Interesting Vonage Customer Complaint

Frank's story is interesting. It's a pity that people don't look behind the curtain at VOIP offering like Vonage, SunRocket, et al.

For several years I've run Asterisk in my home office and through this experience come to understand that having a DID is only a portion of the service that a provider may offer. You might port a DID to someone else but retain the old provider for outbound termination.

The real question is what are you paying for? Is it the number (DID) or is that just part of it? Does Vonage allow outgoing calls from their device even if your DID was ported? That is, are you still capable of taking advantage of the remaining portion of the service?

I am currently dealing with Vonage and this exact same issue.. I had service with them for a year. I ported my telephone number from them to another carrier in May,2007.As soon as the new service started with the new carrier. I called Vonage and advised them that I have terminated their services. like everyone else they tried to get me to stay, but I rejected them at every turn. Then I was I was told aout The $39.99 termination fee. that it will be debited from my credit card they have.I was told about that likelyhood before I called them to terminate the account, and so I took measures that prevented them from debiting my account for the $39.99, and any other monies after termination.Since then they have continued to bill me for monthly services even though the account has been terminated. I have responded by email asking them what service thet have provided? at whose request? and for waht telephone number? I further wrote them that they must send me a bill to my address and after review if the charges are justified I will forward a check to them.They have replied that they only accept payment by credit card/debit card or electroni check, and for the last five months countinue to bill me monthly even though after the second month the sent an email stating they had suspended services.
The long and short of this all was summed up by the Judge in the patent infringement suit brought by Verizon against Vonage, He surmised that Vonage was a dishonest company and lacked integrity.He meted a punishment that would have closed them down except for an appeal, they filed, and is pending, whic I am sure they will loose, and then we can say happy riddance!

I have had the same experience as Frank. Imagine my disbelief as I called yesterday and was told over the phone that I couldn't recieve a refund for a service I wasn't given. This makes absolutely no logical sense. Especially in the way that their account billing manager attempted to explain to me. I wish I could recall exact details, but find that the angrier I get the less I remember. Needless to say, he told me that, though I had indeed changed services, my phone line was still active. How is this possible, I haven't any clue.

There's no other way to put it than Vonage is running a scam. I haven't had this problem with any other service carrier I have dealt with. I find no other reason for them to continue billing a customer for an account that is not in use besides conducting fraudulent schemes.

I never had a problem with their service over the year that I had it. In fact, I quite liked it, liked the price and never had any complaints. I was shocked to see that three months after I had ported my number to a different phone carrier that they were still billing me. Their customer service was deplorable when I could understand what was being said. I'm certain that Vonage is using Customer Service from outside the US. Though this is not normally a problem to me, I found it so, especially as he could not explain to me the specifics of Vonage's policy regarding the cancellation of their services. He was also rude when I could understand him and attempted to talk down to me at every instance. After asking to speak to a supervisor, the man I was speaking to told me he was a supervisor. After I told him I thought he was lying, he said he would transfer me to a supervisor. After fifteen minutes of being on hold (after a half an hour of already being on the phone) I hung up. I was never issued a refund and I am quite certain that there's no way that I would be able to wrangle a refund from them over the phone. I have contacted my credit card company and they will issue a formal complaint and issue me a debit for two months of service. Vonage will have gotten away with one month of charges without providing servies.

This can't be legal.

I opened a business account w/ vonage with a total of 4 lines.Within the first month I realized that Vonage was not able to provide proper caller id as required by law. This entire issue lastet 4 months and I was told I don't know how many times, that the issue was now resolved.(It wasn't)
So I gave up and learned to live with the fact that my business caller ID's were everyhing from Vonage Hldgs to Potts Phone(no kidding), but not my company name or number.

Than after 5 months of service, all my numbers were dead one afternoon during business hours(we are still talking about $49/mo business numbers). After 1 hour of arguing I got the answer that they were perfoming a sotware update.

So I contacted my local cable provider and asked them if they could get those numbers from Vonage and smoothly transfer them without any down time. - It took Vonage over 1 month to finally release the numbers.

So I called and cancelled my account and was told that I would have to pay early termination fees. I aggreed, just to get it over with after all I entered a 1 year contract with them, I guess. And at the due date money was taken out of my account.

1 month later Vonage messed up my accounting totally, by taking out another payment. So called and after almost an hour again was told, that there was no record of the transaction, but the customer service rep would help me out and now close my account, but I would be charged 1 month for early termination. Again I replied whatever it takes just not to have to deal with Vonage again. He also gave me confirmation number, which unfortunately I can't find.

Today I was told by my bank that my billing account was charged overdraft fees, because Vonage again took out money out of my account. After being lied to by incompetent Vonage employees, and waisting over 2 hours on the phone, the outcome was this and still is:
- My account isn't closed. (The moron I spoke to the month before noted that I called for Caller ID issues. Why would I do that if they don't event have my numbers for the last 3 months???)
- They could close my account NOW!
- I would be charged Early termination fees, but I could email them for a refund request (Yeah Right!!!)
- But I was offered another phone number and they would give me credit.

Than I called again and spoke to another lady, who told me:
- She could give me credit for 1 month
- She would close my account, but she would have to charge me early termination fees.

I asked her if it would make sense to her that I would keep on paying on an account for 4 months without getting anything in return and Vonage not even owning my phone numbers. Also I asked her if it would make sense that I would call in to complain about caller ID's for numbers Vonage doesn't even own anymore. She admitted it didn't make sense, but that didn't change anything on the issue that she could cancel the account for a fee and I could apply for credit back.

At the end she guided me to their website for the coporate information in case I wanted to complain.

I am really not a complainer, but I hope That this wil prevent the same thing from happening to oher people.

Where am I standing? I guess I still have an open account at Vonage and if I don't die soon, they will keep on charging me.

I guess that was contract with the devil and he will keep on sucking me dry.

I have had the same problem with Vonage. I switch to Comcast and Vonage has been charging me for services two months later. I called the rep said that there is a Contract fee associated with my account. They agreed to credit me however, they want to charge me for their device, which I offer to return because I could never get it to work. Not to mention the device had a rebate on it that canceled out the amount of the device. Also, I was told that there are no contracts to sign when I signed up. Now they want to charge me for an early termination fee, which was never discussed.

I don't know if the FCC can do anything about this or if it can be reported to the BBB, however, too many people have the same complaint about Vonage misrepresenting themselves and taking money that do not belong to them. They are not rendering services yet they are still taking money.

That's funny, after I started posting complaints about vonage and left an angry message at their headquarters phone number I got a callback!!

I got a couple "I am sorry's" and I agreed not totally happy to get reimbursed for 3 months, minus early termination fees and promise that my account will be closed!!!

I haven't really seen the money yet, but here is the phone number to Vincent @ Vonage.

Maybe he can help you,too.

888-580-4020 ext.: 21451

Good luck and hopefully I'll see my partial repayment back soon.

Anyone suing them??? Look me up, I'll be happy to participate!!!

I recently cancelled Vonage service, going through the same third degree as detailed above. I cancelled because of the poor sound quality, particularly on long distance calls overseas, plus the problematic 911 service and the fact that our building's intercom, door buzzer and security system doesn't work with Vonage. I was also told about, and have already been billed for, the unavoidable $50 (Canadian) disconnect fee because we were subscribers for only 8 months. (Catch-22: too long to qualify for the service guarantee, not long enough to avoid the fee.) Now when I log onto their site I find that we are "disconnected"--so I don't expect to be billed further. We still have their adaptor and nothing was said about it; do I need to worry? I have e-mailed them about it, asking where to return it.

During the cancellation conversation, the solicitous agent asked if there was anything they could do to compensate us for the service difficulties, but when I suggested cancelling the disconnection fee, she said that was impossible. She then had the gall to say Vonage would give us another month free, during which we could "compare services" with Rogers. I declined this offer.

Does anyone know what agency in Canada is equivalent to the FCC? Toronto has some Business Improvement network which may be of help and I'm going to try that. Good luck to the rest of the ex-vonagers.

I am dealing w/ the EXACT same thing. Vonage continued to charge me despite no longer providing me w/ service. Every month I get charged and every time I contact their Customer Service, I either get disconnected (after an absurd waiting period on the phone) or routed to a 'Call Center' that took down my information with a promise that an Account Manager will return my call (surprise, surprise - no calls returned). It has been an extremely frustrating ordeal and I do feel they are impinging on our legal rights. What they are doing cannot possibly be legal. Where's the class action law suit?

MY LETTER TO VONAGE...probably go unheeded

MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR COMPLAINT!!!!!!!!!!!!
I ordered your service on July 6, 2007. It was ordered after I got THE SECOND flyer stating try us for 60 days FREE!
I was billed immediately for service. It took two weeks to get my number changed from Bell South to Vonage.
I took THREE WEEKS to get my equipment from Vonage..it was shipped on July 23 and I got it on July 26 and hooked it up.
During this period, I was being billed for 'service' which I did not owe for under the promotion
Six calls to your company, and letters to my credit card company...always a tremendous aggravation...delays...on hold for 15 minutes like My Time Isnt Worth Anything!!!
Erronous charges time after time and finally today I cancelled my service.
I was met by a very nasty, representative of VONAGE on the telephone explaining why I shouldnt cancel.
THEN I WAS BLACKMAILED....If you cancel today I will charge your credit card $90.00 TODAY.
I said, CANCEL MY SERVICE!!!
HOW CAN YOU CHARGE SOMEONE ALL THOSE MONTHLY CHARGES PLUS $90.00 WHEN THEY ARE GIVING YOU A CHANCE FOR 60 DAYS TO SHOW WHAT KIND OF SERVICE YOU CAN OFFER????!!!!
It was a very frustrating and disgusting experience and I would reccommend that NO ONE GO THROUGH TRYING TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOUR COMPANY!
Ninety Dollars? Free Trial....I am reporting you to all Attorneys General Nationwide!!
Samuel M. Hay, III

i had recently found that Vonage has charged me for the past 11 months. I snet back all equipment in November. Two months were supposed to be free. I wanted to cancel so they gave me 6 months free. The equipment never worked. I sent it back immediately. Had several lengthy phone calls with foriegners. Check your charges monthly an credit card statements. I just pay it every month. Of course Vonage will not refund any. Please help! what now!

Vonage, stinks, I have been trying to cancel since June 26, 2007. Called at least 6 times waiting more then 40 minutes each time. Finally got through 9/11/07 and canceled after so much BS, they kept trying to get me to remain a customer. My number was ported to a new carrier on 6/26/07 to a new carrier. They have continued to bill me. I asked for a refund and told I must call back in two weeks.

Now I want to see if a class action law suit can be started. If the go bankrupt that would be fine with me.

If anyone feels like they want to get involved let me know at priushybridster@gmail.com

Thanks,

Ken

I knew I couldn't be the only one whose going through this! I work out of my house and signed up for Vonage on 6/25/07 to move 3 number (incl. a fax) from ATT. One box came on 7/2/07, however it would only accommodate 2 lines, so I called and asked about the 3rd line. They said they had only transferred 2 numbers, and I would have to set up a second account and get a second box for the 3rd line (the fax line) When I finally get the 2nd box, the fax line never works, and calls keep getting dropped on the other lines.

I have to sign up for fax service ($18 per months) and have the faxes go directly to my computer because the fax line never worked! I tried to troubleshoot through Vonage online, with no success. I can't do business like this. Finally on 7/18 I switch back to ATT. Same story: don't call them, we'll call for you. ATT also warns me Vonage takes a while to switch over.

Finally get ATT back on line on 8/2. Never received a bill from Vonage. Finally noticed the charges on my Amex bill and contact them on 9/4. That's when I find out that I needed to call them to cancel! AND, because I didn't cancel within the 30 "trial period" I would be charged a cancellation fee. AND, because I had 2 accounts instead of 1, the cancellation fee was charged for both! I was never informed when I signed up over the phone of a cancellation fee.

