Vonage customer service rocks!

[OZZIE4DUKE]

My Vonage box died tonight. We had big lightning storms come through earlier (we were out when they did) and when we got home the cable was out. I have extensive whole house lightning surge protection on everything - main power panel and incoming cable line, with redundant surge strips as well. I sell this stuff so I have it up the ying yang. When TWC got RoadRunner back on, my Vonage line didn't come back. I was getting flashing lights on the Vonage box and rebooting didn't help. I called Vonage tech support, and within a couple of minutes I was talking with a live tech support person, even though it was after 10 p.m. on a Friday night! After another reboot attempt, he said my box was fried, for whatever reason. Even though it was not under warranty (1 year standard and I have had it since 2005), he is sending me a new box absolutely free, including shipping and return shipping for the failed box. It'll ship on Monday and I should have it Tuesday morning.

I am a very happy Vonage customer and highly recommend their VOIP to anyone considering it. I'll be happy to send you a referral and we'll both get 2 months of free service if you sign up (and you'll get free equipment, too.)

[allenmurray]

I recently had a similar experience with Verizon on my cel phone. It was done, done, done - all my fault. They replaced it anyway for a nominal fee. I was incredibly impressed (though my reception still isn't as good as it was pre alltell merger).

[devil84]

Ozzie -- glad to know that you've had success with Vonage customer support! Mr. devil84 and I have been wondering what will happen if our fairly old Vonage box dies. We really like Vonage and highly recommend it (and for those of you reading, I'll happily send you a referral, too! But ssshhh, don't tell Ozzie ).

Allen -- regarding your post-Alltel merger reception, have you updated your phone's Preferred Roaming List (PRL)? OK, I had NO idea there was such a thing. The roaming indicator was displayed on both my and my daughter's phone while we were at home, and stayed on for a week or so (but this didn't happen to my son, who has a different phone). We took them into Verizon, where they promptly replaced the phone. This fixed the problem for about 15 hours. Glad we lost a couple of favorite pictures and spent an hour resetting the phones to all the customized setting just for the same thing to happen (and can it REALLY be hardware if TWO phones have the exact same problem at the same time?). Grrrr.

Before going over there again yesterday, I Googled the problem and found the PRL situation, which seems to clear up a number of issues, from roaming to reception. The way I understand it is the list determines which towers take priority, and a pre-merger Verizon phone might be trying to prioritize a weaker Verizon tower over a then-Alltel-now-Verizon tower. In my case, it may have been picking up the very strong formerly Alltel tower causing it to think it was roaming because the phone didn't know about the merger. Or something like that. (Gimme a break...I'm blonde, and my technical expertise lies in SQL databases, not cell phones!)

Dial *228, then select option 2. It takes less than a minute, and fixed my roaming issue. Might fix your reception problem, which was the main reason people were posting the *228 option 2 solution.

Sorry, Ozzie...didn't mean to hijack your Vonage thread, but thought I'd help out Allen.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I'll happily send you a referral, too! But ssshhh, don't tell Ozzie ).

Dial *228, then select option 2. It takes less than a minute, and fixed my roaming issue. Might fix your reception problem, which was the main reason people were posting the *228 option 2 solution.

Sorry, Ozzie...didn't mean to hijack your Vonage thread, but thought I'd help out Allen.

Not a problem. We'll have to have a drink-off for the referrals

*228 was instituted several years ago by Alltel so you could update your roaming towers without taking the phone in to a service store. Not that Alltel did a good job of telling customers about it, but everyone should do it every couple of months, especially before you travel to a new location. Your "post merger" tip is a timely suggestion. Think I'll do it myself!

What's really strange is that my wife's phone suddenly can't read the memory card that stores her pictures. She turned the phone off Tuesday night and all was fine. Wendesday morning (the day after the Alltel-Verizon switchover) her screen background was back to the default and it couldn't read or access the card. I took the card (a micro SC card) out of the phone and put it into a card reader on my printer that is connected to my computer to transfer the pictures, which I've done before, but the printer displayed a memory card error message. I put the card back into the phone and tried to do a card format, but that failed too. Don't know why the card got fried while the phone was off (and charging), but it did. Anyone have any suggestions? My wife hates to lose a few of the pictures on the card that hadn't been transferred.

