 a month for 500 minutes long distance, which I never use up. My Tivo series one still works with Vonage, I have my same phone number Ive used for 10+ years, I get voicemails emailed to me, plus a ton of additional services.
To be fair, Vonage has been out of service twice in the last 8 months; during these times all calls were automatically forwarded to my cell phone. VOIP is the way to go now-a-days and the traditional carriers know this. Save yourself some money and get Vonage today!
On: 2005-03-17
I couldnt be happier with Vonage.
Before : I was paying 36+ dollars a month for a POTS (landline) phoneline for local calls only w/callerID and Caller waiting.
Now : I pay 15.99 a month for 500 minutes long distance, which I never use up. My Tivo series one still works with Vonage, I have my same phone number Ive used for 10+ years, I get voicemails emailed to me, plus a ton of additional services.
To be fair, Vonage has been out of service twice in the last 8 months; during these times all calls were automatically forwarded to my cell phone. VOIP is the way to go now-a-days and the traditional carriers know this. Save yourself some money and get Vonage today!
On: 2005-03-08
I purchased the PAP2 but could never get it to work, and customer service is the WORST I have ever encountered (and I used to have Warner Cable and have flown Northwest Airlines!)Only 1 in 10 calls gets through and then the tech knows less than I do. They were willing to swap out the PAP2 with a router (for additional cost!), I already have a router that works fine, thank you. After days of dealing with the mostly non-existant customer service I decided that even if I could get Vonage service to work I didnt want to deal with them any longer. The last rep I talked to said that they were sorry and had hired 500 new CS reps recently, maybe they should have done that before they started to advertise heavily.
If you do decide to try them keep this number handy - 1-800-860-5491, it is the cancellation department and even though they are very busy (surprise) its still a shorter wait than the regular "Customer Service" number.
On: 2005-03-05
I originally signed up for vonage online. they shipped me a linksys router with phone ports. I already had a router, but I had to use theirs (what if you have a wireless router??). Then I saw this item (the PAP2) at best buy. I bought it, and when I opened the box, there was a sheet t | | |