They tell me that as soon as I logged on to the internet initiate the service, I had agreed to the cancellation fee. So much for the 60 day money back guarantee. Unbelievable! Vonage charges after ATT restated my service: 8/2-$29.57; 8/25-$71.32; 9/4-$129.97; 9/4-$89.98. I GUESS THAT'S WHAT I GET FOR SWITCHING TO A SERVICE THAT ADVERTISES A DUMB BLONDE SWIMMING WITH THE DOLPHINS, er SHARKS! Vonage is a giant predatory shark, and I'm going to do everything in my power to find a class action lawyer to go after these guys! So keep the comments coming

Hey everyone. I discovered there is a class action lawsuit out there addressing this very issue! I would recommend you contact the attorneys handling the case (name at the end of the article)and let them know your story. I'd also contact your State Attorney General's office and any consumer affairs office of your state. Let's start a grass roots campaign to shut Vonage down!

Here's the link to the article:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/03/vonage_class_action.html

and here's the article:

Class Action Charges Vonage Deceived Consumers
Case Disputes Vonage's "Money-Back Guarantee" and "30-Day Free Trial" Advertising Claims
By Truman Lewis
ConsumerAffairs.Com
March 26, 2007
A consumer class action filed in U.S. District Court in California charges that Vonage, the nation's largest Internet telephone provider, misled consumers about the quality and reliability of its service and engaged in false advertising and deceptive business practices.
In the suit, plaintiff Kai Porter of Inglewood, California, alleges that she signed up for the Vonage service on November 18, 2006 and asked that her existing landline number be transferred to her new Vonage account.
When the service did not work as promised, Porter canceled within 30 days of activating her account, expecting to receive a full refund under the company's widely-advertised "Money-Back Guarantee." She learned on December 27 that Vonage had not closed her account and did not intend to honor the guarantee.
Vonage promotes its service as an alternative to traditional telephone service. It spent more than $500 million on advertising in 2005 and the first nine months of 2006, making it one of the largest advertisers on the Internet, the suit alleges.
In its advertising, the company promises "higher quality" but, in fact, the suit charges, the quality and reliability of the service is inferior to traditional telephone service, with problems ranging from dropped calls to service outages and equipment conflicts. "Vonage knows about these problems but conceals them from consumers," the suit alleges.
Porter also alleges that:
- Vonage touts its customer service when in fact, consumers trying to call for assistance encounter long hold times, hang ups, multiple transfers and representatives who merely read from scripts;
- Vonage advertises "no annual contracts" but invokes a 12-page "terms of service" when customers try to cancel;
- Vonage charges consumers who cancel within two years of account activation a "disconnect fee" of $39.99 -- in effect, an early-termination fee;
- Vonage drags its feet when processing cancellations and continues to charge consumers' credit cards in the meantime;
- Vonage advertises a "Money-Back Guarantee" and "One Month FREE," stating on its website, "There's no risk to trying Vonage service. Our hassle-free Money-Back Guarantee policy guarantees your satisfaction." Vonage's website states that a consumer is eligible for the Money-Back Guarantee if she cancels her service "within 30 days of account activation." But consumers who try to cancel the service within 30 days of beginning to use the VoIP service learn that Vonage does not consider the 30-day "free" period to begin when the customer is first able to use the service, but rather much earlier -- the moment the customer contacts Vonage to sign up for the VoIP service. At that time, the customer has not even received the equipment needed to use the service, which Vonage states it will ship "within 5 days."
- In addition, one of Vonage's key selling points is that consumers can keep their current telephone number (either landline or cell) when they switch to Vonage's VoIP service, but Vonage's website states that it will take "a minimum of 20 days" to transfer the telephone number. A Vonage consumer will thus have 10 days or less to evaluate the service and decide whether to cancel and attempt to invoke the Money-Back Guarantee.
- When Vonage determines that a consumer canceled after the 30-day Money-Back Guarantee period expired, Vonage penalizes the consumer by charging not only the activation fee and a monthly service fee, but the $39.99 disconnect fee as well. Vonage will also charge the consumer for the amount of any "instant rebate" she received on the cost of the equipment required to use the service, which can total $50 or more.
The lawsuit also charges that the mandatory arbitration clause in Vonage's terms of service is unconscionable and unenforceable and that Vonage's terms of service violate California's Consumers Legal Remedies Act.
The case seeks damages and reimbursement for all California consumers affected by Vonage's actions.
Representing Porter are attorneys Daniel Girard of Girard Gibbs LLP, San Francisco, and Richard Doherty of Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates, Chicago.

I am in the process of trying to cancell my Vonage acount. I have been calling for five days 9/12-9/17 and they all say they are sorry, some say the computers are down, some say they will call me back. I still have not been able to get the account cancelled. I am ready to tear my hair out! I last spoke to Rusell in the accounts management department, he did not call me back or cancell the account after being on the phone for over an hour. WHEN i GET iNDIA, THEY TOTALLY IGNORE ME. sORRY, SORRY, SORRY, BUT NO HELP!

I signed up for service on 7/23/07. I called to cancel on 9/17/07. I used between 300-400 minutes but did not exceed the 500 minutes in the cancellation policy. I called three times to cancel my account on 9/17/07. First the systems were down and they could not help me. Then, I was told by Vonage customer service that at that time of my enrollment there was a 30 day cancellation period in effect. However, I have nothing in writing that shows this is the case. Nor were the customer service agents able to point me anywhere on the website or terms of service that indicate that this is the case. According to customer service, on 8/15/07 Vonage changed the terms of service to include a 60 day cancellation period. But since I signed up in July before the new TOS went into effect I have to pay a 39.99 cancellation fee plus 49.99 for the equipment rebate I received and I am not eligble for any of the upfront fees to be refunded. The TOS on the site clearly states that the new TOS supersedes all other TOS, written terms or agreements. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that person would not be able to help me and that I would have to wait on hold for a very long time. I said fine I'll wait. At that point I was told that the supervisor went home and I should call back tomorrow. The third person gave me the same story. So I gave up and let them cancel my account and charge my card, but they haven't heard the last of this.

This whole process took over 2 hours. Per their own TOS they owe me over $140. So I am held to the TOS but they are not accountable?

The BBB shows over 5000 complaints on Vonage.

I signed up for service on 2/22/07. Vonage has been highly unstable, 2 of the 3 lines in my small home business were Vonage. I have never experienced the level of tech support required to keep equipment online. I received a refurbished replacement router, it too failed within 3 days.

I ported a number to Vonage, now they are not responding to AT&T's Authorization request. I was successful in finally cancelling Vonage tonight but at the cost of my fax line being disconnected. I was told that the only way Vonage will port this line to AT&T is by my re-activating it with Vonage first.

My expense continue to mount $39.99 cancellation fee (or is it more for 2 lines), $63.54 for the non-return of equipment, 3 full months of paid service which was unavailable to me.

I have logged complaints with the FCC and NJ/BBB...a class action suite anyone? Here is a telephone number for Vonage's Executive Response Team 888-580-4020 ext 21451, I already left a message and will call them Monday.

yes i do know what you mean. this has been horrible for me. i will never go with onther phone comp.they have manage to get me for all i didnt have in my checking acct.and why do you have to say you do want there service when you know what you need and can aford. we are verry unsatisefied with them. west blocton al. oo ps. you need internet service first.

I am having the same problems with continued charges from Vonage after I thought I had cancelled service! I had called back in June to cancel, after going through the interrogation from the agent about why I wanted to cancel, finally got them to cancel my numbers. Just realized they continue to bill my credit card. Called them back, the agent told me the screen used for cancellations was "frozen and won't be back for 5-10 minutes"!

I've had a friend in the States too who has Vonage. horrible service!

Lovely ....I just signed up. Any Ideas on how to cancel before my number is ported?

I had an account with Vonage both at home and at work for our family business. After service problems, we switched our service (at both home and work) back to Qwest who is reliable. After about a month, after noticing that Vonage was still billing me, I discovered that they require me to speak to an account manager to cancel the accounts - so I did - back in late July. Since the accounts cancellations in July at home and work, Vonage still continued to bill us at home and work (home for just under $19 per month, and at work for somewhere around $120 per month). After I tried to contact a Vonage account manager again to resolve this problem, I could never get a hold of one - I would just end up on hold for more time than I had to spend. Vonage still continues to try billing me at home and work, so I contacted the banks (which Vonage direct billed my accounts from automatically every month - they require it!) and had them change the credit card numbers on both billed bank accounts (One with WaMu and one with US Bank). Now, about every two weeks I get an email from Vonage stating that they had a problem billing me. I reply every time telling them that I do not have any service with them, that it was all canceled in July. Tonight I replied as well telling them I don't have their service, and that if they continue harassing me I will go to the media. Thanks for your time, Kris

I am furious.I changed my phone number back to AT&T on 5/3/07 and just noticed that I was still being billed for service by Vonage. I was billed on 5/7 for 48.49,on 6/4 for 44.22, on 7/5 for 44.22, on 8/6 for 45.22 and on 9/4 for 45.44. I was being billed for service that I wasnt receiving. I called customer service and was on hold for 10 minutes.I was asked all kinds of identifying questions and then told them the problem. Their answer was that I was being transferred to an account manager for a refund.On hold for another 15 minutes I began to realize that I was put back in the queue. I guess they were hoping that eventually I would give up.I sent them an email demanding a refund and now I have to hurry over to my bank to stop the automatic charges. If anyone has started a class action suit or has actually gotten a refund please let me know how. gary

I've been parying this for months as well. When I call to cancel they transefer me around until someone hangs up on me. I'm out of a lot of cash and am going to have to close my checking account to keep them from continuing to steal from me.

i went to best buy they put me in there computer i took equipment home next day to have geeks install they told me it would cost me more because of my at&t packiging so i never called vonage i never went on line in never ported my no its been 3 months now thay have billed me up to $130.00 i did call 3 times in 2 months to people who don,t speak good english an tell me i,am cancelled waiting for this months visa to see i just wonder how much more $$ they can suck out of me for doing nothing
Help herb

VONAGE is an unscrupulous company and I refuse to do business with Vonage. Vonage refuses to cancel my account after approximately three weeks of repeatedly trying to cancel my Vonage account by telephone and email. To end the phone conversation Vonage has repeatedly said Vonage computers are down and to call back or my account cannot cancel because Order Number: 462T7T7LA7 is pending.

I specifically and repeatedly instructed Vonage by telephone and email to cancel my account number 1005853660 and not to ship Order Number: 462T7T7LA7.

I filed a complaint against Vonage with the Better Business Bureau (complaint number: 5576109) 3 Oct 07.

I filed a complaint against Vonage with the Federal Communications Commission (complaint number: FORM475: 07-W13431095) 4 Oct 07.

I filed a complaint against Vonage with the Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection Consumer Response Center9 Oct 07.

On 4 Oct 07 I informed Florida Congressman Jeff Miller of Vonage’s decictful business practices.

On 4 Oct 07 I informed Florida Senator Bill Nelson of Vonage’s decictful business practices.

On 4 Oct 07 Florida Senator Mel Martinez 4 Oct 07 of Vonage’s decictful business practices.

I couldn't agree more with all the allegations and stories I read above. I can testify that all are true and correct. I've been wanting to whistle blow all of the hoax' in Vonage. My conscience couldn't take it whenever I would deal with a customer who's been messed around and was so aggravated. Frank's case above is easy to understand and how I wish I was the one you spoke with at first. I would have to tell all of you that the dept that Frank was told to call which is the "Account Management Dept" is 2nd if not the number 1 bull shit dept Vonage has. Not to mention SALES DEPT who has the dumbest of scambugs. most of the problems starts with SALES folks who would most of the time fool a customer just to make a sale for the day to hit the quota and get higher commissions.

I know a lot from both departments and what they do.. are you ready???
A customer would call to have his/her account disconnected. They would try and try and do their best to save you. They would offer you everything they can in their power but once you accepted it, you should beware since most of them don't explain what's next. Now for the most cases, they would tell you.. "oh okay mr./ms. customer i would disconnect your account.... and guess what?.... THEY WILL NOT!!! and they won't make any notes on the account that these customers called to have their account disconnected and that they have disconnected the poor customer's account. I have a lot to share you folks but I am worried about my security. I might lose my job If they find out about this.

So, I would really appreaciate and beg the moderator of this site NOT TO PUBLISH MY IP ADDRESS. Pls. I hope I could help by giving and affirming some info that you folks need especially if it would help with the case for you guys to get justice for every aggravating experience you encountered with Vonage. Until here for now. i would post an email where you guys can reach me if ever you would need annything from me. I would have to create a private one first for my safety.

