Vonage

J. of Zebulon, NC April 28, 2006

J. Michael of Zebulon NC (04/28/06)
I switch my phone service over to Vonage VOIP. The first Voice Terminal sent proved to be defective. The second unit failed after about 2 weeks. I am now without phone service for 3 days.

After numerous emails I borrowed a cell phone and spent over an hour trying to resolve the problem.  On April 26th, after several more emails, I was advised by the Tier II Technical Support, Customer Care Associate that my problem would be resolved in 12 to 24 hours.  24-hours expired without the problem being solved. On April 27th I received an email from " David G " stating my service was active again. This proved to be wrong.

I have emailed Digital Voice Customer Care 4 times (so far) but have received no reply. I am at a loss on how to get a response. I have no phone service and it seems that is Vonage's preferred method of working through problems.

Brookes of Orlando, FL April 23, 2006

Brookes of Orlando FL (04/23/06)
I made the mistake of switching to Vonage. What a disaster! Unbelievable wait times (I waited as long as 90 mins one day), incoherent reps, clueless techs, misrepresentation of services, delibarate disconnections, unnecessary transfers and unauthorized billing of my account.

I am out 225.76 for a service I did not receive and now have to go through the hassle of getting my money back. I was trying to save money. What a laugh!

Kelli of Moses Lake, WA April 20, 2006

Kelli of Moses Lake WA (04/20/06)
Before you sign up for service with Vonage, please read all of the customer complaints. They are so accurate, and if I had taken the time to do the same, I would not need to be on blood pressure medication and I'd be a lot richer on time. I ordered Vonage service online and then received a telephone call from a Vonage Rep that same evening. I assumed she was verifying my information supplied online and told her that I had already supplied all the same information online. What she actually did then was to open a second account. I have never received any emails as promised, regarding monthly charges to my credit card, so charges for the second account were stacking up without my knowledge.

My first clue that something was wrong was receipt of a second router. Isn't there a law against charging the consumer for items without his knowledge? I have spent hours sending emails to customer service reps who claim that I must have purchased the second router from another retailer, talking to Indian accented personnel, customer service reps and managers, trying to get the fees for this second account reversed. Each time I call to find out the status of the account, I have to start over from the beginning and recount the entire story again. A manager today said I was responsible for the charges on the second account, since I had not cancelled the account within 30 days. How can you cancel an account you do not know you have?

Today, after two months of battle, I decided to not only cancel the erroneous account, but also the account that I had been using. Only when I was transferred to an Account Manager (who actually spoke English) did I receive any kind of decent customer service. He is working now hopefully to get the charges on the unused account reversed. I hope that this does not take another month to resolve. I sincerely hope he comes through with his promises, because as you will read in other compaints, it appears to be next to impossible to cancel your account without incurring significant unjust expense. I certainly will not be using Vonage's Refer A Friend program, not to any friends that I want to keep.

I have been billed 191 in addition to shipping fees of 11 to return the router for the second account opened in error. So far, there is a 121 credit to my account. Just as bothersome, however, are the hours of investigation and being placed on hold literally for hours,in total, to correct this issue.

Jeff of Orlando, FL April 20, 2006

Jeff of Orlando FL (04/20/06)
Vonage makes cancellation difficult, sells the product as no termination fee & no contract, but buries a termination fee disclaimer in the fine print of their terms of service. The website has no option to cancel, but routes you to their customer service line. You call that number, and the options nowhere give a choice for cancellation. If you pick another option and ask, they tell you to call another phone number for account management. When I realized I was only using five minutes of Vonage a month, I called and found out that there was a 39.99 term fee within the first year, and its in their terms of service.

My grievance is that I know I was told upon signup that there were no term fees. Vonage was sold as a "no contract" solution. Which to me reiterates what the rep told me-- no term fee, cancel at any time. I am going to dispute the charge through AmEx, but I expect in the end I will have to pay it. I was on the phone for 20 minutes or so, and politely and repeatedly asked to speak to a supervisor/manager. The rep (Steve) claimed he was a manager, although he had no discretion to waive the fee. I asked repeatedly to speak to his supervisor/manager. He would not give me a direct line, but put me on the phone with "his supervisor" (Brian). To be honest, Brian is probably the guy next to him in the room. But I was tired of waiting on the phone.

Nik of Portland, OR April 19, 2006

Nik of Portland OR (04/19/06)
I called Vonage Customer Care to discontinue my service. The customer care representative discontinued my service, issued a return authorization number for my modem and instructed me ship send it to them to avoid being charged for the modem and to avoid termination fees. Shortly after, I received an e mail from Vonage Customer Care, issuuing me a return authorization number and shipping instructions for the modem. I accurately followed these instructions.

A couple of weeks later, I noticed that my credit card was charged for 121. I called Vonage Customer Care to request credit for shipping the device. The put in a request, which was denied. I spoke to several people and was still denied. The told me that the reason why the were refusing to credit me was because I did not cancel my service with Vonage within their 30 day free trail period. I explained to them that I was insturcted to send the modem in and was even e mailed those instructions. I forwarded the e mail to the credit request department and the still refused me. I even further explained that they charged my credit card for the modem that they have in their possesion, which they asked me to send to them for a refund. They still refused to credit me.

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