[silvertint]

I am currently looking to cancel my bell home phone line, and moving over to VOIP. I am unsure which service is the best right now. Can anyone please give me some pro & cons Vonage vs. Primus (or even if there is a better provider out there)

Will I notice a difference in phone quality, or unwanted drop in calls or signal ??

Any opinons would be be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[PhotoJim]

My experiences, having used both:

- I liked the features of Primus better, and Primus was easier to deal with for customer service
- the online portal and controls of Primus were way more flexible
- with Primus you have local numbers in major Canadian cities where you can call in, log in, and call out again as if you are calling from home without having to take your box with you, which is quite convenient. I even used it to access my dial-up Internet provider in Saskatchewan from Toronto and it worked shockingly well (54kbps no less, although 900 ms latency ).
- Vonage's service seems somewhat more resistant to Internet hiccups. I got a lot more static noise bursts on Primus than I did on Vonage. Vonage's quality was more rock solid.
- Vonage makes it very very difficult to cancel, which I do not like.

I have since migrated to a roll-my-own solution using a Linksys PAP2 ATA and service from both les.net and voip.ms (only one is necessary but I am a geek).

 

[Styvas]

On a pure value for money comparison, for the most part I would say that Primus has Vonage beat. I believe that Vonage does have some better international calling plans, so that may be a consideration depending on where you need to call. I can't believe that Vonage's customer service could be worse, but they might surprise you. Tech support at Primus is very good, but it can be underminded by their customer service department.

As far as call quality goes, this will almost entirely depend on your ISP and not on the VoIP service itself. You could try both at your home and find one is better than the other, both are good, or both suck. Then you could try both at a friend's house and experience exactly the same thing (except perhaps the one that is good is switched with the one that is poor). It's really going to be hit and miss based on your local internet congestion, etc.

I would probably look at what features you need, how much long distance (including international) calling you're likely to make, and compare prices. The quality is likely not going to be the selling point since there's no way to know, without trying both, how it will turn out for you. I believe that Primus still offers AirMiles. If you collect those, then that might be the deal breaker with all else equal.

 

[Arc|Angel]

I've become a really dedicated fan of my vonage service. I kept track of the length of my outgoing calls in a month and was able to go with the 500 minute plan which really saved me a bunch.

I've never had a Vonage outage in over two years.

I have not used primus's VOIP service so I can't comment on it but I can comment on how the company ripped me off for hundreds of dollars! Prior to vonage I tried switching to primus cell as my main phone. They sold me the service and set me up no problem BUT I had no signal at all at my home. They told me I was to rural (I live a few blocks from McMaster Univeristy in Hamilton which is about as much in the city as you can get. The best offer they said they'd give me since I received no service was to switch me to a cheaper plan. When I refused they forced me to pay over $200 to break the useless contract.

 

[Gentleman]

Silver:

I've only been with Primus for about one week, but I must say I'm impressed. The audio quality rivals my Bell landline and I love the features of Primus especially the telemarketing guard and the call treatment feature. I have a 5 meg service from my ISP and haven't experienced any issues with lack of bandwidth.

My only complaint is that my Bell landline number was not portable to Primus.

 

[leemoreau]

NEVER get Vonage

Never ever ever ever ever get Vonage. As far as quality, I've had Primus and Vonage. Vonage wins hands down for quality, Primus is much cheaper though. When my roomie moved in with me she had Primus, it was horrible could barely hear her. We canceled and got Vonage, BIG MISTAKE.

I called in, the girl was super nice, said they want me as a client so she's giving me a 60 day free trial to use all the equipment and see if I like it, that I can cancel any time I want in the 60 days, it's free shipping and it's free for the phone adapter and everything. She said several times try it out cancel any time no problem at all, so I said great. I then had to do a questionaire, where she would say "You understand vonage 911 is different than normal 911"and so on. She also said the service activates ONLY when it's connected to the internet.

Anyway going back, the reason I got vonage was because it was winter and Bell couldn't dig a phone line to my new house until spring. 2 days after ordering Vonage before it arrived, Bell shows up and installs a temporary line. Vonage didn't show up for 2 weeks, when it finally did, the girl had my postal code wrong even though I confirmed it several times.

I never opened the box, let it sit for a couple weeks then finally called in to cancel. Was I in for a surprise, first the guy says no you can't really cancel, so I start going on about I've never opened the box. He goes listen, to be honest, it's cheaper if you just keep your service because the cancellation fees are going to be SO high it's not worth it. So I tell him that the girl before told me 60 day free trial, cancel any time, that I've had it under a month and never opened the box. He goes nonono we don't do free trials, you have to pay $150 for the modem, plus the $20 for shipping we paid, plus a $200 cancellation fee. I told him it's ridiculous the box is unopened I'll send it back, he says no it's garbage to us now we don't want it, and says I'll owe over $300 to cancel. I argued forever, asked for a supervisor. I get some guy on the phone who immediately starts with the attitude. I'm like did the last person explain my situation? He goes, yeah, he said you want to cancel your service and you think you're going to get the cancellation fees waived.

