Hi - I've just had the email stating that Vonage is taking over
Freetalk, and that existing freetalk subscribers need to register with
Vonage to continue usage after September 2006. What the mail doesn't
make clear, and its not that easy to spot on their web site either, is
that you will need to take out a 12 month contract with Vonage. If you
cancel within 99 days you need to pay a rebate on the new adapter they
sent you, and a 23.99 disconnection fee. If you cancel before the year
is up (i.e. before next September) but after 99 days, you will still
need to pay the 23.99 disconnection fee. I still have 5 months
remaining on my Freetalk account, but in order to use it I will HAVE to
take out a new contract with Vonage and commit myself for another year.
"dv" <dvisor@googlemail.com> wrote in message
news:1156892283.652871.285640@74g2000cwt.googlegro ups.com...
> Hi - I've just had the email stating that Vonage is taking over
> Freetalk, and that existing freetalk subscribers need to register with
> Vonage to continue usage after September 2006. What the mail doesn't
> make clear, and its not that easy to spot on their web site either, is
> that you will need to take out a 12 month contract with Vonage. If you
> cancel within 99 days you need to pay a rebate on the new adapter they
> sent you, and a 23.99 disconnection fee. If you cancel before the year
> is up (i.e. before next September) but after 99 days, you will still
> need to pay the 23.99 disconnection fee. I still have 5 months
> remaining on my Freetalk account, but in order to use it I will HAVE to
> take out a new contract with Vonage and commit myself for another year.
Hi dv
I am in the same boat as you but didn't realise you will be signing up to a
new 12 month contract with Vonage. That is not what I want. I recently
ditched a Vonage account due to poor call quality and certainly do not wish
to be back with Vonage! I will call the number supplied in the email I
received and see what my options are.
Fred.
On Wed, 30 Aug 2006 00:16:57 GMT, "Fred" <frednospam@hotmail.com>
wrote:
>
>"dv" <dvisor@googlemail.com> wrote in message
>news:1156892283.652871.285640@74g2000cwt.googlegr oups.com...
>> Hi - I've just had the email stating that Vonage is taking over
>> Freetalk, and that existing freetalk subscribers need to register with
>> Vonage to continue usage after September 2006. What the mail doesn't
>> make clear, and its not that easy to spot on their web site either, is
>> that you will need to take out a 12 month contract with Vonage. If you
>> cancel within 99 days you need to pay a rebate on the new adapter they
>> sent you, and a 23.99 disconnection fee. If you cancel before the year
>> is up (i.e. before next September) but after 99 days, you will still
>> need to pay the 23.99 disconnection fee. I still have 5 months
>> remaining on my Freetalk account, but in order to use it I will HAVE to
>> take out a new contract with Vonage and commit myself for another year.
>
>
>Hi dv
>I am in the same boat as you but didn't realise you will be signing up to a
>new 12 month contract with Vonage. That is not what I want. I recently
>ditched a Vonage account due to poor call quality and certainly do not wish
>to be back with Vonage! I will call the number supplied in the email I
>received and see what my options are.
>Fred.
IMO you are better off without being tied to one operator. Get your
own ATA, set it up with the providers of your choice, connect it up to
your house phones and you are away. If you don't like a provider then
go for another.
If you want to use an ATA with both voip and your standard telephone
landline then choose something like the very flexible linksys/Sipura
SPA-3000.
If you need 2 lines: The less flexible SPA-1001 (2 lines to one set of
handsets) or the PAP2 (2 seperate lines). Don't buy a second hand
PAP2, as they are often ex Vonage, or any locked device. If you have a
Vonage ATA that belongs to you then you could try unlocking it.
Ask on here how to do that - it can be risky but if it is yours and
locked to vonage you have nothing to lose.
However, if you do a 'factory reset' it will, afaik, revert back to
Vonage.
You might also look at the Fritzbox - I am not an expert on these so I
can't comment with any authority.
"Brian A" <no_spam_bca1000@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:i0kaf2djsmut4plqp056q6tbaeol84aqjc@4ax.com
[snip]
..
