Vonage: Call Me. (But you'll need to use your cell phone.)

The BBQ Pit
1

I signed up with Vonage a couple of months ago and it has never worked right. Supposedly, you can connect the Vonage box to the phone jack and all the phones in your house will work off of it, and this worked at first, except for one little thing: they didn’t ring. (You could call out on them just fine, but if anybody called you then unless you’re psychic then you can’t tell.) It worked fine when I plugged in just one phone, but that leaves me with a house full of dead phone jacks (and TIVO ain’t gone figure out itself what comes on, people!)

So, I have called Vonage’s customer support line several times. Twice I hung up because I never could get off hold, but the times I spoke with a live person

1- They were exceptionally nice and had great phone center courtesy
2- They were about as helpful with my phone situation as a dead Chihuahua is to a nose cold

One time I called in because I couldn’t get ANYTHING to work on the damned Vonage box- not the jacks downstairs (ringing or otherwise) or the telephone plugged directly into the Vonage box. I explained this. The woman actually asked me

Darlin’, I know you’re just a kindly gal workin’ your way to a better job, but… THAT WOULD IMPLY I COULD FUCKING TALK ON MY VONAGE LINE WOULDN’T IT!!! Go to the nearest branch office of the Department of Criminal Stupidity and register yourself!

Anyway, she couldn’t figure out what was happening, and it took so long to connect me to a tech desk that she advised me to send a “detailed email” about the problems to their online email tech help. I did- it was both detailed and concise- no allusions to Gothic symbolism or Hermann Göring’s childhood traumas or anything, just the facts. I never got an answer. Last week I wrote them back- I never got an answer. I am positive my correct email address is on the account because they’ve sent me advertisements for new services.

Another help desk person advised me to get a second line so that I can connect the jacks AND run the other telephone. I asked, very politely, why I would pay more for a second line when the first line only halfway works? She said perhaps the second line would fix the first.

Well, I didn’t get a second line and now the first line’s not working. I don’t know if I’ve been disconnected (I checked my account online and don’t appear to have been) and I sent them another email and of course no answer. I tried calling on my cell phone but got the “experiencing a higher call volume than normal” message (meaning it must be from new customers cause I don’t think it’d be from Vonage customers) and hung up after a few minutes.

Anyway, has anyone else had problems with Vonage or is this an unusual situation? My phone jacks all worked perfectly fine when I last had a land-line service.

2

Well, you could use the Chihuahua to…um…blow your nose on it? That’s helpful, right?

I got nothin’.

3

I have Vonage, and my line is plugged directly from the Vonage router and into my office jack. All of my other jacks work thanks to this.

Did you disconnect the land line from your outside phone box? (I believe that’s called the NID, or Network Interface Device.)

4

Sampiro stares blankly as if he misunderstood and hopes that his look does not betray his total ignorance of what is being asked.

5

I stumbled through Vonage’s multiple FAQs and found some instructions. Try them when you get a chance, and make sure nothing is interfering with your in-house wiring. (And, hey, whaddayaknow, I was right about the NID.)

6

To make your phones ring, the phone company sends 50-80 volts down the line; if I understand your situation, the Vonage box must be trying to do the same from inside your house.

If you leave the exterior lines connected, then the voltage the Vonage box is making might be leaking back to the phone company. Removing it would make your house a stand-alone system.

7

Assuming he’s disconnected the landline, what’s providing the power for the telephone ringers on all of the extension phone?

Possibly related anecdote: When I was a kid a couple of decades ago, my parents had many (ten or twelve) phones throughout the house, all of which were the old-fashioned kind with mechanical ringers. At one point, you could hear the phones struggling to ring because the standard voltage provided by the phone company wasn’t enough power for all of those ringers.

8

I’ve disconnected the phone company service. Are you asking if I’ve physically disconnected something from the phone lines? (Forgive my confusion.)

9

The Vonage router. It’s connected to a jack (or a single phone) by a regular phone cord.

10

Yes. Even though you’ve canceled service with the local phone company, their outside line is still connected to your inside wiring by way of that little grey box on the outside of your house. They don’t physically disconnect their lines from yours (after all, you–or someone who may move in after you–could request their services again), so you have to do it yourself.

11

I’ve read a lot of very unlikely things in your posts before, but this is the one time I’ve truly suspected an outright fabrication.

:smiley:

12

We have Vonage, and Mr. SCL did have to disconnect something or other. It’s worked fine ever since we’ve had it. If you want, e-mail me and I’ll get him to tell you what to do.

13

It should be fairly simple. Assuming you live in a house, look around on the outside for a little grey box with wires going to it from the phone poles (assuming you have phone poles there). It should have the name of the phone company embossed on it.

Hit that with an axe. Several times. Then roar loudly and pull it off the side of your house with nothing but brute strength, and throw it toward the nearest trash receptacle, even if it’s your neighbor’s. Trust me, when he looks over and sees a roaring man with an axe, he’s not going to say anything about it.

14

Alternatively, if you have access to explosives…

15

Barbarian!

Modern men use chainsaws.

With proper protective gear. A hockey mask.

16

I had the same problem, 99.9% of it due to my ignorance, I’m sure.

I just went out and dropped $35 for a new phone with additional handsets. The one with the big base goes into my Vonage doohickey. The other bases are just charging stations. They all ring when I get a call. Phht…done! And still cheaper than my old phone service for a month.

17

you should only be able to access half of the box (i.e. it’s unlocked or secured only by a zip tie you can cut). you go in there and physically disconnect the connections. the Vonage website explains how to do this. this gives you a closed system and once you plug vonage into one of your jacks, all of your lines will be hot.

18

Also, it could be in your basement. When my phone goes out, the happy recorded message tells me to try my phone there and see if I get a signal. Apparently this would tell me if my interior wiring is the problem. Of course when I report my findings to the real live repairguy, he tells me “Well, that doesn’t tell me anything.” Thanks, assfuck, I was just following directions and trying to report the full story. :mad:

19

Maybe I don’t fully understand how Vonage works, but I think it can be used with DSL, right? The same DSL that is being provided through the copper lines connected at the NID. If the OP is using DSL, then I don’t see how this could be the solution.

20

Right. There’s a link to the instructions in post #5. So, hopefully, Sampiro won’t have any troubles when he attempts this.