Vonage Business VoIP Review
Vonage Business VoIP Review
Introduction to Vonage Business VoIP
Since its introduction in 2004, many Canadians by now are familiar with Vonage and the types of services it offers to Canadians. Vonage is well-known for its home phone and highly publicized VoIP services serving most of the provinces and cities throughout Canada; but we cannot say the same for their Business VoIP services. For example, finding their Business Plan on Vonage Canada’s website was not an easy task. After spending minutes looking for a business menu on their main page, we decided to Google “Vonage Business Canada” instead. It turned out that there is a submenu under the plans menu rather than an independent menu for their small business plan.
It maybe just that the company's intent is not to highlight their Business VoIP services, or their target market is larger corporations. Regardless, Vonage Canada offers a Small Business Unlimited package for 31.99/month.
Vonage Business Pros
- Above average voice quality (untested; as per web comments)
- Simple pricing
- No upfront hardware costs
- Includes many of the essential features
- Affordable international calling rates
- Flexible Billing cycle
- Mobile app is included
Vonage Business Cons
- Does not offer Secure Audio Communications using Encryption like TLS, SRTP, ZRTP
- Adapter based service. No choice of a desktop phones
- Does not allow bringing your own device
- No conferencing or call screening
- Does not accept PayPal
- No free device replacement
- Not fully prepaid
- No dedicated account manager
- No text messaging
- Non-existent or limited donations to community-based organizations
Vonage Business Pricing
The starting price for Vonage Business service is $31.99 a month, which seems to be the only pricing model. We could not find out whether they offer a free trial period; however, we did learn that there are no additional fees for the setup and shipping. Therefore, we can conclude that there are no additional hardware charges besides the monthly fee.
For a well-known business VoIP service that does not offer much bells and whistles, Vonage Small Business Unlimited Plan is well priced. Sure, there are other VoIP providers that claim to offer more features at lower prices; however as stated by VoIP Canada, if a company cannot make a sustainable profit from their services offered, it’s hardly likely they can provide a good service.
Vonage Business Billing
Nowadays, most providers do not accept PayPal. However, in our opinion PayPal gives more power to the consumer by allowing an option to cancel their service at anytime and without worrying about future charges. Of course, and as you may already know, most service providers do not like this idea when they have cancellation charges and other fees. PayPal additionally offers credit card protection, so consumers will not have to worry that their credit card information being accessed and used illegally. Not to mention you do not need to own a credit card to use PayPal. Sadly, Vonage is one of those companies which doesn't take payment via PayPal and thus requires you to pay using a credit card. Moreover, the company does not accept cheques, which can make it difficult for some business owners.
The fact that Vonage is not a fully prepaid service means that may end up with hidden charges as per outside the plan usage such as making International calls. That being said, Vonage does offer one of the best affordable rates within their prepaid International calling packages.
One of the things we love about Vonage’s billing is you can change your billing date after 45 days which means less work for you and for your bookkeeper.
Vonage Business Terms
Terms of the service is highly important because it prepares you for the worst-case scenario, and protects the providers from potential losses, unfair competition and fraud. Providers have the right to charge you the fees and fines written in their terms and conditions, or simply disconnect/suspend your service. They can also waive those fees allowing them to provide a better customer service when appropriate. How strict a service provider is going to be in exercising these terms depends on many factors. In short, always familiarize yourself with the terms and policies of your potential service provider. However you should never let it be the only factor in making your decision.
Money Back Guarantee
Vonage does not offer a free trial; however, they do have a 30-day money back guarantee period. To be eligible for a refund and cancellation of your service, you must return their adapter within the first 30 days of your purchase (not the delivery date). You'll also need to pay for the return shipping, and you should not have used more than 500 minutes. In the event that you do not return their device, you'll be likely charged a fee amounting to the cost of the device which can be anywhere between 70 to 80 dollars. Keep in mind that the money back guarantee applies to one line only. This means that if you have more than one line you may not be eligible for a full refund.
Cancellation Policy
If you decide to cancel your account after the first 30 days and before 12 months of service, Vonage charges a disconnection fee of $120.00. While Vonage indicates on their website that it does not apply to business customers, we strongly suggest double checking with them before signing up.
Fair Usage Policy and Limitation
Vonage’s unlimited calling is limited to 3,000 minutes according to their fair usage policy. Notably this number is just about average when compared to most VoIP Service providers. On their Questions and answers section we found that incoming calls and Vonage to Vonage calls do not count toward the 3,000 minutes however we were not able to find out if this included calls to the Northern Territories and Yukon, so you may wish to check with them.