I've had the misfortune by association of trying to help a friend's mom cancel her Vonage service. I have never despised or felt such hatred for an organization before in my life.

I can't add much of anything that has not already been written above, apart from the fact there appears to be a lack of cultural diversity in the Account Management department. She had trouble reaching the right person to disconnect because they do not have Spanish-speaking employees in that department. So, by the time we successfully waded through the cr*p to speak to someone we "thought" could help us. with me as support, we got the same run around as everyone else. When we asked why there was not a Spanish-speaking agent in the group and why the terms of service were not available in Spanish, the agent plainly stated "This service is for Americans, and they should be able to understand English." Funny, they didn't seem to make it clear when quickly signing her up that English was required as a primary language. And yet, they choose have a Spanish option on the phone menu for signing up and "getting support".

Hopefully the credit card company will offer some hope in refuted the charges since the service was never successfully activated.

My complaint concerns installation of Vonage service. I currently have the same company as my Internet and Phone Service Provider. I made sure that Vonage was well aware of such situation before I placed an order with them.Yet they assured me that such transfer was absolutely routine and would be without any problem whatsoever.
Nevertheless after I placed the order and installed the equipment I discovered that Vonage service could not be made available to all 4 phones in the home, without and extensive and expansive rewiring. Furthermore, adding insult to injury, Vonage advised that they had no technician qualified and available in my area to do such work. I therefore caution all potential customers that have the same Internet and Phone Service provider, to avoid switching to Vonage without confirmation in writing that Vonage will make the necessary tecnical modifications free of charge.

Back in December 2006 I purchased a Vonage router at Best Buy with an offer of a $100 Best Buy Gift Card AND a $50 Rebate Check. I activated my service with Vonage on Friday, December 29, 2006 and by 4:00 p.m. that afternoon I made my first call.

Sometime in January I mailed in both rebate forms with ALL the necessary paperwork, UPC and MAC ID information. The Last Postmark dates for the rebates where February 15th and 28th, 2006. Again, I mailed it out in January so that should NOT be a problem.

In early May 2007 I received my $50 Rebate Check... GOOD.

In early June 2007 I received a postcard that my $100 Best Buy Gift Card was "declined"... BAD.

On June 6th, 2007 I called the Vonage Resubmit office at (800) 347-4017 and after a difficult time speaking with "Customer Care," I managed to get transferred to a Floor Supervisor. He managed to "resubmit" my rebate. It was an unbelievable challenge to get someone to help me. I was told by the initial person that she could do nothing about this and when I asked to be transferred to someone who could do something about it, she said she could NOT transfer me. It was only through my persistence that she finally transferred me to the Floor Supervisor. So we left off that I should give Vonage 4 to 6 weeks to mail out my $100 Best Buy Gift Card.

Six weeks later... no gift card.

Eight weeks later... no gift card.

10 weeks later... NOTHING.

On August 20th, 2007 I called the Vonage Resubmit office and again after fighting my way passed the initial "Customer Care" rep, I managed to get a hold of Luke, a Floor Supervisor. I had to retell my entire story and he looked in to the matter, and said, "I've ESCALATED this matter so would you please give us 3 weeks to get this taken cared of." FINE!!!

On September 21st, 2007 I called the Vonage Resubmit office, AGAIN, and after retelling my story to the "Customer Care" rep, and fighting my way to someone with higher authority I am transferred to John, a Floor Supervisor. Again I am told that "the matter would be ESCALATED!!!! Please allow 4 weeks for you rebate to be PROCESSED!!!!" NO, this time I ask to be transferred to someone above the Floor Supervisor, so I'm placed ON HOLD... and NO ONE ever picked up the line so after 20 minutes I hung up. RUDE!!! RUDE!!! RUDE!!!

On October 11th, 2007 I called the Vonage Resubmit office, AGAIN I HAVE TO RETELL MY STORY, GET PASSSED THE "CUSTOMER CARE" REP, GET TRANSFERED TO A FLOOR SUPERVISOR AND THIS TIME I ASKED TO SPEAK WITH HIS SUPERVISOR... "Please hold while I transfer you to my Floor Manager." Finally I speak with Martin I., Floor Manager (Employee # 49521) and he promises to "ESCALATE" this matter to Phillip, Account Manager. Please call us back in 10 days... "10 days," I said, "Yes," he said. "So call you back on October 18th?" I said. "Yes," he said.

So...

On October 19th, AGAIN I called the Vonage Resubmit office,... get passed "Customer Care" who DID NOT want to transfer me, she DID NOT want to transfer me at all. She said, "I can't do that sir." TRANSFER ME. "I can't do that sir." TRANSFER ME NOW!!! So I get Jerry, a Floor Supervisor. I ask that he TRANSFER ME. "May I ask why?” he said. Here I go, with my story. So he says, "Sir, please give us 10 business days to wait for a response." GREAT, NOW IT'S 10 BUSINESS DAYS. SO CALL BACK BY OCTOBER 26TH. FOR WHAT????????

What am I calling back for? Why isn't my gift card in my possession 10 MONTHS LATER.

FORGET 10 BUSINESS DAYS, 10 BUSINESS DAYS HAVE TURNED OUT TO BE 10 MONTHS. 10 LONG AND REDICULOUS MONTHS!!!!

October 29th, I called again. Spoke with Paula, Customer Care Rep (Employee #56553). Nothing has been done to my account, there are not notes of my previous conversations and she said she would kindly ESCALATE this matter.

Rediculous, just rediculous.

On October 8th, I contacted Vonage for what I thought was a 30-day free trial of their phone service. I paid $14.95 for their equipment. I was told I would be refunded this amount if I decided I didn't want the service. What I was not made clear of is that during this temporary 30-day trial period, they actually take control of your number and you are no longer with the carrier you had when you called them. So this 30-day trial is not a trail at all, because as my 30 days got close, I disconnected my vonage equipment and realized that I had no dial tone. The end of October I contacted my carrier and they informed me that Vonage had ported my number out. I told them I wanted my phone back with them and they contacted Vonage.

They were scheduled to come out on November 8th to resume my service and two days before they were supposed to take my phone back, they called me and told me that Vonage said they could not release my phone until the 14th of November. In the meantime, on 11/7 Vonage billed me $30.81. I called them to find out why they would not release my number and why they were billing me. The lady that I spoke with tried everything possible to get me to give them another chance. I told her I was not satisfied with the service and that I wanted my phone back the way it was. She asked me what I wanted to do and I told her I wanted her to refund my money and release my phone number.

Ten minutes later, I had no phone service. I am still trying to get my phone service back on because they made no contact with my carrier to make the transition. My phone also serves as a business line, so I have been without a business or home line for over a week. This has cost me potential business and inability to current customers to contact me. They also charged me $42.69 to cut the service off. This matter was never discussed. Consequently a trial period that was supposed to be free has cost me $88.45. I have contacted my financial institution to pursue this matter. I think Vonage is involved in deceptive advertising and that the public should be made aware of their practices.

Suzanne M. Dorsey
2251 Cardston Ct.
Columbus, OH 43232
614 571 6240

These stories are very interesting and so close to home. I am COMPELLED to share this story with you. I moved to a remote area in Mid Michigan in August 07. We cannot get cable, dsl, in this area. So we were forced to use Satellite for our high-speed, and television. I went to VONAGE website and did research regarding their services. I called to inquire whether Satellite High-Speed Internet was compatible with VONAGE and was told yes. On November 8, 2007, I signed up with Vonage, my equipment arrived four days later. I installed Vonage and discovered audio problems. I went to the website and made the adjustments recommended by them. This did not work, two days later, I contacted technical support for assistance. They worked relentlessly to resolve my issue. They tested the bandwidth of the Satellites high speed, and determined that Vonage was not compatible with Satellite. They recommended that we try another ISP, but there are none for our area, and we have the highest bandwith our ISP provides for residential. The problem started when I tried to cancel my service. I was sent to Account Management, and went through the ritual and she suggested sending me to Senior Technical Support, I asked her why didn't the other tech refer us to Senior Tech, and she told me that only Account Management knew about the Senior Technical Support and that was why I was referred to her. The call was transerred and 40 mins later I hung up unassisted. I called the second time, and went through the ritual questions again. The second Account Management Rep, told me I needed to pay a temporary $39.99 fee for cancellation. I would be refunded the money when they received the equipment. I lost my cool, refused to pay, and informed them that I was sending their equipment back and I wanted my money refunded. Today I woke up with a fresh attitude and decided to try it again. I called Vonage again and went through the question rituals again. The third Account Management rep, sounded very friendly and receptive to what I was saying, and promised to resolve the issue for me. She sent me to another department to find another ISP for me that was compatible with VONAGE, unfortunately, there were no other ISP's so I was sent back to Account Management, went through the question ritual again, but maintained my composure, this one offered me two more months of free service. I asked them this question: "How likely am I going to want to join Vonage when a new ISP does move to this area if they persist in giving me a hard time with cancellation?" She finally agreed to the cancellation, but started on the $39.99 charges again. I told her that I did not have enough funds in my account for this transaction, but I had enough money to return their merchandise with "return receipt notification." She did not give me a confirmation number because I refused to pay #39.99 for that number. I did indeed mail their equipment as stated today. Please pray with me, that this is the end of VONAGE. When DSL or Broadband does move in this area, VONAGE will be the last VOIP company I call.

Why not a class action lawsuit? Why not?

There's not enough space to detail my frustration. Needless to say, I'm with a landline phone company after 1.5 years on Vonage. I signed up with Vonage because my old apartment did not have proper wiring, so I went with Vonage through Comcast because it was relatively easy to sign up and wait for the hardware to arrive by mail.

Four months of hell trying to cancel my account since July '07, let alone get a simple answer to a question. Each and every time I can't get a word in edge-wise. So after the rep interrupts me, he/she says, "sorry?" Then I speak slowly, then I get: "Okay, I understand that you said...." Geez. Cheap labor. Fine. Save money.

I replace my name with "N/a" on my online account and changed the billing address so my credit card wouldn't be charged. Yet, I received emails about billing errors and postings to my online acct....

In short, if and when you actually cancel, you must unfortunately follow up via phone.

Four months later, 3 months after I "canceled," I am on the phone with Vonage's Acct Mgr who transferred me to Billing to discuss the monthly invoices, post-cancellation.

I am in the same boat - I signed up for Vonage on the 2 months free promotion - I ordered it when I got my v-phone. I spoke with a rep from Vonage to make sure that my v-phone would work with a Wireless Broadband Card - not a wi-fi card - I explained it was through Verizon wireless, so there should have been no confusion - I was assured that it would be no problem. I was to receive a $50.00 rebate on the V-phone, just send my rebate within 15 days of activation of service. I did that even the though card arrived very close to the deadline. Now I am told that it is within 15 days of the date of sign up, not when they got your service activated (which we all know takes between 7 and 10 days to port your number over.) Anyway, so I wrote that one off. The next things was when I got the phone activated I had horrible service. Come to find out I didn't have a good enough bandwidth - ok so I did the saver thing and the quality was horrible!!!! But Verizon saved the day on this one and sent me a new Verizon Wireless Broadband Card that was the newer version, the Rev O or A, whatever itis that the v-phone needs to run on - I even got it free after rebate - and they pay their rebates. So now I have proper bandwidth according to Vonage's own website and the website they send you to when you talk to Level 3 or 4 tech support to check it deeper. Most of the time it was running better than needed!!! So I had Vonage send me a modem - the gentleman in Columbia sweet talked me into that - giving it to me "free" with not having to send in a rebate - NOW MIND YOU, THIS IS ALL WITHIN THE FIRST 60 DAYS!!!! - I received that in about a record 7 or 8 days and tried to set it up. Once again, had problems with that and had to deal with higher level tech guys who said it will never work on a Wireless Broadband Card, whether from Verizon or not. I even paid a local IT guys $95.00 to come and try to get my little home system to work with what the guy in Columbia said would work. None of my equipment from Vonage has ever worked correctly. I started calling in November to try to cancel my service but was told that I would have to pay cancellation fees for a service that I have not been able to utilize. I have had to forward any calls to my cell phone from day 1 to get my calls, thereby doubling my charges on the cell phone bill. Thankfully I found that "service" that was included so I didn't miss important calls. I am also going to have to pay for a modem that has never worked even though I can send it back to them. So $180.00 later, I can get rid of my service. I have spoken to two ladies in the Philipines who say they are the highest level that I can speak with, their supervisors are either always in meetings (probably about the number of customer service complaints) or cannot answer the phones. Never have gotten a good reason why on that one. I have spoken with one guy in India, the two in Columbia (salesman and his boss) and finally Frank in tech in NJ - he was wonderful - I just wanted to talk to someone in America to see if they could help me. He stayed on the phone to try to get to someone in his own state and after about 10 calls all he could get to was Philipines and a couple of other countries. Thanks to Frank for at least giving me a couple of laughs yesterday during all this!!
So now I have the number further up in this blog for higher level escalation of problems - and I think it may be in this country, we will have to see. But I have been offered the two free months to stay, the one free month to stay, multiple offers of tech support level 3 or 4 who all say what needs to happen can't be done - I just want my service cancelled and my money returned. They can have their modem and vphone back - I do mortgages (yes, one of the honest people) and with the lousy business this year I really could stand to get that money back.
Anyone with any good ideas, feel free to email me!!
Maybe the more blogs I put this on, will give me a better chance of getting an answer.

