Cancelling Vonage Difficulties

September 26, 2006

I thought I would share my interesting experience with cancelling my Vonage service. I recorded the entire call, including the traversal over their IVR to reach an agent. Surprisingly, I was connected pretty quickly to an agent. I was expecting a much longer hold time. Perhaps customers leaving Vonage are given a higher priority in the queue, lest the customer become more irate with less chance of convincing the customer to stay?

In any event, here's the recording conversation with Vonage in "all its glory". The recorded call was edited to take out personal information as well as deleting some extraneous silence, but other than that it's the call verbatim.

Here is the MP3 of the call, and below is the transcript with my inline comments/thoughts/opinions, etc. Listen in on the call and read along!

Vonage: Thank you for calling account management, how may I assist you today?

Tom: Yes, my name is Tom Keating and I'd like to cancel my Vonage account

Vonage: Can I please have your account number or telephone number?

Tom: [Edited]

Vonage: Ok. [keystrokes]. Ok sir, for privacy and security purposes can please confirm your email address as well as your billing address.

Tom: [Edited]

Vonage: Thank you very much sir. Now ummm. Sir, I see you've been with us for quite some time now. Is there a specific reason why you are choosing to cancel today?

Tom: I found a double-play package that was less expensive.

(in a voice that seemed to doubt I found something was less than Vonage)

Vonage: That was less expensive?

Tom: Through AT&T/SBC - they offer $50 for voice & data.

Vonage: For voice and [clears throat, perhaps due to shock for $50 for voice & data?] Internet?

What she doesn't believe me on the $50 price for both?
Tom: Correct.

Vonage: Oh well, they offered you that for now, but how long is that package going to last???

Now I'm a bit perturbed that she is questioning my decision to make the right financial choice for myself and my family. I thought about pulling out the "I'm a VoIP blogger and writer for Internet Telephony Magazine" card just to shut her up, but instead I kept my cool since I wanted to see what else she had in her "Vonage customer retention script" she was no doubt reading from.

Tom: I believe they said 1 year and then it goes to $65.

Next line is clearly a line from her call script. She is also leveraging a known sales technique in asking the customer questions rather than making statements. By keeping the customer talking you help build a rapport with the customer and more importantly, you might find a vulnerability to exploit

Vonage: Oh ok. And that's your preferable price range?

Tom:[slightly taken aback] Uhhh. Yes. That's a pretty good deal. We also had some voice over IP quality issues on the line.
[Realizing to myself that I just opened the door for her to offer a way to solve our QoS issues]

sure enough…

Vonage: Well, I see you're right in Brookfield, Connecticut. We do have home installation agents out there that will be able to assist you with any audio issues you may have

[long pause] I'm thinking to myself, Brookfield is a small town, you mean to tell me Vonage is going to spend money to send some "home installation agent" to my house? At first I thought, this must cut into Vonage's profit margins just to try and keep 1 customer. But then I thought, "Well, if this Vonage agent can convince me to try and have them troubleshoot my problems, they might get to keep me as a customer for another 2-3 months." That's ~$25 X 3 months = $75 more in Vonage pockets. This reminds me of my gym which had in its contract that I had to give 2 months notice before cancelling. In other words, I was stuck paying $70/month x 2 months = extra $140 in the gym's pockets. What a scam!

As these thoughts are going through my head I then say…
Tom: What… Do they troubleshoot the network or something?

Vonage: No actually, we have technicians that will be able to come to your home and check out the issue. In case there's a bandwidth ummm.. It could be an issue with the bandwidth or whatever the case may be. We also have an elite team down the hall from me that are advanced. They're more advanced than any other technical support team in voice over IP in the country. So I mean, I just wish we were able to speak with you in reference to your issue so we could have possibly, you know, helped you out with this situation instead of you leaving.

Thinking to myself - "Elite team? Ha!"

Tom: Well, you're bound by my ISP - my Charter Communications cable company with their bandwidth. If their bandwidth is bad, then you guys can't do anything about it.

Vonage: Well, we also have a bandwidth saver. It goes from 30 to if I'm not mistaken to 60 to 90 and it can be adjusted in certain ways so where it will work better with your ISP bandwidth. That's what I meant.. I'm sorry I didn't make it more specific - your bandwidth saver with Vonage I mean.

realizing that the Bandwidth Feature is a crappy solution at best, especially since the voice quality suffers. My wife complained even when I had it set to the middle setting. Forget about the lowest 30kbps setting! Sounds like crap.

I decide to play along.

Tom: I'm aware of that feature from the web browser you can change from 90, which is the higher quality voice down to the lower Bandwidth Saver, where the voice quality is not as good, but it uses less bandwidth, correct?

Vonage: Yes. Sir.

Tom: Yeah, I tried that. That didn't help.

Vonage: That didn't help? And were you able to speak to our advanced technical support team?

By now, I can't help but hold the phone receiver away from ear as I smile and let out a little chuckle. She's suggesting that I talk to their "elite" and "advanced" technical support team to troubleshoot broadband VoIP?

I take it she doesn't recognize the name "Tom Keating", as one of the first people to write about Vonage, one of their earliest customers, I test VoIP for a living, and I'm one of the predominant VoIP bloggers. I guess you're never as famous as you think you are. Least that's what my wife tells me!

Early on, Vonage predominantly used the Komodo/Cisco ATA-186 product, which as far as I know, I was the first to test and write a review. Thus, it was bemusing to me that I reviewed the FIRST Cisco ATA-186 used by Vonage, BEFORE it was even a Cisco product. In fact, I got one of the earliest prototypes of the Komodo Fone 300 ATA device, which I reviewed for Internet Telephony Magazine back in 2000. Interestingly, Komodo was acquired by Cisco soon after my TMC Labs review and the Komodo 300 became the popular Cisco ATA-186. Maybe they liked my review? Rich Tehrani also covered Komodo extensively and linked to my TMC Labs review.

Having enough of playing "coy", I decide to let the cat outta the bag and tell her exactly who I am.
Tom: uhhh. Actually, I write for Internet Telephony Magazine, so I'm pretty familiar with voice over IP.

Vonage: You said you write for a magazine?

I'm so hurt. A Vonage rep isn't familiar with Internet Telephony Magazine, the #1 magazine covering the VoIP industry? (not to mention the first VoIP magazine), (sarcasm here folks, I don't expect a customer support rep to know about Internet Telephony Magazine. Though, TMCers that have visited their offices have seen Internet Telephony Magazines strewn throughout their office)

Tom: Yes, that covers the VoIP space.

[long pause]

Vonage: Ok, so does that mean you would not like to speak to our advanced technical support team?

By now I'm struggling to contain my laughter and also thinking how incredible it was that not only is she not familiar with the fact that I write about VoIP for the predominant VoIP magazine, she's still trying to get me to talk to their elite technical support team.

Tom: That's correct. I think I'm happy with where I'm heading.

[pause]
Vonage: Were you planning on porting your number?

Clearly part of their script as a "last ditch" effort to keep the customer. Vonage knows full well that it is very difficult to port from Vonage back to a carrier, such as SBC/AT&T, is damn near impossible. Go read my number portability article for more on this. Scaring customers about losing their phone number might cause some to reconsider leaving Vonage. I thought about "playing along" and saying I'd like to port my number just to see what she would say. But I had enough, so decided to tell her…

Tom: uhhh.I tried actually and they said they couldn't, so I lost the number.

Vonage: Ok… [long pause]
[appears to me she searching for another rebuttal in her call script since clearly I shot down the number portability issue]
Vonage: [almost exclaiming as though this is the rebuttal that will get me to stay]
AND WE ALSO HAVE A NEW UNLIMITED PLAN (voice lowers) but I see that you were here on the 500 plan. We have an unlimited plan and it is $20/month as opposed to the usual $25.

another last ditch effort to get me to stay by offering $20/month instead of the usual $25/month. (technically $19.99 vs. $24.99) Both Russell Shaw and I wrote about this discounted rate offered by Vonage to try and keep a customer that is planning to defect.

Tom: Yeah, I didn't have high usage, so it was better when I had the 500 minute plan.

Vonage: [lots of typing. Apparently has gone through her script and resigned to the fact that I am cancelling] And sir, your account is now disconnected. You will receive a confirmation email regarding the matter. Is there anything else I can assist you with at this time, sir?

Tom: What happens when someone dials my old number?

Vonage: It will say that is disconnected.

Tom: Ok. Is there any way of saying like a forwarding number or anything like that?

Vonage: No sir.

Yet another reason why choosing a VoIP service providers can bite you in the ass if you move or want to change your phone number. If you choose any traditional carrier, they will at least offer a forwarding number message, usually at a nominal fee - so at least your family, friends, and accounts (credit card, banks, cable TV, etc.) can find you at your new number. Vonage could have charged me $5/month for a forwarding number and I would have gladly paid it for 3-4 months while I notified everyone about the new number.

Tom: Ok. Not a problem.

Vonage: Ok.

Tom: All right. Thank you.

Vonage: Thank you very much, sir. Enjoy your day. Bye.

All in all, the Vonage agent was polite, but she did try to pull every trick in the book to get me to stay as a customer. She was clearly utilizing a script provided to her by Vonage corporate. I couldn't help but be reminded of the infamous case of Vincent Ferrari, an AOL customer, who attempted to cancel his AOL service only to get a lot of flack from the AOL rep. While my case wasn't nearly as bad, usually when companies try this hard to keep you as a customer, then the company is struggling. Just look at AOL and their struggles and how they've basically had to offer a lot of their services for free, which previously they charged for. If AOL's stuggles are any indication, this may not bode well for Vonage or their investors.

