Saturday, August 2, 2008

Ben of Freehold NJ

I made the unfortunate mistake of signing up for Vonage about a year ago. From day one of the switch over from Verizon I couldn't receive or make out going calls. I had to use my cell phone to call support, after 30 minutes of waiting for someone to pickup I finally spoke with Stanley. I didn't know they had any Stanley's in India. Stanley had me rebooting my cable modem and my phone adapter, without success. He has me checking connections, all is good. I get put on hold for 10 minutes. Now I'm connected with Paul, we go through the same steps, no success. Paul is going to send me another phone adapter overnight and he gives me a ticket number for future reference.

Nothing comes by the end of the next day. I call Vonage with my cell phone and they pickup after 20 minutes. I give the rep my ticket number and they have no record of it in their system. We go through the troubleshooting again. The rep suggests that I call my internet service provider and have my equipment checked out. I tell him there is nothing wrong with my internet service, it works fine. I tell him to send me another phone adapter and he comply's after checking with his supervisor. I get another ticket number.

The next day a Vonage phone adapter shows up. I hook it per the instructions and still no outgoing or incoming calls. Again I call Vonage with my cell phone, they pickup after 25 minutes. Their tech support guy as me reconnecting and rebooting, no success. He insists it must be my internet connection at fault and that I should have it checked out.

I call Cablevision with my cell phone and speak with Mike who is very helpful. He runs some tests on the line and my cable modem and everything seems to be in order. He can dispatch a service tech but there will be a charge for the visit. He said what I can do is simply take my Vonage adapter and connect it to any broadband connection to determine if it only occurs at my residence.

I take my Vonage adaptor to my brothers house who lives close by. We connect it to his broadband connection and I get the same results. I return home and call Vonage with my cell phone. It has now been almost a week and I don't have home phone service. If you call my home phone number it says it is out of service. The Vonage tech answers after 35 minutes , I explain what I did to determine that this is a Vonage problem and not a Cablevision problem. He wants me to reboot everything again, I comply, no success. They are referring my problem to advanced support. 20 minutes on hold I'm talking to another tech. He runs all kinds of tests and says that it must be a problem with my internet service provider.

Now I have had it. I tell him either they get this going or refund my money and cancel my service. He transfers me to customer service. They offer me 3 months of free service if I agree not to cancel. I have no phone service and they are throwing free service at me? No I'm done with these fools. The customer service rep says I will be charged a $49.99 disconnect fee. I have never been connected. I hang up and call Cablevision with my cell phone. They can add Optimum Voice to my account and transfer my existing number. The rep says it will take about a week and half due to the fact that it is not an easy process transferring numbers from Vonage.

As promised a week and half goes by and I have phone service through Cablevision. The following month I notice connection fees and a monthly charge for Vonage on my bank statement. There is also a charge for the 2nd modem they sent me. I call Vonage and speak with a customer service rep to dispute the charges. She says that I need to call them up to cancel the service and mentions the disconnection fee. She agrees to refund the fee for the 2nd modem. She offers me 3 months of free service if I won't cancel, I told her to cancel my account and to refund every cent they charged me. She says they can't do that. I demand to speak with a supervisor who tells me the same thing. She finally agrees to cancel my service and says I will be billed a $49.99 cancellation fee.

I went to my bank and explained what was going on with Vonage. They agreed to put a hold on all payments to Vonage.

Two months later I get a bill from Vonage with 2 months of service on it. I call customer service to dispute the bill. They apologize for the inconvenience and offer me 3 months of free service. I told them I had already cancelled my service, they had no record of this. I demanded they cancel my service and again was informed that I would be charged a disconnection fee. I told them CANCEL MY SERVICE AND YOU AREN'T GETTING A DIME!!!

Well this week I received a notice from a collection agency that Vonage was seeking payment for the the disconnet and 2 months of service I never used, my number had already been transferred to my new phone company. I can't believe a corporation is allowed to get away with nonsence like this.

All in all they charged me for the initial connection and 2nd Vonage adapter which didn't fix the problem, 4 months of service (2 of which they can go whistle for) and a disconnection fee, they can whistle for that to.

Vonage is a total rip off, don't be suckered!!!

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Karen of Jacksonville FL

I signed up for Vonage phone service on the internet but for some reason my credit card couldn't be processed so the order was never final. Two days later a Vonage sales person called me to ask if I wanted phone service and I said yes but the order couldn't go through. He took the order over the phone and told me I would get a box in the mail to install the phone. Two days later I noticed I was charged for TWICE on my credit card online statement for Vonage service.

I called the company and it took me three days to speak to someone. Each time I called I was on hold for over 30 minutes and one time up to an hour and still didn't get anyone. Finally on Saturday after on hold over an hour I got someone who told me I had to call back on Monday for the department that handles credits. I called back that Monday and asked to cancel both orders they charged for. I was already frustrated that they messed up the order and that it took me that long to get someone.

Two days later I noticed two more charges to my account for $41.19 each. That was over $160.00 this company has charged me for phone service I never even received. I canceled as soon as I realized they were unorganized and within their 14 day return policy but still I had to call again and do the hold and got disconnected and switched around to finally someone who said they charge a cancellation fee until they get their boxes back.

NO ONE TOLD ME THIS AT THE TIME OF CANCELLATION. The customer rep said "mam" it's in the fine print. We always charge an early termination fee. But I didn't even start service to terminate it....I"m still in that 14 day window. I had bounce checks and return check fees with the charges coming out without permission. I did not authorize them taking more money but they did it automatically. IF they had said we are going to deduct this money I could have waited a couple more days to make sure I had the money in the bank. I can't afford to throw money away that's why I went to a cheaper phone company and they have cost me more than any phone company I've ever had.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Priscilla of Eden GA

Vonage called me up and begged me to reconnect with there service. This has been over 3 month since we have had them. Then they said we had 2 months of free service so they sent out the device. Before the device even got to our address we refused the device and sent it back to Vonage. They received it according to DHL and now Vonage is saying they don't know where it is.

They would not let us cancel the order then when I canceled they decided to charge us a disconnection fee even though we don't have service! Now I get an email they tried to debit our account and because they can't they are going to tarnish our credit.