Goodbye Lingo, Hello Vonage!

- 290 Words


Awww, the hell with it.

I’m fed up. I’ve had Lingo’s VoIP service since September 2004. For $19.95 a month with unlimited calling, it was a pretty good deal, especially when you stack it up against the offerings from SBC and other providers. It was actually working pretty well…

…until the end of March. I was in Minneapolis on a business trip, and every time I tried calling home I was connected directly to voice mail. Odd, but I thought perhaps the power was out or something.

When I returned, I was informed that the phone service just wasn’t working. Restarting the ATA (the hardware adapter that converts the conversation into digital packets for transmission) didn’t do anything. It was dead, and it took my primary phone number with it.

I tried working with support. Many e-mails were sent, and a few hours on hold later, it was obvious that I wasn’t making any progress. My favorite part was that almost every one of the e-mails I sent generated the same response from Lingo support: Please call for further troubleshooting. No we can’t replace the equipment until you call.

Hey Lingo: How can I possibly call support when I can’t make phone calls on your device???

So, I’ve switched to Vonage. Picked up the equipment from Best Buy, which ends up being free after rebate, plus a $25 Best Buy gift card. Not a bad deal when you look at it. When making outgoing calls, Vonage spoofs my main number (I have a ‘virtual’ number that I can use until my primary number gets transferred over). The best part is that I can tell Lingo to forward my calls to the virtual number, so nobody even knows it’s going on.