TECH HELP! COMPUTER SERVICES HAS BEEN HAVING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES RECEIVING SOME (NOT ALL) PHONE CALLS. IF YOU ARE HAVING DIFFICULTY GETTING THROUGH TO OUR OFFICE, PLEASE CALL US AT 530-472-3065. WE ARE MAKING EVERY EFFORT TO RESOLVE THIS ISSUE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE & WILL HAVE A NEW TOLL-FREE NUMBER AVAILABLE SHORTLY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE!

Well, I'm sorry to report that we have been having problems with our main telephone number. Unfortunately, when we opened for business in October, I made the decision to go with Vonage as our telephone service provider... Bad move on my part. While the Vonage service is very competitively priced, feature rich, flexible & easy to set up... I have no choice but to report that their customer service stinks!
For those of you who have never heard of "Vonage", their catchy ads have aired on most of Redding's commercial television & radio stations for several years now.
Vonage is the largest Internet phone company and works by allowing you to use a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) adapter, along with your high-speed internet connection (DSL, Cable or WiFi) to connect a standard POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) telephone through your ISP (Internet Service Provider) .
In other words, you can connect any standard telephone through your fast internet connection and choose a phone number from any area you want. You can also take your Vonage adapter with you when you travel and use it as if you were in your home area code (this has the potential to save you lots of money).
In addition, Vonage also has a voice mail service that (as far as I know) has no equal. Not only can you check your voice messages in all the standard ways (by calling your voice mail number & entering a PIN, SMS, etc.), but you can also receive your voice messages as an mp3 attachment to an email! This allows you to be not only notified of your new messages via email, but to listen to messages directly from each email message you receive. Way convenient & WAY COOL!
At least I thought so... but I was wrong.
My initial excitement was replaced first by disbelief and eventually by absolute disgust with the Vonage technical support experience.
The first call I made to Vonage tech support was'nt so bad. The support rep was not as fluent in the English language as I would have liked, but was able to communicate clearly. There was an obvious script being followed by the rep, as I would expect during almost any "level one" support call. My problem was duly noted and I was issued a trouble ticket number along with a promise of attention to my issue by second level support within 48 hours. My problem would be addressed via the Vonage SOP (Standard Operating Proceedure) as soon as possible... or so I thought.
The following morning (at 3:30AM) I was rudely awakened by a phone call from the Vonage support staff. When I answered the call, I was greeted by the extremely annoying (especially considering the untimely placement of the call) clunk of the caller's phone hanging up on me.
Later that same morning, when I checked my email, I had received the following message from Vonage's 2nd level support:

Thank you for contacting Technical Support.
I apologize for any delay in responding in regards to your inbound calling issue.
We have been making test calls to the number that you have provided, and we were unable to duplicate the issues that you have been experiencing.  If you could please reply to this email when the problem reoccurs, I would be more than willing to assist you troubleshoot this issue.
I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you, our valued customer.
Thank you for choosing Vonage for all your communication needs.
Sincerely,
Kris
Advanced Operations Technician

Needless to say, my problem did not need to "reoccur"... it had never gone away to begin with.
I went ahead and responded to the email, as requested, outlining the exact problem... again.
I waited 24 hours for a response before calling the tech support line... again. After waiting on hold for over twenty minutes, I again relayed the exact nature of my problem and gave the rep my original trouble ticket number, etc. I was told to be patient, 2nd level support knows about my problem and is working on it (yeah, right!)
I repeated the calls to Vonage tech support for an additional three days with the same result. By the time I placed my final call, they could not even find any record of my original problem and I was reduced to repeatedly re-explaining my issue to each person I talked to. In addition to this, literally EVERY Vonage employee I spoke with used the exact same script when dealing with me... I was more than just frustrated, I was livid!
The entire "Vonage experience" ended with 2nd level support promising to "get to the bottom" of my problem with the Vonage engineering staff and call me back to fill me in. I never received a call and finally decided that enough is enough... time to bite the bullett and find a better way to do business.
This means that Tech Help! Computer Services has not only been missing many, if not most, calls from our local customers, but we also have to eat the expense of reprinting all of our business cards, advertising and other promotional materials. And, worst of all, we have not been able to provide service to our VERY valued customers.

This BLOG entry shall serve two very important purposes:

First - Let this entry serve as an apology to any and all customers who have been trying to reach Tech Help! on our office phone line (530-779-4555). We are currently arranging for a toll-free number through our local phone company. In the meantime, please contact us at 530-472-3065. Thanks for your patience while we resolve this problem!

Second - This entry should serve as a testimonial to the quality of the Vonage Tech Support experience and as a recommendation by Tech Help! Computer Services not to use the Vonage VOIP service in the Shasta County area.


Thanks again for your understanding and continued support...

-=BARRY=-