My recent blog entry about my troubles with Vonage:

I have to share this! I am beyond flabbergasted by the phone service Vonage.

I ordered the service back on October 12th. When the router came I realized it was not compatible with my current satellite internet provider equipment. I called Vonage customer service many times to seek help, I was bounced from operator to operator for over an hour. They all tried to convince me I should have a DSL line installed so I could use their equipment. This doesnt make sense to me. I dont need extra stuff or extra bills. That was the point of trying the Vonage-to save some moolah. Not to add another bill to my life for a DSL line I dont need. I am happy with my current internet and dont wish to cancel. After repeated transfers to other operators, each time having to verify who I was and re-tell my story I gave up and hung up. I decided to put my decision to cancel and the reason why on paper. I enclosed one copy of a very thorough letter requesting a refund inside the box along with the Vonage router and also attatched one to the outside of the box and sent the box off courtesy of the Post Office. That was October 22nd. I have confirmation the package was received on October 24th. I heard nothing from Vonage until yesterday when I got an email stating that my bill was paid through auto deduction from the account I used to pay the startup costs initially. So today I call them. Again I was bounced around, 4 operators and over an hour later I hang up totally pissed and nearly in tears from frustration.

I was told that because the initial 30 day trial period has passed I cannot get a refund. I explained that I returned the equipment along with a request for cancellation and refund one week after receiving it. That I called to cancel previous to that which was well within 30 days. I was told that if I want to cancel now I have to pay a $39.95 cancellation fee and another fee of $17.95 for something I couldnt decipher, my head was spinning by this point and I could barely hear the operator. I was told that I could dispute this in writing and was given an address to send my dispute to. There is no phone number to the address I was given. I was told my dispute should be resolved by mid FEBRUARY! I was told that if I cancel my account now I cannot dispute anything. The account must remain open if I want to dispute this! So basically either I pay $39.95 + $17.95 now to cancel or I DONT cancel so I cant dispute this stupid shit and get billed for another month or two. ARE YOU KIDDING? The account never had ONE call logged! The equipment was never hooked up, no calls were ever made or received! This is insanity!

I did a search on the address I was given for my dispute correspondence. I got several results describing similar troubles for other folks. I..m seriously thinking of suing them. Oh! I almost forgot that every time I had them on the phone I was offered a reduced monthly rate for Vonage service if I stay with them. HELLO! I CANNOT USE THE EQUIPMENT! Vonage wont work for me! Jeez! What is with these people?

So...long story short, Vonage is a joke, they are fraudulent asses and engage in extremely poor and slimy business practices.

Here are some search results of complaints about Vonage-

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geu4sih19HKnABOgJXNyoA?p=vonage+complaints&fr=&ei=UTF-8

Just wanted to clue you all in, this has been an awful experience so far and I have a feeling its not going to be resolved anytime soon.

I have a Vonage horror story complete with too many ridiculous email responses and phone calls to post here. However, a very long story of cancellation torture ended when a wonderful person named Michelle posted this number in a different blog.....the DIRECT NUMBER to VONAGE ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT (888-288-7435)!! This is who you have to call to cancel an account. This direct # ended a three week nightmare for me! I don’t know how she managed to get that number, but I am hoping to post it where other people can find it too. I did not read reviews before signing up for service, but I figured out there were problems after I placed my order. So, I called to cancel the same day and they refused to cancel, shipped out equipment, charged my credit card anyway. It was a three week nightmare with about 10 emails and 7 phone calls (all of which are 30 minutes minimum). This all finally ended today thanks to the wonderful person that posted this direct number. So, to all others having "canceling Vonage problems", skip all the other #’s and call this one. It is immediately answered by a live person, no voice prompt hell, no long hold times, and transfers from dept to dept. If you have any experience with Vonage, you probably know what I mean. This goes directly to one of the people that can cancel an account. Of course, even after I went on a tirade explaining all the problems I had canceling my account, this moron insisted on going into a sales speech and insisted that their service is great and I should at least try it. Did I want internet, etc? I couldn’t believe it and had to continually insist that I want NOTHING from Vonage but a refund and my account canceled. After about 5 minutes, she gave up and canceled the account. I have learned that you have to be FIRM even rude to get these people to stop the harassment. Also, as an added bonus, I filed a complaint with the FCC prior to trying to call again. The link is: http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475.cfm for all who have given up and need to file an FCC complaint. I believe I will get my refund, but I didn’t think I would when I filed the complaint. AVOID VONAGE! This is the worst pack of liars and thieves I have ever encountered! It almost seems like a cult of brainwashed sales agents that are in fear of their lives if they cancel an account. By the way, I believe if you are persistent enough and make enough threats, you can get your money back. I have a “refund” invoice to prove it. Of course, I have filed a dispute with my credit card company. I don’t actually expect Vonage to process the refund they promised, but I have sufficient proof from Vonage to have the credit company reverse the charges.

Similar story to everyone else, and astonishingly there are scads of these stories online. Bad connection, went to cancel after 4 months, and was really given the runaround on the phone for 75 minutes. I was charged: $40 cancellation fee, plus $80 recovery fee, plus another $40 for a 2nd line I was told would be free if used for less than a month, and then a full month of service $32 even though I cancelled 2 days into the month.

Of course I argued that I would not agree to these fees, but they would not close my account unless I would verbally agree. (presumably recording me in case I did a chargeback, which I am of course!) Even when I said "I'm hanging up, cancel my account as of today's date" they would reply "Mrs. XX your account is still active."

I am interested in joining a class-action lawsuit. This company is sneaky, unethical, and abusive.

Do you deserve a refund for service not provided but you were billed time and time again?? I got my refund! I reached the corporate office after initially dealing with lying customer service reps. Wayman Gibson is with the Executive Response Team at Vonage. His phone number is: 1 (800) 580-4020 ex. 22648. He called me the same day I sent an email and left a voice mail to their corporate office for the CEO, COO and VP. I received a full refund for 6 months of billed service I never received. Plus, when I cancelled my service (again) earlier that day, they charged me a cancellation fee of $39.00 and change. He also refunded that amount, but I did request it. He was very helpful and fast to respond. I received my full refund within 24 hours. I must say, I was shocked as I was having a hell of a time dealing with customer service who frankly did not care at all.
Good luck!!!!

vonage is not a good service they have been charging me for months and i did not have the system in total they took $131.00 and plus $44.00 for a disconnection fee that i think was no fair because they messed up so i was giving away free money that i work hard for i believe they are a scam. i think i should get my money back.

I am one who fell prey to Vonage's scam today. I signed up for basic service, and after a month it just was not working out for me. I contacted my local phone carrier to have my number switched to them. They told me not to contact Vonage to cancel - they would take care of everything for me. It was redundant to cancel with them being that they would no longer have my number. Made sense since that's what Vonage told me when I switched to Vonage. Well, two months later I notice a charge from Vonage. I thought that this was a simple error so I called to resolve the issue. I then find out that I am still active in their system, even though they ported out my number to the other carrier, and that I was still going to be charged because I didn't personally call them to cancel. Same problem as everyone else. Well, I then find out that I have not been charged for the past two months because the payment was being taken out of a CREDIT THAT THEY OWED ME!!!! Basically, not only did I get charged for the past three months, but they also charged me a disconnection fee of $39.99 because I was SUPPOSEDLY in a year long contract (which was never explained to me when I signed up). I brought up the fact that it was never disclosed to me that I was in a year long contract. I even asked to see where it showed me my term length in my account information. The rep stated that I should check out section 8.7 in the Terms at the bottom of the web page. With her on the phone, I pointed out section 6.1 "Service Term" which states that "We provide our service for terms of a set length that depend on the terms that you have signed up (ex. 30 days, 1 year, 2 years). Well, a term was never made clear to me upon signing up, nor was it apparently stated anywhere in my account file. In the end, I ended up paying all of the fees they wanted just to be done with Vonage. I feel that thousands of people have fallen prey to this scam and something needs to be done to correct Vonage from their wrong doing.

I called Vonage today at friends recomendation. I agreed to the service because the rep said it would be $24.95 plus $6 for calls to South America, in the same phone call I was transfered to another rep and was informed the charges would be $40/month. I said I decided I did not want the service at that price. He refused to stop the subscription process and my credit card was charged. Numerous phone calls and emails to the company have been futile/ The refuse to acknowledge I am not a customer, never was, and never will be. The just keep writing back about all the money I have saved by waived charges already.

This company is a nightmare before I even had the service. I would never switch over to them even if it were free.

I guess my only options are to cancel my credit card and call Verizon and tell them not to transfer my number.

I have been trying to cancel my mothers service since July 2007. The account is in my name because my mother didn't have a check card or checking account so I allowed her to use mine. Every time I call I get the same sales pitch trying to keep me as a customer offering me all the so called special deals! I don't know how many times I have told them that due the death of my step-father my mother now lives with my brother and that we all live in a rural area that doesn't offer VONAGE. It is so frustrating!

I thought it was taken care of until I put some money in my account just to use as a savings and boom...they hit me again! I closed my debit card account and called VONAGE again to cancel. After another sales pitch and me screaming at the girl that all I wanted is to CLOSE this account she said she canceled it and gave me a conf #. HOWEVER, I have a balance due of $39.99 :0) I refused to give them any other account #'s so she told me to buy a pre paid debit card to cover the cancellation fee WHATEVER. I told her to do what she had to do just cancel it. I've contacted my bank and stopped payment again. Geez I really hope this is the END!

I just finally cancelled yesterday.
I will tell you all a secret in getting your service cancelled.
After hearing, for the umpteenth time, about free months, or "teir2 tech support"
I litterally started screaming at the top of my lungs,cursing profusely, and calling this guy every name in the book. I told him I was recording the call, and that I was cancelling my service. I told him that if I was billed any further, I would close my checking account and seek legal action.
I swore at this guy like a drunken angry sailor, and it worked! Everytime he would begin to say anything that did not sound lik "I will cancel.." I screamed louder and cursed more. Very cathartic when dealing with these sub-human wastes of space.

I have a little different problem. My internet goes down all the time. I talked to my internet provider and they said that is is the vonage router box that is causing the problem. The way I understand it I am not the only one having this problem.

Now the big problem is I can't contact vonage. If you go their site and look for a email contact guess what there is none that I can find all the contact does it take you to help pages but still no email contact.

A few months ago I needed to contact vonage and remember I still had that in my sent email box so I went to contact them that way only to get and email saying you can not email them at this email address to and then it gave you a link to contact them but guess what? That just took you to the page that has all the help info instead.

So then I said ok I will call them and guess what it all animated now and in order to tak to a live person,you could be on hold for and hour or more. Very frustrating. After being on hold for ever I gave up.

Then I started doing some online searching and found different site after reading all this now very worried. So if I now decide to cancel I may be charged a few for it, that is if I can even get a hold of a live person. I have had vonage for a couple of years now and never have had this problem until now. Does anyone out there no of a email contact where I can actually email them.

