More Trouble Thanks to Vonage
on 10.23.04, 04:28pm in life • comments (8)
Surpise! In my continuing saga with Vonage, I woke up this morning to discover that my Verizon service has now been cancelled. When I talked to Vonage the other day, they said the line transfer order had been cancelled and I shouldn’t have any problems with my current service.
Apparently they lied. Right now, my opinion of Vonage’s customer service is that they are completely incompetent.
I’m not happy as I sit here on a Saturday morning on hold with Verizon (apparently they only have 1 technical support person, as I’ve been on hold for awhile).
The real kicker is that I really don’t have anyone but myself to blame (I guess I can blame Vonage, as they screwed up the service), because I really thought switching over to VOIP would actually be a good cost savings move. In some ways, I was right - as I have NO phone at all now.
Oh well, live and learn.
JeffMc (October 23, 2004 @ 5:50 pm)
Wow. That sux. i have had nothing but good luck with vonage, including my number transfer. One time I had a question on diagnosing a failed number dialed, the customer support person was extremely helpful in resolving it, and he did so in a courteous, non- arogant manor. So far so good. I have had it only two months, but it seems to be really good. (Just hook your cable modem, hub, and Phone adapter to a UPS for uninterrupted service). I have multiple IPs on my cable modem, so I hvae the Vonage unit directly to the internet, and my Airport Extreme on another IP, so they do not see each other. Seems to work. But then again, there is always someone who ends up with Murphy’s Law. Sorry to hear about your problems.
Caru (February 14, 2005 @ 3:50 pm)
Vonage,
The customer service is bad (may be I cannot say that) as I have not received response to my e@mail and calling there number is useless. Once I gave up after 45 minutes. While I am trying to call them it is 30 minutes already.
If you look around the web then it is not great, but I donot use much phone service, as we have multiple cell-phones.
I am trying to transfer the phone number, let us see how long it takes. The only efficieny was charging my credit card. BTW, I had to call them few times before they could ship the router. The first e@mail I received from them had invalid tracking number.
Try calling their phone, it will take forever to get to the menu where you get a customer service.
So be prepared for month(s) of wait for the number transfer and non exisitant customer service. Do a quick Google about Vonage and customer service.
Amy (February 9, 2006 @ 10:06 am)
If you have an afternoon to kill call Vonage. If you actually get to speak to some one I guarantee he/she will have an accent so thick you could paint walls with it. After i heard the word Wonage, I asked to speak to someone else. Big Mistake. Truly i could understand him more clearly, but he put me on hold to “pull up my info” and must have fallen asleep. Apparently Vonage doesnt support manditory drug testing. If you want to save money on Long distance just get a nationwide plan on your cell phone and take off all the extras from your land line. Good Customer Service is worth the extra $$
Cheryl Gonzalez (May 15, 2006 @ 9:34 am)
A Mother’s Day with NO Connection
Vonage DISCONNECTS phone so Mother cannot call Daughter on Mother’s Day!
Vonage, an Internet phone company, cancels the phone lines of one of their customers, Cheryl Gonzalez, May 11th, and then apologizes and sets up a new account, promising the phone line will be reinstated within 24 hours. They even required that I run around (7 stores) to find compatible equipment so that they can guarantee the line will be connected.
Friday, when the promise was not fulfilled, the customer sat on hold for 40 minutes to find out what the delay was, once connected, and after 2 hours, Vonage cannot LOCATE the phone numbers in their own system. Even though the numbers were transferred to them 9 months earlier, and after being active for 6 years.
My Mom (86 years old) called from Minnesota on Monday and told me she was taking a road trip to visit friends that week, so she would call me Sunday. Right now there is no way I can find her. With the phone line disconnected will Mom have a heart attack? She most certainly will have a fit and wonder what has happened to her only daughter. The stress and strain of Vonage’s error is absolutely dreadful”.
How many other Cheryl’s have Vonage abandoned? Is this a ploy during an important Holiday? With the 40 minute to an hour wait time to even speak with a customer technician, is Vonage really a qualified “telephone company”?
Vonage recently filed a registration statement with the SEC for a proposed IPO of common stock. Is this a Company worthy of the public’s investment when they are NOT worthy of our Trust?
