Preview Review

Next Review

Vonage Consumer Reviews - Page 2

Most Popular | Newest | More Options >
More filter options:
Cancel Vonage or Trying to get help
By -

UPDATE: JULY 17, 2010 PHONE STILL ON, NO EMAIL TO DATE REGARDING CANCELLATION, CONTINUE TO TAKE FUNDS FROM MY ACCOUNT & THEY WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO CHANGE OR DELETE YOUR BILLING credit or checking unless it's another valid card or account. FCC needs to get involved!

I tried to cancel my Vonage Service on June 17, 2010 after they just took money out of my account without my permission, my expiration date on my credit card changed so I got a new card in mail, and they were not authorized to withdraw funds at this point but somehow got my new expiration date off the same credit card and removed the funds, that is why I called to cancel.

Well they would not prorate my service after taking money out unless I wrote a letter to the company in California. I mean who is going to go through all that, so I asked for the end of the billing period to cancel my service after I used the amount taken out already. This date was July 09, 2010, so I called that morning and after going through 3 representatives and telling why I wanted to cancel five times they ended up giving me a cancellation number and said my phone service was shut off.

I said now I want to make sure you do not take funds for another month, they promised they wouldn't, well I woke up on July 10, 2010 my service is still on and I find one letter in my email stating they successfully charged my account $25.72 for another month of service, NO CANCELLATION EMAIL as promised, so now I had to take out more time out of my schedule and called twice and asked for ONLY SUPERVISORS.

I told them I will be writing the FCC and Attorney General. Well I got her name, ID number and reference number of the conversation and she promised it was a system glitch and my money would be returned in 3-5 business days and my phone was scheduled for shut off. So now I have to wait, and she could not promise the email confirmation of what she told me until the system spit it out automatically.

I ASKED, "What do you not have enough customers or too many?" Why would you treat people like this over a few bucks and make them jump through hoops to cancel service, on and on they simply DO NOT CARE, if we ever needed some high fines put in place for this nonsense to teach them a lesson we do need it with this company to make it worth pursuing.

BE AWARE, I USED TERRIBLE EQUIPMENT FROM VONAGE FOR OVER A YEAR. They would not replace my phones purchased with ones that worked properly. They lasted almost a day off the charger even when I made NO calls. I bought the two Vonage VTECH phones, which are nice, but they allow you no way to plug in a fax machine or additional line, they screw you there too.

UPDATE ON JULY 17, 2010 UP TOP. Phone system still ringing, not shut off, never received that important cancellation email you are supposed to get when it is successfully shut off. Now I am going to have to call back and speak to I don't know how many Indian people before I can get anything resolved. ERRRR ERRRR!!! MORE UPDATES TO FOLLOW.

Replies
Horrible Billing System
By -

HOLMDEL, NEW JERSEY -- I signed up for Vonage in March 2007 and it has been 3 years since I have been hooked with them. The first regular bill I paid them in March 2007 was $30.31. After 3 years what I paid them in March 2010 was $36.01. I am still with the same $24.99 plan. When I called their customer service, the lady on the other side asked me to contact my local government for the bill these buggers are charging. Look at the bills I have paid so far, every 3rd month the bill has gone up: Do not fall in their trap of $24.99. These guys are phony and will rip your money. DO NOT SUBSCRIBE THEM!

Replies
Liars --- Unlimited Calling Plan - If You Use The Service A Lot, They Threaten You
By -

Vonage liars signed me up for unlimited plan. When my wife and I started calling our relatives a lot, Vonage said, the industry standard for unlimited calling is 500 minutes a month (500 minutes a month, yeah right!), but we allow 5000 minutes. If you ever exceed that, we'll double your billing and start charging you per minute. VONAGE ARE A BUNCH OF LIARS AND CHEATS. DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THEIR SERVICE.

It was a "not-profit-making-company" until last year. Just let them fail and go out of business. The liars. Below is their notice. If you try to call them (at the number they've provided) they never pick up the phone. Instead they'll ask you to leave a voicemail, and send more nasty emails to you.

