Vonage=Vodka

After 4 wonderful months of a courtship with Vonage (the internet telephone company), beginning in September, 2005, I was delighted. But then came the new year and new problems of all sorts. First, they lost the old phone number. They assigned a new one. This is a challenge all by itself, but while looking for a new job, it can be costly beyond imagination. Exhibit 2: for no reason at all, the Vonage phone will fill with static during a call or when we pick up the phone to make a call. After some 36 calls to Vonage and some 36 help tickets between January and now (June 2006), with promises of return calls unfulfilled, the Good Nurse and I have decided to once again become Verizon customers.

The final straw is the catastrophic failure today. Early this morning, my new boss attempted to call me at home. He received a message that the phone is "disconnected." (This is a technical issue, not a billing issue.) So, naturally, he called my mobile to find out what was wrong. Egads! With my new employer paying the home phone bill, experimentation with a provider who has shown nothing but failure in both service and follow-up is not an option.

Enough is enough. I know that some (many?) are happy with their service, and YAY! for them. As I pour my chilled Grey Goose into a Dixie cup, I realize that while Vonage is $10 a month cheaper (the price of a cocktail), it is not worth the 2-4 hours per month calling Bangalore to hear promises of return calls that never arrive.

At least now we will have something to tickle our funny bone every time we see one of those damn Vonage commercials. Perhaps the best news is that in a +/-600 sqaure foot apartment is that we have one few item taking up precious space. (Gotta run--time to pour some more Grey Goose.)