Here I am sitting in Texas with no connection to Mom on this Important Day and a very sad daughter.
jessica espinosa (June 10, 2006 @ 2:02 pm)
it is so funny to hear that i am not the only person in the world who doesnt understand why we have yet to shut down vonage.they have no reguard for customer service.i had vonage a little over a month, my phone worked one day after spending hours on the phone speaking with foreign people who could not help,nor could i understand.finally so fed up i decided to cancel my service hoping they would understand i paid $70.00 so far for a service i never had.not only did they not understand they charged me the $39.99 dissconnect fee and $79.99 fee for equipment that i am willing to send back in excellent condition.but they will not budge since i am over the 14 day money back guarantee.so now i’ve waisted $196.00 on a purchase that was absolutely hell.i am currently trying to return to verizon and will never leave them again.in case you haven’t heard vonage has had over 1100 complaints with the bbb.you are right about the how quickly they are about taking the money out of your account.
Ben Johnson (June 18, 2006 @ 12:44 pm)
Vonage is HORRIBLE. I bought into their residential service a little over a year ago. This was when they were first coming into the market, and the customer service was pretty good. Now, it sucks. Their customer service reps lie. You have to wait no less then 45 minutes (even though their answering service quotes 25) to get a person who has no grasp of the English language. They charge for everything, even when it is their fault. I would never get another telephone line through them.
Here is what happened to me:
After using their residential service, I decided to transfer my business lines over as well. I ordered the service, and when the new modem arrived it didn’t work. I called Vonage from my residential line, and after waiting on hold for no less than 30 minutes, I finally got a tech support guy. After a good 45 minutes of me restarting my computers, network, routers, unplugging and repluggin everything in, changing IP addresses in the router and whatever other tasks he could come up with, the tech finally agreed I had a bad modem. He promised to ship out a modem with a return shipping label for the other one. I received the modem, but no shipping label. I set up the modem and it worked. I called customer service, and after waiting on hold for a ridiculous amount of time, I got another tech who promised to send me a return label right away. Weeks pass, and no label. I try and call after the first week, but can never get through. Unfortunately, I don’t have hours of my day to devote to vonage customer disservice. After 30 days, I get a charge on my account for $69.94. I call customer service and wait on hold for 45 minutes, when I get through, the rep tells me that return shipping labels are not given for any reason, and I would have to return the modem at my own expense to get my money back. The next day, I return the modem. Guess what, Vonage gave me a fake Zip code. The USPS lady helped me track down the right one, and we shipped the modem with tracking. 3 days later I receive an email from Vonage staing the modem was received, and confirmation from USPS. I wait 3 days, but get no credit, so I call customer “service” at Vonage. I wait 54 minutes for a tech. This girl is constantly putting me on hold, except, a couple of times she forgets to hit the hold button, and I can hear her playing around in the background with the rest of the CSR’s. She finally tells me that since it was more than 30 days, I would not get a credit, but they were keeping the modem. I ask to speak to her supervisor, but he is mysteriously away, and no other supervisors are available. She promises he will call me back within 24 hours, and ends the call. I wasted more than 2 hours on the phone for no results, and of course he never called back. Finally, I filed a fraudulent charge claim against Vonage, and cancelled the service all together. I also had to change my card number so they would quit charging me. I got a credit from my bank for the $69.94, but now I am fighting with Vonage over a disconnect fee. I figure, since it was a business line, I am going to bill them my hourly rate for the time spent with their customer service people. I imagine my invoice will be a few hundred dollars more than theirs.
Moral of the story. DON’T BUY VONAGE SERVICE.
Fred Scott (July 11, 2006 @ 9:38 pm)
I have had some fun with Vonage. The could not reroute my phone number from my cell carrier and I gave Vonage all the information needed for the rerouteing of my number. I heard from my cell carrier that Vonage only tried to reroute my number once. A month went buy and I contacted Vonage using my cell phone and emails with no results. I got billed 30 dollars for what service? That phone number they gave is useless if their equipment does not work. Plus, I am getting billed 130.00 to cancel my account. I still would like to know what service they rendered to warrant the bill. IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE…IT IS!
Rebecca Summers (July 6, 2007 @ 11:19 am)
I had Vonage for about 6 nmonths to provide service for my house sitter so she could call me in Europe. The double charged me even though I specifically told them 1 line only. The charged me for hook up and the first month which were supposed to be free. The service was horrible, you couldn’t hear on it at all. I finally cancelled it when I came home, but they continued to bill me for six months, although I notified them that I no longer had their service and that they had overcharged me. I filled and FCC complaint. They said Vonage would contact me with a resolution. They didn’t. Then they sent my bill to collection! I refuse to spend time on hold waiting to tell them once again that I don’t have their service and am not paying for it, and if they call me again, I will file a Civil Complaint against them for breach of contract and harrassment. AVOID THESE PEOPLE LIKE THE PLAGUE.