[allenmurray]

Allen -- regarding your post-Alltel merger reception, have you updated your phone's Preferred Roaming List (PRL)? OK, I had NO idea there was such a thing. The roaming indicator was displayed on both my and my daughter's phone while we were at home, and stayed on for a week or so (but this didn't happen to my son, who has a different phone). We took them into Verizon, where they promptly replaced the phone. This fixed the problem for about 15 hours. Glad we lost a couple of favorite pictures and spent an hour resetting the phones to all the customized setting just for the same thing to happen (and can it REALLY be hardware if TWO phones have the exact same problem at the same time?). Grrrr.

Before going over there again yesterday, I Googled the problem and found the PRL situation, which seems to clear up a number of issues, from roaming to reception. The way I understand it is the list determines which towers take priority, and a pre-merger Verizon phone might be trying to prioritize a weaker Verizon tower over a then-Alltel-now-Verizon tower. In my case, it may have been picking up the very strong formerly Alltel tower causing it to think it was roaming because the phone didn't know about the merger. Or something like that. (Gimme a break...I'm blonde, and my technical expertise lies in SQL databases, not cell phones!)

Dial *228, then select option 2. It takes less than a minute, and fixed my roaming issue. Might fix your reception problem, which was the main reason people were posting the *228 option 2 solution.

Sorry, Ozzie...didn't mean to hijack your Vonage thread, but thought I'd help out Allen.

I gave it a try - I'll see what hapens. Because I had lost my phone I went into Alltel about 3 weeks before the merger (which I wasn't even aware of) to try to get a cheap phone to take me through until my contract was up. Because of the upcoming merger I was told by the folks that I could terminate my Alltel contract early with no penalty if I signed up for a new Verizon plan - then get new phones for everybody (which actually was a very good deal as I was w/out a phone and my wife's phone was pretty dated). So my new phone (with reception difficulties) was always a Verizon phone. Nevertheless, the folks at the store warned me I might have reception difficulties for a few weeks, until all merger issues had been ironed out. I appreciate that they were honest about it. My Verizon reception is great most of the time, but there are dead sports that I didn't experience with Alltell (primarily in rural areas). Maybe between this update and the merger wrinkles getting ironed out things will improve. The customer service has been really remarkable. I'm not sure if they are going "above and beyond" to try to deal with merger isses and fears, or if Verizon customer services has always been good, but I was really impressed.

[devil84]

I gave it a try - I'll see what hapens. Because I had lost my phone I went into Alltel about 3 weeks before the merger (which I wasn't even aware of) to try to get a cheap phone to take me through until my contract was up. Because of the upcoming merger I was told by the folks that I could terminate my Alltel contract early with no penalty if I signed up for a new Verizon plan - then get new phones for everybody (which actually was a very good deal as I was w/out a phone and my wife's phone was pretty dated). So my new phone (with reception difficulties) was always a Verizon phone. Nevertheless, the folks at the store warned me I might have reception difficulties for a few weeks, until all merger issues had been ironed out. I appreciate that they were honest about it. My Verizon reception is great most of the time, but there are dead sports that I didn't experience with Alltell (primarily in rural areas). Maybe between this update and the merger wrinkles getting ironed out things will improve. The customer service has been really remarkable. I'm not sure if they are going "above and beyond" to try to deal with merger isses and fears, or if Verizon customer services has always been good, but I was really impressed.

That was good of them to warn you about the reception issues! And hopefully being able update your phone frequently (without the long wait at the stores) will help, too. Sounds like you've had good experiences with Verizon!

I wish my saga was over. I was so happy when I wrote the other post, and then last night, I noticed my phone was roaming again. So I did *228 again, and it told me it couldn't update the phone. So I'm roaming *again,* as is my daughter. Oh well...back to the store.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

That was good of them to warn you about the reception issues! And hopefully being able update your phone frequently (without the long wait at the stores) will help, too. Sounds like you've had good experiences with Verizon!

I wish my saga was over. I was so happy when I wrote the other post, and then last night, I noticed my phone was roaming again. So I did *228 again, and it told me it couldn't update the phone. So I'm roaming *again,* as is my daughter. Oh well...back to the store.

On your suggestion, I *228'd my phones. I have a Raleigh based number and have always been roaming (in-package minutes) in Smithfield - there was NO cell service based in Smithfield back in 1987 when I first got my phone service. After the update, I am no longer roaming, not that it makes any difference to me.