$24.95 is not Equal $36 and 24 Months Suprise

8/31/2010

I signed up for the service on a second line not knowing if I would be keeping the line so I asked specifically for there was a commitment to keep the service and the answer was "No" from the customer support person. Guess what, included in the contract was a 24 month commitment. Over a period of 21 months there were two increases in the price of the service because "we want our customers to have the best service . . .". Just another company taking advantage of customers to make a few more cents.

Terrible Cancelation Experience

4/21/2010

To potential Vonage customers,

In the early days of VOIP (October 2004), I became a Vonage customer. The signup 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 in on until the end of the billing period if I want to take full advantage of the prepaid service. While I do not what 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 you self 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!

Jim

Cancelation Rip-Off Policy

9/2/2009

We've had Vonage for two years, and decided to cancel, and go with Magic Jack. Come to find out you can only cancel on the day after the two year commitment period, by phone. Can't cancel early, either by email, online or written notice. Well, that day is on a Sunday, and their cancellation office is closed! So, when we cancel on the following Monday, we miss the "cancellation day", which requires us to start a new 30 day commitment period, costing another month. MAJOR Rip-Off. After that phone call, trying to cancel, they had the gaul to email me an online survey regarding the phone call. Well, in the multiple choice portion, I left no stone un-turned; and in the comments section, I added the following:
"Although I have been satisfied with Vonnage for two years, I choose to cancel my service, and could only do so, on Oct. 11, 2009, one day after my service period - - WHICH IS A SUNDAY, and your cancellation office is CLOSED! Canceling on Oct 12 requires me to pay for an additional month. I consider this a con and a scam, but you already know it is. This Vonage policy alone requires that I never recommend Vonage to anyone, and to make all others fully aware that Vonage is the "Madhoff" of the VOIP industry. I know these comments will not change your policy, but I feel better knowing, that I know, that YOU know what many others will also know."

Do not order this product

7/3/2009

My wife only opened the box, nothing else, decided to return the items, and was treated with disrespect and put through a hassle by the customer service. She had been promised that there was no commitment at the tie of signing up, and that there would be no setup charge. It was all wrong. they misrepresented themselves and were dishonest. After more than an hour on the phone with their representatives twice, the whole ordeal was awful. This company should be shut down.

2-Year Commitment When You Sign up and NO MILITARY CLAUSE

6/29/2009

Vonage has purposely refused to verbally (of course it's in your HUGE service agreement in the fine print that no one has the patience to totally read!) inform people that they are committing to a 2-year contract with them.

When I signed up for service, I asked the salesperson if there was a service term, because we were military and might need to disconnect if we moved, and they didn't tell me that there was a 2-year commitment, they instead told me that I could "take Vonage wherever you moved to, so you would never have to disconnect." I didn't see that at the time as them evading the question, I thought it was neat that the number could be carried with us wherever we went.

Now we have moved and we don't have good internet service, and cannot use Vonage. They have NO MILITARY CLAUSE so there is no exception to this 2-year rule.

Either I keep paying them monthly (and they have me in an "uncle" situation because they have my credit card information and I have authorized them to charge me every month) or I pay a disconnect fee of about $40.

I said uncle and will warn military people to use something else. . .maybe Skype or something else like that (similar and people have been much happier with it from what I've seen and we used it while my husband was deployed to Iraq.)

Just Wrote To The Attorney General

6/27/2009 Edison NJ

From the beginning, I felt attacked by sharks with this company.

The constant "what did you say?" got to be so frustrating, always someone from Indonesia or India screaming to make their brownie points of the day, false promises and lots of e-mails to their "customer service".

As of 2 days ago, they debited my account with huge fees after termination and brought it into ISF for which of course I am responsible for and my credit will suffer under.

Off shoring as it is called really sucks. It needs to stop. These people don't give a dam about our affairs. They just want money.

I find this company disgusting.

Deceptive Advertising and Billing Practices

5/28/2009 NJ

Vonage advertises that there is no contract, implying that one can cancel at any time. What you don't know is that when you try to cancel, either from moving or disatisfied service, they charge you fees ranging from $80 to $120+. These so-called disconnection fees are announced to a consumer, after every trick in the book is used to try to get a person to stay with Vonage, and a consumer still wants to cancel service, so discouraging them from disconnecting. I liken this to stealing, because there is nothing you can do about it. They charge your credit card the moment you disconnect, even if you haven't authorized the charges.

Beware! Vonage Cancellation Charge

3/10/2009 Orlando FL

I wanted to try telephone service with Vonage which offered me 2 free months of use. But I had problem transferring my existing number, so I called to canceled Vonage account after 35 days of no use( because my phone number did not get transferred). They charge me $127.78 for equipment($79.99)and cancellation fee ($39.99 and tax. They don't accept a return of equipment for a refund after 30 days of opening an account.

