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!!!