Fongo Home Phone Reliability vs. Free Phone Line

[Privatepilot]

I just spoke to a friend who has Fongo Hone Phone service and he did not have one interruption in service over the holidays. He has his original ATA purchased from Fongo and pays the $5 a month and has never had to change a setting or anything since he received it last summer. His ISP is Rogers. Basically, he has had a great experience for over 6 months.

Contrast my scenario with Fongo and ISP being Cogeco (14mbs download 1.5Mbs upload). I received my ATA from Fongo late November and have had overall shotty service at best, meaning service reliability. Tech support has always been very nice and helpful, as has everyone on this form to which I am thankful. The first day I received the box, I called tech support because the call display didn't work. It turned out to be a Vtech phone issue but was later resolved a few weeks after. However, when I called in that first time, the tech on the phone had me fully reconfigure the ATA, inputting new passwords, caller ID name, settings, SIP address, etc after a full devises reset back to factory settings. My question is, because of that factory reset and new passwords and sip address put in, am I now seen on "the system" as a Free Phone Line Subscriber and not a Home Phone subscriber. Almost like I bought a devise and then an unlock key from Fongo? Maybe my devise now feeds into a less stable FPL server instead of the home phone service server? Seems like I have all the issues that the Free phone Line folks have, and not many Fongo Home Phone $5 subscribers seem not to have most of the issues I have. Should I request a new ATA with proper formatting on it from "head office".

I really want to stay with the service but am concerned that the daily issues will have to point me to a different provider. I did have Primus Talk Broadband for 2 years and never had one..... not one issue. I left them because I didn't need a home phone anymore a while back. Just don’t like their $25 bucks a month price tag. How is Primus able to offer more reliable VOIP service, I just don’t understand.

I'm no techy, but would love some people's feedback. Just trying to understand how my friend has perfect service and mine is far from it. Yes, I have done all the voip tests online and my internet always passes with high accolades.

Thanks everyone.

[Funkytown]

This is the best case scenario that I can explain in regards to your thread/post above.

Separate cases for quality/line drops/hiccups/packet loss is in every cable and DSl subscribers connection to which has nothing to do with voip providers in most circumstances. Voip is nothing more then a plug and play (out of the box). What happens between your phone conversations ends up to be usually the modem/ wireless router or your Internet provider routing or filtering your line/ports coming in and people still don't realize this.

I myself left primus 6 years ago came to Clearpointel/Freephonline and to this day onwards it's been my best chose and experience ever since with very minimal downtown. I have saved thousands of dollars with clearpointel/freephoneline over the course of 5 years now and counting with still no extra monthly phone bills, can't be any happier to be honest.

Im here if you need help, I have experience in configuring ATA voip devices. example: Pap's, Linksys, Speedtouch, Grandstreams etc.....

Note: I would call fongo again and have them look over your profile and see if they can compare or match with any issues on there end and they can also use there very own equipment to investigate and test from inside there head-quarters with your personal sip settings. Please update us on any good news of your next phone call with them.

[Fongo Support]

@Privatepilot - can you please pm us your Fongo account number (Fongo phone number) so that we can look into your account?

[Jake]

@Privatepilot - can you please pm us your Fongo account number (Fongo phone number) so that we can look into your account?

I don't mean to be rude, and I did send a message to Fongo_Mike about "Fongo Support" but as yet have not heard back. BUT before anyone sends any personal information to Fongo Support, can a mod please confirm that they are actually "Fongo Support" and not someone trying to pull a fast one. Again, no disrespect meant, just being cautions.

[Funkytown]

BUT before anyone sends any personal information to Fongo Support, can a mod please confirm that they are actually "Fongo Support" and not someone trying to pull a fast one.

I agree. I'm on the phone with them right now.

[Privatepilot]

Everyone thanks so much for all your help and suggestions. This is a great forum

I'm sure i'll get to the bottom of my issues soon.

Thanks for the advise too, I wont be sending personal info out until that member can confirm they work for Fongo!

[Funkytown]

Everyone thanks so much for all your help and suggestions. This is a great forum

I'm sure i'll get to the bottom of my issues soon.

Thanks for the advise too, I wont be sending personal info out until that member can confirm they work for Fongo!

I was just infomred that all fongo Admins/Mods have a green labeled Fongo logo icon and there name is highlighted in either green or red. So please do not give out any personal info to anyone.

[Fongo Support]

Hello folks,

Sorry for the confusion (and Funkytown - thanks for the voicemail message). I am a Fongo employee and have asked Fongo_Steve to make me green but I'm not green yet.
Jumped on to the Forum to help work through some of these issues -- I'm not a regular moderator.

No worries at all if you'd like to wait until I'm green before PMing me.

Jacqui.
(aka VP Marketing at Fongo)

[Fongo Support]

p.s. And I love the fact that people like Jake and Funkytown are looking out for everyone. Thanks guys.

[FONGO_mike]

Hi Everyone, just a heads up, I can confirm for you you that Fongo Support is indeed Fongo a Fongo staff member.

[Jake]

Hi Everyone, just a heads up, I can confirm for you you that Fongo Support is indeed Fongo a Fongo staff member.

Thanks for confirming that Fongo_Mike, and sorry for the bumpy welcome Fongo Support.

It just looks a bit suspect when someone joins at 6pm New Years Day with a name like "Fongo Support" than starts asking people for account information.

Usually Staff have their name in their username (Fongo_NAME) with an underscore in between ( apart from when Fongo_Kris who was admin and then just Kris; and Fongo_Steve who was Steve ). They usually get identified with a Green name also.

So, when you add up the strange joining time (when it would be expected that Fongo Support would be closed), the different naming convention, not being identified as support, and asking people for account information; alarm bells start going off. Or maybe it is just where I drank too much Eggnog

Welcome anyway

[FONGO_mike]

Jake, i agree it looks a little odd (once i saw reports coming from from people warning us about someone possibly impersonating staff, we checked it out immediately) and would certainly wonder about it also.

the names should also now be ocming up in Green lettering like the rest of the moderators on the forums. (also added a post in the welcome moderators thread that was posted a number of months back.

[Funkytown]

the name should also now be coming up in Green lettering like the rest of the moderators on the forums.

At the time your community name wasn't highlighted green/red nor was there a fongo logo under your name, this is what i think turned some of our thinking bells on at the time.

Thanks so much for clarifying all of this, Oh, and jake who chimed in, kudos to you as well for alerting us!