So I have paid for the nonsense, ridiculously.

Beware!

Vonage Is Terrible

2/26/2009 Marlton NJ

Vonage Sucks I have Direct TV and I have to have a phone line connected to the TV service so it can call into the satellite, well needless to say my Vonage phone service never worked right to make the necessary calls to the satellite, so I had to disconnect my Vonage service. Vonage customer service said I had to pay $96 to disconnect their crappy service that never worked right from the beginning. The Vonage customer service representative said I get a 30 day trial period in which I would not have been charged if I disconnected in that time frame, well when I told the customer service representative that I tried to disconnect within 30 days they assured me they could fix my problem so I continued service under their coercion. 6 months later and multiple phone calls to Vonage the problem never got fixed so I cancelled then they charge me with this bogus cancellation fee. I am reporting them to my credit card company as a fraudulent charge I told them but they didn't seem to care. This company sucks they don't care about the customer only making money. Don't be fooled by their commercials. They suck.

I may even take out a Vonage sucks website to give them more bad publicity. This company sucks stay away from them and their subpar service.

Fraudulent Misinformation, Greedy for fees,

2/14/2009 WA

At the beginning of Dec. 2008 I decided to change my phone service from Qwest to Vonage, I called Vonage. Vonage told me that they would initiate the transfer of my phone number from Qwest.. In the process we were given incorrect information by Vonage about transferring our phone number from Qwest to Vonage, mainly that we could transfer our phone number and still retain our Qwest DSL service. This was incorrect because DSL requires a phone number and Qwest would cancel our current internet service if we did not have phone service with them.. In trying to straighten this out, Qwest made us a better offer for phone service to keep us as a customer, so we agreed and they began the process to retrieve our number back from Vonage and thus close our account with Vonage (the account was actually never really started).. I was told by Qwest that they would initiate the transfer of my phone number back from Vonage and that I would not have to do anything further, The account with Vonage would be closed at the time of the phone number transfer. In the original phone conversation with Vonage we were offered free service for the first two months. So Dec 19th Qwest initiated the transfer and it was completed Dec. 30th with closure of our Vonage account. At this point I believed that was it. All interaction with Vonage was via the phone, we received no paper terms of service and terms for cancellation were not explained.

Two months later Vonage charges my credit card with a fee. I complain that my account was canceled in Dec. They say no they choose to keep it open and if I cancel now they will charge a $125.00 fee. Vonage's practices are unethical and fraudulent. I filed a complaint with the Attorney Generals office and refuse to pay Vonage anything.

How Vonage Stole From Me

2/11/2009 Harrisburg PA

I thought I was receiving phone service through Vonage when in reality I was still a Comcast customer. After paying for 3 months of service that I was not receiving I called to cancel, they then proceeded to charged me a disconnect fee of $40 and an equipment fee of $94. How can they charge you for service that were never given? I believe that's theft and fraud.

I maybe wrong but either way stay away from Vonage!

Don't Use Vonage

1/20/2009 trenton NJ

I called to see if Vonage could display my business name on out bound call on my customer caller ID box. They told me that would happened. I was going to be paying $60.00 a month and use of a 1-866 number. Come to find out that they will not be able to display my company name on out bound calls. I was on the phone for two days trying to get a resolve to my caller ID problem. So I cancelled service within two days of having there service. I had to pay to ship that stupid box back. The problem I'm having now is trying to get a refund for services I never used.

They have so many hidden fee's that the lay man would not now the first thing about how they keep your money and legal rip us off. DO NOT USE VONAGE!

Definitely Give Vonage A Second Thought Before You Sign Up For

12/16/2008

I've been using Vonage for 5 months and is shocked by their termination fee of almost 100 dollars. Even though they stated that there is no any contracts or hidden fees to the customers like most of internet companies or cell phone companies do, they do charge a 39.99 dollar fee plus the price of the Vonage router which is 50 dollars plus tax if customer wants to terminate service within the first year. As far as I know this is no difference with usual contracts from internet or cell phone companies. What's worse is that Vonage don't accept used Vonage routers nor recycle them, which means once you have Vonage phone service, you pay for that router for not just month by month within your monthly fee, you also have to pay the rest money when you want to cancel your service. And they don't provide customers any other options such as not buying this router since they may not need Vonage service any more through out the rest of their lives.

So I'd also like to suggest people think about it twice before switching to Vonage from traditional land line telephones, because as far as I know 100 dollars is the same as how much traditional phone companies charge from customers by 50 dollars in the beginning to set up lines and another 50 dollars when customers want to cancel services, plus the sound quality of traditional phones is much better than Vonage's.

V Phone Service Does Not Exist

12/4/2008 CT

V-phones simply do not work. All the on the go advertisements from Vonage are false.

There need to be an extreme technical surrounding (which no hotel, restaurant, Starbucks or what other internet place you may visit when traveling can provide). Radio Shack therefore discontinued selling them.