Replies
Dishonest Service Representation
By -

QUEENS, NEW YORK -- I have been using Vonage as my phone service for nearly 2 years now. At first, customer service was average--not too good, but good enough to speak with a service representative and explain what I needed in a service. I had Sunrocket prior to this, and their customer service, services offered and website outlay was very customer friendly.

When Sunrocket failed in July 2007, I decided to give Vonage a try. Over the nearly 2 years I have been with this company, however, it has been getting progressively more difficult to communicate with anyone. Every e-mail contact is responded to with a nonsensical e-mail that does not address the issue, and it is difficult getting anyone on the phone with whom you could speak sensibly about what you need in service changes or additions. Often you get someone for whom English is a very CHALLENGING language--or an English speaking U.S., rep with a very bad attitude.

Late 2008 I decided to get rid of my Verizon land line and, for the convenience of friends who were not regularly in touch and still had my old land line number, have it transferred to Vonage as an additional number. I had seen this feature advertised on their website. Unfortunately, when I called to inquire, I was told that their service only allowed for the availability of an additional line--NOT number.

(My daughter has another digital phone service that allows her to have additional numbers for a very small fee each month). During these attempts to have my land line number transferred as a second number, I explained to several service reps that as I was the only person in my household, I didn't need an additional line. Finally, I was told that I could have the additional line for $9.99 for the FIRST 3 months and $24.99 after--or they could let me have it for ONE year at $14.99 monthly. I explained that I would NOT pay $24.99 after 3 months for an additional line and I agreed to the latter service for $14.99.

However, every attempt to have this number activated was a problem, and every e-mail I sent was followed by a do not reply response that made no sense, and in early December 2008, I wrote to Vonage explaining that I had decided to cancel the application for this service. I AM SO VERY SORRY THAT I DID NOT KEEP TO THIS DECISION LATER.

Shortly after this December correspondence by e-mail, I received a call telling me that my service was valued and that my new number would be activated. The service charge of $14.99 monthly for ONE year was agreed on and I decided that I would give it a try. I was also told that to make up for all the problems I had encountered, I would be given 2 months free service for both lines from Vonage. Service started December 8, 2008. I never had the phone ring turned on but could check when someone called me on that number as I received an e-mail alert. I could also look at the caller ID box and identify the callers and return calls that were important through my primary number.

On checking my Vonage account for the past 4 months, I was appalled to find that I had been billed consistently at $24.99 monthly for this line, even though I do not use it, ONLY agreed to have it installed at the $14.99 charge, and was offered 2 months of no service charges--December 2008 and January 2009 for both numbers because of the aggravation I had suffered in trying to have the number set up. I am indeed sorry that I hadn't left the landline with Verizon, which ensured I always had a working phone and which cost less than I have been billed with Vonage, to date.

I spoke to a very unhelpful U.S. service rep--Sat--5/30/2009, who said that I could have a virtual service for that number where I would be alerted when someone called but not have the phone number ring. The cost I was told would be $4.99 per month. In the meantime, request to have all over billing taken off my bill was excused with the matter being at "a higher level now and that he was unable to resolve the issue then."

He never mentioned cost of installation for this virtual number--just the $4.99 cost. Nor did he mention that there would be a charge to terminate the 2nd number, in dispute. However, later that day I saw a do not reply e-mail listing cost of termination at $$44.97, AND an installation service charge of $15.28 for the virtual number. I am truly appalled that this company is both DISHONEST and quite insensitive to their customers, on whose backs they have built this business over this decade. I am determined to let ALL my friend know of their dishonesty and unfriendly customer service unless I am reimbursed for my unfair charges.

It's so ironic, as I had, until recently been trying to get many friends and colleagues here--AND in Europe--use Vonage as their phone service over other carriers. I shall provide update but do not intend to leave this matter quietly. Vonage should look at the history of other phone services, their financial downfall and failure to regain lost customers, if they intend to stay in this highly competitive business now.

Replies
Advertisement
A Better Way To Waste Money
By -

HOLMDEL, NEW JERSEY -- My name is Helene ** my previous account number with your company is **. I order your services online on 7-15-08. The service arrived and the 1st box did not work. I have spent numerous amount of time troubleshooting with your technical support department. We finally go the box to work, however this was not consistent. The box then started to go into rapid error codes 3, 2, 5, 6. After about 2 weeks your technical support department determines that the box was no good and would need to send me a new one.

Well I did receive another box; and another box, please let the record show the boxes arrived the 2nd one did not work at all. The third box worked; however, it would still have to complete your reset process periodically. Well about two weeks ago the third box started to go into rapid error codes 5, 6, 2, after trying to reset and this process became unsuccessful again I called to cancel your services.

The representative that answered the phone told me that he would give me a month's credit and would I give Vonage another changes. I told the representative the service is good when it works the problem was the service did not work continuously and the fax service I order in August has never worked yet I was paying Vonage 52.94 cents a month. I explained that I would rather pay SBC or AT&T $100 for a service that I can use than to pay less for a service that never worked and I was basically wasting my money.

I have paid your company 476.46 since July for nothing. Your representative offered me a month's credit and told me to call back to speak with the advance technical support department when I made it home. I told your representative that a month's credit was not doing me a favor because I have paid you all (476.46) since July for a phone service that did not work properly or consistently and from August for a fax service that has never worked.

However, the representative promised that your level 1 technical support would not waste my time when I call back. They would give me the level 4 advance technical support department. Well when I called back on March 15th the level 1 technical support person wanted to tell me how they would need to troubleshoot with me before they could send me to the technical support department. I tried explaining my conversation with your cancellations department and the representative basically ignored me. However, as soon as I threaten to cancel again, the representative transferred the call.

On March 17th I was able to speak to your advance technical support department again. I told him if this did not work I had explained to the cancellation department that I would be canceling the service. He asked me to give him a chance to trouble shoot the equipment. We walked through every process for over 2 hours. After this point he had me to take the data cord and place one in yellow Vonage port and one end in the blue. The then asked what type of lights was on the Vonage. I told him and him then said the third device was defective and the blue port was no good.

Now he is requesting that I let him send me a new device, please note this would be the forth device that I have received from you company since July. I agreed to let him send the 4th box. When the technical support person got ready to order the box it said my account was in grace status. I became very upset about this and restated all the information you will find in the 1st part of this email.

I also was appalled that the cancellation representative did not give me the 1 month credit that he promised I would get for giving you all another chance. The advance technical support guy felt my pain and made the adjustments to send the new box. I received the new box on March 18th and called the advance technical support department. Again I was on my cell phone with your technical support department. I would like to pause and say all of these calls have been made on my cell phone. (Costing me more money) although I am paying your company for phone services.

Well, back to the matter at hand the advance technical support guy troubleshooting the new device for 1 hour and 25 min., before he told me that he was not sure and he would need to trouble shoot with Comcast. Well I am not that advance in technical support department when it comes to Comcast equipment so I told him I would need to let my son'€™s father contact them when it got in.

He said that would be fine and would call me back after my phone charged because he wanted to do one more step. He calls back about 1 hour later and wanted me to walk through another step. I told him I was tired and he would need to speak to ** he told me okay just have him call.

** came in on Saturday and called. He spoke to the advance tech with Comcast on the phone, they troubleshooted on his cell phone for at least 2 hours, and was unable to get the box to work. ** informed the guy that I would be canceling due to none service. The technician said "Okay." I called to cancel the service on this afternoon at about 5:00 pm CST time.

I had already mailed your boxes back along with your cords and manuals under your return label with UPS. The return label was given to me because I refused to pay any more money out of my pocket Vonage. (Although your representative had the audacity to ask me again).

Anyway, I called and spoke to your cancellation representative name Ms. **. She informed me that I would have to pay for the boxes until they were returned. As you may already know I did not take this very well and she said she would speak to her supervisor to see what she could do. I asked on several occasion to get a supervisor. She kept telling me one was not available. When I refused to hang up and demanded the supervisor and the account is cancelled.

She decided she would view UPS tracking information to verify that the package was dropped off and would be in transit to your location. She kept putting me on hold and then came back and said she need to credit the charges and I would have to pay $39.99 for the cancellation fee. I was already upset and this did not help. Again, I requested to speak to a supervisor for the 5-6 times within our phone conversation. She kept telling me that the supervisor would tell me the same thing and I would have to write a letter disputing the charges.

After she completed the cancellation the charge came across as 55.94 instead of 39.99, she then said this was some form of tax on the cancellation. I informed her again I would need to speak to a supervisor, after 1 hour 20 in 05 sections, a supervisor name ** gets on the phone and tell me that he was the supervisor and how could he help me. I asked for his name and then shared my concerns.

This person should not be a supervisor. He did not say one word, he never apologized, he never acknowledge my concerns. I literally had to ask him did he not even care to speak to me because he was so quiet. He then commented he was documenting my concerns and what more did I want him to do. I told him nothing and to have a good night.

As you will see, I have duly noted all of my experience with your company. I am beyond offended that a company could be so unappreciative of its customers. Also, that you can consistently take my money since July for the phone and August for the Fax (which you will note never worked) and feel no remorse.

I would like to see my charges reverse and so some form of discipline for the lack of customer serve received. Please note phoning for less is nice when it comes with workable service and excellent customer service. Again, I believe now my Grandmother was right you get what you pay for.

Also, I asked the representative for your phone numbers, but she told me she could only give me an address. However, I Google the local office and received the following information and found other customers with similar complaints. Therefore, it appears your comment has a practice for mistreating faithful and true employees.

Replies
The Worst Phone Service / Bar-none
By -

My experience with Vonage has been mirrored by the comments I read below and the complaints I have since found on the internet. I desperately wish I had done my homework before starting service with this company. They hands down have the worst customer service I have ever had the displeasure of being in contact with. After establishing service with this company I had numerous phone calls with their technical department due to my connection never working correctly. I repeatedly had disconnected calls.

I also found that the phone system interfered with my internet connection, causing my internet to constantly disconnect. Vonage was unable to resolve the issue, but they absolutely refused to disconnect my service without charging me a high fee to disconnect. I was told if I waited out my “contract period” (oh yes they have a contract, despite the fact they advertise no contracts!) then I would not be charged a fee.

This I did, for 6 months I kept my connection to Vonage but had to get another phone service that actually worked. So while I was not using Vonage, I was being charged for it. At the end of my contract period I again called them to disconnect my service.

That was the hardest task imaginable. They tried to refuse. They gave me such a run around that I was literally on the phone with them for 45 minutes. After finally disconnecting my service I too was charged the disconnection fee stated in other complaints, although I had been told by the customer service in my previous attempts to disconnect that I would not be charged if I waited through my contract! Vonage is a fraud in my opinion; please do your research before ever signing up with this company… I imagine it's easier to get out of jail than get out of there “service web”.

Service cancellation Vonage requires customers to cancel service by calling a toll-free number, as service cancellation is not available on-line. The direct number for cancellation is 1-888-879-1978. Customer descriptions of the cancellation process frequently involve hold times of approximately twenty-five (25) minutes, depending on call volume.

Difficulties faced by customers when attempting to cancel Vonage were detailed in a May 2006 Wall Street Journal article[23] which related one customer's experience with a Vonage representative who refused to cancel an account unless a repair attempt was allowed by the customer.

In the last 12 month reporting period, the Better Business Bureau has closed 3687 complaints (as of Oct 2007). The balance of complaints centered on service, billing and refund issues.[24] Despite marketing their service as having no contracts or long-term commitments, Vonage charges customers a fee for cancellation within the two years of service, changed from one year February 1st, 2007.

This fee is noted in the provider's Terms of Service when a customer signs up or attempts to access his Web Account. The fee is $39.99 per physical voice line which is disconnected. This fee does not apply to dedicated fax lines, virtual telephone numbers, or the computer-based "SoftPhone" lines. A "Rebate Recovery" fee is also assessed if the account is canceled after the 30-day, money-back guarantee, but before 180 days of service.

Different for each device, this fee is the "instant rebate" offered on the Web site during sign-up; this protects the company from having bogus accounts created and canceled shortly thereafter by scammers seeking free or discounted routers that may then be sold for profit. Vonage charges $39.99 to every customer who discontinues service—for any reason. [25][Citation needed]

The customer may avoid these fees if he cancels service before the end of the money-back-guarantee period, which sometimes varies between 30 days to 60 days, depending on the sign up terms and frequency of communication with Vonage Customer Service. Often, representatives attempt to retain a customer by extending the money-back-guarantee period. Upon cancellation of the account, the customer is responsible for the cost of return shipping to Vonage.

As of March 2007, the FCC maintains that Local Number Portability rules do not apply to VoIP service providers such as Vonage; however, Vonage states that subscriber numbers may be transferred to other companies per its Terms of Service[26] (section 6.6). Vonage states that LNP transfers are handled by Focal Communications, but Focal was acquired [27] by Broadwing Corporation which itself was acquired by Level 3 Communications. [28]

Service Issues VOIP service is dependent on consistent broadband-ISP uptime and VOIP-equipment compatibility with the ISP's modem. There have been widespread reports of difficulty in operating Fax machines on Vonage lines, either dedicated Fax lines, or regular Vonage lines. Difficulties have also been reported with residential alarm systems and TiVo. [Citation needed]

When using a fax machine, it is suggested that users connect their fax directly into the VoIP adapter, regardless of the provider. This ensures the fewest variables in a specific network setup. In addition, users should ensure that an "Error Correction Mode" or "ECM Mode" is disabled on their fax machines as this compounds problems and distortion regarding the compression, decompression, and transmission of data communications through a VoIP provider.

Also the "Baud Rate" should be lowered to no more than "9600". When faxing the fax should be set to "Standard" instead of "Photo or Fine." It is important to note with faxing that your internet connection more than Vonage really dictates if you are going to be able to fax consistently. There are also settings on the device such as codecs, jitter buffer and rx tx gains that can be adjusted to improve Vonage faxing. All these things combined make faxing with Vonage close to faxing over a landline.

Vonage suggests that customers contact their local home alarm system operator to determine whether their existing home alarm solution is compatible with any VoIP provider. Vonage does not make specific recommendations about security systems. [29] However, Vonage does specifically mention alarm.com as being compatible because it uses wireless technology rather than depending on a phone line. [30]

TiVo's Series 1 units contain only telephone ports to connect to a wall jack. Series 2 and Series 3 hardware contains an ethernet jack, and optionally supports USB-based WiFi adapters, which typically do work properly with VoIP providers. At one point, the initial connection made by the TV unit required the use of a regular telephone landline prior to use with a broadband connection, but this limitation was removed in 2005 with TV version 7.2[31].

Vonage's Technical Support states that their phone system does not work with alarm systems. They did state that it is sometimes possible to get a Brink alarm system to work with their system. It is most important to make sure your alarm system will be able to call out to fire or police before switching over. Additionally, Vonage installs under a two-year contract, wherein cancellation within that time period results in $150 or more in fees.

Replies
Vonage 30 Free Trial Fraud
By -

Vonage's 30 Day free trial fraud. On April 14, 2008 I called Vonage's 800 number to sign up for their Unlimited Local & Long Distance calling (Premium Unlimited Plan) for $24.99 per mo. which included with a free 30 day trial period. I spoke with a Vonage sales rep and gave him all the information he needed and my credit card number to be used as guarantee back-up for payment, I wanted monthly billing sent to my home.

After we finished the sign up process, he said for the cost of just $.99 cents that is, I could get another line for fax or whatever I needed it for. He apologized for the .99 saying it was required for 911 service. I said OK, and he said they would send acknowledgment for my order via email and the service would start when I received my modem in the mail (5 to 7 days). Also that I should go to their websites and check the status of the installation process.

On the April 15, I went online to the Vonage website, I notice that on April 14, 2008 my credit card had been charged ($25.54) for various start-up fees and there was another charge to my credit card for $48.69 on April 15 for installation and monthly service fees for the second line.

I called Vonage customer service and told them that the sales rep said it would only cost 99 cents. This service rep pretty much accused me of lying and said she had never heard of such a thing. I said if it cost what they had charged my credit card, then I didn't want a second line. She asked if I wanted to cancel the second line and I said "yes I did." Later that day, I checked to see if my order had been corrected, I found another charge on my credit card for $39.99 to have the second line canceled.

That evening I called customer service and spoke to someone about what happened and he said I shouldn't have been charged for the cancellation. Also that he would submit for a refund on the second line installation charges. My Vonage account was credited fir $39.99, not my credit card. Then on April 27 my Vonage account was credited for the second line installation, again not to my credit card. So now I had a credit balance of $88.68 on my Vonage account.

On April 21, I received the modem and installed it and now my telephone line was activated. I wasn't real happy with Vonage sales and customer service but thought I would try it. I noticed a severe degradation in my cable internet service which Vonage uses as its telephone line. After trying a few thing suggested by Vonage technical service there was still the degradation for my internet.

I decided Vonage wasn't for me so on May 16, 2008 I called another carrier and signed up with them. They would notify Vonage and change my number to them. We went through a verification with another company that asked if I was requesting the switch and I confirmed it.

On May 19, when the new service started, when I went to disconnect the Vonage modem I called Vonage because I noticed the service was still on, their modem was still activated into my internet carrier and still degrading the service. I said I had cancelled their service and wanted to get an RMA to return the modem.

After 20 minutes of badgering me with all sorts of offers they told me there would be cancellation charges because their agreement with me stated such and that I couldn't return the modem because it had been used. I asked why the cancellation charges and she said because it was over 30 days and I had an agreement. I said "no it wasn't over 30 days because my service was never activated until April 21 and I cancelled on May 16."

The service rep was everything but pleasant. She kept telling me our contract specified all of this. I then told her I had no contract and never signed one and wouldn't have it this was specified. She then told me my cancellation charges would be $122.08. I said I needed to speak to someone else and she said she was a manager and that no one else was higher.

After continuing to tell her I needed to speak to someone else I was put on hold for about 20 minutes and finally someone in the accounting department answered and told me they couldn't help me because they were the accounting department and their computer did this when someone cancels service. I immediately went to Vonage website to see if they cancelled the account and a charge of $122.08 was already on my credit card.

So far Vonage made 4 charges totaling ($236.30) to my credit card that was supposed to be used for backup payment only. Out of the 4 charges only the first for $25.54 could be considered legitimate even though they told me no activation charges. My Vonage account showed no credits for the earlier false charges. I have all documentation to support what I have stated including the Vonage advertisement for the free 30 day stating to how to get a RMA to return the Vonage modem. This is outright fraud.

May 22 I called Vonage to get an RMA to send back their modem and they refused to give me an RMA. Their 30 free trial ad says I have 14 days to return the modem after I cancelled the service, I am documenting this they will later tell me I didn't return the modem with the 14 days.

Replies
Do Not Get Vonage!
By -

DO NOT GET VONAGE!!! If you are keeping it forever like till you DIE go ahead because Vonage is awful to cancel! Well as I read down if you die your family will have to deal with these people. Now I will tell the whole world DO NOT GET VONAGE! I've been with them since July 2005.

Well my Cable company got me last week. I just could not pass a great all in one deal when I see one. So today I call Vonage to CANCEL because the cable guys are coming out tomorrow. It was awful. I even began to lie just so she would help me cancel. First I told her all the info she needed and then the questions came flying! Why do you want to cancel? Because I'm going with the cable company. Why did you go to the cable company? Why this? Why that? Why I ask (myself not her still trying to be nice) does she even need to know this.

If I wanted something else I believe I would have called for that not to cancel. So her next question was so why do you really want to cancel? So yes I started to lie to her I said, "Well you see I'm moving to my sister's house and we will be living with her so I don't need a phone she has one." Then she asked where does she live? Then the ** hit the fan I said, "You don't need to know where she lives. I just want to cancel." Yes I was getting mad. Being honest did not work lying did not work. So my husband was listening on the other phone and I said, "You can ask my husband WE WANT TO CANCEL."

So my husband said, "WE WANT TO CANCEL". Then she, "Asked do you want to transfer your service?" It took all I had not to curse or yell at her. But I calmly said I'm not stupid nor dumb if I wanted to transfer the service I would have called and done that.

Then my husband said, "WE WANT TO CANCEL." She says I quote "If you would like to cancel please say 'cancel'." I was thinking, "Are you ** kidding me? I was at my wits end with this lady. My husband said CANCEL. She knew he was pissed. Finally she said, "OK your account is now cancelled." Also I cancelled the credit card they have on file for my account. They are not going to treat me like I'm dumb and stupid then steal money from me too.

Screw me once shame on you screw me twice shame on me it's not happening. I will be sure to go to the BBB and let them know how we were treated. We are not dumb Americans and we do not need to be treated has if we are. If this is the way some Vonage reps. have to do their job :(

Shame on you, get a different job. No one could pay me to treat people badly just to keep them. I wish I would have recorded my call. I will not go through that ever again!! ALSO I found this on the BBB website. On March 27, 2007 Vonage company's membership in the BBB was revoked by the BBB's Board of Directors. Also the BBB processed a total of 7626 complaints about the company in the last 36 months.

Replies
Advertisement
Rebate Ripoff!!!
By -

CHINO, CALIFORNIA -- Back in December 2006 I purchased a Vonage router at Best Buy with an offer of a $100 best buy gift card and a $50 rebate check. I activated my service with Vonage on Friday, December 29, 2006 and by 4:00 p.m. that afternoon I made my first call. Sometime in January I mailed in both rebate forms with all the necessary paperwork, UPC and MAC id information. The last postmark dates for the rebates were February 15th and 28th, 2006.

Again, I mailed it out in January so that should not be a problem. In early may 2007 I received my $50 rebate check. Good. In early June 2007 I received a postcard that my $100 best buy gift card was "declined". Bad. On June 6th, 2007 I called the Vonage resubmit office at (800) 347-4017 and after a difficult time speaking with "customer care," I managed to get transferred to a floor supervisor. He managed to "resubmit" my rebate. It was an unbelievable challenge to get someone to help me.

I was told by the initial person that she could do nothing about this and when I asked to be transferred to someone who could do something about it, she said she could not transfer me. It was only through my persistence that she finally transferred me to the floor supervisor. So we left off that I should give Vonage 4 to 6 weeks to mail out my $100 best buy gift card.

Six weeks later... No gift card. Eight weeks later... No gift card. 10 weeks later... Nothing. On August 20th, 2007 I called the Vonage resubmit office and again after fighting my way passed the initial "customer care" rep, I managed to get a hold of Luke, a floor supervisor. I had to retell my entire story and he looked into the matter, and said, "I've escalated this matter so would you please give us 3 weeks to get this taken cared of." Fine!

On September 21st, 2007 I called the Vonage resubmit office, again, and after retelling my story to the "customer care" rep, and fighting my way to someone with higher authority I am transferred to John, a floor supervisor. Again I am told that "the matter would be escalated! Please allow 4 weeks for you rebate to be processed!" No, this time I ask to be transferred to someone above the floor supervisor, so I'm placed on hold. And no one ever picked up the line so after 20 minutes I hung up. Rude! Rude! Rude!

On October 11th, 2007 I called the Vonage resubmit office, again I have to retell my story, get passed the "customer care" rep, get transferred to a floor supervisor and this time I asked to speak with his supervisor. "Please hold while I transfer you to my floor manager." Finally I speak with Martin **, floor manager (employee # **) and he promises to "escalate" this matter to Phillip, account manager. Please call us back in 10 days. "10 Days," I said, "Yes," he said. "So call you back on October 18th?" I said. "Yes," he said.

So on October 19th, again I called the Vonage resubmit office, get passed "customer care" who did not want to transfer me, she did not want to transfer me at all. She said, "I can't do that sir." "Transfer me." "I can't do that sir." "Transfer me now!" So I get Jerry, a floor supervisor. I ask that he transfer me. "May I ask why?" he said. Here I go, with my story. So he says, "Sir, please give us 10 business days to wait for a response." Great, now it's 10 business days. So call back by October 26th. For what?