Warranty on Hardware
According to Vonage’s Terms of Service, the company is not liable to repair or replace your device should it become defective. The adapter’s warranty is limited to manufacturer warranty. We are not sure if Vonage adapters include a manufacturer warranty if you purchase directly from Vonage.
Support and Training
Support
Vonage has a well-prepared F.A.Q section from which you can find the answer to just about any question by performing a simple search. While the company does provide 24/7 customer support via telephone and online chat to new customers you may find out that support is available for shorter durations than sales department. That being said, they are reachable between the hours of 9:00 A.M to 10:00 P.M Eastern Standard Time on weekdays and some hours during the weekends. However, it is our understanding that Vonage does not connect its clients to their dedicated business account managers.
Training
You can find a vast amount of information on Vonage's Knowledge Base and F.A.Q section as well as several video tutorials on how to use your account. Although we'd hardly call it a one on one training you will find their telephone support handy especially when you're unable to find the information needed on their website.
Essential Small Business Features
- e-911 âś“
- Number Portability âś“
- Call Display âś“
- Fax Line âś“
- Conference Line âś—
- Call forwarding âś“
- Call Waiting âś“
- Call Screening âś—
- Call Transfer âś“
- Call Block âś“
- Call Holdâś“
- 3-way calling âś“
- Voicemail Transcription âś“
- Online Account âś“
- Bring Your Own Device âś—
Applications & Integrations
Applications: Vonage has smart phone application for both iOS (Apple) and Android (Google) operating systems. The good news is that Vonage does not charge extra for its mobile app which is included in their Small Business Unlimited Plan. According to Vonage there is a $12.99 monthly fee in addition to the activation fee should you want to use Vonage Mac or PC soft-phone. It also has a limitation of 500 minutes a month.
Integrations: We are not aware of any third-party application integrations with Vonage Canada’s business plan.
Reliability, Security, and Voice Quality
Reliability: A few hours of outage may not be consequential for a home phone user, however for a business user a Service Level Agreement is a necessity. Unfortunately, we could not find any information related to any compensation for outages or a percentage guarantee for service availability. We can only hope that such a large service provider like Vonage has a dedicated outage and disaster recovery plan in place.
Security: Vonage does not provide much information on their website on how they protect clients’ data. What we do know however is that so far (at the time we write this review) Vonage has not implemented Secure RTP (SRTP), ZRTP or TLS which means the communication via Vonage servers and its clients are not encrypted. Additionally, there is no information on whether they use Virtual Private Servers (VPN) to secure the communication. Therefore, we should say that Vonage is only as secure as a traditional phone service. By this we mean it might be open to man in the middle attacks similar to a traditional telephone service and the possibility of someone listening in to your conversations via cable. It is also not clear whether Vonage uses Canadian servers or American servers for the Canadian market. Thus, it might become a problem for some businesses within health industry as well as law-firms who are required by Canadian law to protect their patient/client sensitive information. Vonage says that it does have some fraud detection systems in place to protect its clients from being overcharged for expensive destination, however not much information is given.
Voice Quality: We have not tested Vonage’s voice quality; however, judging from the reviews we've read online, we can only conclude that most people using their service are happy with the voice quality.
Interaction with Clients
We found that the chat representatives are quite polite. When we contacted their Customer Service via telephone, the agent was more focused on making a sale rather than answering our question on what makes them different from other VoIP service providers and why we should choose Vonage.
Corporate Culture, Social Responsibility & Contribution to Society
One of the most important issues we tend to look at closely in social responsibilities is the employees’ happiness. Employees’ happiness affects both customer service and the public. From what we read on Glassdoor, Vonage pays a good salary, and hires employees from all backgrounds and ethnic groups. However, there are some negative experiences with the management. Vonage Receives a 1.9 out of 5 from its Canadian Employees on Glassdoor, which my not reflect the general opinion of all of its Canadian Employees.
We could not find evidence of donations to charity or records of community support for Vonage Canada and as such can only wonder whether the company hires Canadians suffering from some form of physical or mental challenges.
Mystery Shopping is a much costlier than just buying a service from the provider. We need to ensure that the provider cannot guess that the shopper is VoIP Canada otherwise they'll likely provide a better service than received by the average customer. If you wish to help us to perform a Mystery Shopping from Vonage Business please consider a donation.
Mystery Shopper’s Happiness
Bottom Line
Vonage is a well-known VoIP company, and if you are looking for a simple and reliable VoIP service it might be just for you. However, it is our opinion that Vonage does not focus on business VoIP in Canada. Consequently, you might not find some of the much sought-after features in the Business VoIP market, and it is unknown if they will become available anytime soon.
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