Comments to Cancelling Vonage Difficulties

Tris Hussey :
September 26, 2006 5:14 PM

I had a very similar experience with Vonage. Except with me, since I hadn't been there over a year wanted to charge me to disconnect and for the (now useless) VoIP adapter. I got it all worked out in the end.

Regardless, I think customer support reps have a hard time detailing with folks like us (ergo, know what we're doing). I had the same kinds of bandwidth issues, no matter how high it was cranked, I never had consistently decent call quality.

J Maddrell :
September 26, 2006 11:26 PM

You lucky dog! It looks like things have improved dramatically since I, too, experienced the Vonage cancellation process.

John Deltuvia :
September 27, 2006 12:38 AM

Of course she didn't recognize your name. Level 1 customer service agents generally don't even know much about the business they're working for - and we're probably approaching the day (if we haven't already reached it) where that rep you were talking to would take the next call in her queue and have her monitor tell her to answer "Harry and David's Gift Order line, how may I help you?"

Geoff :
September 27, 2006 6:29 AM

I don't think there is anything wrong with customer service attempting to keep a customer. The transcript doesn't point to any lying or cheating on the rep's part so, as far as I'm concerned, it's kosher. Annoying but kosher.

Tom Keating :
September 27, 2006 9:22 AM

>>The transcript doesn't point to any lying or cheating on the rep's part so, as far as I'm concerned, it's kosher.

Let me be clear by saying she did do a good job. She DESERVES to be in the customer retention center for being tough and not giving up.

The one thing the transcript doesn't denote is "tone". She comes off as more polite in the transcript, when she actually had some "attitude".

If you listen to the beginning, her line where she says "Oh well, they offered you that for now, but how long is that package going to last???" It's pretty accusatory and with a lot of attitude. Her tone didn't sit well with me. She could have dropped the attitude and stuck with the facts. Was a total turn off.

Go listen for yourself.

Ethan :
September 27, 2006 9:35 AM

I take it she doesn't recognize the name "Tom Keating", as one of the first people to write about Vonage, one of their earliest customers, I test VoIP for a living, and I'm one of the predominant VoIP bloggers. I guess you're never as famous as you think you are. Least that's what my wife tells me!

Tell your wife that she wins that round. Until today, I've never heard of you either, so I can't fault the rep for not knowing. I'll geek out here and quote:

"You've never heard of the Millenium Falcon?"

"Should I have...?"

Having done the tech support thing, kudos to you for not either front or back-loading your bio into the call somehow. The pomposity-o-meter would be through the roof then. Looks like both of you did your best (one to cancel, the other to retain), thanks for passing this along.

Tom Keating :
September 27, 2006 10:29 AM

>> kudos to you for not either front or back-loading your bio into the call somehow. The pomposity-o-meter would be through the roof then.,

Agreed. And let me just say that the sentences where I scoff at "how could she not know I write for the #1 VoIP magazine" and pretending to have a big ego were purely for entertainment and humor purposes. Hope it came off that way.

The Internet is a big ocean, and I am but a tiny plankton. See, I can be humble!

Rose DesRochers :
September 28, 2006 3:31 PM

All this to cancel your Vonage services? This is as bad as the guy who tried to cancel Aol.

James :
September 29, 2006 5:47 PM

A friend sent me a link to your Vonage cancelation call because I had a terrible experience with the company. I thought you would be interested in hearing my story.

In May of 2005, as my verizon wireless contract ended, I decided that I would get a VOIP phone to save money. Vonage was my first choice, due to their public appearance of being a large company and therefore I believed that equated to professionalism, sound business practices and stability. I checked the vonage website and used their "can I port my number to vonage?" box. It came up YES. Everything looked good so I called Vonage. The sales guy confirmed that I could port my number. I was sold. I signed up and was told that I would have to keep the verizon wireless number active until such time that the port request goes through. This can take up to 21 days I was told. No problem, I'll be saving money in the long run even if I have to pay for my cell phone and vonage on top of it for a month. They gave me a temporary phone number while the request would take place. They didn't have local numbers in my city, so I took a random number in Beverly Hills because I thought it'd be cool to have a Glitzy number for fun.

A month went by, I called to check the status of my port request.
They put in a trouble ticket and sent me an email reply within 24 hours to say that the port request is in processing and they are waiting on a transfer date.

Two weeks later, I called again. Same thing.

Two weeks later, I called again. It had been two months, I'm sure my request form got lost somewhere or accidently archived or something.
They assured me that they had it, it was still in processing and they are just waiting for a transfer date from Verizon Wireless.

It's August 2005, I call again. What's going on with my transfer request? The guy tells me that port requests sometimes take a while because the carriers don't want to give up the numbers and lose their customers. He implied that Verizon Wireless was stonewalling and that Vonage was doing everything in their power to secure the number for me. I asked if they finally have local numbers in my city. Not yet.
So I'm stuck with a number that's not even local and a transfer request that isn't happening and a cell phone bill and a vonage bill every month. He put in a trouble ticket. I received an email soon after saying that they were waiting on a transfer date.

September 2005, I can't remember how many times I've called vonage at this point. I'm getting frusterated. I ask if they can at least give me a temporary phone number that's in my city? No. They still don't have local service in my area. Can they give me discounted or free service until my number transfer goes through? No.

October 2005, I receive a call from Verizon Wireless, offering me a free phone and other benefits if I sign a new contract with them since I had been paying month-to-month for a while now. I explained to the guy that my number is currently in a transfer process to Vonage. I couldn't sign a new contract under that number because when the transfer goes through, the number would be lost and the contract would terminate and I'd have to get a new number or something to that effect. So I would have to sign a new contract with a new number while keeping the old number active on a separate verizon account until vonage ports it. So the guy asked if I'd sign a contract if he can help me get the port request through faster. I certainly would.
He did a 3-way with the incoming port request department at verizon to my understanding... they said they never received a port request for that number. Then we did a 3-way with Vonage customer service and spoke with a supervisor. He said that something must have gone wrong with the port request. He suggested that I cancel it and then open a new port request. So that's what I did... expecting to have everything wrapped up within 21 days.
A week later, I get an email saying that my port request had failed.

November 2005, I called vonage. I was then informed that they cannot port numbers from Verizon Wireless and that my number is not able to be ported as a result. I was also informd that Vonage could NEVER port my number. When I told the guy that Vonage's website said I could and so did the sales representative I signed up with, which was the only reason I signed up with vonage in the first place to keep my existing number, He told me that I was mistaken! He said the Vonage website wouldn't have said that I can port this number and the sales guy's system would have said it can't be ported. I told him I wasn't making it up. He said that maybe they were updating the system at the time and accidently put the wrong information in the database. I asked him what about all the tech tickets I opened to check the transfer request all summer, why hadn't anyone done their job and actually checked why the port request wasn't happening? He said that the port request would have looked correct because any number can appear on the port request and there wouldn't have been any way to recognize that the number was unable to be ported.
So I asked if they had local numbers for my city yet. Not yet, but that they are working on it.
So I decided to stay with vonage through the rest of November. They still didn't have local numbers. So I asked about cancelation in December. I was told that I would not be refunded for the remainder of my billing period, so I decided to wait until the end of my cycle to cancel.
I called Verizon Wireless to cancel my phone number which I had been trying to keep... then signed up with a cheaper cell phone company that didn't have contracts.

I call to cancel my account. I explain what happened. I was hung up on once, another time I was told that the account termination department was closed and they are only open 9-5 M-F, another time I tried to convince a supervisor that I was due some sort of refund. I was not entited to a refund according to him. I would have kept vonage if they had local numbers in my area... but they still didn't!
(they still don't as of September 2006 when writing this email) They wouldn't allow me to simply suspend my account without payment until such time that they do have local numbers either.... I got fed up with TRYING with them and called their Account Termination Department. They listened to why I wanted to cancel and didn't really try to convince me otherwise. I was told that due to heavy cancelation requests, that they are taking names and numbers and having a supervisor call customers back within 1-2 business days because only a supervisor can do the cancelation and they are too busy.
I waited a week for their call... none.
I called back to ask what happened, and they said they would expedite that request for me and took my contact number once again. 1-2 Business days... I waited a week... no call.
It's January 2006. I don't remember where all this calling back and forth fits in... but I was auto-charged for another month of service and because I didn't expect them to call me back on that account termination request, I changed my credit card information on their website to my initials with the number 0000-0000-0000-0000 or something and set to expire a month later so they couldn't bill me again and just left it be.
The billing cycle comes and I receive an email saying that my account has been terminated due to non-payment. I cracked open a Guinness and celebrated! Then I called Vonage to get a refund for the previous month in which I hadn't even used the vonage box, it had been unplugged for a while now. The customer service guy was cool. He told me that changing my credit card information was a smart idea. He refunded me for the previous month that I didn't use service and my account remained terminated.

I thought that was the end of Vonage... I was wrong.

September 2006, I receive a collections notice in the mail saying that I owe vonage $41 and some cents. I can't believe this. So I call the collections agency. Apparently I owed Vonage an account termination fee because I had been a customer less than 12 months. I argued that $41 seems like an odd number for an account termination fee... I figure they charged me the account termination fee plus a collections fee...... either way, I wanted to avoid having this on my credit report so I paid it.

