Screw ATT, Vonage Majic Jack users

[Todd]

So I just got july/aug att bill for the house and its 72.66. This is after I ALREADY payed for it. Called the automated service to confirm the amount and yup that's what they say I owe.

Long story short att customer service blows, spent many hours trying to resolve their screw ups that they try and make me pay for.

Im done with it!!!!!

Does anyone have vonage or majicjack service? How do you like it and do they still nickle and dime your ass?

 

[fastpakr]

I used Viatalk for a couple of years and was very happy with the product and cost. At that time it was under half the price of Vonage and came with better features, not sure if that's still the case. As of a year or so ago my wife and I just bailed on having a home phone completely.

As I understand it, you can now often get a MagicJack number in your local exchange. Not sure if they are able to port your existing number yet or not. If so, they're probably your best bet in terms of value.

 

[AllanD]

Magic jack has terrible audio quality, echo-ey sound, static drops out etc...

I absolutely HATE talking to people who use it.

I've had Vonage VoIP for about five years now and other than the fact that their Vonage
unit (which also functions as a router hub) had died three times and their service people want to go through a rediculously long diagnostic test procedure over the phone (my CELL PHONE)
which invariably turns out to be IRRELEVANT because the last question that they come to in their little script is that the internet still works, but the PHONE does not before they'll agree to send me a new unit...

Suffice it to say I still have the service.

But you also need cable internet service for it to work

And it was a major bastard the first time I had to set up my NetGear WiFi router with the Vonage Box acting as a "Gateway" (I tried every other possible configuiration first but the Netgear router has to be the last box before the computer upstream of that is the Vonage Unit THEN the cable modem... it won't work any other way.


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[4x4junkie]

A friend of mine was using Magic Jack for awhile... Like AllanD mentions, the audio sucks royally on it. Every once in awhile while talking to him (ok, quite often) it made EXTREMELY deafeningly loud squawks and high-pitched chirps in my ear. One time I finally had it and had to hang up was so bad lol. Then the audio blackouts that occur when someone else uses the internet for something and downloads or uploads a large file.
The other problem, you have to leave your computer running to have your phone work. Maybe if you already leave your comp on 24/7 that won't present much issue, though it's something that would never work for me. You do get what you pay for.

Not familiar with Vonage.

ATT I came this close >||< to dumping them (23 year customer too) when by some magical miracle I got a decent (Caucasian?) lady on the phone who spoke good English and straightened out all the previous f-ups of the last guy who failed to resolve an issue of being billed long-distance charges to a freaking local number less than 6 miles from me! and then waived a change of service fee because the service plan I was on was getting way too expensive as well. I may still drop them eventually though... Seems more & more are relying on just a cell phone these days. I always worry about cell phone outages during emergencies, however if worse got to worse, I'm sure I could find help from someone on one of my 2-way radios if need be.

 

[straycat]

I finally know somebody who has Magic Jack and they hate it. They are keeping it 'cause it is so cheap.They told me they don't get those stupid solicitor sales calls. I hate them those calls so bad..........

 

[Todd]

I wish I could rely on cell phones but where I live is a major dead zone. Sometimes its hard to get a text message out.

Have been doing some more research and Vonage seems to be the ticket. Plus the old number will transfer.

As for ATT, I think their customer policy is frustrate them so much while on the phone that you never want to call back, thus you just pay what they say to.