More on VoIP

Last year I wrote about Lingo and recommended their VoIP service. While I was not that off on that “review”, I have changed my mind long ago and decided not to keep the service. I got a lot of emails from people wanting to try and/or get the service and they used my email for referral. As a result, I got a lot of free Lingo service, but I called them at the end of December to cancel for good (something they told me they did, but I still have the service, I am not sure why. I am not longer paying). Since I am still getting lots of emails regarding the topic, I have decided to ’touch it’ once again.

Why I am cancelling? My reply to two of the people who was interested on the service should make it clear. I wrote on October 12th, 2004:

“Lingo service is unreliable. You have two single points of failure: the service itself and your broadband connection to the Internet. The first is quite shaky; at times you will get disconnected in the middle of a conversation, sometimes people will call you and your phone will not ring and they will get your voicemail. In other occasions you will dial a number and you will get the message telling you the number was wrong, then you redial (redial key) and the call goes through. Sometimes I have no service at all (VoIP light off on the Lingo switch). Their customer and technical service are almost impossible to reach and most of the problem you call about (no service, dropped calls,etc) they are aware of it. If they tell you a technician will call you, do not believe it, they will never do it.

Lingo is not to replace your land line. No yet. If you can spare $20 (plus taxes,etc) a month for it, and you make a lot of long distance calls to Europe (like me) and the rest of US, then you will get your money worth.

I still have the service, but I am not keeping it. I called two weeks ago to cancel (my free trial was expiring) and they offered another free month, so I am using it. On my plan they advertised a free universal number and I got charged for it. They also refunded that charge and told me I could keep the number at no extra charge. In my case I signed up for Lingo to replace my Bell South line. I can not afford an extra $20 expense, I was trying to reduce not to add more expenses. If you can afford to spend $20 or so extra a month, as I said, the service will pay off on long distance charges. If you are looking to replace your existing phone (and transfer your number, God forbid!), then please don’t. It is not worth it.”

And on October 16th, 2004:

“…if you are going to use Lingo as a second line –not primary– and plan to make quite a few long distance calls with it, the service is for you. A second sentence would go along opposite lines, if you are planning on replacing your land line with Lingo or require a service that never fails, then Lingo is not for you…”

That should make my position regarding Lingo VoIP service pretty clear.