> You might also look at the Fritzbox - I am not an expert
> on these so I can't comment with any authority.
Two phone ports on most models (three on the top of the range WLAN7050)
and capacity for up to 10 SIP accounts. Also a POTS line port, which will
work with either plain old POTS or ISDN.
Not cheap but well worth the money IMHO. Not as user-configurable as the
Sipura range but very good just the same.
<m.Dexter@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:i7laf2t0daha4j4e6c2n3if596l4o6708d@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 30 Aug 2006 00:16:57 GMT, "Fred" <frednospam@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>>I am in the same boat as you but didn't realise you will be signing up to
>>a
>>new 12 month contract with Vonage. I will call the number supplied in
>>the email I
>>received and see what my options are.
> Well Fred my two freetalk accounts ended on Sunday and I signed up
> with Vonage again last night via the phone six months at 5.99 then
> full amount thereafter ,no activation fee, 8.99 shipping charges .
> Are you sure it was Vonage giving you poor call quality and not
> somthing out of Vonage control beause I never had a single problem
> with them last time .
Hi M.Dexter
Believe me I tried everything to get Vonage to work correctly as it was
being used by my family for outgoing calls and i was becoming embarrassed at
he call drop outs/crackling/popping that was happening. I was advised by
Vonage to contact my ISP-Blueyonder as the technical people at Vonage
believed there is a poor connection issue followimng some ping tests.
However, on contacting my ISP support there was nothing wrong with my
connection following several further tests. Meanwhile my Freetalk adaptor
which was connected to the same router as the Vonage adaptor continued to
work perfectly!! I then decided to ditch Vonage last week but keep the
Freetalk line operational.
I have just called the freephone number provided by Freetalk regarding this
changeover and all you receive is a sales pitch by Vonage to switch over to
them! I am not impressed with Freetalk at all as I had been contacting them
repeatedly about the failure to receive my invoice notifications via email.
What makes me even more mad is that despite phoning them and gettijng a full
voicemail box message and emailing them and getting no response, they
miraculously manage to email me successfully when they decide to ditch all
their customers! Time to contact Ofcom I feel.
Fred.
> You're not really committing to a 12 month contract, you just have to
> finish off your current contract and pay a disconnection fee if you
> want to end it at that point.... which I suppose is the same thing as
> commiting to a 12 month contract. At least it is only £23.99 though,
> they could have made you pay off the rest of the monthly charges too.
>
> It's a shame really that Freetalk wil lbe no more as I liked Freetalk,
> despite their billing dates being completely inconsistent.
>
> However, I think I will go ahead and give Vonage a try.
>
> I have looked at Vonage in the past and they certainly seem better
> value for money that they used to be. And most call rate seem to be
> the same as Freetalk was.
>
> And they seem to offer a decent amount of features.
>
> I don't think I use the phone enough to justify the expense and effort
> of buying my own ATA and configuring multiple accounts with different
> providers. I just want something that is a cheaper subsitute for a
> landline and Vonage seem to be able to offer this.
I think there's a matter of principle here. I paid 79.99 for a year's
worth of service. After 7 months I find that in order to use the
remaining 5 months that I have already paid for (which is worth about
33.00) I have to commit myself to a year of Vonage or pay 23.99
disconnection when the 5 months are up.
"Dave" <weirdoboy@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:rr8df2982ope983as65s7pjl4vk3aa7gsl@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 08:50:05 GMT, Dave <weirdoboy@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>On 31 Aug 2006 01:22:20 -0700, "dv" <dvisor@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>Dave wrote:
>>>
>>>> You're not really committing to a 12 month contract, you just have to
>>>> finish off your current contract and pay a disconnection fee if you
>>>> want to end it at that point.... which I suppose is the same thing as
>>>> commiting to a 12 month contract. At least it is only £23.99 though,
>>>> they could have made you pay off the rest of the monthly charges too.
>>>>
>>>> It's a shame really that Freetalk wil lbe no more as I liked Freetalk,
>>>> despite their billing dates being completely inconsistent.