However it took almost 5 months for them to put this out in the open while I spent hours on the phone with them trying to figure out what the problem may be. I bought my first v phone at a store, got 3 replacements from Vonage... got billed for another 2 and a recovery device charge (no surprise that this is the exact same amount as the v phone) and could not use their service for almost 5 months. I paid a total of 300 $ for service that I was unable to use and devices that also never worked... on top of that they did cut off my mailbox several times without notice ... no international and long distance call could ever be terminated regularly... meaning got disconnected in each call at least once...

However, on top of that they just charged me with another cancellation fee as they did not 'accept' my cancellation by email and Telephone in July, August, September, October and November. For December they only billed me for the month of December, cancellation fee (which is supposed to be a month) and a device recovery fee!

This is the most expensive phone service I was ever confronted with and I can only warn everyone not to sign up with them.

The customer service transfer you back and forth pretending that they are supervisors... and even if you have a direct line with tier 1 they keep you on the line for at least 15 minutes.

Vonage is the most expensive torture you can think of!


Annie

Canceling Your Phone Service

12/3/2008

I decided to go with Vonage early this year and I had used them in the past with no problems. Now this time around I sign up for their service online and I get their little converter box. I use it for a while then I stop. Forward to October when I decided to cancel the service the woman talks me into letting me try it for free for three months. Of course, I do it with the intention of cancelling afterwards. At this time no says anything about a cancelling fee of $39.95 because I wasn't going to keep my contract. Now it's today 12/3/2006 and I call to cancel and all this comes up. I get very irate about it and the woman said well you said you read the Terms of Service.

I'll admit that I don't read those, who does but I believe they do that just because they know people don't read them. So now I will never use these people ever again and I hope they go under like the slime they are!

Good riddance!

Sneaky, Unpublicized Exit Fees

6/18/2008

I had joined Vonage based on the $15/month promo on their website. I figured, with $15/month at stake, worst case I'll cancel if I don't like it.

Several months went by and I wasn't using the service due to low call quality, so I called to cancel. First, the automated voice response system LITERALLY hung up on me each time I pressed the number to cancel my account. Other options worked, so either a strange local malfunction, or a company policy to let people think they can cancel but then frustrate them.

I finally told the voice response system that I wanted to add services, figuring that would get me through to someone, which it did. I told that person I wanted to cancel, and was asked for all my information before being told I needed to talk to someone else. I got transferred, and went through the same exercise again. Fuming at this point, I demanded to talk to someone who could cancel my account, and finally got through to someone.

That person (who was on a bad connection!! AND was hard to understand) insisted that in order to cancel they would have to hit my credit card for $119.98!! That includes a non-disclosed (or carefully hidden) cancellation fee, as well as the full charge for the adapter, with no option to return it to get my money back. At this point, I had spent 45 minutes on the phone and still understood only every other word, and I was frustrated enough to tell the person that I couldn't hear them, the connection wasn't very good, perhaps they were using a Vonage phone...

Determined not to let them thwart my efforts to cancel, I stated for the benefit of the call recorder that I did not accept the validity of the charge, but they needed to do whatever was necessary to cancel my account. Sure enough, a few days later the charge appeared on my card.

I contested it with American Express, but they contacted Vonage who stated it was my contractual obligation.

It is certainly possible that buried deep in the legalese, I committed to this raw deal. But this is no way to run a company, retain customers, and build loyalty. I haven't decided yet how much energy I have to continue to fight this, risk collection agency hassles, etc., but in any case, I would urge anyone who reads this to STAY AWAY from Vonage, due to the lack of quality and the absolute nerve and shortsightedness that a company has to treat its customers this way. A company that needs to make its money by preying on people who don't (or can't) understand the full implications of a detailed contract when the website offers $15/month with no obligation, doesn't deserve to succeed the market. I will personally be glad to see them fail.

You're not important, especially when you're not a member

3/27/2008

On 2 separate evenings my husband received phone calls from Vonage, on his cell phone. We are not members of Vonage, so why were they calling us?! He called and asked why they had called. The representative asked him several times if he was a Vonage customer, and what the phone number was that called him. After giving the phone number, and repeating that we weren't customers, my husband asked for a manager. After arguing with the representative for 20 minutes, demanding to talk to a manager, my husband asked why he was refusing to let him speak to one. "The managers will only talk to Vonage members." WHAT?! Are you kidding me?! He never did get transfered to a manager, and he also had to give his name, address, and cellphone number JUST to get them to put him on a no call list! I would advise no one EVER become affiliated with Vonage.

If they treat people that don't spend there money with them, badly, then why would they honestly treat a paying customer better. Obviously, they just want your money.