So I'm pretty sure I've seen the last of Vonage... I'm currently with Sunrocket and have never had a problem.

I'm sorry for the long email... but I hope it was entertaining if
nothing else! Vonage is an absolutely terrible company with
questionable ethics. I'm sure a lot has changed in the past year but
I'll never sign with Vonage ever again and would recommend against it
to anyone I meet.

N. Daniel :
October 10, 2006 2:31 PM

I had the worst customer service experience in my life with Vonage. Getting my number ported took longer than the period in which I could cancel service without any penalties. Do you think anyone at Vonage would tell you that before you sign up? Think again!

Then when I wanted to cancel because I was dissatisfied with the service, they slapped me with the fees for recovering the box and the infamous "disconnection" fee (which Verizon does not have, btw). The customer service reps don't even try to offer you a bone by waving any fees or any portion of them--they're absolutely intransigent. In this day of customer choice, I would have felt better even if they offered me $5 off for the sake of good will. It was not forthcoming. Even with higher charges at Verizon, at least I feel like I'm working with an operator who isn't out to fleece me!

William Davis :
November 20, 2006 3:29 PM

I'd like to share my experience also. I think Vonage has a bit of a double standard and I'd be interested to see how we could band together to protect future Vonage customers.

When calling Vonage to port your number to them, you are told to NOT call your current carrier and that your account with them will be cancelled automatically. During this transfer phase you are paying double (Once to Vonage and once to your current carrier).

When canceling your Vonage service you think it has to happen the same way. I called up Comcast and requested them to port my number from Vonage. This process took about 13 days on which day Comcast came to my house, installed my new phone, and STARTED charging me for my new service. I made a terrible assumption that my Vonage service would automatically be cancelled just as my account with my pervious provider was. Yesterday I was billed from Vonage. I called them up today to cancel and get a refund for the month I am not going to use. I was told that I couldn't have a refund and that I agreed to call to cancel when signing up for the service. So now I have been charged for 18 days in the beginning that I didn't use and 38 days at the end of my service that I didn't use.

I believe we should set something up in an attempt to warn other customers about this. Does anyone have ideas on how we can do this or what we should do?

vrola gail mcguire :
December 1, 2006 6:11 AM

i want to cancel vonage havent connected vonage yet and allready vonage is messing me over so i will send there stuff back and i want to be canceled asp.

vrola gail mcguire :
December 1, 2006 6:12 AM

i want to cancel vonage havent connected vonage yet and allready vonage is messing me over so i will send there stuff back and i want to be canceled asp.

Vonage Sucks :
December 21, 2006 1:03 PM

I could have saved some time if I had read more user comments from the Google results for unlocking my Vonage-provided Cisco ATA-186 adapter. It appears Vonage doesn’t want to unlock your adapter even after you have stayed with them for ages, or even if you pay them for the unlocking service.

I found this quite surprising, as I’ve been a satisfied Vonage customer for many years. I only discontinued the service several months, when it was clear I was not using it enough to justify the cost.

Based on my experience today, though, it seems the horror stories are quite true.

I called the Vonage support number and explained that I’m no longer a customer but would like to use the adapter in my own network, and would need to have the adapter unlocked. The support technician answered (more than once) that I could “simply unplug all cables from the adapter and it would not disturb the network.” Obviously this did not answer my inquiry at all.

I wasn’t sure if the tech even understood my question (his English wasn’t very fluent), explained this to him, and asked to speak to a supervisor. He offered to transfer the call to technical support instead of the supervisor, and I agreed to this. It’s just that nobody ever picked up the call after that…

I guess all this nonsense was just tactics right from the beginning to get rid of me with my questions. I would have preferred a direct answer like “sorry, we don’t provide unlocking for the adapters” or whatever the case is. I wonder if that is against consumer laws in the USA, so they try to just avoid answering anything at all. What other reason could there be for not being direct with customers?

Unfortunately my ATA-186 is of the later revision where the eeprom chip is soldered on the motherboard. Even if I had eeprom programming hardware, it would take some careful soldering to retrieve the chip without damaging it (or the motherboard).

One more item for the next electronics recycling pickup…

Padma Krishnan :
December 21, 2006 6:40 PM

I have had a bad experience cancelling vonage. I called them and they told me I probably had a defective phone and gave me a Return Authorization Number and an address to ship my faulty phone to. Then they charged $64.50 (without my authorization) to the phone they replaced. It has been 3 months and I have a USPS delivery Confirmation that says the faulty phone I sent was delivered to them. But so far I haven't recived any credit for that and they have not cancelled my account despite repeated calls, as they want my account to investigate. I have been calling to cancel and get a refund and each time I get info that they never received it. One service representation told me that the previous cusotmer service rep gave me the wrong address to ship my faulty phone. I dumped a lot of money into vonage and I finally figured I will cut myy losses. I was really irked when they told me I had $40 disconnect fee. I finally am disputing my charges with the credit card and having them resolve it. I never had such bad service from a company before. Seems like they just care about the monthly charges and not about customer service. I will never use Vonage again, nor will I ever recommend them to anyone. And it looks like I am not the only one who is having problems cancellign service with vonage.

pk

Shawn :
February 25, 2007 11:10 PM

Hi, Tom.

I'm just a regular guy who's trying to cancel the Vonage service, but I always face difficulties whenever I talk with the worker. Do you have any advices for what to say when I talk with them in order to cancel? I'm 16, so it's quite hard to talk to them in the same level as you did. hah. So hopefully, you will able to respond to my comment, I will appreciate it. Maybe a dialog will be nice.

From, Shawn.

Alice Queen :
February 28, 2007 8:21 PM

When I callled Vonage to get the service they advised me I would need an internet service. I stated I could get one. After all was said and done theey advise me they will be deducting the initial 49.05 from the account and then the every month there after. I advised them to forget the vonage I do not allow any one to take money out of my account beause of a problem with identity theft. So I tell her to cancel.

Well she in-turn tells me she will need to transfer me to the customer service center for a cancellation. But I explained to her that why do I need to speak with the cancellation the department if I am telling her that I do not want the service. I am transferred anyway. I speak witha women who is located in the Phillipines telling me they are going to charge me 39.99 for the cancellation fee. Now the charge me $49.05 for the product and $39.99 for the cancellation fee all in a matter of 20 minutes. What a bunch of crooks!

I will never recommend Vonage again and the Vonage company needs to be investigated for by the Attorney General for all of there crooked ways. Q

Thanks
Queen

emilly :
March 31, 2007 10:05 AM

I have similar story, but have found little on what you can actually do to cancel the account?

Other than go through the trouble they put you through and from many of the post it actually may not work.

Anyone know?

I signed up almost a year ago actually Apr 2 2006 and today I wanted to cancel it. I was informed to my surprise I would be assessed a 39.99 charge to do that. I did not recall seeing that notification when I signed up. It was advertised as hassle free no contracts. But after looking at the Terms of Agreement it does say if cancelled before 1 year you get charged a fee.

I informed the rep I want to cancel it then on that day the Apr 2nd 2007 so I not get a fee she told me she could not do that. And instead launched into a high pressure sales tactic to switch my plan at the end of my billing cycle the Apr 2, 2007 date to a 2 month free then charged 9.99 for 100 minute plan each month instead.

I asked her to speak to someone else that could help me she told me that she would not transfer me and she was not going to escalate the call any further. She then told me after the free months if I still wanted to cancel I could and would not incur a charge for cancelling my account and to just try and see if it worked better for me.

Another point she kept hounding me as to way I wanted to cancel. I do not consider that any of Vontages business. I am the customer if I want to cancel I should be able to with out being badgered. I did not want to tell her that I was cancelling because my house caught on fire and I lost everything including my father to the fire. I have almost nothing and am staying with relatives temporally and that I simply could not afford to have Vonage anymore. I just did not want to bring that up or think about it. But I was being forced to relive the whole thing just to justify to her why I wanted to cancel when it was really none of her business.

So apparently she has made a change to my account that I am going to get the first 2 months free because in her words they are helping me. And then be charge the 9.99 a month after. The point for me is I don't want Vontage anymore I just wanted to cancel the account. And if I was literally 3 days shy from the 1 year agreement, how hard and uncompassionate is that? She simply could have told me to call back or that she scheduled it to be cancelled on the 1 year mark. Instead I was badgered and subjected to strong arm tactics to keep me on Vonage.

And for me I actually liked Vonage. I had very few connection problems. I thought after I was well and better on my feet I would subscribe again to Vonage because I liked it so much. I told her this at the beginning of the call and she thanked me then preceded to badger me about why I wanted to cancel.

I need to know what legal way can I go about canceling the account?

I read in other post if I change my address information and credit card information to something else they cannot contact me or charge me? Is that legal? I would have completed the 1 year agreement before changing the information before they attempted to charge me again

Also I could contact my bank and inform them to refuse any charge from Vonage that it was in dispute and to consider any attempted charge from them fraud?

Or cancel the credit card number from the bank?

Bill MacNeil :
April 6, 2007 5:28 PM

A sign that VOIP is more and more a mainstream...

The fact that a "lower level" worker in a VOIP company doesn't recognize your visibility in the industry is not necessarily an insult to you. Rather, it indicates that the technology has grown to a point where more people are working in it as just another job - I'm sure a customer service rep is less interested in being a tech pioneer and more interested in having a job & keeping it.

A once pioneering idea, if sucessful, will become accepted and unexciting. Some young ladies of my aquaintance take certain social & cultural standards (voting, careers, etc) for granted, and have no idea who Gloria Steinem or Betty Friedan are or what they did

Tom :
April 13, 2007 11:55 AM

I had my 2 phone lines ported from vonage to my cable company on the same day they billed me for my my next cycle. I called and tried to get refunded for the month and Vonage told me they will not refund me since the month had started. So I had to eat $50 for two lines that I will not use for the entire month.

I will never go back to vonage after this expirience.

My advice to all is make sure you have your number(s) ported before the end of your monbthly cycle and make sure you call tham and canel you account. They will try to keep you by offering $5 less a month put by than your may have already paid a number porting fee.

Alana :
April 20, 2007 3:51 PM

My phone was never even hooked up. When I got the Vonage package telling he how to practically rewire my home, I called them and they said they would send a company out to do the installation. I decided to not continue with Vonage and called them to cancel. The first person,I spoke to had limited English and made me repeat my home address four times. He then advised me to not cancel until I had my former carrier retrieve my phone number so that it would not be lost. I received emails from Vonage each time I spoke to them so I had documentation that I had called. When my phone was finally back up with my former carrier, I called Vonage to let them know that the cancellation could proceed. I was informed by a rude rep named Charles who gave me his badge number 26175 that my cancellation fee would be $98 something. I was shocked and upset and told Charles I realized he didn't make the rules but that paying almost a hundred to cancel a phone service I had not used was rediculous, to which he first told me to relax and then to calm down. He's lucky I wasn't standing face to face with him. He then offered me an alternative. I have to keep the account open for 2 months and be charged $9.99 for each month, after which I have to call again to have them cancel. This is the worst scam I have come across. Plus they have your credit card so they will just debit automatically and there's nothing you can do about it. Vonage needs to be stopped. I need my money back!!!

Jan Wilder :
May 23, 2007 1:21 PM

Yes, VONAGE is so desperate that they will BILL YOU AND BILL YOU AND BILL YOU even though you call repeatedly to cancel service. STAY AWAY FROM VONAGE!!! They are so desperate for funds that they STEAL from former client's credit cards for MONTHS. They should be indicted!!!!!! I'm going to complain to the Colorado Attorney General..it should not take NUMEROUS phone calls to cancel service.

john t :
May 30, 2007 8:42 PM

Had a terrible experience with them. They refuse to allow earthlink to cancel my acct when I ported over "company policy". The "account manager" I spoke to was only interested in keeping my account active, and offered thier Premium tech service and a reduced rate. They overbilled me 2 months when my acct was cancelled, and I was already moved over to another service, his solution, refuse to cancel my account and offer me a free month of service I am not using, just so I can call in a month from now and wait on hold for 40 minutes to go through this again. I was with Vonage for 2 years, now there are much better companies out there, with much better service, connections, and financial stability. I hope my "account manager" was paid in Vonage stock, then he would still be overpaid. They also refuse to refund any "prepaid" service, so they bill you for the month in advance, you call the 2nd day of the month, and they say, "sorry company policy". Try asking for a manager, either they are so financially strapped they fired all the managers there, or company policy is that the idiot you get stuck with when you call in is the idiot you get stuck with. Hope the class action lawsuit filed by mostly customers that got burned in the IPO, and the patent lawsuits bring this company to a deserving bancruptcy, (a little time in a minimum security prison for the executives would be okay too :-)

BOB :
May 31, 2007 6:57 PM

I will never understand why anyone with ANY company that charges their credit card for somthing would go thru all this trouble? If you have difficulties simply contact your credit card company and dispute the charge.
personally GM Mastercard that i use is a click of a button next to each charge. They will not get my money until they respond to the credit card company. EASY!

Nanct Maiulloux :
June 1, 2007 4:36 PM

I tried to sign up with vonage but could not due to telphone and DSL problems. Sent back equipment and asked for deposit back. I am not getting deposit back and they want to charge me $39.95 to disconnect. Said I never disconnected my line which I did when they told me where to send equipment back. She told me she was charging my acct an extra $39.95 for disconnection. I told her she was not and called the news media to tell them about my experience with Vonage. I am not through yet. SHe would not disconnect my service since I would not agree to allow her to charge my account any further.

Randi Sanders :
June 5, 2007 10:46 AM

I canceled my Vonage account today after sitting on hold for 15+ minutes and dealing with a rude rep who barely spoke English. I realize they are trying to keep customers but 3 no's is my limit. After I said "Just cancel my account for the 4th time", I asked to speak to a manager and was informed that she was a manager. Then she tried again to get me to keep the account, that's when I asked to speak to her boss. I sat on hold for another 10 minutes only to be told he was in a meeting and was not available and was not given an option to leave a message. I once again told the rep I just want to cancel the account. She tried 2 more times to scare me into keeping my account , but finally she closed the account. When she asked if there was anything else she could do for me, I told her I thought she was very rude and I didn't appreciate it, she hung up on me. Vonage service was decent at best, I had to stop all my torrents when I wanted to make or receive a phone call. I would not recommend their service to any of my friends or family.

Diane Hernandez :
June 6, 2007 10:05 PM

I would NOT recommend Vonage to anyone. I tried to cancel my service in January and was told to wait until it went into cancellation, which didn't make sense at all to me then or now. When I questioned the woman about her recommendation, she told me that it would be easier that way. I never used the service - the box that the equipment came in has never been opened. I told her then that my husband's brother had just passed away and that I didn't need to worry about this. I am now being charged additional fees, including cancellation fees. The first person I spoke with today informed me that my husband had died! He continued by letting me know that there was no one else that I could speak with, that he was a manager and there was no one else higher up. I called back through a New Jersey phone number, trying to reach someone in the U.S., but still ended up in the Philippines. The second individual reiterated the same garbage as the first and simply said that she was also a supervisor and that Vonage would do nothing about the charges incurred as a result of my listening to their advice. Vonage is awful in my opinion.

Dave Beck :
June 7, 2007 10:40 AM

I've been a Vonage user since August 2005 and never had a billing problem and only once had a connection problem that necessitated calling CS. The CS was polite and the problem resolved within 10 minutes, granted English was not the CS operators first language but that'#s true for about half the people I deal with in retail today (plus the gardners).

Since I travel, I appreciate Vonage's attitude toward taking your phone with you and haven't paid a serious international phone bill for almost two years now. Try using your US cell phone in Germany for a few days, Vonage have saved me $1000's.

I'd never heard of Tom K before either.

conway resident :
June 11, 2007 4:40 PM

Wow. You got off lucky. I called in March to cancel and the agent sent me through a ton of hoops and sales pitches for discounted service and 911 crap. Last week I happened to look at my bank account and Vonage had charged me a month's fee. I called today and after 4 transfer to reach a "account agent", I went through a seemingly, identical script as you. However, my agent was overly concerned that I would be without 911 service. She really cared about me. Haha. Long story short, they have refused to refund the last month's fee, even though they have record of me canceling in March because, get this, "the notes show that the agent didn't read me the cancellation policy and have me verbally acknowledge that I wanted to close my account". How many times can you say "I WANT TO CANCEL (and I don't want the free month and I don't know anyone who wants to take over my service and save) before Vonage 'acknowledges' that you are serious???

This company is definitely fraudulent. Can you save Ameriquest? Stear clear.

Jan Wilder :
June 19, 2007 11:47 AM

Just a follow up from my prior posting: after talking to numerous empoyees at Vonage at length, and after hearing that "yes the service is now cancelled" even though that HAD BEEN REQUESTED PREVIOUSLY AND THE NUMBER PORTED...I got charged AGAIN this month. This company is out of control...it's like Hotel California, "you can check in any time you like, but you can NEVER leave." I told the rep today that she should be ashamed to work for such a dishonest company and I meant it. I'm posting things about trouble with Vonage where ever I can, but please be warned and don't ever ever ever use this service.

Edmund :
June 22, 2007 1:54 PM

Going with Vonage is the worst decision I made as a business owner. I was very upfront that we were a business, and paid the $50/month per line for no different service and quality than residential, which is okay to deal with I guess for residential, but as a business it was less than acceptable most says - parts of the day when it would work fine and huge chunks of time when residential traffic would bottleneck service, so we sat there on cell phones for half the day! The worst part was porting numbers to (when we signed up) and from (when we went back to traditional land lines) --- cancellation of service has been a joke, and I am writing this as I wait on hold for 35 minutes so far...THIRTY FIVE MINUTES - AND THIS IS MY FOURTH TIME CALLING - AND I HAVE NOT HAD DIAL TONE WITH THEM FOR 5 WEEKS AND THEY ARE STILL CHARGING ME UP THE WAZOOO - WAZOO - CAN I SAY THAT ON THIS BLOG??? I may have to see a proctologist after my experience with these "professionals." Time, Money, Quality of Service = Exponentially low factor unknown to many except the myriad of people who fell for Woo Hoo... Woo Woo Hoo....

SteveF :
June 25, 2007 12:22 PM

I was looking at Vonage's rather pretty page and admiring their offers; then somehow (Divine intervention I can only assume.) I ended up here and for that I am very grateful. I closed the page and won't be going back again. Many thanks people :-D

John Dionne :
June 29, 2007 11:20 AM

Man, I thought it was just me! I called my local cable company, Metrocast, on Monday the 25th of June to switch to the big three package, phone , tv, and internet. It is a savings of another $26.00 month over Vonage and better quality.

Metrocast told me that Vonage can take up to 25-30 days to post my numbers, but I did not care,as long as I could keep them. Well, guess what, I started having phone issues on Tues, by Weds when I made a call no one could hear me, I called vonge and they ran me through a bunch of crap and it started working,

BUTT, by Wed night, I could no longer get phone calls, I could make them but no one could call me, the message siad to people calling me, " the number you are calling has been DISCONNECTED!!!! WHAT. I have called them three times and they are telling me it is a mess up with the servers, bull, they are mad that I am switching. I told them that if my phone is not working right by the end of today, the 29th, I am going to start calling people, the NH attorney Gen. office, FCC, and anyone else I can think of and make there life hell. These guys suck and I hope and pray others do not have the same problem I am having.

Thank you for allowing me to vent.
John

Ceil Ciociola :
July 2, 2007 7:14 PM

I cannot even get to an agent much less have an agent try to convince me to stay. So now there is no way they'd convince me to keep the service! Hours of being on hold with their annoying messages and music!

Carolyn Takos :
July 3, 2007 11:56 AM

I HAD 2 accounts with Vonage. I ended up not needing the second one, so after 6 months - I called to cancel. I was told that I would be charged the $39.99 (plus tax) cancellation fee. (By the way, where does it state that fees are taxable? NVM) They gave me a special offer that would actually cost me the same as the fee itself, so I let the account continue. I called the week before (the last week of June, 2007) and said I wanted to cancel...why? (of course they asked) - I don't use it. The representative says "I see here the account was used, how did you like the service?"

What? After STRESSING to him, that I didn't want the SECOND Vonage account...he put me on hold and told me becaue it was ONE week shy of the year - I would still have to pay the $39.99 fee to cancel... He also told me that I would bill on July 6th, 2007 - so to call before then to avoid being charged...

I called yesterday (July 2nd, 2007), and FINALLY was able to cancel the service...yet, much to my surprise - I was already billed for the month of July.

I called the billing department - this time I was told to I had to mail "the vonage device" back to receive a credit for the month of July. This is also when I found out, the customer service department doesn't live or work in the United States.

I wish I could say I was sorry - but I don't want to support an AMERICAN company that does not support AMERICANS...but when asked the answer is "I am not in the state."

"I know you're not! What COUNTRY are you in?" He ended up disconnecting the phone call.

I called back, this time speaking to the cancellation department (customer service doesn't exsist) and was told that I had no other choice but to pay for the month of July.

So...Tom Keating...I bet that is the reason why they don't know who you are...they also didn't know about the legal problems Vonage is facing with Verizon...GO VERIZON GO!!!

SandyK :
July 3, 2007 5:30 PM

I seriously wish I would have checked the blogs before I signed up for Vonage. I did ask a couple of friends of mine who had the service before I signed up, but they hadn't attempted to cancel.

WOW! I am furious! And its more than just the fact that they won't refund the month I didn't even have their service.

I did something this morning I have never done before. I filed a complaint online with the Better Business Bureau and I recommend that everyone here does the same.

I was a customer for one year and then was offered a better deal for all my services through Comcast so I decided to make the switch. I had daily quality issues (regularly between 4 & 7pm).

I opened the account, my name and credit card are listed on the account, and yet I was rudely denied not only the ability to CANCEL the account and remove MY credit card, but the LYNDON person who finally answered my call (after sitting on hold for the third time for 20 min) stone-walled me and refused to give me a supervisor. NEVER have I been refused service in such a manner by ANY business. The ONLY reason I put it in my husbands name was for public listings. There should never be any reason for me to be denied access to personnel or the account when it is clearly my credit card paying for the service. He just kept telling me I'm not on the account! Then who's name is on that credit card? GGRRRRR!

When I switched to Vonage, I did not have to contact my current provider to tell them I would no longer be using their services. Vonage took care of everything when they transferred my service. I had a third party confirm that I wanted to switch my service from Vonage to Comcast and the phone number was moved over. How DARE they still continue to keep my account open and charge me when it is COMPLETLY apparent that the line isn't being used. They should have NO RIGHT to charge me when I no longer am using any of their services. Can someone EXPLAIN how this is even legal?

When my husband finally got through, he made three call attempts and every time was told his wait would be more than 15 minutes (we all can't sit there for 20 min to talk to a human!) he canceled the account and they told him -- NO REFUND! He responded to the crappy email they sent confirming he was not "entitled" to refund and was still too nice stating he would use word of mouth to ensure his friends didn't get caught in the mess. He copied me so I replied with the story you see above and copied their Customer Care, Billing, and Ethics department, their CEO and also the Trenton Better Business Bureau. I also included the BBB complaint number I filed.

customercare@vonage.com, billing@vonage.com, info@trenton.bbb.org, ethics@vonage.com, jcitron@vonage.com, jeffrey.citron@vonage.com

Again, I should have checked the blogs first. If they have messed with you and your money, I would encourage you to take steps with the BBB, its something we can do.

SandyK :
July 3, 2007 5:46 PM

I wish I could now point all people considering the service to this blog! I signed up in May, 2006 and had asked a couple of friends with the service if they liked it, and they did. BUT, they had not attempted to cancel.

This morning I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau online. Something I've never done before but would encourage everyone who has been "taken" by Vonage to do the same. I also replied to the email they sent my husband with the information below and copied their Customer Service, Billing, and Ethics departments along with their CEO and the Trenton Better Business Bureau including the number of my complaint so they knew I was serious.

I opened the account, my name and credit card are listed on the account, and yet I was rudely denied not only the ability to CANCEL the account and remove MY credit card, but the LYNDON person who finally answered my call (after sitting on hold for the third time for 20 min) stone-walled me and refused to give me a supervisor to the point where I was finally raising my voice. The account is not mine therefore he could not escalate. NEVER have I been refused service in such a manner by ANY business. The ONLY reason it was in my husbands name was for public listings. There should never be any reason for me to be denied access to personnel or the account when it is clearly my credit card paying for the service. GRRR!!! The public listing and account holder (person paying) are two different things.

Their policies NEED to be changed. When I switched to Vonage, I did not have to contact my current provider to tell them I would no longer be using their services. Vonage took care of everything when they transferred my service. I had a third party confirm that I wanted to switch my service from Vonage to Comcast and the phone number was moved over. How can they still continue to keep my account open and charge me when it is COMPLETLY apparent that the line is no longer be used by Vonage!? They should have NO RIGHT to charge me when I no longer am using any of their services. Can anyone EXPLAIN how this is legal?!

In response to their Customer Care email to us, which my husband received after he attempted to call them three different times with wait times over 20 min each (had to keep hanging up after a while because no one has that kind of time to hang out) They simply stated we would not receive the refund he required. Too bad. But the Vonage team is there to support us 27/7. NOT TRUE!! The Vonage team is NOT available 24 hours a day and we can NOT contact them however we want because in order to cancel an account we can NOT do it online or via email and the 800 number only has support during limited business hours.

I wish we could advertise this blog so that everyone who sees a Vonage advertisement and even considers it -- RUNS LIKE THE WIND to their local cable provider or stays with AT&T. Again, file a complaint with the BBB online if you've lost money to these people who do not understand the meaning of SERVICE.

Dave D :
July 3, 2007 7:14 PM

Cancelling Vonage

I signed up for Vonage in Feb. 07. Immediately I had problems:
Loss of dial tone
Inability to retrieve messages
Persons calling me receiving error messages,
not a valid number.. etc.

I called tech support and had a long wait nearly every time I called at least 6 times over a 3 m. period.

They were able to help me get it to work each time, only to have the problem recur in a few days.

I got fed up and tried to cancel, get a refund, they were completely unreceptive, told me I had no choice but to pay for six months service or pay disconnect fees.

I got other phone service and continued to pay Vonage 30 bucks a month, they told me to call back tody (07/03/07) and at that time I could disconnect with no fees.

I did call back and they told me I could disconnect but I had to pay 49.95 "rebate rewcovery charge"
This was never mentioned in any previous call.

Long story short, I feel like I entered a spider web with these people.. they dont care that their service doesnt work, and they make it nearly impossible to get rid of it.

btw/ I was just on hold for 85 min. They said a supervisor would call me back about my dispute within 48 hrs.

They told me this in April and no one ever called me back. So I'll see

I think they are not much better than thieves, they dont care at all what theuir customers think, and wont admit that their service is a bust.

Torgo :
July 5, 2007 8:41 PM

Ahh ... my Vonage service is finally disconnected.

I was a long, long, LOOONG time Vonage user, started in April 2003. Vonage was relativley new at the time, but for the most part it worked well. Whenever I had a problem, I would call up and almost immediatley get a helpful person who might even credit me some time. I thought it was great!

Well as time went on, Vonage service got a bit worse, slowly. The monthly taxes got a bit more and more as well. And the customer service response times were slower and to be quite honest not too helpful, given that I am generally talking to a person 5000 miles away that doesn't speak English barely... I suppose the guys in New Jersey cost too much to employ, so off to India!

In the past 5 weeks, my Vonage service had gone from "Sucks" to Sucks really really bad" ... and everytime I would call in I would wait 20 - 40 minutes to talk to a person who I could barely hear - or understand - and then finally get transferred.. to a dial tone!!! It never failed, any transfers would result in me losing the call.