>>>>
>>>> However, I think I will go ahead and give Vonage a try.
>>>>
>>>> I have looked at Vonage in the past and they certainly seem better
>>>> value for money that they used to be. And most call rate seem to be
>>>> the same as Freetalk was.
>>>>
>>>> And they seem to offer a decent amount of features.
>>>>
>>>> I don't think I use the phone enough to justify the expense and effort
>>>> of buying my own ATA and configuring multiple accounts with different
>>>> providers. I just want something that is a cheaper subsitute for a
>>>> landline and Vonage seem to be able to offer this.
>>>
>>>I think there's a matter of principle here. I paid 79.99 for a year's
>>>worth of service. After 7 months I find that in order to use the
>>>remaining 5 months that I have already paid for (which is worth about
>>>33.00) I have to commit myself to a year of Vonage or pay 23.99
>>>disconnection when the 5 months are up.
>>
>>Unfortunately it's a fact of life that companies go out of
>>business/get taken over which is why I would never pay for a year's
>>service for anything upfront.
>>
>>Anyway, it says on the FAQ page "From your second month onwards Vonage
>>will credit £7.99 to your account for the remainder of your freetalk
>>contract"
>>
>>Surely this means they are going to credit your account with £31.96
>>which will be enough to cover the cancellation fee?
>
> Sorry, just ignore that, I misunderstood what they were going to do.
> They are going to credit the £7.99 to cover the rental each month,
> that's all.
Well I called the freephone number given in the email and was advised that
if you no longer wish to transfer to Vonage you need do nothing and your
line will be disconnected after 19th September and you will not incur any
disconnection charges. Also, if you do decide to migrate to Vonage the £7.99
credit will be split over the remaining months of your Freetalk contract eg
8 months remaining means £1 credited per month to your account.
Fred.
"dv" <dvisor@googlemail.com> wrote in message
news:1156892283.652871.285640@74g2000cwt.googlegro ups.com...
> Hi - I've just had the email stating that Vonage is taking over
> Freetalk, and that existing freetalk subscribers need to register with
> Vonage to continue usage after September 2006. What the mail doesn't
> make clear, and its not that easy to spot on their web site either, is
> that you will need to take out a 12 month contract with Vonage. If you
> cancel within 99 days you need to pay a rebate on the new adapter they
> sent you, and a 23.99 disconnection fee. If you cancel before the year
> is up (i.e. before next September) but after 99 days, you will still
> need to pay the 23.99 disconnection fee. I still have 5 months
> remaining on my Freetalk account, but in order to use it I will HAVE to
> take out a new contract with Vonage and commit myself for another year.
>
There appears to be no provision in the contract to actually allow Freetalk
to do this! The new company also wanted £8.99 (to be refunded within 5
working days apparently). I'm going to be cancelling my service and
demanding a refund for breach of contract. Outrageous but typical of a DSG
in my view.
[Snips]
> Well I called the freephone number given in the email and was advised that
> if you no longer wish to transfer to Vonage you need do nothing and your
> line will be disconnected after 19th September and you will not incur any
> disconnection charges.
I should hope not - Freetalk tore up the contract. Moreover, I expect to
have my remaining months (from my Freetalk annual contract) refunded
without asking/quibble.
The Freetalk wibble says:
"your internet phone service will no longer be supplied by the existing
freetalk network, but by Vonage" which is simply not true, without some
word-twisting.
It looks to me that Freetalk have broken the contract and not in accordance
with any clause in my copy (pinched from the web a while back). Arguing
with Freetalk/Ofcom is no doubt pointless - about as useful as complaining
about the ONdigital saga.
Time for a chuckle: http://www.vonage.co.uk/freetalk/faqs.html a few clauses down:
"Otherwise looks good to me. I know Tim spotted a couple of problems when it
views on his MAC which I think he?s sending through. Did you get the
screengrabs?"