Vonage are crooks, blackmail and armed robbery

3/20/2008

Vonage is taking advantage of consumers and misleading, charging for services not provided, hassling cunsumers not to leave, intentionally making it impossible to complain or get money refunded due, delaying technicians to come out and finally not doing anything to make the service work blaming it on the other telfone companies like ATT, saying DSL lines and same number can be maintained only for you to find out after the fact that this is not true, charging you hidden costs everywhere, tiening you up with them.
I am an educated consumer I could only imagine the amiount of nos neducated or elder people that are being raped by this company. The investors should know about this totally unethical way of doing business. It has costed me over 400 to not be able to make a call and another 130 just to pay them the ransom to get along with my life without them. This is ridiculous and I hope that anyone who reads this passes on this inofrmation to everyone possible in order to avoid that these organized crooks don't get away with it again.

Honestly speaking , if you want something transparect and that works and provids service without lies and hidden tricks trregarding comunications on the web or cheaper ways to contact your loved ones, just use Skype! or stick to another if any ethical telecom company . Not Vonage!! this is a real warning, don't fall into their trap as I did and avoid your loved ones to do the same!!

Total rip-offs unethical business practice

1/23/2008

Wanted to try Vonage to save money-business system with four phone lines. We were assured that they could provide service so we started to transfer our numbers from Verizon to Vonage (free) then the nightmare began. Got the equipment and it failed to work after ten hours and a full day of down phone lines (business) :( then found out after cancelling with Vonage that I could not re-claim my numbers unless I left the accounts open. Transferring numbers would take more than 6 weeks I was without business phones (used my cell numbers) for 6+ weeks. All the while Vonage is charging me for service and they charged my carrier $300 to give my numbers back. I had to pay that of course I was finally able to get numbers and try to cancel accounts to find out that they would not cancel without paying them another 40.00 a line they would not waive any fee's and would not close accounts if I refused to pay the fee.

They stole my money and never provided even one call. Cost me hundreds and that's not counting the business I lost during the time I was without my numbers-they are horrible horrible people. Do not do business with them.

Will not permit you to cancel your account.

9/25/2007 MN

I signed up for Vonage in September 2006.

In July 2007, I decided to drop my landline and have my home phone number (Vonage account) ported to Sprint.

After 2 weeks my number was not ported. On 19 July, 2007, I went to Sprint, they said they were waiting on information from Vonage. So I contacted Vonage. The customer service representative kept trying to convince me not to leave Vonage that I became so frustrated I told her I just wanted my account disconnected. I returned to Sprint that day and told them to just assign me a new phone number as I was done dealing with Vonage.

The next morning I my Vonage modem was not working so I disconnected it.

Vonage charged my account in August and September.

On 24, September I contacted Vonage to request a refund. I spoke first with an Anthony in Account Management.
• He first told me I could not get a refund because they don’t refund for non-usage. I told him
• because he could not verify I called and asked if I called from my home phone. I told him I did not but understand this as the call was being taped.
• His response is if you don’t know who you talk too he cant verify it. I again explained that I didn’t understand this as Vonage verifies a customers account several times when you call and I couldn’t believe they do not track calls. I asked that he look up the last time I called Vonage and tell me what it says.
• He then read to me the conversation on 19 July 2007. He read the notes to me, and it stated that customer asks that the account be disconnected and that I was transferred to whatever group was responsible for porting calls. According to him, they didn’t disconnect my account because I was transferred to the other group.
• I protested this was not fair because I didn’t know that being transferred to another area of Vonage was cancelling my disconnect notice and asked him if anywhere in the notes it said that a rescinded the cancellation requires.
• His response, I never said that you requested your account be disconnected!! This is less than n minutes later. I tell him he is lying, he just read it and asked did it say anywhere I rescinded the cancellation. He says no, there is not indication that I did. I point out that he just proved he was lying and he says: Well unless you can tell me who you talked too he can’t verify it.
• I tell him that it is clear that his motivation is not to help me but to prevent giving me a refund and that he has proven he is a liar and I cant talk to him anymore and wanted to talk to his supervisor. At first he told me there was no supervisor available and then he finally relented and gave me a direct number for the account management group but I would have to call back in 1 hour because there system was being updated. This is maybe 5 minutes after he read my account notes.
• I call back an hour later and speak to an Iris. I ask if the system is now up. She says we have had not system problems today. I say, oh I called earlier and was told they are being updated. She said I am not aware of this.
• I explain the situation again. She starts in on the company song and dance, trying to get me to stay. I tell her I have been through this already today. I want my account closed and my money back.
• She tries to go back to her script and I tell her that all I want to know is if she is going to give me my money back yes or no.
• She says I can cancel your service today and the good news is I will not have to charge you a cancellation fee because you have been with Vonage more than one year.
• I say that’s fine but I cancelled the account in July and I want the last 2 payments back. She says well she can’t do that because had the account been closed in July I would have incurred a $39.50 fee.
• I finally hung up in disgust.

Deceptive buisness practice/Thieves & Liars

9/21/2007 Pahoa HI

I signed up for Vonage 2 weeks ago. I was told by the salesperson, $24.99 a month, all the long distance free, first month free. My main concern, there is no 808 area code for Hawaii. I was told it wouldn't make a difference, I could choose any area code, because all long distance calls are free. My main concern and question, How would service, and calls received work on this island. Hawaii does not dial a prefix, on individual islands, it's only long distance, dialing island to island. I went over this several times, this would be the deal breaker for me. They lied, everyone on this island would have to call me long distance. I disconnected the same day, it took my internet service 2 hours to straighten out my internet, I couldn't get back on line after disconnecting. Called back Vonage that day, was told they couldn't help, call another number, couldn't reach, time difference. Reached someone 2 days ago, No problem, full refund. Received E-Mail yesterday. $39.99 charge for cancelling, penalty if I don't send it back, in the box it came in, initial charge,$67.55,startup, S/H.

Lies Lies Lies. They are outright thieves !

Canceling was a NIGHTMARE

9/10/2007

Trying to cancel the service was a complete nightmare. There were 911 calling issues associated with my account that they promised would be corrected within 4 weeks. During that time I kept a landline phone active because who can predict when an emergency will occur.

After 8 weeks of waiting with no resolution to my 911 issue, I called to cancel my account. When calling customer service, you are transferred to the Philippines. After being on hold for about 40 minutes waiting for my call "to be answered in the order received" it was extremely difficult to understand the representative handling my call because of the accent. To top it off she could not cancel the account. I was given a number and told to hang up and call. Okay, she gave me the SAME number I had dialed to get her. When questioned this, she agreed to transfer me.

Okay, this story is getting to long so I will cut it down. In total I spent approximately 4 and 1/2 hours on the phone and speaking to supervisors trying to get the account cancelled and I finally think everything is taken care of. I was wrong. I find out two weeks later that they did NOT cancel the account. When I called back they denied that I had even called the first time.

So, I gave up. I sent my complaint to the Better Business Bureau of New Jersey (Vonages local district) and they took over. I was informed that Vonage's membership within the BBB was terminated because Vonage failed to meet its response requirements and other administrative issues, but that the Better Business Bureau would still accept and follow up on my complaint. In the end it took 2 months to cancel the account and get the early termination fee waived, but it can be done! It's a shame that the Better Business Bureau, an outside agency had to get involved in a dispute such as this. Vonage should step up to the plate and resolve their own issues in a professional and responsible manner.

As a corporation, Vonage has failed to live up to its Corporate Citizenship responsibilities. It does not look out for the quality of its service, nor does it care about our safety. They FAILED to follow up on my 911 concerns after they had PROMISED to resolve my issues and promised to follow up with me. Regardless of their "disclaimers" regarding 911 service, to be promised resolution and then to hide behind a disclaimer is socially irresponsibile.

Vonage is a complete rip-off - you will regret the service

8/27/2007

It's a completely bad experience from start to finish. Incompetent tech support, faulty equipment, rude customer service, dropped calls, and backend service fees to cancel the service. It's incredible this company is still in business.

This is one consumer who will never use Vonage again. What a disaster!

Cancellation of service

8/8/2007 alexnadria VA

Call me naive like many others, but when phone numbers are transferred between service providers, the transferring provider cancels the service. Vonage is the ugly exception to this rule. They charged me for 3 months of service for which I had no access (no phone number---duh).

Their excuse (flimsy) is that I need to directly cancel with them. Their service agreement also states up front that they are to provide me with phone service...catch22 at best, fraud at worst.

Let's go class action and sink these punks.

Cancel Vonage Phone Service Account

7/2/2007 FARMINGTON HILLS MI

This message pertains to Account cancellation # XXXXXXX for Phone #(XXX) XXX XXXX.
CANCEL MY ACCOUNT IMMEDIATELY, I DO NOT WANT TO DEAL WITH VONAGE ANY MORE.
I have been trying to reach VONAGE customer Service for past week in order to cancel my account. Some times I have waited over 35 minutes, but no one has attended my call.

I want to cancel my account, VONAGE has the worst customer Service, no one wants to pick up phone, there is always a message that Account Management Team is busy and wait is over 15 minutes, I have waited over 30 minutes without being able to talk to any one. I am getting tired of waiting for Some Idiot Rep to answer my call. I am tired of holding for some IDIOT to pick up the phone.

I THINK THEY DO NOT WANT TO PICK UP THE PHONE SAYING DUE TO HIGHER CALL VOLUME TO CONTACT THE ACCOUNT MANAGER, THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE CALLING TO CANCEL THEIR VONAGE ACCOUNTS. TRY CALLING THIS NUMBER 1-VONAGE-HELP (1-866-243-4357) AND CHOOSE OPTION TO CANCEL YOUR SERVICE AND SEE FOR YOURSELF.

Will not give the 2 mos free they promised!

6/17/2007

This is the email I sent to Vonage today:

I ordered an additional line at the advice of your
Customer Care person...I could have easily signed up for a "new line" but I was misinformed by this operator who worked with me while I was on line signing up with her assistance. She told me that I would get two months free! Now I find that I am not entitled to the "two months free" promotion due to the fact that I ordered a new device. She knew this as she stayed with me on the phone while I submitted the order on line.

I specifically stated that I did not need a new device because I have a Motorola device that I used in the past. This person said that "the device is free" and that I should get it because it is free! She insisted that I would get two
months "free" and walked me through the on
line order. I would have set up a new account which I asked about but she insisted that I not do this but have an addition to my existing account all the while I asked repeatedly if I would surely
get the two months free. I have been traveling extensively and still do not have the "new device" in my possession but should have it shortly in the meantime you have billed me the monthly fee for the new phone number even tho I have not connected
the line nor used it at all.

I think this is totally unfair and feel you are taking advantage of a 74 year old senior. Your
Supervisor Glynnes, ID E06655 was not one bit helpful nor interested in my case repeatedly stating "I am sorry - I cannot do anything for you"

For your information I am a stockholder in your company and cannot believe that you would treat a long time Vonage user they way I have been unjustly treated.

Kindly see that this situation is reviewed and
explain charges when I do not have the service as yet. Consider the years of service and payments I have steadily made and what Vonage would miss in the future if you continue to treat good customers the way I feel I have been treated!

Vonage -Run away from this company fast

6/4/2007 Rockland MA

My Vonage experience has been unbelievable. I have never dealth with a worst company. I applied for their "30 day free" trial in November-06. It was "installed" in December and after spending hours with their technical support department we could not get it to connect. We decided to go back to Verizon and the technician gave me an extra 30 day credit to make sure there was time for the number to be transfered back. I was without phone service for 3 weeks but it was eventually put back.

Then I find that Vonage billed me for February-May. I called at least a dozen times was told that since I had it more than the 30 days I was responsible for the monthly charges PLUS a $90.00 disconnect fee. When I called to complain I was on hold for over an hour one time, cut off, transfered around, and explained the events over and over. I asked how they could charge for a service they never provided and a disconnect fee for something they could never connect. Their excuse was that the technician who arranged to have the number put back to Verizon was not the person I need to talk to about cancelling. (Like I would know that).... Eventually I was told to write to their complaint department and they came back and said, "Sorry, it wasn't cancelled within the 30 day period, we are going to keep the money!!!

Do Not Join, you can't get out !

5/8/2007 Holmdel NJ

I have been a Vonage customer for over a year, and recently discovered that the Alarm monitoring service I had, is not able to receive signals over Vonage VOIP ! So I switched to Comcast, only to go through hell in the process. After numerous attempts at porting my number out of Vonage, each time with some excuse or issue, they finally port it out seven days after the next billing cycle even though I began at the beginning of April, they didn't allow it to port out until May 7th. Also, They did not automatically close the account as every cell-phone and other carrier on the planet does, no, YOU have to call them, and go through a barrage of ARE YOU SURE YOU DON'T NEED OUR SERVICE type questions.

Now trying to get a "pro-rated" rebate for the time I am sure was deliberately spent delaying the order is even more of a waste of time, as you cannot get past the "customer service rep" as they seem to be designed to never give a return of funds. So far, I have had no luck in getting a refund, and have filed a complaint with the FCC (#07-W13023426), now I am going to the Attorney General of New Jersey to file another complaint.

I wish anyone whom is trying to get anywhere with these people, a lot of luck !

I hope they get a class action suit filed against them for all of this !

Sincerely,
JM
Ingleside, IL

Moneysuckers! Minimal functionality, maximum cancellation firewalling!

4/4/2007

What a terrible experience! I bought into the ads that touted how easy it is to use the V-phone. 'MAKE CALLS ANYWHERE!" is the tagline, but it's not so. If you should attempt to use your V-phone on a network that has a firewall (and we know almost nobody uses firewalls), you're going to have to find a network administrator to help you figure out a work-around. But, according to the legions of personnel that are hired to convince you not to cancel your service, it is a really great device if you want to use it in hotels and any UNSECURE networks you might happen to find - so it's such a great service, right?
The first phone I received wouldn't work at all, and after interpreting a succession of Filipina tech support girls til 1:30 in the morning, I got tired of rebooting my computer and decided to cancel. I didn't need another networking device to try to figure out. But you can only cancel during the day. So I dutifully made the call the next day, and allowed myself to be convinced to try another phone. The representative told me I would receive a phone without charge, and with a return label to use to ship the old phone back.
When I got the new phone, I noticed that the package was factory sealed, unlike the inoperable first phone I received. I did not receive the return shipping label. But I plugged the V-phone into my laptop on my home wireless network, and it worked right away. I went to sleep satisfied, still trying to catch up on the lost sleep from last week's "Vonage Adventure".
I was excited to take my phone to work with my laptop, and had lots of calls to make. But it wouldn't work. I did round up my network administrator (you know they have nothing to do, which makes them instantly available -NOT!), and he informed me that there was no firewall that would prevent the operation of the phone, and he could find no reason that it would not work - from our company network at least. Back to cancellation - but on my first call the girl cut me off after I told her that I didn't want tech support, I just wanted to cancel. Apparently the "savers" are tracked by percentage of "saves", and she didn't want to risk her average. When I called back and talked with the next guy, he chuckled at my analysis of the reason I was cut off, and told me that he would have to turn me over to another rep to disconnect the service. Then he cut me off.
The NEXT time I called, I started right out by telling the guy that if HE cut me off, my next call would be to the Federal Communications Commission. He proceeded to listen to my problem, and seemed to understand, and politely asked if I would be willing to speak with a high-level tech support person. I told him that I would, since he didn't hang up on me. I told him that I really wanted and needed the service, but that I didn't need one more device that was a hassle to use. The new tech support guy tried to give me a workaround to allow me to connect through a funky network, and that when the V-phone had found its way out, it would always be able to do it. Well, it worked then, and I thanked him. A few minutes later, it was down again, and the workaround would not repeat its magic performance. At least it was a "save" for him and the other guy (again, fair enough, because they didn't just hang up on me).
The NEXT call to Cancellation (it's the fastest way to get to Tech Support) got me through to yet another "high-level" technician, who advised me that the "magic bullet" workaround was only temporary until the network detected it and blocked it. So I was back at the basic issue of impracticality, since I would be traveling and using it primarily in corporate networks. He told me it would be great for unsecured networks, like at the hotel, or bars, but who's working on their computer most of the time in those places? Anyway, I asked to be transferred to SOMEONE who would finally DISCONNECT me once and for all.
I guess they found some unsuspecting chump to take a "dead" save attempt. The Cancellation Rep was about what you'd expect once you get to that point, all full of rules and requirements, and happy to inform me that I would receive a refund of all the money I'd been charged, including the charge for the second phone and service that I didn't even know they'd billed. Despite my questions, I just received his apologies and a list of requirements that had to be met before I could ship the phones back at my own expense. But with one last ditch attempt at trying to turn me into a "save", he recommended the $89.95 Wi-Fi phone that would be "much more successful at connecting". But I told him I looked at that phone first, and abandoned the idea because even THEIR promotional material made a point of mentioning the difficulty of connecting with that device. What a load of crap!
At the moment, I don't know whether I'll actually receive my money back, because they also said that I could "MAKE CALLS ANYWHERE", and that wasn't true, either. But ONE DAY, I'll be able to forget about VONAGE, and all the time I wasted at home and at work trying to make their devices work for me. The refund, should it come, does not even begin to recompense the investment I personally made in their technology. As the website suggests, I will "Refer-A-Friend" -- AWAY!!!

Beware of Vonage Promotional Offers

3/8/2007

Never ever agree to any promotional offer from Vonage without getting something in writing!!! I accepted an offer for a second line for my fax for two free months and was told that the regular cost of $9.98 per mo. would be waived. At first I refused because I felt that they would stick the charge on my account afterwards without getting my permission, but I was assured this would not happen. The salesperson said that I would be emailed and could then decide whether or not I wanted to continue with the service. I kept trying to use my fax but my success rate was spotty. After the two months had passed, I was charged -- not $9.98 but $24.99! And, I was never notified! It took two days of calling and four customer service representatives before I found out that the fax line did not work properly because it was not a "dedicated fax line." Each representative, however, agreed that I had been overcharged and told me that someone in Accounts could rectify the problem. Finally I reached “Mel” who was a Supervisor in the Accounts department. He refused to believe that a Vonage salesperson had told me I would be contacted when the promotional period was over. He also said that I had been given a phone line for $24.99 a mo. NOT a fax line for $9.98 and I owed the company $24.99. I told him he could look at my usage and see that I had so few calls compared to my regular phone line (which had an overage) that it was obvious that I was not using the second line as a phone line. He said he would not remove the charge under any circumstances and when I threatened to cancel my service, he told me to go ahead and do it. Vonage might make an effort to gain customers but they make no effort to keep them.

False advertizing

11/20/2006 geneva OH

Vonage likes to advertize that you dont have to change your phone number.we recieved a phone call from them to have us use the service they have and were told that our phone number would have to be changed.the ads they have are very misleading,can something be done to stop it? i dont think so is my answer.

Ripoff

6/4/2006 Lake Worth FL

This company is the pits in terms of customer service. I signed up on Jan 10, 2006 with the understanding that they would port my land line telephone number to Vonage within 5-10 days. After 20 days, I started calling and was repeatedly told that they needed more time. Every call was answered by a pleasant rep who apologized for the lack of progress and assured me that they were putting my transfer on high priority. During this time I was unable to receive any incoming calls. Finally, on April 10th, I told them to name a "drop dead date" by which time THEY would concede that they could not provide the service they promised. They said April 17.

On April 17th, I called and told them I had no choice but to cancel the service. The next day, Vonage charged me $41.12 for canceling the service within one year. Several further contacts with their Customer DISservice manager left me with the option of paying $41.12 to cancel the service or continue to pay $25/month for 9 more months of non-service.

I have filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and the Attorneys General of Florida and NJ. If anyone knows of other sounding boards where I can alert others to this disreputable company, I'd be appreciative.

Vonage=BAD COMPANY

4/19/2006

No need to elaborate on this:
1. hit and miss service
2. HORRIBLE customer service.
3. No contract??? Try to cancel and then get hit with a termination fee of varied amounts. Sounds like a contract to me.
4. Never a pleasant person on the other end of the line when you call them.
5. Almost 1 month to cancel.

Summary...completely not worth the effort. Other companies such as AT&T offer this service. Stay away from VONAGE.

Vonage and Fraud

4/9/2006 Miami FL

I live in Miami and I suscribed to Vonage in mid December and I ported my number from Bell South.

I bought the proper equipment and begin using the service with very irregular results.
Sometimes it will work properly, sometimes it will work poorly and some times it will be impossible to understand each other on the line.

I spent a lot ( over 30 minutes, with meny attempts aborted after waiting 10 or more minutes) of time trying to reach the person to solve this.
Finally after reaching somebody in the technical department, they asked me about my bandwith and other technical stuff ( that I was not asked before suscribing) and they told me that they had sooved the problem from their end and that everything would be OK now.

But guess what ? It was not, it was as irrregular as usual.
I went to the whole process for the second time
( also with many aborted attempts after waiting an unacceptable amount of time ). They promised now that THIS TIME they had solve the problem.

But gues what ? Yes, it was still the same.

I called and went to the long and tortuous process of contacting them ( don't get fooled for the prompt response you get when you want to suscribe, this will not happen ever againonce they have you !!) for the third time.

THis time I said that I wanted to cancel the service ( that was the first day of my billing period and I had been charged that same day ) and to apply for the reimboursement of the money I had paid for the now useless equipment.

I was asked to hold on and after a few minutes this person, Mr. Peyton, told me that my service had been already terminated at my request.
I asked what that meant and he said that they had disconnected my phone. I asked to be reconnected until I could get my previous suplier. I was told that that was not possibly and he left me without a phone in a household of 5 with three minors.

They refused to reimbourse me for the quipment because more than a month had gone by ( I had been with them for about thre months ), that they neither would give me my money back for that month because the did not prorate their bills ( meaning that I would pay 30 days having used only one day of (dis) service. To make things worse a few minutes later Igot a mail from these thieves indicating that hey had debited my credit card for $ 39,99 for terminating the service.

Finally and to make things really worse, they kept my phone number that I had had for many years and now I have to inform of the change. They also refused to put a recording when somebody calls my number, thus, when I get a call from a bank, credit card or any business call they will think that I run away or something.
I tried to bring them to Small Claims but to my surprise they do not have a registered agent in Florida and then there's nobody you can serve with the summons.
Is that legal ? What protection do we have against this type of abuse ?
Is somebody out there that wants to file a Clas Action ?

Please contact me at rolando@newyork.com

Thanks
Rolando Epstein

Vonage keeps money not earned

3/23/2006

I had 2 phone lines with Vonage the account number is 1002512546 I now have one. I prepay monthly for the service my billing cycle starts on the 7th of the month. I paid February 7 - march 6 on February 7th. the invoice is 16705602. I ported one number 630 250 3655 during February the port was final on March 01, 2006. Most times when a number is ported the company (vonage in this case ) stops charging for the line since they are not the owner any more. The number was ported to Packet8. I no longer was using Vonage as of March 1st. March 7th the start of the next billing cycle Vonage charged me for the 630 250 3655 line which had been ported to Packet a week ago. The invoice number is 18226090, how can Vonage charge for a number they do not have any more. I tried to call Vonage on the 7th to cancel but they told me they could not cancel the line because it was the main number. I was told they needed to days to complete the transaction. I called on the 12th of March to find the status they had done nothing, I asked to talk to a supervisor and within ten minutes the line was canceled. I was still charged for the month even though the line was ported before the billing cycle. I feel they should reimburse me for the pre payment for the line in from March 7- April 6, as Vonage was not in control of the number. I feel this id fraudulent and Vonage should be prosecuted for fraud.