Today I finally had had enough. Along with a mystery charge they put on my credit card for not returning a router they sent me to help with a probelm (the router was not the problem and the rep said I didnt need to send it back anyhow - so I am keeping all the routers and reverse the charge on the card) I called up to cancel.

I hope no one else ever has to go thru the hoops I had to go thru just to cancel... first of all, it took 35 minutes to get a rep on the line, who then transferred me to retention. Where I waited another 15 minutes. Then the person absolutley REFUSED to let me cancel before reading me a very very long list of options besides cancelling. I don't recall how many times I said "Look just cancel the service!!!" but it was more than 10. IT tooke me total of 3 dropped calls and over 2 hours to complete this.

Finally the service ended up cancelled. I was sad in a way. I embraced and even promoted Vonage up til about 6 months ago. The last 2 or 3 months with them has been absolutley unbearable. I am glad its over.

As a side note, I signed up with AT&T Callvantage service today. To test them, I called tech support and got a person within 2 minutes. Called back and got a billing rep within 3 minutes. Both spoke English and were polite. And the call didn't get dropped. This was all during peak call times.

Here is hoping that Vonage disappears, and that AT&T does a better job.

SandyK :
July 6, 2007 10:33 AM

Just a quick follow-up. Apparently the only way to get support is to email the CEO. If you read my posting, which I accidentally did twice (sorry), I had enough of Vonage and then some.

Yesterday, a call came through from an Executive Response Agent who talked to my husband and listened to our complaints then issued the credit to our account. Its not that much money, but the treatment and process was a huge battle.

So my recommendation is to email their CEO and maybe you'll get a response too! I'm emailing this blog to their folks so that maybe, just maybe, they will learn from their mistakes. If not, I'm sure they will implode.

PoorVonageService :
July 6, 2007 4:47 PM

YIKES -- i'm going thru vonage hell right now trying to cancel-- they want to charge me $199 to cancel after i have not been able to user their service at all because of poor dropped calls. VERY VERY VERY Poor customer service-- when you call, you get india or the phillipines and when sales called me back, they could not transfer me to customer sercive and could not ask someone from cusotmer service to call me.

Donna :
July 18, 2007 3:18 PM

I hooked up with vonage and had service for only 3 weeks to take on another company. I notified them by phone also by email only with email I did it numberous times only to get back notice saying to go to the help screen. they are not calling me saying I them for about 3 months. I told the collection company that I canceled with them via email and phone. Well by going email I learned that you cannot get copy of the email as you have to go through their site. So you are left without proof. Also.... I also do not think it registers to cancel when you keep getting a notice saying to go to the help screen. I emailed with the complicastions i was having only to get email back saying to go to the help screen and cancel from there. The collections told me today that I did not cancel until 85 days later. How can that be ?

gio moro :
July 19, 2007 10:03 PM

Vonage ABSOLUTELY SUCKS!!!!!
If you love your friends and family you will not
let them use Vonage.

I could not cancel and had to pay for the full year!!!! Never even used the service because it was not compatible with my internet service.

I do not reccommend them for anything!!!!!!

Mitchell :
July 20, 2007 10:05 AM

My experience with Vonage cancelling wasn't actually that bad. They were definitely reading from a script and were doing all that they could to try and get me to stay but compared to the pain that cancelling AOL is, it was very easy. The rep was very polite and accepted all of my reasons for cancellation. All in all, I was very happy with Vonage service and customer service (except for the long wait time) but I just didn't use it since everyone calls my cell nowadays.

Lee - 10 Day Cancelling Billing Cycle :
July 23, 2007 1:36 PM

Business owners, please stay away from Vonage. If you do not want to add another stress to your life, DO NOT even try Vonage because your cancellation process will be HELL. And the quality of service sucks.

The saving is not worth the stress and frustration. I constantly get echo and gaps in my conversation. Believe me, when you have a high dollar client on the phone, you do not want to constantly apologize for technical difficulties. Yeap, went thru the tech support deal. No resolution.

Finally I decided to cancel. I called twice the first week of July and both times was told by the customer service rep that the system was updating. Therefore, rep cannot assist me and for me to call back. I insisted for rep to jot down my name, account info, and cancel my plan after the system was back online. Or at least call me back. My request was denied.

At last, I got hold to account rep to cancel my plan on July 13. Ask rep to prorate my bill for July. Rep said because I had to cancel my plan within 10 days of billing cycle to prorate plan. On top of that I will have to pay the $39.99 disconnect fee for canceling before 6 months. I believe that Vonage intentionally delay canceling my plan so that I would be bill for the month of July. The rep did not even tell me that I had to return the VOIP box. Got that call two days later.

I have submitted this issue to my attorney for review. Will see what the outcome is.

ron ares :
July 28, 2007 3:28 AM

tom keating is pretty much of a humble person... God bless you great founder of TMC labs =l

Laura :
July 29, 2007 3:33 PM

I'm having similar troubles getting my service cancelled--I started the porting process to Roadrunner over a month ago. Once the phone was completely ported and new service was installed, I called vonage to cancel. After being on hold, dropped, on hold and transferred and receiving multiple sales pitches (lasting over an hour total), I was told the service would be cancelled and I was given a case number and told to call back if no one contacted me in a week. Call back? Why should I have to call back? Just cancel the service. I DID call back the next week. Was told the service was cancelled. Received a message from Vonage today saying they had charged my credit card for next month. Called AGAIN. Am told that my service has not been cancelled. That someone called and left me a message that I was supposed to return. Nobody has ever called me, but I've called them multiple times!! I have currently been on hold for 27 minutes. The case number doesn't seem to have any information attached to it on their end, except that someone supposedly called me to cancel the service, but didn't because I didn't answer the phone?!?! They haven't even owned my phone number for over a month. How many times are you supposed to have to call to get your service cancelled? I've never heard of such a thing.

Tim :
July 30, 2007 1:56 PM

Just got off the phone with Vonage to cancel my service. I ported my number from Vonage to another carrier (Vonics, another VOIP provider). My new carrier's service had been up and running for 2 weeks now and I received what I thought was my last e-mail invoice from Vonage. Obviously, this company has no idea when you're making an attempt to switch service by requesting that your number be ported somewhere else....as long as your credit card number still works...That's all that seems to matter to them. And the beating over the head that takes place with how great Vonage's service and features are vs. their competitors, when you try to cancel was just incredible. Instead of refunding my $24.99 for Jul 29th-Aug28 monthly service, they kept the hard sell up...telling me I'm going to lose that $24.99 for this month. BFD...I want to make sure that you jerks stop charging my AMEX card. How much is Vonage bleeding each day??..are they really that desperate for cash?? Never again

Rajeswari :
July 31, 2007 10:40 PM

Well! all of you are right but I do not know how I fell into this Vonage service after debating for 2 years. But now it is nightmare to cancel, thinking of problem with the device-----------you name it, we have it. I thought I was careful but now I am a fool. Their customer service reps are good in keeping clients going for a long time on the phone making it look like each word that comes out of their mouth is true but not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That one month free is all useless. One month is from the day you called them to sign in!!!!!!! do not fall into trap thinking one month from the day you received the router. NO---no------!For canceling I have to pay $99.00 for their router. I told them they can take, I do not need it. More over that is their problem not my problem. Don't be conned by their nice talk. Think that something bad is there behind it. I am still waiting to be canceled.

I created monster out of my time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have to blame myself not anybody at all.

Thank you all, I should have seen this blogger before I signed up.

Demetria Williams :
August 11, 2007 12:47 PM

I just want to comment to make people aware of Vonage and the inability to cancel an account with them. I was in the process of moving and with any move you call ahead and ask that service be terminated or transfered. since I was moving to a area that had cable 3 for 1 package I wanted to try it and save some money. I called vonage to cancel my service on the 6/8/07. At first the told me no problem just call back that date, because the disconnect in "real time". No problem of course I'm moving that date so did not call back that date, but a few day later. At that time they had told me that I was with them for less than a year and that in order for me to disconnect with no fees that I had to wait for my contract to be over. Since that was just a month away. I decided to get billed another month for a service I was not using and call in July a year from my service contract and disconnect. 7/9/07. Since that fell on a weekend. I could not call at that time. I called Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and finally on Thursday. after staying home from work so that I could actually be on hold for 45 minutes to get a to "account management". Have to admit pretty frustrated because all I want to do is cancel the account and all they want to do is sell you more service. Finally they told me as of that date my phone was disconnected. Then I get an email a month later, saying thank you for your payment of 28.00. Now I angry, because I should not been charged for the month of July. When I again get some one on the phone after waiting on hold for 35 minutes she tell me Oh yes I seen you called on the 11th, but the account was not properly closed I will do it now and send you an email in a couple of hours to verfiy your account is close. I asked about my refund. She said she would look into it. I did get the email saying my account was closed effective 8/11/07. I responded to the email as to my refund. They emailed me back saying because I called on 8/11/07 to cancel my account I still owe for the month of July. Now I have not had their services for 2 months and I am still getting charged for a month. I respond to the email. Their return email to me is that they can not handle my account at that level and that it has to go up to the next tier. This is a bunch of Bull _____. Stay away from Vonage.

