VOIP Phones
I want to go on record stating that I HATE BellSouth. I hate any company that is just plain big and sloth like and lazy because they can be.
A few months ago, we moved (about a mile away) and BellSouth put the nails in the coffin for themselves. First they wouldn’t give us the same number we’ve had for over 9 years. Secondly, they were going to charge us $40 to switch our service over to the new number.
So, in this age of cell phones and considering we rarely use the house phone, we attempted for a few months just getting by on our cell phones. However we heard about a company called Vonage who offers voice over ip telephony for homes.
You have to have broadband internet (high speed) and there is a router provided by Vonage that converts your phone call information (your voice) to data and sends it out via the internet. The calls are clear and sound like regular ole copper wire phone calls. I’ve used this technology with my work for over a year now, and it’s fantastic.
So for $15 a month, we have our local home phone (we got back our old number — thank you vonage!!). So take THAT BellSouth. We were paying about $35 a month for basic phone service and putting up with red tape of that behemoth company, and now we’re done with them.
In addition to Vonage, I believe that now our local cable company is offering this same phone service, but they are charging $30 a month. For those of you sick of BellSouth and their stupid fees, c’mon over.
Huh.
That’s something worth looking into. I don’t have a home phone; we use our cellphones. Mine isn’t working, though. Sprint has me totally disgusted with their customer service.
I agree! We’ve had Vonage for a few months. We pay $24.99 and have free long distance and local all the time, plus voice mail, caller ID, call waiting, etc etc.
They don’t have the world’s best customer service by any stretch. It appears to be outsourced but when my service has gone out and I call them, it’s usually restored within the hour, though they have never admitted it was their fault. Now that I know this though, I don’t care much. Just a warning.
That’s great! I moved into a new place last month, and had to switch from Sprint to BellSouth. Couldn’t keep my old number, plus I had to pay a buttload of connection fees. My phone bill this month came to $129, which is freaking ridiculous. And the sales rep outright lied when I was setting up my service. He told me one plan was cheaper than the one I wanted, even though I discovered this month that it’s actually $6 more. BellSouth is a bunch of despotic f**** (fill in the blanks) and I really can’t stand them.
Of course, I have dial-up, so switching over to Vonage would be impossible for me. :SIGH: