Vonage Consumer Reviews - Page 6

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA -- The customer service I received through Vonage has been a nightmare. I am a generally calm and friendly person, but the reps at Vonage pushed my blood pressure up and they really almost got a good ol' cussin. I was blown away at how the reps treated me like I didn't have any common sense, made canceling a nightmare, and added extra fees wherever they could.

I would definitely NOT recommend them to anyone. The service was fine, but if you ever plan on canceling or moving or anything else that requires customer service, FORGET IT! It is also a principle issue: If I am spending my hard earned money with your company, I deserve to be treated with respect and not robbed by extra "fees" that were previously never mentioned. RIP OFF!!!

Believe all reviews on Vonage cancellation policy. I was a customer for 4 years and tried to get a refund of 1/2 year on a prepaid plan that I canceled. They refused without hesitation.

HOLMDEL, NEW JERSEY -- I've been a fairly well satisfied Vonage customer for 7 years. I have had trouble with intermittent poor line quality, but it has never been clear whether this is a problem with my ISP. I've often found that the quality of customer service is poor, but I've not had a lot of reason to call them except to make changes in my service.

However, when, after porting out my phone number and making sure it worked on the new phone service, I called Vonage to cancel my service, they made it very difficult to cancel service, gave me a very hard time, and tried not to cancel my service. This was month to month service; I did not have a contract, and I did not expect a partial refund for cancelling in mid month. I actually cancelled the day before the month ended.

You can't just cancel service online. I called customer service. First I got someone who insisted that my number hadn't been ported out. I checked to make sure the port was complete and the phone number working correctly on my new phone service before trying again. Then I learned that while all other Vonage customer service is available 24/7, you have to call between certain hours and talk to a special office to cancel service.

Then when I called back, the customer service person insisted I tell her why I want to cancel service before she would transfer me, and I had to shout at her four times that I don't have to tell her anything, transfer me, and she actually transferred me when I told her I'd changed my payment method to a card with insufficient money available for Vonage to get their hands on it. When she put me through, a Chinese guy kept demanding to know why I was cancelling my service, and insisting that I had to do "cooperation" with him before he would cancel my service.

I had to shout at him six times that I don't have to tell him anything, I don't have to cooperate with him, cancel my service, NOW. He finally cancelled my service when I told him that I changed my payment method to a card with no funds available, and Vonage won't be able to get any more money from me, ever. The whole experience was completely outrageous, and at this moment, I can't recommend anything about Vonage to anybody.

I am having real issues with the company advertisement and customer service. Summarizing the case, Vonage signed me with false and misleading advertisement of unlimited international calling. After a while, their usage department sent an email saying that I need to check my minutes as my usage was more than permissible usage which is 3000 mins. I tried to search everywhere this 3000 in their original contract but could not find and they also fail to explain where is it mentioned on their website. They just told that they have sole right to change the usage minutes.

One fine day, my plan has been upgraded to double the original plan and I have been told that if I check my usage minutes for two months then I can switch back to my original world plan. To avoid all the hassle of new connection, I continued with Vonage and bring my minutes to 2800 for continuous two months. After that I contacted Vonage again to change my plan. Customer service doesn't have any authority to change the plans.

After 4th customer service call, some sane representative told me directly that they can't do anything and I need to respond to email that I got from usage management department. They don't have any phone no. I replied to Vonage usage department email, asking them to revert my plan to original plan. I have got a quick reply that my plan can't be reverted back because their normal usage average is 1500 minutes and my usage is still 2800 and I need to wait for another two months and bring my usage to average limit.

This is heights of dissipating misleading information and false advertising. You can't compare unlimited minutes with 1500 minutes a month. And if 1500 minutes is the limit then that should have been told the first time. They impart incomplete and wrong information.

Suddenly after a year of service, I started getting emails from Vonage that my usage of phone is out of normal usage guidelines and that I should limit the outgoing international calls to less than 3000 min/mo. I replied them twice trying to explain them I have unlimited plan. I keep getting canned answers so next day I called Customer Support. Funny thing is the lady on the phone got confused why I I even got the email stating that. Herself and her fellow agents were surprised.

Next minute she talks to her supervisor and changes the story and trying to convince me that I was confused. I also talked to the supervisor but the same story. Vonage people won't even listen. In the end the supervisor says to me rudely that its their Terms of Service, if I don't agree then I should disconnect. My point to VONAGE geniuses is that where in the terms of service does it say that Unlimited=3000 minutes. I agree with terms of service but 3000 minutes limit is nowhere written in that contract.

I have been getting a email or two per day and a stupid voice mail saying the same thing. I got fed up and finally filed a formal complaint against Vonage to FCC. I think all the Vonage customers should do this. It's easy and you can submit form online too. If FCC gets enough complaints, probably they will do something about it. If anybody knows somebody in news industry, they should definitely send this fraud story to media.

To start with its false advertisement and illegal, what Vonage is doing. After all this I get on with their agent online to chat with them, to find out if he will give me disclaimer about "Unlimited". But he didn't. Even after probing him with questions such as "Is unlimited really mean I can talk without any limit to India? Or there is a limit?" and the guy kept saying really its unlimited. As customers or ex-customers of Vonage, we need to make this company sorry for the way they are cheating American people. We deserve better than this!!!

Thinking that having and paying for an expensive landline was redundant, I researched the market and chose Vonage because of the promotion they were offering at the time. After calling and setting up an account, I received my Vonage modem and this is when the troubles began. It does not just plug in and work. After carefully following the instructions that came with the system, it did not work.

I called Vonage customer service and much to my amazement (tongue in cheek) I was connected with a Vonage tech who was going to help me get my Vonage up and running. The downside of this is that he could barely speak English so it was next to impossible to understand his instructions. I kept having to interrupt him and ask him to repeat what he said. "Oh, it take only 10-15 minutes to get working." That was a joke. After two and a half hours, he said it worked.

The next day, I had to call a local computer specialist because my Vonage was not working. It cost me, out of pocket, $80 to find out that all the garbled and unintelligible instructions the Vonage representative gave me were backwards. My local representative got it to work - Lo and Behold - every call I placed or received would cut in and out and I could not hear the person I was talking to and on the other end, the person could not hear me. I called Vonage technical service yet again, and was connected with another tech that did not speak English.

It was at this point, after paying Vonage for equipment, monthly service, a private tech and considerable frustration, that I was done with them. I called to cancel my service and got the run around. It was at this time, I sent emails to Vonage customer service, Vonage supervisors, and any other Vonage personnel I could find email addresses for that I was filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau and the fraud division of the Attorney General's office in the state I reside.

My account was canceled finally after getting bills for four months that I refused to pay. I suggest that Vonage hire people that speak clear English - Vonage is in the communication business and their employees cannot communicate. I would never recommend Vonage to anyone - even my worst enemy.

In the early days of VOIP (October 2004), I became a Vonage customer. The sign up process was simple and online. They took my credit card and signed me up then they sent me the modem and it all worked well. Over the years, there have been many new players in this arena and finally last week Comcast offered me a good deal. So I left the Vonage service on for a couple weeks and then logged in to the Vonage Portal to cancel the account. There is no means for canceling online. It requires a call to an Service Rep. But first one must wade through 10 or more minutes of computer generated crap in order to finally get a human on the phone.

Once the person did get on the line, it was another series of the same exact questions prompted by the computer. Again wasting my time. The Representative then lets me know that service will be terminated today and that I will not be refunded for unused service days and that no prorate is provided in the contract. Then states that I should leave it on until the end of the billing period if I want to take full advantage of the prepaid service. While I do not want to waste money, I do not want to wade through the depths of this crappy experience of disconnecting a second time either, something that Vonage is banking on.

The result of my experience is that I will never do business with Vonage again. And I will advise others to stay away as well. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this company with bad customer service and bad business acumen. The deal is not that great any longer anyway. My advice is to check the cancellation requirements for any online tech service to see the ease and fairness at which one can cancel it. You are required to call someone even though you signed up online, be leery!

My phone service with Vonage was always crackling and calls were dropped frequently. However, I tried to wait a few months and fix this as per their directions since I was intrigued by the low price of this "landline". Finally I decided to move on with another company since I could not interact on the phone professionally or personally with this service and I had resorted to only using my cell phone.

It was difficult to cancel the service and required more than one try. For example, I already had signed up with a different landline company when I called to cancel Vonage. Even then, after speaking with the correct service representative and firmly saying "No. I do not want the service anymore," I was not disconnected. I had returned their equipment but I still had to pay some additional money for a disconnection fee.

Although I could afford to pay this amount, I expected them to waive this fee considering that I had barely used the phone line (e. g., less than 40 total minutes of usage over 5 months), had paid for several months of service, and had found the service to be unusable.

I never write product reviews, but I am writing this review for other consumers only because I believe they treated me unfairly by charging me an additional amount. I would have liked to see a review which calmly stated these facts before investing in the service. I did my research and saw many positive reviews of Vonage, plus a few angry ones. In my case, with hindsight I would not have bothered with their phone service which was more of a hassle than anything. I'd rather pay some money to actually hear the people I am calling.

I do not recommend Vonage if you have even a bit of money to pay for a decent land line. The difference in price is not worth the difference in phone service, so you might as well just use a cell phone if you can't afford a proper landline. If you are at all hard of hearing (which I am not) then you can completely forget about Vonage.

I only switched over to Vonage one week ago, and I have been without a telephone for one week. The phone adapter they sent me had a sticker on the box that said: "Reconditioned." That should have been my first clue. Immediately after hooking up the device I was unable to give or receive phone calls. The adapter would disconnect me after less than one minute. Eventually, it would not even connect to the server, but remained blank with just the power on.

Vonage would not provide a new adapter unless I agreed to pay all the shipping expenses. I told them I wanted to terminate my account. I have since told them I want to terminate my account 6 more times. Each time they tell me I need to call their accounts dept. to terminate. They know I do not have a telephone.

Vonage will only cite their terms of service if it means they can charge you for something or refuse you something. Their own terms of service state they must be notified "in writing" of account cancellation. They are giving me the run-around by telling me their "security policy" requires me to call in person. They are full of crap. They are not even following their own service policy.

I called them on this discrepancy and told them they will cancel my account and leave me alone. They still have not followed through. This has only been one week, but it has been the worst dealing I have ever had with a company. I have filed a complaint with the BBB and will have to cancel my credit card which I authorized them to use. If others have had the same experience I have had, I do not understand how Vonage remains in business. If you are considering switching to Vonage, it is not worth it. It may only cause you misery and grief.

LONG BEACH, CA -- My phone service & DSL service provider was Verizon. I was enticed by Vonage commercials on TV, so I decided to give it a go. When I called Vonage, I spoke with a very polite & informative Indian Woman, I remarked on the late hour,& they said they were on the other side of the world, so it wasn't night time at all. They informed me of their no risk free trial, free shipping, free equipment,& free installation. (I installed it, let's HOPE they don't charge me for "installation!?")

But, Vonage DID require my Credit Card,(For security reasons). Who knows? Maybe they thought I was a crook, who might try to skip town with their million dollar (free) modem? Whatever! So I gave them my credit card #. How could I lose? I had a free month just to try it out! Vonage promises Call anywhere, Call anytime, talk as long as you want, for 1 low price. I said "COOOOOL!"

Parameters were I would need to have DSL, which I did. Great, I can tell Verizon to take a hike! They said "No, no. Please wait until the equipment comes, then call us, we will go from there." That way your line is active w/ your orig. phone #. Then Vonage takes over the line. Sneaky, sneaky!! While waiting for the unit to be shipped, I researched further. I couldn't get a DIVORCE from Verizon Phone service, if I was within bed with Verizon,
& doing the DSL deed.

Vonage should TELL people that; "If your Phone Co. & DSL provider are one and the same, Vonage might not work for them. Vonage knows who Verizon is!! Vonage hires customer reps, that are not directed to insure new customers are informed, so they'll remain customers.

Luckily, I never even opened the Vonage box, I called & found out how & where to return the package. I thought it was over only to find out that Vonage has made charges against my credit card for "cancellation fee, additional pro rated fees." Oh my, my! I was so tired of this joke of a company, they told me that I was being charged a cancellation fee due to closing the account. Well guess what? DUH!! I never even opened up the darn BOX!

I never received one second of anything from them!!! They charged me a one time $35.00 fee for account activation, & an additional $40.00 for cancellation. What I never activated JACK!!! It took me numerous phone calls (10 to be exact), for me to get this mess resolved. They were charging me because I didn't activate their service. I did get the charges reversed, finally. But only because I told them I would go to the BBB, & the Federal Trade Commission.