LINGO VOIP Consumer Reviews - Page 4

BELLEVILLE, ILLINOIS -- After being a customer for almost 4 years, it has suddenly come to my attention that Lingo has been selling/ providing my personal information to other companies. I recently started receiving magazines that I had not ordered and came to find out they were given my information by Lingo. Of course after contacting the magazines, there was no bill but the nerve of the whole thing twisted my knickers.

After the first one arrived I contacted LINGO and told them this was unacceptable. I was assured it would never happen again. Until this month. Yep, another magazine! I contacted LINGO again and was told about an opt out procedure that was not provided to me last month. COOL. I also arranged for 1 month's credit. I figured if they were getting paid for my personal information, so would I. That is not the point though. This should never be done by any company!

Also, anytime you contact Customer Service you reach a call center overseas somewhere. None of their representative speak good English and it's maddening. Recent research has shown me that many other VoIP providers have learned this lesson and have call centers in the U.S. along with rates very comparable to LINGO. Time to switch companies! Take some advice and look elsewhere, LINGO just doesn't cut it anymore.

WISCONSIN -- I became a Lingo customer about 10 months ago. It took my husband and I about 4 hours on the phone to get the customer service support that we needed to get the system set up. That should have been an indication to me about the service from the company. Now, we've moved. We're trying to cancel our service. I've called three times over a month and I still haven't gotten the service canceled because every time they give me the run around. I'm sure I'll end up getting charged for these months that we're not actually using the service as well.

DENVER, COLORADO -- I have never encountered as much BS and problems getting a service established. I signed up for service July 31st, got my device August 9th and still today,17th August, do not have service. I have been told the server does not have my number registered, network is working on it, information is loaded but configuration takes 24 hours, server crashed on my account and keep getting told to wait another 24 hours. They guarantee that my service will be working.

I have become fed up with their BS and requested phone numbers to higher management for which they tell me they cannot give me any numbers. And if I want to complain, I need to send an email but the only email I can get is to customer service. The email below is the highest I am able to get. When I ask for a supervisor they tell me none are on duty.

GRANT, FLORIDA -- Vonage has a great service if you only have one phone in your house. You see they only officially support one phone plugged in the back of their box. They claim their box does not have enough voltage to support a household network of more than one phone. Then of course there are the dropped calls and lack of dial tone. There is no resolution from tech support as their box is made in China and simply does not work.

Recycle the power they say. If that does not work they give you a code to perform a hard reset. This works usually until the "next time". They will not send you out a new box as all their boxes do not work. I am away on business and have used VOIP service from Cablevision and Comcast. They use Scientific Atlanta and Arris boxes respectively. The service works! No dropped calls. No loss of dial tone.

I've used Lingo in two separate parts of the county I live in. The service has never worked. Oh and don't forget, when you cancel the service they charge you a $39 dollar cancellation fee. Lingo has a great business plan. How many companies can make money selling a service that doesn't work? Apparently they can con new customers faster than existing ones cancel service. Brilliance!

LINCOLNTON, NORTH CAROLINA -- I think Lingo is a scam! Went with service March, '06. Ported my number March 28. Service went down Apr 6. Numerous emails. Emails? I have no phone service because I put my eggs in Lingo's basket. Responses from Tech Support say call. High tech wizards cannot deduce my problem calling them. Yeh! No phone service. Constant back and forth.

Ported back to my old phone service. Returned equipment. Now they bill me. Oh yes! Call them and get a message stating temporarily revamping phone system so longer wait times. This phone service company has been revamping their phone system for three months at least. Avoid these people!!! Once they hook you, escape is near impossible.

GARLAND, TEXAS -- I've read so many negative reviews here for Lingo and just wanted to say that I have had wonderful experience with Lingo. I've had them for over a year and wish I would have switched long ago. I ported my number over and did not have a problem.

I have Lingo Link plan in which I pay just under $10/month and 3 cents a minute for all outgoing domestic calls to non-lingo customers (cheaper than Vonage). I have a friend in Midland, TX that I talk to all the time and our calls are better than crystal clear. The differences I've noticed?... no static on the line after a rain storm, cheaper (about $12 - $13 monthly total).

I am connecting through Comcast cable modem. Some of you might experience problems using DSL because the throughput for DSL is just not as high as cable modem. But hey, their technology is still new and developing. The only problem with VOIP technology in general and this applies to ALL voip services is that voip scrambles data transmission. Fax and dial up modem will be rendered useless.

WINCHESTER, KENTUCKY -- On July 30 I wrote a review of our unacceptable service from Lingo. To make a long story short, almost all calls to our phone from Cingular phones got a message that it was not a working number. This happened often on other incoming calls. After 3 months of daily frustration and countless calls to Lingo (they were always working on the problem and taking it to a higher level) we could not take it any longer and cancelled the service. At that point, we were told there was a cancellation fee after the 30-day free trial. Our only reason for not cancelling earlier was the fact that Lingo kept assuring us they would get the problem worked out.

All charges were billed to a credit card and the credit card company has credited all charges. We have filed a complaint to the FCC and sent a registered receipt requested letter to the president of the company. We have not had the courtesy of a reply. Lingo has replied to the complaint to the FCC and states they have given us a $20.55 credit on the bill, leaving a balance of 86.87. They have never notified us of this credit.

They state that we had 16 hours usage in March & 15 hours usage in April. This is true, (a lot of this time was on the phone to their technicians) and we did make a lot of outgoing calls, all the while, people calling us were getting messages that our number was not a working number. They are also refusing to credit the cancellation fee or the $39.95 shipping & handling for the equipment. We offered to send the equipment back and were told by their representative to keep it. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY.

I am a Lingo customer (even though I cannot currently use the service) who has been without service for almost a month. The service worked good for about 4 months then one day picked up the phone and there was nothing but dead air. I called customer service to get rectified. They sent me another Lingo box. It did not work. I called them back and was told the level 2 tech would call me back in half an hour. He never called back.

I called the next day and was on hold for 45 minutes. They ran the same test as they did before and said the Lingo box must be defective and they will send a new one out. I waited 3 days for the device and called back on the 4th day. No device was ever sent out. I am now waiting for the 4th device to arrive so I can see if it will work. The synonym for frustration is Lingo.

MERRILLVILLE, INDIANA -- I am with Lingo for almost 10 years. I am very satisfied with the service. When I first began there was no tax on VoIP services but slowly taxes were included so the monthly charge has increased a little. With any VoIP services you have to have a reliable internet provider and no electrical cut-offs. To avoid this I have added a back-up battery to the internet service and the phone service to prevent any interruptions. I am very satisfied with what Lingo provides and I have referred to few of my friends.

SALEM, OREGON -- I had an hour and a half conversation with my brother in England and the sound quality was excellent on both ends.