Staci James :
August 16, 2007 12:32 AM

There is no way that this can be legal

I signed up for Vonage in May of 2007 and within a few days changed my mind (from the bad reputation they have) and called to cancel.

I didn't even open my shipment containing the router, but returned to sender immediately.

It is now August and I have now called to cancel my account FIVE TIMES. Each time I cancel my account I am told (after spending 45 minutes on the phone each time I call) that they will credit me the fees they keep charging me. Each month they continue to charge me.

It is shocking that someone hasn't sued these guys yet. Can we get a class action lawsuit going.

I don't know what else to do short of cancelling the credit card they keep billing.
Oh and another thing, every 20th call I receive gets highjacked by Vonage and I get an email that I have a voicemail waiting.

Stephan :
August 16, 2007 4:41 PM

called vonage today to cancel, and recorded the call using skype in hope for something good, but it went pretty quick, total of around 12 minutes, the hardest part was understanding what the guy said, he had a very hard to understand accent. Now I'll just have to see if it it is truely closed, so that they don't charge anymore. I might post the call after editing.

Scott Schmutzler :
August 19, 2007 5:28 PM

My experience with Vonage was dreadful. I spent 3 1/2 hours (on hold, with customer service & tech support). I simply needed a new router, & a credit for being over billed for 8 months. I did receive 2 months credit, but I had wanted to cancel as well. Well, they cancelled my account, but refused to credit my credit card for the over charges. They had told me that "they don't do that". So I am currently contacting my bank to fight the charge on my card.

mary :
August 20, 2007 1:59 PM

I had Vonage..and it was like dealing with a bunch of con artists. First I bought the equipment...the service never worked properly. I tried to cancel after 1 week they came up with some obscure notation that I would have to pay an additional $100 to do so. I found out later that Ithis was not true and they said this in order to keep me as a customer. The terms of use posted on their site seem to change. There is no trying it to see if you like it as they say.I wound up having it for an entire year...finally I could deal with it no more, I called to cancell and they said I had to notify them via email that I wanted to cancel. This was after being on hold for an hour, on the cancellation line. I did both.
It is clear in my dealing with them and their response in making me jump through the hoops in order for them to return money that they are not entitled to are soley designed for them to to force you to give up. This has to be unlawful. I never did get the first withdrawal back..they seem confused that I would be entitled to a refund...now they say it has been to long a time to get the first refund back.
I checked on the Internet and there are hundreds of stories like mine. I should have checked earlier...I would have maybe avoided this con game.
It is all such a shock that this kind of thing can go on here, but it is sadly happening more and more often.
If ever there is cause for a class action law suit it's this one, I would think.
Today they charged my count again, they do not seem to have documented any cancellation, I called and had refund discussions again, even though I spoke to supervisor Jennifer #26243, this is just unbelievable. I had to cancel my credit card finally.

John :
August 20, 2007 5:53 PM

Vonage...Nice idea but lousy sound quality - like a bad mobile phone and near impossible to cancel. An expensive experience. Don't fall for it.

Bonifay :
August 22, 2007 3:00 PM

I by far had the most expensive "Vonage Lesson"! Below is a copy of my letter to them.

August 1, 2007
Vonage
c/o Account Management
23 Mean St.
Holmdel, NJ 07733

Re: Account Number 1003619202
Case Number: 13532632

My name is Bonifay Manahan. I called Vonage apparently on January 1, 2006 with the intent of signing up for your service. After I had given my account information to the representative and we were discussing the phone number I was advised that you did not have area codes in the area in which I needed them. The telephone call was dropped in the middle of the conversation. I had been given no account number and no phone number so I though that since the call had been disconnected that the service was not set up. Also in the coming weeks I did not receive a box as I understood would be required to have the service. Again, this lead me to believe that the service was not set up.

I have another withdrawal that comes out of my account that is the same or close to the same amount so when I would get the withdrawals over the phone I thought they were for the other company. It wasn't until July 20th when I called to cancel my service with the other company that I realized that there were deductions on my account from Vonage. I called a representative by the name of Joe who was very nice. He told me the deductions had been coming out since January 2006. He then transferred me to Colleen who was also very nice. She said that she would put in a request for the refund since it was so large and someone by the name of Phil would call me back within a week.

On July 30th I had still not heard from anyone with Vonage so I called back and spoke with Lee (employee # 11128). She was also very nice. She advised that someone would call me within 24-48 hours. No one did.

I called back again on August 1st. I initially got someone that could barely understand or speak English. Once I gave her all of my information she put me on hold apparently but I don't know for sure because she didn't tell me she was going to. After holding for a few minutes I hung up and called back. I ended up speaking with Vera (employee # 06393) who again was "very nice"Ž. She advised that she would put in a request for the refund since the amount was so large ($704.94) and that it may take up to a month.

At this point we are 12 days into the day that I first called and spoke with someone about this. I would like to have this issue resolved as soon as possible and I don't feel that it should take a month to do so. I have had charges put on my account in error before from other companies and it has taken no more than a week at the most to have the issue corrected, sometimes within 2 days. I would think that a company the size of Vonage could do better than a month. I don't want to wait a month only to call back and find out that there is once again a problem. (i.e. I was told on the 20th that the special request for the refund was made only to find out on the 30th that it had not been made yet).

Therefore, I sent an email to the contact on the website requesting that someone contact me to let me know when I would either receive a check or a credit to my account. This evening Phil finally called only to tell me that it was my fault and that he would only credit $200 to my checking account and that I would need to take further action outside of the company to get any more money. I hope that this will not be necessary. I do accept responsibility for my failure to verify what the deduction was on my account. However, I don't think that my failure to check my account justifies you charging and not reimbursing me for services never rendered. As far as I am concerned you never completed the necessary steps to enable me to use the service for which I was being billed. To me it would have been the same had Sprint assigned me an account number but never ran a telephone line to my home or given me a phone number. You may have assigned me an account in your system but you never advised me that the service had been set up; you never advised me that I had an account number and I never received the necessary equipment to use the service. If you had at least sent me the equipment I could have sent it back and told you that I didn't want the service. I don't know how you (in good conscience) can say that you don't owe me a complete refund of the entire amount which you deducted from my account but did not provide service ($704.94).

As I said in my previous email I plan on moving within the next 10-12 months into an area that you do offer the local area code. However, if this is the standard "priority assistance"Ž that Vonage provides I don't know that I will consider it any further.

Please understand that everyone I have spoken to has been very nice but that doesn't change the fact that this issue is still not resolved to my satisfaction. Please have someone to contact me to discuss this matter further. It is't like I am requesting to be reimbursed for any overdraft charges that these unanticipated deductions may have caused over this period of time. I only want to be reimbursed what you took for services that you never delivered on. I'm sure if I owed you $704.94 for service you wouldn't be interested in settling for $200.

Your urgent response to this letter in email or in letter form will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Update:

After the email I still do not even have the $200 credit they were going to send me.

Sulton with the corporate office called on August 13th saying he would call me back within 24-48 hours (didn't happen).

I called him on August 15th. He said he would call me within 24 hours (didn't happen).

I called on August 21st and 22nd (today) to leave a message and no one has called me back.

CONSUMERS BEWARE!!! DON'T EVEN CALL TO INQUIRE ABOUT THE SERVICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peggy Robertson :
August 22, 2007 3:24 PM

I have been on the phone "MY AT&T phone" with Vonage for the past 2 hours trying to cancel my service that never worked. All the horrors you previous readers have posted are true. It is unbelievable! They even tried to charge me an additional $49 to cover the modem cost until it was received by them..This is in addition to the $43 that I have already paid. Their agents lied, broke promises, and care nothing about customer service. I laughed as I read Tom's posting. The Vonage call center employees do a great job of adhering to their scripts and do not, will not or cannot think on their own enough to answer a question. After reading their arbitaration and class action restriction clauses - I should have known that they are not a company to do business with.

Also, they connected me directly to Comcast!
Hmmm...do I see a FCC code violation for anti-trust? Or do they have an agent in bed with Comcast? Anyway...
STAY AWAY! Vonage is not a company to support!

Angel :
August 28, 2007 8:35 PM

I too had extreamly big problems, trying to cancel, I first decided to try it cause of the free trial, I immediatly decided it was horrible, only used it for the first week, I then tried canceling right after that...well I got thru to a technican after about 10 mins or so, but the reception was so bad he could not understand a word I was saying,.. I tried then emailing but was told the only way to cancel was to call.. So using a pay as u go cell phone I tried once again, I was bounced around to about 3 diff people and was then placed on hold for 45 mins!! I kid u not, I finnaly hung up seeing as I had nearly used up the entire 20.00 phone card on that call alone, the third time I tried to cancell, I was then rebuttled to the EXTREME and she would not let me cancel!! then out of no where the call was disconected. (again an extreamly long wait time to get to this point) The final time I tried to cancel, the guy then rebuttled once again and I was at this point ferious! I said what the H*ll kind of thing do u ppl got running here?! and because of that he then placed me on hold, till I could "controll my launguage" I asked him what language when he came back on, and he informed me he is not "U people" I was about in tears on how I was treated by this company, I told him I was the mother of 3 small children and dont have time to be doing this every week, just cancel the service, please!! well he then did cancel it but charged me a months service and a termination fee... I am sooo dissapointed with this company, I strongly advise anyone thinking about trying it, free or otherwise to look elsewhere for service, cause theese people are extreamly Rude and they arent truthful...

bipin patel :
August 30, 2007 12:11 PM

i have been cheated by vonage
and would like to post my experience
although my phone line was not set up
i have been billed from jan 07 untill august.
on top of it they are charging me disconnection fee.
they had told me until my system is set up i will not be billed...they took my credit number and had been billing me.
they were also aware that i had not used their service. they confirmed it...but because they had my account set up...they will bill me whetehr the service has been set up or not

Vera :
August 30, 2007 12:42 PM

I also had an interesting conversation with Vonage when I cancelled my phone line. I wish I had recorded it...but it went something like this:

I first started using Vonage on Oct 5th 2005 (and yes that is the exact date) In July of 2006 I called and told them I wanted to cancel the line because I had no need for a home phone the Vonage rep agreed that was a good reason but suggested that I stay on for a full year so that I didn't incur a cancellation fee of $175. I'm a broke student so I agreed to cancel it after Oct 5th 2006. He made a note of it and we hung up.
So despite the fact that my phone was no longer even plugged in, I continued to pay $25 a month for a service that I wasn't using because it was cheaper than canceling it.

