VoiceWing - Finally Working Right, but Alas, Verizon is Shutting It Down as of 3/31/09
Written: Aug 13 '07 (Updated Jan 28 '09)
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UPDATE - January, 2009
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Got a letter from Verizon stating they're shutting down Voicewing as of 3/31/09. No explanation other than the on-line account management will remain active for another 2 months thereafter. Despite all ths issues I had in the early days, they finally got their act together a year ago and have given me virtually trouble fee service ever since.
PROS: Call Quality As Good As a Landline, Customer Service Agents All Based in The USA who all speak and understand English that call back when they promise. THAT'S ALL!
This review proves beyond any reasonable doubt that the computer system that runs the Verizon VoiceWing system is nothing short of an absolute DISASTER.
My 1st attempt to sign up on line yielded discovery that the order disappeared into thin air when I called after a week to get a status. I was told by the customer service rep that whenever I signed up I'd be billed from that day forward REGARDLESS of the fact that I didn't have the equipment and therefore had no access to the service. I suspect this to be illegal and have considered reporting it to the New York State Attorney General's office given the overall amount of frustration I've been handed. Billing should only start from the day I first log on and start using it. I tried signing up again, and sure enough the VoiceWing folks gave me every reason to believe I was dealing a bunch of Keystone Cops by not sending the equipment despite two assurances they'd put a rush on it, excuses by one rep saying there was a mistake on my online application which I was not alerted to, by another rep telling me they didn't have my email address despite the rep on my prior call being able to find my info having given them my email address, and so on so on. Finally, I was able to get the service up and running quickly upon receipt of the adapter.
In the 4 months I've been a VoiceWing customer, not more than a few days has EVER gone by without my having to spend hours on the phone with (and holding for) tech support for a seemingly endless list of issues.
- Voicemail not working
- Voicemail notification not working
- Voicemail notification telling me I had a message when there wasn't a message
- Unable to play voicemail message online - STILL NEVER RESOLVED
- Caller ID stopped working
- My phone number completely disappeared from their system for no reason at all resulting in all incoming calls going direct to voicemail
- Complete loss of dial tone requiring 2 hours on the phone with them to fix
- Multiple random emails from them telling me my adapter was offline (NOT TRUE) for more than a few hours causing my service to be disabled...including E911!
- Multiple random emails from them telling me that I went on line and changed my mailing address and email information when I in fact, HADN'T. If I did change that info, then why was everything still the same when I then logged on to my Personal Account Manager?
- Calls randomly disconnect resulting in a busy signal in my ear
- Secret question type that I NEVER selected popping up when I clicked [Forgot Password]
- Their Personal Account Manager website tends to run slower than a 20 year old 300 baud dial-up connection
- On-Line directory lookup/assistance has NEVER worked.
- Promised credits for a lot of this nonsense never refunded to my credit card
Today, my service is out completely. This morning, I got the latest typical email:
"Our system has detected your VoiceWing service has been offline for an extended period of time and we have temporarily suspended your ability to make calls (except for calls to 911 or VoiceWing Customer Service)."
Offline? When? What, are they kidding?
Calling customer service got me the outgoing message: "Please enter your VoiceWing number". When I did, I just got a busy signal after a few seconds. Tried calling on my Verizon Wireless phone and gave up after 45 minutes on hold. Being a computer person, I thought I'd try calling them again from my VoiceWing phone and decided to try pressing # after entering my phone number, PRESTO! I got the opportunity to wait on hold for an hour and 50 minutes to get to a technician. If you have to press #, then why couldn't their outgoing message say "Please enter your VoiceWing number, FOLLOWED BY THE POUND SIGN"? Whenever you do call them nowadays and select 2 for Customer Service or 3 for Tech Support, you always get the message "We Are Experiencing Unusually High Call Volumes". Gee, I wonder why. And it ain't just because of Sunrocket going out of business. To date, EVERY tech rep I've ever spoken to agrees with me 100% that this service is seriously bad news and the problems I and many other customers are experiencing are well beyond reason.
Anyway, after 2 more hours back and forth with a technician, I've jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire and am now in worse shape as my service is completely dead, but hey, I still have a dial tone! Only now, I can no longer dial customer service NOR 911. 3/4 of my day today alone has been wasted dealing with this VoiceWing catastrophe. I'm also tired of having to run up my Verizon Wireless minutes because of all the nonsense. I've further been told this could happen whenever my internet connection 'times out'. Do they mean my VERIZON FiOS ULTRA HIGH SPEED FIBER OPTIC INTERNET SERVICE?
And I thought Vonage was bad news. Scouring the net to find out if all the VoIP services are really screwed up, I found:
http://www.voipreview.org/review.details.aspx?root=121
VOIP YOUR LIFE seems to be the only one with 100% complete customer satisfaction. Maybe I'll give them a shot.
NO SERVICE, DAY 2 - 8/14/07
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Today, I learned that the entire Verizon VoiceWing Network across the WHOLE United States is DOWN ! Can you imagine??????? Got through to a customer service agent who told me her system showed that my service was restored at 12:55 yesterday afternoon. Yeah, right. 12:55 was when I made that jump out of the frying pan into the fire.
NO SERVICE, DAY 3 - 8/15/07
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Today, I discovered http://www.comparevoipservice.org
All things considered, VOIP.COM seems to be the best deal around right now.
I still can't believe the VoIP service from the nation's largest telecommunications company has been knocked out for 3 days and the news hasn't hit the media yet. Good thing today's the last day of my Verizon Wireless's billing cycle. I'm buckling my seat belt for that upcoming bill, believe me.
TADA! I finally got a call from a tech that knew what he was doing, informed me they found the problem that took their system down, and after a half hour on the phone, I'm back up and running. But so far, 2 of my calls got disconnected, I'm still not able to play voicemails via the Personal Account Manager, and promised credits still haven't gotten back to my credit card.
Stay tuned folks .............
UPDATE - March, 2008
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Glory Hallelujah!
I've now gone 3 months without having to call tech support. The service hasn't gone down, calls don't drop any more, voicemail works like it should, and their Personal Account Manager website has been speeded up to normal. The only remaining issue appears to be with on-line Directory Lookup/Assistance. That's the only thing that still doesn't work as far as I can tell.
I have official confirmation that this review was seen by the head of the Voicewing division of Verizon and a bunch of other Verizon execs. They realize that VOIP is the future of telephone service and they could not afford to allow a catastrophe like this to continue.
I would no longer hesitate to recommend Voicewing to anyone.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 2 members
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