Garry explained on 31/08/2006 :
> Time for a chuckle:
> http://www.vonage.co.uk/freetalk/faqs.html a few clauses down:
> "Otherwise looks good to me. I know Tim spotted a couple of problems when it
> views on his MAC which I think he?s sending through. Did you get the
> screengrabs?"
Someone obviously not paying attention when cutting & pasting.
"The TERMinator" <sugarboy1000@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:4lokouF2u2utU1@individual.net...
>
> "dv" <dvisor@googlemail.com> wrote in message
> news:1156892283.652871.285640@74g2000cwt.googlegro ups.com...
>> Hi - I've just had the email stating that Vonage is taking over
>> Freetalk, and that existing freetalk subscribers need to register with
>> Vonage to continue usage after September 2006. What the mail doesn't
>> make clear, and its not that easy to spot on their web site either, is
>> that you will need to take out a 12 month contract with Vonage. If you
>> cancel within 99 days you need to pay a rebate on the new adapter they
>> sent you, and a 23.99 disconnection fee. If you cancel before the year
>> is up (i.e. before next September) but after 99 days, you will still
>> need to pay the 23.99 disconnection fee. I still have 5 months
>> remaining on my Freetalk account, but in order to use it I will HAVE to
>> take out a new contract with Vonage and commit myself for another year.
>>
>
> There appears to be no provision in the contract to actually allow
> Freetalk to do this! The new company also wanted £8.99 (to be refunded
> within 5 working days apparently). I'm going to be cancelling my service
> and demanding a refund for breach of contract. Outrageous but typical of a
> DSG in my view.
>
I agree-its totally unacceptable for DSG to do this with such a new product.
I will not be switching to Vonage. I reckon the whole DSG group are having
some quite big financial problems of late. For example the Freetalk helpline
number has not been available for 2 months now-it offers you voicemail then
promptle states the voicemail box is full!
Hi. I too received the "Freetalk just got better" email. I
did a bit of digging around before I called the Vonage support line.
Yeah, it's a shame about Freetalk changing, but it isn't just
stopping - that's the point - you get to transfer your phone number
(which is great, coz I'm using mine on business cards). I've sifted
through all the smallprint, and whilst the credit debit thing seems a
bit of a faff, there are no charges for moving to the Vonage service -
and I asked them to confirm again when I called them. I had a Vonage
box before (a Linksis router) which worked fine - as good as
Freetalk. I called the Vonage freephone number to confirm the
transfer - the box they're going to send me is a Motorola adapter -
it looks good, if anything more useful than the freetalk box as it's
got more ports. The way I see it, I get to keep my number plus I can
keep using VoIP instead of landline - which suits me fine! Dan
:sman
---
External Post from http://ukvoiptalk.com
And another bloomin thing (re views from The TERMinator)! - Freetalk
is not DSG. Freetalk is a product sold by them, like Skype headsets,
or, er like Vonage will be. The media tagged it "dixons
Freetalk", but it's owned and managed by some outfit in the US -
I think so anyway. Hope that helps! Dan
---
External Post from http://ukvoiptalk.com
Dan Dare wrote:
> And another bloomin thing (re views from The TERMinator)! - Freetalk
> is not DSG. Freetalk is a product sold by them, like Skype headsets,
> or, er like Vonage will be. The media tagged it "dixons
> Freetalk", but it's owned and managed by some outfit in the US -
> I think so anyway. Hope that helps! Dan
> ---
> External Post from http://ukvoiptalk.com
Rubbish. Freetalk was a Dixons group company -- but, yes, it was
operated on their behalf by a US company. Reading between the lines,
I'd say Dixons didn't get the market/profits they wanted, so they've
ditched the idea and are now just reselling Vonage.
>On Sat, 02 Sep 2006 11:19:30 GMT, Dave <weirdoboy@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>>Got my Motorola VT2442 today and I have to say it looks like a good
>>router, it seems to do a few things that my existing Netgear WGR614
>>doesn't do like QoS and SNMP.
>I haven't looked at it closely yet but did you notice if there is DMZ
>on it ? .
Freetalk taken over by Vonage 
Linear Mode