I called back again on Oct 13th. The woman I talked to told me that she would cancel my service but that I still owed them for the month of October. Apparently they bill you one month in advance (for a service I hadn't used in 3 months and was trying to cancel!!!) I told her that was ridiculous, and unethical, but eventually I hung up just to stop hearing her talk.

About 2 weeks later I received a bill for $29.95 from Vonage. So I called back to complain. After 20 minutes of being told, "too bad. Pay up" I finally agreed to just pay the damn thing and was transferred to the billing department.

The lady told me how much I owed and asked for my credit card number. So I gave her it, and after about 10 minutes of trying to put it into the system she said. "Oh, I see her that you are not a current customer. We can only accept credit cards from our current customers." (Seriously???)
Next I asked her if I could pay with a check. Nope. Can't do that either because I'm not a current customer. A bank check? Nope same story there. At this point I asked her point blank how I was supposed to pay Vonage if they wouldn't accept a credit card, personal check, or bank check. (Never mind the fact that I shouldn't have owed the money in the first place) The woman did not have an answer for me, so I hung up.

About 6 months later I got a call from a collections agency on behalf of Vonage. The first time I explained the situation and tried to pay again. Same problem. The second time they called I was a little bit short with them. Then I just ignored there phone calls for about 2 weeks. ¦The next time they called I completely laid into the person about the issue and we worked out a way for me to pay them by check.

But, long story short. I was billed for a service I didn't use. Then unable to pay because I wasn't a current customer. Then harassed by collections all for a service I DIDN'T USE and bill I received in ADVANCE. (Is that even Legal?)

To say nothing of the fact that we have Vonage at my work, and we are constantly having problems with it. It seems like a good idea, but the haven't quite got a handle on the customer service/billing.. it still has a long way to go.

Dennis :
August 31, 2007 3:10 PM

Vonage stole my money! I have just been charged $220 for the cancellation of two lines. I intend to dispute both charges with my credit card companies, but these guys are such crooks, I doubt if I get the refund.
I had been a Sunrocket customer for several months and received an offer from Vonage via overnight letter to â€œquicklyâ€Ž transfer my number and continue uninterrupted phone service. I signed up for the offer, filled out number transfer requests and 911 dialing addresses within an hour of receiving the letter. I received the â€œfree next dayâ€Ž delivery of equipment three days later and installed it (I forwarded the calls via the Sunrocket website to the Vonage virtual numbers). I didnâ€™t hear anything from your company for three weeks, but continued to get notices from Sunrocket about disconnection. On the 22nd day after signing up with Vonage my Sunrocket service was disconnected and calls to my telephone numbers were met with disconnection recordings.
I called Vonage to find out what had happened and was told that there was a problem with the number transfer requests and many were lost (trouble ticket #13752554 & 13752605). The agent said that the problem would be resolved within 24 hours. I left for on vacation three days later. When I returned from vacation I found out that I would have to start the number transfer requests all over again. My wife said that enough was enough and insisted on switching back to AT&T. Because this process took 34 days, when I called to cancel I was charged $50 per line for equipment that they wouldnâ€™t take back, $19.99 per line shipping and $39 per line disconnection fee. I have never hated a company this much and will tell this story to everyone I can.

Robert Petrglia :
September 1, 2007 2:41 PM

After reading these postings, I will be forearmed when the time comes to cancel my vonage account. As I have been using vonage over two years now, I shouldn't be subject to cancellation fees. But I expect the "hardsell" to stay with vonage.

I agree with all posters here that "No" means "No" and one should not have to jump through ANY hoops to cancel service
(and charges, as well). But you should all be advised that this seems to be the trend in this country! Not just with Vonage. I encountered the very same difficulties when trying to cancel my cablevision account (used over 20 years!). After I had verizon fios installed, I called cablevision to cancel service. My call was transferred to the "disconnect department". I went through the same interrogration steps that you have experienced with vonage. After long winded scripted points about why I should cancel the newly installed verizon service and keep cablevision, I agreed to maintain minimum service (basic cable - about $15.00 per month) for another month. The rep then gave me a credit for the $15.00 charge, so the extra month would not really cost me anything. He then gave me his direct telephone number and his days and hours so I could call him back when I had decided to stay with cablevision. I only agreed to this because I had already spent too much time trying to cancel the service and did not want to waste anymore time on the phone with him. Now, keep in mind that I had previously returned all the cable equipment to their storefront (3 boxes and 3 remote controls). The store personnel told me they could only accept the returned equipment and I would have to call the main office to cancel service.

Well, you guessed it, when I called after the "free" month had expired, I had already been billed for the next month. Also, I had to go through the entire "retain'em" script again with another rep. - additional wasted time. I can't tell you how many times I said "just cancel the service - now!". Finally, the rep tells me he will cancel the service, but I owe an additional $26 for service upto the cancel date. Like others have done, I sent in a check for the $26.00 just to avoid the hassle. Well, a few days later I get a bill from cablevision charging me for yet another month! The bill reflected the $26 payment I sent in to settle the account in full.

Mad as hell, I called again to the billing department. After going through the entire scenario again for the billing rep, she checked the records and did confirm the cancellation was effective as of my last prior call. She then reversed the charge for the next month (they also bill one month in advance). This now left a small balance due (Just over $1.00). When I asked for her to credit this small balance, she put me on hold. After several minutes on hold she came back on and said the small balance was cancelled. Notice the same attitude - with the "disconnect department" I was issued the $15 credit at the same time as the $15 charge was made to my account (this is, basically, a "sales" gimmick), but when I wanted a $1 credit on my final bill I had to wait several minutes to get confirmation of approval!

I see this trend just getting worse as more and more companies adopt this "ignore the cancell request" attitude. This I why I will think twice in the future about companies that will only accept credit cards in payment. Atleast, I was paying by check in this case and had some control. Imagine if they just continued to bill a credit card account?

Good luck to you all! and remember "caviot Emptor" is again important in today's marketplace.

Sandra :
September 5, 2007 2:24 PM

Vonage is the service from Hell!!! I activated the service 6/21/07. I have a business, and I was told that I could use my 4-line phones, that I could fax from each office and from the computer. I was told that all four offices can use their phones and fax simultaneously. I was also told that if a customer calls our office that all four phones will ring, and if one line is busy, that the calls will rollover to another line. It is now 9/5/07 and I have yet to have any service what so ever. I have called Vonage on several occasions trying to get this resolved. I have had technician after technician come out. Vonage even sent one of theirs out. Guess what, I still don't have service, but they have no problem billing me monthly for a service I can have. Not only that, for some reason, each phone number is a separate account. Guess what that means, if I try and cancel they will bill me $95.00 for each of those three lines to disconnect. Disconnect a service I don't have. There has been no activity on those accounts since June 2007!!! The wont credit me any money for non-service. The tech that came out said "Vonage lied to me and I should have not been told I could be provided the service they promised"! I have yet to cancel or have any service. At present, they are sending out the same installation company again to try again. This should be rich!! Anyway, I am interested in getting a class action suit against Vonage. I have learned that the BBB has delisted them because of the unanswered customer complaints. I have heard from many people about this dissatisfaction. If anyone has a surefire way of getting out of this, let me know! They wonâ€™t let me cancel, and yet they wonâ€™t provide me the service promised.

mark bennett :
September 10, 2007 11:57 PM

after cancelling VONAGE twice they finally did. the last call to them was timed---40 MINUTES!!! I've never had anyone argue with me about cancelling. VONAGE SUCKS!!!

Naren :
September 12, 2007 7:19 PM

I ordered service from Vonage for 6 adapters, and I told them it was for a business in India. They told me it will work very well in India and for our business. I asked if they can ship directly to India and they said NO they cannot. I should have suspected something was wrong but I said I will ship it directly upon arrival, and so I ordered the adapters. However, when I spoke with the DSL provider in India, they told me Vonage, for commercial purposes is ILLEGAL and it's NOT ALLOWED. So, upon arrival of the shipment, I called Vonage to cancel my service and WOW - WHAT TERRIBLE Service they have!!!! They were trying to convince me that this is a good service and lots of people are using it, and essentially trying to convince me to continue with their service. I said "PLEASE - I JUST WANT TO CANCEL" the rep tried to tell me their standard speech - it was very frustrating to speak with this rep. She was like a ROBOT and kept on repeating the same and not lis

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