What am I calling back for? Why isn't my gift card in my possession 10 months later. Forget 10 business days, 10 business days have turned out to be 10 months. 10 Long and ridiculous months! October 29th, I called again. Spoke with Paula, customer care rep (employee #**). Nothing has been done to my account, there are no notes of my previous conversations and she said she would kindly escalate this matter. Ridiculous, just ridiculous.

Replies
Vonage Billing Scam
By -

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA -- I signed up for Vonage back in December of 2006 I researched them for a little while and thought it was a better deal than Comcast at the time. So I went on the Vonage site and signed up. During the signup there is an authorization you had to authorize Vonage to roll the number from Comcast to Vonage. Standard practice between phone companies; what the authorization says is me the verified owner of the number authorizes the new company to take the number. This is an FCC law which allows me the consumer to move to which ever phone company provides better service and/or pricing without losing my number.

Vonage told us not to contact the current carrier because it could delay things and that the transfer will go through without a hitch. I did not have to contact Comcast and terminate because they wear already informed of the transfer. The number took about 7 days to become active on the Vonage service. After a couple of months my wife decided that she liked Comcast better and to avoid an argument I agreed to switch the number back. Since I wanted my own phone number and I liked the idea of Vonage VOIP service for my office I decided to add an additional number to my Vonage account before she switched our primary number.

So we did everything in reverse, we contacted Comcast and authorized the move of the number back and waited. They told us not to contact the other carrier because it could delay things. The number switched in about 10 days and everything seemed fine. Here is where it gets weird. I wasn't paying attention to the email about the Vonage invoices and just assumed everything worked as smoothly as when we switched to Vonage. Well about 2 days ago I looked at one of the Vonage bills and noticed that they were still billing me for both numbers.

I thought it was a simple clerical error and that they would rectify it. So now they admitted they know it'€™s ported, they don'€™t run it and yet they still billed me for it. So at this time I'€™m a bit angry because the logic is escaping them. They are charging me for a number they don'€™t own and are aware they don'€™t run. What'€™s so hard to understand? Simple right? Wrong! I called them and got on the phone with their rep, and she said she needed to verify who I was to cancel. I kept my cool and answered her questions. She then came to the big question "Why are you canceling?"

Trying to be mature about this I explained to her the entire situation that although the number has been ported, they know it'€™s ported, they were notified it was being ported, they did the porting, what'€™s the point of calling you if I already authorized the porting? Crying out loud they already received my authorization through my new carrier. It's not like I'm still waiting for them to move it, nor have to authorize Vonage to let it go. It's already moved by my authorization that I gave Comcast.

She then paused, and said "well what I can do is credit you 50.00 or half the amount of the incorrect billing if you stay." I responded with, "why should I lose 50.00 of the 100.00 you robbed from me for? You incorrectly kept billing me for 4 months and now you want to keep 50.00 of the 100.00 that you should not have taken?" I said "no I want it all and if you cannot credit the correct amount terminate the account and I will deal with this legally."

She puts me on hold for 10 minutes and returned to say "are you sure you want to cancel?" I said "unless you credit me the entire amount that you incorrectly billed me for, yes terminate the account." To my amazement and utter shock she said that "there will be a 39.99 early termination fee for each phone number." One of which the they don't own and haven'€™t owned for 4 months now. I responded with "this is going be the best legal and news story ever. Have a nice day."

So I am now in the process of filing paperwork with my attorney, credit card company, FCC, and every news outlet that will hear me. I think they have scammed thousands of customers on bogus policy that says you have to contact us for a roll over, when you have already contacted and authorized the new carrier to speak in your behalf. It's absurd and I bet if you look further into this I bet there will be a lot of 24.99 over billings they have over charged people for. This is not about the money with me.

Replies
Top of Page | Next Page >

Vonage Rating:
Star Half star Empty star Empty star Empty star
1.5 out of 5, based on 28 ratings and
397 reviews & complaints.
Contact Information:
Vonage
2147 Rt. 27
Edison, NJ 08817
732-528-2600 (ph)
732-287-9119 (fax)
www.vonage.com
Compare Phone/Mobile Services