There is an elderly gentleman in my church that has been recently widowed. Jesse signed up for Vonage by phone on Dec. 17, 2007 before realizing that in his rural area "highspeed" internet is not available. He tried to cancel but the Vonage reps kept telling him he could not cancel until he received the "equipment". Unfortunately Jesse had given them his credit card number and they had already charged his account. Jesse is 77 yrs. old and ask me if I would help him in canceling this. On Dec. 18, 2007 I called Vonage and tried to explain the situation....I was told to tell Jesse to refuse the "equipment" when it came in and as soon as they received it back they would reverse the charge. Jesse did as he was told in refusing the equipment...he NEVER at anytime had Vonage service. On his 01/17/08 credit card statement Vonage had charged his account in the amount of $48.25 (Vonage ref. #24692167352000135011595) on 12/18/07 and $42.49 (Vonage ref.#24692167353000278461085) on 12/19/07. I called on 1/15/08 and spoke with a Ms. Ross in the billing dept. and she gave me a case# 17189078 and assured me that Vonage would reverse the charge within one week. I called back on 1/22/08 and nothing has been done. There is no Ms. Ross and there is no case number, it was all a sham. Now they are saying that they never received the equipment back, yet they don't deny that Jesse has never received Vonage phone service, his credit card has been charged and we continue to get the "run around" from Vonage. Is a civil suite possible? With all the complains I have read it looks to me like all these people could pool together and hire a lawyer to sue the hell out of the Vonage CROOKS that take advantage of people.

Jackie Woods on behalf of Jesse Stewart

I am currently having problems with Vonage. I just filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau today. I ordered Vonage on 09/11/07. I received order confirmation on 09/18/07. I received shipping confirmation on 09/21/07. I received my equipment on 09/27/07. On 10/26/07 my wife called to cancel Vonage because it wouldn't work with our new satellite internet services. Vonage wouldn't talk to her. On 10/29/07 I called to cancel Vonage services. I spent 2 hours on my cell phone with them. All they were trying to do was get me to switch internet providers. I explained to the customer care agent that I had never even once used their phone service because we didn't get our internet service installed until 10/22/07 and when we installed the Vonage equipment it wouldn't work. The Vonage Rep explained that the 2 services weren't compatable because the phone service needed a steadier signal. She kept trying to get me to switch to a different internet provider. I declined and told her that we had just paid almost $500.00 for our internet equipment & we were not going to switch. Eventually she agreed to cancel my service & told me that she would confirm via email. I got an email from Vonage on 10/30/07 stating that they were sorry to hear that I wished to cancel my service & to call 1-866-243-4357 to cancel. I thought I already had cancelled. I called again on 10/30/07 only to go through the same crap I had on the day before. This time the Customer Care agent told me to log into my Vonage account to retreive my RA# to return my equipment. She also said that she would require a payment of $33.88 in order to cancel my account. I complained that I was returning my equipment within the 60 trial period so there should be no fees incurred. She assured me that I would have the $33.88 refunded to me once Vonage received their equipment back. So I gave her my credit card information for a one time transaction for $33.88. Then I went to my Vonage account & tried to access my account so I could get a RA#. After several failed attempts I emailed Vonage. On 10/30/07 I received another email from Vonage with password reset information. I tried this too. Several times. No dice. So on 10/30/07 I sent another email to Vonage stating this: To Vonage Customer Care: I am returning My Vonage Equipment to you at this address: 1000 Windham Parkway, Bolingbrook, IL 60490, Account#xxxxxxxxxx, phone # xxx-xxx-xxxx. Today's date 10-30-07: I do not have an RA number. It is impossible to reach you people. I cannot get into my online account because you people have issued me a username & password which I cannot retreive. You do not returnmy emails either. I want my phone service disconnected. It does not work with my satellite internet service. I was on the phone with your customer service people for 2 hours yesterday & got no results from you. I have asked you over & over to talk to my wife to handle this situation & you have refused. Since I can't get into my online account I cannot add her on. Cancel my phone service effective immediately. I will not pay for any further service. We can solve this in court if that is what you wish to do. In my opinion this is a scam. Steven Aumueller.On 11/20/07 I checked my credit card account & found that Vonage had accessed my account & taken the $33.88 from it. I eas actuall relieved. I thought this was the end of my dealings with Vonage. I emailed Vonage with this message. 11/20/07: VONAGE CUSTOMER CARE: I HAVE CHECKED MY CREDIT CARD STATEMENT & NOTICED THAT YOU HAVE TAKEN $33.88 FROM MY ACCOUNT. THIS HAD BETTER BE THE LAST TIME THAT YOU ACCESS MY CREDIT CARD. IT WILL BE UNAUTHORIZED AND I WILL FIGHT IT IN COURT REGARDLESS OF THE AMOUNT. I HAVE RETURNED YOUR EQUIPMENT AND I WANT MY ACCOUNT CLOSED IMMEDIATELY. STEVE AUMUELLER. On 12/18/07 I received another email from Vonage Suject: Vonage Account Charge Error. Vonage was trying to charge an authorized fee of $34.15 to my credit card. I received the exact same email from Vonage on 12/22/07. On 12/26/07 I emailed Vonage with this response: 12/26/07: VONAGE CUSTOMER CARE: I HAVE CANCELLED MY ACCOUNT OVER A MONTH AGO YET YOU KEEP TRYING TO ACCESS MY CREDIT CARD TO NO AVAIL. THIS IS BECAUSE THIS IS A PREPAID CREDIT CARD AND THERE WILL NEVER BE ANYMORE MONEY ON IT FOR YOU TO STEAL. CANCEL MY ACCOUNT. HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS? DO YOU PEOPLE SPEAK OR WRITE IN ENGLISH? WHY CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF CANCEL? I HAVE ALREADY RETURNED YOUR EQUIPMENT SO QUIT BOTHERING ME. CANCEL! CANCEL! CANCEL! CANCEL! CANCEL! CANCEL! CANCEL1 CANCEL! CANCEL! CANCEL! CANCEL! CANCEL! DO YOU UNDERSTAND? IF YOUR DISHONEST PRACTICES CONTINUE I WILL BE CONTACTING THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU AS WELL AS MY LAWYER. I HAVE SAVED ALL OF OUR COMMUNICATIONS. I THINK THAT I CAN PROVE THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO CHARGE UNAUTHORIZED FEES TO MY ACCOUNT. I DO BELIEVE THAT THESE TYPES OF ACTIONS ARE ILLEGAL. STEVE AUMUELLER. On 12/27/07 I received yet another email from Vonage with the same subject as before. Vonage Account Charge Error. Again they weere trying to charge $34.15 in unauthorized fees to my credit card. I responded with another email stating: 12/27/07: I AM NOT GOING TO PAY YOU. I HAVE CANCELLED MY ACCOUNT & RETURNED MY EQUIPMENT MONTHS AGO. STRAIGHTEN THIS ERROR OUT. THE ERROR IS ON YOUR END. YOU DO NOT AND NEVER WILL BE AUTHORIZED TO CHARGE ANY MORE FEES ONTO MY CREDIT CARD. CANCEL CANCEL CANCEL CANCEL CANCEL. STEVEN AUMUELLER. On 12/29/07 I put some money on my prepaid credit card so that I could pay some bills online. I went right home and processed them. Well one of them did not process theirs right away because on 1/4/08 I received another email from Vonage stating: Vonage Account Charge Success. They had charged $34.15 to my credit card preventing one of my bills not to get paid. I called my credit card compant to request a stop payment. I had to fill out dispute papers but in the meantime Vonage had stolen another $34.15 from me for a phone service that I had never used. On 1/5/08 I emailed Vonage again stating exactly this: I HAVE TOLD YOU PEOPLE TIME AND TIME AGAIN TO STOP TRYING TO ACCESS MY CREDIT CARD. YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY AUTHORIZATION TO DO SO. I HAVE REPORTED THIS ILLEGAL ACT TO MY CREDIT CARD COMPANY AND THEY ARE ISSUING A STOP PAYMENTAND ALSO A STOP FROM YOUR COMPANY ACCESSING MY CREDIT CARD ANY FURTHER. I TOLD YOU THAT WE HAD CANCELLED OUR SERVICE. CAN YOU PEOPLE HEAR OR ARE YOU JUST ANOTHER CORRUPT COMPANY? STEVE AUMUELLER. On 1/17/08 when I got back in town I followed up with a phone call to Vonage to request a refund of the $34.15 that they stole from me. The rude Customer Care Agent told me that my account is not closed & that I would have to pay an additional $130.58 in order to cancel my service. I told them I would not pay and that they owed me $34.15. This call ended badly. On 1/17/08 I received another email from Vonage stating: We are sorry to lose you as a Vonage customer and have cancelled your account as requested, blah blah blah.
On 1/17/07 I received yet another email from Vonage stating: Vonage Account Charge Error. We received your request to cancel your Vonage service, but we were unable to process the final charges listed below. $130.58. On 1/19/08 I received the exact same email as the one on 1/17/08 again. On 1/20/08 I replied to Vonage with this email: VONAGE CUSTOMER CARE: I WILL NOT PAY ANYMORE BLOOD MONEY. I RETURNED MY EQUIPMENT WITHIN THE 60 DAYS REQUIRED. BUT I'LL TELL YOU WHAT I WILL DO FOR YOU. I WILL FILE A CLAIM WITH THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU, GO ON EVERY WEBSITE THAT I CAN POSSIBLY FIND TO LET THE WORLD KNOW JUST WHAT KIND OF SHADY BUSINESS PRACTICES YOUR COMPANY PARTAKES IN AND SEEK LEGAL ADVICE TO FIND OUT WHAT THAT I CAN TAKE FOR COMPANYS' PARTICIPATION IN CREDIT CARD FRAUD. YOUR COMPANY IS CORRUPT IN MY OPINION AND IN MANY OTHERS AS I AM FINDING OUT. STEVE AUMUELLER. I'm sure this is not over and I'll update you as my dilemma proceeds.
Steve Aumueller

I have previously posted this # before but am posting again in hopes it will help some of the recent "can't cancel my account" complaints. This is the DIRECT NUMBER to VONAGE ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT (888-288-7435). If you just continually insist on telling them to cancel your account and also tell them the call is being recorded, you will be able to cancel. Also, this skips all the department transfers and other on hold nonsense that you must endure to cancel your account. This is a direct # answered by a live person! At least it was a month ago. Good luck to all!

You need to call to cancel, not e-mail. Its in the terms of service. The big long thing that also states the disconnection fees and the process for a money back guarentee. The thing that none of you have read and thats why your all complaining because you didn't take the time to read what you were getting into. If you had you wouldn't be where you are and would have nothing to complain about.

I wish I had seen this before I called to cancel after 2.5 years of OK service (but I couldn't fax out due to poor quality). When I called to cancel, I gave all my info, and was told I had to speak with a 2nd person. This person asked me to authenticate everything, again, then her systems were conveniently down and she said I would have to call back. I said I would not do so and I asked for her information for my possible complaint if they did not process the cancellation. We'll see what happens.

I TOO THOUGHT I HAD CANCELLED VONAGE, GEE I EVEN HAD A CONFIRMATION NUMBER!!! CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW SURPRISED I WAS WHEN MY HUSBAND WALKED IN FURIOUS BECAUSE ONCE AGAIN WE HAD BEEN BILLED BY VONAGE. I CALLED CUSTOMER SERVICE ONLY TO BE TOLD WE NO LONGER HAVE AN ACCOUNT. OKAY, SO IF WE KNOW LONGER ARE ON YOUR COMPUTER AND SHOWING AN ACCOUNT WHY WERE WE BILLED? WOULD YOU BELIEVE I WAS HUNG UP ON ?? SHAME ON VONAGE----THEY WERE THE ONES THAT LIED----THERE IS NO SERVICE TECH IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA BUT I WAS TOLD THEY WOULD SEND ONE TO MY HOUSE. ONLY ONE PHONE LINE AND IT DIDN'T WORK BUT I WAS TOLD I WOULD HAVE AS MANY AS I HAD WITH MY OTHER CARRIER WHICH IS 5-FIVE !!!! THE BIGGEST LIE OF ALL THEY KNEW I HAD SATELLITE AND IT ISN'T COMPATIBLE WITH MY SATELLITE PROVIDER. THANK GOODNESS AFTER A MONTH MY OLD CARRIER HAD ME RECONNECTED

I have had similar problems with cancelling my Vonage service and being charge an outrageous fee for cancelling. Is there a class action suit filed, and how do we get involved?

