Vonage Part 1 - I am a skeptic

I am an early adopter of almost anything technology related. However, it is 2009 and many of my friends have VoIP and I am still a skeptic. I recently upgraded from my puny DSL connection (6Mbps/384Kbps) to cable at 30Mbps/8Mbps. Because that breaks my bundle with at&t, I decided to drop my voice and long distance with them, and switch to Vonage. A lot of my friends have VoIP, and many of them actually have Vonage and despite all the HORRIBLE reviews on the Internet for Vonage, they all say that it is great, reliable, works as advertised.

So, tonight I picked up a $150 set of Vonage phones at Fry's, free after rebate. Apparently they let me listen to Vonage voicemail directly from the phones. Sounds good. I just signed up for the Vonage service. The first thing that annoyed me is that by buying the phones in the store (rebate or not), I am not able to enter a promo code that I have been planning to use. I get the first month free, but still have to pay activation. My promo would have saved me $15/month for the first three months and free activation ($30+). Total savings of $75 instead of the $25 I saved for the first month. So. . . I guess the great limited time offer I got on the phones wasn't as good as I thought since I am still paying $50 for them, essentially. Sneaky Vonage, very sneaky. And I don't like it. And I am going to tell all my friends that this is how my relationship with you started out. We'll see if it gets better.

Next thing I noticed: If I ever want to cancel service, there is a $39.99 cancellation fee. WHAT? Are you serious? So. . . anytime I want to cancel, I basically owe them for 1.7 extra months of service. THAT IS NOT COOL! Again, I feel like I am being tricked. Don't trick me, I will figure it out, and it will cause me to say bad things about you to everyone I know. I promise you that. I will forgive, but I will never forget.

Now, I haven't connected the service yet. But Vonage hasn't done a whole heck of a lot to make me comfortable yet with these sneaky little tricks that they are pulling. We shall see what happens, and you can believe that I plan to post it here on my blog, ESPECIALLY if it is not good.