I go off again that the girl told me 60 day free trial etc etc. He goes we don't do that, there's always cancellation fees and we don't offer refunds. I asked why they didn't explain that on the phone, and he says they don't have to, the terms and conditions are on their website and that it's not my problem I didn't check it. We went back and forth forever, he would do nothing. I asked how to complain further, he said write a letter but it won't do any good, I owe all these fees. I told him I could understand if it showed I made like $50 worth of long distance calls, but I hadn't even opened the box.

It sounds like an exageration here and I wish it was, but I have NEVER had such horrible service in my whole life with a company. I was just mindblown, he said if I don't want the modem to throw it out but I'm still paying for it. He gave me his first name which I believe was Steve, but this was almost a year ago so I don't remember exactly.

Anyway, at the end of it I called mastercard and told them to cancel my card that Vonage was fraud, and then I also wrote equifax as well. That was a year ago I've never had a call or letter or collection agency come after me for the unit.

I've never been so angry, I had Vonage over a year before I moved, I had it for a year was so happy with it, recommended it to everyone for the quality. I guess because I had it a year, then it was free to cancel after that. I had heard horror stories of canceling, which is why I asked the girl at least 10 times if there were penalties since I only wanted it until spring when I could get Bell.

That's my story, I would never ever get Vonage and good luck to you trying to cancel if you do.

If this post deters even ONE person from getting Vonage then I'll be happy. I tried to file a BBB better business complaint with them, and found out you can't, as they have over 3000 complaints, the BBB has kicked them out of membership and refuses to take further complaints. They even recommend to not to business with them.

 

[whitbyterry]

Thanks for reporting your situation. It is helpful to have these reports.


In looking at the BBB Canada site listing for Vonage Canada, there is no mention that they don't recommend the service.

In fact they state:

As a matter of policy, BBB does not endorse any product, service or business.

BBB Reliability Reports are provided solely to assist you in exercising your own best judgment. Information in this BBB Reliability Report is believed reliable, but not guaranteed as to accuracy.

From reading the complaints, the BBB indicated they were generally pleased with the outcomes but the customers were not pleased.

 

[Larry]

I don't get it. Even if the 60 day -free trial didn't exist, the terms of service clearly indicates that you will be charged a disconnect fee of $50 and you have to return the device in good working condition (if you purchased it through them).

I don't see any $200 termination fee. The devices do not cost $150 (they are more like $50 at most).

 

[techiejr]

I had used vonage for morethan a year. I accept audio quaility is not very good. But if you can spend time with their technical people, they could help you in improving the quility. Sometimes, they make some setting on their server, sometimes they ask you do it one modem. You need to be bit patient/co-operative to do such things.

But the pain is, we need to contact them every 2-3 months.

I never had any issues with billing. Customer support also very decent. As I am watching vonage closely for last couple of years, their terms are generally, free device, early cancellation fee of $100. They never charge 200 or $300. If we pay ECF of $100, we don't have to return the modem. So, no question of postal charges etc.,

Looks like leemoreau is frustrated and trying to show his frustraction here.

 

[hugh]

My two cents,

I had Primus TalkBroadband for six months and the QOS was very poor. This resulted in me canceling Primus TBB and moving to Vonage. (admitedly, my bad experience is the opposite of many members who have had excellent service from Primus so I'm not sure if I was unique or not)

I have had Vonage for several years. Billing has always been fine and the service has been very good. This tends to echo the sentiments of most members around here.

I am a firm Vonage fan.

I think leemoreau comments are unwarranted and the fault lies more with his actions than Vonage but I'll let readers decide.

 

[Q]

My vonage reliability and performance has been awesome! I have had it for well over a year now and as long as there is power it is better than the pots line I had for less than 1/2 the price.

 

[HwyRogue]

a bit of a rehash on this post, but the BBB is entirely useless! They are there for the company, and NOT the consumer. I had an issue with a car dealer, wrote a letter, he replied, I wrote to his reply in which I pointed out the lies - long story short, no money for me. BBB closed the complaint because the dealer responded! What the HELL is that? There was no resolution except that the dealer got away with it. ..don't talk to me about the BBB.. come to think of it, I should file a complaint with the BBB about the BBB...