I myself have had to deal with this recently. We switched our phone carrier over to another and Vonage still charged us for another month and a termination fee I originally knew nothing about. I called for a refund and they told me they could not refund it because I hadn't cut it off in time. I had called them twice to get my phone shut off. Once one week on a Friday and then the following week on Monday. These people were overly rude and completely refused at first to turn off my phone. In fact, the first time I called, I was totally told that the woman was unable to shut off my phone and I would have to call back. This process made me pretty angry and I would definetly recommend that no one use Vonage as their phone service.

As a side note to my earlier complaint..
After reading through these and exploring the site on the class action suit against Vonage on this site
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/03/vonage_class_action.html

After reading through this, I posted a complaint on their site.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/php/a_report.php

I figure if enough of us post a complaint on consumer affairs, we'll get more attention drawn to it.

Upon cancellation on 03/30/08 I was informed I would be charged 97.00 in fees I never agreed to.

I feel betrayed and violated that this problem has been happening with Vonage, yet I did not know and was deceptively charged a 97.00 fee for disconnecting which I never agreed to but consider consumer fraud, deceptive trade practice, and felony for abusing email and internet to perpetrate such fraud.

The company should not be allowed to advertise or to solicit new customers without resolving past grievances first.

I read about the lawsuit in California. If someone has one for Texas, please contact me and I will sign on to shut this company down, or convert it to a nonprofit offering free phone service to people in need or who were damaged by previous fraud. Restitution is owed both to defrauded customers and to the public, as consumer protections were violated by this continued practice after complaints were already filed.

EmilyNghiem@hotmail.com

Okay folks, here's the thing majority of people in general never read contracts prior to signing them. If it reads, "Account holder must call Vonage to cancel the service"....Call Vonage. in the terms of service it is clearly posted. I don't have Vonage, nor am I a candidate for it, but I know that when you agree to a service, you're agreeing to the terms of that service. Despite that your carrier says not to call, you are still in direct violation of the terms of service from Vonage. Whether your carrier says not to call or not, CALL THEM! Plain and simple. From my angle I see no "shady business practices" nor do I see and illegal actions, they wrote a contract, you agreed to that contract end of story. Now I bet each of you will READ a contract carefully before signing. And to the one without spanish support, my condolences but do you know how hard it is to teach spanish to hindu?

Vonage is horrible. To make a long story short. They gave me 2 months free for issues in March 08. Then they tell me 2 months were paid (which they automatically deduct), so they applied my credit to those months, leaving me with no payment for 1 more month. 2 days after that they took out of my bank account 2 months (that they said i was behind) causing me $85 in overdrawn at my bank, and $74 in NSF funds with my credit cards that I paid (since Vonage said I didnt owe for 1 more month) and my credit card is still due $15.
I try to cancel my acct, I get a rash of garbage from them, and they still wanna charge me $39 to cancel it. I told the Rep you owe me $74 in NSF funds, so deduct the $39 to cancel and call it even. He cant do it. So I cant cancel my account now because I'm already in the negotive due to them.
I will never refer anyone to Vonage. EVER !!!

I signed up with vonage in Oct '07. I got three months free subscription But in Dec '07 they charged for three months service so I asked them to terminate my services which they have not done till date . And now I cant cancel my account as well since Vonage is showing some money due against my name . I will never recommend any of my friends to use Vonage .

Vonage -- Nightmare

I tried Vonage for less than a month. they charged me 39.99 for terminating the service. I was told the refund will be issued once they receive the device back. I Fedexed it back. and now I was told I'm not eligible for the refund.

this is wrong!!!

i tried vonage, but i am disabled and need an operator to dial for for me, but vonage has no operator so i went back to att+t
becuse they have an operator.
please tell me when vonage has a live operator.

 
info@BuyVonage.com

I made the mistake of saving all kinds of money by paying an entire year up front, starting service March 1, 2007. The service never worked--dropped calls, echo, digital sounds, static. I called technical support over and over again. They blamed it on the phone being too close to the computer, on the fact that we had a cordless phone, our ISP, etc. (We've switched to ooma, our phone is still cordless next to the computer, same ISP, and it works consistantly.) I tried to cancel in August when we couldn't use the phone at all, but I couldn't bear the cancellation fee, so we stayed and used our cell phones a lot. Finally, the end of February arrived. We called Qwest and moved our phone number. I unplugged the Vonage box. I did call Vonage and told them we had moved our served and not to renew it. In the meantime, I had left my credit card at a restaurant and had it replaced by my bank. Evidently, Vonage had been trying to bill that card. I started getting phone calls two weeks ago from a credit bureau. Vonage had sent an outstanding bill for one month's service (March) to collections.

After 3 hours on the phone, Vonage's system being "down", transferred calls to supervisors who never answered the phone, I called the credit bureau back. The lady I got this time said she gets calls on Vonage accounts constantly, and they all have the same experience. She suggested I call the Better Business Bureau and try other avenues to get my money back, but that $15 would get the credit bureau out of the picture. The lady was very nice, but the whole thing felt like a guy in a trenchcoat offering "to take care of it" for me. And I did. I paid the $15.

Who is going to sue this company? Surely somebody knows what it takes to put this horrible scam of a phone service provider out of business. It's not the money--it's the principle of the thing.

I too am suffering at the hands of Vonage. I had the service for 10 days that's right 10 days. I switched back to At & T and they said it was my responisibilty to call and cancel when in fact it wasn't for me to switch to them from AT & T. THEN they said I will have to pay the $24.99 for the month AT & T was my carrier AND the $39.99 early termination fee {which I was NEVER told about} and I had a 30 days money back guarentee. It was 10 days and it took me 21 to reach them SCAM A RAMA. THEN another $70 for the equipment that I ALREADY PAID FOR. Please someone email me so i can take this further. I went as far as to cancel the credit card they were trying to bill the additional $146.96 to. I won't let them to this to me willingly. Then the so called manager threatened me "If you don't pay this a third bill collector will come after you" HA let them try. WARM EVERYONE NOT TO GO WITH THIS ILLEGALLY SCAMMING COMPANY. HELP ANYONE.

Vonage is not recommended. The clue I missed from the onset was that Vonage uses the term "Vonage Customer Care" to identify what most good "service" providers call "Customer Service". "Customer Care" is most appropriate because Vonage does not care, only the customer does. This was my experience summarizing 78 emails [sent-received].

The order: Provide Vonage "service" on an existing "Distinctive Ring" telephone number.

After 21 days had elapsed, Vonage did not dispute the following facts:
(1) The ordered "service" was, and would, never be connected or provided;
(2) Vonage never identified a date when the promised "service" would be "connected";
(3) The Vonage ordering process falsely claims that all orders will be completed;
(4) The ordering process lacked disclosure of contract obligations adverse to consumer choice;
(5) Vonage billed from the order date for the promised "service" that was never provided;
(6) Double billing for the telephone number occurred because Vonage failed to transfer it;
(7) The Vonage advertised "free" "service" was never provided;
(8) Vonage charged $58.80 for the two (2) month's of advertised "free" service;
(9) Vonage charged $39.99 to cancel the "service" order that was never completed;
(10) Vonage deliberately and knowingly charges credit cards for services not rendered;
(11) Vonage charges credit cards even when specifically not authorized by the consumer;
(12) Vonage has absolutely no process in place to comply with Federal LNP* Law.

* Note: Federal Law requires that service providers comply with Local Number Portability [LNP] requirements whereby consumers can keep their existing telephone numbers.

A Complaint was filed with the Better Business Bureau regarding Vonage:
(1) Ordering process misinforms consumers;
(2) Ordering process lacks disclosure of contract terms and conditions adverse to consumer choice;
(3) Does not fulfill contract obligations (service never provided);
(4) Bills for service not rendered;
(5) Processes credit card transactions for services not rendered;
(6) Processes unauthorized credit card transactions;
(7) Withholds monies collected for services not rendered;
(8) Charges for fulfillment of money back guarantee;
(9) Advertises for services that cannot be delivered;
(10) Does not offer refunds consistent with generally accepted business practices;
(11) Customer service delivery system inconsistent with generally accepted business practices;
(12) Poorly trained customer service and technical resources.

The FCC, Vonage and the Better Business Bureau were informed of the above and summarized below:

A number of legal issues arise, both tort and criminal, that require investigation on many levels which would affect repudiation of any such contract or agreement in part or on the whole. Holding monies with due consideration to the above facts, and exacerbating the matter by taking more monies without authorization demands an investigation by law enforcement, regulatory authorities, and public and private consumer protection agencies. Vonage insists on retaining monies for services never provided, the entire service order charge related to Vonage order will be reported as a fraudulent charge and reported to law enforcement as a larceny, all charges levied by Vonage, if full reimbursement for said monies is not forthcoming by 5:00PM June 13, 2008.

After receiving the foregoing email, Vonage truncated their typical stalling process and provided a reimbursement at about 3:30PM on June 13th.

The Better Business Bureau did nothing and closed the case. The following was sent to the BBB:

The central issue of my complaint was that Vonage deliberately and knowingly charged me for services that were not delivered and Vonage knew full well they would never be delivered. All of facts presented were undisputed by Vonage. The Vonage responses were rich in contradictions to their own "terms and conditions". Vonage never responded, apologized or pledged to remedy the systemic issues related to the central issue which is an important matter of moral, legal and ethical significance. The reason time was taken to communicate with the BBB is that Vonage clearly does not live up the BBB`s "Vision, Mission and Values" which I read with great interest on the BBB web site. The thinking was that the BBB would recommend some sort of remedial action to protect consumers in future transactions where it is clear my events will be repeated again and again. I am deeply disappointed that Vonage`s behavior apparently reflects the BBB`s "vision" of "trust", "best practices", "excellence", " and "a marketplace role model". As a result, I have depreciated the value of the Better Business Bureau trademark accordingly and will make this recommendation to my business partners as well.

The FCC has not responded at all.

After the Vonage service was cancelled, an order was placed with Comcast who completed the order in about seven days, including a service technician installing the service on site. The modem has a nominal monthly rental fee of $3.00. There was a $29.95 activation fee and the $99.00 installation fee was waived. Service is $29.95 for the first six months and $39.95 thereafter.Billing started only after the "service" actually worked. Everyone in the ordering process and technical support knows what they talking about. And ... everybody speaks english.

Wow very interesting I wish I saw this website before I even signed up for Vonage. Here is my story. I called Vonage on July 27 - got a sales rep in the Philippines - very hard to understand. Her sales pitch it is very easy to switch - took my phone number and asked my present service provider which I gave and she said that Vonage would call Verizon and take care of it all. It would not cost me anything and I would get 2 months of free service. I told her that all I needed is a phone service since I make several international calls to Germany, Canada, India and the UK. The rep also told me that all I had to do is to attach the equipment they ship to my home phone and I would be all set. I told her that my present service was also connected to ADT and she said that after I connected to Vonage I just had to call ADT and let them know. Well it was not as easy as that because on Friday when I received the refurbished Motorola device I could not get any connection. After 2 hours of my cell time I came to know that I need to connect to the internet too. Well the home phone is in one room and the cable internet connection in a different room. Unless I have cables running all over the house I will not be able use this connection. In spite of telling a supervisor the situation he offered to send a technician free of cost to my home on the 13th August. I mentioned to him how important it is for me to have the phone connection but I suppose he did not understand that nor did he understand the word “ Cancel”.
I called Verizon this morning only to find out that the service was cancelled on Thursday 31st July and the sales rep assured me of the fact that my service would not be cancelled until I was connected to Vonage!
I have been without phone service for 3 days. I will call Verizon tomorrow and take care of the switch and what Vonage is going to get in the mail is their refurbished free equipment with signature required and a letter registered letter, with acknowledgement, to cancel a service that was never started.
It turned out to be a nightmare and no money savings like they state in their TV ads!

About 6 months ago I moved from Tennessee to California, so I called Vonage to cancel my account. I found it rather annoying that you can edit your PAYMENT information online, but NOT make a cancelation request. Smelled something fishy with that...anyway, I had to endure a long sales pitch and answer a bunch of questions. I explained that I was moving in with a family member, and wouldn't need vonage any longer. Not good enough...they kept at it with a promise of a month's free service and a rate drop from the standard 24.95 to 14.95. I caved in, partly because I was tired of haggling.
Months later, I'm still being charged 24.95. I call to find out what the deal was. Another lengthy ordeal. They acted like they had no knowledge of any such agreement...and after having been put on hold for a stretch, was told that 19.95 was as low as they could go.
So, 1) I was lied to, in order to stay on.
I went back to school fulltime and have been trying to find part time work within reasonable driving distance over the past few months. Funds are tighter than bark on a tree. This vonage line in not a necessity, so I try to cancel before they can bill me again.
No customer service over the weekend and they are scheduled to bill my account over the weekend...so I have NO MEANS WHATSOEVER to stop it. I tried altering the payment info, but it would keep giving me error messages if I tried to change the card info. I changed the mailing and contact info, hoping my bank would catch it.
The next business day I call to cancel. Again...a long ordeal. When I was adament about cancelling, that's when they broke out the hidden cancellation fee. I thought they advertised "NO CONTRACTS TO SIGN"...then what the hell is this Terms of Service you MUST agree to (which is a contract in and of itself...especially when hidden fees are contained therein).
The lady disconnected my service on the 4th...yet I'm still being billed for the entire month AS WELL AS BEING CHARGED A CANCELLATION FEE! If that isn't a scam, what is? I literally need the $85 they stole from me, for groceries and gas...neccesities, and these crooks could care less. As one Investment article stated about them, they find the increase in "CHURN" (customer cancellations) unacceptable, and they plan to ATTACK CHURN!...meaning they plan to attack my efforts to cancel their service, which I no longer need.

Guys, enough story telling. I am a victim of the same crime commited by vonage. Can anybody pls give me an idea, how we can together get this scammer down. pls pls do something. vonage is a cheat. they must be stopped. I am so sick of them. Is there any justice for us in this country? Or it has been spoiled by those corporations?

I will never do business with Vonage again. THEIR SYSTEM DOES NOT ALLOW ALARM SYSTEM TO CALL OUT TO FIRE OR POLICE. This was discovered four months later during an alarm company service call. This is not apparent or disclosed at the time of sale. After discovered, I was locked into a two-year installation contract. They will not honor a disconnect and are charging something like $150 in disconnect fees. I will likely be charged a reconnect with my previous carrier as well. Customer Service amounts to a foreigner constantly reciting their Terms of Service in your ear.

By the way, the echoes and bad connections were not even experienced by me during that first 30-day trial period. I now experience it regularly.

Obviously, their phone service stinks. I'd like to know WHO has voted them to be the #1 carrier.

I've had the same problem with Vonage and would like to find someway to get a refund of the money they charged me for an account I never opened. By their own error, they opened two accounts for me. Within 3 weeks of opening my account, i.e. the only account I thought I had, I called and cancelled it and had my Comcast number ported back to Comcast. Vonage made me wait a month before they would port the number back to Comcast. We needed to keep the original phone number because my husband was dying from cancer and had to be contacted frequently by doctors, labs, etc.
I assumed the account with Vonage was closed. When I received an email voice message, I called Vonage to ask how I could have gotten the email when I had closed my account with them. They told me that I had another account which I did not close -- not knowing I had it. They have billed me for a year for an account I did not open. They refused to give me a refund although for the whole year they never sent me a statement or bill for the account in question. There must be something I can do. Can anyone refer me to the right agency, etc? My husband has died and I don't need this problem right now.
Thanks, Terry Karcich

OK add me to the ticked off at Vonage people! I cancelled my service recently and they charged me a 39.99 early termination fee. What happened to no commitment?? I never signed anything agreeing to a 2 year commitment with vonage. Not to mention that they took an entire year to send me my rebate! Customer service with them is terrible. It's like they don't even listen to you. All they do is listen to key words and then read off a script!

Following up on my first note I have contacted the Better Business Bureau about my problem with Vonage. Beyond that, is there anything else those of us who have been victimized by this predatory company, can do to obtain relief, refunds, etc? Is there a class action suit that we can join? I was cheated out of more than $400, and that certainly isn't going to bankrupt me but it is the principle of it that gets me. Maybe I am just sick and tired of the scams and frauds perpetuated by companies and their cronies in Congress, but I want to help nail Vonage for their behavior. Thanks for letting me vent!

Oh the horror stories! I canceled my account 3 months ago, and told them to charge my credit card of all payments. Just so I could be finished with them! Well they left one payment left....the cancellation fee. I tried to contact them, and of course nobody answers the phone, or email, etc. Well they gave my name to a collection agency to collect the cancellation fee of $39.99., plus the $25 processing fee to get the collection agency from ruining my credit history. My name never should have been sent there in the first place because Vonage had my credit card listed on my account to take all payments from that. I am so disgusted right now!

I have been without Vonage service since September due to faulty equipment. I have called customer care 5 times since then to get a new adapter and have been given a run-around. The final straw was when I was told that they would have to make the determination that the router was dead and didn't know what I was talking about.

I have been a computer tech for about 20 years and definitely know dead hardware when I see it. My 3com switch and my Vonage Router died at the same time. I have been able to get a replacement switch within a week from 3com, but no such luck with Vonage. I finally got tired of the constant BS I have heard from Vonage, so I called to cancel today. I was told I would get the termination fee.

How can these people enforce that fee when they haven't been abiding by the TOS themselves? Their TOS means that they have to provide a service and I haven't gotten the service since September!

I am ready to sue these folks because of their arrogance and deception. I have legal insurance, so it won't cost me a dime to file a suit. I am sure it will cost them more in bad publicity than it would for them to refund my money.

I have tried 3 times to cancel my account with Vonage with no success. They continue to charge my VISA MONTHS after I canceled my account. Each time I call they say they have a record that I canceled but then say it was not canceled. I am currently on the phone with Vonage (been on hold off and on for 45 mins) trying to get my money back and account canceled. They have agreed to reverse the charges but are telling me I need to call back AGAIN (for a 4th time) to get it canceled because currently no one is working who can do this and apparently they have no email or way to communicate with each other. The service was terrible when I had it. Constant dropped calls and poor connection. People complained about the sound on the phone and it was the most annoying phone service I've ever had!!!!!!!!

I have a similar story. At one point I had over 20 lines with vonage, and then back in early '08 I cancelled them all. For every group of lines, and some single ones I had to go through the rough call with them trying to get me to not cancel. I even went so far as to start with the call with "Before we begin, I know you are going to try to convince me to keep vonage, but I want you to know that Nothing whatsoever will convince me to keep the account. It works fine, I just don't need your service anymore." But to no avail. What I also did, which saved me was to record each call, in which they listed off the numbers that I cancelled, and I checked them off my list. Fast forward to Oct, 08. I had cancelled one of my AMEX cards a few months before, and I got a bill for it showing vonage on there! I immediately called AMEX and told them to block vonage from charging my card, and asked how someone could initiate a charge to a card that's cancelled. I know that a merchant isn't supposed to be able to because I personally have a merchant account. The person from AMEX told me to work it out with vonage and that she couldn't block the charges. In any case, I have several AMEX cards, so I told the person to initiate a chargeback on vonage, that I had recorded the conversation with vonage in which I had cancelled, that it was impossible to get through to them to get them to fix my bill, and that I would be happy to send the recordings to them if needed. They told me I didn't. I also told them that I would cancel ALL my credit cards with AMEX if they did not block vonage from being able to charging my cards. AMEX charged back my vonage bill, so I didn't owe them anything, and now I keep getting "vonage cant charge your credit card" emails. Now, I am still trying to work it out with vonage so that they will stop trying to charge me, but at least they cant get one cent from me while we are doing it.

*** If vonage keeps charging you, just make your credit card company block it. Explain it right to them and they will. ****

If vonage sends me to collections, then I will just send my recordings which I have of them to the collector, and refuse to pay.

My experience with vonage is very much like most of the comments except with a slight twist.

I am a contract IT consultant, which takes me on the road for the most part of the year and being home only on weekends. Since most of my weekend time is taking care of what has been neglected during the week I had little time to be concerned about the low quality of their service since I never really used it.

After about 6 months of paying them for a service I rarely used,( although I was constantly getting phone calls for someone else who had apparently had the same phone number shortly prior to vonage issuing me the same number) I decided to cancel.

Due to my work schedule, I vacillated for another 4 months before I contacted the customer service department one afternoon on a day my group had caught up with our work product on the client site.

I didn’t have the vonage customer service number handy, so I googled it and saw the number of complaints about this company. More specific, their tendency to keep charging for a service that they no longer provided.

At the client site (DOD) we had a secure site and we had the ability to record conversations ( both incoming and outgoing). When I contacted vonage customer service, a computerized voice explained that my phone call could/might be recorded. When the customer service rep came on the line, I asked her if she was recording the conversation and she told me there was no way for her to know. I explained to her that I was indeed recording the conversation and did she have any issues with this. She acknowledge that she understood and had no issues. I then explained to her that I needed to cancel my service and she said that she could help.

She asked me the relevant questions to pull up my account and did so. She then proceeded to ask me why I was wanting to cancel and I explained that I really didn’t need the service and that the quality was not up to par. She asked me if I could hold and I told her if it wasn’t a long period that would be fine. After 5+ minutes of being on hold she came back on the line and told me she would not be able to help me and she was transferring me to some else.

After being on hold this time for over 8 minutes, another representative came on the line and introduced herself. I explained to her that I was calling to cancel my service and that before we proceeded had the other person explained to her that the phone call was being recorded. She stated that she was not aware of that so I explained to her that I was indeed recording our conversation. She then proceeded to ask me the same questions as the rep before in which to verify my information so to pull up may account.

After she brought up my account, she asked why I wanted to cancel. I explained to her that I was at work ( although not billing for my time during this conversation) and there were multiple reasons why I decided to cancel none of which should be of concern to her.

She told me that unless I complied with her request so she could provide this information to the marketing department she would not be able to process my request. I explained to her once again that I was at work and I didn’t wish to participate in a market survey and just needed to have my service canceled. She persisted on asking questions as to why I wanted to cancel my service. I explained to her in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t interested in providing her with such information and was only interested in having her cancel my service.

I was then once again put on hold for over ten minutes and when she came back on the line she again started asking me why I was canceling the service. I explained to her at this time that I was a contractor and that my time is worth money. I am only interested in canceling my service but if she would like me to participate in her survey I would accommodate her if her company agreed to pay for my time. I explained to her my hourly bill rate is in excess of $100.00 per hour and if she and her company thought my input regarding their product was that valuable I would be more than happy to accommodate. She said that they wouldn’t pay and I told her that was fine that we then needed to stay on the task at hand and cancel the service.
Once again I was put on hold and after another 10+ minutes she came back on the line and started asking me the same questions again. At this time I requested that she transfer me to a supervisor. She responded that I didn’t need to speak to that person and that she could take care of the situation. I explained to her that after being on the phone with her company for over an hour between conversations and being put on hold that it didn’t seem that she could do such.

At this time she put me on hold once again and after 15 minutes the call was disconnected.

I had to call back, ask for a supervisor and again go through the entire process of identification, including notification that the call was being recorded. At this time I was notified that indeed my account had been closed and that a termination fee $39.00 and change was being charged. I agreed and thought that would be the end of it.

The following month I not only was charged the termination fee but also another monthly charge for the service. Fortunately the credit card I used was an Amex. I contacted them and explained the situation and asked them to reverse the charges due to fraudulent use. They agreed and credited my account appropriately. However the next month it happened again. I called vonage and explained that they were charging fraudulent amounts on my credit card for a service they didn’t provide and to cease and desist and if they did not do so I would take them to court.

Small claims court was fun and the judge was such a pleasant gentleman. Papers were served and they were a “no show”. My conversations that I had with them I had transferred to a CD and presented to the judge. I explained to the judge that the CD contained conversations and hold time that exceed well over an hour in length. Obviously he didn’t listen to the entire recording ( their hold music isn’t that good) but he did absorb all of the conversations.

He ruled that not only had vonage agreed through default to pay me my hourly rate by continuing to ask me questions and that a request that should have taken no more than 5 minutes yet took over an hour in length both abusive and harassing to the customer.

He stated that although it is not within his power to regulate companies such as these, that if indeed it was, the fines he would levy against vonage for such practice’s would send a very strong message to both the company’s management as well as the share holders.

