Vonage Nightmare
Do Not Try To Port A Number to Vonage
As a small business we are always looking for ways to reduce costs and provide the best possible service to our customers. Having a flexible voip based telephone service has always seemed to be part of that answer. 18 months ago, when we started with Vonage, service was decent if not perfect, but more importantly we were able to lower our telecom cost by 66% from what we were paying Qwest.
This fall we decided to try a virtual pbx system that would allow us to add extensions, queueing, and other features to help us deal with increased headcount and incoming traffic. As part of the virtual pbx we decided (stupidly, in retrospect) to port our main number to the virtual pbx provider. The virtual pbx we selected didn’t work out so great, and we decided to throw in the towel with them in mid-November and switch to a virtual receptionist instead, as several firms that we knew had had good luck with them. This is when the Vonage nightmare began.
From mid November until this morning we have tried to port our number back to Vonage with no success. The number of hours spent on the project has eclipsed any cost savings from Vonage, and of course we still don’t have the number back. I have spoken with numerous reps in the Philippines, Chile, and New Jersey, and have never gotten a straight answer about the port. Normally I would not be inclined to be so churlish about a business problem but this is the second time Vonage has utterly failed to port a number in - I lost my home number of 15 years the same way, because Vonage was too disorganized and incompetent to manage the transfer properly, and incredibly, lost the number.
If you are starting a new service Vonage is probably a good solution - it is great value for money, and the VOIP features are very helpful when you need to manage a number remotely.
Do not attempt to port a number into Vonage - you will be condemned to a seventh circle of hell as you are passed from one moronic Vonage rep to the next, all of them apologizing deeply as they ask you security questions for the seventh time on a 90 minute call, and all of them wishing that they had done a little better in school so they could be working in the Wii call center instead.