 

[w11x22]

I had used Primus VOIP for a year before moving back to Land line (for some personal reason). I had no problem with Primus as far as the voice quality goes. The only prblem with Primus (or any compnay) is Tech support or customer service. If you switch to any Service provider and things do not work the first time then you are in trouble 'cause these tech/cust reps only want you to do the steps that are written in fornt of their computer screens, you would be lucky if you get a good tech support guy ( which rearly happen) so if you get a good one you are happy with the service but if you get a bad then obviouly you post a bad review here. Primus service is best in terms of price and performance but, I think, their tech support is not sooo good. Right now I am Primus Canada customer and very very very happy with the service (Interenet, Land line and LD plan) all in one and it works like a charm. But I know if I face any technical problem (Let me knock on wood) I would be in trouble........
I had used Bell and even they have bad reviews in some ways too.....

 

[slyboy]

It's interesting to read through these posts and see how varied the opinions are. I'm presenting a Vonage customer who is thinking about moving my VOIP number over to Primus TalkBroadband service. The quality of the sound on my Vonage line is horrible I find. I've talked to Vonage tech support on more than one occasion and I haven't seen any difference in the line. I've been a customer of theirs for a long time now, multiple years. It's at the point where I use the line infrequently because people have trouble hearing me when I use it.

So far this thread has just confused the issue more for me as it sounds like a number of people feel that Vonage is actually better quality than Primus VOIP. I'm already one one of Rogers fastest Internet services, so I don't see my ISP as being the issue, but perhaps it is...?

With your VOIP service are you told by people you're talking to that your voice sounds hollow or cuts out a lot? I thought those latency issues were pretty much rectified now. I know VOIP works great at work, so why is there still issue on home lines with fast internet service?

 

[MarcP]

I'm presenting a Vonage customer who is thinking about moving my VOIP number over to Primus TalkBroadband service.

I am doing just that right now and having a terrible experience with Vonage trying to transfer my phone # to Primus. Every requests issued by Primus to Vonage are denied with no explanation. I called Vonage and they told me there are no records on transfer requests from Primus. I don't know who's lying to me...

 

[TBB PM]

I am doing just that right now and having a terrible experience with Vonage trying to transfer my phone # to Primus. Every requests issued by Primus to Vonage are denied with no explanation. I called Vonage and they told me there are no records on transfer requests from Primus. I don't know who's lying to me...

Since Vonage has no own numbering capacity (they are reselling numbers from multiple carriers), we are sending the request not to Vonage, but to the underlying carrier that is responsible for this number. Therefore, Vonage as a company might not have the actual request on file. I guess that rejects are made by this carrier, so both companies are telling you the truth. Cannot comment any further without knowing your phone number.

 

[Latarnik69]

I had a Vonage for about a year. Talking to their Customer Service is a test of their hearing, keybording skills and friendliness. I have found that you can not count on any of them. They sold me portable Internet Phone for over $120, which was next to useless, overcharged me for most expensive answering machine I ever had and they are still chasing me for over $200. Good luck!

 

[MarcP]

I'm still waiting on my phone # to be ported from Vonage to Primus. I'm going to call them again today...

 

[MarcP]

I called and the ticket I'm told was opened to transfer my phone # was closed 10 days ago without comments or notice and nothing was done since. This is getting very frustrating!

 

[soros]

Vonage

I get a real laugh at when Cogeco calls me asking if I want to sign up with their phone service. They've called at least half a dozen times in the last 18 months, I would guess, if not more. There base package is at least $32/mnth, probably more, it's been a while since I bothered to look (probably closer to $35.)

And everytime they call I ask them if they match what already have.. $22/mnth with vonage.. 500 minutes, no questions asked... They always tell me no... so whats the point of calling me?

The worst part about these Cogeco offers is that when you read the fine print (they've sent me numerous flyers in the mail) there is always an asterisk with the words "12 months" lodged in there somewhere... So maybe if I sign up with cogeco it will be $35/mnth for now.... *maybe* $50 later? Who knows..

I brought this up because I was just looking at my vonage billing records online,

7-Oct-2006 Invoice # ----------- $22.79
7-Oct-2006 Payment. Thank you -$22.79

and all the way to today...

7-Dec-2008 Invoice # ----------- $22.59
7-Dec-2008 Payment. Thank you -$22.59

The price has never changed (actually its gone down 20 cents? not sure why.) There was never an asterisk I had to worry about.. I've never had to call them, they've never called me and the service is pretty damn good.. including a bunch of features, some of them I use and others I could care less about.

I would probably switch to cogeco if they offered the same plan, being that they are my cable & internet provider, but it doesn't look like they have plans for being competitive in this market.

I would recommend Vonage to anybody that doesn't worry about going over 500 minutes/mnth... I've never done it. The router/phone device they send works great if you follow the instructions but if you plan on putting it behind a firewall then expect a few hours of madness trying to communicate with it (at least this model which is kind of old.)