BTW… When AMEX reversed the monthly charge they also revered the cancellation fee as well. I received and email from vongae stating that the charge was denied and demanding payment. I called them and spoke to a supervisor regarding the demand and explaining that I had taken them to court, won and sent the judgment through registered mail to the CEO and have the delivery notification. I also explained that the judgment exceeded the cancellation fee and that I would be more than happy to send them a check for the amount in dispute as soon as I received their check for the amount that was awarded by the court.

Funny, I've never heard anything back.

I thought I was the only one!!! I lost my job and was cutting costs everywhere, I called Vonage to cancel my service, which I thought would be easy.
I have a past due balance and I explained to them that I would pay this as soon as my unemployment check came but in the mean time cancel my service so I would not get charged--WELL---
they suspended my service,I cannot make calls but incoming goes right to voicemail--After 5 days of calling and yelling and threating, they still have not cancelled my service,
My final words to them was" you can bill me from now until forever, I refuse to pay for something I do not want" i have had vonage for 3 years!!!

So in the mean time, I check my voice mail from my new prepaid cell and cancelled my debit card, I am now waitn for them to make the next move.
I would send a certified letter demanding to cancel, but i do not have an address, does anyone know their mailing address?

Act fast, rumor is they are going bankrupt.

Vonage
23 Main Street
Holmdel, NJ 07733

Same story as many previous comments. I had no idea about the Vonage problems until I too, tried to cancel. I just left a message on the executive voice mail. I am LIVID! I am on disability and do not need this aggravation. How dare they think they can get away with this. I have better ways to spend my time than deal with this CORPORATE BULLSHIT!
To further compound the issue, their equipment is not even compatible with my satellite modem which I was very upfront about from the get-go! GO TO HELL VONAGE!!!!!!!!!!

My Vonage is Fantastic.

The previous posts are a concern though.

I hope they do not go bust!

The business has 3 Vonage Lines, and I am ordering one for home.

Chris
UK

Same problems, i tried to cancel with them in October of last year. I have ample correspondance that i tried to cancel including a phone call in October, and about 20 emails and 2 chat log transcripts. They have billed me almost $200 since then, and there is no way in hell i will pay it. And it pisses me off even more how every email their customer service agent sends that starts with "I understand your problem or concern" and "I understand the way you feel" It is disgusting how these people are still in business.

Call the prior CEO of Vonage for any problems you are having.After all he was in charge when you signed up. The prior CEO with the largest number of shares owned just partnered with David Burke in a restaurant in New york called Fishtail.The corporate number there is 212-813-2121 . The number at the restaurant if he happens to be there for lunch or dinner is 212-754-1300. People wake up, stop calling the infantry,,call the generals that are calling the shots and making the game plans.

You can also call 888-580-4020 x22799 for the executive Response Manager at Vonage Marc Lefar is the current CEO and he can be reached at 732 444 2398,732-332-2100 or 732-528-2600

I am so unhappy. I switched from Bellsouth to Vonage on 02-18-09. My alarm system wouldnt work in my home and come to find out its not compatable. I did so much research and I cancelled my service today. When I originally started I spoke to a rep and he SPECIFICALLY told me that there was no contract and I could cancel anytime. He also said that there would be no termination fee and I asked him about the bill and he said that they would email me a bill. The next month they drafted the $ out of my account and I never signed an authorization! I was upset to say the least. Then when I cancelled they told me that I need to pay for the vonage adapter and all these fees to cancel and then they ran my card for $118.00. I didnt authorize them to draft anything.! I mean this is a fraudulous company. I called them highly upset and told them that I want a copy of the phone recording when I originally called on 02-18-09 and now they are refusing to give it to me.

I need some help. . How can I get a copy of the phone recording?.

I contacted the president of the company and left him a message and recorded it! His # is 732-444-2398. I contacted 2 lawyers who are handling a class action law suit as well. I contacted the FCC and Consumer affairs. I am about to send the media a copy of this as well
I really need some help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have to add my horror story. Watch out. I spent almost a week in attempting to cancel my account and assumed their technicians did this correctly when they said, "it is taken care of". I was promised (by one of their supervisors no less), when their customer service rep coudn't grasp the concept that I no longer wanted their service. Months went by and I just got a letter in the mail saying they were suspending my account for non-payment. Now they say they are retro billing me and that my account was never cancelled. I no longer had or used a land line. I do not know if they understand what "I do not want your service, I am not happy, cancel my service actually means. I have not had a plesant experience. Usually if something appears to be too good to be true, it ususlly is. I would rather spend more money and know that I am not going to be cheated. Honor is important to me, I will continue to see if it is important to them....up to this point, apparantly it has not been.

Unfortunately, you have done the only things that you can do... Also, contact the NJ States Attorney’s office and file and official complaint. They are also looking into a class action law suit against these crooks. The president will have someone else return your call and they are only going to give you the same script the representative did. I really feel you pai and hope we all get restitution soon......

Vonage is not a company I would recommend. In June of 2008, we were in the process of deciding if a home phone was necessary since both my husband and myself had cell phones. We did have a fax and thought we might use it from time to time if we did have a land line. While talking to Time Warner Cable which supplies our area with cable phones, etc., we discovered if we signed with them we would be obligated to continue paying for this service for one year if we went with them. At this time we made contact with Vonage and they told us there was no contract, no obligation. It made sense to go with them, since we were not sure if we'd even need the home telephone. In January, 2009, we realized it wasn't necessary and called Vonage to cancel our service. They told us we could cancel, but we'd have to pay for the rest of the year, plus pay a cancellation fee. (something they did not say when they were "wanting" our business.) As upset as we were, we decided to continue with the service for the year...as if we actually had a choice. On June 5th, the next morning after the one year date, we telephoned Vonage to cancel. At this time we were told we could cancel, but we'd have to pay the cancellation fee of $39.00 + tax, because our contract/obligation was for two (2) years! Sometime between the first time I telephoned to the next time, they had changed our "obligation" date for one more year. This company is unethical in all their business dealings. Not only do they lie to get you to use their service, they lie and cheat to make you stay with them. I would not recommend Vonage.

I just contacted the NJ State Attorneys office. What else can we do? Do we all try and contact a lawyer? Who is in with me in suing this company for unfair trade practices and straight out lying to everyone. I have emailed Jeff Keene from WBTV news here in Charlotte and hopefully he can air my case and all these forums. What can the state general do? How can we get our money back from this company?

This company is a freud! They miss leaded me in order to sign me up. I asked if they provide Directory listing so, the name of my company appear when I call my clients, they said yes...but only the number appers no the name of the company. I been paying for a business line more of $56.00 a month. They charged me to cancel my account ($89.98)...and tell me to write a letter to the dispute dept. for any credit that I need. They already charged me for the whole month of June and, they said they can't give me any credit I have to go thru the dispute dept. send the letter and wait until they contact me...(only thru mail) What kind of phone company is this??

Wow do we whole heartedly agree with you!!

Our "one year" contract ended up 2 years or pay many fees - and our Low Price $9.99 equipment ended up costing $70.00.

The service was horrible - customer service was sorely lacking - and the fees were never "upfront" but would change monthly.

I wont bore you with our story here, you can read it on my blog if you wish, just a warning for any one who has not tried the service yet. Dont bother!

Hi,
I am dealing with the same issue with Vonage. They actually have me in collections for a number that they no longer have. I canceled their service back in March and they still charged me for that month even though my number was ported over to Cablevision. They also charged me for an early termination fee and for equiptment that I bought from them that was on sale.
This company is horrible. I tried to contact them and they are not willing to refund me or take me out of collections until I have paid the amount that they say I owe.

I was a Vonage customer before when I was in Rochester NY. I was happy with Vonage service, and when I disconnected that phone, I did not have to pay any "Early Termination" fee.

So I was happy with that. And when I needed to connect the service again late 2008, I thought of Vonage again, and connected it, and got a new number. This time they charged me connection service fee which I paid it up front with the credit-card charge. But I was not told of the termination fee at all. And in fact, I WAS NOT TOLD AT ALL THAT I'M SIGNING UP WITH CONTRACT. What I was told was to save the packaging box because if I don't send back the adapter/router upon termination, I would be charged. So I even saved the box. I trusted that because this is the same method as my cable company where I "RENT" their cable-modem, and if I don't pay back the modem upon termination, I would have to pay fee for that. Now 9 months later with Vonage, when I tried to disconnect Vonage, they said that I don't need to send the equipment, and I need to pay early termination fee of about $120 because I signed up for 24-month contract. I was thinking "WTF, I would never do such a thing." The lady said that this 24-month contract was there for a long long time, and I signed it by clicking on the OKAY button on the Vonage account link to log in to my Vonage account.

I told her that I would never ever sign any such contract because I don't even upgrade really nice free cell phone because cell phone company asked me to sign up for contracts. I hate signing contracts. Period. And I asked her to check my previous number (# when I was at Rochester, NY which I disconnected about 14 months later), and I did not pay for any connection or early terminatino fees. First they said that they would check that number. Then they said that the dispute is for the current number, and they don't need to check the other numbers. To avoid continued arguing, I just paid $120.

I'VE JUST BEEN VONAGED...

Don't sign up for it you all. A LOT OF HIDDEN CHARGES. I will of course report to Mr. Darrel McGraw's office. I signed up Vonage 8-9 months ago when I was living in West Virginia.

Oh.. those of you who does not know who he is, Darrrel McGraw is West Virginia state's Attorney General. He goes after companies that are doing illegal/un-ethical business in West Virginia by "Deputizing" outside private lawers, give them very broad powers of his office, and force the companies to settle. Hey... jobs got done, and he keeps companies honest.

i was absolutely disgusted as i was missold a vonage internet phone saying that it was part of sky company. Being disabled and getting confused i asked if i could wait and check with my husband. they persuaded me to take it out, check it over and try it and if it wsant what we wanted we could send it back and get a full refund. when it arrived my husband checked it and said that he was conned with it a few months before. no number was supplied with the box, we waited for a courtesy call on three seperate occasions the phone was placed down on us when asking for the box to be returned. after taking my money for several months i changed bank accounts i have now recieved a solicitors letter from them taking me to court for nonpayment. having phoned them they now say they cannot find me as a customer to refund me or close the account and stop the solicitors. at the end of my tether now not sure what to do. any suggestions would be greatfully recieved.

I switched over to MagicJack from Vontage in March 2009. I attempted to contact Vontage via their website and could not find any links to cancel my service. As I recall, I did read the FAQ, and thought the cancel policy was to do nothing (I was on an annual plan) and changed my credit card number.
Now I'm getting collection notices from RMS (Receivable Management Services) for the amount of $307.00. This would be the cost on the annual Vontage renewal. I called the RMS number (877-567-2620) noted on the collection letter and was connected to a Vontage agent! What a scam, Vontage seems to have their own in-house collection service!
I'm refusing to pay this bill for services I attempted to cancel and do not use.
I may contact the Attorney General Office of California.
Companies, such as Vontage, that are this unethical need to go out of business and their corporate offices need to serve some time in prison.

I just want to co-sign on everything that was said to be true. You will have have problems with extra charges when you try to cancel.

Same problem... about a year ago, we got a Vonage account (not my idea) and discovered it didn't work well with my partner's fax machine--no fax, no income, as this is how she posts invoices nightly. It also didn't play well with our DSL connection. They predictably wanted over $70 to cut it off. They've been zapping our checking account for the monthly $35 or so, and I've been through the Bangalore endless "customer service" loop more than once. I think these call centers must have picked up their techniques from cult brainwashers. Anyway, just did the whole hoo-hah again, and when I logged into my account, it STILL shows I'm receiving calls I've never received (particularly since we disconnected that phone, changed numbers, etc. since then). Of course, after I finish with my secret-decoder-ring trip through the automated voice menu, they flip me to a call center that's closed on the weekend. Vonage knows damn good and well that people don't have two hours to play mind games M-F. Arbitrate this: I'm going to sue the hell out of them. I filed a complaint with the feds (comptroller of currency? FCC? Senate Banking Committee? All of the above? I forget) demanding Vonage repay all the debits they've stolen PLUS any overlimit fees that resulted. They are also #4 in the top 20 tech disasters of the year, according to TIME Magazine. No kidding. Did you realize that Tom Ridge (Homeland Security) sits on their board? Now, do you really want Tom Ridge listening to your voicemail? Jeez.